“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 34)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  5 Responses »
Apr 182011
 

Almost three weeks have passed since our last THAT’S METAL! post, which is way too fucking long. I’m still not able to devote as much time to NCS these days as I’d like (one more week to go before back to normal, or abnormal), so this edition of THAT’S METAL! won’t feature as many items as usual — but better something than nothing, right?

The main item we’ve got today involves mayhem, wreckage, and loud noises — which is why it’s metal, even though it’s not music. It made me wonder why people entertain themselves by destroying shit and making explosive sounds, or entertain themselves by watching the destruction of shit in ways that make explosive sounds. Actually, using the word “people” is probably an overstatement, since men seem to get off on this kind of entertainment more than women. I wonder why that is.

Whatever the explanation, maybe it’s the same reason why there are more male than female fans of extreme metal. If you have any theories about these questions, don’t be bashful about sharing them in the Comments.

As you ponder those weighty subjects, entertain yourselves after the jump by watching a bunch of Finns in the throes of temporary vehicular insanity. Cars seem to have that effect on men more than women, too. Wonder why that is. Continue reading »

MY CORPSE SHALL RISE, BUT IT AIN’T GOIN’ TO HEAVEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 172011
 


Hot off the presses, or whatever it is they call video editing machines, we have a video released today by the almighty Autopsy for one of our favorite songs of 2010 — “My Corpse Shall Rise”.

Like Autopsy itself, the video is old-school: black-and-white footage of the band playing the song in the studio, which isn’t 100% in sync with the audio track, and some cut-rate video flame effects. But I don’t care much about the quality of the video, because the song rules, and watching Autopsy do the dishes while it plays would be just fine with me.

You can see and hear it after the jump. Continue reading »

NO RHYME OR REASON: ANAAL NATHRAKH, DEVOLVED, AND CYANIDE SERENITY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Apr 172011
 

Surgical Brute’s first post of our NCS Saturday included songs from five bands, and Misha served up another one today, all of which are well worth hearing. So I’m probably pushing my luck by adding this post with still more songs. I do realize there’s a limited amount of time you’re going to spend listening to new music in a given day, and I also realize we’re not the only metal site most of you visit. But I just can’t resist. There’s probably some psychiatric name for inability to resist impulse, but whatever it is, I’ve got it.

Usually, there’s some organizing principle behind the music collections we feature in a post, even if it’s nothing more than “these songs will flambé your brain.” But today there’s really no rhyme or reason to what I picked, except I came across all three of these offerings in the last 48 hours and just felt compelled to share what I found.

Two of these bands I know well and I’m a big fan of both. The third is a new discovery. What I have for you, then, is a high-quality video of Anaal Nathrakh laying waste in a live club performance; a video for a brand new (and somewhat surprising) song by Australian/California tech-death band Devolved; and a new, crushing re-recording of a song by another tech-death band, UK’S Cyanide Serenity, which features their new lead singer Travis Neal (Divine Heresy). And to top it off, we’ve got the schedule for a just-announced Anaal Nathrakh European tour . . . after the jump. Continue reading »

KRYTERIUM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 172011
 

(Today, our guest contributor Misha clues us in on an Idaho extreme metal band called Kryterium.)

Boise, Idaho isn’t the richest of extreme metal environments, and I’ll be the first to attest to that. Sadly, few extreme acts originate from the State of Idaho period, notwithstanding the greater population numbers in what we locals call the Treasure Valley.

Of those few bands, fewer still are actually signed to record labels. Kryterium is one of those few bands. Formed in 2006, Kryterium has shared the stage with numerous extreme bands. I know that saying you shared the stage with a different band is like saying you once made a skiing trip to Sun Valley, where Bruce Willis purportedly owns a home. What Kryterium shares in common with those in the substantial list of bands is extreme metal. I’m not going to waste precious time and space by name-dropping every band they’ve played with, but I can list some of the notables like the following: Darkest Hour, Suffocation, Necrophagist, Dying Fetus, Pyscroptic, The Acacia Strain, Incantation, Samael. For all the good that list does, Kryterium cannot truly be compared with any of them.

I would describe Kryterium’s music as a chunky brand of groove metal mingled with elements of grindcore and death metal.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

CONTEMPORARY CAVEMEN COVER CLASSICS

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 162011
 

Norway’s Goat the Head have fully occupied a metal niche that was waiting to be filled since . . . uh . . . the Paleolithic era: contemporary primal caveman death metal. (And did you know there’s a Paleolithic weight-loss diet?) Here at NCS, we love this band. We’ve posted about them so many times in the past that we’re expecting royalty checks from the massive sales of Goat the Head music that our publicity has no doubt generated. What about it dudes? Royalty checks in the mail?

You may not want to wade through all of our posts, but for background info, here’s a link to one of them (our review of the band’s latest album).

The reason for this post is that Goat the Head has just released a four-song EP called Wicked Mimicry that includes three covers and one original tune. Despite the title of this post, not all the songs they cover are really “classics”, but we exercised a little license in order to get an alliterative post title (using the second definition of “alliteration” once again, Misha).

The covers are a punk song (“Decapitated”) by the immortal Broken Bones, a heavy metal song (“King of Rock and Roll”) by the immortal Dio, and a blues song (“Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers”) by the immortal ZZ Top. The original tune is the title track, “Wicked Mimicry”. Put it all together, and it’s a fuckin’ party from start to finish.  After the jump, our impressions plus a chance for you to hear one of these tracks . . . Continue reading »

FIVE BANDS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FOR SAN ANTONIO’S “RITES OF DARKNESS” FESTIVAL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 162011
 

(Thanks go out to NCS reader/commenter Surgical Brute for today’s guest post, which focuses on five bands that may be new to you; they were certainly new to me, but I’m damned glad I know about them now: Anatomia, War Master, Grave Ritual, Adorior, and Ilsa. I’m also happy to learn about the Rites of Darkness festival that, to date, has confirmed appearances by 41 bands, including the likes of Behexen, Demonical, Interment, Mitochondrian, Sargeist, Valkyrja, and Vasaeleth, in addition to the bands that are the focus of this post.)

Okay, as you know, Islander was looking for some articles to use as fill-ins so he didn’t lose any days on the NCS website. I stupidly said Id try to put something together for him, and…well… here we are.

I guess I should start with a little bit about me. My name’s Rob, but I usually use the tag SurgicalBrute (no there’s no story behind it . . . so don’t ask). Compared to a lot of you, I’ve only been into metal for a very short time, but after dabbling with metalcore a little bit I found Amon Amarth’s Twilight of the Thundergod. I couldn’t stop listening to the title track, and I’ve been devoted to the metal gods ever since. I listen to most of the different styles (grindcore being the exception), but I prefer either old school death metal or folk/viking metal.

Now, I’m not much of a reviewer; frankly, I suck at it. So I was trying to figure out what I should write about. Well, as some of you may know, I try to stay pretty tapped into metal’s underground.  So I figured I’d make a suggestion list of bands most of you may not have heard about. I’ll also include a brief description of theses bands

This isn’t just any list though. No . . . I’m going to tell about 5 lesser known bands you should check out at Rites of Darkness 3, which is happening in San Antonio, Texas, on December 9-10.  (continue reading after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

A REMINDER: TNOTB SAMPLER NOW READY FOR DOWNLOAD

 Metal News  1 Response »
Apr 152011
 

On Monday we tipped you to the fact that our friends at The Number of the Blog had assembled a compilation of music from 18 bands. In the comments, we even gave a really high-level sketch of the musical styles represented on the comp.

Well, the comp is now ready for download, at no charge (unless you feel like throwing a few dollars in the direction of TNOTB). Here is the link for the Bandcamp page where you can do the download.  And here again is the track list:

1 – Cormorant – ‘Scavengers Feast’
2 – Returning We Hear The Larks – ‘Uprising’
3 – Enditol – ‘Monoculture’
4 – Tre Watson – ‘Spack Jarrow’ (previously unreleased)
5 – Iron Thrones – ‘Against The Grain’
6 – Robots Pulling Levers – ‘Sumati II’ (previously unreleased) (featuring George Richman of Hypnorock)
7 – A Walk With The Wicked – ‘Architects Of Sadism’
8 – Cloudkicker – ‘We’re Goin’ In. We’re Going Down.’
9 – Shades Of Devastation – ‘Art Of Agony’ (previously unreleased)
10 – Amogh Symphony – ‘Osiris 1′
11 – Giant Of The Mountain – ‘Awakening’ (previously unreleased)
12 – Keith Merrow – ‘Heart Of The Sea Nymph’ (featuring Jeff Loomis of Nevermore)
13 – Shaidar Logoth – ‘Mashiara Shai’tan’
14 – I’ll Eat Your Face – ‘Dr. Pancake’s Luxurious Ratskin Housecoat’
15 – Soul Cycle – ‘Rising Defiant’
16 – Cut Your Teeth – ‘T.W.H.W.Y.T.B.’
17 – Assimilated Mind Phase – ‘Breeding Insanity 2.0′ (previously unreleased remix)
18 – Brent A. Petrie – ‘Collapse/Conquer’ (previously unreleased)

A PETER STEELE TRIBUTE ALBUM YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT

 Metal News  9 Responses »
Apr 152011
 

This is a public service announcement.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the death of Peter Steele, the frontman for Type O Negative. I am not feeling especially sad about the death of Mr. Steele. I am not happy about it either. I’m just indifferent, because (a) I did not know him personally; (b) I have never spent the time necessary to explore and learn to love the music of Type O Negative. I bought the band’s final studio album, Dead Again, when it came out in 2007, and it simply didn’t vibrate my tuning fork to the right frequency, so there I stopped.

HOWEVER, I am aware that many people genuflect before framed photographs of Peter Steele and remain heart-broken over his passing. Therefore, I am sharing this news because I try not to allow my own personal interests in music to dictate EVERY LAST FUCKING THING WE DO ON THIS SITE — merely 99% of what we do on this site.

The news is that MetalUnderground has organized a compilation of Type O Negative songs performed by other bands, as a tribute to Peter Steele, and made it available for purchase beginning yesterday, the anniversary of his death. Lest you think this was just a rank effort to make a buck off of the helpless teariness of Peter Steele fans, MetalUnderground states that the $3 it’s charging for this 12-track comp “covers the costs of the mechanical license and the transaction fees” and that “Metalunderground.com will be donating any leftover profits to charity.”

You can’t argue with that. So, I bought the comp, because I was curious. So far, I’ve listened to one song because I like the band who played it — A Band of Orcs. It was worth the $3, and I’ve got 11 tracks to go. Check out the track list and hear the Orcs after the jump . . . Continue reading »

ARCHSPIRE UPDATE

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Apr 152011
 

In December, for one of our MISCELLANY posts, we wrote about a then-unsigned technical death metal band from Vancouver called Archspire that had really impressed the hell out of us. The band featured two guitarists who blazed away on 7- and 8-string guitars, a bassist who worked wonders on a 6-string fretless bass, and a drummer and vocalist who matched them stride-for-stride.

By sheer chance, the following month we interviewed  Virgil Palazzolo, the head of a French record label called Trendkill Recordings, and within days of that learned that Trendkill had just signed Archspire to a recording contract — a coincidence that made us quite happy.

Last week, Archspire’s Trendkill debut, All Shall Align, became available digitally on iTunes and it was released as a limited digipack CD in Europe yesterday; the CD will be released in the U.S. and Canada on April 21. That limited digipack CD and a very limited CD/T-Shirt bundle, which features eye-catching artwork by Toshihiro Egawa (Dying Fetus, Suicide Silence, Devourment, and more) are still available at Trendkill’s webshop (here).

A few days ago we learned that the album is now streaming at a French site called Deezer (here). If you’re a fan of bands like Origin, Decrepit Birth, or Spawn of Possession, we think you’ll fall hard for Archspire, and now’s a good time to listen to the album while that stream lasts. If you happen to live in Canada, you’ll soon have the chance to see Archspire live — because they begin a 3-week tour of the country today. Dates and places follow the jump . . . Can you tell that we think this band fuckin’ rocks? Continue reading »

ULVER: WARS OF THE ROSES

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Apr 152011
 

(Our UK contributor Andy Synn provides this review of the new album by Norway’s Ulver, which will be released by the Kscope label on April 25 in the UK and on May 3 in the U.S.)

At their recent London show, Ulver, in traditionally uncompromising fashion, elected to play the entirety of their as-yet unheard new album, start to finish, as the majority of their set without reference to the classics or fan favourites. Thus my first exposure to the music was as part of a brilliant, shining experience of crystalline dynamics, stark, psychedelic sounds and captivating visuals. Thankfully, the record stands up to this live experience, confirming and expanding upon my initial impressions.

Essentially Wars Of The Roses stands as a companion piece to Shadows Of The Sun. Where Shadows… was warm and subtle, the new album is colder and more starkly portrayed. Much as the artwork of Shadows… reflects the warm shades of melancholy contained within, so does the beautiful, minimalist black and white art of Wars… reflect the clarity and extremity of emotion contained within.

Yet for all the cold and stark presentation of dichotomous musical elements on this album, there is a deep seam of emotion to be discovered beneath the surface. Whereas Shadows… was earthy and masculine, Wars… is ethereal and feminine, a female moon to a male sun, brilliant whiteness and deep shadows containing grand sweeping vistas of divergent emotions.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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