WIZARDRY IN THE RIFFERY: A JEFF LOOMIS – KEITH MERROW – OLA ENGLUND JAM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 182013
 

Oh, they make it look so easy.

Jeff Loomis and Keith Merrow (Demisery) were trying out their new signature amp packs for Jamup Pro. And they decided, why not throw together a new jam? And they spontaneously wrote and recorded an instrumental track in a couple of hours. And then they decided, what the hell, let’s invite Ola Englund (Feared) to come bust out a solo for this thing. And voila! They produced de-li-ciousness.

And they videotaped it, too, so that all of us can bask in all the delicious riff wizardry.

Watch these three guitar dynamos tear it up right after the jump. You’ll be glad you did. Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST’S NEW VIDEO: “666”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 182013
 

Andy Synn’s review for this site of Rotting Christ’s new album, Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy, described it as “a heavier and more aggressive album” than the band’s preceding two releases, and “one that wraps itself in a more black metal aesthetic than we have seen from the band in some time, recalling the bands Non Serviam years, but with added extremity and muscle.” But as Andy noted, although the album is built more on a foundation of black metal guitars and thunderous drums, it’s not without its more esoteric moments, with the ominous, gothic vibe of doom-laden closer “Χ ξ ς” (666) as a prime example.

Today the band premiered an official video for “666”. The beautifully executed black-and-white film by Jon Simvonis captures the dramatic, occult atmosphere of the music and, like the song itself, leaves no doubt that Rotting Christ have not severed the black roots of their past. Watch it next: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: AMON AMARTH, DARKANE, AND THRÄNENKIND

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 182013
 

Here is a trio of songs that I discovered yesterday that are worth hearing. The first two are brand new and come from well-known Swedish melodic death metal bands. The third is from a German band who are a pleasant new discovery for me, and maybe for you, too.

AMON AMARTH

I suppose there are people out there who are on the fence about Amon Amarth, or conceivably haven’t yet made their acquaintance. But I suspect most people who are reading this are either already fans or wrote the band off already. This message is addressed to the fans and to those who might not yet have given the band their time: The song that premiered yesterday is awesome.

Its name is “Father of the Wolf”, and it rocks very damned hard. It’s packed with irresistible riffs and megawatts of energy, and the wah-wah solos bring a different kind of guitar sound that gives the song a refreshing spin. With any luck we’ll soon have a review of the entire new album — Deceiver of the Gods — but in a nutshell I think it’s a standout for a dependably solid band. Here’s the new song: Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: DOOM NATION

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 172013
 

I know a lot of NCS readers have got a taste for doom. I’ve developed quite a strong taste for it, too, and my mouth juices started filling up my gob when I saw this piece of news: Our blog brethren at CVLT Nation have compiled a free doom mixtape that’s loaded with killer bands who specialize in the slow and low.

There are 19 tracks on offer, including music by the likes of Dopethrone, Bongripper, Loss, Primitive Man, Graves At Sea, Batillus, Atriarch, and Seattle’s own Bell Witch. There’s a lot of strong, devastating music on this comp (2 1/2 hours of it to be precise), and it’s even sweeter because, as mentioned, it’s FREE!

Go HERE to download it, and if you’d first like to see the whole tracklist and listen to the tunage, move on past the jump. Continue reading »

UNLOCKING THE TRUTH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jun 172013
 

Back in April, a video of three 12-year-olds playing music on a Times Square street corner made the rounds on the interwebs. A combination of three things made a lot of people sit up and take notice: the kids were black, they were playing metal, and they were pretty damned good — especially for 12-year-olds. The name of their band: Unlocking the Truth.

I’d like to think that the video would have drawn attention even if these were white kids, but let’s face it, at least in the US you don’t see many black kids of any age playing underground metal. But as I said, that’s really only part of the reason why the video grabbed some attention. It happens that these dudes have got some really good chops for their age, especially the guitarist.

Many other videos of Unlocking the Truth playing in public have surfaced over the ensuing weeks, and this weekend several friends sent me a link to a short documentary about two of the band’s members — Malcolm Brickhouse and Jarad Dawkins — that went up last week, and it’s an awesome (and endearing) thing to watch. Yeah, these are young kids, but both of them seem really committed to what they’re doing, and they’ve got big ambitions. More power to them. Continue reading »

A DGR ROUND-UP: MECHINA, THE AMENTA, TYRANT OF DEATH, CONDUCTING FROM THE GRAVE, STEVEN WILSON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 162013
 

(DGR provides this round-up of artwork, new music, and new videos.)

Apparently nobody else got the memo that last week was E3 week and, goddamnit, that I was going to be away from the computer, because holy crap did the news updates come fast and furious throughout the week of June 10th. A lot of these bands are going to look very familiar to readers of the site because a lot of them are in fact the same groups featured in my last round-up. However, here at NCS we try to stick with really substantial stuff since a tracklisting usually means dick to the reader unless it has something attached to it.

This week, these bands delivered in spades – some with cover art, most with new songs or videos, one with a whole new release. Regardless, it was a smattering all across the board if you love music and love shit just being heavy as hell. I’ll attach my thoughts along the way, of course…otherwise this article is going to look all sorts of wacky.

MECHINA

That picture you see above is artwork for Mechina’s upcoming Xenon release, which the group stated in this here post would be hitting on 1/1/14. Continue reading »

TEASED: BLODSGARD AND SOREPTION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jun 162013
 

In recent days two bands I’m very high on have released teasers of music from albums I’ve been waiting on for a long time (with a level of eagerness that hasn’t diminished as the months have rolled by).

BLODSGARD

Norway’s Blodsgard haven’t yet released a full-length album, only three demos — but the debut album is on the way. Its title is Monument and it will soon be made available both digitally and on CD via a label called The Oath (an exact release date hasn’t been announced). Yesterday, the band unveiled the killer cover art for the album (above), created by one of my favorite metal artists, Mark Cooper (Mindrape Art), as well as excerpts of all the songs.

When I first found out about Blodsgard in September 2011, the most recent demo — a four-song offering called Solve et Coagula— hadn’t even been released for public distribution, and the band had no plans to do so. I got a chance to hear it and then obtained permission to provide a link to a special 3-song download for our readers, which included two tracks from Solve et Coagula plus another even more recent song, as a companion to my review. All three songs, which are still available for free, will appear in remastered form on the forthcoming album. Continue reading »

PROMETHEE: “LIFE/LESS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jun 152013
 

Hell-raising Friday nights bring apocalyptic Saturday mornings, and so it is that on this Saturday morning my ass is dragging through the wreckage I made of my life. I’ll probably feel normal by about sundown, if I’m lucky. I do have some things our other writers sent me overnight, but the words are all blurry at the moment. While I wait for my eyes to focus, I’m going to give you a video to watch and a song to hear, to pass the time in a pleasant way.

The video is brand new and comes from a Swiss band named Promethee. The song is named “Life/Less” and appears on their debut album, Nothing happens, Nobody comes, Nobody goes. The music is a mantic, frantic burst of melodic, metallic hardcore. It includes a lot of frenzied, spastic guitar exercises, but the notes ring out in chiming waves almost as often as they give your head a good shake to see what might come out of its orifices. And in the mid-section Promethee settle into a groove that will get your head slamming something fierce (or at least that’s what happened to me, which may explain why printed words look kinda blurry at the moment). Also, vein-bursting vocals and a bass guitar that gets a moment to shine near the end.

But regardless of how you might react to the music, the visual part of this video is worth watching all by itself. It was filmed in black and white, with the band in silhouette against a white screen most of the time, and it has a cool kaleidoscopic quality (along with other eye-catching visual effects).   Also, a really pretty woman. Continue reading »

MUMAKIL: “DEATH FROM BELOW” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 142013
 

This post is about a video from the band Mumakil. Their new album Flies Will Starve is coming out on June 25 in North America (and on slightly earlier dates in Europe). The video is for a song called “Death From Below”.

I can’t watch the video. I’m not in a place where I can watch it. I know nothing about it. I have only these words from my NCS comrade DGR, who sent me the link: “I’m attempting to write this sentence while seizing up. It’s Difficult.”

The video is after the jump. If you’d care to, please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what happens, and any reactions to the song, which I can’t hear at the moment.  Thank you for your attention. I’m going back to work now. Continue reading »

ÆVANGELIST: “NIGHTMARE FLESH OFFERING”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Jun 142013
 

This will be an unusual day for us. My fucking day job is going to keep me away from a computer all day and my comrades who write for the site are also otherwise occupied. So the odds are this post will be the only one we have for you today. Therefore, I’m going with something that will open up your abdomen and leave your guts in a steaming pile at your feet. Because that’s just the kind of friends we are.

Ævangelist’s 2012 debut album De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis was stunning. On the scale of stunning things, it was right up there next to the seven-inch steel bolts fired into the foreheads of corn-fattened cattle who’ve reached optimal slaughter weight in a feedlot. No one knows about the emotional life of penned cattle, but as a normal un-penned human, I found that album both galvanizing and frightening.

I have friends who subject themselves to the risk of death on a weekly basis, but if you live a life less filled with the death wish, as I do, then you hunt for that special feeling of impending extinction in your music. Ævangelist grants your wish. And now they have something that’s both new and old, something that will efficiently turn you into rump roast, flank steak, standing rib, and brisket. Continue reading »

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