ARCH ENEMY: “WAR ETERNAL”

 Album Reviews  40 Responses »
May 232014
 

(Below, Andy Synn reviews the new album by the revamped — and revitalized — Arch Enemy.)

Ok, I’m sure a fair few of you have already skipped past this review, simply because of the words “Arch Enemy” there at the top. After all, AE are a pretty big band, and an easy target, so it’s not at all “cool” to like them. That’s fine.

But for those of you still reading, I’m sure you’re more than a little interested in just what this new incarnation of the band is all about. After all, the band’s line-up has undergone some pretty big changes recently. Chris Amott has taken what appears to be his final retirement from the group, to be replaced by the superfluously talented Nick Cordle, who comes to the band from the decidedly Arch Enemy-influenced Arsis… it’s not quite Ripper Owens joining Judas Priest, but it’s not entirely dissimilar, is it?

Overshadowing this of course is the departure of Angela Gossow and her replacement by ex-The Agonist frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz, inspiring a firestorm of internet nerd-rage of apoplectic proportions, so-called “fans” of the band clamouring desperately for attention as part of “Team Angela” or “Team Alissa” like angsty pre-pubescent girls.

But let’s make one thing clear right now, before we go any further – having listened to the album in full I can confidently say that Ms White-Gluz is a more than worthy successor to Angela Gossow’s vacated throne. Close enough in terms of power and delivery to maintain a sense of continuity within the band’s discography, but with a style and substance of her own, she brings a welcome breath of fresh air and a renewed, combative edge to the vocals that helps her stand out as more than a simple carbon-copy of her predecessor. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: COPROCEPHALIC — “DESOLATION OF CONJOINED EMBODIMENT”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 232014
 

Coprocephalic are a multinational band, with two members in Taiwan and one in Southern California. Their debut album Gluttonous Chunks descended in 2013, and they have now signed with Lacerated Enemy Records for the impending release of their new album The Oath of Relinquishment, as well as a limited edition EP that will precede the album — Desolation of Conjoined Embodiment.

The new releases feature the eye-catching artwork of one of our favorites, Ken Sarafin (Sarafin Concepts), and both the EP and the album include guest vocal appearances by a trio of brutal heavyweights — Matti Way (Pathology), Angel Ochoa (Disgorge), and Jeremiah Blue Jensen (Guttural Secrete).

Today we bring you the debut of the EP’s title track, “Desolation of Conjoined Embodiment”, which features guest vocals by Angel Ochoa. Measured strictly by the commonly accepted defining standards of brutal slamming death metal, it is a highly accomplished piece of merciless thuggery. But more is going on in the song than a decimating beatdown. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM BLUT AUS NORD AND P.H.O.B.O.S.

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 222014
 

Last month we reported the announcement by Debemur Morti Records that on June 20 (June 24 in North America) the label would be releasing a split by Blut Aus Nord and P.H.O.B.O.S. entitled Triunity, featuring artwork by Polish artist Katarzyna Urbanek (you can see one of the two paintings above). Today, we bring you one song by each of these French bands from the forthcoming split.

The offering we have for you by Blut Aus Nord is “De Librio Arbitrio”. As we have come to expect from this band, the music has an otherworldly quality, a dissonant, dimension-piercing ambience that surrounds some truly gargantuan riffs and bone-jarring percussion. The song is heavy as hell and rhythmically compulsive, while at the same time ringing with the reverberations of cosmic melody and clawing with the strangling sound of barbed-wire vocals. Fantastic. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DEATHKINGS — “MARTYRS (VOL I)”

 Premieres  1 Response »
May 222014
 

Deathkings are from Los Angeles but you wouldn’t know it to hear their music. Surf, sunshine, and palm trees don’t enter into it. The local landmark that probably best suits the music’s atmosphere are the tar pits at La Brea.

Deathkings recorded their debut album Destroyer in 2011. It originally consisted of three long tracks, each song in the 10-15 minute range. The album has now been re-mastered for a vinyl release by LA-based Midnite Collective, with those three tracks converted into four. Today we’re premiering “Martyrs (Vol. I)”, which was originally part of one of the original long tracks that has now been divided.

The riffs in the song are thick, fuzz-bombed, tarry beasts that generate the kind of resonance you feel in your guts. They pound, hammer, and writhe in a mid-paced rhythm, and together with the crushing drum beats, they’ll make your head move. Vocalist Nicholas Rocha sounds like he’s in the throes of genuine agony, driving home the bleak, blasted atmosphere of this strangely seductive music. Continue reading »

A NEW MIDNIGHT ALBUM IS COMING: “NO MERCY FOR MAYHEM”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 212014
 

Were you paying attention yesterday? Did you see the post I wrote about the new, free Hells Headbangers compilation? Did you see that it includes a new track by the band Midnight? Well, if you did, you might have guessed what I’m about to confirm: Today, Hells Headbangers announced that Midnight’s new album No Mercy for Mayhem will be released August 19.

I’ve been waiting for this info because the band’s 2011 debut Satanic Royalty was one of my favorite albums of 2011. It sort of came out of nowhere (except for select people in the underground who already knew what was up with Midnight), and made quite a splash. I have little doubt the new album will get 10 times the exposure. There will probably be a full-album stream on NPR. Album teasers will probably be played in movie theaters before shows. Discount coupons in the newspapers.

