OP-ED: MESHUGGAH WILL NEVER DIE, BUT DJENT WILL

 Metal News  21 Responses »
Feb 152012
 

 (BadWolf stirs the pot on an issue that’s been generating a lot of discussion recently.)

I’d like to address some  speculation floating around the blogosphere now that the internet has had its first taste of Meshuggah’s new record, Koloss. Namely, our allies in metal at Heavy Blog Is Heavy and MetalSucks. Apparently, these people seem to think that Meshuggah may have somehow lost their relevance to the next generation of metalheads, who are being raised on Djent, itself the offspring of Meshuggah’s  influence.

 

First, just so you know where I am coming from: I love Meshuggah and mostly hate Djent. Meshuggah’s Destroy Erase Improve was the first ‘extreme’ metal record I ever owned. As for Djent, I was an early adopter and early abdicator. I stand by Cloudkicker and Animals As Leaders resolutely, but their largely instrumental/ambient take on the genre is very different from the now-proliferating pop-metal variety. I also stand by Periphery’s demo tapes, but the instant I saw that ‘Icarus Lives’ video and heard Spencer Sotelo’s voice, I knew it was time to jump ship. Anything that evokes Linkin Park is incredibly bad, unless that project involves Trent Reznor. Now we have Djent evoking Fred Durst, but replacing his trailer park machismo for otaku-pandering roleplaying that gestures toward environmental and social consciousness, but fails to evoke even 1/100th of the mastery Gojira display with such grave subjects.

Now that you know where I stand, on to the offending quote (from HBIH): Continue reading »

LISTENABLE RECORDS LOVES YOU, EVEN IF NO ONE ELSE DOES

 Metal News  No Responses »
Feb 142012
 

You may be having the time of your life on this 2012 edition of Valentine’s Day or you may be a straight razor away from ending it all, but either way, the day just got better.

Listenable Records has just made available for FREE download a 22-track sampler featuring music from past and present Listenable artists, including Gojira, Svartcrown, Hate, Heavenwood, Izegrim, Kruger, Panzerchrist, Cavus, Darkane, and Livarkahil, just to mention some of my favorites. You’ll need to surrender a working e-mail address to get the download, but that’s a small price to pay, because there’s some very nice tunage on this sampler.

The full track list is after the jump, along with a link to the Listenable page where you can (a) stream the whole sampler, end to end, and (b) get the download link. Continue reading »

ANOTHER NEW SPAWN OF POSSESSION SONG

 Metal News  29 Responses »
Feb 132012
 

Sorry for the brevity and lack of originality in this post. My fucking day job is being a jealous mistress of my time. Therefore, I am just pasting in this piece of exciting news:

“Bodiless Sleeper”, a brand new song from Swedish tech-death assassins SPAWN OF POSSESSION, can be streamed at  GuitarWorld.com. The track comes off the band’s third full-length album,“Incurso”, which will be released in North America on March 13 via Relapse Records. The CD, which will contain nine tracks plus an instrumental intro, was recorded at Pama Studios in Kristianopel, Sweden with engineer Magnus “Mankan” Sedenberg.

I’m not even able to listen to this song.  So, please go listen to it, and then tell me about the explosive orgasm I’m not having. Thank you for your assistance.

THE KAIROS TOUR: SEPULTURA, DEATH ANGEL, KRISIUN, HAVOK

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Feb 102012
 

Thanks to Black Shuck for the tip on this news item. I’d seen the news about this tour last week before any details were available, but now we’ve got the schedule.

Three-quarters of this line-up get me hot and bothered — the quarters that consist of Death Angel, Krisiun, and Havok. I’ve been lucky enough to see Death Angel before, and I can testify that they are a blast to hear and watch. Krisiun is, well, Krisiun — some death metal heroes of mine that I’ve been hoping to see for years (and who ought to be at the top of this tour instead of a “support” act). And Havok is one of the few new thrash bands whose music doesn’t make me yawn after a while.

And that leaves Krisiun’s countrymen in Sepultura. If this were the Sepultura of the Cavalera brothers at their peak, the band that created albums like Arise, that would be one thing. But it’s not. I was so underwhelmed by A-Lex (2009) that I didn’t even listen to last year’s Kairos. Maybe that was a mistake, because I’ve since heard that it was a big step up (was it?). So, while I may not yet be hot and bothered by the idea of seeing Sepultura, I’m at least interested, and this tour will give me an excuse to see what Kairos is all about before it hits Seattle.

Yes, it’s coming to Seattle, and to 18 more cities in the U.S. and Canada (though it seems to be spurning the entire southern half of the U.S.). The schedule is after the jump. Continue reading »

DEATH GRIPS – UPDATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 082012
 

Death Grips isn’t metal in any conventional sense (shit, did I just use “metal” and “conventional” in the same sentence?!?), but they’re still definitely metal. If you ain’t up on Death Grips yet, you can find a good introduction in BadWolf’s NCS post about them here. That post pushed me to explore Death Grips’ music, and the music made me a believer. Based on the comments we got and the page hits on that feature, there are lots more believers out there, too.

It goes, it goes, it goes, it goes 
It goes, it goes, it goes, it goes
Guillotine – YAAAAAH!

Where was I?  Oh yeah, so, for all Death Grips believers and those who will become believers, we have some news from the Death Grips facebook page: “we’re releasing two full length albums this year world-wide .. first one drops in April ”

We also have some new Death Grips 2012 music . . . after the jump.

I close my eyes and seize it 
I clench my fists and beat it 
I light my torch and burn it 
I am the beast I worship… 

Continue reading »

BEFORE THE DAWN TEASES US

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Feb 082012
 

Only two days ago we featured news about Rise of the Phoenix, the next album by Finland’s Before the Dawn, which prompted some speculation in the comments about whether the music would be up to the high standards set by the band’s previous releases. After all, it does follow pretty quickly on the heels of 2011’s Deathstar Rising, it does come from a band whose principal creative force (Tuomas Saukkonen) has his fingers in many other projects at the same time, and it will be the first BtD release in six years not to include the distinctive clean vocals of Lars Eikind.

Thanks to a tip from fireangel of the Finland-focused Night Elves site, much of this anxious speculation can be laid to rest. She pointed us to an album teaser uploaded by Nuclear Blast today. Based on the short song excerpts in the teaser, I can’t argue with what Tuomas Saukkonen says in the clip. It does indeed sound epic, fast, heavy, and awesome. Also, I can feel the music having a positive effect on my manhood.

Teaser clip after the jump . . . Continue reading »

CANNIBAL CORPSE: THE U.S. TORTURE TOUR

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Feb 072012
 

 

Cannibal Corpse will be headlining SUMMER SLAUGHTER this summer and they’re about to leave for a tour of Europe. But in between those events, they’ll be headlining a 23-city tour of the U.S. beginning in April.

Today, the band announced the U.S. Torture Tour 2012, sponsored by Metal Blade Records, Good Fight Entertainment, and dB Drum Shoes. It starts on April 5 in Jacksonville, Florida, and ends in Gainesville, Florida, on May 3.

Their support on this tour is first-class: Exhumed, Abysmal Dawn, and Arkaik. That will be a must-see show for death metalheads within spitting distance of any tour stop. Sadly, yours truly will be missing this tour, because the closest it will get to the Pacific Northwest is Colorado, and I can’t spit that far.

The full schedule is after the jump. Continue reading »

ANOTHER NEW CANNIBAL CORPSE SONG: “SCOURGE OF IRON”

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Feb 062012
 

I guess every carnivore knows by now that Torture, the next album by Cannibal Corpse, is slated for North American release through Metal Blade Records on March 13, 2012. One song has already premiered, and today Metal Blade gave the honor of releasing a second track to that bible of bile, that everyman’s guide to the filthy underbelly of the underground, that harbinger of hellish death metal . . . REVOLVER magazine.

Yeah, go figure.

Anyway, the new song is called “Scourge of Iron”. It’s an exclusive premiere, so I’m unable to embed it here — which means that to listen, you’ll have to hold your nose and go visit the Revolver site (HERE), where you will be greeted by two of “the hottest chicks in metal” flanking the Cannibal Corpse audio player, along with links to the latest news about Modern Day Escape, Shinedown, and Guns ‘N’ Roses. Sigh.

But in my humble opinion the nose-holding trip is worth it, cuz the song is a brain-stomper. It’s the flip-side of the first song (“Demented Aggression”) — slow, grisly, pounding, putrid, and featuring a truly diseased guitar solo. Truly diseased.

ALBUM NEWS FROM BEFORE THE DAWN AND MARDUK

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Feb 062012
 

If someone were to ask me, “Why is Finnish metal so awesome?”, I would answer, “Because it’s metal from Finland, you dork!” — and then I’d give the Nerd Laugh, the one that’s part snort and all-knowing. And if I were being asked by a big hairy dude with no nerd sense of humor, I’d follow that quickly with some examples, one of which would be Before the Dawn.

The band was started in 1999 by the prolific Tuomas Saukkonen (also a member of Black Sun Aeon, Dawn of Solace, and RoutaSielu), and their 2011 album (their sixth), Deathstar Rising, was one of our favorites (I also named a song from the album to our list of 2011’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs — here).  Their combination of hard-driving riffs and dark, beautiful, hook-filled melodies is a great example of the kind of gothic melodic death metal at which the Finns have excelled.

Part of the band’s appeal has been the one-two vocal punch delivered by Saukkonen (whose harsh delivery is killer) and bass player Lars Eikind. Elkind is gone, unfortunately, but of course that hasn’t stopped Saukkonen for a minute. Here’s a January 25 note posted by the band (which I only just saw, thanks to a tip from KevinP):

Finnish melancholic melodic death metal outfit BEFORE THE DAWN returns after living through a phase of changes and uncertainty – cleansed, renewed and stronger than ever! Leaving pieces of both the musical and personal past behind, mastermind Tuomas Saukkonen, lead guitarist Juho Räihä and their new companions get ready for conquering your ears with the finest blend of northern gloom and harsh melodic death metal.

Their seventh studio album and at the same time second release via Nuclear Blast Records is entitled “Rise Of The Phoenix” and will arise from the ashes on the 27th of April 2012!

Very welcome news indeed. After the jump, the track list . . . and news about the next Marduk album. Continue reading »

CRYPTOPSY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 062012
 

Most serious death metal addicts I know rank the early albums of Montreal’s Cryptopsy (recently inducted into DECIBEL’s Hall of Fame) among their personal favorites, especially None So Vile (1996), recorded at a time when the “classic” Cryptopsy line-up was in place — vocalist Lord Worm, Jon Levasseur on guitars, Flo Mounier behind the kit, and Éric Langlois on bass. But I doubt I’ll get much argument when I say that more recent albums — and especially 2008’s The Unspoken King — have greatly disappointed the band’s long-time fans.

The band’s musical decline (at least compared to their early glory days) can be traced to Levasseur’s departure in late 2004. He left, and we got Once Was Not (which was not all bad, in part because Lord Worm was back in the fold, briefly) and The Unspoken King (which just plain didn’t measure up to this band’s legacy).

Well, the great circle of life spins, or some shit like that, and Jon Levasseur is now a Cryptopsian again (since May 2011). My fairly simple mind fairly boggles at the contemplation of what he and co-guitarist Chris Donaldson are going to cook up for the band’s next album. Neuraxis bassist Olivier Pinard replaced Youri Raymond (who replaced Langlois last year), and he will be strong, and of course the paranormal Flo Mounier will continue to be his otherworldly self. And then there’s vocalist Matt McGachy, who will ne’er replace Lord Worm in the hearts of the Cryptopsy faithful, but he’s really not bad, and in any event he will be overshadowed by the instrumental extravagance of his bandmates.

And speaking of instrumental extravagance, after the jump, I have a few tastes of what we have in store for our greedy selves from the “new” Cryptopsy, plus a few more morsels of news about the next album. Continue reading »

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