OZZFEST 2010

 Metal News  No Responses »
May 012010
 

The line-up, dates, and venues for the 2010 edition of Ozzfest have now been released. I don’t really know why I’m giving space to this announcement, which is still fairly hot off the presses. Maybe because some of you will care about it more than I do. Maybe because it’s nice to anticipate that Goatwhore and Skeletonwitch will pick up some new fans (which they certainly deserve). Other than that, I’m afraid it’s a big yawn for me, tinged with a little nausea.  First, the line-up (as recited in the official press release):

The main stage will feature full sets from Ozzy, Motley Crue and Rob Halford (who last appeared on Ozzfest in 2004 with Judas Priest), performing songs from his solo career along with material from Judas Priest and Fight. DevilDriver and Nonpoint will round out the main stage line-up.

Second stage headliners and six-time Ozzfest veterans Black Label Society will be joined by Drowning Pool, Kingdom of Sorrow, and Goatwhore, Skeletonwitch, Saviours, Kataklysm.

The second stage is far stronger than the first, that’s for sure. DevilDriver puts on a kick-ass live set, but the rest of the performers on Stage 1 look like nothing more than half-baked nostalgia. No question, Ozzy and Priest were hugely influential once upon a time, but Ozzy and Halford aren’t pushing metal in any new directions today, and they certainly don’t have the stage chops they used to have. Nonpoint is completely meh, and Motley Crue? Give me a fucking. Break.

Of course, feel free to telepathically tell me to fuck off if this news makes your day.  Ticket info and the predictably small list of dates and places follow after the jump . . . Continue reading »

MORE 2010 SICKNESS (Part 4)

 Forthcoming Albums, Listmania, Metal News  No Responses »
May 012010
 

We’re now a full four months into 2010, and it’s time for our fourth update to the list of forthcoming new albums we posted on January 1. (See the original list here, the first update here, the second update here, and the third update here.) Below is a list of still more projected new releases that we didn’t know about on January 1 or at the time of our last three updates (or that we’ve found updated information about) — and the new sickness is still spreading in epidemic proportions.

Once again, we’ve cobbled together news blurbs about bands whose past work we’ve liked, or who look interesting for other reasons. Needless to say (but we’ll say it anyway), these are bands that mostly fit the profile of music we cover on this site.

So, in alphabetical order, here’s our list of cut-and-pasted blurbs from various sources since our last update about forthcoming new releases. Look for the bands you like and put reminders on your calendar. Or if you’re old school like us, just get em tattooed someplace you can see without a mirror (because reading stuff backwards is hard).

ABIGAIL WILLIAMS: “Abigail Williams have completed recording of individual performances for their still untitled second full-length. Captured at Conquistador Studios in Cleveland, Ohio, eight new songs were laid down with vocalist/guitarist Ken Sorceron and engineer Cole Martinez controlling the audio takes. The songs are currently being mixed by Peter Tagtgren (Dimmu Borgir, Immortal, Celtic Frost) and are expected to be completed later this month.”

ABYSMAL DAWN: “Los Angeles-based metallers ABYSMAL DAWN will enter Trench Studio in Corona, California in May with producer John Haddad (PHOBIA, INTRONAUT, HIRAX) to begin recording their new album for a tentative fall release via Relapse Records. The follow-up to Programmed To Consume will be mixed by Erik Rutan (HATE ETERNAL, VITAL REMAINS, CANNIBAL CORPSE) at his Mana Recording Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida.”  (the list continues after the jump .  .) Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS (Part 2)

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 302010
 

Today we’re continuing the experiment we began two days ago, to test our hypothesis that at least in the world of extreme metal, cool album cover art usually means there’s something worth hearing in the music. Yeah, we know it’s a ridiculous, illogical hypothesis, but at least in our random experience we think there’s some truth to it. Besides, it’s proven to be an interesting vehicle for checking out some new music.

The test methodology we used is this: We looked at news blurbs on Blabbermouth over a recent 48-hour period about new or forthcoming albums, and every time we saw a cool album cover, we visited the band’s MySpace site and listened to what was available from the album.

In Part 1 of this experiment, we reported on our first two test samples — a forthcoming album from Keep of Kalessin and a recently released album from Trident. So far, our samples confirm the hypothesis. Today, we’re reporting on the results of three more samples, courtesy of Setherial, Trigger the Bloodshed, and Witchery.

The first sample is an album called Ekpyrosis scheduled for release in May on Regain Records by that Swedish band, Setherial. The cover art, by an artist named Bartosz Nalezinski, is pictured at the top of this post. We thought it was kinda cool — a ghoulish metamorphosis of some traditional Christian iconography. But is the music cool?  We have our own opinion … after the jump. (plus the other test results)

Continue reading »

A RANDOM REWARD

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Apr 282010
 

In our more sentimental, naive moments, we like to think that if you lead a good life, good things will come your way. That’s the first thing we thought last night when we saw the announcement of an incredible tour launching this fall. And then we realized that you could lead the most disgustingly vile life imaginable, and all it would take for you to see this tour would be to live within driving distance of 21 select cities. So, call it random chance if you want to be strictly logical. But since one of those select cities is Seattle, we like to think it’s our reward for being so fucking good.

Feast your glazed, hooded eyes on this international line-up:

NILE (U.S.)
EX DEO (Italy)
PSYCROPTIC (Tasmania)
KEEP OF KALESSIN (Norway)
PATHOLOGY (U.S.)

See what we mean? That’s as strong a line-up from top to bottom as we’ve seen in many moons. It’s metalhead luxury beyond the dreams of avarice. It’s got to be a reward for something, doesn’t it? So for all of you out there who’ve been good, congratulations.  And for all of you who have been disgustingly vile, check out the the list of tour dates after the jump to see if random chance has allowed you to live within driving distance of one of the anointed cities.

It’s really hard to say which of these bands we’re most stoked to see, because they’re all awesome, but Psycroptic is certainly in the running. Those devilish tech-death savants from Tasmania have put out one ass-kickingly brilliant album after another and recently released an awesome live CD/DVD combo called Initiation. So, in honor of this tour’s announcement, we’ll play you a song from that live album (also after the jump . . .)

Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS (Part 1)

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News  2 Responses »
Apr 272010
 

We’re suckers for eye-catching album art.  We’ve found, more often than not, that when the album art is really cool, there’s something worth hearing in the music, too. That’s not based on a statistically valid survey, of course, and it doesn’t make any logical sense. But in our own personal case, it seems to be true.

To test out that hypothesis, we hunted through news items on a recent 48-hour period at Blabbermouth to find eye-catching album art, and then we listened to music from the albums in question.

For example, check out that one above.  Actually, if you’re already on this page, you don’t really have any alternative but to check it out. But it’s pretty fucking cool, isn’t it? It’s the cover to a new album called Reptilian by Norway’s Keep of Kalessin, which will be released n North America on June 8 via Nuclear Blast and in most of Europe on May 10 through Indie Recordings.

Based on the track listing (which you can see here), it appears that many of the songs will have something to do with, uh, dragons. So whaddaya know? In addition to being scary cool, the album cover actually has a thematic connection to the music.  The band’s guitarist Obsidian C. commented on the cover: “The music on Reptilian is more in your face and direct than before so we chose this cover and the title to emphasise that directness as well as focusing even more on the fantasy elemement in the band. This beast of an album is staring at you and it’s going straight for your throat!”

Well, if we had a dollar for every band that used the “straight for your throat” line to describe its music, we could quit our day jobs and flog away on this blog full-time. The question is whether Obsidian C. is spouting mere puffery or whether the music really is as cool as the album cover.  That’s the point of this little experiment. What’s the answer?  (we’ll give you our opinion, after the jump, plus another test case for our hypothesis about cool album art and cool music . . .) Continue reading »

INSIDIOUS DISEASE

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Apr 252010
 

Insidious Disease is an international super-group.  What does that mean?  It means that the members come from bands that extreme metal geeks like us hold in high esteem, and they’re spread among many countries.  To be specific, the members of Insidious Disease are:

Marc “Groo” Grewe (ex-MORGOTH) – Vocals
Sven Atle Kopperud (a.k.a. Silenoz) (DIMMU BORGIR) – Guitar
Shane Embury (NAPALM DEATH, BRUJERIA, LOCK UP) – Bass
Tony Laureano (ex-DIMMU BORGIR, NILE, ANGELCORPSE) – Drums
Jon Øyvind Andersen (a.k.a. Jardar) (OLD MAN’S CHILD) – Guitar

Seriously — gaze upon those names, and be honest: You’re interested, aren’t you? We sure as hell were. And we weren’t the only ones, because this band has just signed a worldwide deal with Century Media Records. They’ve recorded 12 songs for a debut CD to be called Shadowcast, and from what we’ve heard, it’s going to be a fucking killer.  (more after the jump, including a song . . .) Continue reading »

HEAVEN SHALL BURN BURNS ANOTHER ONE

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Apr 242010
 

The next album from Germany’s Heaven Shall Burn will be called Invictus.  It’s scheduled for release on different dates in May throughout Europe and on June 8 in North America. Yesterday the band put up the second track from Invictus on its MySpace page. It’s called “Combat”.

