WE BLOW THE COVER OFF PHRO’S SECRET LIFE! LOUTALLICA, BABY!

 IQ Subtraction  16 Responses »
Oct 212011
 

You may think that NCS contributor Phro is an American ex-pat living in Japan and splitting his time between teaching English to Japanese and presiding over a vast tentacle-porn industry, but that’s all just a cover. And we’re tired of covering for him. Time to out Phro. Time to reveal THE TRUTH: Phro is a lyricist for Lou Reed and Metallica.

You doubt THE TRUTH? Well, who else could have penned these immortal lyrics from “Pumping Blood” by the infernal collaboration of Lou Reed and Metallica:

“Tied up in leather
Would you take the measure
Of the blood that I pump”

“If I waggle my ass like a dark prostitute
Would you think less of me”

“I will swallow your sharpest cutter
Like a colored man’s dick”

To see all of Phro’s moving lyrics to this tender ode, go past the jump. (If only the music were as good as the words. Actually, to be brutally honest, I know nothing about the music to this song. I would rather have a colonoscopy without anesthesia or shove hot needles up my nose than listen to this song.) Continue reading »

MORS SUBITA: “HUMAN WASTE COMPRESSION”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Oct 212011
 

For a band I like as much as Finland’s Mors Subita, I’m inexcusably late in reviewing their debut album Human Waste Compression. I’ve been listening to it off and on since long before the September 21 official release by Violent Journey Records, and it hasn’t worn out its welcome.

The band’s winning formula combines elements of thrash, groove, and Bodom-style melodic death metal. The music moves like a racehorse burning up the track, with slamming beats, frenetic riffs, and swarming guitar solos. Antti Haapsamo snarls like a really pissed-off bobcat, backed by bear-like roars. Put all that together and you get 11 tracks of modern metal that are electrifying and head-whipping.

The musicians can all really fly, the guitars and the heavy metallic sound of the bass generating rapid, jabbing pulses, their rhythms working seamlessly with the heavy artillery blasting away from the vicinity of the drum-kit. The rhythms have a pneumatic, almost industrial quality to them. The band also benefit from a talent for creating short melodic choruses via the lead guitar (or through dual-guitar harmonies) that are catchy and invariably will get your foot tapping and your head nodding. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BLOTTED SCIENCE: “CRETACEOUS CHASM”

 Uncategorized  3 Responses »
Oct 212011
 

If this doesn’t make your whole damn week, well then you’ve had a stupendously sucky week. Fuck, this may make your whole damn month.

A scant 10 days ago, first-time NCS guest contributor The Baby Killer gave us his review of the new album by the wonderfully inventive and technically mesmerizing Blotted Science. The album is called The Animation of Entomology. Before it came out, guitarist Ron Jarzombek was reported as saying:

““As many of you know, all 24-plus minutes of the EP are a musical score to some type of bug movies. We will reveal the first one at my YouTube channel next Friday [Oct 14]. We’ll miss Friday the 13th by one day, but hopefully this viewing will be creepy enough for you. And so until the video appears, enjoy the audio. I realize that it all may be beyond wacky at this point, but it all will soon make perfect sense.”

Well, the first clip has now been released. Whatever you may think of the 2005 remake of King Kong, starring Jack Black and Adrien Brody, it was worth every penny because it has furnished the video accompaniment to a Blotted Science song called “Cretaceous Chasm”.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

VISCERAL DISGORGE: “NECROCOPROPHAGIA”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  27 Responses »
Oct 202011
 

I’m sitting in an airport, waiting on a plane, with a few minutes to kill. Just a few minutes, though. Just long enough to kill you with a song while I kill time.

The band is Visceral Disgorge, from Baltimore, Maryland. They released a debut album over the summer called Ingesting Putridity. Can you guess what the music will sound like, based on these clues: the name of the band; the name of the album; and the album cover? Here’s one more clue: The name of the song is “Necrocoprophagia”.

Let’s break that song title down: “Necro” is a Greek prefix meaning “death”. Copro is a prefix derived from the Greek word kopros, meaning “dung”. “Phagia” is a suffix, also derived from the Greek, which refers to the eating of a specified substance. “Coprophagia” means the eating of dung. Therefore, “necrocoprophagia” must mean eating the shit of the dead.

Do you have enough clues? If you guessed that this band plays brutal death metal, you would be correct. If you guessed that the music is the shit, you would also be correct, because it is. This band pulverizes, but they do it with flare and groove. Very, very nice.

This song, by the way, will be featured in the October edition of SickDrummer magazine and CD compilation. Go past the jump and let it kill you. My plane is boarding. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: PLAGUE OF ASHITAKA

 Eye-Catchers  3 Responses »
Oct 202011
 


Yours truly hasn’t been posting much the last couple of days. The old fucking day job has unexpectedly had me traveling again and working nearly around the clock. Today won’t be much different — I’ll be on an airplane for about 6 hours going home.  So, this may be the last post until much, much later today. I’ve got a lot of stuff in mind for future posts, just no time to get them done. Tomorrow should be more back to normal.

So, this will be really fast. TheMadIsraeli sent me a link to a new video by an un-signed band from Brighton, England called Plague of Ashitaka. But I also saw the cover art for their new EP, which they call “Part I” of a new album, and this “part” is called Elder Luminaries. It’s by Richey Beckett, and it’s an eye-catcher for sure.

The song featured in the video is “Onyx Scroll”. It’s satisfyingly fast, vehement, and technically proficient. It’s got some -core elements, too, which either will or won’t appeal to you depending on your tastes. I enjoyed it.

The band’s Facebook page is here. The EP will be for sale here, but doesn’t yet appear to be available. Check out the video following the jump. Continue reading »

TRE WATSON – DOUBLE REVIEW

 Uncategorized  1 Response »
Oct 202011
 


My good friend Tre Watson is a very busy man who’s up to pretty much everything you can imagine in the world of music.  He’s either recording and producing someone else, writing and recording his own music, or playing with his band Carthage.  I’m reviewing not only the debut EP of Carthage, but also Tre’s recent solo EP called Gravestones.

Carthage plays a style of less-is-more and simple-is-best deathcore with “a little of everything” thrown in, as he put it.  This is pretty accurate, as the music has very small doses of thrash, melodeath, traditional hardcore, and death metal thrown into the mix to keep it varied despite the music’s simplistic approach.

Listening to the EP is like getting smashed over the head with boulders repeatedly.  There is undeniable, consistent groove here, combined with moments of melodeath riffing, deathcore and djent syncopated chugs, tremolo riffing, and badass lead-work everywhere.  I really like what’s going on here — it’s worth checking out.  It’s only a tiny bit underdeveloped, but that’s to be expected with even the best of first EP’s.  The potential is bursting at the seams.  You can stream the entire EP at Bandcamp, or right here at NCS after the jump. Continue reading »

“BEST” OF BRITISH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Oct 192011
 

(As we announced HERE, NCS is co-sponsoring a UK tour beginning on October 24, headlined by Becoming the Archetype and including UK metal band Bloodguard, which is fronted by NCS writer Andy Synn. In this post, Andy provides more info about the other bands who will be appearing on the tour and also at a post-tour show that Bloodguard is doing.)

Hello everyone. As part of promoting our little tour coming up I thought I’d do a good deed and get some press out there for each of the bands who are joining us on the dates. Sort of a mass-exposure deal where hopefully there’ll be something for (almost) everyone!

As part of our week long festivities Becoming The Archetype and Bloodguard will be hitting:

Birmingham, The Actress & Bishop – Monday 24th October

Manchester, The Roadhouse – Tuesday 25th October

Nottingham, The Maze – Wednesday 26th October

London, The Purple Turtle – Thursday 27th October

And then, moving on from the dates with Becoming The Archetype, we have a show with Abgott:

Leicester, Lock 42 – Friday 28th October

So what bands are joining us? Well here they are… Continue reading »

CONTROLLING EVOLUTION

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Oct 192011
 

(Here’s a shout-out from TheMadIsraeli for a Tennessee band called Controlling Evolution.)

I usually do not, and in fact generally will not, write about local acts where I live.  For the most part, they fucking suck, are generic, or are generic and fucking suck.  With that said, I’ve got an in-state band worth pitching to you that deserves a chance.

After the jump is the Bandcamp player for some friends of mine, Controlling Evolution, that is streaming their free first album, In the Wake of Leviathan’s Campaign.  You can visit Bandcamp (here) and download it if you like what you hear, which I’m high recommending you do.  Playing a brand of technical, progressive, and dizzying metalcore with heavy jazz influences, these guys are set to take the metal scene by storm.  They are currently recording a new EP, and from what I’ve heard, it will make this first album look like child’s play.  Considering how badass this debut is, that almost scares me. (music after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

REVISITING THE CLASSICS: WINTER’S “INTO DARKNESS”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Oct 192011
 

(TheMadIsraeli contributes another look-back at a classic album of metal.)

Winter are a band who have remained unfairly underrated and unrecognized in the metal landscape.  These guys virtually created the deathdoom style, and on the basis of their only full-length album, they still qualify as the heaviest, most morbid, and most brutal band in the entire sub-genre; AND THIS ALBUM IS 21 YEARS OLD NOW!

What I am revisiting today is the original version of the album.  Winter’s Into Darkness can be purchased on disk along with an EP called Eternal Frost that was released in 1994. Despite being a whole new batch of material, the EP feels perfectly at home on the same disc with Into Darkness.  But for those who are interested, you can get Into Darkness from Southern Lord Records on its own without the EP.

Into Darkness is so dank, so dark, so putrid and vile you can literally feel and imagine yourself walking through sewage and corpses as you listen to it.  Winter were only a three piece, a small band for the time and still small by modern convention, but the three of them produced such unheard of sounds that the music must have come as a shock in contrast to the rest of what was going on in 1990.  Tuning their instruments down to A for fucking abysmal was something that had to have sounded nuts back then, at least in the States, though we know that even by this time, Swedish bands were tuning their instruments down to the same or similar keys. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: KRAMPUS

 Interviews  7 Responses »
Oct 192011
 

(Recently, NCS guest contributor Trollfiend reviewed the new EP by an Italian folk-metal band named Krampus. The album is called Kronos’ Heritage, and you can find Trollfiend’s review here. Today, he follows up that review with an interview of the band.)

First of all, thank you for taking the time to respond to this interview!

You’re welcome!

What made you choose the Krampus as the image to represent your band?

Well, the choice came after the name, chosen by the past guitar player Riccardo.

Your promo photos look very post-apocalyptic, not at all like the ‘swords and furs’ you usually see in folk metal bands.  Is this a theme you plan to pursue further?

We feel that this is the right outfit for our lyrical themes, all our songs are different from the “classical” folk metal themes. We talk about environmental problems, we speak against what we believe to be the new “demons” and foes of the modern world, but we try to do it with a “past values” approach. We think that everything went too far and we are probably heading to something we won’t be able to confront, if we keep wasting time and turning our heads away from all this, there will not be that much left to cry over. Let’s say, our “image”, it’s some kind of “word to the wise”.

Continue reading »

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