ESSENTIAL ENTRIES: FEBRUARY 2015

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 162015
 

 

(In this post Dan Barkasi continues his monthly series recommending music from the month just ended.)

Here we go for round two of Essential Entries. You guessed it – we’re covering February this time. Yeah, yeah, suspense isn’t this guy’s strong point.

January gave us genius like Desolate Shrine and Agos, which is just what was needed to start things off right. How does February measure up? To quote one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time, “Great Scott!” If you don’t get that, I bestow upon you great shame. But yeah, February did bring the noise (no Public Enemy included). Here’s the proof, in no particular order.

A Forest of Stars – Beware the Sword You Cannot See

Self-described as a secret society from Victorian-era 1895, A Forest of Stars compose music that’s as intricate and unique as their theming. Black metal with a lot of psychedelic elements is the most basic description, but really, their music is so much more. It’s a continuing story, and their latest chapter is awe-inspiring. Invest the time, as there’s a lot of layers, with the payoff being oh so worth it. Continue reading »

RAPID ROUND-UP: MACABRE OMEN, TENGGER CAVALRY, MOONSORROW, AKHLYS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 152015
 

 

(Our Norwegian friend eiterorm has stepped up to assist with a round-up of recommended new music.)

While Islander is away on duties, I promised to do a quick round-up of some of the news I find. Due to my music-to-words converter running at low capacity at the moment, I’ll leave it to you to find descriptive words for the music. So if you find that adjectives and metaphors are lacking, feel free to add your own in the comment field below. Despite the scarcity of words in this post, however, all the music below is highly recommended. Don’t just take my word for it; stream it all and hear for yourself.

Macabre Omen

Macabre Omen was founded in 1994 on the island of Rhodes in Greece. For the next decade, they recorded a variety of demos and splits until their debut album, entitled The Ancient Returns, was released in 2005. Now, another decade later, the Hellenes have unleashed their sophomore album upon us. The new opus, entitled Gods of War – At War, is an hour-long collection of epic hymns to Hellenic warfare, in the musical vein of Bathory. The entire album can be streamed below for your auditory pleasure. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IN LIEU OF ISLANDER… AGAIN (PT. II)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 142015
 

 

(Having heard of my job-related inability to assemble round-ups of new music for the last week (and the one that’s coming), Austin Weber has once again graciously stepped up to fill the void. This is Part 2 of a round-up of new music, which began here.)

Dawn Of Dementia

Both Islander and I have written about Lafayette, Indiana-based technical death metal act Dawn Of Dementia before. The band traffic in a highly melodic form of technical death metal, and their newly dropped track, “A Subterranean Exposure”, shows them executing at an even higher level than on their previously released (and amazing) EP, Residuum.

I had the honor of getting to see Dawn Of Dementia play live in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, last fall, and these guys are the real deal. Their forthcoming album, Immolation Of  Avernis, is shaping up to be quite an impressive debut. Continue reading »

CHECKING IN (WITH MUSIC BY GEOFFREY CASTLE)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Mar 142015
 

artwork by Kirill

I hope all of you are having, have had, or will have a good Saturday. For those who missed my “Blog Slowdown” post last weekend, I’m mired in an out-of-town project for my fucking day job,  a 7-day-a-week, 18-hour-per-day grind that’s now about halfway complete, with about 10 days left.

I’ve had very little time to do much at NCS but write about some premieres and get the writing of other people posted on the site. That will be true for the next 10 days as well, though I think I’ll have a little extra free time this weekend, and I hope to do something with that for a post tomorrow.

Meanwhile, other people have been stepping up and helping to provide content for the site, both our regular writers and guests. Here’s what’s coming: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IN LIEU OF ISLANDER… AGAIN (PT. I)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Mar 132015
 

 

(Having heard of my job-related inability to assemble round-ups of new music for the last week (and the next one), Austin Weber has graciously stepped up to fill the void… and then I didn’t even have time to post his first installment in a timely manner. The delay is my fault, but even late, it’s still very much worth reading.  There’s a lot of good music in here.)

Our esteemed leader, and general in our revolt against metal mediocrity, Islander, has slipped into the shadows once again. Sometimes when his job flogs him too much he doesn’t have any spare time to flog his ears and spread that beating around to the fine folks who read our daily crazed musings here at NCS. So, once again, I’ve decided to cautiously fill in and ensure that killer new music from across the metal spectrum graces your ears. All death threats, grumblings, or perceptive complaints can be sent to my email: arewebd@yahoo.com. Lots to cover so let’s dive right in.

Vermörd

Vermörd are a Maryland-based blackened death metal band who are new to me, and one Islander had meant to write about before his current work debacle denied him the chance to do so. As such, I figured I’d include them in this post, and also because he told me to check them out under the theory that I might like music. And right he was. Continue reading »

BLOG SLOWDOWN — TOTAL VOMIT EXPERIENCE

 Mosh Pit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 082015
 

 

The maniacs out there who actually visit our putrid site on a daily basis will have noticed that I didn’t post anything yesterday, which I think is only the sixth day in more than five years when that’s happened. It wasn’t because of fucking off. “Fucking off” isn’t in the NCS dictionary. Once again, it’s because my fucking day job is fucking with me — and that will continue to happen for the next two weeks.

Once again, I’ve been dispatched away from home on a project that keeps me ridiculously busy both day and night. Yesterday I didn’t even have time (or the right frame of mind) to listen to a single song, much less the time to scribble something for the site. There will be days here and there between now and the end of the project when I can throw something together for NCS, or edit, format, and post the scribblings of other people. But I’m afraid there will be a noticeable drop in the volume of content on the site. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: A NEW GORGOROTH ALBUM AND IMMORTAL SOCK PUPPETS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Mar 062015
 

 

I have a lot of new music and videos that I spotted earlier in the week that I still need to throw your way, and with luck I’ll be able to do that later today, but for now, here are the first two things I saw this morning after firing up my computer and visiting Facebook.

GORGOROTH

My NCS comrade Andy Synn posted the album cover that’s at the top of this post. It appeared on the Facebook wall of Gorgoroth, with this announcement:

Gorgoroth has signed to Soulseller Records, who will release the band’s new album Instinctus Bestialis on 8. June 2015 on CD/vinyl and digital (available through Amazon, Spotify, iTunes etc.) Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ETERNAL CHAMPION, AUTOKRATOR, GLACIATION, TAKAAKIRA “TAKA” GOTO

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 052015
 

 

Once again, I’m behind in posting round-ups of new music and videos. I have a long list of new things that emerged this week, just not enough time to write about it… because once again my day job has sent me away from home. More about that in a later post today.

But although I can’t write about all the good new things I saw and heard this week right now, I’ll throw a few diverse tracks your way in this post and try to collect more tomorrow.

ETERNAL CHAMPION

I’m going to start with the most unlikely of choices for a site like this one — it’s an exception to our inconsistent “rule”.

Eternal Champion are an epic heavy metal band from Austin, Texas, named after a character premise in Michael Moorcock’s fictional universe and featuring an ex-Iron Age vocalist (Jason Tarpey) and Power Trip’s lead guitarist Blake Ibanez. Continue reading »

GRUESOME: “HIDEOUS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 042015
 

 

(Guest writer Grant Skelton returns to NCS, singing the praises of a new song by Gruesome.)

Some fans may wish to write off Gruesome (which features members of Exhumed, Possessed, Malevolent Creation, and Derketa) and dismiss them as a knockoff or throwback. The band do openly promote themselves by affiliating with Death, particularly the Leprosy material. To that I respond, “What’s wrong with nostalgia?”

One of the advantages of living in the time that we do is that fans can have access to material from bands who had their heyday in the pre-Internet age. To that end, Gruesome (and their forefathers) can sound completely fresh to younger fans who may just be discovering them. To the veterans, Gruesome offer something classic that doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. They bear the Florida death metal torch, and they bear it well. Continue reading »

LOCAL FOCUS: SAN DIEGO AND CHICAGO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 042015
 

 

(Leperkahn provides this Local Focus feature, putting the spotlight on bands from two towns. For details about this Local Focus project, go HERE.)

 

A little while back Grant Skelton came up with the idea for Local Focus, which I find to be a great idea. Since I now split my time between Chicago for school and San Diego at home, I figured I’d do a double-feature of sorts on both, since I have things to talk about for both of them. With that, we’ll start with my hometown, San Diego.

CRYPTIC LANGUAGES

These guys are a relatively new stoner doom crew, forming in 2013, featuring Martin Arguelles on guitar, Lewis Davis on bass, and Ross Zafar behind the kit. They released their debut EP, Razorleaf, in November of last year, though I just recently got around to hearing it. It features three songs, though all of them are at least nine minutes long, and the final two are more than eleven minutes long. Continue reading »

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