YOU MAY HAVE SEEN MESHUGGAH’S LIGHTS OPERATOR AT WORK; NOW SEE THE LIGHTS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 132013
 

In late April you may have seen a video that showed Edvard Hansson — the light technician for Sweden’s Meshuggah — operating the control board for the band’s show in Paris last December (I saw it via The Monolith). By all accounts, the lighting on the band’s current tour is a true extravaganza, and what made the Hansson video such a jaw-dropper was the realization (in The Monolith’s words) that, “Rather than having programmed a static lighting show, he actually ‘plays’ along with with them, triggering parts of the setup in time with the complex rhythms of the music.

Unfortunately, the Hansson video didn’t show the light show itself, other than through the strobing flashes in the corner of the screen. But I just saw a video of the band performing at the Cirkus venue in Stockholm on May 9 that provides a good view of what happens as Hansson pushes all those buttons. It’s really amazing.

WARNING: For those prone to strobe-induced seizures, don’t watch this. It comes next . . . . Continue reading »

A BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT RYAN BEGLEY’S COVER ART FOR HOWL

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 132013
 

If you’re a regular NCS stalker, you’ve seen this cover before. Twice before, actually, because I keep looking for new excuses to stick it on the site. It’s the hellaciously eye-catching gatefold artwork for Bloodlines, the new Relapse Records album by Rhode Island’s Howl — which is also hellaciously good, by the way. To see an even larger image of the artwork, click the pic above.

The artist who created the cover is Ryan Begley, and this is his third record cover for Howl (the other two are also killer). Today we have the pleasure of giving you a behind-the-scenes look at how the Bloodlines artwork came into existence, including the rough and final pencil sketches that evolved into the finished inked-and-colored piece you’re looking at. As Ryan explains:

All the visuals were inspired by lyrical content and both the band and I wanted to have an image with a lot of elements that would take time for the viewer to soak in. I tried to have all the characters and elements interacting and overlapping as much as possible.  The blood was one of the more difficult but fun elements to draw for the cover. Figuring out how it would flow and move throughout the frame and around the characters took a while to sketch out.

The band wanted a bright and vibrant cover and I thought it would translate best if we kept the colors in the same family. Once I settled on a specific red for the blood the rest of the palette was pulled from that.

Continue reading »

CHILDREN OF BODOM PREMIERE THE “TRANSFERENCE” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 132013
 

Nuclear Blast is set to release the eighth album from Finland’s Children of Bodom on June 11 in North America. This morning COB premiered an official video for one of the new songs, “Transference”, which has already debuted and which is also being made available as an immediate download for fans who pre-order the CD. And these are a few things that guitarist/vocalist Alexi Laiho said about the song and the album:

‘Transference’ is a straight-up CHILDREN OF BODOM to-the-core-type song and therefore was a good pick for a video and obviously is one of our favorite tracks. It always had an evil vibe to it, which I wish I knew how to explain because it still gives me chills… Enjoy!

Halo Of Blood is the eighth studio album from CHILDREN OF BODOM, and believe it or not, but we still managed to keep it fresh and new while still maintaining the elements that make COB sound recognizable. It’s got the fastest and the slowest song we ever made and lyrics wise there are themes we had never had before. It’s 10 new songs of pure Nordic metal and whether you enjoy it with a beer or a glass of water, I’m sure you will have a good time.

Continue reading »

A BIT OF WEEKEND READING AND A NEW KILLING JOKE VIDEO

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
May 112013
 

Here are three things I read yesterday that I thought were worth recommending. And because we always have to have music in our posts, I’m ending this one with a couple of videos by UK post-punk legends Killing Joke, one old one and one that just premiered yesterday.

“THE TEN MOST METAL DEATHS OF METAL MUSICIANS”

Yeah, that headline caught my eye, too. It appeared on the online music blog of The Riverfront Times, a St. Louis alternative newsweekly that’s been around since 1977. As the headline suggests, the writer (Rick Giordano) compiled stories about 10 metal musicians who died in metal ways. Here’s Rick’s introduction and disclaimer:

Death has always been one of the most dominant themes in heavy-metal music, taking a back seat maybe only to Satanism. Death, disease, murder and chaos have accompanied heavy riffs since Sabbath first began playing them back in ’68. This dark subject matter is part of what has always made metal controversial — revolting to some, but appealing to those musicians interested in facing the things we all fear. But there’s often a strange irony that comes into play when we have to realize that these musicians are also human beings, capable of falling victim to the very horrors they seem to embrace. Continue reading »

BISPORA, DAGOBA, CVS BANGERS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 112013
 

(DGR brings us this little round-up for your Saturday.)

This right here is probably going to be the most throwback to my old writing assignments post that I have written here at NCS because just about every single band in this post will be one that I used to champion about two years back. You might already recognize it from the headline, but yes, I will in fact be resurrecting the spectres of Bispora and Dagoba, groups whom I haven’t really been presented much of an opportunity to chat about here simply because there hasn’t been much to show in terms of activity (outside of the occasional concert review in the case of Bispora).

However, within about three days of each other each group released new material – stuff they had been hinting at for a long time but finally got out there for people to hear. Both have huge plans for 2013, too, with Bispora changing up their live setlist quite a bit and hoping to put out a full release some time this year and Dagoba nearing the release date for their new disc Post Mortem Nihil Est – which translates to something from Latin….I think, although to be fair it sounds like Post Mortem Nihilest and that is something completely….ooooooooooh, I get it.


Continue reading »

FREE SHIT FROM DEMONHOOD PRODUCTIONS: “ENLIGHTENED DARKNESS”

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 102013
 

Demonhood Productions, as I learned this morning, is a relatively new Norwegian label mainly focusing on underground black, death, and thrash metal. It was established in 2012 as “a cooperation” between Duplicate Records and Neseblod Records. As I also discovered only this morning, they released a compilation in March that’s a free download on Bandcamp. Entitled Enlightened Darkness, it consists of 14 tracks by 14 different bands.

I’m not familiar with all the bands on this comp, but the names I do know are impressive (and we’ve written about them here at NCS): Nekromantheon, Wormlust, and Cobolt 60. The compilation also includes a song by a Czech band named Cult of Fire that I’ve recently become interested in. In fact, that’s how I found this comp.

Last year Cult of Fire released their debut album Triumvirát through Demonhood; one of the tracks from that album is what’s included in this comp. However, Cult of Fire are now signed to the German label Iron Bonehead for release of their next album (which should be coming in 2013). This morning I saw that Iron Bonehead has started selling a Cult of Fire shirt called “Insane Dance of Kali”, and it’s so eye-catching that I promptly ordered it (here). This is what the shirt looks like (it comes in black and white): Continue reading »

THE RUINS OF BEVERAST: “MALEFICA”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 092013
 

The Ruins of Beverast is a one-man project of Alexander von Meilenwald, a German multi-instrumentalist and vocalist who formerly was the drummer of a now-defunct band named Nagelfar and has also been involved with other bands as a live member and session musician. To date, The Ruins of Beverast has released three well-received full-length albums, and a fourth named Blood Vaults (The Blazing Gospel Of Heinrich Kramer) will be released by Ván Records later this year on a date to be announced.

Last month a song from the new album surfaced on YouTube, and I discovered it a few days ago thanks to a message from NCS supporter deckard cain. The song is called “Malefica” and it’s more than 10 minutes long. But despite its length I’ve been listening to it 3-4 times a day since finding it. I can’t remember if I’ve ever listened to this band’s music before, despite having seen rave reviews of previous albums, but this song is completely fantastic.

It begins with echoing electronic pulses, mournful reverberating guitar notes, and a combination of distorted and clean vocals. The weight of the song increases dramatically as massive, distorted guitar chords come in, but the hook doesn’t really get set until organ and guitar take up the core melody and deep, dark, ghastly, harsh vocals enter in. That core melody is absolutely captivating — it continues to wind through the song like a black river, with the instrumentals becoming increasingly intense and heavy. Continue reading »

DARK TRANQUILLITY’S VIDEO FOR “UNIFORMITY” IS OUT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 092013
 

Dark Tranquillity’s promised official video for the song “Uniformity” has just premiered at Metal Hammer. It’s the third song to be unveiled from Construct, the new DT album that will be released on May 27 via Century Media Records. The video was filmed by Patric Ullaeus.

The song is the second of the three released so far that to my ears has a doom vibe. It’s mid-paced, extremely melodic — even dreamy — and half the vocals are cleanly sung. I’m enjoying the song, but I have to say that I prefer the last single, “The Science of Noise” (featured here), which was a more high-energy track closer to DT’s traditional sound.

Anyway, check out the video and the music right after the jump and share your reactions in the Comments. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 092013
 

I’m getting a late start on the day and didn’t write a post last night that would be ready to start things off this morning. I stopped at my favorite watering hole at the end of the work day and lions got me. I shouldn’t call my friends lions, but once I used the term “watering hole”, images of prey animals being mauled in the savannah immediately came to mind. I felt well and truly mauled by the time I fell into bed late last night.

While I recover from too much drink and smoke, I thought I’d give you something to gaze upon. This is a collection of recent artwork completed by various artists for forthcoming metal albums or merch. We’ve featured the work of most of these artists before, and I follow what they’re up to, because they kick ass, figuratively speaking of course. There will be new music accompanying some of the art, too.

The first piece, above, is by Japanese master Toshihiro Egawa. It’s something he did for a Russian band I’m pretty high on, 7 H.Target. They’ve now finished a second album, Psy Slam Damage, which is coming out May 16 via Coyote Records. But Egawa’s artwork isn’t for that album. It’s an illustration for the next album . . . 0.00 Apocalypse . . . which will feature vocals by Mirus (ex-Katalepsy) and will be released by Sevared Records sometime later this year. Mark Cooper has also created artwork for the album, and this post will include something by him, too. Continue reading »

SKELETAL SPECTRE AND WEAPON

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
May 082013
 

I was just about ready to call it a day here at our metallic island, but then I discovered two songs that have just gone up for streaming, and they hit me so hard upside my head that I just had to put together one more post.

SKELETAL SPECTRE

I really fuckin’ enjoyed this multi-national band’s last album, 2011′s Occult Spawned Premonitions (reviewed here). The band includes an extraordinary extreme female vocalist named Vanessa Nocera whose many projects I’ve covered so zealously here that suspicions of stalkerism wouldn’t be out of place. But that’s not all. The band also includes  Roger “Rogga” Johansson of Ribspreader and Bonegnawer fame (and about 100 other projects, too), and as far as I’m concerned Rogga is death metal royalty.

So, needless to say, I’ve been watching Skeletal Spectre pretty closely as they move forward toward the release of their next album, Voodoo Dawn. I’ve previously posted about the album’s stunning cover art (Adam Geyer), as well as a track called “Bone Dust” that became available for listening late last year. But today brought yet another song. This one’s named “Black Augury Hollow”. If you’re lucking for truly ghastly, pestilential, maggot-infested, beautifully executed, old-school death metal that stomps and romps with an infusion of d-beat energy and a lot of chainsaw distortion, you really need to hear this. Continue reading »

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