SCION ROCK FEST 2012: CAN SOMEONE LOAN A BROTHER A TELEPORTER BATTERY? (THERE’S ALSO A BLACK BREATH VIDEO IN HERE)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Apr 182012
 

There are some places in these continental United States that are farther away from Seattle than Tampa, Florida, but Tampa is pretty fucking far out there. And on June 2, it’s going to be really far out, because that’s the day when Scion is sponsoring this year’s edition of the Scion Rock Fest.

Scion A/V has been doing a lot of very cool things with metal, and I continue to hope they get a few car sales out of it because I believe in people making a buck when they make underground music or help support it. Yesterday, I saw two things that reminded me of the good that Scion is doing for our kinda music. One was a new Scion-funded music video by Black Breath, which we’ll come back to after the jump, and the other was this “rock” fest in Tampa.

Scion has announced that the festival will include 26 bands playing at four different Tampa venues throughout the day. They’ve also released that poster you see up above. Obviously, there aren’t 26 names on there . . . yet. But the ones that are on there make for an excellent line-up: Sleep (holy shit!), Repulsion, Merzbow, Church of Misery, Psychic TV, Oxbow, Decapitated (!!), Terror, Cerebral Ballzy (?), All Pigs Must Die (!!), Idea of Gemini, and Cellgraft.

The other names have been “masked”, but I can see a few letters here and there. The name in the second line on the far right looks a helluva lot like Suffocation. And on the top row, I can almost make out Saint Vitus. Can you make out any other names? I’ll put a bigger image after the jump. Continue reading »

NEWLY MINTED: BEFORE THE DAWN, ALLEGAEON, AND THE ODIOUS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 172012
 

In this post, I’m collecting three newly minted pieces that went into circulation yesterday or this morning, like shiny gold coins that dropped into our grimy claws: a new video from Finland’s Before the Dawn; a new song from Colorado’s Allegaeon (pronounced uh-lee-juhn, in case you forgot), and a new lyric video from Portland’s The Odious. Here we go:

BEFORE THE DAWN

Such a coincidence. Earlier today, I posted a review of a new EP from a UK band — Twilight’s Embrace — that reminded me of Before the Dawn’s style of goth/doom-infused melodeath, and lo and behold, it’s not long before I get an e-mail from DGR alerting me to this new video. It’s for a song called “Pitch-Black Universe” from the band’s forthcoming album Rise of the Phoenix (out on April 27 via Nuclear Blast).

The song is what we’ve come to expect from Before the Dawn — jabbing riffs, sweeping/swirling guitars, bearlike vocals, broken glass, fires burning, the drip of blood, pitch blackness. The video is sweet, too. It’s immediately after the jump. Continue reading »

BACK AND FORTH: AVATAR AND THE WRETCHED END

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 162012
 

Sweden’s Avatar are batting 1,000 in the video game. First, there was the video released last December for the title track to their current album, Black Waltz, which included all sorts of grisly tricks performed by circus sideshow freaks Hellzapoppin (check that here). Then there was the live performance video for “Let It Burn”, which we featured in March. And now we have another winner in the band’s new video for the song “Torn Apart”.

Let me see if I can describe this without spoiling it for you: It involves a bar fight, which involves Mexican wrestling masks, pro-wrestling body slams, the gimp from Pulp Fiction, and assorted other strange characters, and the whole thing runs in reverse!

Oh shit. I guess I should have said “Spoiler Alert!!” Well, anyway, if you’ve never seen headbanging and windmilling and loogie-hawking in reverse, now’s your chance. It’s pretty fuckin’ cool. Also, you get to see how Avatar’s face-painted frontman Johannes Eckerström prepares his vocal chords for a shrieking session on stage. Also, “Torn Apart” is a hot song.

Also, the highly anticipated new album by Norway’s The Wretched End started streaming in full today. Details about that after the jump. Continue reading »

BE’LAKOR: “REMNANTS”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Apr 162012
 

I’m going to say this up-front, so it gets maximum attention: “For fans of Amon Amarth and Insomnium!” Those are names to conjure with, and they are the names that first popped into my head when I listened to a brand new song called “Remnants” by a Melbourne, Australia band named Be’lakor.

The song comes from this band’s third album, Of Breath and Bone, which will be released in June. It was the first song by Be’lakor that I had ever heard, but it was the kind of song that got me as excited as a hypoglycemic kid in a candy store. I hoped that the rest of the album would live up to this first taste.

The introductory instrumental has an almost folk-metal air, with the lead guitar tuned so that it sounds like bagpipes, but then the big Amon Amarth-like riffs come down like thunder and you get your first taste of George Kosmas’ truly cavernous roars — they’re right in the middle of Johan Hegg/Niilo Sevänen territory, and that’s a territory laced with gold.

And onward from there, the song delivers a succession of riveting riffs, goth/doom melodies, and beautifully constructed guitar leads and solo’s. It gallops, it chugs, it vibrates with arcane power, it rumbles like avalanche, it pulses with urgency, and it soars with virulently infectious melodies. It’s a dynamic song, continually shifting in tone and speed, and it has well and truly hooked me. Continue reading »

TITANIC

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 162012
 

It’s late where I am, but not too late to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic. April 15, 1912, that great ship and 1,514 passengers and crew went to their graves in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. I’ll get to who reminded me of this, at the end of the post.

It seems to be true that as the Titanic sunk, the ship’s eight-member band valiantly played on, until the black water claimed them. Maybe not quite as insane as the bagpipers who led British troops across No Man’s Land in World War I, but still a vivid example of British reserve and fortitude in the face of imminent obliteration.

But I like to think it’s an example of something else, too — people dedicated to their music, realizing they’re fucked no matter what, on a ship with only enough lifeboats to hold half the people on board, deciding to spend their last hours playing, probably for themselves as much as for anyone else.

And on that cheery note, here are a batch of recent music videos that don’t have anything to do with the Titanic but are just as fuckin’ metal as that ship’s band, courtesy of the following performers: Agalloch, The Devastated, Threat Signal, and Alestorm. Continue reading »

REPLENISH: ALDA and SKY BURIAL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 152012
 

Replenish Records is a label based in Washington, D.C., that I discovered only yesterday. What caught my attention in their e-mail to me was their impending release on double-vinyl — and as a free digital download — of an album previously pressed only on cassette: Tahoma, by the band Alda. I saw Alda open for Agalloch in Seattle last year, and they floored me. So the chance to get this album as a legit download was hot news.

In the same e-mail, Replenish reported their release on vinyl (and as another free download) of the debut full-length by a Tennessee band called Sky Burial. That was a new name to me, but I decided to check that out, too, especially because I found the minimalist album art strangely appealing. So, here are a few more words about each band and then a chance to hear their music. At the end of the post, you’ll also find a link to the Replenish Bandcamp page, where more releases can be explored.

ALDA

Alda are from Tacoma, Washington, just down I-5 from the NCS stomping grounds in Seattle. They are a black metal band cut from the same Cascadian cloth as Agalloch, so if you are a fan of the latter (as I am, in spades), there’s a good chance you’ll get off on Alda, too. They have a similar nature-centric take on the music and a similar ritualistic approach to their live performances. Their songs are long and often hypnotic, with tribal percussion, and memorable, sweeping melodies. But they also know how to slash and burn. Continue reading »

THE END TIMES ARE UPON US

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Apr 152012
 


 

I’m still trying to get my head fully back into metal, but this isn’t exactly the re-introduction I was anticipating. My friend Ian sent me a link to this video. The performance is by a band called Children Medieval Band, whose members are Stefan (10) – vocal, guitar, violin; Olga (8) – keyboard; and Cornelia (5) – drum, harp. They were trained using EarPower software. They have put their 21st Century training to use by covering . . . Rammstein.

The uploader of the video explains: “Rammstein has some amazing compositions, likeable to younger kids.” I’ve thought the same thing! Just wait ’til these kiddies run Rammstein’s “Pussy” through that EarPower software. They’ll be humming the refrain for days and days.

But maybe their parents should wait until the kids are older before exposing them to the wonders of the uncensored “Pussy” video. Y’know, until Cornelia gets to be 9 or 10 years old.

In case the video of the kids getting medieval with Rammstein’s “Sonne” has whetted your appetite for the original, it’s after the jump. Continue reading »

THE SWEATPANTS MOSH UPDATE (NO. 2)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Apr 152012
 

(Time to slam. We’re pleased to welcome back guest columnist JJ “Shiv” Polachek, with another installment of the Sweatpants Mosh Update. For the uninitiated, Shiv is the vocalist for both 7 Horns 7 Eyes, whose debut full-length Throes of Absolution will be released on April 24 by Century Media, and Ovid’s Withering, whose debut EP we recently reviewed here.)

Welcome back to the Sweatpants Mosh Update! Today I’d like to pay tribute to the fallen warriors of the Sweatpants Mosh — the rising stars of slam who had made their mark and showed their promise and potential, only to fall at the hands of breaking up for whatever reason. Many of these prolific visionaries would have been leaders of our current slam generation if they simply hadn’t succumbed to the final deathblow of disbanding. I’m hoping this is enough text for the intro paragraph to look legit so I can just start talking about the actual music. Here’s a picture of a baby goat just to make sure there’s something cool before the jump.

Continue reading »

DISTRACTIONS

 Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  32 Responses »
Apr 142012
 

For reasons I explained yesterday, I haven’t been my usual upbeat self lately, and I’m still pretty down. NCS readers have been really understanding and sympathetic. Some of you have even sent me e-mails with links to videos and music, in hopes that they would prove to be distractions from my grief  . . . and they have been.

I’ve collected some of them in this post, in case  you might need some distractions, too. I’ve arranged them in order of increasing weirdness and depravity, with the finale being a NSFW video by a band of Finnish deviants named Turmion Kätilöt (pictured above). Nothing takes your mind off grief like depravity.

ITEM ONE

This item, and the next two, came my way from Ben C. (Church of the Riff). I liked his introductions so much I’m just going to steal them. Here’s his preface to Item One: “Meet Buck. He’s a deer, who’s dating a hunter’s daughter. It sounds tame, but this is seriously some Pixar quality shit.” And so it is.

You can probably guess where this one is headed, just from Ben’s description. The high points for me were the near-kiss in the tunnel, the hunter’s stoic bloodhound, and the final few seconds. There’s a metaphor in here. I think it’s a message about tolerance for interspecies love. What do you think? Continue reading »

EPIC MUSIC AND MOVIN’ PICTURE SHOWS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 132012
 


 

(DemiGodRaven checks in with some quick music updates . . .)

Let us all reap the rewards that a little extra time given to a disc can provide. Mechina have uploaded the titular single of their new disc Empyrean, and it is fucking excellent. The band have been one of my favorite recent discoveries as their hybridization (holy shit, spellcheck says that is a word! I was going nuts while typing it. Just constantly repeating, “You’re a fucking idiot for thinking this is real”) of death metal, industrial, one part Fear Factory (mostly in the vocal work, their lead vocalist sounds similar to Burton Bell’s old singing voice), and sci-fi philosophy have bought me hook, line, and sinker.

“Empyrean” is a shorter song but is one of the first chances we’ve gotten to hear anything solid from the new disc since they delayed it in January back to May. It still has amazing orchestral work, driving drum beats, and those vocals just seem to be getting better and better. (after the jump, a new video . . .)

Continue reading »

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