SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): HETROERTZEN, IMPERCEPTUM, IMHA TARIKAT, ANCIENT TUNDRA

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Feb 122017
 

 

I tend to go overboard with the volume of music in these Shades of Black posts, but this one includes even more minutes of listening than usual. In this one you’ll find streams of two full albums, three full EPs, one single, and advance tracks from two forthcoming releases. And lots of my words, of course. In the middle, I’ve also spliced one very exciting piece of news.

Due to the size of this post, I’ve divided it into two parts. Part 2 is almost finished, but because of the volume of music here in Part 1 and in yesterday’s post, I think I’ll wait until first thing tomorrow to unveil it.

HETROERTZEN

Hetroertzen is a Chilean band now based in Sweden. I first discovered them through the music on their last album, 2014’s Ain Soph Aur (which I reviewed at length here). Their new album, Uprising of the Fallen, is now set for release by their new label Listenable Records on February 24. Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS: MANTAR, MEMORIAM, CUT UP, ASCENDED DEAD, DEIVOS, VENOM PRISON, GÖKBÖRI

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 112017
 

 

Happy Saturday to one and all, and if you’re not feeling particularly happy, maybe the recommended new music collected herein will improve your mood.

This is another Seen and Heard post, but with a title that’s more specific to the music I chose for this collection. Most of it could be considered shades and phases of death metal or, in the case of the first item, death-themed.

MANTAR

The Spell snuck up on me. I learned about it yesterday through an e-mail from Nuclear Blast Records that included a link to the lyric video you’re about to see. Like virtually everything else I’ve heard from Mantar, it exploded my brain. Continue reading »

AUSTIN TERROR FEST 2017: ANNOUNCING THE FULL LINE-UP

 Metal News  No Responses »
Feb 092017
 

 

A few days ago we announced the names of the first 15 bands confirmed to appear at the first annual NorthWest Terror Fest that we’re co-sponsoring in Seattle on June 15-17, 2017, and now we’re bringing you news about another festival that’s coming up even faster — the first edition of Austin Terror Fest, which will take place deep in the heart of Texas on March 16-19.

As with Northwest Terror Fest, we’re helping to present the first edition of Austin Terror Fest with Invisible Oranges and the folks behind Southwest Terror Fest. For this first installment of what will also become a continuing festival series, The Lost Well and Worshiper Cabinets are also backing the event. Here’s the (nearly) full line-up of the more than 40 bands who will perform at Austin Terror Fest 2017: Continue reading »

NORTHWEST TERROR FEST: ANNOUNCING THE FIRST ROUND OF CONFIRMED BANDS

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Feb 072017
 

 

On June 15-17, 2017, in the Emerald City of Seattle, Washington, No Clean Singing will be partnering with the tireless Terrorfest honcho David Rodgers and Invisible Oranges to present the first edition of Northwest Terror Fest, and today we’re leaking the names of the first group of confirmed bands. Actually, this is the second leak, because yesterday David disclosed through an interview with Metal Injection that Warning from the UK will be headlining the final night of NWTF, with Young And In the Way also appearing on that closing night of the fest.

The appearance of Warning is big news, made even more special by the announcement that they will be performing their 2006 comeback album Watching From A Distance in its entirety. Warning’s NWTF performance will follow shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco that we’re also co-sponsoring.

But today we’re announcing the names of 13 more bands whose NWTF appearances have been confirmed, including another headliner: the mighty Cephalic Carnage from Denver, who will be playing their experimental 2002 sludge/doom EP Halls of Amenti in its entirety, in addition to other songs from their head-wrecking discography.

Here are those names in alphabetical order, followed by more details about NWTF and the people involved in making it a reality: Continue reading »

MURDERING MONDAY: SINISTER, SVART CROWN, POSSESSION, DOEDSVANGR, MORBID FLESH, THE NEGATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 062017
 

 

I decided to give the “Seen and Heard” caption a brief rest, but that’s basically what this post is — a round-up of new songs and videos. It just happens that everything in this round-up is the sound of slaughtering, though translated through difference metallic prisms. In essence, we’ll do a death metal/black metal back-and-forth, though you’ll hear differences even within those broad genre umbrellas, and the boundaries blur as well.

SINISTER

Over the weekend Sinister released an official video (created and directed by Sebastiaan Spijker) for a song called “Neurophobic” off their new album Syncretism, which will be released on February 24 by Massacre Records. This is the 13th studio album by these Dutch death metal veterans, and judging from the new song, it’s going to be lethal. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: HIDEOUS DIVINITY, FIRESPAWN, WOLFHEART, FUOCO FATUO, ZEAL AND ARDOR, EXOCRINE, SEPULCHRAL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Feb 042017
 

 

It’s been a crazy week for this half-witted editor. Interferences by my fucking day job coupled with interferences by my non-blogging personal life prevented me from posting any news and new-music round-ups all week. That means I’ve accumulated an enormous list of things since last weekend. Unfortunately, I still won’t have time to catch up this weekend.

I’ve got work I need to do today for an annual event I’m attending tonight with my spouse, and based on past experience, I’ll be in no condition to write anything on Sunday morning. I’ve agreed to post one premiere tomorrow, which I’ll get ready today, but there probably won’t be anything else on the site tomorrow. Maybe the coming week will be less crazy and I can do a delayed Shades of Black thing and/or a “That’s Metal!” post after the new week begins.

Okay, enough with the excuses. On to a regrettably small but diverse collection of new things I noticed last week.

HIDEOUS DIVINITY

When I first started using the title “Seen and Heard“, it was because I intended to include both news about, and artwork from, new albums, even when there was nothing yet to hear, as well as streams of new songs. And I have items in both categories to recommend today in this large collection, beginning with the artwork at the top of this post. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3 OF 3): WOE, APOSTATE VIATICUM, CHRCH, NECROWRETCH, CONSUMMATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jan 192017
 

 

This is the third part of a mid-week round-up that I had originally planned to post yesterday, along with Part 1 and Part 2.

When I originally planned this tripartite collection of a dozen songs and videos, I had found a kind of musical theme or connection between the songs I allocated to each Part. But since I didn’t get Part 3 posted as planned, in the meantime I’ve changed one of the tracks I had originally planned to include here, and then also added a fifth one. So the theme of Part 3 has fragmented, and now we’ve got a lucky 13 items in this collection as a whole.

The music in here is still damned good though — and I’m still keeping my verbiage (relatively) short.

WOE

Man, it has been a long and sorrowful wait for new music from Woe (you should thank me for not saying “woeful”) — because I’ve really enjoyed the band’s previous releases, and four years have passed since the last one, an album named Withdrawal. The wait is over. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2 OF 3): POWER TRIP, BAT, BLOOD FEAST, ROOT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 182017
 

 

I find myself at the middle of the week, drowning again in new songs and videos from forthcoming albums. As I made my way through my list of discoveries this morning, it dawned on me that an even dozen of them could be conveniently divided into three segments, with the songs in each segment bearing a relationship to each other — at least to my twisted mind. So that’s what I’ve done.

My original plan was to post all 3 parts today, interspersed among other things — and no sooner had I written that than my fucking day job diverted me for hours. I can’t believe they actually expect me to work for my pay. So, in the face of that outrage I’m only able to post Part 2 today, and Part 3 — along with all the other posts I had planned for the balance of today — will get shoved into Thursday, which will make Thursday overstuffed here at our rotund site. I’ll still keep my commentary brief.

POWER TRIP

The first song in this collection comes from Texas-based Power Trip. It’s called “Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe)”, and it appears on the band’s new album Nightmare Logic, which will be released by Southern Lord on February 24.

According to the band, this song is the catchiest one they’ve ever written — which is saying something. However, I’m not prepared to argue with them, because it really is ridiculously catchy. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1 OF 3): BENIGHTED, REAPING ASMODEIA, GOREPHILIA, DEIVOS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jan 182017
 

 

I find myself at the middle of the week, drowning again in new songs and videos from forthcoming albums. As I made my way through my list of discoveries this morning, it dawned on me that an even dozen of them could be conveniently divided into three segments, with the songs in each segment bearing a relationship to each other — at least to my twisted mind. So that’s what I’ve done.

We already have a big slate of posts planned for today, so I’m going to salt these three parts among the others, and keep my own descriptive verbiage to a minimum.

BENIGHTED

The first item is a NSFW video for a song called “Reptilian” from Necrobreed, the new album by the French gore-grind terrorists in Benighted, due for release by Season of Mist on February 24, 2017. I have two pieces of advice for you: First, listen to the song without watching the video, at least for the first listen. Otherwise you’ll have trouble paying attention to the music. Second, don’t watch the video on a full stomach; it will disrupt your digestion. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): CRANIAL, ANOMALIE, GATEWAY, BRUTAL UNREST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 102017
 

 

I have a large collection of new songs I want to share with you, large enough that I’ve divided it into two parts. The second part (coming tomorrow) will be even longer than this one, especially because the odds are high that by the time I write it, more good new things will have surfaced that I’ll want to add.

CRANIAL

In 2015 the German band Cranial made their debut with an EP named Dead Ends released by Moment of Collapse Records. The release initially drew attention because Cranial’s line-up includes connections to the late, lamented Omega Massif through the presence of guitarist Michael Melchers. And then it drew more attention because of the impressive quality of the music.

On February 10, Moment of Collapse will release Cranial’s new album Dark Towers, Bright Lights, and yesterday brought the debut of an immense advance track that we’re now able to bring you right here. Continue reading »

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