SOUNDGARDEN?!

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Jan 012010
 

We had planned to post our list of the 21 albums we most want to hear in 2010 and then go back to sleeping it off for the rest of the day.  But we saw a blurb on Blabbermouth that brought us up short.  Here’s the blurb:

Singer Chris Cornell‘s (SOUNDGARDEN, AUDIOSLAVE) official web sitehas been updated with the following message:

“The 12-year break is over and school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!”

To sign up, go to www.soundgardenworld.com.

That’s really all there is.  If you go to the Soundgarden site and register, all you get is a Soundgarden video to watch. But Chris Cornell‘s message on his site sure sounds like a reunion is going to happen, and as a Seattle-based site, we gotta take notice.  Reunion rumors have been roiling the netz off and on this year, but Cornell has been denying that it would happen.  Something has obviously changed.

We’ve seen lots of reunions this year, and mostly they just make me wanna yawn. But these dudes were among the pioneers of music that put Seattle on the metal map in the early 90s and influenced the trajectory of heavy music for years to come.  Don’t know if this reunion will just be for a tour or might actually result in a new album.  And even if it produces new music, who knows if it’ll sound like latter-day Chris Cornell or something like a next evolutionary step for the old Soundgarden (which would be way more cool).  But are we interested in finding out?  Absofuckinlutely.

THE TWENTY-ONE 2010 ALBUMS WE MOST WANT TO HEAR

 Forthcoming Albums, Listmania, Metal News  8 Responses »
Jan 012010
 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

IT’S THE FIRST DAY OF A NEW DECADE, AND A BRAVE NEW WORLD AWAITS!

So, why did you get so hammered last night? Is it really right to start off a new decade sleeping off a bender?  Well, I ain’t your mama, so my answer is:  Of course it is.

If you’re like me, today may not be the best day to pound your head with metal — unless of course you haven’t gone to sleep yet, in which case metal is exactly what you need. Because if you go to sleep now, that means you’ll wake up feeling like toad shit.  So, as your doctor, I advise you to listen to metal and don’t go to sleep.  Ever.  Be like that dude played by Christian Bale in The Machinist.  Except eat more.

Now, where was I?  Oh yeah, the new year.  As we gaze into the bright new future, we’re thinking about all the extreme music that’ll be coming our way in 2010.  We pulled together from various trade sources and internet prowling a list of extreme bands that have promised new releases in 2010, and then over the Christmas holiday your three NCS Co-Authors each picked the ones we’re most looking forward to hearing.

There were 21 bands that got at least 2 votes from the 3 of us, and that list is below.  Not that we think you really care deeply about what the three of us are stoked to hear, but our brains are too fogged today to do anything but post lists.  So here’s our list, and after the jump you can see the complete line-up we compiled of extreme bands who’ve promised new releases in 2010.  (If you know of bands we missed, let us know!)

A Life Once Lost
The Absence
Acacia Strain
All Shall Perish
Arsis
Carnifex
Dark Tranquillity
Decrepit Birth
Devin Townsend Project
Ion Dissonance
Living Sacrifice
Meshuggah
Necrophagist
Nervecell
Neuraxis
Rotting Christ
Soilwork
Through the Eyes of the Dead
Veil of Maya
Whitechapel
Wintersun

There’s one band that isn’t on this list that deserves special comment — PIG DESTROYER. They’re missing for only one reason: Although there have been widely circulated rumors (which seem to trace back to this report) that Pig Destroyer will be releasing a new album next fall, we haven’t seen any confirmation from the band or their label. But we definitely hope the reports are true.

And now, after the jump, you can see a complete list of NCS Metal bands that have announced 2010 releases. Continue reading »

NEWS FROM ALL OVER: SHAKALAKAMUTHAFAKA

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Dec 302009
 

Two days in a row now, and Blabbermouth has posted news items that have cracked me up. Like yesterday, I figured you might could use a good laugh too.

Item No. 1 comes to us from Bulgaria. Clearly, I’m deficient in my knowledge of Bulgarian metal. Otherwise, I already would have heard of the band whose photo is above — Insmouth (not to be confused with Dominican Republic black metal band Innsmouth).  According to Blabbermouth, which undoubtedly is just reprinting a press release from the band, Insmouth (spelled with one “n”) had established itself as a “legendary outfit” before breaking up in 2003 when the guitarist married a Brazilian sports reporter and moved to Brazil.

Can’t tell you how relieved I am to see that Bulgarian metal bands know how to give their fans the finger just like U.S. bands. Anyway, here’s the breaking news from Bulgaria:

The original lineup of INSMOUTH, Bulgaria’s most influential crossover band, will reunite for a performance at Tangra Mega Rock radio’s fourth birthday party on March 24, 2010 at Universiada Hall in Sofia. Also scheduled to appear are ER MALUK and ODD CREW.

Before going on an indefinite hiatus in autumn 2003, INSMOUTH enjoyed a triumphant five-year career, establishing itself as a legendary outfit on the undergound scene. The band released two albums — “3D Freak Accelerator” (1999) and “Cross Over The Crossover” (2002) — as well as the “Lara-Croft” EP (2000), with tracks like “Shakalakamuthafaka”,“Despair”, “Sexulted” and “Freak” becoming firm fan favourites.

I don’t know about you, but the thought of a song called “Shakalakamuthafaka” is already making me firm.

I tried desperately to find a download of the tune, because I just know with a name like that it’s got to be good.  (Remember that ad slogan for Smucker’s jelly?)  Alas, no luck in scrounging a copy of “Shakalakamuthafaka.”  But just in case you’ve got a calendar conflict on March 24 and can’t catch the reunion performance at Tangra Mega Rock, I did find a video of Insmouth (one “n” dammit!) performing “Lara Croft.” Kinda like a Bulgarian version of Disturbed, but worse. But hey, if you wanna be the first kids on your block to say you’ve listened to Bulgarian metal, check it out here.

Item No. 2 comes to us by way of Estonia and a “fierce pagan metal band” band called Urt.  Which reportedly means “Soul of Death” in the South Estonian language called Setu.  (Stupid me, I thought Urt was the sound you make after finishing a six-pack of PBR). Anyway, here’s the breaking news from Estonia (after the jump): Continue reading »

NEWS FROM ALL OVER: CROCODILE HEAD G-STRINGS

 Metal News  No Responses »
Dec 292009
 

Courtesy of Blabbermouth, the flyer above and the story below.  Made me laugh.  Figured you might could use a laugh too.

Reunited Australian “grindy thrash” band GUANTANAMO BAY CITY ROLLERS returned to Adelaide’s Enigma Bar on December 19, 2009 for the first time since supporting INSECT WARFARE there on February 22, 2008. The group’s lineup was the same as it was for the 2008 concert:

Chappy (vocals)
Cheese (guitar)
Jonny (drums)
Mikey (guitar)
Gardy (bass)

A fun time was had by all, with a crazy moshpit, tequila shared around the crowd, and Chappy wearing nothing more than a novelty crocodile head G-string for most of the show, all in celebration of Cheese‘s 30th birthday.

I like these dudes already. I’ve always felt there should be more crocodile-head G-strings in live metal, and how can you go wrong with a band fronted by guys named Chappy and Cheese? And wouldn’t it be cool to mosh with a kangaroo?

The band is streaming some songs from their debut album Alcoholocaust on their MySpace page. There’s a really nasty photo embedded in the music player on that page, but if you can get past it, the tunage is actually a pretty damn good mix of grind, punk, thrash, and power violence. I also found 3 more tracks that aren’t on MySpace and appear to post-date Alcoholocaust. Check ’em out below. If you’re not drunk already, they’ll make you wanna get that way. (Aptly descriptive track titles too.)

In One Ear Out the Asshole

Fuck Me Two Times

I Want To Be Anthony Callea

And who, you non-Aussies may ask, is Anthony Callea? Go here and then you’ll know.

BLOODSHOTEYE

 Album Reviews, Metal News  2 Responses »
Dec 262009
 

Female death metal vocalists are few and far between. Frankly, I don’t understand how dudes can produce those sounds on a regular basis without destroying their voices. I know there’s a secret, I just don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s because I haven’t yet watched Melissa Cook’s The Zen of Screaming instructional video.

But what I really don’t understand is how any woman can produce those harsh, deep, gutteral, death growls — at all. I could tick off on the fingers of one hand the women who are currently carrying it off reasonably well (if I had a six-fingered hand): Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy, Grace Perry of Landmine Marathon, Elizabeth Elliott of Dreaming Dead, Mel Mongeon of Fuck the Facts, Krysta Cameron of iwrestledabearonce, and occasionally Alissa White-Gluz of The Agonist.

As of this morning I need to add a seventh name: Jessica Desjardins of Canadian deathcore band Bloodshoteye.   (More after the jump, including some video) Continue reading »

CHRISTMAS DAY RECAP

 Metal News  No Responses »
Dec 252009
 

Yesterday was a banner day at NCS. More posts in a single day than we’ve managed before. In the category of listmania, we reported about Decibel‘s list of The Top 25 Most Anticipated Records of 2009 and Revolver‘s list of The 20 Best Albums of 2009, and we added the 9th entry to our own list of The Ten Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs of 2009. We gave you a Brutal Truth update, the latest burning-goat news from Gavle, Sweden, and a little something to make you nervous on Christmas Eve. Just goes to show what we can accomplish when we get a break from the day jobs. Maybe you now wish we’d get fewer vacation days.

Today your NCS Authors are resting from our labors — except for arguing about which song should be our tenth and final entry on the Most Infectious list. Assuming we can sort that out and there’s still one of us alive to post the result, we’ll do that tomorrow.

In the meantime, the turkey awaits, and he’s looking kinda nervous.

Hope all of you have a peaceful day. Come see us again tomorrow.

BRUTAL TRUTH UPDATE

 Metal News  No Responses »
Dec 242009
 

On December 23, in an act of complete randomness, we posted a piece on Brutal Truth and its 2009 release Evolution Through Revolution. It was completely random because the album came out in April, and we were only getting around to saying how much we dug it here in December. But it turns out there was some actual hot-off-the-presses Brutal Truth news we could have used as an excuse to blog about the band — except we didn’t hear about it until today. We’re clearly just a bunch of fucking slackers.

Anyway, the news is this:  on December 22 (the day before our post), Brutal Truth released Evolution In One Take: For Grindfreaks Only! Volume 2. Evolution In One Take…is the band playing Evolution Through Revolution from start to finish, in one live take at Mark It Zero studios with engineer Dan O’Hare. Per the band’s label (Relapse),  Evolution In One Take… comes with a limited edition patch and is strictly limited to 2,000 copies worldwide. Additional release details can be found here.

Not sure there’s a point to this — an album that consists of the band playing the same songs released 8 months ago, except in one take instead of with engineering. But we’re so hot for Brutal Truth (in a strictly Platonic way) that we’ll listen to it and let you know. In any event, we’re now up to date. So there.

LISTMANIA (Part 5,357)

 Listmania, Metal News  No Responses »
Dec 242009
 

So you thought we had finally reached the end of year-end “best of” lists for 2009, right? Nope. Yesterday was metal mag day here at NCS. Not only did we find the new issue of Decibel in the mailbox (see the post before this one), but cuddled right next to it was the new issue of Revolver, which includes Revolver‘s list of “The Top 20 Albums of 2009.” Like the new issue of Decibel, this copy of Revolver boasts a cover date from the future (Jan/Feb 2010), which is further proof that Revolver has access to the same quantum wormhole used by the rest of the magazine industry to send copy back in time. If only they’d told me something potentially remunerative, like who won the Super Bowl.

Lots of bands on Revolver‘s list are exactly what you’d expect. But there are some peculiar choices too. For example: Rammstein.  Best of 2009? Really?

To see Revolver‘s list of “The Top 20 Albums of 2009,” continue reading after the jump. And because we had fun in the preceding post showing you the demographic data Decibel uses in selling ads, we might as well show you the same kind of data Revolver uses to describe its audience. Continue reading »

DECIBEL SEES THE FUTURE

 Listmania, Metal News  No Responses »
Dec 242009
 

Those gun-jumpers at Decibel magazine are at it again. Not content to select their list of the Top 40 albums of 2009 in about October (see our previous post about that), the issue that just hit my mailbox (optimistically dated February 2010) includes a feature called “The Top 25 Most Anticipated Records of 2010.” At least Decibel‘s writers poke fun at themselves in the intro that precedes their many following pages of prognostications:

“Decibel‘s always been about more than more past and present: Our powers of clairvoyance increase exponentially with each new day.  Hell, our grip on the future is such that we’re thinking about covering the coming decade’s 100 best metal albums before summer, just to get them out of the way.  As for the list below, remember this: We’ve heard — and utterly endorse — everything on it . . . including the stuff not yet written.”

To be honest, we were thinking of putting together our own list of bands whose new albums we’re stoked to see in 2010.  Might still do that if holiday laziness doesn’t completely gobsmack us. And we really do enjoy reading Decibel every month. But still, just can’t resist poking a little fun.

And in the poking-fun vein, we also came across Decibel‘s 2010 Media Kit. This is the sales piece that the mag provides advertisers to convince them how much folding green metalheads have to spend (yeah, right) and how all you gotta do to collect it is advertise in Decibel. Lot’s of amusing stuff in there, which you can peruse here. There’s a page of demographic data about Decibel‘s audience that’s especially juicy.

So, after the jump, we’ll show you the bands that Decibel has pegged for the The Top 25 Most Anticipated Releases of 2010. We’ll highlight the ones that prompted us to say “Fuckin’ A!” Our reactions to the rest are some combination of “maybe,” “huh?”, and “Uh, no.” And just for kicks we’ll show you that page from Decibel‘s 2010 Media Kit that provides potential advertisers with demographic data about Decibel‘s readers. Enjoy. Continue reading »

MESHUGGAH

 Metal News  No Responses »
Dec 232009
 

This is turning into video day at NCS. Not like that was our purpose when we rolled out of bed this morning. Just happened. We saw the new video released yesterday by Living Sacrifice and put that up. We put up a piece on Brutal Truth and decided, what the hell, maybe some of you haven’t seen the vid of “Sugar Daddy,” so that’s up too. And then we saw that today the almighty Meshuggah had released a video trailer for their forthcoming DVD/CD combo, Live, which is set for U.S. release on February 9. And you know, as short teasers go, it does the trick — if you’re a Meshuggah fan (as we are) it will get you hot and bothered. So watch it after the jump, along with the other videos with which we’re filling up the page today, and then come back a little later and see our eighth entry on the Ten Most Infectious list. Continue reading »

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