RECALCITRANT ROUNDUP: A NEW FEAR YAWNS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 122014
 

(In this jumbo post Austin Weber puts the spotlight on recommended recent music from nine (9!) bands plus some tour news about a tenth.)

By now you know the drill, I’m going to throw a bunch of music your way and see if any of it sticks. While 2014 has seemed sort of slow, release-wise, so far, I managed to find a number of under-the-radar goodies and I’ve also included two established-band updates. As usual, you are free to loathe or love all or none of it. While I usually only listen to ambient grindcore, I’ve been branching out lately. So, lots of different kinds of music besides ambi-grind are included below. With deathqueef making up more of the music mentioned this time, but also delving into colostomy-bag-fueled post-electronic, instrumental scat, and nu-grunge.

EMBRYONIC DEVOURMENT

With their latest release Reptilian Agenda, Embryonic Devourment have even further embraced old school death metal tendencies into the fold of their technical brutal carnage that warns of the true reptilian nature of reality. This is a big step up for them, and fans of old school death metal should certainly give this a listen. In spite of its swarming Origin-meets-Malignancy veneer, a lot of the riffs are superbly evil, meaty, and groovy in an old school way.  Continue reading »

A NEW MISERY INDEX SONG! “CONJURING THE CULL”!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 122014
 

As previously reported: Season of Mist will release the fifth album by Misery Index on May 27 in NorthAm and May 23 elsewhere. The title is The Killing Gods, which in the case of this band is kind of like making it a self-titled release. It was recorded with Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer). As you can see, I found the very cool cover art for the album today, too (conjured by Gary Ronaldson).

Today Lambgoat premiered the first advance track from the album, entitled “Conjuring the Cull”. My initial impressions:  Goddamn, motherfucker, those opening riffs are headbang dynamite! Fuckin’ snare tone! Such a grisly serpentine lead guitar! So infectious! So evil! Such beef! Such slithery soloing! Why are my pants wet?

The song is an exclusive premiere and therefore not embeddable without being devious, so run over to this location and fill your ears. The album can be pre-ordered here from Season of Mist. Here’s what the cover of the gatefold LP looks like: Continue reading »

WATCH MASSACRE’S NEW ANIMATED VIDEO FOR “BACK FROM BEYOND”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Mar 122014
 

They say that death metal will never die, and Florida’s legendary Massacre seem to be living proof of that. After making quite an influential impact in the early 90s, they folded, but now they’re coming back 20 years later with a new album entitled Back From Beyond. We’ve previously featured one of the new songs, and this morning Terrorizer delivered the title track along with a great new animated music video.

If you’re a fan of ravaging old-school death metal mixed with crawling, horror-themed death/doom, you will dig this memorably ghastly new song. And the horror-themed animation is a hell of a lot of fun to watch, too. Throw some horns to director Doug Cook and to animators Nick Johnson and Ryder McLean.

Massacre consists of original membersz Rick Rozz (guitars, ex-Mantas, ex-Death), Terry Butler (bass, Obituary, ex-Death, ex-Six Feet Under),  as well as vocalist Ed Webb (ex-Diabolic, ex-Eulogy) and drummer Mike Mazzonetto (ex-Pain Principle). The new album’s cover art was created by the talented Toshihiro Egawa. Now, check out the video: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: EYEHATEGOD, KHONSU, SOCKWEB, METSATÖLL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Mar 112014
 

So many excellent new songs have begun streaming in recent days that I’ve shoehorned two of these round-ups into our schedule today, and I’m still not covering everything I want you to hear. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you’re bored with the state of metal in 2014, you’re not really listening.

EYEHATEGOD

Fourteen years after Confederacy of Ruined Lives, New Orleans’ Eyehategod will finally be releasing a new, self-titled full-length album on May 27 in North America (May 26 in Europe) in North America via Housecore Records. It was mixed by the ubiquitous Sanford Parker and includes some of the final recordings from late Eyehategod drummer Joey LaCaze.

Today the band premiered a squalling track from the album entitled “Agitation! Propaganda!” which can be streamed below. It will get your blood pumping with a meaty punked-out fist in the face and then kick you tumbling down into a sludgy pit of tar.  Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ENTHRONED, PRIMORDIAL, TERRA TENEBROSA, THE WAGAKKI BAND

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Mar 112014
 

I have a lot of new discoveries from the preceding 24 hours that I want to share with you today in between the two premieres we have scheduled. I’ve divided them into two of these “Seen and Heard” posts. In this first one I tried to mix things up. Some of what’s here isn’t metal, but it’s all good.

ENTHRONED

As I previously reported in these pages, Agonia Records will be releasing the 10th studio album by Belgium’s Enthroned on April 15. The title is Sovereigns, and it’s now available for pre-order at this location. Earlier, I featured the first advance track from the album (“Of Feathers and Flames”), and today Noisey premiered another one — “Of Shrines and Sovereigns”. This one is ravaging and rapacious, but it also includes  a somber interlude, something similar to Gregorian chant that transforms into a black metal processional, and it really makes the song.

