SWIMMING IN AN OCEAN OF BEER (Part 3)

 Mosh Pit  13 Responses »
Aug 282013
 

The NCS Staff Confab continues, with yesterday’s convocation ending in the wee hours of this morning on the outdoor deck of Captain Black’s in Seattle, the view from which is shown above in a photo snapped by Andy Synn and whose motto is “Eat. Drink. Pillage.” There was no eating there, for reasons I will come to. There may have been pillaging, though your humble editor cannot say with certainty because he left to go home at a reasonable hour because his fucking day job is forcing him to leave Seattle on an early flight this morning. However, because I am now seeing Facebook posts by my cohorts that went up between 2:45 a.m. and 3:45 a.m., pillaging may have ensued. There was definitely drinking.

Before I left the comfy confines of Captain Black’s, I did witness one of the trip’s high points, as we were introduced to a dude named Gerald who just happened to be on the premises enjoying a few brews. He is not only an NCS reader, but also someone for whom NCS is his primary online portal to metal. Damned cool.

Captain Black’s is how the day ended. It began with a trip to Beth’s Cafe, ranked #3 on the Travel Channel’s list of World’s Best Places To Pig Out, #2 on the Food Channel’s list of Top 5 Big Breakfasts, and featured in the Man vs. Food TV series (in which the man lost). There, our own Andy Synn locked himself in mortal combat with the 12-Egg Triple By-Pass Omelet, which was approximately the size of a wedding cake, stuffed with bacon, sausage, and double layers of Swiss and cheddar, laid out on a bed of hash browns deep enough to drown in, and weighing approximately as much as a newborn elephant. Continue reading »

WINTERSUN / FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE / ARSIS: LIVE AT STUDIO SEVEN, SEATTLE, AUG 23, 2013

 Concert Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 272013
 

(All of the regular NCS staffers have been together in Seattle since last week and collectively took in the performances by Wintersun, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Arsis at Studio Seven on August 23. In this post Andy Synn reviews the show and shares with us some video clips that he filmed that night.)

So… we may have missed Starkill. Apologies all. We were busy having drinks across town at The Oak (very cool place by the way) and ended up staying a bit later than we’d anticipated.

No worries though, because we made it to the venue just in time for Arsis who were, for me, at least, the most anticipated band of the night.

ARSIS

I’ve never seen James Malone and his melodeath marauders before, but I’ve been a fan of the band ever since they released A Celebration of Guilt, so this was a big moment for me, and the band did not disappoint at all.

Malone himself is both a fantastic guitarist and a vicious vocalist, shredding and riffing away flawlessly while barking his venomous, diseased lyrics. Continue reading »

PSYCHOTIC PULSE: “PSYCHOTIC PULSE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 272013
 

(DGR provides this review of the debut album by Toronto’s Psychotic Pulse.)

At some point, I would love to see someone try to take on a collection of discs that they feel absolutely nail the opening minutes, especially from bands where it was some of their first output. There is nothing to be denied about the strength of a strong intro track working, and when it is some of the first music anyone has heard by a band, that strength amplifies exponentially.

Personally, I’ve encountered countless examples where the best song by a band has been within the opening minutes (right after an obligatory intro track), and that ‘best song’ usually holds on to that title for an excessively long time. Case in point: Soilwork knew exactly what the hell they were doing by putting “Spectrum Of Eternity” as the second song on The Living Infinite — because that song locks you in. It’s so strong that you’re even willing to forgive a couple of the less individualistic mid-pace stompers that lie in wait about halfway through disc two.

All this rambling is prompted by the song “Asylum” off of Toronto, Canada-based group Psychotic Pulse’s 2013 self-titled release. They’ve previously done one small release called Handcrafting The Apocalypse that hit in 2010, but my first experience with the band lay in this year’s collection of music, and one of the songs that really locked me into their industrial death and groove brand was the song “Asylum”, which comes right after the intro guitar bit of “Diagnosis”. It was enough to sink its teeth into my brain and sit me down for what would be a hammering, heavy, almost piston-like percussion-filled disc of high screams, fast grooves, and enough adrenaline-rushing tempo to make one yearn nostalgically for the days of everything extreme being spelled sans letter ‘e’ and capital X. Continue reading »

SWIMMING IN AN OCEAN OF BEER (Part 2)

 Mosh Pit  12 Responses »
Aug 272013
 

It doesn’t feel like 24 hours have passed since the last “Swimming” post. Time seems to stand still when your brain is floating in a beer marinade that’s constantly being refreshed.

Yesterday, all but one of your dedicated NCS servants spent several hours at Seattle’s Zion’s Gate Records, poring laboriously over a quadrillion metal CDs and LPs, while having our minds pulled apart by pincers in the form of an endless loop of sanity-threatening, void-like electronica playing in the store.

Half a day later, I still have the urge to kill myself or someone else as a result of that music. However, I have not actually killed anyone because the experience was such that, after dropping wads of cash at Zion’s Gate, I and my fellow NCS scribes, along with assorted other friends, self-medicated for the rest of the day and evening with additional oceans of beer, which dulled the homicidal/suicidal impulses.

Undoubtedly, while medicating, we uttered many observations about albums and bands that would have revolutionized music criticism had anyone recorded the conversation for posterity. As I write this, however, my brain is so pickled with Boundary Bay Blonde that the recording apparatus contained therein has irreparably malfunctioned. All I can manage is to put up another NCS staff photo. Continue reading »

HEY LOOK! SOMEONE LEFT THE DOOR OPEN

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Aug 262013
 

(In response to our pleas for help, our friend Ben C. of Church of the Riff is helping out the currently nonfunctional staff of NCS by contributing this guest post, for which we are pathetically grateful.)

Hey guys. So quite a while ago Islander left me a key to the office (in cinderblock form) and told me to swing by whenever I need a place to sleep or free food (there is a restraining order and a messy legal battle). Seeing as everybody is out carousing for the next week, I figured it would be a good time to take him up on this very generous hospitality.

Sadly, I got bored pretty quickly and with no food in the fridge (Sorry), all the toilets plugged (Sorry again), and a mysterious acidic ooze starting to form in the dining room (Ok, this one wasn’t actually my fault), I decided I should probably write something before, y’know, starting a quasi-legal hobo fight club in the living room (Sorry).

In the last couple years I’ve been slowly drifting away from the standard array of “standard” metal genres, instead finding myself bouncing along to a scathing selection of sludge, ‘cores, posts’, and a variety of other not-quite-metal-but-still-falls-under-the-umbrella genres.

With no particular order here are four albums that have been giving the ol’ earholes a tickle for the last couple months. Two come from relative newcomers and two from long-time underground stalwarts. Continue reading »

SWIMMING IN AN OCEAN OF BEER

 Mosh Pit  27 Responses »
Aug 262013
 

I don’t know how many people visit NCS every day versus the number of people who come here once a week or once in a lifetime, at gunpoint. But in case someone has missed the last four days, this will alert you that your intrepid NCS staff is in the midst of a week-long fuck-off.

All five of us are here in the Emerald City, getting to know each other better. Things are going even better than expected, with the announcement last night that two of the staff are marrying each other and have picked me to officiate. However, because this happened after a solid 12 hours of drinking beer, I’m hoping that they sleep on that decision instead of sleeping with each other before the sun comes up today, no matter how much I would enjoy being the officiant.

I’m almost certain we have done other things in Seattle besides drink beer and talk metal and drink more beer, but this is more a matter of faith than memory at this point. One thing I do know is that since this hellish communion began last Thursday we’ve had two days go by with no posts whatsoever, after having previously missed only one day in the nearly four years since NCS began. Continue reading »

MUSINGS

 Concert Reviews  12 Responses »
Aug 242013
 

This is a photo by Jun Tiangja of rice terraces in the Philippines. It has nothing to do with anything else in this post. I just think it’s beautiful.

I forewarned you that there would be a drop in NCS content for about one week beginning yesterday because I planned to confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with my brother wizards here in the Emerald City. And if you’re now laughing at the notion of yours truly and my fellow NCS scribes being characterized as wizards, you’re welcome.

All of us have indeed congregated in Seattle, with BadWolf arriving yesterday afternoon and TheMadIsraeli, Andy Synn, and DGR swooping in at various times on Thursday. And though I expected our collective blog time would dwindle drastically, I didn’t foresee that we wouldn’t post a goddamn thing yesterday, not even a notice saying we wouldn’t be posting a goddamned thing yesterday.

We’ve fallen down on the job because I think we’ve been enjoying each other’s company. I say “I think” because I’m not a mind-reader and am mainly speaking for myself, and speaking for myself, I am happy to learn that people who seemed like cool dudes over the internet have turned out to be cool dudes in person, too. Continue reading »

ANIMALS AS LEADERS, NAVENE-K, LEGION’S REQUIEM, JOURNAL, BISPORA: LIVE AT ACE OF SPADES 8-21-13

 Concert Reviews  4 Responses »
Aug 242013
 

(DGR reviews the August 21, 2013 show in Sacramento, California, put on by Animals As Leaders, Navene-K, Journal, Legion’s Requiem, and Bispora.)

It’s so odd being outside of the home city right now, especially considering that just three days ago I was out in front of a venue there waiting for a show. This jet-setting lifestyle creates some cognitive dissonance with the brain for sure. On Wednesday Animals As Leaders made the incredibly cool gesture of coming to Sacramento after their time on the Summer Slaughter tour had already wrapped up. The guys chose to soldier on and play a few more shows, and one of them took place in my stomping ground.

So it came to pass that I found myself standing out front in what began as a very small line outside of Ace Of Spades, which would grow to a pretty good-sized crowd over the span of the night. It was somewhat of a local social event as well since the whole support came from local groups, with the exception of Navene-K, who would eventually go on to surprise me as one of my favorite things that I saw that night.

I tried to find videos of every band from that evening and managed to do so for three of the five. We have a new group out here called RealityCheck Sacramento who are proving to be very cool, so look them up, and SickDrummer uploaded some drum-cam footage of Navene doing the song “Microcosm”. I haven’t found anything from Animals As Leaders yet. but the previous two uploaders are amazing people and I love them. Continue reading »

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY COMPS FOR GRIND AND DOOM FREAKS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 222013
 

This week brought us the debut of two new compilations that are definitely worth looking at hard, because they go really fuckin’ hard. One is for a worthy cause and one is free.

GRINDING FOR A CURE – VOL. 3

“Grinding for a Cure” is a project that started small back in mid-January and quickly exploded into one of the best on-going comp projects in recent memory. The mission of the organizers (Dorian Rainwater of Noisear and many other bands, now including Excruciating Terror, Christine Coz, and Chris Messina of Swamp Gas) is to raise money to fund research into a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Volume 1 (featured at NCS here) contained 100 tracks, Volume 2 (featured here) matched that total, and the bands participating in both those installments included a bunch of eye-catching names.

The new Volume 3 has just gone “live” with the first 8 tracks, though it’s also going to have 100 by the time it’s finished. This time, the music is being uploaded to Bandcamp as the songs become available so people can hear the music as the comp grows.

Those first 8 tracks are really good. They includes songs by Phobia, Dim Mak, Inhabitants, Scars of Deceit, Gooze, Horse’s Silhouette, and Human Trade. But I want to make special mention of the first song — “Look At the World” — because it’s by Excruciating Terror. Continue reading »

SLOWDOWN AHEAD

 IQ Subtraction  17 Responses »
Aug 222013
 

Beginning later today and for about one week, things are likely to slow down at this site. We’ll still get at least one post up here per day, but that may be all we can manage. This is because all of the regular staff writers of NCS are gathering together in Seattle for the first in-person meeting ever. TheMadIsraeli and Andy Synn will be arriving today, and BadWolf and DGR will be descending from the clouds tomorrow trailing godlike raiments, otherwise known as jet exhaust.

There will be much touristy activity, there will be a bit of drinking, there will be some live metal indulgences (among other things, Wintersun, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Arsis are in town tomorrow night), there may be fisticuffs. It is unlikely there will be much blogging.

We have some ambitious plans for that Wintersun show. Two of my comrades signed up for that Arsis crowdfunding perk where James Malone cuts your hair; if that actually happens, there will be a photo op and maybe an impromptu interview. And regardless, we will all be hanging out at Seattle’s Studio Seven tomorrow night. If you’re there, look for a mismatched quintet acting as if they should be on stage but are not.

It’s entirely possible no good will come of this. It’s one thing to pray together at ChristianMingle.com. It’s another thing to share popcorn on the sofa at a screening of Left Behind in person. Like, what if your butts are too big to maintain a chaste distance? Continue reading »

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