Ladies and gentlemen, this is the debut of a new column which Islander has kindly allowed me to write and display here at NoCleanSinging.
Each week (ok, whenever I get round to it, they may not be weekly – or they may be more frequent, we’ll see) I’m going to be providing an introduction, a retrospective, or simply a re-consideration of a band which I feel merits the treatment. Certain bands will be more well known than others, and primarily these bands will be part of THE SYNN REPORT simply because I feel that with all the bullshit media hype in the world, the band in question has been perhaps judged unfairly due to the influence of matters non-musical. Certain bands, however, you may not have heard of before at all, as although I do not consider myself a paragon of underground taste, there is only so much time each of us can devote to finding new music and really exploring it. Hopefully this column will help a little!
Each column will deal with a single musical entity, considering their works and progression in turn. Certain columns will be dedicated perhaps simply to eras in a band’s career and progression, considering and evaluating changes in style and direction with the benefit of hindsight and (hopefully) critical objectivity. Although that probably won’t last very long!
Anyway, for my first column I would like to introduce you to the Greek band ASTARTE. (more after the jump, including sample songs from the band’s discography . . .)
As of yesterday, we had rolled out, in no particular order, 20 of the metal songs released in 2010 that we thought were the most infectious (and if you’re just joining us, read this to find out what we’re talking about). Here’s the list so far:
Byfrost: “Desire”
Evocation: “Sweet Obsession”
Keep of Kalessin: “Dragon iconography”
Living Sacrifice: “Rules of Engagement”
Kataklysm: “Suicide River”
Kalmah: “Bullets Are Blind”
Finntroll: “Solsagan”
Eluveitie: “Thousandfold”
Coliseum: “Blind In One Eye”
Kvelertak: “Blodtørst”
Demonic Resurrection: “The Unrelenting Surge of Vengeance”
Sargeist: “Empire of Suffering”
Heaven Shall Burn: “Combat”
Kenos: “Revolver Revival”
Soilwork: “Epitome”
As I Lay Dying: “Anodyne Sea”
Cloudkicker: “We’re goin’ in. We’re going down”
King Conquer: “Wasted Potential”
Canopy: “Menhir”
Incarnia: “Yersinia Pestis”
We’re now starting on the home stretch, with 10 songs left to go. Yes, we finally gave up trying to chop the list down below 30; just too painful. Today’s new entries on the list are from Rotting Christ and Arise. They’re quite different from each other, but they’re both guaranteed to get your head banging. (hear the songs after the jump . . .)
I’m a bit behind in my reading of Blabbermouth, and therefore missed some orgasmically good news that appeared late yesterday. But thanks to some info last night from my collaborator IntoTheDarkness and then a pathetically sad post today by DemiGodRaven at The Number of the Blog, I now know that Rotting Christ is coming to NorthAm in a headlining tour next spring. And may I say just how fucking happy I am? I believe I will. I am just soooooo fucking happy!
This almost makes up for the deep depression I experienced when learning that THE DECIBEL DEFIANCE TOUR, featuring Suffocation, The Faceless, Through the Eyes of the Dead, Decrepit Birth, and Fleshgod Apocalypse would be playing Tulsa but not Seattle — the sort of mortification that DemiGodRaven expressed upon learning that Rotting Christ would be playing Seattle but not Sacramento.
Brother, I feel your pain. Well, not really. It’s more accurate to say that I would feel your pain except that I’ve managed to get over THE DECIBEL DEFIANCE TOUR’s snubbing of Seattle and I’m now in a painless state of bliss just thinking about the chance to see Rotting Christ in about six short months when they stop here.
There are some other bands on that tour — Melechesh, Hate, Abigail Williams, and Lecherous Nocturne — and that’s a pretty strong set of supporting acts. I’m especially interested in listening to Melechesh play their unique brand of Mesopotamian metal in the flesh. But — and no disrespect is intended to any of those other bands — I would gag my way through a supporting lineup of Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and Nelly as long as Rotting Christ was waiting at the end.
I am soooo fucking happy. (The tour dates and places are after the jump.)
UK’s Telegraph reports this morning about an article written by the Rev. Rachel Mann, an Anglican priest at St. Nicholas church in Burnage, England, in a publication called Church Times. It’s about metal, and it’s probably not what you would expect from a priest. Granted, our impression is that the Anglican church is somewhat more tolerant and somewhat less judgmental than many institutional forms of religion, but still, Rev Rachel’s article is a refreshing change of pace.
It’s also humorous, in a guileless, probably unintentional way. It’s also a tad condescending. And it doesn’t go far enough.
