May 242016
 

Revocation-Great Is Our Sin

 

I had intended to prepare a “Seen and Heard” round-up for today, and may still accomplish that, but I just listened to a new song from Revocation and decided to toss it at you without waiting until later — because it’s loads of fun.

The name of the song is “Communion”, and it comes from the band’s new album Great Is Our Sin, which will be released on July 22 by Metal Blade. Here’s a quote about the song from guitar whiz David Davidson:

“‘Communion‘ is the fastest song we’ve recorded to date and while it’s blistering in terms of speed there are also some proggy elements present to add contrast to the aggression.”

And he’s right. There’s even some funky bass work in this song along with lots of exuberant, head-spinning, technically impressive guitar work mixed into this invigorating thrash romp. Continue reading »

May 202016
 

Gojira-Magma

 

I haven’t heard Gojira’s new album Magma, but my comrade Andy Synn has. And last night he alerted me to the fact that Gojira would begin streaming a new song today — a song he described as “one of the really good ones” on Magma. And so they have. And so it is — really good, I mean.

The name of the song is “Silvera”, and it’s presented through a video directed by Drew Cox. The music is powerful and jolting, with a swirling Eastern-influenced melody that’s urgent and intense. It’s unmistakably a Gojira song, bursting with passion and displaying many of the band’s hallmark ingredients — yet it also differs from their past output, featuring more clean vocals (which will evidently be a hallmark of this new album) and coming to a close in a way that might seem premature in comparison with the band’s older work. Continue reading »

May 192016
 

Inquisition-Bloodshed Across

Here are a quartet of things I saw and heard over the last 24 hours that I thought might peak your interest as they did mine.

INQUISITION

Yesterday Season of Mist revealed details about the new album by Seattle-based Inquisition as well as a new song. The name of the album is Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith, it includes 13 tracks, and it will be released on August 26. Here’s a statement about the album by guitarist/vocalist Dagon: Continue reading »

May 182016
 

Among Gods-Ghost Empire

 

Is this too much? Songs, albums, and EPs from ten bands collected in a single post instead of divided up and spread out over time so you can have recovery periods in between the skull-fracturing? I’m afraid it might be too much, but obviously not afraid enough to change the plan. Mainly, I’m too impatient to share all this fine new metal to worry very much about your cranial integrity.

In fact, you can think of this as a test for the hardness of your skull. If you can make it to the end, you have a Granite-Level Skull and should consider applying for employment as a crash-test dummy. People with Eggshell Skulls might not make it through the first track; R.I.P. Those of you in between are degrees of semi-hard and semi-soft, kind of like cheese.

AMONG GODS

Three-and-a-half years have passed since I last wrote about this band from Bergen after discovering them through a listening session for a MISCELLANY post. But the opportunity for a rediscovery has arrived, because on June 27 Argonauta Records will release their new album, Ghost Empire. Continue reading »

May 162016
 

Lord Impaler-Demology-The Decade of Obscurity

 

Here are a couple of quick news items of interest that qualify as updates to recent posts here at our putrid site.

LORD IMPALER

In a Shades of Black post yesterday I included a video of the first live performance by the Greek black metal band Lord Impaler in 16 years, opening for Rotting Christ on May 13 in Kastoria, Greece, and performing a new song from their forthcoming second album In Full Regalia. And today Lord Impaler followed that landmark event in their history with an announcement I thought was worth spreading around — especially because it involves an offer of free music, much of which has been hard to find: Continue reading »

May 162016
 

Dávid Glomba-Cult of Fire cover

 

(One of our friends from Norway, eiterorm, rejoins NCS with a guest “Seen and Heard” post, collecting news and/or recommended new music from a diverse array of 9 bands.)

While Islander is recovering from his Friday night sufferings, alcoholic daemons, and (gasp!) metal shows, I thought I’d step in with an occasional roundup.

AEGRUS

The Finnish black metal band Aegrus recently revealed the details for their upcoming release. The EP, entitled Conjuring the Old Echoes, will be unearthed some time this summer via Hammer of Hate Records. Below is the track list for the release. Continue reading »

May 132016
 

Polyptych-Defying the Metastasis

 

For reasons I’ve explained before, I’ve had less time than usual to surf for new metal, partly because I’ve been getting home so late at night from hospital visits. Last night I made it home a bit earlier than usual, faced again with an enormous amount of stuff in our in-box and a continuing flood of new music appearing on social media. What to do?

I decided to just look at a few of the e-mails we received yesterday, and I had surprisingly good luck with that.  I discovered all the songs you’re about to hear in that way. But first, a piece of welcome news….

POLYPTYCH

Last month we had the pleasure of premiering the title track to Defying the Metastasis, the new album by Chicago-based Polyptych. Today the album has been officially released in digital form (physical CDs will be available by the end of the summer), and the album is so damned good that I thought it was worth spreading the word — and giving you a chance to listen to all of it. Continue reading »

May 112016
 

Centinex-Doomsday Rituals

 

I’m still significantly distracted from the mission of NCS these days for personal reasons that I’ve described in previous posts, and that will likely continue to be the case for at least the next week or two. But although the round-ups haven’t been coming as frequently as usual, I did manage to pull this one together over the last few days. All the songs (and one video) are fairly recent and all provide some very tasty flavors of death metal (lots of cool cover art in this post as well). For better or worse, I need to keep my own verbiage short and let the music speak for itself.

CENTINEX

That’s a hell of an album cover up there (created by Bahrull Marta of Abomination Imagery) for a hell of a band — Sweden’s Centinex. Their new album Doomsday Rituals is set for release by Agonia Records on July 8.

The band’s current line-up, which is different from the one that released eight albums prior to the disbanding of Centinex in 2005, is truly impressive: Martin Schulman (Demonical) on bass, Sverker Widgren (Demonical, Diabolical) on guitars, Alexander Högbom (October Tide, Spasmodic) on vocals, and Kennet Englund (Interment, Centinex 1999-2003). And so is the new song that premiered yesterday. Continue reading »

May 092016
 

CD Folder

 

(Our Norwegian comrade Gorger continues his distinctive series recommending albums that have somehow eluded our attention. To find more of his discoveries, visit Gorger’s Metal.)

Running a one-man site (old-school style, edited via usb-typewriter and quill on touch surface) takes its toll when attempting to cover as much as possible.

Hence, I’ve been too busy to leand a hand to Islander lately. To make up for it, and to rid myself of my March writings, I’m tossing in six albums this time. I hope you’re hungry. Continue reading »

May 072016
 

Denouncement Pyre-Black Sun Unbound

 

Some people may have noticed that I failed to compile even one round-up of new music all of this past week (unless you count that little Warriors in Forests thing). I’ve still been spending hours every afternoon or evening in a hospital ICU trying to help support my injured friend and her family.

For those of you who have been following my scattered references to this tragedy, my friend came out of her coma yesterday, though she still drifts in and out of consciousness and is now beset with other medical issues in addition to her injury.  It’s too soon to tell exactly how seriously impaired she will be as a result of the injury to her brain.  She can answer some simple yes or no questions by moving her fingers or foot, but she hasn’t attempted to speak and doesn’t move much. I’m trying to remain hopeful, but this is still heart-breaking.

Though I haven’t had time to do much for NCS this week besides write introductions to premieres, I have been keeping a list of new song and album streams and videos that I’ve noticed. As usual, there’s a shitload of them, far too many to write about in one post. I picked a handful to include in this post (and Austin Weber wrote an introduction to one of them as well). I’m also planning to prepare a Shades of Black post for tomorrow to collect others. Continue reading »