BLOODSTOCK 2012 – A REVIEW AND MUSIC FROM THE FESTIVAL (Part 1)

 Concert Reviews  6 Responses »
Aug 282012
 

(Our NCS comrade Andy Synn has recently been making me green with envy by attending summer metal festivals on the other side of the Atlantic, which for me might as well be on the other side of the solar system.  However, gentleman and scholar that he is, he didn’t just go and have a ridiculously good time. He also sent back this review of his jaunt to the UK’s BLOODSTOCK festival on August 10-12, 2012. We’re dividing it into two parts, with Part 2 coming up tomorrow [now posted here].)

Ah, Bloodstock. Always an interesting festival, caught between its early power/trad-metal roots and its steady expansion into a more rounded, extreme/non-mainstream metal festival. This year’s line-up was pretty enticing, but circumstances and finances looked set to prevent my attendance. But fate and serendipity stepped in (thank you Sahil!) and on Friday 10th of August I found myself once more pulling into the festival’s parking lot, with a song in my heart and a shiny guest wristband on my arm.

 

FRIDAY

Carefully timing my arrival to coincide with that of Moonsorrow, I wasn’t disappointed, the band utterly on fire, despite the occasionally washed out sound. It helps that the set-list comprised some of my favourite Moonsorrow tracks, I’ll admit that, but the performance itself was brilliant either way. The only downside is that, due to the length of their material, it always seems like too few songs

Sepultura put on a damn good show, their new drummer certainly doing his best to live up to Igor Cavalera’s enviable legacy, while the triptych of Derrick, Paulo, and Andreas showed again and again why they stuck with the name – they just do it all better. The new material sounded great live, while the quartet give the old stuff, including a brace of Beneath The Remains-era material, new life and vigour. Props as well for the welcome, but unexpected, guest slot from Tim “Ripper” Owens on “Territory”.

Dio Disciples were, in many ways, something of a curiosity for the festival. Essentially Dio’s band with a different singer (and a few guests), it’s hard to judge them on merit alone, as their appearance was due to far more than just an ability to play the songs well. This was a tribute to one of the genre’s legendary figures, and while it would be churlish to say it was simply a well-received cover set (the downright dedication to this band’s slot bordered on the fanatical), one can’t help but be moved by this show of respect, and by being reminded of the sheer quality of the material on display. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: RIVERS OF NIHIL, NEIL ARMSTRONG AND BUZZ ALDRIN, AND CARCINOGEN

 Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Aug 272012
 

Here are a few items of interest that I saw and heard today.

RIVERS OF NIHIL

We were first introduced to this Pennsylvania band by NCS guest writer The Baby Killer (who needs to stick his head back in our lair soon). The focus of his post back in January was not only the band’s ripping recorded music but also their ability to play a fire-breathing brand of technical death metal with immaculate skill on stage, stirring the shit out of the pit while delivering spot-on execution of their complex music.

Today I saw that the band had released an official music video for a song called “(sin)chronos”, which appeared on their 2011 album, Temporality Unbound. Listening to the song is like sticking your head into a blast furnace while simultaneously getting a megawatt jolt straight to your brain stem. Faces will melt and nerve endings will explode. It’s fast and furious, eminently mosh-worthy, and lit up with technical acrobatics. And dat bass!

Watch and listen after the jump. Crank more Rivers of Nihil music and download at their Bandcamp page, buy it as a CD via this link, and hook up with the band on Facebook at this location — and stay tuned, because the band are at work on their next album. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DANIEL FORBRICH OF STEALING AXION

 Interviews  4 Responses »
Aug 272012
 

(In this companion to our full-album stream and review of the dynamic new album from Stealing Axion, TheMadIsraeli interviewed the band’s Daniel Forbrich (guitarist/vocalist) via Facebook chat, and this is the result . . .)

 

Daniel Forbrich: Oh herro

TheMadIsraeli: Hey there man!  Wassup?

DF: Not much, I just read on Josh’s screen that we could do the interview now lol
 

TMI: Yeah if you want.  Here is how this works.  I ask questions, and we bullshit on stuff that’s relevant.  This conversation, aside from formatting, will be totally unedited except for typos.

DF: Ok
 

TMI: Ok cool.  So, the only person I’ve talked to of you guys has been Josh (Josh DeShazo).  Explain yourself a little bit and how much of a role you play in the Stealing Axion machine.  Just as a little introduction, you know =P

DF: My name is Dan Forbrich, I play guitar and sing in the band. Behind the scenes I share writing responsibilities of the music with the other guys. We all live together, so much of the other work is delegated pretty evenly.  We also all work together at our day jobs in one form or another, so we are inseparable it seems.
 

TMI: Brutal man.  Just brutal.

DF: Haha
 

TMI: So, musically, how do you fit in? I was surprised to find out Josh actually isn’t into metal too much despite the fact your music crushes my intestines. Are you into the genre at all yourself?

DF: Definitely. My roots are in metal… My dad raised me on the classics… Slayer, Pantera, Metallica, Sabbath, and what not. I still say I listen to Metal about 80% of the time. He and I still actually go to shows quite regularly together… metal head for life.  I did however start to get into stuff like Yes/Pink Floyd/Frank Zappa in my teen years for whatever reason.  I’d like to think those bands have had just as much impact on my songwriting as the metal. Continue reading »

OAK PANTHEON: “FROM A WHISPER” (A REVIEW AND A SONG PREMIERE)

 Album Reviews, Premieres  15 Responses »
Aug 272012
 

Our relationship with Oak Pantheon goes back to a post I wrote in June 2011 about three new bands I’d come across who had less than 100 Facebook “likes”, but whose music I thought was really worth hearing. At that time, Oak Pantheon had officially premiered only one song, “In the Dead of Winter Night”, but it made a strong impression. When the band’s first EP, The Void, appeared not long after, it confirmed that “In the Dead of Winter Night” was no fluke; Oak Pantheon were a band to watch closely.

Now Oak Pantheon are less than a month away from release of their debut album, From A Whisper. In short order, it has become one of my favorite releases of 2012. As much as I enjoyed The Void, the album represents a big step up in the quality and sophistication of the songwriting, and the performances of this Minneapolis duo are truly excellent from beginning to end. The music is also quite varied, drawing together multi-faceted strands of metal (and non-metal) into more than 60 minutes of music that resists simplified genre classification.

At the end of this review, we’ll be premiering a song from the album that demonstrates how far Oak Pantheon have come in a very short time. It’s called . . . “It” . . . and like the rest of the album, it’s remarkably good.

The Void drew frequent comparisons with the musical style of Agalloch, and the influence of that band’s fusion of neo-folk and black metal is still in evidence on From A Whisper. The opening track, “Descend Into Winter”, is a prime example. The song combines memorable melodies, carried by layered guitars and piercing leads, with hard-driving rhythms, and this time Oak Pantheon have even incorporated emotionally subdued clean vocals (by Tanner Swenson) in much the way Agalloch do, creating an effective contrast with the harsh, mid-ranged rasps of Sami Sati. Continue reading »

THE FACELESS: “AUTOTHEISM”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Aug 272012
 

(The new album by The Faceless has generated heated discussion among metalheads, and now its our turn to wade into the fray with this review by DGR.)

It’s hard to believe that we’re four years removed from the last Faceless disc and we’re finally looking at a new one. For a while, the band’s habit of being incredibly quiet became something of a punchline for jackasses like myself, running stories about how there was either no one left in the band because everybody on the planet had quit or, more likely, everyone in California had been added to a list of persons to be moved into the band’s ranks when the next person departed.

Background drama aside though, you can’t argue with the fact that with Akeldama and Planetary Duality, The Faceless put out two incredible albums, so much so that they don’t feel like time capsules. I could listen to either one of those now and it would still sound as good as the day when I first heard it. That helped make the passage of time easier, for sure, so that even the elapse of four years between albums didn’t feel that bad (and we never reached Wintersun levels of delay). However, after taking their dear sweet goddamned time, The Faceless have finally managed to kick out another release called Autotheism, and without revealing too much too soon, man is it a bit of an oddball.

One of the first things people will likely realize when they fire up Autotheism is that this isn’t the same Faceless that they fell in love with. Across the space of only three discs, there’s been a revolving door of musicians, with Autotheism representing a massive lineup shift. Point being, there’s quite a bit of new blood in this particular iteration of the band and only two guys left from the days of Planetary Duality. While I’ll admit that I, too, was pretty hyped for anything with The Faceless’ brand on it after Planetary Duality, as we found ourselves more and more removed from their previous works and as more guys excused themselves from the lineup, my interest in the band changed more from when were they were going to put out another amazing disc to whether anything more would come, and to the even bigger question: what the hell was it going to sound like? Continue reading »

GANGNAM STYLE

 Off Topic  18 Responses »
Aug 262012
 


 

Because you’ve been good, I’m giving you this. 62,119,286 YouTube viewers since July 15 can’t be wrong. Can they?

Please, hold your applause, and don’t thank me. Thank Ben C at The Church of the Riff, because he sent this to me.

(From the video’s YouTube description: “From 2 years of break, PSY is finally coming back with his 6th album ‘PSY6甲’! The album’s weighty title song ‘Gangnam Style’ is composed solely by PSY himself from lyrics to choreography. The song is characterized by its strongly addictive beats and lyrics, and is thus certain to penetrate the foundations of modern philosophy.”)

UPDATE!! — Thanks to Old Man Windbreaker, we have a second video in which a dude adds a metal backbone and some nice guitar solos to this song. Assuming you can take the song a second time, check out that shit after the jump. Continue reading »

RATTENFÄNGER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Aug 262012
 

Rattenfänger is a new band from Ukraine, but the band’s four members have already established their kvlt cred: They are also the four members of Drudkh and Old Silver Key (along with Neige from Alcest), and three of them are also members of Blood of Kingu. If those band names don’t mean anything to you, then you got some ‘splainin’ to do.

If you are familiar with those other bands, however, I think you’re going to be surprised by what Rattenfänger sounds like. This isn’t black metal or pagan/folk metal or depressive indie rock. This is voracious death metal, of the death/doom variety, and the one song I’ve heard so far is outstanding.  An album’s worth of material, entitled Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, will be released by the Norwegian label Dark Essence Records in late October/early November of this year.

The band take their name from the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin (in German, Rattenfänger von Hameln). You remember that tale, don’t you? The townspeople hire the rat-catcher to rid their town of rats, but then stiff him on the bill after he succeeds, and he then uses his magical pipe to lure the town’s children away, never to be seen again. According to a press release, “the lyrics for Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum are in Latin and are written in style of the medieval poets, the thinkers and the troubadours/minstrels of old.”

Being the curious sort, I did a bit of poking around and discovered via The Font of All Human Knowledge that Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum was “a celebrated collection of satirical Latin letters which appeared in 1515-1519 in Hagenau, Germany . . . mock[ing] the doctrines and modes of living of the scholastics and monks, mainly by pretending to be letters from fanatic Christian theologians discussing whether all Jewish books should be burned as un-Christian or not.” Pope Leo X was not amused and excommunicated the authors, readers, and disseminators of the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum  in 1517. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 61)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  5 Responses »
Aug 262012
 

Greetings to one and all and welcome to the 61st installment of THAT’S METAL!, in which we pause from our headbanging long enough to hunt through the slimy bowels of the interhole for images, videos, and news items that we think are metal, even if they’re not music (or at least not metal music). Today we have 7 items for you.

ITEM ONE

As usual, our first item is staring you in the face at the top of this post. But to understand why it’s metal, you have to stare back at it. You may have to stare at it a long time. I did (though I tend to stare blankly at all sorts of things for a long time, usually with a sagging jaw and a slow stream of drool leaking out my gob).

At first glance (and at second, third, and fourth glances) you will see coffers, which is a term for sunken decorative door panels. But there are in fact 16 circles in that image, set against the background. I’m not sure why our brains’ first impulse is to tell us we are seeing rectangles, instead of to see the circles first and then the rectangles. But as illusions go, this one is pretty fuckin’ cool.

It was created by Anthony Norcia, and was a finalist in the 2006 Best Illusion of the Year contest I’ll give you a hint at the end of this post that may make it easier to see the circles if you get stumped.  (via TYWKIWDBI) Continue reading »

MY DYING BRIDE: “KNEEL TILL DOOMSDAY”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 252012
 

October 15 is the appointed date for Peaceville Records’ release of A Map of All Our Failures, the 12th studio album from My Dying Bride, in this, the 22nd year of their existence. I’ve previously quoted guitarist Andrew Craighan’s memorable description of the album as “a controlled demolition of all your hopes”. My hope at the moment is that the album will be demolishing. There is some reason to believe it will be.

Today, via an e-mail from Peaceville, I heard an edited version of the first track on the album, “Kneel till Doomsday”. Not only is Peaceville streaming the song, they’re also making it available as a free download to fans who sign up for the band’s mailing list. There hasn’t been much fanfare about this yet on a Saturday, but I did manage to find an embed code for the player so you can listen to the song after the jump. I also found it on My Dying Bride’s official web site, which you can access via this link.

The demolition of hope, indeed. This edited version of the song is about five minutes long, and even in that abbreviated length it’s a dynamic, riveting piece of music. At the outset it’s ponderous, bleak, and crushing, but it begins to move with increasing speed — without losing the black aura of hopelessness — before fading out following a return to the chain-dragging weight of the beginning. The vocals are both clean and harsh, the riffs infectious, the atmosphere doomed (of course). Have a listen . . . Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: INCANTATION, SHINING, MEANKIND, AND EVIL ENTOURAGE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 252012
 

The ol’ fucking day job has had its claws in my viscera the last couple of days, and I haven’t been able to focus my bloodshot eyes on happenings in the metal world as keenly as I’d like. But that vice-like grip has eased somewhat, so it’s time to begin catching up. Here are some items of interest I saw and heard yesterday.

ITEM ONE: INCANTATION

I saw the news that Incantation (pictured above) is at work on their eighth album, to be entitled Vanquish in Vengeance, which is projected for a November release on Listenable Records. I saw this statement by John McAfee:

“The title track is about the massacre of Saxons in the town of Verdun in 782, called on by order of King Charlemagne. As an album title it has a different meaning to me. Vanquish in Vengeance symbolizes the long history of the band. We have fought many battles over the years to keep things going. We have always stayed true to our original vision and have never caved into trends. After a long wait between albums we are back with a vengeance with some of our darkest and heaviest material to date.” 

“Darkest and heaviest material to date”? That would take some doing.  “We have always stayed true to our original vision and have never caved into trends”? True dat. I’m ready for new Incantation.

ITEM TWO: SHINING

I like the music of Sweden’s Shining. I saw that Shining have a new album coming. Instead of persisting with the Roman numerals as on previous albums, this eighth one has a name: Redefining Darkness.

I also saw that Shining’s main man Niklas Kvarforth recorded two teaser videos for the album. In one, he’s having a rub-a-dub-in-the-tub using the favored lubricant of all trve black metallists. He’s also licking something that looks vaguely familiar. I’d say this one is not safe for work, but you’re not working now, are you? In the second video he multitasks, explaining Shining’s self-mutilating mission while taking a shit. Continue reading »

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