WATCH KVELERTAK’S NEW VIDEO FOR “EVIG VANDRAR”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 182013
 

About two weeks ago Norway’s Kvelertak uploaded a teaser for a new music video for the song “Evig Vandrar” (“Eternal Wanderer”) from their latest album, Meir.  I usually don’t bother posting about snippets of anything because I usually find more than enough complete songs and videos to write about every day. But this one looked so cool that I made an exception.

A few minutes ago, the entire video premiered. And guess what? It’s really fuckin’ cool!

The sci-fi themed animation is a feast for the eyes, and a bit of a puzzler for the mind at first. And it goes without saying (so of course I’ll say it) that the song rucks hard. Watch and listen next.  Continue reading »

INQUISITION AND YOB

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Sep 172013
 

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to make headway in listening to entire new EPs and albums when one is continually being distracted by the premiere of individual songs, especially when so many are so good. And that’s been the way the last several days have gone. So here’s one more round-up, though I’m limiting this one to two songs.

INQUISITION

As previously reported, Season of Mist will be releasing the next album by Inquisition — Obscure Verses for the Multiverse — on October 29 in North America and October 25 elsewhere. In our last post about these developments, we included a collection of excerpts from all the songs on the album, but today brought the premiere of one complete track — “Darkness Flows Towards Unseen Horizons”.

There are good reasons why this duo are so highly regarded by lovers of extreme music, and this song proves the case again. It unleashes a flood of mounting intensity, yet couples the storm front of razored riffing and attacking percussion with ringing melodic chords and twisted soloing that provide the magnet for repeat listens. I still prefer the vocal roars to the cracked croaking, both of which are in evidence on this song, but this really is a thoroughly compelling song. Listen via the lyric video that comes next. Continue reading »

A NEW SKELETONWITCH SONG AND VIDEO: “I AM OF DEATH (HELL HAS ARRIVED)”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 172013
 

Skeletonwitch has just premiered a new song and video, and if you like what you hear, you can get the song immediately.

If you hadn’t heard yet, Skeletonwitch have a new album on the way. Entitled Serpents Unleashed, it was recorded earlier this year at GodCity Studio with Kurt Ballou (Converge, Trap Them, High on Fire) and it’s due for release in North America on October 29 (October 28 EU/UK, October 25 Germany). It features delicious cover artwork by John Baizley (Baroness, Kylesa, Kvelertak), who last created album art for the Witch on 2007’s Beyond The Permafrost.

We previously featured the first advance track from the album, “Burned From Bone”, and the new one is called “I Am Of Death (Hell Has Arrived)”. Black thrashing mayhem anyone? With a sing-along chorus? And a little open heart surgery in the forest? You got it. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DIABOLICAL, VALKYRJA, SARKOM, THE BODY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
Sep 172013
 

Continuing a round-up that I began yesterday, here are new songs, new videos, and an enticing piece of news that caught my eyes and ears since the last weekend began. They share a certain . . . darkness . . . at their core.

DIABOLICAL

I’ve been waiting with bated breath for Diabolical’s new album Neogenesis since hearing a collection of pre-production excerpts released during the summer of 2012 (featured here). I say that without knowing precisely what bated breath means, but I presume it smells better than baited breath. In any event, Neogenesis is finally on the verge of release (the official date is September 27), and to build anticipation Diabolical have released a music video for a track named “Metamorphosis”.

The song is a wave front of blasting, blackened, death metal. In its most powerfully storming moments, it reminds me of those Polish masters Behemoth and Hate. It has an infernally imperial aura, and the production underscores its crushing might. The video is also very well done, though be aware that it includes nudity (not presented salaciously, I might add). I’m really looking forward to hearing all of Neogenesis. Continue reading »

PYRE AND JESU

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Sep 162013
 

Over the last 36 hours, your humble editor has been preoccupied with matters of both great importance and trivial insignificance, i.e., one being Seahawks football and the other being the demands of my paying job, and of course you know which is which, am I right? While these matters were distracting me from the glorious world of metal, it turns out that a flood of new things swept through the byways of the interhole. At this point, I don’t have time to collect everything of interest that I found, but I thought I’d at least throw two of them your way, selected in order to provide contrast. I’ll round up the rest for a post tomorrow morning.

PYRE

In June I reviewed (here) a new split by Pyre from St. Petersburg, Russia, and Entrapment from The Netherlands. That was only the second release by Pyre (it followed their 2012 EP, Ravenous Decease), but I was mighty impressed. And now I’m impressed all over again.

Today they released a new 2013 demo track called “We Came To Spill Thy Blood”. So far, I haven’t found that any of my own has been spilled, but the song certainly did accelerate its transit through my veins and arteries. The song reminds me of Wolverine Blues-era Entombed. It has that old school guitar tone, riffs galore, and rhythms that will get your head nodding and your feet moving. The vocals still remind me of LG Petrov. Continue reading »

SUNDAY SAVAGERY: DICHOTOMY, WARCALL, DEMONICAL, CVINGER, AND PSEUDOGOD

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Sep 152013
 

I took  a rare break from metal for most of yesterday, but not a complete break. I did spend time last night checking out new music and found a handful of savage items that I thought were worth featuring in this post. So here we go:

DICHOTOMY

Dichotomy are a band from Dublin, Ireland, who self-released their debut album Paradigm last month. I haven’t heard it, but I did catch a video they premiered through Terrorizer on Friday for one of the album’s songs. The song’s name is “Of Strife Of Discord”, and according to the band: “The song’s title is a reference to Eris, Greek goddess of chaos, strife and discord. The song is about the destruction of the self and allowing chance to rule one’s course; about becoming the embodiment of chaos.”

The song is a dichotomy, too. On the one hand, it’s a jet-fueled blast of melodic death metal with a lot of flying fretwork and some pleasingly serpentine guitar solos. On the other hand, it delivers a boatload of galvanizing grooves that should get heads banging hard. I had fun listening to it. Continue reading »

A DGR ROUND-UP: THE AMENTA, DEATH I AM, AND EXHALE

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 142013
 

(DGR brings you a collection of goodies from The Amenta (Australia), Death I Am (Japan/US), and Exhale (Sweden).)

THE AMENTA – Soundtrack To A Hidden Earth

In my mind, The Amenta are one of the most interesting and challenging bands out there right now. They play an industrialized style of black metal and write songs that challenge even the most traditional metal listeners. They’re probably doing the most metal thing you can do by presenting music so unlikeable and abrasive in its sound that even though the music underneath is actually pretty approachable, it still causes people to shy away.

I thought their release earlier this year, Flesh Is Heir, was pretty good, so if you haven’t had the opportunity to check these guys out, this is not the article to do so with, go read that. However, I do find what the band posted earlier this week fascinating, and if you’re looking for stuff that definitely isn’t music and is mostly a collage of distorted sound that would go perfectly in a horror film then continue on – because the band is giving away a (formerly) rare five-song collection from their very early days of writing music known as Soundtrack To A Hidden Earth. The band explain on their Facebook page:

“Soundtrack to a Hidden Earth” was originally released on the initial pressing of “Occasus”, the debut album by The Amenta, released by Listenable Records in 2004. The tracks were hidden in the data encoded on the disc.

The recordings were experiments in sound destruction and contextualization of sounds. These experiments led directly to some of the methods used in the follow up album, “n0n”.

Few people have heard these tracks. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE . . . BANDS I WOULD LOVE TO RE-FORM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  37 Responses »
Sep 132013
 

(Andy Synn brings us another installment in his occasional series of favorite things that come in fives.  Leave a comment and let us know what you think of Andy’s picks . . . and who you’d pick if you had your wish.)

So the last several years have seen some amazing ‘comebacks’, I think we can all agree? Everyone from Alice in Chains to Byzantine to The Crown have been lacing up their boots and getting back in the saddle to show the world just how much they’ve been missed in their absence.

Some of my personal favourites – bands I never thought I’d hear another record from, let alone get a chance to see live – have come back with a vengeance, with artists like Antestor, Vision of Disorder, and Extol all returning to justify their near-legendary status.

Still though, there’s a number of bands I just can’t let rest in peace. Bands who need to come back. Bands who have unfinished business. Bands I have to see live!

So here’s five of my favourites, each with a song from their very last album, to show you what we’re all missing. Continue reading »

FLIGHT 666 TO HEL, AND A BIT OF PÕHJAST MUSIC

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Sep 132013
 

There are two Friday the 13th’s in 2013.  Today is one of them: 9-13-13.  Some people won’t leave their homes today.  But for those who want to thumb their noses at superstition, have I got a deal for you.

Actually, this news is a bit late for thumb-nosing today, unless you happen to live in Copenhagen. If you do, you still might be able to find a seat on Finnair’s Flight 666 to HEL. HEL, by the way, is the airport code for Vantaa Airport just outside of Helsinki, Finland. If you could get on that Copenhagen-Helsinki flight, you could really double-down and request a seat in Row 13. Unlike some airlines that skip Row 13 (just as most hotels have no Floor 13), Finnair does have them on their planes.

So does Estonian Air. According to Ulo Valk, professor of comparative folklore at the University of Tartu in Estonia,”Less than 100 years ago the number 13 did not have this sinister meaning. It’s quite recent in the north.” Where does this superstition come from? Here’s Prof. Valk’s explanation: “There are 12 hours, 12 months and in Christianity 12 apostles and this is a divine number. Add one more and it brings in a certain element of chaos.”

So how could Flight 666 to HEL be more chaotic? I mean, other than losing an engine and going down like a fireball into some Finnish farmer’s field? Well, here’s one idea: They could play Põhjast’s “In the Shadow of the Glass Cross” over the PA system en route. Continue reading »

FOREST LAPOINTE TORTURES OTHER BASS PLAYERS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  17 Responses »
Sep 132013
 

Bass players occupy an unusual position in metal. On the one hand, much of the time you don’t really notice what they’re doing on a recording. Much of the time they don’t really stand out, partly because of the way most albums are mixed, and partly because much of the time it’s just not all that interesting by itself; their absence would be more noticeable than their presence.

On the other hand, whenever they can actually be heard in a recording and are doing something . . . interesting . . . people sit up and take notice; they like it, and they tend to comment on it. Kind of like what might happen if you came across a talking dog.

So, on the one hand, when I tell you that I’m about to show you a bass play-through of a song, many of you will stifle a yawn. If you’re feeling a bit prickly, you might even be going, “What the fuck?” On the other hand, when I tell you the play-through was performed by Dominic “Forest” Lapointe of Montreal’s Beyond Creation (and Augury), those of you who are familiar with the band’s music will probably be rubbing your hands together in gleeful anticipation.

Because Forest Lapointe can do things most other bass players only dream of doing. It’s almost cruel for him to make a video like this one. Continue reading »

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