KICKSTART THESE BANDS: DREAMING DEAD AND GIZMACHI

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 062012
 

Money don’t grow on trees. If you’re not born with it, you have to work for it . . . or wait for an African widow to drop it in your lap before she dies of cancer or her dead husband’s greedy relatives steal it. And when you’ve got a bit of money, you need to save it for life’s essentials, like buying CDs, vinyl, and band merch. So when a band asks for financial help, we know that’s a tough thing for most metalheads to honor. But when the donation is really just a down-payment on killer music, the decision becomes a little easier.

Lots of bands without label backing are now using Kickstarter to help finance their activities. Here are two who deserve your support: Dreaming Dead and Gizmachi.

DREAMING DEAD

This story just blows my feeble mind. In February I decided to catch up with LA’s Dreaming Dead in a post called “Lapse”, whining about the loooong wait for their Midnightmares album, which the band had been keeping to themselves for almost a year and a half while searching for a label.  Three days later, they announced that the album would be released on April 20, apparently without label support. And then about 10 days ago, thanks to an e-mail from NCS reader Talvalin, I found out that the band had started begging for money on Kickstarter.

I really do not get it. This band’s 2009 debut album (on Ibex Moon records), Within One, was excellent. The songs from Midnightmares that they premiered over the course of that long label hunt were even better. And they have a photogenic frontwoman (Elizabeth Schall) who can both kick out nasty harsh vocals and shred the guitar like nobody’s business. This is NOT a band who should find themselves in this position.

But here they are . . . trying to raise $5,000 so they can put Midnightmares on CDs and vinyl and sell it themselves. I don’t understand how this could be, but then again, I don’t understand how penguins can fly either. Continue reading »

EMANCIPATE THESE RIFFS: ARGHOSLENT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  55 Responses »
Apr 062012
 

(After a little hiatus, BadWolf rejoins us with a thought-provoking piece and lots of sick music [double entendre intended].)

None of us are angels. In fact, most people commit evil on a daily basis (more often if you’re a politician in America). As Anaal Nathrakh said: hell is empty, and the devils are all here.

I’m willing to forgive most people their sins. In fact, most acts considered ‘wrong” or ‘immoral’ are deemed as such based on the value judgments of hypocritical organizations (what up, Catholic church? Yeah. I went to one of your middle schools. What about it!?). It’s value-judgments all the way down my friends, and as such I’m reluctant to cry (bad)wolf at most people.

Racists are an exception to that rule. I never understood judging people based on race when other factors like economic status factor so heavily into racially charged situations. I mean, which of these makes more sense:

A) some dude robbed you because he is starving, unemployed and addicted to hard drugs from birth

or

B) some dude robbed you because his skin cells produce more melanin.

…I know, right!? Continue reading »

A PACKAGE DEAL

 Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Apr 052012
 

I thought I’d wrap up the posting day with a random assortment of goodies I found today. Nothing ties these three items together except that I found them all entertaining, in a slightly unhinged way. The first two would have made more sense in an installment of THAT’s METAL!, but I’m too impatient to wait for that. The third one is actually music, which is why there’s an album cover up above.

ITEM ONE

The BBC will screen remarkable footage of penguins flying as part of its new natural history series, Miracles of Evolution. That’s right, flying. Camera crews discovered this phenomenon while filming a colony of Adélie penguins on King George Island, some 750 miles south of the Falkland Islands.

The program is being presented by ex-Monty Python star Terry Jones, who said: “We’d been watching the penguins and filming them for days, without a hint of what was to come.

“But then the weather took a turn for the worse. It was quite amazing. Rather than getting together in a huddle to protect themselves from the cold, they did something quite unexpected, that no other penguins can do.” Watch what they did after the jump. Continue reading »

MO VIDEOS: IHASHN AND NERVECELL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 042012
 

Well, fuck me blind. It’s just going to be one of those days when every time I glance at my internet feeds I’m going to see something I must post about. It’s not even 10 a.m. here in the grey Pacific Northwest and we’re up to five posts. You can imagine the extent of not-working at my day job that’s going on. But priorities must be observed, and the priorities at the moment are Ihsahn and Nervecell.

IHSAHN

Candlelight Records have announced June 19 as the North American release date for Eremita (Latin for hermit), the fourth album from Norway’s Ihsahn, who should need no introduction.

Ihsahn alone would be worth attention, but on the new album there will be many notable guest appearances. The album will include performances by 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). The album artwork was created by Spanish designer Ritxi Ostariz, and you can see the cover after the jump.

Eremita will be available on standard CD and a limited edition deluxe digibook (featuring an exclusive bonus track).

But in addition to all that juicy news, Candlelight has also released today a teaser video with snippets from a few of the songs on Eremita. Among other things, it includes blast beats and harsh vocals, which makes me happy. But frankly, everything I hear on this teaser reel makes me happy. It’s right after the jump. Continue reading »

NEWS AND VIDEO ROUND-UP: NE OBLIVISCARIS, ZOMBIE, INC., BLOODSHOT DAWN, AND OVERKILL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 042012
 

One exciting news item + three brand new videos = this post.

NE OBLIVISCARIS

I know that less than three weeks have passed since our last update about Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris, but I think I already made clear that just about any news concerning this band and their forthcoming album is going to get space at NCS.

The new album is called Portal of I, and I expect to drown blissfully in the one hour and 11 minutes of unique music it will undoubtedly serve up. Now, finally, after years of work and more difficulties than many bands encounter, we have a release date for NeO’s debut album: May 7, 2012. We don’t yet have pre-order information, but we understand that’s coming soon.

In addition to the release date, NeO have also announced that they will be touring Australia in support of the album. Although I have no hope of seeing any of these shows except in my mind’s eye, I’m swallowing my frustration and including the tour dates anyway:

Friday, May 18@ The Corner Hotel, Melbourne 18+
Saturday, May 19@ The Castle, Dandenong, Melbourne *ALL AGES*
Saturday, June 9@ The Enigma Bar, Adelaide
Saturday, June 16@ The Bald Faced Stag (The Wall), Sydney
Brisbane show: TBA

Now, onward to those three new music videos . . . Continue reading »

RAINBOWDRAGONEYES DROPPING NEWS BOMBS ON US LIKE WE’RE PROTESTING HIS LEGITIMACY AS A RULER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

(I give up. Nintendo metal on NCS, thanks to DemiGodRaven.)

Seems like an upstanding gentleman.

That’s right folks, you’re finally getting the chance to read about a project called Rainbowdragoneyes on NCS. For those who aren’t in the know on this project, it is best described by the artist himself as chiptunes + hate. This basically boils down to heavy metal songs done using 8 bit/16 bit synthesizers so that they sound like the backing music to your favorite Nintendo/Sega games.

I picked up on this project with the album The Primordial Booze, which is so goddamn infectious that it is just impossible to deny a listen. I’ve blared it at work on multiple occasions, usually to the amusing response of, “Who’s the asshole screaming over the Nintendo?”. Each of the songs has a powerful melody that is catchy as all get out.

Well, the artist himself has finally put up some updates as to what he’s been doing since his tour of half the US (one of my greater disappointments was that he was unable to hit the west coast), and surprise, surprise it is making a bunch more music. Continue reading »

SEASON OF MIST ON BANDCAMP!

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

Thanks to MaxR of Metal Bandcamp, I just discovered that the wonderful Season of Mist label has recently set up camp on Bandcamp. As Max reports, “The bands have individual pages, each featuring their Season of Mist discography. Among the 44 bands available now, we find symphonic death metal giants Septicflesh from Greece, and their three albums from the Season of Mist catalog: Sumerian Daemons, Communion, and The Great Mass from 2011.”

In addition to Septic Flesh, you will find pages for the most recent releases by such NCS favorites as Solstafir, Thy Catafalque, Drudkh, Rotting Christ, Ghost Brigade, Nader Sadek, Benighted, Elitist, Esoteric, Minushuman, Nothnegal, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Terrorizer, and a whole lot more.

As those who are familiar with Bandcamp will immediately realize, this means not only that the albums can be digitally downloaded, but also that they can be streamed in their entirety. It also means that bloggers like me can embed full-album streams in our posts, which is what I’m about to do.

For the hell of it, I’m going to include an album stream after the post for a record called Legion Helvete by the Norwegian band Tsjuder, who trace their roots back to 1993.  Legion Helvete was released in October 2011. I meant to listen to it then, but failed. I’ve been listening to it this morning, and the music is absolutely killer. Continue reading »

DYING FETUS: “SUBJECTED TO A BEATING”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

The next album from Dying Fetus — Reign Supreme — will be released by Relapse Records on June 19. I would say that it’s on my “highly anticipated” list, except I don’t really talk like that in real life. I mean, if I were talking to a friend over a beer about this album, I wouldn’t say: “I highly anticipate the new Dying Fetus album, how about you?” So, I think it’s more accurate to say that Reign Supreme is on my “gimme that fucker NOW!” list.

June 19 seems far away, but at least we’ve now got a new song from the album to enjoy in the meantime. It’s called “Subjected To A Beating”, and it was released yesterday in a lyric video.

The lyrics are vicious, the bloody imaginings of revenge by an imprisoned man. The music is equally vicious. It features an immediately compelling opening riff, a grisly tremolo lead that appears like a slithering reptile, some meaty slams, and a spasming guitar solo that’s the musical equivalent of a tongue-swallowing seizure. Check it out after the jump. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT!

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Apr 022012
 

(Veteran metal blogger and NCS web site designer groverXIII brings you some free treats to begin the month of April.)

Ahroy! It’s your old pal, groverXIII, back with some more free musical goodness for you all! Let’s jump right on in here with free releases from four up-and-coming unsigned bands.

Entity – The Meaning Of Infinity

We’ll start things off with a progressive metal band from sunny Orlando called Entity. These guys are a four-piece, and they have a rather varied sound, technical and melodic with some interesting song structures. They’re not afraid to blast the listener (see the second track, ‘Triadic Complex’, for a prime example), but they also make good use of clean vocals and soaring guitar solos.

My only gripe with the music is that the drums sound overly processed and fake; I was actually assuming that they used a drum machine until I checked their Facebook page, which lists a drummer. To be honest, though, it’s a pretty minor complaint, given how good the music is. You can acquire this fine EP on the band’s Bandcamp page. Continue reading »

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 312012
 

Nope, this post has nothing to do with Vietnam. I just crawled out of bed not long ago, somewhat worse for wear after a little end-of-the-work-week blowout last night, and for some reason the bellowed words of Robin Williams from that movie of the same name blared into my damaged head. Maybe it’s because I felt like I’d awakened in a war zone.

This post has nothing much to do with Carach Angren either. I just happened to see this cover for their new album, Where the Corpses Sink Forever (due on May 18 from Season of Mist), and was reminded how much I like it. So what the fuck. Also, the creative facepaint connects to the first video I watched while chugging my morning joe. You’ll see what I mean.

And that’s what this post is really about — new music videos. I watched four of them in a row on this slightly hungover Saturday morning and liked all four, and therefore . . . here they are! I could have sub-titled this post “Bang Ur Fuckin Head and Then Melt It Down”, because that pretty much sums up the sequence of the following music.

AVATAR

I’ve developed a real weakness for this Swedish band since watching their can’t-look-away video for “Black Waltz”, which is the title track from their current album on eOne Music (we featured that video here, right after the start of this year). Yesterday, they released another video for a song from Black Waltz, which was premiered by Loudwire. This one’s called “Let It Burn”.

The video is a live performance of the song. Stylistically, the music is quite different from “Black Waltz”. It’s a straight-ahead, massively infectious headbanger, and if you’re like me you’ll be fist-pumping and yelling “LET IT BURN!” by the time you get to the end. It comes right after the jump. Continue reading »

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