HIDEOUS DIVINITY, “OBEISANCE RISING”: A GUEST REVIEW BY TED O’NEILL (OBLIVION)

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Oct 232012
 

(We’re stoked to present the following guest review by veteran guitarist Ted O’Neill of that most excellent California band Oblivion, whose new album we reviewed here.)

I was very pleased when the powers that be at NCS asked me to write a “guest” review for the site. I’m not a professional writer, which will become evident shortly, so let’s not get too excited about grammatical errors and the like.  Not being a writer by trade also frees me from the self-imposed burden of some of the pseudo-intellectual bloggers who try their best to pick apart and find flaws when they do get their hands on a stellar new release. Fortunately, I’m reviewing Hideous Divinity’s debut album Obeisance Rising, an album which leaves little room for criticism. Before I tell you why this is an album that is more than worthy of your money, let’s introduce the band.

Hideous Divinity is a band hailing from Italy, originally started in 2007 by Enrico Schettino, Mauro Mercurio (both ex-Hour of Penance), and Synder Mastantuono (Eyeconoclast). After composing and recording some material the band was silent until a new line-up took form in 2009 with Enrico H. DiLorenzo (vocals), Enrico Schettino and Fabio Bartoletti (guitars), Flavio Cardozo (bass), and Mizio Montagna (drums). At the time of this writing the band has parted ways with Flavio and Mizio, replacing them with Stefano Franceschini (bass) and Giulio Galati (drums).

For everyone who is not Italian, please re-read that paragraph as we are going to have a quiz here in a minute. OK, ready…go!

So why am I reviewing an album that came out 6 months ago? Well, simply put, this band needs more support. Somehow it seems that Obeisance Rising flew under almost everyone’s radar. This needs to be fixed and fixed NOW because in a sea of crappy generi-core modern metal, Hideous Divinity is an absolute juggernaut top-flight death metal band. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say these guys are a “real” death metal band, as this is death metal done the way it is supposed to be done. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS – “DREAMING DEATH”

 Album Reviews, Eye-Catchers, SHORT BUT SWEET  9 Responses »
Oct 232012
 

It’s not often that in the space of a four-song EP a band establish themselves as a paramount force in their chosen genre of music, but that’s what Beyond Mortal Dreams have done on Dreaming Death. This Australian band recorded a debut album in 2008 (From Hell), but this April 2012 self-released EP is a new beginning, reflecting both a revised line-up and an especially powerful take on dark, supremely brutal death metal.

Three of the songs are original and the fourth is a cover of Beherit’s “Beast of Damnation” — and the choice of a Beherit song should tell you something about this band.

The music on Dreaming Death is both galvanizing and transfixing. It made me imagine standing in the presence of an infernal creature that’s monstrous and yet magnificent, a sight that would freeze you in place with fear yet accelerate the rush of blood through your veins in a supercharged burst of adrenaline.

The hyper-speed riffs swarm like a horde of red-eyed bats bolting straight out of Hell. It’s a dense, raw, distorted sound that’s almost overpowering.The listening sensation is horrific, like being caught in the cataclysmic destruction of a battlefield or being processed through a giant meat-grinder capable of turning entire populations into sausage stuffing, bones and all.

The guitar solo’s erupt like sheets of white lightening. They’re scalding and blazingly fast, yet they’re also melodic — if you can wrap your mind around that conundrum. Continue reading »

CHECK OUT MESHUGGAH’S NEW VIDEO: “DEMIURGE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 222012
 

Meshuggah has debuted a new live performance video for their track “Demiurge” from the stunning 2012 album Koloss.

The video was produced by Scion A/V Metal — Scion A/V has definitely been on an awesome metal roll lately. The video combines a host of cool camera angles — including footage from mini-cam’s mounted on the mic and the instruments – and it’s very well edited. The performance was filmed at Meshuggah’s show at Terminal 5 in New York City lasy May. The vid was shot and edited by Anthony Dubois and had its premiere this morning on DrumMagazine.com.

This is definitely worth seeing — and you can do that right after the jump. Continue reading »

FACEBOOK FURTHER REDUCES THE REACH OF UN-PAID PAGE POSTS — AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT

 Off Topic  37 Responses »
Oct 222012
 

This is the latest in a series of increasingly depressing articles we’ve published about Facebook’s manipulation of Page posts in an effort to “monetize” their business. For more detailed background about changes that have come to light earlier this year, go here, here, and here.

The latest development: It strongly appears that in late September 2012, Facebook again changed the complex “EdgeRank” computer algorithm that it uses to decide what appears in its users’ news feeds so as to reduce the reach of so-called “organic” posts, i.e., un-paid posts, while it continues to push Page sponsors to pay Facebook in order to reach readers. If you’re a FB Page admin like me and you’ve noticed a dramatic recent decline in the number of FB users who see your posts, now we know why.

