KING GIANT, HOWLS OF EBB, BARBELITH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 242015
 

 

I know, I said that after two more round-ups today, following three yesterday, that I’d take a break and do something else. But man, I just continue to see an hear things that I feel compelled to foist upon you. So, one more collection… but without the “Seen and Heard” title, because that’s been worked to death over the last 24 hours.

KING GIANT

I’ve really been eagerly awaiting the new album by Virginia’s King Giant. We’re all big fans of the band around here and we’ve made no secret of that over the years. And although I haven’t yet heard all of the new album (Black Ocean Waves), the song they just premiered via a lyric video is strong evidence that they’re about to deliver another winner. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): PARADISE LOST, NIGHTRAGE, SYMBOLIK, CONDUCTING FROM THE GRAVE, HOPE DRONE, MIRACLE OF SOUND

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 242015
 

 

This is the second of today’s round-ups of newly discovered music. This one should probably be called “Seen and Heard by DGR“, because it was he who linked me to everything collected here (except the final song) over the course of this week.

PARADISE LOST

Paradise Lost is such a “name” that after four days out in the world, their new song “No Hope In Sight” has probably been heard by every sentient creature (and many non-sentient ones) who know of the band. But we haven’t featured it here yet, and since many of our readers are not earthlings, we thought a few of them might not have discovered it yet. So, here it is. DGR says: “It was good sound”. What do you think? Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): AZAVATAR, SEER, SLUGDGE, BEITHÍOCH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 242015
 

 

I kind of went crazy with the round-ups yesterday — three posts featuring newly discovered music by ten bands in one day — but I’m continuing to come across metal that gets me excited, so yes… here’s another round-up!  In fact, there are two of them today. After that I’ll probably have to make myself stop, at least briefly, so I can do something else. Maybe write a review of an entire EP or album? Eat something or go to the bathroom? Get a life?

AZAVATAR

I seem to be on an Art of Propaganda kick. Within the last week I’ve written about songs by two bands whose new releases are on that German label — Whiskey Ritual and Thornesbreed — and that’s on top of praise we showered on releases earlier this year by Infesting Swarm and Gloson. Now I have two more AoP bands to recommend, beginning with AZAVATAR. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3): ABYSSAL, PROFANATOR, ANAL VOMIT, THORNESBREED

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 232015
 

 

This is the final installment in a trio of new music round-ups for this Thursday. I’m still striving for variety in the selections collected in each post, but all the songs in this one appeal more uniformly to my taste for disturbing and/or particularly vicious music.

ABYSSAL

Today Profound Lore announced details regarding the third album by the mysterious UK entity known as Abyssal, along with a stream of the first advance track. I was drawn to the news immediately, not only because of the quality of Abyssal’s previous releases, but also because of that stunning cover art you’re looking at.

The album’s title is Antikatastaseis (and I bet you can’t say that three times real fast); it will be released on June 23. The new song is “I Am the Alpha and the Omega”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): AGURZIL, WYRDING, AMPLIFIER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 232015
 

 

This is Part 2 of a three-part series of round-ups I planned for today, collecting new and somewhat older music that I discovered in my musical ramblings last night and this morning. As in the case of Part 1 (here) and Part 3 (yet to come), I’ve consciously tried to include variety, and just as consciously tried to focus on lesser known names in the world of metal (and it’s not all metal either).

AGURZIL

The first offering in this collection is a debut single released in January by a band from Marakesh, Morocco, named Agurzil. The song is named “Denial of Allegiance“, and it made a direct connection to the more vicious and abominable parts of my pleasure centers. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): FERAL, UNMERCENARIES, GITHYANKI

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Apr 232015
 

 

At different points yesterday and early this morning I listened to a lot of randomly chosen new and newly discovered songs, some that I spotted via links by Facebook friends, some that were lurking in the NCS e-mail box, some that were implanted in my head by transmissions from space when I forgot to put on my tin foil hat when I got home from work. I liked enough of what I heard that I’m splitting the collection into three separate posts that will be scattered throughout today.

FERAL

Where Dead Dreams Dwell is the second full-length by this Swedish band. It’s due for release by Cyclone Empire on May 29. I was initially drawn to it by the fantastic cover art, created by one of our site’s favorite artists, Costin Chioreanu (click the image above to enlarge it). And then today the band released a lyric video for a song named “Swallowed By Darkness” that really grabbed me by the throat. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SWARÞ, LUSTRE, MUR, MURG, GENOCIDE SHRINES

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  12 Responses »
Apr 212015
 

 

If you’re new to our site, “Shades of Black” is the name I put on round-ups of recommended new music when everything I’ve found coincidentally happens to have some connection to black metal. As you’re about to find out, my definition of “connection” covers a big swath of territory.

Some of the songs featured in this post come from albums that are already available for streaming in their entirety. I’m mentioning them now because I’m afraid if I defer writing anything until I can listen to the whole album and prepare a review, there’s a chance I won’t write anything at all.

SWARÞ

The fact that my tastes in metal are so wide-ranging has good and bad consequences. I think it’s good for the site, because without trying very hard I can contribute variety to the music we feature simply by writing about what I like. It’s bad because I don’t have the kind of depth of knowledge that comes from really immersing myself in just one or two sub-genres. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: AION, ASHBRINGER, CRYPTICUS, DRAGUNOV, GODISDEAD, TEMPEL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Apr 192015
 

 

I have a lot of new music to share with you on this fine Sunday, music that I carefully selected after an extended bout of completely random listening early this morning. Because this post includes six songs, I will make an effort to restrain my tendency to vomit forth big chunks of text so your attention doesn’t wander. Presented in alphabetical order by band name:

AION

This Swiss three-person band has recorded a five-track debut named Verses of Perdition that will be released by Goathorned Productions on May 1. I haven’t listened to the entire album yet, but the one song I have heard is an eye-opener (and I thank KevinP for linking me to it). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: EREB ALTOR, LUCIFER’S CHILD, WHISKEY RITUAL

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Apr 172015
 


Ereb Altor

I’m on the road again, for pleasure not business this time, reconnecting with family in Texas and going to a school reunion. So, we won’t have many posts today because I’ll be out and about instead of hunched over my computer.

Before I disappear, I wanted to give you a few new songs to hear that I sifted from the effluent of the interhole and the rat’s nest of our in-box this morning. The new Slayer song isn’t one of them. I assume anyone who is still a fan of the band has already discovered it on their own. It seems like a better use of time to highlight things you might miss.

EREB ALTOR

Sweden’s Ereb Altor have a new album (their fifth) named Nattramn that’s due for an April 24 release on the Cyclone Empire label. The cover art (after the jump) was created by Gustavo Sazes of Abstrata Design. I haven’t managed to listen to the whole album yet, but I do recommend the song that premiered today, by the name of “Midsommarblot”. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: BYZANTINE AND SIRIUN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Apr 172015
 

 

Here are two videos that caught my eyes and ears this morning, one from an old favorite of this site, one from some surprising newcomers.

BYZANTINE

The old favorites are West Virginia’s Byzantine, whose new album To Release Is To Resolve, to no one’s surprise, is fantastic (and reviewed here for us by TheMadIsraeli). Two days ago Billboard premiered a video for the song “The Agonies” off the new album, but I only caught up with it today. Continue reading »

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