OVERFLOWING STREAMS: AUTOPSY, BATTLECROSS, KALMAH, MORNE, NECRONOMICON, SETH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 292013
 

Today has brought an absolute flood of new streaming metal that’s pleasing to these ears (in addition to our own streams of new music today). And by “pleasing”, I mean music that will jam an icepick in your eardrum, pour nitroglycerine down the hole, and detonate it.  There’s so much to be heard that I’ll attempt to hold my own words to a minimum and let the music speak for itself. So here we go, in alphabetical order:

AUTOPSY

Autopsy’s new album, The Headless Ritual, comes out June 24 in Europe and July 2 in the U.S. on Peaceville Records. I’m awful hungry for it. Today Lars Gotrich continued with his ongoing mission to infect NPR with metal viruses and filthy-up the place by premiering a song from the album named “Arch Cadaver”. In his words: “‘Arch Cadaver’ is classic Autopsy, but it’s also a bit of a rock ‘n’ roll party. Sandwiched between a minute of deranged doom and a left-right-channel guitar-solo face-off, there’s a whiskey-swigging, Motorhead-pounding rhythm that boogies at an insane pace.”

That about sums it up. Go here to jam that shit. Continue reading »

ANTHROSPHERE IV

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 292013
 

Anthropic Records is a Philadelphia record label “obsessed with heartbreaking chest crushing noise and doomed psychic soundscapes”. That’s what they say, and I believe it. Yesterday, I discovered via Facebook that they made available a compilation by the name of Anthrosphere IV. It’s free, except it only comes free with a purchase from the Anthropic web store, so I guess it’s only “sorta free”. But I’ll tell you what, at least in my case this doesn’t function as a bonus, but as a main draw.

Anthrosphere IV features 10 tracks by 10 Philadelphia bands, as well as the excellent cover art you see above by Mike Wohlberg, who has done work for the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Children of Bodom, and The Acacia Strain. All 10 songs are brand new and they were all mastered by Chris Grigg (Woe). I’m only familiar with three of the bands on the line-up, but those three are really fuckin’ good, which made me quite interested in the other seven.

One of those four is Ashencult (the other two being Infiltrator and Sadgiqacea), and in a flash of fortunate coincidence I deduced (okay, I’m guessing) that the Ashencult song, “My Tenth Death”, must be the track that Ashencult contributed to Opus Serpens, the forthcoming vinyl split with Sweden’s Mephorash — whose own contribution we premiered just a bit earlier today (here). Man, “My Tenth Death” is a riveting piece of music, with dark, magnetic riffs that exert their hold from the first seconds and vocals that burn like a napalm storm. Seriously, it’s a great song.

And it’s not the only great song on this release. How do I know? Because all 10 of the tracks on Anthrosphere IV are streaming on Bandcamp. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: A NEW NINE INCH NAILS ALBUM IS ON THE WAY AND DAN SWANÖ IS BRINGING US WITHERSCAPE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
May 292013
 

This post involves breaking news about two iconic figures in the world of heavy music — Trent Reznor and Dan Swanö. The news is that both will have new music coming, and we already have a taste of what Dan Swanö’s new project has been creating, with a song that premiered yesterday.

NINE INCH NAILS

This appeared late yesterday on the Nine Inch Nails Tumblr:

“I’ve been less than honest about what I’ve really been up to lately. For the last year I’ve been secretly working non-stop with Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder on a new, full-length Nine Inch Nails record, which I am happy to say is finished and frankly fucking great. This is the real impetus and motivation behind the decision to assemble a new band and tour again. My forays into film, HTDA and other projects really stimulated me creatively and I decided to focus that energy on taking Nine Inch Nails to a new place. Here we go!”

As we reported back in February, Reznor reformed NIN early this year, bringing King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew, Telefon Tel Aviv’s Josh Eustis, and former NIN touring members Robin Finck, Alessandro Cortini, and Ilan Rubin into the fold for touring purposes. Now it appears they will be making a new album. Hallelujah.  Continue reading »

ROUND-UP: EXTOL, CONDUCTING FROM THE GRAVE, AND SUPER PUZZLE PLATFORMER DELUXE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 282013
 

DGR and I are collaborating on this little round-up of recent discoveries. The first item comes from moi, and the last two from him.

EXTOL (by Islander)

As previously reported (here), Norway’s Extol will soon be releasing their first new album in more than eight years — on June 21 in Norway, Germany, and Austria, and on June 24 everywhere else in Europe via Indie Recordings, and on June 25 in North America via Facedown Records. Pre-orders in a variety of formats and bundles can be placed here, and we’ve already featured the album’s first single, “Open the Gates” in that post linked above.

Today’s news is that Extol have released a new album teaser that collects excerpts from all the album’s songs. Man, it’s really a rich smorgasbord of diverse sounds — all of which sound very tantalizing. We have had high expectations for this album, and based on these excerpts, I think it’s likely they will be met in spades. Here’s the teaser reel: Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: A KLONOSPHERE SAMPLER — AND A NEW LOUDBLAST SONG

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
May 282013
 

Thanks to a tip from KevinP, I learned this morning that the French label Klonosphere has recently released a free sampler of music from 18 different bands. I’m an enthusiastic fan of many of the bands on this compilation, including Hacride, Klone, Lokurah, Magoa, and Otargos, all of whom we’ve written about at NCS. I’m not familiar with other bands, but the chance to discover new music is one of the reasons why samplers like this one are worth having. And just based on the music I do know, this is a really diverse collection of sounds.

Many of the songs previously appeared on recent albums or EPs, and some are being released for the first time on this sampler — including exclusive demo versions of tracks that will appear on albums projected for release later this year. One of those advance demo tracks comes from a long-running French band named Loudblast who we last visited at NCS all the way back in April 2011 (here). I liked what I heard of them then, and so I was especially interested in the chance to check what they’re up to now.

They’ve released six studio albums to date, and based on the description of this new demo track, it appears their seventh is on the way. The new song is entitled “The Abstract God”, and it’s a beefy, malicious death metal monster that stomps, rips, roars, and wails like a tormented spirit. It’s prime headbang material, so loosen up your neck muscles and stream it right after the jump. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MURDOCK, SAPROGENIC, AND GODLESS ANGEL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 282013
 

Did I hear any good new music yesterday? Well, I’m glad you asked. The answer is Fuck Yeah, I did. That doesn’t make yesterday all that different from any other day. Maybe I’m too easily pleased, or maybe I just spend more time looking than the average person, who may differ from me in that they have a life. Or a life outside of a potentially unhealthy obsession with metal, which is what I have.

Where the fuck was I?

Oh yeah, the very good new metal I heard yesterday. It came from Murdock (Ireland), Saprogenic (Detroit), and Godless Angel (somewhere in Kansas).

MURDOCK

These three fine gentlemen from Ireland are a FUCKING NOISE MACHINE. Originally their words, not mine, but actually they’re now my words, too, because yesterday I saw and heard their new video for a song called “Brain Face”. I have a hard time separating the song from the video, even though the song itself is a free download at Bandcamp and therefore can be heard without the video. But I like the video so much that in my mind it’s inseparable from the song. Continue reading »

FALKENBACH AND FROSTSEELE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
May 272013
 

Here are two more recent songs I heard over the weekend. They seemed like a fitting pair, and (as you’ll discover) not only because the band” names both begin with F.

FALKENBACH

Falkenbach is the German one-man project of Vratyas Vakyas. Since 1996 he has released five albums on an irregular and unpredictable schedule, the last being 2011’s Tiurida. Apparently, a new one named Asa is now in the works, and about 10 days ago Falkenbach released a lyric video for the first single from the album, a song named “Eweroun”. It has hypnotized me in short order.

From the beginning introductory passage, which features acoustic strumming and a somber folk melody voiced in a clean baritone, straight through the balance of the song, with heavier instrumentation joining the acoustic guitar and the vocals rising in range, it’s extremely memorable. It makes a virtue of simplicity, though it’s far from simplistic. If that makes any sense. Which it probably doesn’t. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GHOST B.C., THE DEATHISODES, AND DIRE NECRO CERBERUS

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 272013
 

My NCS comrades and I were busy little beavers over the weekend (scabby, rabid ones, of course), making headway on new reviews. But I also heard a lot of new individual songs that grabbed me, so I’ll be dropping those morsels into round-up posts today in between a slew of album reviews — starting with this one.

GHOST B.C.

When Ghost B.C. released their new album, Infestissumam, in Japan, they included a bonus track. It’s a cover of “Waiting For the Night” by Depeche Mode, from their 1990 album Violator. Late last week Ghost released the song to YouTube for those of us who like the band but can’t get our paws on the Japanese version of the album. The original song doesn’t mention Belial, Behemoth, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Satanas, or Lucifer, but it does include some other Ghost-ly lyrics: “I’m waiting for the night to fall / I know that it will save us all / When everything’s dark…”

Even though there’s not any typically overt Satan worship in the words, Ghost do put their own spooky stamp (and some beefy low-end riffs) on the music. Cool song (and an exception to our Rule, of course). Check it next. Continue reading »

HEAD WRECKAGE (Part 3): BANEWREAKER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 252013
 

This started as one long post collecting new stuff from three bands that I saw and heard yesterday, the common theme being what they will do to your head. Part 1 started in Germany, with Beyond. In Part 2 we jumped to Finland for a visit with Altars of Destruction. And in this finale, we’re taking the boom tube to Eugene, Oregon for some head-smashing by . . .

BANEWREAKER

I discovered Banewreaker because certain members of Arkhum, another Eugene band I’ve been high on for a long time, contributed to a new Banewreaker song that appeared on Bandcamp yesterday. Specifically, Kenneth Parker did the vocals and Arkhum bassist Nate Kelly added guitar parts. In addition, Arkhum guitarist Stephen Parker produced the new song — which is called “Masterful Wroth”.

I’m not certain whether the line-up that recorded the song, which also includes drummer Aidan Leger-Jeffrey and lead guitarist Josh Vincent, is Banewreaker, or whether Banewreaker is normally Josh Vincent’s solo project — because the Bandcamp page includes a demo instrumental track by Vincent alone. I’ll figure this out, but for now I just want to strongly recommend that you listen to both of these tracks. Continue reading »

NYLITHIA’S LATEST VIDEO INSANITY: “VEIN OF CREATION”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 252013
 

I first found out about this riveting ensemble of maniacs from Vancouver in March 2012 (writing about them here), and then last September we had the pleasure of debuting a Nylithia song called “Hyperthrash”. In a nutshell, they’ve been working on an album also called Hyperthrash, releasing one song at a time for download, with separate artwork and videos for each song. So far, four songs are available — “Trainsaw”, “Immersed In the Maniacal”, “Vein of Creation”, and the afore-mentioned “Hyperthrash”.

Very late last night the band uploaded their newest official video, and this one is for “Vein of Creation”, a song that originally had its premiere at MetalSucks in December 2011. It gives me an excuse to paraphrase what I’ve written before about the band’s music: This ain’t no retro-thrash. It’s thrash from some accelerated parallel universe. It’s a balls-to-the-wall, fret-burning, drum-shredding, neuron-twisting explosion. It’s a head-wrecking combo of blazing speed, eye-popping intricacy, neck-slapping grooves, and a fuckton of exuberance.

And as for the video . . . the Vein of Creation monster is among us, and ready for a good time. Continue reading »

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