SEEN AND HEARD: SAILLE, WATAIN, ORDO INFERUS, AND MAJALIS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jun 042013
 

Unlike the usual “Scene and Heard” post, this one collects items of interest that I heard more than 24 hours ago. And the reason is that my blog time has been severely constricted since last Friday by a two-headed boa named Work and Party. The coils have been loosening a bit, so now I’m able to highlight the following new video, new teasers, and new song that I’ve been digging lately.

SAILLE

Andy Synn made this Belgian band’s second album Ritu (released earlier this year by Code666) the subject of one of his reviews in haiku: “Subtly symphonic / A glorious, sweeping sound / All hail the darkness”. For a three-line synopsis, that was pretty spot-on, but the record deserves more extensive praise. It really is a very fine album, multi-faceted and tremendously engrossing.

Lyrically, the songs deal with death rites in ancient cultures, as well as aspects of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. One of the songs, “Blood Libel”, takes as its subject the murder of a boy (William of Norwich) in Norwich, England, in 1144. The Jews of Norwich were falsely accused of killing him in a ritual murder (a “blood libel”). According to The Font of All Human Knowledge, similar accusations were made in other English towns over the next 40 years, leading to massacres of Jewish people in many communities, including the butchery of Norwich Jews in their homes in 1190. Continue reading »

RUMBLINGS OF THE BEAST: BEHEMOTH, IMPIETY, ZATOKREV, AND DIABLERIE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
May 312013
 

Normally I would have used the “Seen and Heard” label for this round-up of items I found yesterday while rooting through the interhole. But there’s something about these four items that suggested an alternate title . . . .

BEHEMOTH

Poland’s Behemoth have been busy recording their tenth full-length album — which is now projected for release by Metal Blade this coming fall — and yesterday the band announced that they’ve picked a name for it: The Satanist. Despite fame, some degree of fortune, and Nergal having survived multiple trips to court defending against charges brought under Poland’s laws against giving religious offense, Behemoth don’t fuckin’ back off, do they? Here’s a statement from Nergal that accompanied the news about the album title:

“It took us over two decades to come up with a title that…says it all. While our new songs artistically take surprisingly adventurous directions, our message stands steadfast—Proud and Radical. THE SATANIST stands for undying yearning for liberation and love for freedom in all aspects of life. Considering all our life experiences that often took dramatic curves I couldn’t think of more appropriate and fitting statement of who and where we are now.”

There will undoubtedly be a steady drumbeat of album updates from the band and Metal Blade over the summer. Undoubtedly we’ll post most of them here, too. Because, Behemoth! Continue reading »

IN FLAMES RELEASES NEW FAN-MADE VIDEO FOR “ROPES”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 302013
 

There are dozens of especially happy In Flames fans out in the world today. The band have just released an official video for their song “Ropes”, which appears on the album Sounds of A Playground Fading, and all parts of it are excerpts from fan-made videos.

In Flames started the project near the beginning of this year with a call for fan videos, whether live footage, home videos, tribute-band performances, playthroughs, or anything else related to In Flames. They apparently received hundreds of clips from all over the globe, and then Erik Engstrand edited all those submissions into the video you’re about to see.

I really enjoyed watching it. It includes a cool reappearing, sepia-toned montage of the fan clips, and then the fan-made excerpts themselves, of course. Watch it after the jump. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM AMON AMARTH: “SHAPE SHIFTER”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
May 302013
 

In mid-April Amon Amarth brought us a stream and a free download of the title track to their forthcoming album Deceiver of the Gods, which I duly reported here. At that point, I wrote this:

With this band, here in 2013, you know with a high degree of certainty what will lie within. Both thematically and musically, the band have settled on a formula that has made them exceedingly popular. It’s a formula that happens to appeal to me, though I must admit that I would love it if the band broke their own mold every now and then and fired something different in the kiln.

Today brought us a stream — and a free download — of the new album’s title track. It’s a thrashier attack than much of what was to be found on 2011′s Surtur Rising, but no less catchy than what you would expect from this band, and with an appealing dual-guitar melody in the mid-part. As my NCS colleagues have pointed out, it also includes a key change!

Have Amon Amarth broken the mold with this song? Nope — it will not throw the Amon Amarth faithful for a loop, nor will it change the minds of those listeners who aren’t impressed with this brand of Viking-themed melodic death metal. But it’s only one song. We may still hear something we aren’t expecting.

Today, Stereogum has exclusively premiered a second song from the album by the name of “Shape Shifter”. I give up. I abandon all semblance of analytical objectivity. The song drives me into 100% fanboy mode. There is only one word for this, no matter how overused that word is: EPIC. Continue reading »

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 »

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