SEEN AND HEARD: CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX, OXALATE, REBAELLIUN, TENEBRA

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 292020
 

 

Happy hump-day. To help get you over the hump I compiled this short collection of new songs and videos from among others I checked out last night and this morning. Apart from the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed all of these, they give you a lot of variety. Surely you will enjoy at least one, if not all of them. If you don’t, we’re not offering refunds.

CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX

The opening drum pattern in this first song and video reminded me of Kate Bush‘s hit from the mid-’80s, “Running Up That Hill”. Even if I hadn’t already been a fan of Crippled Black Phoenix and curious to see what they’d be doing on their new album, that alone would have rooted me in place for the rest of this ride — and what a wonderful ride it is. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: OTTONE PESANTE, SILVER KNIFE, EVOKE, 0-NUN, MÖRK GRYNING

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 272020
 

 

I’m trying to get back into the more normal swing of things after some recent disruptive events I’ve already written about. I made a start yesterday with a two-part SHADES OF BLACK, and am continuing today with this round-up of other music I’ve recently been enjoying. As you’ll see, I probably could have made this Part 3 of yesterday’s column, because it does lean pretty hard into blackened sounds.

OTTONE PESANTE

If you suspect, or perhaps have already concluded, that metal made exclusively with trumpet, trombone, and drums isn’t your kind of thing, I urge you (again) to reconsider. And if you’ve already embraced what Ottone Pesante do with those instruments, the first track in this collection will cause you to squeeze them harder to your chest (figuratively speaking, of course, because hugs may be disease-riddled these days). Continue reading »

CHECKING IN (WITH MUSIC BY THE GLORIOUS DEAD AND SUPRUGA)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jul 182020
 


The Glorious Dead

 

This has been a rough week. Unexpectedly, it’s been the busiest week I’ve had for my day job since the pandemic caused a shutdown here in Washington State back in March. Those job demands carried through into this weekend and consumed a big part of this Saturday. On top of that, four days ago Covid 19 rapidly claimed the life of a man in Texas (where I spent half my life) who has been a father figure to me since my teenage years. He also founded and led the organization I work for, and he was the longest-lasting and most influential mentor I’ve had in my working career. Because of the virus, I couldn’t be with him or his family, and that made an already tragic situation even worse.

I probably could have gotten a break from work because of his death, but I decided that staying busy was probably better for my mental and emotional health. For the same reason, I stuck to the commitments I’d made to premiere music at NCS this past week. But I didn’t have the time or mental clarity to do much of anything else here. I didn’t listen to any new music other than what I had promised to premiere. I’ve neglected NCS emails. And I haven’t kept up very well with the appearance of new songs and videos. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: INCANTATION, SKELETAL REMAINS, DEMON CLEAVER, FAWN LIMBS, SPECTRUM OF DELUSION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 142020
 

 

I’m suffering from time compression. I’m thankful to still have a day job but it’s given me a shitload of things to do over the last 24 hours (and counting). That, and a few personal obligations I can’t put off, have squeezed my NCS time, and I have to use some of that to prepare two premieres today before my golden coach turns back into a pumpkin.

So, I’m throwing your way the following new songs and videos, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed, accompanied by very few of my own words. They’re all high-energy; they include lots of technical showmanship; and of course you’ll get a few doses of ferocity and evil along the way.

INCANTATION

To begin, here’s Incantation‘s official video for “Fury’s Manifesto“, the second single from their new album Sect of Vile Divinities — which is actually a good name for Incantation themselves. The album will be released on August 21st by Relapse Records. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: REBEL WIZARD, KÖRGULL THE EXTERMINATOR, INFESTICIDE, UNDEAD, BULL ELEPHANT, VERMILIA

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
Jul 112020
 

 

If you’re a fan of Enslaved, Pallbearer, Kataklysm, Black Crown Initiate, Oceans of Slumber, surely you know about the new singles they released over the last few days from their next albums (most with videos), and if you didn’t know, now you do (just follow those hyperlinks to listen and watch). You probably also saw the announcement of a new Napalm Death album and Decibel’s “Get Behind the Mask” feature with photos of 140 masked-up artists.

But rather than provide commentary about those widely touted events I decided to turn my piggish snout toward the sniffing out of truffles your own snouts might not have detected yet, which is mainly how we use our olfactory organs at NCS.

REBEL WIZARD

Rebel Wizard‘s new album Magickal Mystical Indifference was just released yesterday by Prosthetic Records, and to celebrate the occasion they’ve also just released a colorful, metal AF new video (made by Exotic Corpse) for an album track named “raiseth up all those that be bowed down“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: THEOTOXIN, PESTILENGTH, TOMORROW’S RAIN, MHLS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 102020
 

 

Here’s another short round-up of songs and videos as a way of wrapping up our posts for this week. I have in mind another one for Saturday.

THEOTOXIN

This first video has it all — flashing images of swarming maggots, snakes, death in the insect kingdom, human and goat skulls, stone tombs, abundant torches and candles, skies ripped by lightning, and a masked and corpse-painted band ripping through their song in a cavern. It’s missing a human sacrifice, but we shouldn’t be greedy. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ALEYNMORD, SVALBARD, EXITIUM SUI, STONEBIRDS, CARNATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 092020
 

 

Despite my new-found strategy of limiting the volume of these round-ups in order to do more of them each week, I found enough time to include new music from five bands in this one. The new stuff I picked for today’s collection based on an early-morning listening session begins with two excellent Jakub Moth videos for a couple of dramatically impassioned songs, and the mood stays serious and intense for the two tracks after that. And then I decided to wrap things up with some good old death metal via Antwerp that’s just plain evil fun.

ALEYNMORD

The first song I picked is a track off the debut album of the wilderness-worshiping Oregonian duo Aleynmord. The album’s name is The Blinding Light, and it’s packaged with cover art by Jef Whitehead. As noted above, Chariot of the Black Moth created the beautifully haunting video for the track. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HAVUKRUUNU, SILVER KNIFE, HINAYANA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jul 072020
 

 

Those of us who form the core staff at NCS have recently been reconsidering lots of the things we do here and how we do them. To be more precise, much of the discussion has involved what I do here and how I do them. A lot of the discussion boils down to being more selective in what we publish, and more willing to publish fewer posts every day if that’s necessary to make greater scrutiny possible.

One likely outcome of those discussions is that I will accept fewer premieres. For a while now I’ve been writing two or more premieres every day. I only agree to premiere music that I like and that I think fits the musical focus of the site, but that still leads to lots of premieres. I admit that I have a hard time saying no. One consequence of so many premieres is that I have much less time to write about music that I find on my own, including round-ups of new music and stand-alone reviews of records that we’re not premiering.

Because I’ve put myself in the position of not being able to write round-ups as often as I’d like, the backlogs grow to gargantuan proportions. I resort to gigantic Overflowing Streams collections in an effort to work through the backlogs, but even that format (in which I cut back on my own verbiage) takes time to put together, and so I wind up not even publishing those kinds of collections more than once a week (if I can even manage that).

This process of discussion and self-reflection has led me to realize another problem I’ve created for myself. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 1): ARS MAGNA UMBRAE, ATRAMENTUS, BEDSORE, DAWN OF A DARK AGE, THE INFERNAL SEA, MYRIDIAN, THE OCEAN, PSYCROPTIC, WARATHRON, VOID ROT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 032020
 


Ars Magna Umbrae

 

This is a great day for metal fans to support bands with their money. It’s a harrowing day for metal bloggers like myself.

It’s a great day because Bandcamp is again waiving its share of revenues from sales on its site, which means more money generated from purchases and donations goes directly to bands and labels, some of whom are in turn donating proceeds to charitable causes.

It’s a harrowing day because bands and labels have been releasing a HUMONGOUS AMOUNT OF MUSIC to take advantage of the occasion. Beginning yesterday and continuing today, my in-box has exploded with Bandcamp alerts and press releases, and that’s on top of the usual flood of other new music appearing earlier in the week. There’s no way I can sample all of it. But I’ve sampled some of it, and you see the results in this post — or at least some of them.

What I’ve done here is to collect individual songs and videos for new releases (and a few older ones), arranged in alphabetical order by band name. Many of those releases, but not all, can be purchased or pre-ordered on Bandcamp to take advantage of the revenue-share waiver. In Part 2 I’ll quickly throw out recommendations for complete new releases that would also be good candidates for your Bandcamp purchases. Continue reading »

OVERGROW TO OVERTHROW: AN ANTIRACISM COMP

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Jul 022020
 

 

July 3rd will be another day when Bandcamp waives its share of revenue from sales of music on the site. On that day 30 bands from across the world of extreme music will release a digital-only compilation designed to add their voices to the struggle against systemic racism and police brutality and to raise money in support of those causes, with all proceeds donated to racial justice organizations, including Black Lives Matter and Life After Hate.

The compilation is named Overgrow To Overthrow, and it will be released tomorrow through the Bandcamp page of Bindrune Recordings. It features artists as varied as Doom, Panopticon, Obsequiae, Agathocles, Thou, Chaos Moon, Outlaw Order, Deviated Instinct, Dawn Ray’d, and many others, who have provided a collection of brand new tracks, cover songs, remixes, live cuts, and re-recorded tracks.

It provides an opportunity for metal and punk fans not only to add a lot of great music to their collections, but to do it in a way that provides money to worthy causes at a time when the contributions can be maximized by taking advantage of Bandcamp’s waiver day. We’re supporting this effort by helping to spread the word about it. Below you’ll find statements about the comp from the people behind Overgrow To Overthrow along with more details about the music and how to get it. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries