JENX: “ENUMA ELISH” and “THE CALL OF CTHULHU”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 062012
 

At one point in the last two years I checked out the music of a band from Bordeaux, France, named Jenx, which is an acronym for something that I haven’t yet figured out. I also haven’t remembered what led me to investigate them or why I didn’t write about them then. I have only a vague recollection that the music was a style of industrial metal.

Jenx have a new album called Enuma Elish that’s scheduled for release on May 11 by Klonosphere and Season of Mist. Last week, the band released a music video for the album’s title track, which I watched yesterday. There’s still an industrial vibe to the music, particularly at the beginning, though less pronounced than I remember. The riffing is a truckload of heavy, the bass tone is monstrous, the drumming is superb, the band make effective use of synths, and the vocals sound like a raw wound (and reminded me a bit of Joe Duplantier). When the main riff returned at about the 3:00 mark after a short interlude, I headbanged so hard that I put a dent in the table where I was listening. I really like this song.

The video, which was made by Julien Rodrigues, is really well done, too. It mixes footage of the band performing the song together with film of the band members as the subjects of what may be grotesque medical experiments and may be something else with a more occult purpose. Whatever is going on, the video is fun to watch, and the music is galvanizing. You’ll see it after the jump.

After watching the video, I poked around the interhole looking for more info about Jenx and discovered something else they’ve done that’s too juicy to overlook — a metal soundtrack to a silent film titled The Call of Cthulhu. Continue reading »

BE’LAKOR “ABSIT OMEN” and BETRAEUS “RISES”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 052012
 

I’m way late to the Be’lakor party.  The first music I heard from this Australian band was “Remnants”, which was the first song they aired from their new third album Of Breath and Bone (coming in June from Kolony Records). It gob-smacked me right in my gob. And then I caught a video of a live performance of another song (“Fraught”) and got smacked again.  Wrote about both those songs in this post, where you can hear the songs if you haven’t (just be careful of your gob). To steal a phrase from Phro, they sound like “Amon Amarth making antichrist babies with Insomnium”, with Amorphis as the midwife.

This morning we got yet another song from the album.  This one is called “Absit Omen”, which is Latin for “will fuck your shit up”. I still can’t do better than comparing the music to a fusion of Amon Amarth-style crushing riffs, dark Insomnium-esque melodies, and death-metal vocals that give Johan Hegg and Niilo Sevänen a run for their money.

The song is majestic, powerful, memorable. This really is melodic death metal done right. Can’t wait for the album to drop! Listen to “Absit Omen” right after the jump. Continue reading »

WAR OF AGES: “SILENT NIGHT”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  33 Responses »
May 052012
 

I think Saturday mornings are probably the worst possible time for any kind of serious discussion, regardless of where you are or what you’re doing. It’s an even worse time for a serious discussion on this blog, because it’s the weakest day of the week in terms of our readership. I watch the page hits on this site because I lead a pathetic life in which my happiness depends on how many people stop at NCS, and so I know that Saturday’s are weak. But this new video is on my mind at the moment, so I’m going with it on this Saturday morning despite the fact that the subject matter is serious and controversial.

The band is War of Ages. In the minds of many metalheads, they have two strikes against them: First, they’re a metalcore band.  Second, they’re an openly Christian band. I’ve been a long-time fan of this band, for reasons that have very little to do with the religious zeal that inspires their songs. I just think their music has an honest passion behind it that translates into powerfully ass-kicking music. I’m not the only one around here who’s a fan: Andy Synn devoted one of his SYNN REPORTS to War of Ages, and he summed up their appeal better than I could:

“[T]he self-belief and honest expression of this band also shines out like a beacon of integrity in a sea of populist, lowest-common-denominator swill, striking a chord with their direct and passionate approach. It does help, though, that the group can also all play their instruments to an impressive level, particularly the band’s two guitarists, who peel off an array of stunning riffs and shining solos with recognisable passion and fury.”

The subject of this post is a video released yesterday for a song called “Silent Night”. The song is from the album Return To Life, which is out now on Facedown Records. It deals with the death of a child and the impact of that on a young mother and father. Continue reading »

HOUR OF 13: “WHO’S TO BLAME?”

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 032012
 

I’m basically going to be missing in action for the rest of the day.  My fucking day job is going to demand undivided attention into the night.  Shith happens.

So, most likely until tomorrow, I leave you with this — a song from Hour of 13 called “Who’s To Blame?” It’s from an album titled 333 that Earache Records plans to release on May 29.

Hour of 13 is a two-man band from North Carolina — Chad Davis plays all the instruments and Phil Swanson sings. I knew nothing about them until this morning, probably because their style of music is relatively foreign to what we cover on this site. It’s a kind of old-school, Black Sabbath-influenced doom metal with almost exclusively clean singing.

But the riffs in this song are titanically convulsive, the melody is undeniably catchy (though bleak), and it changes pace effectively and satisfyingly on the back end, with a very cool finish. Phil Swanson can really sing, too. So we’ll call this an Exception to the Rule and bid you a fond farewell until we meet again. Fill your head with “Who’s To Blame?” after the jump. Continue reading »

NE OBLIVISCARIS: “XENOFLUX”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
May 032012
 

Yesterday, we alerted you to the plans of Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris to debut a new song at midnight, Pacific Time, last night. And they did it. The new song, which will appear on their forthcoming debut album Portal of I, is called “Xenoflux”.

“Epic” is a tremendously overused word in metal circles, but I can’t help but use it here: “Xenoflux” is epic. At an even ten minutes in length, it will still leave you wanting more.

It begins with a a grand introduction — great hammering riffs, rolling drums, and a winding lead guitar paving the way to the song’s invigorating first segment. Jagged, blackened vocals conjure images of a wolf pack loping through dark woods on the hunt, while beautiful guitar work weaves melodies that are as entrancing as they are heavy. That opening five-minute segment is both head-smashing and emotionally powerful, but the achievement is more than matched by the three-minute middle segment which follows it.

All the instruments drop away, clearing the stage for a solitary guitar arpeggio. And from there, other instruments slowly join in, with a violin taking the lead, painting a meditative sonic picture that’s beautiful. In the song’s final segment, the music rises in power and intensity once again, the harsh vocals resume, and the band catapult the listener toward the finish — which comes too soon for these hungry ears.

“Xenoflux” is a beautifully imagined, beautifully constructed, superbly executed song that I think you’ll remember long after you’ve heard it even once. Stream it right after the jump. Portal of I will be out on May 7 and can be pre-ordered here. Continue reading »

THE DUAL DESTRUCTION TOUR: 7 HORNS 7 EYES AND STEALING AXION (AND A FREE TICKET GIVE-AWAY)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 032012
 

When it comes to Washington State metal bands, my objectivity could be questioned, because I live in the Seattle area. But that’s only because you don’t know me well enough. Fact is, when it comes to the metal, I don’t think about the music of Seattle or Tacoma bands any differently than I do bands from California or New York or India or Europe or anywhere else. Yes, I have a chance to see them perform live more often than bands from elsewhere, but I won’t change my rule: I only want to write about bands I feel I can honestly recommend.

And I’m not bending the rule when it comes to 7 Horns 7 Eyes or Stealing Axion. They are extremely talented bands making music that ought to be heard far and wide. So, from my perspective, it’s extremely cool that these two bands have managed to arrange a tour together, sponsored by Guitar World. It’s called the DUAL DESTRUCTION TOUR, and I expect that’s what they’ll bring — destruction.

We’ve reviewed both of these bands’ most recent releases (7E7H here and Stealing Axion here), and in fact we got the privilege of streaming the new 7H7E album. But we have two more things to throw your way today, besides the tour schedule, which is still being expanded (see the current schedule after the jump).

First, we have one pair of tickets to give away, courtesy of Century Media, in a market of the winner’s choice. I’m going to make this contest really simple. Send me your name via e-mail to islander@nocleansinging.com. I will put each name on a slip of paper and put all the paper slips in a bowl. Rather than smoking all the slips, I will instead ask my non-metalhead wife to pick one of the slips from the bowl, and her pick will be the winner. I will then smoke all the rest of the slips. This contest will end at midnight, Pacific Time, on May 11, 2012

True story: this ticket offer came my way from Century Media minutes AFTER I wrote the balance of this post. If that’s not a freakishly felicitous coincidence, I don’t know what is.

Second, I have for you a play-through video by Stealing Axion drummer Blake Ferris. Watching and listening to this video brings to mind a question I have about skilled metal drummers every time I get a bird’s-eye view of their performances: How they do this? Continue reading »

TODAY’S ROUND-UP: NEW THINGS FROM AHAB, NACHTBLUT, STAM1NA, AND NE OBLIVISCARIS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
May 022012
 

Here is a typically random round-up of interesting items that cleverly captivated my eager eyes during my ludicrously limited last break from the jacked-up job that plentifully puts bread on my tilted table, unlike this NCS job, which only feeds my spirit. And the pleasurable purveyors of entertainment in this post are: Ahab (Germany), Nachtblut (Germany), Stam1na (Finland), and Ne Obliviscaris (Australia).

AHAB

NCS writer TheMadIsraeli turned me on to this German doom band at some point last winter. Doom is still a taste I am slowly acquiring, and I can’t say that I’m yet able to consume it in large quantities at a single sitting. However, at the right time and if properly prepared, I do find it tasty. And though I haven’t explored the discography of Ahab in depth, I’m interested in their new album, The Giant.

The band have used their music to explore dark literature with a nautical theme. The Call of the Wretched Sea (2006) was devoted to Melville’s novel Moby Dick, and The Divinity of Oceans (2009) was a soundtrack to the 1820 sinking of the whaling vessel The Essex, an event that partly inspired Moby Dick and was also the subject of a great more recent book, In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick. It appears The Giant will follow at least a somewhat similar nautical path. Continue reading »

NEW GOROD VIDEO NOW STREAMING: “THE AXE OF GOD”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Apr 302012
 

May 8 is the official North American release date for the fantastic new album by Gorod, A Perfect Absolution. Our man groverXIII reviewed that album for NCS here, calling it “the best tech-death album of a year that’s been very, very good for tech-death.”

And because groverXIII is a full-service blogger, he also promptly alerted us to the fact that about an hour ago Gorod released an official video for “The Axe of God”, a song that features Michael Keene of The Faceless on the song’s second guitar solo.

The video is basically performance footage shot from different angles. The song comes close to epitomizing what makes Gorod special in the world of tech death: As grover noted in his review, they have a knack for writing and performing songs that are both amazingly intricate and amazingly catchy, with memorable melodies. Check out “The Axe of God” after the jump. Continue reading »

THE STRANDED: “ILL WILL FUTURE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 302012
 

(DGR unveils for us a new song by The Stranded off their debut album Survivalism Boulevard, which will be released on July 2.)

Holy crap, I thought I was going to have children before The Stranded finally released their first sample of material. Now all I have to look forward to enjoying for the first time, alongside my by-then high school aged son, is Gojira’s Sea Shepherd EP.

Today the guys in The Stranded (well, late last night, but I’ve bitched plenty about my various night shifts) put up a notification that they had uploaded their first official release off their upcoming disc to soundcloud.  It’s been a long time coming, and if you haven’t exactly been paying the most attention to the ramblings that I submit to this site, this is likely your first chance to hear The Stranded.

Prior to this, you could’ve heard some of the Disarmonia Mundi + Friends (skateboarder Elliot Sloan and keyboardist Alessio NeroArgento) as they covered different Studio Ghibli movie theme songs on the latest Imaginary Flying Machines disc. Of course, as I said in my review there, the material on that disc likely wasn’t going to be representative of what The Stranded would eventually sound like. Hell, their current logo barely signals that either — it looks like it fell off the front of a deathcore disc. Continue reading »

WHITECHAPEL: NEW ALBUM DETAILS, TOUR INFO, AND A NEW SINGLE – “HATE CREATION”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  23 Responses »
Apr 302012
 

Growth. That’s one thing we metal elitists like to see in a band’s evolution. Tennessee’s Whitechapel is definitely growing, and I don’t just mean in popularity. Today, Metal Blade unveiled the cover to Whitechapel’s new album (above), which is self-titled, as well as the track list. They also began streaming a new song from the album called “Hate Creation”.

I saw Whitechapel on their first U.S. tour, when they were an unknown bunch of deathcore upstarts. They had staying power. They amassed a big following and they helped spawn a wave of imitators. Some of those early deathcore progenitors have gotten stuck in a rut. Others have moved on in different directions, perhaps most prominently Job For A Cowboy, who have evolved into a solid death metal band. “Hate Creation” is evidence that Whitechapel is following a similar path.

I certainly wouldn’t claim that Whitechapel has completely left behind the defining tropes of deathcore, but “Hate Creation” is definitely another step along the road toward death metal mecca, and it’s one of the best songs they’ve yet created.

It hits like a phalanx of artillery in full bombardment mode, with explosive blasts that sound like they might be announcing breakdowns, except the pacing doesn’t really drop. The dynamics of the song are enhanced by stuttering, slightly off-kilter rhythms, speed and increased complexity in the riffing, and variations in the intensity of the onslaught, plus there’s a muted melody that I think will catch the song in people’s heads. And Phil Bozeman’s vocals are suitably violent and raw.

Give the song a shot after the jump, and past that we’ll give you more details about the album and about the band’s forthcoming tour. Continue reading »

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