“THAT’S MUSIC!” – BUT IT AIN’T METAL: SOEN – “COGNITIVE”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, That's Music -- But It's Not Metal  7 Responses »
Aug 092012
 

(In this post, DGR reviews the 2012 album by Soen.)

Talk about a disc about which it has taken forever to compose my thoughts. It’s been floating around since mid-February as a Spinefarm release in Europe but only saw digital release here in the States much later. Soen are a conflicting-as-hell band to discuss because one of the first things everyone does is drop a comparison to Tool. Given that I am a Tool fan and very familiar with their work, I can confirm that the comparison is definitely warranted, but you know what? Soen deserve to stand as their own band.

Yes, they have some elements of the aforementioned band’s spacey prog-rock tone attached to them, but very few bands do it as well; even those who are influenced by it and try to mimic it to a T usually fail. Soen have somehow managed to get close enough to that band’s sound without becoming them or even adopting the Philosophy-101-styled thinking buried in new age mysticism that I’m perfectly okay with Soen.

Yes, getting David Bottrill involved (famed producer, worked with a ton of groups, including Tool) feels like an incredibly shrewd maneuver, and he does his damnedest to give them the exact same mix, but so what, it sounds great. They’re really not mimics. Believe me, Soen are something of an all-star group who manage to do enough things on their own that they feel like a new thing. Cognitive is a really good bit of prog-rock with quite a lot of individuality buried in between echo-heavy bass lines and singalong-worthy choruses, much of which, surprisingly enough, is provided by the drumming work of former Opeth drummer Martin Lopez.

I know it’s impossible to analyze this album in a vacuum, as if I had never heard some of what’s being done here before, but now that I have gotten that rant out of the way, let’s talk about Cognitive. Continue reading »

NO, WE DIDN’T OVERLOOK THAT SECOND NEW SYLOSIS SONG: “A DYING VINE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

We watched the social media pages for Sylosis like hawks over the last couple of weeks, waiting for the new songs that the band had promised, and pounced immediately once the first one (“Born Anew”) debuted early yesterday (see this).

And then I got on an airplane yesterday morning to fly across the country, with no wi-fi onboard, cut off from the bubbling world of metal for 5+ hours, feeling like an abandoned brat with no blankie and nothing on which to nurse. By the time I got where I was going and plugged back in to the ether of metal, I had an in-box for of mail with links to the second Sylosis track — “A Dying Vine” — which had emerged while I was confined at 35,000 feet.

I hate being late with news, and thought about just moving on because so many other metal sites had been spreading the news already. BUT, the damned song is so sweet that, tardy or not, I have to post about it.

The song is streaming now on the band’s recently activated web site, Sylosis.com, where pre-orders from the new album (Monolith) are also being fielded, but of course it’s up on YouTube now as well, which means we have it here, too. Continue reading »

NEW ENSLAVED SONG! “THOUGHTS LIKE HAMMERS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

Well, I’m rushing again, with my day job pounding at the door, so to speak, so I will hold my own words to a handful: NPR has debuted a long new song by Enslaved — “Thoughts Like Hammers” — from their forthcoming album, RIITIIR. Here’s an excerpt from Lars Gotrich’s excellent NPR write-up about the band, the album, and this new music:

The intro to “Thoughts Like Hammers” comes out of nowhere — three seconds in and we’re bludgeoned by decibel-damaging feedback, chaotic chord voicings and stuttering blast beats. But then the song goes through several transformations: A mean groove turns into a pumping Angus Young riff, which then sneaks into a syncopated, King Crimson-y organ. That all happens in the first two minutes. There’s no telling where Bjørnson will take “Thoughts Like Hammers” next, but the patchwork pieces all come together at the soaring chorus, as vocalist and keyboardist Herbrand Larsen helps rein in Enslaved’s experiments. Surprisingly, the nine-and-a-half-minute “Thoughts Like Hammers” is instantly memorable for all its organic twists and turns.

And THIS is the link to the NPR page where the song is streaming. Seriously, go listen, and then think about coming back here to share your reactions in the Comments.

UPDATE: This song is now streaming on Soundcloud, which means we have it here now, after the jump: Continue reading »

JOB FOR A COWBOY’S NEW VIDEO FOR “TARNISHED GLUTTONY” MAY NOT HAVE BOOBS, BUT IT’S STILL BRILLIANT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  29 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

Job For A Cowboy’s 2012 album Demonocracy got high marks from our Andy Synn, who called it this band’s best album yet: “Preconceptions be damned, this is a fine slab of dark, meaty death metal.”

The album’s closing track, “Tarnished Gluttony”, is a dynamic turn from much of the rest of the album — a long, slow, crushing piece that exudes a sensation of apocalyptic doom. Today, Blood Disgusting premiered a nearly nine-and-a-half minute official video for that song (the music in the video adds a dirge-like instrumental segment to the album’s song, as accompaniment for part of the story until the music on the album track resumes again).

The video puts an imaginative Lovecraftian spin on the song that isn’t present in the lyrics, yet there is still a thematic linkage, as the band’s frontman Jonny Davey explained in a statement that we’ll quote after the jump. Much of the video moves in slow motion, matching the slow pacing of the song, and the integration of the visual story and the terrifying music is beautifully done.

Actually, the whole thing is just brilliant, though there’s a graphically gory sequence that may affect where you choose to watch this. Credit goes to director  Michael Panduro (the man who direct Cephalic Carnage‘s “Ohrwurm” video) and actor Morten Klode. Panduro is quoted as saying: “As a commercial director, I’m a complete failure. The band asked for just one thing and I couldn’t deliver. Indeed, this video has no boobs.” No, it doesn’t, but it’s a riveting thing to watch nonetheless. Continue reading »

NILE: “AT THE GATES OF SETHU”

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

(Here we have yet another review by TheMadIsraeli, catching up on 2012 releases that have impressed him. Today, it’s the new one from Nile, which is out now on the Nuclear Blast label.)

As much as it may have sucked total ass in the mainstream, underground metal in the 90’s was one of the absolute definitive highpoints of the music’s evolution to me.  A huge component of this was the surge of brutal tech-death giants, most of whom (though not all) somehow have managed not to stagnate one bit, still putting out consistently killer albums while retaining the defining qualities that make these bands who they are.  I’m speaking of Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Immolation, Cryptopsy, and obviously in today’s case, Nile.

Nile, like almost all the bands listed above, have a virtually flawless discography.  I think the only guilty party in that list who turned out to be an exception needn’t be named, but Nile is definitely a band who’ve never committed such a gaff. Their new album,  At The Gates of Sethu, is a monolithic assault of Nile’s esoteric brutality that’s just as good as any of their other work (which is to say fucking excellent), though it seems to be drawing criticism via the tropes and trivialities of the modern metal crowd.

I digress briefly with a rant: I hate most modern metal.  I may find a modern metal band worth checking out here and there, and even more rarely, one that I deem fucking excellent.  However, I hate modern metal as a whole.  I hate the sentiments it comes with, what the crowd expects from the music, and the general idea that if something is not groovy, if it doesn’t have slick, pristine production that’s sterile and as stale as an open three-week-old bag of chips (even though it might very well capture the full spectrum of sound), if it doesn’t have lame, half-assed attempts at syncopation, and if it lacks clean vocals, then it’s bad. Even more obnoxious and condescending is the notion that music which fails these criteria is not relevant, not “with the times”, or some cockamamie horse shit like that. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: AGELESS OBLIVION

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

(In early July, Andy Synn reviewed the 2011 debut album by the UK’s Ageless Oblivion — Temples of Transcendent Evolution — and today he follows that with this interview.)

Ok, so recently I conducted a back-and-forth email interview with David Porter (guitar) of current NCS faves Ageless Oblivion, where we touched upon everything from the line between atmospheric/brutal death metal and the joys of chasing cattle, to the perils and pitfalls of hanging around on abandoned military bases!

 ********

Because you might be something of an unknown quantity to a lot of our readers, let’s start off with the basics: Who are you, where do you come from, when did you first come together?

We are a five piece Death Metal band from Basingstoke in Hampshire UK.  The band has existed 5 years or so with countless numbers of guitarists and bassists contributing over time.  The band was started by Rich, Steve and myself from a mutual love for old school extreme music and a general tiresomeness of hearing the same two dimensional bands at every show we went to.  We wanted to play something fast, aggressive and with no obvious breakdowns.

At the moment the band consists of:

Steve Jones – Vocals
David Porter – Guitar
Richard Wiltshire – Drums
Fahad Sperinck – Guitar
Sam Chatterton – Bass

Sam joined just after the recording of our album and Fahad was added to the fold only a month ago. Continue reading »

FLAYED DISCIPLE: “THE WESTBORO MASSACRE” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

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Somewhere, against all odds and all reason, there are pathetic, deluded motherfuckers who believe that the Westboro Baptist Church are doing God’s work, when in truth they are simply whores for publicity who have no reluctance to damage the feelings of innocent people in order to get it. For them, no outrage is too outrageous, and the Bible by which they claim to swear clearly means nothing, because if it did, they would be too fearful of the final judgment to do what they have done.

I have yet to see any metalhead who has condoned or supported the mental and emotional cruelty these animals have attempted to inflict in a very calculated way on people who are already suffering from the random losses and pain and prejudice that the dice-roll of human life has a way of inflicting.  It makes me proud to be a part of a community that has condemned their bullshit so consistently and so vehemently.

But now we have an anthem, a way to exorcise the anger, a form of catharsis that sure made me feel good, and I suspect will make others feel good, too. We have the new official video for “The Westboro Massacre” by Flayed Disciple.

Could this song and this video also be taken to task for fighting fire with fire, for reacting to hatred with anger and the suggestion of violence? Absolutely, yes, it could. But I think it’s a lot better to work out through music the anger that people like the Westboro Baptist scum ignite than through actual violence or confrontation.

Or maybe I should just speak for myself: I got something nasty out of my system by watching this video and listening to this music, and I feel better for it. Also, the song is just really fuckin’ good metal. Continue reading »

WINTERFYLLETH: “VOID OF LIGHT”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Aug 072012
 

At the end of July I posted about the plans of Candlelight Records to release a new album by the UK’s Winterfylleth in September. The album’s title is The Threnody of Triumph. When I last wrote about this news, Zero Tolerance magazine reported that it would be including a feature on the band AND a track from the new album — “Void of Light” — on a bonus CD with the magazine. I expressed the hope that the song would surface on the web soon. And so it has.

This morning, Candlelight started streaming the song on Soundcloud. With blasting drums and vibrating guitars forward in the mix, the music rushes like a riptide. The dense wall of  tremolo guitar carries a majestic melody of the kind for which Winterfylleth have become known, while the anguished vocals flay the senses with razor-edged shrieking. The song is primal in its power, and though the core melody is a simple one, it’s the kind that will stick in your head.

“Void of Light” makes me even more eager to hear the new album, and I was damned eager to begin with. Find Winterfyleth on Facebook here and listen to the song after the jump. Continue reading »

SYLOSIS FINALLY PREMIERE A NEW SONG, FINALLY: “BORN ANEW”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Aug 072012
 

Inspired by the Art Nouveau movement, this is the CD jewelcase artwork for Monolith, the new album by the UK’s Sylosis. The artist is Dan Goldsworthy, who also created the cover art for the band’s last album, Edge of the Earth. According to the band, some of the inspiration came from Greek mythology, and that figure on the left loosely represents the devil in disguise or a satyr and may have something to do with the album’s concept.

Also, Dan Goldsworthy created a second piece of artwork for Monolith, which it appears Nuclear Blast is using as an “O-card cover”, whatever that is. You can see that after the jump, too.

Monolith will be released by Nuclear Blast on October 5 in Europe and October 9 elsewhere. Sylosis has been promising to premiere a new song for weeks, setting specific dates and then no-showing. Most recently, the promise was that a new track — “A Dying Vine” — would premiere yesterday on the band’s new web site. Nope.  More undisclosed “technical issues” reared their venomous heads. I was beginning to think that this was a new Machiavellian strategy designed to pump up fan frenzy.

However, though not quite johnny-on-the-spot with the premiere, Sylosis have today finally unveiled a new track called “Born Anew”. This song isn’t the one that was scheduled to appear on their web site. It’s one that was broadcast last night on a BBC radio program, which means that it’s now up on YouTube, which means the radio rip is embedded here after the jump. The band are also now streaming “Born Anew” on their Facebook band page HERE.

In addition, Sylosis has stated that they will soon be providing more news about the still-not-yet-functional web site, which presumably will include news about when “A Dying Vine” will be unveiled. To stay on top of that, visit their Facebook page.

And unless you get the wrong idea and think this post is nothing more than a whine session about Sylosis’ delays, allow me to say that “Born Anew” fucking rips.
Continue reading »

THE CONTORTIONIST: “INTRINSIC”

 Album Reviews  16 Responses »
Aug 072012
 

(Here’s the second of TheMadIsraeli’s new reviews in as many days, the log jam having broken on his pent-up thoughts.  Today, the subject is the 2012 release by Indiana’s The Contortionist.)

Man, was there a fuck load of hype around this album.  I have to say, as much as I like this band and as good as I think their music is (I’m reviewing the album obviously), I didn’t know mixing djent, deathcore, and post-rock would be such a big deal.  Other bands have obviously attempted to bank off what The Contortionist have done since their stellar debut Exoplanet was released; probably most notably Substructure, whom I also love to death.

But now we’re here to talk about the band’s insanely hyped and eagerly anticipated sophomore release, Intrinsic.  The Contortionist have stepped up their game, expanded their sound, yet they have also refined it.  I will be frank and say the experiment here is not entirely successful, but rather that this should be viewed as an excellent, ambitious step forward in establishing an identity.  It could be argued, of course, that this band already stood out, but Intrinsic is definitely an album you couldn’t mistake for another.  It is for this reason, combined with Intrinsic’s solid ideas and concepts, that make it worthy of an NCS review in my mind.

The music has definitely changed quite a bit.  The trademark elements are still here:  Brutalizing death core grooves; mantic, technical, brain-hemorrhaging riffs; soothing ambience that makes one envision galaxies moving in space; and crescendos and drops in intensity that showcase extreme dynamic intelligence.

The prog level is definitely turned up on this album, though. The song structures are much more frantic, with little to no cohesiveness whatsoever.  A lot of the songs jump unexpectedly from part to part.  There may be a returning section at some point during the song, but even in those situations, the returning part is thrown in with the most unorthodox logic. Continue reading »

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