NCS LABOR DAY MIXTAPE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Sep 052011
 

Here in the U.S., today is a holiday for most people. It’s called Labor Day, and it’s intended to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers. It was established as a federal holiday in 1894, but 30 States had already established state Labor Day holidays by then. Traditionally in this country, it marks the end of summer, and it’s a time when people congregate, drink bucketloads of beer, and stuff themselves with grilled food while enjoying the sunshine (or baking in the heat, depending on where you are).

I thought it would be appropriate for NCS to provide some brain-coring musical accompaniment for today’s revels. Hell, even people who live in countries that don’t have a holiday today might enjoy a bit of brain-coring.

So, I put together a multi-national 15-song mixtape that you can download for free. Over the course of this summer, we wrote about each of the bands whose music is included, and on the track list after the jump, I’ve included links to those posts in case you want to learn more about the bands and the music.

I impulsively compiled this mixtape on the spur of the moment this morning, so I didn’t take the time to ask any of the bands for permission. Instead, I used “deductive reasoning”: Each of these bands have themselves made this music available for free; therefore, I reasoned, they probably wouldn’t care if I made it available for free, too. (more after the jump, including the download link . . .) Continue reading »

CSR COMP

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 032011
 

Clean State Records is a label based in Australia that focuses on independent artists. To help promote new artists and their music and to help fund CSR’s own activities, the label periodically releases compilation albums, and the latest (G Force: Stick It To the Man) became available yesterday. What attracted me to this comp was the presence of a track from Reclusive Forest Council, which is one of the many music projects of Ray Heberer, a talented young musician from Taiwan who’s a friend of this site and who we’ve featured here before.

I suppose like most comps, this one is a mixed bag, at least for my tastes. It includes some melodic metalcore, some latter-day nu-metal, and some deathcore that didn’t do much for me, but the majority of the tracks were interesting and showed an impressive array of budding talent.

At the top of the list of songs worth having is the one from Reclusive Forest Council, “Romanticized Reality”. It’s an instrumental track that’s full-to-bursting with stylistic variety — pneumatic power chords, epic keyboard ambience, guitar solos that move from soulful to shred in the blink of an eye, a jazzy Mellotron-ish outro, and more. It’s almost like a medley of the different kinds of music that Ray has been exploring, and it showcases some of what he’s capable of doing. Good stuff that stands up to repeat listening.

Running down the list of other songs on the comp that I like, the next one is from another band we’ve featured here — Kakuna Vs Metapod. The song is “Slurry Dogs”, which happens to be the one we included in our original post about the band. To crib from what I wrote about it then: “It’s got mean-as-fuck drumming, automatic-weapon-style riffing, electronica, little bursts of catchy melody, about four different vocal styles, blasts of sonic mayhem — and bass drops.” There was a big novelty factor at work when I first heard it, but the song is still tons of fun to hear. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

PATHOLOGY: NEW SLAMMING SICKNESS, OR SICK NEW SLAMNESS, PART 2

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Sep 012011
 

Well sir, yesterday’s post about the new song premiere from those brutal-death-slam carnivores in San Diego’s Condemned, attracted more interest than anticipated, so here we go again — because San Diego is home to more than one brutal death band with a fondness for slams.

We’ve got more than a passing interest in Pathology, (i) because their current vocalist is a Seattle-area dude named Jonathan Huber, who used to gutturalize for local-band-made-good, I Declare War, and (ii) because the awesome Pär Olofsson is responsible for the cover art on the new album, Awaken To the Suffering. So, when I got an e-mail from NCS reader Utmu last week about a new Pathology song that had premiered on Lambgoat, I perked right up.

I listened to the new song, vowed to post about it at NCS, and then something distracted me. I think it was a passing fly; it doesn’t take much. Fortunately, I was reminded about the song from a mention of Pathology in a comment by Homelessviking (cool name, that one) on yesterday’s post about Condemned. So, finally, we have the new song for you.

It’s called “Media Consumption” and it includes: Big, concrete-hard, slamming riffs; full-auto drumming; gruesome gutturals; and the squealing of a gutted pig. This sounds fairly standard, no? Well, the song also has an unexpected guitar solo that almost sounds jazzy, except it also sounds diseased. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

CONDEMNED: NEW SLAMMING SICKNESS, OR SICKENING NEW SLAMNESS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Aug 312011
 

I’ve visited San Diego a couple of times. It seems like a nice town. You visit Balboa Park, and you see carefree people enjoying the beautiful surroundings and (when the fog isn’t insinuating itself) the sunshine. Fun-loving folks are out having fun at eateries and watering holes in the Gaslamp Quarter. There are beautiful beaches and ocean vistas, and you can catch a ballgame at Petco Park (as long as you don’t mind watching the Padres lose). But . . . there’s also a vile, dark, underside to this superficially pleasant city, and its name is Condemned.

Condemned is a brutal death metal band with a penchant for creating songs that slam. I don’t claim to be an expert in the subgenre of death metal called slam, but I can claim to have suffered brain damage listening to Condemned’s 2007 debut album, Desecrate the Vile. This was a tragic occurrence, because I have so little brain to damage that damaging any of it is a serious loss. However, I have managed to soldier on.

Unfortunately, I suffered further brain damage this afternoon listening to the first song to debut from the new album by Condemned, Realms of the Ungodly, which will be released by Unique Leader on November 9. Fortunately, November 9 is a long way off. I’m on a waiting list at a Seattle hospital for a brain donor, and I’m hoping I’ll be a lucky recipient before November 9. It would be nice to have a whole new brain before I listen to a whole album’s worth of songs like this one. Otherwise, I could be in some real trouble.

The new song is called “The Divine Order of Babylon”, and it’s decimating. The music is ugly, scary, and horrific — but it’s got groove, too. What’s left of my brain, while mourning the part that was killed off, remembers enjoying the song while it lasted. It’s enjoying the awesome album cover by Jon Zig, too. You can listen to the new song after the jump. Maybe your brain is too large and you’d like to reduce it to normal size. Continue reading »

MAURO MERCURIO AT WORK

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  30 Responses »
Aug 312011
 

Three days ago we reviewed the new EP from Italian face-melters Eyeconoclast, Sharpening Our Blades On the Mainstream. Eyeconoclast’s drummer is Mauro Mercurio, and his participation on the EP is one of the things that drew us to Eyeconoclast in the first place. Mercurio was the drummer for a phenomenal Roman death-metal band called Hour of Penance from about 1999 until 2010 and he’s been involved in other projects, as well as doing session work (e.g., he was the session drummer on Oracles (2009), the debut full-length by Fleshgod Apocalypse).

I’ve said before that I don’t know enough about the art of drumming to be a sophisticated critic of drum performances in extreme metal bands. I know what I enjoy hearing and I know when drumming makes an impression on me as I listen to a song and when it doesn’t particularly stand out, but my understanding isn’t much deeper than that. I’m also susceptible to a feeling of awe at sheer, unadulterated speed, especially when the performer is making use of the whole kit at a blazing pace.

Mercurio is one of those drummers who leaves my mouth hanging open, drooling slightly, with a cretinous glazed look in my eyes. I got that gap-mouthed, glazed look this morning when I saw a video that Mercurio put up on YouTube yesterday. It shows him laying down the drum track — in one take — for the title song on that Eyeconoclast EP. According to Mercurio’s note accompanying the video, the tempo of the whole song is 300 beats per minute (bpm). If my math is right, that’s 5 beats per second. This seems very fast to me. The normal resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. Can the human heart beat at 300 bpm without exploding?

Mercurio also notes that in this recording, there were no triggers on the snares or toms and no studio editing on the drum track. Watch this shit after the jump, and in case you missed the song itself when we reviewed the EP a few days ago, you can hear that after the jump, too. Continue reading »

INSOMNIUM: “UNSUNG”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  17 Responses »
Aug 292011
 

Thanks to a post on MetalSucks, which I saw before getting the news from Century Media, I learned that Insomnium has released a new song from their next album, One For Sorrow, which is scheduled to hit the streets on October 12 in Finland, October 17 in the rest of Europe, and October 18 in the U.S. The song is called “Unsung”, and Century Media is offering it for free download in exchange for your e-mail address (use a real one, because they’ll be sending you an activation code to get the song). HERE is the link for that.

I was wondering in a post at the end of last week whether there is any band that all metalheads like, no matter how divergent their principal tastes might be. I couldn’t think of one then. But MS may be right — Insomnium may be that band (or one of them). I know I like them immensely.

And I like this song immensely, too. It’s dramatic, powerful, sweeping — an archetypal example of what melodic death metal has to offer, that combination of galloping riffs, voracious vocals, and immensely affecting melodic atmosphere. (It has clean vocals, too, but they’re brief and they work beautifully.) The song has already made its way to YouTube, and so we’ll embed it after the jump. But once you hear it, I have a feeling you’ll want to go download it for yourself. (Cool album art, too.) Continue reading »

VALLENFYRE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  20 Responses »
Aug 282011
 

Yesterday I spent some time on Blabbermouth catching up with metal news I’d missed over the last week. One of the reports caught my eye. It was about Century Media’s signing of a UK death metal band called Vallenfyre. Here’s what I read:

Just like SONNE ADAM from Israel, VALLENFYRE debuted with a seven-inch single on the underground label Imperium Productions and also shares a similar approach of mixing classic death metal with doom and in case of VALLENFYRE some British crust on top.

Commented Jens Prueter, head of A&R, Century Media Records Europe: “I was already blown away by VALLENFYRE’s old-school orgy of doomy and crusty death metal riffs when I heard the first demo last winter and the new seven-inch sounds even better. So I couldn’t hesitate to offer them a deal straight away. That’s how we signed GRAVE and ASPHYX over 20 years ago — and we all know that it was a good decision. So welcome to another chapter of Century Media’s death metal legacy.

“VALLENFYRE’s debut album, A Fragile King, is already recorded and will be released in late October 2011.

“If you like a mix of early ENTOMBED, CELTIC FROST, AUTOPSY and AMEBIX, you should hurry up to buy the last few copies of the ‘Desecration’ seven-inch single, which was limited to only 500 copies by Imperium Productions.”

All that peaked my curiosity, even making allowances for the well-tuned PR hype. So, I poked around to learn more about this band — and found almost nothing. But what I did find has gotten me extremely interested in this album. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

FRIDAY VIDEO ROUNDUP

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 262011
 

This post will be atypically short on words and long on audio-visual content. I saw three brand new videos this morning that I thought were worth sharing. I’m going to arrange these in ascending order of length, from shortest to longest.

On the short end of this stick, we’ve got the new video from Toxic Holocaust for a song called “Judgment Awaits You”. It’s from their new Relapse records release, Conjure and Command. Short, brutish, punk-thrash from a PNW band who have grown on me more and more as time passes.  Thanks to BlankTV for premiering this baby.

In the middle of this line-up is a new live video from Arch Enemy for the song “Bloodstained Cross”. The song is from their 2011 Century Media release, Khaos Legions. Yes, I confess: I have always had a crush on Angela Gossow. Does that make me weak? The video intersperses cuts of live shows from all over, with the audio from the album track. It was premiered by Revolver earlier today at this location.

The last and longest piece of vid is an August 24 live performance by Krallice of the song “Telluric Rings” from the band’s 2011 Profound Lore album Diotima, which our bro BadWolf eloquently reviewed for us here. If after all of our harping about Krallice here at NCS you still haven’t taken the plunge, now’s a good time to get wet. One of the best American black metal albums of the year, in my halfwitted opinion. The vocals are sort of drowned out on this vid, but otherwise the audio quality is decent, and the video is pro-shot.

So, that’s it for the words. All three videos are lined up for you after the jump. Enjoy the rest of your fucking day. Continue reading »

RXYZYXR: “NONZERO”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 242011
 

Well, the old fuckin’ day job, which persists in being a jealous mistress, has got me traveling again. That will put a crimp in my output for the next few days. Fortunately, other folks are stepping up to provide the content. And you know what happens when you put a crimp in a garden hose and then let it go.  Just wait ’til I get uncrimped!

But, as crimped as I am, I had to make time for this new video. You remember RZYZYXR, don’t you? Sure you do! We featured them here only 6 weeks ago. How could you forget an eye-catching, palindromic name like that? I’m still not sure exactly how to pronounce the name. I’m just calling them sexy, because listening to their music is like . . . well, you know.

We’ve been waiting eagerly for their new music video for a song called “Nonzero”, and I got an eagerly awaited e-mail from the band this morning with news that it’s finally out. The verdict? Well, let’s just say that groups like Textures and CiLiCe need to move over and make room, because they’ve got some blazing new company.

Unlike the first video, it appears that for this one the instrumentalists in the band (who are overseas — Russia, I think) managed to get in the same room with their talented Florida-based vocalist Thomas Wills. The only unfortunate part about that is it appears they killed him. Back to the drawing board! I’ll tell you what — this song is fuckin’ killing me, too! It’s just unadulterated awesomeness. Watch it after the jump. Continue reading »

THREAT SIGNAL UNLEASHES A NEW SONG

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 222011
 

One week ago, we took note of the release date and album art for the new Nuclear Blast release by Canada’s Threat Signal. We also took note of a statement by the band that the whole new self-titled album would mark a return to the days of Under Reprisal, “but with bigger balls”. Well, as they say, talk is cheap. We welcomed that statement, but were cautiously awaiting the real proof.

Now we have some proof, because not long ago the band posted the first track from the new album on their Facebook page, and they’ve also made it available for free download (though you’ll have to share it on Facebook or Twitter to get the download). It’s called “Fallen Disciples”. Too soon to render a verdict on the whole album based on one song, but I will say this — the song do have some big testes.

The song is built around a pneumatic jackhammer of downtuned riffage working overtime. The vocals sound authentically pissed-off, even when they’re hurling the melody straight at your face. The guitar solo swirls and screams with abandon. It’s a swift kick in your own testes.  Worth checking out I think.

To hear the song for yourself and to download it, the band’s Facebook page can be accessed here. I don’t yet have the ability to embed it, or I’d do that right here. [UPDATE: YES I DO NOW HAVE THE ABILITY TO EMBED IT!] The new album is scheduled for release in physical and digital formats on October 7 in Europe and October 11 in North America. It was produced and mixed by Zeuss at Planet-Z Recordings in Hadley, MA, and that’s usually a good sign — already being borne out by the sound of “Fallen Disciples”.

Go listen to the song after the jump. And hey, will someone get those poor dudes a bunch of towels and a hot toddy? Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries