SHADES OF BLACK: INFERNO, SLEGEST, DARKMOON WARRIOR, AND PATRONS OF THE ROTTING GATE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Sep 252013
 

In this post I’ve collected three new songs from three new albums that caught my ears over the last 24 hours, as well as a full-album stream of another recent release. As you might have guessed from the title of the post, all of the music flies the black metal flag, but the styles are nevertheless significantly different from each other. The bands are Inferno (Czech Republic), Slegest (Norway), Darkmoon Warrior (Germany), and Patrons of the Rotting Gate (Ireland). I might add that all four albums are adorned by some very eye-catching artwork.

INFERNO

Inferno’s current album, their sixth, is entitled Omniabsence Filled By His Greatness and was released on September 24 by Agonia Records. The fantastic cover art that you see above was creatd by Fenomeno Design (Blut Aus Nord, Glorior Belli, Perdition). Yesterday Agonia uploaded one of the new tracks to Soundcloud.

“The Funeral of Existence” rings with chiming guitars and thrums with heavy weight in the low end. It rocks and rolls, its ephemeral melody will reverberate through your skull, and when the blasting and growling begins it will be time to run for cover before the roof comes down. Damned fine piece of progressive black metal, and really well-produced. This may well be a damned fine album, too — I now intend to find out. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: DOOMRIDERS, MYGRAIN, TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, VULTURE INDUSTRIES

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Sep 252013
 


Within the last day or two, a number of new albums became available for streaming in full. Here are four that I think are worth checking out. In some cases I’ve been able to embed the streams here. In other cases, I’ll have to give you a link to hear it elsewhere. The bands are listed in alphabetical order; as you’ll discover, this selection includes a lot of Exceptions to the Rule around here (you know, the one about singing).

DOOMRIDERS

Doomriders, the Boston outfit fronted by Converge bassist Nate Newton, are releasing Grand Blood on October 15 via Deathwish Inc. It’s the follow-up to Darkness Comes Alive. Stream it at Pitchfork Advance here. Continue reading »

LISTEN TO “ZOCHROT” BY CARCASS WHILE I GET MY SHIT TOGETHER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 252013
 

We’ve been way light on the content today. I don’t mean to imply any misgivings about Andy Synn’s Otargos review, but we’re way past mid-morning here on the West Coast of these United States, and on a typical day we would have three or four posts up on the site by now. However, I was out listening to live metal last night (a review is coming), didn’t get home and to bed until nearly 3 a.m., and am only now dragging myself into the world of the living (hail satan that I didn’t have to go to work at the usual hour this morning).

I do have a new post in the works, but it will take me a while longer to finish it. In the meantime, enjoy “Zochrot”. That’s not the name of a foot fungus. It’s the name of a “B-side” track recorded by Carcass that isn’t on their new album Surgical Steel but instead was included as part of DECIBEL magazine’s Flexi-Disc series. Subscribers to the magazine got a copy with the August issue. Everyone else is shit out of luck because, at least for now, it isn’t being released in any other format.

However, today DECIBEL did start making the song available for listening on Soundcloud. It’s got a bouncy groove (definitely not the deathgrind side of Carcass’ personality) and a couple of nice solos. Not a bad way to pass the time while I get my shit together. You can hear “Zochrot” by visiting this page (DECIBEL didn’t make the song embeddable): Continue reading »

OTARGOS: “APEX TERROR”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Sep 252013
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Otargos, which is out now in Europe on Listenable Records and is scheduled for release in North America on November 5.)

France really is in the middle of something of a metal renaissance (“rebirth” all you non-bilinguals) right now. And I’m not just talking about the steady rise of artists like Alcest and Gojira (or their many imitators). No, I’m talking about some of the seriously nasty underground filth and fury that our Gallic cousins have been pumping out over the last several years.

In particular, 2013 has seen (or will see) the arrival of three truly phenomenal records from the French death/black metal scene – the sickening brutality of “Profane” by Svart Crown, the sneering bombast of Glorior Belli’s Gators Rumble, Chaos Unfurls (which I believe one of my brethren will be reviewing shortly), and this, the inhuman, predatory malice of Apex Terror. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 59: THACLTHI

 MISCELLANY  1 Response »
Sep 242013
 

This latest installment of the MISCELLANY series is really a carry-over from the immediately preceding installment. I originally picked four bands to explore for that installment, but by the time I began writing about the fourth one I decided the post was already so long that people might lose patience before reaching the end — particularly when they discovered the length of the last song. So I carved out the last band, and they’re the subject of this post.

And as a reminder about the way MISCELLANY works: I randomly pick bands whose music I’ve never heard (usually bands whose names I’ve never heard either), I listen to one recent track from each of them (though sometimes I cheat and listen to more than one), I write my impressions, and I stream the music so you can judge for yourselves.

THACLTHI

This pick was truly a random choice. After reviewing the new album by Progenie Terrestre Pura earlier this month, I made a mental note to explore the web site of the long-running label that released the album, Avantgarde Music. I finally did that yesterday. I found lots of bands whose music I’d never heard before. Being short on time, I picked one to explore, and I honestly have no explanation for the selection I made.

The band’s name is THACLTHI, which means “in silence” in the ancient Etruscan language, and they appear to reside in the town of Volterra (or “Velathri” as the Etruscans called it) in the Tuscany region of Italy. They have a new album named …Erat Ante Oculos that was released on tape last month by Unholy Domain Records and will be released by Avantgarde on November 13, 2013. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 58: DOMINIA, GOD EAT GOD, SENSORY AMUSIA

 Calendar, MISCELLANY  5 Responses »
Sep 242013
 

For newcomers to this series, here’s how the MISCELLANY game works:  I impulsively pick bands whose music I’ve never heard (usually bands whose names I’ve never heard either), I listen to one recent track from each of them (though sometimes I cheat and listen to more than one), I write my impressions, and I stream the music so you can judge for yourselves. In this installment I explored the music of Dominia (Russia), God Eat God (UK/Russia), and Sensory Amusia (Australia).

