A BRUTAL ASS MORNING

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 052011
 

(TheMadIsraeli helps us start off our Saturday with a bang.)

Good morning fellow NCSer’s.  I’ve taken it upon myself while Islander engages in his carnal activities (gotta help a brother out) to be Islander number two, since it turns out a shitload of people get the two of us confused anyway.  I decided to bring you some brutal goodies this morning to start your day with.

Fallujah is a band I have heard much about, little of.  My good friend Brian Shields of White Noise Metal was especially singing their praises a while back.  He’d seen them live quite a bit and was pretty sure they were going to be the next big thing.  I think he might be right.  I have the debut song from their debut album The Harvest Wombs called “Become One”.  It is an amazing slice of technical melodic death metal full of nice proggy, jazzy, melodic transitions, assaulting the ears with a hail storm of blast beasts and vicious vocals.  I intend to procure this album for review one way or another. Continue reading »

UNIVERSE217: “NOTHING/66”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Nov 052011
 

Universe217 is an experimental doom metal band from Athens, Greece. They’ve released two albums, a self-titled debut in 2007 and Familiar Places in 2011. I found out about this band through a Facebook post by another Greek band, Tardive Dyskinesia, whose music I know and like a lot (I’ve written about them many times at NCS, including this post). So far, I’ve listened to a grand total of two songs by Universe217, and those songs were performed as a single work for purposes of an unusual video.

The video was shot on a mountain outside Athens called Aloula, which is perhaps most famous because it’s the place where much of the marble used to build the Parthenon was quarried. The band and the film crew hiked with all the gear up the mountain for about 20 minutes, then set up and played. The performance was recorded live. Joining Universe217 were a couple of guest musicians — the vocalist from Tardive Dyskinesia (Manthos), who played guitar in this performance, and the drummer for a band called Need (Petros), combining with Universe217’a own drummer for a dual attack.

The video performance combines two songs — “Nothing” from Familiar Places and “66” from the band’s self-titled debut. The music isn’t as extreme as most of the music we cover at NCS, but it has a haunting quality that I found appealing, and I also just think it’s cool that they did this in one take, performing live on a mountain outside Athens. I was also impressed with the vocals of the band’s frontwoman Tania. Most of her singing is clean, though as the song builds in intensity she eventually kicks into some nice harsh crescendos. Check this out after the jump. Continue reading »

ADIOS MOTHERFUCKERS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  21 Responses »
Nov 042011
 

I like vacations. First, there is very little working. Very little working is a good thing. I would be very happy with very little working from now until the end of time as I know it. Second, there is very much eating, drinking, and sleeping. These are also good things. I could do them until the end of time as I know it, until I become one of those people who gets so enormously fat and atrophied that emergency workers have to bust down the wall of the house and use a crane just to remove the corpse after the last filthy breath of life has passed the lips.

Third, if I am a good boy and play my cards right, there may be carnal activity with Mrs. Islander in between bouts of eating, drinking, and sleeping. Fourth, there will be beautiful clouds, of which I will take many photos during the few hours when I am awake, some of which I will share with you, because having your head in the clouds is a good thing and should be experienced more frequently.

Fifth, vacations are an excuse for me to solicit guest posts for NCS, of which I have received many already. You’ve seen some of them already this week, even though I have not yet left on vacation but instead have been working like a fucking orc under the heavy whip hand of the Dark Lord of Mordor. But what you’ve seen this week is just the tip of the iceberg — there are some juicy ones coming your way in the weeks ahead (in addition to new material from Andy Synn, BadWolf, and TheMadIsraeli). And by the way, there is still time to send me guest posts, so don’t be bashful.

Yes, I will still have some limited time for blogging activity, such as the time necessary to format and post guest pieces and maybe even to write some quick things myself. However, I am not going to push my luck with blogging time between now and my return to the NCS metallic island on Nov 18 (see note above re being a good boy, in hopes of carnal activity with Mrs. Islander).

So, with this post I bid you all a fond farewell.  Before this day is out, I will be winging my way to a distant land where life is sloooooow and there will be eating, drinking, sleeping, clouds, and perhaps carnal activity. I leave you with a random collection of music I missed while working like an orc over the past week: After the jump, new/newish videos from Vildhjarta (Sweden), Bury Your Dead (U.S.), and Exhumed (U.S.), and a new song from GoreGazm (South Africa). Continue reading »

HALLOWEEN FAIL (Part 4)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 042011
 

In our continuing attempt to make Halloween last all week, I’ve randomly picked four more Halloween-appropriate metal songs from the slew of suggestions we got via this post on Halloween Day.

First, we have “Evil Dead” from Death. As SurgicalBrute said when he suggested this one, how could this not make the cut (though “Zombie Ritual” would have been a fine choice, too)? Then I picked a live video of King Diamond performing “Come to the Sabbath”. Tikan’s actual suggestion was the “classic” Mercyful Fate rendition of the song, but this video is so full of cheese (and boobs) that I couldn’t resist it. After that, we’ve got some horrorpunk (thanks to Trollfiend) from a German band called The Crimson Ghosts; this video is pretty cool.

And finally, with thanks to .jh, we’ve got The Coffinshakers and their odd brand of goth country. Not metal, but definitely Halloweenie.

Lots of clean singing in this collection, but I’m holding my nose and doing it anyway — after the jump. Continue reading »

HEIRS TO THE THRONE: DISSECTION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Nov 042011
 

(The first two albums by Sweden’s Dissection are among my all-time favorite metal albums. So I was most interested in this guest post by a writer who goes by the name Kazz.  He identifies six bands who faithful Dissection fans should get to know.)

I remember hearing Dissection for the first time right after their debut LP, The Somberlain, dropped. This was back in the day before the internet was the primary tool for discovering metal, and for American fans of European metal the options were limited to blind purchases from import mail-order distros, or if you were lucky enough to live in a city with a good metal record store, you might have been able to get a recommendation from a knowledgeable clerk (remember those?).

The second wave of black metal was in full swing, but I was more tuned into the nascent Gothenburg melodic death metal scene. The NWOBHM-influenced twin lead-guitar harmonies over a death metal framework made these early melodic death releases fresh, rare, and worth import CD prices for anyone who loved both melody and brutality.

Some of those early In Flames and Dark Tranquillity records had a much more blackened vibe in the early days, particularly in their vocal delivery. But it wasn’t until I got my hands on The Somberlain that I really found anyone who very effectively merged melody with a black metal framework. Dissection made their name by infusing their black metal with a layer of melody which ensured that each song was memorable, together with strong musicianship and compelling lyrics and imagery. By keeping most of their NWOBHM-isms in the minor scale, they maintained a sense of darkness and foreboding over the blasting, thrashing framework of technically-proficient black metal. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

HALLOWEEN FAIL (Part 3)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 032011
 

In our continuing attempt to make Halloween last all week, I’ve randomly picked three more Halloween-appropriate metal songs from the slew of suggestions we got via this post on Halloween Day. First up is a music video from Finland’s Medeia (with a little help from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video). It includes these immortal pick-up lines in a bar:

“I’m in a band”

“Yeah right, and it’s called old man’s dad?”

“We has a booze at the training place (or something like that)”

“You have a moose? Please just get lost.”

“I think he meant booze.”

“Why didn’t you say so! Let’s go!”

My other two picks are songs from Lair of the Minotaur (U.S.) and Spawn of Possession (Sweden). Stay grisly. Drink more blood. Watch and listen after the jump. (Thanks to jeimssi, kingben, and TRex for these suggestions.) Continue reading »

ON THE SPOT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Nov 022011
 

(TheMadIsraeli tosses a fistful of metal shards straight at your head.)

Alright so, I’m doing this next-level, on-the-spot shit because I got like, five minutes before a class starts so here we go.

I’ve got videos from a death-djent band named Dumpsterfire featuring the infamous Kevin Talley on drums, a deathcore band who’s made quite an impact on me by the name of Structures, a new Goretrade track (the band featured in that first Sunday Evisceration piece we did awhile back) and a song by the new band of now ex-H.A.A.R.P Machine vocalist Dom Sobkowicz  — The Exilion. Enjoy (after the jump). Continue reading »

HALLOWEEN FAIL (Part 2)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 022011
 

In our continuing attempt to make Halloween last all week, we’ve randomly picked three more Halloween-appropriate metal songs from the slew of suggestions we got via this post on Halloween Day. Today’s picks are songs from Hooded Menace (Finland), Deicide (U.S.), and Blut Aus Nord (France).

Stay grisly. Songs after the jump. Continue reading »

HALLOWEEN FAIL (Part 1)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Nov 012011
 

Well, don’t I feel like a dick. Yesterday I invited NCS readers to suggest metal for Halloween and I said I’d pick three songs from the suggestions and play them by nightfall. I got a bunch of interesting looking recommendations in the Comments on that post. However, in order to pick the three songs I thought were best-suited for the occasion, I needed to listen to all the recommendations. Unfortunately, my fucking day job turned into a fucking day-and-night job, and I had no time to do that.

Fuck, I didn’t even have time to listen to three of the songs picked at random. While metalheads throughout the Halloween-celebrating world were out getting smashed while looking even more ridiculous than usual, or getting smashed in the privacy of their own basements while looking only usually ridiculous, or simply ignoring the holiday in favor of whatever metalheads do on a normal Monday night, I was slaving away at what I do to put bread on the table (and the less said about that, the better). So, yes, I failed.

What to do to make up for this fuck-up? Well, it’s probably not as good as another phony tour t-shirt, but what I’m going to do each day for the rest of this week is to pick three songs at random from the list of suggestions and play them for you. Think of it as a week’s worth of Halloweens. That may suck if you don’t like Halloween, but I have a feeling the music is going to rock. And for the first installment, I’ve picked the first three suggestions I got yesterday (from Phro, Trollfiend,  and Andy Synn) — music from Type O Negative, Februus, and The Black Dahlia Murder.  After the jump. Continue reading »

JEIMSSI WEIGHS IN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  21 Responses »
Nov 012011
 


And here is the first of our guest posts, which will be running with greater than usual frequency over the next three weeks or so while your humble editor’s own blogging time is squeezed down to a nub. And this one comes from one of our faithful readers and commenters from Finland who introduces us to three bands, from Germany, France, and Finland (of course).

Greetings fellow low-life scum of the NCS family. I am jeimssi, the random Finnish dude who posts pointless and shitty comments on this site.

Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot at contributing to the crÈme de la crÈme of metalblogs, and besides, you gotta help a brotha out!
As you all probably know, the Godfather, Islander has requested the readers’ aid for keeping up the flow of posts, while he goes for an ‘adventurous’ vacation in Thailand. (who am I to judge, we’ve all been there)

Now, my capability in producing bearable written text is, pretty strictly said, shit, let alone be it in English. So I’m not even going to try and come up with funny and clever depictions of the following music I’m about to introduce. Just small introductions about the bands and letting you do the analyzing yourself.

When I started to think about the possible bands I could write about, I ended up with a small problem. I wanted to do a post about bands who would be new to the readers, but my taste in music is frighteningly equal to the one that is present here in NCS, meaning that people are already familiar with many of the bands I listen to and could have written about.

Anyways, enough with the chit-chat. Show time!

Continue reading »

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