BEAR METAL?

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  23 Responses »
Aug 122011
 

Until today, I’d never heard of Svölk. They’re from Norway. They just announced the signing of a record deal with Austria-based Napalm Records. They label their music as “bear metal” — “the perfect blend of stoner, metal, and Nordic redneck attitude.”

I didn’t know Norway had rednecks. But I was curious to see what Norwegian redneckdom might be like, not to mention discovering just exactly what “bear metal” sounds like, so I watched a brand new video of a song from Svölk called “52”. The song definitely has a dirty-south, stoner vibe, though to me it’s more of a sludgy, liquored-up, rock-with-your-cock-out tune than metal. And it’s got nuthin but clean singin’ goin’ on.

Having said that, it’s a damn catchy song with meaty riffs and a cool chorus. As for the video, I don’t understand what holds together the various scenes — it’s hard to pick out any kind of story line that makes sense. But I would guess some serious money went into its production. There are parts that are NSFW, so keep that in mind. Hang in there until the end, because it’s got a . . . bang-up . . .  finish. I still don’t know what “bear metal” is. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 32: DEUS OTIOSUS, SHANGREN, AND FOREVER REVENGE

 MISCELLANY  18 Responses »
Aug 122011
 

At the risk of boring our longer-term readers, here’s a reminder about how this MISCELLANY game works:

We keep a constantly evolving list of new bands whose music we’ve not yet heard, based on various sources, including band e-mails we get, reader recommendations, press releases, and stickers left on urinals at metal clubs we frequent. Whenever I can manage, I pick a few names off the list, I listen to at least one of their songs, I write about what I heard, and then I stream the same track(s) so you can make up your own mind about whether to explore the bands further.

It’s a good way to discover new music, and I wish I could do it more often. But it’s a bit risky for readers, because even if I hear something I wouldn’t normally recommend to you, it still goes in these MISCELLANY posts. For today’s edition of this dice-roll, I listened to Deus Otiosus (Denmark), Shangren (Australia, I think), and Forever Revenge (China). Here we go . . .

DEUS OTIOSUS

This Danish band e-mailed us late last month and gave us the chance to check out their 2010 debut studio album, Murderer (the band also released a live album in 2010, preceded by a split and a demo). According to The Font of All Human Knowledge, the band’s name is Latin for “idle god” and refers to a “theological concept used to describe the belief in a creator god who largely retires from the world and is no longer involved in its daily operation.”

I’ve always thought this was an interesting concept, and it does provide an answer (if you’re a Deist at least) as to why the human world has been such a brutally fucked up place for thousands of years: The creator had some kind of inexplicable fun creating the earth, and then checked out.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

IT’S ABOUT TIME: THY CATAFALQUE AND MITOCHONDRION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  18 Responses »
Aug 112011
 

This morning I got two e-mails that reminded me about bands — Thy Catafalque (originally Hungary) and Mitochondrion (Canada) — that I’ve been meaning to say something about for a long time. So rather than procrastinate further, or worry about how many other bands I’ve been unjustly ignoring, I thought, wtf, might as well just do it now.

The first band is Thy Catafalque, who (as of last month) are now signed to the excellent Season of Mist label. I’ve seen this band’s name in various places, but most often at The Number of the Blog, where groverXIII is a big admirer of them (see this, for example). Although I’d forgotten about it, I finally remembered listening at one point long ago to a clip of one of their songs that he featured at TNOTB from their latest album, Róka Hasa Rádió, which was released in 2009. I didn’t fall in love with the song immediately, and therefore moved on to something else important, like picking lint out of my navel.

And then this morning, I got an e-mail from Tamás Kátai, who is the principle alter ego of Thy Catafalque (along with János Juhász) and now resides in Edinburgh, Scotland. He had seen my review of the excellent new album by another Hungarian band, Slytract, which included my confession of ignorance and curiosity about Hungarian metal. So he gave me links to two of Thy Catafalque’s albums — not only Róka Hasa Rádió, which is the fourth album, but also the third one, Tűnő Idő Tárlat (2004), which Tamás thought I might want because, unlike Róka Hasa Rádió, it contains no clean male vocals at all. I wonder why he thought that would matter to me?

Turns out that one of those download files also contained a video for a song called “Paths Untrodden”, which isn’t on either of the two most recent albums. Instead, it’s on the second release, Microcosmos (2001). Because I like moving pictures, and because I do most things ass-backwards, I watched that video before listening to anything else. It may very well not be representative of the band’s current musical direction, since it’s roughly 10 years old, but damn, it’s a fine, scathing black-metal song that has become firmly stuck in my head, and the video is beautiful — definitely worth sharing.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 17: LIGHT THIS CITY

 THE SYNN REPORT  4 Responses »
Aug 112011
 

(Andy Synn returns with his 17th edition of THE SYNN REPORT and a look-back at the discography of the late, lamented Light This City. Of course, we’re streaming songs from the albums, too.)

Now sadly deceased, Light This City were shaping up to be prime movers and shakers in America’s metal scene before their unfortunate dissolution. With a back-catalogue of four albums of thrashing, raging, melodic death metal, the 5-piece, fronted by human whirlwind Laura Nichol, took the Gothenburg sound and moulded it into something distinctively American, without falling into the rut of metalcore imitation, becoming darlings of the underground scene in their short time together.

One of the strongest comparisons that can be made of the Californian quintet, in the most positive sense, is of a less dark, more thrashy variant of The Black Dahlia Murder’s specifically American brand of melodic death metal, with the latter’s scalpel-sharp Dissection influence replaced with a stronger focus on flowing At The Gates melodicism and chunky Bay Area guitar rhythms, accented by forays into explosive blast beats, soaring Maiden-esque leads and heroic displays of guitar pyrotechnics.

Frontwoman Laura Nichol possesses a powerful voice that shifts organically from a blackened, wounded screech to a rumbling, guttural growl redolent with primal ferocity and sheer, overwhelming presence. The guitars, primarily stemming from the mind and fingers of band co-founder (and drummer) Ben Murray – who switched purely to drums after the band’s second album, allowing new-found guitar wunderkind Brian Forbes to step forward – thrash out a hurricane of molten, distorted riffs and blazing guitar leads, matching their soaring melodies and shredding solos with a crushing delivery of down-tuned devastation.

Although the band are unfortunately no more, they left behind them an enviable legacy of instrumental talent and impressive compositional skill. With a laser sharp focus and a tightly co-ordinated line-up, the group were able to take their influences, many of which have since become standard fare for today’s less-inspired metal groups, and meld them into something wholly individual, using their influences to achieve something greater for themselves; re-interpretation, rather than rote imitation.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

T-SHIRT UPDATE (IS MWOP SCARING PEOPLE AWAY?)

 IQ Subtraction, Metal News  56 Responses »
Aug 112011
 

On Sunday we launched a free NCS t-shirt campaign. I realize that Sunday’s aren’t the best days to launch campaigns, except maybe for surprise military attacks, but I did this as I do almost everything in life, i.e., completely on impulse. Which is to say, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking it through. Nevertheless, I anticipated that the orders for these babies would roll in like a flood tide and we’d max out by Monday morning. I mean, come on! The shirt is free, and we’re even paying for the shipping. All I asked was that people wear them. Now, who wouldn’t get up on that deal?

Well, a lot of people did e-mail me on Sunday asking for a shirt, and more e-mails have arrived since then. We had a noticeable up-tick after we posted Phro’s review of the FUCKING GOOD PANCAKE TOUR‘s inaugural show in Humptulips, since the shirt features the tour poster. But still, we offered to give away this shirt to the first 100 U.S. and Canadian residents who asked for one, and as of yesterday, we were only about halfway there. This caused my brow (what little of it there is) to furrow. It just didn’t make sense.

So, I went back and read through e-mails I’ve received about the shirt, and I began to get an inkling of the problem. A few older metalheads, including one of my friends, complimented me on the shirt design, but said they had small kids and didn’t think it would be a good idea to wear the shirt around them. On the other end of the age spectrum, a few people still living with their parents had some concerns about how mom and dad would react. At first, this didn’t make sense to me. I went and looked again at the tour poster.

It’s colorful, and who doesn’t enjoy colorful things? It includes a picture of a brain, and that promotes . . . uh . . . it promotes braininess, which is good, right? It also includes a syringe, which is what I use to get most of my nutrients, so it’s a nutritional shirt, too. Plus, it’s got the word FUCKING on there, and who doesn’t like a good fuck (or at least the idea of a good fuck)?

So, I pondered, what could the problem be? I stared at the poster a long time and thought really hard about it. By the time my headache went away, I had figured out the problem: MASSIVE WALL OF PENIS! (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE: “AGONY” (Take 2)

 Album Reviews  36 Responses »
Aug 102011
 

No one sounds like Fleshgod Apocalypse. No one. Not even close. In a remarkably short time, over a span of only two albums and an intervening EP, the band have established a unique and immediately recognizable style. The second of those albums, Agony, fully and brilliantly achieves what the band have been moving toward since their inception — a remarkable union of classical music and blistering death metal, heated to a full boil. The album is a bombastic whirlwind that leaves you breathless and wide-eyed in wonder.

On Agony, all of Fleshgod Apocalypse’s signature ingredients are now firmly in place. The extravagant symphonic keyboards and piano instrumentals of Francesco Ferrini are now woven completely through the magic carpet of every song, a completely co-equal partner with the thunderous performances of the other band members. Although even the timing and power of the guitar riffing and bass rhythms give off the favor of orchestral composition, Ferrini’s musical creations, more than anything else, put an indelible stamp on the music, invoking the ornate classical masters of the band’s Italian homeland in their most extravagantly fiery moments — Vivaldi, Paganini, and Rossini.

Of course, other metal bands use symphonic keyboards in their music, though more often in an effort to add background ambience and atmosphere than as a co-starring role in the performance. But, as Fleshgod Apocalypse have explained, they view the classical music of the 17th and 18th centuries as the death metal of that era —  as music that was (and is) powerful, dramatic, and heavy — and so their goal, now fully realized, has been to unite music from two very different worlds that nevertheless have in common the ability to produce (in my words, not theirs) complete emotional catharsis. And that brings us to the drumming.  (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE: “AGONY” (Take 1)

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Aug 102011
 

(Today we have not one but two reviews of the just-released album, Agony, by Fleshgod Apocalypse. Israel Flanders turns in this one.)

This is the very image and sound of death approaching you.

Let’s get something straight from the get-go:  This is a no-holds-barred, no-messing-around, no-nonsense, non-stop symphonic blitzkrieg of insurmountable proportions that may very well top The Monolith Deathcult’s legendary sophomore album Triumvirate.

Yes.  I just said it.

If you’re looking for ham-fisted forced diversity, get the fuck out.  If you’re looking for pretentious “boundary breaking” and lots of pretty, clean vocal sections to make it feel “sophisticated,” I highly suggest you turn in your brutal-ass war-bringer club membership card.  This is metal, in all of its epitomizing glory.

There are only three ingredients here: guitars tuned to B, copious amounts of blazing speed, and brutality with the heft and weight of a bag full of sledgehammers being flung at you by by an iron golem out of the most badass of fantasy realms.  Did I forget the orchestra?  You know why I didn’t include it as an ingredient?   Orchestras are brutal.  Got a problem with that concept?  Didn’t think so. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE (NIGHTRAGE, DIRGE WITHIN, AND LANDMINE MARATHON)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  17 Responses »
Aug 092011
 

Well, that’s what people say. In my experience, they usually say it when they’re trying to calm you down after you’ve been exposed to something you really aren’t interested in or maybe dislike intensely. But, taken literally, it’s true. Variety IS the spice of life, or at least one of them. Along with oregano.

That saying popped into my head when I took a short break from my fucking day job, which is currently wearing me down to a stump, and found the following three pieces of music, two of which are brand new releases by Nightrage and Dirge Within and the third of which is a recent live video of Landmine Marathon kickin sumasss.

NIGHTRAGE

Nightrage will be releasing their fifth album, Insidious, via Lifeforce Records on September 27 (one day earlier internationally). To whet appetites for that release, the band have made the title track available for streaming on their facebook page. It features the band’s former vocalist Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates, The Crown, Lock Up). That was enough to make me listen, though the interesting album art by Gustavo Sazes helped, too.

The song is quite nice, too, with an unexpected acoustic outro. Lindberg is in good voice on this headbanging thrasher, which is to say naaaasty. I’m all in favor of your visiting the Nightrage facebook page, but it happens you’ll also find the song stream after the jump. Continue reading »

DARKANE UPDATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 092011
 

How many Darkane fans do we have in the audience? Well, let’s see, I can count at least two — myself and Israel Flanders, who tipped me to this bit of recent news that I missed. It will actually be fairly significant news to long-time fans of this Swedish band.

Darkane’s debut album, Rusted Angel, issued in 1999, with vocals provided by one Lawrence Mackrory. But by the time the band released their second album, 2001’s Insanity, Mackrory was gone and Andreas Sydow was in. Two more albums followed with Sydow behind the mic, and then 2008 saw the release of the band’s latest album, Demonic Art, with yet another new vocalist, Jens Broman.

Last week, it was announced that Broman has decided to leave, and guess who his replacement is? Yes, Darkane have come full circle, back to Lawrence Mackrory. Since his departure from the band, he has been the vocalist for another Swedish outfit called F.K.U. (for whom he’ll continue to be a member) as well as the vocalist for Scarve (France) since 2009. He will be making his live comeback with Darkane on September 20 in Strasbourg, France at the opening show of the band’s headlining European tour, with support provided by Destinity and Devastating Enemy.

When you’ve been away from a band for roughly 13 years and are about to rejoin them for a big tour, what do you do? Well yes, you fucken rehearse. And as it happens, Darkane have released a video of the new Darkane rehearsing two songs from their discography — “Fading Dimensions” from Layers of Lies (2005) and yes, a throwback to Rusted Angel, “July 1999”. Mackrory has got a versatile voice, which you’ll get a sense of on this video. I presume we’ll get more evidence of that in the near future, since Darkane also reports they’re working on a new album. For now, check out the video after the jump. Darkane’s facebook page is here. Continue reading »

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