Sep 262012
 

Yours truly is on the road again, and by “road” I mean in airports and on airplanes and therefore spending hours of tedium separated from the internet. As a result, the postings between now and Monday are going to be scattered and probably fewer than normal. I did have time last night and this morning to survey what’s been happening over the last 24 hours and found the following nuggets of interest.

ITEM ONE: DYING FETUS, ET AL – “THE BLOOD OF POWER TOUR”

I started posting about this tour when there was no official announcement and just a few dates had surfaced, because I was so fuckin’ excited about it. Yesterday it became official. I saw on Metal Sucks (which is co-sponsoring the tour) that Dying Fetus, Cattle Decapitation, and Cerebral Bore will indeed be touring the U.S. in November and December.

But this official announcement has revealed something I didn’t know: Malignancy will be taking the place of Cattle Decapitation during the last week of the tour. The two bands are very different, of course, but they’re both just excellent at what they do. If you want a taste of Malignancy’s forthcoming album (which is amazing), check out this post. Tour dates are right after the jump. Continue reading »

Aug 202012
 

Well, this worked out well. Monday’s suck, of course. But Monday is the “M” day of the week, and lo and behold I have news about three M bands.

MY DYING BRIDE

These legendary doomsters have completed a new album, which will be entitled A Map of all our Failures. It’s scheduled for release by Peaceville on October 15 (October 16 in the US, in recognition of our former colonial status). There will be a double vinyl and special edition CD/DVD in addition to the normal CD format, and bundles that include a shirt, too. And guess what? The pre-orders begin today, at this location.

I haven’t heard any music yet, but I have seen a quote from guitarist Andrew Craighan, who describes the album as “a controlled demolition of all your hopes”. I would expect nothing less.

I also learned that the band will be embarking on a European tour in December in support of the album, as well as an appearance at the UK’s Damnation Festival in November. An initial schedule of tour dates can be found here.

MORS PRINCIPIUM EST

In late July, I posted a bunch of news about this excellent Finnish band, which included the fact that they were finally recording a new album after many long years following the release of 2007′s Liberation = Termination. At that point, I had no details. Now I have a title: …And Death Said Live. I also have an approximate time frame for the release — December 2012 (on AFM Records). And, I have this very nice album cover art: Continue reading »

Mar 212012
 

(William Smith is the vocalist for Buckshot Facelift and a Long Island band named Artificial Brain that I wrote about twice early last fall — here and here. He also writes a very entertaining blog called Vitos Squid Stop and Death Metal Museum. I asked him late last year if he would write something for NCS . . . and this is it!  Part 2 of this post will appear tomorrow.)

After reading a lot of people’s best of 2011 lists, I realized I have a lot of catching up to do and am in no position to judge what the best albums of 2011 were. On that note,  I’ve  looked through my collection and dusted off  5 albums each that were recorded or released ten and twenty years ago, respectively.  Some under-rated gems that maybe you overlooked or weren’t around for – either way, they deserve a second go around now that they’ve aged a little and can be seen in the context of history. They have all earned a special place in my collection – here I’ll share with you why.  In the words of Pyrexia – where were you?

CLASS OF 2002 (10 year anniversary)

1.   Genital Grinderself-titled cd (Adipocere Records)

The cover art is the type of amateurish cartoony obscenity that seemed popular with French bands of the time and depicts exactly what you’d expect from a band named after my favorite Carcass song. The song titles are all over the place between English, French, and acronyms, giving the overall first impression that this is some type of typical loose-knit noisecore operation at best. Instead what you get is airtight “spacey” sounding Death Metal in the Florida tradition, with outstandingly deep and guttural vocals. What makes things interesting is how GG frequently shrug off the atmosphere set by their stoic and relentless metal assaults with low-brow toilet grind humor similar to Viscera or Gut. Definitely for fans of the old Czech band, Hermaphrodit, if anyone remembers them. Continue reading »