CORTEZ: “ARROGANTS QUE NOUS SOMMES”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jan 192013
 

For just a three-man group who don’t bother with a bass, Cortez kick up a hell of a ruckus. I wrote about this Swiss trio in a MISCELLANY post last December (here), about a month before release of their latest album Phœbus. It will be out on vinyl come January 25 via by Throatruiner Records (with CD releases coming from Basement Apes & Lost Pilgrims), but it’s already streaming and downloadable on Bandcamp now.

A few days ago Cortez premiered an official video for one of the new album’s songs, “arrogants que nous sommes”. The music itself is definitely worth hearing, but the video is even more exceptional.

The song is a burst of hardcore intensity. It seethes with fury and it’s loaded with head-bashing riffs and very cool (non-blasting) drumwork. I don’t miss the sound of the bass — the song makes up for its absence by drawing heaviness from emotional intensity. Continue reading »

PORTAL: “THE BACK WARDS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jan 182013
 

NPR’s Lars Gotrich has been a fan of Australia’s Portal for a long time. I’m pretty sure that seeing a Portal video in one of his columns a couple of years ago was when it dawned on me that NPR’s music focus was beginning to spread out into darker places than I knew. Because seriously, music doesn’t get much darker than Portal’s.

Mr. Gotrich has scored another Portal debut. Today he premiered a track named “The Back Wards” at NPR, which comes from the band’s next album, Vexovoid, due for release on Feb 19 via Profound Lore.

It’s four minutes and sixteen seconds of grinding noise, needling guitar leads, calamitous percussion, and Cthulhu vocalizations. The aura is dank and destructive, pummeling and perilous.  Continue reading »

WITNESSED: SYNESIS ABSORPTION, A NEW SOILWORK SONG, AND MY DICK

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 182013
 

Wouldn’t you know it. After whining in the last post about how little blog/metal time my fucking day job has left me this week, I got enough of a break to make a quick sweep through the interhole in search of new things, and to write this little round-up about what I found.

SYNESIS ABSORPTION AND ELIRAN KANTOR

My roving eye came to a fast stop as soon as I saw the artwork featured above. It’s a painting by the great Eliran Kantor for a self-titled debut album by Synesis Absorption, which will be released sometime this year.

I’d never heard of this oddly named band, but man, check out the line-up: Steve Di Giorgio (ex-Death, Sadus) on bass; Mike Smith (Suffocation) on drums; Robbert Kok (Disavowed) providing vocals; and Miloš Batoćanin (Disdained) weaving guitar magic. After seeing the art and this line-up, I went in search of music — and I found some. Continue reading »

GRAVEYARD RETURNS

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jan 172013
 

About a year ago I came across a Spanish death metal band named Graveyard via their just-released EP, The Altar of Sculpted Skulls. One of the initial attractions was the eye-catching, dread-inspiring, black-and-white artwork by Matt ‘Putrid’ Carr (Autopsy, Impetigo, Coffins, Hooded Menace, etc). The EP turned out to be just as spine-cracking, skull-bleaching, and deliciously morbid as the artwork (the review is here).

I am so happy to report that Matt Carr and Graveyard are back. Today the band announced that their new full-length album (their second) will be released on March 8 via War-Anthem Records. Its title is The Sea Grave, and Matt Carr has again created a great cover, with a Lovecraftian theme. Cthulhu! Tentacles!

Graveyard also released an edited version of a brand new track for streaming. The song is “The Visitations of the Great Old Ones”, and I’m really digging it. It alternately romps, stomps, and crawls, and it’s thoroughly saturated with the black ichor of occult horror. Have a listen after the jump. Continue reading »

NEW SUFFOCATION SONG: “CYCLES OF SUFFERING”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 142013
 

As reported in my last post, I’m still droning away at my day job.  But I decided to take another quick break, and lo and behold, look what I found!  Another new song from Suffocation’s next album, Pinnacle of Bedlam, which is due for release by Nuclear Blast on Feb 15 in Europe and Feb 19 in North America.

The new song is called “Cycles of Suffering”, and you can hear it below. It’s a techy flurry of knife-edged riffs and battering drums, with a very cool guitar solo. And Frank the Tank sounds . . . brutal.

To hear the first track released from the album (“As Grace Descends”), go to this page, where the song can also be downloaded.

LECHEROUS NOCTURNE, PORTAL, INTER ARMA, AND BLACK AWAKENING

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 142013
 

As previously disclosed, my head and my free time are being squeezed down to the thinness of a pancake by my fucking day job this week. But to maintain my own sanity, I did take a quick break today to glance around the interhole in search of filth. I found some, and voila!

LECHEROUS NOCTURNE

Man, talk about delayed gratification. It was January 2012 when I reported that this killer South Carolina band had completed their third album, Behold Almighty Doctrine, and that it would be released later in the year by Unique Leader Records. I even brandished the same delicious album cover that you see up above.

I’m not sure what happened, but 2012 came and went, and the new album never appeared. However, I now see that it will finally be released on March 19. And yesterday the band debuted a song called “Those Having Been Hidden Away”. I like it and will play it for you right after the jump. It’s the sound of a furious tech-death demolition project joined in progress, with a cool bounding bass line and a load of slashing riffs and brutalizing percussion. Continue reading »

NEWSNEWSNEWS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 142013
 

(Here’s a newsy post from DGR.)

Normally Islander is like a sponge when it comes to a lot of the news that is happening around the web; however, like a lot of us he has a job outside of the website (some of you may have already met him!) so some stuff may have flown by him that happened throughout the week. Well not anymore, as I present a round up of stuff that caught my eye that unfortunately never got yacked about here on NCS.

We’re running through a glut of all sorts of things this week from music videos, lyric videos, free tuneage (almost typed this as free tuna! – didn’t want to overpromise to you folks, we’re not that rich…yet), to album announcements, to a limited-time charity deal if you like electronica-rock, to the ever-lovely melodrama of a band as members leave and use the loveliness of Facebook to get those last few barbs in. Have your coffees at the ready to slam into your face as we work our way through the stuff we missed that might be of interest to you.

Aborted

Aborted (above) rang in 2012 pretty early with the release of Global Flatline and that disc quickly became a favorite around NCS. It appeared on a couple of our lists and really reminded people why we all thought Aborted were a great band. Late last week the group released a lyric video for the song “Vermincular, Obscene, and Obese” that animates their cover art for Global Flatline in the background so you can actually see what the heck Sven is saying when he growls out the closing lines of each sentence. Continue reading »

DEVOURMENT, CEREKLOTH, ODIUM NOVA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Jan 132013
 

I’ve been preoccupied by my day job the last couple of days, and unfortunately for me, this distracting state of affairs will continue all the way through the coming week and into the next weekend. I’m afraid this means that things are likely to slow down here at NCS. I will do my best to prepare at least one new thing each day, just to preserve my own sanity, but much more than that will be unlikely.

Before things really get nasty, I thought I’d make a quick survey of what I missed in the world of metal over the last 48 hours. I found the following three items of interest.

DEVOURMENT

As we reported last month, these Texas-based grand-daddies of slam have recorded a new album. Entitled Conceived In Sewage, it’s scheduled for release by Relapse on February 19 in North America (and somewhat later dates in the rest of the world). We only had teaser excerpts available at the time of our last post, but Devourment have now released an entire song — “Fifty Ton War Machine” — and have made it available as a single at places like iTunes. As you can see, the artwork for the single is badass.

Devourment have also released a lyric video for the song. First, a word about the music: It’s ugly. Continue reading »

BANDS I WANT TO TALK ABOUT (by Utmu): URFAUST, THOU, and SLOTH HERDER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Jan 112013
 

Awesome artwork by Michiel Eikenaar

(In this post, guest writer Utmu sheds some light on underground bands who deserve a higher profile.)

I’ve been listening to some bands lately and I really like them. I also wanted to write another article, so I just decided to combine the two. I don’t know how obscure these bands are, although the music they make is great and they should be recognized for that.

The first two are bands who may be well-known in certain circles, but to anyone who merely scratches the surface of those circles (like I often do with different scenes) I think they’re more obscure. Again, I don’t really know how well-known these bands are, so don’t hold me to the “this band doesn’t get enough attention” mentality. I enjoy them and I don’t hear about them often. The third section in this article is about a creative band from my region who I think should get way more recognition than they seem to get.

URFAUST

Here’s a band that’s been on my radar for a while. Ever since Invisible Oranges released that mix-tape containing Aosoth and Infestus, I’ve remembered Urfaust because they have a really unique sound, and more recently I’ve put time into really listening to their music — it was a great decision to do so. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE . . . MISHEARD LYRICS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Jan 112013
 

(A post in which Andy Synn presents five of his favorite mondegreens . . .)

This edition comes with a warning. If you want to continue hearing these songs in the ‘Correct’ way, don’t click the jump to the main article, because what I’m covering here today are the sort of misheard lyrics that essentially ruin a song for you forever. Ok, maybe not ruin, but they definitely stick with you. Once you’ve heard them, you can’t un-hear them.

And I’m not talking about the youtube-style ‘Boat Rudder’ or ‘Fishmaster’ parodies where someone’s posited ludicrous alternative lyrics. I’m talking about just a tiny line here or there that I accidentally misheard the first time round, and have never really been able to shake. Thankfully each of these also gives rise to some unintentional hilarity, as they definitely add a new interpretation to each of the tracks!

Some of them are literally only a one-word change, but that’s enough to completely alter the meaning of the surrounding lines, mostly in a rather ludicrous way!

Again – don’t go any further unless you want some songs ruined for you forever! Continue reading »

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