TWO NEWS ITEMS ABOUT MESHUGGAH AND ENSLAVED, AND TWO SONGS TO HEAR WHILE YOU MOPE ABOUT THE FACT THAT WE DON’T HAVE ANY NEW MESHUGGAH OR ENSLAVED MUSIC TO ACCOMPANY THE NEWS ITEMS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jul 252011
 

I have this compulsion to deliver music in our posts. Possibly it derives from a subconscious insecurity about my writing, but at least I tell myself that it’s because this is a music blog, and so there should be music. All the fucking time. This is why we so rarely post about news items that we can’t accompany with the music that’s the subject of the news. But this time, I’m making an exception, because the bands are pretty damned special: Meshuggah and Enslaved.

On the other hand, I can’t get rid of that compulsion, so I’m throwing in some music, too. The songs aren’t from Meshuggah or Enslaved (sigh), but they’re new and they’re good, so there’s that. The first track is from the new album by Cipher System (Sweden), and you can download it for free if you like what you hear. The fetching album cover by Seth Siro Anton (Septic Flesh) is up above. The second song is from another Swedish band, Apostasy.

MESHUGGAH

Guitar World magazine recently conducted an interview with Meshuggah guitarist extraordinaire Fredrik Thordendal. When asked about whether Meshuggah has been working on new music and if he has any new gear he is using, he said, “Yes, we are working on a new album and have been for a long time. I’m so excited about this one. We’ve always tried to change how we write songs to keep it exciting, but on recent albums we’ve also been moving further away from working together as a band. On this album, though, everyone is working together. Every day that we’re in the studio, we’ll play whatever song we’re working on, record a demo version of it to analyze at home, and then come back the next day, talk about it and try to make it better. I think because of this, it’s going to be our best album yet.” (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BLASTANUS: “COLLAPSE”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jul 252011
 

In an album that throws a surprising number of curveballs and knee-buckling change-ups into a normally steady stream of death-grind heaters, Finland’s Blastanus saves the biggest surprise of all to the final track. I’m still looking for my jaw, which dropped off at about the 2:20 mark of that last song, which happens to be the title track from the band’s just-released second album, Collapse. And when I say just-released, I really mean just released — because we’re premiering it as a free download right here at the end of this post.

You’d be forgiven if you jumped to some incorrect conclusions from this band’s name. But the music is no iwrestledabearonce kind of goof-fest. It’s definitely a fest, or a feast, but what’s doing the eating is a mixed horde of banshees and staggering, zombified ghouls, and what’s on the menu is your brain. When the consumption is finished at the end of that 11th track, the inside of your skull will be nice and pristine, scoured clean, waiting for something dark and fanged to take up residence. It’s up to you whether you’ll feel like re-attaching your jawbone.

This is our second visit with Blastanus, the first coming in March 2010 after the band ushered forth their debut album, Odd. The band allowed us to make that album available for free download, too, and the download link accompanying our review is still active. Comparisons are unavoidable. The first album held much promise, and I wondered to what degree the band would realize on it in this second offering. Happily, I’m here to report that with Collapse, Blastanus have taken big strides forward from their debut, revealing not only an upgrade in production quality but also leaps ahead in songwriting assurance and instrumental command. Continue reading »

SUNDAY SHARING

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  34 Responses »
Jul 242011
 

Slowed down by two weeks of work-related travel, I’m now in the middle of a bunch of catch-up projects for NCS, none of which are finished. So what have I been doing this morning? In typically ass-backwards fashion, I’ve been listening to a bunch of random tracks thrown my way by NCS contributors and readers.

I have no idea whether this goes on in other genres of music, but one of the great things about metal is how people pass around tracks they’ve discovered (thank you, YouTube). We’ve all got bands we love and follow, and the bands we like are collectively cranking out music at a torrential pace, almost beyond our ability to consume, but we still want to find new music from new bands. Of course, that’s a big part of our mission here — to pass around what we’re hearing and liking.

So, this is a really random collection of stuff I heard just this morning, courtesy of the people whose names I’ll credit as we get to each song. And the line-up is . . . Jamey Jasta (U.S.), M.A.N. (Sweden), Barghest (U.S.), Haemorrhage (Spain), and Sifar (India). Lots of music all across the map of metal genres (actually, Sifar is right off the map), so I’ll keep the verbiage short.

JAMEY JASTA

Yes, that Jamey Jasta — Hatebreed, Kingdom of Sorrow, Icepick, and who knows what else. To be honest, I lost interest in Hatebreed a while back (though I used to be a big fan in their early days), and I didn’t find much to like in Kingdom of Sorrow’s albums, so I was going to take a pass on Jasta’s solo album, which is scheduled for release this week. But NCS writer Israel Flanders told me I really needed to give this solo album a chance.

I’ve listened to three songs that Israel recommended, and I gotta say I’m very pleasantly surprised. There’s some quasi-clean singing on the songs that’s quite good, though that wouldn’t be a big attraction for me. The big attraction is that the songs are HEAVY AS FUCK, and include some seriously headbangable riffs. So, I’ll tell you what Israel told me — give this shit a chance. The song I liked the most follows right after the jump. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: KRALLICE COVERS ORPHAN

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jul 242011
 

Orphan was a two-person sludge-punk band from Brooklyn consisting of drummer Speck Brown and bassist Brendan Majewski. Last year they released an album called Decapitated Lovers, and early this year a split with Dope Body to which they contributed four songs. In January, Majewski took his own life at the age of 37 (you can find an obituary here). In April, a group of New York bands played a show at Brooklyn’s Union Pool in honor of Majewski’s life that included covers of Orphan’s music (reviewed by Brooklyn Vegan here). One of those bands was Krallice.

In our humble opinion, Krallice’s 2011 release Diotima has been one of the brightest musical spots of this half-done year. You can read NCS contributor BadWolf’s eloquent thoughts about the album via this link. Suffice to say that Krallice is in the vanguard of U.S. bands who are re-imagining black metal, melding a high level of instrumental skill with innovative songwriting to produce some truly striking music.

Now, Krallice have followed Diotima by releasing a three-song EP — Orphan of Sickness — consisting entirely of Orphan covers, and they’ve made it available for free download. There are actually two download versions available. One consists of mp3’s and a second includes the same songs in the CD-quality AIFF-C format (though you’ll have to sacrifice 150 MB of disk space if you want that version).

The EP’s title was well-chosen, because the songs have an air of rampaging sickness — a flashfire viral contagion that cuts you down like a scythe through mature wheat. I’m totally decapitated by the instrumental vehemence of these three songs. (more after the jump, including a stream of the music . . .) Continue reading »

THE HORROR IN NORWAY

 Off Topic  20 Responses »
Jul 232011
 

These days, you hear the words “terrorist attack”, and the first thing that comes to mind (at least to most Americans) is yet another wanton act of destruction by some cell of Islamic fundamentalists. I woke up this morning to a reminder that the thirst for the blood of innocents isn’t limited to whackjobs who think they’ve found a green light for slaughter in the Koran. As if we needed another reminder.

It began yesterday afternoon in Oslo, Norway, when a massive explosion detonated in a high-rise office building that housed the Norwegian prime minister’s office, killing seven people. A few hours later, a man disguised as a police officer killed 84 people on an idyllic Norwegian island called Utoya about 20 miles northwest of Oslo, shooting them one by one. At the time, the island was full of teenagers attending a Labour Party youth-wing retreat. (The Labour Party is currently in charge of Norway’s coalition government.) People fled into the lake surronding the island in an effort to escape, and police are still searching the water for bodies. Norway’s prime minister was scheduled to speak at the island youth retreat today.

Police have arrested one suspect, who appears to be tied to both of these atrocities — a 32-year old, blonde, blue-eyed Norwegian named Anders Behring Breivik, a frequent poster on right-wing, Christian fundamentalist web sites.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told reporters, “This is out of comprehension. It’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends.” He said that he had spent many summers on Utoya, calling it “my childhood paradise that yesterday was transformed into hell.”  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

VOODOO CHILD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 232011
 

That’s what Jimi Hendrix was, a voodoo child. What made me think about him: I just got back from being away from home for two weeks because of my fucking day job. A couple nights ago, I was standing on a sidewalk having a cancer stick outside a restaurant where some co-workers and I had just finished dinner. It’s one of those places where the music they play inside was playing on a speaker outside, too. As I stood there puffing away, lost in thought and wishing I were home, “Voodoo Child” began playing.

I hadn’t listened to that song in at least 10 years. I’d forgotten how amazing it is. It also hit me that the song is metal. Of course, it’s not really a “metal song”, but the crunchy, distorted tone of Hendrix’ phenomenal riffs and the shrieking solos on the song sure hit me that way. “Voodoo Child”  continues to play in my head, so I thought I might as well just exorcise the demon by writing this post.

Some people who read this blog will know the song immediately. For others, it will be something new. For some readers, maybe even Hendrix will be new. Whether new or old, the song is worth hearing. Guitar wizard Joe Satriani said this about it: “It’s just the greatest piece of electric guitar work ever recorded. In fact, the whole song could be considered the holy grail of guitar expression and technique. It is a beacon of humanity.” Fuck yeah, I can’t disagree with that.

So, after the jump, a few more factoids about the song, and then 3 different streams: The album version of “Voodoo Child” from Electric Ladyland, a live version as performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1969, and then a live version of the song as performed by another guitar wizard we lost too soon, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Continue reading »

I DON’T THINK PRAYER IS GOING TO HELP THIS DUDE, DO YOU?

 Metal News  1 Response »
Jul 222011
 

Pathology is a brutal death-metal band from SoCal. I’m a fan, partly for reasons that don’t have much to do with the music. Jonathan Huber, Pathology’s vocalist, used to be the frontman for Seattle’s I Declare War, and I had fun watching that band rise up from their starting days playing local gigs to their current prominence on the deathcore scene. I also had fun watching Jonathan periodically destroy himself in one Seattle mosh pit after another.

Pathology’s new album, Awaken to the Suffering, will be their first since Huber joined the band. It’s scheduled for release on September 13 via Victory Records. Yesterday, courtesy of a tip from NCS reader Utmu, I discovered that the band has now released the cover art for the album, created by the awesome Pär Olofsson. I couldn’t resist posting about it. Just feast your eyes on the grisliness above — and imagine the feasting that those monsters are about to enjoy.

After a festival in California and a few headline dates in Texas beginning August 26, Pathology will start a nationwide tour as support for Grave and Blood Red Throne, and Gigan is also on the bill. That will be a grisly, blood-drenched, head-busting extravaganza. The schedule is after the jump. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: INSISION – END OF ALL EP

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  10 Responses »
Jul 222011
 

(Yesterday’s SYNN REPORT brought us almost up to date on the discography of Sweden’s Insision. Today, Andy Synn finishes the job with his review of the band’s new EP — End of All.)

It’s always a great thing to be able to draw comparisons between the physical art that adorns a band’s release and the music contained therein. The cover for the EP melds elements of gruesome, physical morbidity and disturbing, spiritual horror, sick and decaying human figures haunted by tormented, ghostly faces displaying unimaginable terror and suffering  – condemned to the void and an eternity of pain that goes beyond the physical realm.

Echoes of this duality permeate the EP, mixing as it does elements of the band’s early, gore-soaked malevolence with their more recent forays into transcendent, inhuman malice. Cold and dehumanised in its fury, this is the sound of a band teetering on the edge of madness, unable to convey the extent of the horrors they have seen or the agonies that they have suffered.

The skulking, horror movie ambience of the intro builds an eerie death-march which serves as the calm before the chaos storm of “Expire” is unleashed. Seething with misanthropic passion and deadly intent, its fractured, ragged guitars scrape and weave through a series of crooked twists and turns, while mind-bending leads and helter-skelter drums spin their tale of inevitable collapse. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 14: INSISION

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  10 Responses »
Jul 212011
 

(NSC scribe Andy Synn turns in his 14th SYNN REPORT with a focus on the discography of Sweden’s Insision.)

The grotesque, mutated beast calling itself Insision was expelled from the womb in 1997, an unnatural combination of blood-soaked Floridian death metal violence and Swedish death metal malevolence. Since that time they have unleashed upon the world one EP, 3 albums, and numerous split releases with like-minded deviants. Though perhaps some of you may have heard their name due to the presence of renowned metal author Daniel Ekeroth on bass (although he has recently departed due to his hectic publishing schedule), the group have also shared stages with death metal royalty like Suffocation and Vader, tightening their vicious live show through a hectic and extensive touring schedule, leaving a trail of devastation across Europe.

Yet for all their straightforward, blood-drenched barbarism, to dismiss the group as merely another in a long line of Cro-Magnon misanthropists, eager to express their own bile and misogyny through the medium of down-tuned  brutality, is to miss out on the subtle, insidious growth the band have demonstrated since their inception. From their early years where an unfocussed, yet unrelenting attack was the key to their sound’s success – giving their audience little time to think and inspiring a visceral, instinctive reaction from their willing victims – the band have steadily developed their technical prowess and compositional skills, constructing an ever more warped and twisted vision of angular, incorporeal guitar work and bone-cracking drumming.

Their sound evokes ungodly visions of towering monoliths of mangled flesh and distorted bone sculptures, their progression from thuggish nihilism, through psychotic, serial killer chic, to the possessed ravings of their current, demonic incarnation evident in the channelling torrents of iniquity and incoherent horror which flow through and tie together each album they have regurgitated from the depths of their decaying souls.  (more after the jump, including sample songs with which to wreck your ears . . .) Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: BURNING GHATS’ NEW EP

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  14 Responses »
Jul 202011
 

This is the third time we’ve written about Vancouver’s Burning Ghats. Previously, we reviewed their initial three-song demo last July (here), and then we reviewed their first EP — Fool’s Gold — last September (here). Now, the band have a second EP scheduled for release on August 2. It’s called Different Names for the Same Face. As in the case of the band’s first two releases, it features eye-catching artwork by the band’s bassist, Cam Strudwick (only half of which is visible up above — we’ll show you the rest later).

I had to think carefully about where and how to listen to this new EP. The first time I cranked up the volume on Fool’s Gold, it took me hours to get my cat down off the ceiling, I found a hole in the wall curiously shaped like my head, and I’d busted up a bunch of furniture but didn’t remember doing it. On the plus side, the music killed all the insects in my house and left them liquified in a pool of their own guts.

This time I decided to take precautions and just listened to the EP’s five songs through headphones. While tied to a chair. With a piece of rawhide between my teeth so I wouldn’t bite my tongue off. Actually, I couldn’t find a piece of rawhide, so I just used one of my cat’s chew-toys. I made it all the way through the EP without damaging any more furniture, except for the chair. I did bite through the chew toy. I’m pretty sure I swallowed part of it. My cat is pissed.

After the jump, I’ll try to explain the experience. And guess what? We also have the pleasure of premiering the EP’s first song for your listening pleasure — though we take no responsibility for any injury that may occur to your person, property, or pets. Continue reading »

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