MORE SEEN AND HEARD: ENCRUST, TREPALIUM, KLONE, UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Oct 012012
 

Earlier today I collected a handful of items I saw and heard in my catching-up time last night, but since posting that round-up I’ve discovered even more new metal that’s worth passing around. The bands featured in this post are: Encrust (U.S.) Trepalium (France), Klone (France), and Unfathomable Ruination (UK).

ENCRUST

Okay, first thing you should do is click THIS LINK to see a bigger copy of that stupendous cover art up there.

Is that not killer? It’s the cover for From Birth To Soil, the debut album by a Chicago quintet who call themselves Encrust. The artwork was created by Ryan Kasparian (whose work we’ve featured elsewhere on NCS) and Chris Angelucci. Not coincidentally those two happen to be one of Encrust’s two guitarists and the band’s vocalist, respectively.

From Birth To Soil was released by Density Records last week, and on the same day the band premiered a lyric video for one of the album’s tracks, “Engine of Deceit”. I only caught up with the video today, and I’m really digging the music and the lyrics. The song is a big, swaggering, brawling hybrid of sludge/stoner riffs, pile-driving percussion, and death-metal vocals. There might be some way to avoid headbanging to this song, but it would probably require severing all the nerves to your neck muscles. Continue reading »

DEATH GRIPS DROPPED THEIR NEW ALBUM TODAY: “NO LOVE DEEP WEB”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, That's Music -- But It's Not Metal  33 Responses »
Oct 012012
 

Especially for an extreme metal site, we’ve showed a lot of love for Death Grips. Why? Because their music is “metal”, even though it’s not metal, and also because they don’t give a fuck.

How many fucks don’t they give? Well, you may recall that Death Grips signed a deal with Epic/Columbia to release two albums this year. The first one was The Money Store (reviewed for us here by groverXIII). The second one was supposed to be released sometime this month. But last night on Twitter the band said, “The label wouldn’t confirm a release date for NO LOVE DEEP WEB ’till next year sometime,” followed by, “The label will be hearing the album for the first time with you.”

And this morning Death Grips just went ahead and put up No Love Deep Web for streaming and free download. Maybe their contract with Epic/Columbia allows them to do this as long as they deliver some other album for label release, but something tells me this wasn’t exactly what Epic expected. I thought Epic was an odd choice for this band anyway, and maybe we’re starting to see why this wasn’t a marriage made in heaven.

Either way, it’s cool to get this new album. It’s so fresh that I’ve barely started listening to it. The SoundCloud player for the stream is after the jump, and you can go HERE to download it while you can (click the smaller “Premium Download” link — it’s the only one that will start the download of the album). You can also download it off the SoundCloud player, or from the other download links I’m including after the jump.

Also, the album cover is a picture of the album’s title written on an erect dick. No fucks given.

Also after the jump, following the erect dick cover art (NSFW): a Phro-tastic write-up I just received from Phro (also NSFW) about this news.

(via Pitchfork) Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ATRIARCH, VOIVOD, SYBREED, AND CYTOTOXIN

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 012012
 

I’ve been missing in action more than usual over the last 4 days, having been kidnapped by work-related travel and activities that were fun, but  cut deeply into blog time. I’m now back home on this Sunday night and have been trying to find out what I missed in the world of metal. Of course, I missed a lot that interested me — too much to capture in a single post — so I’m going to pick out just a few of the items I thought were worth spreading around.

ATRIARCH

I first came across Portland’s Atriarch through their 20 Buck Spin split release with Oakland’s Alaric — and that whole split release is just chock full of win. If you haven’t heard it, check it out on Bandcamp here.

Atriarch is now on the Profound Lore label and their first PL release will be Ritual of Passing, scheduled to hit the streets on October 30. The cover art up there is by Stevie Floyd (Taurus). I saw that Pitchfork recently premiered the album’s third track “Altars”, and then I saw that PL had put the song up for streaming on SoundCloud as well. And I checked it out. Fuckin’ glad I did, too. Continue reading »

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM SURGICALBRUTE: CHAPEL, THROWN, AND MORBID VOMIT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 292012
 

Long-time NCS reader SurgicalBrute has been a reliable source of eviscerating musical recommendations for the site, sometimes through guest posts and sometimes via e-mail. Recently he sent me an e-mail with three new recommendations, all of which proved to be excellent. I’ve collected some info and music from each of the bands in this post. Here we go . . . .

CHAPEL

Chapel are based in Vancouver, Canada and they released their debut album — Satan’s Rock ‘n’ Roll — on August 1 via the Irish label Invictus Productions. Here’s what SurgicalBrute said about Chapel:

“Midnight . . . Speedwolf . . . forget them both . . . this band plays some ripping satanic blackened speed metal, and will definitely be on my year end list.”

Rooting around in the interhole, I found that CVLT Nation is streaming the album in full (here). I’ve been listening to it, and yeah, it fucken rips hell. It’s not hard to imagine that if hell were real, this would be the party music of choice. Matching rock and punk beats with filthy riffs, burned-raw vocals, and acetylene solos, Chapel have created a virally infectious debut release. Check out a few of the songs next. Continue reading »

NEW VIDEOS: HOODED MENACE, DOWN, AND RED ELEVEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 282012
 

(Artwork by Sandro of Undead Creep.)

Not long after I posted that new Gojira video earlier today, I found three more new videos that I thought were worth sharing with our readers. The bands are: Hooded Menace (Finland), Down (US-NOLA), and Red Eleven (Finland).

HOODED MENACE

I’ve been writing a lot about this Finnish group’s new album, Effigies Of Evil, which is out now on Relapse. Of course, the one thing I haven’t yet written is a review, though I haven’t given up hope that I’ll find time to explain in more detail why I think this album is so titanic.

The latest from Hooded Menace is a music video premiered today by Metal Injection for “Crumbling Insanity”. The video was directed by Justin Oakley for Burial Offerings (Ulver). It intersperses footage of the band performing with images of such things as crucifixion, impalement, murder, and the collapse of churches. The song well-represents the talent of Hooded Menace for blending necrotic melodies, hard-charging death metal riffs, and the suffocating weight of funereal doom into a potent brew. Here’s the video: Continue reading »

GOJIRA: “EXPLOSIA” LIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 282012
 

As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m in the middle of a work-related trip that isn’t leaving me much blog time, and things won’t get back to normal until I get back to Seattle on Sunday night.  I do plan to catch up on what I’ve missed, as best I can, between now and Monday.

Here’s one thing I missed: Yesterday, Metal Sucks exclusively premiered a video of Gojira performing “Explosia” live in New York City last month. By the time I realized the video was out, the band had posted it on YouTube, so you can check it out here after the jump.

The video syncs the album track of “Explosia” to the performance footage (and accelerates some of the frames in a way that was fun to see). I go back and forth, but today I think “Explosia” is my favorite track on L’Enfant Sauvage, so any excuse to hear it again is welcome. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: RED FANG, POSTHUM, DISSIPATE, REANIMA, AND NEUROGENIC

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 272012
 

This may be the last, in addition to being the first, post of this Thursday. Long airplane trip ahead, followed by driving, followed by work. If there’s wi-fi on the airplane or I get a break tonight, you may hear from me again. Otherwise, happy trails until tomorrow.

In this post, I’ve once again collected some recent discoveries, and because this may be today’s only post, I’ve really loaded it up with new metal. Musically, the shit is all over the map.

ITEM ONE: RED FANG

I do love me some Red Fang, even when the music isn’t accompanied by one of this Portland’s band’s hilarious videos. Yesterday they released a new single — “Crows In Swine” — which is available on iTunes. I thought maybe the song was about a ground-breaking new recipe, and I probably would eat crow if it was wrapped in bacon.

It turned out not to be a recipe, but another heavy-riffing, skull-banging, full-throated, doom-shrouded piece of stoner goodness. My only problem with the song is that it ends too soon. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DYING FETUS, GOD SEED, VILDHJARTA, PIG DESTROYER ON PIANO, AND A BAND OF ORCS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 262012
 

Yours truly is on the road again, and by “road” I mean in airports and on airplanes and therefore spending hours of tedium separated from the internet. As a result, the postings between now and Monday are going to be scattered and probably fewer than normal. I did have time last night and this morning to survey what’s been happening over the last 24 hours and found the following nuggets of interest.

ITEM ONE: DYING FETUS, ET AL – “THE BLOOD OF POWER TOUR”

I started posting about this tour when there was no official announcement and just a few dates had surfaced, because I was so fuckin’ excited about it. Yesterday it became official. I saw on Metal Sucks (which is co-sponsoring the tour) that Dying Fetus, Cattle Decapitation, and Cerebral Bore will indeed be touring the U.S. in November and December.

But this official announcement has revealed something I didn’t know: Malignancy will be taking the place of Cattle Decapitation during the last week of the tour. The two bands are very different, of course, but they’re both just excellent at what they do. If you want a taste of Malignancy’s forthcoming album (which is amazing), check out this post. Tour dates are right after the jump. Continue reading »

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME: THE “ASTRAL BODY” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Sep 262012
 

Unless you’ve been dwelling in a cave you probably know that Parallax II: Future Sequence is the name of the new album by Between the Buried and Me. Metal Blade will release it on October 9 (pre-order here). This morning, the band’s first music video from the album premiered at AltPress.

Provocative still frames from the video have been dribbling out over the last week, but to see the completed product is a real trip. The character in the video makes a real trip, too, in a sequence that links to the narrative concept of the album. The animation is very well done and a shitload of fun to watch, and it syncs perfectly with the music.

And the music? It’s an intricate offering of technical, progressive metal that is nevertheless extremely melodic and engrossing.

The video is worth seeing and hearing. For now, the AltPress video premiere is an exclusive one, so go HERE to see it and then let us know what you think in the Comments.

ANAAL NATHRAKH RELEASE THE FIRST SINGLE FROM “VANITAS”: “OF FIRE AND FUCKING PIGS”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  18 Responses »
Sep 252012
 

Candlelight Records will be releasing Anaal Nathrakh’s new album on October 15. Its name is Vanitas. Earlier in September, Candlelight released a teaser clip of samples from the album (which we featured here). A few hours ago a single from the album appeared on the UK version of iTunes. Its name is “Of Fire and Fucking Pigs”, which is an evocative song title if there ever was one.

There was no fanfare about the release of this single, as far as I can tell. No advance announcement. No press release. And no official song stream of the song. I found out about it through posts on the Facebook pages of Candlelight and the band. I presume there will be a press blast later this morning.

Unfortunately, for now the song can only be downloaded by denizens of the UK — and those denizens can go here to do that. However, the interhole being the interhole, someone has procured the track and uploaded it to YouTube. This may not last long, so you might want to catch it quick — after the jump. By the way, the song is stupendous.

UPDATE! AN also just announced a Canadian tour — details after the jump. Continue reading »

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