MECHINA: “CEPHEUS”

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 042013
 

(DGR shares some thoughts about the new single from Chicago’s Mechina.)

Let me just take a quick breath and describe this song for you, as my reaction upon listening to it for the first time.

Holy shit.

It’s not often that you’re justified in describing a song this way, but my first run through the new Mechina song after having Empyrean in my hands for the better part of eight months was a great feeling. There’s something to Mechina’s hybrid of symphonic elements with industrial death that provides constant moments of absolute excitement. When I first heard the band with Andromeda I felt the need to post about that song almost immediately, and since then I’ve found one or two songs that I can’t help but be incredibly excited by on each release.

I thought they had almost peaked with “Anathema” and “Elephtheria” off of this year’s Empyrean, but then the violence of “Cepheus” hit, and my excitement for anything new by these guys reached a fever peach once again. Continue reading »

GRAVE MIASMA, ALTARS, FACEBREAKER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 032013
 

To start the weekend, I’ve collected new death metal in this post that I strongly recommend, from three very good bands.

GRAVE MIASMA

This UK band made quite an impact with the two EPs they’ve released to date — 2009’s Exalted Emanation and 2010’s Realm of Evoked Doom — and now they’ve completed a debut album entitled Odori Sepulcrorum that’s due for release on September 13 (September 17 in NorthAm) by Profound Lore and the German label Sepulchral Voice. It was reportedly recorded on analog format using vintage equipment, and it features wonderful cover art (above), painted with acrylics on glass by Denis Forkas.

So far I’ve only heard one of the new tracks, “Ovation To A Thousand Lost Reveries”. It made me think of the song we streamed earlier this week from Ulcerate’s new album. It’s a roaring storm of ancient blackened death metal, the riffs moaning and grinding and oozing with putrescence. The drum tone is titanic, and the barbaric vocals echo like roars of the awakened dead across the vault of dank crypts.

Like Ulcerate, Grave Miasma prove that there is still fertile ground for creative growth in the graveyard of wholly dominating death metal. The song is wonderfully inventive while remaining rotten to the core. Stupendous stuff. Continue reading »

RÄJÄ ‘N’ ROLL WITH RÄJÄYTTÄJÄT

 Exceptions to the Rule, Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 022013
 

This has been the kind of day when I’ve wanted to go postal on our web host (Bluehost). Our site — and every other site hosted by Bluehost, HostGator, HostMonster, and JustHost — has been down for nearly the entire day. A few times it has come back up for a few minutes, and then disappears again. It’s up again now, but who knows when it will go down again? Fuckers.

Anyway, I’m posting this now mainly to let people know that we’re still here. But I’m also including some music that cheered me up and diverted my murderous mood, to the point when I’m not even thinking about those Bluehost clowns. It’s not metal, but it’s from Finland, so that kind of makes it metal anyway. Fucking Bluehost.

The band has got more umlauts in their name than Bluehost has IQ points: Räjäyttäjät. Apparently, it means “Detonators” in English. Apparently, in Finland they call the band’s music “Räjä ‘n’ roll”. They’re releasing their debut album on August 30 via Ektro Records. You gotta admire this album title, which I like much better than motherfucking Bluehost:

AWOPBOPALOOPOP ALOPBAM RÄJÄ!

The song I heard is an advance track called “Ei Hauskaa”, which apparently means “No Fun”. But I’ll tell you, I had a shitload of fun listening to it, even while hoping that the earth swallows up Bluehost and shits it out. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: BEAST WARS, BLOCKHEADS, UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS, DREAMING DEAD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Aug 022013
 

Yesterday brought a big group of video premieres. Here are four that I liked a bunch.

BEASTWARS

This New Zealand band’s 2013 album Blood Becomes Fire remains one of my favorites of the year (I reviewed it here), and the opening track “Dune” is one of my two favorite songs on the album. It’s a high-intensity mauler marked by Matt Hyde’s no-holds-barred vocals, by massive riffs that grind like giant grit-encrusted gears about to lock up, and by drums that punch and rumble.

Yesterday the band released a stunning animated video for “Dune”, funded by a government program called NZ On Air and created by Skyranch.tv, with ingenious work by director Simon Ward, illustrator Cory Mathis, and a cool FX team. It’s a freaky time-travel story that’s a feast for the eyes. It’s fitting that it’s loaded with dinosaurs, since Beastwars’ riffs are saurian in their immensity. You’re in for a wild ride, next. Continue reading »

DEATH METAL: WAR MASTER AND MORTHRA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Aug 022013
 

Yesterday was kind of a strange day here at the NCS metallic island. We put up a big stream of posts, but most of them were short-and-fast alerts about new tours or new songs, because your humble editor was preoccupied with the demands of his fucking day job and didn’t followed through on more time-consuming ideas that were originally slated for the day. Better luck today.

I’d like to begin whatever emerges at NCS on this Friday by flattening you with some metal of fucking death. I have two songs. I heard both of them yesterday when I came up for a gasp of air from the miasma of my paid work. If you like fucking death metal, I believe you will smile when you hear them (after you finish picking up your teeth).

WAR MASTER

War Master are a new discovery for me. They’re from my one-time hometown of Houston, Texas, and their last release was a 2011 debut album named Pyramid of the Necropolis. They’ve now recorded a new EP entitled Blood Dawn, which will be released on August 7.

