A THOUGHT PIECE (or THOUGHTS IN PIECES) — AND “HERITAGE” IS NOW STREAMING IN FULL

 Mosh Pit  43 Responses »
Sep 122011
 

Opeth’s new album, Heritage, leaked at some point in the last week or two, I forget when exactly. The official release date isn’t until September 20, but lots of fans have already heard it — and as of today you can now hear the whole thing in a stream at NPR — and flame wars have already begun here, there, and everywhere. Mikael Åkerfeldt has been giving interviews about the album (here, there, and everywhere). Among other things, he has said (here) that although the album isn’t “a massive departure for me and for the guys in the band,” some of the band’s legions of fans may find it “different.”

In the same interview, he said, “We don’t make albums thinking about the fans too much. We have been fortunate to have people who have accepted what we put out so far. Because we were just doing what we wanted to hear and apparently other people liked it too. So I’m hoping it’s going to be the same for this album.” When asked about fans who shout “treachery” whenever a band decides to tread off the path they have beaten, he replied: “Well, they wouldn’t be fans if we hadn’t started as a band. We have fans because we did what we wanted. Our success, or whatever you want to call it, is based on the fact that we do what we want as opposed to doing what the fans want. So it doesn’t apply to us.”

Oh, I beg to differ Monsieur Åkerfeldt! You can’t so easily escape the ire of fans who are already up in arms over Heritage, calling it “boring”, or “lazy” or “70’s prog rock”, or worse. Of course, there are at least as many defenders of the Opeth faith who, while agreeing that it’s “different”, admire the music on Heritage and support the freedom of the band to do whatever it is they did on the album.

I’m not entirely sure what they did, because I’ve only heard the first song that premiered back in July — “The Devil’s Orchard”. I liked much of the instrumental music on the song, didn’t care for the vocals, and decided I probably wouldn’t listen to the song again (after the first four times). But that’s mainly because of my own taste in music. This just isn’t the style of metal (if it is metal) that I want to hear. But I wouldn’t say the song is bad, for what it is. Which leads to a few thoughts and a few questions about “music criticism” and fan response (after the jump). Continue reading »

LATE TO THE PARTY

 IQ Subtraction  33 Responses »
Sep 122011
 

“I’m a huge nerd that’s why.”

Our thanks go out to Trollfiend for this inspired piece of artwork and for the answer to the question it poses. This greeted my eyes when I crawled out of bed this morning and turned on the computer, which was about 5 minutes ago. Long story short, I didn’t get much blogging done yesterday, didn’t finish this morning’s first post before collapsing into slumber last night, overslept, and wondered what I would post this morning while I finished what I started yesterday. Now I know.

Please talk among yourselves while I wake up. You got any coffee? That would sure help. A less meaningful but longer post will be coming soon.

GRAVE: “FOR YOUR GOD” LIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 112011
 

I am looking forward to September 16 for a couple of reasons, but one of them is that Grave will be playing in Seattle that night, along with Blood Red Throne, Pathology, Gigan, and more. It will be my first time to see all of these bands. I’m expecting a slaughterifically stupendous night of metal.

On September 7, this tour stopped in Cleveland, Ohio for a show at Peabody’s. When Grave played “For Your God”, it was filmed in 1080p high-definition using multiple cameras by Ken Kitt and Kim Schleeper. The edited result is in the video clip above.

Grave, of course, is fronted by Ola Lindgren, the inventor of The Lindgren Diet, which we’ve been promoting here at NCS (most recently in this post). We’re due for a diet plan update soon. I’ve been on the diet, and I still don’t look like Ola Lindgren, but I’m being patient. Enjoy the video, and of course, the rest of your fucking day as well.

A GUITAR, DRUMS, AND FUCK ALL ELSE

 Concert Reviews  8 Responses »
Sep 112011
 

Last night some friends and I saw not one, not two, but three bands who made music using nothing more than one guitar, a drum kit, and a human voice. And using only those instruments, they made some of the most extreme, most wholly obliterating live music I’ve ever heard. I don’t mean to slight the other three bands in concert — they were all great. But Pig Destroyer, Jucifer, and Numb were revelations.

I have just a few notes about the experience, a few half-assed photos, and some studio recordings from each band, which honestly fall far short of capturing the immensity of the live music.

NUMB

Numb is an unsigned band from Everett, north of Seattle. There’s one guitarist, one drummer (who shares vocal duties), and a lead vocalist who shrieks and roars. Numb plays music for the waiting room of the methadone clinic, a mix of rancid, smacked-out grind and tarry sludge. The very good drummer was a barbed octopod behind the kit; the guitarist churned out one loud, fat riff after another. And the vocalist was just flat-out unhinged. Top hinge off, bottom hinge off, door falls flat with a smack, and all the banshees come roaring out.

Did I mention they were really LOUD. That’s one way you can make up for the absence of a bass and a second guitar — distort the fuck out of the one guitar you have and shatter some ear drums. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SKELETAL SPECTRE: “OCCULT SPAWNED PREMONITIONS”

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Sep 112011
 

We were contacted about this three-person band by Karol at Selfmadegod Records in Poland, and man am I grateful for the introduction, because this band’s music has pushed more buttons than I knew I had.

Skeletal Spectre was started in Sweden by the band’s current guitarist and bassist, “Behold the Pentagram”, and features vocals by an American woman, Vanessa Nocera, who also fronts a death metal band called Scaremaker and a doom band called Wooden Stake. The third band member is drummer “Haunting the Beyond”.

Karol hooked me up with a download of the band’s 2011 album (their second, and the first with Nocera on vocals), Occult Spawned Premonitions. From the name of the band, the album cover, and the song titles, I guessed that I was in for horror-themed metal of some kind, and I took the plunge by listening to the opening track, “Scalped”. And then I listened to the rest of the album straight through and immediately started over, without even stopping to wash the putrescent gore off my mangled body or dig the bone fragments out of my hammered skull.

When anyone asks you to list the best female growlers in extreme metal, you will now have to include Vanessa Nocera. Not only can she deliver the horribly bestial, bloody-throated howls and growls you need and want from your death metal, she has a low clean voice, too (contralto?) and sounds uncannily like a young Ozzie Osborne. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ANUBIS GATE: ALBUM STREAM

 Metal News  44 Responses »
Sep 102011
 

(TheMadIsraeli was virtually breathless in his desire to have this news posted without delay. Not wanting to deprive him of breath, I complied quickly.)

Anubis Gate is the shit.  This Danish, now-4-piece, progressive power-metal band is streaming their new self-titled album IN FULL and I highly recommend you check it out.  Heavy, low-tuned grooves; lush, beautiful, melodic and acoustic passages; powerful face-stomping riffs; all with soaring vocals imbued with real emotion.  Jacob Hansen of Invocator is no longer on the mic (though still at the mixing board), but bassist Henrik Fevre has a SUPERB voice.  Expect a review of this when I get the chance.

You can stream the album at Metal Insider here.

GHOST WILL MISS THE ENSLAVED NORTH-AM TOUR

 Metal News  10 Responses »
Sep 102011
 

For me, Enslaved’s 20th Anniversary North American tour with Ghost and Alcest is one of the high spots of this fall. Enslaved is very high on my list of bands to see who I’ve never seen before, and Ghost and Alcest are also bands whose music I like quite a bit and would love to see in the flesh. I suspect lots of you have been excited about this tour, too.

However, as I was checking my Facebook news stream this morning I saw this cryptic post by Enslaved on their wall: “We’re working on a replacement and will of course keep you posted. Still – we’re looking forward to celebrating our 20th anniversary with you! Working on the setlist… Suggestions?” At first I thought maybe someone in Enslaved had left the band. And then I saw this post on Ghost’s Facebook wall, which appeared in my news stream:

“Due to some last minute complications with our visas, we have been forced to cancel our North American tour. We are sorry towards the other bands on the tour, Enslaved and Alcest. And we are most of all tremendously sorry towards all of our fans. This is truly beyond our control and we are making everything within our (His) powers to be able to come back to the US as soon as possible and perform for all of you.

Our most malicious of wishes,
/A Nameless Ghoul”

What sucky news. Yet it seems things like this happen on a weekly basis — European bands being denied visas by the U.S. government, screwing up long-planned tours. I haven’t investigated why this happens so often, or why in particular it happened to Ghost. Maybe I will. Or maybe I’ll just mope. Perhaps there’s a silver lining to this cloud — the addition of a replacement for Ghost who will be an even more awesome addition to the line-up? Check the tour dates after the jump. Continue reading »

IN THE NEWS AND IN YOUR EARS: BLACK TUSK, GODSIC, THE CROWN, DREAMING DEAD, AND AMON AMARTH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Sep 102011
 

Yesterday my fucking day job actually demanded that I work instead of blog. Amazingly harsh that they actually expected me to do something I’m being paid to do. How fucking medieval! The result is that this round-up of news and new music is appearing a day later than it should have. Like hemorroids and lung cancer, these things happen.

Despite a waning of some of the excitement that comes with being first and fast out of the shute, and instead being late and resigning yourself to watching the buttholes of all the other horses that got the jump on you, I’m forging ahead anyway, waiting for that massive kick around the last turn that will leave the buttholes in the dust.

BLACK TUSK

Yeah, the black fucking tusk, with the John Dyer Baizley cover (above) for their new album, Set the Dial. This Savannah band’s 2010 album, Taste the Sin, was one we liked and wrote about last year (here), so we’ve been waiting for a taste of the newness, which we got yesterday. It’s a new song called “Bring Me Darkness”, which coincidentally is my order of choice at the bars I frequent. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BLOOD RED THRONE: “BRUTALITARIAN REGIME”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Sep 092011
 

(NCS writer Andy Synn reviews the new album from Norway’s Blood Red Throne.)

I’ll tell you now that for me Death Metal is an easy genre to like, a hard one to truly love. But the bands that do it for me, REALLY do it for me. And Blood Red Throne are one of those bands. From the moment a close friend introduced me to “Slaying The Lamb” (off the inimitable Come Death) I was hooked, making it my mission to collect all their previous releases and stay up to date with every subsequent recording and line-up shift.

Perhaps one of the important factors that really drew me into the depths of the band’s crimson hell was the presence of former Emperor collaborator Tchort (also of Green Carnation and Carpathian Forest), his contributions giving each album an air of blackened malevolence that oozed from every pore, immediately setting the band apart from their Floridian-influenced brethren. Accompanying the distinctive and demolishing riffs produced by the pairing of Død and Tchort, the demented and crazed bass-lines flowing from the homunculus fingers of Erland Caspersen are the second key element whose presence is vital to Blood Red Throne’s distinctive sound. His scaly, slithering playing thrums with unholy power, sweeping and weaving with an eerie clarity and electricity that places him firmly in the company of masters such as Webster, Boyer and DiGorgio.

One might notice, however, that the band’s visual aesthetic has definitely shifted this time round, reflecting the major line-up changes that have taken place in the years preceding this record’s birth. With the departure of Tchort and the addition of a new guitarist, Ivan Gujic, and a new drummer, 19 year old prodigy Emil Wiksten, one might worry that this aesthetic shift reflects some fundamental change in the group’s sound. Thank Satan himself, then, that the core membership of main guitarist Død, agile-fingered bassist Casper Erlandsen and gravel-throated frontman Vald have stuck to their guns, demonstrating admirable confidence by preserving the sound and identity which they have developed over the course of 5 albums, refusing to react with knee-jerk predictability to their recent upheavals. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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