Jun 282015
 

 

Negative Mantra is a new band, but its members are well known from other projects over a period of many years. When I saw those names — as well as the name they chose for their band — I had a high level of confidence that their just-released debut EP A Hymn To Disappointment would be heavy, grim, and hard to forget. I wasn’t wrong.

Here’s the line-up:

John Porada (Terminate, ex-Nachtmystium) – Vocals, guitar, bass
Jeff Wilson (Abigail Williams, Wolvhammer, Chrome Waves) – Guitar
Charlie Fell (Abigail Williams, Cobalt, ex-Lord Mantis) – Drums

The EP emerged last week on Bandcamp without any fanfare. No press release, no advance dribbling out of teasers or song excerpts. One day it wasn’t there, the next day it was. I discovered it only because I noticed brief Facebook posts about it by a couple of people in the band, mentioned almost in passing. But word of this release needs to be spread around, because it’s very good.
Continue reading »

Jun 272015
 

 

In case you missed the announcement last week, I’ve resumed the roll-out of our list of last year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs — a scant five months (ugh) after the last installment in the series. If perchance you don’t know what this list is about, you can find an explanation here.

Today’s two additions to the list are a bit out of the ordinary, because both songs are long. There’s a lot to be said for long-form music, but I would guess that “infectious” isn’t a word that typically springs to mind. In the case of these two songs, however, I think it fits.

FALLS OF RAUROS

Very tough choice, this one. Not the choice to include something from this band’s album Believe In No Coming Shore — that was a given (though the songs on the band’s 2014 split with Panopticon were also strong contenders) — but which song? That was the hard decision. Continue reading »

Jun 272015
 

 

Yesterday the organizers of Maryland Deathfest announced the first group of bands for the 2016 edition of North America’s best metal festival. They also released 350 “early bird” passes for on-line sale — which sold out in approximately 15 seconds. Your humble editor wasn’t quick enough on the draw to get one of those. But more tickets will be released for sale after MDF finishes announcing the bands for next year’s event. For now, let’s talk about the first group of 30 bands revealed yesterday.

There’s a lot to talk about.

About three weeks ago, NCS contributor KevinP rolled out his own wishlist for MDF XIV (here), and that led lots of readers to roll out their own lists in the Comments. There were tons of good bands in those lists, and many people got at least some of their wishes granted yesterday. KevinP, for example, is a happy camper because his Number One pick — Hail of Bullets — were included in yesterday’s announcement. On the other hand, none of the rest of his wishlist of 10 bands was included. But of course there’s still time. Continue reading »

Jun 262015
 

 

Against Evil hail from Visakhapatnam in India, and their debut album Fatal Assault is slated for release by Transcending Obscurity Distribution on July 20. The band previously unleashed the album’s last track “War Hero”, which led to their deal with Transcending Obscurity, and now that these plans are in place we give you the album’s penultimate song, “Bulletproof”.

In an era when every band must be obsessively slotted into the proper micro-genre, perhaps it’s best in this case just to call the music “heavy metal”. It’s got grooves, it’s got melodic hooks that prove to be sharp and memorable, it’s got a mix of soulful clean vocals and nasty jagged growls, and it comes with slick dual-guitar harmonies and an awfully tasty solo. Continue reading »

Jun 262015
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Defect Designer.)

It seems like a long time since Defect Designer last appeared on our site in 2013 courtesy of Islander posting about them. Now in 2015, this multi-national death metal supergroup are set to release a scathing hellstorm of twisted fury on their soon-to-be-released record, Ageing Accelerator.

If you haven’t heard of these guys yet, you really need to. They are in my estimation one of the finest modern death metal acts, combining far too many influences to count into a formula that generates numerous deadly riffs alongside numerous unique, non-repeated segments per song. Continue reading »

Jun 262015
 

 

The mammoth Valdur from Mammoth Lakes, California, have a new album on the way entitled Pathetic Scum. Ten days ago we heard (and wrote about) a brief sample from one of the new songs, a track named “Blessings of the Goat”. Even those precious few minutes were a demonstration of Valdur’s skill in delivering massive, grisly, gruesome death metal with a thoroughly morbid and diseased atmosphere. And now we’re in the fortunate position of bringing you a stream of the entire song.

Pathetic Scum follows the band’s 2013 full-length, At War With, and features the addition of new guitarist Vuke. The band have relayed this message from their catacombs:

“Guitarist/vocalist Samuel is still with us so to speak, but he is so busy with personal/family matters at the moment. Vuke, new guitarist, is not a replacement, but a full time member of VALDUR. And for live dates this spring, Roskva will be on vocals again. And we have William on bass and Matthew on drums. We all appreciate anyone who takes the time in this world to have a listen to our music. It is built and molded by our own hands to the form and shape that we like. With these new songs, we give you something different yet again along the obscure VALDUR timeline…” Continue reading »

Jun 262015
 

 

(Comrade Aleks returns to our site with an engaging interview of the frontman for Barabbas.)

French Barabbas appeared on the European doom-scene in 2011 with a self-titled album, and its killer song “Barabbas” was also included in a Doom Metal Front compilation, so you may already know them. Three years have passed, and Barabbas return with great new tunes! Messe pour un chien shows the band’s evident progress as they go further from traditional doom and stoner tunes to something more massive and mobile.

The new songs are really catchy, they demonstrate all the best of Barrabas’ musical experience, and they have mordant and ironical lyrics — that’s something new for the somber doom scene, but it’s ok for the congregation of Four Saints of Barabbas. The band’s frontman Saint Rodolphe is here to spread a Word, yet not to preach. Continue reading »

Jun 262015
 

 

(Andy Synn delivers another long-overdue installment in his irregular series of album reviews in haiku. Two more reviews come after the jump. With music, of course.)

Wow, so, correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s been almost a year since I did one of these?

How time flies when you’re having… fun…

 

KRAKOWAMARAN

Shot through the heart. Pink

Floyd’s to blame. Norwegian prog

Has a damn good name Continue reading »

Jun 262015
 

 

We had a busy day at the site yesterday, and I thought I wouldn’t have time to explore new music. But my wife decided to strand me at home last night while she went out and whooped it up with some friends of hers, and so what was I to do? I damn sure wasn’t going to venture into the loris compound by myself; my wife’s good with a knife and she usually has my back, but without her I’m not getting close to those devious fuckers. So instead I decided leave the loris ninjas to their own devices, hunker down at the computer, and drown myself in new metal. Here is a collection of new stuff from four bands that helped me pleasantly pass the time.

AVULSED

Let’s first have a round of applause for Juanjo Castellano, because goddamn, is his cover art for the new EP by Avulsed the absolute shit, or what? Continue reading »

Jun 252015
 

 

Yes, that’s right, in case you missed yesterday’s announcement I’ve resumed the roll-out of our list of last year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs — a scant five months (ugh) after the last installment in the series. If perchance you don’t know what this list is about, you can find an explanation here.

To get this thing started again, I decided to jump into the turbid and turbulent end of a very black pool. Apologies in advance if I happen to kick you in the teeth on the way in.

SINMARA

I’m re-launching this series with songs by two Icelandic bands, the first of which is Sinmara, whose ranks include members from other personal favorites like SvartidauðiWormlust, and Slidhr. The song is “Verminous” and it comes from the band’s 2014 album Aphotic Womb, released last year by Terratur Possessions. Continue reading »