THREE BANDS, THREE SONGS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Nov 232011
 

As I write this, it’s very early on a Wednesday morning. I just finished watching Abigail Williams, Hate, Keep of Kalessin, and Mayhem at El Corazon in Seattle. All four bands were excellent. The highlights of the evening were new songs from Abigail Williams (quite different from anything I’ve heard from the band before, and I think the best work they’ve yet done) and an absolutely mind-boggling performance by Hellhammer, the drummer of Mayhem.

The third highlight of the evening was getting to spend time with Fredrik Huldtgren and his girlfriend. Fredrik is the vocalist of a Swedish band called Canopy, which has been a favorite at NCS for a long time, and he happens to be in town visiting, just in time for some truly ass-sucking Seattle weather — somewhat offset by a very badass night of metal.

Spending time with Fredrik put me in mind of three bands, all of whom I like a lot. There’s a connection between them, but rather than explain it, I’d rather let you guess, or simply wonder. The three bands are Canopy, Obitus, and Lifelover. If you don’t know the music of these bands, then there are some worthwhile discoveries for you after the jump.

With luck, I’ll wake up in a few hours and think of something more to bring your way on an NCS Wednesday. And if the site just appears to be frozen for the rest of the day, you’ll know it’s because my bed has swallowed me whole, like a python chowing down on a wayward dog. Continue reading »

TWO “NEW” OBSCURA SONGS AND LIVING SACRIFICE CLIPS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 222011
 

Earlier this month, we reported plans by German tech-metallers Obscura to self-release a collection of previously undistributed demo tracks and new cover songs. It will be called Illegimitation and will include four songs from the band’s 2003 demo, three pre-production versions of songs recorded in 2006 following a tour with Suffocation (including an early version of “Incarnated”, which ultimately appeared on Cosmogenesis (2009)), and covers of songs by Death, Atheist, and Cynic that the band recorded earlier this year.

The band is raising money for the production of the album in both CD and LP formats as well as associated merch through Kickstarter; pledges starting at $5 will get you a range of stuff from a digital download of the album on up. You can get there via this link.

Today, the band put up two of the 2003 demo tracks on their Facebook bandpage for streaming: “…And All Will Come To An End” and “Crucified”. More about those songs, plus a chance to stream one of them here, after the jump.

Also after the jump: One of our favorite metal bands, Living Sacrifice, will be releasing a DVD during the week of December 9 called In Finite Live. It’s a professionally shot and edited, multi-camera performance by the band in Pomona, California, plus six more songs performed in the band’s hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. The DVD also includes bonus goodies, and it’s available for pre-order for ten bucks here. After the jump, we’ve got two song-clips from the DVD. Stay with us . . . Continue reading »

ANTEDILUVIAN: “THROUGH THE CERVIX OF HAWAAH”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Nov 222011
 

There is a certain style of death metal that I think of, in shorthand fashion, as horrifyingly avant-garde. Some people might prefer the term “progressive”, but I don’t think that word captures the atmosphere of cold, terrifying, otherworldly abomination conveyed by the music. Among current practitioners of this style of death metal, Portal, Mitochondrion, and Dragged Into Sunlight usually come to mind first. Now, I have to add Antediluvian to that list.

Like Portal and fellow Canadians Mitochondrion, Antediluvian are now on the Profound Lore label, which today is officially releasing their debut album (following an assortment of demos, splits, and an EP). It’s a nine-track monstrosity titled Through the Cervix of Hawaah. I’ll try to describe why I like this album, though to be brutally honest, it may be the result of compulsion rather than voluntary choice: After all, when Cthulhu extends his tentacles, few can resist.

When I included Antediluvian in that group which included Portal, Mitochondrion, and DIS, I didn’t mean to imply that the four bands sound alike, and they don’t, but they all succeed in creating a chillingly inhuman atmosphere of dread and catastrophe, in part by employing unusual musical ingredients that aren’t part of the standard stock-in-trade of death metal.

In Antediluvian’s case, the musical mix includes both “conventional” death metal elements and unconventional ingredients, plus remnants of the band’s more black-metal leaning origins. Perhaps most noticeable is the unusual style of drumming. The rhythms are unpredictable, sometimes seeming to be a step or two away from the beat you expect, sometimes almost out of sync with the bass and guitars (though I suspect that’s an aural illusion). The toms are used more frequently than in most death metal, lending the fills a kind of tribal sound (that is, if demonspawn organized themselves into tribes). There are blast beats, but they come sporadically, in bursts, and they sound more remorselessly methodical than as an attempt to break a speed record. Continue reading »

THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING

 Uncategorized  23 Responses »
Nov 222011
 

(Andy Synn wrote the following opinion piece.  If we don’t get some comments on this one, I’ll be quite surprised. Andy’s got some questions at the end, and we’d love to hear your answers.)

