SEEN AND HEARD: ANTROPOFAGUS, HERESIARCH, THY DARKENED SHADE, VALGRIND, REBIRTH OF NEFAST, VARMIA, ALFAHANNE, VESICANT

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 142017
 

 

I was tempted to name this post “Eye-Catchers“, especially since I haven’t written a post in that series for years, but since I was already quite familiar with most of the bands whose new artwork caught my eye, they didn’t really fit the theme of that series. But the new artwork is damned appealing, and so is the promise of new music from these groups.

And that’s how this post begins — with eye-catching new artwork for four forthcoming albums. Following that, I want to recommend advance tracks from four other forthcoming releases, which themselves also include eye-catching cover art.

ANTROPOFAGUS

The first piece of attention-grabbing artwork I’ve collected here (above) was created by the Chilean artist Nekronikon for the new album by Italy’s Antropofagus. Entitled M.O.R.T.E. – Methods Of Resurrection Through Evisceration, it will be released May 12 on CD via Comatose Music and on vinyl via Everlasting Spew Records. 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 »

LANTERN: “II: MORPHOSIS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 092017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by the Finnish band Lantern.)

I’ve been eagerly anticipating a new Lantern record since I heard and reviewed their undeniably powerful debut full-length Below. That thrash/death/black combo, which personified a synthesis of early Napalm Death, Celtic Frost, and Emperor, still holds absolutely true and finds itself achieving new progressive ambition on the band’s sophomore opus II: Morphosis.

This is also a new chapter in the project’s lifespan, upgrading from an enthusiastic duo to a full-fledged five-piece, although I still suspect guitarist/composer Cruciatus and vocalist Necrophilos call the majority of the shots, if not all of them. 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 »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SEROCS — “AND SO IT BEGINS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 302017
 

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new video from Serocs.)

Multi-national technical brutal death metal act Serocs have remained an ongoing favorite of mine ever since I first stumbled upon their 2013 album, The Next, and reviewed it at the time here at NCS. Even then the band was onto something special, but they truly took themselves to a higher level on their 2015 album, And When The Sky Was Opened, from which NCS helped launch a single called “Itami”.

Since that time, the band’s founder, guitarist Antonio Freyre, has been busy starting other projects, including last year’s side-project Punished, for which Islander was nice enough to premiere a song called “The Absent” (since I guested on it briefly and it wouldn’t have been right for me to cover it).

But I digress. Seeing as it’s now 2017 and Serocs is ramping back up again, that provides the impetus for us helping to launch this new video today. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: NIMPHAION — “THE CONQUEROR WORM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jan 292017
 

 

The Russian band Nimphaion are working on their third album, a conceptual creation named Quoth the Raven that’s projected for release in the coming spring. As a sign of what lies ahead, the band are releasing a single from the album, “The Conqueror Worm“, and today we’re sharing with you a stream of the title song in a lyric video.

Those of you familiar with the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe will have already realized where Nimphaion drew inspiration for this music. In fact, they’ve described the music in genre terms as “Poe-tic Black Metal”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MORTA SKULD, LANTERN, DÉMONOS, REBEL SOULS, DESTROYERS OF ALL, ASOFY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jan 282017
 


Morta Skuld

It seems that some lessons can’t be learned no matter how many times they’re taught. A case in point: Once again, I’m now recovering from alcohol poisoning, probably not severe enough to require hospitalization but debilitating enough that even typing hurts and coherent thought is a goal that’s out of reach.

Fortunately, I picked the following songs and videos yesterday, before severely damaging my coherence with an end-of-the-work-week blowout last night. If you find more mistakes than usual in what I’ve written today, you’ll know why.

MORTA SKULD

The first item in this collection blind-sided me without warning yesterday, though I probably just wasn’t paying attention as carefully as I should have. The news is that Milwaukee-based Morta Skuld have returned with a new album. Entitled Wounds Deeper Than Time, it will be released by Peaceville Records on February 17 and it follows the band’s comeback EP Serving Two Masters (2014). Like the EP, it includes cover art by Patrick Kachellek: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (IN THE FORM OF A VERY METAL MUSICAL SANDWICH): MANETHEREN, MISERIST, CRESCENT, QUASARBORN, MAHAKALA, LETHE, VERMIN LORD, WRATH FROM ABOVE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jan 262017
 

 

As I made my way through the enormous list of new songs and videos that I’ve been compiling since last weekend, a certain shape began to suggest itself to me — the shape of a tasty metal sandwich. And with that shape in mind (and a gnawing hunger in my guts), I selected and organized the following 8 songs.

For this playlist of mostly brand new things we begin harsh and heavy, then segue into a block of Exceptions To Our Rule (the one about singing), and then move into the other side of the sandwich where total war on the senses lies in wait again. You’ll also find some very eye-catching videos in here, along with a broad assortment of music that struck my fancy — with only truncated commentary from yours truly.

MANETHEREN

According to a press release, “The End is a concept album about a human being travelling across the lands as the world begins to end…. Each song represents different events during the ending process, and as they unfold the being feels as himself is becoming god, or death itself. By the end of the album this being by all means becomes god and rules over the wasteland left behind.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WARBRINGER, BLASPHEMER, GRAVE PLAGUE, DISCHORDIA, AMTHYST, OLD SCRATCH, AREA, SUPREMATIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jan 232017
 

 

This will be one of those Mondays when I’m afraid we’ll be doing our best to drown you in music, beginning with this large collection of new discoveries (which includes one item from Austin Weber along with my own picks).

I thought about titling this post “Galloping Madness!” Everything in here flies, but in particular there’s a heavy thrash influence in a lot of the music at the start and the finish, with some brain scramblers sandwiched in the middle. But as you’ll discover, the thrash influence manifests itself in very different ways.

WARBRINGER

The first item is a video for “Silhouettes”, from the new album Woe to the Vanquished by California’s Warbringer. This is their fifth full-length, and it’s slated for a March 31 release through Napalm Records.

“Silhouettes” premiered at DECIBEL last week, where vocalist John Kevill gave this explanation about the song: Continue reading »

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