And if you thought the first song from the new album (“Omen”) was good — which we sure as fuck did — then you really have to hear “Combat”. It starts with a hammering riff and a howl, and takes off from there into a sonic war zone. It blends the fury of bombs exploding with feverish melodic riffs, Marcus Bischoff‘s distinctive shrieking, blackened keyboard pulses, and snatches of industrial dance-floor daze.

The song is heavy as fuck but galvanizing in its get-up-and-move compulsion. We thought “Omen” was outstanding (and said so here), but “Combat” is another step up. Based on these two samples, Invictus promises to be a landmark in the Heaven Shall Burn pantheon of discography. Seriously, go check it out here.

BRAIN DRILL!

 Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 202010
 

Hey, sorry we made that album cover (above) so big.  We know it must have come as a shock when you opened up this page and saw that gruesome piece of mind-fuckery. We just couldn’t help it. We have to have our fun where we find it.

Yeah, so that’s an album cover. Not just any album cover, but an album cover by Pär Olofsson, who’s done the album art for bands like Immolation, Miseration, Revocation, Arkaik, Immortal, The Faceless, Winds of Plague, and many others. We put up a whole bunch of his album covers for your viewing pleasure here not too long ago (scroll down when you get to that link).  Have to say that none of them really looked anything like the one above.

You may ask, “What’s it a cover for?” It’s a cover for an album called Quantum Catastrophe. You may ask, “Who’s the band?” The band is called Brain Drill. But of course it is. That’s a really accurate name. If you heard their 2008 debut album, Apocalyptic Feasting, you know what we’re talking about. The new one, the aforementioned Quantum Catastrophe, isn’t officially out yet. It’s not due for release (on Metal Blade) ’til May 11. But you don’t have to wait until then for a taste.  (more after the jump, including some audio and video tastes . . .) Continue reading »

SUMMER SLAUGHTER TOUR 2010

 Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 162010
 

The official line-up for the Summer Slaughter Tour 2010 has now been confirmed (by Metal Sucks).  Here it is:

DECAPITATED
THE FACELESS
ALL SHALL PERISH
THE RED CHORD
VEIL OF MAYA
CEPHALIC CARNAGE
DECREPIT BIRTH
CARNIFEX
ANIMALS AS LEADERS
VITAL REMAINS

That is one mouth-watering band list of extreme metal awesomeness, isn’t it?

But as you scan your greedy eyes over that list, which band doesn’t exactly fit with the rest? If you’re like us, your eyes probably came to a halt at Animals As Leaders. Wonder how they came to be included. Mind you, we’re not complaining at all. We saw Tobin Abasi and his mates play in Seattle last week (and wrote about it here, with photos), and they are gobsmackingly good. But it’s an interesting choice.

Tour dates and places aren’t available yet. You can be abso-fucking-lutely sure that if this tour comes anywhere near Seattle, we will be there.

MORE MUMBAI METAL

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Apr 152010
 

Yesterday we posted some news about a promising metal band from Mumbai, India, called Demonic Resurrection. Astonishingly, that short piece drew more visits than any other post we’ve written, save one, since we began this blog last November. One of those readers, “Infected0718,” urged us to check out another Mumbai band called Bhayanak Maut, and we did. Today we feel compelled to write about them, too. (We received other recommendations, and we’re also following up on them.)

Metalheads well know that we’re in the middle of an extreme metal renaissance (and NO, we’re not talking about Axl Rose taking the stage again or Slash releasing a new album). In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion in the number, quality, and popularity of bands putting out the kind of music we love.

That phenomenon is not confined to North America and Western Europe. It’s happening throughout the world. And to us here at NCS, there’s something reassuring about that. As fucked up as the planet is in so many ways, and as many religious, cultural, and political barriers still divide people around the globe, music is a common language. Even in our tiny corner of the music universe (where a ridiculously small percentage of all people are thoroughly hooked on this brand of music), we have brothers and sisters everywhere who speak this demented language.

As a pretty random set of examples, we’ve written here at NCS in the not-too-distant past about bands and artists from Italy (Hour of Penance, Psychofagist, and Carnal Rapture), Hungary (I Divine), Romania (Negura Bunget), Moldova (Neuromist), Costa Rica (Sight of Emptiness), Finland (e.g., The Jasser Arafats), Sweden (Soreption and Valkyrja), Greece (Rotting Christ and Gus Drax), Indonesia (Bloodshedd), Germany (Thrudvangar), Norway (Shining), France (Eryn Non Dae), South Africa (Haggis and Bong), and — well, you get the idea.

Not so long ago, we never would have known of bands like this or had any realistic chance of hearing their music. But thanks to the miracles of modern technology invented by Al Gore, they’re now just a few clicks away. And that brings us back to Bhayanak Maut.  (stay with us, after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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