Enthroned’s Facebook page can be accessed through this link. Here’s the new track: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: NEFANDUS, SVARTIDAUÐI, ECHELON,

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Mar 102014
 

Collected in this post are new songs from three black metal bands that I want to recommend for your listening pleasure.

NEFANDUS

Nefandus are a satanic black metal band from Sweden whose third album, Reality Cleaver, is scheduled for release by Daemon Worship on April 30.  Though the band’s line-up has evolved over time, they trace their roots back to the mid-90s, with their first album coming out in 1996. However, my first exposure to the music came from the two new songs that Daemon Worship recently began streaming on Bandcamp — “Qayin’s Hunt” and “Reborn As Wolf”.

The first of those songs is a mid-paced procession, almost stately in its cadence and in the grandeur of its dark, minor key melody, yet thoroughly occult in its atmosphere (due in no small part to the filthy vocal delivery). The second track, “Reborn As Wolf”,  quickly accelerates into a gallop, the whirring melody needling like a drill bit seeking flesh within the teeth, though the song also exudes a kind of infernal majesty similar to “Qayin’s Hunt”. Very nice. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CHATALHÜYÜK, PATÁX, TERRA DEEP

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  17 Responses »
Mar 102014
 

I’m happy to be back home after almost five days away, but I’m less than happy that today is a fucking Monday. I thought I’d celebrate the wretched occasion by throwing some miscellaneous things your way that I saw and heard after I got home late yesterday. I’ve packaged these items together because they’re… what’s the word I’m looking for?… let’s just say they’re out of the ordinary.

CHATALHÜYÜK

The last time I came across music billed as caveman death metal, it was Norway’s Goat the Head. They have been sadly missing in action for the last three years, but until they see fit to rouse themselves into a new burst of creative activity, I will have to content myself with Chatalhüyük. They have labeled their music “Neolithic metal” and they sing of such Stone Age things as big wood spirits and pterorhs stealing their krohi.

I’m not sure what a krohi is, unless it’s a Neolithic youngling. I’m pretty sure a pterorh is a pterodactyl, even though they became extinct about 60 million years before the Stone Age began and the Neolithic came at the very end of the Stone Age. But hey, if you’re willing to contemplate the concept of Neolithic death metal, then why not krohi-stealing pterodactyls? Continue reading »

RUSSIAN DEATH METAL: ODEM, PYRE, GROND

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 092014
 

(In this post our guest Kunal Choksi (Transcending Obscurity) puts the spotlight on three up-and-coming death metal bands from Russia.)

Without delving into the purely “brutal” aspect of things, let’s throw some light on the Death Metal scene in Russia. Sure there have been bands in the past, some good ones too, like Merlin and Barbarity as well as the middling ones, but the newer ones are game-changers.  No longer do you have to contend with giving Russian Death Metal bands “old school” credit, some nostalgic or primitive value. Admittedly, that forms a part of the scene’s sound and that’s fine, as long as it’s not remaining primitive in terms of quality. Three Russian bands lead the scene in my humble opinion and all of them have achieved reasonable success with at least one release under their belts.

ODEM (Daemon Worship Productions)

Odem leads the pack with its unique blackened influences and a blend of aggressive and semi-technical Death Metal, with elements of modern brutality as well. Their sound is innovative in ways that American bands are often loath to do. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: FREE SHIT FROM CVLT NATION AND A MASSIVE CONSPIRACY AGAINST ALL LIFE

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Mar 082014
 

I’m still away from home doing job-related stuff that has left almost no time for searching out new metal, listening to music, or blogging.  I will be going home tomorrow, with hopes that NCS life will return to normal after that. I’m about to dive back into another day-long bout of job-related stuff, but before doing that I thought I’d throw a few things your way.

CVLT NATION FREEBIES

CVLT Nation has recently unveiled a series of free compilations that are well worth exploring. The first, which was released two days ago, is a compilation of Black Sabbath covers: Seven different bands perform the eight songs on Sabbath’s 1971 classic, Master of Reality. The bands are:

Primitive Man
Rorcal
Cult of Occult
Bongripper
Graves At Sea
Albino Python
Usnea Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM FALLS OF RAUROS AND PANOPTICON

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Mar 072014
 

Among the names on my mental list of highly anticipated 2014 releases, Falls of Rauros and Panopticon were in the upper reaches. This spring, Bindrune Recordings will be releasing a 12″ split by the two bands. Falls of Rauros contributed two songs — “Unavailing” (at nearly 12 minutes in length) and “The Purity of Isolation” (nearly 7 minutes).  Panopticon contributed four songs, totaling nearly 25 minutes. Having heard the split, I can say that it has more than met my very high expectations.

I had hoped to scribble a review by now, even recognizing that I wouldn’t be able to do it justice. But alas, I’m way behind. What I do have, with thanks to DECIBEL magazine, are two of the songs from the split, one from each band. Since I still harbor a feeble hope of writing my own thoughts about the music later, I’ll not say more about the songs now — but simply provide the streams for your listening pleasure. Continue reading »

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