In this article, we’ll summarize the evidence of this change (with all sources listed at the end) and also discuss some ways of circumventing Facebook’s strategy, including one that’s increasingly being suggested around the web — use of Facebook’s “Interest Lists” feature.

This article may prove to be of general interest, but as usual, we’re writing from a narrow perspective: We’re addressing these issues as a non-profit metal blog whose mission is to spread the word about underground music made largely by broke-ass bands, distributed by largely broke-ass labels, and loved by largely broke-ass fans.

We use Facebook for much the same reason that our constituents do — to interact with the community of metal and to publicize what we’re doing. Making money isn’t in our mission statement, and although many metal bands and labels do use Facebook in an effort to generate sales of music, merch, and show tickets, it’s not like they’re raking in the big stacks. Which is why anything Facebook does that pushes metal-oriented Pages to pay for reaching their fans is particularly damaging to our (broke-ass) community. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: PETER ESPEVOLL OF EXTOL

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Oct 222012
 

In 2007, after six studio-releases, a Norwegian Grammy award nomination, worldwide touring with bands such as Mastodon and Opeth, critical praise, and the amassing of devoted legions of fans across the globe, Norway’s Extol seemingly disappeared without any explanation. But Extol are now back.

Cryptic hints began appearing earlier this year on an unheralded web site, hints that suggested a film might be in the works. Predictably, fans began wondering if new music might be on the horizon as well. Now, we know more.

First, a documentary film about Extol is indeed in production. It will reportedly include extensive archived material from touring and recording, as well as interviews with artists from Norway and other nations, music journalists, and fans from all over the world. And of course, it will include exclusive interviews with the members of the band.

Second, Extol are indeed at work on new music, with plans for release of their fifth studio album by 2013.

To help finance the documentary, which is co-produced by Extol’s Peter Espevoll, the band started a “crowdfunding campaign” at indiegogo.com with a fundraising goal of $20,000. With time still left before the campaign closes, the goal has been exceeded — raising more than $25,500 at the time of this writing.

The documentary is being directed by Åsmund Janøy, and earlier today we published NCS writer Andy Synn’s interview of Åsmund (here). But now we’re delighted to give you Andy’s interview of Peter Espevoll.  We thank both him and Åsmund Janøy for agreeing to let us pick their brains. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ÅSMUND JANØY (DIRECTOR OF “EXTOL – A DOCUMENTARY”)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Oct 222012
 

In 2007, after six studio-releases, a Norwegian Grammy award nomination, worldwide touring with bands such as Mastodon and Opeth, critical praise, and the amassing of devoted legions of fans across the globe, Norway’s Extol seemingly disappeared without any explanation. But Extol are now back.

Cryptic hints began appearing earlier this year on an unheralded web site, hints that suggested a film might be in the works. Predictably, fans began wondering if new music might be on the horizon as well. Now, we know more.

First, a documentary film about Extol is indeed in production. It will reportedly include extensive archived material from touring and recording, as well as interviews with artists from Norway and other nations, music journalists, and fans from all over the world. And of course, it will include exclusive interviews with the members of the band.

Second, Extol are indeed at work on new music, with plans for release of their fifth studio album by 2013.

To help finance the documentary, which is co-produced by Extol’s Peter Espevoll, the band started a “crowdfunding campaign” at indiegogo.com with a fundraising goal of $20,000. With time still left before the campaign closes, the goal has been exceeded — raising more than $25,500 at the time of this writing.

The documentary is being directed by Åsmund Janøy, and today we’re stoked to publish NCS writer Andy Synn’s interview of Åsmund, as well as a separate interview of Peter Espevoll (here).  Åsmund’s interview begins now: Continue reading »

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A NORTH AMERICAN TOUR BY GOJIRA, THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, AND THE ATLAS MOTH?

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Oct 212012
 

THis news is way too fucking awesome to wait until tomorrow for posting. Thanks to Lambgoat, I’ve just seen the news that Gojira, The Devin Townsend Project, and The Atlas Moth are teaming up for an early 2013 tour of North America. And I used to think men couldn’t have multiple orgasms.

I’m still sort of in disbelief that someone was smart enough to pull these three bands together on a single tour. It’s clearly going to be a huge profile upgrade for The Atlas Moth to be tagging along with the likes of Gojira and DT, and it will likewise be a boon to the many fans who’ll get a chance to hear them for the first time.

And the opportunity to see Gojira and DT sharing the same stage . . . well, that’s something I’ll spend the next three months salivating about. Given how much I drool on even a normal day, this is going to be embarrassing.

The tour was apparently exclusively announced during Full Metal Jackie’s show Saturday night (October 20), and tickets are supposed to go on sale October 26 and 27.

The dates and places as reported by Lambgoat are after the jump. I haven’t yet seen any other official announcements. Continue reading »

SUNDAY SAVAGERY, WITH ENSLAVED, XEHANORT, FISTULA, AND CATS MATING

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  15 Responses »
Oct 212012
 

The loris compound at NCS HQ has been in turmoil. They apparently expected me to leave grubs for them before I left town last week, and they resorted to cannibalism while I was gone. Must have been a ritualistic aspect to it, because I found them chanting over those big eyeballs of the dead, which had been collected like marbles in a shallow pit.

I thought they would just fast, and some of them had gotten pretty hefty so I figured that wouldn’t be a bad thing. Actually, to be brutally honest, I just fuckin’ forgot to leave food.

Anyway, they’re in a feisty mood, because I guess uncooked loris doesn’t taste as good as grubs. I don’t understand their language, but I’m pretty sure they were chanting something about impaling me on greased spikes. I’m glad I reinforced the fencing and electrified it last month. All my efforts to reason with them seem to have fallen on deaf ears, so I’ve had to resort to stern disciplinary measures.

I’ve been playing them some savage new music I discovered recently, using the compound’s megajoule PA system. It’s causing blood to come out of their ears, but instead of getting docile, it’s causing them to headbang. Very slowly. Because they’re lorises, aren’t they?

I thought I’d share the music with you, too. Not that you need disciplining, of course. Unless you do.

ENSLAVED

Thanks to a tip from MaxR (Metal Bandcamp), I started the lorises off with Enslaved providing a live cover of Led Zeppelin’s classic “Immigrant Song” on the Norwegian TV show Trygdekontoret on October 17 2012. It’s a goddamn glorious cover, with the band blackening the song and then ending it by dropping down into a doomy breakdown with Ice Dale spinning off a psychedelic guitar solo. I thought it was generous of me to give those slow creatures something to watch as well as hear. Continue reading »

DEAFHEAVEN / BOSSE-DE-NAGE SPLIT

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Oct 212012
 

deafheaven are one of my favorite genre-bending black metal bands. Their debut album Roads To Judah made many of the Best of 2011 lists we published at this site, and I also included the song “Violet” in our list of 2011’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. Though I was sold on the band based on that album and their previous EP, Libertine Dissolves, I became an even more devoted fan after seeing them perform live at Neumo’s in Seattle about a year ago and talking with their charismatic frontman George Clarke both before and after that set.

When I saw the news that they had recorded a song for a forthcoming split release with another Bay Area black metal band, Bosse-de-Nage, I begged for the chance to hear the split, and my wish was granted.

deafheaven’s song is a cover of “Punk Rock” and “Cody”, the opening songs from the 1999 album Come On Die Young, by Scotland’s Mogwai. By coincidence, Andy Synn included this deafheaven track in a list of his favorite “unexpected” covers that we published only a few days ago.

Before diving into deafheaven’s take on the songs, I first listened to the Mogwai originals, with which I wasn’t familiar. “Punk Rock” is a drifting, dreamy, isolated guitar arpeggio that plays out over a sample from a speech that Iggy Pop made during a 1977 CBC interview. “Cody” is similarly slow and restrained, a beautiful, hypnotic, near-pop song with layered guitars, almost-hidden vocals, and a decidedly melancholy ambience. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 65)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  12 Responses »
Oct 212012
 

It’s time again for another installment of THAT’S METAL, where we take a brief break from the headbanging to collect, images, news items, and videos that we thought were metal, even though they’re not music.

It’s worth reminding everyone, especially for this installment, that things can be metal for a bunch of divergent reasons — ranging from the blindingly awesome to the brutally destructive to the disgustingly grotesque to the utterly ridiculous. Of course, like beauty, what’s metal is in the eye of the beholder . . . and I’m kinda cross-eyed.

ITEM ONE

The first item, as usual, is the photo at the top of this post. I saw it at the amazing Big Picture at Boston.com, which is one of the best photo-collecting places on the web. It’s a shot of a Great White shark taken from below, by a photographer who was perched on top of a submersible cage just after he released a breath through his respirator. It’s one of thousands of photos that are currently being submitted in The National Geographic’s 2012 photo competition. More can be viewed here.

ITEM TWO

I’m indebted to Ben C from The Church of the Riff for this next item. It’s a collection of photos of intricate wax anatomical models created by anatomists and biological sculptors from the late 1600’s to the mid-1800’s.

The models are creepy as fuck, and many of them seem to be women. In fact, during the 19th century the dissected anatomical statues of reclining women came to be known as “Venuses”. Sexy. Continue reading »

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