SEEN AND HEARD: STAM1NA, NOCTEM, BLACK MASK

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jan 242014
 

Collected in this round-up are a few new videos and songs I came across over the last 24 hours that I thought were worth your time. This is the first of a two-part “Seen and Heard”. More recommended new things will appear later today.

STAM1NA

I’m a big fan of Finland’s Stam1na, but despite the fact that I really do enjoy their music, I always finding myself writing about them because of their videos (previous posts collected here). And I write about their videos because they’re so damned funny. And here I am again, writing about yet another Stam1na video — but not for the usual reasons.

This one premiered yesterday (credit to TheMadIsraeli for tipping me to it) and it’s for a song named “Panzerfaust” from their new album SLK (due for release on Feb 7). Man, did I get a surprise. First, the song hits like a blowtorch opened all the way up — a jolting piece of jabbing, hammering, thrashing mayhem with a swirling finger-tapped guitar melody and a stomping martial finish. When choral voices and militaristic chants aren’t being heard, Antti Hyyrynen’s vehement voice is raking like sharpened claws. Continue reading »

NEW VIDEO FOR STAM1NA’S “RABIES” REVEALS THE STUNNING TRUTH: THE FINNS HAVE BEEN SINGING IN ENGLISH THE WHOLE TIME!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Aug 012012
 

Finland’s Stam1na make excellent metal. They also make excellent videos. To be more precise, they make excellent humorous videos (check out the one in this post, for example). But Joe Barresi has out-funnied Stam1na. He has also revealed a stunning truth.

See, I thought Stam1na sung their lyrics in Finnish — Finnish, the language that utterly defeats Google Translate’s efforts to provide a rendering in English and gave birth to the NCS motto, “Fucking Good Pancake”. But it turns out that Stam1na have been singing in English all along! It just sounds like Finnish because the words make no sense and Antti Hyyrynen sings them really fast.

But Joe Barresi has now made everything clear in his video for a Stam1na song called “Rabies”, which appears on the band’s Nocebo album. By providing subtitles that lay out the lyrics, along with helpful illustrations, he has blown the cover off the Finnish language — there really is no Finnish language. It’s been English all along!

Watch the video after the jump (and please give a round of applause to Finnish NCS reader jeimssi for the tip on this one).  Fuuuuuuuunnnnnnny! Continue reading »

TODAY’S ROUND-UP: NEW THINGS FROM AHAB, NACHTBLUT, STAM1NA, AND NE OBLIVISCARIS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
May 022012
 

Here is a typically random round-up of interesting items that cleverly captivated my eager eyes during my ludicrously limited last break from the jacked-up job that plentifully puts bread on my tilted table, unlike this NCS job, which only feeds my spirit. And the pleasurable purveyors of entertainment in this post are: Ahab (Germany), Nachtblut (Germany), Stam1na (Finland), and Ne Obliviscaris (Australia).

AHAB

NCS writer TheMadIsraeli turned me on to this German doom band at some point last winter. Doom is still a taste I am slowly acquiring, and I can’t say that I’m yet able to consume it in large quantities at a single sitting. However, at the right time and if properly prepared, I do find it tasty. And though I haven’t explored the discography of Ahab in depth, I’m interested in their new album, The Giant.

The band have used their music to explore dark literature with a nautical theme. The Call of the Wretched Sea (2006) was devoted to Melville’s novel Moby Dick, and The Divinity of Oceans (2009) was a soundtrack to the 1820 sinking of the whaling vessel The Essex, an event that partly inspired Moby Dick and was also the subject of a great more recent book, In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick. It appears The Giant will follow at least a somewhat similar nautical path. Continue reading »

WATCH STAM1NA’S NEW VIDEO; LOSE YOUR SHIT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  22 Responses »
Feb 072012
 

Timeline of my exposure to Stam1na:

Dec. 8, 2010: During our Finland Tribute Week series more than a year ago, Stam1na was recommended to us in a comment. Stupidly, I didn’t check them out.

July 14, 2011: Finnish NCS reader jeimssi leaves a comment pushing Stam1na, with links to sample songs. I have a vague recollection of listening to one of them and planning to write about them. Something must have distracted me, because I didn’t.

Dec. 14, 2011: During the NCS year-end Listmania, our Finnish guest fireangel names two Stam1na songs to her list of favorites from 2011. She wrote: “Stam1na have a huge following in Finland; they were founded in 1996 and  nowadays they are one of the biggest and best-selling metal acts. What I like about them is the mix of excellent musicianship, very obscure humour, and outspokenness regarding the protection of nature.”

Feb. 5, 2012: jeimssi takes a break from his compulsory military service to tell us in a comment that Stam1na are releasing a new album that he’s greatly anticipating. I follow up on that and discover that the new album, Nocebo, is being released in Finland tomorrow.

Feb. 6: Heavy Blog Is Heavy publishes a post about a new Stam1na video for the first single from the album, “Valtiaan uudet vaateet”, which is Finnish for “I’m about to get really fucked up”.

I watch the new video, and lose my shit. Continue reading »

FIREANGEL’S FAVORITES FROM 2011

 Listmania  7 Responses »
Dec 142011
 

(One of the best things about operating NCS is the chance to make connections with metal-lovers from around the world. Because of our frequent focus on Finnish metal, I’ve made a connection with “fireangel“, one of the two creators of a very informative and entertaining Finland-based blog called Night Elves. I invited fireangel to write a post for our year-end Listmania, and here it is.)

Islander kindly invited me to share my favourites of 2011, knowing full well that my taste oscillates between “No Clean Singing“ and more often its mirror image, “No! Clean Singing!”, as it was so nicely put in the 2-Year-Anniversary-post, and that my suggestions would make a better fit with “Exceptions To The Rule” than the NCS Rule itself. Nevertheless, he thought he could live with that, so maybe you can, too. Even though this post is written by one person, it includes the musical favourites of both Night Elves.

I selected some songs that work as my personal pick-me-up for plenty of situations – feeling tired, sleepless, moody, etc – and can convert me into a decent citizen, at least for a limited time.

In order to test the boundaries even more, this post also includes songs that are not necessarily from 2011, but I listened to them on quite heavy rotation in this year. Continue reading »