Here’s a question that’s been on my mind for a while now; what do we do when our heroes let us down? What happens when the bands we love go off the boil, make weird creative decisions, or just simply move away from playing the music for which we fell in love with them?

Music is an intensely emotional topic, and one which promotes a peculiar kind of loyalty to develop in those of us who love it deeply. As metal fans in particular, we seem to embody the very extremes of this trait; treat us well and we will die for you, cross us and our wrath and enmity shall be eternal. Indeed, once a certain line is crossed it’s very common to see a band written off as “dead” by any number of their former fans.

Most recently, however, I’ve been trying to take positive steps when confronted with this situation. Rather than entering into either a) a defensive flame war on behalf of our fallen heroes, or b) seizing on the opportunity in order to heap my own well-earned scorn on the victims of this public derision, I have instead been taking the fall of our chosen heroes to promote potential successors who are ready and waiting to step up and take on the mantle.

This does, however, raise one further issue: to what extent we, as metal fans, are willing to accept our heroes being replaced and (if that is the case) do we actually always have one eye out for the Next Big Thing – not the one who’ll necessarily sell the records and get the airplay, but the one who will step into the well-worn shoes of our heroes once they have gone to the sacred feasting halls of Valhalla?

Now 3 particular albums/events inspired these thoughts recently… Continue reading »

HELL: “HUMAN REMAINS”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Nov 212011
 

Record Label: Nuclear Blast | Year: 2011 | Genre: Heavy Metal

By Willard Shrapnelspear

Hell thrash Iron Maiden, hands down. Granted, I was never a huge fan of Iron Maiden to begin with, but this record refines the traditional NWoBHM sound so flakkin’ well that they detach the phrase “old school” from the not-so-glamorous connection to phrases like “narrow-minded” and “uncreative”. Unlike Iron Maiden’s let’s-play-safe-and-try-going-a-little-prog approach to their music on The Final Frontier (which somehow gave the record an annoyingly “mute” sound and draggy-as-hell play time; in comparison, this record sounds much brighter and thoroughly interesting throughout the long playtime of 1 hour 6 minutes), Hell have been creatively bold by deciding to incorporate symphonic and power metal elements into their technical brand of Satanic, prosaic heavy metal instead—a timeless move that should be greatly lauded!

Many old school heavy metal bands from the ‘80s and ‘90s had been known to utilize extremely recognizable power metal elements in their music, such as fantasy-oriented lyrics and high-pitched clean singing (e.g., Manowar, Helloween, Gamma Ray), so what’s so special about Hell’s rendition of such a trend in the 21st Century?  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

WASCALLY WABBITS

 MISCELLANY  No Responses »
Nov 212011
 

This is really a MISCELLANY post, but I couldn’t resist using this post title, (a) because I’m a Bugs Bunny fan (is there anyone who isn’t?), and (b) because I happened to chance upon both of the featured bands yesterday, and their names are Rabid Rabbit and dropbunny.

Since this is a MISCELLANY post, I picked these bands to feature without hearing their music first. Once I make that choice, the self-imposed rules of MISCELLANY require that I forge ahead in writing about the selected bands even if the music turns out to be something I wouldn’t normally recommend. To be brutally honest, with names like Rabid Rabbit and dropbunny, I didn’t really expect to dig the music. I would have been more optimistic if they’d been called Rabbit Viscera and fuckbunny. Anyway, here goes!

RABID RABBIT

Bruce Lamont is probably best known for his vocal and saxophone work with Chicago’s Yakuza, though he has recorded with dozens of other bands over a prolific career. Rabid Rabbit is one of those bands. At the core of Rabid Rabbit is the husband-wife team of Andrea Jablonski (vocals/bass) and Mike Tsoulos (drums), and they’re complemented by Arman Mabry (bass) and new guitarist Dan Sullivan on the band’s forthcoming second album, Czarny Sen (which means “black dream” in Polish). Lamont makes a few guest appearances on the album, as do a variety of other musicians from Chicago’s noise, metal, and free-jazz scene. Or at least that’s what I learned from the press release I received recently. Continue reading »

SATANIC POP METAL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  31 Responses »
Nov 212011
 

Oh hell yeah, baby, Semargl is back with another video! Long-time NCS readers know that I have a real weakness for this Ukrainian band, despite the fact that they are not trve, kvlt, grimm, krieg, brootal, or even terribly serious. Despite the corpsepaint and spikes, they’ve never really pretended to be any of those things either. And now, after further evolution of their sound, they’ve abandoned all pretense (what little of it once existed), titling their next album Satanic Pop Metal, which has pretty much been their style of music for quite some time.

Satanic Pop Metal will be the band’s fifth album and it will be released on a not-yet-disclosed date by the German label Twilight-Vertrieb. I expect nothing less (and nothing more) than a bouncy, hook-laden, groove-infused good time, with a dollop of nasty on top and dripping down the sides. It will be finger-lickin’ good, though I don’t know where their fingers have been.

The new official video is a live performance of “Join In Fire”, which will be appearing on the new album. The performance was filmed at a Halloween Night show in Kiev last month. In addition to the new album, Semargl plans to release a live DVD next year that will also include this clip. More metal bands should have black-clad dancers named Alina and Olga. Watch Alina, Olga, and Semargl have some fun after the jump.

Continue reading »

A WORD OF THANKS

 Uncategorized  12 Responses »
Nov 212011
 

Your humble editor has returned from a most excellent vacation in cloudland, during which my spouse was satisfied that I didn’t spend too much time blogging and was therefore reasonably happy with me (I was hoping for deliriously happy, but she knows me too well to get delirious). The time away from my usual blogging output was good for me, too, because I’m now anxious and excited to dive back in. You know the old saying about absence making the heart grow fonder; so it does.

I was able to restrict my attention to NCS because of all the help I got with daily content, not only from our usual suspects Andy Synn, BadWolf, and TheMadIsraeli (thank you, my brethren, for stepping up), but also from all the folks from around the U.S. and the world who bravely answered my appeal for guest posts (sometimes with multiple submissions per writer). Between November 1 and today (yep, there’s one guest post left, and it will appear later this morning), I posted 23 guest pieces — every one that I received, without exception.

And so I extend a special NCS laurel, and hearty handshake, to our guest contributors in the order of their appearance: jeimssi, Kazz, Austin Slagle-Knauss, the prolific Willard Shrapnelspear, Trollfiend, Stephen Parker, The Baby Killer, Phro, Alex Layzell, ElvisShotJFK, MaxR from Metal Bandcamp, VyceVictus, SurgicalBrute, and The Artist Formerly Known As Dan. All you guys killed it, and therefore prevented me from being killed or mutilated by Mrs. Islander.

Apart from giving credit where credit is due, I’ve got two more things to say (after the jump). Continue reading »

I SAW YOU NAKED THIS WEEKEND

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  38 Responses »
Nov 202011
 

Nah, just kidding. I didn’t really see you naked this weekend. I just wanted to get your attention. And by the way, those of you who felt a little thrill at the idea of me seeing you naked, please don’t send me photos of you in the nude; I’m pretty sure you’re the ones I do NOT want to see naked.

What I did see were new videos that I thought were worth sharing. Still catching up on what I missed while on vacation, I found:

  • A new official video from Chthonic for the song “Quell the Souls in Sing Ling Temple” from the band’s latest album, the excellent Takasago Army (reviewed at NCS here); it was posted to YouTube on November 17 (thanks to TNOTB for this one)
  • A video of Textures performing “Consonant Hemispheres” on Dutch television on November 18; the song is from the band’s 2011 album Dualism (reviewed at NCS here)
  • A video of Vader performing “I Am Who Feasts Upon Your Soul” at a club in Liverpool, England, on November 10; the song is from Vader’s latest album Welcome To the Morbid Reich (reviewed at NCS here)
  • “A new fan-filmed video of Italy’s Hour of Penance performing a scorching new song called “Sedition Through Scorn” (posted on November 15)
  • “A new video for the song “Dagger” from Vildhjarta’s new album Masstaden, which hasn’t yet been reviewed at NCS — but will be soon; I’m putting this one last because the site that’s streaming it hasn’t devoted enough bandwidth to make this thing play reliably

All these videos are available after the jump. Get naked and watch them. Continue reading »

THE BIZARRE WORLD OF DEVIN TOWNSEND

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 202011
 

Since returning from my vacation late Friday, I’ve been catching up (sporadically) on metal developments while I was away. Quite a few of them turned out to involve Devin Townsend. He is as multi-talented and as exuberantly creative as anyone working in metal today, and as I’ve learned again recently, his live shows are also fan-fucking-tastic. So, I pay attention when I see anything new about him, and I’m collecting in this post all of the recent items I saw — though DT is both so prolific and so unpredictable that I may well have missed something.

ITEM ONE

The first item is captured in the poster above. No sooner did DT finish his four-night series of special shows in London last week (one of which our own Andy Synn reviewed here) than he announced another very special London show — though this one is nearly a year off in the future. This one he’s billing as the biggest show he has ever done and the culmination of his entire career. It will involve “an art exhibition, actors, Ziltoid, stilt walkers, fire breathers” and a host of guest musicians “playing music that has never been attempted due to the size of the songs and the need for certain things“. The extravaganza will happen on October 27 at the Roundhouse, and tickets went on sale last Friday. Details are available here.

By the way, for poor schmoes like me who are too distant from London to make this show, it will be filmed for DVD.

After the jump, I’ve got three more items, and all of them are listening experiences. Continue reading »

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