MORE DIVERSIONARY TACTICS: NEW MUSIC FROM TARDIVE DYSKINESIA, AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED, AND CARCERI

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  10 Responses »
Mar 052011
 

So, yesterday we threw together a hodge-podge of new music and videos that proved very diverting to us, and maybe to you, too. And then, in an awesome display of synchronicity — or serendipity, or kismet, or some other word that’s supposed to signify things that are coincidental but maybe were meant to happen — more new music appeared on our NCS radar screen, as if sent from an all-knowing über-mind that tracks and understands the strange and twisted paths of our neural connectivity.

Here’s how this happened. One of the bands we included in yesterday’s post was Outcast, from France, and their new song “Elements”. The music put us in mind of some other bands, one of which (as we said) was Tardive Dyskinesia — a Greek band whose music we’ve been hooked on for a while. And then the next thing we knew, we got an e-mail from none other than Tardive Dyskinesia giving us (and everyone else in the world) an entire live album to download for nothing, nada, bupkis.  Fuck.

And that was just the start. We then got another e-mail telling us that one of our grindcore gods, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, had put up two new songs from a split they’ve done with a band called Despise You. Fuck.

And then we got another e-mail from Misha, the vocalist/guitarist for Akelei (a Dutch band whose very impressive 2010 debut album we reviewed here) asking us to check out Carceri, a death-metal band in which Misha’s brother Josha is the drummer, and in which Misha also used to play. In his e-mail, he used words like “fast”, “brutal”, “technical”, and made reference to “twisted lyrics”. Fuck. That pushed all the right buttons for me. And there you have the story of how today’s post took shape.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

DIVERSIONARY TACTICS: NEW MUSIC FROM PESTILENCE AND OUTCAST, AND A NEW MASTODON VIDEO

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  21 Responses »
Mar 042011
 

Are you in the mood for a diversion from whatever else you’re doing or were about to do? Good!  Because we thought we’d share some new music that we heard in the last 24 hours from Pestilence and Outcast, plus a new video clip of Mastodon playing “Crack the Skye”, which will appear on their forthcoming DVD. It’s all ridiculously good. Why else would we want to share? Get ready to be . . . diverted.

PESTILENCE

Dutch death metal band Pestilence has been cranking out skull-crushers since 1986 — not counting that extended hiatus between 1994 and 2008.  The band count among their alumni the likes of Tony Choy (Atheist, Cynic) and Martin Van Drunen (Hail of Bullets, Asphyx). Their current line-up is also loaded with talent, including fretless bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling (Obscura) and original or near-original members Patrick Mameli (vox/guitar) and Patrick Uterwijk (guitar).

They’ve got a new album due in late April on Mascot Records called Doctrine, and it’s been on our “highly anticipated” list. Two days ago, Pestilence made the seventh track from the album available for streaming, and we’ve got it here. It’s called, appropriately enough, “Sinister”.

It combines enormous pile-driving riffs with near-experimental, prog-sounding guitar leads/solos, and pummeling double-bass. It’s a head-smasher of a song, but it also engages the non-reptile part of the brain (ie, the part you sometimes think with). For some of you, the throaty vocals may take some getting used to, but trust me, this is a cool song. It’s coming your way right after the jump . . . Continue reading »

HOLY FUCK: NEW XERATH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  28 Responses »
Mar 012011
 

Xerath is one of our favorite UK metal bands. Their 2009 release was called “I” (that’s a Roman numeral one). We liked that album so much that we’ve written about Xerath here, here, and here in the past. If you haven’t listened to Xerath before, here’s their own description of what they do (which is pretty accurate): “Xerath is a modern cutting-edge orchestral metal band – combining crushing metal riffs and grooves with cinematic symphonic arrangements.” For short, they call the sound “orchestral groove metal” or “chug-score”.

Think of an amalgamation of Strapping Young Lad, Meshuggah, and Dimmu Borgir. Think of the kind of syncopated guitar rhythms that make djent fanboys slobber combined with meaty melodeath riffs and epic keyboards.

Xerath has finished work on a new album, entitled “II”. It’s due for release by Candlelight Records on May 3. And the reason for this post is that yesterday Xerath made the first track from that album available for streaming, plus they revealed the cover art for the album, which is an eye-catcher. We’ve got the song and the artwork after the jump . . . Continue reading »

AMORPHIS: THE EGG IS ABOUT TO HATCH!

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Feb 282011
 

It takes very damned little provocation for me to post about Amorphis. I’ve got no new music for you to hear. All I have is the just-released cover for the band’s next album and a few morsels of additional information about it: It will be called The Beginning of Times, it will include 12 songs, it will be released by Nuclear Blast at the end of May, and a single called “You I Need” will be released in April.

Yes, the giant egg suspended above our metallic world is about to hatch, ushering forth the awe-inspiring, Phoenix-like Amorphis bird, fully formed and shrieking its heavenly cries to the skies, and before the glorious hatching a few drops of golden Phoenix-like albumen will be allowed to escape and bathe our anxious, upturned faces in its golden elixir, comforting us in the message from the firebird inside, “You I Need!”

Actually, it’s not really the egg of a Phoenix pictured in Travis Smith‘s album art, which is intended to interpret the mythological birth of the world from the egg of a goldeneye (for more details about the creation myth in the Finnish national epic, Kalevala, go here), but I’m not being graded on this thing. Am I?

Hey, sorry about all the egg metaphors. I promise, I’m finn-ished with them. My Monday work-day has turned my brain to uncooked yolk. Oops! Well, anyway, since I’ve now got Amorphis on my yolk-like mind, I might as well play a couple of videos.  (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

TECH YOURSELF TO DEATH: NEW MUSIC FROM OBSCURA, GORGUTS, AND BTBAM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Feb 262011
 

This will be quick, because I hadn’t planned on any posts today besides the earlier THAT’S METAL! nonsense, but what I’ve found this morning is just too much awesomeness not to share with you: brand new songs from Obscura, Gorguts, and Between the Buried and Me.

OBSCURA

This band have a new album called Omnivium due for a March 29 North American release on Relapse Records.  In mid-January, we featured the first song from the album, called “Septuagint”. Now, the band have released a second song, called “Vortex Omnivium”, which you can stream after the jump. As you listen, you can also gaze upon the wonderful album art above, executed by Orion Landau (who has also created art for the likes of Origin, Dying Fetus, and Disfear).

Obscura, if you don’t know, is a German progressive death metal band from Germany composed of guitarist/vocalist Steffen Kummerer (Thulcandra), guitarist Christian Müenzner (ex-Necrophagist), fretless bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling (Pestilence), and drummer Hannes Grossmann (Blotted Science, ex-Necrophagist). All of these dudes are exceptional musicians — very fast, hyper-technical, jaw-droppingly good. As their last album (2009’s Cosmogenesis) abundantly demonstrated, they can also write songs that are as catchy as they are technically challenging.

For purposes of this post, it’s also fitting to note that the band took their name from a 1998 Gorguts album called Obscura. Listen to the new song right after the jump. Continue reading »

UPDATES: THE HAUNTED AND ULVER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  23 Responses »
Feb 242011
 

We’ve got a couple of quick updates for you about bands we like (used to like?), one of which we’ve been writing about recently — The Haunted and Ulver. The cause for the updates? Both bands have recently made brand new songs available for streaming; in The Haunted’s case, it’s the third song to be released from their forthcoming album.

The verdict? Well, there’s good news and bad news.

THE HAUNTED

Previously, we’ve featured the first two songs from The Haunted’s new album, due for release next month: “No Ghost” and, as recently as yesterday, “Disappear”. Today, the band put up the new album’s title track, “Unseen”, for streaming on their Facebook page.

The good news is that if you like Chevelle-style hard rock with metal riffs and clean singing, you will like the new song. It’s probably better than whatever is topping the hard rock charts these days, but honestly, I wouldn’t know because I don’t get near that kind of music any more.  The bad news? (more after the jump, including Ulver’s new track . . .) Continue reading »

IS THERE AN EXORCIST IN THE HOUSE?

 Metal News  8 Responses »
Feb 212011
 

The reason we ask that question is because Between the Buried and Me has possessed this poor dog. You’ll see what we mean in a minute.

But first, the breaking news that caused us to add this post today. And yes, the news would be hot enough to warrant a post even if we hadn’t seen what happened to this poor dog.

The news is that Between the Buried and Me has signed a worldwide recording contract with Metal Blade Records, and Metal Blade will be releasing the band’s next album on April 12 of this year. It will be called The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, and it will be the band’s first album since 2009’s The Great Misdirect. Like everything else this ground-breaking band has done, it surely will be talked about far and wide. We will certainly have something to say about it.

And now, back to that poor dog. The image is a frame-shot from a little video teaser for that new album which was released a bit earlier today. It includes a little burst of new BTBAM music — just enough to get us panting for the album (though to be fair, we pant a lot most of the time anyway). Wonder if the album will cause this kind of possessed behavior in listeners?  2011 could be a big year for exorcists.

Now, go watch the video after the jump. You’ll be glad you did. There is no clean singing on it (that’s an understatement).

UPDATE: Dates and places for BTBAM’s headlining tour in support of the album are now out — and available after the jump.
Continue reading »

NEWS FROM ALL OVER: THE LATEST WORD FROM GLASGOW

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Feb 202011
 

Let me get this out of the way, so people won’t misinterpret this post: Although I have only a few drops of Scottish blood in my mongrel lineage, I love Scotland, bagpipes, the poetry and lyrics of Robert Burns, single malt whiskey, and even the taste of haggis. I’m also a huge fan of Glasgow death-metal band Man Must Die (witness this post from December 2009).

I also like to hear Scots talk — though in terms of their intelligibility to my American ears, they might as well be speaking Swahili at least half the time. Seriously, the accent is fucking dense. It’s thick enough that you could cut it with a carving knife.

So, even though I’m not a big fan of video reports from the studio that lots of metal bands release these days to build interest in their forthcoming albums, I just couldn’t resist the temptation to watch the one that Man Must Die just put up — partly because I wanted to catch a glimpse of the new music and partly because I just wanted to hear these dudes talk.

It cracked me up, and I’ve got to share it. It also reminded me how good this band is, so I’ve got a song for you, and it also reminded me of another Scottish-themed video clip (this one is intentionally funny) that I’ll throw into the mix.  (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

NEW DARKEST HOUR VIDEO

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 162011
 

One of our favorite metal bands, Darkest Hour, has a new album set for official release next week. It’s called The Human Romance. From the songs we’ve heard so far, it’s going to be very strong.

Earlier today, ARTISTdirect.com premiered the first official music video for the new album, for the song “Savor the Kill”. ARTISTdirect introduced the video this way (saving our lazy selves the time of doing it for you):

“Against the backdrop of bone liquefying music, the video features a hot chick in a white dress and another hot chick in a magenta dress. Both are in the woods. There are wolves, and footage of the band performing. There is also some blood. It’s almost like a dark, twisted, perverted fairytale, set to metallic riffage that will force you to bang your head involuntarily. That’s all the detail we’ll share – it’s up to you to watch it now and piece together your own perception of what’s going on in the video for ‘Savor the Kill'”.

If you would like to see the video, continue past the jump and check it out. It’s good — and so is the song. Continue reading »

THIS DAY HAS TAKEN A TURN FOR THE WORSE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Feb 142011
 

Just when we were feeling unusually upbeat about Valentine’s Day, what with a new Amon Amarth track and yet another new track from Scale the Summit‘s next album (which is called “Gallows” and is streaming here), we got an e-mail from Andy Synn with nothing but “I am in mourning” in the subject line, and a link. A fucking depressing link . . .

. . . to a news item reporting that one of our favorite metal bands on the planet, God Dethroned, is disbanding. Unfortunately, it’s official, and confirmed in a statement by the band’s guitarist/vocalist/songwriter/mastermind/World War I historian, Henri Sattler.

This is particularly surprising since Sattler has been quoted as saying the band’s next album would be the completion of a trilogy about World War I that began with Passiondale and 2010’s amazingly good Under the Sign of the Iron Cross.  (more after the jump, including Sattler’s statement . . . and a song) Continue reading »

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