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 »

MY OLYMPICS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 272012
 

I watched some of the opening ceremonies from London. Some of it was cool, like the cascade of lights falling from those big gold rings in the sky. But I gave up not long after Mr. Bean accompanied the orchestra on the theme song from Chariots of Fire.

I decided if I was going to watch spectacle, with big throngs of people, lots of lights, and explosions of sound, I should at least watch something with good fuckin’ music going on. So I watched these instead:
 


Continue reading »

MORS PRINCIPIUM EST: AN UPDATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 272012
 

Among all the many genres of metal, melodic death metal was my personal pathway into the realms of extreme music. Although I eventually branched off in more dissonant and atonal directions, I still get off on that first love.

Mors Principium Est is one of the melodic death metal bands whose albums I go back to for a periodic fix. When I found out that guitarist and primary songwriter Jori Haukio had split from the band soon after release of their last album (2007’s Liberation = Termination), I worried about their future. Second guitarist Jarkko Kokko also left, and my worries were exacerbated when time passed and it seemed like MPE was having no luck in finding a new guitar tandem that would be the right fit for the band.

Well, it seems like the problem has finally been solved. Venturing outside their native Finland, MPE have found two new guitarists in British musician Andy Gillion and New Zealand-based guitarist Andhe Chandler. The new line-up is now finally recording a new album, and they’ve signed contracts with AFM Records for release of the album in Europe and the U.S., with Truth Inc Records for release in Australia, and with Marquee Records/Avalon for Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. WIth luck, we’ll see MPE’s first album in five years by the end of 2012.

Usually, I avoid posting news piece unless I have something tangible to go along with them, such as new album art or new music. Here, I don’t have either. All I have is a new promo photo, in which drummer Mikko Sipola seems to be using the great outdoors as it was intended, i.e., as a giant urinal. So, although we have no new song to stream, I guess we do have a stream.

Hell, we must have musics! So, after the jump, I’ve added a couple of MPE tracks from Liberation = Termination. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: DUBLIN DEATH PATROL

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 272012
 

I’m a big fan of Eliran Kantor’s artwork. The guy is just tremendously talented. And so I haunt his Facebook page to keep tabs on his new creations. This morning, I saw that he had uploaded the artwork above. It’s an homage to HP Lovecraft — a kind of Shoggoth / Shub-Niggurath/ Cthulhu hybrid. It’s the cover for an album by a band I’d never heard of called Dublin Death Patrol.

I assumed this was some new Irish metal band, but I was wrong. The “Dublin” in Dublin Death Patrol refers to the town of Dublin, California, population 46,000+, located about 25 miles east of Oakland. Many of the band’s 11 members are Dubliners. And yes, you read that right: 11 members.

But look who’s included in DPP’s membership: Chuck Billy (Testament), Steve “ZETRO” Souza (ex-Testament, ex-Exodus), Willy Lange (Rampage, Laaz Rockit), two of Chuck Billy’s brothers (Andy and Eddie), Steve Souza’s brother John, and a bunch of other East Bay ragers (Steve Robello, Greg Bustamante, Danny Cunningham, Troy Luccketta, and John Hartsinck). It’s definitely a “family and friends” kind of band. You get one guess as to what kind of metal they play.

All of these guys have apparently known each other since they were teenagers. They’ve recorded two albums. One of them, DDP4Life (2005), apparently had some kind of limited release on a label called Godfodder, but the second one — Death Sentence (2011) — has never been released. But as a result of some internet sleuthing after seeing that Eliran Kantor cover art, I discovered that Mascot Records will be releasing both of the DDP albums on August 13 (they’re taking pre-orders here). Continue reading »

THE POETRY OF CANNIBAL CORPSE (AND A NEW UPLOAD OF AN OLD DYING FETUS FAVORITE)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Jul 272012
 

Good morning class. Our subject for today is that well-known romantic ballad by Cannibal Corpse, “I Cum Blood”.

Of course, many of you know this gentle ode like the palm of your hand. But please raise those hands — how many of you have ever read the lyrics?

