SEEN AND HEARD (HEADSPIN EDITION): MITOCHONDRION, AVHATH & KUNTARI, RINTRAH, THE HOLY FLESH, HIGH INQUISITOR WOE, DUKH DÄKOMPOSITA

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Oct 022024
 


Mitochondrion

(written by Islander)

With my wife out of town visiting one of her sisters and me having gotten a head-start on the premieres I’d committed to write for today, I found myself with a rare chunk of time to go musically exploring yesterday, and to prepare this rare mid-week roundup.

Entirely by coincidence, most of what I listened to was head-spinning in different ways (as you can tell by the post title). I think it’s fair to call all of the following songs unconventional, and maybe even experimental in some respects, including the ones that feature singing (and yes, some of these are “exceptions to the rule” around here).

But lest you think I’m about to load you up with many melodious things, let’s incinerate that assumption immediately. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: THAW, THUMOS, THUNRAZ, THE CURE, DISFIGURE, MARTERPÆL, KEITZER

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Sep 282024
 

Last week I filled up this column with 16 songs from 15 bands, all but two of those tracks from forthcoming records. This week I’ve taken a different tack, recommending some complete new records and singles, and fewer advance songs.

With a smaller number of bands I also decided not to arrange things in alphabetical order, other than three in a row at the start for groups whose names share a couple of opening consonants. And to break things up I stuck a curveball in the middle instead of at the end. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SÓLSTAFIR — “BLAKKRAKKI”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Sep 272024
 


Photo by Katie Metcalfe

(written by Islander)

This is the shortest SEEN AND HEARD roundup I’ve ever published, so short that it doesn’t make any meaningful dent in the volume of new songs and videos I’ll be wading through in preparation for the usual Saturday NCS column. I suppose pinning up just one critter doesn’t even qualify as a “roundup”.

But I have what I think is a very good reason for shining our faint spotlight on just one song and video today as the week ends. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY (15 BANDS, 16 SONGS)

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 212024
 

(written by Islander)

Yesterday morning my fellow NCS slave DGR sent me the names of 11 bands whose new songs he thought would make good fodder for this Saturday roundup. That was on top of more than a dozen new songs and videos I had on my own list. What to do?

Putting two dozen new tracks into this roundup seemed excessive, if not for you then certainly for me. That’s just way too much work. I thought about just embedding all the streams, without any further info or my own priceless commentary. I even thought about asking someone who’s on Spotify (which I am not) to make a playlist of all the songs and sticking that in here, which would have been an even lazier strategem.

I figured out a solution. It’s not a great solution, just a compromise, and like all compromises it leaves the contending parties unhappy (the contending parties here being two argumentative parts of my brain).

The songs below are alphabetized by the name of the band that made them — another lazy strategem, but one that has resulted in some amusing and interesting contrasts and complements. Nostalgia had something to do with some of these picks (that will be obvious when you come to them). This collection also includes more than a few exceptions to our “rule” about vocals and some curveballs that dive outside our usual strike-zone (sometimes at the same time). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PINCER CONSORTIUM, OTTONE PESANTE, DÖ, OUTER GRAVES

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Sep 142024
 

Another Saturday, another opportunity to help spread the word about new music. It’s always difficult to decide what to include in these roundups, and a bit more difficult than usual because I’ve spent a fair amount of time addressing the first item below, which is a new album released at the end of last week.

In deciding what to do with my meager remaining time, I decided not to include new songs and videos I came across from bands whose profiles are high enough that most people probably already know about them, i.e., Mastodon and Lamb of God (collaborating), Defeated Sanity, 1349, and Ensiferum. But if you don’t know about those songs, now you have the links that will take you to them.

But now, let’s get to that new album, and then follow it with just a few other worthy new songs from forthcoming records. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS ON A SATURDAY

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Sep 072024
 

From midnight on Thursday to midnight on Friday we received 221 e-mails about recent and forthcoming heavy metal releases. That’s not counting the e-mails that were just trying to sell us clothing or physical editions of records that have been out for a while, or to announce tours and shows, or to promote music that’s utterly foreign to anything we cover here (no idea how we get on some of these distribution lists).

That’s what Bandcamp Fridays do to our in-box, and the same thing happens on social media. It’s no longer surprising. Bands and labels know that lots of metalheads wait for these days when more of the money they spend will go to bands and labels. But it sure as hell makes me feel like I’m drowning when I look for things to include in Saturday roundups following Bandcamp Fridays.

And that’s not counting all the new songs and videos that were already on my plate before Friday arrived. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MONDOCANE, LILJEVARS BRANN, INVERNOIR, UNHEALED, FABULAE DRAMATIS, KILLING SPREE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 312024
 

(written by Islander)
Here we are, in the dog days of summer. Unless you’re in the southern hemisphere, and I don’t know what kind of animal these days are named for down there.

Actually, these days are only indirectly named for an animal up here. The term “dog days” of summer came from the Romans, in the hot days that coincided with the sun’s rise and set alongside the dog star, Sirius. This time was referred to as diēs caniculārēs, or “days of the dog star.”

What comes next? Well, I read this in an e-mail from a seller of wine (same e-mail I cribbed from above):

Late August marks a transition from dog days into a period known as ‘cat nights,’ a little-known Irish legend involving roaming witches turning themselves into cats… we’ll spare all the details! In any case, the timing is associated with a season of nocturnal prowling, earlier nightfall, and an instinctual, impending cool on the horizon.

Well, you can’t say you never learn anything at NCS. You might also learn something from the music I picked for this Saturday’s roundup as you get ready for some cat nights ahead. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: THE CROWN, WOLFBRIGADE, HORRENDOUS, FERAL NATURE, WRETCHGOD

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 292024
 


The Crown – photo by Daniel Johansson

(Written by Islander)

I had fewer commitments to prepare NCS posts for today than usual, so I used the extra time to try to make this coming weekend’s roundups a little less daunting by featuring a handful of new songs and videos today.

Today’s roundup leads off with some well-known names from the metal pantheon, but as we always try to do, I’ve also worked in some stuff from deeper in the metal underground.

THE CROWN (Sweden)

I had to start with The Crown. Metal Blade announced this week that they will release this band’s 12th studio album, Crown of Thorns, on October 11th. The press release included this quote from guitarist Marko Tervonen: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: GIGAN, OLD MACHINES, FURNACE, SOLUS REX, ENDLESS CHAIN, LUSCA, KOBOLD, THE HYPOTHESIS, NARKOSE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 242024
 


Gigan

(written by Islander)

Poor you, I had lots of time on my hands yesterday, and so made my way through a lot more music than I’m usually able to do, and even had enough time to spill a bunch of words, like kernels from a violently ruptured grain silo.

With this much music in a weekly roundup, I often default to mentally un-taxing organizational strategies like alphabetization. But not today. I made these choices because of connections, and organized them in the way they connected for me. You’ll get it or you won’t, but as always, I hope you find one or more things you’re really glad you found, in whatever order it comes. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: KILLING SPREE, RÅDDEN REKTALVÆSKE, ODIO DEUS, MELTED BODIES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 172024
 

Getting a late start today. Went on a bit of a bender yesterday. Paying for it today. Lots of new stuff to get through, my mental trawler forging through frothy musical waters. Still frothy, even after my mid-week roundup (4 songs, but could have been 14). Thought that sacrificing complete sentences here in the intro might help accelerate things. Now, to hit the accelerator harder:

KILLING SPREE (France)

A rarity for me to include a cover song in these roundups, and even more rare to start with one. But this isn’t an ordinary cover. It shot lightning into my nerves and simultaneously scrambled my brains like swirled eggs on a hot pan. The live, unedited video (“filmed in the historic trenches of the Maginot Line in Alsace”), is quite cool too. Continue reading »

 Older Entries