AMORPHIS, PRISTINA, AND CENOTAPH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 022013
 

Nothing has changed, my blog time is still restricted by paying work, but I still have a few discoveries from the last 24 hours to spread around.

AMORPHIS

These Finnish icons have a new album named Circles that’s coming from Nuclear Blast on April 19 (EU), April 22 (UK), and April 30 (US). Yesterday they premiered a lyric video for a new single that’s being sold right now. The song’s name is “Hopeless Days”. It will be welcomed by die-hard Amorphis fans.

What the song has: Morose lyrics, a captivating melody, a memorable chorus, heavy chugging, a climactic guitar-led finish, and Tomi Joutsen hitting the clean notes cleanly with his distinctive delivery. What the song doesn’t have: Bite. Continue reading »

PATHOGEN, NONEXISTENCE, AND DEVIL

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 012013
 

Hey there dudes and dudettes. I’m just quickly checking in from the bottomless pit of my day-and-night job with a few goodies I discovered on a break early this morning.

PATHOGEN

Pathogen are based in the Philippines. Since forming in 2001 they’ve release an assortment of demos and splits and three full-length albums. The second one, Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations, was self-released on tape in 2010 but was recently picked up for re-issue today (on CD and vinyl) by the German label Dunkelheit Produktionen. The release includes new cover art, which, as you can see, is fuckin’ aces.

This morning I came across a song from the album named “Atrocity Exhibit” that Dunkelheit put up on YouTube, and that led me into the rest of the album. Listening to Pathogen is like cracking open a subterranean vault and finding a tape created in the late 80s or early 90s in a rehearsal room. It has an authentic old-school sound reminiscent of Autopsy and Morbid Angel, with maybe a little Celtic Frost in the mix, too, and it’s catchy as hell. Continue reading »

BANDCAMP ROUNDUP: THE BLACK MORIAH AND SATYRASIS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 282013
 

(Our man BadWolf has made a couple of discoveries through Bandcamp and writes about them below.)

I wish Bandcamp forced artists to offer at least some of every release for download. I’ve stumbled across two short streams—one of a demo, and another of a short song collection—that I want to put on my iPod right fucking now. Sadly, life is not that easy.

The Black Moriah – The Black Moriah Promo

I wonder did they mean The Black Maria? Black Maria is an antiquated slang term for a hearse. Spell check ist not krieg! Perhaps this Dallas black-thrash quintet were just feeling cheeky. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IMPERIUM DEKADENZ, VEIN COLLECTOR, KONTRUST, AND SVART CROWN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 282013
 

 

I’m still in day-job hell, or more accurately day-and-night-job hell. All personal plans for listening to albums and EPs and writing reviews are on hold. Actually, everything I do here is pretty much on hold except for quickly checking metal news and doing some fast web surfing in search of new songs — and I make time for that mainly to preserve some feeble semblance of balance in my existence.

In this post are new or new-ish things from four bands that I randomly happened upon. By the end of the post, you may conclude that my efforts at preserving balance have failed and I’ve fallen off the edge.

IMPERIUM DEKADENZ

I discovered this German band in the spring of 2010 and wrote a review of their then-current album Procella Vadens (which is superb), except I wrote it as if Suffocation’s Frank Mullen were writing the review. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Continue reading »

LONG DISTANCE CALLING – “THE FLOOD INSIDE” ALBUM STREAM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 272013
 

 

(DGR provides some thoughts about the band Long Distance Calling as a prelude to their new album, which has recently become available for streaming.)

This one is more of a personal share because I know for a fact that Long Distance Calling probably don’t line up with much of this site’s stated ethos (although to be fair, we’ve had to explain the No Clean Singing thing being like the speed limit – a suggestion) but Long Distance Calling are a really good group of musicians who haven’t failed me yet when it has come to making enjoyable music.

I first got into these guys with 2006’s Avoid The Light – which saw Jonas Renske of Katatonia performing on the song “The Nearing Grave” —  and found out that the rest of their disc was entirely instrumental, something I had only known groups like Scale The Summit to do. It was a similar atmospheric, progressive approach but seemed less reliant on atmosphere and more on melody.

I plowed through the group’s back catalog and then enjoyed the hell out of their self-titled disc when it hit back in 2011. Now we find ourselves in the opening of 2013 and the group are releasing a new album entitled The Flood Inside, and there have been some big changes. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (Part 2): WITHIN THE RUINS, AOSOTH, AND NEAERA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Feb 272013
 

This is Part 2 of a round-up of new things I saw and heard last night that I thought were worth sharing. Part 1 can be found here.

WITHIN RUINS

As the years have rolled on my interest in deathcore has waned, but I haven’t completely lost the taste for it. Within the Ruins (from Westfield, Mass.) is one of the bands in this genre who have maintained my interest, and from what I’ve heard of their new album Elite (released on Feb 26 by eOne Music), I’m still interested.

Yesterday the band premiered a music video for one of the new album’s tracks, “Feeding Frenzy”. The song brings high-caliber pneumatic thrusting, bestial hardcore vox, and a bunch of instrumental flourishes that remind me of a carnival atmosphere.

And the video (directed by Kevin J. Custer) is a complete hoot to watch. I’ve never been to a dinner party like this one, and I honestly can’t say that I worked up an appetite watching it. But I do pronounce it egggzelent. Here ya go: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (Part 1): THE DEATH TO ALL TOUR, THE HATE ETERNAL AND FEAR FACTORY TOUR, THE KVELERTAK-CANCER BATS-BLACK TUSK TOUR, DEAFHEAVEN, and GOD SEED

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Feb 272013
 

As previously reported, your humble editor’s blog time is being squeezed mercilessly by the old fuckin’ day job. There is no relief in sight yet. The consequence is that I can’t spend as much time as usual checking out new music and news. But I did make a quick survey of my typical sources last night and saw and heard many things of interest. Details about 3 new tours and 2 cool live videos are in this post, and I’ll have more goodies in a second one later today.

DEATH TO ALL TOUR 2013

In Tourism news I saw the following report on Metal Injection: The Death To All tour, which pays tribute to the late Chuck Shuldiner is returning for another run in 2013. The tour had its first run last year and featured an all-star lineup of former members of Death, “but was later plagued with drama surrounding the financials of the event, with some musicians not getting paid by one of the promoters.”

Unlike last year, the 2013 tour will feature one line-up, the Human–era lineup consisting of guitarist Paul Masvidal, bassist Steve DiGiorgio, and drummer Sean Reinert. In addition, Metal Sucks is reporting that Max Phelps, Masvidal and Reinert’s bandmate in the most recent line-up of Cynic, will be providing the vocals. The tour will focus on Human, and the three Death albums that came before it, Scream Bloody Gore, Leprosy, and Spiritual Healing. Hell yes. Continue reading »

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT PREMIERES A NEW VIDEO: “GODS AMONGST INSECTS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Feb 262013
 

(Andy Synn provides the following introduction to the brand new lyric video by NCS favorites The Monolith Deathcult. “Gods Amongst Insects” just premiered on Terrorizer and it will appear on the band’s new album TETRAGRAMMATON, which will be out on May 10 (May 14 in North America) on Season of Mist.) 

Peace… no peace…

Thus begins the new Monolith Deathcult album. An album which covers religious warfare, genocide, and all the horrors humanity inflicts upon itself. As well as the looming horror of an unstoppable alien invasion. That’s right, there’s definitely some inspiration from Independence Day in there too.

“Gods Among Insects” is, fittingly enough, an absolute monster of a track. A sprawling behemoth of huge, grinding riff-salvos, pulverising barrages of high-intensity drumming, berserker death vocals, and ominous symphonic shrouds.

The grandiose oration by one Peter Cullen – that’s right, the human incarnation of Optimus Prime – is both absurdly impressive and impressively absurd, fitting the band’s modus operandi to a T.

“I have existed from the morning of the universe
And I shall exist until the last star falls from the night
My ultimate peace would be granted by the destruction of all life,
Stars and nebulae, leaving only nothingess and void”

Continue reading »

SIX FEET UNDER DEBUT A NEW SONG: “PROPHECY”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 252013
 

Maybe we should just re-name February “Ola Englund” month at NO CLEAN SINGING. Not long ago we launched a full-album stream of the new release by his band Feared (here), and today brought us a brand-new track that it appears he wrote for the band he joined last year, the formidable Six Feet Under.

The new song is “Prophecy” and it will appear on Six Feet Under’s new album Unborn, the “demented fraternal twin” of last year’s Undead, which will be released by Metal Blade on March 19.

The song stomps the holy hell out of the landscape with body-moving, chug-heavy riffs and an infernally catchy melody. It’s prime headbang candy, and of course it’s propelled by the distinctive growls of founder Chris Barnes. Eat this up (or let it eat you up) right after the jump. And after that, you can also check out the previously released lyric video for another new track, “Zombie Blood Curse”. Continue reading »

THIS AND THAT: PRISTINA, AETERNUS, ZETALAMBMARY, AND VEKTOR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 242013
 

Here are a few things I saw and heard this morning. I hope you enjoy them. And by “enjoy” I mean “whimper fearfully and moan miserably”.

PRISTINA

I was bowled over by this Connectuicut band’s 2010 debut album, The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow), and I wasn’t the only one. It has received plenty of attention and critical praise.  You can peruse my review of the album here, and check out a revealing interview of Pristina’s mainman Brendan Duff by using this link.

I have really been looking forward to Pristina’s second album, Hopeless•Godless, which is now scheduled for release on February 26 through The Path Less Traveled Records. I’ve made my way through it once . . . but needed time to recover and hear it again before attempting to make notes for a review. It’s just utterly crushing and searing. I felt like a raw steak that had been tenderized with a mallet and then char-broiled over a hot open flame. Continue reading »

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