IS THAT A GHOST RIDER ON THAT TRAPEZE?

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Jul 022011
 

We first posted about Chrome Division back in May (here), when they released their official video for the song “Bulldogs Unleashed” from their new album, 3rd Round Knockout on Nuclear Blast. This is a Norwegian band that features Dimmu Borgir frontman Shagrath on guitar, vocalist Shady Blue (a/k/a Athera from Susperia), Luna on bass, Ricky Doom on guitar, and Tony White on drums. They play some nasty, thrashy, shots-and-a-brew-back, metallicized rock ‘n’ roll — the kind of music that makes you check to see if a gang of Harley riders just busted down the door to your crib with their engines belching at full throttle.

As their latest music video confirms, these dudes also reliably deliver the T&A when the cameras start rolling. The song is a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, and it’s a cover that succeeds in spades. Chrome Division have ramped up the speed and dialed the nastiness quotient waaaaay up, and turned this song into a full-on romp. It will put a smile on your face and get your head to noddin’, I promise.

But, I don’t think that’s a ghost rider on that trapeze.  Check out the just-released video and the song after the jump. Continue reading »

GOJIRA LIVE!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 012011
 

Above: Quality fan-filmed video footage of Gojira’s June 17 performance in front of 25,000 fans at the Sonisphere festival in Athens, Greece. Nothing more needs to be said.

WELCOME TO THE NEW MONTH: VADER, GHOST BRIGADE, AND DISSECTION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 012011
 

Today we begin a new month with a long weekend. Though it’s awfully tempting to take a short break from blogging, we’re still OCD enough to continue forging ahead so’s we can keep our record intact (at least one new post every fucking day since we started this site). And we do have some things cooking for the three-day weekend that we hope will be fun.

But to kick off the new month and the long weekend in the right style, go past the jump and enjoy these bits of new metal awesomeness: First, a stage-view video of Poland’s Vader performing “Lead Us” at Death Feast Open Air 2011 in Germany on June 25. The video quality is good, the perspective is fun, and the sound is quality enough to be . . . crushing. Nuclear Blast is preparing to begin streaming the first song from Vader’s next album, Welcome To The Morbid Reich, beginning on July 15. We’ll remind you when that day arrives.

After that, enjoy the first song — “Clawmaster” — to be released from the next album by Finland’s Ghost Brigade. This song does include some clean singing, but it most definitely qualifies as an Exception to the Rule. It achieves a successful marriage of beastly power and sweeping, melancholy beauty. I’m on my sixth listen to the song as I type this. More listens lie ahead. Ghost Brigade’s third album, Until Fear No Longer Defines Us, will hit the streets on August 19 in Europe and on August 23 in NorthAm via Season of Mist.

Last, but not least, watch Dissection performing the song “Night’s Blood” in Stockholm (in 2006, I think). The video quality is excellent, the song is matchless, and the performance . . . to quote one of the comments on YouTube, “it’s so fucking epic, you can’t breathe anymore”. Credit to Andy Synn for this item.

In another hour or so, we’ll have our next edition of MORE 2011 SICKNESS, with a round-up of forthcoming albums projected for release in the months ahead. Until then, watch and listen to Vader, Ghost Brigade, and Dissection  . . . Continue reading »

BANDS UNDER 100

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jun 302011
 

We have all sorts of odd ways for picking bands to hear and feature. We pick them based on the appeal of their album art, or the sound of their names, or where they’re from. Sometimes we just mentally throw a dart at a list we keep for our MISCELLANY explorations (the people who watch over us won’t allowed us to have real darts — some bullshit about being a danger to self and others).

Now we’ve come up with a new method of sifting through the great unwashed hordes of metal bands for listening purposes: We decided to pick a handful of bands who, as of the writing of this post, had less than 100 Facebook “likes”. Of course, this tells you absolutely nothing reliable about the quality of the music; many godawful bands have five- and even six-figure Facebook “likes”, and some really good ones just haven’t been widely discovered yet. The low numbers do imply that the band is new, or at least new to Facebook. The bands we picked for this post have got some promising things going on with their music, despite the so-far meager “like” totals. Maybe a little attention will push their totals above the century mark.

