NECROSADIST, NECROSADIST, MONOMANIAC, AND WITCHRIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 202013
 

Your humble editor’s ass is dragging this morning, because this is a Saturday morning and Saturday mornings always seem to bring ass impairment here on my metallic island. Saturday mornings, they follow Friday nights, and on Friday nights I seem drawn to the demon alcohol like a fly to shit. It’s all fun until the new day dawns. The sun rises above the clouds, and the sun in my head goes supernova and then collapses into a black hole from which no light or sentient thought can escape.

Ah, what to do on mornings such as this? Lying curled in the fetal position and moaning can only be indulged for so long. Crawling into a chair, slumped over a computer screen, looking for something new to hear — that seemed like a viable alternative to suicide, so that’s what I did. On some Saturday mornings I just want to be surrounded by the silence of the void, but today it seemed like a better idea to find something that would overwhelm the destruction in my head with superior destructive force. I succeeded.

You might think that given my current state of mental impairment I made a redundancy-related typo in the title of this post, but you would be wrong. I will explain.

NECROSADIST

One of the things I found this morning was a debut album released on 11-11-11 under the name Abstract Satan. I can tell you from immediate personal experience that there is nothing abstract about Satan, and that I must have done something terrible to offend Him last night, given the magnitude of the punishment I am currently suffering. But listening to Abstract Satan does not produce suffering, although it is indeed punishing. Abstract Satan makes me glad to be alive, despite all the self-inflicted pain. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SEPULTURA, GYRE, UNKIND, SAKTMÓÐIGUR, DUNKELNACHT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jul 192013
 

The last few days brought many new discoveries that I thought were worth sharing. However, I haven’t had the chance until now because I’ve been dealing with the fallout caused by some asshole who smashed in a window on my car on a downtown Seattle street and stole a bag that contained my laptop and other valuables. Fuck that guy, and fuck me for being dumb enough to leave the bag in the car. Enough with the whining, onward with the metal . . .

SEPULTURA

This morning brought further news about the next album by Brazilian heavyweights Sepultura. Its title was inspired by Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 film Metropolis: The Mediator Between the Head and Hands Must Be the Heart. It was recorded by Ross Robinson, who also produced the band’s equally classic Roots album, and in an effort to cement the connection to past glories guitarist Andreas Kisser had this to say:

“The album is brutal, fast and straight to the point, I feel this is the best SEPULTURA ever, no bullshit. To work with Ross Robinson again was a privilege, one of the best producers out there. He has a strong connection with nature, the human heart, with life in general. We did an album that is alive, no fake studio tricks, we were jamming together in the room exploding in an energy so strong you could grab it.”

Of course, we wouldn’t expect him to say, “the new album is going to be a mediocre rehash and one of the lamest things ever to be released under the Sepultura name”, even if it were true. Yet the fact that he’s stuck his neck out there with this kind of a statement provides some reason to be hopeful. The album is due in October. Continue reading »

VULTURE INDUSTRIES: “THE TOWER”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jul 182013
 

Okay, it’s time to confuse people again (at this site we call things like this “Exceptions to the Rule”, but could just as easily classify them as “Seeds of Confusion”).

Vulture Industries are not strangers to these pages, though 18 months have passed since we last featured their music. They dwell in Bergen, Norway, population 270,000, and home to an astonishingly large number of talented metal bands given the city’s modest size. But it’s safe to say that Vulture Industries are unlike any other band from Bergen. In fact, I’m having some trouble thinking of anyone quite like them anywhere else in the world. Today they debuted (via the Pyro site on Norwegian national radio (NRK P3)) a lyric video for the title track to their forthcoming album The Tower, and it proves my point.

The music is a bombastic, theatrical, head-spinning thing. The excellent instrumental part of the music is sort of like a blend of melodic death metal, post-rock, and Broadway show-stopper, spun in an avant-garde centrifuge, and Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen’s mainly clean vocals will take you into the clouds. He sings, “It Soars!”, and his voice soars like you won’t believe. He also assumes a variety of other vocal personae in this allegorical song about the materialism of modern life in the Western world.

As eccentric and borderline-surreal as the song is, I found myself immediately riveted by it — and I do mean immediately, as in, from the first seconds. And the first thing I wanted to do after hearing it was hear it again. Continue reading »

JUCIFER: NEW VIDEO, NEW SONG, NEW ALBUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 172013
 

I’ve heard a lot of thoroughly pulverizing metal performed live, but I’ve yet to hear any band who are more gut-liquifying than Jucifer. In the one and only time I’ve managed to catch them live (despite the fact that they’ve been touring non-stop for almost two decades), my jaw hung open the entire set, even while mercilessly headbanging. I was too stunned to close it, not only because the decibels were threatening to un-do the structural integrity of my body but also because the husband-and-wife duo of Gazelle Amber Valentine and Edgar Livengood were so riveting to watch.

On July 17, Jucifer will be officially releasing their new album, with the Cyrillic title of за волгой для нас земли нет. It means “There is no land beyond the Volga”, though people are already just calling it “The Russian Album”. Inspired by the time Jucifer have spent in Russia as well as their longstanding interest in Russian history, it’s described as “a concept album dedicated to the people, events and geography of Volgograd – more famously known as Stalingrad”.

As noted, the new album will be released on July 17 in a limited edition 6-panel digipak, and digitally via Nomadic Fortress (Jucifer’s own imprint) and Mutants of the Monster – the label run by C.T. Farris of Rwake, and David Hall of Handshake Inc.  A vinyl version of the record, and North American retail CDs, will become available in October.

And now to the three main draws of this post. First, NPR has created a killing video of Jucifer laying waste to a D.C. venue in January with a medley consisting of “Throned In Blood” (from the album of the same name) bookended by two songs from the new album — “Pavlov’s House” and “Shame”. It’s really superb, and provides as good a sense as you’ll get of what it’s like to be confronted by Thee White Wall without experiencing it in the flesh. Continue reading »

WATAIN: “THE CHILD MUST DIE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Jul 172013
 

Swedish black-metal horde 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 on June 21, and that was followed by the band’s official lyric video for the single’s title track (featured at NCS here). And now we’ve got another new song from the album, “The Child Must Die”.

The vocals are still soul-scraping, but much of the song may have more kinship to melodic death metal than the kind of scathing black metal you might be expecting. Yet although the song might be considered more “accessible” than Watain’s more typical output, it’s also multi-faceted, which should come as no surprise to fans of this band. It’s juiced with electricity and moments of thundering power, and it features a thrilling guitar solo. I’m quite liking it, though I’ll be curious to see what kind of reactions we’ll get in the comments.

Listen to the song next. You’ll find the lyrics below the video. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KRALLICE, STOMACH EARTH, AND OCCULTIST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 162013
 

Did you miss our usual daily round-up yesterday? Well, you’re not alone. I missed it, too. In other words, I failed to write one. Instead, I decided I ought to do some of the work I actually get paid to do, even though I didn’t have a gun to my head. What a dumb idea. That meant I had to spend a few hours late yesterday and last night catching up on what I missed in the world of metal instead of continuing my experimentation on the development of pocket-sized nuclear fusion engines and the negotiation of lasting peace in the Middle East. But, you know, a person’s got to have his priorities straight. Here’s what I found:

KRALLICE

I like Krallice. I also like synchronicity. Less than a week ago I reported that Krallice spent a week in the studio this month recording three songs for a forthcoming split release with a project of Blut Aus Nord’s Vindsval named Vjeshitza. And then last night I found that the unparalleled (((unartig))) had filmed a Krallice set at Public Assembly in Brooklyn on July 14 that included two untitled new songs. Could these be two of the songs on the forthcoming split? Oh, I bet they are.

The videos are kind of dark, but the sound quality is good, as it usually is with an (((unartig))) production. But you should boost the volume so you don’t miss Mick Barr’s guitar leads, or for that matter what Nick McMaster, Colin Marston, and Lev Weinstein are also doing. Continue reading »

PURE AUDIO DESTRUCTION: ANAAL NATHRAKH LIVE AT ROSKILDE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jul 142013
 

On July 6, 2013, Britain’s Anaal Nathrakh played the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. The entire set was streamed live over the internet and it was filmed for posterity as well. The band received a DVD of the show and they’ve been “tweaking” the footage to improve the audio and alter the visual appearance a bit. Tonight they uploaded the first clip to YouTube, and more will be coming.

The first clip is the very beginning of the set and includes “Drug-Fucking Abomination” from their 2011 album Passion. The visuals have been given a kind of grainy, sepia-toned quality, which looks very cool. The sound is just absolutely obliterating.

For those of you unfamiliar with AN, this is a good example of the band’s cross-genre conflagration, and an introduction to the four different vocalists who live in Dave Hunt’s body. For those who are already fans, you’re gonna love this.

There is only one way to listen to the clip — VERY FUCKING LOUD. Boost that volume ’til the goo comes out your ears and you feel your internal organs beginning to liquify. Watch and listen/liquify after the jump. Continue reading »

ROUND-UP: NORTHLESS, AEGAEON, IN DEFENCE, GODLESS ANGEL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 142013
 

I’ve had a busy weekend, with two late nights in a row catching Deafheaven and Autopsy/Black Breath in Seattle (yes, they all killed), on top of more activity than usual during the daylight hours. But I did manage to do some web surfing and e-mail reading and found quite a lot of new things to like. I’ve collected a few of them in this post and will try to round-up the others for another post tomorrow.

NORTHLESS

I heard a lot of good things about this Milwaukee band’s last album Clandestine Abuse (2011), but somehow it got lost in the mountainous piles of music I intended to check out. I’m not going to miss the next one. Its title is World Keeps Sinking and it’s due for release on August 23 by Gilead Media. And why am I not going to miss it? Because this morning I heard the album’s first advance track, “Kuru”, and it kills.

The mid-paced song is freighted with earth-splitting sludge riffs and laced with caustic hardcore-style howls, heavy as fuck and doomed as a village in the path of a lava flow. But there’s more to the song than the weight of sledgehammers coming down on fragile skulls and the dissonance of squalling guitars. The band incorporate some surprising instrumental segments that hint at post-rock and even jazz, without diminishing the music’s suffocating atmosphere of hopelessness. Good stuff — which you can hear next (the album can be pre-ordered here). Continue reading »

THE GENIUS OF MIKE PATTON + JOHN ZORN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 132013
 

John Zorn is a composer, multi-instrumental performer (though probably best known as a saxophonist), arranger, producer, improvisor, impresario, and MacArthur Fellow. Over a career spanning four decades, he has he has explored a wide spectrum of music and worked with a vast array of other musical artists. This year he turns 60 years old. In celebration of his birthday, he has been performing a series of worldwide concerts called “Zorn@60”. Last night, July 12, he put on one of these birthday parties at the Barbican’s concert hall in London. He had a few notable guests with him on stage, including Mike Patton.

I’m going to assume you know who Mike Patton is. Patton and Zorn have collaborated in the past (for example, on the 2002 experimental electronic/jazz album Hemophiliac), and Patton has also guested on releases by Zorn’s Painkiller and Naked City groups. Along with Joey Baron and Trevor Dunn, Patton was part of the “Moonchild Trio” that first appeared as the performers on Zorn’s 2006 composition, Moonchild: Songs Without Words, and went on to record other Zorn compositions.

So, this has been a long run-up to the main reason for this post, which is to show you some videos from the Patton-Zorn collaboration at Barbican last night. All four apparently feature music from Zorn’s album Templars: In Sacred Blood, with the composition again being performed both on the album and last night by the Moonchild Trio. What Patton does with his voice blew my shit away. The experimental music is also very cool. I think I need to track down this album. Watch and listen next. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ULCERATE, TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, CRAVEN IDOL, EVOKEN, CRYPTOPSY

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Jul 122013
 

Here’s a collection of items I saw and heard yesterday while surveilling the interhole. The featured bands are Ulcerate (New Zealand), Twilight of the Gods (multinational), Craven Idol (UK), Cryptopsy (Canada), and Evoken (US), .

ULCERATE

The new album from New Zealand’s Ulcerate has been high on our “most anticipated” list for this year, and yesterday finally brought a lot of fresh news. The title of the album is Vermis, it includes 9 tracks, it’s nearly 55 minutes long — and it will be released by Relapse on September 17 in North America (September 13 in Germany and the Benelux countries and September 16 in the rest of the world). Pre-orders for the album and related merch are being fielded at this location. You can see the newly unveiled album cover above.

Yesterday also brought a video teaser for Vermis. It includes just an itty-bitty, teenie-weensie snippet of music, but it was enough to rattle my teeth. I think, just to be safe, I’ll make a dental appointment for the day after I get my hands on this album. The teaser is next. Continue reading »

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