SHUFFLE (NO. 2)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHUFFLE  6 Responses »
Aug 192012
 

For better or worse, because of this blog, I spend almost all my listening time on new music, either hunting for new tunes or videos that I think would be worth your time or in preparation for scribbling a review. But not long ago I did something I rarely do any more: put my iPod on shuffle and listened to whatever the machine served up from the 22,000+ songs that are on there. I didn’t listen for long — just long enough to walk to work at the beginning of the day and walk back at the end.

That turned out to be fun, as well as a nice surprise, because the first five songs that Shuffle served up happened to be good. So, I wrote a post about that experience. And I decided to do it again two days ago. And now I’m starting to get a little creeped out. I’m beginning to think my iPod could pass a Turing test for artificial intelligence.

This time it once again served up three good songs in a row (and I stopped at three this time because, as you’ll see, the songs turned out to be long). But the songs also fit together like hands in gloves. All three were longer than average (two of them very long), and each of them was a different type of progressive metal. So here we go — music from Ikuinen Kaamos (Finland), We Were Gentlemen (U.S.), and Odyssey (U.S.).

IKUINEN KAAMOS

I first came across this band at the end of 2010 when we were doing that impromptu Finland Tribute Week series (which turned into two weeks of nothing but Finnish metal). Andy Synn had recommended Ikuinen Kaamos to me (and he later named their Fall of Icons release to his list of 2010’s great albums). When I wrote the post that included Ikuinen Kaamos, I had only listened to one song from Fall of Icons — “Condemned” — but I subsequently listened to the rest of the album, too. Continue reading »

THE AXIS OF BLACK DEATH: WEAPON AND WITCHRIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  17 Responses »
Aug 192012
 

As a genre term, “blackened death metal” is imprecise, which of course doesn’t distinguish it from all other genre terms. For example, I’ve seen it used to describe the two subjects of this post, despite differences in their sound. I happen to be thinking about these two bands because of new things I’ve seen from both of them in the last 24 hours. I’ve also been thinking about the fact that Western Canada and New Zealand seem to be breeding grounds for many of the best “blackened death metal” bands on the planet — hence, my use of the word “axis” in the post title. More thoughts below . . .

WEAPON

As previously reported, this excellent band from Edmonton, Alberta, have a new album entitled Embers and Revelations due for release by Relapse Records on October 9 (pre-orders are already being fielded here). I first discovered them in December 2010 (and wrote about them here) through a tip from NCS patron SurgicalBrute. The band was started by frontman Vetis Monarch in Bangladesh before his eventual migration to Canada, and since then Weapon have become consistently stronger with each new release.

Obviously, the backing from Relapse is going to help spread this band’s name around at an accelerated pace, and I have a feeling that fans are going to eat up this new album like famished wolves at a fresh kill. What I’ve heard from it so far are a teaser clip that we featured in a post earlier this month and now the title track from the album that got its premiere at Pitchfork. Continue reading »

SÓLSTAFIR LIVE IN ROMANIA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 182012
 


 

Up there is quality fan-filmed video of Iceland’s Sólstafir performing “Fjara” live last night at a festival called Dark Bombastic Evening 4, in Alba Iulia, Romania.

With Motorga Catalin of Negură Bunget on panpipes.

Yeah, this is about the 1,000th time we’ve posted about this band and about the 900th time we’ve featured this song. But I’m never not in the mood for “Fjara”. That’s just the way it goes.

Enjoy the rest of your fucking day.  We’ll be back in the morning . . .

BLOODRED HOURGLASS

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  20 Responses »
Aug 182012
 

Finland continues to spawn excellent new metal. I know that’s not a revelation, but it’s in the front of my mind because I’ve been listening to my own latest Finnish discovery — a band from Mikkeli named Bloodred Hourglass. After a few demos, they recorded their debut album Lifebound last year and then succeeded in forming a relationship with the Finnish label Spinefarm, which is set to release the album on August 24.

I first got curious about Bloodred Hourglass after seeing a review of Lifebound by Madame X at the Angry Metal Guy blog (is she still a “probationary scribe”?). And then yesterday I noticed that the entire album was streaming at Finland’s Inferno magazine website, and I let it run roughshod through my head over the ether.

The music represents a confluence of styles. Thrash is the dominant ingredient, but it would be misleading to brand this a thrash album, because (as Madame X noted) it’s almost equally freighted with groove metal in the vein of Lamb of God, and there are hardcore and melodic death metal elements in the mix, too.

And then in addition to all that, the album includes unexpected instrumentals that don’t fit with any of those other genre references — sometimes as standalone songs (“We Lived Like Kings” and “Ghost Wounds”) and sometimes cropping up in the middle of something else (as in “Arcadia”). The instrumental music is so divergent from the band’s dominant motif that I can’t begin to explain it. But if I tried, I’d say it’s like being teleported to an alien mother ship for unnatural impregnation right in the middle of Breaking Bad.

I don’t know about you, but I happen to like surprises when going through an album, and taking a sharp left turn into a parallel dimension can fire different neurons and produce a greater “fuck yeah” sensation about the album as a whole. Which it does here.

Continue reading »

THINGS SEEN AND HEARD TODAY: COBOLT 60, DYSRHYTHMIA, AND INDESINENCE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Aug 172012
 

This is the second part of a round-up of noteworthy news and music I picked up while browsing the web today. The first part is here.

COBOLT 60

I was introduced to Norway’s Cobolt 60 by my NCS co-writer Andy Synn via a post he wrote in February about the band’s debut album Meat Hook Ballet — an album that came out 10 years ago and was then followed by . . . 10 years of inactivity. Cobolt 60 began as a team-up between Daniel Olaisen, a/k/a Død of Blood Red Throne, and BRT’s original vocalist Flemming Arnesen-Gluch, a/k/a Mr Hustler (who handled both drums and vocals on Meat Hook Ballet).

What led Andy to write about the band’s debut album was the whispering of rumors that Cobolt 60 were working on new music. Now we know the rumors were true. On September 14, a new album entitled The Grim Defiance will be released by Demonhood Productions/Neseblod Records, and pre-orders can be placed at this location.

But that’s not all. As of today, two tracks from the album became available for streaming — “Hammer the Creationist” and “Sort”. I have a feeling that Andy will be reviewing the album when the time is right, so I’ll just say that if you want to burn yourself with a dose of superb black thrash hellfire, you should listen to these two songs . . . and you can do that right now: Continue reading »

NEW NASTINESS FROM ALL OVER: VENOMOUS MAXIMUS, TURBOCHARGED, AND DEIPHAGO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 162012
 

Oh baby, have we got some hot tracks for you today. I’ve donned the biohazard suit and gathered up three new tunes that bring the nasty and bring it hard. I’m not sure how or when the lexicon of metal got to the point where “filthy” became a word of praise, but this shit is filthy. Very different styles of music, but all three songs will get their hooks in you. The music is from Venomous Maximus (U.S.), Turbocharged (Sweden), and Deiphago (Costa Rica).

VENOMOUS MAXIMUS

This first item is just good timing. Less than a month ago I discovered this Houston band via their new music video for “The Mission” (featured here), and they surprised the hell out of me — surprising in the sense that their style of music isn’t one I’m usually into, but I fuckin’ loved that song, as well as the rest of the 2011 EP from whence it came.

Now I come to find out that Venomous Maximus have a new album projected for release this fall by the name of Beg Upon the Light, and yesterday they started streaming one of the new songs — “Moonchild”. And I mean to tell you, the central riff in this song (which slams right out of the gate) is an absolute headbanging killer. Seriously, you’d need a neck brace to keep your skull from bouncing like a basketball. A definite candidate for our 2012 “most infectious song” list. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD TODAY: WINTERFYLLETH, GOAT THE HEAD, ONE INCH GIANT, AND MASS HYPNOSIS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 152012
 

Here we have yet another random assortment of things I saw and heard today that I thought merited some attention. And the bands are: Winterfylleth (UK), Goat the Head (Norway), One Inch Giant (Sweden), and Mass Hypnosis (Croatia).
 

WINTERFYLLETH

I saw that another new song from Winterfylleth’s next album, The Threnody of Triumph, has started streaming. As previously reported here, the album is due for release on September 25 via Candlelight. The new song is “The Svart Raven”, and it’s streaming at Stereogum. I won’t blather on about the song; I’m saving my blathering for a review. For now, I’ll say only that the song is excellent and that you should hear it without fail if you have any interest in black metal. Go here to do that.

GOAT THE HEAD

I saw the image at the top of this post appear on the Facebook page of our favorite contemporary primal cavemen death metallists, Goat the Head. This looks suspiciously like cover art for some new collection of contemporary primal caveman death metal. My suspicions were further aroused by this accompanying statement by the Goats: “Exposing evident symptoms of imminent deathrash”.

