TOURISM: “DESPISE THE WORLD 2013” – SUFFOCATION AND FRIENDS PREPARE TO STOMP NORTH AMERICAN FLAT

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Feb 232013
 

It seems like every other day the past few weeks is we’ve been writing about Suffocation. We reviewed their new album Pinnacle of Bedlam, we published an interview with Derek Boyer, we posted their new official video for “As Grace Descends”, and now we have details about their first North American tour in support of the new album.

Honestly, if Suffocation were touring by themselves or with support from their postman, I’d roll out for it in a heartbeat — this band is one of the best live acts I’ve ever seen. But this tour includes a bunch of other strong attractions: Exhumed, Jungle Rot, and Rings of Saturn — plus two other bands I have a feeling I need to learn more about: Adimiron and (for West Coast dates) Lord of War.

Though it’s called a North American tour, Montreal and Toronto are the only Canadian stops and the Deep South and Mid-Atlantic regions are getting passed over, but for those of you who aren’t within driving distance of this monster you’ll feel much better when I tell you that I will be able to go. Continue reading »

HORRIFIC (Part 2): GRAVEWURM, PLAGUE WIDOW, AND CURSED ALTAR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 222013
 

Last night, by chance, I listened to six new songs in a row that really grabbed me. In different ways, they were all horrific . . . and horrifically good. The first three were featured in Part 1 of this post earlier today, and here are the next three — from Gravewurm, Plague Widow, and Cursed Altar.

GRAVEWURM

Gravewurm are a band who started life in Pennsylvania in the early 90’s and now appear to be based in Virginia. They’ve released eight albums and a slew of demo’s, splits, and EPs — yet I’m fairly certain that last night was the first time I’ve ever listened to their music. My education continues.

The track I heard last night is named “Mistress of Blood and Fire”. It’s available for download on Bandcamp and will appear on the band’s next album, Infernal Minions, which is due for release by Hells Headbangers on May 14. I got a Bandcamp alert about the appearance of this song yesterday, and once I saw the name Hells Headbangers, I knew I had to check it out. Damned glad I did. Continue reading »

SOILWORK: ANOTHER NEW SONG AND OUR PREVIEW OF “THE LIVING INFINITE”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 222013
 

When I first learned that Soilwork’s new album would be a double disc, I was skeptical. It’s difficult for most bands to create even one album’s worth of solid music at a time, and releasing two at once seemed like an idea fraught with risk — especially because of the unevenness of the band’s last album.

But man, The Living Infinite has confounded my expectations. It’s extremely solid from end to end over the course of 20 songs. That’s not to say that the songs are all of equal quality, but this really is an excellent album that justifies the dual-disc format.

We have kind of an unusual review planned for the album next week, which TheMadIsraeli will tell you about below, along with his own preview thoughts about the album. And then after that you’ll find yet another new song from the album that debuted today: “Long Live the Misanthrope”, from disc 2. Continue reading »

THE DISINTEGRATION OF SLAYER?

 Metal News  14 Responses »
Feb 212013
 

About 8 hours ago Dave Lombardo, co-founder of Slayer and the band’s drummer for more than 30 years, released a statement in which he states that Kerry King has kicked him off the band’s upcoming Australian tour in reaction to complaints from Lombardo about not being paid for the band’s touring in 2012 and about being denied access to the band’s financial records.

In his statement, Lombardo claims that 90% of Slayer’s 2012 tour income was deducted as expenses, including the professional fees paid to Slayer’s management, “costing the band millions of dollars and leaving 10% or less to split amongst the four of us.” Lombardo states that he and Slayer frontman Tom Araya hired auditors in an effort to find out what had happened to all of the tour income but they were denied access to the detailed information they sought to obtain.

He further states that management demanded, as a condition to paying him, that he sign a contract “which forbade me to do interviews or make statements having to do with the band, in effect a gagging order.” Continue reading »

A FAST ROUND-UP OF NEWS AND MUSIC: VHÖL, ROTTING CHRIST, BEYOND CREATION, AND MEMORY GARDEN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 202013
 

As I write this (which was the night before it will be posted), I’m sitting in a hotel room in Texas with a crap-load of day-job work ahead of me on the day you will read this. Actually, I have a crapload of work I should be doing right now. And so this will be the fastest NCS round-up ever — more like an index than anything else.

So, with few words, here are news items and new music I saw and heard that I want to spread around.

VHÖL

Yesterday Profound Lore unveiled the cover to the VHÖL self-titled debut album, which you can see above. The artwork is by band member John Cobbett with design by Kevin Gan Yuen. The release date is April 16. Why do I care about this album? Because the band is composed of the aforementioned John Cobbett (Hammers of Misfortune, ex-Ludicra, GWAR, and Slough Feg), Aesop Dekker (Agalloch, Worm Oroborus), Sigrid Sheie (Hammers of Misfortune), and Mike Scheidt (YOB). For more about this band, see my previous posts. Continue reading »

A PUZZLE: HEAVEN SHALL BURN PREMIERES “LAND OF THE UPRIGHT ONES”

 Metal News  10 Responses »
Feb 202013
 

Heaven Shall Burn’s new album Veto is one of my “most anticipated” releases of 2013. This morning, the band and its label (Century Media) unveiled the album cover, which, as you can see above, makes use of an eye-catching 1898 painting of Lady Godiva by John Collier.

But that’s not all. They also made available for streaming and free download a song from the album entitled “Land of the Upright Ones”. But you have to work for this. They’ve constructed a puzzle that must be solved before you can hear or download the music. This is what the puzzle looks like:

I’ll tell you this much: it isn’t as simple as just dragging and dropping each stone into those spaces in the same order as you see them. Reversing the order doesn’t work either. Continue reading »

MID-DAY ROUND-UP: THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, SYBREED, AND FEARED

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 182013
 

Today and the next few days are pretty jammed with the work that pays the bills, but I just took a break long enough to spot the following tidbits I’d like to pass around like a family-sized bag of popcorn.

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN

I saw an announcement that The Dillinger Escape Plan have revealed the title of their next album — One of Us Is the Killer — and a general timeframe for release — May — as well as the album cover (above).

The album will be released by the band’s imprint label Party Smashers Inc. and will be distributed in NorthAm by Sumerian and by BMG everywhere else.

I also saw that DEP has already begun scheduling tour dates in the U.S. and overseas. Many more dates will follow, but you can see the initial list right after the jump. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: LOST SOCIETY, INFILTRATOR, DEMILICH, KATATONIA, SEPTIC FLESH, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, CARACH ANGREN, NAILS, AND NE OBLIVISCARIS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Feb 182013
 

Hey, happy fucking Monday to all you brain-dead metal heads. Here’s a big collection of new music and news that I came across at the start of my bleary-eyed morning today.

LOST SOCIETY

I’ve confessed before that straight-up old-school thrash is not among the metal genres that are nearest and dearest to my black heart. In addition, I’ve become even more numb due to the avalanche of re-thrash releases by many new bands who all sound alike to me. But with that said, I’m digging the shit out of a new song clip that premiered today by a Finnish band named Lost Society.

The song title alone hooked me: “Braindead Metal Head”. And then the music Finnish-ed me off. It’s a jet-fueled, out-of-control thrash rocket with multiple warheads. The riffing is catchy as fuck, the vocals are pleasingly drunk on the high energy, and the obligatory guitar solo is a first-class trip to shred city. This is speed metal I can get behind.

The video strings together words of high praise by the likes of Mille Petrozza (Kreator), Schmier (Destruction), Andreas Kisser (Sepultura), Craig Locicero (Forbidden), and Kragen Lum (Heathen), and they might know what they’re talking about. Continue reading »

A LORELEI UPDATE: “LORE OF LIES”

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Feb 172013
 

Well, I guess we picked a good day to talk about North Carolina’s Lorelei. Earlier today we included a skull-fucking new single from the band (“Masque”) in a round-up post — their third single since last year. And not long ago the band posted this welcome announcement on their Facebook page:

“We are excited to announce that our new track “Masque” was just a taste off of our debut FULL-LENGTH release titled Lore of Lies set to drop some time late 2013!

“The album will feature our two singles from last year “The Dunwich Horror” and “Godfather Death” completely re-tracked and re-mixed/mastered by Nick Scott, who handled all mixing/mastering in “Masque”, and four more full-length tracks with guest appearances from members of Conducting From The Grave, Ovid’s Withering, The Schoenberg Automaton, and Warforged!

“The album will be engineered by Jamie King at The Basement Recording NC (who has worked with Between the Buried and Me, Wretched, Scale the Summit, and more) and mixed/mastered by Nick Scott at The Foundation Recording Studio, who worked with The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Miss May I, and more sweet bands!”

And one more thing that truly caught my eye: The band unveiled the album’s cover, by none other than one of our favorite metal artists, Ken Sarafin of Sarafin Concepts. Kick. Ass. Cover. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC: TRIBULATION, WOE, LORELEI, SECTIONED, AND MAN MUST DIE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Feb 172013
 

I’m still catching up on new music unveiled last week that I didn’t find time to spotlight when I first heard it. In this post I’ve collected new songs (and a video) that I think are worth your time. It’s also quite a diverse collection of metal. The bands are Tribulation (Sweden), Woe (U.S.), Lorelei (U.S.), Sectioned (Scotland), and Man Must Die (Scotland again).

TRIBULATION

I’m exceedingly stoked for this Swedish band’s second album The Formulas of Death, which is due from Invictus Productions and The Ajna Offensive on March 1. Two songs from it have premiered to date, and they’re striking. The first one (“When the Sky Is Black With Devils”) I wrote about here, and the second one — “Wanderer In The Outer Darkness” — got its debut last week on CVLT Nation.

It’s a catchy, head-rattling mix of rocking riffs, a punchy rhythm section, scalding guitar leads and solo’s, and acid vocals. And the subdued guitar outro is a very pleasant surprise. These guys have definitely created something out of the ordinary. Can’t wait to hear the rest of these Formulas. Be kind to yourself and go HERE for “Wanderer In The Outer Darkness”.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribulation-Official/169889709720460
http://invictusproductions.net/ Continue reading »

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