SEEN AND HEARD: COSMIC PUTREFACTION, EGREGORE, HÄXENZIJRKELL, AL-NAMROOD, SUNCZAR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 082022
 

 

I had a premiere scheduled for today that unexpectedly fell through, so I decided to scurry around and grab some new songs and videos for a round-up. The scurrying didn’t allow much time for writing, so you won’t find much of that here. I did try to create a genre-spread, because unlike me not everyone likes every formulation of metallic extremity. Have a listen, and pick your poison. (Some very good artwork in this collection too.)

COSMIC PUTREFACTION (Italy)

You’d know if someone slipped this poison into your drink, because it doesn’t go down easy. Prepare for churning, gut-punching, fret-leaping, brain-broiling death metal mayhem by a virtuoso practitioner (Gabriele Gramaglia, with help this time from drummer Giulio Galati). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SEPTICFLESH, VITAL SPIRIT, ANATOMIA, UNDERGANG, COME MIERDA, OTTONE PESANTE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 052022
 


Septicflesh – photo by Stella Mouzi

I wasn’t able to pull together any roundups of new songs and videos this past week, which means that today I’m only scratching the surface of what surfaced. It’s more like scratching just the top molecular layer of a solid block of steel. I’ll be back tomorrow to do some more scratching. Maybe some of your musical itches will be scratched too.

SEPTICFLESH (Greece)

Yesterday Nuclear Blast released news about a forthcoming album by SepticFlesh and a video for its first singe, “Hierophant“. It’s a conceptual song that begins a story which continues in the track “Self-Eater”.

This first part of the story (to quote band member Sotiris Anunnaki V) “depicts the experience of a high priest, acting as a human conduit between Heaven and Earth. Having never heard a single word from the mouth of God, he grows tired of preaching the preordained words of the clergy. He turns to performing primitive and powerful rituals that have been long forbidden, as he seeks the guidance of a chaotic elemental consciousness”. Continue reading »

IN SOLIDARITY — UKRAINE (PART 2)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 272022
 

 

In Part 1 of this big collection of music I provided a long-winded introduction. If you want to read it, go here, but all I’ll say now is that I wanted to do something to express solidarity with the people of Ukraine in this terrible time for their nation.

Because today is the day of the week usually devoted to SHADES OF BLACK, I devoted Part 1 to the music of Ukrainian black and “blackened” metal bands. This Part includes songs by 12 Ukrainian bands in other genres of metal (though some charred music did find its way into this Part too).

As in Part 1, I’ve focused mainly on music released in the last few years, just as a way of keeping the collection from going on forever. As before, I encourage you to leave any further suggestions in the comments. And as before, I’m not including commentary or the usual links, just the music streams. Continue reading »

IN SOLIDARITY — UKRAINE (PART 1)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Feb 272022
 

 

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the tragedy that’s under way in Ukraine. With a mixture of fury and grief I read the news every waking hour, and dream about it in my sleep. The fact that my wife is half-Ukrainian has something to do with that, but I hope I’d feel the same way if she were half-Russian.

For many people around the world, it’s hard to know how to channel our feelings of outrage over Putin’s invasion, his incessant lies, his threats of nuclear war, and his repression of dissent into anything that seems like meaningful action. For most people, and especially those of us very far away from the borders of Ukraine, speaking out, pressuring political leaders to act, and providing moral and financial support to embattled Ukrainians — and not letting any of that support wane in the darker days to come — may be all we can do. It’s better than nothing.

This is just a metal blog, and so all we’re capable of doing through this channel is offering up music. Anti-war and anti-fascist music from any locale would be suitable for this time, but I want to focus on the music of Ukrainian bands, a small way of providing moral support. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MESHUGGAH, FORNDOM, BLOODRED, SUFFER IN SILENCE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Feb 262022
 

 

If we let a day go by without posting something, will anyone worry that a catastrophe has befallen us? Some technological breakdown or illness or death in the ranks of those of us who toil here at NCS? Oh, probably not. Maybe just mild disappointment would befall some regular visitors, rather than severe anxiety or anguish. Maybe others would welcome a break from the daily torrent of new sounds.

But life is disconcerting enough these days without the experience of even mild additional disappointment. And so… here are a few new songs and videos, just a few.

MESHUGGAH (Sweden)

It’s hard not to mention the appearance of a new Meshuggah song and video even though everyone likely to visit our site already knows about it, especially because the video is so intriguing (and frightenig). The song’s stuttering and shivering grooves are relentless, and very catchy, and it succeeds in creating a spacey, futuristic atmosphere in keeping with Meshuggah‘s history of providing what seem line soundtracks to the rise of hideous machine intelligence. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A DARK DAY: EVERGREY, INTOLERANCE, DESTRUCTION, QAALM, I AM THE NIGHT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 242022
 


Evergrey

We’re just a heavy-music site, but it’s hard to ignore what’s happening in Europe right now as the world takes another big step backward into a darker time. That has influenced my musical choices in this collection. The song titles and some of the album titles seemed particularly appropriate. As always, the music streams are mostly brand new, and very good, and varied enough to suit many tastes.

EVERGREY (Sweden)

The first song is a hard-charging, emotionally fiery, and ferocious track, with a glorious guitar solo in the mix — and of course it’s a well-earned exception to our rule about singing. Excellent video too. “Save Us” comes from Evergrey‘s new album A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament), out May 20 via Napalm Records. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: RALE, SUPPRESSION, CREDIC, BLACK FUCKING CANCER, LAMENT CITYSCAPE, INTIMIDATION DISPLAY, BELLGRAVE, PRIESTS OF PROMETHEUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 192022
 


Rale

Man, what a week. I couldn’t wait for it to end. One day after another when I got slammed by my fucking day job, a nasty reminder that NCS is a “hobby” for me (and everyone else here). It lives only when the rest of daily life permits it to live.

It didn’t take long before I had to abandon any close review of our in-box or other sources I turn to for new metal. I made no lists of new songs and videos to check out for a possible round-up, and I haven’t tried to catch up this morning. But I wanted to pick at least a few new songs to share at the site today, and wound up picking eight. I’ll tell you how I did that at the end of this post.

RALE (U.S.)

I decided to begin with “Grave Emperor“, a new single by this North Carolina death metal band, whose 2020 demo and 2021 EP Psychic Devastation I showered with praise when they came out. In the case of that EP I wrote: “These songs are so eccentric and intricately plotted that I’m tempted to call them ‘avant-garde’, but ‘progressive death metal’ is also certainly suitable (and you might be tempted to stick ‘blackened’ in there as well). Whatever label you might want to attach, it’s an exciting new work from a band that just get more and more worthy of very close attention.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IATT, GENTIHAA, SENZAR, NAFRAT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 142022
 

I suppose that after the gigantic swarms of new music I compiled in this past weekend’s two posts I should have let you catch your breath, but I had a hole to fill in our schedule before an album premiere coming later today. So I quickly grabbed some of the newest songs and videos I discovered, most of which I heard and saw for the first time this morning, accompanied by some immediate reactions.

IATT (U.S.)

“Seven Wandering Stars ” is a stylistic kaleidoscope that’s being spun almost faster than would allow you to keep up, shifting in flashes from black metal to prog and jazz fusion. In keeping with the rapidly changing variations, the vocals include both razor-edged shrieking and morose singing (by guest Jake Superchi of Uada). There seems to be a violin in the mix too, performed by Ben Karas (Thank You Scientist, Windfaerer). Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: DEMONICAL, MALIGNANT AURA, EGGS OF GOMORRH, TROGLODYTE, MROME, BLOOD TORRENT, CONFESS, 1/2 SOUTHERN NORTH, BHLEG, END REIGN, KORYPHEUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 122022
 


Demonical – Photo by Jens Ryden

For the last three weeks I’ve stayed away from hard liquor because I’d forgotten where the off-switch was. Beer and wine were still on the alcohol menu because, for whatever reason, it was a lot easier to find the off-switch. But last night I hung out at a bar with an old friend. I’d never been to that particular bar and was surprised to see a bottle of Brennivin sitting on the shelf. I couldn’t resist. This morning I’m brutally reminded why I decided to stay away from the hard stuff for a while.

Fortunately, I picked all the music for this round-up after hours of listening that happened before I met my friend. Because I’m getting a late and painful start this morning, I’m going to launch this post without any commentary about the songs. I’ll probably come back and add the commentary later today, not because anyone needs that but because I like doing it; at least I like doing it when my head is functioning.

Part of the fun in making these choices yesterday was discovering that I could present them in short blocks, creating small groups of songs that seemed to work well together. In doing that I divided the music into five Parts. Hopefully you’ll get what I was thinking, but even if you don’t get the connections I hope you’ll still dig the music. I sure as hell did. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: KILLING JOKE, VANUM, MIDNIGHT, KONVENT, INCANDESCENCE, HELPLESS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 102022
 

 

The new music keeps coming in a flood. So what else is new? Well, these six songs and videos are new, and I’d like to recommend them. With a bit of luck I’ll have time to recommend more tomorrow.

KILLING JOKE (UK)

Lord of Chaos is a new Killing Joke EP. Recorded by the original line-up, it’s their first new music in seven years. It includes two brand new recordings, plus two re-workings of songs from the band’s last studio album, 2015’s Pylon. The new songs are described as tracks that “set the tone for the band’s next studio album, currently being worked on in Prague”. The re-worked older songs are titled “Big Buzz” (Motorcade Mix) and “Delete In Dub” (Youth’s Disco 45 Dystopian Dub). Continue reading »

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