SEEN AND HEARD: BONEHUNTER, HATE, HORRENDOUS, INFERNAL COIL, MESARTHIM, SOREPTION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jul 132018
 

 

This is obviously a big end-of-week round-up. Today the size of the round-up will be in inverse proportion to the volume of words in my descriptions of the music, because I have three premieres to write and there would have been more except I exercised some rare restraint and started saying No.

What is it about this day that makes it so popular for premieres and releases? Could it be that there is only one other Friday in 2018 like it (and that one occurred three months ago)?

I arranged the music in alphabetical order by band name because I couldn’t think of a more logical way to stitch these sounds together.

BONEHUNTER

This time Bonehunter chose to keep the rampaging bear’s penis less prominent on the magnificent cover of their new album (rendered by Joe Petagno), to the disappointment of some and the relief of others (as long as they don’t look to closely at that tongue). But how does the music on Children of the Atom compare to the tunes on this Finnish band’s more prominently erect last record, Sexual Panic Human Machine? Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DRAWN AND QUARTERED — “RAVAGE THE CADAVER”

 Metal News, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jul 122018
 

 

I suppose I ought to confess at the outset that as a resident of the Seattle area for a couple of decades, I became a devoted fan of Drawn and Quartered long ago. Because they’ve been long-time fixtures in the Seattle underground for a couple of decades themselves, that means I’ve been able to watch them perform on numerous occasions, and have always left with a sore neck and a crooked, fiendish smile on my face. It therefore won’t surprise you to learn that I’ve had their new album The One Who Lurks high up on my radar screen since it was first announced — especially since six long years have passed since their last one, Feeding Hell’s Furnace.

That confession, by the way, wasn’t intended as an acknowledgment of any kind of bias. This band earned my loyalty (and that of many others, both here and around the globe) because they’re just really damned good. I say it only because I was prepared to like the album, based on history, before I ever heard it.

But I will say that, even with that history of enjoying records and performances, this new full-length still surprised me. It proves not only that Drawn and Quartered have plenty of gas left in the tank, but that they’ve tapped into some kind of eldritch fuel source that ups the octane even further beyond the premium juice that has driven the pistons of this savage death machine before. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: NACHASH — “VORTEX SPECTRE”

 Metal News, Premieres  No Responses »
Jul 122018
 

 

Some weeks it seems I find a new favorite band as often as the sun rises. Today, that band is the Norwegian trio Nachash. And in their case I have no doubt they will keep a hard grip on my loyalty for many sunrises to come. This new song we’re about to present from their debut album Phantasmal Trinunity (due for an August 10 release by Shadow Kingdom) is a prime example of why that is. Its name, which is an immediate clue — but only one clue — to what the music delivers, is “Vortex Spectre“.

Combining elements of black metal and death metal, the music is decidedly supernatural in its atmosphere, but the band also display a keen grasp on the irresistible pull of propulsive rhythms and hook-laden heavy-metal riffing, and the result is a track that’s powerfully addictive. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PIG DESTROYER, REVOCATION, THE RITUAL AURA, KVALVAAG

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 112018
 

 

A whirlwind trip to Denver for my fucking day job prevented me from posting anything yesterday other than my premiere and review of the new Temple Desecration album. So I’ve got some catching-up to do. Later today I’ll post Part 2 of a post I began on Monday (“Doom Meets Death”) along with a couple more song premieres and the beginning of a three-day series of photos by Teddie Taylor from this year’s edition of Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle. But first, it’s time for a mid-week round-up of new music and videos.

PIG DESTROYER

Pig Destroyer’s new album, Head Cage, has been high on our list of highly anticipated albums for the second half of this year. Yesterday they provided the album’s first single (and video), “Army of Cops“. To put things politely, it produced some mixed reactions across the interhole. For example, there was this exchange among certain people affiliated with NCS, whose names I’ve concealed because I didn’t ask permission to quote them: Continue reading »

WHERE DOOM MEETS DEATH (PART 1): NEW MUSIC FROM XORESTH, UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES ME, ATAVISMA, SEDATION THERAPY, AND THRONE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 092018
 

 

Through a happy coincidence, I’m drowning in despair this morning. I have a collection of new tracks that I thought would be worthy of a Monday round-up, and most of it comes in varying flavors of doom.

Of course “doom” as a genre label doesn’t tell you very much because the genre has subdivided so many times over so many decades. As the title of this post suggests, you’ll find flavors of death/doom metal in this collection, but the title is meant to have a second meaning — a hint at the atmosphere to be found in the songs that are less closely connected to death metal. And as the title further suggests, I’ll have a Part 2 either later today or tomorrow.

XORESTH

When you watch the video for this first song you will see Xoresth’s music labeled as Funeral Doom. To be more precise, this is music for the funeral of all humankind, with no surviving soul left to mourn. As I hear it, it’s a vision of the future in which our planetary home has been burned to a cinder and then frozen in a heatless void. Not for naught, the name of the album is Vortex of Desolation. Continue reading »

QUICK HITS: GOROD, IMMOLATION, VOID ROT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 052018
 

 

I know we’ve thrown a ton of music and videos your way recently, but I find myself with a bit of free time left before I have to bid NCS good-by for the day, so I thought I’d do one more thing. To quote the timeless words of Bart in Blazing Saddles, “Excuse me while I whip this out.”

GOROD

Breaking news: A few minutes ago I happened to be loitering on Facebook (only briefly so as not to damage my health) when that eye-catching artwork up there popped into my news feed, accompanied by these words from the band Gorod: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KRISIUN, KHONSU, MIRE, BIRTH THE WRETCHED, ENDOLITH, KIELKROPF

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 032018
 

 

As you may have noticed, I compiled another round-up earlier today, though I was just following instructions with that one, all the choices having been urged upon me by my comrade DGR (and Andy Synn, in part) to suit a What Year Is It?!? theme. I haven’t completely escaped the urgings of my comrades in this collection either, since three of the songs and videos were pressed upon me by Mr. Synn.

However, although I’m less the curator of this particular gallery and more like the slovenly dude who frames the stuff and hangs it on the wall, I did include music of my own choosing at the end (and for better or worse, I’ll be picking everything for our Independence Day round-up tomorrow).

But before we get to all the music, I have a couple of news items (and even the second of those was brought to my attention by my colleagues).

KRISIUN

How could I resist the opportunity to brandish (extra-large) the painted artwork of Eliran Kantor at the top of our page again? Obviously, I couldn’t. It will appear on Krisiun’s new album, Scourge of the Enthroned, marred by text, as follows: Continue reading »

WHAT YEAR IS IT?! NEW STUFF FROM INTO ETERNITY, UNEARTH, BLEEDING THROUGH, JOURNAL, JACK KETCH, SILENT CIVILIAN (ON THE WAY), AND MUNICIPAL WASTE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 032018
 

 

This is a SEEN AND HEARD round-up that’s going under a different name today. If the reason for that isn’t already obvious from the title of this post, let me explain:

Below you will find new songs and one new video, plus a news item, from seven bands. One of them is by a band whose last release was 10 years ago. Three are from bands whose last albums came out eight years ago. Two more are by bands whose last albums were released six and four years ago, respectively. And the video for the last one is set in a time when if you wanted to watch a movie at home, you went to the VHS store.

I can’t take credit for the Robin Williams–Jumanji meme or the post title. That was suggested by DGR, and actually it was he (with an assist from Andy Synn) who foisted all these new songs and videos on me. Basically, today I’m just a marionette whose strings are being pulled by others. Let’s get this over with so I can go back to listening to really disgusting death and black metal. Continue reading »

QUICK HITS: MANTAR AND CANCER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 022018
 

 

We have a couple of fine premieres coming later today, and because I devoted some time to writing about those, I didn’t have time to prepare a full SEEN AND HEARD round-up for this Monday — but with a few spare minutes and a bit of a lag in our publication schedule before the first of those premieres is due to arrive, I thought I’d give you a quick hit — two recent songs that made very positive impressions when I heard them this weekend. I might have time for another one of these posts in between those two premieres as well.

MANTAR

I may have mentioned before that Mantar are one of my favorite bands on the planet. And without meaning to detract from the impact of their recordings, they have become one of my favorites because of their live performances, which I’ve been lucky to witness on three occasions. The power and electrifying impact of what these two do on stage can’t really be captured in a studio, in part because they’re so riveting to watch.

Having said that, I’m still eager to hear their new album, The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze, which will be released by Nuclear Blast on August 24th. Continue reading »

REAPER METAL PRODUCTIONS: ANNOUNCEMENTS, FREE MUSIC, A CONTEST, AND THE DEBUT EP OF WÖLFBLOOD

 Free Shit, Metal News, Premieres  1 Response »
Jun 292018
 

 

As the title of this post suggests, we have a lot to cover, and a lot of good opportunities to spread before you. In the jargon of the monied overlords who attempt to run our lives, let’s begin with an “executive summary” for all you executive headbangers out there, and then flesh things out:

We are providing details concerning a new venture under the name Reaper Metal Productions, as well as a new collaboration between the label of the same name and both Redefining Darkness Records and Seeing Red Records, all of whom have already joined forces to release an outstanding album this year by the Russian band Cist. We are revealing the opportunity for consumers of heavy music to download the entire back catalogue of Reaper Metal (including the Cist EP) at Bandcamp for free, or any price you name — for the next week only. We’re presenting an interview of drummer extraordinaire Dirk Verbeuren that includes a contest for a special give-away. And we’re including some teasers about forthcoming releases by this new collaborative venture, including a trailer for the debut EP by the Danish motorpunk rockers Wölfblood, which is also now being offered as a name-your-price download.

And now, to elaborate… Continue reading »

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