BETRAEUS: “TOWARDS THE SUN”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 202011
 

(In this post, TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut EP by Mancunian metallers Betraeus, released on November 14 by Seige of Amida.)

“For fans of Opeth, Death, Cynic, Bloodbath and Insomnium”

This was all it took to pique my curiosity when I saw the words in Hold Tight! PR’s press release about Betraeus.  Towards The Sun is not an EP I want to beat around the bush about: This is really, really, really good, and I want to see a full-length post-haste.

Despite the comparisons above being true to one degree or another, though, I’d add that there is quite a bit of Daath and Gojira influence going on as well. If you haven’t gathered already, this combination of influences results in a sound that is quite diverse.  None of the music is entirely death metal, or thrash metal, or any such thing. It’s its own sound. While Betraeus peg themselves as a prog death outfit, I would be more inclined to call them a straight-up progressive act.

This EP contains six tracks, three studio recordings, two live tracks, and a radio edit of one of those studio recordings. The first studio recording, “Towards the Sun”, which is the EP’s opener, does a pretty good job of summarizing what this band is all about and it was a smart choice as a lead-in track.  It’s a nearly 10-minute epic spanning everything from Opeth-ian, dreary, macabre doom-death tendencies, to Gojira/Daath-styled technical thrashy riffing, to Insomnium-style melodic passages and themes, all combined with jarring yet fitting transitional phases that keep the music unexpected and fresh. I think you’ll be hard pressed to predict any part of this song.

Continue reading »

WEEKEND NACHOS: “WORTHLESS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 202011
 

Record Label: Relapse | Year: 2011 | Genre: Powerviolence

By Willard Shrapnelspear

You regretted taking that step. Your curiosity just had to get the better of you. Oh, why did you not listen to me? You were just doing fine walking around the cliff top, but you had to literally poke your nose into an oddly out-of-place bush—and wound up falling through a hole, landing right smack into the hard surface of frothy, lake water. Ouch.

At least all is calm, or so you thought. A rumbling sound resounded throughout the mysterious cavern, and a spurt of boiling hot spring water gushed towards you, turning your skin an angry red color while propelling you out of the cavern’s exit with the majesty and likeness of a cow releasing pent-up methane gas through its rear. You are finally free, or so you thought. You crash head-first into the cold, glassy surface of more lake water, skipping across its top comically like a flat pebble thrown by a middle-school kid. Finally, all is quiet.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

KRODA LIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 192011
 

In July I reviewed the new album, Schwarzpfad, by Ukrainian black metal band Kroda. I tried to sum up my thoughts with these words: “Schwarzpfad is without doubt one of the best albums I’ve heard this year and one of the most memorable black-metal albums I’ve ever heard — an immaculate marriage of beautiful, folk-influenced melodies, black ‘n’ roll strut, and bestial voraciousness. It’s a brilliantly conceived, complex work that yields something new with every listen. Highly recommended.”

As the end of this year approaches, I haven’t changed my mind — Schwarzpfad is still one of the best albums I’ve heard in 2011, and certainly among the handful I’ve listened to most often.

On February 20, 2011, Kroda performed at the Metal Point Fest in Khmelnistkiy, Ukraine. Two days ago, the band uploaded the entire 33-minute set to YouTube, and I spent my early waking moments this morning (my first morning back home after vacation) watching and listening to it. It includes three songs: “Schwarzpfad II (Universal Provenances)”, “Schwarzpfad III (Forefather of Hangmen)”, and “Schwarzpfad IV (Heil Ragnarok!)”.

The smoke-shrouded performance was filmed from multiple camera angles, and although the video quality isn’t razor-sharp, it’s suitable for this music. The audio quality isn’t razor-sharp either, with particularly noticeable distortion in the bass-end, but fuck, the songs are so damned good and it’s so motherfucking cool to see Kroda performing live that it’s a small price to pay.

As I remember, Schwarzpfad was written and recorded by one man — Eisenslav — but he recruited some talented brothers to bring about this live performance. The video is after the jump. Bang yo fucken heads. Continue reading »

READY, SET, FALL! – “BURIED”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 192011
 

(TheMadIsraeli has a recommendation for you.)

Who’s ready for some Italian metalcore?  How many of you even knew Italy had a metalcore scene in the first place?  Not many do, I suspect, because the number of noteworthy Italian metalcore bands isn’t large — but the ones that do exist I’ve always loved, especially Slowmotion Apocalypse, who prove convincingly that there is still life left in the metalcore genre.  Ready, Set, Fall! is a band who are obviously hoping to reinforce this notion.

Buried is the name of their debut EP, and despite its brief span of five songs, the longest of which is only three minutes, it’s very effective. The music displays a heavy Soilwork influence, with a touch of Misery Signals going on, too.  Lots of awesome groove combined with explosions of fury provide a solid musical contrast — and this band’s vocalist, Christopher Volpi, has a fucking killer voice.

Of those five songs, four are solid melodic metalcore and one is ambience-laden dubstep.  It’s a short EP, so I’m gonna be all appropriate and shit and make this a short review.  It’s good stuff.  Check out the music after the jump, and check out the band’s Facebook page for more info. Continue reading »

NAETU: “THE BURNING LANDS”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Nov 192011
 

Record Label: Blood Black Productions | Year: 2008 | Genre: Melodic Black Metal

By Willard Shrapnelspear

Disclaimer: No animals or real forests were harmed in the making of this album’s front cover design.

Yeah, I just pulled that out of the air, so what? All I need is the music, baby.

Naetu may be an obscure black metal act from the kangaroo kingdom of Australia, but they shriek, shred, blast-beat, and solemnly solo like the lovable melodic black metal acts of Sweden and Norway. No, no, no, I’m not gonna make some unoriginal comparisons to Watain or Gorgoroth; they display the general traits of the kind of melodic black metal coming out of those countries (e.g., Dissection-style atmospheric riffing … oh shit, I just made comparisons didn’t I?), but that is not to say that they are completely imitating their influences chord for chord, or solo for solo.

The vocals, for one, do not sound like another one of those typical dudes trying to imitate Jon Nödtveidt’s trademark raspy barks or Dead’s droning chants. Give these blasphemous Australians some credit, man. They come from a country so isolated from the main black metal hubs of the extreme metal world, and yet they still managed to conceive such a high-quality record (by that I mean having no filler tracks) with surprisingly high-quality production as well. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

TWO NEW NON-METAL ALBUMS FROM CLOUDKICKER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 182011
 

I am very slowly making my way home from vacation today, with limited net access, so I’m writing this in a hurry.  Still, I thought the news was sufficiently interesting that I wanted to get this out there before tomorrow.

Here at NCS, we were latecomers to the musical phenomenon known as Cloudkicker (a/k/a Ben Sharp). But late was better than never, and when we had our eyes opened, they opened wide. NCS co-founder and infrequent contributor IntoTheDarkness put Cloudkicker’s 2010 album, Beacons, at No. 3 on his personal list of the year’s Top 25 releases, calling it “the best instrumental album all year.”

Our more regular contributor BadWolf had it at No. 6 on his list of the year’s best, calling it “one of the first pieces of genuinely brilliant metal-as-art to be released not only outside of the label system but outside of capitalism period.” And one of our guest contributors, The Artist Formerly Known As Dan, assigned it to the No. 8 position on his best-of-2010 list, with these words: “He doesn’t need a label because he can already do everything he needs to by himself.  And he’s beyond talented.” And last, I included a song from Beacons on our list of 2010’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

With that backdrop, you can imagine how interested I was to see an e-mail from MaxR at Metal Bandcamp today with this news: Cloudkicker has just released not one but two new albums — Loop and Let Yourself Be Huge. I’ve turned the album titles into links that will take you to the Cloudkicker Bandcamp pages where each album is available for free download, or any donation you feel is fair. Both albums are streaming here after the jump — and I’ve got a few more observations about the music, too (it’s not metal). Continue reading »

ROSE FUNERAL: “GATES OF PUNISHMENT”

 Album Reviews  14 Responses »
Nov 182011
 

(Austin Slagle-Knauss turns in this guest post, reviewing the most recent album by Ohio’s Rose Funeral.)

“I’ve touched the hand of god and crushed in his fucking teeth…” That is my hands-down favorite lyric from any sort of satanic music. I wish there were another way to represent satanic music, because it seems anything that has the word “satanic” in it creates a terrible first impression on people. At first glance, you would think the metal community would react differently, and it does to a certain degree. But time and time again, I talk to people about satanic metal and they brush me off like it’s a joke. Trust me, it’s no joke and Rose Funeral proves why.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGAG08FeBio
Continue reading »

I DECLARE WAR

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Nov 182011
 

(It’s been a while since we had a post from The Artist Formerly Known As Dan, but he responded to my appeal for submissions for my vacation with this review of the latest album by Seattle’s own I Declare War.)

Isn’t that album art sick? This will be a bit of a short review (light on the words, heavy on the samples) but, first things first: Before the self-titled album came out last month, I was not an I Declare War fan. I’m somewhat particular about my deathcore (which maybe is strange in and of itself), but this band never really did it for me. Check this video out:

It might be the mixing, but I guess it just sounds underproduced and lacking some punch. Anyway, I tried to like them, but I found myself just enjoying other music more, and why force yourself to listen to stuff you don’t like? Fast-forward to October 2011 and I heard about this release. Continue reading »

WATAIN: “LAWLESS DARKNESS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 172011
 

Record Label: Season Of Mist | Year: 2010 | Genre: Melodic Black Metal

By Willard Shrapnelspear

WA-TAIN! WA-TAIN! WA-TAIN! WA-TAIN!

That was pathetic little me—who hasn’t gotten the golden opportunity to see Watain live yet—imagining how awesome it will be to be chanting this devilishly good band’s name at one of their concerts. I love band names that are made up of two syllables. They are just so easy to remember and convenient to be used by the crowd to get itself stoked during the sound check. Cue festive and hypnotic chants!

Although the highly melodic and influential, but controversial, Dissection finally succumbed to their ill fate in 2006 following Jon Nödtveidt’s demise, all is apparently still well with the much loved Swedish black metal scene. In fact, seeing as how frontman Erik Danielsson played session bass for Dissection a year before it broke up and how 1/3 of the final Dissection lineup (in the much worshipped form of cult figure, Set Teitan) contributes live guitars at Watain sets, it could even be said that Watain is basically pre-Reinkaos Dissection reincarnated (Erik! Don’t ever kill a man and commit suicide afterwards!!).

The gravelly growls that psyche one up for some bloooodshed, the bassy mid-paced grooves, the frantic alternations between stepwise descending/ascending note sequences, and last but not fucking least, that signature high-pitched tuning for the lead guitar on its eargasmic solos, how old-Dissection can a band get? Stellar tracks that showcase such traits are “Malfeitor”, “Reaping Death”, “Wolves Curse”, “Total Funeral” and “Hymn To Qayin”. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SEVEN YEAR STORM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Nov 172011
 

(TheMadIsraeli follows his review of First Reign’s EP with some notes about a band-in-the-making from First Reign’s drummer.)

Seven Year Storm is the upcoming project of First Reign drummer Sean Lang. I don’t have much to say except that it’s dazzling progressive groove metal with some mighty badass orchestration. The songs are in raw form, and the guitars are recorded with synths and the like; so for now, this actually sounds more like… brutal video game music? It’s awesome even in its current form. Also, did I mention Dean Lamb from fucking Archspire will be involved?

Songs and videos are after the jump. Continue reading »

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