DIVIN’ IN DAT DEATHCORE SHIT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  48 Responses »
Feb 132011
 

How did Deathcore get to be such a lightening rod for controversy within the extreme metal scene? Seems like all you gotta do to ignite a testosterone-fueled, name-calling slagfest on most metal blogs and message boards is mention the word. In some quarters, shitting on deathcore is like a litmus test of metal purity: If you take a big verbal dump on the genre, that’s evidence of sophistication in your musical taste, and if you express enthusiasm for the music, it proves you’re a retard.

All the controversy seems to have moved some deathcore icons (like Job For A Cowboy, Whitechapel, and Carnifex) further away from core and further into straight death, and other bands who have remained true to the template don’t want to be called deathcore bands, even if that’s really what they still are. Even a lot of deathcore fans seem to feel they have to take part in the branding of some bands as no-talent wastes in order to buff up their cred in praising other, almost indistinguishable, bands as the real deal.

Connecticut/NYC band Emmure may be the lightening rod of all lightening rods within the genre. They’ve got an intensely devoted cadre of fans, but man, they’ve got an equally devoted army of haters out there, too. Here at NCS, we’ve been somewhere in the middle, like crouching down in the open space of the floor right before a wall of death is triggered. The three of us who started this site saw them play Seattle as an opening act on their first national tour, and we liked their debut album. On the other hand, we were unanimous in thinking their last release, Felony, was an embarrassment.

They’re on the verge of releasing a new album on Century Media (due February 15) called Speaker of the Dead, and two singles have surfaced so far, including a video for one of them that debuted just a couple days ago. We’ve got both those songs for you after the jump, along with some thoughts about the music. Plus, we’ve also got a brand new song from the forthcoming album by LA’s Winds of Plague, and a fairly new video from another deathcore lightening rod, Chelsea Grin. If you feel like gettin’ your breakdown on, stay with us. Continue reading »

MYTHIC METAL: EAST MEETS WEST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 122011
 

While scanning through Blabbermouth yesterday, I came across items about two bands who are from very different cultures but who both find musical inspiration in myths: Finland’s Crimfall and Singapore’s Rudra. Both bands have new albums on the way, and I thought they’d make an interesting compare-and-contrast feature. So, here we go:

CRIMFALL

Finland’s Crimfall falls into the category of Northern European folk metal, and in particular, a style that uses contrasting vocals — here, Helena Haaparanta‘s clean soprano, which is one source of the music’s folk sound, and Mikko Häkkinen‘s icy black-metal rasp. The band released a debut album in 2009 called As the Path Unfolds . . . as a three-piece unit (those two vocalists plus band-founder Jakke Viitala), with help from session musicians.

Since then, the band has filled out with the addition of a permanent drummer (Janne Jukarainen) and bassist (Miska Sipiläinen), and I remember seeing a performance video by the full band of a song from the debut sometime last year. Crimfall have now completed a second album (The Writ of Sword) due for a March 23 release on Spineform Records.

What drew my attention to the news about the next release was the line-up of guests who appear on the album — Tapio Wilska (Survivors Zero), Ville Sorvali (Moonsorrow), Mathias “Vreth” Lillmåns (Finntroll), Mathias Nygård and Olli Vänskä from Turisas, and Trollhorn (Finntroll, Moonsorrow). Pretty attention-grabbing list, huh?  Also, it was mastered by Sweden’s masterful Jens Bogren (Opeth, Spoilwork, Katatonia, Bloodbath, and many others).  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

DOG BALLS (THE CURE TO LONELINESS)

 IQ Subtraction, Metal News  10 Responses »
Feb 112011
 

Here at NCS, we cater to all kinds of literary tastes. For example, if you visited us yesterday, you could have read Andy Synn‘s sophisticated, eloquently written, detailed analysis of an entire discography of music created by a great band (Iskald), including a review of the band’s new album. On the other hand, now that I’ve got my claws back on the tiller, the good ship NCS is running aground on the sandbar of this post about . . . dog balls.

Usually, you’d have to threaten rectal impalement to get me to watch a video about a metal band’s recording sessions. You know what I mean — those kinds of videos are usually pretty awful. For me, what counts is the music that comes out at the end of the process, not the process itself or the commentary that usually accompanies the process. I’m just not rabid enough in my fandom to watch every fucking thing that band members say and do just because they’re in a band whose music kicks ass.

But, there are exceptions to every rule, and one of my exceptions is Bury Your Dead. That’s because what happened to that band a couple years ago was the trigger event that caused us to launch this site. For fuck’s sake, the replacement of vocalist Mat Bruso with Myke Terry is what caused us to name this site NO CLEAN SINGING. And if you have no idea what I’m babbling about, read this.

So, you better believe that we’re going to cover the saga of Mat rejoining BYD and the recording of BYD’s next album in excruciating detail — including recording-session videos that begin with images of big hairy dog balls. And that may not even be the worst thing you’ll see in this video (which you can watch after the jump, unless your personal standards have already sent you off to another web site). Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH DON’T NEED NO FUCKING SUPPORT

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Feb 102011
 


You knew the Vikings were coming, and now there’s confirmation.  Amon Amarth have just announced their 2011 U.S. headlining tour. Usually, the word “headlining” implies that other bands will be following along in the caravan, but this tour is a different kind of animal — because Amon Amarth will be playing without any supporting acts.

It will be called “An Evening With AMON AMARTH” — which sounds more like dinner theater or a Vegas lounge act by some over-the-hill solo vocalist than the kind of titanic ass-kicking that’s really in store for us.  What we’ll get will be two separate sets each night: In one set, the band will play the forthcoming Surtur Rising album in its entirety. In the other, the band will presumably play a setlist of songs from their previous discography.

The marauding is scheduled to kick off on April 14 in Chicago, Illinois and close in Philadelphia on May 7. Sadly for our brothers and sisters north of the border, there are no Canadian dates. The whole schedule is right after the jump. Continue reading »

CHILDREN OF BODOM: UGLY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 102011
 

We’ve had previous discussions in these pages about the changes in Children of Bodom‘s music over time, and there seems to be a general feeling of nervousness about the quality of the band’s next album, Relentless Reckless Forever, which will be released on March 8 — particularly because the first single, “Was It Worth It?”, was an underwhelming effort.

Today, the band officially put up a second single from the album for streaming on their Facebook page — though as far as I can tell, you have to “share” the thing on your own page in order to hear it. Then, of course, I found out the song has unofficially been up on YouTube for almost a solid week. A few other metal blogs tuned in to that development before we did, but maybe you’re just as slow on the uptake as we are. And just in case you haven’t already heard the song, you can listen to it after the jump.

And just to be clear, no matter whether you think (like we do) that the band’s music has become increasingly formulaic and — dare we say it — more like heavy-metal pop music than we ever thought possible, this is still Children of Bodom and we WILL still listen when they come out with new music.  And, as it happens, this newest song — called “Ugly” — is a big step up from “Was It Worth It?” Continue reading »

NEW VIDEO FROM THE FAMINE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 092011
 

Recently, we reviewed The Famine‘s new album, The Architects of Guilt (here). We liked it. A lot.

Minutes ago, The Famine released their first video of a song from the album. The song is “Ad Mortem”. Damn good song. Really good. It’s already on our list of candidates for 2011’s most infectious songs.

The video is above average, too. It can be seen above. That is all.

SEPTIC FLESH REVEALS FRAGMENT OF OCCULT MACHINE

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Feb 092011
 

This is just too good not to share, in part because it involves Septic Flesh and in part because the artwork is cool and in part because the band’s Seth Siro Anton, who designed the artwork, is . . . well . . . cool.

As we’ve reported before (in a post that included a bunch of other art created by Mr. Anton), Septic Flesh has a new album on the way. It will be called The Great Mass, and it will be released on April 18 (one day later in North America, because we North Americans are not worthy). If history is a reliable guide, it will be worth hearing.

Today, the band unveiled part of the album art — the cover for the jewelcase edition, which you can see above. But it’s only “a small fragment” of the whole.  To see Seth Siro Anton’s description of what’s coming — which is a kick to read — follow along after the jump. Continue reading »

ANOTHER FINLAND METAL WEEK!

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Feb 052011
 

Our metallic blog sister from New Zealand, Steff Metal, is just finishing a Finnish Metal Week tribute on her site that I’ve been enjoying day by day as it has unfolded. The posts have been fun and informative, including a “Heavy Metal Travel Guide to Finland“, which I hope someday I’ll get to use. Two of her posts will be of extra-special interest to aficionados of Finnish metal:

Kimmo Kuusniemi of ground-breaking Finnish heavy-metal band Sarcofagus (which, btw, is still up and running) and his wife Tanja returned to Finland from where they now make their home in England to film a documentary about Finnish metal called Promised Land of Heavy Metal. According to Steff’s posts, one of which is an extensive interview with Kimmo and Tanja, they interviewed hundreds of metal musicians across diverse genres, metal fans, and music professionals about the scene, both past and present — including an interview of Finland’s president, Tarja Halonen!

The documentary is now available on DVD, and international distribution is just starting. Based on Steff’s interview and her separate review of the film, I’m stoked to see this thing. Steff’s posts about the film include instructions on how to order directly from Kimmo (which NCS has already done) — so if you’re a fan of Finnish metal (and who isn’t?), go check out Steff’s interview and review and the rest of her posts on Finnish metal here.

AN EXCLUSIVE NCS PREMIERE: DEICIDE’S “HOW CAN YOU CALL YOURSELF A GOD?”

 Metal News, Premieres, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Feb 042011
 

On February 15, the infernal majesty of DEICIDE will unleash hellfire on our fragile world with Century Media’s release of the tenth album in their storied career, To Hell With God. Today, we are proud (and duly humbled) to provide the exclusive premiere of the closing track from the new album, called “How Can You Call Yourself A God?”

As we wrote yesterday, this is a red-letter day for us. Not only is this our first world premiere of a song, it’s a song by one of death metal’s true icons — a band whose name every devoted deathmetalhead knows, a band who helped brick and mortar the foundations of a genre on which so many other bands have built their own work.

Deicide put the “fuck” in “I don’t give a fuck”. They put the “bad” in “bad-ass”. They may have put the “ass” in “bad-ass”, too. They represent all that is unclean about NO CLEAN SINGING. In a nutshell, for us, getting to premiere a Deicide song is like a fever-fueled, ringing-wet, nightmarishly horrific dream come true.

In debuting a track from the new album, we’re joining MetalSucks, who premiered “Hang In Agony Until You’re Dead”, and Invisible Oranges, who premiered “Into the Darkness You Go”, in helping to introduce the new album to all of you. We have a few words about the song itself — plus the fucking song — right after the jump. Continue reading »

TOMORROW IS A RED-LETTER DAY

 Metal News  23 Responses »
Feb 032011
 

Yes, tomorrow is a red-letter day here at NCS.

And the red letter is “D”.

We have been given the chance to exclusively premiere a track from a forthcoming new album by a band that every true metalhead will know immediately, and it happens to be one that is near and dear to our nasty, black NCS hearts.

We don’t know what we did to deserve this. It certainly wasn’t the result of clean living and good works. Maybe all those weekly animal sacrifices finally paid off. Anyway, we’re humbled, honored, and highly excited about tomorrow. Since we really have all you readers to thank for giving us this chance, we hope you’ll get something radical out of it, too, just as we have.

So, don’t forget to stumble by NCS tomorrow for some good ear-shredding and brain-scrambling as we deliver the world premiere of an ass-burning song by a legendary band. And, in honor of the occasion, feel free to etch that letter “D” into your forehead with a rusty, blood-caked razor-blade, just like your friends at NCS have done!

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