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 »

DEPRECATED RISES FROM THE GRAVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 302013
 

In mid-July I saw a report that Deprecated had signed with Unique Leader. The press release stated “The band’s latest album, Deriding His Creation, will be re-released on October 1.” Kind of a tongue-in-cheek announcement, since Deriding His Creation was originally released in 1998, and it was a 14-minute EP. But here’s the reason why this matters:

Deprecated came back to life after a decade-long dormancy with the release of a 2011 single, and the new line-up now includes not only original bass-player Derek Boyer (Suffocation), original drummer Torrey Moores, and original vocalist AJ Magaña (ex-Disgorge, ex-Defeated Sanity), but also new guitarists Terrance Hobbs (Suffocation) and Matt Sotelo (Decrepit Birth).

And what’s more, the guitar and bass tracks of the reissue of Deriding His Creation have been re-recorded by the current line-up, and the EP has been remixed & mastered by Zack Ohren of Castle Ultimate Studios. And as of today, we get to hear the results, because the EP’s updated title track had its premiere. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: SÓLSTAFIR AND GOSPEL OF THE HORNS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 302013
 

New videos have given me an excuse to write again about two excellent songs.

SÓLSTAFIR

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve posted different performances of “Fjara”. I don’t think it will ever grow old for me. And today brought me another excuse to do it again.

On July 25, Iceland’s Sólstafir performed at the Metaldays Festival in Tolmin, Slovenija. Someone with good equipment filmed the band’s performance of “Fjara” and uploaded it to YouTube. It looks like a beautiful setting for a festival (you get a glimpse of it at the end of the clip), though it’s a little strange to see the band performing in blinding sunlight. But apart from some overexposure brought about by all that daylight, the video looks and sounds very good.

And the song remains amazing, and the band remain the Kings of Cool, and I remain very stoked about the idea of seeing them live at Maryland Deathfest next May, where surely they will play this song. Watch and listen next . . . Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NEW DEICIDE TOUR, NEW SOCIOPATHIC MIXTAPE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 302013
 

Here are a couple of items that caught my eye last night.

NEW DEICIDE TOUR

Word has escaped that Deicide will be headlining a U.S. tour this October, though to be honest, the supporting bands are the ones that have really peaked my interest: Disgorge, Necronomicon, and Broken Hope.

I’ve been a fan of Montreal’s Necronomicon for years, and their 2013 album Rise of the Elder Ones is quite good. San Diego’s Disgorge has occupied a storied place in the annals of brutal death metal, and they’re now at work on their first album in eight years, with a revised line-up (Angel Ochoa behind the mic and Diego Soria on bass). And speaking of revivals, Chicago’s Broken Hope will be delivering their first album in 14 years when Century Media releases Omen of Disease in the same month that this tour occurs.

In other words, there’s going to be a full slate of new metal from a group of veteran death metal carnivores, wholly without regard to whether Deicide manages to bring it hard at the top of the bill. Continue reading »

PREMIERES: OBLIVION’S NEW VIDEO AND A NEW NOTHNEGAL TRACK

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 292013
 

We’ve already let loose a string of posts about new song and video premieres today, but we have one more. The first is a new video from . . .

OBLIVION

Not long ago we reported that this Bay Area band who we’ve written about frequently (writings collected here) had signed with the Unique Leader label, and that Unique Leader plans to re-issue the band’s self-released debut album, Called To Rise, on October 15 (check our review of it here). Today we got the new official video for the album’s final track, “Omniverse”. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album, a mix of heart-racing death metal performed with technical flare and eerie atmospherics.

That eerie quality that drifts through the song is captured in the visual effects and animation in the cool new video by Brandon Hunt. Check it out next: Continue reading »

PREMIERES: NEW MUSIC VIDEOS FROM KEN MODE AND CHIMAIRA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 292013
 

The morning has delivered a slew of premieres, including a new Gorguts song and a new Cattle Decapitation video. And in this post, we bring you two more new videos. The first comes from . . .

KEN MODE

The video from this stand-out Canadian band (which premiered on Pitchfork) is for a song named “Secret Vasectomy” from their 2013 album Entrench (which can be streamed and purchased on Bandcamp here). When the song first debuted, guitarist/frontman Jesse Matthewson said this about it:

“Secret Vasectomy” was one of the first songs we put together during the Entrench writing sessions, but more particularly it was the first that we truly collaborated on with Andrew [LaCour], as the other three songs we finished in that first get-together were largely made up of riffs that I’d constructed going into the session. To me, it’s a punk song; a nasty, nasty punk song. Lyrically speaking, I’m sure everyone can relate to the situation of needing to produce, yet feeling utterly uninspired to write anything of any perceived value whatsoever; this is the tipping point. When you refuse to acknowledge the elephant in the room as a muse and instead you slump in your chair and shoot blanks.

The video is an interesting one to watch, with scenes of children manically drawing and coloring, accompanied by animation of their creations. Let’s just say it’s not fun happy playtime. The band have explained that this is only the first part of a two-part “music video saga”. Here it is: Continue reading »

PREMIERES: ANOTHER CATTLE DECAPITATION VIDEO — “YOUR DISPOSAL”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 292013
 

The day is still young out here in the Pacific Northwest, but it has already brought us a handful of notable premieres. We started with a new Gorguts song, and we now follow that up with an official music video for a song from . . .

CATTLE DECAPITATION

The song is “Your Disposal”, which appears on the band’s latest album, Monolith of Inhumanity. This one was again directed by Mitch Massie. Let’s see what frontman Travis Ryan says about it:

“Director Mitch Massie has presented us all with a bizarre retelling of the story of Adam and Eve using themes from our latest album Monolith of Inhumanity. Here we see Eve giving birth to humanity, a living, breathing piece of primordial meat birthed into the dirt making its way through the Garden of Eden, hellbent on destruction… A clean and conscious monolith foretelling what could be possible given the fact that humans exhibit superior traits of intelligence, instead the earth is flooded with technological fallout and debris by the hands of man. This video is very much a prequel to our other videos ‘Forced Gender Reassignment’ and of course, ‘Kindgom of Tyrants’.” Continue reading »

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