NEW MUSIC FROM KRALLICE AND ARCHSPIRE AND A STUNNING NEW VIDEO FROM ALARIC

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 012012
 

Here’s the second part of the two-part feature we began here, spotlighting a slew of new videos and new songs from some of our favorite metal bands that surfaced over the last 24 hours.

In this Part 2: release information and a brand new song from Krallice (U.S.), a new video from Alaric (U.S.), and a new song/video from Archspire (Canada).

KRALLICE

Well, this is the third of our posts about Krallice’s forthcoming album since July 15, which is an indication of our enthusiasm for what’s coming.  And what’s coming is Years Past Matter, a collection of five songs totaling about one hour of music. The album, which is being self-released by the band in a limited edition, will begin shipping on August 25 and is now available for pre-order here. We’re told that a double LP version of the album will be released by Gilead Media soon after.

There will be a record release show on August 25 at St Vitus in Greenpoint Brooklyn, NYC, where Krallice will be performing with Ancient Wound and Sea of Bones.

And today, we are beyond stoked to stream for you one of the new songs from Years Past Matter. The title is “IIIIIIII”. It’s a whirlwind of slashing/ringing guitars, bounding basslines, and percussive pandemonium that rumbles and thunders. It’s a lightening strike, sizzling with electricity. It’s also a black dream of rushing clouds, the kind of music that’s hypnotic as well as violent. Dense, dynamic, atmospheric, compelling — this is a long song that well-justifies its length. So much happens that the song rewards repeat listening – indeed, demands it. Here it is: Continue reading »

NEW VIDEOS FROM THREE NCS FAVORITES: BLOODSHOT DAWN, A HILL TO DIE UPON, AND DEMONIC RESURRECTION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 012012
 

Between last night and this morning, I’ve come across so much new shit worth spreading around that I’m dividing up the collection into two pieces, this being the first one.

In this post are a new video from Bloodshot Dawn (UK), a new video from A Hill To Die Upon (U.S.), and another new video from Demonic Resurrection (India).

BLOODSHOT DAWN

I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve written about this UK band and their self-titled 2012 album, which remains one of my favorite releases of the year (as explained in my January review). In April, we featured an official video for a track from the album called “Visions”, and this morning they released another official video. This time, the song is “Godless”, which is still available for free download at the Bloodshot Dawn Bandcamp page, where you can acquire the whole album, too.

Man, I do dig this song. It kicks you in the head like a pissed-off hyperkinetic mule. Killer riffs, killer drumming, and eye-popping guitar soloing leave no part of your face un-melted. And once again, we have a video — directed, filmed, and edited by Jordan Saunders of Dead Parrot Productions — that visually captures the head-whipping fury of the music. Check it out: Continue reading »

NEW VIDEO FOR STAM1NA’S “RABIES” REVEALS THE STUNNING TRUTH: THE FINNS HAVE BEEN SINGING IN ENGLISH THE WHOLE TIME!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Aug 012012
 

Finland’s Stam1na make excellent metal. They also make excellent videos. To be more precise, they make excellent humorous videos (check out the one in this post, for example). But Joe Barresi has out-funnied Stam1na. He has also revealed a stunning truth.

See, I thought Stam1na sung their lyrics in Finnish — Finnish, the language that utterly defeats Google Translate’s efforts to provide a rendering in English and gave birth to the NCS motto, “Fucking Good Pancake”. But it turns out that Stam1na have been singing in English all along! It just sounds like Finnish because the words make no sense and Antti Hyyrynen sings them really fast.

But Joe Barresi has now made everything clear in his video for a Stam1na song called “Rabies”, which appears on the band’s Nocebo album. By providing subtitles that lay out the lyrics, along with helpful illustrations, he has blown the cover off the Finnish language — there really is no Finnish language. It’s been English all along!

Watch the video after the jump (and please give a round of applause to Finnish NCS reader jeimssi for the tip on this one).  Fuuuuuuuunnnnnnny! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON THIS LAST DAY OF JULY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 312012
 

Here are things I saw and heard today.

OUR WEATHER

I saw a temperature gauge at high noon here in The Emerald City: 63°F. And the sun is shining. All of you poor fuckers who are broiling like burgers on a charcoal grill everywhere east of the Pacific Coast can hate me now, and along about January you can remind me that I made this obnoxious crack at your expense.

