CIPHER SYSTEM: “COMMUNICATE THE STORMS”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Oct 102011
 

(TheMadIsraeli has been a busy metalhead. Here’s his second album review for this Monday.)

Cipher System from Gothenburg, Sweden, were something of an adored cult band in the early 2000’s with their debut Central Tunnel 8. Loved for its complex melodic layers with sci-fi synths, intricate guitar interplay, and excellent changes in tempo, the album delivered a sound and feel all its own. Now Cipher System are back with a new album after 7 years of hiatus. How does it hold up? I’m happy to tell you that it brings back the classic formula of Central Tunnel 8 with some very welcome improvements. This is Communicate The Storms.

Cipher System definitely know how to deliver the melodeath sledgehammer to the face. Opener “7 Inch Cut” is a slow choice for an album starter (I seem to be reviewing albums with non-conventional opening tracks lately), with staccato’d chugs conveying stoic solitude, while Blade Runner-styled synths hang overhead. It conveys a mood of deep sorrow, a theme that persists throughout the song in its musical approach. The anguished vocals of new vocalist Karl Obbel tear away at your soul, like a hungry abyss waiting to consume you. The waltz-like cadence of “7 Inch Cut” makes the song feel like an extended intro, like the opening credits-roll of a movie, and THAT is really cool to me.

“Forget To Forgive” is where the album really “starts”, as it were. A thrashy riff in very Soilwork-ish fashion blows up in your face and ignites the stage. The verse is a badass, full-steam-ahead, machine-gun chug-fest, complemented by totally awesome synth work, which changes in tone every time the verse rolls around. The chorus on this song is one of my favorites, with clean vocals and anguished screams delivered exactly in unison. Continue reading »

INSOMNIUM: FULL-ALBUM STREAM

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Oct 102011
 

The new album by Insomnium, One For Sorrow, has been making the rounds here among the NCS staff, and it’s been uniformly drawing praise. Despite a fair amount of clean singing, even I am digging it. In the near future we will have at least one review, from Andy Synn, but the point of this post is to alert you to the news that the entire album is now streaming at a Finnish web site called Inferno. And to get there and start eating up the goodness, follow THIS LINK.

Over and out. Whatever that means.

BLACK METAL: A STUDY IN CONTRAST (RAGNAROK AND AGALLOCH)

 Concert Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Oct 102011
 

Over the weekend, I added a post about an article by Sasha Frere-Jones on black metal in the most recent edition of that bible of all things metal, The New Yorker magazine. The article has drawn scorn in certain quarters of the underground metal empire and provoked a nice, protracted discussion in the Comment section of that NCS post. One thing Mr. Frere-Jones did was to contrast (in a way some think was condescending) the original Norwegian BM scene and sound with American black metal bands such as Wolves in the Throne Room and Liturgy.

By sheer chance, I experienced a similar black metal contrast of my own this weekend after adding that post. On Saturday night (Oct 8 at El Corazon) I witnessed a live performance by Portland’s Agalloch. They played a show in their home town on Friday night and then made the trip north to Seattle for a second show, and that’s where I caught them. If there were a heaven as well as an earth, I would have moved both to see that, because I have such vividly awesome memories of the first (and only other) time I got swallowed up by Agalloch performing live.

In Seattle, the band closed a very long set with two songs, “In the Shadow Of Our Pale Companion” from The Mantle (2002) and an instrumental called “The Lodge (Dismantled)” from The Grey EP (2004). More about those songs, plus a live video of the latter from the Portland show after the jump.

The Norwegian half of my contrasting BM experience came via Ragnarok — not the “death of the gods” cataclysm from Norse mythology, but the cataclysmic black metal band who borrowed that name for themselves back in 1994. I’d never spent time with their music until getting an e-mail from Patricia Thomas, who seems to manage about half the black metal bands in Norway. She reported that Ragnarok was finishing a 14-date tour of Brazil and Mexico and would be returning home to continue work on their seventh full-length album. She included a link to a Soundcloud player that includes all the songs from the band’s live set list, plus another link to an official video of the band performing the title track to their 2004 album, Blackdoor Miracle, with frontman Hoest from Taake providing the vocals. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

A MASTODON FANBOY UNPACKS THE HUNTER – It’s Not What You Think

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Oct 102011
 

(NCS writer BadWolf provides his take on Mastodon’s new album, The Hunter.)

A whole lot of misconceptions are flying around about Mastodon’s The Hunter. There is so much bullshit coming from so many remote corners of the metalliverse that conversation about The Hunter matches the album—scattershot.

