MISCELLANY NO. 28: THE SURGICAL BRUTE EDITION (Pt 1)

 MISCELLANY  16 Responses »
Mar 202011
 

We’ve got an NCS reader and commenter who uses the nom de plume “Surgical Brute.” Every now and then in his post comments, he’ll mention a band whose music is new to me. I usually try to check out those bands, and so far, he hasn’t steered me wrong.

Recently, I invited him to send us five new recommendations, because it’s pretty clear to me that my tastes and his coincide to a significant degree. He responded with five bands whose music I’d never heard. I’ve been saving up those recommendations for a MISCELLANY post, which is the series that recounts my adventures into the musical unknown. I’m splitting up those five bands into two MISCELLANY posts, with the second one to follow next weekend, if not sooner.

So, here we go: For each band, I’m including Surgical Brute’s brief description of the music, my own reaction to a single song (or two) picked at random from each band, and then the song itself for you to hear and judge for yourself. Here’s the line-up for today, in the order that Surgical Brute described them to me via e-mail: The Stone (Serbia), Graveyard Dirt (Ireland), and The Wakedead Gathering (U.S.). Bear in mind that I hadn’t heard the music before sitting down to listen for this post. It turned out to be quite a varied offering of music.

THE STONE

This Serbian band formed in 1996, originally under the name Stone To Flesh, and in the following years they’ve produced quite a lot of music. Their most recent full-length — the band’s fifth — is called Umro (which seems to mean “died” or maybe “dead”). It came out in 2009 on Folter Records. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THE OSEDAX

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Mar 192011
 

Most metal reviews are littered with cliches and overused words. I’m as guilty as anyone. Sometimes the explanation is laziness, sometimes a lack of imagination, sometimes limitations on the writer’s vocabulary. It’s not all bad, because sometimes the overused words function like a shorthand code: they quickly give readers a very general clue about whether it’s the kind of music that might suit their tastes. On the other hand, some of the words are so imprecise that they simply don’t do the music justice, or they can be downright misleading.

Let’s take “sludge” and “stoner metal”, for example. “Sludge” is a handy word to use, and most metalheads know what it connotes: down-tempo music with distorted guitars, heavy bass rhythms, and an air of doom. Sometimes the word is used in conjunction with “stoner metal”, which I guess happens when the music is less abrasive, maybe more psychedelic, maybe incorporating more instrumental jams, but I’m not 100% sure. By the way, does getting high and losing yourself in the music really correlate with one genre of metal more than another?

Anyway, on the subject of cliched, overused words, one thing I’ve noticed is that reviewers of sludge/stoner music can’t seem to resist throwing around “dirty” and “filthy” as adjectives. What the fuck does that mean anyway? I don’t listen to this kind of music often, but I listen enough to know that bands who wear the sludge/stoner label do not all sound alike, and calling their music “dirty” or “filthy” doesn’t help distinguish them. Does it?

These thoughts are running through my head because I’ve been listening to an excellent debut album called Delayed Response by a Virginia band called The Osedax. Their music gets labeled “sludge” and “stoner” — hell, those are the words the band themselves use. But this is a case where those shorthand codewords really don’t do the music justice — there’s a whole lot more to it than what those labels might make you think. There’s also nothing about it that’s mellow; it’s seriously disturbing.  (more after the jump, including a song and a download link . . .) Continue reading »

FILLER

 IQ Subtraction  16 Responses »
Mar 192011
 

I just woke up. My head feels like it has been converted into a storage facility for the spent fuel rods used in nuclear reactors. I did not finish today’s post before having my fun last night. I will finish it as soon as the room stops spinning around like a centrifuge. In the meantime, do what these creatures are doing:

REVELATIONS

 IQ Subtraction  43 Responses »
Mar 182011
 

The time has come. I’ve decided to expose myself. No, not like this dude. I mean, it’s time to expose my face, time to show everyone what I really look like. And yes, that’s me up above with my cat.

For months now, I’ve received a surging torrent of e-mails from NCS fans asking for a photo of my face, not just the icon of my inked arms that I use for comments, which some people think is unfriendly and off-putting. Many correspondents have wondered if I even have a head at all. Actually, all of those people were asking if I had a brain, but I’m interpreting those questions as asking for a head-and-shoulders shot.

Many other people have written to ask that I post a photo of my cat, since I mention him so often in NCS posts and comments. I thought the photo up above was a good pose, because my cat has a habit of climbing up on my shoulders when I’m trying to write at the keyboard. He also has a habit of drinking from my water glass when I’m not paying attention and walking across my keyboard and entering random commands that I then can’t figure out how to un-do, or sometimes just deleting what I’ve spent hours writing. He also throws up a lot. But I didn’t think a shot of me cleaning up cat vomit would be as appealing.

He’s not a popular breed of cat. The coat is kind of rough, and they eat a lot, plus they intimidate some people. But I can tell you from personal experience they make really affectionate pets and they’re good with children, especially if you don’t like children. All it takes is for them to bite off a visiting child’s foot just the one time and you won’t have to worry ever again about your friends bringing their kids over for a visit. Awesome.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the photo of me. Some of you may be thinking that’s a photo of Robert Pattinson, but it’s not. That dude is in such demand after the big Twilight cultural explosion that he can’t be everywhere he needs to be, so I stand in for him every now and then. Dude gets bored having his picture taken anyway, and it puts the extra cheddah in my pocket that I need to keep NCS going, so it’s a win-win situation for both of us. (unfortunately, there is more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

“A New Journey Awaits You”

 Album Reviews  15 Responses »
Mar 172011
 

Okay, so I know I suck at contributing to this site. I haven’t written anything for NCS in quite some time. But, every so often, a piece of media comes along in some form, whether it be a movie, a TV show, or in this case, a piece of music, that changes your life. It has an effect on you that you can’t quite explain, but you can’t stop listening to it. It grabs you, holds on, and doesn’t let go, making you think and reflect on where you are in your life.

For me, Chicago metal band Born of Osiris‘ new album The Discovery, set to drop on March 22nd, did just that. I’ve now listened to it six times in less than 24 hours and I believe that it is not only the best album of the year, or the past two years, but I am not afraid to say that it is now my favorite album of all time.  (more after the jump, including a song . . .) Continue reading »

MOUTH WATERING: ANAAL NATHRAKH, ALTAR OF PLAGUES, AND CRUACHAN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Mar 172011
 

Seeing as how this is St. Patrick’s Day (in addition to being the anniversary of the patent for the rubber band), we thought you might like to hear a bit more Irish metal. To be precise, a bit more new Irish metal. A couple of new songs from bands you might have heard of, as teasers for albums they have on the way: Altar of Plagues and Cruachan.

But first, we want to make sure you’re aware that Candlelight Records has made available a new song from yet another forthcoming album — this one by Anaal Nathrakh. They’re not Irish. They’re British. But they’re fecking awesome, and we just discovered this new song, and it’s fecking awesome, so even though it seems to have been drifting around the webz for a few weeks, we’re still leading off this post with it.

ANAAL NATHRAKH

The band’s new album, called Passion, will be released in Europe on the May 23. On some other day, the rest of the world will presumably get their official shot at it. The new song now available from the album is called “Volenti Non Fit Iniuria”. That Latin phrase literally means something like “no injury is done to a person who consents”, but it’s also the name of a legal doctrine.  (more after the jump, including these three songs . . .) Continue reading »

CELTACHOR

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 172011
 

You know what day this is, of course. Yes, it’s the anniversary of the day when the rubber band was patented in 1845. It’s also the birthday of wrestler Samoa Joe, and the first anniversary of Alex Chilton’s death. On this day in 1789, during the American Revolutionary War, George Washington granted the Continental Army a holiday “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence.”

Okay, I’m forgetting something, I know I am. There’s something else about this day that I’m supposed to remember. Hmmmmm. I got it! It’s St. Patrick’s Day! At least here in the U.S., it’s the day when everyone pretends they’re Irish, and in celebration of Irishness, we all wear green and get totally shit-faced.

Getting shit-faced while wearing green is all well and good — I will be doing both. But while I’m here at NCS, I prefer to celebrate the grand day by focusing on Irish metal, and specifically on a Dublin band called Celtachor — a name which could loosely be translated as “the Celtic is everything”.

And for this band, so it is. Celtachor’s hybrid of black ‘n roll and folk music is inspired by Irish legends. It’s a re-telling in the language of extreme metal of stories that have been passed down for a long time. The music isn’t slick. It’s rough around the edges. Hell, it’s rough all the way through — but Celtachor’s music is honest, it has heart, it’s real, it will set your head to banging — and you can download their new demo for free. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

OUR WORLD

 Mosh Pit  38 Responses »
Mar 162011
 

Think of our world —  the human part of it. According to the most authoritative current estimates, Earth is populated by nearly seven billion souls.

Now think about the number of people in the world for whom music is a part of their daily lives. I have no idea of the number. But for whatever reason, music is part of what it means to be human. There is historical evidence of music dating back approximately 100,000 years (in the form of Neanderthal whistles made from animal bone), and it surely dates back far longer, before the time when Neanderthals or homo sapiens created any kind of record or artifact that would survive to the modern era.

Certainly, music is not a part of everyone’s life. Some people are literally comatose, and others lead lives that are duller than a pothole of muddy water after a rain. But I have to believe that some kind of music means something to the overwhelming majority of people in the world every day.

Now, think about the number of those people who listen to music they would call “metal”. Suddenly, the number plummets dramatically. Again, I have no idea about the actual count (and no one else does either), but it has to be a tiny percentage of the whole, on a global basis.

Now, let’s subtract the people who call their music “metal” when it really isn’t metal at all (but instead is just hard rock or worse) and the people whose definition of metal means music that hasn’t fundamentally changed since the 80s, or earlier. Let’s get down to the people who listen to the kind of music we cover on this site, and on sites like this one — the kind of music you can’t discuss or even explain to people who don’t already get it.

Again, I have no idea how to estimate the number on a global scale, and no one else knows either, but it has to be vanishingly small — an infinitesimal fraction of a percent of all human beings. (I do have a point, and will get to it . . . after the jump.) Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 8: THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  44 Responses »
Mar 162011
 

Yesterday we posted an interview with Michiel Dekker of The Monolith Deathcult. Today, our UK contributor Andy Synn, who apparently writes as fast as a peregrine falcon can fly, prepared this companion retrospective in his latest edition of THE SYNN REPORT.

In order to keep up a bit of consistency on the site, I’ve shuffled The Monolith Deathcult up a few notches in my list of bands, so as to best take advantage of Islander’s interview with band main-man Michiel Dekker. Rest assured that the next Synn Report will finally get me back on track with the band I have been wanting to address for several weeks now!

Stormtroopers of avant-garde death metal, The Monolith Deathcult originally formed in 2002 under the moniker “Monolith” before switching to the far more verbose and distinctive title they operate under today. Fusing brutal, technical death metal with grandiose symphonic sounds, industrial strength electronics and a historically focussed lyrical bent, the band have thus far crafted three albums of devastating yet artistically complex death metal.

Eschewing the “more for more’s sake” attitude of speed and technicality so prevalent in death metal, TMDC chose to step sideways, incorporating and exploring new ideas, more twisted song-structures and an array of extraneous instrumentation into their sonic sculptures. Less of a “progressive” band than they are an “experimental” one, TMDC’s main goal appears to be the stretching of traditional death metal boundaries to, and perhaps even beyond, their breaking point. (more after the jump, including music . . .) Continue reading »

MORE FREE SHIT – AND THIS ONE IS A DOOZIE

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Mar 152011
 

You may have already seen this, since the release date appears to have been February 25, but I just discovered it — Relapse Records has made a “winter sampler” available for free download on Amazon MP3. It features new music from several bands, including Obscura, and overall it’s a very strong compilation of music — 25 tracks in all. The track listing from Amazon is right after the jump (because it’s a long one), and HERE is the link for the page where you can download the sampler.  Again, our apologies to non-US residents if the download isn’t available to you. Continue reading »

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