NEWS FROM ALL OVER (MUMBAI)

 Metal News  19 Responses »
Apr 142010
 

As regular readers know, we’re suckers for extreme music from far-away places that aren’t particularly well-known in the U.S. for their metal scenes.  (Though we like American bands, too!) Mumbai, India, qualifies. It’s far away. It’s not known here in the U.S. for its extreme metal scene. And it has produced a band called Demonic Resurrection that turns out to be worth some close attention.

Some of you guys probably already know of this band, but they’re a discovery for us. But what you probably don’t know is this breaking news from Mumbai: Demonic Resurrection have signed a deal with Candlelight Records for the worldwide release of their latest album, The Return To Darkness, which the band self-released in January. We now know that The Return to Darkness is the band’s third album, and the completion of a conceptual trilogy.

If we had seen Global Metal, the documentary film by Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen, we would have known about these Mumbai metallers before now, because they’re apparently featured in that film, along with bands from other exotic locales such as China, Iran, Indonesia, and Israel. (We’ve really got to watch that film.)

(more after the jump, including the band’s latest music video . . .) Continue reading »

HEAVEN SHALL BURN (“THE OMEN”)

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Apr 102010
 

We’ve been diehard fans of Heaven Shall Burn for eons. Or at least years. They’ve got a new album called Invictus due for release on June 8 in the U.S. and on staggered dates from May 21 – May 24 throughout Europe. You can see the recently unveiled album cover above.

And the band has just put up a song from the album, called “The Omen,” for streaming on their MySpace page. It starts with a haunting melody by piano and strings, but at about the 1 minute mark, it erupts. Marcus Bischoff has never sounded better, and the song is a classic HSB killer. You can listen here.

Our status: Pretty fucking stoked to hear the whole album.

BLACK TUSK AND ODEM ARCARUM

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 082010
 

Just so you don’t think we only care about ridiculous album covers, here are two we came across this morning that are cool. And even better, so’s the music.

The one at the top is a glimpse of the cover for Black Tusk‘s new album, Taste the Sin, which is scheduled for a May 25 release on Relapse Records. You’ll probably recognize the art of John Dyer Baizley, the singer and guitarist for Baroness, whose amazing art has graced the album covers not only for his own band but also for the likes of Skeletonwitch, Kylesa, Pig Destroyer, and Darkest Hour.

A song from the new Black Tusk album called “Embrace the Madness” is now streaming on the band’s MySpace page. Go check it out, because it’s a killer — overpoweringly heavy but also overpoweringly infectious.  We’re really looking forward to hearing the whole album.

The second cover is from a just-released new album called Outrageous Reverie Above The Erosion Of Barren Earth by a German black metal band named Odem Arcarum. The artwork is by a Bulgarian artist named Haate Kaate (pictured to the right — MySpace page here). To see more of the artwork she created for a 12-page booklet that accompanies the CD, click past the jump. We think it’s really awesome stuff. (You can see the whole booklet here.)

The band has songs from the new album streaming on their MySpace page, and we really like what we’re hearing.  Another album we’re anxiously waiting for the mail to bring us!

(View more Odem Arcarum album art by Haate Kaate after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MOLOTOV SOLUTION (“AWAKENING”)

 Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 072010
 

We dug the hell out of Molotov Solution‘s 2009 album, The Harbinger, and named the title track to our list of The Ten Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs of 2009. Now those Las Vegas deathcore brawlers have just released a video of another track from the album, called “Awakening”.  It’s in HD, the sound quality is excellent, and it was professionally shot, directed, and edited by Roger Sieber.

It’s a well-edited mix of performing, driving, fighting, and fucking around.  The performance shots, in particular, do a good job of capturing the energy and intensity of a Molotov Solution live set (one of which we saw in Portland last year). And the song is a bruiser.

Check it out (particularly if you were put out with us for going off-topic in our earlier post today):

“Awakening”

Molotov Solution “Awakening” Official Music Video HD from Roger Sieber on Vimeo.

MORE 2010 SICKNESS (Part 3)

 Forthcoming Albums, Listmania, Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 312010
 

We’re now a full three months into 2010, and it’s time for our third update to the list of forthcoming new albums we posted on January 1.  (See the original list here, the first update here, and the second 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 two updates — 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).

ANAAL NATHRAKH: “U.K. extreme metallers ANAAL NATHRAKH have commenced work on material for a new album, tentatively due before the end of the year.”

ANNIHILATOR: “Canadian thrash metal veterans ANNIHILATOR will release their 13th, self-titled album in Europe on May 17 via Earache Records, in Japan through Marquee and in Australia via Riot Entertainment.”

ARISE: “A two-minute video trailer for The Reckoning, the fourth album from Swedish death/thrashers ARISE, can be viewed below. Due on March 22 through Regain Records, the CD features guest appearances by Jonas Kjellgren (SCAR SYMMETRY, ex-CARNAL FORGE), Mikael Stanne (DARK TRANQUILLITY) and Jake Fredém (NOSTRADAMEUS).” [NOTE: the album is now scheduled for release on April 6.]

(more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 272010
 

Maybe there’s a band out in the world someplace that sounds like Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse — but if so, we haven’t heard it yet. Their 2009 debut album, Oracles, combined blowtorch death metal with (gulp!) classical music.

Guess we’d better define our terms here. By “blowtorch death metal,” we’re trying to convey the almost overpowering onslaught produced by rapid, atomizing, chainsaw guitar rhythms, blazingly fast drum noise (heavy on the blast beats), shred-tastic ax solos, and staccato, brutal-death-metal gutturals — all mixed together in a fuzz-heavy production. You know, like a blowtorch to the face. You could search high and low and not find more pulverizing sounds that could still be called music with a straight face.

If that’s all Fleshgod Apocalypse had given us in Oracles, it would have been enough –because the blowtorch metal was ass-kickingly over the top. But they didn’t stop there. They added to the mix some massive grooves and unexpected segments of majestic melody.

But they didn’t stop with that either. Sprinkled here and there (briefly) on Oracles were intros, outros, and interludes of classical or medieval music — pianos and strings, orchestral passages, monastic chants. Talk about a mind-bending concept — one moment the music is tearing along like the back end of a jet engine and in the next moment you’re hearing a Viennese waltz. We know that sounds kinda ridiculous, but believe us — it works.  (read on after the jump . . . and listen to a new track . . .) Continue reading »

CORE-METAL UPDATES

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 242010
 

We don’t listen to much hardcore music here at NCS. It’s not that we don’t like it. It just doesn’t rattle our cages as much as other kinds of extreme metal. But in recent years certain metal- and death-metal influenced hardcore bands have infiltrated our music players and fought an effective behind-the-lines assault on our brains.

Over the last few days we’ve come across some news items about a few of those bands that we’d like to share with you, along with some of their songs: The Contortionist, Monument to Thieves, Legend, and The Last Felony.  They’ve all got new music on the way that we’re pretty hot to hear. They don’t sound alike, but the one thing they have in common is the ability to write powerful, passionate songs with infectious grooves, and some dynamic variations from the norm to accompany the breakdowns.

(By the way, we’d rather call these bands “core-metal” instead of “metalcore” or “deathcore” because nowadays those latter terms trail along a bunch of baggage that we don’t think fits these bands.)

THE CONTORTIONIST

The breaking news about this Indianapolis-based band is that they’ve signed with Good Fight Music and will be entering the studio this spring with producer Ken Susi (Unearth‘s guitarist) to begin recording a debut album for a mid-to-late-summer release.

Good Fight Music is the label division of Good Fight Entertainment, which was founded by industry veterans Paul Conroy and Carl Severson, who were former partners at Ferret Music, Warner Music, and ChannelZERO. (more to come, after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ERYN NON DAE: “BLISTERING HATE” LIVE

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 202010
 

One of our favorite French metal bands, Eryn Non Dae, has just uploaded a video of their live performance in February at the Bikini in Toulouse. The track is “Blistering Hate” off the band’s awesome 2009 album Hydra Lernaïa. You can check out our review of that album here and our interview of END here. And you can watch the video by just pushing the play button below.

Man, I wish I could have been at that show. The tech geeks of the world need to speed up their work on teleporter technology.

“Blistering Hate” Live:

BANDCAMP

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 202010
 

Twice in the last two weeks we wrote about unsigned bands (Flaming Tusk and From Exile) that have chosen to distribute their music through a service called Bandcamp. We hadn’t seen or heard of Bandcamp before then. Granted, we’re pretty fucking ignorant about a lot of things, and maybe this Bandcamp service is known far and wide throughout the metal world. But what the hell, we’re gonna write about it anyway — because it seems pretty damned amazing.

The main service Bandcamp provides is a channel through which artists can distribute their music at no cost to themselves. It gives the artist a dedicated web page and the ability to upload songs for streaming by fans, or for fan download at any price the band sets, or at no price. And that’s just for starters. There are a jillion other rad features — and we’ll hit all the high points after the jump.

And in case you’re wondering — since this whole post is gonna read like one big fucking advertisement — we’ve never contacted Bandcamp and they didn’t give us any consideration for this attention. We’re doing this for only one reason: Because there are too many good metal bands out there that don’t have label support, and maybe this post will give some of them an idea they hadn’t stumbled on yet. (read on after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SOILWORK ANNOUNCES ASTONISHINGLY ASS-KICKING TOUR

 Metal News  No Responses »
Mar 182010
 

Hot off the presses — and we do mean hot! Soilwork has just announced a headlining North American tour this summer with some truly mind-blowing support from Bay-area thrash legends Death Angel and tech-death destroyers Augury. Also on the tour: Mutiny Within and Swashbuckle.

Not too fucking shabby, huh? Particularly because they’re coming to Seattle. For a list of dates and venues for the other perfectly decent cities where they’re going, read on after the jump. Continue reading »

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