VIDEOGRAPHY: ZEAL AND ARDOR, GODCHILLA, MORS PRINCIPIUM EST, WOLVENNEST, INFERITVM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Dec 172016
 

zeal-and-ardor-video-clip

 

We devoted ourselves largely to year-end LISTMANIA over the past week, but that didn’t stop the torrent of new metal from continuing to flow. I have a large list of interesting things I spotted during the week, and I’ve divided the best of them among several posts for this weekend.

In this first one I’ve collected five videos. Three of them are new and two are older. I picked these in part because they make for quite a varied montage of sights and sounds. I’ll mention that a new Kreator song and video also appeared yesterday, which you can find here, even though I decided not to include it.

ZEAL AND ARDOR

There have been some interesting discussions in our LISTMANIA comment threads about Devil Is Fine, the 2016 album by Zeal and Ardor. Some people think it’s too uneven and disjointed to deserve the acclaim it’s received this year (and in lots of year-end lists). While agreeing that it’s uneven, I’m in the camp of people who think the high points on the album are so creative and interesting that it deserves the attention — which is pretty much what I wrote within days of its release last June. Continue reading »

BENEATH THE NCS RADAR — PART 19 (OVER THE TOP YEAR-END EDITION)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Dec 162016
 

collage500

 

( The end of the year approaches, and to commemorate the death of 2016 our Norwegian friend Gorger has prepared a gargantuan installment of his series highlighting releases that we have overlooked.  To find more of his discoveries, type “Gorger” in our search bar or visit Gorger’s Metal.)

LISTMANIA is well under way. I still have some 2016 releases that deserve a mentioning at least. And that’s what I intend to do. Inspired by Islander’s overflowing-streams I’ll settle for a short conclusion of my own initial write ups. It’s not going to be easy, as I just don’t know when to shut my mouth. You probably got better things to do with your life than listen to me jabber, chatter, and preach all day anyway.

During December, I’ll probably gather enough material for a 20th round of this here series. When such a post will be published, is still up in the smoggy air. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IMMOLATION, ENGULFED, TOMB MOLD, EKPYROSIS, SHADES OF DEEP WATER

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Dec 142016
 

immolation-atonement

 

For this mid-week round-up of new discoveries I have news about the next Immolation album, excellent advance tracks from three albums coming out early next year, and a full stream of one fine album released yesterday. This collection of items is heavy on the death metal, and it’s also heavy on eye-catching cover art.

IMMOLATION

In a September interview Immolation’s Ross Dolan explained that the band’s new album was finished except for the mixing, that the artwork was done except for a few inside pieces, and that the album would be released early in 2017. I haven’t seen any official announcements about the album since then, but yesterday Bristol Deathfest (here) and UKEM Records leaked some news and the cover art (above) by Pär Olofsson: The name of Immolation’s new tenth studio album is Atonement, and the release is expected on February 24, 2017. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): EMPTINESS, HYPERDONTIA, ZOLOA, WIZARD UNION

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Dec 122016
 

emptiness-not-for-music

 

As the title says, this is the second part of a round-up of new music I thought was worth sharing to begin this week. As often happens, in between posting Part 1 and this Part 2 I came across some more new songs I thought were very good, and I’ve added one of them at the beginning of this post.

As explained in Part 1, this particular Seen and Heard includes more minutes of new music than usual because of the presence of numerous full EPs — three of which are to be found below.

EMPTINESS

This morning brought the premiere of yet another track from the new album by Belgium’s Emptiness. I’ve enjoyed all of them so far, but I think this one is my favorite. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): THE FLIGHT OF SLEIPNIR, MESARTHIM, VENEFIXION, CENTENARY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Dec 122016
 

the-flight-of-sleipnir-skadi

 

There are more total minutes of new music in this round-up than usual, and that’s because this compilation includes five EPs, one of which is a single 21-minute track. There are two individual songs in here, too. I thought I’d make up for the fact that my meager weekend posts included a grand total of one song. On the other hand, there’s so much music in this collection that I decided to divide it into two parts, with Part 2 coming a bit later today.

Sadly, I don’t have time to write decent reviews of those five EPs and will only froth at the mouth about them briefly, hopefully just enough to induce you to listen to them for yourself. But before getting to those, let’s start with the first of those two individual songs.

THE FLIGHT OF SLEIPNIR

Skadi is the name of the new sixth album by Colorado’s genre-bending The Flight of Sleipnir. It will be released on January 20 by Eisenwald. The first advance song from the album was released a couple of days ago, and its name is “Awaken”. Continue reading »

BLOG BREAK (WITH SOME MUSIC BY AZELISASSATH)

 Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Dec 112016
 

azelisassath-total-desecration-of-existence

 

The last two days have been crazier than usual in the not-blog part of my life, the part that I usually succeed in squelching down into a tiny thing that whines for attention but doesn’t get it. Beginning two days ago, it became the mouse that roared.

The nastiness started when the web hosting service we use for NCS (Bluehost) somehow crashed their entire system around mid-day on Friday just as I had posted one premiere, with one more that I had still planned to post. I’m calm about it now, but I was punching walls for a few hours after that happened. Once it became clear that this debacle wasn’t going to be fixed any time soon I just said, Fuck It, and started drinking.

Ten hours later, Bluehost still hadn’t fixed the problem, NCS was still inaccessible, and I was pretty well hammered. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: LOCK UP, DODECAHEDRON, ALLFATHER, HADAL MAW, UR, CODE, VARAHA, XENOTAPH, CRURIFRAGIUM

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Dec 092016
 

lock-up-band-2016

 

I’ve been immersed in compiling LISTMANIA features the last few days, but at the same time I’ve been noticing the appearance of new songs, many of them from albums headed our way in the new year. I’ve rounded up 9 of them here that I’ve enjoyed, with a range of metallic styles. I organized them sort of like a bell curve, with things starting hard and then getting more melodic in the middle, and then descending again into increasing ugliness and violence by the end.

Also, serious question: Should I divide collections of this length into smaller parts and spread them out over the day? Or does it matter?

LOCK UP

I’m afraid that if I googled “lock up” these days, I’d get stories about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The world obviously needs to grind again, and the real Lock Up is here to help us do that. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2016: EXCLAIM!’S LIST OF THE YEAR’S BEST METAL AND HARDCORE ALBUMS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Dec 092016
 

exclaim-best-metal-and-hardcore-2016

 

Yesterday we re-posted a lot of year-end lists from “big platform” music sites and print zines, or at least the portions of them that included metal albums (where such portions existed). I’ve come across another one since then, and it’s a list from Exclaim!

For those who may not know, Exclaim! Media Inc., which was established in 1991, describes itself (here)  as “Canada’s foremost source of news and information on the best in emerging new music”. In its print format, Exclaim! has “a monthly circulation of over 100,000 copies distributed through more than 3,000 outlets across Canada”. Exclaim.ca is the company’s digital platform, which focuses on streaming music, news, reviews, interviews and original video content across a range of music genres.

Yesterday, Exclaim! published its staff list of The Top 10 Metal and Hardcore Albums of 2016. Continue reading »

SEEN AND NOT COMPLETELY HEARD: WOLFHEART, URSINNE, GLOSON, PALE DIVINE, BLACK THERAPY, THRON, HORROR GOD

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Dec 052016
 

wolfheart-boneyard

 

Happy Monday. Through the miracles of modern technology, I’m writing this at roughly 38,000 feet above the earth, somewhere across the deserts of northern Utah, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and the barren panhandle of Texas. Under duress from my fucking day job, I’m bound for Houston for the next couple of days.

Actually, it’s not exactly a miracle, not something like turning water into wine, more like turning water into weak tea — because although I can get online, the service isn’t good enough to stream music or videos. So some of the items I’m including in this round-up are things I can see but can’t hear.

WOLFHEART

I’m beginning with an item that I could have heard over the weekend if I had known it was out there. Unfortunately, I discovered it only today after boarding this jet I’m on. It’s a video for a new song by Finland’s Wolfheart named “Boneyard“. Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS: UNCANNY, GOHRGONE, BONE STORM, UNDEAD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Dec 042016
 

uncanny-liturgy

 

For those of you who were expecting a “THAT’S METAL!” post today (because I did say I would put one together on the first Sunday of each month), I have to disappoint you. I didn’t have time to compile a Shades of Black post either. I shouldn’t even be writing this post. My fucking day job, which usually leaves me alone on the weekends, has come close to taking over this one.

Although I should be working this very minute, I couldn’t resist the urge to quickly share some death metal with you before I go back to the project that has rudely descended on me like an anvil.

UNCANNY

The first item is a three-track EP named Liturgy released on November 18 by Sweden’s Uncanny. Since the band’s last EP four years ago, there have been some line-up departures. For this new one, original members Fredrik Norrman (Katatonia, October Tide) and Kennet Englund (Dellamorte, Interment, Centinex) are joined by new vocalist Mikael Hanni (Disrupted). The EP also includes guest solos on two tracks by Jonas Kjellgren (ex-Carnal Forge, Scar Symmetry, Centinex). Continue reading »

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