I thought so. This is the problem with our instant-gratification society. You consume music so quickly and superficially. You get the quick headbang and then move on, without delving more deeply into the philosophical underpinnings of the artist’s inspiration and the nuances of the lyrical message. You miss the opportunity for personal growth that comes from a thoughtful exegesis of the words. You hear the noise and miss the poetry. This will not do.

To correct your shortcomings in music appreciation, we are privileged to have with us today Professor Big C, who will deliver for us a spoken-word recital of the lyrics to “I Cum Blood”.

It goes without saying that you have also neglected the heart-felt lyrical message in that classic Dying Fetus song, “Homicidal Retribution”, with its passionate protest against a justice system that allows killers to escape their just deserts. This tune, which appears on War of Attrition (2007), is one of your instructor’s favorite Dying Fetus ballads, and we are fortunate that the Relapse Records label has uploaded to YouTube for the first time a high-quality version of the official video for this masterwork. It was filmed at Philadelphia’s historic Eastern State Penitentiary. You will wish to familiarize yourself with its environs, because many of you are undoubtedly headed for similar accommodations.

After you have reflected upon Professor Big C’s rendition of “I Cum Blood”, your next assignment will be to absorb the “Homicidal Retribution” video and write a 2,000-word essay on what it means to you. You may not use the words “fuck”, “fucking”, “awesome”, “shit”, “cum”, or “splooge” in your essay. Continue reading »

SYMPHONIC EXTREMITY: NEW MUSIC FROM DIABOLICAL AND WELICORUSS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 262012
 

While browsing the interhole this morning in an effort to find something that would cheer me up in the wake of learning about the cancellation of the Gojira-LambOfGod-Dethklok tour, I happened upon two new videos that helped considerably. By coincidence, both involve bands whose new music carries an air of dark symphonic grandeur, while inflicting vicious body blows at the same time: Diabolical (Sweden) and Welicoruss (Russia).

DIABOLICAL

Diabolical are a Swedish death metal band with three studio albums and a live recording (2011’s Ars Vitae) to their credit. They’re now in the process of recording a new album entitled Neogenesis. Today, they released a video that includes pre-production excerpts from a few of the new songs, and the music is sounding really fucken good.

The music is a dark kind of melodic death metal, frequently with a black metal sheen. Whether galloping at a furious pace or stomping with imperial might, it’s infernally majestic. The vocals are deep and bestial and the riffing is titanic. But the band also spin sweeping melodies, and they leaven the blasting with soft spaces that include the mournful sound of violins. Through the guitars, subtle keyboard additions, and even choral clean voices, they also create a symphonic aura around this very ominous and apocalyptic metal.

The new video teaser also features a dude who looks like he took in a few too many roentgens somewhere. Continue reading »

DAYLIGHT DIES: “A FRAIL BECOMING” IS ON THE WAY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jul 252012
 

All of your friends here at NCS are immensely anxious for the release of the next album by North Carolina’s Daylight Dies. Three years have passed since the release of the band’s third album, Lost To the Living. But yesterday Candlelight Records announced a release date for the new album, entitled A Frail Becoming: October 9. In addition, the label put up a brief video teaser for the album, which is . . . way too fucking brief.

The new record was mixed by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Devin Townsend, and many more) at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden, and the album will feature photography from award-winning Jonathan Mehring.

I’m going to embed the teaser video after the jump, but I’m also including a more effective reminder of why this is one of our most anticipated releases for 2012 — the official video for “Lies That Bind”, a track from the band’s second album, Dismanting Devotion (2006). It vividly displays the band’s talent for moving from dark ethereal beauty to a crushingly heavy assault, without warning, and the video is cool to watch, too.

Speaking of videos, the press release we received states that the band are currently working on a video for the song “Dreaming of Breathing” from the new record. The clip is being filmed by Ramon Boutviseth, who also directed the video for “Lies That Bind”. For more updates, watch this space or visit Daylight Dies on Facebook. Continue reading »

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