DOMINIA

Over the weekend I posted a teaser clip for the forthcoming third album by UK-based Eye of Solitude, an album I’m eager to hear. I mentioned that the album will include guest contributions by violinist Casper and vocalist Anton Rosa from the Russian band Dominia. I wasn’t familiar with Dominia, but yesterday I received a message from an NCS supporter who I’ll call JcDA encouraging me to check them out. So I went exploring.

Dominia’s last album was Judgement of Tormented Souls, released in 2008, but they’ve recorded a new one entitled Theophania. Last month they released a two-song single that includes one track destined for the new album (“Death Only”) and a live recording of another song recorded earlier in the band’s career (“Cellar Door”). The single can be acquired on Bandcamp via this link. I listened to both songs.

Continue reading »

NEW WOLFHEART SONG AND VIDEO: “ROUTA PT. 2”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Sep 242013
 

I’ll make this short: Wolfheart — the new solo project of Tuomas Saukkonen (ex-Before the Dawn, ex-Black Sun Aeon) — has just released a new official video for “Routa Pt. 2”, a song that will appear on Wolfheart’s debut album Winterborn.

The video, which was beautifully filmed and produced by OneManArmy, is full of fire and ice, just like the song. The video also includes an excerpt of a certain review of Winterborn that I’m quite fond of. In case you want to read all of it, I’ll refer you here. In a nutshell, it says that Winterborn is one of the year’s standout albums.

The album and related Wolfheart merch can now be pre-ordered at the following location, and pre-orders will get two bonus tracks — “Frey” and “4:19 A.M.”; eventually, we understand that the album will also become available digitally, but the details on that haven’t yet been announced.

http://www.madsupply.com/en/shop/band+merchandise/wolfheart

Now, watch and listen to the video for “Routa Pt. 2”: Continue reading »

STOP THE PRESSES! BABY METAL WILL RELEASE A CONCERT DVD

 Metal News  9 Responses »
Sep 242013
 

For those of you who thought we’d get tired of pimping publicizing Baby Metal, no such luck. Actually, I guess the first version of that last sentence may have come off as kinda creepy, so I edited it. Here’s the breaking news about our favorite J-pop deathmetal band (thanks to a tip from DGR and a report by Blabbermouth):

Later this fall Baby Metal will release their first-ever concert DVD and Blu-ray, Live ～Legend I, D, Z Apocalypse～. The limited-edition DVD box will come out on October 19 and the Blu-ray will be available on November 20. The set will contain footage of the band’s performances at Shibuya O-East (October 2012), Akasaka Blitz (December 2012), and Zepp Tokyo (February 2013). I’m not yet sure where it can be ordered, but this place will probably have it eventually.

Baby Metal have also just released a video trailer for the new DVD, and it’s a killer. I’ve written before that as time has passed the band have increasingly become less J-pop and more death metal (without becoming any less catchy), and both the imagery and the music in the trailer is evidence that this progression is continuing.

So get your fuckin’ kitsune horns up and watch the trailer next, and if you somehow missed the official video they released this summer for “Megitsune”, I’m adding that, too. Continue reading »

DEICIDE REVEAL MORE INFO ABOUT THEIR NEW ALBUM; WE SPECULATE ABOUT THE TRACK LIST

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Sep 242013
 

Well, we will indeed have a new Deicide album this year. Yesterday Century Media announced that In the Minds of Evil will be released on November 25, which is fitting since it was on that day in 1667 that a deadly earthquake rocked Shemakha in the Caucasus, killing 80,000 people.

Or maybe it’s because November 25 is the anniversary of The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, which reached its peak intensity with winds gusting up to 120 mph and killed 9,000 people.

Or possibly it’s because of the earthquake on November 25, 1759, that destroyed Beirut and Damascus, killing 30,000-40,000.

No, wait! It must be because of the November 25 cyclone in 1839 that slammed India with high winds and a 40-foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa, taking with it 20,000 ships and the lives of about 300,000 people!

Actually, I don’t really know why the fuck they picked November 25. I do know what the album cover looks like, because that was revealed yesterday. It’s from a painting named “Power of the Mind”, rendered by Simon Cowell. (No, not that Simon Cowell, this one.) I also know the names of the songs, because Century Media reminded us of them yesterday as well. Continue reading »

CONDUCTING FROM THE GRAVE: “CONDUCTING FROM THE GRAVE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Sep 232013
 

(In this post, DGR reviews the forthcoming self-titled album from Sacramento-based Conducting From the Grave.)

The time has come; after much label politics, a nail biter of a Kickstarter, and a three-year wait, Sacramento locals Conducting From The Grave are about to release their latest disc, an album that they aptly decided was going to be their self-titled effort.

The group’s discography prior to this has ranged from excellent to pretty good, and after one impressive EP and two strong yet very different major label releases, there was really no way of telling which way the band were going to go next. However, the group’s lead-off single of “Honor Guide Me!” was strong enough to generate a definite air of excitement surrounding their potential third release. It was a song that was more traditionally death metal than what the band had done before and it melded together so many differing elements to create the chaotic, whirling mass of riffs for which many people got into Conducting From The Grave in the first place.

The group have been pounding it out for years now and amassed quite the fanbase, some more familiar with the group’s second release Revenants than their label debut When Legends Become Dust. Conducting From The Grave are now an entirely different beast, attempting to hybrid the two together and create something entirely new and much, much heavier. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries