AN NCS PREMIERE: 7 HORNS 7 EYES — FULL STREAM OF “THROES OF ABSOLUTION”

 Premieres  22 Responses »
Apr 192012
 

January 26, 2010 — the day when I first saw and heard 7 Horns 7 Eyes. They were the only local Seattle band on a night that included The Binary Code, Revocation, and Hypno5e. They played last, and I nearly left because I had an early start at work the next day, but I didn’t — and man, was that a piece of good fortune. As I wrote the next day in a review of the show for this site, I was thoroughly blown away: “If merit counts for anything (and unfortunately, it doesn’t always), these hard-working dudes will find a place in the vanguard, and the kind of widespread notice they deserve.”

Since that night, I’ve seen the band put on more riveting live shows and written about them frequently at NCS. They’ve undergone some changes — including the addition of vocalist J.J. “Shiv” Polachek (who has recently become an NCS guest columnist). But perhaps the biggest change is that they’ve signed with Century Media and Basick Records, and they’re on the verge of releasing their debut album, Throes of Absolution: April 24 in North America (Century) and a day earlier in Europe (Basick).

Not all success stories are happy ones (lots of low-talent artists become successful), but this one sure as hell is, and we’re stoked to show our support by streaming the entirety of Throes of Absolution for your listening pleasure.

If you’re new to 7H7E, I’ll say this much for now and save the rest for our review, which will be coming soon: This is a really good album. Jolting stop-start rhythms, dark keyboard atmospherics, thunderous bass-lines, guitar leads and solo’s that go off like fireworks, beastly vocals, swirling melodies, excellent songwriting.

Oh, one more thing: Jeff Loomis makes a guest appearance on “Regeneration”. Continue reading »

FULL ALBUM STREAM: BEFORE THE DAWN’S “RISE OF THE PHOENIX”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 192012
 

Well, for those of you who follow us on Facebook, I did promise a full album stream in my last status yesterday — and this isn’t it.  The one I promised is coming in about 45 minutes.  This one is an unexpected stack of fucking good pancake, with an ice-cream-sized scoop of butter on top and enough syrup to sink a fucken battleship.

Today, the Finnish Kaaoszine web site began streaming the new album by Before the Dawn, Rise of the Phoenix, which will be released by Nuclear Blast in Europe on April 25. The stream will last for one week. The Kaaoszine feature also includes a track-by-track description of the album by BTD vocalist/guitarist/one-man army Tuomas Saukkonen.

I think this makes our 1,000th post about this album, including the one two days ago about the new and thoroughly awesome new BTD music video, which is new. But all the attention is completely deserved. Give this thing a spin. You’ll be glad you did. HERE is the link for the stream.

That is all.

WATER SPORTS

 Metal News  18 Responses »
Apr 192012
 

When the first edition of 70,000 Tons of Metal was announced back in January 2010, I had loads of fun imagining all the things that could go wrong with the concept of putting 40 metal bands, 2,000 metalhead fans, and 24/7 bars on a boat. Sailing on an actual ocean. With waves and shit. It made great fodder for multiple posts, starting with this one.

I had to eat my words (which I did, with a side of fried chicken) when the damn thing turned out to be a real success by all accounts. And then they did it again, and that seemed to turn out well, too. No one drowned, there weren’t any cases of fatal alcohol poisoning, and only twenty-three children were conceived out of wedlock.

Now there’s another metal ocean excursion on the horizon called Barge To Hell. As in the case of the two 70,000 Tons of Metal cruises, the promoters are doing the slow roll-out of the band line-up — but it’s now gotten so good that I can’t ignore it any longer, especially with the recent addition of Belphegor, Kampfar, Soilwork, and Solstafir. With only half of the 40 bands announced for this excursion, it already seems like a compelling event for those fans with the time and the money to jump on board. Continue reading »

A SCATTERING OF SOUNDS: BLODHEMN AND INANIMATE EXISTENCE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 182012
 

Blog-time is still short for yours truly, and likely will be until middle of next week. With one very exciting exception tomorrow, about all I can manage at the moment are posts like this one — collecting new music I’ve heard recently that I think is worth spreading around. In today’s round-up, songs from Blodhemn (Norway), Inanimate Existence (California),

BLODHEMN

Blodhemn started life as a one-man band in 2004, and Invisus (that one man) continues to write the music, provide the vocals, and play all the instruments for Blodhemn’s studio recordings, though he now has a live band recruited from Bergen for stage performances. Blodhemn released an EP in 2010 called Brenn Alle Bruer, and just last week, Blodhemn signed with Indie Recordings for the release of a debut album that has already been recorded.

I’ve heard one song from the forthcoming album, “Djevelen i Menneskeform” (devil in human form), which premiered in late January as a teaser for the album. It’s a style of black metal I’ve really grown to enjoy — a kind of brawling, bottle-throwing, stomp ‘n’ rock music that’s as catchy as it is vicious. I’ve referred to this style of music before as black metal that’s hot instead of cold, though Invisus’ vocals still bring the feel of a searing Nordic ice storm.

Check out “Djevelen i Menneskeform” after the jump and prepare for sore-neck syndrome. Continue reading »

WE MADE GOD: “IT’S GETTING COLDER”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  3 Responses »
Apr 182012
 

(And here we have an Exception to the Rule: Andy Synn review the 2011 album by Iceland’s We Made God.)

It seems like we’re at one of those unfortunate confluences where all 4 members of the NCS Hive-Mind (myself, Badwolf, TheMadIsraeli, and our host-body Islander) are all somewhat busy and snowed under with other things. However I made an off the cuff promise to have something for today, just to keep all you salivating comment-jockeys satisfied for a bit longer.

Now the album we have here is far from the usual NCS fare. It’s a slab of Icelandic post-rock with overtones of late-90’s emotional hardcore, mixing a majority clean-vocal delivery with some cathartic, gasping screamed sections. The vocalist brings to mind drummer/singer (and latterly screamer) Francis Mark of the now-departed From Autumn To Ashes, while musically the band wax and wane with elements of Explosions In The Sky-esque dynamism, Sigur Ros-ian calm, and the fiery heart of early Thrice.

See, I told you this wasn’t your usual NCS band. Continue reading »

SCION ROCK FEST 2012: CAN SOMEONE LOAN A BROTHER A TELEPORTER BATTERY? (THERE’S ALSO A BLACK BREATH VIDEO IN HERE)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Apr 182012
 

There are some places in these continental United States that are farther away from Seattle than Tampa, Florida, but Tampa is pretty fucking far out there. And on June 2, it’s going to be really far out, because that’s the day when Scion is sponsoring this year’s edition of the Scion Rock Fest.

Scion A/V has been doing a lot of very cool things with metal, and I continue to hope they get a few car sales out of it because I believe in people making a buck when they make underground music or help support it. Yesterday, I saw two things that reminded me of the good that Scion is doing for our kinda music. One was a new Scion-funded music video by Black Breath, which we’ll come back to after the jump, and the other was this “rock” fest in Tampa.

Scion has announced that the festival will include 26 bands playing at four different Tampa venues throughout the day. They’ve also released that poster you see up above. Obviously, there aren’t 26 names on there . . . yet. But the ones that are on there make for an excellent line-up: Sleep (holy shit!), Repulsion, Merzbow, Church of Misery, Psychic TV, Oxbow, Decapitated (!!), Terror, Cerebral Ballzy (?), All Pigs Must Die (!!), Idea of Gemini, and Cellgraft.

The other names have been “masked”, but I can see a few letters here and there. The name in the second line on the far right looks a helluva lot like Suffocation. And on the top row, I can almost make out Saint Vitus. Can you make out any other names? I’ll put a bigger image after the jump. Continue reading »

FILLER

 Off Topic  15 Responses »
Apr 172012
 

I got nothing.  Except I got this.  So I got everything.

Translation: I’m short on time these days, so there won’t be as many daily posts as usual. I have ideas and projects under way . . . but not as much time as I’d like to get them done.  I will have at least one more post today, but it won’t happen for 5 or 6 more hours. I know that, somehow, you will survive . . . because if tiny monkeys can hitch a ride on a capybara, then anything is possible.

(Thanks to Tommy Wills (RXYZYXR), from whom I stole this photo.)

 

 

NEWLY MINTED: BEFORE THE DAWN, ALLEGAEON, AND THE ODIOUS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 172012
 

In this post, I’m collecting three newly minted pieces that went into circulation yesterday or this morning, like shiny gold coins that dropped into our grimy claws: a new video from Finland’s Before the Dawn; a new song from Colorado’s Allegaeon (pronounced uh-lee-juhn, in case you forgot), and a new lyric video from Portland’s The Odious. Here we go:

BEFORE THE DAWN

Such a coincidence. Earlier today, I posted a review of a new EP from a UK band — Twilight’s Embrace — that reminded me of Before the Dawn’s style of goth/doom-infused melodeath, and lo and behold, it’s not long before I get an e-mail from DGR alerting me to this new video. It’s for a song called “Pitch-Black Universe” from the band’s forthcoming album Rise of the Phoenix (out on April 27 via Nuclear Blast).

The song is what we’ve come to expect from Before the Dawn — jabbing riffs, sweeping/swirling guitars, bearlike vocals, broken glass, fires burning, the drip of blood, pitch blackness. The video is sweet, too. It’s immediately after the jump. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: TWILIGHT’S EMBRACE – “TRACES”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 172012
 

Twilight’s Embrace are based in Nottingham, England, and on April 6 they released their second EP, titled Traces. Although the EP only includes three songs, the total run-time is more than 20 minutes, and as the band themselves correctly state, it covers a lot of ground.

In its style, the music reminds me of Finland’s Before the Dawn. I get a little shame-faced when I compare one band to another, like I’m undermining the first band’s individuality or implying that the music doesn’t have the spark of something original. But that’s not my intention. I just know you’re asking yourselves right now, should I bother finishing this review or let my itchy fingers fly across the keys and take me someplace else? So, I’m giving you a shorthand idea about what the music is like, so you can hang in, or twitch yourselves away.

Traces had an impact on me. Last week, I was feeling pretty low, so low that I didn’t even want to listen to music, which tells you how low I felt. This EP was recommended to me, and I thought I’d listen to just one song out of curiosity, before returning to the dark place in my head where I was wallowing. The one song led to the next one, and the next, and over two days this EP was all I listened to, off and on. It both suited my dark mood and also made me feel better. Continue reading »

BACK AND FORTH: AVATAR AND THE WRETCHED END

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 162012
 

Sweden’s Avatar are batting 1,000 in the video game. First, there was the video released last December for the title track to their current album, Black Waltz, which included all sorts of grisly tricks performed by circus sideshow freaks Hellzapoppin (check that here). Then there was the live performance video for “Let It Burn”, which we featured in March. And now we have another winner in the band’s new video for the song “Torn Apart”.

Let me see if I can describe this without spoiling it for you: It involves a bar fight, which involves Mexican wrestling masks, pro-wrestling body slams, the gimp from Pulp Fiction, and assorted other strange characters, and the whole thing runs in reverse!

Oh shit. I guess I should have said “Spoiler Alert!!” Well, anyway, if you’ve never seen headbanging and windmilling and loogie-hawking in reverse, now’s your chance. It’s pretty fuckin’ cool. Also, you get to see how Avatar’s face-painted frontman Johannes Eckerström prepares his vocal chords for a shrieking session on stage. Also, “Torn Apart” is a hot song.

Also, the highly anticipated new album by Norway’s The Wretched End started streaming in full today. Details about that after the jump. Continue reading »

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