MAN MUST DIE: A FUND-RAISING UPDATE

 Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 092013
 

More and more bands are resorting to on-line fundraising campaigns in an effort to finance the recording and self-distribution of new music. Some of those campaigns have succeeded beyond the band’s wildest dreams, and some have turned into big disappointments. It appeared that the recent fundraising efforts of Scotland’s death metal juggernaut Man Must Die — a band whose past music we’ve backed hard at NCS — would fall into the latter category, but the tide is turning. It’s time for a final push.

MMD launched their on-line fundraiser via pledgemusic.com in early February, setting an ambitious target of. As late as last week, the band admitted defeat in this statement on their FB page: “We would like to thank everyone who tried to help make the new album happen but with only a few days left the reallity is we will not make our goal. MAN MUST DIE will try our very best to release something this year and we will include the names of all the people who pledged in the credits as a token of our appreciation.”

But it turns out that all was not lost. Today brought the following update: Continue reading »

KEEP OF KALESSIN RELEASES A NEW EP: “INTROSPECTION”

 Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 092013
 

Over the last week Norway’s Keep of Kalessin began another mysterious countdown on their Facebook page, similar to the countdown that led to release of the band’s official video for a hot new song named “Introspection”. Today the new countdown ended, and what came at the end was the release of a new digital EP by the same name — Introspection. The EP is now available at the following online digital services (the iTunes link below is to the Norwegian site — it’s not yet available on iTunes U.S. or Amazon U.S., but the band say that will happen soon):

iTunes      Spotify      WiMP

The band have  also announced today that Introspection is the first of several new EP’s and singles that they plan to release throughout the year, leading up to a new album that’s projected for October 2013.

In addition to the new single “Introspection”, the EP includes another new song, “Flight of the Hatchling” (the band’s first instrumental-only recording), and what KoK call “an extreme version of ‘The Dragontower'”. Here’s a more complete statement by KoK’s songwriter, guitarist, and new frontman Obsidian C: Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST THE MOVIE III

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Apr 052013
 

What you are looking at above is the just-released poster for Maryland Deathfest the Movie III, with artwork created by Bite Radius Designs of Nottingham, England. May I say that it’s fuckin’ sick? Why yes, I believe I just did.

And yes, there will indeed be an MDF the Movie III, though it will be the last MDF movie (or at least the last one by talented filmmaker David Hall). If you have a long memory, you may recall reading back in 2011 (here, for example) a statement by Hall that his footage of MDF 9 (2011) would never see the light of day, in part because Hall was getting screwed over by an ex-business partner and the partner’s associates who were holding much of the footage hostage.

It doesn’t appear that this situation ever got resolved — Hall stated on the Handshake Inc. Facebook page in January that although he had salvaged film of 8 bands, “the rest of the footage from MDF 9 was irretrievable and thanks to the herpetic piece of human garbage who stole the rest of the footage, neurosis, voivod, orange goblin, in solitude and countless others won’t be in the film.”

However, in addition to the footage that Hall did salvage from MDF 9, it appears the MDF III movie will also include footage of performances from MDF 10 in 2012. Continue reading »

70,000 TONS OF METAL 2014: GOING WHEREVER THE FUCK YOU WANT TO GO

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Apr 052013
 

Well, we’re way past the point where I could make fun of this floating, alcohol-soaked mosh pit like I did the first year it launched. 70,000 TONS OF METAL is now a proven success, maybe even on its way to becoming an institution. The question now is what can the organizers do to make a solid experience even solider? [hey, I found an online dictionary where solider is a word, so there]

They’ve thought of something. For the fourth edition of this heavy metal cruise, everyone who becomes a ticketed and paid passenger before July 27, 2013 will be able to vote on where the cruise will go.

The ship will depart Miami on January 27, 2014 and return on January 31. So I exaggerated in saying it will go wherever the fuck you want to go; this is called “editorial license”. For example, I suppose Krakatoa is out of the question. It has to be someplace the Royal Caribbean “Majesty of the Seas” luxury cruise ship can get to and return from in 4 nights and five days.

I think I’d vote for Cuba, which sounds more exotic than Biloxi, Mississippi or Muscle Shoals, Alabama, though it would probably be equally interesting to see how the residents of those places would react to a seaborne invasion by 2,000 metalheads.

Once again, there will be 40 bands on board, 7 of which have been announced so far. Check out the first 7: Continue reading »

A HELLISH OUTCAST FORGES AHEAD WITH HELLISH OUTCAST

 Metal News  1 Response »
Apr 032013
 

While the band drama surrounding Norway’s Keep of Kalessin continues to unfold, Sunday brought cheerier news from the camp of another NCS favorite, Hellish Outcast.

The background: As our wandering metalhead Andy Synn reported from Oslo just as the news was breaking, and discussed at greater length in his own subsequent post about Opening Day at the Inferno Festival, Keep of Kalessin have disclosed that their talented frontman Thebon is out, and their founder, songwriter, and guitarist Obsidian Claw has taken his place behind the mic.

At first KoK reported, with tongue in cheek, that Thebon had disappeared into the wilds of South Africa with his girlfriend, leaving the band no choice but to record their next album without him.

Thebon then surfaced with a somewhat peeved rejoinder. As these things go, KoK then responded with a lengthy, less tongue-in-cheek explanation for Thebon’s ouster. The recriminations will probably continue, because that’s the way band drama works.

But I don’t really enjoy reading about band drama. I much prefer reading about the other news that’s the subject of this post. While Thebon’s days with KoK may be over, he’s still a fixture in Hellish Outcast, and Hellish Outcast will soon be entering the studio to record a new album, tentatively entitled Stay of Execution. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CHTHONIC, AMORPHIS, REPTILIAN DEATH, WASTED LAND, AND REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Apr 022013
 

I didn’t have time to compile a daily round-up yesterday, so there’s a lot of shit to cram into this one. I’ll try to keep words to a minimum and let the music, the videos, and the imagery speak for themselves.

ITEM ONE: CHTHONIC

2011’s Takasago Army marked the time when I finally got into Taiwan’s Chthonic. It was interesting and multi-textured, in addition to kicking large amounts of ass. So I’m now quite interested in their next album, Bú-Tik, which will be released by Spinefarm this summer. Today, the sexy cover art was revealed. Apparently, nearly 100 people volunteered to be the model for it.

The album cover is eye-catching for sure, though it doesn’t exactly suggest that the new album will be devoted to history and tradition. Yet in this new interview the band’s eye-catching bassist Doris Yeh suggests that it will. I’m up for it. Continue reading »

APRIL FOOLERY? OR IS IT TIME TO MOVE THIS SEA LION UP TO MESHUGGAH?

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Apr 022013
 

Late yesterday I got an e-mail from an NCS reader whose initials are MV, pointing me to an article that appeared yesterday on The Verve web site. According to the article, researchers at the University of California at Santa Cruz successfully trained a sea lion named Ronan to bob its head in time to music.

The article said that this achievement was published in The Journal of Comparative Psychology and called it “a study that may change our understanding of how rhythm is acquired.” It reported that Ronan is “the first non-human mammal that can keep a beat”.

The article also included a YouTube video of Ronan bobbing her head to the beat of . . . gulp . . . The Backstreet Boys. It stated that once Ronan had been trained to keep the beat to one song, she was able to easily do the same thing to different beats in other songs.

This seemed like something worth featuring here at NCS, but I was cautious. Yesterday was April Fool’s Day, and I’d already gotten burned once by completely falling for Full Metal Attorney’s post about recording a Mercyful Fate cover album. So I decided to roll up my sleeves and do some actual in-depth research. Continue reading »

METAL ARCHIVES HITS 90,000 — AND SENOBYTE IS THE LUCKY 90,000TH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Mar 312013
 

Thanks to a tip from Happy Metal Guy, I learned this morning about an interesting status that went up on the official Facebook page for Encyclopaedia Metallum – The Metal Archives:  They have now reached 90,000 bands listed in the database.

That’s a really impressive accomplishment for one of the most useful sites on the web for lovers of metal, and I thought congratulations were in order. So, CONGRATULATIONS!

In that same FB status, Metal Archives also identified the band who became their 90,000th addition to the band database — a new 3-man outfit from New Brunswick, NJ named Senobyte. Yesterday, Senobyte released a two-song demo, which is now listed on their Metal Archives entry, and both songs — “Pumpkinhead” and “The Beyond” — happen to be available on Soundcloud. So, of course, I had to check ’em out. After all, this is history in making!

And guess what? Senobyte have really got something good going on. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GHOST’S ALBUM DELAYED BY TIGHTASS CD MAKERS, PANDEMONIUM CELEBRATE “EVERLASTING OPPOSITION”, AND I DISCOVER ARKHON INFAUSTUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Mar 302013
 

On this lazy Saturday morning, I found these items of interest while surfing the waves of our metallic ocean.

GHOST B.C.

I’m still having trouble typing “Ghost B.C.” instead of “Ghost”. And as if legal problems with their original name weren’t enough bullshit to endure, this Swedish band seem to have encountered fresh new bullshit in getting the CDs produced for their new album, Infestissumam.

According to Spin.com, release of the album has been delayed from April 9 to April 16 because four different U.S. compact disc manufacturers have refused to print a piece of artwork (shown above) that was destined for the deluxe version of the album. More from Spin.com:

“We kept on getting turned down because of the CD art, which is basically a 16th century illustration of an orgy,” a source close to the band told SPIN. The NSFW illustration, inspired by the work of Gustave Dore, showcases what looks like a forest nymph orgy, but it’s the religious iconography at the top that convinced manufacturers to turn off the printing press. Continue reading »

SHADE EMPIRE, DEATHEMBER, MOSS, AND BEHEMOTH

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Mar 292013
 

Time for another round-up of new music. What grabbed my attention this morning were the following new songs from Shade Empire (Finland), Deathember (Sweden), and Moss (UK), plus a small video announcement by Behemoth (Poland).

SHADE EMPIRE

Shade Empire are a Finnish metal band whose massive, 74-minute-long fourth album — Omega Arcane — will be released by Candlelight Records on May 3 in Finland, on May 6 in the rest of Europe, and  sometime in June in North America.

June is so far away that it might as well be Pluto, but although patience will be tested, I’m absolutely convinced the wait will be worthwhile. Why? Because Shade Empire have just released an official video for an edited version of the album’s first single, “Ruins”, and it’s really impressive.

The song is scathing, sweeping, and soaring, a riveting mixture of styles that include elements of black metal, melodic death metal, and doom, with orchestral touches that enhance the drama rather than clog the arteries with cheese. Fans of bands such as Insomnium and In Mourning would do well to pay attention — especially because the video itself is just as magnetic as the music. Beautifully filmed and edited, it’s a badass feast for the eyes. Continue reading »

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