LARGE COJONES AND LOOSE WIRING

 Off Topic  8 Responses »
Jul 042011
 

No, I didn’t forget that it’s Independence Day. I’ve been without high-speed internet service for the last 36 hours, and of course there’s no fucking way it will get fixed on the 4th of July, so I’ve had to fall back on a data card on a different carrier, which is slower than a three-legged sloth and just randomly disconnects as if it can’t be bothered — which makes uploading and downloading tedious, and streaming is impossible.

Well, enough spoiled whining from me. Happy Fourth to all you motherfuckers! Hope all you Americans are enjoying your holiday. In honor of the occasion, I thought it might be worth remembering a bit of history.

Almost five years ago, I found myself in Philadelphia with some time to kill and I sought out the Christ Church Burial Ground because I wanted to see the grave of Ben Franklin — who, among many other things, was a signer of The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution — and the grave of Commodore William Bainbridge, for whom the island where I live was named. Also, I like graveyards.

After prowling around the cemetery for an hour, I wandered into Christ Church itself, which was founded in 1695. It’s a relatively un-ostentatious building, but it’s steeped in history. It was the first parish of the Church of England in Pennsylvania, it was the birthplace of the American Episcopal Church, and the rector of the church gave the opening prayer to the first meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774. (more after the jump . . . and there will be metal . . .) Continue reading »

KRODA: “SCHWARZPFAD”

 Album Reviews  19 Responses »
Jul 042011
 

About two months ago, thanks to a laudatory Facebook post by Agalloch, I found out about a Ukrainian black-metal band called Kroda. They had just begun streaming a not-completely-final version of their fourth album, Schwarzpfad (“the black path”), for a limited time. I was completely enthralled by the music and had that stream on a nearly continuous loop for as long as it lasted.

Eventually, the stream ended, I began experiencing withdrawal symptoms, was admitted to a hospital for observation, was ultimately released, and was a broken man for weeks afterward until Schwarzpfad became available for unauthorized download at the end of May.

I’ve listened to a shitload of other music since then, but I continue returning to Schwarzpfad. It’s more than 50 minutes of music, but I’ve lost count of how many times it has kept me company. It’s way past time for me to repay Kroda for all that pleasure, and for much more to come, with a few words of heart-felt praise:

Schwarzpfad is without doubt one of the best albums I’ve heard this year and one of the most memorable black-metal albums I’ve ever heard — an immaculate marriage of beautiful, folk-influenced melodies, black ‘n’ roll strut, and bestial voraciousness. It’s a brilliantly conceived, complex work that yields something new with every listen. Highly recommended.

Okay, I wasn’t being completely honest when I said “few words”; there are more words after the jump, plus music, of course. Continue reading »

CYPHER: “TYRIAN MMVIII”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 042011
 

Almost one month ago, NCS writer Israel Flanders reviewed a 2006 album he loved called Darkday Carnival from a Dutch band called Cypher. That album attracted quite a following when initially released, and the band started work on a follow-up album to be called Tyrian MMVII. They recorded three songs which became available for streaming on Cypher’s MySpace page. In Israel’s opinion, those songs were the foundation for what could have been “the best melodeath record released in the last 10 years”. And then all activity appeared to stop.

As a result of his review, Israel became acquainted with the main-man behind Cyper, Tobias Borra, who confirmed to Israel what fans of the band had suspected — that Cypher is no more. However, a new band is rising from those ashes. Tobias has been joined by Joost van der Graaf (bass) and Koen Herfst (drums) in the successor to Cypher. The new band is working on an album that, with good fortune, will see release before this year is over.

As for Tyrian MMVIII, Tobias explained to Israel that it was intended as a 3-song promo for a new Cypher album, and therefore may never see release. But Tobias provided us a copy, which we made available for download with Israel’s review. Now, thanks to Tobias, we’ve got something even better — a new download package that includes high-quality FLAC versions of the three promo songs, album art for Tyrian MMVII, and a tablature book for the three songs. All that is included in a file you can download from our own high-speed Fileburst account via . . .

