FAST AND SLOW: ANOTHER NCS COMP IS COMING

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Nov 062013
 

Remember that really long, really loud UK showcase comp we helped put out with GRIND TO DEATH and DIY Noise a little over a year ago? The one called The Only Good Tory? The one you can still download for free at the NCS Bandcamp page? Well, guess what? We’re doing it again — but with a few new wrinkles for Vol. 2.

Once again, Grind To Death’s Alex Layzell will be curating the comp, it will again be limited to UK bands, and he and I are both excited and grateful that Eduardo Carrillo of DIY Noise is going to be hand-making the tapes again, which is an exceptional thing since he has pretty much stopped putting out releases for other people. This time we’re also planning to have a printed zine and buttons to go along with the tapes, though we will again be making the music available for free download at the NCS Bandcamp.

But here’s the biggest new wrinkle: While our last comp was 100% grind and powerviolence, this time we’re going to have a “fast” side and a “slow” side. Half the runtime will be dedicated to grind/powerviolence bands and half will be dedicated to bands in the sludge/doom tarpit. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CLERIC, PHUTURE DOOM, GATES OF AARU

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 062013
 

Collected here are new songs I heard yesterday that are way off all the usual beaten paths. I have no idea whether you’ll like them, but I sure did. The bands are Cleric (Philadelphia), Phuture Doom (Detroit), and Gates of Aaru (Johannesburg).

CLERIC

There are two bands named Cleric who we’ve written about in the past. The one I want to talk about today is the one from Philadelphia, the one whose 2010 album Regressions I once described as “something like Portal, Blackjazz-vintage Shining, and Behold… the Arctopus communing in a hurricane. During an earthquake.” The fact that the instruments used on the album included the saz, the tenori-on, and the theremin had something to do with my general “what the fuck?!?” attitude about the music.

Cleric are now on tour (check the dates here) and will soon be in Seattle (hell yeah), and today DECIBEL started streaming a new Cleric work named “Resumption”. That’s a fitting title for the song, because Cleric have more or less picked up where Regressions left off three years ago. The song is almost 12 minutes long, and it comes off as a free-form storm of instrumental acrobatics, highly unstable tempos, and throat-rupturing vocals. It jabs like a welterweight, hallucinates like an opium addict, and somersaults like a high-wire acrobat. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: EXIVIOUS, OBLITERATION, VAURA

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Nov 062013
 

Happy fucking Wednesday motherfuckers (and you know I mean that in the nicest possible way, using Frank Mullen’s voice). I thought I’d give you a heads up that the content on the site is likely to be a little thin over the next three days, because my day job is sending me out of town from early this morning through late Friday night, and it will be another one of those day-and-night missions.

So, although I believe we’ll have a couple of song premieres on Friday and I know at least part of what we’ve got coming today, after that it’s the great unknown. I might be reduced to writing about my meals or the decor in my hotel room. If you have pets, we might have room for pics of their bowel movements if you want to send those along.

As for today, I’ll have a round-up of unusual new music I found yesterday, an announcement about a new music compilation we’ll be co-sponsoring, and this post that you’re reading right now, the point of which is to alert you to some new album streams that are worth hearing. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: THE SINISTER PATH UNSIGNED METAL BAND COMPILATION VOL. 1

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Nov 052013
 

Thanks to a Facebook post by our friend Vonlughlio, I learned about a new compilation made available on Bandcamp today by Australia’s Sinister Path Promotions. It’s quite a hefty offering — 45 tracks from 45 bands located all over the world. But there is quality here as well as quantity. Just to pick out the names of bands we’ve written about here at NCS, the comp includes songs by Hemoptysis (U.S.), Feared (Sweden), Begging For Incest (Germany), Bhayanak Maut (India), Take Over and Destroy (TOAD) (U.S.), and Necrosis (UK).

After the jump you can listen to the tracks on this monster compilation — and you can also download it for free (or pay what you want) at Bandcamp. Continue reading »

WILLOWTIP SIGNING BONANZA: NAUSEA, MITHRAS, PLAGUE WIDOW

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 032013
 

In the last three days I saw three signing announcements for three bands who kick so much ass that they produce epidemic proportions of asslessness. It finally dawned on my foggy mind that all three signings were with the same label: Willowtip Records, based in the incomparably named borough on the left bank of Connoquenessing Creek — Zelienople, Pennsylvania. The three bands are Nausea, Mithras, and Plague Widow. In case these names are unfamiliar to you, here’s a bit of background along with more details about the new albums that are headed our way — and some music to hear from each band.

NAUSEA

An introduction is probably unnecessary in this case, but here goes: Nausea are a seminal SoCal grind band whose earliest demos go back to 1987, yet their only full-length album was 1991’s Crime Against Humanity. They split up in 1994 but reformed in 2001, and they’ve been playing a lot of live shows in the last three years, including Maryland Deathfest and a recent European tour. The current line-up consists of original vocalist/guitarist Oscar Garcia and original drummer Eric Castro, plus two new members: Bassist Alejandro CB (Pounder, Chemical Bitches) and guitarist Leon del Muerte (Murder Construct, ex-Exhumed, Phobia, Impaled, Intronaut).

The new album is entitled Condemned To the System, and Willowtip will be releasing it on January 7, 2014. It will include both new songs and previously unreleased vintage tracks. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM HOODED MENACE AND BONES

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 012013
 

I’ve been distracted today, more than usual, by my fucking day job (the nerve of them expecting me to work for my pay!), but I didn’t want to let this Friday crawl to a close without one more post. I’ve seen and heard a handful of new things today that are worth spreading around, but time being short, I’ll limit this to two excellent items, and perhaps include the rest tomorrow.

HOODED MENACE

The ultra-crushing, doom-dealing blood drinkers in Finland’s Hooded Menace appear to have been working on a follow-up to their gloriously heartless 2012 album Effigies of Evil. The new work will be released as a 12″ EP by Doomentia entitled Labyrinth of Carrion Breeze. The beautiful cover art (and by “beautiful” I mean loaded with fuckin skulls and ghouls) was unveiled on Halloween, and credit goes to Joshua Brettell (Ilsa’s drummer) and Adam Geyer for the creation (Brettell drew, Geyer did the gorgeous coloring). The front panel is above and the gatefold layout can be viewed after the jump (click for bigger views).

In addition to sharing the cover art, Hooded Menace has also made a part of a song called “Chasm of the Wraith” available for streaming. It’s low, slow . . . and actually beautiful, in a dreadful way. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CRYPTICUS, ZMEY GORYNICH, GRAILIGHT, SCORNED DEITY, SUCHTHAUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 012013
 

Halloween Day turned out to be quite a day for discovering new songs and video debuts. In our first post of this post-Halloween Friday, I collected five new videos that came out yesterday, and in this post I’ve got some other recommended new songs that I discovered on Halloween (or first thing this morning), presented in the order of discovery.

CRYPTICUS

Crypticus is a collaboration between American vocalist/guitarist/bassist Patrick Bruss and Norwegian drummer Brynjar Helgetun that I came across (and wrote about) through their 2012 EP, Insieme Verso Terrore. That was enough to land them a place on our recent list of the best Swedish-style death metal released in the last five years by newer bands. Their third album, The Barrens, is due for release on December 1 and can be pre-ordered on Bandcamp now.

To celebrate Halloween, Crypticus released a free Horror Grind Mixtape on Bandcamp, which they describe as “an original Death Metal mini-anthology”. It’s one nearly 11-minute adrenaline rush called “The Belasco Bequest”, the kind of expertly executed, blast-force chainsaw death metal (with surprises) that Crypticus do so well. Tasty riffs, tasty drumming, tasty lead guitar melodies, varying rhythms, carnivorous vocals — and it’s free! Continue reading »

MDF UPDATE: 30 NEW BANDS CONFIRMED!

 Metal News  8 Responses »
Oct 312013
 

Talk about a Halloween treat: Today the MARYLAND DEATHFEST confirmed the appearance of 30 new bands at next year’s 12th edition of North America’s best extreme metal fest — bringing the total to 63. And even that fairly recent flyer up there is still incomplete. Check out this list of the names announced today:

Aeternus (Norway) – Exclusive US appearance!
Arcagathus (Canada)
Birdflesh (Sweden)
Castevet
Coffins (Japan)
Creative Waste (Saudi Arabia)
Cryptic Slaughter
Dropdead
Enthroned (Belgium) – Exclusive US appearance!
Entrails (Sweden)
Final Conflict
Immolation
Incantation
In Disgust
Mesrine (Canada)
Mitchondrion (Canada)
Mutilation Rites
Necros Christos – Exclusive US appearance! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MASTODON, CULT OF LUNA, IMPUREZA, UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION, YEAR OF NO LIGHT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Oct 282013
 

Oh joy! Rapture! Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in ’t!

Okay, I’m just trying to put a good face on another goddamn Monday that blows, like a noxious wind coming off a tire fire. At least we still have beauteous metal, flights of fallen angels to sing us to our rest at nightfall. Here’s a collection of things, in no particular order, seen and heard over the last 24 hours.

MASTODON

I saw that on December 10 Warner Bros. Records will be releasing Mastodon Live At Brixton, a digital-only recording of the band’s live performance at London’s O2 Academy in Brixton on February 11, 2012. That show was part of the band’s world tour in support of their last album The Hunter. I caught another stop on that tour in Seattle, and it was a powerhouse performance.

Interestingly, the digital-only release (which will be sold through Amazon and iTunes) will come in two versions, one that’s audio-only and one that’s a live video version of the 97-minute show. Here’s the set list: Continue reading »

A PANOPTICON UPDATE: NEW ALBUM DETAILS

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Oct 282013
 

I didn’t discover Panopticon until Kentucky, but that’s all it took to turn me into a big fan. I distinctly remember my mouth falling open in wonder more than once as I made my way through it the first time, hearing the movement of the songs between the metal and the bluegrass, recognizing the samples from Harlan County U.S.A., understanding what the album was about. It connected with me on many levels, some of them opening up distant memories of the music my grandparents used to play when I was growing up in central Texas.

I didn’t really need any more reasons to start following Panopticon’s doings, but I got more when I heard the three tracks that Panopticon contributed to a split with Vestiges earlier this year. At least I wrote about that split, even though I fell down on the job with Kentucky; that split is one of the best releases I’ve heard this year.

All of that is by way of background, to explain why I’m writing now about an announcement that appeared on Panopticon’s Facebook page last night. It provides a lot of information about the next Panopticon album, to which I’ll add a few other tidbits of information I’ve picked up. Here’s the announcement: Continue reading »

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