A BACKWARD GLANCE: SPEARHEAD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 172013
 

I own a standard fuckton of band shirt (not a metric fuckton, because who can understand metrics?). Last night I grabbed a shirt out of one of many mountainous piles before running off to a birthday extravaganza for a friend. The image above is what’s on the front of the shirt. I had no idea which band it was, I just thought it looked cool. Rough guess, I don’t know the names of the bands for 25% of the shirts I have. I knew when I bought them, but the logos for so many are unreadable that as time passes I just go blank.

I spent the night partying with a couple dozen people, not one of whom was a metal head. At one point my shirt became the subject of a guessing game. There are words on the back. They say this:

The heavy burden of the earth thou justly cast to desolation, Kshatriya thou master of the ascesis of power. — Kshatriya 11.18-19.

These words meant nothing to anyone, including me (because I had forgotten their meaning). And then someone had a Eureka! moment and guessed the logo . . . Spearhead! Continue reading »

UNDER THE RADAR ROUND-UP

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Nov 162013
 

(TheMadIsraeli quickly reviews four new releases that deserve attention.)

Time for a round up of some shit that I’m sure some have missed or will miss when it comes out.

TYRANTS BLOOD 

We’ve mentioned Tyrants Blood (which includes former members of Blasphemy) once before on this site, and for good reason.  Their absolutely ravenous clusterfuck of all things brutal and fast is an always welcome treat.  The band’s new album Into the Kingdom of Graves is their most vicious and downright demonic sounding effort yet.  It’s hard to listen to things like the early Deicide records nowadays and think “this is some sinister shit” when bands like Tyrants Blood exist now. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VALDUR, BEAST AS GOD, EMBALMED

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Nov 152013
 

Here’s a random round-up of destructive new music I found today, including a review of a stunning new EP I stumbled upon quite by accident.

VALDUR

I first came across this three-man collective from Mammoth Lakes, California (and wrote about) them more than three years ago following release of their excellent second album, Raven God Amongst Us. In September 2012 I found out that Valdur had finished writing their new album and were set to begin recording it the following November, and I also found out about an excellent two-song EP entitled The Hammer Pit that they had previously self-released, consisting of “rough version” of two new songs. We featured those songs here and here, and both tracks are now streaming at Bandcamp. And then last December I saw that Valdur had released a stupendous new single entitled “Blast Beast”, which I wrote about here and which is also available (pay-what-you-want) on Bandcamp.

And now, finally, we have news about the band’s third album and a “rough version” of one of the new album tracks to hear. The album is entitled At War With, it includes 10 songs plus the killer album art you see above, and it will be released on December 17, 2013, by Bloody Mountain Records. The pre-mastered song that went up for streaming two days ago appears to be the title track — and it’s a blackened death metal masterstroke. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MYGRAIN, HEAVEN SHALL BURN, SAILLE, AND ALGHAZANTH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 142013
 


Welcome brethren and sistren to this morning’s round-up of new music and videos that caught my attention over the last 24 hours. Metal makes everything better.

MYGRAIN

A day without Finnish metal is like a day without sunshine. And since we will have no actual sunshine here in Seattle today, we must brighten it with this new offering by the Helsinki hellions in MyGrain. Their latest album, Planetary Breathing, was released by Spinefarm in September, and today they’ve showered us with sex, beer, and rock ‘n’ roll via a new video for the song “Waking Up the Damned”.

Okay, to be honest, I didn’t see any actual sex in the video, unless you count some nice tongue action on the beer-drenched keyboard. And everyone else was pretty well drenched in beer as far as I can tell. And there sure as hell is some fine rock ‘n’ roll. Nothing grymm or frostbitten in this here music, just a load of groovy, head-nodding, body-moving, mosh-inducing, virally catchy fun — all captured extremely well in the video you’ll see next. Continue reading »

“GOVERNMENT PLATES”: NEW DEATH GRIPS ALBUM DROPS — WITH A FLOOD OF NEW VIDEOS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Nov 132013
 

Death Grips still takes the prize for not metal, but metal. And without warning they’ve just dropped a new album, for free download of course, entitled Government Plates.

But that’s not all. All at once they’ve also uploaded a flood of new videos, one for  each of the 11 new songs. That’s right — a new album and 11 new videos within the space of an hour. No fucking around.

It’s all so much, so fast, that I haven’t had time to process it yet. I’m just getting the word out there. A review may, or may not, come later.

After the jump you’ll find a full stream of the album and all the videos. Click THIS or THIS to download Government Plates (these are links provided by the band, though I can’t promise they will work at the moment). Continue reading »

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: OCELOT OMELET, ARTEMIS AND TARDIVE DYSKINESIA, BLACK TRIP

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 132013
 

You really can’t accuse this site of being too narrow-minded, despite that thing about no clean singing, which we obviously don’t mean literally these days. We cast a wide net for our metal, catching all manner of shiny fish from a multitude of genres. But today I thought I’d feature new songs and videos I’ve come across in recent days that are outside even our expansive boundaries, or at least on the fringes. Before I mix my metaphors any further, let’s get to it:

OCELOT OMELET

Ocelot Omelet are a Seattle band whose music is difficult to describe. At one point they termed their sound “pseudo-retro tele-gothic psycho-hippie filth-punk”. Based on their first album, 2011’s Elliptical Optusion, that’s really not a bad description, as difficult as it may be to grapple with as an abstract concept. But based on their most recent recording, I think they’ll have to work the word “metal” into it some way.

Earlier this year, Ocelot Omelet recorded a new three-song EP by the name of Present In the Dark, with the legendary Jack Endino handling the engineering work. Two versions were mastered, one for vinyl and one for digital, and the band have now successfully completed a kickstarter campaign to finance pressing of the EP on 180 gram vinyl. I heard some of this new material performed live last summer, and I left with a severe case of headbanger’s neck. Continue reading »

ENNUI AND DOOM METAL FRONT (“ASIA: TUNES OF THE RISING SUN(N)”)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 122013
 

Earlier today I included a feature in a “Seen and Heard” post about a new song by an Italian doom band named Necropoli. After posting that piece I learned that the tremendous vocals on the song were recorded by David Unsaved, one of the two collaborators in a band from Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, named Ennui. I decided to learn more about Ennui and discovered that they have completed work on a new album (their second), entitled The Last Way, which will be released by MFL Records on November 30, 2013.

Ennui’s Facebook page also pointed to a stream of one song from the new album on Bandcamp. That song turns out to be part of a 30-track compilation called Asia: Tunes of the Rising Sun(n) assembled by a German zine called Doom Metal Front. The comp comes as an automatic digital download with the purchase of Issue #11 (which you can buy either as a downloadable PDF or as a print copy that will be sent to you).

The comp includes music by 30 bands from India, Pakistan, Israel, Japan, China, Indonesia, Japan, Georgia, and elsewhere, and features names such as Church of Misery, Coffins, Bevar Sea, Eternal Elysium, and Birushanah. But at the moment, the only song I’m going to write about is that Ennui track that will also appear on their new album. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MITOCHONDRION, IMPUREZA, NECROPOLI (AND LUMBAR-NOOTHGRUSH-COFFINS UPDATES)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 122013
 


Here are a few things I saw and heard yesterday that I want to recommend to you.

MITOCHONDRION

Vancouver’s Mitochondrion are working on their third album. There’s a chance it may reverse the space-time continuum, or possibly open portals to a nearby dimension in which human beings are food stock for the nourishment of nightmares. Probably won’t happen, but with this band I never rule out such possibilities.

Yesterday they saw fit to release a demo version of one of the new album’s songs, “Writhen Unto Abraxas”. It’s a mauling frenzy of destructive riffing and horrific vocal effusions, caked with grime, splintered with jagged grooves, and writhing with maggot-ridden guitar leads. Galvanizing and merciless, doomed and infectious, the song is yet another triumph of blackened death metal malignance for this frightening collective. Listen next. Continue reading »

ENTOMBED: “VULTURE AND THE TRAITOR”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Nov 112013
 

Entombed’s tenth album Back To the Front — which sports the painted cover art by Zbigniew Bielak that you see above — was originally scheduled for release by Century Media last month, but in September its release was postponed until early 2014 due to “unpredictable technical problems”. Today, one of the album’s tracks, entitled “Vulture and the Traitor”, appeared on YouTube. It doesn’t appear to be an authorized debut, so it may not last long. But it’s such a good song that it’s worth checking out while you can.

For those who foolishly continue to hope for a throwback to Left Hand Path, this isn’t that. Yet it still has a definite old-school feel in its sludgy riff tone and in its mix of d-beat, punk, and hardcore rhythms. L-G Petrov’s distinctive throaty vocals are in great form, and the song also boasts a hot-as-hell guitar solo.  Whether authorized or not, this is a damned fine teaser for Back To the Front. Listen next: Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: SATYRICON, CONVERGE, LASCAILLE’S SHROUD

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 112013
 

Here are three new recommended videos that premiered in recent days, two of them this morning. Recommended by me, because I like them.

SATYRICON

When Andy Synn reviewed Satyricon’s self-titled 2013 album for us, he wrote this about the song “Phoenix”: “Instantly divisive, seemingly designed to be hated, its clean, almost bluesy vocals (courtesy of Sivert Høyem) and ringing guitars initially like a step beyond all bounds of the group’s history. But look closer. Those drums, those slow-blooming riffs, they retain the essence of the band. Listen to what the song represents. They have rediscovered their spark, their fire, and their roots – but not perhaps in a way that they, or any of us, would have thought. It’s strange. It’s unexpected. It’s provocative… It’s Satyricon through and through.”

On September 8 Satyricon performed “Phoenix” as part of their concert with the Norwegian National Opera Chorus in the Norwegian Opera House in Oslo. That performance has now become the first official music video from the new album, and it again features Sivert Høyem on vocals. I love this song (and yes, I know it’s nothing but clean vocals), and the video is damned cool, too. Watch it next. Continue reading »

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