BABY METAL – FINNISH STYLE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  26 Responses »
Oct 292011
 

Yesterday, in a post titled “Kill Me Now”, I inflicted injury on your eyes and ears by borrowing a music video I saw on MetalSucks by a Japanese band called Baby Metal. As it turns out, the Japanese aren’t the only people making metal for children (and adults with the minds of children). The Finns do it, too. But of course, being from the most metal country on Earth (which has been statistically proven), the Finns do it better.

Thanks to an e-mail I received this morning from an NCS reader named Ville, I’ve got three music videos plus one more song. The bands are called SauruXet, Hevisaurus, and Moottörin Jyrinä (“thunder of a motor”). I like the last band best, mainly because I’m dubious that dinosaurs can play metal. But fuck, it’s Finland, so maybe their dinosaurs can do that.

If this is what children in Finland listen to, that may help explain why 75% of Finnish children join metal bands when they get older. Watch this shit after the jump. Continue reading »

VALLENFYRE: “CATHEDRALS OF DREAD” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 282011
 

A short time ago this morning, Vallenfyre released their first official music video for music from their forthcoming debut, A Fragile King (hitting the streets via Century Media on November 1). The video features the song “Cathedrals of Dread”, which Vallenfyre frontman and songwriter Greg Mackintosh has described as a condemnation of religion: “I am a staunch atheist, and I think that all religions are quite strange—and the people who control them are very sinister. This quote by Edward Gibbon says it all: ‘Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.'”

Musically, the song itself is an interplay between crawling, crushing, distortion-heavy doom and a more up-tempo barrage of old-school death metal — a raw, stomping buzz of chainsaw riffing and thundering rhythms. It’s grim without being the least bit ponderous.

As for what’s depicted in the video, Greg Mackintosh described it this way in our recent interview of him (posted here): “It is taking the sheep mentality of religion a step further. Kind of a more black and white and more visceral version of the lyrical content of the song.” You can watch it after the jump. Continue reading »

VAULTING: “NUCLEUS”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 282011
 

About a month ago we discovered a German band called Vaulting through one of our MISCELLANY forays into the vast world of unexplored metal. What we heard back then was a five-track EP the band released in 2009 called Modus Humanis. It was damned sweet (read our babbling about it here). We discovered at the time of that post that Vaulting planned to release their debut album Nucleus on October 28. And so they have.

We’re pleased not only to announce that enticing news, but also to help Vaulting premiere a music video for a song from the new album called “Biorobot”. It’s extremely cool to watch, and the music is killer. “Biorobot” is the shortest song on the album — just long enough to tease us into wanting more. We’ve just received the rest of the album, and you’ll be reading more about it at NCS soon. For now, go past the jump and check out the new vid. Continue reading »

FLAYED DISCIPLE: “EJACULATE WHILE KILLING”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Oct 282011
 

We got the yin and we got the yang. We finished yesterday’s postings with TesseracT and we start today’s with Flayed Disciple. We may not be good, but we’re sure as hell not monotonous.

Can you understand why I couldn’t resist listening to the new EP by Flayed Disciple?

Well, in my defense, allow me to say that although I have a strong impulsive desire to shock people when they least expect it and a personal taste for horrifyingly brutal death metal, I have never actually ejaculated while killing anyone or anything, and the idea of doing that does NOT appeal to me. I also get disgusted by metal bands who sell themselves with lyrics and album art that exploit the vicious degradation of women.

However, I do appreciate a good turn of phrase, and “ejaculate while killing” is just so over-the-top that I couldn’t resist. But as much fun as I have throwing big wet curveballs at all of you from time to time, I still wouldn’t be writing about this band if the music weren’t surprisingly VERY GOOD.

Flayed Disciple are from the UK and their latest EP apparently includes two older songs and two new ones. I say “apparently” because the Ejaculate EP as it’s available for purchase here in the U.S. (on iTunes and Amazon mp3) only includes the two new songs. Those two songs spun my head around so hard I had to check the mirror to make sure it wasn’t stuck in an ass-wards direction. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

TESSERACT: THE “EDEN” VIDEO

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Oct 272011
 

TesseracT isn’t the kind of band we typically feature at NCS. Y’know, because of all that clean singing. BUT, I do like the band and their music. The songwriting is creative, the instrumental work is sharp, the mix of heavy, Meshuggah-style rhythms and penetrating melodies works well, and I tolerate the clean vocals because I like the instrumental work so much.

A few hours ago, a new music video appeared for the song “Eden”. The music on the video is is a revision of the song that appeared on the band’s album, One. It’s shorter than the original, and it includes the band’s new vocalist Elliot Coleman instead of the now-departed Dan Tompkins. I know there’s been a mountain of shit-talking controversy among the band’s fans about Elliot Coleman joining the band — not that I really care all that much about the issue — but I don’t hear a huge difference between the two performances of this song.

