THE RUINS OF BEVERAST: “MALEFICA”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 092013
 

The Ruins of Beverast is a one-man project of Alexander von Meilenwald, a German multi-instrumentalist and vocalist who formerly was the drummer of a now-defunct band named Nagelfar and has also been involved with other bands as a live member and session musician. To date, The Ruins of Beverast has released three well-received full-length albums, and a fourth named Blood Vaults (The Blazing Gospel Of Heinrich Kramer) will be released by Ván Records later this year on a date to be announced.

Last month a song from the new album surfaced on YouTube, and I discovered it a few days ago thanks to a message from NCS supporter deckard cain. The song is called “Malefica” and it’s more than 10 minutes long. But despite its length I’ve been listening to it 3-4 times a day since finding it. I can’t remember if I’ve ever listened to this band’s music before, despite having seen rave reviews of previous albums, but this song is completely fantastic.

It begins with echoing electronic pulses, mournful reverberating guitar notes, and a combination of distorted and clean vocals. The weight of the song increases dramatically as massive, distorted guitar chords come in, but the hook doesn’t really get set until organ and guitar take up the core melody and deep, dark, ghastly, harsh vocals enter in. That core melody is absolutely captivating — it continues to wind through the song like a black river, with the instrumentals becoming increasingly intense and heavy. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: IMMOLATION, ARCKANUM, NECRONOMICON, AND BOMBUS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
May 082013
 

Although I’ve been temporarily distracted by such things as Tim Lambesis getting arrested for soliciting murder, Frank Palmeri getting his shit zapped in Russia, and this guy (who used to play some licks for Obituary and Six Feet Under) getting arrested for running a meth lab — after calling the cops himself — I finally remembered that metal is about the music. So here’s some actual music and music news that I came across this morning.

IMMOLATION

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that NYDM legends Immolation have a new album (Kingdom of Conspiracy) coming out on May 13. Although I’m the sort of fan who would buy the album without hearing any of it (because it’s fuckin’ Immolation, and they seem to just get stronger with age), others may wish to hear it first. And you can now do that because today the full album went up for streaming exclusively at Terrorizer. Go HERE to listen.

ARCKANUM

Sweden’s Arckanum also have a new album coming. Entitled Fenris Kindir, it’s due for North American release by Season of Mist on May 14. Explaining the album’s name and concept, Arckanum main man Shamaatae is quoted as saying this: “The sounds and music on this album are my auditory vision of the march of Fenrir convoyed with his hordes of giant wolves from the depths of the underworld to face Ragna Rök with warlike glory – deformed giant-wolves swarming in thousands. This is my tribute to the wrathful, harsh and untamed anti-nature of Fenrir’s mighty essence! The anti-cosmic enemy of the worlds! Heill Tungls Tjúgari! Heilir Fenris Synir!” Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: SOCIOPATHIC SOUND’S LATEST MIXTAPE GOES BIG WITH 100 FREE SONGS

 Free Shit, Metal News  4 Responses »
May 082013
 

Sociopathic Sound started as a Philadelphia-based web project in June 2012, but it’s about to transition into a record label, with plans not only to sign bands for new releases but also to re-issue previous works on vinyl or as digitally remastered releases. Since opening the doors last year, Sociopathic Sound has also been compiling free mixtapes (with permission of the bands and labels whose songs have gone into the comps). As of today, the latest comp — Vol. 4 — has gone up on Bandcamp for streaming and download, and man, it’s a whopper.

The latest comp consists of 100 tracks by bands from all over the world — and all over the genre map of extreme music. In looking through the list, I recognize these bands with whom I’m at least somewhat familiar and whose music I already know I like (and we’ve written about many of these here at NCS):

Primitive Man, Nails, Slaves BC, Sidious, Acrassicauda, Polkadot Cadaver, Antropofago, Buckshot Facelift, Svart Crown, The Psyke Project, Interment, Cage, Enabler, Psychofagist, The Binary Code, Slash Dementia, Total Fucking Destruction, Psychotic Pulse, Xibalba, Vaulting, thedowngoing, and Sloth Herder