Last month they began streaming an advance track on Bandcamp called “Bastard Horde”, which can be obtained right now for $1. It’s goddamn titanic — a blasting, grinding, heavy-as-hell battle-tank on a merciless old-school rampage in the vein of Bolt Thrower. The monstrous riffs and irresistible grooves in this baby will smash you into smithereens. I’m in love. Or at least in lust. Continue reading »

ANOTHER NEW SONG FROM FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE: “MINOTAUR (THE WRATH OF POSEIDON)”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

You already know what we think of Labyrinth, the new album by the almighty Fleshgod Apocalypse, because surely you have read Andy Synn’s laudatory review of it. And surely you have already heard “Elegy”, the first track from the album to be released for streaming. And surely you will now listen to the second song that just appeared on YouTube as a lyric video, “Minotaur (The Wrath of Poseidon)”. Surely.

Labyrinth will be out on Aug. 16 in Europe, Aug. 19 in the UK, and Aug. 20 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records. Listen to “Minotaur” next and please share your thoughts in the comments. Continue reading »

TOURISM: GWAR, WHITECHAPEL, IRON REAGAN, A BAND OF ORCS, KATATONIA, CULT OF LUNA, INTRONAUT, TESSERACT, ORGAN DONOR, COFFIN DUST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

Collected here is news about three new tours that surfaced yesterday.

MADNESS AT THE CORE OF TIME TOUR

GWAR is the headliner of this tour, and the rest of the line-up consists of Whitechapel, Iron Reagan, and A Band of Orcs. It’s tough to find a unifying theme for the selection of these bands, other than the fact that the line-up is book-ended by inhuman creatures. But I’ve found that some of the best shows are those in which the combination of bands makes you scratch your head. One band might pull you in, and you might then discover another band you like.

In this case, Whitechapel have kicked my ass every time I’ve seen them and I’m also interested in seeing Iron Reagan and A Band of Orcs (HAIL GZOROTH!). I’ve never gotten into GWAR, though I can’t say I’ve ever given them much of a chance. Maybe that will be my new discovery on this tour. Here’s the schedule: Continue reading »

A NEW ULCERATE SONG: “CONFRONTING ENTROPY”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

The new album by New Zealand’s Ulcerate is entitled Vermis. It’s due for release by Relapse on September 17 in North America and on somewhat earlier dates elsewhere. It’s one of our most highly anticipated releases of the year. And late yesterday, the album’s first advance track became available for listening.

“Confronting Entropy” sounds like the warring of alien behemoths on some distant, poisonous planet during an earthquake while a meteor strike is in progress. The sound is massive, with huge, catastrophic riffs, squalling, shrieking guitar leads, and earth-splitting percussion. It’s tumultuous avant garde death metal with teeth. Check it out next (I’m including both the YouTube and Soundcloud streams for the hell of it).

(Vermis can be pre-ordered here. Ulcerate’s web site is at this location.)

Continue reading »

BLACK AS NIGHT: ÆVANGELIST, THE RUINS OF BEVERAST, AND KÊRES

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jul 312013
 

By coincidence, I heard new music from three bands last night, right in a row, that had a few things in common: The music is all superb, and it’s all black as hell. I don’t mean to say it’s all black metal, though some of it is. I mean to say that it’s all dark, heavy, and harrowing.

ÆVANGELIST

Little more than a week has passed since I reviewed Ævangelist’s lengthy (and brilliant) contribution to a forthcoming split that will be released in the coming months by Aurora Australis Records. I also mentioned that the band had finished recording a new album, Omen Ex Simulacra, that will be released later this year by Debemur Morti. And lo and behold, yesterday Debemur Morti gave us a precise release date — October 11 — and premiered a song from the album named “Abysscape”. [Update: we also now have a preview of the album art by Andrzej Masianis, which you can see above.]  Interestingly, “Abysscape” is the last song on the album, though it’s the first one being released.

It’s another long one, though in the music of Ævangelist, time is an important ally. “Abysscape” is a dense, bottomless, indigo whirlpool of doom, made for immersion. Immense grinding guitars match up with immense, horrific vocals and stunning drumwork. Alien keyboard melodies call out like the cries of homeless souls. The ravaging music alternately storms and drifts. You look into the void, and “Abysscape” is there, looking back at you. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BROKEN HOPE, INQUISITION, HANK3

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jul 312013
 

Here’s some recent album-release news that got me excited.

BROKEN HOPE

Early yesterday we reported about a U.S. tour scheduled for October that will be headlined by Deicide. One of the supporting bands is Chicago’s Broken Hope. I mentioned in that post that Broken Hope had recorded their first new album in 14 years and that it would be released by Century Media in October under the name Omen of Disease. And then later the same day we got an official announcement of the release dates: October 1 in NorthAm and September 30 in Europe.

We also got an unveiling of the album art, featured above. That’s one imaginatively nightmarish creature, isn’t it? I think I saw one of those fuckers in the corner of my bathroom one night. Right before I blacked  out. That was a bad night.

The cover was painted by the illustrious Wes Benscoter, who has created artwork for the likes of Slayer, Hypocrisy, Autopsy, Kreator, and many more. In a coming-full-circle kind of episode, he also did the covers for two of Broken Hope’s own albums, though that happened in 1995 (Repulsive Conception) and 1997 (Loathing). Continue reading »

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