SHARPEN YOUR BLADES: A NEW WATAIN ALBUM IS COMING IN AUGUST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 302013
 

The Wild Hunt is coming.

We learned in January that Sweden’s Watain had begun recording a new album, the follow-up to 2010’s Lawless Darkness. Today the band announced that the album is finished and will be released on August 19 in Europe and August 20 in the US via Century Media Records. The title is The Wild Hunt. I don’t have anything else to say, except to note that I’m excited about the news. So, here’s the posting that appeared on Watain’s Facebook page about an hour ago:

After 120 nights of iron will and ardent magic, the fifth fullength album of Watain is now complete. With broken bones and burning hearts we have ploughed our way through deepest winter into a new wilderness, to which we will open the gates at summers end. THE WILD HUNT will be released on August 19th in Europe and August 20th in USA. Beware!

Might as well use this as an excuse to post some Watain music, so have at it following the jump . . . Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MECHINA AND GOTHMINSTER

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Apr 302013
 

(This little round-up is provided to you courtesy of NCS writer DGR.)

MECHINA

Chicago’s Mechina are now close to five months in from their unleashing their excellent release Empyrean. However, they’re not a band to just sit on their laurels and instead have been hard at work on quite a bit of new music. They’ve already discussed a follow-on trilogy of musical releases — which in itself is ambitious as hell — but the group have also been putting out the occasional oddball single/cover and have recently made a couple of them available for free download.

It’s done through a website called WeTransfer, which I’ve never heard of before, but it seems legit and it checked out on the two webrep style programs I use, and neither song has given me any crazy-ass computer sickness as of the thirty minutes ago that I downloaded these things. Plus; if anything does happen we know the band are based in the Chicago area and, really, how hard is it to find four or five guys within a mass of millions, right? Now, let’s discuss the songs.

First up is “Anicetus” – which is an electronica-augmented song that the band proclaims is a “dubstep/whatthehellyoucallit” track made for the hell of it. As someone who has been exposed to an oddly heavy amount of the genre I can say that yes, there are definite elements of it throughout the whole song, so there’s no denying its presence. However, the amount of noise, guitars, electronics, and orchestral elements combine to make something that is oddly compelling. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DEATH ENGINE, REVELATION’S HAMMER, FREYA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 292013
 

Sometimes it happens like this. It’s a goddamn Monday morning and I wake up at an hour fit for nocturnal predators but not for human beings. I brew the coffee and start chugging it like a Bolt Thrower riff. I check the NCS e-mail to see what came in overnight and the first three things I see kick my ass so hard that the coffee becomes superfluous. And I start writing . . .

DEATH ENGINE

Death Engine are from Lorient, France. They’ve recorded a debut EP named Amen, which will be released in a limited run of CDs in May and on 10″ vinyl in mid-June by Throatruiner Records, North Cult Records, and Basement Apes Industries. More info about that can be found via the links below; perhaps one day it will become available digitally as well.

A song from the EP has begun streaming. Its name is “Gun”. It has made me re-think my support for gun control. It punches holes through concrete. It spews acid. It swarms. It rumbles. It rolls. It pulsates. It bends genres, harnessing elements of hardcore, black metal, crust, and noize. It includes a fucking killer drumbeat. I like it.

After the jump I’ve installed the EP’s cover (by Hugues Pzzl), some links, and “Gun”. Continue reading »

WATCH SÓLSTAFIR’S NEW VIDEO: “ÆRA”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Apr 282013
 

It’s nice to have an excuse to put Kim Holm’s artwork on our site again. Up above is the piece he created for the song “Æra”, which appeared on the magnificent 2011 album by Iceland’s Sólstafir, Svartir Sandar. “Æra” is on my mind because Sólstafir have just released an official video for that song. It’s a live performance at the 2012 Eistnaflug Festival in Iceland using footage shot by about a dozen camera wielders.

I’ve loved this song from the first time I heard it. The beat, the riffs, the vocals . . . all good. Always thought the hammering parts of the song would be a sure-fire mosh trigger, and it’s nice to see it happening in this video.

I really, really need to see this band on stage, someday, some way. The video is after the jump. Continue reading »

DEATH FUCKING METAL: JUST BEFORE DAWN AND CROCELL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 282013
 

You get one guess about the theme of this post. It involves new music from two bands with forthcoming albums — Sweden’s Just Before Dawn and Denmark’s Crocell. Neither band mess around — they bring full-strength, undiluted, high-potency death metal that will knock you on your ass, but they do it with flair. Based on the new tracks that have recently premiered from both bands, these albums look like “must get” releases for fans of the genre.

JUST BEFORE DAWN

This is a legitimate death-metal all-star project. The band was founded by multi-instrumentalist Anders Biazzi (Blood Mortized, ex-Amon Amarth) in the summer of 2012, and he was later joined by vocalist Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, Bone Gnawer, Putrevore, Humanity Delete, Demiurg, etc., etc.). Originally intended as a two-man project, it expanded to include participation from a host of others in the recording of the debut album, including six more vocalists:

Jonas Lindblood (Puteraeon)
Mr. Hitchcock (Zombiefication)
Gustav Myrin (Blood Mortized)
Dennis Johansson (Plästerd, Headstoned)
Ralf Hauber (Revel in Flesh)
Tony Freed (Godhate)

The album, entitled Precis Innan Gryningen, also includes guest guitar solos by Jonas Lindblood, Gustav Myrin, and Rick Rozz (Massacre, ex-Death), and it features cover art by one of my favorite metal artists, Daniel “Devilish” Johnson. The album is now scheduled for release by Chaos Records on May 20. Continue reading »

CLEAN AND UNCLEAN: THE GREAT OLD ONES, ANTTI RAILIO, AND SHADE EMPIRE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 272013
 

I had already put together one daily round-up of new metal for this Saturday (here), but since doing that I found more items I want to share, because sharing is caring (I spit up in my mouth as I wrote that, so it didn’t turn out as funny as I’d hoped). Part of what’s in here involves clean singing; and no, we aren’t entirely bigoted on the subject despite the site’s name. However, I’m sandwiching the clean in between slices of the unclean, just so no one gets the idea that the exceptions have become the rule around here.

THE GREAT OLD ONES

The Great Old Ones are a French black metal band who released their debut album Al Azif last year via Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions. To commemorate the one-year anniversary of that album, The Great Old Ones decided to record a cover of a Björk song. Probably wouldn’t have been my pick for a celebratory commemorative, but what the fuck, I decided to check it out — and it’s outstanding.

The band have preserved the song’s melancholy melody through a mix of vibrating tremolo chords and intensified its emotional power and dramatic punch with wrenching black metal vocals, heavy bass, and well-timed drum blasting. In retrospect, I can see how the song’s lyrics would lend themselves to a black metal cover: “I’m a fountain of blood . . . I’m a path of cinders burning under your feet . . . You’re the intruder hand / I’m the branch that you break.” Continue reading »

KVELERTAK, DARK TRANQUILLITY, NACHT, AND DEEK

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 272013
 

Here are some things I saw and heard over the last 24 hours that gave me a lift.  Mayhaps they will lift you, too.

KVELERTAK

I liked Kvelertak’s first album, but I haven’t heard the new one, Meir. But Badwolf has, and he raved about it: “[T]hey throw parties to which their music is the soundtrack, and I cannot think of better party music”. Yesterday they premiered a video on various web sites for one of those new songs, “Kvelertak”, and today it went up on YouTube.  It’s an interesting name for a song.  In a subtle way it reminds me of the name of the band. It also reminds me of why I like rock music, because it fuckin’ rocks balls.

The video is also really good. Director Stian Andersen traipsed along with the band for a handful of shows on their recent tour of Europe, and he and his crew filmed parts of the ones in London, Cologne, Paris, and Oslo, plus some off-stage stuff, too (eg, shower scenes). And then he edited all that footage beautifully. Asses will be kicked by this; mine is black and blue. Watch it: Continue reading »

NEW THALL: VILDHJARTA LIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 262013
 

Sweden’s Vildhjarta are almost finished with their new concept EP, Thousands of Evils, which will be released by Century Media. They’ve previously unveiled the cover art, which as you can see is stunning. They’ve also previously released three teasers on YouTube with snippets of the new music (which can be heard here).  But now, bootleg videos have surfaced with entire songs from the new EP.

The performances were filmed at the Thallium Festival in Minsk, Belarus, on April 23, 2013. So far, I’ve seen three videos. The first two have very good picture quality, though the sound could use more bass pick-up . . . because it’s fuckin’ Vildhjarta, and you need to feel all that thall reverberating deep down in your colon. The third one includes one of the songs from the first video, but shot by a different fan from a different angle and with a bit more low-end oomph in the sound.

I don’t yet have a release date for the EP — apparently the band are still tweaking things, as they’ve been doing for many months. But based on what I’m hearing in these videos, the music sounds like a worthy follow-up to the band’s ridiculously successful debut album Måsstaden. Check out this new shit after the jump.

Thall. Continue reading »

WATCH THE NEW SOILWORK VIDEO FOR “SPECTRUM OF INFINITY”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 262013
 

As we have explained in multiple reviews, Soilwork’s new double-album The Living Infinite is one of their best ever. This morning Metal Hammer premiered the band’s official video for “Spectrum of Infinity”, which appears on that album. It’s an all-CGI creation, and it’s damned cool to watch. Apparently, it is visually reminiscent of Bioshock, though I wouldn’t know.

So, watch it after the jump. The song rocks hard, too. Continue reading »

MUMAKIL TEASES “FLIES WILL STARVE”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 252013
 

Here’s a bit of welcome news that snuck up on me: Mumakil have a new album coming out on June 25 in North America (and on slightly earlier dates in Europe). The name is Flies Will Starve, and the enticing album art by Remy Cuveillier of Headsplit Design is above.

This is the band’s third album and the first in four years. Relapse Records has set up a “landing page” for pre-orders (here), and it includes a trailer for the album. I also found a Bandcamp page that Relapse set up for Mumakil that includes a digital pre-order option for Flies. It also includes the three songs that Mumakil recorded for their 2012 split with Blockheads. So I thought I’d put the new album trailer in here, plus the Bandcamp player for those three songs for the split, to assist those who are unfamiliar with Mumakil in becoming more familiar with them, and to help relieve sinus blockage.

If you think you might be interested in a howling hurricane of low-tuned, technically proficient, death-infused grind, or you’d simply like to wake yourself the fuck up, then check out the streams after the jump. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries