DOOMED THINGS: FUNEBRARUM, UNDERGANG, AND ALDEBARAN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
May 082012
 

Here’s how this post evolved:

Finland’s subterranean death-doom miscreants Hooded Menace have signed with Relapse Records and have finished recording a new album called Effigies of Evil, which will be released sometime this summer. I’ve been monitoring Hooded Menace’s Facebook page, waiting for enough new info to justify a post. Something, anything . . . the album art . . . a  song . . .something!

I haven’t yet found anything like that, but I did find that the band’s second album Never Cross the Dead (2010) is being released in a limited vinyl pressing by Doomentia Records. So I visited the Doomentia web site, which I haven’t done in way too long. While there, I discovered that Doomentia has recently established a Bandcamp page (here). So I went there.

One of the first things I saw was a stream of a split that Doomentia released on vinyl in April 2012 by Funebrarum and Undergang. I will have difficulty describing the music, because it has impaired my higher brain functions, leaving me in a drooling cretinous state. It makes me feel both obliterated and happy. Though the split consists of only two songs, it is hands-down one of the sickest, heaviest releases of the year. Continue reading »

ALLEGAEON’S NEW LYRIC VIDEO FOR “BEHOLD (GOD I AM)” MAY BE GOOD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 072012
 

Allegaeon’s new album Formshifter will be released tomorrow on Metal Blade. Today, we have a new lyric video for a song called “Behold (God I Am)”.

I have seen this video, but that is all I have been able to do.  To be more precise, I have not heard this video.  I am in a secret location where I can look at my computer, but I can neither turn up the volume nor employ ear buds or headphones.  I could tell you why, but then I would have to kill you.

Having seen the video, which includes lyrics because it is a lyric video, I know what the song is about. It’s about the age-old war among religions, with the lives of innocents caught in the crossfire. Endless sermons . . . endless carnage . . . all in the name of one Creator. Nope, it’s not a happy song.

I also know the song includes a long intro, because much time passes before the words appear. There are also instrumental sections, because the words disappear at times.

I like this band quite a bit, which is why I’m posting about a song I’ve never heard. Please tell me whether that was a mistake, or a boon to your day, won’t you?  The vid is after the jump. Continue reading »

RANCOROUS ROUND-UP: MASAKARI, TEMPEST, FIRE & ICE, SAI NAM

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 072012
 

Recently, I’ve discovered two independent record labels that I think are worth your attention. One is a label and distro based in Washington, D.C., called Replenish Records. I found out about them for the first time about a month ago via their release on vinyl (and as free downloads) of albums by Alda (Tacoma, WA) and Sky Burial (Nashville, TN) — see this post for comments about those releases.

More recently, I saw that Replenish is releasing a 7″ vinyl split by Masakari (Cleveland, OH) and Tempest (Vancouver, BC), with two songs from each band. All the proceeds from the split will be donated to Wiggle Butts Bully Rescue of Cleveland and HugAbull Advocacy & Rescue Society of Vancouver, BC. Both organizations are non-profits dedicated to rescuing and providing education about pit bulls. Replenish has also released the split as a free download.

The other label is Reaper Records, which is based in Liverpool, New York. Reaper specializes in hardcore music and has released vinyl by the likes of Terror, S.O.S., Madball, Trapped Under Ice, and Merauder, among many others. I’ve gotten way out of touch with the hardcore scene over the last decade, but even I recognize those names. What brought Reaper to my attention was a feature on Stereokiller about the label’s release of debut albums by Fire & Ice (Richmond, VA) — Not of This Earth — and Sai Nam (NYC, NY) — Crush — and a related contest for album and shirt giveaways.

After the jump, short notes about all this music and links for free shit. I’ll warn you: the songs will tear you inside out. Continue reading »

NO FUCKING AROUND: ENTHRALLMENT AND GOJIRA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
May 062012
 

It’s a Sunday morning here in the Pacific Northwest. The air is crisp and slightly chilled, the sun is shining, and a high cloud layer has turned the sky a pale blue-gray. It’s a beautiful time to be outside. So I thought, what better way to celebrate than to stay inside and beat the shit out of my head with some brutal heavy music? Well, it made sense to me.

ENTHRALLMENT

I recently discovered this Bulgarian death metal band via their new official video for a song called “Fruits of Pain and Blue Sky”.  You see?  There’s a blue sky connection. This song appears on the band’s third album and their first for the United Gutteral label, People From the Lands of Vit, which is out now.

Listening to the song was liked being dropped into a boiling stew of Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Suffocation, and Deicide: brutal, technically oriented riffing; riveting drumwork with timely-placed blasting; a slew of piercing guitar solo’s; and gruesome vocals. It triggers a nice adrenaline rush and it’s catchy as well as merciless.

The video is nothing but the band performing the song, but it’s well made, and the Enthrallment dudes look like they’re not fucking around. Get beaten and bruised right after the jump. Continue reading »

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 »

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