“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 29)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  13 Responses »
Feb 162011
 

Here at NCS, we’re perfectly happy to stay hunkered down in our metal bunker and let the rest of the world do what it will, completely unknown to our ignorant but happy selves. As long as we’ve got a steady flow of metal to satisfy our meager desires, we don’t really need or want intrusions from “the real world”. But, every week or two, in a feeble effort to provide you some variety, we browse the “hard news” (while stifling an almost constant gag reflex), hoping to find items that make us think, “that’s fucking metal!”, even though it’s not music.

Today, we have an item about an overlooked gift idea that makes so much sense when you think about it — roaches. Plus we’ve got a story about an innovative use for crematorium heat and an example of what can go wrong if you get careless with a nail gun (and we couldn’t resist adding some musical accompaniment for that last item). And, at no extra charge, we’re including our own tasteless commentary on each of these items. Let’s get started!

ITEM ONE

I’ve never been to the Bronx Zoo, though I have been to The Bronx. Did you know that in addition to being one of New York City’s five boroughs, The Bronx is also a separate county, with its own flag (shown to the right) and its own Latin motto, which translates to “Do not give way to evil”? Did you know that The Bronx was named after The Bronx River, which was itself named after Jonas Bronck, an early settler from Småland, Sweden whose land bordered the river on the east (“Bronck’s River”)?

Where was I?  Oh yeah, The Bronx Zoo. Did you know The Bronx Zoo is home to a colony of Madagascar hissing cockroaches? Did you hear about the zoo’s promotional Valentine’s Day idea? Well, you’re about to.  (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

WE TEASING YOU: BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE, MOONSORROW, AND CANNIBAL CORPSE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Feb 152011
 

That eye-catching piece of art above is the cover for Celestial Completion, the next album by Atlanta’s Becoming the Archetype. The original painting was done by Dan Seagrave with art direction from Ryan Clark at Invisible Creature (if that name sounds familiar, that’s the same Ryan Clark who’s the frontman for Demon Hunter). Looks like, when the rapture comes, there will be some interruptions in shipping traffic.

We thought this band’s 2008 album, Dichotomy, was an interesting dish of progressive death metal. The new single they released in 2009 — “Necrotizing Fasciitis” — in addition to being an inventively named piece of music with an unusual metaphor at the core of its lyrics, was a promise of even more interesting things to come. It turned the brutality dial up more than a few notches and jettisoned most of the prog influences, but still included some nice tech-death flourishes.

Now, as a teaser for the next album, the band have released a single for streaming. It sounds almost nothing like “Necrotizing Fasciitis”, but it’s growing on us. And it’s just the first of three teasers we’ve stapled together in this post.

For our second one, we’ve got a mix of the music from the next release by Finland’s awesome Moonsorrow, and to finish off the post, there’s a clip from the forthcoming DVD by Cannibal Corpse. Hey, you can’t say we don’t bend over backwards to bring you variety in metal. (all this stuff is after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

DEATH: THE SOUND OF PERSEVERANCE

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Feb 152011
 

(NCS contributor BadWolf joins us today with some timely thoughts about Death‘s final album.)

Today super-quality metal label Relapse Records is releasing a re-master of Death’s seventh and final studio album, The Sound of Perseverance. The re-master will come with a slew of extras including liner notes from cover artist Travis Smith (Opeth’s go-to man) and guitarist Shannon Hamm, as well as a second disc of unreleased material. Order it from Relapse themselves, or on iTunes, and get a third disc of bonus material.

But, to be honest, all that rigamaroll may just be distracting you from what’s at stake here: a great opportunity to re-visit one of the very best metal albums ever made. Unreleased tracks and demos are just empty calories on one of the leanest and most ruthlessly efficient musical death machines ever put to tape.

These days it seems to me that Death doesn’t get mentioned alongside classic American DM bands like Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, and Deicide. This makes sense; Death was always the odd band out. Death began brutal and grew more melodic and complex with TSoP being the culmination of that evolution.

In fact, The Sound of Perseverance is as much a power metal record as a DM record (Schuldiner had composed some, perhaps all, of the material with his trad-metal outfit Control Denied in mind). That it functions so well as a slice of brutality as a series of guitar playing exercises is a testament to the forward-thinking nature of Chuck Schuldiner. (more after the jump, including some of the re-mastered songs . . .) Continue reading »

THIS DAY HAS TAKEN A TURN FOR THE WORSE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Feb 142011
 

Just when we were feeling unusually upbeat about Valentine’s Day, what with a new Amon Amarth track and yet another new track from Scale the Summit‘s next album (which is called “Gallows” and is streaming here), we got an e-mail from Andy Synn with nothing but “I am in mourning” in the subject line, and a link. A fucking depressing link . . .

. . . to a news item reporting that one of our favorite metal bands on the planet, God Dethroned, is disbanding. Unfortunately, it’s official, and confirmed in a statement by the band’s guitarist/vocalist/songwriter/mastermind/World War I historian, Henri Sattler.

This is particularly surprising since Sattler has been quoted as saying the band’s next album would be the completion of a trilogy about World War I that began with Passiondale and 2010’s amazingly good Under the Sign of the Iron Cross.  (more after the jump, including Sattler’s statement . . . and a song) Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH: “SLAVES OF FEAR”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Feb 142011
 

You can’t say no one gave you a Valentine today. Not only did we give you one, in the form of an Amorphis video and a nice skull-with-flowers card, but Amon Amarth have given you one, too.

It’s evident that Amon Amarth is a huge favorite at this site, so we thought it was worth alerting you to the fact that within the last hour, Metal Blade has released another track from Surtur Rising — the new album due for release on March 29. This one is called “Slaves of Fear”. Here’s what AA’s drummer Fredrik Andersson had to say about the song:

“‘Slaves Of Fear’ is not the all-typical Amon Amarth song. It was one of the last songs we finished for the album and what makes this song a little bit different is the collaboration between me and [guitarist] Olavi [Mikkonen] as songwriters. Usually, most songs are written by Olavi and [guitarist] Johan [Söderberg]. It’s definitely one of the darkest songs we’ve ever written and the main/intro riff is my personal tribute to the passing of Ronnie James Dio as the riff came to me after listening to Holy Diver. Lyrically, it’s about how religions keep people under its control and  from thinking for themselves. It includes some of the most angry lyrics [vocalist] Johan [Hegg] has written and they kind of remind me of ‘The Sound Of Eight Hooves’ [off 2001’s The Crusher full-length] in a way. It works exceptionally well with the melancholic feel of the riffs.”

I sure wish we could stick the song right here for you to hear, but that will have to wait — because for now, it’s streaming exclusively at the Deciblog. But much as we hate to ever send you away from NCS, you really ought to hear this song. So — here is the link.

UPDATE: Now we’ve got the song for you to hear at NCS –right after the jump. Continue reading »

HEY MOTHERFUCKERS, HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

 Off Topic  18 Responses »
Feb 142011
 

Nice photo, huh? And so appropriate for this day, particularly as adornment for a metal site. It’s the flower-crowned skull of St. Valentine exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin (Rome, Italy). And with that intro, we’re going to provide a little history lesson which convinced us (and maybe it will convince you), that Valentine’s Day is metal, despite what we used to think. We will also have music, of course, as a Valentine from us to you.

Now, back to that skull. Who did it really belong to, back when it was covered with warm flesh? What we now call Valentine’s Day was originally established in honor of an early Christian martyr, Saint Valentine. But according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three martyrs by the name of Valentine: they were from Rome, Terni, and Africa. Each was said to have died on February 14.

It’s probable that Pope Gelasius I, who established St. Valentine’s Day in 496 AD, had in mind the Valentine who was beaten with clubs and stones and then beheaded in Rome in 269, 270, or 273 AD, supposedly for performing marriages. Now, that’s a metal way to meet your end.

To elaborate, some historical accounts report that Emperor Claudius II (“Claudius the Cruel”) banned marriages when Roman men began refusing to go to war in order to stay home with their wives. Valentine allegedly chose death over renouncing his religion and his performance of weddings. Legend has it that on his last day he wrote a message for his guard’s daughter (whose blindness he allegedly cured) signed, “From Your Valentine” — though there appears to be no historical basis in fact for the story about the girl, the blindness cure, or the note.

Like many Christian celebrations, what we do on Valentine’s Day has its origins in ancient Rome. Lupercalia was a Roman festival held on February 13-15, at least partly in honor of Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled the infant orphans Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. That’s why it was called Lupercalia — the “Wolf Festival”. That’s a metal name, for sure, but wait ‘to you see what the Romans did during that festival.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

DIVIN’ IN DAT DEATHCORE SHIT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  48 Responses »
Feb 132011
 

How did Deathcore get to be such a lightening rod for controversy within the extreme metal scene? Seems like all you gotta do to ignite a testosterone-fueled, name-calling slagfest on most metal blogs and message boards is mention the word. In some quarters, shitting on deathcore is like a litmus test of metal purity: If you take a big verbal dump on the genre, that’s evidence of sophistication in your musical taste, and if you express enthusiasm for the music, it proves you’re a retard.

All the controversy seems to have moved some deathcore icons (like Job For A Cowboy, Whitechapel, and Carnifex) further away from core and further into straight death, and other bands who have remained true to the template don’t want to be called deathcore bands, even if that’s really what they still are. Even a lot of deathcore fans seem to feel they have to take part in the branding of some bands as no-talent wastes in order to buff up their cred in praising other, almost indistinguishable, bands as the real deal.

Connecticut/NYC band Emmure may be the lightening rod of all lightening rods within the genre. They’ve got an intensely devoted cadre of fans, but man, they’ve got an equally devoted army of haters out there, too. Here at NCS, we’ve been somewhere in the middle, like crouching down in the open space of the floor right before a wall of death is triggered. The three of us who started this site saw them play Seattle as an opening act on their first national tour, and we liked their debut album. On the other hand, we were unanimous in thinking their last release, Felony, was an embarrassment.

They’re on the verge of releasing a new album on Century Media (due February 15) called Speaker of the Dead, and two singles have surfaced so far, including a video for one of them that debuted just a couple days ago. We’ve got both those songs for you after the jump, along with some thoughts about the music. Plus, we’ve also got a brand new song from the forthcoming album by LA’s Winds of Plague, and a fairly new video from another deathcore lightening rod, Chelsea Grin. If you feel like gettin’ your breakdown on, stay with us. Continue reading »

MYTHIC METAL: EAST MEETS WEST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 122011
 

While scanning through Blabbermouth yesterday, I came across items about two bands who are from very different cultures but who both find musical inspiration in myths: Finland’s Crimfall and Singapore’s Rudra. Both bands have new albums on the way, and I thought they’d make an interesting compare-and-contrast feature. So, here we go:

CRIMFALL

Finland’s Crimfall falls into the category of Northern European folk metal, and in particular, a style that uses contrasting vocals — here, Helena Haaparanta‘s clean soprano, which is one source of the music’s folk sound, and Mikko Häkkinen‘s icy black-metal rasp. The band released a debut album in 2009 called As the Path Unfolds . . . as a three-piece unit (those two vocalists plus band-founder Jakke Viitala), with help from session musicians.

Since then, the band has filled out with the addition of a permanent drummer (Janne Jukarainen) and bassist (Miska Sipiläinen), and I remember seeing a performance video by the full band of a song from the debut sometime last year. Crimfall have now completed a second album (The Writ of Sword) due for a March 23 release on Spineform Records.

What drew my attention to the news about the next release was the line-up of guests who appear on the album — Tapio Wilska (Survivors Zero), Ville Sorvali (Moonsorrow), Mathias “Vreth” Lillmåns (Finntroll), Mathias Nygård and Olli Vänskä from Turisas, and Trollhorn (Finntroll, Moonsorrow). Pretty attention-grabbing list, huh?  Also, it was mastered by Sweden’s masterful Jens Bogren (Opeth, Spoilwork, Katatonia, Bloodbath, and many others).  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MORE DOG SHIT

 IQ Subtraction, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Feb 112011
 

NCS is going to the dogs today. Within an hour of putting up our first post, which featured dog balls and Bury Your Dead, I saw this awesome video. It was like serendipity. Or synchronicity. I can never remember the difference between those words, though I like both of them. Anyway, I felt like someone was trying to tell me something. Someone was saying, “you shall make NCS all about dogs today”. And I am obeying.

The song on this video is by August Burns Red, a band that all three of your NCS co-founders like a bunch. It’s called “The Eleventh Hour” and it’s on the band’s 2007 album, Messengers. It’s a good song. It would be worth hearing again today even if the video image were just an unchanging black screen. But what goes on in this video is funny as shit to watch. The guy who’s operating the dog’s paws is clearly a drummer (though I don’t think it’s ABR’s Matt Greiner, despite a resemblance) and clearly knows the drum track on this song pretty damned well. And the changing expressions on the dog’s face are priceless (particularly the teeth-baring).

You know he’s a good dog, because although you can see that he’d like to bite the shit out of the dude’s hands, he’s holding back.

P.S. Someone out there is going to be offended by this. I’m pretty soft-hearted when it comes to animals and pretty sensitive when it comes to human abuse of animals, but there’s no real harm done here.

DOG BALLS (THE CURE TO LONELINESS)

 IQ Subtraction, Metal News  10 Responses »
Feb 112011
 

Here at NCS, we cater to all kinds of literary tastes. For example, if you visited us yesterday, you could have read Andy Synn‘s sophisticated, eloquently written, detailed analysis of an entire discography of music created by a great band (Iskald), including a review of the band’s new album. On the other hand, now that I’ve got my claws back on the tiller, the good ship NCS is running aground on the sandbar of this post about . . . dog balls.

Usually, you’d have to threaten rectal impalement to get me to watch a video about a metal band’s recording sessions. You know what I mean — those kinds of videos are usually pretty awful. For me, what counts is the music that comes out at the end of the process, not the process itself or the commentary that usually accompanies the process. I’m just not rabid enough in my fandom to watch every fucking thing that band members say and do just because they’re in a band whose music kicks ass.

But, there are exceptions to every rule, and one of my exceptions is Bury Your Dead. That’s because what happened to that band a couple years ago was the trigger event that caused us to launch this site. For fuck’s sake, the replacement of vocalist Mat Bruso with Myke Terry is what caused us to name this site NO CLEAN SINGING. And if you have no idea what I’m babbling about, read this.

So, you better believe that we’re going to cover the saga of Mat rejoining BYD and the recording of BYD’s next album in excruciating detail — including recording-session videos that begin with images of big hairy dog balls. And that may not even be the worst thing you’ll see in this video (which you can watch after the jump, unless your personal standards have already sent you off to another web site). Continue reading »

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