SEEN AND HEARD: ALFAHANNE, INTEGRITY, DYSCARNATE, MORBUS CHRON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jan 162014
 

I intended to post this round-up of recommended new things yesterday, and even then the news and new music included herein was a bit dated. But life got in the way and I wasn’t able to finish it until now. In the meantime, even more new things hit my fractured radar screen. And so, if life will just stay out of the way, I’ll have another round-up for you later today.

ALFAHANNE

According to a press release I received, Alfahanne are a Swedish band formed in 2010 with members who have been in the black metal scene since the early 90’s in bands such as Vinterland and Maze of Torment — Pehr Skioldhammer (vox and guitar), Fredrik Sööberg (guitars), Niklas Åström (drums), and Jimmy Wiberg (bass). They released a split named Grym with Sweden’s Shining last year, which I haven’t heard. They’ve now recorded a debut album, Alfapokalyps, which is due for release via Dark Essence on February 10 in both CD and vinyl formats (orderable here).

In addition to featuring eye-catching cover art (above), the album includes guest vocal contributions from Niklas Kvarforth (Shining), V’gandr (Helheim), and Hoest (Taake). Recently, the band started streaming an advance track named “Såld På Mörkret”, which includes Hoest’s contribution as a vocalist. It’s a helluva song. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: THE OCEAN, BEHEMOTH, OBLITERATIONS, SOREPTION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jan 152014
 

Satan has been a busy little sulphurous bee this week. So many newsy metal announcements, so many new metally songs, more than my addled brain can keep up with. Here are a few of the items I spied over the last 24 hours that I thought were worth sharing. More will come in another post today.

TOURISM: THE OCEAN / SCALE THE SUMMIT / THE ATLAS MOTH / SILVER SNAKES

Who are these people who are constantly blaring that “Metal Sucks” and why are they associating with miscreants such as The Ocean, Scale the Summit, The Atlas Moth, and Silver Snakes? I must add that question to the long list of life’s mysteries to which I must devote my investigative energies. Whoever those people are and whatever obscure impulses motivate them, they are presenting a U.S. tour of the afore-mentioned miscreants, wisely choosing to launch it in The Emerald City, for which I will give thanks by sacrificing a neighbor’s child under the next full moon.

Other less important cities will be visited by this very impressive line-up, and I will list them after the jump for those whose eyesight isn’t sharp enough to discern them on the tour poster above. And speaking of the line-up, though I have been savaged by the first three bands in previous musical performances, Silver Snakes have not had the pleasure of savaging me before, and in fact I was unaware of their existence before those people who blare “Metal Sucks” presented them in this new tour, though I sometimes see silver snakes while on the verge of a blackout drunk. Therefore, along with the dates I will provide a bit of their music, which involves clean singing along with heaviness and lightness. Continue reading »

BRUTALITY REIGNS: BENIGHTED, VIRULENCY, INFERI, HALAHKUH, TRIVERSE MASSACRE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jan 132014
 

Since the weekend began I caught up with a flood of hair-raising new songs and found so many worth recommending that I’ve collected them in two posts, this one being the second of the day (the first is here). I probably should have divided them into 4 or 5 posts, but since the unofficial motto of this site seems to be “long-winded”, why bother? New music from six bands is gathered here. The common theme of the music is… high-speed brutality!

BENIGHTED

This French death metal band will be releasing their seventh album, Carnivore Sublime, in North America on February 18 via Season of Mist. Last week they debuted one of the new songs in music video form. Its name is “Experience Your Flesh”. It depicts the kind of classroom daydream where the roles of tormentor and tormented are reversed — but it’s a gore-splattered kind of fantasy, one that befits the song itself.

And the song itself is a blast furnace of brutal death metal, with bone-cracking/gut-slicing riffs, high-velocity percussion, and a high-low tandem of guttural roars and hair-on-fire shrieks. The phrase “takes no prisoners” comes to mind. Continue reading »

TOURISM: METAL ALLIANCE 2014 WILL BRING BEHEMOTH, GOATWHORE, 1349, INQUISITION, AND BLACK CROWN INITIATE TO NORTH AMERICA

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Jan 132014
 

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the announcement that’s the subject of this post. And as I wobbled in a sudden affliction of vertigo, the words “holy shit” repeatedly escaped my slack-jawed mouth. About all I’m capable of doing at the moment is re-printing the official press release. Grab hold of something solid in case you feel faint, and read on…

The Metal Alliance Tour is back for their fourth ferocious year of wrecking heads. Festival organizers Dan Rozenblum and Steve Seabury of High River Entertainment are proud to welcome to American soil the mighty Behemoth as their 2014 headliner. This will be the first time in over a decade that Behemoth will tour North America in support of their new record The Satanist released on April 2nd through Metal Blade Records. The tour will be rounded out by New Orleans natives Goatwhore, 1349, Inquisition and the buzz worthy unsigned act Black Crown Initiate.

“This tour is no exception for our love of all things heavy.” states Rozenblum. “This tour is for metal fans by metal fans.” adds Seabury. “this bill explores our appreciation for the dark and black side of metal. Behemoth have been a favorite of ours and we are stoked to have them headline the fourth edition of the Metal Alliance Tour!”  Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SÓLSTAFIR, SHINING, SHITFUCKER — AND WILDERNESSKING

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 082014
 

I noticed a lot of new things yesterday. A few of them are collected in this post — an alliterative line-up of new videos and/or songs from Sólstafir (Iceland), Shining (Norway), and Shitfucker (Detroit), plus some welcome news from Wildernessking (South Africa).

SÓLSTAFIR

Yesterday, I spied not one, but three new things from one of our site’s favorite bands, Iceland’s Sólstafir. The first is a new song that appears on a forthcoming 7″ split with another Icelandic band named Legend.  For this split, each of the bands has covered a song by the other. In Sólstafir’s case, the song is Legend’s “Runaway Train”, the original of which you can find here.

I was hooked from the first compulsive drumbeats and darting guitar notes. From there, Addi Tryggvason adds his gritty vocals to what becomes a dark, urgent, hard-rocking take on the original, enhanced by keyboards and an unexpected chant in the mid-section. Damned catchy. Continue reading »

AN UPDATE AND A ROUND-UP (WITH ORIGIN, DIOCLETIAN, HOWLS OF EBB, AND DRUID LORD)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 072014
 

Your humble editor is behind (or is A behind, depending on who you talk to). Behind on reviews, behind on news and new song premieres, behind on the vaunted list of 2013’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, and behind in posting things that our staff and guests have written for publication. There are many reasons for this tardiness, but I’d rather not dwell on them. Instead, let’s look ahead to the future.

As far as NCS is concerned, we do have a few late-breaking year-end lists to post. Honestly, I’m somewhat amazed that these lists continue to draw as much interest as they have, given how many we’ve posted during this year’s LISTMANIA extravaganza, but even our most recent ones have attracted strong interest. So, we’re not calling a halt to them just yet. And just as that series is finally winding down, another one will begin: Finally, I’m going to start rolling out the Most Infectious Songs list later today, with the first three picks.

I also expect to resume our usual features now that the holiday season is over, beginning with the following round-up of news and new music. And we begin with…

ORIGIN

Two and a half years have passed since Origin released Entity, and yesterday brought the welcome news that the band are about to begin recording their next album, which will be entitled Omnipresent. Continue reading »

BANDS YOU NEED TO HEAR: WARFORGED

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jan 022014
 

(In this post, TheMadIsraeli introduces us to a death metal band named Warforged, who have a new EP on the way.)

If Warforged release a full length this year, I predict it’ll be at the top of the heap.  I’ve been hearing things about these Chicagoans for a while, but nothing substantial had ever come out and what I could hear from their earliest efforts was severely underdeveloped and, now in hindsight, was totally unrepresentative of what they do.

Based on the sounds from their forthcoming debut EP, Essence of the Land,  Warforged play progressive tech-death with a heavy black metal influence.  The array of influences you can hear are many, emanating from sources such as Martyr, Spawn Of Possession, Gorguts — mostly from the alien, angular, tech-death circuit — while also channeling bands such as Emperor, Daylight Dies, In Mourning, and The Faceless.

I figured now was a good time to write about these guys because they have just released a video for not one, but three songs, suggesting that the EP, the album art for which you can see above, is an epic suite.  This video is ¾ of that suite, and it completely bewilders and amazes me.  I don’t think you’re ready for this. Continue reading »

INSOMNIUM AND AGALLOCH: NEW-ALBUM UPDATES (and a playlist)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Dec 292013
 

Here’s a status update that appeared on the Facebook page of Finland’s Insomnium today (emphasis added):

“We’ve now recorded rhythm guitars for 5 songs. In addition to Marshall+EVH combo we’re also using Mesa Single Rectifier and my seven stringed Mayones to add some more depth and fatness to the sound. The new material is definitely more varied than before. For example, we’re flirting a bit with death/black metal vibe with some of the songs. Nevertheless, everything sounds very much like Insomnium and I guess that’s mainly due to our “trademark” melodies. We’re splitting rhythm parts pretty much equally with Markus and also try out different guitar arrangements as we go. All in all, the mood is very relaxed and we’re making good progress without too much pressure and stress.

-Ville”

Aw hell yes.   Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HAIL SPIRIT NOIR, CULTED, TRENCHROT, THRALL

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  12 Responses »
Dec 282013
 

Between the time I’ve spent with family and friends over the holidays and pushing out the biggest year-end LISTMANIA series our site has ever published, I’ve been constricted in my ability to listen to new songs and forthcoming releases. But I keep lists. I keep lists like a hoarder of names. Never mind that actually making it through the lists is a frail hope, given that they keep growing, and growing, and growing…

But yesterday, I made a small dent in them and came away with four songs I’m really high on. Two of them are new tracks by bands whose past work I’ve admired, and two of them come from bands who I’d never heard before. Musically, the four songs have very little in common, other than the fact that they are all winners — and they all have darkness in their souls.

HAIL SPIRIT NOIR

Hail Spirit Noir’s first album, Pneuma (reviewed here), was unlike anything else I heard in 2012. It was exceedingly strange and yet brilliant, a splicing together of black metal, 60′s flower-power pop psychedelics, 70′s prog rock, 80′s New Wave dance beats, melodic doom, and even cool jazz. Each song was distinctively different from, though related to, the others, like cousins on a gnarled family tree. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: SINISTER PATH DELIVERS THE SECOND “UNSIGNED/INDEPENDENT METAL BAND COMPILATION”

 Free Shit, Metal News  6 Responses »
Dec 242013
 

Not even two months ago, thanks to a Facebook post by our friend Vonlughlio, I learned about a new free compilation made available on Bandcamp by Australia-based Sinister Path Promotions — and yet Sinister Path has already delivered a second comp. As of yesterday, the new collection became available on Bandcamp. Like the first one, this latest offering is massive, with 42 songs by 42 metal bands. Highlights of this new release include the following (and here I’m paraphrasing from Sinister Path, with a final bullet of my own):

* Slasher (Thrash, Brasil) have included a single from their upcoming album Katharsis: “Overcome”

* Internal Bleeding (Slam pioneers from the US) have provided the track “Castigo Corpus Muem”, which is the first new recorded track with the original line up in close to 15 years

* 8 Foot Sativa (NZ metal legends) have contributed a new single, for which a lyric video was just released on YouTube: “The Shadow Masters”

* Mistur – (legends from Norway in the folk/viking/black vein) have provided “The Sight”, a single from a new album they’re working on Continue reading »

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