LAMB OF GOD: A NEW, ANIMATED “GHOST WALKING” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jan 192012
 

Almost six weeks ago, Lamb of God premiered the first track from their next album, Resolution, which will be released on January 24. At that time, they gave us a visually interesting lyric video for “Ghost  Walking”. About an hour ago, they released a second video for the same song. This one is an animated story set in some kind of apocalyptic future, with a protagonist who seems intent on preventing a catastrophe. If you’ve heard the song already, you can probably guess how that turns out.

This video is well-done, and I’m finding that the song is growing on me. You know you’re going to get some heavy-grooved riffs from this band, but what I’m appreciating even more are Randy Blythe’s vocals. They are . . . badass.

The animation was created by Moreframes Animation. Watch the video after the jump, and let us know what you think of it. Continue reading »

THE BROWN BOOK: “QUEER STREET”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 192012
 

I guess there are other stories like this one. It’s a big country after all, and a bigger world. But this story is running through my head this morning:

Three self-taught musicians join together back in 2008 (probably earlier) to form a band and make music. At the time, two of them live in Quincy, Mass (guitarist Jay O’Malley and drummer Ryan Lavery), and the third in Brooklyn (guitarist Mike Kvidera). They self-release an album in 2009 called Thirty-Nothing, which was written in a room by that name, pictured on the right — basically a utility hallway in the basement of an old shipping mill in New Bedford, Mass. A real underground, DIY operation.

I find out about the album the next year; I don’t even remember how. The music is heavy, it’s pummeling, it’s hypnotic, it’s discordant, it’s melodic, it’s unpredictable, it’s organized mayhem. It’s all of those things, plus some. I write about it here. I’m so taken with it that I track down guitarist Mike Kvidera and interview him, which runs along with that review.

Time passes. I lose track of this band until April 2011, when a Bandcamp page appears with The Brown Book’s name on it. The band has become even more geographically dispersed. O’Malley has moved to San Diego, and the band has enlisted a permanent bassist, Sam Matson, who’s conveniently located in Cookeville, Tennessee. They manage to self-release a new EP called Pyramid Scheme. It’s even heavier than the album, but like Thirty-Nothing, it’s deceptively chaotic and it captures my imagination. I write about it here.

More time passes, and then a few days ago a new song appears in my e-mail in-box. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: ENFOLD DARKNESS, VALE OF PNATH, AND KEN SARAFIN

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jan 192012
 

A couple days ago TheMadIsraeli sent me a link to DECIBEL’s online site, and what should greet my eyes upon landing there but THAT piece of arresting artwork up. I was so struck by the colors and the imagery that I almost forgot there was supposed to be a song on that page, too.

The song is a new single called “Lairs of the Ascending Masters” by a Nashville band signed to Sumerian called Enfold Darkness. It’s an interesting blackened take on tech metal, with spidery riffing, swarmy soloing, spit-fire drumming, and vocals that vault from growly lows to torture-victim shrieks of pain — all of it rushing along well above the speed limit. If that sounds attractive, hop over to DECIBEL and let “Lairs” give your head a good scouring.

Since I’ve heard the song several times, what I want to do is talk more about the artwork. It was created by Ken Sarafin, who happens to be the vocalist for a Denver-based band named Vale of Pnath. Vale of Pnath released a self-titled EP in 2009 and then a debut album last August on Willowtip Records called The Prodigal Empire. I haven’t heard the whole album, though I’ve seen good things written about the band in comments here at NCS as well as elsewhere, and I was certainly intrigued enough by the artwork of Vale’s vocalist to finally dip a toe in the water. As noted, I also took a deeper dive into Ken Sarafin’s art. Continue reading »

SPAWN OF POSSESSION DEBUTS THE FIRST SONG FROM “INCURSO”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  18 Responses »
Jan 172012
 

Fans of technical death metal had a lot to be happy about in 2011, with new releases by the likes of Decapitated, Origin, and Krisiun. This year shows promise, too, with a new Psycroptic on the horizon (I’m not mentioning Necrophagist for fear of jinxing that possibility). But most die-hard tech death freaks I know are perhaps most excited about the March 13 Relapse release of the third album by multinational heavyweights Spawn of Possession.

It’s been a long wait since Noctambulant dropped in 2006, but the wait is nearly over. So far, we’ve seen the eye-catching Par Olofsson artwork for the album cover. We’ve seen the track list. And now, we’ve got the first song from the album.

It’s called “Where Angels Go Demons Follow”. It’s an auspicious introduction to the new album. It’s right after the jump. Continue reading »

SOLSTAFIR: THE “FJARA” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 172012
 


Solstafir’s “Fjara”:  One of the most beautiful, most memorable, most emotionally piercing songs I heard during 2011. Not “extreme” enough in its sound for me to include on our MOST INFECTIOUS SONG list, but I gave it an “honorable mention”. I should have put it on the fucking list anyway.

Today, Metal Hammer premiered the official video for “Fjara”. It suits the song: scenes of the dramatic Icelandic landscape; water falling, surging, receding; a beautiful woman dragging a coffin, the symbol of a loss she cannot escape (shades of Gojira’s “Vacuity” video); the hulk of a dead U.S. bomber; ghosts and spirits . . .

It’s beautifully made, like the song. Watch it after the jump. Continue reading »

MORE MOVING PICTURES! (KING GIANT, CIPHER SYSTEM, and THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 172012
 

We started yesterday with three videos and we’re starting today with three more. Two of today’s offerings are official videos that were released yesterday by King Giant and Cipher System and the third is a Capital Chaos live performance by The Dillinger Escape Plan. All of these bands know how to bring the metal, albeit in very different ways.

KING GIANT

On January 21, Northern Virginia’s King Giant will have the CD release show for their new album Dismal Hollow. We’ve heard it, and BadWolf’s review will be up here soon. But in short, it’s simply one of the new year’s first great albums — a dark, raw, smoke-filled crusher of Southern doom that rocks hard and is also one of the heaviest beasts you’ll hear in 2012. Massive, hook-filled riffs link up with thundering rhythms, head-spinning guitar solo’s, and Dave Hammerly’s incredible vocals to produce one memorable song after another.

We first stumbled across King Giant in September 2010 because of the ass-kicking video for a song called “13 to 1” off their 2009 album Southern Darkness, and wrote about that here. A few months later, they released a performance video for another Southern Darkness song called “Solace” — and we had to write about that one, too. Yesterday, the band released the first video for Dismal Hollow. It was produced and directed by Kevin Barker (who also made those previous KG videos) and funded by the band and their fans through Kickstarter (I’m proud to have chipped in for that project myself). It’s fuckin’ great. Continue reading »

TWO TITANS TIP TITLES (CANNIBAL CORPSE AND MESHUGGAH)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jan 162012
 

What a feature-packed Monday this has turned out to be!  The latest thing to catch my bloodshot eye is that gnarly Vincent Locke album cover up there, from one of the gnarliest-ever, ever-gnarly death metal bands ever: Cannibal Corpse.

Yes, the next Cannibal Corpse album is fast approaching (with the Metal Blade release scheduled for March 13) and it will be called Torture. More from today’s press release: “While Torture marks the latest progression in the band’s sound, it also witnesses a return to what drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz accurately terms ‘the frenzied attack of Butchered At Birth (1991) or Tomb Of The Mutilated (1992),’ infusing the band’s advanced musicianship with the raw savagery that haunted their earlier releases, and in the process conceiving the definitive CANNIBAL CORPSE record.” Can I get a throaty FUCK YEAH!?  Thank you.

Also, you may remember that one week ago we zapped up on this site a YouTube leak of the first track from Torture called “Demented Aggression”. Unauthorized thing that it was, it got yanked from YouTube fairly quickly. But now, we have an authorized stream of the song for those who missed it. That’s right after the jump (and yes, it lives up to that “raw savagery” billing), along with pre-order info for the album. Also after the jump: more news about Meshuggah’s next album. Continue reading »

MORE FREE DELICIOUS HEAD FUCKAGE FROM SCION A/V METAL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 162012
 

I’m almost to the point of buying a Scion car just to express my gratitude to Scion A/V.  Almost.  Unless you’ve been living in a cave (or the loris compound at the NCS Island), you probably know that Scion A/V has been releasing free EPs and videos from badass metal bands.  But they’re doing more than that.

