AN NCS INTERVIEW: GRAVEYARD

 Interviews  1 Response »
Feb 232012
 

Graveyard is a band from Barcelona, Spain, who I came across through their superb new EP released by Pulverised Records, The Altar of Sculpted Skulls (reviewed here). It caused me to ponder the question how a band can distinguish itself playing “old school” death metal without tinkering with the fundamental elements of the music in a way that destroys its authenticity. Graveyard pull off that trick; they succeed where other bands fail. They are also one of the few bands from Spain I’ve heard who devote themselves successfully to traditional death metal.

I had the chance to do an e-mail interview with Graveyard’s lead guitarist, Javi Bastard, who also runs his own recording studio. His answers are smart, funny, honest, insightful, and very interesting. Topics include Graveyard’s philosophy about music, observations about why Spain lagged much of Europe in the development of metal and about the current scene, the band’s approach to recording that old-school sound, recommendations about other Spanish bands, and future Graveyard releases. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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I should confess up front that I’m a newcomer to Graveyard, with “The Altar of Sculpted Skulls” being my first exposure to your music.  How would you say it compares to the band’s previous releases?

Javi Bastard: I think “The Altar of Sculpted Skulls” sounds more spontaneous than our previous works, at least more than “One with the Dead”, in my opinion. The 4 new songs on “Altar…” were written and rehearsed in just 1 month or so while the songs on “One with the Dead” took us much longer… When we wrote/rehearsed “One with the Dead”, the band had existed for just 1 year and a half or so, now we’re getting closer to our 5th anniversary as a band so I think that explains a few things. In my opinion, “Altar…” is the first GRAVEYARD release where you can actually find a band with its “own style” (considering the small room left for “own style” when you play this kind of classic Death Metal). “Into the Mausoleum” is a whole different thing; it was written, rehearsed and recorded in 2 alcoholic days back in 2007. It was released as an MCD, but of course I see it as a demo released on CD. Continue reading »

MISCELLANEOUS EAR AND EYE WRECKAGE: ALLEGAEON, FESTER, AUTOPSY, DARK TRANQUILLITY, AND HEXEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 232012
 

With only the briefest of introductions, this is a round-up of new videos, music, and artwork I saw yesterday that I thought were worth sharing. There’s a lot here, and I could have broken this up into multiple posts, but . . . I didn’t. So there. Here’s the herd I rounded up:

New songs from: Allegaeon (Colorado), Fester (Norway), and Autopsy (Florida)

New official video from: Dark Tranquillity (Sweden)

New album cover from: Necrolord and HeXeN (L.A.)

ALLEGAEON

Last time we checked in with Allegaeon, guitarist Greg Burgess was playing some mean tango (bitches). Before that, TheMadIsraeli reviewed their debut album, Fragments of Form and Function, as part of his Melodeath Week series last August. At long last, Metal Blade has scheduled the release of their second album, Formshifter, for May 8, and yesterday we got the song “Tartessos: The Hidden Xenocryst”. It’s smokin’ hot. Continue reading »

THE OCCUPATION DOMINATION TOUR 2012

 Metal News  15 Responses »
Feb 222012
 

I just saw a Facebook post by Aborted announcing this tour. We just have a few dates and locations so far because an official announcement hasn’t been made, but this line-up is like a ball-peen hammer to the back of the head:

ORIGIN
CATTLE DECAPITATION
DECREPIT BIRTH
ABORTED
RINGS OF SATURN
BATTLECROSS

UPDATE:  We now have an official announcement and the entire tour schedule. It begins on April 20 in Baltimore and ends on May 18 in Lawrence, Kansas. Happily for me, it includes a Seattle stop. Check it out after the jump. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: MITOCHONDRION

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  26 Responses »
Feb 222012
 

Over the last few days I saw two pieces of art that caught my attention, in part because the art is great and in part because both pieces relate to Mitochondrion, whose music has left wounds all over me that won’t heal.

The artwork above was created by Jeremy Hannigan (who’s also the vocalist of the doom band Funeral Circle). He created it for a new double-LP version of Mitochondrion’s 2008 debut album, Archaeaeon, which will be released by Dark Descent Records. According to the band, this special vinyl release will include the full lyrics in proper order, song descriptions, lyrical meanings, and a brief history of the album.

Archaeaeon was originally self-released by the band, but Dark Descent picked it up last August for re-issue as a CD, following a re-master of the music by Colin Marston (Krallice, Dysrhythmia, Behold… The Arctopus), and now we’ll have the vinyl. Of course, I still don’t own a turntable, but I think just about any news concerning Mitochondrion is worth repeating, perhaps especially when the news concerns Archaeaeon.

I first discovered Mitochondrion through their second album, Parasignosis, which got a Profound Lore release in January of last year. It blew my shit away, to put it mildly. I came to Archaeaeon much later, and found it equally compelling, though different in some respects from Parasignosis.  (more after the jump, including the second piece of art and Mitochondrion music . . .) Continue reading »

THE BEST AND WORST REPLACEMENT VOCALISTS IN METAL

 Mosh Pit  46 Responses »
Feb 222012
 

As I did yesterday with an article by Full Metal Attorney about Pantera, today I’m again leeching off the creativity of another metal blogger in an effort to spark discussion here at NCS. Today, the blood-suckee is Jason Roche, a metal writer for the LA Weekly blog.

Latching on to some of the new year’s higher-profile vocalist switch-ups — with Jesse Leach re-joining Killswitch Engage, Stu Block recently making his live debut with Iced Earth, and Dragonforce on the verge of releasing their first album with new vocalist Marc Hudson — Jason wrote two pieces over the last two days about the Top Ten Best and Worst Replacement Singers in Rock and Metal.

As the titles of these two articles suggest, some of his Top 10 choices are about rock bands. Those of you who are less musically narrow-minded than I am would enjoy reading them from start to finish (here and here), but our focus is metal, so the metal bands on his lists are the ones that caught my eye. On his Top 10 list of Best Replacements, the following are relevant to metal:

No. 10: ANGELA GOSSOW replacing Johan Liiva in Arch Enemy (2001 – present)

No. 9: GEORGE “CORPSEGRINDER” FISHER replacing Chris Barnes in Cannibal Corpse (1996 – present)

No. 8: HOWARD JONES replacing Jesse Leach in Killswitch Engage (2002-2011)

No. 7: JOHN BUSH replacing Joey Belladonna in Anthrax (1992-2004, 2009-2010)

No. 4: MIKE PATTON replacing Chuck Mosley in Faith No More (1989 – present)

No. 3: BRUCE DICKINSON replacing Paul Di’Anno in Iron Maiden (1982-1993, 2000-present)

No. 2: RONNIE JAMES DIO replacing Ozzy Osbourne and others in Black Sabbath (1979-1982, 1980-1992, 2006-2010)

No. 1: BRIAN JOHNSON replacing the deceased Bon Scott in AC/DC (1980-present)

And Jason’s Top 10 list for Worst Replacements includes these picks . . .
Continue reading »

U-DAY: UNLEASHED, UNSANE, AND UFOMAMMUT

 Metal News  9 Responses »
Feb 222012
 

I swear, this was completely coincidental, just a pleasing serendipity (or synchronicity, or both): Yesterday afternoon I got press releases about three bands whose new albums I’m interested in hearing, and the names of all three bands begin with U. So, in this post I’ve collected (i) album art and other details about the next album from Unleashed (Sweden); a new song from Unsane (NYC); and a new video teaser from Ufomammut (Italy). Plus, I’m throwing in some additional music from two of these bands.

By the way, The Used also released a new single yesterday, but U know I ain’t goin’ there.

UNLEASHED

Can you believe that this band is about to release their 11th studio album? Not many extreme metal bands have had careers spanning such a length of time, and fewer still are capable of continuing to generate interest in what they’re doing. Conceptually, the new Unleashed album — Odalheim — will continue to tell the story from Norse mythology about the end of the world (Ragnarök) and what comes next.

The album art, which you can see above, was created by Sebastian Ramstedt. According to Unleashed vocalist/bassist Johnny Hedlund, it depicts the new world (Odalheim) built by the warriors who survived Ragnarök, shown “at the break of dawn at the Birka shores, and just before the attack of White Christ.” Continue reading »

DRUDKH: “FAREWELL TO AUTUMN’S SORROWFUL BIRDS”

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Feb 212012
 

About one month ago, I posted a feature about the first song to premier from the new album by the reclusive Ukrainian band Drudkh, from their next album, Eternal Turn of the Wheel. Drudkh was a cult band whose music I had never thoroughly explored despite the fact that the few tracks I’d stumbled across over time were amazingly good. But listening to that first song from the new album — “When the Gods Leave Their Emerald Halls” — convinced me that the new album would be one to watch for.

Today, that conviction solidified even more. With an introduction by Brandon Stosuy, Pitchfork debuted a second song from the album called “Farewell To Autumn’s Sorrowful Birds”. The song title fits with the overall concept of the album — a five song collection that focuses on the four seasons.

The first song dramatically captured the transition from harvest time through fall and into the withering bleakness of winter. This new song is another fine piece of music. The first segment is slow and sorrowful but filled with pagan power and solemn beauty. After a brief interlude of relative quiet, the music surges in a blast of blackened power, yet still carries a memorable melody. Continue reading »

PANTERA: REVISITING “VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER”

 Mosh Pit  28 Responses »
Feb 212012
 

Thanks to an article at FULL METAL ATTORNEY, I discovered that today is the 20th anniversary of Pantera’s Vulgar Display of Power. I agree that it’s an anniversary worth remembering, and not because it reminds me how fucking ancient I am.

Speaking of which, yes, I was alive and a partially functioning adult when Vulgar Display of Power was released. However, I was not then a metalhead. In fact, although I tolerated a bit of Pantera more than the vast majority of what I thought of as heavy metal back in 1992, I wasn’t a fan. I was still listening to punk and getting into grunge with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, and I brushed off Pantera as knuckle-dragging, simple-minded, cock-swinging mediocrity. There, I said it.

As the years have passed, and I’ve become more knuckle-dragging, simple-minded, and cock-swinging, I’ve come to appreciate Pantera more, though I’m still not a Dime worshipper or a Pantera addict. As for Vulgar Display of Power, it does seem to represent what was best and worst in Pantera’s music, though I’m not sure that makes much sense.

The Full Metal Attorney makes some provocative assertions about the album that I thought might generate some discussion here at NCS. He recognizes that almost as many metalheads despise the album as love it — perceiving it as something that was responsible for “ushering in nu metal, and the bad groove metal of the late 90’s” and blaming it for “the tough-guy posturing of metalcore bands like Hatebreed or hard rock bands like Drowning Pool.” He then goes on to respond to the criticism, arguing that it’s one of the most influential metal albums of all time; that it was one of the heaviest albums released up to that point; that it was an adrenaline rush loaded with dynamism and great songwriting; and that it made its mark in part because it’s not what people expected. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ANTAGONIST ZERO — “NIGHTTIME HARMONY”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Feb 212012
 

Since this is Pancake Day, I thought we needed some fucking good Finnish pancake (naulan kantaan, vitun hyvä lätty) at NCS.

While fans of Finnish metal are still applauding or deploring the surprisingly strong showing of Turisas at this past weekend’s Finnish Metal Awards (reported here), I thought I’d follow my natural instincts and just dodge the whole debate. Instead, I’m getting my Finnish fix early this week by focusing on a band whose profile is considerably lower than the juggernauts who duked it out in the main categories at the awards show: Antagonist Zero.

This relatively new band from Porvoo (formed in 2010) is composed of former members of bands such as Coprolith and Cavus. They describe their music as “catatonic metal”. I wasn’t sure what they meant by that, but I liked the sound of it, since I feel catatonic quite often.

Early last month, the band released their debut EP, a three-song collection of dark, heavy, doom-influenced melodic death metal called Nighttime Harmony, and it’s really good.

The first song, “AZ”, allows a ringing guitar lead to weave a dark melody over pounding percussion, but after a short instrumental bridge, the song opens up with full power, reminding me of Insomnium, Before the Dawn, and Hypocrisy. Guitarist Ben Pakarinen’s massive harsh vocals are very much in the vein of Insomnium’s Niilo Sevänen and BtD’s Tuomas Saukkonen. This long song changes moods past the halfway point, with beautiful interplay between acoustic and electric guitar and with Ville Siikamäki’s Dio-style clean vocals making an appearance as well. The song treats us to another soulful guitar solo before a big shred-fest of a finish. Very cool song. Continue reading »

CARTHAGE: “BLACKOUT”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Feb 212012
 

Songwriter and guitarist Tre Watson is a talented dude. He also can’t sit still for very long — a quality I’ve noticed in most talented people, except for those (like me) whose principal talents are sleeping and waiting for someone else to entertain them.

One of Tre’s many musical projects — the one that seems to be the vehicle for putting some death and hardcore in his metal — is a Baltimore-based band called Carthage, which also includes vocalist Eric Hendricks, guitarist Ian Starks, guitarist Noyan Tokgozoglu, bassist Robby Gossweiler, and drummer/vocalist Billy Berger.

Last fall, TheMadIsraeli reviewed the 2011 debut EP from Carthage here, but the band is already at work on a new album called Salt the Earth, which will be available for pre-order soon. At midnight last night, the band put up a new song from the album called “Blackout”. It’s a real genre-bender. There’s a foundation of bruising, pulsing, funky riffage and a hardcore vibe generated by swarming, pissed-off vocals, but the song also includes a Midi-style intro, swirling guitar leads, a brief jazzy interlude, and a sweet little solo right before a metric shift near the end.

I guess one might say it’s an interesting hybrid of hardcore, prog, and pneumatic metal. It makes you want to body-slam your neighbor while dropping into a head-nodding groove at the same time. Hot stuff. Check it out after the jump. Continue reading »

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