SEEN AND HEARD: ULCERATE AND CARCASS STREAMS, SLAYER-GOJIRA-4ARM TOUR UPDATE, A NEW VEIL OF MAYA TOUR WITH VILDHJARTA, A NEW SONG BY HAIL OF BULLETS, AND ALBUM NEWS FOR GIFT OF GODS AND SARKE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Sep 102013
 

Painstakingly selected from among the detritus that litters the interhole and the NCS in-box, here are items of interest that appeared over the last 24 hours.

ULCERATE

If you need more darkness in your life — and who doesn’t? — then you should listen to Vermis, the new death metal monstrosity by New Zealand’s Ulcerate. The album won’t be released in North America until September 17 (a day earlier in the UK and September 13 in certain European countries), but yesterday Metal Sucks began hosting an exclusive stream of the album. Ulcerate are one of those rare death metal bands who are pushing (or dragging) the genre in new directions. The music of Vermis is harrowing and inhuman, but it exerts a powerful attraction. You should hear it.

THIS is the link for the stream.

CARCASS

The new Carcass album, which we reviewed here, is due for release on September 16. I have a feeling that anyone interested in hearing the new Carcass album has already heard it, but just in case, it’s now streaming in full, too. Nuclear Blast has uploaded the entire album to YouTube. Obviously, it’s one of the biggest releases of 2013, and it also happens to be a fine album. You can hear it next.  (thanks Daniel for the tip) Continue reading »

TOURISM: BEHOLD…THE ARCTOPUS, BOTANIST, LESBIAN (AND TWO STELLAR EURO TOURS)

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Sep 052013
 

Collected in this post are a handful of tours that I decided were worth mentioning, even though only the first one is within my grasp. I’m trying to be less self-centered. This is like trying to levitate, but I should get points for the effort, don’t you think?

BEHOLD…THE ARCTOPUS / BOTANIST / LESBIAN

Earlier today we posted Old Man Windbreaker’s review of the entire discography of Botanist. And only now I come to find out that Botanist will be here in The Emerald City at Highline along with two other stellar bands in little more than a month (October 13). One is the brain scrambling Behold… the Arcoptus (featuring Colin Marston on Warr Guitar, Mike Lerner on Guitar Guitar, and Weasel Walter on drums), and the other is Seattle’s own Lesbian, who are riding a big wave of entirely justified attention drawn by their latest album Forestelevision.

But this turns out to be just one stop on a brief West Coast tour by BtA. On October 12, Behold…the Arctopus and Botanist will be playing together with Agalloch and Eight Bells at Day 3 of the Fall Into Darkness festival in Portland (OR). And on October 11 BtA and Botanist will be playing Oakland along with a Bay Area band named Burmese. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TOO DAMNED MANY THINGS TO PUT IN THE TITLE OF THIS POST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Sep 042013
 

Yesterday I posted our final article of the day at about 1:30 pm EDT and then turned my attention for the rest of the day to what I actually get paid to do. While I wasn’t looking, someone re-opened Pandora’s box and a horde of red-eyed bat-winged things flew out in a blizzard of leathery wings and ammoniac guano. Yeah, baby, a veritable flood of nasty shit — so many noteworthy news items and new songs that to fit all of them in this post will require that I wire my jaws shut and mumble only a few words per item. Here . . . we . . . GO!

SLAYER-GOJIRA-4ARM TOUR

It started with dates in Hollywood and NYC and predictably has now mushroomed into a full U.S. tour. Well, at least 16 cities in the fullness of the U.S., which do not include all the wonderful cities in the Pacific Northwest or 36 other states. But fear not, others may yet get to see Gojira (!!!), the aging remnants of Slayer, and Melbourne’s 4ARM, because more dates will be announced later. Here are the ones announced yesterday:

OCTOBER
25 The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV
28 Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood, CA
30 Events Center @ San Jose State, San Jose, CA Continue reading »

TOURISM: HIGH ON FIRE AND KVELERTAK TO CLOBBER NORTH AMERICA LATER THIS YEAR

 Metal News  8 Responses »
Sep 032013
 

Here’s a bit of tour news that put a smile on my face: This morning Scion A/V announced that High On Fire will be touring North America beginning November 10 with direct support on all dates from Norway’s Kvelertak.

In addition, Doomriders (Nov. 10 to 23), Pack of Wolves (Nov. 27), and Windhand (Nov. 29 to Dec. 12) will be opening for those two bands on different legs of the tour.

But that’s not all. As part of this Scion A/V-sponsored tour, High On Fire will be releasing a new single entitled “Slave The Hive” on October 16. According to the press release we received, the song will be available on the tour as a limited edition 7-inch, and a video of the song will be released simultaneously.

The current schedule of dates is after the jump; apparently, more dates will be announced next week. I am highly pleased to see that Seattle is on the list. I know you will be happy for me, and thank you for that. Continue reading »

NEW CANADIAN RULES THREATEN THE VIABILITY OF CROSS-BORDER METAL TOURS — AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Sep 032013
 

I mentioned yesterday that I missed a lot of metal news over the last 10 days due to the head-wrecking week-long visit to Seattle by the rest of the NCS staff. This post is about one of the things I missed, and it seems kind of important.

On August 28 the Calgary Herald published a widely read article about a new set of Canadian government rules that went quietly into effect on July 31.  The new rules were announced on August 7 by Jason Kenney (above), the Minister of Employment, Social Development & Multiculturalism. They change the fees required under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program for applications for a Labour Market Opinion (LMO). Although it doesn’t appear that the new rules were specifically targeted at local music venues in Canada or the touring bands from other countries that they book for shows, the impact of the rules will directly and dramatically impact those activities.

In essence,  local Canadian businesses who want to the ability to have foreign workers work at their establishments on a temporary basis must apply for an LMO, which gives them permission to do that. This requirement applies to Canadian bars, restaurants, and other venues who want to book international artists for performances. This has been true for a long time, but before the recent rule change, as the article explains, “the fee was simply $150 per band member, maxing out at $450, and that was a one-time fee for them to simply enter the country, which allowed venue owners across Canada to share the nominal cost or book them separately at no extra charge.” Continue reading »

LET THE ANXIETY BEGIN: NEWS ABOUT OPETH’S NEXT ALBUM

 Metal News  38 Responses »
Sep 022013
 

Today one of the online imprints of Sweden’s Espressen newspaper published an interview that writer Martin Carlsson conducted with Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth. It included some questions and answers about Opeth’s next album, which you will see in a moment.

Coincidentally, I and a few of my current or former NCS comrades engaged in a lengthy debate about Opeth during our Seattle get-together last week. The debate was spawned, of course, by the band’s last album, Heritage. It went on for quite a while, and beer was involved, but I think it can be summed up, in part, as follows:

Point:  Heritage was a huge ripoff. It wasn’t Opeth. If Åkerfeldt wanted to do what he did on that album, he should have done it through a side project, something like “The Mikael Åkerfeldt Project”.

Counterpoint:  Mikael Åkerfeldt can do what he wants. He’s earned the right. Besides, his voice probably can’t handle live death growls for more than a song or two any more — you can’t tour in support of an album that you can’t perform live, night after night. And the other guys in Opeth need to eat, so he did right by them in making Heritage an Opeth album. Also, it’s possible he was under some label pressure to make this kind of album — don’t forget that Heritage was a Roadrunner release. Continue reading »

A LABOR DAY QUINTET: NEW VIDEOS FROM THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, HAIL OF BULLETS, BODYFARM, DEMONIC RESURRECTION, AND DEAD TROOPER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 022013
 

Because of The Great Seattle NCS Confab, coupled with a bit of day-job grind, I largely missed happenings in the world of metal over the last 10 days. I made an effort to go back and find news and new music worth recommending from that stretch of lost time, and felt overwhelmed. I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of catching up and have decided to start fresh — with this round-up of five new videos that debuted this morning.

DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT

Fans of Devin Townsend are aware that September 30 will bring the release of a new DVD/CD entitled The Retinal Circus which captures the stunning three-hour show of the same name that took place in October 2012 at London’s Roundhouse venue (reviewed by our own Andy Synn here). The show featured a full choir, a theatrical cast, and enough visual and sonic bombast to mimic the blitz in WWII.

We previously featured the first publicly released clip from the DVD — the show-stopping performance of “Grace”. Today, DT premiered a second clip, for the song “War” from his third solo album Infinity. Watch and listen next. Continue reading »

INQUISITION, IHSAHN, AND MAN MUST DIE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Aug 282013
 

I haven’t been keeping my eyes peeled for metal news since last week because I’ve been too busy hob-nobbing with my fellow NCS scribes in Seattle. I did take a few quick minutes this morning to glance around and found the following three items that I thought were interesting.

INQUISITION

At the end of July we reported the welcome news that black metal powerhouse Inquisition had revealed the name of their next album (Obscure Verses for the Multiverse) and announced its release dates via Season of Mist — October 29 in North America and October 25 elsewhere. Today brought more information about the album, beginning with the cover art above, which is quite fetching.

We have also been treated to a teaser of music from the album. The video clip that I’ve included beyond the jump includes short snippets from 9 tracks. Except for the snippet of the last track, which features a harsh roar, you’ll learn that Dagon has not changed his vocal style, which continues to sound like a bullfrog being strangled with barbed wire. Continue reading »

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY COMPS FOR GRIND AND DOOM FREAKS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 222013
 

This week brought us the debut of two new compilations that are definitely worth looking at hard, because they go really fuckin’ hard. One is for a worthy cause and one is free.

GRINDING FOR A CURE – VOL. 3

“Grinding for a Cure” is a project that started small back in mid-January and quickly exploded into one of the best on-going comp projects in recent memory. The mission of the organizers (Dorian Rainwater of Noisear and many other bands, now including Excruciating Terror, Christine Coz, and Chris Messina of Swamp Gas) is to raise money to fund research into a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Volume 1 (featured at NCS here) contained 100 tracks, Volume 2 (featured here) matched that total, and the bands participating in both those installments included a bunch of eye-catching names.

The new Volume 3 has just gone “live” with the first 8 tracks, though it’s also going to have 100 by the time it’s finished. This time, the music is being uploaded to Bandcamp as the songs become available so people can hear the music as the comp grows.

Those first 8 tracks are really good. They includes songs by Phobia, Dim Mak, Inhabitants, Scars of Deceit, Gooze, Horse’s Silhouette, and Human Trade. But I want to make special mention of the first song — “Look At the World” — because it’s by Excruciating Terror. Continue reading »

TOURISM: DARK TRANQUILLITY, OMNIUM GATHERUM, AND EXMORTUS TO INVADE NORTH AMERICA

 Metal News  10 Responses »
Aug 212013
 

Not long ago we received this announcement: Beginning early next year  Dark Tranquillity will be mounting a North American tour in support of their new Construct album, and they will be joined by Finland’s Omnium Gatherum. Both of those bands turned in superior albums this year, with OG’s Beyond being a particular favorite of this site.

The third band on the tour is a California outfit named Exmortus. It appears we will have to investigate their music.

The tour begins on January 31 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, before moving to the actual North American continent in Atlanta on February 1. It’s scheduled to conclude in Philadelphia on March 2. I know you will be thrilled to learn that, in between, it will stop in Seattle so that I may see it. These are very accommodating bands.

The entire slate of dates follows the jump. Tickets are already available for purchase at this site: Continue reading »

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