KRODA LIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 192011
 

In July I reviewed the new album, Schwarzpfad, by Ukrainian black metal band Kroda. I tried to sum up my thoughts with these words: “Schwarzpfad is without doubt one of the best albums I’ve heard this year and one of the most memorable black-metal albums I’ve ever heard — an immaculate marriage of beautiful, folk-influenced melodies, black ‘n’ roll strut, and bestial voraciousness. It’s a brilliantly conceived, complex work that yields something new with every listen. Highly recommended.”

As the end of this year approaches, I haven’t changed my mind — Schwarzpfad is still one of the best albums I’ve heard in 2011, and certainly among the handful I’ve listened to most often.

On February 20, 2011, Kroda performed at the Metal Point Fest in Khmelnistkiy, Ukraine. Two days ago, the band uploaded the entire 33-minute set to YouTube, and I spent my early waking moments this morning (my first morning back home after vacation) watching and listening to it. It includes three songs: “Schwarzpfad II (Universal Provenances)”, “Schwarzpfad III (Forefather of Hangmen)”, and “Schwarzpfad IV (Heil Ragnarok!)”.

The smoke-shrouded performance was filmed from multiple camera angles, and although the video quality isn’t razor-sharp, it’s suitable for this music. The audio quality isn’t razor-sharp either, with particularly noticeable distortion in the bass-end, but fuck, the songs are so damned good and it’s so motherfucking cool to see Kroda performing live that it’s a small price to pay.

As I remember, Schwarzpfad was written and recorded by one man — Eisenslav — but he recruited some talented brothers to bring about this live performance. The video is after the jump. Bang yo fucken heads. Continue reading »

TWO NEW NON-METAL ALBUMS FROM CLOUDKICKER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 182011
 

I am very slowly making my way home from vacation today, with limited net access, so I’m writing this in a hurry.  Still, I thought the news was sufficiently interesting that I wanted to get this out there before tomorrow.

Here at NCS, we were latecomers to the musical phenomenon known as Cloudkicker (a/k/a Ben Sharp). But late was better than never, and when we had our eyes opened, they opened wide. NCS co-founder and infrequent contributor IntoTheDarkness put Cloudkicker’s 2010 album, Beacons, at No. 3 on his personal list of the year’s Top 25 releases, calling it “the best instrumental album all year.”

Our more regular contributor BadWolf had it at No. 6 on his list of the year’s best, calling it “one of the first pieces of genuinely brilliant metal-as-art to be released not only outside of the label system but outside of capitalism period.” And one of our guest contributors, The Artist Formerly Known As Dan, assigned it to the No. 8 position on his best-of-2010 list, with these words: “He doesn’t need a label because he can already do everything he needs to by himself.  And he’s beyond talented.” And last, I included a song from Beacons on our list of 2010’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

With that backdrop, you can imagine how interested I was to see an e-mail from MaxR at Metal Bandcamp today with this news: Cloudkicker has just released not one but two new albums — Loop and Let Yourself Be Huge. I’ve turned the album titles into links that will take you to the Cloudkicker Bandcamp pages where each album is available for free download, or any donation you feel is fair. Both albums are streaming here after the jump — and I’ve got a few more observations about the music, too (it’s not metal). Continue reading »

SEVEN YEAR STORM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Nov 172011
 

(TheMadIsraeli follows his review of First Reign’s EP with some notes about a band-in-the-making from First Reign’s drummer.)

Seven Year Storm is the upcoming project of First Reign drummer Sean Lang. I don’t have much to say except that it’s dazzling progressive groove metal with some mighty badass orchestration. The songs are in raw form, and the guitars are recorded with synths and the like; so for now, this actually sounds more like… brutal video game music? It’s awesome even in its current form. Also, did I mention Dean Lamb from fucking Archspire will be involved?

Songs and videos are after the jump. Continue reading »

HIT AND RUN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Nov 152011
 

My blogging time still being restricted, I’m just gonna hit you quickly with the following three items and then run away back to cloudland. What I have are new songs from Coldworker (Sweden), Mordbrand (Sweden again), and Zillah (Scotland).

COLDWORKER

I’ve been a fan of Coldworker since their early days. Both albums they’ve released to date — The Contaminated Void (2006) and Rotting Paradise (2008) — are worth your time if you like extreme trauma in your music. Featuring former members of Nasum, Relentless, Ruin, and Phobos, they play a violent amalgamation of grind and death metal.

In August, they signed with Listenable Records, which will be releasing their third album, The Doomsayer’s Call, on February 13, 2012. The cover art, which you can see above, is by the masterful Pär Olofsson (not his usual style, but still quite cool). Yesterday, they released the first song from the album. It’s called “Violent Society”. It will tear you a new one but leave you smiling as you bleed out. Give it a listen after the jump. Continue reading »

UNDERGROUND METAL FOR THE TRVE CURMUDGEON

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Nov 152011
 

(Our brutish friend SurgicalBrute, a source of many musical recommendations that unfailingly please the reptile part of my brain, contributes this guest post featuring Hot Graves (U.S.), Sacriphyx (Australia), Purtenance (Finland), and Venenum (Germany).)

We’ve arrived, once again, at that time of year where Islander slacks off and expects us to entertain ourselves. So, I’ve offered to try my hand at this article thing again. Besides…how many chances am I going to get to act like an elitist snob and get thanked for it?

My goal with this article is to turn people onto some young bands that are up and coming and some forgotten gems that deserve notice. These aren’t the most obscure bands in the underground, but it may take some effort to track down their music. I’ll try and provide links to various distros or labels whenever possible.

Anyway, if you like what I’m doing, leave me some feedback. If enough people enjoy this, maybe Islander will let me make it a semi-regular thing …enjoy the music \m/ \m/

HOT GRAVES

Coming out of Gainsville, Florida, Hot Graves is a side project of Myk Colby from the melodic death metal band By the Horns. Their most recent release (August 2011) is Knights In White Phosphorus. Playing music that would best be described as crusty blackened thrash, they would fit perfectly well into any metal collection from the 80’s. For fans of Possessed, Hell Hammer, and Sodom. (Hot Graves music after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

DOUBLE FIST FOLK: SVARTBY / LESHAK

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Nov 142011
 

(Our folk-metal-inclined friend Trollfiend lays a guest post on us. Prepare to get double-fisted.)

That’s right, my little chickadees, today I am going to ram a double fistful of folk metal so far up your ass you’re going to spit out my Freemason’s ring.  Don’t pretend like you don’t like it.

The two bands in question both hail from Russia; Svartby is from St. Petersburg and Leshak is from Moscow.  Both are heathen purveyors of what I can only call “folk death”.  Both bands rely more on folk melodies and rhythms than coming over to your house and punching you in the neck with their trve kvlt traditional instruments.  I’m not saying you won’t hear a zhaleika here or there in either band’s songs, but they are less concerned with being ‘proper folk’ than creating a mood… and I’m not talking about a hippie patchouli incense and tie-dye kind of mood either.  I’m talking about evoking, here: the secret dark places in the cold Northern forests where spirits, monsters, and various members of Immortal still lurk.

And there is a reason I am doing a double review beyond the fact that the bands share a similar sound.  They often trade members as well; it’s almost a folk death collective in a weird way.  I like this kind of shit; see my comments on the Korpiklaani/Troll Gnet El collaboration if you don’t believe me.  It seems like folk metal bands are more into this sense of community than other genres.  If you follow the photography of Audrey DuJardin (and you really should), she has some recent shots she took while on the road with Heidenfest.  Watching Finntroll voxmaster Mathias Lillmåns shriek out the breakdown of Alestorm’s “Death Throes of the Terrorsquid” is pure masturbatory musical fetishism for me.  But I digress. Continue reading »

PORTAL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Nov 132011
 

This post is nothing more (and nothing less) than a bunch of fairly recent odds and ends I threw together about Portal. Portal is not a band whose music I immediately liked when I first heard it. It’s grotesque, rending, soul-shuddering noise; if there’s such a thing as avant-garde death metal, then I guess that’s what Portal plays. But the music has grown on me over time, and I’ve become fascinated by the band.

In this post, I’ve collected a Portal remix of another band’s music, news about Portal’s next album, a recently released video of Portal performing “Swarth” in 2008, a big batch of cool photos from a November 11, 2011 show in Brisbane, and — hot off the presses — a just-released video of the band performing at that same show.

ITEM ONE

Portal is one of several bands and producers who were asked by Bloody Panda to remix their 2009 album, Summon. The remix album, Summon: Invocation will be self-released by Bloody Panda on November 15. Brooklyn Vegan has been periodically streaming songs from the remix album, but the first one to which I paid attention was the one that Portal did — because it’s Portal.

The song is called “Saccades II”. Portal’s mastermind, Horror Illogium, described the remix of the song in a brief Brooklyn Vegan interview published last week: “This was the first and only remix that we have experimented on. In this instance, the eerie feedback on the bass guitar distortion became the epicentre of the mix in which we built around, we chose to use what tracks already existed and simply warp them into a kind of descent.” Continue reading »

PORTUGUESE METAL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Nov 132011
 

Yesterday I got an intriguing e-mail from an NCS reader named Vasco recommending two Portuguese metal bands. I had already decided to schedule a guest post for today from VyceVictus about Korean metal, and it seemed fitting to accompany that one with another nation-based focus.

I would guess that more Portuguese metal bands are better known globally than their Korean brethren, but at least in the U.S., they’re still relatively under-the-radar. As best I can recall, we’ve only featured one Portuguese band since starting NCS — Utopium — and I can only name two others off the top of my head: Moonspell and Heavenwood. So today we’re doing a small bit to patch one of the many holes in our global coverage by providing music and information about the two bands from Portugal recommended by Vasco — Daemogorgon and Bless the Oggs.

DAEMOGORGON

Daemogorgon is a black metal band who came into existence in 2005. They produced a demo CD called Mortiis Tivmphvs and last year saw the release of an EP titled CHAOS.THROUGH.PHOBIA. The band are currently at work on their debut album. Vasco sent me a link to a song from the EP called “Temple Dementia”, and I gave that one a listen. Continue reading »

KOREAN METAL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Nov 132011
 

(Today’s guest post comes to us from an NCS reader who goes by the name VyceVictus. He has seen a bit of the world, it seems, including South Korea. Here at NCS, we enjoy spotlighting metal from lesser known corners of the metallic universe, and so this post fits us like a glove.)

During my time in South Korea, I was introduced to the local metal and hardcore scene in Seoul. I was just getting into metal at this time, so the scene was particularly influential; my first ever live show and mosh pit was in Korea.

I’d like to share with you guys a few of the bands that I experienced. Mind you, some of this stuff ranges back quite a few years, so it might seem a little dated. Rest assured, there are some master-level headbangers to be found amongst these catalogs, and I rock these albums in regular rotation to this day. I hope you will too.

VASSLINE

The first is from the band Vassline, probably the premier Korean Metal(core) band. They are relatively popular veterans who are still active over 15 years in. They received the Korean equivalent of a Grammy for best rock album a few years back, which should be a solid indicator of their acumen. I’m not versed enough to accurately define musical styles, but to my ears their sound is a mix of Heaven Shall Burn and Arkangel with a heavy injection of Screamo coursing through the veins. Take a listen: Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM DIM MAK, AMON, AND THE MAN-EATING TREE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Nov 122011
 

The by-ways of the interhole that I usually prowl on a daily basis in search of entertainment for myself and you have remained largely un-trodden by me since I began my vacation. No recent spoor of mine will be found along those trails. Consequently, they probably smell as fresh as springtime after a light rain. However, emissaries of NCS have been snuffling along those paths like boar hogs in rut, waiting for the scent of something in heat, something that will raise their . . . hackles . . . and reporting back to me their olfactory finds.

Here is what yesterday’s e-mail brought my way, thanks to advance boar-like scouts who will receive credit in due course: A new song from the almighty Dim Mak (U.S.-New Jersey) and two new music videos from Amon (U.S.-Florida) and The Man-Eating Tree (Finland).

DIM MAK

The new Dim Mak album is titled The Emergence of Reptilian Altars. It will be released on November 29 by Willowtip Records, which is accepting pre-orders here. If you don’t know about Dim Mak, you can find a brief history that I posted here, along with the first single from the new album. Thanks to the same NCS reader who alerted me to that first song (Kevin), I’ve discovered that Dim Mak have released a second song. This one is called “The Secret of the Tides of Blood”, which is an inspired song name, and it’s available for streaming and purchase via Willowtip’s Bandcamp (at this location).

This is a superheated blowtorch of a song with massive hammering chords of minor-key melody, jaw-dropping drum progressions, turn-on-a-dime changes in time signature, a psychedelic guitar solo, and paint-stripping vocals. In a word, it’s a stunner. I’m so anxious for this album I’m nearly peeing myself. Check out the new song following the jump. Continue reading »

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