I bet the title of this post got your attention, didn’t it? And I bet that if someone does a Google search for “haggis and bong” in the next day or two, we’ll be one of the first returns. Of course, I can’t imagine why anyone would do that — unless you live in South Africa or you stumbled on this news at Blabbermouth:
South African Metal Festival Aims To Set Record For ‘Most People Headbanging Simultaneously’ – Jan. 10, 2010: 21 of South Africa’s top metal bands will perform at the MotherFUDD festival, set to take place March 12-14, 2010 at Malonjeni Guest Resort, South Africa. The event will also host what it claims to be “the first-ever official Guinness World Record for most people headbanging simultaneously” on March 13.
Following the above intro was a list of those 21 bands scheduled to play at the “MotherFUDD” festival, including — you guessed it — Haggis and Bong. (more after the jump . . .)Continue reading »
Bury Your Dead used to be one of my favorite bands. In fact, when Beauty and the Breakdown came out in 2006, I put the CD in my car’s CD changer and it’s still there. I’ve rotated other CDs through the remaining five slots over the years, but Beauty and the Breakdown hasn’t moved. Still dig that shit mightily.
And BYD‘s 2005 DVD Alive is still one of my favorite metal DVDs. Great live performance footage of a band that really ripped it up on stage. And talk about metal — you get to see vocalist Mat Bruso take one in the head on-stage from one of those windmill guitar spins by Eric Ellis, the blood starts really pouring, and Mat just keeps on going — finishing nine more songs. (We’ll show you the clip of that literal head-banging after the jump.)
After the live set is over, the DVD shows the trip to an emergency room and the stapling of Mat’s head (12 staples) — and all the while he’s just yacking away as if nothing unusual has happened. Pretty cool dude.
And then in 2007, everything more or less started going downhill. In January of that year, Bruso left the band. BYD released a statement reporting that Bruso “has come to a point in his life where he must focus on more important things like going back to school to become a teacher and his upcoming marriage.” (I’ve seen a report that he’s currently working in a special education classroom at a middle school in Maynard, Mass.) BYD replaced Bruso with Myke Terry, and, as if to announce to the world that the band was starting over, the next album was self-titled Bury Your Dead. (more after the jump, including some before-and-after video . . .)Continue reading »
What more remains to be said about Frank Mullen, the larger-than-life frontman for legendary NY death metal band Suffocation? You might think, not very much. But you’d be wrong.
If you’ve seen Suffocation on stage or even read about their live performances, you know that Mullen constantly talks to the crowd between (and sometimes during) the songs, and his stage banter is just in a different universe from what you usually hear.
Your NCS Co-Authors got the chance to see Suffocation when they hit Seattle in 2009, touring behind the release of the absolutely awesome Blood Oath album. It was one of those experiences that imprinted itself on the brain — a crushing live performance by the band.
And then there was Frank the Tank. Everything we’d heard was right: there’s no one quite like him. Just over-the-top crazy, veering between hysterically funny, scary as shit, and lecturing the crowd about whatever happened to be popping into his head. The dude is clearly very bright, and just vastly entertaining.
So what else is new to be said or seen about Frank Mullen? How about the forthcoming documentary DVD about the band, called Legacy of Violence, which is due for release sometime later this year. In October, Relapse Records released Suffocation’s only official live album, The Close of A Chapter: Live in Quebec City, but in addition to concert footage, the DVD will include lots of interviews and behind-the-scenes shit.
And as of today, you can see a 5-minute excerpt from the DVD that’s just become available. Based on the excerpt, it looks like the DVD will be some kick-ass entertainment. In the clip, you’ll see lots of people talking about Mullen — including his daughter — and of course you’ll see the man himself acting out. And what comes across from the clip is that all the guys in the band are the kind of dudes you’d really like to hang out with if you had the chance.
On December 15, the New York Times ran a story about an academic symposium held in Brooklyn called “Hideous Gnosis,” which explored intellectual aspects of black metal. We posted some generally disrespectful commentary about the event, and got some thought-provoking reactions. We posted a follow-up piece earlier this week about one of the papers delivered at “Hideous Gnosis,” which analyzed whether it’s even possible for someone who buys into a black-metal worldview to talk about black metal. Today we’re continuing the discussion – but this time with a surprise contributor.
NCS welcomes, as our first guest writer, our favorite metal blogger from New Zealand — Steff from STEFF METAL. We’ve already written about her blog, which you owe it to yourself to check out, and she kindly accepted our invitation to add her wit and wisdom to NCS (because we could definitely use more of both). And unlike your NCS Authors, Steff is a black metal maven.
To set the stage, we got this comment on our original rant about “Hideous Gnosis” from a writer named Shinjuku Thief:
“I would disagree with your assertion that metal, particularly black metal, is about expressing emotion. What characterises a lot of BM, for me, is the absence of emotion . . . . I think although you scoff at anything remotely ‘intellectual’ you’re espousing a theory of your own . . . . That is the contradiction of metal, it claims to be primal, atavistic, earthy, of the body, but in reality it is so controlled, has so many codes, rules and boundaries that the fans in a supposedly unthinking manner enforce at every level. . . . [I]ts not spontaneous or relying on our innermost urges, its a well honed aesthetic and conscious action that is very much thought about.”
So, with that intro, here are Steff’s thoughts (after the jump):Continue reading »
Just saw some bittersweet news. First, the good part. The line-up, dates, and places have just been released for the Atticus Metal Tour II — with NCS favorite UNEARTH as the headline act. And it gets better. Check out the line-up of other bands on the bill: Stick To Your Guns, Veil of Maya, The Ghost Inside, and Carnifex — with Darkest Hour, Stray From The Path, and, Your Demise joining the party on select dates. (Those dates and other details will be released here as they become available.)
Now for the bittersweet news (selfishly speaking): the closest the tour gets to the Pacific Northwest is Utah. Life ain’t fucking fair! What else is new. Anyway, check out the full list of dates and places after the jump.Continue reading »
Last night I stumbled into the interweb equivalent of a brawl. In one corner: the incomparable ladies of Reign in Blonde (Elise and Julia) and their cool new columnist Angela Gossowski. In the other corner, an infestation of whackjobs calling themselves members of the “Undead Army.”
Chapter 1: The whole thing started innocently enough about a week ago when Elise broke the story that a sometimes member of Hollywood Undead (Daniel Murillo) had auditioned for the new season of American Idol and apparently has made it through to the “Hollywood round” of the competition. Elise didn’t say much about Hollywood Undead other than to describe them as “that shitty rap/rock band that performs in MASKS.”
Now, RIB has a devoted legion of followers, but only a handful of folks post comments with any regularity, and those comments are usually articulate, funny, and — well — civilized. Elise’s story drew 10 posted comments. A few of the regulars popped in, but then (ominously) three commenters appeared with web monikers ending in “HU4L,” which I eventually came to learn stands for “Hollywood Undead for Life.” And one of those comments included this bit of witty repartee:
“Your are a pathetic piece of shit. Im not even kidding you. 1. You dont know one goddamn thing about HU. or where they come from. 2. You need to shut the muthafuck up before someone shanks your bitch ass. 3. Yes I know its your opinion whether or not your like them, so KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.”
Uh, what?? (more after the jump, if you have a strong stomach . . .)Continue reading »
Back on December 15, the New York Times ran a story about an academic symposium held in Brooklyn called “Hideous Gnosis,” which explored intellectual aspects of black metal. We posted some commentary about the event that basically made fun of the whole thing. We threw around words and phrases such as “pointy headed academics,” “fucking pretentious,” and “blather.” I think we also implied that all the participants were douchebags.
Hey, it was easy to do. Sort of like clubbing baby harp seals, except without the back-splatter. And what did you expect? We’re an extreme metal site, which by definition means we pretty much disrespect everyone except the bands who work their asses off making the music we live by, and a few metalhead writers who do what we’re trying to do, except do it a lot better. And we never feel guilty about it.
Well, almost never.
We got a couple of comments on our bushwhackery that have at least given us pause — one from the “Hideous Gnosis” symposium group itself and one from Shinjuku Thief. We’ll talk about the first one today and the second one soon after. And for musical accompaniment, we’ll stream some new black metal that will core out your skull. Read on after the jump.Continue reading »
We were way late talking about Brutal Truth‘s 2009 album Evolution Through Revolution — their first in nearly a decade — but when we finally did, we noted that Brutal Truth planned to release a second album of the same songs — except performing them live, in one take.
Well, that second album is now out — strictly limited to 2,000 copies worldwide. It’s called Evolution In One Take: For Grindfreaks Only! Volume 2. If nothing else, it’s an interesting experiment to listen to each song on Evolution followed by the same song on Volume 2 — which is what we did. Our impressions after the jump . . .Continue reading »
In December, the resurgent death/thrash brawlers from Living Sacrifice uploaded two new songs from their forthcoming album The Infinite Order, plus a video of one of those songs. Yesterday, they graced us with a third new one, called “Organized Lie.” It’s another galloping beast of angry, groove-oriented metal that confirms the new album will be worth the long wait since the band’s last full-length of all-new songs more than seven years ago. You can check it out here.
And there’s more headbangery ahead: the band promises yet another new song next Monday.
The Infinite Order will hit the streets on January 26, and LS will hit the road on January 15 with War of Ages, Shai Hulud, Lionheart, and The Great Commission.
I knew this would happen. On New Year’s Day, we put up a long list of extreme metal bands who reportedly will be releasing new albums in 2009, and then carved from that list the 21 bands we especially want to hear in the New Year. We tried to be complete in compiling the master list, but of course we’re already hearing about bands we left off.
So far, three overlooked bands, in particular, deserve mention: Kivimetsän Druidi, Portland’s own Agalloch, and Mors Principium Est. These bands may not be as widely known as others that made “forthcoming” lists in various trade publications, but we’re psyched to hear that new releases are in the works.
KIVIMETSÄN DRUIDI
Kivimetsän Druidi (pictured above) is a Finnish symphonic folk metal band whose name appears to mean “druid of the stone forest.” The band released their Century Media debut CD “Shadowheart” in late 2008 and followed that with a cool video, shot in Finnish Lappland, for a song sung in Finnish called “Jäässä Varttunut.” It appears the song title, loosely translated, means “Grown Up Within Ice,” as in, “The white steel that has been grown on ice will clot the blood with its strike.”
I saw the video, was impressed, tracked down the CD, and remained impressed. It’s a fast-paced, dramatic combination of symphonic death metal, celtic folk stylings, savage gutteral vocals from Joni Koskinen, and soaring sopranos from crystal-voiced Leeni-Maria Hovila. Heavier than you might expect, with memorable melodies and plenty of hard-driving riffs. (more after the jump, including that video. . .)Continue reading »
