SEEN AND HEARD: NE OBLIVISCARIS, DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT, AND SMOHALLA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 122013
 

Yeah, I’m going back to the “Seen and Heard” caption for these round-up posts. But probably just for today. Here are items of interest I spied over the last 24 hours, including new music, that I thought were worth sharing.

NE OBLIVISCARIS

We’ve talked about this Australian band a lot at NCS. Their 2012 album Portal of I made several “Best of 2012” lists we posted in our Listmania series. And so it was sweet indeed to see this morning’s announcement that NeO have been signed by Season of Mist. The press release I received also included this delicious piece of news: “The band is currently in the middle of writing their Season of Mist debut with plans to record late 2013.”

Congrats to Ne Obliviscaris!

DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT

This news will disappear shortly. Yesterday, the UK’s Dragged Into Sunlight, about whom we have also posted endlessly, announced that they have now begun work on a follow-up to their 2009 album Hatred For Mankind (last year’s Widowmaker was less a follow-up than something written and recorded more or less in parallel with the first album). In addition, DIS began streaming what they described as “a collaboration with our fellow wrongdoers in Gnaw Their Tongues.” But the stream is going to end any minute now . . .  Continue reading »

GRAMMY vs GRAMMY: THE 2012 SPELLEMANN AWARD NOMINATIONS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 122013
 

a photo of Enslaved that I took last night

A nice coincidence:  Last night I saw Enslaved perform at a bar in Seattle. This morning, Enslaved were nominated for Best Metal Album of 2012 in Norway’s version of the Grammy awards, which are called the Spellemann awards.

The other nominees in that category are Nekromantheon for Rise, Vulcan Spectre and El Caco for Hatred, Love and Diagrams. You gotta love a country where fuckin’ Enslaved and fuckin’ Nekromantheon get nominated for Grammy’s. Songs from each of their albums made our list of 2012’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. Hell, last spring I even wrote about a song from El Caco’s album (here) — though the song is more hard rock than metal.

Contrast this with the American Grammy Awards: Although there were 81 award categories for 2012, there is no award for Best Metal Album. As close as we get is an award for Best Hard Rock / Metal Performance. And Halestorm won that award two nights ago. Uh huh. Continue reading »

THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT BEGINS THE DESTRUCTION OF CIVILIZATION, ONE SMALL BIT AT A TIME

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 112013
 

We continue with our close death watch on the The Monolith Deathcult, monitoring every emission from the backward slope of their dreaded metal spires, holding our breathes against the noxious fumes in wait for that awful day (May 10 in Europe) when their new album Tetragrammaton will be unleashed upon an unsuspecting public and the wailing and gnashing of teeth shall begin in earnest.

Just minutes ago our vigilant surveillance was rewarded by discovery of the first official Tetragrammaton video teaser, its introduction voiced by none other than Orion Pax and its imagery inscribed with excerpts from advance reviews by the likes of Lance Armstrong in the Pro Cycling Musical Niche Review Magazine.

Those with weak knees or delicate digestive tracts may wish to skip this video. Everyone else should watch it, and then double-check to make sure your armageddon bunkers are fully stocked with essentials such as smelling salts, anti-emetics, and spine-stiffeners. Continue reading »

GRINDING FOR A CURE TO ALZHEIMER’S

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 112013
 

“Grinding for a Cure” is a project that started small and eventually exploded. The organizers set up shop and started spreading the word about their mission only in mid-January; I discovered it only a couple of weeks ago. And their mission was (and is) to raise money to fund research into a cure for Alzheimer’s disease — by selling a grindcore compilation.

The compilation was assembled by Dorian Rainwater of Noisear, Christine Coz, and Chris Messina of Swamp Gas, and last night Volume 1 of the comp went live on Bandcamp.

I was pretty proud of the grind/crust/powerviolence comp that Alex Layzell put together with modest help from NCS (which we’re still giving away here). We have 46 tracks on that baby. But Volume 1 of Grinding for a Cure contains . . . 100 tracks! And it looks like the whole thing was pulled together in the space of less than one month. Pretty fuckin’ impressive.

The line-up is pretty fuckin’ impressive, too. Continue reading »

VREID’S NEW VIDEO FOR “THE REAP” IS KILLER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 112013
 

In our review of Vreid’s new album Welcome Farewell, Andy Synn compared the listening experience to sex. He said some other things, too, but that’s the part I remember. I remember the music, too. Welcome Farewell is dynamite, and destined to be on year-end lists of all right-thinking metalheads.

I think my favorite song on the album is “The Reap”. It’s massively infectious, with wonderful guitar melodies wrapped around a swinging rhythm, but still black at its core. It’s pretty much guaranteed to be on a certain year-end list I’ll be making 10 or 11 months from now. I’m so happy that the band chose this song for their first official video from Welcome Farewell.

I’m also really fuckin’ happy with the video, especially because it includes animation by Kim Holm, a Norwegian cartoonist who (among other things) created the separate pieces of artwork for each song on  Sólstafir’s 2011 album Svartir Sandar (I collected all of those creations in this post). I’d also like to applaud the video’s director Einar Loftesnes for making something that visually captures the spirit of the music so well.

Check out the video next; the album is due for release by Indie Recordings on March 5.
Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC (Part 3): ROTTING CHRIST, STARKILL, CULT OF LUNA, AND MUSE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

This is the third and final installment in my Sunday round-up of new music. These are all items that emerged last week, but I didn’t make room for them on the days of their release. After the first item, the remainder are all new videos.

ROTTING CHRIST

Allow me to repeat, for the third time, the new Rotting Christ album is brilliant. Its name is ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ (“Do What Thou Wilt”), and it’s scheduled for release by Season of Mist in North America on March 5. We’ve previously posted about the first two songs from the album that have been publicly unveiled — the title track “Kata Ton Demona Eaftou” and “In Yumen – Xibalba”. Last week, one more went up for listening — “P’unchaw Kachun – Tuta Kachun”. Since we’ll have a review soon, I’ll say only this about the new track: Listen.


Continue reading »

BANDS YOU NEED TO HEAR: SHATTERED SKIES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

(In this post, TheMadIsraeli reminds us about an Irish band he first introduced to us back in June 2011 — a band who have just released a single and video called “15 Minutes” from their forthcoming debut album.)

I decided to use a shirt design by this band since they don’t have official artwork for their upcoming full-length revealed yet.  I thought it quite badass.

Shattered Skies are a band I only gave a brief mention to on the site when I first started writing here.  They had a free to download debut EP out at the time called Reanimations which I included in an EP download bundle I had put together. I’ve followed the band since, because I really liked their sound and found it quite engrossing.  I felt doing a spotlight feature on them was appropriate at this time, especially since they’ve finally announced a full-length to be out this year titled The World We Used to Know.

Shattered Skies are a rather interesting band, stemming from the djent movement but having moved out into a rather odd arena that is all their own.  This band is an exception to the rule around here, a huge one, but one I feel worth bringing to the forefront.

Essentially what we have is a band who combine djent rhythmic conventions with Evergrey-style power metal. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC (Part 2): A HILL TO DIE UPON, THORNGOTH, AND OBLIVIONIZED

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

Here’s our second installment, with one more coming, of a Sunday smorgasbord of new metal for your entertainment and edification. Once again, we’re graced with brand new music from three old favorites around these parts. Let’s cut right to the chase:

A HILL TO DIE UPON

This Illinois band is a big favorite of ours; all of our previous ravings about them can be found here. Their last album, 2011’s Omens, garnered these words of praise from Andy Synn: “One of this year’s great discoveries, A Hill To Die Upon ply their trade in the bloodstained arena of blackened death metal, taking their cues from the crushing power of Satanica-era Behemoth and the decaying grooves of Sheol-era Naglfar all wrapped up in a monumental package of fire-brand riffage and pulsing drums that recalls Immortal in their prime.”

Yesterday, A Hill To Die Upon released a new single named “manden med leen”, which can be acquired for the dirt-cheap price of $1 on Bandcamp. The mid-paced song is majestic and magnetic (in part due to the effective addition of keyboards to the band’s repertoire), and includes an unexpected and quite interesting acoustic-sounding interlude. But at its core it still rips and crushes. Killer stuff. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC (Part 1): BILL SKINS FIFTH, KAKUNA Vs METAPOD, AND CONDUCTING FROM THE GRAVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

This may be a Sunday, but it’s not a sleepy one here on our metallic island. I have many new musics to spread around — so many that I’m dividing this round-up into 3 parts, this being the first. So as not to get too bogged down in rolling these out, I will attempt to minimize the verbiage, which of course goes against every fiber of my being. Ready, set, GO!

BILL SKINS FIFTH

Let’s start with metal from Finland. I’ve been following this band (whose name will be recognized by sharp-eyed fans of the movie Silence of the Lambs) since 2010, and have reviewed both of their EPs, which I recommend. For background, and a link for free download of their last EP (which we hosted), see all my previous blather here.

Bill Skins Fifth have now completed work on yet another EP, this one with the title For the Threat, and on Friday they premiered a lyric video for one of the new tracks, “Spotlight Junkie”. As I’ve come to expect from this band, “Spotlight Junkie” is a hook-filled slice of galloping/jabbing melodic death metal, with skull-scouring vocals, tasty dual-guitar dueling, a catchy chorus, and high energy. Check it out next (the EP can be pre-ordered here): Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: KOZELJNIK, BLACK TABLE, AND VON

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Feb 082013
 

My head is spinning with new music that I want to spread around and introduce to new listeners. I’m afraid I’ll never have time enough to write about all of it. Correction: I know there’ll never be enough time. I’ll do what I can, but there will necessarily be a degree of randomness in the selections. Still, I look for themes around which to organize the picks.

The theme of this post is the rich diversity of black metal. If you’re one of those people who did an eye roll at reading the last sentence, thinking that it all sounds alike, I can only say that you haven’t listened enough. Try out these three offerings as proof. They consist of new music from Kozeljnik (Serbia), Black Table (NY/NJ), and Von (California).

KOZELJNIK

This band is composed of two members: Kozeljnik, who is the vocalist, guitarist, and bass player, and L.G., the drummer. Both of them are also members of a long-running excellent Serbian band named The Stone, which I featured in a MISCELLANY post back in March 2011. Kozeljnik has released an EP and two albums (Sigil Rust and Deeper the Fall), and they’re on the verge of releasing a second EP named Null: The Acheron of Multiform Negation.

One song from the new EP is now streaming and available for download on Bandcamp (here) — “Time, Neglected in the Wound of a Martyr”. The last album, Deeper the Fall, is also available on Bandcamp (here). Last night I listened to the new song as well as the first track from Deeper the Fall, “Thetruthisdeath”. Both are them are striking, and strikingly different from the norm. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries