OMNIUM GATHERUM: “SOUL JOURNEYS”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 032011
 

 

Look what we just found! It’s a brand new video for a brand new song from a forthcoming brand new album! It’s all just brand new, just like 2011! And it’s from Finland’s Omnium Gatherum. They’re not brand new, but they are fucking good.

And this song? It’s the best new song we’ve heard in the New Year. Granted, the New Year isn’t even 3 days old yet, but we’ve got a feeling that 362 days from now, this song will still be one of our 2011 favorites — it’s that strong.

This is melodic death metal done right. It hits hard, it makes you wanna headbang, but it’s catchy, and it has a surprising — and surprisingly dreamy — interlude in the middle with clean singing, of all things.

The album will be called New World Shadows, and as we explained when we featured Omnium Gatherum in our Finland Tribute Week series (here), it was produced by Dan Swanö and it includes guest vocals from Mr. Swanö. In fact, that’s probably his voice during the middle interlude of this song. What a fucking coincidence, seeing as how we wrote about Mr. Swanö just yesterday (here).

Enough of our blather. Watch the video. You won’t regret doing it. Fucking awesome song.

DAN SWANO: THE UNISOUND GUESTBOOK

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Jan 022011
 

Dan Swanö is one of those names I associate with excellence in metal. He fronted the influential Swedish band Edge of Sanity (as well as others, including Nightingale), he’s been a member of other excellent metal bands, including Katatonia, Ribspreader, and Bloodbath, and he’s appeared as a guest vocalist or instrumentalist on albums by many others.

In addition to his creative work as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, he has for many years run a recording studio in his hometown of Örebro called Unisound, and has been responsible for recording (and/or mixing/mastering) an eye-popping number of albums by the likes of Opeth, Dissection, Marduk, Dark Funeral, Katatonia, and The Project Hate MCMXCIX. Search Blabbermouth using his name for recent news, and you’ll see that he’s scheduled to work on the production of new albums from Asphyx, Coldworker, and November’s Doom, among many others.

Swanö ran Unisound for most of the 1990s, then closed it for several years, and reopened it again in 2005. In 1994, he started a guestbook, where bands with whom he worked would add remarks and Polaroid photos of themselves in the studio. As one guestbook would become filled, he would start another.

Earlier this afternoon we learned that Swanö has arranged for the digitizing of the guestbook for 1996-1997, and he’s made it available on-line, along with his own “liner notes”. It’s fascinating, and after the jump we’ll tell you more about it and give you a link where you can see it for yourselves. Continue reading »

DAN DANKMEYER: ARCOLOGIES

 Metal News  No Responses »
Jan 012011
 

You see that? You know what that means? It means 8-string instrumental wizard Dan Dankmeyer is beginning the new year with a new album.

We reviewed DD’s last album (his fourth release during 2010) in early November (here). That was our first exposure to his music. As you can tell from that review, we became immediate fans.

So how fucking cool is it to start the very first day of the new year with an unexpected surprise like this? Very fucking cool. Like his previous releases, Arcologies is available for immediate download at Dan’s Bandcamp page (here). It’s a name-your-price download, which means you pay nothing or anything that seems fair to you.

Guess what music we’ll be listening to today?

7TH NEMESIS: ANOTHER UPDATE

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Dec 262010
 

This will be short, but sweet. It concerns 7th Nemesis, a French band we’ve written about before. We sang the praises of their 2008 album, Archetype of Natural Violence, here, and then in late August we reported that the band was on the verge of releasing a new album, two songs from which were available for listening on their MySpace page.

Now we’ve learned that 7th Nemesis has made the entire new album available for streaming on their official site, which you can access via this link. The album is called Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow. It features that very nice piece of artwork up above, plus seven songs of unpredictable, technical, progressive, inventive-as-hell death metal. Damn, is it good. If you’ve only got time for a sample, listen to “Distorted Mass”. It will twist your brain into a Rubic’s Cube.

The album is also streaming at MySpace and on the band’s Facebook page.  No precise word on when or how the album will become available for acquisition, but we assume it will be soon. You can expect a review here on NCS.

IT’S BETTER THAN A LUMP OF FUCKING COAL

 Metal News  No Responses »
Dec 252010
 

Just in case that fat fuck in the red suit didn’t leave you anything under the tree, which of course he didn’t because he’s just a figment of your imagination, we have a little metal gift for you. Actually, it’s not really our gift at all. It’s a holiday gift from Relapse Records.

Actually, it’s not exactly a gift, because you have to be on Facebook to get it, and you have to “like” Relapse Records in order to get the gift.

Actually, that’s not really true either. More about that in a minute.

Anyway, this Relapse “gift” has been on offer since Tuesday, but we just saw it. It’s a sampler consisting of 26 songs by those bands whose names are listed up above, and four of those songs are either new or previously unreleased (the ones from Red Fang, Abysmal Dawn, Royal Thunder, and Noisear). There’s a lot of really good music on this comp, in a multitude of different styles.

I’m on Facebook, and I don’t mind seeing Relapse posts about what’s going on with the bands they’ve signed, so I was happy to “like” the Relapse page in order to get the download. And it turns out the download is just a Dropbox link. By now, someone has surely posted that link somewhere for people who aren’t on Facebook or who don’t want to “like” Relapse to get the music. But me? I’m feeling grateful for the sampler, and so I’ll just send you to the Facebook page where you can do what Relapse wants you to do to get the music.

We’ll have our own Christmas Day gifts for you in the next post — a special edition of THAT’S METAL! Rock on, motherfuckers.

WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR A GOOD METAL SONG ABOUT SQUID

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Dec 202010
 

Being in a Scottish pirate metal band like Alestorm must have its ups and downs. On the one hand, you’ll never be considered grymm. On the other hand, if you’re in Alestorm, you get to issue press releases like this one. Can’t imagine seeing something like this from, say, Gorgoroth.

“It is my very great pleasure to announce that on January 10th ALESTORM will be heading to the studio to record our third album, which we’re gonna call ‘Back Through Time’. It’s gonna be an epic adventure through piratical badassery in 11 tracks, with more drunken singalong anthems than you can shake a stick at. There will be songs about midgets. There will be songs about Wisconsin. There will be songs about travelling through time to kill Vikings. And, of course, loads of songs about pirates doing what they do best; kicking your ass and stealing your wenches!”

And then there are the projected song titles announced by the band for the forthcoming piratical badassery:

* The Sunk’n Norwegian
* Shipwrecked (Pure Dead Banjaxed)
* Buckfast Powersmash
* Rum
* Back Through Time
* Swashbuckled
* Death Throes Of The Terrorsquid
* Midget Saw
* Scraping The Barrel
* Rumpelkombo
* Barrett’s Privateers

(more after the jump . . .)

Continue reading »

A 2010 ANTI-CHRISTMAS COMPILATION

 Metal News  No Responses »
Dec 192010
 

It’s really late on a Saturday night. I just got home from an Agalloch concert, which was close to a life-changing experience. And I just saw an e-mail from that most awesome publicist Patricia Thomas about a compilation that’s just too perfect not to jump on. Because it’s late and I’m wasted, I’m just going to print Patricia’s release verbatim (while vouching for Misantrof based on personal experience). Enjoy.

“Carrying on the tradition that it started in 2008, Norway’s “anti” Label, Misantrof, has, for the third year, released its “anti” Christmas compilation.  Titled Holy Fucking ANTIChristmas Volume III,  the album takes an irreverent poke at what Christmas has become.  This year’s compilation contains 15 tracks, of varying genres, all loosely based on the various facets of Christmas, and which have either been newly written and recorded, or adapted, especially for album.

“Like all Misantrof releases the 15-track Holy Fucking ANTIChristmas Volume III is available for free download, together with cover art and information about the bands involved, at http://antichristmas2010.misantrof.net/ (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

CHRISTMAS CHEER FROM SEPTIC FLESH (AND LOTS OF ART FROM SETH SIRO ANTON)

 Metal News  18 Responses »
Dec 162010
 

What?  You thought we’d let you forget?  Perish the thought.  Yes, the new Septic Flesh single that we told you was on the way is now out and available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon MP3.

This time of year, various metal artists release songs to commemorate “the holiday season”, but not many release one like this. Odds are, you won’t be hearing “Vampire From Nazareth” mixed in with the carols at the mall. Or mixed in with carols anywhere else.

It starts with a brief symphonic overture and a soprano vocal and then the song kicks into gear. It’s bombastic, and dark, and furious, and melodic. As was true on the band’s last album, Communion, Septic Flesh employs a full orchestra to add symphonic elements, without losing the intensity of its blackened death-metal assault. It makes us even more hungry for the new album scheduled for arrival on April 18, 2011 (one day later in the U.S.).

By the way, in case you don’t know, Seth Siro Anton, who’s the bassist and vocalist for Septic Flesh, is also quite a talented artist. Not only did he create that eye-catching artwork for the “Vampire” single up above, he has created album covers and merch art for many, many other bands you’ve heard of, and what he does never fails to be visually arresting.

As you know, album art is a big deal to us at NCS — an aspect of metal music we hope never dies out despite the dominance of download culture. Periodically, we devote our blog space to featuring metal album art from artists whose work we admire. Today seemed like a good day to do that for the work of Mr. Anton. So, get an eyeful after the jump, and for even more examples, visit his MySpace page. And just in case Septic Flesh is new to you, we’ve added one of the songs from Communion just before the artwork. Continue reading »

THIS WILL SELL BIG IN THE RED STATES

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Dec 152010
 

That eye-catching cover up there is for a new digital single that Greek symphonic black metal band Septic Flesh will be releasing on Friday. The single is called “The Vampire From Nazareth”. I wonder who that refers to?

Septic Flesh’s new album, as yet unnamed, will hit the stores on April 18, 2011 (one day later in the U.S.) in various editions. It will include orchestral elements provided by the Filmharmonic Orchestra of Prague, and it was produced by none other than Pain/Hypocrisy mainman Peter Tägtgren (who’s done similar duties for the likes of Amon Amarth, Marduk, Therion, Children of Bodom, Celtic Frost, and Immortal).

The last album from Septic Flesh, 2008’s Communion, was just all kinds of awesome. We’ll be very interested to hear this new single. Don’t worry — we’ll probably remind you again on Friday.

THE MAN-EATING TREE: A NEW SONG

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Dec 152010
 

We’re not doing a Finland Tribute Week post today because we’re working on the final two posts in the series for tomorrow and Friday. We tried to bribe your patience with a THAT’S METAL! post. Can’t hurt to sweeten the bribe, though. So here’s news about a new song from The Man-Eating Tree.

The Man-Eating Tree are from Finland, so we do have that connection to our ongoing tribute. They feature former Sentenced drummer Vesa Ranta plus current or former members of Poisonblack, Reflexion, and Embraze. We first listened to their music for a MISCELLANY post we did back in August (here), and liked what we heard, even though their brand of atmospheric, cleanly sung metal isn’t what we usually consume. When we started the Finland tribute series, we found out that a lot of you really like this band.

So, you might be interested to know that Century Media is making available a new song from the band available for free download. It’s called “Vultures”, and it post-dates the music recorded for the band’s September 2010 debut, Vines. If you want to get it, go here. But be forewarned — you have to share a link on Facebook or Twitter to get the download, i.e., help Century Media publicize the band. The download link will be active until December 31.

If you’re not crazy about the terms of exchange for that download, just wait a few hours, and someone will surely put the track up on YouTube. In the meantime, all you tree-like man-eaters out there might like the video we’ve got after the jump.  Continue reading »

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