Born December 24, 1945. Died December 28, 2015.
Shit, this hurts. Continue reading »
Dec 292015
Dec 222015
I got far enough ahead on readying today’s year-end lists and album premiere for posting that I actually found some time to go surfing through the interhole and the NCS in-box in search of new things. Here are a few of the items I found. I’m saving some others for Christmas Day, because I feel a personal obligation to ruin the holiday as best I can.
MISANTROF ANTI-CHRISTMAS
Speaking of ruining the holiday, Misantrof ANTIRecords, the (intentionally) non-profit label masterminded by Carpathian Forest’s Daniel Vrangsinn) is once again giving us a hellish present. For the 8th year in a row, the label is releasing the Holy Fucking Antichristmas Compilation. And day by day, they’ve been adding fragments to the cover art for the comp. What you see above is the nearly complete picture as it appears today on Misantrof’s Facebook page (here). Continue reading »
Dec 192015
This is the second part of a two-part round-up of new music I discovered over the last 24 hours after taking a break from our year-end LISTMANIA orgy (which will resume on Monday, in case you want to shower and freshen up before the fluids start flowing again). You can find the first part of today’s round-up here.
CURSE / STYGGELSE / WAN
On December 27, the Russian label Satanath Records, along with Black Plague Records (USA) and The True Plague (USA), will release a three-way black metal split entitled Necroholic. — and one song from each band can now be heard on Satanath’s Bandcamp page for the split. All three are really strong. Continue reading »
Dec 102015
The end of the year is fast approaching, but the freight train of metal isn’t slowing down. Here are just a few of the things that caught my eyes and ears over the last 24 hours, sifted from my scanning of the NCS in-box and my daily dive into the interhole.
ROTTING CHRIST
I’ve probably mentioned somewhere in the dim mists of the past that Rotting Christ were the band whose music first convinced me that I needed to learn more about black metal — my first step along a musical left hand path from which I’ve never turned back. The following announcement, received yesterday, was thus an especially exciting piece of news:
On February 12, Season of Mist will release Rotting Christ’s twelfth studio album, Rituals. In addition, Stereokiller premiered the album’s first advance track, “Elthes Kyrie“, in the U.S. (it also appeared at many other sites around the world). Continue reading »
Dec 092015
Here’s a round-up of news, new album artwork, and a couple of new songs I spotted over the last 24 hours.
CANNIBAL CORPSE
We’ll start with some tourism news: Yesterday it was announced that Cannibal Corpse will be headlining a big North American tour that begins on February 12 and runs through March 20. And the direct support for the tour is pretty eye-popping: Obituary, Cryptopsy, and Abysmal Dawn will be along for the ride.
Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 11, at local and national ticket outlets. Here’s the schedule, which I copied and pasted from Blabbermouth: Continue reading »
Dec 052015
Infernal greetings to one and all on this fine Saturday. Once again I’ve assembled a playlist of especially impressive new songs from among those I heard over the last 24 hours. I hope you like them.
CONAN
This first song has appeared under mysterious circumstances. I learned of it from Grant Skelton, who learned of it from someone else and then passed the link on to me. It appears to be the title track to Revengeance, the third album by Conan from the UK, which is set for release on January 29 by Napalm Records. This is Conan‘s first release with producer Chris Fielding on bass and vocals, along with drummer Rich Lewis and founding guitarist/vocalist Jon Davis. Continue reading »
Dec 032015
(Grant Skelton brings us this collection of new music and videos by seven bands.)
IRONCLAD
To form a band and then release a debut EP in the span of only three months seems a daunting task. But that’s exactly what happened for Ironclad from South Wales in the United Kingdom.
Their current line up includes Steve Taran (bass) and John Courage (guitar), also of folk/pagan metal outfit Siluria. Trak is the man behind the drumkit, while Dean Fletcher (Black Tamanous, Godkilla) handles vocal duties. Continue reading »
Dec 012015
Over the last 24 hours I spotted some announcements about some unholy festivals that I thought were worth passing along:
CALIFORNIA DEATHFEST 2016
They probably still haven’t finished cleaning up the Oakland Metro after the inaugural edition of the California Deathfest in October (which I scribbled about in these posts), and now CDF has already announced the initial list of bands for the follow-up installment of the festival on October 14-16, 2016 — and it’s a damned fine beginning. Take a look: Continue reading »
Nov 252015
(Grant Skelton wrote this round-up of recommended new music.)
WITCHCRAFT
On top of what’s been an already amazing year for doom releases, 2016 brings with it the release of Witchcraft’s new album Nucleus, which will be available January 15 on Nuclear Blast Records. In advance of the album’s release, the first single “The Outcast” is available for streaming below. Continue reading »
Nov 242015
Around the world, this fall has been a season of tragedy, an ugly reminder that death takes the innocent every day. And it has included some especially terrible reminders of that fact for music fans. The slaughter at the Bataclan music venue in Paris on November 13 has of course dominated the news in recent weeks, overshadowing another tragedy that happened on October 30 at a club in Bucharest, Romania.
On that night, at an album release show at Club Collectiv for a local band named Goodbye to Gravity, an explosive fire broke out that has claimed the lives of 60 victims so far, including two members of the band, with more than 100 people still hospitalized, some still in critical condition. The catastrophe led to three days of national mourning, massive protests in the streets, and the resignation of Romania’s prime minister.
To raise funds for the victims of the tragedy (for both medical bills and funeral expenses), the noted Romanian graphic artist and musician Costin Chioreanu, whose name will be familiar to readers of this site, has released a collection of music entitled The Quest For A Morning Star via Bandcamp, and I think it’s worth your time and your money. Continue reading »