“THE ONLY GOOD TORY”: AN UPDATE

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Oct 162012
 

Just over one week ago we released our first album of music in cooperation with GRIND TO DEATH. Entitled The Only Good Tory, it’s a compilation of 46 songs from 46 bands, focused on UK grind, powerviolence, harsh crust, and fastcore, and it showcases a tremendous array of head-wrecking talent.

Our goal for this release was and is solely to spread the music. Each of the bands agreed to contribute their tracks to this effort, and we in turn have made it available on the NCS Bandcamp page as a free download (along with accompanying tracklist and booklet of artwork for each song by Kex Whelan). In the 9 days since the Bandcamp page went live, we’ve had almost 5,000 song plays and nearly 500 downloads of the album.

We’re also having a limited edition run of cassette tapes made by the awesome DIY Noise, but we’re going to be giving those tapes away, too. Here at NCS, we’ll have a tapes to give away through a contest designed and judged by Special NCS Contest Consultant, Phro. More details about that will be forthcoming.

We’re also in discussions with a label who is interested in releasing the comp as a CD. Of course, we won’t do that without the consent of all bands, and in any case, no profit from any CD sales will go to us.

And last, but certainly not least, we have this one further update: We’ve added a bonus track to the Bandcamp album. Continue reading »

BEHEXEN: “NIGHTSIDE EMANATIONS” ALBUM STREAM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 162012
 

About three weeks ago, after a four-year wait, the fourth album by Finland’s Behexen — Nightside Emanations — appeared via their new label Debemur Morti. It’s an album I’ve been meaning to check out, because Behexen holds such a revered place among die-hard devotees of black metal. Today, that became a very easy thing to do.

DECIBEL magazine’s on-line site (here) has begun streaming the entire album in a feature that also includes an interview with Wraath, one of the two guitarists who joined Behexen after release of the band’s last album, My Soul For His Glory (2008). The new album reflects the contributions of those two, in addition to the band’s two original members, vocalist Hoath Torog and drummer Horns (both of whom are also in Sargeist).

At this writing, I’ve only made my way through the first half of the new album. I’m not sure how it compares to Behexen’s previous releases, but I’m liking what I hear. With the exception of the cathedral-organ “Intro” and “Circle Me”, which is a mid-paced, doom-laden crusher, the music is intense and furious. The vocals are vile, the guitars are flensing, and the drums are vicious.

DECIBEL was nice enough to run the stream in an embeddable player, so you can check out the album following the jump. Continue reading »

KUOLEMANLAAKSO AND DESTINITY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 162012
 

Let’s start this day at NCS with a contrast — two new songs from forthcoming albums that are on opposite ends of the speed spectrum. The first comes from a new Finnish band — Kuolemanlaakso — whose members include some names I’m pretty sure most of you will recognize. The second is from a new release by a French band — Destinity — whose last album I really liked and whose new one is also sounding excellent.

KUOLEMANLAAKSO

This band’s Finnish name means “Death Valley”. It began as a one-man project of guitarist Markus Laakso (Chaosweaver). After recording a handful of demo tracks, he recruited a group of additional musicians to flesh out the band:  vocalist Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun, Barren Earth), guitarist Savon Surma (“Kouta”) (Chaosweaver, ex-Verjnuarmu), bassist Tuomo Räisänen (“Usva”) (Elenium, The Nibiruan), and drummer Toni Ronkainen (“Tiera”) (Discard, Cult of Endtime).

Together they recorded an album at Woodshed Studio in Germany with V. Santura of Triptykon and Dark Fortress fame, who also mixed and mastered the music. The album is named Uljas uusi maailma (“Brave New World”) and it’s now scheduled for release by Svart Records on November 23. The cover art by Maahy Abdul Muhsin is a real eye-catcher — it’s right after the jump. Continue reading »

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT: AN UPDATE

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Oct 122012
 

Michiel Dekker and Ivo Hilgenkamp, on the verge of redefining civilization.  Again.

The Monolith Deathcult’s new album TETRAGRAMMATON has been brewing slowly, like a fine Dutch lager, except with more radiation. Their last album, Trivmvirate, erupted from the womb in 2008, and the gestation period for the new release has been so protracted that we expect the new offspring to be a real monster (yeah, I mixed my metaphors, so sue me).

TMDC have periodically been streaming pre-production teasers of the new music, and we’ve been dutifully posting those streams as they’ve emerged, but they haven’t stayed up on the net for long, and it’s never been entirely clear whether the songs would actually find a place on the new album. But the final shape of the music is now being formed.

Yesterday we received word that TMDC entered the studio in September to record TETRAGRAMMATON. The band’s statement deserves to be quoted in full, so masterful is its understated eloquence:

“Since 2008 – when we redefined art, music and human civilisation – we’ve been milking Trivmvirate until it’s cheese,” said bassist/vocalist Robin Kok, “so we decided to make a new album and see if we can milk that even further.” Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM KRODA, SKELETAL REMAINS, AND TIAMAT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Oct 122012
 

In this post I’ve collected three new songs I heard earlier today that I wanted to recommend. They’re all quite different from each other, sharing only a common devotion to the darkness.

KRODA

Long-term NCS readers will know this Ukrainian band because I’ve written about them so often (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). But we continue to pick up new readers at a steady clip, and the band’s new recording gives me an excuse to introduce them to our new followers.

As previously reported at this site, Kroda will be releasing a live album in the form of a combined CD and DVD under the title HelCarpathian Black Metal – Heil Ragnarok: Live Under Hexenhammer, which was recorded and filmed in Moscow. Today the band announced that mixing and mastering of the album is now complete and that it will be released as a digipack edition later this winter. They also released one of the live tracks for streaming.

It’s a cover of a song called “Noregsgard” by the Norwegian band Storm (which included Fenriz [Darkthrone] and Satyr [Satyricon]) from their 1995 Nordavind album. I believe the song, even as originally recorded by Storm, was a metallicized version of a folk tune, and Kroda’s performance, which includes both flute and clean vocals, definitely has a pagan/folk air. But it’s still pretty fuckin’ heavy. I like it a lot. Continue reading »

EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE: NEW VIDEOS FROM PRIMAL ROCK REBELLION AND DEATH GRIPS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Oct 112012
 

 

We’re going off our usual beaten path of metallic extremity in this post, with two brand new videos from Primal Rock Rebellion and Death Grips. I thought both were worth watching, and so here they are. We’ll get back to our usual diet of gut rumbling music later today.

PRIMAL ROCK REBELLION

SikTh is no more (though a reunion could still happen), but SikTh’s Mikee Goodman is very much still alive and kicking. His two-man band Primal Rock Rebellion (formed with Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith) released a debut album earlier this year called Awoken Broken.

This morning I saw that PRR had released a new music video for a track from the album, “Tortured Tone”, and I decided to check it out. Goodman himself conceived, cast, and directed the clip, and it’s a visual feast. It includes a log cabins, woodland tranquility, seascape vistas, rainy cobble-stoned hills, Goodman and Smith performing in a huge bright field, a pretty girl, and a bit of creepy stop-motion animation.

As noted, the song isn’t the usual NCS fare, but it eventually pulls out some metal grit and heft, and it’s melodically memorable. Here you go: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DAYLIGHT DIES, ARES KINGDOM, SYSTEM DIVIDE, AND ULCERATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 092012
 

Here are a few items of interest I saw between yesterday and today that I thought were worth throwing in your general direction. Catch!

DAYLIGHT DIES

A Frail Becoming, the new album by North Carolina’s Daylight Dies, is being officially released today by Candlelight Records. It’s very, very good. I hope we will have a review soon, because the album deserves whatever we can do to help spread the word.

The latest song to be released for streaming is the album’s fourth track, “Dreaming of Breathing”, which is the subject of a music video directed by Ramon Boutviseth that debuted yesterday. It’s a beautifully filmed video, and the narrative portion suits the moody, dreamlike ambience of the music, while the band footage suits all the thundering that Daylight Dies do so well in their doom-influenced brand of melodic death metal.

Check it out next . . . Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST ANNOUNCES FINAL 2013 LINE-UP

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Oct 092012
 

About a half hour ago the organizers of MARYLAND DEATHFEST announced the final line-up for MDF XI, the 2013 edition of the best extreme fest in these United States — except for one band whose name is yet to come.

This line-up is stunning.  I don’t really have anything more to say about it.  Feast your eyes on the new additions and the full line-up, plus some explanatory notes and ticket info from MDF at the end:

DOWN
(the) MELVINS
THE OBSESSED
ASCENSION (Germany) – Exclusive US appearance!
UFOMAMMUT (Italy)
COBALT
DEIPHAGO (Philippines/Costa Rica)
EVOKEN
NECROPSY

Confirmed for Baltimore Soundstage (no barricade shows): Continue reading »

“THE ONLY GOOD TORY”: NO CLEAN SINGING RELEASES A UK POWERVIOLENCE COMP

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Oct 082012
 

This is a milestone day for NO CLEAN SINGING. Today, in collaboration with GRIND TO DEATH, we’re launching the NCS Bandcamp page and releasing our first compilation of recorded music — The Only Good Tory — a FREE collection of 46 songs by 46 UK bands who are on the cutting edge of grind, powerviolence, harsh crust, and fastcore. It’s guaranteed to wreck heads.

The lion’s share of the credit for this blockbuster goes to our friend Alex Layzell of GRIND TO DEATH. It was he who conceived of this idea, contacted the bands, assembled the tracks, and arranged for the preparation of a killer artwork booklet prepared by the talented Kex Whelan — which includes separate artwork for each of the 46 tracks on this comp.

We’re making the comp available as a free download to support the bands — this comp is dedicated to them and their passion — and to thank the fans of honest music wherever they may live. But in the near future we’ll be offering the comp on limited-edition tape produced by DIY Noise as a prize for a competition among NCS readers. We haven’t yet thought up a contest for how to do this, but it will probably involve the submission of nude photos. Or not. We’re working on it. Continue reading »

DARK CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON: ROTTING CHRIST AND INCANTATION

 Metal News  1 Response »
Oct 072012
 

You know how when you get really excited about something you just want to tell everyone you know immediately? I mean, other then when you get excited because you realize no one got your license plate after that hit-and-run accident, the one where the little girl is going to talk funny and have a really bad limp for the rest of her life but will damned sure start looking both ways before she enters a school cross walk again, at least as soon as she gets out of intensive care and physical therapy? I hope her parents have major medical coverage, ’cause they’re gonna fuckin’ need it.

Where was I? Oh yeah, being really excited and wanting to share. That’s how I feel about these two news items.

ROTTING CHRIST

Today I saw this on the Facebook page of these stupendous Greeks:

“We proudly announce that the recording session for our new album is close to the end. A hard but majestic simoultaneously trip for more than 4 months in Deva Soundz studios-Athens have found the band creating maybe its Darkest and more Mystical and Occult outcome ever. Stay tuned for samples and updates.”

Yes, I believe I will stay tuned. Also, Rotting Christ have a revamped official web site that includes 11 songs for free download HERE.  Also, Sakis has a beard now (thanks for the photo link, Utmu)!  Also . . . Continue reading »

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