COMBAT

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Jul 232010
 

We seem to have fallen into a video kick this week, which is unusual for us. But the one we saw for the first time today is far and away the best of the lot. Actually, it’s the best of the lot by a few light years.

It’s a video for the song “Combat” off the new album Invictus by Heaven Shall Burn (which we reviewed here). “Combat” is about child soldiers, which explains in part why the song is so full of fury. It’s a harrowing, slashing, anguished, bone-rattling piece of music, but it also includes a beautiful keyboard melody and some surprising electro-beats.

The video is an animation created by Animaatiokopla from Finland and was premiered by Amnesty International Germany. It’s visually arresting, and it enhances the emotional power of the song. In carefully selected places, something happens in the video — like the stitching of machine-gun bullets across a muraled wall — that’s in sync with a burst of rhythm or a riff in the song.

But this isn’t one of those videos that’s full of strobing imagery set to the frenetic pulse of the music’s beat. Like the song, it’s about the ripping away of innocence, and in the main, it uses slow-moving childlike graphics to tell the tale as the music scorches with anger. Do check it out (after the jump). Continue reading »

BLOWN AWAY

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Jul 212010
 

Before I started trying to put something together for this NCS blog every day (while also dealing with my day job and the rest of my life), I used to spend quality time browsing other metal blogs. Hell, doing that is what inspired me and my two sometimes co-authors to start this thing.

Nowadays, I don’t spend nearly as much time as I’d like on other sites, because I just don’t fucking have the time. The consequence is that when I come across a long piece on another blog, I tend to just wince, make a mental note to come back “when I have time”, and move on to something that’s shorter. (Knowing this you’d think I would be less verbose on the stuff I write for NCS. Yes, you might think that, but then you have to remember that I have a brain the size of a plum that’s been drying in the sun too long.)

Usually, when I make one of those mental notes, I never go back to read the long piece I skipped over.  Today, I actually did. I went back to MetalSucks and I read a July 19 posting of an e-mail that MS received from Ryan McKenney, the vocalist for a band that constantly blows me away, Trap Them. He was responding to an earlier post by one of MetalSucks’ more-or-less regular columnists, Sacha Dunable (of the band Intronaut) on the subject of whether corporate-sponsored metal shows are killing the live concert market.

You don’t have to read Dunable’s post to understand McKenney’s. I could just put up a link to McKenney’s post, urge you to go read it (here’s the link), and move on. But that’s really not good enough. For all sorts of reasons, it just fucking blew me away. I think it will hit you pretty fucking hard too. So, after the jump, I’m taking the liberty of just re-printing the whole bleak, brilliant, passionate, eye-opening, thing. Continue reading »

MORE BREAKDOWNS ANYONE?

 Metal News  8 Responses »
Jul 212010
 

Shit, we might as well just surrender the day to deathcore (not counting my goofy MYSPAZZ post). As punishing breakdowns go, that clip we put up earlier today from Thy Art Is Murder is pretty satisfying, if you can get past the foam-at-the-mouth-and-belch-blood vid accompaniment — or maybe you’ll greet that as a plus factor.

But now we’ve just stumbled across a newly minted, almost freshly unwrapped official goodie from our Seattle homeboys I Declare War performing “Federal Death Alliance” from their new album Malevolence — which my man IntoTheDarkness gushed about in our review here.

And no, we still don’t have any more light to shed on the rumored departure of IDW’s frontman Jonathan Huber, except it definitely is true that he’s not playing with the band on the current tour and Molotov Solution‘s Nick Arthur is standing in. We’re still hoping for more news.  The vid is after the jump. It’s murderous . . . Continue reading »

FOAM AT THE MOUTH AND BELCH BLOOD

 Metal News  12 Responses »
Jul 212010
 

Our resident deathcore aficionado IntoTheDarkness insisted I listen to a song called “Soldiers of Immortality” from the new album by Australia’s Thy Art Is Murder. The album is called The Adversary and it was released on July 16 (now available on iTunes and elsewhere).

IntoTheDarkness proclaimed that the album features “some of the heaviest breakdowns I’ve heard” — and he should know. His musical library includes more breakdowns than could be counted in a normal human lifetime. He’s snapped his neck to so many breakdowns it’s a wonder any ligaments are still attached. He particularly favors the kind that detonate on impact.

Now I like me some breakdowns too, the more explosive the better. So I checked out the song, which happens to be the subject of a new Thy Art Is Murder video. And it do have a nasty extended breakdown. The rest of the song ain’t bad either, with better than average instrumental work for this subgenre (which may not be saying a lot, given how much mediocrity is to be found in the current deathcore universe).

I haven’t listened to the rest of The Adversary yet, but I like this song enough to take a deep breath and dive in all the way. As for the video, well, see the title of this post.  And see the video after the jump. Continue reading »

SAY IT AIN’T SO!

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Jul 192010
 

Our sometimes NCS collaborator IntoTheDarkness just alerted me to this piece of news on Lambgoat:

I Declare War (Artery/Razor & Tie) vocalist Jonathan Huber has reportedly left the group, though nothing official has been announced thus far. The band just kicked off a tour with For The Fallen Dreams and Legend and have been using a fill-in singer (apparently Nick Arthur of Molotov Solution).

To which all we can say is, What The Fuck?

We’ve been following these hometown deathcore favorites for a while, and no one was more stoked to learn earlier this year that they’d been signed by a label (as we reported here). We were even happier to discover that their recently released second album, Malevolent, kicked massive amounts of ass (as IntoTheDarkness reported here). And with that release and the label backing, the dudes started hitting the road and building their fanbase.

Now this? It really don’t make sense. We’ve got no explanation at the moment. Maybe it’s all just a baseless rumor. When we find out more, we’ll put it up here for you IDW fans in the audience.

BANGALORE CHOIR (plus a palate cleanser)

 IQ Subtraction, Metal News  10 Responses »
Jul 182010
 

It seems like every week we read about the reunion of one band or another that we had long thought dead, with plans for new recordings, new tours, new hairdo’s. Sometimes, it’s good news. Sometimes, it’s just kinda sad. Sometimes, it’s funny (and sad).

Usually, we refrain from commenting on such developments. But we’re behind on what we had planned for today’s post, so we’re making an exception. To be brutally honest (which is the only kind of honest we know how to be here at NCS), this is filler.

Think of it as a rain delay. Your ticket will still be good tomorrow. But, if you would like a refund because all you’re getting today is filler, please send us a self-addressed, stamped envelope, and we will gladly refund every dime you paid us for the right to access this site.

From a “news” item we saw this morning on Blabbermouth:

“Cadence”, the new studio album from the reunited melodic hard rock band BANGALORE CHOIR, will be released on September 24 via Metal Heaven Records.

It has been 18 years since BANGALORE CHOIR‘s only release, “On Target”, on Giant Records in 1992, which came out on the same day as NIRVANA‘s “Nevermind”. Shortly after, BANGALORE CHOIR disbanded after being released from the label.

Really, we’re not making this up (and there’s more juice like this to come).  So, to start, everyone out there who remembers Bangalore Choir, raise your hands!  (more after the jump, including a video and a palate cleanser, which you will need if you make it to the end of this filler . . .) Continue reading »

MISCELLANY (NO. 2)

 Album Reviews, Metal News, MISCELLANY  17 Responses »
Jul 172010
 

Almost two weeks ago, we tried out something new here at NCS, kind of like what some people do with their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts when they tell you hour-by-hour (or minute-by-minute) what they’re doing — except we limited our disclosures to metal and hoped it would be more interesting than a lot of the social networking blather.

To be more precise, I posted a log of exactly what I listened to or watched on that particular morning, whether it turned out to be good, bad, or indifferent. I got enough encouragement from readers that I decided to continue doing it.

In the interests of complete candor, I should say that it takes very little encouragement for me to do anything, unless it involves actual work, in which case it takes a great deal of encouragement, plus threats of being pistol-whipped.

So, here we go again — a log of exactly what I heard or saw in one of my recent sessions of poking around for new music to check out, and what I found, for better or for worse.  (after the jump, of course . . .) Continue reading »

GOAT THE HEAD

 Metal News  14 Responses »
Jul 162010
 

The metal world is filled to overflowing with diverse awesomeness. But lately we’ve been thinking that even with 15 gajillion subgenres, something was still missing, that what we really still needed was  . . . . . . . some contemporary primal caveman death metal!

And then yesterday we discovered a Norwegian band called Goat the Head. And you’ll never guess.

They describe their music as “contemporary primal caveman death metal!” What a fucking amazing coincidence! And to think, some people say there’s no such thing as miracles.

Now, we can hear you saying, “Big deal, there’s lots of metal bands that wear skins.” And sure, you can find some pagan/folk-metal bands like Turisas that wear skins, but Goat the Head ain’t pagan or folk. They’re fucking prehistoric.

But prehistoric in a contemporary way. Really, they are. Kind of like cavemen who occasionally wear spacesuits. We’ll prove it to you. And it will be worth your time, because the music is raucous and weird and skull-crushing — in a primal caveman kind of way.  But contemporary.

So, after the jump, we have two songs from the band’s forthcoming second album, one of which is available for free download. You listen to this and you’ll develop a taste for mastodon (and we don’t mean the band).  Oh yeah, we’ve also got a Goat the Head video that’s a truly inspired piece of lunacy with one hell of an ending. (stay with us after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

CAPSULE

 Metal News  No Responses »
Jul 112010
 

Into the Moat is (or maybe was) a head-spinning metal band from South Florida. They released their second album, The Campaign, in the spring of 2009, and we thought it was one of the most riveting tech-death albums of the year.

Into the Moat had its genesis almost a decade ago as a one-man project started by a dude named Matthew Gossman, and as that project evolved into a full-fledged band, he remained the drummer and a key creative force in the band’s music.

A couple weeks ago we saw a news item reporting that Gossman had joined another South Florida band called Capsule, and around the same time Gossman published a video blog that disclosed a few other details (at this location) — such as the fact that he recently graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and that other guys in Into the Moat are also in school, which explains why the band has been dormant, with no news for almost a year.

Because we’re such big fans of Into the Moat, we decided to check out Capsule’s music, just to see what attracted Gossman (apart from the fact that the other dudes in the band are old friends). And when we did that, we had one of those “holy shit!” moments — you know, the kind that make us start gurgling out one of these posts.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

HUNGERSNOT, DAMMIT!

 Album Reviews, Metal News  11 Responses »
Jul 102010
 

We spent most of the past week picking through the sonic wreckage of North African metal and finding all sorts of exotic gems. It was one more reminder (as if we needed one) that the world of metal encompasses an immense variety of music, and the sound continues to evolve all over the world. What other musical genre can match it?

In celebrating the diversity of metal, it’s a fitting way for us to cap off the week by bringing Trollfest to your attention. This Norwegian band is sort of a global village unto themselves. Try wrapping your mind around this concept: speed metal plus oompa music plus Balkan folk tunes plus middle eastern melodies plus Converge-style hardcore shrieking plus more speed metal plus beer and vodka plus more speed metal.

Sound tempting? No? Well, see if this recent press release increases your interest:

When a band that defines its music as “true Norwegian Balkan metal” chooses to debut a track from its new album on July 9 so that it can celebrate the Constitution Day of Palau (an island lying in the Pacific, and one of the world’s youngest and smallest sovereign states) it is going to be a safe bet that the album will cross geographical boundaries in sound and influence.

Getting more interested?  How ’bout this: That debut track is called “Die Verdammte Hungersnot”. We’re pretty sure “verdammte” means “damned” in German. What do you think “hungersnot” means?  (more after the jump, including musical dementia for your consumption . . .) Continue reading »

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