SINKING: DEAD TO A DYING WORLD, HELLLIGHT, IJSRIJK, MESARTHIM, THE CLOISTERS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  26 Responses »
Sep 052015
 

Dead To A Dying World-Litany

 

I have some round-ups of new and newly discovered music to send your way today and tomorrow. By coincidence, much of what I found yesterday that hit me hard were songs that in very different ways lay the mantle of doom upon your shoulders, and those are all collected here. The music pulls you in, and draws you under; the light recedes while the surface grows more distant. There’s a lot of heaviness (and wretchedness) in what follows, and a lot of sublime beauty as well. The final song in the collection, while not metal except perhaps in spirit, may be the most beautiful of all.

DEAD TO A DYING WORLD

I’m not sure how we reached the 5th day of September, 2015, without ever previously featuring Dead To A Dying World on this site. We hang our heads in shame. It’s time to make amends.

Four years after their debut album, this seven-piece Dallas band have a new full-length named Litany that will be released on October 16 by Gilead Media and Tofu Carnage Records in the U.S. and by Alerta Antifascista in Europe. It features cover art by the talented Sera Timms.

Yesterday, Decibel premiered a 16 1/2 minute song named “Beneath the Loam”, and the title tells you something about the atmosphere of the music — but far from everything. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ALL HELL, SHADOW OV FENRIS, OSMOSE, VELUM

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Sep 042015
 

All Hell-The Red Sect

 

My trip to Alaska for my fucking day job proved to be a quick one. I got back home to Seattle late last night, about 36 hours after I left. If I’d had any sense, I would have gone right to bed. Instead, I spent time listening to new music, following up on links that friends sent me. And now here I am, five hours of sleep later, pecking on my keyboard about what I heard. By chance, what I enjoyed the most were songs in the vein of black metal, and so we have another Shades of Black collection. As usual, the music is quite diverse.

ALL HELL

My friend and NCS contributor Leperkahn messaged me about the promo of a new album by a band named All Hell that he had just received, with these words:  “Trust me when I say stop whatever you’re doing and listen to it, or at least the track at this link, immediately”. Continue reading »

PLAYING CATCH-UP: UNDER THE PLEDGE OF SECRECY / MAAHLAS / SHELL FROM OCEANIC

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Sep 042015
 

Under the Pledge of Secrecy-Black Hole Mass Evolution

 

(Andy Synn looks back at three albums from 2014 that we sadly neglected to review.)

Despite what you all clearly think, even your humble Metal overlords here at NCS aren’t completely infallible. Try as we might, sometimes even we miss out on stuff amongst the hustle and bustle of this thing we call life.

Case in point: I’m still discovering albums from last year (and the year before that… and the year before that…) which we failed to adequately cover properly, and which I’m metaphorically kicking myself for having missed.

So, in the interest of correcting such heinous oversights, I’ve decided to wax lyrical about three albums which went cruelly unappreciated here at NCS during the chaos and confusion of last year, each of which offers something very different to tease your musical tastebuds! Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: AUTOPSY, YELLOW EYES, REVULSED, SANZU

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Sep 032015
 

Autopsy-After the Cutting

 

I find myself in Alaska this morning, preparing for a day of toil for my fucking day job. This means that posts on our putrid site will be scarce today. I’m also behind (again) in putting together round-ups of news and new music. Before I have to immerse myself in what I’m paid to do, I thought I would at least compile a selection of things I spotted over the last couple of days — and this selection is based principally on the attractiveness of the album art.

AUTOPSY

As announced yesterday, the almighty Autopsy have two new  things headed our way. First, on November 13 Peaceville Records will release a jumbo set entitled After the Cutting that includes four discs “full of classics, new tracks and previously unheard rarities from deep within the band’s own archive”. This special release will also include “an expansive book penned by Dennis Dread recounting the career of the gore legend, featuring unseen photos and exclusive artwork”.

Wes Benscoter again handled the Autopsy artwork for After the Cutting. As you can see, it’s sick. Continue reading »

BATMETAL RETURNS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Sep 022015
 

Batmetal-Children of Batman

 

The Russian animators at Red Medusa Studio (aka Arhybes) have returned after a little more than one year with a new Batmetal video, this one set to Children of Batman’s cover of Dethklok’s “Murmaider”.

I’m leaving this here because, as I go to sleep the night before this thing will actually appear, I have nothing else ready to post on our site — and because it reminds me how much Dethklok kills, and because Batman is the best of all comic heroes, even when put to these kinds of demented purposes. Dementia also rules.

Watch next, and please don’t leave me dangling here in the wind… comments please! Also… Continue reading »

HORDES OF BELIAL: THE 6TH VERSE

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 312015
 

Hordes of Belial-The 6th Verse

 

My UK-based comrade Andy Synn alerted me to an event and an accompanying music compilation that he and I thought would be worth your attention. First, the event:

On September 26, 2015, a festival called Hordes of Belial will have its 6th Verse — its sixth installment since the festival began in 2010. It will take place at Beat Generator Live in Dundee, Scotland, and it will feature 15 extreme metal and hard rock bands on two stages.

