FREE MUSIC! (that doesn’t suck)

 Metal News  No Responses »
Jun 242010
 

We were reading today about a band called Fleshwrought that just signed with Metal Blade Records for the worldwide release of their debut CD, Dementia/Dyslexia. The news caught our bloodshot eyes because of who’s in that band (more about that later). We listened to some tracks streaming on the band’s MySpace page and got more interested. We Googled the band, and among other things, found a link to Amazon.com.

The link was not for a Fleshwrought album — of course not, because Metal Blade hasn’t released it yet. Instead, the link took us to a Metal Blade Summer Sampler released on June 22 that happens to include a Fleshwrought song. It also includes songs from 23 other bands.  And guess what? You can download the whole thing for free.  And guess what? There are some fucking good songs by some fucking good bands on this comp.

Here’s the line-up.  And after the jump, as a public service, we’ll give you the link for the download — and we’ll tell you the interesting names behind Fleshwrought.

1. Enemy Unbound Absence
2. Kill Them All Aeon
3. The God Particle Allegaeon
4. Holy Smokes Barn Burner
5. Two-Day Booze Bison b.c.
6. Monumental Failure Brain Drill
7. Ghost Town Charred Walls Of The Damned
8. Seething the Flesh in the River of Phlegethon Dawn Of Ashes
9. Wake the Dead Fatal Embrace
10. Mental Illness Fleshwrought
11. Vinterrket Istapp
12. Vamods Tale Kings Of Asgaard
13. Nihilistic Stench Lightning Swords of Death
14. Swallowed By The Earth Ocean
15. Back Of My Hand Return to Earth
16. In The Underworld Skyforger
17. Vagaries of Perception System Divide
18. Oceans to Dust Valkyrja
19. Creatures of the Mire Woe Of Tyrants
20. Dead Wrong Cancer Bats
21. Mercy For Today Son of Aurelius
22. Since 1776 I Am Abomination
23. Charmer This Or The Apocalypse
24. London Lost Its Fog Rosaline

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

THULCANDRA

 Album Reviews  13 Responses »
Jun 242010
 

C.S. Lewis was a British scholar and author. He was born in Belfast and died on the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination at the age of 64. He was a prolific essayist whose most profound works dealt with his Christian faith, though he is probably known most widely as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia.

He was an immensely thoughtful, extremely compassionate, constantly questioning man, and a writer of beautiful prose — and pretty decent fiction, too. If I were still a Christian, he would be one of my role models. But that’s probably because I think the world would be a gentler place if there were more doubt and less certitude in matters of religious faith. That way, we could get more of our fill of brutality from metal and less from the daily news. But what the fuck do I know? I’m just a part-time metal blogger and full-time half-wit.

In addition to The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis also wrote a sci-fi/fantasy trilogy consisting of books called Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. In part, they tell the story of human encounters with a race of immortal extraterrestrials called the eldila.

One of those aliens rebelled and was imprisoned on Earth (sound familiar?), which cut it off from the eldila on the other planets in our system. And for that reason, in the language of the eldila, Earth was called Thulcandra — the Silent Planet.

There’ s a point to this laborious background story, and the point concerns a German metal band also called Thulcandra, whose members are also involved with Obscura, Helfahrt, and Dark Fortress. Despite the C.S. Lewis connection,Thulcandra is not a Christian band — in fact, they play the kind of melodic black- and death-metal that calls forth the ghost of Dissection. Their story is an unusual one, and their debut album — Fallen Angel’s Dominion — is fucking awesome.  (more after the jump, including a track from that album . . .) Continue reading »

CONGRATZ!

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Jun 232010
 

More than two months ago we stumbled across a band from Mumbai, India, called Demonic Resurrection whose music hit us upside our blunt foreheads like a stout, low-hanging limb. We can’t remember what snagged our attention, though it may have been the news that Candlelight Records had agreed to handle the worldwide release of their third album, The Return to Darkness, which the band had originally self-released in January.

Whatever the reason, we were quite taken by a song from the album called “The Unrelenting Surge of Vengeance”, which the band had featured in a music video, and we wrote about it here. Eventually, we tracked down a copy of The Return to Darkness, and it blew us away.

We acknowledged back then that we were probably late-comers in our admiration for DR, and now we’ve got proof — because over the last week they’ve won a couple of notable awards, signifying that lots of other people paid attention long before we did. And we’re pretty fucking happy for them, and for the many metalheads who’ve been devoted fans of DR for a lot longer than we’ve been. So, we’re here today saying congratz to Demonic Ressurection.

