METAL AND ART (AND AUROCH)

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Aug 062012
 

Here are some thoughts, one of which is well-established and the rest of which are just assertions based mainly on my own observations:

–  Across all genres of music, CD sales have declined drastically over the last decade (well-proven)

–  Production and sale of vinyl records are on the rise, at least in the world of metal

–  Album art (as opposed, for example, to photos of the artists) is more prevalent in metal than in any other genre of music

–  Being able to get a big physical piece of artwork is part of the reason why vinyl metal is on the rise

–  At least among metalheads, album art is still important, and is a significant part of what attracts listeners to new music, even when listeners are only buying digital downloads instead of physical formats

–  A band doesn’t need the financial backing of a label to get a cool piece of artwork for their album covers; just as there are a lot of talented but broke bands hungry to get their music spread around (and not expecting a big payday from it), there are a lot of talented artists trying to do the same thing

I really do think it’s undeniable that album art is a vital part of metal culture. How much it has to do with a band’s success in selling/distributing their music I really don’t know — maybe I just hope it’s true, because I love metal album art and I want it to continue. But my guess is that bands who neglect the importance of album art are hampering their success in attracting listeners, building their own identity/”mystique”, and amassing a fan following. Continue reading »

CAN YOU WORK TO “THE FILTHY”?

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  57 Responses »
Aug 032012
 

So yesterday one of my good friends, who also happens to be a co-worker at my fucking day job, sent me a link to a story in the online edition of The Washington Post under the headline, “Is Listening To Music Making You Worse At Your Job?” It reported on the results of recent psychology research about whether people perform better or worse on the job while listening to music.

Researchers found that when people performed “cognitive tasks”, they did worse when listening on headphones to music they like. And then the article said this:

“Not ready to ditch your headphones quite yet? There is one fix: The researchers found that participants listening to music they decidedly did not enjoy – in this case, a song from “grind core metal band” Repulsion – actually did better than those tuning into music they liked. The researchers chalk that up to a lack of ‘acoustical variation’ in the music, which likely made it less distracting.”

My first thought was “Fuck yeah! Proof that listening to grind improves job performance!” And then I read that paragraph more slowly. Apparently, listening to grind only improves your performance if you don’t like grind.

So I decided to root around some more and I found a more detailed article about the study, which compared the performance effect of “Acid Bath” by Repulsion to a pop song by a band called Infernal. Here’s what it said: Continue reading »

CLOUDKICKER’S “FADE” IS NOW OUT, AND THERE’S A SONG ABOUT SEATTLE ON THERE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 022012
 

Well, hell, that didn’t take long. On July 31 I reported the news from Ben Sharp’s tumblr that a new Cloudkicker album would be released in August, and today it was released. It is August, after all, and who needs to mess with a big, protracted run-up to a release anyway, with teasers and studio reports and singles and hints all over the social media? I mean, other than every metal label and 99% of all metal bands.

Anyway, yes, the album is up on Bandcamp now where it can be downloaded for the unfuckwithable price of $WhateverFeelsRight.

It consists of seven tracks. I’m in such a rush to spread the word about the release than I only paused long enough to listen to one song, because the song is named “Seattle”. I don’t often see a song by a metal band I like that’s named for this beautiful, cool place where I live. Actually, I’ve never seen one.

“Seattle” is more than 10 minutes long. It makes me really curious to hear the rest of this album, because there’s a blackened/doom feel to this song, which I wasn’t expecting. It rolls through phases, the intensity building and subsiding, and I really liked the drum programming on this song, too. Continue reading »

RECENT HEARINGS AND SIGHTINGS: DEVOLVED, TROLL BENDS FIR, MECHINA, AND YOU-TAB

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Aug 022012
 

Here are some things I saw and heard this morning.

DEVOLVED

I heard a new song by Devolved. They’re a band I’ve been following for more than two years here at NCS. They have a new album (their fourth) entitled Reprisal that’s due for release by Unique Leader on November 20. Drummer and lyricist John Stankey is still at the helm, but the rest of the line-up is new. As we reported last December, he’s now joined by guitarist Mark Hawkins (who is also handling the bass parts) and vocalist Mark Haggblad.

We’re told that the album will include a guest vocal appearance by Tony Campos (Soulfly, Prong, Ministry, Asesino, ex-Static X) plus guest solos by Francesco Artusato (All Shall Perish), Nate
Vennarucc (Ontogeny, Anomalous), Malcolm Pugh (Diskreet, A Loathing Requiem), and Vishal Singh (Hawkins’ bandmate in Robots Pulling Levers).

We featured a demo version of a new track the last time we wrote about Devolved, but as of this morning we now have the first finished song from the album — “Supremacy Enforced”. Holy hell, is it a face-shredder! Continue reading »

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 »

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