UPDATES: BABY METAL (A NEW ALBUM) AND THE WAGAKKI BAND (A NEW VIDEO AND A NEW ALBUM)

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Feb 052014
 

Here are a couple of quick update items about Japanese bands we’ve written about in the past.

BABY METAL

Long-time readers of the site know that we have a thing about Baby Metal. A non-pervy thing, I hasten to add. If you’re new to the site, you can find all our prior blathering here. The breaking news is that Baby Metal, at long last, have announced they will be releasing an album. Entitled BABYMETAL, it will become available on February 26 via iTunes and assorted other sites (for CDs), which you can find via the band’s FB page or their web site.

The band have released a trailer for the album. It’s mainly just a string of clips from previous videos, but I’ll stick it up here anyway: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MORBID FLESH, WARPSTONE, FUOCO FATUO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 042014
 

Still catching up on new music I missed over the last couple of days, I’ve compiled this collection of new songs by three European bands that I recommend highly.

MORBID FLESH

I make no secret of the fact that I have a quivering weakness for old-school, reeking-corpse death metal. It’s a genre in which I expect no molds to be broken, but I do want the right spirit and the right flair — faithfulness without tedium. Morbid Flesh from Barcelona, Spain, definitely meet those expectations.

They’ve recorded a new EP under the title Embedded In the Ossuary, which is scheduled for release on March 31 through Germany’s Unholy Prophecies. It caught my eye because of the wonderful cover art (above) by Javi Castaño and because it was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Javi Bastard of Spain’s Graveyard, and he knows a thing or two about old school death metal (Graveyard’s Jordi Gusi is also a member of Morbid Flesh). Recently, Unholy Prophecies began streaming a Morbid Flesh track named “Charnel House”, and I listened to it this morning. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SEPTICFLESH, KYPCK, PROFANE OMEN

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Feb 042014
 

I’m in catch-up mode for new things. This is the second round-up of news and new music for today, and there will probably be a third. The first one is here. The following collection should keep you off-balance.

SEPTICFLESH

Yes, it appears that the band have decided to join the two words of their name into one, but a rose by any other name will smell just as sweet. Or, in this case, will sound just as sweet. I saw this announcement on the band’s Facebook page this morning:

“We have completed the recordings of our upcoming full length album. The album will consists of 10 songs that were recorded once again at Devasoundz Studios Athens Greece and at Prague with the collaboration of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. The album will be released this summer via Season of Mist for Europe and via Prosthetic Records for America.

“We are really exhausted, but also very proud from the result. We worked very hard with Logan Mader (former MACHINE HEAD and SOULFLY guitarist that has worked considering album sound, with bands as CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, FEAR FACTORY, GOJIRA) to bring you the ultimate death metal soundtrack for your darkest dreams. The compositions are progressive with a lot of emotional peaks, while at the same time the songs sound very aggressive. Also we had the chance to work for the first time with a full children choir, beside the regular adult choir, and that helped us dive deeper into darker cinematic atmospheres.”

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IMPETUOUS RITUAL, BENEATH, EYECONOCLAST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 042014
 

I mentioned in my last post that I didn’t spend much time with new music debuts over the last day or two. I’ve learned the hard way that if I snooze for even 24 hours, I miss a lot of worthwhile stuff. And so I’m hoping to get a couple of round-up posts written for today, because I found a metric fuck ton of worthwhile goodies while catching up this morning. Let’s start with some perty pitchers, shall we?

IMPETUOUS RITUAL

I saw that dark piece of artwork this morning, the one at the top of this post. Profound Lore Records says it’s the cover for Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambivalence, which is the name of an album due out sometime in April by Impetuous Ritual. The band’s first album, Relentless Execution Of Ceremonial Excrescence, was released back in 2009. This is clearly a band with a pronounced fondness for multisyllabic utterances. I can get behind that.

Impetuous Ritual are from Brisbane, Australia, and their ranks include members of Portal and Grave Upheaval. That makes me interested. This music from their last album also makes me interested: Continue reading »

WATCH THE NEW FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE VIDEO FOR “PATHFINDER”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 032014
 

When I got around to picking a song from Fleshgod Apocalypse’s 2013 album Labyrinth for our still-evolving list of last year’s “Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs”, the one I chose was “Pathfinder”. Earlier this morning, the band premiered an official video for the same song, and it’s excellent.

As you may know, Labyrinth is a concept album which draws on the legend of the labyrinth at Knossos on the island of Crete as a metaphor for each person’s search for his or her true self. Some knowledge of the myth may assist in following what happens in the video. According to The Font of All Human Knowledge:

“The myth of the Minotaur tells that Theseus, a prince from Athens, sailed to Crete, where he was forced to fight a terrible creature called the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a half man, half bull, and was kept in the Labyrinth – a building like a maze – by the king Minos, the ruler of Crete. The king’s daughter Ariadne fell in love with Theseus. Before he entered the Labyrinth to fight the Minotaur, Ariadne gave him a ball of thread which he unwound as he went into the Labyrinth so that he could find his way back by following it. Theseus killed the Minotaur, and then he and Ariadne fled from Crete, escaping her angry father.”

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NEW ALBUM TEASERS, A NEW ÆVANGELIST SONG, A NEW DARKANE VIDEO

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 012014
 

Here are some things I spied and heard over the last 24 hours, including a destructive new song and an invigorating new video. But I begin with some teasing photos that appeared in my Facebook news feed. The first one is above, accompanied by these words:

“Legendary Florida Death Metal pioneers Massacre will return with their first studio album effort in almost 20 years! Programmatically entitled Back From Beyond, the album will be released on March 24th in Europe and April 1st in North America.”

Here are some others, with the verbiage that accompanied them. If you don’t recognize the faces, hover your mouse over the images.

“New Album nearly complete! 1.31.14”

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: LOATHING, HISS FROM THE MOAT, SMUTEČNÍ SLAVNOST, AND DRAKWALD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  9 Responses »
Jan 312014
 

This is a collection of new songs and videos I discovered over the last 24 hours. Some of it, but not all, is black metal. I’ve used that “Shades of Black” label again because there’s a lot of dark, malevolent power in all the music — and a lot of evil fun to be had, too.

LOATHING

I heard from this Polish band two weeks ago, with the news that their debut album We Are the Hunt was set for release on January 20. I dicked around and failed to pounce on it, but yesterday I did discover both a lyric video for “Warspite” and a second song from the album, “I Rot Inside”. They’re both supremely good, and although I’m now very interested in hearing the whole album, I’m so behind in writing reviews that I at least wanted to make sure I said something about these two songs.

I suspect that many Polish death metal bands get tired of being compared to Behemoth or Hate, or maybe they’re flattered? I do mean to flatter Loathing with those references, although I don’t mean to suggest they sound exactly like either of those other magnificent bands. Their music does convey a similar kind of demonic majesty, the huge booming riffs and spine-shaking drum beats thundering with titanic might, the occult melodies writhing like freed serpents, the deep vocals roaring with malignant power (and howling with passion in the second song). Continue reading »

WRONG: “THEY LOOK AT ME” (A VIDEO)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 302014
 

These dudes may wear black veils, but they are not Black Veil Brides. Make no mistake about that. Their name is Wrong, they’re a black metal band who hail from Madrid, Spain, and they have recently released an official video for a song named “They Look At Me”. I discovered it via Terrorizer, and I’ve quickly become enthralled by it. Wrong explain the concept behind their music as follows:

The universe of Wrong focuses their concept on a post-apocalyptic and dystopian earth, where the few people that remain after a devastating earthquake in the core of the earth, struggling for survival in the most disheartening misery between death, sickness, wild clans, cannibalism and savagery, the vision of a dystopian and gray future where the worst stories of human decadence are narrated through obscure passages only for the wandering, abandoned and the wretched souls.

“They Look At Me” is both chilling and beautiful, both sorrowful and vitriolic. It has a vivid, compelling bass line that makes its presence known almost immediately; a sweeping, melancholy melody that insinuates itself into the memory; moments of ravaging tremolo evisceration and assaulting blast-beats; entrancing keyboard notes that come and go like wraiths; and a vocalist who sounds like a rabid wolf. Continue reading »

NOCTEM: “EIDOLON” (THE LYRIC VIDEO)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jan 302014
 

Noctem are from Valencia, Spain. Their 2011 album Oblivion was a favorite of this site (Andy Synn reviewed it here and named it to one of his lists of 2011′s top albums). Noctem are now ramping up for the release of a new album entitled Exilium, which will be available in North America on March 3. Last week we featured an advance track from the album named “Eidolon”, which has been streaming on SoundCloud, and now the band have also provided a worm-ridden lyric video for the song.

I’ve been spinning this song a lot since first hearing it. To quote what I wrote about it last week, it explodes with percussive ferocity, bestial roars, and winding riffs. Equal parts thunderous death metal and ripping melodic black metal, the music has an air of monstrous grandeur counterbalanced by a dark, swirling guitar melody — and it includes a brief, surprising acoustic interlude. It’s a riveting listen, and the track is such a grabber that I’ve already added it as a candidate for our list of 2014’s “Most Infectious Songs”.

In the words of frontman/songwriter Beleth, “‘Eidolon’ talks about the ancient Sumerian demons Thamuz and Ereshkigal, which is the queen of the underworld; destruction of the earth and proclamation of a self-destructive and anti-Christian ideology”. Gaze upon the lyric video next and let the music infest your head.  Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WARPSTONE, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, AND METAL ALBUM COVERS WITH GOOGLY EYES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  28 Responses »
Jan 292014
 

Due to the demands of my fucking day job, I haven’t had much time to go exploring for new music and news items over the last 24 hours, but on a very quick excursion through the interhole and my NCS in-box I did spy the following three items for your edification and enjoyment.

WARPSTONE

The last time I mentioned the name Warpstone on NCS was in April 2012, in the context of a feature on the painted art of that great Italian madman, Paolo Girardi. One of the pieces I used in that feature was Girardi’s cover for a then-forthcoming album by Warpstone entitled Daemonic Warpfire. At that time, I could find no music from the band available for streaming and I failed to follow up and check out the album when it was released.

This morning I noticed the painting by Paolo Girardi for Warpstone’s forthcoming second album, Into the Phantasmancer Celestial Castle, and it’s simply stunning. To see a larger view of the cover, click the image above. Fantastic.

Warpstone have also put three songs from the new album on Bandcamp for streaming, and I’m including the player for them below, as well as a YouTube clip for one of the new songs. They are genuinely impressive. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries