SHADES OF BLACK (Part 2): SWALLOWED AND WOLFPACK 44 (and THE STONE)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Jul 312014
 

I’ve collected in this two-part post seven very good new songs from four bands that I heard for the first time yesterday. All the songs are from forthcoming albums, and as the title of the post suggests, most (but not all) of them incorporate elements of black metal into the music in varying degrees, and they are all shrouded in darkness. The cover art for each album is also really good. The bands are presented in alphabetical order (Part 1 can be found here) — except for a last-minute addition at the end.

SWALLOWED

I found out about this Finnish band more than two years ago when I listened to (and wrote about) their self-titled 2010 EP (still available here). It’s been a long wait for their debut album, but it finally seems to be on its way. The name is Lunarterial and it’s projected for release on October 14, 2014, through Dark Descent Records and Me Saco Un Ojo. The cover art is the work of Swiss artist Peter Birkhäuser. The new song I heard yesterday is a track from the album called “Arterial Mists of Doom”.

This disorienting song’s huge, slow, nearly atonal chords vibrate with grotesque levels of distortion — and then erupt when you least expect it into ghastly pyroclastic flows moving at blinding speed. The visceral drumbeats and cymbal ticks seem to have a mind of their own, and their unpredictability is also part of what makes the song so arresting. The vocals match up with the doomed, blasted, destructive aura of the music — they’re maniacal, agonizing, horrifying. It appears that Swallowed have made a soundtrack for your nightmares… Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (Part 1): MONDVOLLAND AND NACHTMYSTIUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Jul 312014
 

 

I’ve collected in this two-part post seven very good new songs from four bands that I heard for the first time yesterday. All the songs are from forthcoming albums, and as the title of the post suggests, most (but not all) of them incorporate elements of black metal into the music in varying degrees, and they are all shrouded in darkness. The cover art for each album is also really good. The bands are presented in alphabetical order (Part 2 will come next):

MONDVOLLAND

It was a sad day this past June when I learned that the Dutch band Mondvollond had decided to call it quits. Way back in January 2012 I lavished praise on Pestvogel, the band’s free, three-song EP that was my jumping on point. The title track in particular got its hooks in me, so much so that I included it in our list of 2012′s Most Infectiuous Extreme Metal Songs.

The knowledge that the band would be releasing a second album made the news of their dissolution somewhat easier to bear. The new album’s name is Kwade Vaart and it features wonderful cover art by Bob Mollema, who also created the great cover art for Pestvogel.

Two of the songs from the new album can be heard now, and they’re just as unusual and powerful as I would have expected. “Wanneer De Hemel Bloedt” begins slowly, with shimmering guitar notes, a booming bass, and clean vocals, and then rapidly escalates into a storm of tremolo-vibrating chords, thundering bass and drums, and caustic howls, with a piercing guitar melody. It’s an intense song, but no more so than the one that follows. Continue reading »

TOWERS OF FLESH: “VEILED CONCEPTION” AND “ANTITHETICAL CONJURATION”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 302014
 

 

Towers of Flesh are a UK-based blackened death metal band whose members consist of drummer/guitarist Anil Carrier (Binah, Theoktony, Necrotize, Purify the Horror, and more), guitarist/bassist Tom Hinksman (Hellsworn, Necrotize, Theoktony), and vocalist Jack Welch (Funeral Throne). They released a 2010 debut album through Dissected Records named The Perpetual Paradox, and yesterday I saw an announcement that they’ve now signed with Candlelight Records for release of their second album Antithetical Conjurations.

Less than an hour ago the band launched a YouTube stream of the new album’s first advance track, “Veiled Conception”, which you’ll be able to hear at the end of this post — and hear it you should. It begins like an electrified hornet swarm driven into a fury by the sound of machine guns, and then begins to boom and stomp, grind and dissect, jackhammer and jab, swirl and swarm, all the while enshrouding itself with an eerie, alien guitar melody and the hoarse howls of some equally otherworldly creature.

Not long after hearing the song, I discovered that Candlelight has established a Bandcamp page for the album where a second song can also be streamed. That one is the title track, which immediately precedes “Veiled Conception” in the running order. It’s an introductory instrumental piece marked by tumbling drums and a grim, bleak melody that functions as a fitting prelude to the menacing atmospherics of “Veiled Conception”. I’m including a stream of that track below as well. Continue reading »

AMOGH SYMPHONY: “1289, VOYEUR WILL SHINE, FIGHT FOR DISTINCTION, EVOLUTION IS MINE”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 302014
 

 

Amogh Symphony began as the solo project of an Indian musician named Vishal Singh. I’m pretty sure we’ve never written about Amogh Symphony before, though we’ve written on three occasions about another project with which he has been involved — Robots Pulling Levers. Amogh Symphony has recorded a new album (the band’s third) named Vectorscan, which this time is no longer a solo work but a collaboration between Singh, Jim Richman, and Andrey Sazonov.

One of the new songs on the album was posted for streaming on Soundcloud within the last 24 hours. Its title is certainly intriguing: “1289, voyeur will shine, fight for distinction, evolution is mine”. The Soundcloud page includes a lot of information about the album that I read before listening to the song, and that information is certainly intriguing, too. For example:

There are at least 8 guest artists on the album, including vocalist Kasturi Singh, who is Vishal Singh’s mother. The instruments used on the album by Singh or his guests, which were recorded in 8 different studios, include microtonal guitar with bow, Hangs, saxophone, harmonica, violin, accordion, guitar synth, Hawaiian and slide guitars, microtonal trumpet, fretless bass, electric piano, and Santoor-guitar hybrid.

The music also includes a loop of  cicadas recorded by Richman in the woods of Virginia. And the lyrics were written by Singh’s late grandmother, musician and singer Labanya Prabha Nath, in 1941 and were taken from her “book of songs”. The full lyrics are printed at this location, though they are mainly in Assamese. Continue reading »

FELIX MARTIN, SEPTYCAL GORGE, DYING OUT FLAME

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 292014
 

So far today we’ve written about Canadian post-hardcore, Japanese rock performed with traditional instruments, Phoenician death metal, German chthonic cervical exhalations, and whatever it is that Junius play.

Still, it’s possible we haven’t yet succeeded in confusing everyone, so here’s a new video of Felix Martin covering a song composed by neoclassical metal guitarist Jason Becker in the late 80s, followed by something that will tear off a few dermal layers from your face without so much as a topical anesthetic, followed by… well, you’ll see.

FELIX MARTIN

During the video, you can read what Felix Martin wrote about the techniques used in his performance. It’s Greek to me, but the performance left me awe-struck and slack-jawed. I mean, more than usual. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MACHINE HEAD TOUR, WINTERFYLLETH, PANOPTICON, KEN MODE, THE WAGAKKI BAND

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 292014
 

I haven’t managed to compile a round-up of noteworthy new things in a few days, so this one is largish, though still not large enough. I’ll try to keep my own verbiage to a minimum so you don’t lose interest and drift away like hyperactive children, or like me when I hear a firetruck going by. I’ll begin with a trio of news items and then move into the music.

MACHINE HEAD / CHILDREN OF BODOM / EPICA / BATTLECROSS

Yesterday came an announcement that Machine Head, Children of Bodom, Epica, and Battlecross will tour North America together beginning on October 4 in Denver and ending on November 1 in Hollywood. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern. Machine Head’s new album on Nuclear Blast should be out around the time of this tour. I can’t honestly say that I’m very lathered up about this tour, but if you are, please send photos of yourself. Here are the dates (continued after the jump):

10/04/2014 The Summit Music Hall – Denver, CO
10/05/2014 Aftershock – Merriam, KS
10/06/2014 House Of Blues – Dallas, TX
10/07/2014 House Of Blues – Houston, TX
10/09/2014 Hard Rock Live – Orlando, FL
10/10/2014 The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BLOOD OF KINGU, GIGAN-PYRRHON-ARTIFICIAL BRAIN, VUKARI

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 262014
 

Happy goddamned Saturday to one and all. I’m in the middle of a mini-vacation with family and friends, which means I’ve spent more time over the last 24 hours making lists of new music to check out than actually listening or writing. But I hate to let a day go by without posting something at NCS (that’s happened on a grand total of 3 days since we started this site in November 2009), so here are a few quick things I’d like to recommend. With luck, I’ll have a few more to bring your way tomorrow.

BLOOD OF KINGU

As previously reported here, the Ukrainian black metal band Blood of Kingu (started by Roman Sayenko of Drudkh) will be releasing their third album via Season of Mist on September 2 in North America (and August 29 everywhere else). The title is Dark Star on the Right Horn of the Crescent Moon. Last month Terrorizer premiered the first advance track from the album — “Enshrined in the Nethermost Lairs Beneath the Oceans” — and a few days ago Metal Underground premiered a second track. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ALBEZ DUZ, MORTALS, THRÄNENKIND, KHTHONIIK CERVIIKS, HIDEOUS DIVINITY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 242014
 

 

Yesterday’s round-up was a big one. So is this one — and it’s still not big enough to cover everything worth mentioning that I saw and heard yesterday. But it will have to do. Here we go…

ALBEZ DUZ

Albez Duz are a two-man German band whose name apparently consists of two words in a Germanic language used 800 years ago, with “Albez” meaning “swan” and “Duz” meaning “noisiness”, or “rush”. It is the side project of Impurus (aka Eugen H.), the drummer of the long-running German band Dies Ater.

At the time of their 2009 self-titled debut album, which drew comparisons to the early work of Paradise Lost, Tiamat, and My Dying Bride, the band’s vocalist was Lars Kaeding. Kaeding died in 2011, and was replaced early this year by Alfonso Brito Lopez (aka “Grifonso“). With this new line-up, Albez Duz have recorded a new album, The Coming of Mictlan, which will be released by Germany’s Iron Bonehead label later this year. Its fascinating cover is above.

Yesterday Iron Bonehead began streaming a song from the new album named “Mictlan”, and it’s very impressive. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NIGHTBRINGER, BEYOND CREATION, INHUMAN REMNANTS, MORDBRAND, MARTYRDÖD, AND ERLING BRONSBERG

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 232014
 

Here’s a typically random and diverse collection of recommended new music and metal news that I came across over the last 24 hours. It ranges from highly anticipated black metal to a metal banjo cover, with all sorts of different musical trajectories in between.

NIGHTBRINGER

The fourth album by Colorado’s Nightbringer is entitled Ego Dominus Tuus (I Am Your Lord), and it’s due for release by Season of Mist on September 20 in NorthAm (September 26 elsewhere). Yesterday, SoM revealed the cover art by David Herrerias (above), which is wonderful. At the same time, the first advance track from the album began streaming at various sites around the globe. Its name is “Et Nox Illuminatio Mea In Deliciis Meis”, which refers to a line from Psalm 139. According to the band:

“The lyrics draw heavily upon this psalm, which we feel, via a perhaps more heretical approach, elucidates symbols relevant to the ‘midnight sun’ and the ‘night of light’. Furthermore we touch upon the Greek melancholia and the sovereignty of Saturn over those of us who are born with his mark and our relation to the former concepts as well as the significance of the ‘black light’ of our Lord. It speaks much of the ecstatic furor one may enter in which wisdom is imparted both from above, below and within, via a state of ‘divine madness’. “

Should you be interested in reading the 139th Psalm, you can do so here (the song’s title refers to the phrase “and night shall be my light in my pleasures”). Whether you do or don’t peruse the psalm, I strongly recommend listening to the song (it’s streaming at Stereogum here). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BURNING SAVIOURS — “BURNT OFFERINGS FOR ELDERS”

 Interviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 222014
 

 

(In this post Russian contributor Comrade Aleks delivers an interview of Mikael Monks of Sweden’s Burning Saviours.)

The combination of doom metal and rock from the 70’s has became actual genre nowadays. It feels like a damned lot of people miss the good old days when things looked more or less simpler. Good melodies, a recognizable retro sound, and lyrics on familiar themes are enough to satisfy our needs, and it’s not necessary to be original in that case.

The Swedish band Burning Saviours have been playing doom metal / hard rock since 2004 in the name of almighty Pentagram! A few successful releases have brought Burning Saviours a well-known reputation, and I Hate Records has decided to remind us about the band’s deserts with the release of a compilation named Boken om förbannelsen. I got in contact with Mikael Monks (guitars, vocals) to clarify details of the album.

******** Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries