TOURISM: PAGANFEST AMERICA IV AND VOICES FROM THE DARK

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Dec 022012
 

This post is about two foreign invasions of North America that are scheduled to occur next year, but these invaders will be welcomed with open arms. I initially thought I’d wait to feature these tours until the schedules were released, but I’m so excited about them that I’m goin’ with it now.

Both tours are being produced by Rock the Nation America, which is the booking agency partnership created about a year ago between Kataklysm/Ex Deo frontman Maurizio Iacono, his agent and Canadian metal promoter Stephan Mellul, and Century Media Records.

PAGANFEST AMERICA IV

The first tour — Paganfest America Part IV — will be headlined by Finland’s Ensiferum and also features Tyr (Faroe Islands), Heidevolk (The Netherlands), Trollfest (Norway), and Helsott (Los Angeles). We’ve prominently featured all of those bands except Helsott, and it sounds like we need to find out more about them because the rest of the line-up kicks ass.

This tour was just announced on Friday and no dates or places have yet been revealed. All I know is that the tour is scheduled to kick off in late March 2013 and will cover both the United States and Canada. I guess I may finally have to break down and get a drinking horn. Maybe a battle ax. Possibly some animal skins. Because I don’t want to be the only person in the audience who doesn’t look awkward.

VOICES FROM THE DARK

News of this tour surfaced several weeks ago, and I’ve been waiting for release of the schedule . . . and am still waiting. The line-up is vicious. Marduk (Sweden) and Moonspell (Portugal) will be the co-headliners, and the tour will also include Inquisition (U.S.), The Foreshadowing (Italy), and Death Wolf (Sweden), which features members of Marduk. Continue reading »

THIS AND THAT: SOILWORK, TOMAHAWK, BYZANTINE, SOM PLUIJMERS, AND FREDRIK WIDIGS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Dec 012012
 

In here: A few things I noticed this morning.

SOILWORK

Soilwork’s ninth studio album The Living Infinite, which will be a two-disc release, is now scheduled for release by Nuclear Blast on March 1 in Europe, and March 5 in North America. Late yesterday, the cover art was unveiled. The artist is Mnemic’s Mircea Eftemie Gabriel. He also created the artwork for Soilwork’s Stabbing The Drama album seven years ago. It’s a change from the style of the band’s last few covers, and I’m liking it. It seems to have a nautical theme; I don’t know how that connects to the music, but we’ll find out.

Nuclear Blast also released the album’s track list: There are a total of 20 songs. I’m sure there will be some catchy melodic ones in there, but I’m hoping for some old-school Soilwork head-wreckers, too.

TOMAHAWK

This morning I also saw four new music videos. The first one isn’t metal. It’s for a song named “Stone Letter” by Tomahawk, who we last featured here. Tomahawk consists of Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) plus a bunch of other interesting musicians: Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard, Unsemble), Trevor Dunn (Fantomas, Melvins Lite), and John Stanier (Battles, Helmet). Five years have passed since their last release, but they’ve got a new album coming in January called Oddfellows. Continue reading »

SUFFOCATION: CLIMBING TO THE “PINNACLE OF BEDLAM”!

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News  23 Responses »
Nov 302012
 

Feast your eyes: The artwork for Suffocation’s next album, Pinnacle of Bedlam.

Created by: Raymond Swanland (who did similarly awesome deeds for the likes of Deeds of Flesh and Psycroptic)

Projected release date: Sometime in February 2013

Label: Nuclear Blast

Me:  Having some wood right now.

Is that too much information?

Here’s a nice Suffocation band photo: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CARCASS, OMNIUM GATHERUM, GOD SEED, AND GOAT BAGPIPES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Nov 302012
 

I didn’t get a chance to pull together at the end of yesterday what I found in my daily web crawl and e-mail excavation, so I’m doing that this morning. And because I waited so long to patch together this round-up, there are quite a few items of interest in here:

CARCASS

This item comes first because it’s the kind of news that shakes the earth. Late yesterday Blabbermouth reported: “Reactivated British extreme metal legends CARCASS are rumored to be putting the finishing touches on their first studio album in 17 years with acclaimed producer Colin Richardson (FEAR FACTORY, MACHINE HEAD, NAPALM DEATH, SLIPKNOT, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE). The band has yet to secure a label home for the effort, which is expected in early 2013.”

As previously disclosed in assorted interviews, guitarist Michael Amott and drummer Daniel Erlandsson, who toured with Carcass following the announcement of their reunion in 2007, are no longer involved with the group due to scheduling conflicts with their main band, Arch Enemy. Blabbermouth reports that original guitarist Bill Steer and bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker are actively involved in the studio for the new CD recording sessions, along with drummer Matthias Voigt of Germany’s Heaven Shall Burn.

According to the report, Carcass is also in the process of booking a number of live shows for 2013, including the previously announced appearance at next year’s Maryland Deathfest and Chile’s Metal Fest. Continue reading »

NEW ARSIS EP ON THE WAY!

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Nov 292012
 

One of these days I may have to actually buy a Scion vehicle. The debts of gratitude just keep mounting, and I do like to repay my debts. Scion A/V’s latest gift to metalheads is a brand new EP by Arsis named Lepers Caress. It will become available for free download next Tuesday at the Scion A/V web site.

I got wind of this yesterday when a couple of my NCS comrades started talking about a Nov 27 interview of guitarist/vocalist James Malone and bass-player Noah Martin that appeared at Hardrock.RVA. In that interview, Malone said: “You can expect the Scion EP very soon and for Unwelcome to come out early next year.  I wouldn’t compare either to Starve… but you will not be let down.  This much I can promise.”

Turns out we didn’t have to wait long for confirmation about that EP, because the official announcement came out this morning. The reference to Unwelcome is about the next Arsis full-length, which was written by Malone and Martin and recorded this past August. And in related news, Arsis will be setting out on a Scion-sponsored tour this December, and they’ll be playing new songs from both the EP and Unwelcome.

As for what the new music will sound like, the interview contained this additional preview from Noah Martin, which includes references to previous Arsis releases A Diamond For Disease (2005), We Are the Nightmare (2008), and Starve For the Devil (2010): Continue reading »

KRODA ON BANDCAMP!

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 292012
 

News flash: Kroda have just put their brand new previously unreleased live album up on Bandcamp.

Long-term NCS readers will know about Kroda because we’ve written about them so often at NCS (their 2011 album Schwarzpfad was probably my favorite black metal album out of all the ones I heard last year, and I included a song-stream from the album on our list of the 2011’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs).

As previously reported at this site, Kroda recorded a live album at a concert in Moscow on April 14, 2012, planning to release it in the form of a combined CD and DVD under the title Live Under Hexenhammer: Heil Ragnarok!.  Last month, we streamed one of the tracks from the new live album, an awesome cover of a song called “Noregsgard” by the Norwegian band Storm (which included Fenriz of Darkthrone and Satyr of Satyricon) from Storm’s 1995 Nordavind album.

Just minutes ago, however, Kroda made public a new Bandcamp page and are now offering Live Under Hexenhammer for digital download. It’s a monster release, consisting of about 100 minutes of music, with live performances not only of original Kroda songs but also covers of songs by Summoning, Absurd, and the aforementioned Storm. The entire album is available for $8.99, and the songs can be downloaded individually as well.

And of course the entire album can now be streamed.  We’re planning a review of this release, which Kroda were nice enough to let us hear in advance. But you won’t have to take our word for it. Listen for yourselves after the jump: Live Under Hexenhammer kills. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: BYZANTINE, PORTAL, AND KONGH

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Nov 282012
 

Time for another daily round-up of things I saw and heard this morning while snooping around the web that I thought were worth sharing. There’s one thing (and only one thing) that all three of the following items have in common: They all involve genuinely eye-catching cover art. The bands are Byzantine (U.S.), Portal (Australia), and KONGH (Sweden).

BYZANTINE

It was a very sad day when West Virginia’s Byzantine dissolved roughly five years ago following the release of Oblivion Beckons. The band broke a lot of ground while they were up and running, they had talent in spades, and they clearly weren’t the kind of outfit who were going to remain static in their musical approach as time passed. Much time did pass without new Byzantine music, but as we were thrilled to report much earlier this year, Byzantine have reunited.

They’ve completed recording a new album, self-titled, that’s currently scheduled for release on February 26 via Gravedancer Records. We’ve been tremendously fortunate to get an advance listen to the album, and all I can say at this point is that it more than makes up for those long years of silence. This is a mature band who have created something quite diverse and really special from end to end.

Today, they’ve unveiled a new song from the album by the name of “Signal Path”. I said the album is diverse, and so I don’t think any one song could really stand as representative of the whole, but “Signal Path” does display the kind of masterful integration of disparate elements that’s indicative of what the album brings — in this case, massive groove, infectious melody, soulful/gritty vocals, blazing guitar leads, and jazz-influenced soloing. Continue reading »

MORE DISCOVERIES FOR THE DAY: SETH SIRO ANTON, DAEMON WORSHIP, AND TOMBSTONE HIGHWAY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Nov 262012
 

New discoveries don’t always come in threes around here.  I think it’s just some deep-seated superstition that makes me collect groups of three things in most of my posts.  I’m sure there’s some scientific learning out there about why people do this (and don’t tell me it’s about the Holy Trinity because the power of three’s pre-dated JC by millennia). Someday I’ll have to get educated.

But for now, I got three items. They concern Seth Siro Anton and Septic Flesh (Greece), Daemon Worship Productions (Hell), and Tombstone Highway (Italy).

ITEM ONE

Yeah baby, you’re lookin’ at it! That’s the latest album art that Seth Siro Anton created for his band Septic Flesh. I really like everything he does, whether for Septic Flesh or other bands, and this is no exception. It’s the just-released cover for a special re-issue of the band’s 1994 debut album, Mystic Places of Dawn. It’s the first of four Septic Flesh reissues that Season of Mist is planning for 2013, with this one hitting the streets on January 22 in North America (and Jan 25 elsewhere). This reissue will also include the four tracks from the 1991 EP Temple of the Lost Race.

It looks like Season of Mist is already selling pre-orders for the album, including vinyl, CDs, and shirts featuring this new artwork, at this location. Awfully damned tempting. That shirt is calling my name . . . Continue reading »

SONIC BOOM UPDATE: THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT IN THE STUDIO

 Metal News  1 Response »
Nov 252012
 

The John Wilkes Vocal Booth, a/k/a The Monolith Deathcubicle

We can hear it all the way over in Seattle: Sonic booms are emanating from The Netherlands. And no, the Dutch Air Force is not on a training exercise (do the Dutch have an Air Force?). The explanation is more interesting than Dutch jets doing barrel rolls at Mach I: The Monolith Deathcult are continuing to record their new album, TETRAGRAMMATON, at Mach II.

Okay, they’re not exactly recording their album at the speed of sound. That process is proceeding more deliberately, closer to the speed of a loris sprint. But it’s as LOUD as breaking the sound barrier.

If that deep thrumming sound in the atmosphere weren’t proof enough, we now have video evidence that TMDC are at work creating their new supreme avant garde death metal masterpiece, instead of merely pretending to work. Specifically, we have:

Video of Carsten Altena explaining how he one-upped Richard Wagner and Hans Zimmer on the synths, with helpful English subtitles that seem totally legit to me despite the fact that my Dutch is limited to “Heineken”, “Grolsch”, and “stroopwafel”.

Video of Ivo Hilgenkamp nailing the guitar solo on “Human Wave Attack” through the magic of his Ibanez White Zombie “J” model guitar. Reportedly, this is the first TUNED guitar solo on a TMDC album, ever, since the beginning of time.

Video of all the vocals on TETRAGRAMMATON being recorded in The John Wilkes Vocal Booth. I think the lyrics consist entirely of “Asliiiiiiimuuuu!!”

Continue reading »

SOM PLUIJMERS LEAVES CEREBRAL BORE

 Metal News  15 Responses »
Nov 252012
 

Vocalist Som Pluijmers has left Scotland-based brutal death metal band Cerebral Bore.

As you may have noticed if you’ve been visiting NO CLEAN SINGING for more than a week or two, we spend very little time reporting on band drama. Musicians leave bands and join bands every day, and honestly, I’d rather be writing about the music. About the only time it matters is if a changing line-up has altered the music of a noteworthy band in some significant way, and that’s unlikely to happen in this instance — so far as I know, Som was not involved in writing Cerebral Bore’s music.

So why am I making an exception here? I’ll tell you in a minute. But first, the details. Here’s a statement that appeared on Cerebral Bore’s Facebook page about 5 hours ago:

“Som walked out on us less than 24 hours before the US tour, and we were forced to either cancel or go ahead with it as an instrumental if need be. We didn’t want to let our US fans down, so we went ahead with our buddy Shawn Whitaker on vocals for the tour. Show us your support and make Shawn feel at home, he saved us from a disaster.”

Cerebral Bore began a U.S. tour on November 24 in support of Dying Fetus, Cattle Decapitation, and Malignancy. It’s scheduled to run through December 23. The Shawn Whitaker referenced in that statement is the sole member of a Houston band named Insidious Decrepancy. And now here’s Som’s response to the statement quoted above: Continue reading »

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