And by sheer coincidence, we also just learned that another band we’ve been hot about — Shining — have won a righteous award of their own. So this post is a congratz to them, too.

And, last but not least, we want to say congratz to some other Indian bands we’ve admired from afar — Infernal Wrath and Bhayanak Maut — who also won recognition at one of the ceremonies that handed out awards to DR.

And because all these bands are on our minds, we’re going to remind you about them by serving up a collection of songs for you to hear, just in case you weren’t hanging around this site back when we first got up off our lazy asses and took notice of them.  (all that shit is after the jump, of course . . .) Continue reading »

THIS COMP KILLS FASCISTS (AND MAY KILL YOU TOO)

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Jun 222010
 

Scott Hull is a fascinating dude. He’s the guitarist and producer for the blazingly awesome Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. He’s an incredibly knowledgeable observer of the most remote corners of the underground metal scene. He’s smart as a whip and very articulate. He works as an IT specialist when he isn’t creating furious, brain-scrambling music. He’s a father and he lives in a nice suburban home in the D.C. area.

If you’ve got more time to burn after you finish this post, you oughta read the feature on Hull, Pig Destroyer, and the grind scene that was published, of all places, in The Washington Post‘s Sunday magazine last August. It’s fascinating to read a non-metalhead reporter’s peak inside the world of a band like Pig Destroyer, trying to describe the experience for the kind of people who read The Washington Post (i.e., people unlike you and me) (“As the band ripped into the first song, I had the sensation of standing under a bridge as it was being torn apart.”)  It’s long, but worth reading through to the very end. Check it out here.

In 2008, Hull pulled together a collection of music from multiple underground bands and brilliantly named it This Comp Kills Fascists. It featured material from acts like Insect Warfare, Magrudergrind, Weekend Nachos, and Kill the Client, as well as the first new music in more than a decade from legendary grind militia Brutal Truth. It served as something of a launching pad for the careers of all those bands and more. It included 51 tracks of music from 14 collectives.

Now, Hull has done it again, with This Comp Kills Fascists 2 — except more so. The new compilation is set for a June 28 release on Relapse Records and is available for pre-order at this location. It’s an international grab-bag of brain-coring grindcore, powerviolence, hardcore, and metal from bands you’ve probably never heard of — 19 of them to be precise, playing 74 tracks of music. That video at the top of this post is a trailer for the album, and after the jump, we’ve got more news about the project — and a widget that will allow you to stream the whole ear-bleeding thing right here. Continue reading »

SMORGASBORD

 Album Reviews, Metal News  5 Responses »
Jun 212010
 

Smorgasbord is originally a Swedish word that has entered the English language with gusto. As all you metalhead carnivores (and herbivores) undoubtedly know, it means a big spread of different varieties of food laid out buffet-style on a groaning table. Here at the NCS Island, for our smorgasbord, we generally lay out a spread of pizza, followed by yesterday’s pizza (now appetizingly at room temperature), followed by last week’s chips, followed by cat food (for the cat, of course, but only if he’s fast).

As delectable as we know that sounds, we don’t have enough of it to go around. So instead, we’re serving up a smorgasbord of music today. A little bit of this, a little bit of that — Texas In July, We Are Building Ruins, and Anata —  and before you know it, you’ll be pleasantly full.

TEXAS IN JULY

We first wrote about this young collective from Lancaster, PA, back in December (at this location). Their debut album, I Am, displayed songwriting talent well beyond their years, accomplished musicianship, and a powerful one-two punch of honest, blast-furnace brutality married to massively infectious melodic hooks. And now, Texas In July has made available some kick-ass new music.

(lots more after the jump . . . WARNING: there’s a little music player embedded on the jump page that seems to have a mind of its own and will start playing unless you pause it) Continue reading »

THERE’S A NEW KING IN TOWN

 Album Reviews, Metal News  3 Responses »
Jun 202010
 

Ever Forthright is good. Really, really fucking good. A few months back I did a review of their self-titled album, which quickly propelled Ever Forthright into my ten favorite bands. This time around, I listened to the new songs that they’ve recently put on their MySpace page. All the new songs, as you can now hear them, are missing a vocalist, but guess what? They’re even better than their fantastic debut album, vocalist or not.

The thing about Ever Forthright that separates them from the endless sea of other technical metal bands is that each and every one of their songs sounds completely different from the last. It’s apparent that Ever Forthright knows what the fuck they’re doing. They’ve become masters of transition between technical guitar riffs, jazzy piano playing, melodic rhythm sections, and crushing breakdowns. Their music has become an eclectic mix of a wide range of styles that, with the right vocalist, could come together to form a masterpiece. (More after the jump, including a song and a download link . . .) Continue reading »

CIRCLE PIT!!!

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Jun 202010
 

The following video was filmed at the 2010 Download festival in England about a week ago. The camera is fixed, and the point of view is from behind the stage looking out at the 50,000+ audience. The band is Unearth, playing “Sanctity of Brothers”.

The sound quality isn’t great, but this is a cool thing to watch, for at least three reasons:  (1) It’s Unearth; (2) the massive fucking circle pit in action from the beginning (and again at the end); and (3) the sight of thousands of arms flashing skyward when Trevor Phipps begins leading the chant near the end.

Assuming the embed works OK, take this one to full-screen mode. Looks like it was an awesome party.

THE FUNERAL PYRE

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 202010
 

The Funeral Pyre describe themselves as: “A metal band with no ambition or hope. We have given up on people and life.” We assume they say this with at least a bit of tongue in cheek, because the band’s fourth album, Vultures at Dawn, was released June 8 on Prosthetic Records. We also hope they’ll postpone their surrender a while longer, because the album is damned good.

The Funeral Pyre’s sound has evolved over the course of those four albums and assorted EPs and splits, becoming increasingly “blackened,” to the point where Vultures at Dawn is charred through and through. On the new album, the band harnesses most of the traditional accoutrements of black metal to produce music that’s dense, foreboding, almost claustrophobic. It’s a torrent of mood-altering sounds that roll forward like a lowering sky, heavy and ominous.

The band’s last album, 2008’s Wounds, was itself a significant shift into the cold depths of non-symphonic black metal. If anything, Vultures plumbs those depths with even more intensity and an even more rigorous adherence to the core elements of the genre. But it’s nonetheless a riveting experience, and in our humble opinion, as excellent as Wounds was, the new album is even better.   (more after the jump, including a track to get lost in . . .) Continue reading »

HAMMERED

 Album Reviews, Metal News  No Responses »
Jun 192010
 

I’m way later than usual getting today’s post up for your reading and listening pleasure. Nobody likes a whiner, but I whined in yesterday’s post about my fucking day job and how it’s really been cramping my style here at NCS the last few days.

Well, the job-related vise that my head’s been in loosened up yesterday, and things should get back to normal around the NCS Island. Of course, I had to celebrate the vise-loosening by getting completely hammered last night with a bunch of other people who were no more capable of exercising restraint than I was.

I blame all of them for the way I feel today. I’ve been debating whether to hunt them down and kill ’em all, or keep it simple and just kill myself. I’m still thinking about it. Problem is, the thinking part of my brain, which was vanishingly small to begin with, was obliterated last night and is still recovering.  So it may take me a while to choose between those two options.

In the meantime, without a whole lot of introduction or commentary, I’m gonna serve up a couple of musical items for you, including another new music video. These items are brought to you courtesy of two bands: Shadow of the Colossus and Coliseum.  (continue reading after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

VISUAL STIMULATION

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Jun 182010
 

I’ve got a fucking day job that sometimes requires me to work very early, and sometimes very late, and sometimes both together. The last few days I’ve been caught in one of those late-and-early vortexes, and it’s fucked up my plans for finishing some album reviews.

But instead of letting this site turn into a big void today, I’ve got a few random pieces of eye candy to throw your way in place of what I’d originally planned. Given what the rest of this day and night looks like, there will probably be some other kind of random shit up here tomorrow, too. After that I’ll get caught up and get back to the task of introducing you to some new music.

The first piece of visual stimulation is that album cover up above. The name of the artist is Remy Cuveillier, and he created that piece of visual mindfuckery for the second album by a California band with the family-friendly name of Embryonic Devourment. The album title is Vivid Interpretations of the Void, and it will be released July 27 on Deepsend Records. Compared to the music, the album cover is actually pretty tame.

(we’ll explain what that means after the jump, plus we’ll show you a cool video for our second piece of stimulation . . .) Continue reading »

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