ILLINOIZE: NEW GOODIES FROM THE HORDE AND AWAKING LEVIATHAN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  37 Responses »
Feb 012012
 

An e-mail from NCS reader Black Shuck delivered two nice pieces of news on Sunday concerning two Illinois bands we’ve featured here in the past — The Horde and Awaking Leviathan.

Some dude took us to task in a recent comment for false advertising  —  the name of the site is NO CLEAN SINGING, but we had reviewed an album that did that clean singing like half of the time. I can see why that would be confusing, but the music in this post won’t confuse anyone. Not only is there no clean singing, there’s nothing clean about the music in any respect.

THE HORDE

This band’s 2011 album, Thy Blackened Reign, is a hell-ripping cavalcade of Viking black thrash. Thematically, it takes its cues from Norse mythology, and musically it swings some mighty sharp-edged battle-axes. Speed metal and thrash are effectively fused together with elements of death metal and black metal. It delivers a cathartic, fist-pumping experience.

A couple of days ago, the band released a music video for the song “Odin’s Blood”. In someone else’s hands, the gang shouts of the song title and the first-pumping could have become cheesy, but these dudes have such authenticity and so much conviction for what they’re doing that they succeed. And holy shit . . . those riffs! Watch it after the jump. Continue reading »

ABOMINABLE PUTRIDITY RAINS DOWN THE PUTRIDITY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  25 Responses »
Jan 302012
 


Russia’s Abominable Putridity will release their second album, The Anomalies of Artificial Origin, via Brutal Bands on February 28. We featured two early song releases from this collection last May, along with Par Olofsson’s brutal cover art, but it appears the album has now leaked in full, and all the songs have now made their way to YouTube over the last couple of days.

What’s more, the band have themselves been linking to the YouTube videos via their Facebook page. We presume this means they want people to start listening to the music now. Who are we to disagree?

So, after the jump we’ve collected all of them. This isn’t the time or place for a full review — we’ll do that later. For now, let’s just say that if you’re a fan of wantonly destructive slam metal with pile-driving grooves and cavernously croaking vocals, this will probably make your day. Continue reading »

ALTARS OF DESTRUCTION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 302012
 

Sometimes, the unfinished dreams of youth can be recaptured and brought to fruition despite the passage of decades. This is one such story.

I first learned about Altars of Destruction almost one year ago from fireangel of the Finland-based Night Elves blog, who provided me quite a lot of information about the band and their significance in the history of Finnish metal. To sum up:

AoD was founded in 1986 by the brothers Kimmo (guitar) and Pasi Osmo (bass) and Jukka Sandberg (drums). By 1988, the band’s line-up had solidified with the addition of guitarist Mika Ahlqvist, vocalist Mika Luoma, and new drummer Juhani Mäenpää. AoD was one of the earliest thrash bands in Finland, playing alongside Stone, who we featured in our Finland Tribute Week series (here) and whose former members are now in bands such as Children of Bodom (Roope Latvala) and SubUrban Tribe (Janne Joutsenniemi, who is also a producer for the excellent Finnish band MyGrain).

After the replacement of Mika Ahlqvist with guitarist Junnu Mäki, AoD released an EP (Painful Awakening) in 1989, but unfortunately dissolved due to internal and external difficulties before recording what was to be their debut album. But beginning in about 2006, the band began the process of re-forming, with Jussi Samppala (Tyrant Disciple) eventually stepping in on drums, and in 2010 — more than two decades after the band first formed — they finally released their “debut” album, Gallery of Pain. It’s a mix of old and new material and is available for streaming at MySpace (here). Continue reading »

UNDERGROUND METAL FOR THE TRVE CURMUDGEON: WHAT’S NEW FOR 2012

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 302012
 

 

(NCS guest contributor SurgicalBrute keeping it real with a collection of alerts about forthcoming releases from four underground bands — Maveth (Finland), Ketzer (Germany), Witchrist (NZ), and Anhedonist (Seattle) — plus examples of music from the featured bands.)

Another year is done, and everyone’s “best of” opinion has been given. So what’s a metalhead to do? Well, you forget about everything you got in 2011 and start looking forward to 2012.

A few big names are already being thrown around, some of whom are personal favorites (Desaster, Evoken, fucking Asphyx) and some of whom are enjoyed by the wider community (Meshuggah, Testament, Neurosis). So, with another potentially strong year ahead of us, here’s a few more bands to keep your eye on

MAVETH

Unholy blackened death, Maveth is composed of 3/5 of Finnish death metal band Cryptborn (one of my personal Best of 2011 picks). Mixing killer blast beats with some surprisingly melodic riffs, they never really let one style dominate, equally taking the best from both genres. Maveth’s first full length has yet to receive a release date.  (Maveth music right after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

RIVERS OF NIHIL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 292012
 

(NCS guest contributor The Baby Killer is back with us again, this time with an introduction to Rivers of Nihil.)

There’s a reason why people say if you want to find some of the best music, look to the underground. That’s where you’ll find bands who aren’t playing for a paycheck or releasing the same predictable, formulaic album over and over again, bands who are playing simply because they love what they do and want to be heard. To put it simply, underground bands just try harder, and once in a while a genuinely gifted act comes along that stands head and shoulders above the competition. Reading, Pennsylvania’s own Rivers of Nihil is one such band.

Now there are plenty of local unsigned acts who can write cool riffs and get your head bobbin’ and your feet tappin’, but it takes something really special to make you sit back and say, “Holy shit, that’s a bunch of locals playing that?” Rivers do just that with their personal brand of technical death metal, a unique blend of Aborted, The Red Chord, and a splash of Diminishing Between Worlds-era Decrepit Birth.

It’s certainly fast and heavy enough to keep the pits moving, but it also has just the right amount of atmosphere and melody to keep you interested the whole time. Blast beats and bass diddily-doo’s abound without being overbearing, and the guitars and harsh, almost-hardcore-but-not-quite vocals keep everything grounded. Continue reading »

BANDS YOU NEED TO HEAR: HACKTIVIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  87 Responses »
Jan 282012
 

(TheMadIsraeli returns with another quick heads-up about . . . something different from an English band called Hacktivist.)

I am either about to be extremely surprised or lose all metal credibility in front of all of you.

Rewind to the 90’s and early, early 2000’s.

I know, I know. You wonder to yourself why do I assail you with such trauma? Why have I caused your soul such ache? Why doth I penetrate thy conscience with such unfathomable knives of contempt!? Continue reading »

AUTOPSY UPDATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 272012
 

Yes, we approve this cover art for Autopsy’s next album of body parts. Mind you, no one sought our approval, but we grant it willingly, because this cover by Matt Cavotta includes all the food groups: bat wings, vulture heads, horns, tusks, a snake head, a sickle, a hatchet, a scorpion’s tail, a rib cage dripping with gore, and blood. But best of all, it includes the name AUTOPSY.

All Tomorrow’s Funerals is a collection of all of Autopsy’s past EPs in re-mastered form, plus four brand new songs — the first new Autopsy music since 2011’s wonderful album, The Macabre Eternal. Peaceville Records will be releasing it on February 28, which sounds like something of an oxymoron, because this album will certainly bring no one any peace.

One of the four new tracks, “Mauled To Death”, was included in unmastered form as a Decibel magazine Flexi disk not long ago, and it’s available for streaming on a SoundCloud player that we’ve embedded after the jump, just because even a news item like this one should not be allowed to appear at NCS without some kind of grisly music to accompany it. And believe me, this is grisly death metal straight from the crypt, crawling along at a lurching pace, surrounded by an air of lowering doom.

The track list for All Tomorrow’s Funerals is also after the jump. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM PELICAN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jan 272012
 

The last release from Chicago’s Pelican came almost two years ago — What We All Come To Need. Word of new music has been circulating for a while, and today we can hear it.

Pelican’s new EP is called Ataraxia/Taraxis, and it will be released by Southern Lord on April 10. But Pelican has established a Bandcamp page that’s now streaming one of the EP’s four songs — “Lathe Biosas”.  On top of that, you can download that track for free by visiting Spin.com or via the Pelican Bandcamp site here.

The band characterizes the new EP as an “experiment” — the first release that they built “by recording in multiple studios (often not with one another) and compiling the results”. Most of the recording was done by the talented Sanford Parker, and he also handled the mixing.

After the jump, you can listen to the new song, “Lathe Biosas”. I’m writing about this and including the song stream for the usual and obvious reason — because I like it very much, and because I’ve become a fan of this band after seeing them live in Seattle for the first time last year. The song is a sweet jam of ringing, chiming, hammering, crushing music. Check it after the jump and let us know what you think. Continue reading »

BANDS YOU NEED TO HEAR: OBLIVION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 272012
 

(TheMadIsraeli has a quick tip for you.)

Oblivion is a Bay Area band seemingly coming out of nowhere who are poised to take the death metal world by storm this year, playing a no-holds-barred, spine-crushing brand of insatiably bestial tech death that raises corpses from tombs, worms from rot, and blood from victims. After the jump are videos of portions of songs from their self-titled demo that I will be reviewing soon.

In the meantime, enjoy what you hear, and discuss. This demo is meant to serve as a teaser for their upcoming debut The Reclamation, due out later this Spring. Continue reading »

TRIPPY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jan 272012
 

When you take a song that’s pretty trippy to begin with and you put it into the hands of a creative director and a capable production company and give them a decent budget to work with, you get a fucking trippy video. That’s the conclusion I reached after watching the Born of Osiris video that debuted at midnight last night, Eastern Time.

The trippy song is “Follow the Signs”, from the band’s 2011 album The Discovery (reviewed at NCS by IntoTheDarkness here). It’s a mash-up of complexity and beauty,  punchy staccato riffing and Outer Limits keyboard effects, hardcore rage and prog-metal ambience. Sometimes when I listen to this song, it just leaves me confused, and sometimes I think its ingenious and convincing. Despite my own ambiguous feelings about it, I’ll say this: it’s definitely not dull.

Nor is the video. The visual effects are of a high order, much better than most metal music videos have to offer. They capture the mind-bending aspects of the song. Like the song sometimes does, the video also leaves me confused about what I’ve just seen, but as a dish of eye-candy, it’s delicious.

“We are the victims, but we are also the crime / And the only one who can judge us is the Earth in time.” So the song says, after its dreamlike opening. The lyrics aren’t dull either. The video bears watching, even if you’re not a big Born of Osiris fan. It’s right after the jump. (Thanks to TheMadISraeli for a late-night e-mail letting me know this thing was out and about.) Continue reading »

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