Metal News Archives - Page 187 of 255

SEEN AND HEARD: SOILWORK, PIG DESTROYER, AND THE TONY DANZA TAPDANCE EXTRAVAGANZA

Aug 302012

Here’s a quick round-up of news items I saw today. I may have more later . . .

SOILWORK

That’s a really good promo shot up there, don’t you think? It was taken by Hannah Verbeuren. Could there be a relationship to the band’s fabulous drummer Dirk Verbeuren?

In addition to seeing that great photo, I also saw the news that Soilwork’s new album, The Living Infinite, is going to be a double-album. According to the band’s front dude Björn “Speed” Strid , it will be: “A REAL double album, in the true sense of the word, which means no fillers and no left-overs.”

Oh, let’s hope that will prove to be true! And let’s further hope that with all that extra room it will include the kind of harder-edged, melodeath marauders like “Needlefeast”, “Follow the Hollow”, “Like the Average Stalker”, and “The Chainheart Machine” that Soilwork once enjoyed delivering, in addition to the catchy, poppier, cleanly sung stuff that dominated The Panic Broadcast (2010). I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy that last album, because I did, but I kept waiting for something with real teeth in it . . . and waited in vain. Now I’ll start waiting again . . . .

On the other hand, I don’t think lack of teeth will be the problem with this next band’s new album. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KATATONIA, KRODA, ASMODÉE, AND TAKEN BY THE TIDE

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Aug 292012

As mentioned in today’s last post, the last 24 hours have brought a torrential flood of news and new music that I care about, and because I care about all this shit, I’ve been grinding my talons down to nubs on the keyboard, on the assumption that you will care about it, too. And if you don’t, please keep that to yourselves, because I bruise easily. Without further ado, here are four more items to add to the long list that has already filled up our site today.

KATATONIA

We published a very, very early guest review of Katatonia’s new album, Dead End Kings, in this post. We also were fast in posting about the wonderful music video for the first song to debut from the album, “Dead Letters”. For reasons I haven’t figured out, we’ve been getting a ton of hits on both of those posts over the last 3 or 4 days despite the fact that both of them are two months old. We might as well add something a bit more current.

This afternoon, DGR alerted me to the fact that the entire album is now streaming at the Canadian Exclaim.ca web site. HERE is the link for that. Dead End Kings was released yesterday (August 28) via Peaceville.

KRODA

We’ve written so many times about this Ukrainian black metal band that I’ve lost count (actually, I could count them if I had more fingers, because all the previous posts are collected here). Schwarzpfad was probably my favorite 2011 black metal album of all the ones I heard last year. It also showed up on Andy Synn’s list of the year’s Critical Top 10 albums, as well as his list of 2011′s Great Albums, and I included a song from Schwarzpfad on our list of the year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GLOWSUN, TOMBS, P.O.O.R., AND TOTAL VOMIT EXPERIENCE

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Aug 292012

For someone of my tastes, this has been an action-packed 24 hours in the world of metal, and hence the flood of posts on our site today. But the new videos from Enslaved and Kvelertak, the new song from Daylight Dies, the new free download from Impureza, and . . . uh . . . the new video from Baby Metal . . . have just been the tip of the iceberg. I’ve seen and heard a lot more things that have got me really pumped up at the moment — so much so that I’ve written two of these “seen and heard” posts. This is the first one.

GLOWSUN

First things first: that colorful album art caught my eye in a big way. It wasn’t the name “Glowsun”, because I hadn’t heard of that band (or their music) before seeing the artwork. It turns out that Glowsun are from northern France, and their second album Eternal Season is scheduled for release by Napalm Records on September 28. It also turns out that the cover art was created by Glowsun’s own singer and guitarist Johan Jaccob.

So, having been hooked by the cover art, I listened to a track from the album that Napalm debuted today, not knowing what to expect. What I got was . . . completely bowled over by the song. Stylistically, I suppose you’d classify “Reverse” as psychedelic stoner metal, with a real retro feel, but for those of you (like me) who don’t immediately start salivating when you see that genre label, just bear with me a moment longer:

Glowsun have ultra-mad guitar chops. Their guitar chops have guitar chops. The song’s opening riff got my head nodding quickly . . . but that proved to be just a small appetizer for the soloing explosion to come on the back half of the song. Fuckin’ caused my hair to start smoking. Listen: Continue reading »

FREE SHIT FROM IMPUREZA

Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Aug 292012

(photo credit: Nicolas Abraham)

It occurs to me that human beings have never been content to simply feel emotion. We are social creatures, and so we’re driven by the impulse to share our emotions with others, to convey to other people what we’re feeling. I think that impulse drives artists in every field, whether it’s pictorial art or writing or music. And it goes beyond that. Artists not only want to communicate their own emotions through what they create, they also want other people to feel what they (the artists) are feeling.

Music has always been a vehicle for this two-fold drive, a vehicle for expressing what the musician feels and for changing the listeners so that they experience it, too. And one of those experiences is the very human desire to be wild, to let go of responsibilities, to defy order, to throw off the very conventions that make it possible for human beings to co-exist without tearing each other’s throats out, to dive headlong into unbridled passion.

