NORTHER UPDATE

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Mar 212011
 

This kind of slipped up on me: There are now published release dates for Norther‘s new album, Circle Regenerated, plus the cool cover art has been revealed (chosen through a fan contest), plus pre-order options are now available for those of you who would be consumed by wracking guilt over the thought of an illegal download. Plus, there’s a tracklist which includes three bonus songs that come with the digipack. It includes a cover of a song by a band I’ve never heard of (which of course means absolutely nothing).

As aficionados of Finnish metal already know, this will be the first Norther album that doesn’t feature vocalist/guitarist Petri Lindroos. Instead, we will have former Imperanon frontman Aleksi Sihvonen, as well as Naildown guitarist Daniel Freyburg. Norther purists are undoubtedly still trying to adjust to the change in vocalists. We are not pure in any respect here at NCS, so we have already adjusted and will be looking forward to the album, regardless.

If you haven’t yet caught up to this song, here’s a track from the forthcoming album.  The release dates, track-list, and pre-order links are after the jump.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/10871071″] Continue reading »

MORE FREE SHIT – AND THIS ONE IS A DOOZIE

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Mar 152011
 

You may have already seen this, since the release date appears to have been February 25, but I just discovered it — Relapse Records has made a “winter sampler” available for free download on Amazon MP3. It features new music from several bands, including Obscura, and overall it’s a very strong compilation of music — 25 tracks in all. The track listing from Amazon is right after the jump (because it’s a long one), and HERE is the link for the page where you can download the sampler.  Again, our apologies to non-US residents if the download isn’t available to you. Continue reading »

GOJIRA UPDATE

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Mar 142011
 

No, we don’t have any new Gojira music, but we do have an update from the band. We don’t usually post about band updates, but this is Gojira — pretty much the consensus NCS pick for best current metal band in the world, so we are running this update right here, right now (from Gojira’s Facebook page):

“Hello Everybody

We are currently working on a live DVD with important bonus section : “The Way Of All Flesh From The Inside”, the Sea Shepherd EP, (a non profit operation with a lot of people involved is a bit complicated to wrap, but we’re getting there and we promise to release these songs soon). We’re also composing a new album! We’ve written pretty much half of it, and we are very excited by this new material. It’s a big step for us. These songs are original and a good reflection of what we are today.

We are so focused on these things, that sometimes we forget to communicate with you guys, but we’ll try to post more updates from now on.

Big thanks to all of you for your patience and support.

Cheers from the practice room!!!

Gojira”

That is all.

AMON AMARTH: “FOR VICTORY OR DEATH”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Mar 102011
 

And our Surtur Rising watch continues . . .

Just hours ago, Metal Hammer debuted the third song from Amon Amarth‘s forthcoming album. This song is called “For Victory Or Death”. Amazingly, the song sounds like Amon Amarth, which means it’s another immediately recognizable melodeath gallop. I’m not quite as enamored of this one as I was of the first two (both of which we slapped up on this site as fast as humanly possible after their release), but I do like it, and it certainly does nothing to dim my enthusiasm for this album.

I couldn’t hack the Metal Hammer site in a way that would allow me to embed the song here at NCS — but I then discovered that the song made its way to YouTube about one hour ago.  So . . . click past the jump and you can hear “For Victory Or Death” without leaving the grasping claws of NCS. Continue reading »

MARCH IS METAL MONTH: MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF FREE SHIT!

 Metal News  18 Responses »
Mar 092011
 

I just stumbled across two sampler collections of metal that have become available for free download on Amazon MP3 over the last few days. Unfortunately, these collections are on the U.S. version of Amazon.com, and people outside the U.S. therefore probably can’t do the downloads.  Maybe they will be available on whatever Amazon site, if any, that’s accessible where you are.

SAMPLER 1: Here’s what’s available on the first sampler, which at least US denizens can access here.  (The track list on the second sampler is after the jump.)


Continue reading »

PRIMORDIAL: BLOODIED YET UNBOWED

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Mar 082011
 

In recent weeks we’ve written about two up-and-coming Irish black-metal bands — Wound Upon Wound and Eternal Helcaraxe. But today we have the pleasure of providing for your aural delectation a new track from Primordial — arguably Ireland’s finest black/folk band. The song is called “Bloodied Yet Unbowed”. It’s from their new album Redemption At the Puritan’s Hand, which is scheduled for release on April 26 by Metal Blade. It will be the band’s first album in four years.

Here’s what Primordial’s vocalist Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill has said about the album:

“Expectations, my friends, expectations! Yes, it contains rabble-rousers and hooks and choruses, memorable themes and dynamics but also it has darkness in spades. It has grit, filth and foreboding. Dark sweeping tragedy as always mixed with blood stirring defiance!

“The recording, of course, was booked during what has turned out to be one of the worst winters in living memory in Europe. Leaving Ireland at -15 to travel to a -20 Wales, trudging through feet of snow, slipping on black ice and basically having our bollix frozen off for three weeks left me thinking next time I’m going to record in the Bahamas and fake all this grimness. For good measure, I got what looking back must have been swine flu recording the vocals. In fact, some I can’t remember recording, I was so out of my head on painkillers and energy drinks. Suffering for your art is overrated, believe me.”

That may be so, but if suffering is what it takes to create a song like “Bloodied Yet Unbowed”, then more bands must suffer. (more after the jump . . . including a link to the song) Continue reading »

T.R.A.M.

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Mar 082011
 

I just saw an announcement this morning that riveted my attention. I hadn’t heard any previous buzz about this, and it’s an amazing surprise. There will certainly be tremendous buzz ahead.

The announcement is about a new “supergroup” called T.R.A.M., which I’m guessing is an acronym for the band’s members. Check this out:

Adrian Terrazas (The Mars Volta) on saxophone, flute, bass clarinet and percussion.

Javier Reyes (Animals As Leaders) on guitars.

Tosin Abasi (Animals As Leaders) on guitars.

Eric Moore (Suicidal Tendencies) on drums.

They’ve been signed by Sumerian Records, and their debut album, Lingua Franca, is scheduled for a May release. There’s no music to hear yet, but a new song is supposed to appear soon. The band is supposed to perform their first show ever at SXSW as part of NJ’s WSOU 89.5FM’s showcase on Thursday, March 17th in Austin. I have no idea what this music will be like, or if it will even be metal, but in light of who’s in this band, I will sure as fuck listen to it at the first opportunity. We will keep you updated, and if you want to follow developments on your own, T.R.A.M.’s new Facebook page is here.

THE AMENTA: V01D

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  59 Responses »
Mar 082011
 

As a general proposition, I can only take industrial metal in small doses, but The Amenta‘s 2008 album n0n was such an extreme, brutal piece of mindfuckery that I couldn’t resist it, and still can’t. The band took elements of black metal and death metal and stewed it in a smoking vat of industrial rhythms and synthesized noise. The result was something cold, vicious, disgusting, nihilistic, raging, hate-fueled — and yet often as catchy as ebola in its rhythmic hooks and small infusions of melody.

Today, The Amenta have returned with an unusual “multi-media release” called V01D. There’s an audio component and a video component. The audio is a 16-track album mastered by Alan Douches consisting of one new song (the title track); six new “electronic experiments”; re-recorded versions of five songs from n0n and the band’s previous album Occasus (2004); and re-mix versions of four of those five previously released songs.

The video component includes professionally filmed and recorded clips of the band performing four songs live in Sydney, Australia, plus one music video for the song “Vermin”.

All of this — the 16-track album and the five videos — have been released as of today, and what’s even more unusual is that despite the obvious effort that went into creating this, The Amenta are making all of it available for free download at www.theamenta.com. In the band’s words, this is their “response to download culture” — which I guess is a way of saying, “our shit will be up on the web in no time anyway, so what the fuck?”

After the jump, we’ve got the disturbing music video for “Vermin” and the new song, which is a surprise, but a very fine one. Continue reading »

ARCH ENEMY: KHAOS LEGIONS

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News  9 Responses »
Mar 072011
 

Arch Enemy revealed the cover art for their next studio release, Khaos Legions. I thought it was so damned cool that I had to stick it up here for all to see.

The artist is Brent Elliott White, who has done covers for the likes of Megadeth and Death Angel, and many others.

The album is due in the late spring or early summer on Century Media and will mark the band’s return to new original songs after the re-recordings album, The Root of All Evil (2009) and the live DVD/CD they released in 2008, Tyrants of the Rising Sun.

Wonder if they’ll perform wearing those masks now? We’d still be able to recognize Angela, don’t you think?

WHAT WE IMAGINE WENT DOWN AT THE OSLO CENTRAL STATION BURGER KING (AND WOULD WHOEVER TOOK KVELERTAK’S PASSPORTS PLEASE GIVE THEM THE FUCK BACK!)

 IQ Subtraction, Metal News  12 Responses »
Mar 062011
 

A conversation among the members of Kvelertak
Friday night, March 4, 2011
The Burger King, Oslo Central Station
Oslo, Norway

(translated from the Norwegian)

Vidar: “Did you get me the Double Whopper with cheese like I asked?”

Erlend: “Of course dude. You think I’m a fuckin’ moron? Just cuz we’re eatin’ in an American fast-food shithole doesn’t mean I’ve suddenly become as stupid as Americans who eat this kind of food.”

Marvin: “Do we really have time to eat? Shouldn’t we be moving our asses onto the train? I really don’t wanna miss this flight to the U.S. I’m so stoked about this tour!”

Erlend: “Fuckin’ chill, dude. Our flight doesn’t leave for two hours. We got plenty of time. We can carbo-load here at the BK, catch the train to the airport, and be on board with time to spare.”

Kjetil: “I can’t believe we’re about to eat all this shit. Erlend, you do this every time you smoke a bowl. It’s like some kind of special BK blend of weed. You smoke up, and then you make a straight line for the nearest Whopper. Fuck, since we got the Statoil prize, we can afford decent food. Cheap-ass motherfucker.”

Erlend: “Fuck you bro. No way am I gonna sit on that fuckin’ airplane for 9 or 10 hours without gettin’ my smoke on.”

Bjarte: “Erlend, man, you got the passports?”

Erlend: “Of course, I’ve got the fuckin’ passports. You sound like my mom. They’re right here . . . wait . . . fuck! WHERE’S MY FUCKIN’ BACKPACK!!!”  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries