ANOTHER LEPERKAHN ROUND-UP, PART 2: FROZEN DAWN, DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT, BESEIGED, TOOTHGRINDER, MASTODON, SOILWORK, ATRIARCH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Sep 302014
 

 

(Leperkahn’s first two round-up posts today were more in the “metal news” category. In this one, he delivers actual streams of recommended new songs and videos.)

Herein lies the latest of my attempts to fill Islander’s shoes in collecting new music and videos. There was only gonna be a few things, but then I found a bunch more. So there’s a lot in here. Sorry, but I’m also not very sorry, since it’s all good stuff.

FROZEN DAWN

I was entirely unfamiliar with Madrid’s Frozen Dawn before Islander emailed me a link to a new video they released a couple days ago. The video is for “Banished, The Everlasting Confinement”, off their second album Those of the Cursed Light, which is out now via Xtreem Music. Broadly, it’s melodic black metal, but it has dug some serious hooks into my brain. Check it out below, and order the record if you like it via the Bandcamp page below.

https://frozendawn.bandcamp.com/album/those-of-the-cursed-light
https://www.facebook.com/truefrozendawn
http://www.frozendawn.com/
http://www.reverbnation.com/truefrozendawn Continue reading »

AND THUS A CLUSTER OF KICKASS ALBUMS APPEARED ON THE HORIZON…

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Sep 302014
 

(In the second of three round-up posts for today, Leperkahn delivers news of forthcoming albums of interest.)

It seems that yesterday roughly an eighth of the entire metal universe announced the recording of new albums on the horizon, or provided updates on said recordings. I’ve collected the ones that especially caught my eye below, much to the chagrin of my wallet.

ENSLAVED

According to a Nuclear Blast press release that Islander forwarded to me, Enslaved are entering the studio to record their 13th album. “Main recordings for the as-yet-untitled new album are taking place at Duper and Solslottet Studios in Bergen, Norway with additional recordings done at Conclave & Earshot Studios (presided over by ENSLAVED members [vocalist/keyboardist Herbrand] Larsen and [lead guitarist] Ice Dale), and Ivar Bjørnson’s Personal Sound Studios.”

The band will also apparently venture to Valevåg, a rural woodsy area south of their hometown of Bergen, for additional recording (the band had previously gone there to record their 2012 7” Thorns).  The album will apparently be produced by Larsen, bassist/vocalist Grutle Kjellson, and guitarist Ivar Bjørnson with Iver Sandøy, with mixing done by the inimitable Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden.

Considering how much RIITIIR – and for that matter pretty much all of the Enslaved catalog – kicked ass, I’m sure we can all bet that this will open minds and crush faces.

https://www.facebook.com/enslaved Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: STENCH, FALLS OF RAUROS, PUIG DESTROYER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 302014
 

 

(Our brother Leperkahn continues to shoulder the burden of rounding up news and new music during my vacation from that task.)

Attempting to do Islander’s job is WAAAAY harder than I ever would’ve thought it to be. Luckily, unlike the last stream dump, this one has a bit of a theme, namely that they’re all full-album streams.

STENCH

The NCS camp in general has expressed widespread approval for Stench’s new album Venture – we even went as far as to premiere a track from it here . It’s now streaming in full at Decibel here. I think at this point we’ve said our part on this one – now it’s your turn to voice your opinion.

The album is slotted to come out October 7th via Agonia Records – look for it at this location.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stench-official/213520935347849 Continue reading »

HAVE YOUR WORLD LIT ONLY BY FIRE — GODFLESH’S NEW ALBUM IS STREAMING

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Sep 292014
 

 

(Leperkahn brings us this piece of breaking news.)

I have another roundup I’m working on right now, but before that I thought I’d let y’all in on a quick bit of breaking news, namely that Godflesh are now streaming their reunion album via NPR, their first album in 13 years.

I myself have just started to understand and appreciate the beast that is Godflesh (as in, it finally clicked for me when I was reading their Decibel cover story and listening to their new EP Decline and Fall), but I’m sure most of you have more history with the band than I do.

Anyway, if you dig it (which you should – I’ll reserve judgment until I have time to listen to all of it myself, but I’m pretty confident they’ll knock it out of the park), you can preorder it on Amazon here, or wait until it comes out on October 14. Continue reading »

STUFF LEPERKAHN DONE FOUND AND DONE LIKED, PART 1 (TREPALIUM AND USNEA)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 292014
 

 

(As explained over the weekend, I’m taking a 10-day hiatus from rounding up new song and video premieres in order to focus on reviews, but fortunately we have at least one volunteer stepping up to fill the void. Here’s a post by Leperkahn that focuses on two recent premieres.)

Hey guys! Since Islander is taking a sabbatical from daily round-ups, I figured I’d take a stab at being his fill-in for a few days here, or at least until I realize that my problem sets won’t do themselves and Wealth of Nations won’t read itself. This shall serve as part 1, with future parts coming at likely very irregular intervals. If you feel like I’ve overlooked something that the peoples of the NCS universe should be cramming into their ears, feel free to shoot me an email at brendan@sdmetal.com. Anyway, herein we have two new song premieres, from opposite corners of both the globe and the metal spectrum.

TREPALIUM

A few weeks back France’s Trepalium unleashed upon us “Moonshine Limbo” (featured here), a glorious little ditty that was easily the best swing jazz/metal combo I’ve heard since Diablo Swing Orchestra’s last album back in 2012. It came replete with a bitchin’ horn section and the first time I’ve ever truly heard scat-screaming. I mention this because the group have now released the second song from their forthcoming EP Voodoo Moonshine, “Fire On Skin”.

The song is perhaps a bit less overtly jazzy than the title track – I didn’t hear the aforementioned bitchin’ horn section this time – but the arrangement and progression of the song is still rooted pretty firmly in jazz territory, only remaining death metal because of the instrument choices and Cédric Punda’s eviscerating roars. The jabbing verse riff in particular gave me the sensation that I was in the ring with Muhammad Ali at his prime, jolting left and right with each nasty hook the chugging riff planted into my sides. Continue reading »

ONE FINAL ROUND-UP: BETHLEHEM, ENCOFFINATION, SKÁLMÖLD, ELEMENTAL NIGHTMARES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 272014
 

 

As explained here, I’m taking a 10-day hiatus from searching for and writing about new song and video premieres, in order to make time for reviewing some albums I absolutely need to say something about. Before doing that, however, here’s one last batch of new things I found over the last couple of days that I thought were worth sharing.

BETHLEHEM

Germany’s Bethlehem, whose debut album may or may not be responsible for that amorphous genre label “dark metal”, have a new song up for streaming, the name of which is “Ein Kettenwolf greint 13:11-18”. All I really have to say about this depressive ballad is that I’d listen to more rock music if it sounded like this. Warning: clean singing to come…

The song will appear on the band’s sixth album Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (fear of the number 666), which is their first in about five years. It will be released by Prophecy Productions on Oct 10 (Oct 14 in the U.S.) and is available for order here. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VESANIA, SCAR SYMMETRY, DEATH WOLF, EXODUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Sep 262014
 

 

I failed to pull together a round-up of new music yesterday — as you may have noticed, we were pretty busy with a lot of other goings-on at the site. What that means is that I now have two days’ worth of new things to pore over in deciding what to throw your way.

And man, it has been one hell of a week for new songs and videos. I’m having trouble remembering another one so filled with worthy new debuts. Unfortunately, this means I won’t be able to cover everything that deserves to be covered. But we soldier on as best we can.

VESANIA

Yesterday brought a torrent of news from this excellent Polish supergroup whose music my comrade Andy Synn once described as “crushing blackened-death metal with a lunatic, symphonic twist”. Vesania’s discography, as it then existed, was the subject of one of Andy’s SYNN REPORTs in 2012, but that report is about to be rendered incomplete, because… Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ABYSMAL DAWN, CANNIBAL CORPSE, ENTOMBED A.D.

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 242014
 

This has been a big day for song and video premieres. In fact, all we’ve done today is post about song and video premieres. And in this post you’ll find three more.

ABYSMAL DAWN

As previously reported (with glee), Abysmal Dawn have a new album named Obsolescence coming out October 24 (Ger/Benelux/Finland) and October 27 (US/UK/World). It will be released by Relapse Records on CD, LP, and digitally. About an hour ago the band dropped another new song from the album named “The Inevitable Return To Darkness”.

It’s one heavy-assed ripper that kicks open the door to a death metal blast furnace. It’s fully loaded with technically impressive (and inventive) instrumental performances and voracious vocal filth, and it includes some cool dual-guitar harmony. Also, I can pretty much guarantee you’re going to want to bang your head like a bobble-head on a roller-coaster. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: VARATHRON, NIGHTBRINGER, 1349, MYRKUR, ASHES, VIDEMUR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  11 Responses »
Sep 232014
 

 

I sometimes play fast and loose with that “Shades of Black” title, but this time it genuinely fits the music I’ve collected here. The song streams represent many different shades and phases of black metal, and regardless of your preferences within the genre, I suspect you will find something to like before you reach the end. Of course, I like all of it.

VARATHRON

The long-running Greek black metal band Varathron will be releasing their fifth album, Untrodden Corridors of Hades, later this fall.  It comes five years after their last full-length, but based on the strength of the new album’s first advance track, this is one of those cases where I’m inclined to say, “It was worth the wait!”

“Realm of the Obscure” is thoroughly galvanizing, a non-stop rush of multi-faceted riffs that writhe like serpents, stab like knives, and hammer like mallet blows. The acrobatic and often pyrotechnic drumwork is equally varied and matches up beautifully with the varied movements of this long song, and the vocals are thoroughly ravenous. It’s the kind of music that’s voracious and malignant but with a highly seductive melody and an aura of imperial might. Really excellent. Continue reading »

NECROMANCING THE STONE: NEW “SUPERGROUP” SCORES FIRST WIN WITH SELECTION OF BAND NAME

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Sep 222014
 

 

“Supergroups” are hit or miss affairs. The combination of musicians drawn from well-known and very talented bands sometimes turns out to be less than the sum of its parts. That may turn out to be true of Necromancing the Stone (though I’m betting it won’t), but at least they’ve scored a win with the selection of their band name.

Necromancing the Stone is a new band whose line-up includes these musicians:

James Malone (Arsis) (guitars)
Ryan ‘Bart’ Williams (ex-The Black Dahlia Murder) (bass)
Jeramie Kling (The Absence) (drums)
Justin Wood (Brimstone Coven) (guitars)
John Williams (Brimstone Coven) (vocals)

As for the music, the band have recorded a three-song EP named Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead that will be released tomorrow. It will be available on Bandcamp, and shirts are already available at this location. The EP was mixed by Peter Tagtgren at Studio Abyss, with additional mixing by Eyal Levi at Audiohammer Studios. The EP’s cover art, which you cane see next, was created by Mark Riddick: Continue reading »

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