EYE-CATCHERS: 16

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 062012
 

I seem to be on an album-art roll over the past week, featuring the new Gorod cover plus new covers by Valnoir, Dan Seagrave, and Niklas Sundin, but as long as the grown-ups continue stuffing my Halloween bag with eye-candy, my wide-eyed inner kid will continue to light up.

SoCal’s 16 began recording their new album, Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds, last September. On Halloween they completed the final mix. In early November, they sent it off to Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer) for mastering. And then two days ago Relapse Records announced a release date (April 26) and delivered unto us the album art you see above. They’re pre-selling the CD and LP versions here.

I had a feeling it would be sweet, because the cover art for their last album, 2009’s Bridges To Burn, was one of the best metal album covers ever. In fact, not having heard 16 before seeing that cover, I bought the album about two seconds after I did. Plus a shirt, which still draws looks when I wear it (unless people are looking at the space where my head is supposed to be — that’s always a possibility).

Anyway, the cover art to Deep Cuts is by Orion Landau (Red Fang, Rwake). It’s not quite as striking as the cover for Bridges that Florian Bertmer (Napalm Death, Converge, Pig Destroyer) created, but I guess it would be too much to get two home runs in a row. After the jump, I’ve collected the rest of 16’s full-length-album covers, plus a song from the last album. Continue reading »

CRYPTOPSY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 062012
 

Most serious death metal addicts I know rank the early albums of Montreal’s Cryptopsy (recently inducted into DECIBEL’s Hall of Fame) among their personal favorites, especially None So Vile (1996), recorded at a time when the “classic” Cryptopsy line-up was in place — vocalist Lord Worm, Jon Levasseur on guitars, Flo Mounier behind the kit, and Éric Langlois on bass. But I doubt I’ll get much argument when I say that more recent albums — and especially 2008’s The Unspoken King — have greatly disappointed the band’s long-time fans.

The band’s musical decline (at least compared to their early glory days) can be traced to Levasseur’s departure in late 2004. He left, and we got Once Was Not (which was not all bad, in part because Lord Worm was back in the fold, briefly) and The Unspoken King (which just plain didn’t measure up to this band’s legacy).

Well, the great circle of life spins, or some shit like that, and Jon Levasseur is now a Cryptopsian again (since May 2011). My fairly simple mind fairly boggles at the contemplation of what he and co-guitarist Chris Donaldson are going to cook up for the band’s next album. Neuraxis bassist Olivier Pinard replaced Youri Raymond (who replaced Langlois last year), and he will be strong, and of course the paranormal Flo Mounier will continue to be his otherworldly self. And then there’s vocalist Matt McGachy, who will ne’er replace Lord Worm in the hearts of the Cryptopsy faithful, but he’s really not bad, and in any event he will be overshadowed by the instrumental extravagance of his bandmates.

And speaking of instrumental extravagance, after the jump, I have a few tastes of what we have in store for our greedy selves from the “new” Cryptopsy, plus a few more morsels of news about the next album. Continue reading »

LET’S GET TECHNICAL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Feb 052012
 

groverXIII, bringing the tech metal, with Nami (Andorra), Innerty (France), and Xenocide (Canada)

Nami – Fragile Alignments

Andorra isn’t exactly a hotbed of metal; chances are, the only Andorran band that you’ve ever heard of is Persefone. Well, it’s time to add Nami to that list. This quintet have done something pretty special with their 2011 album Fragile Alignments, seamlessly combining elements of bands like Opeth, Gojira, Cynic, and Porcupine Tree into something that doesn’t necessarily sound like any of those bands.

The amount of talent on display here is impressive, the songs are incredibly memorable and well-written, and the production on the album is clear without sounding overly polished or processed. It’s really a pity that I didn’t find out about these guys last year, because I’m fairly certain they would have made my year-end list. You can stream the first three tracks from Fragile Alignments on Bandcamp, [and here, after the jump] and you can hear the whole thing at the band’s Facebook bandpage HERE. It’s amazing. Continue reading »

ESCHATON: “CURRENT VOID”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 052012
 

(Almost exactly one year after we first wrote about Eschaton HERE, BadWolf reports today on the projected release of their next album and a brand new Eschaton single.)

Eschaton have been on my personal radar for some time, first because they operate completely independently and second because they make some killer tunes. These four (unnamed) Austrian heathens play a very modern style of blackened death metal with melodic death metal influences. I know, it sounds ho-hum. Fear not! Their interpretation of the sound recalls Behemoth, and Andy Synn’s 2010 band of the year, Dark Fortress.

Unfortunately, Eschaton’s record is quite sparse. They released an album called Godmode in 2004, and then a two-song single called An Instrument of Darkness in 2010. I’ve been waiting for a second album ever since.

That wait is over. Eschaton’s second album, Isolated Intelligence, will be released on March 3rd. In anticipation, the band released a single, “Current Void”, this morning. Oh boy. Continue reading »

LET’S TANGO BITCHES!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 052012
 

That dude up there is Greg Burgess, guitarist for Colorado metallers Allegaeon (I said “metallers” to make Trollfiend giggle like a little girl). He can play some guitar, and not just metal guitar: He can tango, bitches!

He just posted a video playing a tango composition on acoustic guitar, which is quite beautiful. But he CAN play some metallz, too. And so can Allegaeon’s Ryan Glisan. Fuck, all the Allegaeon dudes can. Don’t believe me bitches? Well, after the jump, watch the official video for “Nex of Terra”, a song from the band’s self-titled 2008 EP. I fuckin’ love the song. A fine example of Rocky Mountain Scandinavi-ish melodic death metal. It will get your blood pumping. Bitches.

Allegaeon is working on their second full-length album. Highly anticipated. Tango and rock after the jump (and let us know if you have any recommendations for tango metal.) Continue reading »

GOJIRA SPEAKS, WE OBEY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 032012
 

About an hour ago, Gojira added a link to the uncut version of “Vacuity” on their Facebook page, declared “Sharing Friday”, and commanded: “Share the name Gojira everywhere!!”

Who are we to ignore such a command?

Some things never lose their awesomeness with the passage of time. Besides, lacking anything new from these French titans, we must make do.

 

Gojira – Vacuity from Julien Mokrani on Vimeo.

REMEMBERING WHEN THE HAUNTED WERE WORTH A SHIT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 032012
 

As an early fan of Sweden’s The Haunted, I was deeply disappointed by their seventh studio album, Unseen, released last year. Andy Synn loved the album, though he admitted in his review that it was a true “grower” and not without its flaws. I’m afraid it didn’t grow on me. Though it had its moments, it seemed instead like another milepost in the decline of a once invigorating band.

In a curious turn of events, yesterday The Haunted released a previously unreleased video for the song “99” from their 2004 album, rEVOLVEr, which happens to be the last album from the band I really enjoyed. It’s a montage of live performance clips shot during the summer of 2004 at Stengade in Copenhagen and at the Swedish Rock Festival.

Why was it released only now? Could it be that the band felt the need to remind fans of an earlier time when their music meant more to metalheads than it seems to mean today?  Or maybe that’s just my own prejudice coming through. I do know that it sure as fuck reminded me of why I used to await their albums with eagerness. The song is a headbanger, and the video rocks hard. Be reminded after the jump.

And if you think I’m full of shit either (a) because I liked anything by The Haunted that post-dates Made Me Do It, or (b) because Unseen turned me sour, feel free to leave a comment. Just don’t use the word “shit”, because we frown on bad language here. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 41: FUNERAL WHORE, FALLING LEAVES, AND PARIUS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 022012
 

Your humble editor has been under the weather since last weekend, causing him to fall even further behind in planned NCS projects (and also causing him occasionally to refer to himself in the third person). Concentrating for very long has proven difficult, and given that your editor’s normal attention span is comparable to that of a hummingbird, this is a serious deficit. I haven’t been able to listen to more than a song or two at a stretch, and even typing hurts.

However, the show must go on, and it occurred to me that writing another installment of MISCELLANY would be feasible despite my current disabilities.  Why?  Because in the MISCELLANY series, the general rule is that I only listen to one song per band from bands whose music I’ve never heard before, and then I dutifully record the results, not knowing in advance whether the music will or won’t be worthwhile.

Almost two months have passed since the last installment of this series, and the list of listening candidates has grown to gargantuan proportions. Confronted with so many choices, I decided to take the easy way out and simply pick the last three bands who contacted us (either directly or through a PR representative): Funeral Whore (The Netherlands), Falling Leaves (Jordan), and Parius (U.S. – Pennsylvania).

FUNERAL WHORE

What first caught my attention about this Dutch band was the news that their debut album, Step Into Damnation, would be released by the Mexican label Chaos Records (on February 27). I’ve had good luck with Chaos releases, and of course it didn’t hurt one tiny bit that the music was described with references to Grave, Unleashed, and Entombed. Continue reading »

ANOTHER OAK PANTHEON UPDATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 022012
 

We climbed on the Oak Pantheon bandwagon last June, which I suppose was before it was a bandwagon. Since then we’ve been closely following this Minneapolis duo (a trio, if you include producer Sean Golyer). Their self-released debut in 2011, The Void, was wonderful. It appeared on many of the Best of 2011 lists we published. As I wrote in a subsequent post: “[T]he music is hugely distracting and tremendously appealing. As a gross generalization, it’s folk-influenced black metal with memorable acoustic and electric melodies, infectious rhythms, and a scarifying dose of Nordic vocals. Sweeping beauty and the beast, indeed.”

The Void is still available for download at Oak Pantheon’s Bandcamp page. But as creative musicians are wont to do, the band are working on a new album for release later this year. They’ve created a “teaser reel” of rough instrumental mixes for three songs from the album, and they’ve asked fans to listen and then vote on which song Oak Pantheon should preview in full before the album drops.

After the jump, you can stream the teaser reel and find out how to vote on the track you would most like to hear in full. Also after the jump, I’m excerpting a recent interview of the band that provides more info about the musical direction of the new album. Continue reading »

VIDEO ROUNDUP: NAPALM DEATH AND COMEBACK KID

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  17 Responses »
Feb 012012
 


The thoroughly awesome Napalm Death will be releasing their 14th (!) studio album, Utilitarian, on February 27th in Europe and February 28th in North America. I’m really looking forward to it. Yesterday, thanks to a tip from TheMadIsraeli, I realized I had missed the album teaser that the band released last week.

The video was created by the band’s guitarist and backing vocalist Mitch Harris. It’s a politically charged animation interspersed with news clips of protests, and it’s a head-trip and a half to watch. A comment I saw on YouTube pretty much sums up the message: “Fuck the System, Fuck Governments, Fuck Aliens!”

And the music goes really fuckin hard, too. The riffs crush without remorse, and Barney Greenway sounds raw and pissed off. I’m also liking the use of clean vocals (I know, that’s heresy, but I’m just being honest). This is grindcore done right.

Watch that after the jump if you haven’t see it yet . . . and then we’ll move on to the new video from Comeback Kid. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries