BLACK METAL (PART 5): A COLLECTION CURATED BY NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Sep 122016
 

Krieg-Photo by Hillarie Jason

 

(Neill Jameson (Krieg) returns to our site with a further installment in his series on black metal from years past. Some real gems are collected here, and others can be found in his previous installments located behind this link.)

Without much need for exposition since this is my fifth time doing this subject, I guess all I really can say is I don’t understand why these records sit with some dust on them when so much other nonsense gets lavished with praise. It’s probably my taste and inability to think positive thoughts, but that seems like some shit for my therapist. So without further hold-ups, here’s a few more black metal records that I feel should have some light shed on them. Continue reading »

A NEW SONG FROM GHOST: “SQUARE HAMMER”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 122016
 

ghost-band

 

Well, for the second time today, I’m scurrying to write about a new song premiere (the first one was from Bölzer) without waiting to prepare a Seen and Heard round-up. This next one is from Sweden’s Ghost, and for now it’s exclusively streaming on the Octane music channel. It was preceded by an interview with one of the Nameless Ghouls, who said: “We’re very proud of it. We’re obviously thrilled to be able to play something new. This is a short, to-the-point little gem right at the jugular.”

And so it is. Continue reading »

BÖLZER: “I AM III”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Sep 122016
 

bolzer-i-am-iii

 

When I learned yesterday that Bölzer intended to release a new song today, I had a text discussion with DGR about where the song would premiere. We bandied about the names of certain very large online music sites who in well-calculated fashion sprinkle a few bits of extremity into their large stew of not-metal dreck… as DGR put it, sites that have “massive reach, but massive reach to deaf ears” when it comes to music like this. We had that discussion because Bölzer has become such a critical darling (on the strength of very few songs) that it wouldn’t be surprising to see their new track pop up on one of those behemoth sites, even if only .01% of their readers ever bother to listen to music like this.

We should have known better. None of that happened. Bölzer instead released the song straight to Soundcloud, relying on word of mouth to spread it around. The song is “I AM III“, it comes from the band’s forthcoming album Hero, and it’s hellishly good. Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS: KRYPTS, RUINS, SPECTRAL APPARITION, TOTALITARIAN, BLOOD OF SEKLUSION, MORAL VOID

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  10 Responses »
Sep 102016
 

krypts-remnants-of-expansion

 

On Thursday I mentioned that I was on the verge of leaving Seattle for a trip related to my day job. I’m still on that trip, which has taken me to a mountainous region of Utah for a “retreat” hosted by the company I work for. This happens every year, and it’s always fun. This year may be even more fun than usual, because so far I haven’t subjected myself to alcohol poisoning.

Yesterday and this morning I had time to pull together some new music and one news item. Despite the title of this post, most of the following six bands either straddle the line between black metal and death metal or might be considered all the way over on the black-metal side of the line. But the title wasn’t intended as a straight genre descriptor. There are other reasons for the title, which you’ll discover soon.

KRYPTS

I’ve been anxiously awaiting the new album by the Finnish band Krypts, because their 2013 debut full-length, Unending Degradation, was damned good. The name of the new album is Remnants of Expansion, it’s embellished with artwork by Timo Ketola, and it’s coming out on October 28 via Dark Descent. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SAOR AND NATTRAVNEN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 082016
 

saor-guardians

 

As usual, I’ve accumulated a long list of new songs and videos that emerged over the last 48 hours, hoping to throw many of them your way in this Thursday round-up. Alas, I’ve been scrambling to leave on a trip this morning for my day job that will take me away until Sunday night. I figured that I had time (barely) to spew praise on maybe two songs, and I picked these two, because they’ve spiked my brain like none of the others.

SAOR

Andy Marshall ought to be declared a Scottish national treasure. Under the name Saor, he has crafted two wonderful albums in 2013’s Roots and 2014’s Aura. And on November 11, a third one will be released, with the title of Guardians. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (BY DGR): KHONSU, DÉPARTE, FROM THE VASTLAND, WASTEWALKER, EVERGREY, HEAVEN SHALL BURN, HANNES GROSSMANN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 062016
 

Khonsu-The Xun Protectorate

 

(DGR prepared this large roundup of new music streams, with one item added by the editor.)

I’ve been slowly gathering up this veritable feast of heavy metal for this roundup, basically doing my usual duty of being the last line of defense for metal news that often pops up and we didn’t catch right away for a variety of reasons. This time around, I’ve got a huge collection of six [now seven] different items, some of which I’m sure you’ve likely crossed paths with but we didn’t dedicate words to and others because they may not be in the usual NCS coverage wheelhouse. I even managed to include some serious lighter fare this time, to help brighten up the mood musically after the first two full onslaughts [now three] hit your musical listening systems.

So let’s kick this thing off with a real quick one that happened as I was writing this intro, and then dive into the meat of it and romp around in its innards for a while.

 

KHONSU – ARTWORK TRAILER / “A DREAM OF EARTH” SNIPPET

This one is going to be quick, mostly because there isn’t a huge block of heavy metal music proper — but it just happened, and I’ll be goddamned if I don’t say that I am immensely excited for this disc. Continue reading »

LABOR DAY DELAY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 052016
 

Diego Rivera-Detroit Industry mural

 

I checked the store of data about our putrid site at Google Analytics today and learned that over the last year 41.32% of our visitors were located in the United States, which means that 58.68% came to us from other lands. Which means that on average, most of you reading this won’t be observing a holiday today. It is, however, a holiday here in the U.S. Which means that I’m just lying around in two-day-old underwear enjoying the pleasures of doing not a goddamned thing. This is how we celebrate Labor Day — by not laboring.

The Labor Day holiday was created by an act of Congress on June 28, 1894. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (of course), the holiday “is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: LLUVIA, JASSA, ENDE, VOMIT OF DOOM, JORDABLOD, HIRSI

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Sep 042016
 

Lluiva-Enigma

 

I’ve been messing with this site for almost 7 years and I continue to be astonished by how much good metal from all over the world appears on a weekly basis. And so a lot of new music awaits you in this round-up of metal in a blackened vein, but there could have been more. In fact, I forced myself to separate new music from five other bands and assemble those tracks in another one of these posts, though I can’t be sure I’ll finish it before being diverted by other things.

I’m starting off with tracks from two new releases that are headed our way from the Fallen Empire label, and then branching off into other directions.

LLUVIA

We haven’t given enough attention to Lluvia (a one-man project from León, Mexico), even though the band’s last album Eternidad Solemne was celebrated in our friend Ben Smasher’s list of 2015’s best albums (and he’s not the only writer around the web who embraced the album last year). We have another opportunity to do better, because Lluvia has already completed a new album, the name of which is Enigma. Continue reading »

SATURN’S DAY: KYPCK, OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE, DEFECRATOR, NAAT, SECOND TO SUN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Sep 032016
 

KYPCK-Zero

 

Yesterday, to end the work week, I picked new (or newish) songs from five bands to recommend out of a much bigger group of new stuff I thought was good. To celebrate Saturn’s Day, I’ve picked four more from that original group and added one older EP that I finally got around to checking out.

KYPCK

Formed back in 2007 and naming themselves after the Russian city of the same name, KYPCK (pronounced “kursk”) are Finnish but led by a vocalist (Erkki Seppänen) who is fluent in Russian and sings in that language. His bandmates include two former members of Sentenced: guitarists Sami Lopakka (who uses a six-string guitar made from an AK-47 assault rifle) and Sami Kukkohovi, along with bassist Jaakko Ylä-Rautio and drummer Antti Karihtal. Their discography, such as it existed at the end of 2014, was the subject of the 53rd edition of THE SYNN REPORT at our site. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BRUTALLY DECEASED, MAGOA, BALANCE INTERRUPTION, HELLWAFFE, TAIGA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Sep 022016
 

Brutally Deceased-Satanic Corpse

 

Last night and this morning I listened to all or parts of 21 new songs. Most of them I found in e-mails we received over just the last 24 hours, others from browsing my Facebook feed. Most of the bands I knew nothing about. With varying degrees of enthusiasm, I enjoyed 16 of them. What to do?

This is why these posts are tagged “Random Fucking Music”, because little more than chance determined what I chose to include here (as is often the case) — plus a desire for a bit of variety in the sounds while including some of those bands I’d never heard of before.

BRUTALLY DECEASED

This first band I have heard of before, but haven’t thought about in years. In fact, the last time I wrote about them was January 2011 in a review of their debut album Dead Lover’s Guide, which I accompanied with photos of gigantic chainsaws. Instead of massive chainsaws, this time I have an image of one of Paolo Girardi’s most monstrous artistic creations, which appears on the cover of this Czech band’s new album, Satanic Corpse. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries