ANOTHER EARACHE / OSMOSE BANDCAMP UPDATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Jan 102013
 

In mid-November I wrote a feature about the decision by two landmark metal labels — Earache and Osmose — to establish Bandcamp sites and begin uploading albums from their landmark catalogues for digital distribution. At that point, I had gotten word that Earache was interested in receiving fan feedback on what they should add from the hundreds of albums under their control, so I put in my two cents’ worth with a list of 9 albums.

Since then, many of my wishes have been granted. As previously reported, Earache subsequently added groundbreaking albums from my short wish list by Entombed, Bolt Thrower, and Morbid Angel. And today I got an e-mail alert that they’ve now just added another album from my list — Reek of Putrefaction by Carcass. In addition to the fact that this album occupies a key place in metal history, it’s also timely, given that Carcass are apparently recording a new album.

But that’s not all!  Though I missed the news, Earache also recently added yet another album from my list — Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses, the 1992 debut album by Brutal Truth! I feel like Aladdin with a magic lamp and a drunk genie who’s lost count of how many wishes have already been granted.

But that’s still not all . . . Continue reading »

INTRONAUT’S ARTWORK FOR “MILK LEG” PRODUCES A STIFFENING EFFECT

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Jan 092013
 

Certain kinds of sensory phenomena send a rush of blood to certain parts of the male and female anatomy, just as other phenomena seem to suck all the blood right out of those same anatomical features. The artwork for Intronaut’s new single, “Milk Leg”, produces the former effect in yours truly — and do forgive me if that’s too much information.

This post is way past the time when I stop plastering the site with daily blather, but I couldn’t resist adding this, because I like the art very much. The song “Milk Leg” will become available digitally on February 5, and it will appear on Intronaut’s new album Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words With Tones), which is due for release on March 19 in North America and March 18 in Europe.

Is the song worth a shit? I have no idea, nor do I yet have any idea whether the rest of the album will produce a stiffening effect comparable to that of the eye-catching album art. I do indeed hope that “Milk Leg” will also produce a third-leg effect.

I only have this one additional comment: I wish that when record labels reveal artwork for albums, EPs, or singles, they would identify the artist. We may be primarily after the music, but if the artwork alone is worth spreading — as this clearly  is — then please give credit where credit is due. Continue reading »

MARIE CACHET, VARG VIKERNES, and BURZUM MAKE A MOVIE: “FOREBEARS”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  60 Responses »
Jan 092013
 

Burzum’s Varg Vikernes and his wife Marie Cachet have made a movie entitled ForeBears. But before getting to that, some background:

On the night of March 31, 2012, I discovered that someone had uploaded the entirety of the new, as-yet unreleased Burzum album Umskiptar to YouTube. At the same time, whoever manages Varg’s web page uploaded a batch of photos of Varg wearing, among other things, chain mail and an archaic helmet. The YouTube stream didn’t stay up for long, but long enough for me to listen to the album once. On April 1, I posted (here) a generally unflattering review along with some snarky comments about Varg and those photos.

That post became a gathering point for a ton of comments, mostly from people who are not regular visitors to NCS, and it still gets a lot of traffic to this day. I’m not sure why — maybe because it was such an early review of Umskiptar. It also led Varg’s wife Marie Cachet (though I didn’t know she was his wife at that time) to ask that I remove the Varg photos that I had added to my article — which she had made — because I posted them without her permission. I then had a very polite e-mail exchange with her, and she graciously agreed to allow me to keep the photos with the post after adding proper credit, despite the fact that I was poking fun at them. Continue reading »

MORE SEEN AND HEARD: OFFICIUM TRISTE, VENOMOUS MAXIMUS, DIABLO SWING ORCHESTRA

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jan 082013
 

Well, I’m afraid I need to take a break from our normal afternoon roll-out of the 2012 Most Infectious Extreme Metal Song list. I could explain why, but then I’d have to kill you.  Well, I wouldn’t kill you myself. I’d send out a squad of ninja lorises.  You’d probably die of old age before they got there.

Anyway, I do have something else for you. Actually, I have three new videos to share. Because time is short, I won’t say much about them other than to say I think you should watch and hear them.

OFFICIUM TRISTE

This long-running doom/death band from The Netherlands have a new album due for release on Hammerheart Records. Its name is Mors Viri, and it was mixed by Ronnie Björnström. The album features vocals by long-time Officium Triste member Pim Blankenstein, and that’s basically all I needed to know.

The video is for a new song called “The Wounded and the Dying”. It’s really just the music, but doom fans will want to hear this. Listen: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, AZURE EMOTE, AND SOREPTION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jan 082013
 

Yesterday brought many items of news and new music that caught my attention, so many that I’m funneling them your way in a couple of posts this morning, this being the first.

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER

Last night the above image appeared on the Facebook page of The Black Dahlia Murder, with no further explanation. Preceding the appearance of this visual announcement, the gents at Metal Sucks posted some studio photos and a few more details, speculating that the band would have a new album ready by June — which turns out to be a good guess.

Presumably, the above image is simply a flyer of sorts and not the album cover, yet I’m intrigued by the absence of color and by the album’s title — Everblack. Not that I really needed anything further to cause eager anticipation for the band’s next work. That was a given.

Next, we move from a band whose name has become something of a household word in the realms of extreme metal to one I had never heard of before last night — and whose new album I’m now anticipating just as eagerly as new BDM. Check out this arresting album cover: Continue reading »

BANKING WITH DRAGONFORCE

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Jan 072013
 

(We welcome Richard Street-Jammer with the following guest opinion.  I will be sorely disappointed if we don’t see comments about this.) 

Capital One’s youtube account posted the video above on December 27th 2012. If you’re reading this and can’t watch the video, it stars Dragonforce’s guitarists. They trade off leads as each one uses the Capital One mobile banking app on his cell phone. The narrator tells us that the app “lets us bank wherever, so you can keep doing what you are doing,” and then the guitars shoot huge bolts of lightning in space, because HUGE BOLTS OF LIGHTNING IN SPACE. If they’re not playing an actual Dragonforce song, I can’t tell; it sounds like a Dragonforce song, and Dragonforce has only written one song.

As metal band -> commercial appearances go, this one’s a pretty naked grab for cash. To my knowledge, the band has never taken a philosophical stance against hawking products other than musical equipment. (e.g., guitar and guitar amp sponsorships). Dragonforce is a professional band that falls on the fun and entertainment side of the artistic spectrum. They’re entertainers, and their music is a product.

I don’t know their band’s income, but I doubt they bank the kind of lucre we associate with being a rockstar. Given the downward trend in music sales, some extra money from doing a commercial spot can’t hurt. Relatively few bands are able to monetize their music in this fashion. Of those bands, even fewer still play heavy metal. It has happened before though. Suffocation did it a few years ago when they appeared in a History Channel television commercial. Based partially on a fan’s request, Falconer did a TV ad for Mini automobiles. While it does happen, it’s still a shock to see a metal band in a commercial. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TRONDHEIM METAL FEST, THE EUPHONY FUSION VI, AND CORPUS MORTALE

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jan 072013
 

Here are just a few items I spotted over the last 24 hours that interested me. Mayhaps they will interest you, too. I may have more later.

TRONDHEIM METAL FEST

I do a pretty half-assed job reporting about European festivals and tours. Actually, it’s more like quarter-assed. Or maybe eighth-assed. I do a somewhat better job when it comes to North American tours and fests — at least those that interest me — because I’m a resident of the continent and so are a bare majority of NCS readers. But the forthcoming Trondheim Metal Fest did catch my eye, because . . . look at that line-up!

Of course, there’s no chance I will be in Trondheim, Norway, on March 14-16, 2012, unless Seattle’s tech geeks finally perfect teleporter technology in time. Also, I think I’d rather see them experiment first with melons instead of me. Melons to Trondheim!!

Where was I?  Oh yeah, Gojira, Napalm Death, and Anaal Nathrakh on the same bill is pretty fuckin’ strong. And there will be approximately 17 other bands performing as well, including those other three headliners whose names you see on the above flyer. You can get more details via the following links: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CANDLEMASS, ENTOMBED, LIVING SACRIFICE, AND XENOSIS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jan 052013
 

We’ve picked up a lot of new readers over the last couple of weeks, so for their benefit let me explain what others have already figured out about our news reporting: We make no effort to be comprehensive. We don’t cut and paste every press release we get. Actually, we don’t cut and paste any news releases. We write our own thoughts, and what we write about is filtered through my mind and occasionally the minds of our other writers when they message me about something they think is interesting.

So, for better or worse, what you see here is what we think is interesting, according to our tastes. And here are a few items I saw and heard over the last 24 hours that interested me.

CANDLEMASS vs ENTOMBED

Candlemass and Entombed are two Swedish bands who have reached near-legendary status in distinctly different corners of the metal spectrum, Candlemass in the realms of doom and Entombed in the fields of death metal and death ‘n’ roll (though over time Entombed has plowed other fields as well).

Someone at Sweden Rock Magazine, the country’s top-selling music magazine, had the bright idea of asking each band to cover one of the other band’s songs. The result will be a CD single exclusively included with the magazine’s 100th issue that will be sent to subscribers on January 8. For now at least, it won’t be available elsewhere. But fortunately, as of today both tracks are up on YouTube. Continue reading »

BROOKLYN VEGAN TAKES OVER INVISIBLE ORANGES

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Jan 042013
 

As of today, the Invisible Oranges metal blog will be run by Brooklyn Vegan. So says a statement published today at the IO site by its founder and still-owner Cosmo Lee.

According to the statement, Lee’s move was prompted by the decision of Aaron Lariviere to step down as IO’s editor and the fact that “no successors to Aaron were readily in sight”. Effective immediately, Brooklyn Vegan’s Fred Pessaro, who is responsible for BV’s metal content, will become IO’s editor-in-chief.

According to Lee, “The InvisibleOranges.com URL will stay intact” and “IO will remain a site dedicated to metal, as it should be.” However, the site will now combine Brooklyn Vegan’s own metal news content with IO’s editorial content.

From my perspective, this seems like a union that should work. Although metal has only been one part of Brooklyn Vegan’s focus, with indie rock commanding the lion’s share of the site’s musical attention, the metal content at BV has been excellent. And to get a sense of Fred Pessaro’s metal tastes, check out his personal year-end list here. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SORCERY, SKROG, AND HATE MEDITATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 022013
 

Yesterday I posted two catch-up features in an effort to spread the word about new music and news I came across over the long holiday weekend. But two really wasn’t enough. So, here’s a third.

SORCERY

The revival of old school death metal marches on.  In this instance, the purveyors are not newcomers mimicking the style, but people who were doing this when the old school was young.

Sorcery are a Swedish band who originally came together in the late 80s. By 1991 they had recorded an assortment of demos and one full-length album (Bloodchilling Tales), and then dissolved. Their revival began in 2009 with the recording of a new demo (followed by a second in 2012), and now they’re on the verge of releasing a new album — Arrival At Six — on the Xtreem Music label (release date: Jan 15). Of course, it was recorded at Sunlight Studios, by Tomas Skogsberg. And as you can see, it features completely killer cover art by Daniel Devilish.

Thanks to a tip from Utmu, yesterday I listened to the first single from the album, “Warbringer”.  Continue reading »

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