NO FUCKING AROUND: ENTHRALLMENT AND GOJIRA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
May 062012
 

It’s a Sunday morning here in the Pacific Northwest. The air is crisp and slightly chilled, the sun is shining, and a high cloud layer has turned the sky a pale blue-gray. It’s a beautiful time to be outside. So I thought, what better way to celebrate than to stay inside and beat the shit out of my head with some brutal heavy music? Well, it made sense to me.

ENTHRALLMENT

I recently discovered this Bulgarian death metal band via their new official video for a song called “Fruits of Pain and Blue Sky”.  You see?  There’s a blue sky connection. This song appears on the band’s third album and their first for the United Gutteral label, People From the Lands of Vit, which is out now.

Listening to the song was liked being dropped into a boiling stew of Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Suffocation, and Deicide: brutal, technically oriented riffing; riveting drumwork with timely-placed blasting; a slew of piercing guitar solo’s; and gruesome vocals. It triggers a nice adrenaline rush and it’s catchy as well as merciless.

The video is nothing but the band performing the song, but it’s well made, and the Enthrallment dudes look like they’re not fucking around. Get beaten and bruised right after the jump. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: WTCHDR

 Album Reviews, Free Shit  8 Responses »
May 062012
 

Long-time readers may remember my repeated praise for a Vancouver, BC, grind band called Burning Ghats (the latest of multiple posts about the band can be found here). It turns out that two of the guys in Burning Ghats (Cam and Kevin) are in another Vancouver band called WTCHDR (along with members of other area bands, Spirals and Memorial). Last month, they released a self-titled debut EP, which you can stream and download for free on Bandcamp (HERE).

I had high hopes for this EP because I lost so many brain cells listening to the Burning Ghats releases and I’ve found that life is more enjoyable now that I’m able to comprehend less of it due to brain cell loss. But, to be brutally honest, I was also kind of afraid. I could stand to lose some more brain bits flying out my ears and nose, but if one or both of my eyeballs exploded out of their sockets, that would complicate important daily activities such as being able to locate the toilet paper and getting a beer out of the fridge for a big swig instead of the hot sauce.

So I tied a blindfold really tight, to provide some extra reinforcement, and started listening to this EP. Seven songs raced by in less than 11 minutes and left smoking tread marks across my face. The ingredients: Distorted guitar and bass chords tuned to subterranean levels of low, alternately slamming hard and dragging the listener through pools of filthy sludge; bursts of squalling lead guitar and ear-splitting feedback; a vocalist being strangled by barbed wire; percussion that sometimes pounds like a massive sledge and sometimes attacks with d-beat fury. Continue reading »

JENX: “ENUMA ELISH” and “THE CALL OF CTHULHU”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 062012
 

At one point in the last two years I checked out the music of a band from Bordeaux, France, named Jenx, which is an acronym for something that I haven’t yet figured out. I also haven’t remembered what led me to investigate them or why I didn’t write about them then. I have only a vague recollection that the music was a style of industrial metal.

Jenx have a new album called Enuma Elish that’s scheduled for release on May 11 by Klonosphere and Season of Mist. Last week, the band released a music video for the album’s title track, which I watched yesterday. There’s still an industrial vibe to the music, particularly at the beginning, though less pronounced than I remember. The riffing is a truckload of heavy, the bass tone is monstrous, the drumming is superb, the band make effective use of synths, and the vocals sound like a raw wound (and reminded me a bit of Joe Duplantier). When the main riff returned at about the 3:00 mark after a short interlude, I headbanged so hard that I put a dent in the table where I was listening. I really like this song.

The video, which was made by Julien Rodrigues, is really well done, too. It mixes footage of the band performing the song together with film of the band members as the subjects of what may be grotesque medical experiments and may be something else with a more occult purpose. Whatever is going on, the video is fun to watch, and the music is galvanizing. You’ll see it after the jump.

After watching the video, I poked around the interhole looking for more info about Jenx and discovered something else they’ve done that’s too juicy to overlook — a metal soundtrack to a silent film titled The Call of Cthulhu. Continue reading »

BE’LAKOR “ABSIT OMEN” and BETRAEUS “RISES”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 052012
 

I’m way late to the Be’lakor party.  The first music I heard from this Australian band was “Remnants”, which was the first song they aired from their new third album Of Breath and Bone (coming in June from Kolony Records). It gob-smacked me right in my gob. And then I caught a video of a live performance of another song (“Fraught”) and got smacked again.  Wrote about both those songs in this post, where you can hear the songs if you haven’t (just be careful of your gob). To steal a phrase from Phro, they sound like “Amon Amarth making antichrist babies with Insomnium”, with Amorphis as the midwife.

This morning we got yet another song from the album.  This one is called “Absit Omen”, which is Latin for “will fuck your shit up”. I still can’t do better than comparing the music to a fusion of Amon Amarth-style crushing riffs, dark Insomnium-esque melodies, and death-metal vocals that give Johan Hegg and Niilo Sevänen a run for their money.

The song is majestic, powerful, memorable. This really is melodic death metal done right. Can’t wait for the album to drop! Listen to “Absit Omen” right after the jump. Continue reading »

WAR OF AGES: “SILENT NIGHT”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  33 Responses »
May 052012
 

I think Saturday mornings are probably the worst possible time for any kind of serious discussion, regardless of where you are or what you’re doing. It’s an even worse time for a serious discussion on this blog, because it’s the weakest day of the week in terms of our readership. I watch the page hits on this site because I lead a pathetic life in which my happiness depends on how many people stop at NCS, and so I know that Saturday’s are weak. But this new video is on my mind at the moment, so I’m going with it on this Saturday morning despite the fact that the subject matter is serious and controversial.

The band is War of Ages. In the minds of many metalheads, they have two strikes against them: First, they’re a metalcore band.  Second, they’re an openly Christian band. I’ve been a long-time fan of this band, for reasons that have very little to do with the religious zeal that inspires their songs. I just think their music has an honest passion behind it that translates into powerfully ass-kicking music. I’m not the only one around here who’s a fan: Andy Synn devoted one of his SYNN REPORTS to War of Ages, and he summed up their appeal better than I could:

“[T]he self-belief and honest expression of this band also shines out like a beacon of integrity in a sea of populist, lowest-common-denominator swill, striking a chord with their direct and passionate approach. It does help, though, that the group can also all play their instruments to an impressive level, particularly the band’s two guitarists, who peel off an array of stunning riffs and shining solos with recognisable passion and fury.”

The subject of this post is a video released yesterday for a song called “Silent Night”. The song is from the album Return To Life, which is out now on Facedown Records. It deals with the death of a child and the impact of that on a young mother and father. Continue reading »

TITILLATING UPDATES FROM SIGHT OF EMPTINESS

 Metal News  No Responses »
May 042012
 

“Titillating”: pleasantly stimulating or exciting; also: erotic.

That’s the definition of the word provided by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. It looks like the Spanish translation of the word would be “excitar, estimular placenteramente”. It’s a great word, because it sort of sounds like what it means, at least to me. But that may be because it begins with “tits”, as in “this is the tits”.  Speaking of which, THIS is the tits, and it’s also titillating:

Costa Rica-based metal band Sight of Emptiness have finished recording their third album, to be released later this year, and it features a line-up of guest appearances that will make you look twice. If you’ve been a regular NCS reader, you already know about this talented band because we’ve written about them frequently and even helped them premiere a new song and video. If you don’t know about them yet, check this out.

Now, let’s start with the name-dropping: First, the album was recorded at SoloHits Studios in San José, Costa Rica by Swedish producer Thomas “Plec” Johansson (Scar Symmetry, Watain, Solution .45, Miseration), who traveled all the way to Costa Rica to work with the band for 22 days. Johansson will also handle the mixing and mastering at Panic Room Studios in Skara, Sweden.

Second, here’s the list of guest appearances:

Glen Drover (King Diamond & Megadeth)

Christian Älvestam (Scar Symmetry, Miseration, Solution .45

Whitfield Crane (Ugly Kid Joe, Another Animal

Ralph Santolla (Deicide, Iced Earth, Obituary)

Ole Halvard Sveen (Extol, Mantric, Lengsel)

and last but not least . . . Continue reading »

HOUR OF 13: “WHO’S TO BLAME?”

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 032012
 

I’m basically going to be missing in action for the rest of the day.  My fucking day job is going to demand undivided attention into the night.  Shith happens.

So, most likely until tomorrow, I leave you with this — a song from Hour of 13 called “Who’s To Blame?” It’s from an album titled 333 that Earache Records plans to release on May 29.

Hour of 13 is a two-man band from North Carolina — Chad Davis plays all the instruments and Phil Swanson sings. I knew nothing about them until this morning, probably because their style of music is relatively foreign to what we cover on this site. It’s a kind of old-school, Black Sabbath-influenced doom metal with almost exclusively clean singing.

But the riffs in this song are titanically convulsive, the melody is undeniably catchy (though bleak), and it changes pace effectively and satisfyingly on the back end, with a very cool finish. Phil Swanson can really sing, too. So we’ll call this an Exception to the Rule and bid you a fond farewell until we meet again. Fill your head with “Who’s To Blame?” after the jump. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT: AN UPDATE

 Metal News, THE SYNN REPORT  4 Responses »
May 032012
 

(Andy Synn provides this update about two bands he previously featured in his SYNN REPORT series.)

Today saw the release of two pieces of news regarding two former Synn Report luminaries, both of whom happen to be amongst my all-time favourite bands. One piece of news is very bad, whilst the other one is potentially very good.

First and foremost:

AVERSE SEFIRA

“As we write the names, the stars go out…”

Sadly, the US black metal titans have officially disbanded. An official press release has been issued by Clawhammer PR stating:

“American black metal titans Averse Sefira has officially disbanded. The band formed in 1996, and went on to make their mark through Europe and the Americas, performing with other notable black metal groups like Dark Funeral, Gorgoroth, Watain, Marduk, 1349, Absu, Antaeus, and Secrets of the Moon.

“The band gained a respectable following despite a fiercely independent stance that garnered them a complex reputation in the underground. They achieved wider exposure with their signing to Candlelight Records in 2007 and the release of their highly-rated fourth LP, Advent Parallax, the following year. Over the last decade, they also appeared in multiple documentaries and books examining metal culture. Continue reading »

KEYBOARD VIDEO WARRIORS: ROBERT PASBANI AND FRANK GODLA

 Interviews  8 Responses »
May 032012
 

(Rev. Will continues with his Keyboard Warriors interview series, and today’s victims subjects are the creators and operators of Metal Injection.)

Before the well-known MetalSucks, there was and still is Metal Injection, a behemoth of a metal website that offers a cornucopia of metal-related content in a variety of formats. It’s like a virtual Swiss Army Knife of fixes for one’s metal cravings!

Metal Injection is more a Web TV site than a blog even though they do have an active blog section, and the main perpetrators behind this multimedia website are none other than Robert Pasbani and Frank Godla. Robert is generally the Pikachu of the site while Frank is generally the dude behind the scenes (literally)  holding the camera filming Robert on-site covering insanely cool events such as the annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards show. But one most definitely wonders: how did they get to where they are today?

From across the cyber-void, Robert and Frank thought-spoke into the neural transcriptor and discussed the origins and workings of Metal Injection at the speed of a quark on steroids. By the time you see this, they are already light-years ahead in their busy schedules working on the next big thing for their little baby.

********

Rev. Will: Let’s start from the beginning. Was the name “Metal Injection” thought up like that to give off the feeling that metal music can be as addictive as drugs?

Robert Pasbani: That’s certainly part of it. I just tried to come up with a name that had the term “metal” in it and sounded cool, and including “Injection” evoked so much imagery that I thought it would be perfect.

Frank Godla: Well if you think about it, isn’t metal appreciation very much like a drug? Aren’t the metalheads you know absolutely hooked and passionate about it? Most people find metal through a gateway rock band, and before you know it,  you’ve moved on to way harder and faster stuff even your friends don’t understand. You don’t often meet metalheads who drop it like a bad habit either, it’s just something that sticks with you. I can tell you metal music is the most important thing in my life, and because it’s a 25-year-old habit that isn’t going away, I really don’t mind referring to myself as a metal junkie. Continue reading »

NE OBLIVISCARIS: “XENOFLUX”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
May 032012
 

Yesterday, we alerted you to the plans of Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris to debut a new song at midnight, Pacific Time, last night. And they did it. The new song, which will appear on their forthcoming debut album Portal of I, is called “Xenoflux”.

“Epic” is a tremendously overused word in metal circles, but I can’t help but use it here: “Xenoflux” is epic. At an even ten minutes in length, it will still leave you wanting more.

It begins with a a grand introduction — great hammering riffs, rolling drums, and a winding lead guitar paving the way to the song’s invigorating first segment. Jagged, blackened vocals conjure images of a wolf pack loping through dark woods on the hunt, while beautiful guitar work weaves melodies that are as entrancing as they are heavy. That opening five-minute segment is both head-smashing and emotionally powerful, but the achievement is more than matched by the three-minute middle segment which follows it.

All the instruments drop away, clearing the stage for a solitary guitar arpeggio. And from there, other instruments slowly join in, with a violin taking the lead, painting a meditative sonic picture that’s beautiful. In the song’s final segment, the music rises in power and intensity once again, the harsh vocals resume, and the band catapult the listener toward the finish — which comes too soon for these hungry ears.

“Xenoflux” is a beautifully imagined, beautifully constructed, superbly executed song that I think you’ll remember long after you’ve heard it even once. Stream it right after the jump. Portal of I will be out on May 7 and can be pre-ordered here. Continue reading »

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