RÄJÄ ‘N’ ROLL WITH RÄJÄYTTÄJÄT

 Exceptions to the Rule, Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 022013
 

This has been the kind of day when I’ve wanted to go postal on our web host (Bluehost). Our site — and every other site hosted by Bluehost, HostGator, HostMonster, and JustHost — has been down for nearly the entire day. A few times it has come back up for a few minutes, and then disappears again. It’s up again now, but who knows when it will go down again? Fuckers.

Anyway, I’m posting this now mainly to let people know that we’re still here. But I’m also including some music that cheered me up and diverted my murderous mood, to the point when I’m not even thinking about those Bluehost clowns. It’s not metal, but it’s from Finland, so that kind of makes it metal anyway. Fucking Bluehost.

The band has got more umlauts in their name than Bluehost has IQ points: Räjäyttäjät. Apparently, it means “Detonators” in English. Apparently, in Finland they call the band’s music “Räjä ‘n’ roll”. They’re releasing their debut album on August 30 via Ektro Records. You gotta admire this album title, which I like much better than motherfucking Bluehost:

AWOPBOPALOOPOP ALOPBAM RÄJÄ!

The song I heard is an advance track called “Ei Hauskaa”, which apparently means “No Fun”. But I’ll tell you, I had a shitload of fun listening to it, even while hoping that the earth swallows up Bluehost and shits it out. Continue reading »

KAUNIS KUOLEMATON

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

Kaunis Kuolematon are a Finnish band with current or former members of Black Sun Aeon, Sinamore, and End of Aeon, who have released three songs so far in their brief career. Two of them appeared on a self-titled EP in November 2012 and the third is a single released in June of this year. Both the EP and the single are available on Bandcamp for a pay-what-you-want price.

The new single — “En Ole Mitään” (I Am Nothing) — is the best of the three songs, and it’s really good. In fact, it’s so good that I’ve added it to the list of candidates for our year-end selection of 2013’s most infectious extreme metal songs.

The musical style is the kind of melancholy, doom-influenced melodic death metal that should appeal to fans of bands such as Swallow the Sun, Before the Dawn, and In Mourning. It slides back and forth between soft, sorrowful passages carried by the strong, clear tenor voice of Mikko Heikkilä (ex-Black Sun Aeon) and heavy sections in which concrete-slabbed riffs rain down and Olli Suvanto (End of Aeon) howls in anguish or roars like some void-faring behemoth.

The guitar-driven melody, which feeds both the soft and the heavy measures and is enhanced ever so slightly by what sounds like an occasional synthesizer backdrop, is sublime — and highly memorable. Continue reading »

PREMIERES: OBLIVION’S NEW VIDEO AND A NEW NOTHNEGAL TRACK

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 292013
 

We’ve already let loose a string of posts about new song and video premieres today, but we have one more. The first is a new video from . . .

OBLIVION

Not long ago we reported that this Bay Area band who we’ve written about frequently (writings collected here) had signed with the Unique Leader label, and that Unique Leader plans to re-issue the band’s self-released debut album, Called To Rise, on October 15 (check our review of it here). Today we got the new official video for the album’s final track, “Omniverse”. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album, a mix of heart-racing death metal performed with technical flare and eerie atmospherics.

That eerie quality that drifts through the song is captured in the visual effects and animation in the cool new video by Brandon Hunt. Check it out next: Continue reading »

ROUND-UP: BURIAL HORDES, DROWNED, REPTILIAN SHAPE SHIFTERS, CALIGULA’S HORSE, FALLUJAH, AND REPTILIAN DEATH

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jul 282013
 

Your humble editor has had a busy weekend and this Sunday is going to be busy too, so this will probably be today’s only post. I did find a little time to browse e-mail and wade through the interhole in search of new things yesterday and this morning. As usual, I found many, and have collected a big group of them in this post. As you’ll see (and hear), it’s a diverse mix, including some not-metal. I’ll have to keep the verbiage brief because time is short. I know that will traumatize most of you, and I’m already grieving for your loss.

BURIAL HORDES

I first happened upon this Greek band in January after discovering their split release with Enshadowed, which is excellent (reviewed here). They have a new album on the way, entitled Incendium. I haven’t yet seen a release date, but the band have recently uploaded the opening track — “Unleash Havoc”. It’s a very cool song, raw and ravaging, bestial and atmospheric. Listen:

https://www.facebook.com/BurialHordesOfficial

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CHIMAIRA, SEPTEKH, HARM’S WAY, AND AUTUMNBLAZE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 242013
 

Here are a few things I’ve seen and heard recently that I think are worth recommending. I’m in catch-up mode on these round-ups, so there will be a second one a bit later today.

CHIMAIRA

Chimaira have a new album, Crown of Phantoms, coming on July 30 via eOne Music. Yesterday my comrade Andy Synn alerted me to the fact that Chimaira had released a re-make of “The Dehumanizing Process” from their second album, The Impossibility of Reason (2003). It’s sub-titled the “Slow and Low Mix”, and man, it caught me off guard. It’s like Chimaira-meets-Gojira.

I approve. If you’re going to re-do one of your own songs, you might as well really re-do it, especially if you’ve now got guitarists Emil Werstler and Matt Szlachta to put their spin on the original. This is a heavy-bottomed, heavy-grooved, vicious little monster. I’d like to keep it as a pet.

I don’t see this song on the new album’s track list. According to Chimaira’s mainman Mark Hunter, “No, we’re not remaking the record. This was just for fun to celebrate 10 years of Impossibility.” Well, mission accomplished: this is fun. Listen next. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ULCERATE, TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, CRAVEN IDOL, EVOKEN, CRYPTOPSY

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Jul 122013
 

Here’s a collection of items I saw and heard yesterday while surveilling the interhole. The featured bands are Ulcerate (New Zealand), Twilight of the Gods (multinational), Craven Idol (UK), Cryptopsy (Canada), and Evoken (US), .

ULCERATE

The new album from New Zealand’s Ulcerate has been high on our “most anticipated” list for this year, and yesterday finally brought a lot of fresh news. The title of the album is Vermis, it includes 9 tracks, it’s nearly 55 minutes long — and it will be released by Relapse on September 17 in North America (September 13 in Germany and the Benelux countries and September 16 in the rest of the world). Pre-orders for the album and related merch are being fielded at this location. You can see the newly unveiled album cover above.

Yesterday also brought a video teaser for Vermis. It includes just an itty-bitty, teenie-weensie snippet of music, but it was enough to rattle my teeth. I think, just to be safe, I’ll make a dental appointment for the day after I get my hands on this album. The teaser is next. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SAKTMÓÐIGUR – “DEMETRA ER DÁIN”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Free Shit  7 Responses »
Jul 092013
 

Word of mouth is still a good way to find new music, especially when the word comes from Iceland’s Sólstafir. They wrote something in Icelandic on their Facebook wall a few days ago about a band named Saktmóðigur who are scheduled to perform at the Eistnaflug festival this summer, and provided a link to a song. Figuring that it would take less time to listen to the song than to grapple with Google Translate’s mutant efforts to render Icelandic into English, I listened.

The song turned out to be one of three on a free digital EP released by Saktmóðigur last month. The EP’s name is Demetra er dáin, which means “Demetra has died”. I got that from a posting by the band, not Google Translate. I also read that Saktmóðigur are based in Reykjavík and were formed in 1991 (!). Their first release was the tape cassette Legill in 1992, followed by two 10″ vinyl EPs in 1993 and 1996. They’ve also released three full-length CDs, Ég á mér líf (1995), Plata (1998), and most recently Guð hann myndi gráta (2011).

The EP grabbed me by the throat, but I have to tell you that it’s off the beaten path at this site. The music is more punk than metal, and the vocals aren’t the usual bestial growls or acidic shrieks that tend to rip through most of the music I write about. I also really wanted to sing along with these three tracks, if only I had a phonetic guide to the Icelandic lyrics. But none of that means the music is pretty or sweet. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE . . . METAL BALLADS

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  18 Responses »
Jul 052013
 

(Andy Synn delivers yet another list of favorite things that come in five’s. And to quote one of the most memorable comments we’ve ever received, almost everything in this list “runs totally contrary to NCS statement”.)

So today’s post was originally going to be a review of an awesome black metal album I’ve had on the backburner for a few months now… but instead I did this. So sue me. I like singing.

Ballad need not be a dirty word in metal. Although I share with you a general distaste for the way in which most mainstream rock/metal bands defecate a steaming pile of melodramatic emotion onto a disc just to prove how “sensitive” they are, I’d say that by now we can spot these sort of box-ticking attempts at cross-over appeal a mile away. You can tell when a band is trying too hard, or when it’s done just because of the “hit factor”.

But what I’m talking about here are the sort of metal ballads that are both organic to their creator’s sound (as opposed to say, how every other tough-guy groove metal band has a generic ballad-y love song “for the ladies” to show that although they’re ‘dangerous tough guys’, they’ve really got a heart of gold…) and also still maintain that sense of power and depth, and often complexity, that has become synonymous with the metal genre.

So, anyway, here’s five of my favourite, artistically rewarding, emotionally affecting, metal ballads. You’ll find that they’re mostly (say 75-85%) clean sung, but I don’t think that should be a bar to the appreciation of a quality song. What’s more each and every one just fits with the sound and identity of the band as a whole. Continue reading »

GHOST’S NEW VIDEO FOR “MONSTRANCE CLOCK”

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 032013
 

To the sound of the monstrance clock
Air is cleansed, assembled flock
Black candles burn all night tonight

As the parish sighs in smoke
Enters lady revealed of cloak
To the haunting sound of the monstrance clock
Singing:

Come together, together as a one
Come together for Lucifer’s son

The music of “Monstrance Clock” sounds so sweet, but really, it isn’t. It isn’t my favorite track on Ghost’s latest album Infestissumam — that would have to be “Year Zero” — but it’s my second favorite, and so I’m quite happy to report that Ghost have released a new video for it. Directed by Rob Semmer, it sets the magnetic music to scenes of the band’s performances at the El Rey in Los Angeles and Webster Hall in New York City. Watch it next… Continue reading »

DAN SWANÖ’s WITHERSCAPE PROJECT RELEASES A NEW LYRIC VIDEO: “DEAD FOR A DAY”

 Exceptions to the Rule  4 Responses »
Jul 032013
 

Back in May we helped spread the word that one of metal’s Renaissance men, Dan Swanö, had created a new project with multi-instrumentalist Ragnar Widerberg named Witherscape and had released a debut single named “Astrid Falls”. Since then we’ve seen the cover art for Witherscape’s first album, The Inheritance, created by the talented Travis Smith, and we’ve learned that the release will be a concept album, telling a story that takes place in a remote village in northern Sweden in the late 1800’s. According to Swanö, “The central character lives in Stockholm and comes from wealth, and upon the death of his family he’s informed by the family lawyer that he has inherited a large estate up north. Having been oblivious to the estate’s existence, he decides to investigate, and once he’s there ‘all kinds of weird shit happens.'”

And now today, via a DECIBEL premiere, Witherscape has brought us a new lyric video for a second track from the album, “Dead For A Day”. Rather than make my usual effort to describe the music, I’ll just let Mr. Swanö do it himself:

“‘Dead For A Day’ is one of those songs that just wrote itself. I was strumming on the acoustic guitar one morning and it just poured out of my fingers. At first, I had no idea what to do with the song since I felt it was perhaps a bit too commercial for Witherscape, but after I played the demo to Ragnar he insisted that it must be on the album! I love how the song moves between the mellow verses à la Crimson I and II to the more brutal, yet melodic chorus, in the tradition of ‘Uncreation’ and ‘Twilight’ through the groovy but ‘undanceable’ 9/8 section that leads to one of Ragnar’s best guitar leads of the album.”

Yes, it has clean singing, but it also includes Swanö’s awesome growls, as well as some wonderful lead and solo guitar work and a hooky melody. Holy hell, I’m really digging this. Listen to it next. The Inheritance will be released by Century Media on August 6 and can be ordered HERE with a t-shirt or HERE without one.

Continue reading »

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