NECRONAUT SUPERGROUP: FIRST AND PROBABLY LAST LIVE PERFORMANCE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jun 182011
 

Necronaut is the all-star project of Fred Estby, the former drummer of Dismember and Carnage. He recruited an impressive line-up of guests to help create an album that was released last year. It was one of many 2010 albums that rocked my head but I never got around to reviewing for NCS. All I could manage was a short “teaser” that I wrote before disappearing on vacation last November. Hardly what the album deserved, but all my feeble self could manage.

Now check out the names of the people who collaborated with Estby on this album, and note that I’ve put an asterisk alongside some of them:

* Hellbutcher (NIFELHEIM)*
* Tyrant (NIFELHEIM, DAGGER)*
* Andreas “Drette” Axelson (TORMENTED, ex-EDGE OF SANITY)*
* Chris Reifert (AUTOPSY, ex-ABSCESS)
* Ulf “Uffe” Cederlund (DISFEAR, ex-ENTOMBED)
* Janne “J.B.” Christofferson (GRAND MAGUS)*
* Tomas Lindberg (DISFEAR, AT THE GATES, THE GREAT DECEIVER)*
* Nicke Andersson (DEATH BREATH)*
* Joakim Nilsson (GRAVEYARD)
* David Blomqvist (DISMEMBER, SHREDS OF DEATH)*
* Erik Danielsson (WATAIN)*
* Robert Pehrsson (DEATH BREATH, DUNDERTÅGET)*
* Robert “Strings” Dahlqvist (DUNDERTÅGET)

So, why did I add those asterisks?  Because those people joined Estby for a Necronaut concert at this year’s edition of the Sweden Rock Festival, which was held June 8-11, 2011 in Sölvesborg. And in addition to them, L.G. Petrov (Entombed) also performed with the band. And some decent-quality video of that show has surfaced. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

A TEASER: NECRONAUT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 202010
 

[Just in case we ran short of quality guest contributions to use while I was away, I wrote a few brief pieces before leaving. They’re called “teasers” because they’re just brief tastes of new albums that I’d like to review for NCS when I get back — because they’re really good. Of course, I have the attention span of a gnat, so there’s a chance I’ll never do that, and these teasers will be all I accomplish.]

This is the fifth teaser. The first one was about The Secret. The second was about Blood of Kingu. The third one was about Melechesh. The fourth one was about The Wretched End. This one is a taste of the new album by:

The Band: Necronaut

The Band’s Location: Sweden

The Album: Necronaut

Label: Regain Records

The Band’s MySpace page:  http://www.myspace.com/necronaut666

Brief notes:  Necronaut is the all-star project of Fred Estby, the former drummer of Dismember and Carnage. He recruited an impressive line-up of guests to help create this album. Shit, “impressive” is really an understatement. Wait and see.

“Old school” is a really over-worked, cliched expression, but given Estby’s personal history and the pedigree of the dudes who are involved in this project, we have to use it: This is old-school death metal, with a hellish current running through it.

Here’s a track — the vocals on this one are supplied by Andreas “Drette” Axelson (Tormented, ex-Edge of Sanity):

Necronaut: Twilight At the Trenches

To see the complete line-up of people that Estby recruited to contribute to this album, click past the jump . . . Continue reading »

MORE 2010 SICKNESS (Part 8)

 Forthcoming Albums, Listmania, Metal News  No Responses »
Aug 312010
 

Another month has passed. Summer is waning. It’s still as hot as the ninth circle of Hell in most parts of our country, but here in the Pacific Northwest, the air is already beginning to feel like fall. And because fall in Seattle lasts about one week, winter is already what we’re thinking about, because winter means getting soaked with rain. In the dark.

Where were we? Oh yeah, another month is over. And here at NCS, that means it’s time for another installment of METAL IN THE FORGE, a forge being the old name for a place where a blacksmith heats metal and works it into the shape of something useful. We thought it sounded literary.

Another name for “forge” is “smithy.” As in, “the blacksmith works in a smithy.” But “smithy” doesn’t sound literary, and METAL IN THE SMITHY just sounds fucked up. METAL IN THE FORGE is a little fucked up, too, the more we think about it, but not as fucked up as METAL IN THE SMITHY.

Where were we? Oh yeah, at the end of every month, we update the list of forthcoming new albums we first posted on January 1. (All the other updates can be found via the “Forthcoming Albums” category link on the right side of our pages.) Below is a list of still more projected new releases we didn’t know about at the time of our previous updates, or updated info about some of the previously noted releases.

Once again, we’ve cobbled together news blurbs about bands whose past work we’ve liked, or who look interesting for other reasons. Perhaps needless to say, these are bands that mostly fit the profile of music we cover on this site — the kind that would like to tear your head off.

So, after the jump, in alphabetical order, you’ll find our list of cut-and-pasted items from various sources since our last update about forthcoming new releases. Look for the bands you like and, if you’re really obsessive like we are, put reminders on your calendar. Continue reading »

MORE 2010 SICKNESS (Part 6)

 Forthcoming Albums, Listmania, Metal News  4 Responses »
Jul 012010
 

Another month has ended, and like a drug-resistant strain of sexually transmitted disease, we’re still here.

And because we’re now a full six months into 2010, it’s time for another monthly update to the list of forthcoming new albums we first posted on January 1. (All the other updates can be found via the “Forthcoming Albums” category link on the right side of our pages.) Below is a list of still more projected new releases we didn’t know about at the time of our previous updates, or updated info about some of the previously noted releases.

Once again, we’ve cobbled together news blurbs about bands whose past work we’ve liked, or who look interesting for other reasons. Perhaps needless to say, these are bands that mostly fit the profile of music we cover on this site — the kind that would like to tear your head off.

So, in alphabetical order, here’s our list of cut-and-pasted blurbs from various sources since our last update about forthcoming new releases. Look for the bands you like and put reminders on your calendar. Or if you’re like us, just stick post-it notes on your forehead. Of course, if your foreheads are the low, sloping kind, you may only have room for a few, so be choosy.

BURDEN OF GRIEF: “German melodic death/thrash metallers BURDEN OF GRIEF will release their new album, Follow The Flames, on July 2 in Europe via Massacre Records. The follow-up to 2007’s Death End Road will contain 10 new songs. The limited-edition version of the CD will include a bonus disc featuring cover versions of eight metal classics.”

CEPHALIC CARNAGE: “Denver, Colorado-based technical death/grind metallers CEPHALIC CARNAGE have set Misled By Certainty as the title of their new album, due on August 31 via Relapse Records. The follow-up to 2007’s Xenosapien was recorded at the band’s own studio with longtime engineer/producer Dave Otero. The CD is described in a press release as a ’50-plus-minute journey into metal’s most extreme realms’ which ‘see[s] these veterans takes it to edge before pulling it back with ‘Repangea’, perhaps their most sprawling and epic work to date.'”

(lots more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

STRAYS

 Metal News  1 Response »
Jun 042010
 

I’ve been thinking. If I were in an extreme metal band and I were in charge of picking the name for our new album, would I choose “Curse of the Cunt”? Would you? Well, the subject of tomorrow’s post did (and it wasn’t Fred Estby, the dude pictured above). So, continue to meditate about that question between now and then, won’t you?

The theme of today’s post is not curses or cunts, but strays. We’re not talking about cats and dogs, just stray music that got under our feet and tripped us up as we were trying to go about our daily business. These strays have got our attention now, but we still haven’t made up our minds about whether we’ll feed ’em and let ’em come inside for a longer visit.

If you already know about either of the following bands that contributed this stray music, raise your hand:  Necronaut, Cyphosis.

Ah, fuck. We can’t see your hands. Guess we’ll just have to assume you didn’t raise them, and carry on.

NECRONAUT

It was the pedigree of this stray that caught our attention. We’ll just throw out some associated names and see if you have a similar reaction: Dismember, Carnage, Autopsy, Nifelheim, Disfear, Entombed. So, did that get you interested? (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »