VIDEO BONANZA (Pt 1): LEGEND AND DEATHCHAIN

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Apr 182013
 

Yesterday turned out to be a banner day for new music videos, and unfortunately I didn’t have time to write about all of the good ones I saw. So I’m making up for lost time by collecting them in two posts, this one being the first. Herewith, for your listening and viewing pleasure, are new videos from Legend (Iceland) and Deathchain (Finland).

LEGEND

I found out about this Icelandic band’s new video via a Facebook post by Sólstafir, who are apparently friends of the two men who make up Legend — Krummi Björgvinsson and Halldór A Björnsson. I confess that neither Legend nor those two gents were familiar to me, and the music isn’t metal, but the song and the video have hooked me right through the gills.

The song is “Benjamite Bloodline” and it’s from the band’s most recent album Fearless. The music is a building swarm of electronica that eventually unfolds into a thunderous beat, with vocals that are mainly clean but ultimately caustic. The strange video is as interesting to watch as the music is to hear — though I make no attempt to describe it. It’s next . . . Continue reading »

MY KIND OF CHAMBER MUSIC: OBLIVION’S VERY COOL VIDEO FOR “CANON 1 IN E MINOR”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Apr 172013
 

In September 2012 we published what I think was the first review of Called To Rise, the debut album by Bay Area death metal heavyweights Oblivion. It was so early that the album hadn’t yet been released, so early that no release date had even been set. Since then, of course, the album has debuted, and Oblivion have earned themselves quite a following. One of the things the band have had going for them since the beginning was a lot of instrumental talent, plus the significant songwriting contributions of a guy (vocalist/bassist Nick Vasallo) who happens to be an accomplished classical composer.

Vasallo’s classical training and interests shine through in different ways on Called To Rise, but most clearly on the song “Canon 1 in E Minor”. As Vasallo has explained, the song was “a conscious effort to bridge the worlds of Metal and Classical music”:

“A canon is a compositional technique that requires strict repetition in all musical voices. This is also an example of triple counterpoint–a very old contrapuntal device that is rarely (if ever) used in modern popular music, especially anything branching from rock and roll. There are essentially three different lines: the middle guitar (Alto) begins, then the high guitar (Soprano) answers, and finally the low guitar and bass enter (Tenor and Bass). All voices play the same line in 3 different positions so that the melody exists as the top voice, middle voice, and bottom voice. The trick is getting all the voices to work melodically, harmonically, and functionally.”

Today Oblivion released a music video for this song, with the three guitar parts performed by Vasallo, Ted O’Neill, and Victor Dods and the bass part played by Ben Orum. And what’s extra cool is that the performance was staged as you would expect to see if the piece had been performed by a chamber music ensemble. Continue reading »

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT PREMIERE ANOTHER NEW SONG: “TODESNACHT VON STAMMHEIM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 162013
 

We have been looking forward to the release of many albums in 2013, but perhaps none so eagerly as Tetragrammaton, the new sonic assault by the 6th most popular and almost-award-winning Supreme Avantgarde Deathmetal band from Kampen, The Netherlands, THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT. In the hope of earning a swift and relatively painless death when the album is unleashed, we dutifully featured the lyric video for the album’s first single, “Gods Amongst Insects”. To hedge our bets even further, we now present to you our humble and barely articulate feature about the album’s second song.

The song’s title is “Todesnacht von Stammhein”, and like much of the music TMDC creates, a history lesson lies behind the lyrics. The title refers to the so-called “Death Night of Stammhein” (October 18, 1977) on which three members of the Red Army Faction imprisoned in Stammheim Prison were found dead in their cells. You can learn more about these events via this link to The Font of All Human Knowledge. There will not be a test — at least not one that we will administer — but when the album comes out on May 10 (May 14 in the U.S.), assimilation of such learning may be all that stands between you and the uncontrollable destruction of the Deathcult.

Shit, where was I?

Oh yeah . . . these dudes have a new song available for listening. Continue reading »

A TASTE OF DEAFHEAVEN’S NEW ALBUM: “SUNBATHER”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 162013
 

I don’t know if it’s ever been right to call deafheaven a black metal band. They’ve always worn their hearts on their sleeves, and although their music can be searing, it may not be quite vicious enough to warrant the label. But I don’t spend a lot of time wrangling over the right label to apply — I’ve just always really liked the music. And I’m really looking forward to their next album, Sunbather, which is coming on June 11, 2013 from Deathwish Inc.

Today brings us a taste of the music via a studio video that includes samples of different songs while guitarist Kerry McCoy, vocalist George Clarke, and new drummer Daniel Tracy track their stuff. I do like what I hear.

Check out the video below, and if you’re moved to explore further, you can find George Clarke’s detailed thoughts about the meaning behind each of the album’s songs at this location. Continue reading »

PTAHIL, COLISEUM, AND PUSHMEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 162013
 

Last night I took my net and waded into the swamp of the interhole looking to catch some fresh fish to serve up for you on a platter this morning. Turns out, I caught a bunch of damned piranha, which suited me just fine, since I was in a foul mood over the carnage in Boston and was having fantasies about feeding the gutless, life-taking perpetrators to something carnivorous.

All three of the new songs I found have something in common — there’s some punk down at the core of each of them, and varying degrees of 666 charred into their skins with a hot brand. They’re all also catchy as fuck. We’ll start with the nastiest piranha in this group.

PTAHIL

If you don’t know about Indiana’s Ptahil, then you haven’t been paying close enough attention to my babbling. They give no fucks, they do what they please, and what pleases them is singing about Satan in a way that will burn out your brain but leave a grin on your melted face. Both of their albums (reviewed here and here) have fired me up like an arson job, and now they’ve released a new single on Bandcamp named “Lamashtu”. In no time flat, it’s become one of my favorite things they’ve done yet. Continue reading »

DARK TRANQUILLITY PREMIERE A NEW SONG: “FOR BROKEN WORDS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Apr 152013
 

As previously reported here in late March, the new album from Sweden’s Dark Tranquillity, Construct, will be released by Century Media on May 27 in Europe and May 28 in North America. At the time of our last report, we only had a snippet of music from the album as part of a video trailer, but it sounded pleasingly vicious. In the last half hour, however, the band have premiered the first complete cut from the album — a song named “For Broken Words”.

It’s mid-paced, dark, doom-y, atmospheric, with a mellow, melodic instrumental segment, a catchy drumbeat, and nasty, cracked-ice vocals for contrast.

I suspect this song is going to draw very mixed reactions as a choice for the first full track premiere. It’s neither galvanizing nor particularly vicious and it may be closer to doom than to DT’s usual style of melodic death metal. But I’m liking it, and I suspect the album is going to be musically varied, with “For Broken Words” being merely one kind of taste of what’s coming.

Have a listen after the jump. Continue reading »

DARK THINGS RISING: DIABLERIE, THOU ART LORD, AND SLIDHR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 142013
 

Here are a pair of dark new discoveries from yesterday, new music from two bands with veteran members who have new albums on the way — Diablerie from Finland and Thou Art Lord from Greece — plus an update (with music) about the debut album coming from Ireland’s Slidhr.

DIABLERIE

I found out about this band via an e-mail from fellow blogger fireangel (Night Elves Forest), who keeps her fingers pressed tightly to the pulse of Finnish metal. Diablerie began in 1998, released a debut album in 2001 (Seraphyde), dissolved in 2003, and re-formed in 2006. The members of Diablerie’s current line-up have been active in other bands, with four of them being current or former members of a melodic doom/death band named Rapture and drummer Petri Mäkipää spending time with Fleshred, Ghoul Patrol, and The Nibiruan.

Last year Diablerie put out an EP (Transition), and according to fireangel’s report, they’ve now recorded material for a future full-length release. Recently, the band put two new demo tracks on Soundcloud — “Selves” and “Osiris” — and both are really good. Continue reading »

PSY COMES BACK WITH “GENTLEMAN”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Apr 142013
 

Nope, not metal, not even close. But since I slapped “Gangnam Style” up on the site last August, I figured I might as well do the same with Psy’s new music video, “Gentleman”. I’m a little faster this time — I missed the premiere of “Gangnam Style” by a month; “Gentleman” debuted only yesterday. Of course, as I write this it already has over 6.9 million YouTube views. In case you were wondering, the “Gangnam Style” video now has over 1.5 billion views.

I watched this new thing with low expectations. Don’t get me wrong, I thought “Gangnam Style” was a kick in the ass, but holy hell, every time I turned around over the next two months there the damned thing was, either the original or some parody of it. Shit got old. And I was afraid we were in for a re-tread with “Gentleman”.

But it turns out to be pretty good. I mean, the novelty of Psy’s schtick has worn off, and it would be really tough for him to top the batshit craziness of the earlier video, but the song is catchy, and I like the fact that at least as much of it is in Korean as in English. And the video, while not as nuts as the first one, gets points for self-parody. And for the catapult springboards. And what dude doesn’t want to stick a finger up his butt and pass it beneath the nose of a cute chick?  Here you go: Continue reading »

NEW FREE AMON AMARTH SONG: “DECEIVER OF THE GODS”

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Apr 132013
 

Yesterday Amon Amarth unveiled the cover art, title, and release date for their new album Deceiver of the Gods, which I duly reported here. I seem to have stirred up some shit on our site with a less-than-enthusiastic reaction to the album art. I still maintain that it’s a mixed bag, but I try not to judge a book (or an album) by its cover. More important is what lies within.

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. In the meantime, listen to this one after the jump. Continue reading »

THE DEVIL’S BLOOD, ORCHID, AND UNCLE ACID

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 132013
 

I went hunting for new music this morning and found a trio of songs that just cried out to be bundled together. Crying makes me uncomfortable, so I relented. All three songs are exceptions to our rule around here. All three songs reach back into the 60’s and 70’s for their inspiration. None of them is a skull-cleaver or a face-melter, but they’ve nonetheless wormed their way into my head. Before I de-worm myself with something that’s more typical for this site, I’m sharing the experiences.

THE DEVIL’S BLOOD

On January 22 of this year, this occult Dutch group announced that they were disbanding, but would be releasing additional recordings before disappearing into the void from whence they came. The first of those is a full-length album entitled III: Tabula Rasa or Death and the Seven Pillars, which Metal Blade plans to release on June 11.

Selim “SL” Lemouchi has explained that all of the songs are demos recorded in his home recording studio and given only “a simple mix”. The first song from the album that debuted yesterday is “White Storm of Teeth”.  Continue reading »

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