BUNCH

I saw that awesomely phantasmagoric piece of artwork up above. It’s by Ken Sarafin of Sarafin Concepts. It’s for a death metal project called Bunch, of which Sarafin seems to be a member — one of many. Here’s this description from the Bunch FB page: “Bunch is a band formed from 28 different members, each playing one note a song. Occasionally during recording, a member might repeat a note several times. If that happens, a break with cookies is required afterwards. Bunch likes cookies.”

There are a bunch of Bunch demo tracks at this location. I picked one to stream after the jump. Continue reading »

SOLO INSTRUMETAL: CLOUDKICKER, ALEXANDER BATEMAN, YOU BIG OX, AND MAT PASCAL (GOROD)

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 312012
 

In case people have forgotten, instrumental metal works just fine at this site, because . . . if there is no singing in the metal, then there can be no clean singing in the metal. Get it?

Over the last few days, I’ve accumulated enough new discoveries to justify this post. The first one is just a news item (no music, unfortunately), but for the rest I have listenings — quite varied listenings, and quite good, and all by solo artists. The subjects are Cloudkicker (U.S.), Alexander Bateman (U.S.), You Big Ox (U.S.), and Gorod guitarist Mathieu Pascal (France).

CLOUDKICKER

Cloudkicker is Ohio denizen Ben Sharp. Cloudkicker was the first of the so-called “bedroom guitarist” projects to hit my radar screen, and I fell hard for the music. I was late to the party, of course. I found out about Cloudkicker in 2010 after one of this site’s original co-founders turned me on to Sharp’s 2008 debut album, The Discovery. His 2010 album, Beacons, made many of our 2010 lists of the year’s best albums, and I even picked one of the songs from the album for our list of 2010’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

I subsequently discovered many other then-solo guitar instrumentalists, including Tosin Abasi, Dan Dankmeyer, Keith Merrow, Tre Watson, and Chimp Spanner, but the memory of that first Cloudkicker discovery has stayed with me. So I was excited to see the report on Ben Sharp’s tumblr that he plans to release a new Cloudkicker album called Fade in August. It will go up on the Cloudkicker Bandcamp page, and we’ll report when that happens, as soon as we find out. Continue reading »

SHOULD I GET ON BETTER MEDS, OR SHOULD I JUST SURRENDER TO CASTLE?

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Jul 312012
 

To be brutally honest, which of course is the only kind of honest we know how to be at this site, I will confess something at which I’ve only hinted (ever so subtly) in the past: I really have a low tolerance for clean singing in metal.

It seems that most of our other writers are more receptive to clean vocals than I am, but even for them it seems to be more the exception than the rule. Every now and then, something clean will penetrate my own defenses and tickle me in the nether regions, but I bathe more often than that happens, and I don’t bathe except when it gets to the point that plants die as I walk past them.

On the other hand, I just fuckin’ love big meaty riffs that maketh my head to bang, and flesh-scalding solos, and music that sounds evil. So what am I to do about Castle?

They’re from San Francisco and they’re the latest signing by Prosthetic Records, which got me curious enough to watch the video released yesterday for a Castle song called “Corpse Candles”. The track is from their second album (and their Prosthetic debut), Blacklands, which will appear on September 11. Continue reading »

MID-DAY NEWS AND MUSIC ROUND-UP: WINTERFYLLETH, ILSA, DESALMADO, AND TESTAMENT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 302012
 

Here are a few items of interest I came across this morning that I thought were worth spreading around.

ITEM ONE: WINTERFYLLETH

Winterfylleth are a UK black-metal band whose name should be familiar to long-time NCS readers, since I’m high as a kite about this band, having fallen head-over-heels for their second album, The Mercian Sphere (2010). In May, I reported that Candlelight Records was re-issuing the band’s debut full-length, The Ghost of Heritage, after a remastering by Colin Marston. What I didn’t realize then but have discovered this morning is how close the band were to completing their third album.

Now I know that Candlelight is prepared to release a new Winterfylleth album — The Threnody of Triumph — in September. I also saw that the September issue of Zero Tolerance magazine will include a feature on the band AND a track from the new album — “Void of Light” — on a bonus CD. I’m hoping that song will surface on the web soon. I’m eager to hear the new album. You should be, too. Find Winterfyleth on Facebook here.

ITEM TWO: ILSA

I saw today the album art for the forthcoming album by D.C.-based crust/doom occultists Ilsa. It’s a real eye-catcher: Continue reading »

A SCRAMBLED SUNDAY: CARTHAGE, MUNRUTHEL, AND TROLLFEST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jul 292012
 

I have friends (and a wife) who do not understand my near-obsessive fascination with metal. I can’t explain it to them, but not because I have no explanation. It’s because the words would make no sense to someone who hasn’t personally exposed themselves to the magnificent diversity of the music. And even then, of course, the explanation would fail unless the listener really appreciated what they’re hearing.

And diversity is a real key to why I can barely leave the music alone long enough to keep a job and avoid losing all the friends I’ve got. There’s just never a dull moment. Something new is always right around the corner, and for someone like me who’s really not wedded exclusively to any micro-genre, it’s impossible to get stuck in a rut because there’s so much variety. The offerings in this post are an example of what I’m trying to say.

It’s a scrambled assortment of songs from forthcoming albums, but just a very small taste of how dynamically different metal is. The bands are Carthage (U.S.), Munruthel (Ukraine), and Trollfest (Norway).

CARTHAGE

For friends of NCS, Carthage won’t be a new name. We reviewed their first EP last October (here), and then in February we featured the initial song to emerge from their debut album (here). The album still seems to be a work in progress, but at least we now have a second track to consume — “Years and Darkness”. I’ve been listening to the song off and on since it premiered earlier this month, meaning to write about it, and finally decided I ought to get off my lazy ass and get that done. Continue reading »

“UNLIKE US”: HACKTIVIST PREMIERES A NEW SONG (yeah haters, we doin’ some H again)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  32 Responses »
Jul 282012
 

TheMadIsraeli took the heat for introducing us to the UK’s Hacktivist back in January (this post). Took the heat . . . because rap and djent. That’s mainly what the Hacktivist guys are doing, and that’s not exactly what the NCS community is all about.

But the 83 comments on that earlier post weren’t all heat, and I for one kinda liked what I heard on that previous video, “Cold Shoulder”. Liked it enough that I kept my eyes open for something new, and knew that something new was coming, and within the last hour it arrived: the band’s new video for a new song called “Unlike Us”.

I like this new song even more than the first one. I like the pneumatic punch, the fleeting electronics, the ratcheting melody, the machine-gun-fire rhythmics, and the booming tone on those low strings. I liked the vocals, too, though usually I have a low tolerance for rap.

I headbanged, too.

Okay, you know what the Comment section is for. I got my flame-retardant underwear on. Video follows the jump, and you can follow Hacktivist on Facebook here. Continue reading »

INFERNAL NEW MUSICS: PROFANAL AND SERPENTINE PATH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Jul 282012
 

Just sitting around on this Saturday morning, no real desire to get off my ass and go outside because it’s another dank Pacific Northwest summer day (the rental rates for sunshine have apparently gone way up), and so I’m just poking around the interhole, waiting for something to gnaw off one of my fingers, because if you’re not risking your fingers in your personal hobbies then you ain’t playing with the right kind of people or equipment.

Success!!! I lost the first knuckle to Profanal and the second one to Serpentine Path. Fortunately, my middle finger is still intact, cuz I need that one for communication purposes, and I’ve still got the index finger on my left hand for vigorous nose-picking, plus I’ve got the blood flow pretty well stanched now, so my keyboard is only slightly sticky, which is just the way I like it.

PROFANAL

I found this band through a Facebook link by the awesome Blasphemophagher. Like Blasphemophagher, Profanal are from Italy. Since 2007, they’ve released a couple of demos and a couple of splits (with Funeral Whore and Obscure Infinity), but they’re apparently working on a debut album. Last week, they premiered a new track from the album called “Black Chaos Horde”, and it vaulted this new album right onto my gotta-listen list.

Yes, I’ve heard music like this many times before — the music of Nihilist, Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Asphyx, Autopsy, and, well, you get the idea. But when it’s done well, that music never gets old for me — and Profanal do it really fuckin’ well. Continue reading »

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