SEEN AND HEARD: ETHEREAL, OUROBOROS, IBEX ANGEL ORDER, CODE, DEATH GRIPS

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Dec 112014
 

 

I’m really backlogged in listening to new music, and the list of things worth checking out grows on a daily basis. Last night I did manage to sift through part of my collection of enticing links and found this quintet of tracks that I thought were worth throwing your way. Diversity is again the organizing principle.

ETHEREAL

The UK’s Ethereal, about whom we’ve written frequently in the past, have been signed by Candlelight Records, and the first release for their new label will be an album entitled Opus Aethereum (due in February 2015). The very cool cover art for the album is above and was rendered by Tripple Seis Design.

But the first song in this collection isn’t from the new album. It’s a cover of Darkthrone’s “Fucked Up and Ready To Die” from 2003’s Hate Them. Ethereal recorded it for a Darkthrone tribute album named One Cold Night In Norway, which will be released as a free download through Speed Slaughter Productions on December 13. Ethereal recently uploaded their cover to YouTube, and it’s excellent — dark, ravenous, brooding in its atmospherics, heavy as granite yet ghostly in its void-faring journey — and ultimately a swarming assault on the senses. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SICKENING AND MARDUK

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Dec 102014
 

 

Things have been busy around our metallic island, and I’m afraid I still haven’t been able to catch up on all the new songs and videos I want to hear that have rolled out over the last week. But rather than just throw my hands up in surrender, I at least want to call your attention to two new tracks I heard this morning that brightened my day. And by “brightened”, I mean “blew it to smithereens”.

SICKENING

Man, times flies. More than four years have passed since our last (and only) mention of this band from Firenze, Italy. Four years ago I posted about a song from their then-forthcoming second album (Against the Wall of Pretense), likening it to “the demonic offspring of some unspeakable three-way orgy among Suffocation, Dying Fetus, and Devourment.” Now, Sickening have finished recording a third full-length entitled The Beyond, which is described as a concept album based on the 1981 horror movie of the same name directed by Lucio Fulci. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, WOLFHEART

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Dec 092014
 

 

I thought that once I got back to Seattle on Sunday from my two-week sojourn to the East Coast, things would return to normal. That hasn’t happened. The old fuckin’ day job has continued to have its way with me like a lonely shepherd on a tethered goat. Between that kind of raw treatment and getting other people’s year-end lists ready for posting, I’ve had precious little time to write about new music and videos. I do have a very long list of new things to check out, but I’m afraid all I can do at the moment is toss these two excellent videos your way.

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE

These Italian maestros of blistering symphonic death metal have just released an official video for the song “Epilogue”, which appears on their latest album, Labyrinyth. The video was directed by Francesco Paoli and Salvatore Perrone and features special guests soprano vocalist Veronica Bordacchini (who was a fine addition to the band’s live show when she accompanied them on their NorthAm tour earlier this year), guitarist Marco Sensi, and cellist Shamatiyenko Kostyantyn. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ASHCLOUD, AHAMKARA, AND PERDITOR

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Dec 062014
 

 

If you’ve been regularly visiting our site over the last week then you’ve seen me bitching and whining about having to work day and night on a project for my fucking day job on the other side of the continent from Seattle. I’ll finally be able to head home tomorrow, where other projects lie in wait like a school of piranha.

Today, after finally getting to sleep like a hibernating bear overnight, I’m not working (much) and I got the chance to check out some songs I’ve been meaning to hear. I’ve packaged some of them together in this post and hope you’ll like them as much as I have.

ASHCLOUD

Ashcloud is the new name of a band once known as Skinbag, whose members are Sweden’s Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath, Syn:drom, Skineater) and UK-based Gareth Nash (Body Harvest). They’ve recently signed with Spain’s Xtreem Music, and spring of 2015 will see the release of their debut album Abandon All Light, which will include remastered versions of songs from an unreleased Skinbag EP plus new Ashcloud tracks. The temporary cover art you see above will be replaced by artwork by Daniel Devilish. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: BEHEMOTH, LORD MANTIS, THE CROWN, BAPTISTS, FINSTERFORST, HONGO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Dec 052014
 

 

I’m still on the east coast of the US working day and night for the old fucking day job and have had almost no time to search out new new music and write about it — until last night, when I did have enough time to round up this big collection of recommended new videos. Some of these you may have seen already since I wasn’t able to pounce on them with my usual alacrity and grace, but I’m willing to bet big money you haven’t seen all of them.

P.S.  The end is near — I’ll be back in Seattle by Sunday, and things should get a little closer to normal around here after that.  (Thank you, please hold your applause so that others may enjoy the videos.)

BEHEMOTH

You’d think the mighty Behemoth would have done a live video before now, but this new one for “Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer” off The Satanist turns out to be their first ever. The video, which was filmed by Grupa 13, is really, really well done. Of course, the song is a blasphemous killer. Continue reading »

BLACK MUSIC FOR BLACK FRIDAY: NEW SONGS FROM MARDUK AND MAHTOWA DEATH MARCH, AND NEW INQUISITION ART

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Nov 282014
 

 

Here in the U.S. the day after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, when people spend money they don’t have buying gifts for other people who don’t need them. It puts retailers in the black and consumers in the red. Ho Ho Ho and Hail Santa! How about some black metal instead?

MARDUK

As previously reported in these pages, Sweden’s Marduk will be releasing Frontschwein, their 13th studio album, via Century Media in January. Yesterday the band revealed the cover art and track listing and began streaming a new song named “Rope of Regret”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HATE, ISRATHOUM, SECRET CEREMONIES, CUREZUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 272014
 

To those of you who will be celebrating Thanksgiving today, Happy Thanksgiving and best wishes for a deep and restful tryptophan coma (though data show that dining on sea lion kidney would get you a bigger dose of tryptophan than turkey). For those who treat this as just another day, Happy Just Another Day.

We’re not planning a lot of posts today, just the premiere we launched a bit earlier and this round-up of new sightings and hearings from my interhole excursions over the last 24 hours. Here we go…

HATE

In mid-October we reported that Poland’s Hate will be releasing a new album named Crusade: Zero on January 15, 2015, via Napalm Records. I was excited about that news even before hearing a note of the music. Now that I have heard many notes, I’m even more eager for the album. You shall hear those same notes in this teaser reel, which excerpts parts of several new songs: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DYSANGELIUM, OPHIDIAN I, WILDERNESSKING, WINDS OF GENOCIDE, XERATH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Nov 262014
 

 

For four days I’ve been on the other side of the country from my home in the Seattle area, and I’ll be working here for 10 more days. It’s one of those projects that engulfs me periodically, a night-and-day kind of thing that squeezes my blog time down to acorn size. I did make room late last night for some exploring and found the following new music I thought you might like. I sure as fuck did. Presented in alphabetical order by band name.

DYSANGELIUM

The German black metal band Dysangelium have a new album on the way from W.T.C. Productions. The title is Thánatos Áskēsis, it’s due for release on December 24, and it’s available for order here. I haven’t yet listened to the entire album, but I did catch Decibel’s premiere of one of the new songs yesterday, and have really been enjoying it. Continue reading »

CRIMSON MOONLIGHT: “THE SUFFERING”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Nov 252014
 

 

(Guest writer Grant Skelton has discovered a new single by a Swedish band named Crimson Moonlight that he wants you to hear.)

I may have spoken too soon about my list of 2014’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. I made my list before hearing the new song by Sweden’s Crimson Moonlight. The song is called “The Suffering,” and comes from the band’s new album Divine Darkness (TBA 2015 via Endtime Productions.). This is the band’s first new material since the In The Depths Of Dreams Unconscious EP in 2007. The new album will be the band’s first proper album since 2004’s Veil Of Remembrance.

For those unfamiliar with Crimson Moonlight, they formed in 1997. Along with bands like Extol, Admonish, Antestor, Slechtvalk, and Immortal Souls, they were an integral part of their scene, sometimes referred to as “unblack metal.” This tune might appeal to fans of A Hill To Die Upon, 1349, Dimmu Borgir, Mayhem, or even The Black Dahlia Murder. Continue reading »

AN INTERLUDE: SOEN — “THE WORDS” (A NEW VIDEO)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 242014
 

 

I was going to save this new video for a round-up of new things that I hope to write for tomorrow, since time is short at the moment. But then I thought, why wait?

The band is Soen and the song is “The Words”, from their new album Tellurian, released earlier this month by Spinefarm Records. If you’re unfamiliar with Soen, the members are drummer Martin Lopez (ex-OPETH, AMON AMARTH), bassist Stefan Stenberg, vocalist Joel Ekelöf, and guitarist Kim Platbarzdis.

“The Words” is a beautiful, haunting, heartbreaking song, and so is the black and white video that was made for the music. It’s light years away from what we usually feature at this site, a true exception to our “rule”, but very much worth hearing and seeing — which you can do next. Continue reading »

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