ICELAND METAL MONTH CONTINUES: BENEATH, CARPE NOCTEM, WORMLUST, AND KHAMUL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 312012
 

Here on the last day of May, I decided to christen the month Iceland Metal Month at NCS (see today’s first post).  Since we’ve wrtten about 8 Icelandic metal bands so far, it seemed like the logical thing to do. And having gone that far, I decided we ought to go further and bring the total to an even dozen. So, here we go . . . four more bands worth getting to know from a country that’s starting to seem close to Finland in the ratio of killer metal bands per capita of population.

BENEATH

I found out about this Reykjavík band while doing a little research on Ophidian I, who I included in that earlier post about Icelandic metal today: It seems that guitarist Unnar Sigurðsson is a member of both bands. It further appears that drummer Ragnar Sverrisson is also a member of another awesome Icelandic band, Atrum (who we’ve written about more than once in the past).

Beneath’s line-up solidified in late 2008, and in 2009 they won the Wacken Metal Battle contest in Iceland, thereby becoming the first Icelandic band to perform at the Wacken Open Air festival in August 2009. They released a debut EP titled Hollow Empty Void on Mordbrann Musikk in 2010 (it’s available on iTunes), and they’ve finished recording a debut full-length, Enslaved By Fear. That album will be released on July 17 by the dependable Unique Leader label. The eye-catching album cover was done by Raymond Swanland.

Now, about their music . . . Continue reading »

NILE: DOWNLOAD “THE FIENDS” FOR FREE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 312012
 

Last week we reported on the premiere of the first song from Nile’s new album, At the Gates of Sethu, which will be released via Nuclear Blast Records on June 29 (Europe) and July 3 (North America). The song is called “The Fiends Who Come To Steal the Magick of the Deceased”. At that point, it was exclusively streaming at Noisecreep.

But now, you don’t have to stream it any more, because Nuclear Blast is making the song available as a free download, in return for your e-mail address.  GO HERE to get the track for your very own. And in case you haven’t yet heard the song — which may not be exactly what you’re expecting from Nile, check it out on the player below:
 

THINGS I SAW THIS MORNING

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  24 Responses »
May 312012
 

I saw this album cover. It’s for the next album by Dysrhythmia, Test of Submission, which Profound Lore says they will be releasing on August 28. No test is needed . . . I am ready to submit.

I also saw that Be’lakor has just put HD versions of all the songs from their terrific new album Of Breath and Bone up on YouTube. Find those tracks here. Read Andy Synn’s review of the album here. (And thanks to NCS reader Daniel for the tip on this news.)

I also saw that Doris Yeh from Chthonic is on the cover of a fashion magazine called FHM.  I no longer have to wonder what she looks like naked. Continue reading »

MORE FIRE AND ICE FROM ICELAND: GONE POSTAL, ANGIST, AND OPHIDIAN I

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 312012
 

I should probably just go ahead and designate May as Iceland Metal Month at NO CLEAN SINGING. So far this month we’ve featured music from Severed Crotch (here), Svartidauði and Vansköpun (here), Azoic (here), and Dynfari (here). Since today is the last day of the month, I thought I’d close it out with three more Icelandic metal bands.

GONE POSTAL

This band from Kópavogur was formed in 2007. They released a debut full-length titled In the Depths of Despair in 2008 through Iceland’s own Molestin Records as well as three subsequent releases, of which Promo II (2011) is the latest.  In March of this year, they won the Wacken Metal Battle contest in Iceland, which will give them the right to perform at Wacken Open Air this summer.

I gather from a few things I’ve read that the band’s style of music through the early releases was a kind of experimental death metal. What I’ve heard are the three songs on Promo II, and those songs instead reflect a pronounced black metal influence. The music is shot through with ripping/roaring tremolo guitars, vicious rhythms, and an air of bleak dissonance. The vocal style flexes between harsh growls and eviscerating shrieks. The production is as raw as a fresh wound. Yet as cacophonous as the music often is, strange melodies ring out through the tidal wash of bile, lending the music a kind of sick fascination. Continue reading »

IHSAHN + DEVIN TOWNSEND and STRAY FROM THE PATH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
May 302012
 

Ihsahn’s fourth solo album, Eremita, is scheduled for release on June 19.  Almost a month ago, I received from Candlelight Records a link that allows me to stream the album, but not download it. I know the label isn’t singling me out or implying that NCS is untrustworthy, but I have a hard time listening to an album when I have to be tethered to my computer to do it. I’m constantly moving between safe houses, and so I need to be able to listen on my music player. Consequently, I still haven’t heard Eremita.

But I’m no less interested in the album, in part because it’s Ihsahn and in part because of the line-up of guest artists: drummer Tobias Ornes Andersen (Leprous), saxophonist Jorgen Munkeby (Shining – Norway), guitarist Jeff Loomis (ex-Nevermore), and vocalists Devin Townsend, Einar Solberg (Leprous), and Heidi S. Tveitan (Star of Ash).

Yesterday, Guitar World began streaming a song from the album called “Introspection”, which features guest vocals by Devin Townsend. I heard it for the first time through that stream (see above re moving between safe houses). I have mixed feelings about the song. Continue reading »

NEW KARTIKEYA ON THE WAY!

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 292012
 

What a nice way to start this new day . . . seeing a video of Kartikeya rehearsing a new song called “Vayu”.  No vocals yet, but man, this sounds very fucking nice.  It appears that this will be released as a single on June 22, and will feature guest appearances by Keith Merrow and Aleksandra Radosavljevic. Should be interesting, to say the least.

Check out the video after the jump.  And if, by some remote chance, you don’t know about Kartikeya already, click this link and read one of our 5,000 previous posts about the band. Continue reading »

MEMORIAL DAY MATTERS

 Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  21 Responses »
May 282012
 

Here in the U.S., it’s Memorial Day, a national holiday established long ago to commemorate the men and women who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

Even though my own long-dead father was himself a decorated Marine Corps vet and my brother-in-law is a veteran of the Gulf War, I’m embarrassed to admit that it took me a while to separate my feelings about people who served in combat from my feelings about the wars in which they served — or about war in general. About the only time I feel warlike is when I’m listening to warlike metal. I think the last war that was worth fighting (for my country) was the one in Korea, and sometimes I’m not even sure about that one.

I did finally realize what should be obvious to people smarter than me — that soldiers and sailors and airmen do not start wars or decide which wars are worth fighting. They simply do their duty, and they become maimed, suffer mental trauma, and die because of decisions made by others who put them in harm’s way. They deserve to be honored for reasons that have nothing to do with whether the causes in which they sacrifice themselves are worth their sacrifices. They deserve to be remembered and supported even when the conflicts in which they have served are insupportable.

Memorial Day should be a day not only for remembering the dead but also for remembering the living — not only people who are currently serving in the Armed Forces but also veterans. The U.S. has done a piss-poor job of supporting its military veterans. Our government is willing to spend trillions of dollars to finance wars and huge defense establishments, but what we spend to support people after they’ve served their purpose and been discharged — especially those who have been disabled during their service — is shameful. Continue reading »

NEWS ABOUT A BUNCH OF BANDS ON COMPLETELY OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE METAL SPECTRUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 282012
 

(Here’s a round-up of recent news and music from DemiGodRaven about Katatonia, Æther Realm, Fear Factory, Shadows Fall, and The Browning.)

Katatonia’s new album: Dead End Kings (August 27th)

Over the past two weeks Katatonia have done a pretty interesting publicity bit on their Facebook page by putting up a picture of what looked like a dead tree branch in some snow and then slowly adding letters and more to the branch, eventually revealing that it was something more of a dead shrub and that the letters would spell an album title and release date for the group’s new upcoming disc.

Now they’ve completed the whole picture, and yes, it’s got branches on it alright, but it is something more than that. It’s looks like a dead bird wearing a crown, and the album title for their new disc will be Dead End Kings. It has an August release date, appearing a day later in the US than in Europe, but the difference of a day really isn’t that huge when you have the internet essentially spreading everything around at light speed. The moment anything from this album is out I’m sure it’ll be all over youtube, so if you have to wait a day you can find solace in at least streaming the songs that way. The image for you folks to check out is above, all Facebook banner-styled. Continue reading »

HYPERBOREAN GETS THE 300 TREATMENT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 272012
 

Hyperborean is a three-man melodic black metal band from Sweden.  Although the band came into being more than a decade ago, they didn’t release a debut album (on Abyss Records) until last year, following three demos recorded between 2002 and 2005. Despite having the chance for an advance listen to that album (The Spirit of Warfare) and later seeing an 8-out-of-10 review of it in Decibel magazine, I failed to seize the opportunity.

I have a bad habit of constantly moving on to the next new thing, trying to keep this site current or even ahead of the release curve, and spending almost no time going back to music I missed when it was new. And so it was with The Spirit of Warfare. But yesterday I came across a fan-created video that drove me to learn more about the band and has convinced me to make time for the album amidst the sea of new promos and releases.

The video combines a song from The Spirit of Warfare with excerpts from Zack Snyder’s 2007 movie version of Frank Miller’s comic book mini-series, 300. It’s not the first time someone has used excerpts from 300 as visuals for a metal song, but this combination is especially fitting because the Hyperborean song (clocking in at almost 10 minutes) is “The Last Stand of Leonidas and the Battle of Thermopylae”. It’s also a thoroughly winning combination.

Hyperborean aren’t a typical Scandinavian black metal band. They seem to have no use for the usual trappings of corpse paint and spikes, and their songs aren’t devoted to satanic or occult or pagan subjects. Instead, The Spirit of Warfare takes its inspiration from the historical record of human violence, with references in the well-written lyrics (available here) to the World Wars and, of course, to the stand of the 300 Spartans against Xerxes’ army at the pass of Thermopylae. Continue reading »

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