SEEN AND HEARD: IFING, CAULDRON BLACK RAM, CORMORANT, WARPSTONE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Feb 272014
 

I’m still being squeezed by my day job, with a road trip adding to the squeezing, but I do have the following four discoveries from yesterday that I’d like to toss your way.

IFING

Ifing is a two-man band consisting of Fritz Petersen and Tim Wicklund. They live in the wilds of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They named their band after the great river in Norse mythology that separates the realms of the gods from the giants. And if you think that may be the beginning of a clue to the music, you may be right.

They have recorded a debut album entitled Against the Weald, and it’s scheduled for release by the excellent Finnish label Blood Music on May 6.  Yesterday Terrorizer premiered a song from the album named “The Stream”. At more than 13 minutes in length, “The Stream” takes up almost half of Against This Weald‘s running time. I still thought it was too short. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WHITECHAPEL AND NUX VOMICA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Feb 262014
 

Here’s the second round-up of new music I promised earlier today. It doesn’t include everything I had originally planned to cover because… fucking day job… so I’ll try to shoe-horn the rest into a post tomorrow.

WHITECHAPEL

Metal Blade announced today that it will be releasing the fifth album by Tennessee’s Whitechapel on April 29 in NorthAm. The title is Our Endless War, and the cover art by Aaron Marsh (with a new logo) can be seen above. The band have described the album as one that includes “dashes of every record we have done so far mixed with the intensity of a new sound.” And they’ve also given us a first taste of what’s coming through a lyric video for a new song: “The Saw Is the Law”.

This track betrays the band’s death core roots in some respects, which could be a plus or a minus depending on your perspective. But it’s also a very heavy storm — a bludgeoning, howling hurricane loaded with interwoven cut-throat riffs, hammer-smashing grooves, and a dose of rapid-fire vox. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MISERY INDEX, BAST, GIANT OF THE MOUNTAIN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Feb 262014
 

Although the dreaded day job is impinging on my precious blog time for the next couple of days, I did have time last night and this morning for a fast breaststroke through the fetid waters of the interhole and the NCS inbox. When I came up for air, I had managed to snag some items of interest — so many, in fact, that I’ve divided them into two posts, this one being the first.

MISERY INDEX

According to a press release from Season of Mist, Misery Index (above) have finished recording their fifth album, which will be named The Killing Gods. It was recorded at Visceral Sound Studios with Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer). It will be released on May 27 in NorthAm (May 23 everywhere else, because… I don’t know why everywhere else gets it sooner). The album art has been finished, but it’s not yet available for public consumption.

“Highly anticipated” — I think that’s the appropriate cliched label for this album. In other words, I am high with anticipation. And anyone else who’s a fan of grindcore and/or death metal ought to be, too. Let’s have a little taste from their last studio album, shall we? Continue reading »

BEYOND GRACE: “MONSTROUS”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Feb 252014
 

I have a pain in my butt, the kind that Preparation H will not ameliorate: The old fucking fay job is impinging on my precious blog time. This is the main reason why we have a grand total of only two posts today, this being the second one.  It will continue to have its way with me over the next couple of days, so NCS content may continue to be scarce and my butt will continue to hurt. My NCS comrades are also being diverted by such distractions as sleeping late, cleaning their rooms, and evading creditors. One of them is also currently on tour in the UK with one of his bands.

The one who is on tour is Mr. Andy Synn, the band in question is Beyond Grace (formerly known as Bloodguard), and the tour in progress is headlined by The Monolith Deathcult, with additional support from Talanas and an appetizing assortment of other bands at each venue. Details about that are available here.

But the main point of this post, other than advising of my hurting butt and reminding you about that tour, is to alert you to the fact that Beyond Grace have just released their debut, three-song EP, the name of which is Monstrous. Continue reading »

AN ELEMENTAL NIGHTMARES SPLIT: PORTA NIGRA, MEMBARIS, ASHENCULT, AND VUYVR

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Feb 242014
 

I’ve been following the progress of the Elemental Nightmares project since before it became public, writing about it for the first time in July 2013. It began as an effort to raise money for a subscription series of 13 splits on 7″ vinyl (with digital download options) featuring one exclusive song each by 26 up-and-coming bands from around the world. As the project evolved, the format has changed:

Last Friday, Elemental Nightmares announced that instead of releasing 13 splits with 2 songs per side, they will release 7 splits on 10″ vinyl, with each split containing four songs instead of two. And, because of the new format, there will be 28 bands instead of 26. In addition, as previously announced, Elemental Nightmares is offering the splits for sale on an individual basis, as well as subscriptions to the series as a whole, and the digital-only option is still available.

But the best news is the announcement that the project will happen. To see the names of the original 26 bands and for more info about purchase options, go here. The two new bands will be announced soon.

And finally, Friday also brought the premiere (by Invisible Oranges) of four songs that will appear on the fourth installment of the series, and it’s a damned strong way to start off: The bands are Porta Nigra (Germany), Membaris (Germany), Ashencult (Philadelphia), and Vuyvr (Switzerland). Continue reading »

TOURISM: PAGANFEST AMERICA PART V

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Feb 212014
 

Now this is some truly heart-warming news, at least for my black heart. The organizers of PAGANFEST AMERICA PART V have just announced the schedule of dates — which I will share with you in a moment. But first, here are five reasons why this is worth noticing:

Korpiklaani:  They are a band that I think are worth seeing whenever the opportunity presents itself. It doesn’t even matter if their music isn’t in your regular rotation. I’ve seen them twice, and I’m completely sold. Jonne Järvelä is a magnetic, high-energy, infectiously good-natured frontman, the smiling Buddha-like bass-player Jarkko Aaltonen has an epic beard, they sing a lot about drinking, and they know how to rock the fuck out in a live setting.

Turisas: Never seen them, but based on concert videos I’ve watched, I’m betting they will be tons of fun too.

Chthonic: Their last two albums are really good (I hadn’t fully climbed on the Chthonic bandwagon before then), and based on videos, they also look like they know how to put on a kickass show. Continue reading »

AUTOPSY ARE READY TO DELIVER TOURNIQUETS, HACKSAWS AND GRAVES

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Feb 212014
 

To be clear, Tourniquets, Hacksaws And Graves is the name of the seventh studio excrescence by the mighty Autopsy. The deliciously disgusting album art (by Wes Benscoter) was unveiled today, showing the creative use of intestines as a tourniquet before the amputation begins.

Also revealed today: the release date — April 21 (via Peaceville).

“Once again bone crushingly heavy nightmares await…. Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves will awaken the most depraved part of the coldest zombie’s stare…..blood will flow, brains will be destroyed, coffin lids will be opened….”  That’s what the band say. I believe every word of it, too. Extremely eager for this.

And that.  Is all.  (except for this new band photo: Continue reading »

THURSDAY THROTTLING: PILGRIM, MASTIC SCUM, THE GREAT OLD ONES, KUOLEMANLAAKSO, SHROUD OF THE HERETIC

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Feb 202014
 

As you can see, I’ve decided to forge ahead with alliterative titles for the daily music round-ups this week. Lucky for you, there are only two more days in the week after today. Also lucky for you, I have found five pleasurable new songs over the last 24 hours that will put you in a chokehold, kind of like erotic asphyxiation.

PILGRIM

This Rhode Island duo’s 2012 debut album Misery Wizards turned a lot of heads, and now Metal Blade is primed to release their second album — II: Void Worship — on April 1 (a few days earlier in Europe). I was attracted to this news by the colorfully killer album art by Adam Burke, and that in turn led me to explore the album’s first advance track, “The Paladin”.

Whereas Misery Wizards was largely a crawling, bludgeoning behemoth of classic doom, “The Paladin” rocks very fuckin’ hard, driven by utterly filthy and utterly irresistible riffs. It’s a smoking, chugging steamroller of a song, with The Wizard’s wailing vocals riding over the top like a ring-wraith. The doom isn’t gone, but it’s been super-charged. This one is already on my list of candidates for 2014’s most infectious songs. Continue reading »

A NEW BLOODBATH ALBUM! (AND A MYSTERIOUS NEW VOCALIST)

 Metal News  36 Responses »
Feb 202014
 

Are you sitting down?  You should sit down before reading further.  Sweden’s revered Bloodbath added a note on their Facebook page earlier this morning. I’ll share it at the end of this post. In a nutshell, it indicates that Bloodbath have written 10 new songs and will begin the recording process next month. And that should mean we will have a new Bloodbath album in 2014, the first one since 2008’s The Fathomless Mastery.

Based on the note, it’s apparent that there will also be a new vocalist on this album — one who is neither Mikael Åkerfeldt nor Peter Tägtgren. The Facebook note provides clues to the new vocalist’s year of birth by listing a string of deadly disasters, ending with the statement, “The new singer for Bloodbath is born. Oh dear”.

To save you a bit of time, all of the listed disasters occurred in 1971. To save you a further bit of time, I’ve listed after the jump the names of some vocalists born in 1971, identified through my own half-assed research. I will say that the most likely candidate from the names I’ve found is Jörgen Sandström — who is currently the vocalist for my beloved Torture Division and also the vocalist/bassist for The Project Hate MCMXCIX (he also provided vocals, bass, and guitar for Grave on their first three albums and also played bass with Entombed from 1997-2004). Continue reading »

WEDNESDAY WARSTRIKES: ANCIENT ASCENDANT, ANIMALS AS LEADERS, ARCHSPIRE, BLOODWAY, COLTSBLOOD

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 192014
 

I’m still in alliteration mode, though I’m not completely happy with today’s title. Given the bands’ names, I probably should have gone with “The ABCs of Metal”. In alphabetical order, here are six new songs from five forthcoming albums that I discovered over the last 24 hours, all of which come highly recommended.

ANCIENT ASCENDANT

We’ve been closely following the progression of UK-based Ancient Ascendant, with very positive reviews (by Andy Synn) of both their 2011 debut album The Grim Awakening and their 2012 EP Into the Dark. Last month we reported the very nice news that the band had signed with Candlelight Records for the release of a new album (with Dan Swanö again handling the production). Now we’ve got the album title — Echoes and Cinder — and the album art (above), plus a new song that premiered yesterday.

The song’s name is “Riders”, and you can hear it next. It will give you a hell of a blistering, black-thrashing ride, something like being snagged by a giant red-eyed bat horde flying from their cave for a night on the hunt. Damned infectious, too — you’ll want to limber up your neck muscles before listening because heads will bang. Continue reading »

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