THIS LINK

SCRAMBLED BRAINS FOR BREAKFAST! (QUARTER THE VILLAIN AND RXYZYXR)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jul 032011
 

Time to get your tech-metal on. Pick your metaphor: A cocktail blender set to puree, with your brain in there along with the crushed ice; a centrifuge whipping around at max-speed, with your mushy grey matter stuffed into the tubes; a jet engine whining at full-power, with your head sucked into the front end like a wayward goose who couldn’t get out of the way.

Those will all do, but this morning I prefer a breakfast food metaphor: Whipping up your brain with a little milk into a nice froth and then scrambling the mix in a hot pan with some diced onions, chopped tomatoes, shredded cheese, and sliced jalapeños.  Yum yum!

You’ll have to supply the ingredients, but Quarter the Villain and RXYZYXR will supply the scrambling action via two music videos we’ve got for you.

QUARTER THE VILLAIN

We first encountered Florida’s Quarter the Villain last October through one of our MISCELLANY expeditions, and the song we featured back then was called “Frontier Justice”. And then just yesterday, I saw that QTV had uploaded an official video for the same song. So all I need to do here is repeat what I wrote before: “This is the soundtrack of daily life in the asylum. It’s got the over-the-borderline insanity of grind, coupled with mind-boggling technical picking, but anchored by a recurrent rhythmic theme executed expertly by the bass and drum lines.” And now we’ve got something pretty cool to watch while we listen to the tech-grind craziness. Continue reading »

IS THAT A GHOST RIDER ON THAT TRAPEZE?

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Jul 022011
 

We first posted about Chrome Division back in May (here), when they released their official video for the song “Bulldogs Unleashed” from their new album, 3rd Round Knockout on Nuclear Blast. This is a Norwegian band that features Dimmu Borgir frontman Shagrath on guitar, vocalist Shady Blue (a/k/a Athera from Susperia), Luna on bass, Ricky Doom on guitar, and Tony White on drums. They play some nasty, thrashy, shots-and-a-brew-back, metallicized rock ‘n’ roll — the kind of music that makes you check to see if a gang of Harley riders just busted down the door to your crib with their engines belching at full throttle.

As their latest music video confirms, these dudes also reliably deliver the T&A when the cameras start rolling. The song is a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, and it’s a cover that succeeds in spades. Chrome Division have ramped up the speed and dialed the nastiness quotient waaaaay up, and turned this song into a full-on romp. It will put a smile on your face and get your head to noddin’, I promise.

But, I don’t think that’s a ghost rider on that trapeze.  Check out the just-released video and the song after the jump. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 39)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  21 Responses »
Jul 022011
 

Man oh man, have we got a boffo THAT’S METAL! installment for you today. I did have lots of help — suggestions from NCS readers Ullr, ElvisShotJFK, and Phro. Lots of material, all of which are items that we think are metal, even if they’re not music (or not entirely music). So, with no further fucking around, let’s get to it:

ITEM ONE

Thanks to Ullr, I have a news report that includes all these facts:

  • In Australia, there’s an ocean tour operator named Matt Waller who makes a good living taking tourists out for a look at Great White sharks (you know, the really big, prehistoric motherfuckers that were in all the Jaws movies)
  • Many of the tourists Mr. Waller takes out on his boat want to see Great Whites up close and personal, so he lowers them down into the water in shark cages (is this metal, or is this just severe mental impairment?)
  • Mr. Waller has discovered that he can lure Great White sharks into the vicinity of the shark cages by playing metal underwater — specifically, AC/DC. He says it works better than chum. According to Waller, “We know the AC/DC music works best by trial and error, and we are doing more research to see what works best with different species of shark.”
  • The AC/DC songs that work best are “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “If You Want Blood”. (Is this perfect, or what?)
  • Mr. Waller says: “Quite often we see the sharks on the surface, but most of the time our guests want to get in the cage and see them up close. I’ve seen the sharks rub their faces on the cage where the sound is coming from as if to feel it.” (Ain’t that just too fucken cute?)

(more after the jump . . .)

Continue reading »

GOROD: “TRANSCENDENCE” STREAMING

 Metal News  1 Response »
Jul 012011
 

Not long ago I sang the praises of Gorod’s wonderful new EP, Transcendence. Now, thanks to a Facebook post by Dubai-based Streaming Chaos, I’ve discovered that the entire EP is streaming in full on a French web site called VS-Webzine. On the same page as the VS-Webzine music player, you’ll see the band’s track-by-track discussion of the EP. It’s in French, but this is why the universe gave birth to Google Translate.

So, if you haven’t yet checked out Transcendence, this is a great way to do so.  Go HERE, and look for the link that says “page ecoute”, which will open the player page.

GOJIRA LIVE!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 012011
 

Above: Quality fan-filmed video footage of Gojira’s June 17 performance in front of 25,000 fans at the Sonisphere festival in Athens, Greece. Nothing more needs to be said.

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 7)

 Forthcoming Albums, Interviews  19 Responses »
Jul 012011
 


June is behind us, July lies ahead. Here in the U.S., we’re about to start the long weekend leading up to Independence Day, when Americans celebrate the birth of the nation by buying explosive ordinance wherever fine explosive ordinance is sold and lighting up the night sky (in addition to blowing the shit out of objects and sometimes themselves). People will also be exposing unsightly parts of their bodies wherever sun can be found and eating large quantities of health food prepared on outdoor grills. Our Founding Fathers would be proud of what they wrought!

Because the last month has ended, that means it’s time for another installment of METAL IN THE FORGE, in which we collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last month about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, we cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — this isn’t a cumulative list. If we found out about a new album during May or preceding months, we wrote about them in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. And feel free to tell us about how we fucked up by omitting releases that we overlooked. Continue reading »

WELCOME TO THE NEW MONTH: VADER, GHOST BRIGADE, AND DISSECTION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 012011
 

Today we begin a new month with a long weekend. Though it’s awfully tempting to take a short break from blogging, we’re still OCD enough to continue forging ahead so’s we can keep our record intact (at least one new post every fucking day since we started this site). And we do have some things cooking for the three-day weekend that we hope will be fun.

But to kick off the new month and the long weekend in the right style, go past the jump and enjoy these bits of new metal awesomeness: First, a stage-view video of Poland’s Vader performing “Lead Us” at Death Feast Open Air 2011 in Germany on June 25. The video quality is good, the perspective is fun, and the sound is quality enough to be . . . crushing. Nuclear Blast is preparing to begin streaming the first song from Vader’s next album, Welcome To The Morbid Reich, beginning on July 15. We’ll remind you when that day arrives.

After that, enjoy the first song — “Clawmaster” — to be released from the next album by Finland’s Ghost Brigade. This song does include some clean singing, but it most definitely qualifies as an Exception to the Rule. It achieves a successful marriage of beastly power and sweeping, melancholy beauty. I’m on my sixth listen to the song as I type this. More listens lie ahead. Ghost Brigade’s third album, Until Fear No Longer Defines Us, will hit the streets on August 19 in Europe and on August 23 in NorthAm via Season of Mist.

Last, but not least, watch Dissection performing the song “Night’s Blood” in Stockholm (in 2006, I think). The video quality is excellent, the song is matchless, and the performance . . . to quote one of the comments on YouTube, “it’s so fucking epic, you can’t breathe anymore”. Credit to Andy Synn for this item.

In another hour or so, we’ll have our next edition of MORE 2011 SICKNESS, with a round-up of forthcoming albums projected for release in the months ahead. Until then, watch and listen to Vader, Ghost Brigade, and Dissection  . . . Continue reading »

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