But of course one of the attractions of comps like this one is the chance to discover new bands — and there are a ton of them on this thing. My mind boggles at the effort it must have taken to assemble it. My mind is even more boggled by the news that Sociopathic Sound is already on the verge of releasing Volume 5! Continue reading »

TIM LAMBESIS (AS I LAY DYING) ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF HIRING SOMEONE TO MURDER HIS WIFE

 Metal News  14 Responses »
May 072013
 

Our last post was a joke. Unfortunately, this one isn’t. FOX5-San Diego and Reuters are reporting tonight that Tim Lambesis, lead singer for As I Lay Dying and Pyrithion and the man behind Austrian Death Machine, has been arrested  after he allegedly hired someone to kill his estranged wife. Here’s more from the FOX5 report:

“Tim Lambesis, lead singer and co-founder of the heavy-metal group As I Lay Dying, was arrested at a store on Vista Way in Oceanside about 2 p.m., after allegedly soliciting an undercover detective to kill his spouse, an Encinitas resident, according to sheriff’s officials.

Authorities began investigating Lambesis, 32, in the case on Thursday, when they received information that he allegedly was trying to get someone to commit the slaying.

He was booked into the Vista Jail on suspicion of solicitation of murder.”

The reports don’t indicate that Lambesis has yet been charged, merely arrested. But if the reports are correct that his arrest was based on statements he made to an undercover detective, you can bet those charges will be forthcoming soon. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HAGGIS AND BONG, NEKKAR, MADLEAF, AND DARKALL SLAVES

 Exceptions to the Rule, Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
May 072013
 

I’m hoping everything in this post will tickle your fancy. It includes four quite diverse songs that I heard this morning. They’re nothing alike, but I thought they were all cool . . . and not the kind of thing you’re likely to come across elsewhere (at least not packaged together and hand-tied with a pink bow, like I’m doing for you).

HAGGIS AND BONG

Still one of the best metal band names ever. And still some of the most stirring bagpipe-injected metal you can find. Haggis and Bong come not from Scotland but from South Africa, and they’ve been a favorite topic of mine here at NCS dating all the way back to January 2010, when the band was just a duo of pipers and a drummer (you can find all of my blathering about them over the years via this link).

Since those early days they’ve expanded themselves into a genuine metal band — but one in which the pipes still play a prominent role — and today they’ve released a free single that’s their heaviest work yet. In addition to including some mosh-worthy distorted riffing and pounding rhythm work, “Battle Destroyer” incorporates the pipes in an unusual way — no jigs or reels this time. Check out the song after the jump and go download it here if you dig it as much as I do. Continue reading »

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR A BLACK METAL VIKING BIKER FILM WITH ZOMBIES, YOUR DREAM IS ABOUT TO COME TRUE

 Metal News  2 Responses »
May 072013
 

Are you like me?  Have you felt an emptiness in your life because no one has ever made a Black Metal Viking Biker-film With Zombies?  Have you given up hope that this void will ever be filled?  Well, don’t give up!  Stop thinking about opening your femoral artery with a straight razor and just bleeding out with tears in your eyes over the cruelty of life — a brighter day is just around the corner!  Your hopeless dreams may yet come true.

Yes, it’s true. A Black Metal Viking Biker-film With Zombies is in pre-production. Its title is Saga, and it stars none other than Ted Skjellum, better known to metal fans as Nocturno Culto, one of the Darkthrone duo, a member of Sarke, and a former stalwart in Satyricon. This isn’t Skjellum’s first adventure in film-making — in 2007 he released a documentary film about black metal and life in Norway called The Misanthrope — but as far as I know, it’s his first turn as an actor. He will be collaborating with writer, producer, director and photographer Jorn Steen.

In Saga, Culto will play a director of metal music videos who makes a feature-length Viking movie based upon the northern classic Eyrbyggja Saga. In the story, a dead Viking breaks out of his tomb during filming and terrorizes the locals at the shooting location. Culto will also get to ride a Moto Guzzi in the film.

Is your heart skipping a beat over this news?  Well, don’t get too excited just yet, because although all the actors are lined up and the locations are being prepared, there’s still a need for money. Isn’t there always. But you can help! Continue reading »

HIT AND RUN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 062013
 

What do you do when you get flooded with tantalizing news and new music over the span of 24 hours, and it’s all too much to cover in your usual long-winded style of prose (I don’t mean your long-winded style, I mean mine)? You swallow all those words and you do this . . . really short blurbs about many items . . . from Howl, The Resistance, Strychnia, The Absence, Darkane, Mordbrand, and After the Burial. Whew!

HOWL

Today, Rhode Island’s Howl premiered a new official music video for “Demonic”, a song off their new album Bloodlines, which is out now and which features some incredibly eye-catching cover art. “Demonic” is a cross between scorching and crushing. Scorshing? It’s catchy, too. The video comes next . . . Continue reading »

BURZUM OUT OF METAL

 Metal News  23 Responses »
May 062013
 

In every field of artistic endeavor, whether it be music, painting, writing, sculpture, acting, filmmaking — you name it — there are examples of people who have created great works of art but are deplorable as human beings. They make you question yourself: Is it right for me to admire, enjoy, and even praise this person’s artistic work if the creator is someone whose actions or expressions outside of their art clash with my own principles and beliefs?

Metal is no exception to this quandary. Perhaps the single most notorious example is Varg Vikernes. On the one hand, he played a leading role in the origination and development of Norwegian black metal under the name Burzum (and as a member of Mayhem), and he has continued to create notable music under the Burzum name nearly two decades later. On the other hand, in 1994 he was convicted of murdering Mayhem guitarist Euronymous and burning churches in Norway, and he spent 16 years in prison for those crimes.

He has also written extensively about his own beliefs in the racial purity of Northern Europeans and the superiority of its pagan traditions, filling volumes’ worth of words with racist, anti-semitic, and homophobic diatribes. In Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, director Sam Dunn described him as “the most notorious metal musician of all time”, and it’s hard to disagree.

Well, metal may have seen the last of Varg Vikernes. In an April 30 post on one of his blogs (Thulean Perspective), he summed up his own role in the history of black metal and the evolution of that movement into what he terms “nihilstic shit”, ending with the proclamation that “I no longer play metal music”.  Continue reading »

FREE SHIT FROM HELLS HEADBANGERS (INCLUDING NEW SONGS FROM MIDNIGHT, WITCH CROSS, PROFANATICA, AND IMPIETY)

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  24 Responses »
May 042013
 

Many of our readers are intimately familiar with Hells Headbangers, but for those who aren’t, it’s an online distro and record label specializing in death, black, thrash, grind, doom, and heavy metal. As a label, Hells Headbangers is home to a tremendous line-up of slaughtering bands, many of whom we’ve featured here at NCS. This morning I discovered that HH has made available a free summer comp of music from many of those bands. The comp consists of 20 tracks and includes brand new songs from forthcoming albums by Midnight, Witch Cross, Profanatica, and Impiety.

The comp also comes with artwork drawn by Antichrist Kramer as an homage to Slayer’s debut album Show No Mercy. The timing is coincidental, but it now seems like a fitting tribute to the late Jeff Hanneman. (There’s a track on the comp listed as a Slayer song . . . but it’s really Vomitor.)

The comp is available as a free digital download on Bandcamp, and HH says a double-LP and a CD version will be coming soon.

I’ve been blasting this shit this morning, and it’s awful strong. Links are after the jump, along with the new tracks and the complete album stream. Continue reading »

JEFF HANNEMAN HAS PASSED AWAY

 Metal News  10 Responses »
May 022013
 

Slayer guitarist and founding member Jeff Hanneman died earlier today near his Southern California home. He had been forced to pull out of live performances after contracting necrotizing fasciitis, most likely from a spider bite. But the cause of death has been identified as liver failure.  From a press report:

Slayer guitarist and founding member Jeff Hanneman died earlier today of liver failure. He was 49.

“Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home,” the band’s longtime publicist said in a statement. “Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure.”

Hanneman co-founded the thrash metal greats with Kerry King in 1981; their breakthrough came in 1986 with the brutalist album “Reign in Blood.” Hanneman wrote or co-wrote the set’s standout tracks, “Angel of Death” and “Raining Blood.”

Hanneman is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry.

This is sad news. Jeff Hanneman is gone but his name will be remembered in the community of metal for a very long time.

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