THRASHTASTIC: HELLBASTARD, TOXIC HOLOCAUST, AND ELDRITCH FLAMETHROWER

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Nov 152012
 

There are few things sweeter than a great riff, the kind that grabs you by the spine and shakes you hard, your head bobbing like the top of a rag doll. Yet, perplexingly, I’m not a big fan of most thrash, a genre where the riff is king. The “classic” thrash vocal style has something to do with that. But that’s not to say that I’m averse to all thrash. I’ve found from experience that I like it just fine when it’s caked with filth, when it’s raw, punked-out, and covered in crust.

An aura of the infernal helps, too, which is probably why I’ve become a fan of black thrash, though that’s a subject for another day. What I’ve got for this day is new music and a new video from three bands whose servings of thrash are so so jammed with filth they will stop up your toilets for a week — and the riffs may leave you convulsing, too: Hellbastard (UK), Toxic Holocaust (U.S.), and Eldritch Flamethrower (U.S.)

HELLBASTARD

Hellbastard came into being somewhere in late ’84 or early ’85. Some say they were the band who created the “crust” wave of the 1980s. Some say they coined the genre name “crust” with their 1986 demo release Ripper Crust. But by 1992 the band had fallen apart. They re-formed in 2008, and now they have a new five-song EP on the way, which will be released on vinyl by Patac Records on November 15. I’ve only just begun listening to it, and it’s damned good — so good that I wanted to say a few words about it right away. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ROTTING CHRIST, NECROWRETCH, SCAR SYMMETRY, MACHINE HEAD, KUOLEMANLAAKSO, TAAKE, AND A SQUIRREL RIDING A SNAKE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 142012
 

Sakis Tolis, laying down a soothing lullaby. 

Once again, your intrepid editor has sifted through the ever flowing stream of metal news and new music to find those gleaming nuggets that will enrich your daily lives.  Actually, I don’t know if you’ll give a shit about any of this, but I do, and that’s what really matters, isn’t it?  No need to answer, that was a rhetorical question.

ALBUMS ON THE HORIZON: ROTTING CHRIST AND NECROWRETCH

We’ve already reported that Rotting Christ are at work on their 11th studio album, but today I saw a few more tidbits of news: The album will be entitled Do What Thou Wilt, and it will hit the stores on March 1, 2013. We usually don’t write about such happenings unless we have a bit more juice to go along with it, such as album art or a song premiere. But these Greek maestros are the kind of band whose every move interests me. And I’m particularly interested to see if the new album will be a further step down the path of strongly folk/ethnic-influenced metal exhibited on Aealo.

I also saw today that the French band Necrowretch have finished the recording and mastering of their debut album for Century Media. It was recorded in late August at Blackout Multimedia studios in Brussels by Phorgath of Enthroned and its title will be Putrid Death Sorcery. The cover art is being prepared by Milovan Novakovic from Montenegro, who also created the beastly cover for the band’s last EP, Now You’re In Hell (reviewed here). And if you’re wondering why this news matters, check out some Necrowretch music right after the jump. Continue reading »

BANDS YOU NEED TO HEAR: INFANT ANNIHILATOR

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Nov 142012
 

(We’ve written quite a lot already about the international trio known as Infant Annihilator, but a new album trailer gives us an excuse to do it again, via this post by TheMadIsraeli.)

Infant Annihilator is the fucking shit.  As hyperbolic and complimentary yet non-descriptive as that may be of me to say, I really don’t give two shits because this band know how to bring the br00tz in maximum force.  You can’t front on these dudes, you can’t tell me these guys don’t write some of the most technically accomplished yet well composed yet all over the place of the br00tality-spectrum tunes you’ve ever heard. UK-based  Eddie Pickard and Aaron Kitcher are truly accomplished practitioners of their craft and know exactly what extreme metal fans crave: utter fucking devastation.

Infant Annihilator label themselves a technical deathcore act, although this isn’t entirely accurate.  Take every form of extreme metal, whether it be death metal, deathcore, grindcore, black metal, or slam and mash it all together until you have some kind of fucked-up stillborn deformity of filth, and there you have Infant Annihilator.

We’ve already covered this band repeatedly since the unveiling of their genius video for “Decapitation Fornication”, but I’m really into them and really feeling what they’re bringing to the table.  Eddie (guitar), Aaron (drums), and beast-mode vocalizer Dan Watson (from Indiana) are set to unleash their sonic tome of chaos, The Palpable Leprosy Of Pollution.  Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: OVID’S WITHERING AND CORMORANT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Nov 132012
 

This post brings some good news and some sad news. On the positive front, we have a new song from Ovid’s Withering. On the sad front, we’ve just learned that Arthur Von Nagel is leaving Cormorant.

OVID’S WITHERING

We’ve been following this Florida band ever since they released their debut EP, The Cloud Gatherer, last spring (reviewed at NCS here). Ovid’s Withering are now working on their first album and they’ve recently released one of its tracks for streaming and “pay what you want” download on Bandcamp (here).

The song is named “The Reckoning. The Summoning. The Purge”. As described by the band: “This is part of a 5 song concept that will be on our full-length album. The story follows Pan, who is engrossed with the idea of cleansing the world. This is Part II, where he kidnaps Anesidora from her lover, Prometheus.” This part of the story line is reflected in the lyrics and described in detail on Bandcamp.

TheMadIsraeli, who first made me aware of the new song, gives us this introduction to the new music: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MESHUGGAH, ENSLAVED, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, ERIC CUTLER (AUTOPSY), MARK RIDDICK, MITOCHONDRION, AND DEIPHAGO

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Nov 132012
 

Here’s a collection of items that came my way over the last 24 hours that I thought were worth sharing — in addition to all of the awesome posts that already graced the site yesterday.  (I can use the words “awesome” and “graced” without tarnishing my well-known reputation for humility because I’m not directly responsible for any of ysterday’s posts, even though this post will also be awesome.)

TOURISM: MESHUGGAH AND ENSLAVED

I saw via Heavy Blog Is Heavy the rumor that Meshuggah will be touring the U.S. along with Animals As Leaders and Intronaut early next year. The rumor is based on a flyer for a date in Minneapolis that you can see above.Yes please.

That same photo up there also provides evidence of another tour that I read about previously. This one is official: Norway’s Enslaved will be returning to the U.S. and Canada in early 2013 for a headlining, 20-show “Winter Rite” tour joined by U.S. doom metallers Pallbearer and occult rockers Ancient VVisdom (and both of those bands are killers).

The tour begins January 30 in Philadelphia and ends February 22 in New York City. The full schedule can be seen after the jump. And in case you missed our earlier post yesterday, Osmose Productions has just uploaded three older Enslaved albums for streaming and download on Bandcamp for the first time. Continue reading »

FEATURETTES: THY DEVOURER AND LORD DYING

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Nov 122012
 

Here are short features about two bands whose music is definitely worth getting to know. The first of these “featurettes” comes our way via regular NCS writer TheMadIsraeli, who sent in the following introduction:

“I was surfing Facebook and saw that Infant Annihilator had posted a song by the band above.  If you can’t read the logo, the band’s name is Thy Devourer.  Thy Devourer hail from Alabama of all places, total fucking Hicksville to some; yet they deliver some of the most punishing technical deathcore you’ll ever hear all year.  They take a pretty visceral approach that hits me like a combo of Whitechapel, Carnifex, and Fallujah.  Definitely cool shit.

Interesting also, at least on this EP, is their preference for more grindcore length songs.  I believe only one of the four songs on here is even up to three minutes.

Bandcamp player streaming below, AND it’s free.  Enjoy the carnage.” Continue reading »

WEASELS RIP MY ANKLE: CRYPTICUS, NIDINGR, ARKHUM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  25 Responses »
Nov 092012
 

So good to be back in Seattle after a fucking 6-hour flight home last night. Did you know that your feet swell up something fierce after 6 hours at 40,000 feet? Did you know that this is really not a good thing if you’re trying to recover from a serious ankle sprain? Did you know that it could cause your toes to turn black and your ankle to turn red and blue even a week after your accident, so that it feels like weasels are ripping into it? Well, now you know.

Did you know that if your hearing is sort of shitty and you try to listen to metal at the proper head-wrecking volume on your earbuds during a 6-hour night flight that your neighbors who are trying to sleep will look at you like they want to set you on fire? Did you know that if enough neighbors look at you like that, and you’re a weenie, you will sheepishly remove the earbuds and lose out on the chance to catch up on new metal for 6 hours and instead drink heavily and become surly and morose? Well, now you know.

Did you know that when your body’s time clock is still in a time zone that’s three hours later than where you are, your body will wake up thinking that it’s 6:30 a.m. when in fact it’s 3:30 a.m.and you’ve only been asleep for 4 hours after being awake for nearly 24 hours and you will feel like day-old shit with your ankle throbbing and be unable to fall asleep again? Now you know.

Did you know that even when you’re a really important metal blogger and you’re mostly out of touch with metal for more than a day, metal is still happening, as if it did not depend on your paying attention in order to continue happening? Amazingly, that seems to be true.

Here’s what I found this morning in between hobbling trips to the coffee maker to recharge my bowl-sized Deathwish coffee cup: Crypticus (U.S.), Nidingr (Norway), and Arkhum (U.S.). Continue reading »

A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT: DEVOURMENT, WEAPON THE FACTORY?, SYSTEM DIVIDE, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, AND CLOAK OF ALTERING

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  17 Responses »
Nov 082012
 

Good morning, good afternoon, good night, wherever you are.  It’s morning for me, three time zones east of where I usually am. I’m pressed for time today because of my day job. I’ll be spending several hours trying to extricate those coke-filled balloons from my ass so I can make my delivery and get back on a plane to Seattle. I got them way to far up in there this time, I’m afraid.

But although I’m pressed for time, I did have time to make a quick review of my usual sources and have a few things to pass along to you, in no particular order: Devourment are releasing a new album; System Divide are going home; Weapon the Factory? are disrobing; Abigail Williams are reuniting; and Cloak of Altering is killing me.  Details to follow.

DEVOURMENT

I saw that these grand-daddies of brutal slamming death metal will have a new album out next year on the Relapse label. Relapse released a teaser video for the thing. I’m ready. I’m more than ready. Check it out following the jump. Continue reading »

ROUND-UP: BOSSE-DE-NAGE, ZUBROWSKA, OBSCENE ENTITY, HELL MILITIA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 062012
 

This post is about as lame a post as any post I’ve ever posted, except for the post on Saturday that was actually entitled LAME. (My ankle is now black and blue, but improving, and thank you for asking). To be clear, this post is not lame because the music I’m recommending is lame. Far from it! It’s lame because I don’t have the time or the mental clarity to add much to the recommendations, such as an explanation.

My day job is imposing on me at the moment (and this will continue over the next two days), and to be brutally honest, I’m also experiencing some anxiety over the outcome of state and national elections. Between those two things, this is all I can manage at the moment:

BOSSE-DE-NAGE

A few weeks ago I reviewed a new split release by deafheaven and Bosse-De-Nage. Both of the two songs on the split are long — 10:37 and 9:02, respectively — and I expressed the opinion that together they made up one of the best short releases of 2012. When I wrote the review, only the deafheaven track was available for streaming. Now, so is the Bosse-De-Nage track.

The split will be released by The Flenser Records on November 20, both on vinyl and digitally. The vinyl can be pre-ordered from The Flenser here, and it’s also available at deafheaven’s store at this location. Watch The Flenser Facebook or Bandcamp pages for news about the digital release. The BDN song is streaming at Stereogum as well as on YouTube, and it’s right after the jump. Continue reading »

CRAWLING, WITH NERGAL, INTRONAUT, AND SULPHUR AEON

 Eye-Catchers, Interviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 032012
 

As explained in today’s earlier post, I’ve had a bit of a setback. I can’t walk very well at the moment. But crawling still works. And as I crawled through the interhole and my e-mail this morning while moaning in pain and feeling like a prize dumbass, I found some news about Nergal (Poland) and Intronaut (U.S.) and new music from Sulphur Aeon (Germany) that made me feel better, at least psychologically if not physically.

NERGAL GETS SOME HIGH LEVEL SUPPORT

I saw a note on the Facebook page of Behemoth’s frontman Nergal that looked interesting. You may have seen (either here or elsewhere) that Nergal’s legal troubles in his native Poland have been revived thanks to a ruling by the Polish Supreme Court that he can be criminally prosecuted for offending people’s religious feelings even if he didn’t intend to do that. This whole mess stems from a 2007 Behemoth performance in which Nergal tore up a Bible on stage.

There are plenty of places in the world where governments repress speech, sometimes violently, but I don’t usually think of Poland that way. So I was surprised when the country’s highest court made it easier, not harder, for people in Poland to be prosecuted for expressing “offensive” thoughts about religion.

What Nergal’s note revealed is that the day after this abysmal court ruling, the European Commission — which is the executive body of the European Union, of which Poland is a member — released a statement in support of Nergal. Citing the European Convention of Human Rights, a treaty that Poland signed which protects freedom of expression, the EC stated: “This right protects not only information or ideas that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also those that offend, shock or disturb.”

The full article cited by Nergal is here. It’s not clear how the EC’s position or Poland’s treaty obligations will affect the progress of the case against Nergal, but it’s definitely an interesting and encouraging development. Continue reading »

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