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 »

THIS AND THAT: TERATISM, 7 H.TARGET, AND MONAHANS

 Exceptions to the Rule, Eye-Catchers, Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Apr 242013
 

Here are a few things I’ve been listening to recently. They’ve been bouncing around my head, insisting that I say something about them, and so I am. They have no connection to each other and one of them isn’t even metal at all. But for different reasons all three songs have sunk their claws into the mushy gray matter and won’t let go. Let me know what you think.

TERATISM

I latched on to this Minneapolis band because of the artwork you see above. It’s a Mark Riddick creation for the vinyl LP version of the band’s 2010 album Via Negativa (which was their fourth full-length), and it fuckin’ kills — one of my favorite pieces he’s ever done. The vinyl will be released at some point later this year by Behold Barbarity Records, and the album is available for streaming at the Teratism Bandcamp page. Unfortunately, you can’t download it there but CDs are available here.

But the song that’s been wrecking my head recently isn’t from that album (though the album is massively good). Instead, it’s one I found after the Riddick art drew me to the Teratism FB page. It’s called “Shadows Flee the Burning Sons of Light” and it will be included on a forthcoming vinyl 12″ EP named La Bas, which consists of four previously unreleased Teratism tracks (recorded in 2009) and a cover of “Come To the Sabbat” by Black Widow. And that EP also features this vicious Mark Riddick cover art: Continue reading »

ROB ZOMBIE GOES BLACK METAL; WHY AM I WRITING ABOUT THIS?

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  22 Responses »
Apr 242013
 

I’ve seen the Woolite commercial that Rob Zombie made because Phro linked to it in an NCS comment once upon a time, but I’ve never seen a Rob Zombie movie. This is because (a) I don’t particularly enjoy horror movies (I scare easily), and (b) because I’ve never particularly enjoyed Rob Zombie’s music. I would add, (c), that I prefer not to spend money on bad movies, except I can’t say the movies are bad since I’ve never seen one. So, I will not be seeing his new movie, The Lords of Salem. However, I have now seen a music video that may be in the movie and is at least connected to it.

The video is for a song by a fictional black metal band named Leviathan The Fleeing Serpent, who apparently appear in the movie, as does the song, “Crushing the Ritual”. Rob Zombie and guitarist John 5 wrote and recorded the song, and I guess that’s Rob Zombie appearing as the corpse-painted frontman, who bears a passing resemblance to Gaahl in his Gorgoroth days.

I guess the song and the video are parodies — but I’m not 100% certain of that. On the one hand, Rob Zombie’s bug-eyed, campy facial expressions, the ridiculous headgear worn by his bandmates, and the selection of words flashing across the screen suggest this is satire. Also, the song has about two chords in it (plus non-stop blast-beats, of course). Continue reading »

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN: “WHEN I LOST MY BET” (THE VIDEO)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Apr 232013
 

I’m going to pretend I’ve never heard of The Dillinger Escape Plan. I’m going to imagine that I have no idea what their music is like. I’m going to forget that I’ve heard “Prancer” from their new album and develop temporary amnesia about the fact that they convincingly lose their minds on stage, just as they often do in the studio. I’m just going to watch this brand new DEP video for a song called “When I Lost My Bet” and react to it with no preconceptions. I know I can do this. Here we go:

HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WHAT DID I JUST HEAR AND SEE?!?

The music is totally off the chain — bursts of grind-like freakazoidica, explosions of spastic riffing and un-strung rhythms, vein-bursting yells, fast and slow, loud and soft, insane and . . . insane.

And the visuals? Thoroughly surreal — umbilicals that go where they don’t go in nature, walls with mouths, feathers and blood, faceless heads, dust and dirt, and too many other things to even comprehend on a single viewing. Mitch Massie directed this video, and you can’t not watch it once it starts. So, brace yourselves . . . and watch it! Continue reading »

AFTER AN EIGHT-YEAR WAIT, EXTOL “OPEN THE GATES”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Apr 232013
 

Today Norway’s Extol released their first new music in more than eight years. The single “Open the Gates” appears on the band’s self-titled fifth album, which will be released by Indie Recordings on June 21 in Norway, Germany, and Austria, and on June 24 everywhere else in Europe, and by Facedown Records on June 25 in North America. Pre-orders in a variety of formats and bundles can now be placed here. Today the band also unveiled the album’s cover art, shown above, by the renowned Travis Smith.

For fans of this band, the wait has been a long one. In 2007, after six studio-releases, a Norwegian Grammy award nomination, worldwide touring with bands such as Mastodon and Opeth, critical praise, and the amassing of devoted legions of fans across the globe, Extol seemingly disappeared without any explanation. Cryptic hints began appearing in 2012 on an unheralded web site which suggested that a film might be in the works — and indeed, it turns out that a documentary film about Extol is indeed in production. And then it became clear that the band was working on new music. (To find out more about all these events, check out our October 2012 interview with Extol’s Peter Espevoll at this location).

We probably have some readers who weren’t even listening to metal during Extol’s hey-day. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the band, check out Andy Synn’s January 2011 SYNN REPORT on Extol, which includes a review of their entire discography plus sample songs. You can find that via this link.

But enough with the background . . . let’s move on to “Open the Gates”. Continue reading »

HOWL, HUMILIATION, AND HYBRID

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 222013
 

There’s a theme to this post. Can you guess what it is?

HOWL

I’m so far behind in listening to new albums that I’ve given up home of ever catching up. The new one named Bloodlines from Howl is one I really want to hear. But so far all I’ve heard are two tracks, both of which are publicly streaming. I thought today would be a good day to mention them because today I saw the complete album art for Bloodlines. Kicks ass, don’t it?

The two tracks you can hear at moment are “Your Hell Begins”, which premiered at Loudwire but is now on Soundcloud, and “Attrition”, which is now on YouTube and Bandcamp. The former is a diseased death/doom juggernaut that will throw you for a loop before it finishes, and the latter (also diseased) is an up-tempo number that jabs like a prize-fighter, but with a lot of sludgy, low-end weight. I like both of them. Continue reading »

ROADBURN 2013 VIDEOS ONLINE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 222013
 

The 2013 edition of the Roadburn Festival took place over the last four days, from Thursday, April 18, to Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Tilburg, The Netherlands. There’s a dude whose web moniker is kkpgijsbers who lives in Tilburg and attends a lot of live shows and films them. He attended the 2013 edition of Roadburn and has been uploading a bunch of videos he shot of performances at the festival.

The audio and visual quality of these clips is generally excellent — kkpgijsbers obviously has good gear and he sets up at balcony-level, front-row vantage points that provide unobstructed views of the stages. So far this morning I’ve watched the film of Lantlôs performing “Intrauterine”, High On Fire performing “Snakes For the Divine”, Primordial delivering “The Gathering Wilderness”, Electric Wizard with “Witchcult Today” and “The Nightchild”, and Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats doing “Valley of the Dolls” with a excerpts of Sharon Tate’s appearance in the movie of the same name on the screen behind them.

I’ve embedded those videos after the jump, plus a random selection of other performances by Alcest, Godflesh, and Cult of Luna. You can find more Roadburn clips by visiting kkpgijsbers’ YouTube channel, and it appears that still more will be uploaded today and in the days to come. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries