STREAM NACHMYSTIUM’S “INSTINCT: DECAY” – LIVE FROM ROADBURN 2012

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jun 202012
 

(BadWolf found us a real gem to start this Wednesday.)

If you still haven’t checked out Nachtmystium, Chicago’s black metal prodigies, where the hell have you been? Their mix of punky black metal with stoner rock, psychedelia, and industrial elements strikes that perfect balance between great songs and great sounds—their two Black Meddle records garnered serious critical acclaim (from myself and others) for it. But Nachtmysitum’s metamorphosis from Norwegian attack clone into unique entity began on their 2006 album, Instinct: Decay.

If you haven’t heard Instinct: Decay, this is the perfect opportunity. It’s required listening for any serious fan of USBM. If you’re a fan of Blake Judd and Friends’ new material, you can hear the beginning of that sound here. If you thought the Black Meddle albums were wussy metal you should still listen: Instinct: Decay is substantially rawer than either of its successors. Nachtmystium played the album front-to-back at this year’s Roadburn Festival, and some German website I have never heard of is streaming the entire performance as recorded straight from the sound board.

http://3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/playerpage.program.14484831.html

I imagine you can figure it out easily enough—hit the big triangle that looks like a play symbol. It’s a play symbol. [Editor’s intrusion: or, you can stream it at NCS right after the jump.]

The sound of this recording is pretty great, but that’s to be expected—I have Nachtmstium’s Live at Roadburn LP from early last year, and it’s fantastic. As a matter of fact, Blake’s vocals aside, this recording sounds better than the actual album, which is in pretty dire need of a remaster, already. Continue reading »

MORE HELLFEST SWEETNESS: SÓLSTAFIR LIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jun 192012
 

Earlier today, we posted about a series of high-quality performance videos from the French HELLFEST 2012 festival earlier this month. Iceland’s Sólstafir performed at HELLFEST, but their set isn’t included in the collection featured in that earlier post. But some blessed filmographer just uploaded a video of them anyway.

The song being performed is “Fjara”, and as persistent readers are well aware from all my previous blathering about the song, it’s one of my favorite songs ever, of all time, world without end, amen. Fortunately, this video is of high quality, both in the visuals and in the sound. Among other things, it makes the bass drum and the bass guitar sound super-FAT, but the guitars still ring like heavenly chimes.

I don’t think I’ve expressly said this before, but I think Sólstafir are just incredibly cool on stage. They just have to stand there and bob a little on a slow, powerful song like this one, and they still just look so damned cooooool, including the way Aðalbjörn Tryggvason plays his guitar while bending from the waist like a weeping willow. He’s got an amazing voice, too — love the way he moves from the melancholy crooning to the gritty blast of the chorus.

Man, I’m really coming off like a girly fanboy, aren’t I?  I’ll just shut up and direct you to the video after the jump. Continue reading »

GOJIRA – “L’ENFANT SAUVAGE” – FULL ALBUM STREAM!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  18 Responses »
Jun 192012
 

For those of you who had the self-restraint not to go download the leak of Gojira’s new album L’Enfant Sauvage, I’m very pleased to inform you that the entire album began streaming at MusicRadar.com today.

Fortunately, the SoundCloud player with the album stream is embeddable, and so I’ve embedded it after the jump.

We will have multiple reviews of the album up here on NCS in the near future. And on the subject of that leak, I really hope that if you enjoy the music, you’ll spend the money and buy it. This band deserves that much respect. Pre-orders can be made HERE.

Check out the music . . .now . . . Continue reading »

HELLFEST LIVE!

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 192012
 

Thank you, thank you DECIBLOG!

Thanks to the DECIBLOG, I discovered that Arte Live Web has uploaded multi-camera, professionally filmed video of complete live sets from HELLFEST 2012, which took place in Clisson, France on June 15-17, 2012. I’ve only watched parts of a few so far, including the Napalm Death set that DECIBLOG featured, but the quality is outstanding. So are the bands whose performances are captured at the Arte Live site. They include (to name the ones most interesting to me):

Arcturus
Lock Up
Sacred Reich
Aborted
Brujeria
Nasum
Dropkick Murphys
Heaven Shall Burn

Go HERE to access all of these performances, and more (some are still being uploaded). If you’d like a taste first, I’m including the Nasum footage right after the jump. Continue reading »

THRASHING: FASTKILL AND MASTER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 182012
 

I’m so easily diverted from my plans and projects. When it comes to this blog, the occurrence of coincidences tends to distract me like few other things do. I don’t think I’m any more superstitious than the average joe, but coincidences in my metal browsing seem to blare forth commands: STOP WHAT YOU WERE DOING AND WRITE ABOUT THIS NOW!!! And so I do.

I’ve been thinking about thrash today, prompted by our publication of TheMadIsraeli’s review of Kreator’s new album, Phantom Antichrist. As I’ve explained before, thrash is one of the few metal genres that I can only take in small doses. I don’t deny that good speed metal is energizing, and like most metalheads, I do appreciate a catchy riff and a shreddy solo. But so much thrash sounds so much alike to my ears that it can become numbing. And I guess I’m one of those people who TheMadIsraeli chastised for not being enamored of the traditional thrash vocal style. That’s not intended as an artistic criticism. I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter of taste.

Anyway, while pondering these subjects and trying to reflect with part of my brain on why I’m not more enthusiastic about thrash, I came across two pieces of thrashy metal from new albums that Pulverised Records will be releasing in North America on August 14 (both of which can be pre-ordered here). One is a new song by a Japanese speed-metal band named Fastkill, and the other is a previously released song that I overlooked from that very long-running death metal band (now based in The Czech Republic), Master. I got a kick out of both songs, and I’m trying to figure out why. Continue reading »

GREEKS BEARING GIFTS: TARDIVE DYSKINESIA AND LORD IMPALER

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jun 182012
 

I should probably apologize for using that overworked Homeric phrase in the post title, but those really were the first words that popped into my addled head when I heard the music featured here over the last 24 hours. I listened to songs from both bands back-to-back, and by coincidence they’re both from Greece, and by further coincidence the music from both is really good — though tremendously different from each other.

TARDIVE DYSKINESIA

We’ve written frequently about Tardive Dyskinesia and various side projects of their members after first being grabbed in a bear hug by the fast-paced, infectious barrage of technically sophisticated music captured on their 2009 album, The Sea of See Through Skins. At long last, 2012 will see the release of their follow-up album, Static Apathy in Fast Forward. In late March, they started streaming a rough mix of a new song called “Prehistoric Man” (featured here), and today brings us an animated lyric video for yet another track, “Time Turns Planets”.

Plunging almost immediately into a neck-wrenching groove, the song lurches and punches its way through a cycle of syncopated riffs and off-beat rhythms, but smooths out in a memorable melodic chorus, blending the ethereal and the heavy quite effectively. Fans of Texture’s 2011 album Dualism ought to pay particular attention to this fusion of piston-driven machine complexity and soaring ambience. The video is fun to watch, too (right after the jump). Continue reading »

DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT – LIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 172012
 

May infernal blessings be upon the head of (((unartig))).

Near the end of their recent U.S. tour, the UK’s Dragged Into Sunlight performed a live set at Saint Vitus in Brooklyn, New York, on June 14, 2012. (((unartig))) was there and did his usual fantastic job filming and recording the sights and sounds of this live ritual.

DIS didn’t come close enough to Seattle for me to see them, but this just-released video of the band performing “I, Aurora” from Hatred For Mankind (2009) gives me a sense of what I missed. Amazing song, awesome video. The obliteration of souls into black shards, with rhythm. The boiling of human meat into a slew of suppurating sludge, with flair. Dragged into darkness by your hair and teeth, and willingly.

Summon up your strength and watch “I, Aurora” after the jump. Continue reading »

DRUG CULTURE: BRUJERIA, SUCHTHAUS, AND SLITWRIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 172012
 

Me gusta mucho Brujería, and I stumbled across a Brujería song this morning that I’d never heard before: “Don Quijote Marijuana”. It made me laugh. It also made me want to take my clothes off and dance on a bar. Fortunately, I was at home and therefore spared some collection of bar flies that life-changing experience. It also made me want to listen to a few more familiar Brujeria tracks. So I did. My life is your life, and so I’m sharing all that narcos satanicos con ustedes.

Also, I found out about a new video from a Norwegian band called SuchThaus, and the video and music feature a former and a current member of Mayhem: Maniac and Hellhammer. I don’t know if this song (“DownTown Train”) is about drugs, but it sure sounds like it was composed and recorded while under the influence.

And then finally I heard two new songs by a band called Slitwrist, which features a guest appearance by Sorceron of Abigail Williams (though he may be more than a guest). They’re mesmerizing and horrifying, and they made me want to take drugs, preferably something mood-elevating.  Here we go:

BRUJERIA

It’s hard to know who’s in Brujería from year to year. According to Metal Archives, this part-Mexican, part-Angelino band was created in 1989 by Dino Cazares (Fear Factory), who calls himself “El Asesino” in Brujeria, along with Billy Gould (Faith No More), Juan Lepe (“Juan Brujo”), and Pat Hoed (“Fantasma”, a/k/a “Adam Bomb” on the radio).

But the line-up seems to be fluid — including from time to time people like Jeff Walker (Carcass), Shane Embury (Napalm Death), Raymond Herrera (Arkaea, ex-Fear Factory), and Nicholas Barker (Lock Up, ex-Dimmu Borgir). Also, the members of Brujería wear masks and portray themselves as Mexican drug lords who use nicknames to keep their identities secret, so yeah, it’s hard to know. Continue reading »

SATURDAY ROUND-UP: NEW VIDZ FROM DYING FETUS, DEVIN TOWNSEND, AND WINDS OF GENOCIDE, AND NEW MUSIC FROM WIDOW SUNDAY AND HUMAN CULL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jun 162012
 

Friday’s are often slow news days in the world of metal, but yesterday brought a bunch of goodies, and now we bring them to you for your amusement and edification. Stylistically, this metal is all over the fucking place, because so are my tastes.

DYING FETUS

The new Dying Fetus album, Reign Supreme, is so damned fine — one of the finest brutal death metal albums of 2012 in your humble editor’s opinion. It’s due for release on June 19. A few tracks have already premiered, including “From Womb To Waste”, which we featured here last month. It’s one of those songs that’s likely to remembered as much for the highly quotable audio sample at the beginning as for the rest of the song.

Yesterday Relapse released an official video for the song. It’s a splicing of live performance clips. It seems there is headbanging and moshing at Dying Fetus shows. Watch it after the jump. Continue reading »

DEATHTRACK

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 162012
 

I’m writing this on Friday afternoon. I don’t know for sure what I’ll feel like on Saturday morning when this post goes up on the site, but the odds are I’ll have an eye-watering hangover and my blood will be moving through the veins at the speed of sludge. I figure I’ll need something to get the blood pumping, something that will make me feel happy to be alive instead of contemplating the least painful way of killing myself. And as a trained medical professional, I have just the prescription for myself, and for any other Friday-night miscreants in the audience: Deathtrack. Or deathtrack, as the band seem to prefer.

deathtrack are from Norway. I discovered their existence two days ago via a report on the Facebook page of Svölk, with whom deathtrack share a band member (Halstein), that deathtrack were releasing a new EP with a free song download as enticement. So, impulsive creature that I am, I listened to that song (“Demon Cowboy”) plus one other that I found from the new EP (“True Blood”) — and I was SOLD. So sold, in fact, that I went and bought the band’s self-titled debut album on iTunes, in part because it includes a song called “Friday Night’s (All Right For Fighting)”, which seemed like good timing.

This music comes with a CLEAN SINGING! warning, but I’ll tell you what, Harry Hellriffer can sing, with a good, strong, clear voice, which he degrades with a little abrasion at the right moments. I’ll tell you another thing: These fuckers can lay down some heavy riffs and rhythms that make it impossible to sit still. Continue reading »

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