In terms of musical styles and genres, today’s line-up is quite varied in their extremity: Melodic black metal from Oak Pantheon (Minnesota), deathcore from Above This (Virginia), death ‘n’ roll from Rudiment of Abhorrence (Washington), and old-school, face-melting death metal from Panic Disorder (Indonesia). Some of this music is also available for free download. Dive in after the jump. Continue reading »

TREPANNING LIVES: ICS VORTEX AND MALEFICE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 302011
 

While other metal blogs were posting about the release of new songs by Dream Theater and Trivium yesterday, I was listening to new songs released the same day by ICS Vortex and Malefice. Is there something wrong with me? Perhaps I need to be trepanned.

Speaking of trephination, I’m always trying to think of new analogies for skull-coring metal, and this one just came to me out of the blue. Amazing that I’ve never thought of it before, actually. I read about a shipboard trephination in one of Patrick O’Brian‘s stupendous novels (I forget which one), and it’s one of those scenes that you don’t forget. According to The Font of All Human Knowledge:

Trepanning, also known as trephination, trephining or making a burr hole, is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater [the outermost layer of the brain membrane] in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases.

Perfect analogy, eh? I certainly don’t think of trepanning on those extraordinarily rare occasions when I listen to Trivium or Dream Theater. But the new tracks from ICS Vortex and Malefice? Fucking skull-coring! (more after the jump . . . including the songs) Continue reading »

DECAPITATED: “HOMO SUM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 282011
 

Seems to be one of those days when everywhere I turn, I see a new song release that perks me right up. This time, the band is Poland’s almighty Decapitated, and the new song is called “Homo Sum”. Before the trollers start in with moronic jokes, that’s Latin for “I am a man”, as in this line from the Roman playwright Terence: Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto (“I am a man, I consider nothing that is human alien to me.”)

The song comes from Decapitated’s next album, Carnival Is Forever, which will be released in NorthAm by Nuclear Blast on July 12 and in Europe on July 15. Guitar World is exclusively premiering the song today, and even though I have the album, I won’t fuck with the label’s marketing plans by streaming it here. To hear it, use this link (and on that same page you’ll see an interesting interview with Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka, who possibly may be getting tired answering questions about the death of his brother Vitek).

And yes, the song is worth hearing (as is the entire album). It’s got a very cool intro, all jabbing riffs and tinkling cymbals, followed by a ramp-up in the intensity level. It’s Decapitated, so you can guess that’s it’s fast and technical, but the song also includes an extended, melodic, reverberating guitar solo that drifts almost dreamily above the rhythmic flash attack underneath. I really like this song. Go check it out.

MASTODON’S “DEATHBOUND”: THE BEST METAL PUPPET VIDEO EVER MADE?

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  18 Responses »
Jun 282011
 

While we’re waiting for Mastodon’s next album, The Hunter, we can continue listening to Crack the Skye. I’m not talking about the songs that were originally released on that album. I’m talking about a song that was recorded at the same time but for whatever reason wasn’t included. It’s called “Deathbound”, and it’s being released today for free download by Adult Swim as part of a 10-week free singles program (this being the third week).

In addition to making the song available for free download, Adult Swim commissioned Authority Films to create a music video. Of course, they did the perfectly logical thing: They made a video featuring muppets. Isn’t that what everyone thinks of when they think of Mastodon? Of course it is! But not just any muppets — brutal muppets, engaging in non-stop, carnivorous, explosive, muppet-like mayhem.

This video is so much fun. Seriously, I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pee myself. Hang on a second. Damn, I did pee myself, just a little. I hate when that happens. I was planning on at least three more days before changing these underoos. Well, fuck, I can get two more days out of ’em anyway.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Mastodon muppet mayhem. Watch it after the jump. The new song sounds righteous, too — it’s a high-energy thrasher. And it turns out that it won’t be the only remnant of the Crack the Skye creative process that we’ll get to hear.  More on that after the jump, plus a link for the “Deathbound” song download. Continue reading »

LOCK UP WILL GRIND YOUR HEAD DOWN TO A SHARP POINT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Jun 282011
 

When your head is already kind of pointy-shaped to begin with, as mine is, then you have to ration how often you listen to grind. With too much grinding, there’s a risk that your head will become sharper and sharper until it just disappears or snaps clean off like a pencil lead. But even though I already somewhat resemble a unicorn, I just couldn’t resist cranking up the new songs from Lock Up. I reasoned that because the music isn’t really straight grindcore, I could get away with it.

You probably know all about Lock Up, but just in case you don’t, it’s a super-group that works, by which I mean it’s a super group. The veteran line-up includes Shane Embury (Napalm Death, Venomous Concept) (bass), Nick Barker (ex-Cradle Of Filth, ex-Dimmu Borgir) (drums), Tomas Lindberg (At The Gates, Disfear) (vocals), and Anton Reisenegger (Criminal, Pentagram) (guitars).

Their third full-length album — Necropolis Transparent — is scheduled for release by Nuclear Blast on July 12. In addition to the band’s usual line-up, there will be guest appearances by former Lock Up member Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain) and Jeff Walker (Carcass). Just gets better and better, doesn’t it?

To date, Lock Up has released two new Necropolis Transparent songs for public consumption. At the urging of NCS writer Israel Flanders, I finally got around to checking them out yesterday. So glad I did, because it’s fucking savage music — a conglomeration of death, grind, and thrash, with a blackened crust — and I’ve developed a savage kind of attraction to both songs. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

A NEW AMON AMARTH VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Jun 272011
 

 

I just saw this. Looks like it went up yesterday. It’s the new official Amon Amarth video for “Destroyer of the Universe”, one of the tracks from the absolutely wonderful Surtur Rising. It’s a live video that was shot on the band’s May 6th stop in Philadelphia, PA at the Theatre Of Living Arts.

The first YouTube comment I saw beneath this video cracked me up. But, figuratively speaking, it pretty much captures my reaction to the video: “its 4am. ive been watching porn for the past 2 hours. i decided to come to youtube and i saw a new video from amon amarth. and guess what. i came in 2minutos.”

LIVE LOVE FROM CONVERGE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jun 272011
 

Our brutha BadWolf e-mailed me yesterday recommending a video he’d just seen. It’s the legendary Converge performing live at Hellfest in Clisson, France, on June 18.

There are love songs and there are songs about love. What you’re about to see wouldn’t be anyone’s definition of a love song, but as Jacob Bannon explains on stage, it is a song about love. The song is called “On My Shield”, and it was self-released by Converge last July as a 7″ vinyl single (with Bannon’s stunning cover art, which you can see above). The song is full of roof-collapsing heaviness, and possibly it sounds even more brutally cathartic in this video. The imperfect, fuzz-distorted quality of the sound suits this song.

If you’ve ever seen Converge perform live, then you know these fuckers leave nothing in reserve — all they’ve got spills out on stage. They drain themselves, and they drain the audience, too. The imagery in this video captures that feeling and includes lots of clear close-ups. I also like the way it captures the glow of the stage lighting at night. But as BadWolf pointed out when he wrote me, maybe the best thing about it is when the fan shooting the video headbangs in sync with bassist Nate Newton, the camera moving smoothly up and down along with Newton. Very nice touch.

Check out the video after the jump, along with the lyrics. The song is a good reminder that in the battleground of life and love, don’t withdraw: It’s better to be carried out on your shield. One more thing: Also after the jump, we’ve added a stream of a brand new Converge song called “Runaway”, which was released on June 21. Continue reading »

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