People, including Mastodon themselves, would have you think The Hunter is some sort of radical departure from their past. It’s not. It doesn’t even break the ‘element’ theme Mastodon has been using—the cover art is a wooden structure, and many songs mention plants, wood, or the woods in general.

The press has called it a pseudo-successor to Remission, but those people have got to be on the brown acid. The Hunter resembles Blood Mountain more than anything. Both records take their predecessors as templates and run them through a million experiments. Traditional rock structures save these various experiments, otherwise they would spiral into incomprehension.

And the greatest insanity—people are calling this a bid for radio success. Yes, it’s an album of singles, especially “Curl of the Burl,” but there is a distinct schizophrenia to Mastodon that mainstream America just won’t accept. The album is an insane jumble of mellowness and aggression, electronic and organic. EG: “Thickening,” where delicate melodies play over turgid downbeat sludge. The choruses have gotten more decipherable and feel-good, but the verses are still abstract. Without an overarching storyline to anchor them, individual songs flicker from genius to batshit and back. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

NIGHTRAGE: “INSIDIOUS”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Oct 102011
 

(NCS writer TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album from Nightrage.)

Marios Iliopoulos’ pet project and melodeath beast Nightrage have been one of melodic death metal’s best more recent bands. Managing to bring in the old school sounds of greats such as In Flames and Dark Tranquility, the band have created an undeniably classic sound that destroys the modern metal landscape, rendering their genre niche far more than relevant. I’ve loved this band since their classic debut Sweet Vengeance and it really doesn’t seem like that will change, because Insidious is like a bringer of flame, leaving large swathes of ground scorched into dead flatlands of smoldering menace. As a bonus, the band’s original vocalist and legend of the mic Tomas Lindberg contributes vocals to more then one song.

The meditative clean drones of intro track “So Far Away” almost invoke a sense of inner peace until fierce opener “Delirium Of The Fallen” kicks in with high-gear thrashing and tasteful melodic leads in the classic Nightrage style. The music has taken a step back to the feel and style of their sophomore album Descent Into Chaos, with plenty of songs based on Marios’s graceful leads and capability for writing great themes. The majesty of the chorus alone demonstrates the man’s ability for guitar layering; it washes over you and you drown in it, smiling. Apollo Papathanasio of Firewind also provides the clean vocals of the bridge.

“Insidious” is the first song on which Tomas Lindberg appears, and it immediately destroys you in what can only be described as a melodic death metal napalm run, igniting pure hell fire and obliterating everything in sight. The riffs are sharp and the drums charge forward while regular vocalist Anthony Hämäläinen and Lindgren engage in absolutely fast and ferocious vocal interplay. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

HUMPPA ‘TIL IT HURTS! TROLL BENDS FIR + JONNE JARVELA (KORPIKLAANI)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  29 Responses »
Oct 092011
 

If you don’t know what humppa is, you could check out this post from our Finland Tribute Week series last December, which featured Finntroll and Korpiklaani. Or, you could listen to the song that follows the jump in this post.

The players are twofold: First is Troll Bends Fir, a folk metal (or maybe folk rock) band from Saint Petersburg, Russia. Actually, the band call their music “beer metal”. They contacted NCS about their music a loooong time ago (how could you forget a name like that?), but at the time I wasn’t convinced the music was in the target area for this site. But our horizons have broadened some since then, especially since Trollfiend moved into the NCS neighborhood and started introducing us to his folk-metal relatives.

Troll Bends Fir’s latest release is a compilation released on September 16 called Братья Во Хмелю (Brothers in Drinks). It includes a song called “Хумппа По Соседству” (“Humppa Is My Neighbor”), which features guest vocals by none other than Jonne Järvelä of Korpiklaani — and he’s the second player in this post. The song is just too much fuckin’ fun not to share. So, you can hear it after the jump. There’s also a tender video about the making of the song, too. Go on, humppa ’til it hurts.  (credit to Trollfiend — who else? — for this tip.) Continue reading »

GOJIRA. “BACKBONE”. LIVE. NEED WE SAY MORE?

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Oct 092011
 

Gojira – Backbone – Sonisphère 2011 from KLIKON on Vimeo.

On July 8, 2011, Gojira played the Sonisphere festival at Snowhall Parc, Amnéville, France. A new video of the band performing “Backbone” (which is probably my favorite Gojira song) has just surfaced. It starts with the French version of the running of the bulls, and then the neck-snapping starts.

Prepare to BANG YO’ FUCKEN HEADS.

UPDATE: Jan Lavadome e-mailed me a link to another Gojira video that I’d never seen. It’s the band performing “Remembrance” in 2003 and comes off their Link Alive DVD (released in 2007). It kills. Especially the super-tight rhythmic assault from 3:26 to the end. Watch after the jump. Continue reading »

BOX O’POOPS! (No. 2)

 IQ Subtraction, Phro's Posts  25 Responses »
Oct 092011
 

(Phro’s first Box O’Poops installment met with such an enthusiastic response that he decided to do another one for us. Actually, to be brutally honest, I don’t think anyone read it but him and me, and I didn’t have any choice in the matter. But we goin’ with it anyway!)

Well, hello there, my scat-covered-in-cum-munching friend. How’s the poop today? Did you enjoy the way I lightly browned it in your mom’s cooker? I wouldn’t recommend eating at home for a while.

Well, I decided to do another installment of Box O’ Poops! Why? Because I love you and your pure, unbridled happiness is all I desire in this world. And, because, ya’ know…POOP!!!

Seriously, you know how monkeys like to throw their poop? Y’all are like poop-throwing-monkey groupies who hang around outside the monkey cage at the zoo waiting for the monkeys to fling their poop at dumb jocks wearing too much Axe buddy spray (yah, that’s right, buddy spray). Then, you jump on the shit-covered assholes who smell like shit (but not because of the monkey shit (Axe body spray smells horrific, is my point (I just really hate Axe body spray, I’m not even sure why… (In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever even smelled it. But the commercials sure are stupid. (And I am all for hating products based on their commercials. (That’s kind of why I hate Taco Bell. (Seriously, Fourth Meal?? What the fuck?? (I got’cher fourth meal right here in my ass cannon, buddy! (And now we’re full-circle back to poop-throwing!))))))))

Paranthetic clauses are awesome! So is munching on scat from a necroplushiphilia orgy! And then washing it down with a shot of santorum. (Google it? Don’t Google it? Either way, you’re worse of for knowing it exists.)

To the POOOOOOOOOOPS!!! (uh, yeah, more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 45)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  16 Responses »
Oct 092011
 

Sheesh, it’s been almost a solid month since I found time for one of these posts. That’s what I call falling down on the job! In an effort to make up for all the slacking off, I’ve rounded up five items that caught my eye. For any new readers who joined us in the last month, this series of posts collects videos, news items, and/or photos that I think are metal, even though they’re not music. All of today’s items are visual in nature, and credit goes to the incomparable TYWKIWDBI blog for all of them. Ready, set, go!

ITEM ONE

The first item is the image you see at the top of this post. Look at the squares labeled A and B. They are exactly the same color. No shit. The proof of that can be seen in the image to the right, in which cross-bars have been laid over the original image. You can see how the bars blend equally with the two squares. I see this and I still don’t quite believe it, and I don’t know the explanation for why my eyes see the squares as having different colors. As illusions go, I think it’s metal.

If you’re still skeptical, there’s video of this same illusion right after the jump. I suppose the highly skeptical among you might think there’s some kind of trickery going on in the video, but the creator insists there isn’t. Continue reading »

“THE NEW YORKER” FEATURES BLACK METAL

 Metal News  30 Responses »
Oct 082011
 

I’m the only metalhead I know who subscribes to The New Yorker magazine, though I’m sure there are other metalhead subscribers out there. But probably not many. I usually read the movie and book reviews because the writing is so good, even though I almost never get around to reading the books or seeing the movies themselves. Most weeks, that’s all I can manage to do, usually because I don’t have the time to read more.

Sasha Frere-Jones is the magazine’s pop-music critic (though what he writes about is really more eclectic than the term “pop” might lead you to believe). He’s also a member of bands called Calvinist and Piñata. I usually read his stuff, too, but not because I have much interest in the music he covers; again, I admire the writing.

Today, the on-line version of The New Yorker published a Frere-Jones piece that I read because, for a change, I was interested in the subject matter as much as the writing. The subject is American black metal, with a particular focus on Wolves in the Throne Room and Liturgy. I found it amusing because it’s being written for an audience that probably knows nothing, or next-to-nothing, about black metal, and reading it is like seeing our tiny, extreme genre of music through someone else’s eyes.

Also, remarkably, it doesn’t use the words “fuck”, “fucking”, “brutal”, “pummeling”, or other words most of us are used to seeing (or in my case, using) in descriptions of metal. You can read the article via this link, or you can go past the jump, because I’ve pasted it into this post. Continue reading »

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