MORE TALENTED METAL BANDS RISK CATASTROPHE AT SEA

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Sep 242010
 

For eons, humankind has had a fatal attraction to the sea. The oceans are vast, uncontrollable, and unforgiving. They have snuffed out countless thousands of human lives over the centuries as we would swat pesky flies into oblivion without the slightest thought. And yet, people continue to throw themselves out upon the waters, because the oceans beckon with inexplicable but irresistible power. Perhaps it’s because all life originated in the seas and, at some mitochondrial level, human beings still feel a magnetic pull toward the ancestral home of our single-celled forebearers.

What else can explain why people would shamble forth in single files to board giant floating hotels called cruise ships, to live cheek-by-jowl with complete strangers for some assigned period of time on a watery world that permits no escape?

Granted, the advancement of technology has greatly reduced the risk of ocean-bound catastrophe. People who long for the sea no longer must risk life and limb on board vessels made of little more than oak and tar. Instead, they cross the ocean depths on massive structures of steel guided by precision electronics and powered by engines the size of houses. And yet, and yet, the oceans are still the great leviathans of our planet, and in their realm, we are still as insignificant as insects.

Which brings us, with evil glee, to our latest update about THE 70,000 TONS OF METAL cruise. Since February, we’ve been having fun monitoring the developments of this extravaganza and imagining all that could go wrong. But more than a month has passed since our last update, and with recent announcements from the promoters, it seems like an appropriate time to revisit the subject.

The original goal of the organizers was to set sail in January 2011 on a Caribbean cruise of five days and four nights with a cargo of 40 metal bands and 2,000 metalhead fans. And son of a bitch, they’ve now actually signed 30 of the 40 bands they’re targeting. That’s 8 more bands than the last time we checked. This thing has more than passed the critical mass necessary to make it a reality. There has been nothing like it in the history of metal — and there may be nothing like it ever again.  (more after the jump, including the current line-up of bands . . .) Continue reading »

DIMMU BORGIR: ABRAHADABRA

 Album Reviews  17 Responses »
Sep 232010
 

(EDITOR’S NOTE: As we’ve done on other occasions, we invited one of our readers and commenters, the UK’s Andy Synn, to write whatever his black heart desired as a guest contributor to this site, and this is his first contribution. So, apart from our earlier brief post about Revocation’s new video, we’re stepping aside today to make way for Andy’s review of the forthcoming new album by Dimmu Borgir.)

Morning/afternoon/evening all. Islander’s been kind enough to offer me an open slot for posting as and when possible, and whilst I’m working on a more substantial column I thought I’d jot down a quick review of the new Dimmu album, as I don’t expect a review of it to appear on here otherwise.

Generally I find myself gravitating more towards reviewing slightly more “major” releases  these days (and “major” is definitely a relative term here, the metal bands we all think of as “big” really, really aren’t when placed in the wider scheme of things) as I find it easier to be subjectively critical and/or complimentary about a band that already has such wide exposure. Firstly, because the smaller bands will feel the weight of a bad or badly written review far more heavily, and secondly because the more “major” releases often receive a ton of criticism from questionable sources simply by virtue of their own existence.

Now I was sincerely disappointed with In Sorte Diaboli as I felt that (vaguely sketched conceptual themes aside) their attempt to prove their mettle/metal by bringing forth the more basic metal elements ironically resulted in an album that was very forced and extremely paint-by-numbers. However I’m happy to say that Abrahadabra appears for all intents and purposes to be an album made by the three core members primarily for their own artistic reasons. (much more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

REVOCATION: NEW VIDEO

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Sep 222010
 

We’ve displayed our dog-like devotion to Boston’s Revocation many times at this site. They’re an extremely talented group of musicians and song-writers, and they’re in the vanguard of modern extreme metal with a technical blend of death and thrash that’s both head-spinning and massively infectious.

We’ve had shitloads of fun at both of the Seattle shows where we’ve seen them perform, in part because they look like they’re having so much fun when they’re playing and in part because they’re just so fucking good. In fact, we’d crawl across broken glass to see them play live. Fortunately, Seattle’s metal venues don’t yet require crawling as the price of admission and they do a pretty good job keeping the sidewalks clear of broken glass.

Revocation has released two albums to date, 2008’s Empire of the Obscene and last year’s Existence Is Futile. We’d have a hard time picking which one of those is our favorite even at gunpoint. Fortunately, we only know one dude who actually owns a gun, and he wouldn’t threaten us with a gun to find out which of those albums is our favorite. At least we don’t think he would. On the other hand, the fact that he owns a gun means, by definition, that all the wiring in his brain isn’t connected up as it should be. Plus, everyone knows the old saying: “Guns don’t kill people. Metal albums kill people.”

Where were we?  Oh yeah, Revocation. Well, as of a few hours ago, Revocation has released a new performance video of the song “ReaniManiac”, which is being exclusively premiered at the Jackson Guitars web site. In connection with that premiere, Jackson is also sponsoring the giveaway of The Jackson/Revocation JS32 Warrior™ Guitar. So, if you play guitar, or if you just want to stare longingly at one in your room, you can go there and enter your name in the contest.

If all you want to do is watch the video — which you should do — you can do that right here at NCS . . . after the jump. Continue reading »

MASS OBLITERATION

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Sep 222010
 

Here at NCS, our minds are disorderly and usually afflicted with attention deficit plague. Occasionally, though, we find a strangely calming influence from notions of symmetry and connection.

For example, we started the week with a post on an Italian brutal-tech-death band called Blasphemer whose just-released EP was produced by Rome’s Stefano Morabito and his 16th Cellar Studio and whose songs lyrically focused on serious themes. We followed that yesterday with a piece on, uh, banjo metal. Today, we decided it would be pleasing to put a bookend on this side of the banjo-metal post with a piece on Mass Obliteration — another Italian death-metal band who have also recently released an EP, also produced by Stefano Morabito, and also lyrically focused on serious themes. We feel strangely calmed.

But not calmed by the music. The music makes us feel jittery and slightly deranged. It’s a deep throwback to early-90’s death metal, with powerful connections to albums like Incantation’s debut, Onward to Golgotha, or the early works of Immolation and Grave. Are you ready for “a grinding onslaught of rotten anarco-death metal”? If so, then Mass Obliteration is just the ticket for you.  (more after the jump, including a track from that EP . . .) Continue reading »

BANJO METAL

 Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  27 Responses »
Sep 212010
 

A few days ago we published a post about a Chicago band called Demolisher that unexpectedly led to a wide-ranging discussion in the comments that was far more thoughtful and interesting than the post itself. As often seems to happen at this site, the discussion in the comments veered off in directions that couldn’t have been predicted from the subject of the post. We started off talking about breakdowns and bass drops, and by the end we were talking about banjo music — specifically, metal songs that include the banjo.

One reader (byrd36) referred to the banjo intro in a song by Virginia’s King Giant, which is the subject of a brand new video that we included in one of our MISCELLANY posts two days later. Another reader (Andy Synn) thought of a second metal band that had included the banjo in one of its songs.

That was about all it took to send our impulsive selves off in search of more banjo-infused metal, and today we’re sharing the results of our search. Even though my posts usually tend to run on and on (since “wordy” is one of my middle names), this post will require even more of your time than usual, because we’re including five songs. But we hope you’ll hang with us, because there’s some good shit in here, and it just reaffirms what a few of us thought in that earlier comment discussion: Metal needs more banjo!

After the jump, we’ll repeat that King Giant video (cuz that’s where this all started) and follow it with music from The Absence, an early Zakk Wylde project called Pride and Glory, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.

Okay, we cheated there at the end — Béla Fleck’s music isn’t metal, but do keep an open mind, because the music is still stunning. In fact, it may be the most interesting and instrumentally impressive of all the songs we’re featuring today. Continue reading »

WITHERED AND MORE

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Sep 202010
 

Sometimes living on the West Coast means you get to find out about things when people in the rest of the country are sleeping. Like just a few minutes ago I checked some of the latest news releases and found an item that blew a hole in the top of my head.  Okay, that’s not exactly true.  It blew a second hole in the top of my head.  At least the hole that’s always been there now has company.

Here’s the news: Scion A/V and The Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim have compiled an album of rare or brand new metal releases in a package they’ve called METAL SWIM that’s available for free download beginning right now. And man, just check out this line-up of bands and songs:

Death Angel — Truce
Skeletonwitch — Bringers of Death
Torche — Arrowhead
Ludicra — Path of Ash
Kylesa — Forsaken
Black Tusk — Fatal Kiss
Red Fang — Hank Is Dead
Black Cobra — Frozen Night
Saviours — Dixie Dieway
Witch Mountain — Veil of the Forgotten
Isis — Pliable Foe
Jesu — Dethroned
Pelican — Inch Above Sand
Zoroaster — Witch Hammer
Withered — Extinguished With the Misery
Boris — Luna

Seriously, is that not one motherfucking awesome line-up or what?  It begins with a track from Death Angel‘s brand new album, and take a close look at the next-to-last song on that list. You know what that is? It’s the lead track from Withered’s forthcoming new album, which isn’t due for release until October 26.  (more after the jump, including that track and a link that gets you the whole compilation . . . .) Continue reading »

BLASPHEMER

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Sep 202010
 

Blasphemer is a 5-piece band from Milan, Italy. The band came into existence in 1998, but because of years of “drinking and fucking around” (their words), they didn’t buckle down and release a full-length album until 2008’s On the Inexistence of God (which was produced by Stefano Morabito at 16th Cellar Studio, who has done similar work for Hour of Penance and Fleshgod Apocalypse). They’ve also now recently released a 5-song EP on Comatose Music called Devouring Deception that includes a remastered version of a previously released single (“Cloaca of Iniquity”), a cover of a song by Broken Hope (“I Am God”), and three new original songs.

Principally on the evidence of the 2008 LP, Blasphemer seems to get categorized with bands like Severed Savior, Deeds of Flesh, and Defeated Sanity under the banner of Brutal Death Metal. The Marco Hasmann cover art of the EP (which you’ll see after the jump) points in that same direction — a winged monstrosity admiring his handiwork after eviscerating a voluptuously nude angel.

Some brutal-death aficionados might continue to classify the EP under that banner, but we hear something a little different. Yes, the music is like a horde of army ants cascading through your brain with pincers snapping voraciously — but with choreography. The sound as we hear it is a bit closer to Fleshgod Apocalypse than likes of Deeds of Flesh usually deliver, and as most of you long-time readers know, that’s high praise here at NCS.  (more after the jump, including a Blasphemer song . . .) Continue reading »

MISCELLANY (NO. 11)

 MISCELLANY  2 Responses »
Sep 192010
 

It’s been a few weeks since we did one of these MISCELLANY posts. In case you’ve forgotten, or you’re new to these pages, here’s how it works: I make a random list of new music or new videos from bands I’ve never heard before, but look interesting for some reason, and then I go check ’em out. I don’t know in advance whether the music will be good or bad, and occasionally I get head-faked into listening to music that turns out not to be metal at all.

But whatever happens, I create this log of what I heard and saw, without filtering out anything. Sometimes, it becomes a vehicle for discovering gems. Sometimes, we blunder right into dreck — though most of the time the music has at least been passable.

On this particular venture into the musical unknown, I checked out DyNAbyte (Italy), King Giant (U.S.), and Darkness Rites (Canada).

DYNABYTE

I saw a blurb about this Italian band on Blabbermouth earlier this week. It said that the band featured a female vocalist named Cadaveria, formerly of the band Opera IX, as well as Necrodeath bassist John (aka “Killer Bob”). Those names “Cadaveria” and “Opera IX” rang a bell in my cobwebbed brain, and eventually it came to me.  (more after the jump, including music and video . . .) Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST IS COMING!

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Sep 182010
 

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.) Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” — BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (No. 15): THE DOGS AND DOUCHEBAGS EDITION

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  12 Responses »
Sep 182010
 

We were so happy that our precious web site survived the Bluehost debacle yesterday with all our data intact that we decided to creep forth from our informational no-fly zone into what some deluded people call the real world and sniff around for news items that would cause us to think, “shit, that’s metal!” We shielded our eyes from the grotesque headlines that continue to dominate the “hard news” and began the search . . .

And in almost no time we hit a trifecta! First, we found two recent items that concern events right here in the Pacific Northwest (which is already becoming depressingly waterlogged with premature seepage from the sky). Second, the stories we found enabled us to continue using alliterative titles for these THAT’S METAL! posts. And third, one of them involves BOTH dogs AND douchebags. Win! Win! Win!

So, here are our two stories for this installment: One involves an intrepid dog that pulled off a truly amazing feat of aerodynamic skill at Crater Lake that enabled him to survive the negligent douchbaggery of his owners. The other involves a self-inflicted acid bath that became the basis for a truly egregious lie. We’re stretching to call this second story “metal”. In fact, upon reflection, it’s really just unadulterated douchebaggery.

As usual, we’re supplementing these stories with our usual, ignorantly juvenile and completely tasteless commentary, plus suitable musical accompaniment.

ITEM ONE

This story requires a little background information for those who don’t live in the Pacific Northwest: Crater Lake is a remarkable natural formation in Oregon. It’s a body of water that filled up the caldera of a collapsed volcano that was formed about 7,700 years ago. It’s almost 2,000 feet deep (594 meters), making it the second-deepest lake in North America and the ninth deepest in the world, and it’s 5-6 miles (8-10 km) in diameter.  (more detail, possibly more entertaining, after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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