GORGUTS ON THE MOVE

 Metal News  1 Response »
Mar 282012
 

Yesterday, I wrote about an exciting new band named Crator who have finally surfaced some new music after first being cryptically mentioned in an update written by John Longstreth for Sick Drummer magazine in 2010. In addition to being one of the members of Crator and the drummer for Origin, Longstreth is also the current drummer for Gorguts.

When it comes to technical death metal, Gorguts occupies a place in rarified air. It has gone through several iterations divided by long periods of inactivity, with legendary vocalist/guitarist Luc Lemay being the only constant.  The band’s last album, From Wisdom To Hate, was released 11 years ago, but word surfaced about three years ago that Lemay was reviving Gorguts yet again — this time with the line-up filled out by Longstreth and by Dysrhythmia bandmates Kevin Hufnagle and Colin Marston.

Since then, Gorguts die-hards have been waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting for new music. It appears we will finally get to hear some of what the new line-up have been creating, because it was announced yesterday that Gorguts have been added to the U.S. DEATH TO ALL TOUR 2012. Continue reading »

DYING FETUS WILL REIGN SUPREME

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Mar 262012
 

This morning, TheMadIsraeli tipped me to the fact that Dying Fetus had just released a teaser clip for their new album, Reign Supreme, and then I got a press release with more detail about the album, plus I found the album art.

Relapse Records has now confirmed a June 17 release date for the album. According to the release, it will feature nine tracks and is a “return to roots” with “production focused slightly more on slam than in the band’s last few works.”  Thematically, “the album is set to be a good old-fashioned piece of social and political commentary in the style of DYING FETUS as we have come to know.”

The album artwork, as you can see, features lots of skulls, because of course nothing says “metal” like a fuckton of skulls. Or so I’ve heard. Maybe we should put a fuckton of skulls all over NCS. Oh, wait  . . . yeah, we already did that. Maybe we need more skulls. Or worms.

Where was I?  Oh yeah, the teaser track. It’s less than a minute long, but as TheMadIsraeli noted when he wrote me, it’s long enough to give you rabies. And if you don’t get the full infection from it, Metal Injection recently put up a video of the band performing a new song from the album called “Invert the Idols”, which is an awful nice piece of head-smashery. Continue reading »

GO SHOW PHRO’S NEW BLOG SOME LOVE, BUT BE SURE TO USE PROTECTION

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Mar 262012
 

Another ugly duckling has left the NCS nest to explore the wonders of the blogiverse on its own.

Yes, Phro has started his very own blog called PHRO METAL. But don’t fret none about missing Phro here at NCS. As the first ever duckling born with bat wings, he can’t get far in daylight hours and he’ll be returning regularly to the nest to get his pre-digested worms from momma’s thrusting beak.

To translate that into more-or-less plain English, Phro’s blog isn’t about music. For his metal writing, Phro says he will continue to do that here. So why, you may ask, has Phro titled his blog PHRO METAL? Well, as we all know, things can be metal without being music. And what Phro intends to do with his blog is use it as a platform for writing stories.

His first story on PHRO METAL is called “Lucy” and he’s publishing it in installments, with Part 1 appearing today. I’m not going to spoil it for you. Okay, well, I guess I’ll spoil it a little bit. Here’s the first paragraph: Continue reading »

BLOODGUARD UPDATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Mar 262012
 

Earlier this month, Andy Synn passed his 18-month anniversary as a writer for NCS. His first post was a review of Dimmu Borgir’s Abrahadabra album. In all that time, Andy has rarely mentioned that in addition to writing about metal, he is also the vocalist for a UK metal band called Bloodguard. Maybe it’s that famous British reserve, or perhaps it’s because Andy is a gentleman and a scholar in addition to being a writer and a howler. I, however, am not limited by good manners or any sense of humility, and I have some news about Bloodguard that needs to be spread like the plague.

First, the band have now set the official track-listing for their debut album, Patterns In The Infinite, and this is it:

1. Eye Of The Paradox
2. Vanguard
3. Footsteps (Of The Dead)
4. Our Lady Of The Flood
5. Black Math Ritual
6. Panopticon
7. Final Prayer
8. Bridgeburner

After the jump, you’ll find an album preview video that will give you a taste of what the songs sound like in their unmixed form, although the order of the samples in the video doesn’t match the track-listing. But first, there’s even bigger news, because I’ve discovered from Andy the identities of five guests whose talents will be enhancing Bloodguard’s new album — and it’s quite an exciting list: Arthur von Nagle (Cormorant), Michiel Dekker and Ivo Hilgenkamp (The Monolith Deathcult), Seth Hecox (Becoming the Archetype), and Demonstealer (Demonic Resurrection). Continue reading »

NEW LOOK, SAME HALF-ASSED CONTENT

 Metal News  35 Responses »
Mar 252012
 

Shit, that’s a lot of fuckin’ skulls, innit?

Yes, brethren and sistren, we decided to change our clothes. Not that there was anything wrong with the old clothes, other than the fact that they hadn’t been washed in about a year, but sometimes a new look helps keep things interesting. Or so I’ve been told.

I am not responsible for our new look. I had some input into the tweaks here and there, but credit for the new banner, background art, and font goes to none other than groverXIII, the creator and frontman of The Number of the Blog who occasionally comes slumming here at NCS when he’s not working on his next blog project. Grover also designed our last site header, and this time, as then, he did it out of the goodness of his heart, for which yours truly is very grateful.

So, what do you think? Leave comments after the jump, and be honest. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: IN MOURNING

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  22 Responses »
Mar 242012
 

THAT, my friends, is the cover art for the new (third) album by Sweden’s In Mourning, The Weight Of Oceans, which will be released by Spinefarm Records on April 18. The artwork is by none other than Kristian Whålin (Necrolord).

This is old news, since the album art and details about the album were released in late February — except I didn’t pick up on it until TheMadIsraeli started chatting with me about In Mourning earlier today on FB.

Necrolord has created so many stupendous metal album covers in his career, but this is definitely one of my favorites.  This excerpt from his bio at The Font of All Human Knowledge includes some info I didn’t know (and after the jump, I’ve got some music from The Weight of Oceans):

At the age of 17, Wåhlin formed Grotesque (as guitarist) with school friend Tomas Lindberg on vocals, Alf Svensson on guitar, and Tomas Eriksson on drums. The 1990 break-up of Grotesque would lead to the formation of At the Gates, who would be credited as instigators of the “Gothenburg Melodic death metal sound”. Wåhlin would collaborate with Lindberg and other At the Gates members a short time additionally in the death metal band Liers in Wait, and would go on to design the “Russian icon” cover-art of At the Gates’ cornerstone release, Slaughter of the Soul.

Dissection, who shared practice quarters with At the Gates, would display illustrations by Wåhlin on the cover of The Somberlain and also Storm of the Light’s Bane; the latter featuring the infamous scene of the “grim reaper horseman” in the middle of a snow-covered forest tundra. In the Nightside Eclipse, the debut of seminal Norwegian black metal band Emperor, would also be graced with his work on the cover. Wahlin would continue as an album artist for several other bands in the European death, black, doom, power and gothic metal collective throughout the 2000s.

Continue reading »

FULL ALBUM STREAM: ELYSIAN’S “WIRES OF CREATION”

 Album Reviews, Metal News, Premieres  9 Responses »
Mar 232012
 

We’ve premiered individual songs before, but this is a red-letter day at NCS because today we’re premiering a full-album stream. The album is Wires of Creation (scheduled for release on March 26), and the band is Australia’s Elysian.

We first came across Elysian through one of our EYE-CATCHERS experiments — in which we listen to new music based solely on the appeal of the album art (the Wires cover was then, and still is, very cool). At that time, only one song from the album was available for listening (“Mans Design”), and it was a powerhouse piece of music. Now we’ve heard the whole album, and it fulfills the promise of that first song.

Elysian’s metal is both complex and primal, stylistically diverse and intricate in its composition, yet infused with atmospheric melodies and head-busting grooves. Wires of Creation is a dynamic work that both leads the mind down a labyrinthine path and packs a physical punch. It’s progressively minded melodic death metal that brings to mind an imaginary collaboration between Dark Tranquillity and pre-Harvest Opeth, but with other ingredients in the mix as well.

The band was founded by guitarists Gabriel and Nathan Hutchinson, and their interplay — part throw-down duel and part harmonious collaboration — is a large part of what makes the music so engrossing. They jab in a blur of hard punches, they bring the fiery shred, they spin webs of atmospheric melody. Gabriel is also responsible for keyboard additions that enhance the music with beats of electronica and soaring ambience. Continue reading »

REV. WILL’S RITVAL TOOLKIT, OVT NOW!

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Mar 222012
 

No Stvpid “Delvxe” Or “Limited” Editions!

Not Black Metal, Bvt Pretty Kvlt

What’s vp, yov feeble-minded hvmans? Has everyone been listening to tr00 n’ kvlt black metal? Yov’ve got to be listening to tr00 n’ kvlt black metal, or yov ain’t welkome arovnd here. All ov yov scene kids and -kore kvnts can rvn back to yovr  holy holey friends and bawl like a baby for all Rev. Will cares—ONLY TR00 N’ KVLT BLACK METAL SHALT BE TOVCHED VPON HERE.

By the keratin goodness ov Satan’s goat horns I swear, I shall khristian my anti-kore krvsade “The Lvciferian March Ov Diabolikal Radioaktive Yadabradabra Khristflakkin’ Volkanik Tortvre Ov Blasphemy” and embark on its virgin qvest ov desekration akross the kommercially-driven sovndskape ov the modern metal mvsik indvstry once I prokvre enovgh war fvnds from trvsty warriors ovt there.

I know, many ov yov are bvsy with yovr day jobs as meek data klerks and salesmen, and perhaps even the okkasional rich bvt vseless fat boy who jvst got grovnded by his bvsinessman dad, so I will extend the deadline to the seventh date ov Blvshreck, at exaktly, I repeat, exaktly 9 O’Klokk, 9 minvtes and 9 sekonds dvring daybreak. No more, no less.

Now that I have gotten that ovt ov my pagan system, let’s talk abovt one ov Rev. Will’s most hated phenomena in the realm ov kommercial mvsik—the “delvxe” or “limited” edition that yovr typikal Maiden and Metallika albvms are svre to have. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM OAK PANTHEON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 192012
 

When we last checked in with Minneapolis-based Oak Pantheon, they had created a “teaser reel” of rough instrumental mixes for three songs from their next album and had invited fans to vote on which song the band should preview in full before the album drops. This morning they released the chosen track.

It’s an unmastered version of a song called “Aspen” that the band have made available on both their YouTube channel and on Bandcamp. On Bandcamp, the song can be downloaded with a “name your price” option, and all donations will help finance mastering of the entire album.

I got an advance copy of “Aspen” on Saturday, thanks to producer Sean Golyer, and I’ve lost count of how many times I spun it around my head over the weekend. Oak Pantheon’s 2011 album The Void was a stellar debut. Based on “Aspen”, I’d say this is one band who won’t fall prey to the dreaded sophomore slump. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOWNLOAD: HAEMIC’S “FIELDS OF SANGUINE”

 Album Reviews, Metal News  5 Responses »
Mar 192012
 

It’s been a while since we last wrote about 16-year old metal prodigy Ray Heberer. The last time we did that was in the context of a September 2011 post about an artist who goes by the name All Things Rotten, the artist who will be creating the album cover for one of Ray’s many projects, Dreams of Winter. But this post isn’t about Dreams of Winter. It’s about Haemic.

Haemic is a collaboration that had its genesis years ago, when a Hungarian musician named Adam Farkas wrote a series of songs, recorded them on synthesizer, and uploaded them to YouTube. Ray Heberer (who lives in Taiwan) found the music and contacted Adam, and they began re-recording the music with Ray performing on guitar. The two of them also found a vocalist via YouTube — Mitch Shinderman, who is an American.

Haemic have now released their debut album, Fields of Sanguine, and over the weekend Ray made it available on Haemic’s Bandcamp page via a “name your price” option. As you may know, Bandcamp only allows 200 free downloads per month before converting the download into a “pay only” option. Haemic’s fans exhausted the 200 free downloads available during March in less than 24 hours. So, until April, you’ll need to pay $5 to get the Bandcamp download.

We certainly don’t want to discourage people from doing that — the money will be going to a good cause. But Ray and his Haemic mates are anxious to get this album out into the world without delay. So, they’ve come up with two ways of doing that until the stock of free Bandcamp downloads replenishes. First, we’ve agreed to host a free download of the album here at NCS in a .zip file format. Second, the guys have uploaded a compressed .rar file of the album to Mediafire.

After the jump, you can stream the entire album and get links to the .zip and .rar downloads. We’ll also give you an address to use if you’d like to order a CD of the album. Continue reading »

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