SEEN AND HEARD: HATE ETERNAL, MYRKUR, KHEMMIS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Jun 032015
 

 

Once again I find myself awash in new music discovered over the last 24 hours that I want to share with you. I’ve picked three new songs to feature in this collection, and you know I must really like them since I have to send you to other sites to hear two of them.

HATE ETERNAL

Every death metal fan worth his or her salt has to be salivating over the prospect of a new Hate Eternal album — and that’s what we’re about to get. The new record is named Infernus and it’s set for North American release by Season of Mist on August 21. In addition to the fact that it will contain Hate Eternal music, it’s also adorned with painted cover art by the masterful Eliran Kantor. And now we also have a new song to hear. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DEMIURGON, MAZE OF TERROR, AND AMKEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jun 022015
 

 

I’m awash in new music, with not enough time to cover everything I want to throw your way. Consequently, and as is usually the case, I’m making this selection on a random basis: These are the last two selections of music I heard in my scurrying through the interhole that I really liked. The first two bands I’ve featured before; the third one is a new discovery.

DEMIURGON

About three weeks ago we premiered a song from Demiurgon’s debut album Above the Unworthy, which was mixed and mastered at 16th Cellar Studios by the masterful Stefano Morabito and  features cover art by the masterful Pär Oloffson. Yesterday it was officially released by Ungodly Ruins Production and the entire album is now available for listening and download on Bandcamp, where it can also be ordered on CD. If you’re a fan of well-executed death metal, you really owe yourself to check it out. Continue reading »

DARK RITUALS OF DOOM — PART 2

 Mosh Pit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 022015
 

 

(This is the second part of a mammoth essay by our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks, who explores a variety of spiritual rituals and their connections to doom metal. Part One is here.)

Tonight we’re finishing our brief research of Dark Rituals performed by doom bands all over the world. In the first part of this article we took part in Voodoo and Aghori rituals with Pombagira and The Moon Mistress, we participated in Christian and Black Mass ceremonies with Griftegard and Hour of 13, and besides that we even visited the Sabbath in some godforsaken pub alongside Barabbas, we summoned Cthulhu with Arkham Witch, and spent the Beltaine feast with Serpent Warning and the Wakan Tanka ritual with Caronte. Is it too much? Not at all. I have a few more examples of how sacred, ancient, esoteric traditions of dark occult wisdom have been reflected in the music of modern doom bands.

Today Reino Ermitano, War Injun, Ethereal Riffian, Tenochtitlan, Alunah, Stangala, Matus, Obake, Taak, and the almighty Abysmal Grief lead us into the mystic realms of the unknown. And I must warn you once more – don’t even try to perform these mysteries at home! Continue reading »

A NEW SEPTEKH VIDEO: “SUPERHEATED LIQUID IRON CORE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 022015
 

You can always count on Sweden’s Septekh to bring you the batshit crazy videos. The newest one, just unwrapped and dripping with blood and spit, is for the beautifully named song “Superheated Iron Core” from their last album, 2014’s Plan For World Domination.

It may be impossible for Septekh to ever replace their video for “Burn It To the Ground” in my affections, but this new one comes damned close. Bar fights are always fun to watch (as long as you’re on the sidelines), especially when they involve a bat-wielding waitress, knives and folding chairs, a man beaten with his own severed arm, a chainsaw to settle everything, and a bored kid who makes off with the spoils of war. And, of course, a band who don’t look like any other band. Continue reading »

NE OBLIVISCARIS: THE “CURATOR” VIDEO

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jun 022015
 

Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris have just released a video for the song “Painters Of The Tempest (Part II): Triptych Lux / Movement III: Curator”, from their 2014 album Citadel. I’m glad they picked that song for a video. The intro to the song probably makes it my favorite on that album — the finger-tapped bass, the plucked violin string, the shimmer of the guitar, it all works. There are of course other things to like about the song, too.

The video was directed by Joe Ritson, with lighting design by Joshua Tanidis. When a live performance is this well-filmed and edited, you don’t really need anything else going on to make it worth watching. Continue reading »

GHOST B.C.: “CIRICE”

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jun 012015
 

 

Sunday is an odd day to choose for song premieres. But for a band whose rise to prominence has been as meteoric as Ghost B.C.‘s, I guess it doesn’t really matter — word of a new song will spread regardless of it coming out on one of the sleepiest days of the week. And yes, yesterday Ghost B.C. released a new song, named “Cirice“.

The song will appear on the band’s new album Meliora, which is now scheduled for release on August 21 via Loma Vista Recordings. The new song and the new album feature a new front person, anointed Papa Emeritus III and described as the “three-month-younger brother” of the band’s last Papa Emeritus. What’s more, the song comes with its own cover art — and it’s available for free download, here: Continue reading »

SATURDAY SLAUGHTERING: BEARSTORM AND SVÄRTA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 302015
 

This weekend’s posts at our site will be few and far between. My wife and I will be venturing into the wilds of eastern Washington in a couple of hours to attend a wedding late this afternoon, followed by the usual post-nuptials carousing. I’m not sure when we’ll get back home tomorrow or what condition I’ll be in, but it’s likely that all we’ll have at NCS tomorrow will be another edition of Father Synn’s Metal Confessional (be sure to start mentally enumerating your sins so you’ll be ready to spew them forth in all their vile putridity). Before disappearing, I do have a couple of randomly chosen selections of new music that I came upon in recent days and really enjoyed.

BEARSTORM

As you know, we follow the releases of Baltimore’s Grimoire Records very closely, because they’re so consistently good. The latest release is coming on June 30 (CD and digitally), and it’s an album entitled Americanus by a Richmond, Virginia, band named Bearstorm. I haven’t heard the full album yet, but the one song from it that’s now available for streaming is very good. Continue reading »

NEW THINGS FROM TEMPEL AND ANIMALS AS LEADERS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 292015
 

 

Here are a couple of new things (one new song and one new video) that I thought I’d recommend before the work week comes to an end. They’re both instrumental pieces, but that’s about where the similarity ends.

TEMPEL

A couple of days ago Arizona’s Tempel premiered another new song (“Descending Into the Labyrinth”) from their forthcoming album The Moon Lit Our Path — which will be released by Prosthetic Records on June 16. I meant to write about it sooner than now, but my fucking day job derailed my plans. Better late than never, I hope. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: AHAB, FALSE, FUCK THE FACTS, GORGOROTH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 292015
 

I’m getting a late start on the blog this morning. I spent hours on the phone with world leaders attempting to answer their urgent questions about an array of socio-economic and security crises. After a while I got tired of it and just started repeating a convenient mantra, “FUCK THE FACTS”.

AHAB

That album art up there is fucking fantastic. I have very high hopes for the album, too, which is the first one from German’s Ahab in four years. The title is The Boats of The Glen Carrig and it’s a musical interpretation of a 1907 horror novel of the same name written by William Hope Hodgson (more info about the book can be found here). Continue reading »

SIFTING: DISARMONIA MUNDI, MAJALIS, AUTHOR & PUNISHER, SIBERIAN HELL SOUNDS / TRAVELS SPLIT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 272015
 

 

(DGR wrote this round-up of new music while I was away at MDF, and I rewarded his helpfulness by posting it days later after I got back home. You’re welcome, Dave.)

While most of the goofballs who inhabit this site are off fucking around somewhere in Maryland, one of us has to pick up the slack and bring you yesterday’s news tomorrow, otherwise we wouldn’t be fulfilling our mission statement of always being just behind the curve — but with more words to make up for the delay.

This edition is going to be a little heavily biased toward my tastes, which means we’re probably going to be on the lighter fare of the metal scale, but there was still some damn good music to happen within recent weeks, and most of the bands you folks will be familiar with. There were a couple of interesting discoveries on that front, as a couple of different artists decided to release new songs out to the world, and then in the other two cases, they’ve been out for a bit but we’re doing our best to keep them from flying under the radar. Continue reading »

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