Nevertheless, we thought it was worth re-printing the Telegraph piece, along with our own running commentary, and of course some musical accompaniment. We also invite you to comment, because we have a feeling this will inspire some thoughts — so don’t keep ‘em to yourselves.
Christians could learn a lot about life from heavy metal, says cleric
By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM BST 31 Aug 2010The Rev Rachel Mann claims that the much-maligned form of music demonstrates the “liberative theology of darkness”, allowing its tattooed and pierced fans to be more “relaxed and fun” by acknowledging the worst in human nature. She says that by contrast, churchgoers can appear too sincere and take themselves too seriously.
This is a defense of metal from an unusual quarter — not that we feel metal needs to be defended, by anyone, especially priests. Sure, sometimes it’s frustrating to hear people who don’t know the first thing about metal condemn it, but usually that frustrated feeling passes quickly, because, basically, we don’t give a fuck what non-metalheads think about our music. On the other hand, we’re not sure we agree with Rev Rachel’s defense. (more of the Rev’s thoughts, and ours, after the jump . . .)
Fair warning: This will be one extended session of spittle-flecked frothing at the mouth, because we haven’t been this blown away since stumbling into a full-fledged Seattle windstorm last winter. So get the safety glasses on and strap on sanitary masks if you got ‘em.
The subject of our enthusiasm is Nothnegal. They’re a band from The Republic of the Maldives that now includes two non-Maldivian heavyweights — drummer Kevin Talley from Dååth and keyboardist Marco Sneck from those Finnish swamplords Kalmah. They’ve got a four-song EP to their credit called Antidote of Realism and they’ve just signed with Season of Mist for the release of their debut album early next year.
Oh yeah, they’re also playing with Arch Enemy this month and touring Europe in the fall with the likes of Rotting Christ, Samael, and Finntroll.
And we’d wager that most of you have never heard of them. Until earlier this week, we hadn’t either. But this band shows all the seismic signs of an impending Vesuvius-sized eruption onto the scene — and based on the band’s output to date, it would be well-deserved.
If you like technically immaculate, headbangingly compulsive, Scandinavian-style melodic death metal played at autobahn speed, stay with us after the jump. Among other things, we’ll stream all four tracks from that EP and we’ll show you how to download a cut from Nothnegal’s forthcoming debut album.
In the spring of 2009, undisclosed disagreements led to the departure of two of the three members of Romanian black metal band Negură Bunget. But although founding member Hupogrammos and Sol Faur were on their way out the door, they finished working with co-founder Negru on a re-recording of the band’s 2000 album, Măiastru Sfetnic. The new work, called Măiestrit, was recently released, and as we wrote yesterday, it’s a remarkably impressive work.
With Hupogrammos and Sol Faur gone, Negru set about recruiting a new line-up, including a guitarist and vocalist called Corb and a guitarist called Spin. In all, the new Negură Bunget is a six-piece band constructed to give even more attention to traditional folk instruments. And the new line-up has just released its debut album, Vîrstele Pămîntului (now available on iTunes).
We listened to Măiestrit first, and then wondered how Vîrstele Pămîntului would compare, both in musical style and in quality.
The answer to the first question is that the latter album has moved even further away from black-metal stylings and deeper into the territory of progressive folk metal. But in terms of quality, the re-constituted Negură Bunget has taken no steps backward. The new album is a passionate and entrancing combination of extreme metal and traditional folk melodies and instruments, and we like it a lot. (more after the jump . . .)
Aealo, the 10th full-length offering from Greek extreme metal band Rotting Christ, is by far the most interesting listening experience we’ve encountered to date in 2010. It’s a coherent compilation of lush, passionate, densely layered songs that establishes a new milepost in Rotting Christ’s fascinating musical evolution. When the year ends, something tells us this album will still be in the forefront of our memory.
Thematically, Aealo is organized around concepts of battle, destruction, death, and mourning. And in exploring those subjects, songwriter (and vocalist/guitarist) Sakis Tolis has tapped into ancient Hellenic culture and events. More than any other Rotting Christ production, Aealo incorporates the sounds, rich musical traditions, and mythic history of the band’s homeland.
It accomplishes this feat in part by the use of guest artists, including a female choir from Ipiros called Pilades, Greek-American performance artist Diamanda Galas, and musicians from Greek pagan folk band Daemonia Nymphe. But while incorporating the sounds and ancient musical traditions of their homeland, Rotting Christ have not forsaken the powerful, signature style of their previous discography. Aealo is an intensely emotional and wholly remarkable blend of traditions, and we venture to say the result is like nothing else you will hear this year. (read more after the jump, and listen to a track from Aealo . . .)
There are some bands we dig so much that just about anything they do becomes newsworthy on NCS. Rotting Christ is one of those bands. Their last album, 2007′s Theogonia, has become an old friend that we visit on a monthly basis, and we’ve been salivating over the prospect of their new release scheduled for February. It will be called Aealo, and we’ve now learned that audio samples of all the tracks are currently available for streaming on Amazon.fr. You can also find samples from Aealo mixed in with Rotting Christ tracks from older albums at Amazon.com.
Even though all you can hear is about 30 random seconds per track, it’s enough to increase the salivation to embarrassing proportions. And the samples are really intriguing at the same time — they make clear that Aealo isn’t just a Theogonia clone (though that would have been just fine with me). The most startingly difference is in the appearance of guest vocalist, Greek-American Diamanda Galas, an avant-garde performance artist, vocalist, keyboardist, and composer. Rotting Christ hasn’t been a pure black metal band for a while, and it sounds like Aealo is going to carry it even further away.
Due on February 15 in Europe and February 23 in the U.S. via Season of the Mist, the CD will also feature a guest appearance by Alan Nemtheanga from Irish black metal band Primordial. It’s going to be interesting to see what influence he has on the album. (Note to self: One of these days we have to write about Primordial!)
According to a press release, Aealo will delve deeper into Rotting Christ’s Greek roots (and that’s really evident in the samples that include Galas’s vocals). The band’s guitarist and vocalist Sakis Tolis explains: “Aealo is the transcription of an ancient Greek word into the Latin alphabet. It means thrashing, catastrophe or destruction and reflects the musical and lyrical content of the album.”
Regarding the musical direction of the new album, Nemtheanga said, “It sounds classic Rotting Christ although it sees them continue where they left off with Theogonia, further away from the older ‘satanic’ feel and more into the realm of the ancient Greek gods, mythology and folklore.”
If you’re not familiar with Rotting Christ, here’s a sample from Theogonia:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
IT’S THE FIRST DAY OF A NEW DECADE, AND A BRAVE NEW WORLD AWAITS!
So, why did you get so hammered last night? Is it really right to start off a new decade sleeping off a bender? Well, I ain’t your mama, so my answer is: Of course it is.
If you’re like me, today may not be the best day to pound your head with metal — unless of course you haven’t gone to sleep yet, in which case metal is exactly what you need. Because if you go to sleep now, that means you’ll wake up feeling like toad shit. So, as your doctor, I advise you to listen to metal and don’t go to sleep. Ever. Be like that dude played by Christian Bale in The Machinist. Except eat more.
Now, where was I? Oh yeah, the new year. As we gaze into the bright new future, we’re thinking about all the extreme music that’ll be coming our way in 2010. We pulled together from various trade sources and internet prowling a list of extreme bands that have promised new releases in 2010, and then over the Christmas holiday your three NCS Co-Authors each picked the ones we’re most looking forward to hearing.
There were 21 bands that got at least 2 votes from the 3 of us, and that list is below. Not that we think you really care deeply about what the three of us are stoked to hear, but our brains are too fogged today to do anything but post lists. So here’s our list, and after the jump you can see the complete line-up we compiled of extreme bands who’ve promised new releases in 2010. (If you know of bands we missed, let us know!)
A Life Once Lost
The Absence
Acacia Strain
All Shall Perish
Arsis
Carnifex
Dark Tranquillity
Decrepit Birth
Devin Townsend Project
Ion Dissonance
Living Sacrifice
Meshuggah
Necrophagist
Nervecell
Neuraxis
Rotting Christ
Soilwork
Through the Eyes of the Dead
Veil of Maya
Whitechapel
Wintersun
There’s one band that isn’t on this list that deserves special comment — PIG DESTROYER. They’re missing for only one reason: Although there have been widely circulated rumors (which seem to trace back to this report) that Pig Destroyer will be releasing a new album next fall, we haven’t seen any confirmation from the band or their label. But we definitely hope the reports are true.
And now, after the jump, you can see a complete list of NCS Metal bands that have announced 2010 releases.
Alan McFarland (Man Must Die)
As 2009 draws even closer to the end, we’ve continued to think back about albums we really enjoyed this year. Among them were releases from five UK bands that could loosely be classified as death metal, though they sound almost nothing alike. Four of them — Man Must Die, Viatrophy, Ignominious Incarceration, and Xerath — turned out killer new albums in 2009, and the fifth — Theoktony — was a prodigiously talented band we only discovered this year, though sadly its future is in doubt.
We don’t pretend that this post is a comprehensive review of the best UK death metal of the year, because we’ve no doubt there are awesome 2009 releases we simply haven’t heard. The five we’re covering here are simply albums that happened to grab our attention — and didn’t let go.