EVOCATION: “ILLUSIONS OF GRANDEUR” ON THE WAY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 102012
 

I really can’t get enough of Sweden’s Evocation. They combine old-school death metal with some newer-school learning in a way that just really hits my sweet spot. Their music is raw, it’s heavy, it’s galvanizing, it’s groove-filled, and it’s memorable. Their last album of new material, Apocalyptic, was released in 2010, and after that Century Media signed ’em up. Century then compiled a collection of demo, unreleased, and rehearsal material from the band — whose roots go back to the early 90’s — and unleashed it in June as Evoked From Demonic Depths – The Early Years.

Today, we got the news that Century will release Evocation’s fourth studio album, Illusions Of Grandeur, on September 24 in Europe and October 23 in the US. It will include guest vocals by Amon Amarth’s Johan Hegg on a song called “Into Submission”, as well as three studio bonus tracks on a limited-edition digipak. And it features the eye-catching artwork of Michal “Xaay” Loranc — about whom more in a minute.

I wish I had a new song from the new album to play for you (and for myself), but we’ll have to wait a bit longer for that. But I do have a handful of videos as well as a track from the Evoked From Demonic Depths compilation as a reminder of why the new album should be eagerly anticipated. All of that is after the jump (we’ve streamed some of this stuff at various places and times in the past, but some of you might be new to this band).

Xaay is a Polish artist whose work we’ve featured before at NCS. He’s been a professional designer and digital artist since 1999 and has created album covers and/or merch designs for the likes of Nile, Behemoth, Kamelot, Vader, Necrophagist, and Decapitated. He also created the cover art for both Evocation’s Apocalyptic and for the 2012 compilation. Check those out here: Continue reading »

QUICK AND DIRTY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Aug 092012
 

Due to a combination of morning-long work commitments and another 5-hour flight home without wi-fi, this will likely be the last NCS post of the day.  Things should be more (ab)normal tomorrow.

In this post, I’ve quickly collected a variety of items that caught my eyes (and ears) last night.

CATTLE DECAPITATION

Cattle Decap posted this status on their FB page last night: “We sodomized the city of Budapest, Hungary tonight. On Thursday we spill our seed upon the citizens of Czech Republic at Brutal Assault. Bye, bye fuckers”  At times like these, it’s fun to imagine the reaction of people outside metal if they knew how our bands showered gratitude on their fans. We, of course, only laugh.

CONQUERORS OF THE WORLD

I included news of this tour in a post on July 10 when only 13 dates had been announced. Now, a more complete schedule is available. I’m so fucking pleased to see a Seattle stop on the list. Septic Flesh . . . Krisiun . . . Melechesh . . . Ex Deo . . . Inquisition . . . wow . . . Continue reading »

NO, WE DIDN’T OVERLOOK THAT SECOND NEW SYLOSIS SONG: “A DYING VINE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

We watched the social media pages for Sylosis like hawks over the last couple of weeks, waiting for the new songs that the band had promised, and pounced immediately once the first one (“Born Anew”) debuted early yesterday (see this).

And then I got on an airplane yesterday morning to fly across the country, with no wi-fi onboard, cut off from the bubbling world of metal for 5+ hours, feeling like an abandoned brat with no blankie and nothing on which to nurse. By the time I got where I was going and plugged back in to the ether of metal, I had an in-box for of mail with links to the second Sylosis track — “A Dying Vine” — which had emerged while I was confined at 35,000 feet.

I hate being late with news, and thought about just moving on because so many other metal sites had been spreading the news already. BUT, the damned song is so sweet that, tardy or not, I have to post about it.

The song is streaming now on the band’s recently activated web site, Sylosis.com, where pre-orders from the new album (Monolith) are also being fielded, but of course it’s up on YouTube now as well, which means we have it here, too. Continue reading »

NEW ENSLAVED SONG! “THOUGHTS LIKE HAMMERS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

Well, I’m rushing again, with my day job pounding at the door, so to speak, so I will hold my own words to a handful: NPR has debuted a long new song by Enslaved — “Thoughts Like Hammers” — from their forthcoming album, RIITIIR. Here’s an excerpt from Lars Gotrich’s excellent NPR write-up about the band, the album, and this new music:

The intro to “Thoughts Like Hammers” comes out of nowhere — three seconds in and we’re bludgeoned by decibel-damaging feedback, chaotic chord voicings and stuttering blast beats. But then the song goes through several transformations: A mean groove turns into a pumping Angus Young riff, which then sneaks into a syncopated, King Crimson-y organ. That all happens in the first two minutes. There’s no telling where Bjørnson will take “Thoughts Like Hammers” next, but the patchwork pieces all come together at the soaring chorus, as vocalist and keyboardist Herbrand Larsen helps rein in Enslaved’s experiments. Surprisingly, the nine-and-a-half-minute “Thoughts Like Hammers” is instantly memorable for all its organic twists and turns.

And THIS is the link to the NPR page where the song is streaming. Seriously, go listen, and then think about coming back here to share your reactions in the Comments.

UPDATE: This song is now streaming on Soundcloud, which means we have it here now, after the jump: Continue reading »

JOB FOR A COWBOY’S NEW VIDEO FOR “TARNISHED GLUTTONY” MAY NOT HAVE BOOBS, BUT IT’S STILL BRILLIANT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  29 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

Job For A Cowboy’s 2012 album Demonocracy got high marks from our Andy Synn, who called it this band’s best album yet: “Preconceptions be damned, this is a fine slab of dark, meaty death metal.”

The album’s closing track, “Tarnished Gluttony”, is a dynamic turn from much of the rest of the album — a long, slow, crushing piece that exudes a sensation of apocalyptic doom. Today, Blood Disgusting premiered a nearly nine-and-a-half minute official video for that song (the music in the video adds a dirge-like instrumental segment to the album’s song, as accompaniment for part of the story until the music on the album track resumes again).

The video puts an imaginative Lovecraftian spin on the song that isn’t present in the lyrics, yet there is still a thematic linkage, as the band’s frontman Jonny Davey explained in a statement that we’ll quote after the jump. Much of the video moves in slow motion, matching the slow pacing of the song, and the integration of the visual story and the terrifying music is beautifully done.

Actually, the whole thing is just brilliant, though there’s a graphically gory sequence that may affect where you choose to watch this. Credit goes to director  Michael Panduro (the man who direct Cephalic Carnage‘s “Ohrwurm” video) and actor Morten Klode. Panduro is quoted as saying: “As a commercial director, I’m a complete failure. The band asked for just one thing and I couldn’t deliver. Indeed, this video has no boobs.” No, it doesn’t, but it’s a riveting thing to watch nonetheless. Continue reading »

FLAYED DISCIPLE: “THE WESTBORO MASSACRE” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

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Somewhere, against all odds and all reason, there are pathetic, deluded motherfuckers who believe that the Westboro Baptist Church are doing God’s work, when in truth they are simply whores for publicity who have no reluctance to damage the feelings of innocent people in order to get it. For them, no outrage is too outrageous, and the Bible by which they claim to swear clearly means nothing, because if it did, they would be too fearful of the final judgment to do what they have done.

I have yet to see any metalhead who has condoned or supported the mental and emotional cruelty these animals have attempted to inflict in a very calculated way on people who are already suffering from the random losses and pain and prejudice that the dice-roll of human life has a way of inflicting.  It makes me proud to be a part of a community that has condemned their bullshit so consistently and so vehemently.

But now we have an anthem, a way to exorcise the anger, a form of catharsis that sure made me feel good, and I suspect will make others feel good, too. We have the new official video for “The Westboro Massacre” by Flayed Disciple.

Could this song and this video also be taken to task for fighting fire with fire, for reacting to hatred with anger and the suggestion of violence? Absolutely, yes, it could. But I think it’s a lot better to work out through music the anger that people like the Westboro Baptist scum ignite than through actual violence or confrontation.

Or maybe I should just speak for myself: I got something nasty out of my system by watching this video and listening to this music, and I feel better for it. Also, the song is just really fuckin’ good metal. Continue reading »

WINTERFYLLETH: “VOID OF LIGHT”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Aug 072012
 

At the end of July I posted about the plans of Candlelight Records to release a new album by the UK’s Winterfylleth in September. The album’s title is The Threnody of Triumph. When I last wrote about this news, Zero Tolerance magazine reported that it would be including a feature on the band AND a track from the new album — “Void of Light” — on a bonus CD with the magazine. I expressed the hope that the song would surface on the web soon. And so it has.

This morning, Candlelight started streaming the song on Soundcloud. With blasting drums and vibrating guitars forward in the mix, the music rushes like a riptide. The dense wall of  tremolo guitar carries a majestic melody of the kind for which Winterfylleth have become known, while the anguished vocals flay the senses with razor-edged shrieking. The song is primal in its power, and though the core melody is a simple one, it’s the kind that will stick in your head.

“Void of Light” makes me even more eager to hear the new album, and I was damned eager to begin with. Find Winterfyleth on Facebook here and listen to the song after the jump. Continue reading »

SYLOSIS FINALLY PREMIERE A NEW SONG, FINALLY: “BORN ANEW”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Aug 072012
 

Inspired by the Art Nouveau movement, this is the CD jewelcase artwork for Monolith, the new album by the UK’s Sylosis. The artist is Dan Goldsworthy, who also created the cover art for the band’s last album, Edge of the Earth. According to the band, some of the inspiration came from Greek mythology, and that figure on the left loosely represents the devil in disguise or a satyr and may have something to do with the album’s concept.

Also, Dan Goldsworthy created a second piece of artwork for Monolith, which it appears Nuclear Blast is using as an “O-card cover”, whatever that is. You can see that after the jump, too.

Monolith will be released by Nuclear Blast on October 5 in Europe and October 9 elsewhere. Sylosis has been promising to premiere a new song for weeks, setting specific dates and then no-showing. Most recently, the promise was that a new track — “A Dying Vine” — would premiere yesterday on the band’s new web site. Nope.  More undisclosed “technical issues” reared their venomous heads. I was beginning to think that this was a new Machiavellian strategy designed to pump up fan frenzy.

However, though not quite johnny-on-the-spot with the premiere, Sylosis have today finally unveiled a new track called “Born Anew”. This song isn’t the one that was scheduled to appear on their web site. It’s one that was broadcast last night on a BBC radio program, which means that it’s now up on YouTube, which means the radio rip is embedded here after the jump. The band are also now streaming “Born Anew” on their Facebook band page HERE.

In addition, Sylosis has stated that they will soon be providing more news about the still-not-yet-functional web site, which presumably will include news about when “A Dying Vine” will be unveiled. To stay on top of that, visit their Facebook page.

And unless you get the wrong idea and think this post is nothing more than a whine session about Sylosis’ delays, allow me to say that “Born Anew” fucking rips.
Continue reading »

THINGS I HEARD TODAY (AND YESTERDAY, AND THE DAY BEFORE): NORSKA, OBSCENITY, AND MENDEL

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 062012
 

I didn’t hear all the songs in this post today, because my nuts are clamped in a day-job vise and I’m spending more time squirming with the agony than I am listening to new music. Actually, that’s been true since Friday. But even though my listening time has been viciously pinched, I have heard some tunes over the last three days that I wanted to pass along — from Norska (U.S.), Obscenity (Germany), and Mendel (The Netherlands).

NORSKA

About two weeks ago I came across the name of this band for the first time (and mentioned them in this post) because they were listed as participating in a new tour headlined by YOB and also featuring Cormorant. What I knew about them then (which was not much) I put in that earlier post: “Norska features YOB bass player Aaron Rieseberg and his brother Dustin and is described as a ‘progressive tech-sludge rock band.’”

Well, guess what? Today, MetalSucks premiered a song from Norska’s self-titled debut album, which is due for release on September 18 by Brutal Panda. The song is called “Nobody One Knows”, and man, I’m diggin’ it. Listening is like being beaten . . . slowly . . . with sledgehammers . . . wielded by a crew that’s staggering relentlessly toward the brink of insanity. Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH AND DARK FUNERAL: LIVE AT WACKEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 062012
 

Over the weekend just ended, the Wacken Open Air festival laid waste to a horde of lucky fans in Wacken, Germany. And now, pro-shot video of many of the performances has surfaced on YouTube.

After the jump, we’ve embedded film of Amon Amarth’s entire set, plus clips of the performances by Dark Funeral and Overkill.

I don’t think I really need to say anything more. Continue reading »

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