I must say that I find this highly encouraging. It has been FAR too long since we’ve received new original material from this band, who we have written about a multitude of times in the past (collected here). They are, after all, the band who introduced us to the dreaded Cube, the mere mention of which gives me the nervous shakes. Although the Goatsters haven’t released new material in a while, earlier this summer they did record a cover of “Burner” by Motörhead, which I somehow overlooked. It rocks. It’s right after the jump. Continue reading »

NEW VIDEOS FROM WILDERNESSKING, PRAY FOR LOCUST, AND MOTH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 152012
 

We were a bit light on content yesterday, but we’ll be making up for that today — and this post wasn’t even part of the planned line-up. In one of those happy confluences of events, the morning brought three new videos that I’m really digging. Two of them are from young bands who’ve already become favorites, and the third is a bright new discovery: Wildernessking (South Africa), Pray For Locust (Sweden), and Moth (U.S.).

WILDERNESSKING

I suppose there might be a few things I haven’t yet done to promote this band’s music. I haven’t tried sky-writing or a flashing billboard in Times Square. I suppose I could put their faces on milk cartons, except they’re far from lost. To the contrary, in a relatively short time they’ve turned out some amazingly mature, completely enthralling music. First came their 2012 debut album, The Writing of Gods In the Sand (featuring the killer album art you see above by Reuben Sawyer). To steal words from my review, it lashed together styles from a variety of genres (including black metal, post-metal, and Enslaved-style prog) to create “a uniquely effective expression of power and emotion, a blending of light and dark, soft and hard, beauty and voraciousness.”

Then came a follow-on EP, …And the Night Swept Us Away (reviewed here), which I perceived as one long, panoramic song divided into three parts, not because it was written that way but because it worked that way as a musical journey.

Today the band provided me with yet another excuse to pimp them by releasing an official music video for “Rubicon”, one of the tracks from the album, which marks a turning point in the conceptual journey that the album portrays. It’s a live performance (interspersed with related clips) filmed at their record release show at the Kimberly Hotel on April 20. Have a look and a listen right after the jump . . . after which I’ve got some more news about the band’s activities. Continue reading »

A SCATTERING OF SCARS: THE GARDNERZ, POSH CUNT, AND REX SHACHATH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 142012
 

I’m sitting here fresh from a restful 5 hours of sleep, with my eyes feeling like spider monkeys sandpapered them while I was asleep, but rapidly feeling more alive as I slurp on my second cup of Deathwish coffee (read about that shit in this post). In an effort to shock myself awake even more quickly, I’ve been listening to the three songs in this post. They kind of make me feel like alien larvae are burrowing under my skin, some slow and some fast, but all of them inexorably headed toward my gut where they will seek nourishment before exiting explosively through my intestinal wall.

Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have poured that second cup of Deathwish. Anyway, check out the scarring music while I get something sharp and start opening myself up to look for those fuckin’ squirmy larvae. The bands: The Gardnerz (Sweden), Posh Cunt (US/UK), and Rex Shachath (Ireland).

THE GARDNERZ

The sharp-eyed among you will recognize that cover art at the top of the post, because I included it in a previous feature about album art about six weeks ago. The artist is Daniel “Devilish” Johnson and he created this awesome image for a new EP by a Swedish band named The Gardnerz. The six-song EP, entitled It All Fades, will be released by Abyss Records this fall.

Today, the Axis of Metal blog began streaming a song from the album by the name of “Don’t Look Back”, and that’s kind of how I felt listening to it — something was on my heels, but it was a fuckload smarter to keep running than to risk a glance over the shoulder. Continue reading »

AGALLOCH: “THE MANTLE” – TEN YEARS ON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Aug 142012
 

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the release by Agalloch of their second full-length, The Mantle. Also yesterday, our brother in blog, Full Metal Attorney, devoted another one of his album-anniversary retrospectives to The Mantle, and as I’ve done before, I’m using his piece as what I hope will be a jumping-off point for discussion here at NCS.

This particular anniversary recognition means more to me than others we’ve featured here. The Mantle was my introduction to Agalloch, who have become one of my favorite bands, and the album itself was a revelation to me. FMA contends that it represented “two radical changes in metal”, which slowly gained in prominence after the album’s release. First, he states that it represented a form of “[m]etal that’s barely even metal” – “neo-folk music with some black metal elements, rather than the other way around.”

Second, he argues that it represented a shift “away from individual songs and toward complete albums”, a kind of cinematic music in which mood is paramount: “The songwriting is brilliant not because of monster riffs, but because it creates atmosphere and holds it together with memorable melodies and musical themes. In that sense, it resembles classical music more than any kind of rock music.”

While acknowledging that other bands such as Ulver had previously been creating music with a “neo-folk-infused musical style and cinematic/classical songwriting”, FMA asserts that “no one plying this trade had made such a strong statement as The Mantle” and that “[p]agan metal and post-black metal would be unrecognizable (or non-existent) today were it not for this record.” And to push the point even further, he states, “By extension, the nation of Ireland would have zero presence on the international metal stage.” Continue reading »

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