NEW FROM VASAELETH: “PARADISE RECONSECRATED” (PLUS ALBUM ART)

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jun 262013
 

Yours truly has been keeping both bloodshot eyes peeled for info about the next album by Vasaeleth. Keeping my eyes open without blinking for hours on end makes them hurt quite a lot, and this may explain why I sometimes make whimpering noises. However, we must all endure pain for our pleasure, because this is the way of the world. Of course, much of the time we must endure pain to no good end at all. This also is the way of the world.

Aw fuck, where was I?  Oh yeah, waiting for Vasaeleth. Well, my painful vigilance was rewarded this afternoon with a boatload of information. First, Profound Lore confirmed the title of the new album (All Uproarious Darkness) and announced its release date (August 20). Second, PL unveiled the album’s cover art, which you can see above. It was painted by the viciously talented Antichrist Kramer. It’s quite eye-catching, don’t you think?

And finally, we have been given a new song to hear, one bearing the title “Paradise Reconsecrated”. I’m of two minds about the song. In one of my minds I’m being torn apart by wild, voracious beasts who are growling and shrieking and tearing and swallowing whole in a feast of ravenous abandon. In my other mind, I’m enveloped by a blackened death metal tornado, the air being sucked from my lungs while the guitars grind and moan and squeal, the bass thunders, and the drums rumble like an earthquake; and then I’m eaten alive by wild animals. It feels so good. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SOCKWEB, STATION DYSTHYMIA, FORLORN PATH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jun 262013
 

For various reasons, mainly a long trip to the East Coast and back over the last weekend and catching-up to do at my job, I’ve fallen behind in listening to new metal. I’ve made a halting effort to catch up, and though I’ve not made much of a dent, I did select a few of the songs (quite diverse from each other) that I’ve heard since late last week to share with you in this post.

SOCKWEB

I don’t consider myself a cynic. In fact, I think I’m one of the least cynical people I know over the age of 12, more of a glass-is-half-full, give-everyone-the-benefit-of-the-doubt kind of guy. Yet I confess that I keep caged within me a black-eyed little cynic-monster, and the scaly bastard broke free when I first started reading about the duo from Richmond, Indiana, who call themselves Sockweb. Surely, that little monster screamed, this is pure gimmickry, one of those viral internet thingies that thrives solely on novelty (mixed with cuteness) rather than substance or merit.

Because after all, how could a father and his seven-year-old daughter really make grindcore that’s worth a damn, especially when it’s the little tyke who’s the vocalist?

And then I saw an announcement that first appeared late last week which caused me to reconsider: Not only have The Sockweb duo recorded a debut album (Werewolf), it’s being mastered by none other than Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed) and it will include guest appearances by Kat Katz (Agoraphobic Nosebleed), Joe Torchia (Flux Conspiracy), Erik Ebsen (Spiralmountain), and Jonathan Chun (Azure Noise, Ozoru Hammer). And so I relented, I shoved the monster back in his cage, and I listened for the first time to the four songs that are now out. And I was glad I did. Continue reading »

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER’S “GOAT OF DEPARTURE” GETS THE VIDEO TREATMENT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 242013
 

Seeing The Black Dahlia Murder performing while dressed in tuxedos is only one of many “what the fuck?” moments in the band’s new official video for “Goat of Departure” from their new Everblack album. The montage of stills shown above gives a taste of some of the others, but there are a lot of ’em packed into the four minutes of mayhem you’re about to see.

The performance shots were filmed at the downstairs bar at The Magic Stick in Detroit. Ben Meyer directed it. Presumably, no goats were harmed in the making of this video. Watch it next. Continue reading »

LORD WORM REJOINS CRYPTOPSY (BRIEFLY)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jun 242013
 

Okay, sorry about that somewhat misleading headline. I couldn’t resist (and I did put the word “briefly” in there).

Cryptopsy’s first two albums, Blasphemy Made Flesh (1994) and None So Vile (1996) are widely (and rightly) regarded as death metal classics, and the disgusting vocals of Lord Worm were a key part of the music’s violent impact. He left the band in 1997, returned long enough to record Once Was Not (2005), and then departed again.

However, at the Amnesia Rockfest in Montebello, Quebec, on June 15, 2013, Lord Worm joined Cryptopsy on stage, sharing vocal duties with the band’s current growler Matt McGachy. Today, a 9-minute video surfaced on YouTube showing Lord Worm performing a medley of tunes from Blasphemy Made Flesh. The audio quality is iffy (among other things, the volume randomly goes up and down), but it’s damned cool to watch . . . which you can do next. Continue reading »

WATAIN UNLEASHES LYRIC VIDEO FOR “ALL THAT MAY BLEED”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jun 242013
 

As we previously reported, the Swedish horde known as Watain have a new album named The Wild Hunt coming on August 19 in Europe and August 20 in the US via Century Media Records. A two-track single (All That May Bleed) was released last Friday (June 21). And this morning brought us the band’s official lyric video for the single’s title track.

As should be expected from Watain by now, the song is not standard black metal fare. It’s bombastic, thrashing, slightly industrial in its rhythms, and of course completely vehement and venomous. It also includes a memorable (and eerie) guitar solo, as well as a bass solo.

The new single can be downloaded at iTunes and it’s also being offered as a 7″ black or red vinyl, and on a 7″ picture disc. These can be acquired at http://www.wolfwear.net or from http://www.cmdistro.com. The lyric video is next. Let us know what you think. Continue reading »

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT: LIVE AT DOKK’EM OPEN AIR

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jun 242013
 

If you know of a death metal band other than The Monolith Deathcult who have used the Scottish folk song “Donald, where’s your trousers?” as the intro music for a live set, please speak up. I can’t imagine anyone else doing it. But that’s what TMDC did at the beginning of their performance on June 22, 2013, at the DOKK’EM OPEN AIR festival in The Netherlands.

Of course, they didn’t use the funny, up-tempo version of the song recorded by Andy Stewart. They used the slow, creepy version sung by machine intelligences in an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. As expected, the voice of Optimus Prime makes a later appearance as well.

But as interesting (and fitting) as these oddities were, the stars of the show were THE 6TH MOST POPVLAR AND ALMOST AWARD-WINNING SVPREME AVANTGARDE DEATH METAL BAND FROM KAMPEN, THE NETHERLANDS. And man, did they crush. How do I know? Because TMDC have uploaded a quality video of the entire set to YouTube. Continue reading »

AGALLOCH: LIVE FROM BELGIUM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jun 222013
 

I’m going to be scarce around here the rest of the day and a big part of tomorrow. Two friends of mine are getting married tomorrow, and I intend to help them celebrate the joyous occasion to the utmost of my abilities. If the NCS site becomes comatose, please look for me at hospitals in the vicinity of Ithaca, NY.

Until we meet again, I’d like to leave you with something that really made my morning, and I hope it will make yours brighter, too. It’s a video of about half of Agalloch’s live set in Aalter, Belgium, on April 22, 2013, as part of the LUCIFER OVER EUROPE tour. The video and the audio quality are both very good. In fact, if you decide not to stare at a computer screen for 44 minutes, the audio is good enough that you could just blast it in the background.

So fucking heavy, so fucking sublime. Four excellent musicians really locked in, casting spells. Thank you John Haughm, Don Anderson, Jason Walton, and Aesop Dekker for getting my weekend off to a fine start. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: CRIMINAL ELEMENT, WOLVSERPENT, A.M.S.G., MURDER MADE GOD, AND FREE SHIT FROM METAL BLADE

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jun 212013
 

This is a round-up of carefully selected items I saw and heard yesterday while prowling through the filthy chambers of the interhole. As usual, I’ve made an effort to include a variety of metal, so you don’t get too comfortable. Comfortable isn’t what we aim for around here.

CRIMINAL ELEMENT

Criminal Element is a band that until yesterday had completely slipped beneath my cracked radar screen. I learned about them from my NCS compadres TheMadIsraeli and DGR. They came into existence in the vicinity of 2005, and at the time of their first EP (Career Criminal), the line-up boasted two members from Suffocation (Derek Boyer and Terrance Hobbs) and one from Dying Fetus (Vince Matthews, and when the band first began Sparky Voyles from Dying Fetus was also on board)).

In the current incarnation of Criminal Element, Boyer, Hobbs, and Matthews are joined by Darin Morris from Misery Index (at one point Adam Jarvis and Mark Kloeppel from Misery Index were also part of this project). With a line-up like that, you can understand why I paid attention when I learned that Criminal Element released a new album (Modus Operandi) in April. Continue reading »

NEW GORGUTS MUSIC: “FORGOTTEN ARROWS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jun 202013
 

Well, that didn’t take long. Yesterday we got the album title (Colored Sands), album art, release dates, and track list for the first studio album by Gorguts in 12 years. And now we have the album’s first single — “Forgotten Arrows”.

I don’t know what’s more impressive, what Luc Lemay and Kevin Hufnagel do with their guitars, what John Longstreth does with the drum-kit, or what Colin Marston does with the bass. Oh hell, why choose? It’s all striking.

And the song itself uses the top-shelf expertise of all four to deliver music that’s tremendously heavy, dark, and doomed. It has the impact of buildings collapsing, but it provides a good scrambling of the neurons as the same time. Tremendous stuff. Listen to it next: Continue reading »

NEW REVOCATION: “THE HIVE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 182013
 

Boston’s phenomenally good Revocation have a new, self-titled album scheduled for release by Relapse Records on August 6. (It’s available for pre-order here.) Within the last hour the first advance track from the album exploded on YouTube. The song’s name is “The Hive” and damned if it doesn’t sound like a hive full of thrashed-up hornets swarming in a syncopated dance, bursting with venom and slightly delirious. A couple of those hornets bust out a sweet guitar solo, too.

Damned fine song, which you can hear next: Continue reading »

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