There’s probably some connection between this and orgasms, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Anyway, the appeal of music that makes you want to be wild is one of the reasons I really like high-speed death metal. But that’s a comparatively recent form of music, and definitely not the first kind designed to sweep up the listener and take them on the Wild Hunt. Flamenco music is a much older art form that, at least as I hear it, does the same thing. It lights a fire and then fans it into a wildfire.

And I’m thinking these thoughts today because of Impureza. I think it’s a very safe bet that if you’ve ever heard the music of this French band (pictured above), you haven’t forgotten it. They seamlessly and beautifully combine technically oriented death metal that brings to mind bands such as Nile, Krisiun, Decapitated, and Fleshgod Apocalypse with flamenco music. They combine old and new ways of kicking out the fuckin’ jams. Continue reading »

RATTENFÄNGER

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Aug 262012

Rattenfänger is a new band from Ukraine, but the band’s four members have already established their kvlt cred: They are also the four members of Drudkh and Old Silver Key (along with Neige from Alcest), and three of them are also members of Blood of Kingu. If those band names don’t mean anything to you, then you got some ‘splainin’ to do.

If you are familiar with those other bands, however, I think you’re going to be surprised by what Rattenfänger sounds like. This isn’t black metal or pagan/folk metal or depressive indie rock. This is voracious death metal, of the death/doom variety, and the one song I’ve heard so far is outstanding. An album’s worth of material, entitled Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, will be released by the Norwegian label Dark Essence Records in late October/early November of this year.

The band take their name from the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin (in German, Rattenfänger von Hameln). You remember that tale, don’t you? The townspeople hire the rat-catcher to rid their town of rats, but then stiff him on the bill after he succeeds, and he then uses his magical pipe to lure the town’s children away, never to be seen again. According to a press release, “the lyrics for Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum are in Latin and are written in style of the medieval poets, the thinkers and the troubadours/minstrels of old.”

Being the curious sort, I did a bit of poking around and discovered via The Font of All Human Knowledge that Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum was “a celebrated collection of satirical Latin letters which appeared in 1515-1519 in Hagenau, Germany . . . mock[ing] the doctrines and modes of living of the scholastics and monks, mainly by pretending to be letters from fanatic Christian theologians discussing whether all Jewish books should be burned as un-Christian or not.” Pope Leo X was not amused and excommunicated the authors, readers, and disseminators of the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum in 1517. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: INCANTATION, SHINING, MEANKIND, AND EVIL ENTOURAGE

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Aug 252012

The ol’ fucking day job has had its claws in my viscera the last couple of days, and I haven’t been able to focus my bloodshot eyes on happenings in the metal world as keenly as I’d like. But that vice-like grip has eased somewhat, so it’s time to begin catching up. Here are some items of interest I saw and heard yesterday.

ITEM ONE: INCANTATION

I saw the news that Incantation (pictured above) is at work on their eighth album, to be entitled Vanquish in Vengeance, which is projected for a November release on Listenable Records. I saw this statement by John McAfee:

“The title track is about the massacre of Saxons in the town of Verdun in 782, called on by order of King Charlemagne. As an album title it has a different meaning to me. Vanquish in Vengeance symbolizes the long history of the band. We have fought many battles over the years to keep things going. We have always stayed true to our original vision and have never caved into trends. After a long wait between albums we are back with a vengeance with some of our darkest and heaviest material to date.”

“Darkest and heaviest material to date”? That would take some doing. “We have always stayed true to our original vision and have never caved into trends”? True dat. I’m ready for new Incantation.

ITEM TWO: SHINING

I like the music of Sweden’s Shining. I saw that Shining have a new album coming. Instead of persisting with the Roman numerals as on previous albums, this eighth one has a name: Redefining Darkness.

I also saw that Shining’s main man Niklas Kvarforth recorded two teaser videos for the album. In one, he’s having a rub-a-dub-in-the-tub using the favored lubricant of all trve black metallists. He’s also licking something that looks vaguely familiar. I’d say this one is not safe for work, but you’re not working now, are you? In the second video he multitasks, explaining Shining’s self-mutilating mission while taking a shit. Continue reading »

THINGS SEEN AND HEARD: haarp, SKÁLMÖLD, BLOODRED HOURGLASS, AND GOBLIN

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 8 Responses »

Aug 232012

I thought this artwork was cool. It’s name is “Ocean In Motion” and it was created by Oana Cambrea. It has nothing to do with the rest of this post. I just wanted to put it someplace where I wouldn’t lose it. It did make me think of synchronized swimming, though something like this would have been much more fun than the event as it’s performed at the Olympics. Anyway, at the end of this post I have the only example I know of where synchronized swimming was metal. But onward to other new metal things I saw and heard recently.

haarp

Speaking of cool album art, I saw the cover of the next album from NOLA’s haarp. It’s called Husks and it’s set for release on September 18, 2012 through Housecore Records. I didn’t really dive deeply into this band’s last album (2010’s Filth). I remember listening to one track at a time when I was in a hurry, I didn’t immediately fall in love with it, and I moved on to something else.

This new one was recorded by Housecore’s Phil Anselmo (Down, Pantera) and mastered by Pig Destroyer’s Scott Hull, and that gets me interested in giving this band a second chance. Based on a press release, it appears there may be some new twists in this album, in addition to the band’s core mix of hate-filled sludge and grind. Check out the cover after the jump, and one more piece of related artwork created for haarp. Continue reading »

MASACHIST: “SCORNED” ON THE WAY

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Aug 232012

Masachist is a Polish band I feel I should have known about before now, given that they include two members of Vesania — drummer Dariusz “Daray” Brzozowski (formerly with Vader, and live drummer for Dimmu Borgir) and bassist Filip “Heinrich” Halucha — and two former members of Decapitated — vocalist Wojciech “Pig”/”Sauron” Wasowicz (Anal Stench) and bassist Heinrich again — in addition to whirlwind guitarists Thrufel (ex-Azarath) and Aro (Shadows Land, Torquemada).

The band released their debut album (Death March Fury) in 2009, and they have a follow-up entitled Scorned due for release on September 3 via Selfmadegod Records. Yesterday the band released a song from the new album called “Opposing Normality”, which follows a previously released track, “The Process of Elimination”. Both songs are definitely worth hearing.

The music is bone-jarring death metal, fast and technical but somewhat unorthodox in its approach, with scale-leaping, minor-key riffs, unexpected ambient passages, and eerie soloing. There’s an alien quality to the songs, both machine-like and insectile, like the scurrying and swarming of a hive of bio-mech centipedes the size of mastiffs. It’s both brutal and otherworldly, like a death metal version of Blotted Science.

I’m digging this strange brew, but I’m curious what you make of it. Check out the two songs after the jump and leave some comments. Continue reading »

DRAMATIC FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF WINTERSUN’S “TIME I”

Metal News 27 Responses »

Aug 222012

Wintersun’s new album Time I has been six years coming, and now that it has been completed and a firm release date (October 12) has been announced, you can almost hear the sound of massed panting by the band’s global network of fanatical fans. Yet their eagerness is perhaps matched by their curiosity. What will the new music sound like? Will it be in the vein of the band’s smashing debut or will the passage of six years have changed the sound into something new and unexpected?

Well, we now have the first concrete impressions of the music because two days ago Wintersun threw a listening party in Helsinki, Finland, to which certain metal journalists were invited. One of those present for the first chance to hear the album from start to finish was Arto Mäenpää, editor of the Finnish KAAOSzine web site. He wasted no time putting his impressions on-line, with a track-by-track description of the music, calling it “a pure masterpiece and the best Finnish metal album to come out it 2012!” He also called it “a musical version of Lord Of The Rings.”

Of course, Arto’s original text was in Finnish. This, however, proved no problem for the intrepid staff at NO CLEAN SINGING. We just converted all of those strange words into English through Google Translate, which, as regular readers of this site well know, always reveals hidden meanings in the native tongue of arguably the most metal country on Earth, per capita. Fucking good pancake.

So, after the jump, feast your eyes on a vivid track-by-track description of Wintersun’s new album, as rendered by Google Translate, with a few notes by yours truly in brackets.

RED THINGS SEEN AND HEARD TODAY: SATAN’S WRATH, RED DESCENDING, P.O.O.R., AND MARK RIDDICK

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 14 Responses »

Aug 212012

In browsing today’s happenings in the world of metal and pulling together items to share with you in this post, I noticed a coincidence: All of these items have something to do with red. I don’t know what that means. Probably nothing. I hope I’m not bleeding inside.

ITEM ONE: SATAN’S WRATH

I saw that Metal Blade had established a landing (or launching) page for a new album entitled Galloping Blasphemy by a two-man Greek “Satanic blackened thrash” band by the name of Satan’s Wrath. It’s due for release on September 25 in North America and a few days earlier in Europe. The album cover is above. It’s red.

I was intrigued by two things about this release. First, the band’s bio claims that they are “the only band in the world in communication with thy master through ceremonial black magic and necromantic rituals” and that “one member alone controls 13 satanic covens worldwide and organizes the most hideous sabbaths which our lord graces in the form of the black goat.” It also seems to dedicate the album to the glory of Belial, Lucifer, and Astaroth. I’m guessing you probably won’t find this CD at Walmart.

Second, I saw this quote from Brian Slagel, the founder and owner of Metal Blade: “When I first heard Satan’s Wrath it transported me back three decades to the early days of the label when I loved bands like Slayer . . . and Possessed . . . . What will always impress me about the heavy metal genre is its ability to borrow from the past and boldly wear it’s influences on its sleeve, while still sounding fresh and relevant to the time it was created. Satan’s Wrath are one of those bands . . . .” Continue reading »

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