What I just discovered is that Scion A/V has been enlisting certain metal labels to round up a selection of their artists for performances in Los Angeles before live audiences, professionally recording the shows, and then prepping audio of the performances for free download.

The first team-up was with Nuclear Blast, who helped arrange appearances of Exodus, All Shall Perish, Origin, and Decrepit Birth at The Roxy in West Hollywood on November 12 of last year. As of today, the digital album of those live performances has become available for free download. Here’s the track list, which happens to include many of my favorite songs from each band:

1.  Decrepit Birth: “Metatron”
2.  Decrepit Birth: “The Resonance”
3.  Decrepit Birth: “Polarity”
4.  Origin: “Banishing Illusion”
5.  Origin: “Evolution of Extinction”
6.  Origin: “Swarm”
7.  All Shall Perish: “Wage Slaves”
8.  All Shall Perish: “Procession of Ashes”
9.  All Shall Perish: “Gagged, Bound, Shelved and Forgotten”
10. Exodus: “Beyond the Pale”
11. Exodus: “Blacklist”
12. Exodus: “Metal Command”
Continue reading »

MOVING PICTURES! (from ABIOTIC, PRAY FOR LOCUST, and THE KOREA)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Jan 162012
 

I just returned home last night from 4 days on the road that cut into my web-surfing, music-listening, and NCS-blogging time. So now I’m playing catch-up. Last night I saw new music videos from three bands that I thought were worth sharing — as much for the videos as for the music. I’m guessing all of these bands probably get slapped with the deathcore label, but although the songs include some of the musical tropes from that genre, other trippy things are in the mix, too.

Here are the videos, in the order in which I saw them: from Abiotic (Miami), Pray For Locust (Stockholm), and The Korea (Moscow).

ABIOTIC

I first heard about this South Florida band a couple weeks ago from NCS co-founder IntoTheDarkness. They self-released a seven-song EP last year called A Universal Plague, which is selling on iTunes and Amazon mp3. When ITD recommended them to me, I picked up the EP and listened to two songs, which is all I had time to do at that moment. I liked what I heard, and then by coincidence one of those two songs (“Vermosapien”) turned out to be the one featured in the official video that Abiotic released last night. Continue reading »

“WE SUCK COCKS FOR A LIKE”

 IQ Subtraction, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  42 Responses »
Jan 162012
 

I was afraid it would come to this eventually.

Metal bands try all sorts of come-on’s in an effort to increase their Facebook “likes”. They ask politely. They plead and beg pathetically. They get their friends in other bands to solicit “likes” on their behalf. They dangle the carrot of a new song, or album art, or a track list, if their total “likes” reach a certain magic number.

These kind of inducements are too fuckin’ lame (or too tame) for Greek math-metal band Tardive Dyskinesia, who we’ve written about a lot at NCS. A few months back, they posted this status on their FB wall: “The next 38 guys who like us on facebook will win a lollipop licked from all the band members! What are you waiting for…!!” I’d already liked their page or I definitely would have gone for that. Just what I’ve always wanted.

But that was just a warm-up for a status they posted last week. I think you can guess what they offered. As “like” solicitations go, “we suck cocks for a like” was short, to-the-point, and very friendly. It was also the logical next level in “like” solicitations.

I’ve had fun watching the NCS “like” total increasing on our Facebook page. We crossed 1,000 “likes” last week, and that was definitely a good time, but it will probably take a while to reach 2,000 or even 1,500, because there’s a limited number of geniuses in the world. I’d like to get there faster. Taking inspiration from Tardive Dyskinesia, I’m now thinking about NCS offering blowjobs for “likes”. Continue reading »

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