Jan 052012
 

This is Part 11 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

In yesterday’s Part 10 of this list, we veered off our usual, heavily beaten path with two slow, doomy songs that were as beautiful as they were dark and featured almost entirely clean singing. Today, we’re back on path — straight down the fuckin’ middle of it. This installment of the series could be called the “rip hell” edition, because that’s what both songs do — they’ll rip the bloody hell out of your head, leaving a spurting neck stump — and a smile on what remains of your face.

DEIVOS

The 2011 Unique Leader release by this Polish band only made one of the many year-end album lists we’ve posted over the last month — the one from Johan Huldtgren (Obitus), but there would have been a second appearance if I hadn’t been too lazy to create one of my own, because it made a lasting impression. To borrow from my review of Demiurge of the Void in October:

“The music — all of it — is a jet stream of head-whipping fury. . . . [T]he pattern consists of this: Brutally fast, razor-sharp, blood-spattering riffage, blasting with the heat of an acetylene torch, segmented into massive slamming beats that deliver a physical jolt. Tempos that unpredictably stagger a step forward or a step back or just plain stomp on your neck, just to prevent you from getting too comfortable. Drums that follow a near-inhuman pace, a percussive holocaust designed to provoke a non-stop adrenaline rush. Diseased guitar solos that either moan sickeningly in the background of the aural torrent or slither forward out of the chaos, like a serpentine creature trying to escape the maelstrom. Bestial barking vocals that well up from a deep, dark place.” Continue reading »

Jan 042012
 

This is Part 10 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

The name of this site confuses occasional visitors who come across something we’ve posted about bands who feature nothing (or nearly nothing) but clean singing. This post will confuse such people. It may also cause some of our regular readers to growl angrily. But to be fair, we’ve said from the inception of NCS that there would be Exceptions to the Rule of no clean singing, and today’s two additions to the MOST INFECTIOUS list qualify. Besides, I’m just being honest — these two songs are among the most infectious I heard this year, even if the genres from which they come aren’t my usual bread and butter.

40 WATT SUN

This band’s 2011 album The Inside Room has dominated year-end lists far and wide, including many that we’ve posted at NCS over the last month, including the No. 1 spot on Snagon’s list. Hell, it even showed up on the year-end list from “T” of Dragged Into Sunlight, in company with the likes of Autopsy, Craft, Leviathan, and Lifelover. “T” described it quite aptly in two words: “Beautiful. Isolated.”

I rarely listen to the style of melodic doom that pervades The Inside Room, and I’m not well-informed about stand-out albums in the genre, either this year or ever. On the other hand, I didn’t jump on the 40 Watt Sun bandwagon late in the day. Acting on impulse, I decided to listen to a promo copy of the album last April, although I had previously heard nothing about the band and had no idea who Patrick Walker (ex-Warning) or his bandmates Christian Leitch and William Spong were. Despite the vast distance between the music I heard and the territory of metal where I usually roam, I was overwhelmed by what I heard. Continue reading »

Jan 032012
 

This is Part 9 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

Today’s pairing of songs will seem like an odd decision to some people. Oh fuck, who am I kidding — it will seem like an odd pairing to almost everyone. But have a little faith. Yes, the songs contrast greatly with each other, but I think they sound great together, too, when played back to back. Obviously, I also think they’re both really infectious. Also, the names of both bands begin with the same three letters, so that counts, too. Doesn’t it?

INFESTUS

German’s Infestus began life as a three-man band, but by the time Debemur Morti released the band’s latest album E x | I s t, Infestus had become the solo project of one very talented multi-instrumentalist named Andras. In addition to writing and performing everything on the album, Andras also recorded and mixed the music as well. The sound is clear and sharp; you can hear the contribution of every instrument, though the instruments (particularly the guitars) are often so layered that it takes multiple listens to appreciate how much thought went into the mix in order to produce the overall effect.

To steal from my own review of the album, it’s “complex, sophisticated, brilliantly composed and performed, often beautiful but always powerful, a totally engrossing and immersive listening experience” — one of the best black metal albums I’ve heard this year.  Yes, I said it — it’s black metal, but for those of you who’ve already started wrinkling your noses and rolling your eyes at the thought of another one-man BM project, bear with me. Continue reading »

Jan 022012
 

This is Part 8 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

ESSENCE

Last February some impulse made me stop in my web browsing and watch a music video from a Danish thrash band called Essence. I gritted my teeth before pressing “play” because I tend to get bored by most thrash metal, both old and new. But the song turned out to be different from what I was expecting, and not just different but really good — thrash with some unusual and original ingredients in the mix, including traditional heavy metal influences.

The video was for a song called “Blood Culture” off the band’s debut album, Lost In Violence, which was released on February 25 via Belgium’s Ultimhate Records. As I wrote in an enthusiastic post about the video, what initially stopped me from hitting the “stop” button was the extended bass intro — a very cool piece of lower-register slap-and-tap flash that got my head nodding as it gained and then lost speed. At about 1:25, the song proper starts, and it’s built around some speedy, immensely catchy riffs — two main ones that, standing alone, would have been quite satisfying but when joined together elevated this song to a high level of infectiousness.

The vocals are also great (and thrash vocals are part of what usually turn me off about the genre), but what really seals the deal is what happens beginning at the 4:20 mark. Continue reading »

Jan 012012
 

This is Part 7 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

DECAPITATED

Carnival Is Forever wowed a lot of the folks whose year-end lists we’ve published at NCS. The Demonstealer (Demonic Resurrection) wrote: “The album is brilliant, the guitar playing is phenomenal, and so is the drumming. For me this album sets the benchmark for audio production, it is brutal as fuck but yet so organic.” Exo (Noctem) called it “the result of a brutal procreation between old Decapitated and Meshuggah.” Tamás Kátai (Thy Catafalque) ranked it No. 6 on his list, finding it much better than the band’s older work.

Our own Andy Synn named it one of the year’s Great Albums and rated it No. 5 on his Critical Top 10, writing that it “stands as one of the finest and most intriguing experiences I have had with modern death metal in a long time.” The album also made TheMadIsraeli’s Top 15 for the year and he summed it up this way in his NCS review: “This kicks ass. This destroys universes. This is the purest, blackest, weightiest form of sonic nihilism laid to audio I’ve heard all year.”

The album is indeed deserving of all the praise it’s received here and elsewhere. It’s technical, progressive, brutal, and heavy-grooved all at once. It includes two songs that I put on my “master list” of possibilities for this MOST INFECTIOUS series — “United” and “404”. Continue reading »

Dec 312011
 

This is Part 6 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

Yesterday’s installment in this list was all Finland. Today, it’s all made in the U.S.A. (in fact, it’s all made in Ohio). I also decided to feature the songs from these two bands today because it’s New Year’s Eve. Even if you’re not planning to get obliterated tonight, the end of the year still deserves something suitably apocalyptic for your ears — something evil, something blasphemous, something that sounds like the skies are burning, but something that also makes you want to party hard, even if you’re just partying with yourself in your mind. So, here we go:

SKELETONWITCH

Forever Abomination made a slew of the year-end Best Album lists we’ve published at NCS so far. For example:  DECIBEL magazine wrote that “the band cranks up the black metal and coherently manages to amalgamate all their various influences as they rampage through one concise, blistering track after another.” Andy Synn called it “a game-changing creation of abominable power”, “as flawless a thrash record as we have seen this year”, and “as vehement a black metal album as any released by the traditional set” (and you can read Andy’s full NCS review from September here). Rev. Will called it “my black thrash metal album of 2011”.

No doubt, Forever Abomination will be remembered as the album when Skeletonwitch got their shit completely together, producing a razor-edged riff machine that’s distinctive, dangerous, and memorable. But as good as the album is, from start to finish, one song stood out as the most infectious — and we think it’s one of the most infectious extreme metal songs of the year. Continue reading »

Dec 302011
 

This is Part 5 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

It’s no secret that we have a special aFINNity for Finnish metal at NCS, and the two songs that are the subject of today’s feature are from Finnish bands who’ve made their own distinctive marks in the genre of melodic death metal. Both Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum released wonderful albums this year, both of which were loaded with powerful, memorable songs. The hard part was not deciding whether to include these two bands on this list. The hard part was deciding which of many appealing songs on those albums should be included.

Insomnium’s album One For Sorrow made many of the “Best of 2011” lists we’ve published over the last few weeks, and Andy Synn hit the nail on the head when he summed up the album this way in his NCS review: “A poignant reminder of love and loss, and the pain of those left behind. An emblem of grief that cannot, yet somehow must, be borne, and of the strength we find within ourselves to carry on. Through all the tears shed in silence, for all the rage and sadness, One For Sorrow is at its heart an album of meditative melancholy and strength not yet subdued. Grace under pressure. Happiness and heartache in equal measure. One for sorrow, two for joy.”

Insomnium have a gift for writing songs that intricately combine power, immersive atmospherics, and irresistibly infectious melodies. Particularly because of Niilo Sevänen’s incredible harsh roars (among the best in the business), Insomnium continue to create that pairing of beauty and the beast that make their melancholy take on melodic death metal so enticing. Continue reading »

Dec 292011
 

This is Part 4 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

For fans like me who are addicted to old-school, Swedish-style death metal, 2011 was a very good year. We’re in the midst of a revival, and it doesn’t show any signs of abating. One of the best releases of the year in this grisly genre was the second album by Sweden’s Entrails, The Tomb Awaits. Entrails originally came into existence in 1991, became moribund by 1998, but revived beginning in 2009. Their latest, Dan Swanö-produced offering reflects Entrails’ authentically deep roots in the scene.

As we wrote in our review of the album, “The music is a gargantuan beast, dripping with the remains of its last grisly meal of suppurating human flesh — and it’s a headbanger’s delight, too. . . . Dynamic vocals that are deliciously horrible, perfectly toned guitar-and-bass combos that sound like giant earth-moving equipment scooping up disease-infested masses of corpse meat, the booming assault of heartless drums, a surrounding aura of voracious evil — what’s not to like? The answer: Nothing. It’s all good.”

Entrails and their labels Dark Descent Records and FDA Rekotz gave us the chance to premiere a song from the album called “Remains In Red” along with the review, but “End of All Existence” is the most infectious of many catchy beasts on The Tomb Awaits. It’s also one of the most infectious extreme metal songs of the year, in my most humble opinion, so it’s our next addition to this list: Continue reading »

Dec 282011
 

This is Part 3 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

The first song in today’s feature comes from Deathstar Rising, the 2011 album released by Finland’s Before the Dawn. The band was started in 1999 by the prolific Tuomas Saukkonen (also a member of Black Sun Aeon, Dawn of Solace, and RoutaSielu), and that 2011 album is their sixth. Although I reviewed the band’s immediately preceding album, Soundscape of Silence (2008), I neglected Deathstar Rising on this site. Actually, I believe that qualifies as criminal neglect, because I enjoyed the fuck out of that record. As punishment, I’m hoping for probation instead of hard time.

Before the Dawn’s success comes down to two principal factors, which are fully displayed on Deathstar Rising: skilled song-writing that effectively combines hard-driving riffs and rhythms with dark, beautiful, hook-filled melodies; and, on the last four albums, an amazing one-two vocal punch delivered by Saukkonen (whose harsh delivery is killer) and bass player Lars Eikind, whose clean vocals are just as remarkable. (Yes, this band is one of our Exceptions To the Rule.) Continue reading »

Dec 272011
 

Today we have Part 2 of this year’s list of the most infectious extreme metal songs, as determined by me and myself, but not the other parts of my fractured personality. To understand what this list is all about and how it was compiled, you may read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS-2011.

Today’s first song should come as no surprise to anyone around these environs. Although Surtur Rising has been neglected on most year-end lists I’ve seen, I thought the album was a solid addition to Amon Amarth’s discography, with variety in the mood and pacing of the songs plus a satisfying helping of what we’ve all come to expect from a new release by Amon Amarth: catchy, galloping, Scandinavian melodic death metal suitable as accompaniment for fighting frost giants, or a night of raping and pillaging among close friends — or simply getting tanked to your eyebrows on hornfulls of mead.

Some have criticized Amon Amarth for being too predictable in their sound, but I guarantee you, if they changed the formula too much their fans would start burning shit to the ground like those Vikings on the album cover. Besides, it’s a winning formula in my alchemy book.

Surtur Rising includes several strong candidates for this list, but my favorite, and the one I think most infectious, is “War of the Gods”. In fact, I think it will take a rightful place in the pantheon of Amon Amarth classics. Continue reading »