SEEN AND HEARD: SÓLSTAFIR, WATAIN, AN SBM COMPILATION, NACHTMYSTIUM

 Metal News  10 Responses »
Jun 222014
 


Photo © Metal Chris

You may have noticed that I haven’t written anything for our site for a few days.  I’ve been hanging out with family and friends in Austin, Texas, the hallowed place of my birth.  There has been much eating, drinking, and merriment, but almost no time for metal. I’m thinking I can get back to my normal routine after getting back to Seattle tonight. But although I haven’t been listening to much music, I do have a few things to spread around today.

SÓLSTAFIR

Today is the last day of HELLFEST in Clisson, France. The French site Arte.tv has been webcasting performances from the festival, and I thought I’d mention that Iceland’s Sólstafir will be performing today. As best I can figure, their set will start at 1:00 pm Pacific Time and 10:00 pm local time in Clisson.

I’ve seen Sólstafir perform live on a grand total of one occasion, but based on that experience I highly recommend you watch this.  I’ve embedded the stream player after the jump, but in case that doesn’t work for you, go HERE.

UPDATE:  Sólstafir’s set has obviously now been completed, but I’ve substituted the archived footage of the show after the jump. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BLOOD OF KINGU, HATE, CULT OF FIRE, TERROR OATH, CEMETERY FOG, YORBLIND

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Jun 182014
 

I never got around to posting a second round-up yesterday, as I had planned, so I’m loading up this one not only with what I had intended to feature yesterday but also with some other items I discovered last night. Yeah, that makes this a really long post, but what else have you got to do?

As you’ll see, I’m indulging my taste for blackness, death, and deathly blackness, though for those of you less interested in slaughter and depravity, you can skip to the more melodious song at the end. There’s actually a bit of clean singing in that last one.

BLOOD OF KINGU

Earlier this month I reported that Ukrainian black metal band Blood of Kingu (started by Roman Sayenko of Drudkh) would be releasing their third album via Season of Mist on September 2 in North America (and August 29 everywhere else). The title is Dark Star on the Right Horn of the Crescent Moon. Yesterday, thanks to my friend Vonlughlio, I learned that Terrorizer has now premiered the first advance track from the album, “Enshrined in the Nethermost Lairs Beneath the Oceans”.

The song wastes no time unleashing a torrent of blasting drums and rippling tremolo runs that carry a seductive melody behind gargantuan vocal proclamations. An aura of infernal darkness radiates from the music in waves, but man, it’s also highly infectious. You’ll need to go HERE to listen. Blood of Kingu have a Facebook page at this location. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: AUROCH, MOURNFUL CONGREGATION, ZOMBIEFICATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jun 172014
 

Lots and lots of excellent new metal has begun streaming on the web over the last 24 hours — too much for me to gather together in a single post. But I’m going to make a start with this round-up of flesh-eating goodness, beginning with news of two full-album streams.

AUROCH

Taman Shud, the forthcoming new album by Vancouver’s Auroch, is already garnering a slew of highly favorable reviews. It will get one more as soon as I can kick myself in the ass hard enough to translate my own feelings into feeble words.

But in the meantime, you can hear the entire album for yourselves, because yesterday Profound Lore launched a full stream on YouTube — and I’ve embedded it after the jump. The album will be released on June 24 and can be pre-ordered here or purchased in digital form at Bandcamp. Continue reading »

“AT WAR WITH REALITY”: AT THE GATES TO BEGIN RECORDING THEIR NEW ALBUM

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Jun 162014
 

I just saw a press release from Century Media in the NCS in-box that elevated by pulse rate: It announces that the seminal Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates have completed pre-production work and are now ready to begin recording their new album, At War With Reality.

The album will be recorded by the same line-up who recorded Slaughter of the Soul (1995), and studio updates are expected either later this month or in July. The album is projected for release in October or November of this year. After the jump, you can watch a brief video message from vocalist Tomas Lindberg providing further details about the upcoming recording sessions.

To be honest, this is an enterprise seemingly fraught with peril. On the one hand, after having seen this band perform twice in recent years, including at MDF XII, I could hardly be more excited to hear new songs from them. On the other hand, how can they top themselves — or even equal the massive impact their existing albums produced, given the passage of so much time? Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KILL-TOWN DEATH FEST, THRONE, VILKACIS, FELIX MARTIN

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  10 Responses »
Jun 152014
 

Well, it’s Sunday, and that means … more blog posts! I have three in mind for today. Of course, having them in my mind and getting them out on the web are two different things, but at least there will be this one — a Sunday round-up of things I spotted yesterday.

KILL-TOWN DEATH FEST

This first item falls into the category of Things Worth Applauding Even Though I Will Never Hear Them. This is a very small category, especially when it comes to tours and festivals that I can’t see, because if they look really enticing they usually just make me green with envy and kind of ill-tempered and not in an applauding mood.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, the Kill-Town Death Fest. It will take place on September 4-7, 2014, in Copenhagen, Denmark, which might as well be Mars as far as I’m concerned. But good god almighty, look at that just-announced FINAL line-up on the above poster! (If you’re having any trouble reading it, clicking on it will make it bigger.) I mean, all those bands are so up my alley that I can’t even take a piss in it any more because there’s no room left! Hail Santa and all his elves!

If you’re lucky enough to live within striking distance of this thing, please don’t tell me because that will open my bile ducts I’m very happy for you. More info and ticket sales can be found here. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PANTHEON I, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT, UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION, BASTARD SAPLING, ESKAPI

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 142014
 

Hey motherfuckers, what up? (I feel I can call you a motherfucker because this is a metal blog and about half the metal bands I’ve seen on stage call me and everyone else in the audience a motherfucker at least a dozen times per set.) I’ll tell you what up with me.

I’m not watching the World Cup, because if I wanted to watch dudes run around for 90 minutes trying to score, I’d rather go to a bar. (I read that on the internet.) Or I’d go outside and set an ant bed on fire (they’d run around faster, though no more intelligibly, and it would all be over sooner). What I’ve been doing is crawling through the interhole finding things to write about on a Saturday morning. In particular, these things:

PANTHEON I

I saw the recent news that this Norwegian band have prepared a new album named From the Abyss They Rise and have signed with Non Serviam Records for its release on August 11. In fact, it’s already available for pre-order (here). From what I read, it appears the album will be a compilation, beginning with an EP’s worth of new songs and ending with music from their first demo. This is their first work in four years, and based on what they’ve done before, it should be worth checking out. Continue reading »

YOB, OVERKILL, BEASTMILK

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jun 122014
 

I mainly wanted to put up a couple of cool new album covers before calling it quits for the day, but I just saw a new video that I decided to throw in here, too, because we always need music.

YOB

The first cover is for Clearing The Path to Ascend, the new album by YOB, which is due for release by Neurot Recordings in September. I’m expecting great things from this album. I take PR reports with a grain of salt, but this excerpt from today’s announcement still gets me pumped up:

“Those threads of progressive rock and drone that have always underscored the music of YOB are now fully realized with Clearing The Path To Ascend, as each track forges into the next with a ferocity that’s as completely unhinged as it is utterly focused. Drummer Travis Foster wields his signature rhythmic furore here with bombastic precision while bassist Aaron Rieseberg, coils around the sonic tide with an unforgiving churn – all the while in a deadly synchronicity with Scheidt’s uncanny vocal range and its pendulous movement between the triumphant howls of a medieval madman and the earth splitting growls of a war-battered titan.”

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SÓLSTAFIR, GOD MACABRE, OAK PANTHEON, ELUVEITIE, ALESTORM

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Jun 122014
 

Here are some new things I found over the last 24 hours that I thought were worth sharing around. I’m doing my best to finish a review, so I’m going to atypically attempt to be brief. I know this will cause mass depression among readers, but that’s just the way it has to be.

SÓLSTAFIR

As previously reported, the next album by Iceland’s Sólstafir is named Ótta and will be released by Season of Mist on August 29 in Europe and September 2 in North America. Today the album became available for pre-order in triple-LP format (here) and the cover art was disclosed (above). I don’t know what thinking is behind the use of this photo or how it relates to the music and/or lyrics, but I like it — such a dramatic setting, and such a fascinating face. Bought it.

Also today Stereogum premiered the new album’s title track. You may not be prepared for it. You may not even think it’s metal. But I think it’s goddamned awesome. It’s icy and adrift, bleak and beautiful, melancholy and memorable. But it has a harsh edge as well, it rocks in its own way, and the soaring of the vocals into a howl near the end are very cool. And is that an electrified mandolin I’m hearing, along with the synth and strings? (Answer:  Nope, it’s a banjo!)

Go HERE to listen.

GOD MACABRE

I’ve written before about the Relapse reissue of the one and only album by Sweden’s God Macabre — a band who’ve frequently been on my mind ever since seeing their magnificent set at Maryland Deathfest XII last month. One of my friends who was there with me surprised the hell out of me a few days ago with a gift of the special MDF edition of the LP. And then yesterday I noticed that the digital version of The Winterlong reissue is now available on Bandcamp. If you haven’t heard it, you should. It has lost nothing in the two decades since its original release. Here it is: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TOMBS, SEPTICFLESH, CEMETERY LUST, DEVANGELIC

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jun 112014
 

The following are some of the best things I saw and heard in my ramblings through the interhole today.

TOMBS

I have idiotically failed to write anything about Savage Gold, the new album by Brooklyn’s Tombs which is out today. But because it’s out today, the entire album is also now streaming on Bandcamp, where it can also be ordered. It defies simple classification, with a mix of elements drawn from black metal, hardcore, death metal, and post-metal, among others. It’s a powerful album as a whole, and one in which each song also has its own potent identity. There is no joy in the music, but there is a lot to enjoy.

I go back and forth as to which song is my favorite, but today it’s “Edge of Darkness” (yesterday it was “Seance”), so if you’ve only got time to sample the music, you might start there. The whole album is after the jump.

http://tombsbklyn.bandcamp.com/album/savage-gold
https://www.facebook.com/TombsBklyn Continue reading »

RESURRECTIONS: SOULBURN AND SANCTUARY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jun 112014
 

Soulburn 2014

This morning brought news of new albums on the way from two bands whose last recorded efforts date back many years. I’m intrigued by both announcements, and thought you might be, too.

SOULBURN

Soulburn are a Dutch band formed in the mid-90’s by original Asphyx drummer Bob Bagchus and his former Asphyx bandmate, guitarist Eric Daniels, with Wannes Gubbels from Pentacle on bass and vocals. Century Media released their well-regarded debut album Feeding on Angels in 1998 (reissued in 2009) — and there has been no recorded music from Soulburn since then. But that’s about to change.

According to an interview with Bob Bagchus published today by Terrorizer, a revived Soulburn will finish recording a new album in July, with the working title of In Suffocating Darkness. Bagchus says it will be released by Century Media and he describes the music as “our darkest one since Asphyx’s Embrace The Death, with lots of old Bathory/Venom/Celtic Frost love in it”. The new vocalist/bassist is Twan van Geel (Bunkur), and Bagchus says, “Instead of the typical deathgrunt he sings in the more aggressive way like Dissection/Watain kind of vocals which fit our music 100% perfectly.” The current band also includes guitarist Remco Kreft (Grand Supreme Blood Court). Continue reading »

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