GEARING UP AGAIN (WITH PUTRESCINE AND KOSMOGYR)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 042022
 


Ludicra at NWTF – photo by Islander-NCS

This past Saturday night the fourth edition of Northwest Terror Fest came to a glorious close. NCS has sponsored the fest since the beginning, and some of our staff have worked the fest from the beginning as well. This most recent one was, in a word, fantastic. At least from our perspective, it ran like a well-oiled machine, and it seemed like everyone there, from the bands to the audience to the venues’ staffs, enjoyed the hell out of themselves.

There were dozens of highlights. The best of all was the spectacular reunion performance by Ludicra, who headlined the first night, but all the bands fired on all cylinders, and the biggest crowd we’ve ever had at NWTF had great energy.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but the big crew of festival volunteers who worked the event were left both elated and exhausted, including those of us from NCS. We basically had to shut down this site for the last few days, and it will take a little while for us to get back in motoring gear again. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: SEDIMENTUM — “UN GROTESQUE PANORAMA”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 272022
 

 

The Québec city band Sedimentum made their horrifying presence known within the most ghastly and gruesome realms of death metal through a pair of demos and a pair of splits released over the last three years, paving their way across subterranean plains of rotting corpses and crushed skulls toward a debut album that will soon be upon us. With the mouth-filling name of Suppuration Morphogénésiaque, it will be co-released by Me Saco Un Ojo Records and the Memento Mori label.

It’s hard to overstate just how stunningly destructive, barbarically crazed, and hideously foul this album is. Sedimentum use convulsive speed and overwhelming sonic power as their weapons — one of many weapons they bring to bear. With adrenaline-fueled execution they go fast. With corrosive distortion, a massive low end, and plundering percussive assaults, they brutally smash bones and ruthlessly scour the mind. With unnerving melodic ingredients they conjure nightmarish visions of cruelty and suffering.

It’s all electrifying, and it’s all unmistakably malignant. As proof, we offer a new album track appropriately named “Un Grotesque Panorama“. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS

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Jun 262022
 

 

As predicted yesterday I shook myself like a wet dog, but I didn’t entirely clear my head. What has happened isn’t something that can be blinked away. But I did start listening again, focusing on furious music of different kinds to match my mood. Somewhere along the way, I became open to a change. It came gradually, as you’ll see for yourselves below. The fury’s not gone from my head, just tempered for a time.

Maybe you’ll get something out of this. It’s a big playlist, a baker’s dozen of tracks in all, some with videos, almost all of it new. Because it’s just a playlist, I’ve pulled some of the songs from records that have been released in their entirety. I hope you’ll find time to explore the other tracks on those, as I will.

P.S. No Shades of Black today. I’ve made the picks, but have run out of time. Maybe tomorrow…. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MANTAR, WAKE, MERGER REMNANT, ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE, HOURS OF WORSHIP, TOADEATER, NON SERVIAM

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Jun 182022
 

 

A Friday night spent carousing followed by a lazy Saturday morning doesn’t make a good predicate for a Saturday music roundup. And yes, I was languid this morning, rather than hungover, after exercising rare restraint on the alcohol last night. But though functional today, I wasn’t feeling motivated. The cool, gray, damp weather outside may have had something to do with that. While the rest of the country seems to be an oven, I was luxuriating in a Pacific Northwest gift.

And then, and then, I still spent an hour and a half flitting through a list of new songs and videos I’d made in as the week went by. Finally, I made these picks.

MANTAR (U.S./Germany)

Mantar have a new look, at least for the video you’re about to see, and new stylistic ingredients in the music too, but they haven’t forsaken their visceral intensity. It pours out through the vocals, which reach shattering zeniths (and also bring Kurt Cobain to mind at times), and through the angst-ridden but soaring riffs and keys, and the booming and battering drums. It’s also damned difficult to get out of the head once you’ve heard it. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PANZERFAUST, THE WAKEDEAD GATHERING, NORDJEVEL, BLACK ROYAL, GODTHRYMM, TRIUMVIR FOUL, ENDROT, TELESTERION, ZORYA

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Jun 112022
 


Panzerfaust – photo by Samantha Carcasole

I got an unreasonably early start on the day. On the plus side, that gave me the time to pull together the following large roundup of new discoveries before too much daylight burned. All these songs and videos came out since the first of June.

Fair warning: I have equally exorbitant plans for tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK column.

PANZERFAUST (Canada)

When I saw Panzerfaust at this year’s Maryland Deathfest I wrote this on my FB page: “A wizard of a drummer seated in a garden of cymbals and using all of them; a man-mountain of a frontman who by his mere presence enhances the frightfulness of the music; a pair of axe-slingers who play their instruments near-upright; the creation of an aura of ritual but with visceral thrusts: an amalgam of hallucination and hammering. Well, I’ve missed a lot of sets at MDF but the one by Panzerfaust tonight is the best of the bunch so far and it isn’t close.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BEGRIME EXEMIOUS, PILORI, OISEAUX-TEMPÊTE

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Jun 102022
 


Begrime Exemious

In the olden days I was able to put together a couple of new music roundups every work-week. Nowadays I’m usually able to do it only once, on Saturdays, when the NCS audience tends to dwindle. I do miss those old days, but to return to them, something else would have to give way, something related to what else I do for the site (e.g., all the daily premieres) or something related to the rest of my life (e.g., speaking to my wife).

As you can see, however, I did manage to find a small margin of time for a round-up today, so small that I nearly didn’t even bother. But the thought of shaving even three worthy songs off the gigantic list I’ll be staring at when contemplating tomorrow’s Saturday S&H seemed worthwhile. So here we go…. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MASSACRE, FLESHROT, ENTRAILS, AMON AMARTH, ANTIGAMA, ANCIENT DEATH, NEGATIVE 13, SUFFER IN SILENCE

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Jun 042022
 

 

This has been a discombobulating week for me, which began with a long trip back to Seattle on Monday from a crazy time at Maryland Deathfast and stumbling into my house at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Apart from being worn out, I had the thrill over the next few days of learning that about half the people I traveled and hung out with at MDF, all of whom were vaxxed-up, were testing positive for covid. (If you were at MDF you need to get tested even if you feel fine, because MDF is showing strong signs of being a super-spreader event.)

I also had a ton of shit to catch up with at my day job, and things to do in the planning for Northwest Terror Fest, which is fast approaching. On top of that, my spouse and I had a house guest for one of those days. And on top of that, I paid almost no attention to new releases while I was in Baltimore.

Long story short, I’m way behind on what’s been happening with new songs and videos. That makes today’s selections even more random than usual.

MASSACRE (U.S./Sweden)

I decided to begin with a heaping helping of rotten red meat for lovers of old school death metal, beginning with a track off a forthcoming EP by the venerable Massacre. Continue reading »

MDF BLOG ADJUSTMENT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
May 272022
 

You may have noticed that yesterday we didn’t make any new postings at NCS. It’s not that we didn’t have anything to post, it’s because our editor (that would be me) just blundered through a lost morning and basically forgot about everything other than attempting to gear up for the first day of Maryland Deathfest 2022.

In part I blame the fact that DGR and I and four other Seattle friends were on some flights from hell that didn’t make it to Baltimore until 1:15 a.m. yesterday. We managed to drag our asses from bed in time to rendezvous for lunch with Andy Synn (whose flight from the UK got in at a more reasonable hour) and a crew of other MDF stalwarts that we usually hang out with.

I guess we were at lunch together for about 2 1/2 hours, which is actually about par for the course when this crew gets together, and maybe more than par because we haven’t gotten to do this for three fucking years. And who knows if we’ll ever get to do it again? For MDF, the future is cloudy. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AZTLAN, CELTEFOG, TRUNK, NON SERVIAM, EXTERMINAS, NIGHT ATTACK, SWAMPWORM, ASHENSPIRE, DIOPTASE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 212022
 

 

In yesterday’s roundup of new music and videos I explained that I had pushed forward by one day a lot of choices I originally intended to spread around yesterday. I did that to make room for some even more-late-breaking stuff, But now, as promised, I’m circling back to those original picks — and of course I added a couple.

What lies ahead of you is in some instances off the usual beaten paths, especially in the first two tracks and the last two. The very last track represents the biggest divergence of them all, but might just be the most brilliant offering of everything here. And now that I’ve (hopefully) teased you into staying with me to the end, let’s begin….

AZTLAN (Mexico)

I begin with two songs that I suppose could crudely be summed up as “folk metal”, but I don’t mean folk metal in the vein of this new song by Schandmaul. Both are much more interesting (though that Schandmaul song definitely is a toe-tapper). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT, WITCHERY, LUNA’S CALL, AWAKENING SUN, REEKING AURA

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 202022
 

When I woke up this morning I had planned to do a big round-up of 8 new songs and videos that I’d picked during a listening/viewing session yesterday afternoon. Bleary-eyed, I found messages from Mr. Synn telling me about four other new songs and videos that had popped up overnight from bands we all favor. What to do?

What I decided to do was go with those four newer ones today, plus one of the 8 I picked yesterday, and push the others I found yesterday into another round-up tomorrow. Trust me, even with the slight delay those others will be well worth your time on Saturday.

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT (U.S.)

“Atmospheres awash with mysterious origins. Sacred rites of passage and formidable knowledge lead to marvels of engineering. Funnelling the mass into a finite horizon all roads travel in duality. Blurred is the line between real and illusion as the last scream of truth is destroyed by evil so grotesque. It transforms into a lone rider traveling into the forbidden darkness…”

Those are the words proffered by Imperial Triumphant for “Maximalist Scream“, the first advance track from their new album Spirit of Ecstasy, which comes with this intriguing cover art: Continue reading »

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