To help promote the festival, its organizers (Critical Events) have released a “pay what you want” digital compilation featuring music by 13 of the bands set to appear this year. The music spans a range that includes thrash, death/sludge, prog, brutal death, doom, and other genres as well. Continue reading »

NEBULA ORIONIS AND FUNEBRIA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 292015
 

Nebula Orionis-Collapse

 

It’s been an interesting Saturday here in blogville, and by “interesting” I mean “fucked up”. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to write today because of other personal obligations, and what I did write got wiped out, not once but twice, due to loss of power caused by a very blustery day in the area where I live.

The wind blows, branches come down on power lines, and everything dies. Of course, I wasn’t doing a good job saving my work before my computer expired, twice. So this post is very late and it isn’t as fulsome as I intended, but it will have to do. (Thanks to “M” for the tips on these two bands.)

NEBULA ORIONIS

I’m quickly recommending some music from two contrasting black metal bands. Nebula Orionis is the first of these. They are a duo from Tolyatti, Russia — instrumentalist M42 and vocalist/lyricist Hated Being. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (Part 2): MORDBRAND, HOODED MENACE, OAK PANTHEON, ONIRIK, EARTHSIDE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 272015
 

Mordbrand vidclip

 

One of these days I’ll learn that part-time, half-witted metal bloggers shouldn’t make promises about what they’re going to do. Yesterday I wrote that I would post two round-up’s of new music in an effort to partially catch up on all the new songs that had emerged since the last one I compiled five days earlier, but that obviously didn’t happen.

However, thanks to Austin Weber, we do have two today, with this being the second one. One silver lining to the cloud of my tardiness is that since yesterday I discovered one more item worth recommending to you — and it’s the first one in this post.

MORDBRAND

For those who haven’t religiously followed my scribbling over the last few years, I will confess that I’m a slavish fan of Sweden’s Mordbrand. It’s not that they have any compromising photos of me, it’s because they’ve been so consistently good at what they do. Out of all the outstanding songs they’ve released, perhaps my favorite track is “That Which Crawls” from their 2014 album Imago — and today they released a video for that very song. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CEREBRIC TURMOIL, BEATEN TO DEATH, INTERNAL SUFFERING, HELPLESS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 272015
 

Cerebric Turmoil cover

 

(Austin Weber steps up for round-up duty, with new music from four bands.)

While we already shove enough music down your throat on a daily basis to have your anus crying musical notes for a year, I figured I might as well present some more killer metal to up the rectal/ear discomfort of our readers. Below you’ll find a smattering of new songs by groups about to release new material, as well as a heads-up about a new release worth investing time in. A feast for the fetid-minded awaits you. In either a pleasant or unpleasant way. Your choice.

CEREBRIC TURMOIL

Oftentimes promising metal bands I’ve been interested in have sadly bitten the dust before they were able to release a proper album or EP. So often, all we have in memoriam is a brief demo or split material. For a number of years now, it’s looked like that very fate might befall German death metal band Cerebric Turmoil. After a 2006 demo, the band started off at a very high level, releasing a split album with none other then Defeated Sanity, which should give you an idea of their sound and also the quality of their music. In fact, at one point, the band actually had Defeated Sanity’s bass player in their ranks, and they also had famed oddball guitarist Fountainhead (now in Obscura) in their line-up at one point too.

After releasing their split with Defeated Sanity in 2008, the band broke up that same year. And while they re-formed in 2010, a full-length statement was nowhere in sight. Only now in 2015 are the band on the cusp of releasing their very promising debut, Neural Net Meltdown (on November 13th) through Amputated Vein Records. They just released the first song from it called “Grotesque Dreaming”, which I’ve embedded below for you to jam. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): ÆVANGELIST, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, VHÖL, CRUCIAMENTUM, HORRENDOUS, NIGHTFELL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Aug 262015
 

Aevangelist-Enthrall To The Void Of Bliss

 

I haven’t been able to pull together a round-up of news and new music in five days, and you know what that means: I’ve got a backlog that’s so big I’ll never catch up. But instead of just uttering a big sigh and looking ahead instead of behind, I decided I should at least pick some of what interested me out of the last five days’ discoveries (in the hope that they will interest you, too).

The entries in this first part of a two-part post are almost all news items — and they include a ton of great cover art — but since this feature is called Seen and HEARD, I’ve tacked on one new song at the end that you can stream right here. Part 2 will be all music.

ÆVANGELIST

This interests me greatly: Through 20 Buck Spin, Ævangelist will release their fourth album on October 9 in the U.S. and October 23 in Europe. A vinyl edition is projected for December. The name of the album is Enthrall To the Void of Bliss. I have to find out who created the cover art, because it’s very good. (UPDATE: I’ve learned that the wonderful art was created by Stephen Wilson [FB page here], and more of his work will appear in the digipak of this album.) Continue reading »

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