SHOW REPORT: THE DECIBEL MAGAZINE TOUR – IN SOLITUDE, THE DEVIL’S BLOOD, BEHEMOTH (COLUMBUS, OH, 4.11.12)

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
May 222012
 

(Last month, BadWolf was on hand for the launch of Decibel magazine’s inaugural sponsored tour, and Nicholas Vechery was there to record the event for NCS in the photos accompanying BadWolf’s review.)

The first Decibel tour held its first date at a house of death. The original venue backed out all too predictably, unwilling to let Watain play. As it turned out, passport issues kept Watain from playing anyway. Either way, the show transplanted to the infamous Alrosa Villa, site of Dimebag Darrel’s murder. In the same room where one guitar hero died, another announced his resolution to live.

Nergal’s cancer ordeal matters more than much of the typical borderline-TMZ banter circulating in the metal community—his success is the exception to the rule. Metal fans are accustomed to tragedy. Once-great heroes make crappy music. Visionary musicians die young. Rats steal gear. Border patrol stops tours. Those examples represent par for the course. Compare them to Nergal: more-extreme-than-thou metal guitarist achieves some level of ‘mainstream’ success in his home country and abroad, contracts terminal illness, then beats it. “Inspiring” is the watchword.

The Decibel tour was Nergal’s first chance to cash the check his personal narrative wrote. Beginning at the Villa Rosa was tantamount to sticking his tongue out at the pale horseman. The tour as a whole flew in the face of ‘modern’ marketing sensibility. Who besides Decibel has the audacity to book four of the most satanic bands on the planet, with styles ranging from highly accessible to incredibly brutal? Continue reading »

KEITH MERROW: “RETROSPECIAL”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
May 222012
 

(Here’s TheMadIsraeli’s review of the latest collection of music from that creative dynamo, Keith Merrow.)

I think we need to establish one thing before we start here:  Keith Merrow is the fucking shit.

Not only is the man an exceptional example of a DIY tour de force, an excellent composer, and a terrific guy, he writes some of the most intelligent metal to be found right now.  It’s been a minute since we’ve heard anything new from him, and fortunately, new shit is here in the form of his latest EP, Retrospecial.

You all might remember my review of the debut album of his death metal project Demisery.  Well, it appears that a good deal of Demisery’s old school death metal leanings have rubbed off on Merrow here.  You will still find a ton of the trademark groove and the particular technicality his music has been known for, but it’s distinctly less melodic and groovy this time around.  Song structures are also quite a bit more progressive than before.

The EP is a mixed bag of goodies with five new songs, two re-recordings of older songs from his catalog, and a Castlevania cover.  I am only going to focus on the new songs that are entirely original on this release. I really don’t see a point in speaking about the re-recorded songs, except to say that they still rule and the new mix befits them quite nicely.  (He redid “Andromeda” as well as recording a new version of “Pillars of Creation” called “Pillars of Re-creation”.) Continue reading »

MONDAY SONG ROUND-UP: FROM EXILE, NIGHTRAGE, THE STRANDED, AND THE NEOLOGIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 212012
 

This morning our buddy DemiGodRaven delivered a short round-up of new songs or videos that struck his fancy, and it came at a time when I was trying to figure out how to publicize a new song and video that I had also recently discovered. So I decided to lead with the one I found and then finish with DGR’s contributions.

FROM EXILE: “A Desperate and Willing Enslavement” Video

From Exile is an Atlanta band we’ve written about frequently at NCS. You can see a collection of all our previous features via this link. Having said that, a year has passed since our last post about the band. That time, the occasion was an amazing music video (featuring guest guitarist Emil Werstler) for a song called “A Warm Place” that appeared on Just Like You Imagined, which was a collection of Nine Inch Nails songs covered by From Exile.

Now, a year later, I’m happy to report that we have a new From Exile song called “A Desperate and Willing Enslavement” and a new music video to go along with it. The video is a live performance of the band filmed at the studios of Digital Arts Entertainment Lab on the Georgia State University campus in downtown Atlanta. It was filmed as part of a video series focusing largely on Atlanta-based bands called indieATL (check out their web site here).

From Exile is a three-guitar outfit, and on this song guitarist Eric Guenther steps up to provide lead vocals. They’re all clean, but this qualifies as an Exception to the Rule around here, not only because the vocals are quite good but also because the song itself is so damned excellent — and you can download the live track for free, on top of everything else. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SVYATOGOR’S “DOCTOR VERITAS”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 212012
 

I suspect that when the words “experimental” or “avant garde” are mentioned in connection with metal, most people’s reactions fall into one of two categories: Some stifle a gag reflex and feel the impulse to run for the hills, and others experience a quickening of the pulse at the prospect of finding something new and different in a musical landscape saturated with sameness. I’m in the latter group — but at the same time I’ve learned the hard way that those “experimental” and “avant garde” labels can cover a multitude of musical sins, encompassing a lot of dreck as well as some true gems.

In the case of Doctor Veritas, the recently released third album from Ukraine’s Svyatogor, we have gems. You may remember that in early April, I included a recently released song from the album (“Work Hard. Eat. Watch.”) in an NCS post (here), though conceivably it may have escaped attention since it was preceded in the post by videos of . . . flying penguins and a deluge of guns.

I’m not taking any chances this time. This time, Svyatogor get a post all to themselves as we assist in the international premiering of a second track from the album — the title song, “Doctor Veritas”. Thanks to the band’s label, Svarga Music, a CD-quality file of the song is also available for free download. Continue reading »

NE OBLIVISCARIS: “PORTAL OF I”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
May 212012
 

(Our friend groverXIII reviews one of the best albums of 2012, the long-awaited, eagerly anticipated full-length debut by Ne Obliviscaris.)

[EXCEPTION TO THE RULE WARNING]

Five years. Five very long years have passed since the release of Ne Obliviscaris’ impressive 3-song demo, The Aurora Veil, one of the most polished demos I’ve ever heard. The impressive mix of black, death, and progressive metal displayed there had me yearning for more, and finally, the band have released Portal Of I. The album features the three tracks from the demo (re-recorded, albeit very faithfully to the originals) and four new songs, all of which fit together perfectly to create one of the year’s best progressive metal albums.

Musically, Ne Obliviscaris (Latin for “lest we forget”) bear certain similarities to Ihsahn’s solo work as well as Enslaved’s more recent material, but that comparison doesn’t really do the band justice, because they don’t really sound a great deal like either band. There is the basic framework of black metal, with scads of lightning-fast double-kick drumming (courtesy of drummer Daniel “Mortuary” Presland, who has previously been named as the Fastest Feet in Australia) and tremolo-picked riffs, along with the throaty roar of vocalist Xenoyr, but that’s only part of the story.

For starters, there’s the interplay of guitarists Benjamin Baret (leads) and Matt Klavins. Baret and Klavins play off one another almost constantly, with Klavins generally laying down base riffs and Baret providing counter-melodies and lead flourishes. There’s the clean vocals and violins, both performed ably by Tim Charles, who adds another layer of melody alongside Baret and Klavins. And then there’s bassist Brendan “Cygnus” Brown, whose work on the low end isn’t limited to simply following the riffs. Brown makes sure that his bass plays as much a role as the other instruments, allowing him to add to the sonic tapestry while still maintaining the foundation of the songs. And the aforementioned Mr. Presland does an excellent job keeping things interesting, no small thing when most of his beats are over the top of his ever-present double-kick. Continue reading »

UNDERGROUND METAL FOR THE TRVE CURMUDGEON (DEATH AND DOOM)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
May 202012
 

(NCS reader, commenter, and occasional contributor SurgicalBrute volunteered to help educate me about death/doom.)

It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these . . . sorry about that. Unlike some of the other guys here, I’m not a writer by profession. So when you combine that with my natural laziness . . . you end up with long periods of inactivity.

I actually requested the chance to write this post though. While I don’t really enjoy Traditional Doom (there are some exceptions), and I really have to be in the right mood for Funeral Doom. Death/Doom hits a sweet spot for me. Never so slow that I start to lose interest, it still manages to establish the crushing atmosphere that’s so important for this style of metal.

Now, I know Death/Doom can be a rather ambiguous term . . . I’ve seen it applied (and not incorrectly) to everything from the mid-paced death metal of Asphyx and Autopsy to the slow moving riffs of Ahab. For the sake of simplicity I’m going to limit this article to my own personal definition . . . where, more often than not, the pace is kept slower than the average Old School Death Metal band, but still quicker than any kind of Funeral Doom.

As usual, I’ll do my best to provide links for distros/labels that may still have merchandise available (and if anyone’s curious as to what Ive been spinning, you can find me on http://www.last.fm/user/Surgical_Brute)

Enjoy the music \m/ Continue reading »

EVOCATION IN THE TIME CAPSULE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
May 192012
 

Sweden’s Evocation are one of my favorite death metal bands. They are old school. I don’t mean they mimic the old-school sound. I mean they went to the old school when it was new and graduated with honors.

They recorded their first demo (The Ancient Gate) in 1992 and another promo that same year, and then in 1993 the band split up, despite interest being expressed by a number of labels. Evocation returned to life in 2006 with a demo of new material, and then three full-length albums were released between 2007 and 2010, the last of which was the wonderful Apocalyptic (2010).

Since the release of Apocalyptic, Evocation signed with Century Media. On June 26, Century will release Evoked From Demonic Depths – The Early Years, a compilation of demo, unreleased, and rehearsal material.  This isn’t the first comp of old Evocation material; another one was released in 2004 by a label named Breath of Night. But the new comp will include a different collection of songs and performances, as well as a 32-page booklet and three live bootleg videos from 1992.

One of the songs on the forthcoming comp appeared on that four-song  1992 demo, The Ancient Gate. It’s called “Through the Darkened Peril”, and earlier this week DECIBEL began an exclusive stream of the song. It’s a great song — but it’s actually been released before — and that brings me to Swedish Death Metal. Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST AND NEGATIVE PLANE: THE SOUNDTRACK TO DEMON SEX (and new music from THOU ART LORD)

 Metal News  2 Responses »
May 182012
 

Skogsrået, Näcken Och Djävulen [“The Call of the Nature-Demons (in the Name of 1000 Devils)”] is the title of Mikael Häll’s doctoral dissertation on the subject of sexual intercourse with nature spirits and demons in 17th and 18th century Sweden. It will be published later this year by Malört Förlag, a Swedish publishing house that specializes in “texts about the fantastic, the numinous and the aberrant.”  It sounds like an interesting book, especially since it may explain the ancestral roots of why Sweden produces so many killer metal bands.

I would also like to applaud Malört Förlag for coming up with the idea of issuing a soundtrack for every book they release.  And, of course, what better way to read about sexual intercourse with nature spirits and demons in 17th and 18th century Sweden than to do it while listening to Rotting Christ and Negative Plane.  That’s what Malört Förlag decided, and it sounds like a fuckin’ good idea to me.

Malört Förlag is now selling a 7″ vinyl single to accompany the book which includes two exclusive new tracks by those bands. I still haven’t figured out what turntable to buy, but I’ve ordered this single as further inducement to get my damned ass in gear and get a turntable, and also because both bands are awesome.  You can buy the single, too, by following this link.

I wish I could stream these two songs for you, but I haven’t found them online yet.  HOWEVER, while we’re on the subject of things related to Rotting Christ, earlier this week a new song was released by Thou Art Lord, which is a side project of Rotting Christ’s guitarist/vocalist Sakis. More about that after the jump, including a link for a free download of the single. Continue reading »

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