Okay, probably some of those things won’t happen once the new Midnight promo shot gets into circulation. This is it: Continue reading »

SLUG LORD — “A MIX BETWEEN IMPENDING DESPAIR AND ALLURING GROOVE”

 Interviews  4 Responses »
May 212014
 

(Our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks is back with yet another interview, this time with J.Luoto, the drummer of Finland’s Slug Lord.)

Let me introduce you to Slug Lord of Finland. This band have played bloody sinister sludge’n’stoner doom tunes since 2010, yet they had a long break after release of their self-titled album in 2011 because of some line-up changes. Anyway, their second full-length Transmutation was released literally a month ago and J.Luoto (Slug Lord’s drummer) found some time to discuss details about the new album.

***

Terve J.! How are you man?

Thanks for asking! We’ve just received our latest album’s batch from press and are getting ready to send them to all the crazy folks who pre-ordered it.

 

Let us start with that old ’n’ good question about the band’s origin – what are the main milestones of Slug Lord?

We’ve known each other since childhood and played shit together for years. On the ruins of some less serious band projects we formed a doom band. During some intense listening and jamming songs of bands like Pentagram, Electric Wizard, Acid King, and Witch, we gave birth to Slug Lord. Within this genre we found the ways to express our musical ambitions as a unit and in the loudest and heaviest way we could. Then we recruited the singer Johanna Rutto, recorded the first self-titled album with her, and also made a few gigs. After her departure we’ve been more than happy with the original trio lineup and continued the path with a passion for playing live and making more records. Continue reading »

MASTIC SCUM: “CTRL”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
May 212014
 

(DGR reviews the latest album by Austria’s Manic Scum, a band we’ve featured several times in the past here at NCS.)

Imagine for a moment, if you will, that the NCS offices are run like something out of a sitcom and that occasionally something will happen that will cause your lovely writers to flip out and fling a bunch of paperwork into the air while exclaiming to the world some form of prostration to a higher power after realizing that they had fucked up in such a way that could only be described as massive.

Now, imagine that this event took place over several days instead of all at once due to this lovely writer’s crazy work schedule when he realized that there had been a couple of albums in 2013 that he had every intention of writing about but yet had completely glossed over until one of the groups in mind released a music video for one of the best songs on the disc — and all of it came rushing back to him, causing him to reenact the above scenario with aplomb.

Every day, returning home from work and picking up every piece of paper — of which there were many, mostly ignored bank statements since it’s the only one I keep on my desk… and I don’t need a bi-weekly reminder that I’m fucking broke and only own one thing to put paper on, my desk — and then flinging them back up into the air so that they scatter all over my room, because if anything, I am a sucker for ambience, so that I could be reminded of the initial comedic/panicked state in which I started this review because I really, really felt the NCS readers deserved a fully in-depth look of this disc, and reminded that although it came out in goddamned December that they should really check said album out — though yelling, “Ah, Christ!” over and over again grew tiresome, so that was quickly cut out of the act.

Such was the case was Mastic Scum and their hammering 2013 release CTRL. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ACXDC, DEMONIC RESURRECTION, JOHN GALLOW, LAZER/WULF, ORIGIN, VINTERSORG

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 212014
 

By the time you read this I will have embarked on my journey from Seattle to Baltimore for the Maryland Deathfest. To be precise, I’ll probably be with the TSA at Sea-Tac having my rectum probed before hobbling to the departure gate (who knew that the Ghost butt plug would refuse to come out unless you could plead with it in Sumerian?).

Because of that trip, time is short and so, as I did yesterday, I’m just throwing a whole bunch of song streams (and a few links) at you, with few words of my own. This is all new metal I found yesterday that I liked. Presented in alphabetical order:

ACxDX

ACxDC are from SoCal. The last time I wrote about them was almost two years ago, soon after one of vocalist Sergio’s newborn twins (Savina) had to have surgery to repair a hole in her heart. After many short releases, they finally have recorded a debut album named Antichrist Demoncore. Yesterday an advance track from the album premiered. Its name is “Destroy Create”. It’s a powerviolence assault, both searing and crushing, and maybe more complicated than you might be expecting. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: HELLS HEADBANGERS COMPILATION, VOL. 7

 Free Shit  3 Responses »
May 202014
 

In our continuing efforts to make you aware of high-quality free metal, we bring you new free shit from the dependable Hells Headbangers label. Today, the label made available on Bandcamp a free digital compilation of music from 21 bands, including brand new and upcoming songs from these groups:

Midnight
Children of Technology
Gouge
Barbatos
Nunslaughter
Cemetery Lust
Sacrocurse

Fans of the underground arts will also recognize many other names on this vile offering (the track list is at the end of this post), including bands as diverse as High Spirits and Inquisition. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: HOUR OF PENANCE — “THEOGONY”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
May 202014
 

You would be hard-pressed to find another 2014 album more packed with super-heated fury than Regicide, the new album by Italy’s Hour of Penance. To borrow the words of our reviewer Andy Synn, it’s “utterly destructive”, loaded with a “wealth of punishing riffage, bloody hooks, and concentrated venom”, but with “subtle refinements and embellishments that the band have made to their familiar formula, tiny tweaks designed to increase its lethal virulence without compromising the ferocious core of their identity.”

In June, North American audiences will get a chance to see Hour of Penance decimate cities across the U.S. and Canada when the band embark on the Conquerors of the World tour with Septicflesh, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Necronomicon. Today you can get a preview of the band’s potent live show through our premiere of the official Hour of Penance video for “Theogony”, which was filmed live at their recent headlining gig in Wakefield, England. Continue reading »

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