Last December we gushed (here) about the debut album (An Awakening) by Portland death-metal band Those Who Lie Beneath. They’ve now released an official video for one of the tracks off that album, “Awaken”. It’s one of the featured videos currently running on MySpace Metal. You could go there to watch it. Or you could just watch it here on NCS.

If you don’t know the song, it’s a real scorcher. Some brutalized technical death metal, but headbang-friendly. We’re still try to figure out whether we like the video. The shots of the dudes ripping the shit out of this song are way cool. It’s the little blonde with the strange dietary habit that’s got us scratching our heads. We were starting to get in the mood for some breakfast before we saw this. Now? Not so much.

Eat first, then watch.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010. This is how the day began over Puget Sound (honest to God — I really saw this and really took this photo):

And this is how it ended at El Corazon in Seattle:

After starting off the New Year of live music last week with an ass-kicking show by DevilDriver, Suffocation, Goatwhore, and Thy Will Be Done (see our review here), your three NCS Authors took in the Evangelia Amerika tour two nights ago in Seattle — and the ass-kicking continued as Behemoth, Septicflesh, Lightning Swords of Death, and Those Who Lie Beneath took the stage at El Corazon.  For our report, and a lot more of our amateurish concert photos like the one above, continue reading after the jump.

A few days ago we frothed at the mouth over Portland band Those Who Lie Beneath and their truly awesome debut CD An Awakening.  Today we learned that the band has been added to the Portland and Seattle shows of the Evangelia Amerika tour.  That tour was already a don’t-miss extravaganza, headlined by the titanic Behemoth and supported by Greek black metal studs Septicflesh and Norwegian “suicidal black metal” band the Shining.  But the addition of TWLB really makes this the kind of experience you’ll miss only if you hate yourself.

Be there or be square:  Portland on January 18 at the Hawthorne Theater and Seattle on January 19 at El Corazon.

Yesterday we wrote about American Me, the first of two Portland bands that have produced new releases from Rise Records within the last month or two.  Today, we’re talking about the debut album from . . .

Those Who Lie Beneath

TWLB dropped their first CD, An Awakening, on Oct 13, and it’s one of the best debuts we’ve heard this year. They share this much with their label-mates, American Me: Both bands churn out fast, angry, viscerally affecting sonic assaults — exactly the kind of NCS Metal your Author wants.

But where American Me generates a heavy brand of hardcore, Those Who Lie Beneath have built their sound around a different core: death metal.  But what they’ve produced on An Awakening is a blend of many death-metal influences — old-school death, the crushing breakdowns of deathcore, melodic death metal guitar stylings and solos, and tech-death instrumentation. The music resists simple classification, though it isn’t a forced stitching together of styles for the sake of showing off or trying to be different for the sake of being different.  The music truly hangs together in an integrated, fully realized way.

No, I’m not talking about the weather.  This time of year it blows just as hard in Portland as it does here in Seattle.  I’m talking about recent releases from two passionate Portland bands that are most definitely worth checking out:  Siberian Nightmare Machine from American Me and An Awakening from Those Who Lie Beneath. Both bands are signed to Rise Records, both are hot shit, and both are playing at Portland’s Club Satyricon on Dec 2.  Today we’ll talk about American Me and tomorrow we’ll cover Those Who Lie Beneath.