SEEN AND HEARD: UNLEASHED, APOPHYS, THEOKTONY, GHOLD, HACAVITZ, SPECTRAL VOICE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Feb 102015
 

 

Yesterday delivered a bonanza of new metal discoveries, so many that I’m resorting to minimizing my own verbiage in order to roll out everything I found in one post without turning it into War and Peace. I realize this will strike many of you as a tragedy of near-mythic proportions, but I do not wish to dim the reputation of Tolstoy, him being dead and all, and unable to restore competitive balance with a sequel.

UNLEASHED

Yesterday Nuclear Blast announced that this spring it will release the 12th studio album of Sweden’s Unleashed. The title is Dawn of the Nine and it features cover art by the talented Pär Olofsson. There’s a story behind the artwork, as recounted by founding member, bassist, and vocalist Johnny Hedlund:

“The artwork represents the continuation of our previous album, which ended with ‘The Great Battle of Odalheim.’ The battle took place at Uppsala Fields in Sweden, and you can clearly see the king’s grave in the cover art work which also represents the future. You can also see the bombed out church in the far distance, the place of blood in the front, and the rune stone with the runic symbol of courage of the new dawn.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BELL WITCH AND PAOLO GIRARDI, SARPANITUM, KJELD, LO!

 Listmania, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Feb 092015
 

 

I’m so glad to be back home after three weeks in the bush, by which I mean Delaware. Finally, to sleep in my own bed, in which I woke up once an hour beginning about 2 a.m. and whined, because the time zone change is fuckin’ with me.  In other words, I slept like a baby. But it really is good to be home — although it appears I’m going to have to do this extended travel thing all over again in three weeks, which blows. But I’ll bitch about that more thoroughly when the time comes. For now, let’s discuss happier subjects….

BELL WITCH AND PAOLO GIRARDI

This first item of news really cheered me right up — the marriage between one of my own most fervently anticipated releases of 2015 and one of my favorite artists. As you can see above (and click that image to enlarge it), maestro Paolo Girardi has created the painted cover art for the new album by Seattle’s Bell Witch — Four Phantoms. It is beautiful, and I have no doubt that Four Phantoms will also be beautiful, in the way that the pale, cold skin of a bewitching corpse is beautiful. Continue reading »

WOULD YOU LIKE SOME DOOM WITH YOUR DOOM?

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 082015
 

(About a week ago, while I was being roasted alive in day-job hell, Grant Skelton e-mailed me about some doom discoveries. I’ve decided to just paste his e-mail comments into this post along with the music. I hope it’s okay with him that I’m doing this. I subscribe to the view that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.)

CRYPT SERMON

In keeping with your interest in Crypt Sermon, I found that they are streaming another new song called “Will of The Ancient Call” over at NPR. Listen here.

If you’ve heard “Heavy Riders” or the title track, then you know this is traditional doom. I suppose detractors might call it “re-doom,” but I think it’s phenomenal. I’d love to see these guys tour with Below. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ENSLAVED, DEMONICAL, DOWN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 072015
 

I’m finally finished with the project for my fucking day job that has kept me on the U.S. east coast for the last three weeks. Tomorrow I return to Seattle and some semblance of normalcy, both for life in general and for NCS.

I still feel like I’ve been put through a goddamn meat-grinder, and it will take some time to get over being exhausted (and to finish posting what other writers sent me over the last week), but I did spend an hour this morning trying to figure out what I missed in the way of new music over the last couple of days. As usual, given the persistent flood of new metal that’s been coming our way since this new year began, I found A LOT. I’m going to include three new videos in this post. I hope I can get another round-up done tomorrow before heading to the airport.

ENSLAVED

Enslaved’s new album In Times is one of my “most anticipated” 2015 releases, so it’s been frustrating that I haven’t had time to listen to it since our advance copy arrived about a week ago. But this morning I did listen to the first advance track, “Thurisaz Dreaming”, which began streaming as a lyric video at Noisey yesterday along with an excellent interview of Ivar Bjørnson. Continue reading »

RECALCITRANT ROUND-UP: IN LIEU OF ISLANDER (PART 1)

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Feb 022015
 

 

(Austin Weber steps up with a fill-in round-up…)

In lieu of a “Seen and Heard” from Islander, since he is swamped, I’ll cover a bunch of different-sounding bands, ranging from post-grind to anti-grim to electro-gypsy and smegma-core. Everything the body needs and then some. I’ve been a bit behind, so some of this news/releases is more recent than others. Part two with a class of equally different-sounding bands will be posted tomorrow.

The Heads Are Zeros/Neck First split

I’ve been meaning to cover this gem of a split for some time, and now that time has finally come. The Heads Are Zeros are a first-rate, ruthlessly intense grind act from Baltimore whom I covered here last year with their album, All The Men I Love Are Dead, a grind album that I put on my year-end list and felt was one of the rare grind acts you hear who truly have their own identity and unique songwriting abilities within this style. Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: ASTROUS (AENAON) ANNOUNCES NEW GREEK SUPERGROUP — KATAVASIA — AND WE BRING YOU A SONG PREMIERE

 Interviews, Metal News, Premieres  3 Responses »
Feb 022015
 

 

(KevinP brings us another edition of his short-interview series, “Get To The Point”, and he talks with Astrous, vocalist of the Greek black metal band Aenaon. But this time the interview includes both a news scoop about the new Greek supergroup Katavasia and the world premiere of a new Katavasia song.)

K:  So what’s the big news you want to share with all of us today?

A:  I feel great to announce a new alliance in the Greek Black Metal circles which is called KATAVASIA. This new project consists of well-known musicians and guest appearances, aimed to produce the unique sound and spirit of the early Greek black metal era.

 

K:  Can you tell us who is responsible for this alliance? Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TARDIVE DYSKINESIA, LORD DYING, THE WILL OF A MILLION, INNER SANCTUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 012015
 

 

I took a break from my work this morning to take a quick look for new music that might be interesting, and I found some songs that I thought were worth recommending. I still don’t have much time to myself, so once again I’m not able to write quite as much about the music as I normally do. I realize it won’t sound as good without me explaining why it sounds good, but somehow, you will have to make do.

TARDIVE DYSKINESIA

The Greek band Tardive Dyskinesia, who I’ve been following for a very long time, just released a new single named “The Electric Sun“, and it comes with a video. It’s one of 10 songs the band are developing for a new album that they’re projecting for release at the end of this year. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NIGHTRAGE, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT, HELLRIPPER, MUCK

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 312015
 

Happy Saturday to all of you. It is not a happy Saturday for yours truly. I am still mired in day-job hell, or more accurately, day-and-night-job hell. Fortunately, other people have been stepping up and providing content for our site, but until I make it to the end of my work project next weekend we’ll still be a bit light on NCS content.

I continue to be way behind in checking out new songs and videos, but I did spot a few this morning that I thought were worth sharing. Because I’ve got to get my nose back to the grindstone, I’m once again just going to throw the music at you with minimal commentary. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KATAVASIA, NAPALM DEATH, ABSTRACTER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jan 262015
 

 

I’m afraid I haven’t had much time to round up new music for today. My fucking day job has again carried me across the continent to the east coast where I’ll be working days and nights from now through February 8. As a result, there will be many days between now and then when there will be less content on the site than usual.

I would also like to mention that as I write this it is 13°F where I am, with a winter storm warning in effect and blizzard conditions predicted beginning this afternoon. I know this will not impress many of our readers who are used to this kind of thing, but for me I would like to say FUCK THIS SHIT.

KATAVASIA

Although I’ve had little time to myself this past weekend, I did listen to a couple of new things, beginning with a fantastic discovery named Katavasia. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TOO DAMNED MANY NAMES TO LIST (AGAIN)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jan 232015
 

Well, the last time I did what I’m about to do, I had breaking news and new music concerning 18 bands that all became public in a single day. That was two days ago. And now I’ve got a collection of song streams and videos from 19 bands that I spotted since I wrote that last post, all of which I think are worth recommending.

Most of what’s in here is brand new; a few of songs are simply new to me. Once again, because this collection is so overstuffed, I’m presenting what I found with a minimum of commentary… in alphabetical order by band name. Continue reading »

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