As for the video, it’s well-made and interesting to watch. Coincidentally, it’s the second video we’ve featured today that involves mermaids. Granted, the sea creatures in this video don’t have tails, and they seem to have glowing boxes in place of hearts, but it’s close enough. The video is after the jump. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: METSATÖLL

 Exceptions to the Rule, Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Oct 272011
 

Metsatöll is a band from Estonia who released their first demo in 1999. Four albums plus assorted splits, EPs, and singles have followed that first effort, and the fifth album — Ulg — is due for release via Spinefarm Records on November 1. Until today, I had never heard their music. I’m not even positive I had heard their name. Just to display my ignorance even further, I wasn’t even sure where Estonia was, other than having a vague recollection of a Central European location (which turns out to be wrong)..

And then today I saw the album cover for Ulg, which is above, in conjunction with a notice that the album is streaming in full on yet another Finnish web site, Imperiumi (that Lantlôs album we discussed earlier today is streaming on Finland-based Inferno). There’s something about that cover that really hooked me, even though it’s not as “metal” as most cover art for the albums we feature around here. So, I decided this would be a fitting test subject for our continuing investigation of the hypothesis that cool album art correlates with cool music.

So, I cranked up that full album stream and started listening. Now, I warn you that because of interference from my fucking day job, I haven’t yet finished listening, which of course hasn’t stopped me from posting about this anyway. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

I DON’T KNOW WHETHER TO SHIT OR GO BLIND

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Oct 262011
 

I was going to save this for tomorrow, but what the fuck. This day at NCS has shaped up to be more nasty and demented than usual, so I’m just gonna go with the flow.

So, there’s this band from Finland called Medeia. Yes, I know I have a Finnish metal fixation. I’ll eventually let go of that — when my fuckin’ corpse has turned blue and cold. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. Anyway, Medeia are from Finland, which means, without knowing anything else, there’s about an 80% chance their music will be awesome.

And so it is — a powerhouse blast of death, thrash, and power-groove metal all rolled up into a nice package with a bit of metalcore sprinkled on top (thanks mainly to keyboardist Laura Dziadulewicz’s clean vocals). What’s that you say? You’re reminding me that I wasn’t going to allow anything clean in the house today. Well, I’m not. Because I don’t hear any cleans on the video I’m gonna show you after the jump.

And the video is just nutzo in so many ways I don’t even no where to begin describing it. It’s been out since May, so I suppose there’s a chance you’ve already seen it. It’s insane enough to have made the rounds. But I didn’t see it until TheMadIsraeli threw me the link last night. You may laugh, you may cry, you may want to bust shit up,  you may experience the full range of human emotions, but you should definitely watch this (after the jump).

By the way, if it helps sell you on the idea, the vocalist for Medeia is Keijo Niinimaa — who fronts both Nasum and Rotten Sound. Continue reading »

NOTHING CLEAN TODAY, GODDAMMIT!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Oct 262011
 

When you start the day with Maax, move right along to Claws, and then get a lot of F-bombs out of your system texting with a banker in Burkina Faso, there’s just no way you’re going to allow any clean singing in the house before the day is out. Nope, that ain’t happening. NCS is staying nasty today, through and through.

Hemoptysis is certainly nasty enough to qualify. “Hemoptysis” is a medical term for the coughing up of blood or blood-stained sputum from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs. It’s also the name of a metal band from Arizona who self-released an album called Misanthropic Slaughter in March. This album has stirred up quite a bit of hype since then, with glowing reviews from much of metal blogdom. I didn’t pay attention, because the descriptions used the word “thrash”. I thought to myself, “not another re-thrash band”, and just passed right on by.

But yesterday, the band released a music video for a song called “M.O.D.”, and I finally decided to hear what Hemoptysis was all about. That opened my eyes to something really good, despite my aversion to about 80% of straight thrash. But this isn’t straight thrash. At least based on this one song, there’s a heavy blackened crust on this music, plus there’s some quality instrumental ripping going down. I really liked the 2-minute riff-fest of an intro, the capable solos near the beginning and end, and the subtle melodies that have kept the song ringing in my head since it ended. Very good stuff. Catch that after the jump if you haven’t already seen it at MetalSucks today — and then I’ve got a word about something else over at MS that you may have overlooked. Continue reading »

CLAWS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  21 Responses »
Oct 262011
 

Lasse Pyykkö is one busy Finn. According to Metal Archives, he’s a vocalist, guitarist, bassist, and/or keyboardist for the following active bands: Phlegethon, Vacant Coffin, Hooded Menace, Swarming, and Ruinebell, in addition to being involved in the past with Acid Witch, Shrouded, and Sarnath (and many other bands). But what hooked our interest for purposes of this post was his one-man project called Claws, which he started in 2008 in an effort to recapture the style of death metal embodied by old-school bands such as Crematory, Nihilist, and Incantation.

The Claws discography consists of one album (Absorbed in the Nethervoid – 2009), one EP (The Funeral Barge – 2009), and a split released late last month with Grave Wax titled Pestilent Formation. I got turned onto Claws by NCS reader Utmu, who sent me a link to a YouTube clip for the song “Macabre Manifestations”, which appears on the Nethervoid album. I knew I was going to like this after about 5 seconds. It’s raw, ugly, buzzed-to-the-max, and smells like the crypt:

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/06-Macabre-Manifestations.mp3|titles=Claws – Macabre Manifestations]

That song was all it took to send me searching for more music. I found the Pestilent Formation split and listened to the two Claws tracks on that release. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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