OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 1): DEVIL WITH NO NAME, THE FUNERAL ORCHESTRA, MEGAKILL PARANOISE, MISANTHROPIC AGGRESSION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 232020
 


Devil With No Name

 

I compiled this round-up three days ago. Different things prevented me from posting it until today, including distractions from my day job, bad things happening to people close to me, and just the general malaise I’m feeling under the current awful circumstances we’re all living with. A lot of other new music has emerged since I originally chose these songs, but I’m not going to sacrifice more time by trying to figure out what to add and what to drop.

The list consists of music from a dozen bands. I alphabetized them and divided this into three parts, four bands in each one. I have some other posts to finish for today, so these won’t roll out one after another. There’s always the chance I won’t even get all three parts up on the site today. The same factors that delayed this roll-out haven’t gone away.

All of us here hope all of you are well and safe, and that you’ll find something to like in this round-up. Continue reading »

HAIL SPIRIT NOIR: “THE FIRST APE ON NEW EARTH”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 212020
 

 

We have a lot of things planned for today at our site, including an album review, a couple of premieres, and a gigantic round-up of new music, but I’m getting a slow start on readying any of those posts for publication. But then I saw that Hail Spirit Noir had revealed the first excerpt from their new album, and that solved the problem of how to begin the day without further delay.

We don’t usually feature only one new song in a post unless it’s a premiere, but our affection for this Greek band runs deep, as does curiosity about what this new album will sound like, given the fascinating shifts in style that have already occurred over the course of Pneuma (2012), Oi Magoi (2014), and Mayhem In Blue (2016). Of course, as the band’s first three albums have already proven, one song drawn in isolation from the rest of an HSN release doesn’t completely represent what the rest of the record will sound like, because the band have an adventurous streak in them.

But beyond what can be gleaned from the new song that debuted today (“The First Ape On New Earth“), we do have this accompanying statement by the band about the album, the title of which is Eden In Reverse: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: IMPAVIDA — “GRAM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 172020
 

 

On May 8th Prophecy Productions will release a stunning album-length split by two formidable atmospheric black metal bands, the Dutch trio Vuur & Zijde (“fire and silk”), which features members of Laster, Nusquama and Terzij de Horde, and the enigmatic duo, one German and one American, who call themselves Impavida .

The three songs by Vuur & Zijde mark the recording debut of this new formation, while the two tracks by Impavida add to a discography that includes two full-lengths on Ván Records since 2008, the most recent of which (the astonishing Antipode) we premiered and reviewed here last year.

What we have for you today is the premiere of one of Impavida‘s two songs, one named “Gram“, as well as an impressionistic linguistic preview of what the band’s monumental second track holds in store for you (at a later time we’ll have something to say about the music of Vuur & Zijde). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: REJOICE! THE LIGHT HAS COME, MICO, VOID PRAYER, KALL, INTEGRAL RIGOR

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 162020
 

 

I hope all of you are well and staying safe and neither lapsing into stupor nor pulling our your hair due to quarantine-itis. I have chosen a few things to occupy your mind today, since you probably have more unoccupied mind than usual these days. To fill the vacancy I’ve selected a new EP, an assortment of recent advance tracks from forthcoming releases, and a new single. As is often the case, I owe thanks to a couple of trusted advisors for many of these choices.

REJOICE! THE LIGHT HAS COME

This is the (untitled) EP mentioned above. It was released on April 12th by a West Virginia-based band whose recording line-up for the EP also included a couple of well-known session performers (at least I assume they aren’t permanent members) — Colin Marston on bass (he also mixed and mastered the record) and drummer Kevin Paradis — in addition to guitarists Eric Gill and Dan Long and vocalist Paul Ozz, all of whom are also members of Aghasura. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: OIL SPILL, PROTOSEQUENCE, CENTINEX, DEVANGELIC, SMOKE & MIRRORS, VARAHA, HORN, CAULDRON BLACK RAM, LORD MANTIS, THE LIFTED VEIL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 152020
 

 

For today’s mega round-up of new songs and videos I decided not to alphabetize everything as I’ve been doing. Instead, I’ve created five pairs of songs. By sheer good fortune, as I continued to hack my way through an ever-burgeoning listening list, I not only discovered these 10 things but found that they could be organized in this way. The songs in each pair aren’t completely similar to each other by any means, but they do share certain qualities that made them fit together nicely (at least to my addled mind).

OIL SPILL (U.S.)

Felicitously, I discovered quotations from others about this new EP by the Texas band Oil Spill that seemed quite fitting, and they had the side benefit of saving me a bit of work in coming up with my own verbiage. These two are from commenters on the EP’s Bandcamp page: Continue reading »

PANDEMONIUM: ENSHADOWED, KARMACIPHER, EXGENESIS, GRUESOME, JUST BEFORE DAWN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 102020
 


Enshadowed

 

I wondered whether the words “pandemic” and “pandemonium” were linguistically related. So I did some research.

“Pandemic“, a word that originated in the 1660s in reference to disease, means “incident to a whole people or region” and derives from the Late Latin word pandemus, and in turn from the Greek pandemos, meaning to “pertain to all people; public, common” (from pan– “all” and dēmos “people”).

On the other hand, “pandemonium” was coined by John Milton in 1667 in Paradise Lost (though he spelled it “Pandæmonium”) as the name of the palace built in the middle of Hell, “the high capital of Satan and all his peers,” and the abode of all the demons. He built the name from the Greek pan– “all” and the Late Latin daemonium (“evil spirit”), which in turn derived from the Greek daimonion (“inferior divine power”) and daimōn “lesser god”.

So, although pandemics often produce pandemonium, as we’re witnessing, the words aren’t very closely related.

Now that we’re finished with your home-schooling for the day, let’s move on to the musical pandemonium I selected for this round-up. By coincidence, all the music comes from bands who are established favorites of our site. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS: BLACK CURSE, HORNWOOD FELL, CZERŃ, LESSER GLOW, TERRESTRIAL HOSPICE, AEONIAN SORROW-CLOUDS, THE COMET IS COMING, AYYUR, HEGEMONY

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 092020
 

 

Here we go again. I decided not to alphabetize the bands today, but focused instead on structuring this a bit like a playlist of new music, with some ebb and flow and movement among genres as you go through it. I also threw in a curveball, as you’ll see.

BLACK CURSE (U.S.)

Chaotic, violent black/death with mutilating levels of distortion and explosive skull-busting rhythms, coupled with an amalgam of malevolent roars, grotesque growls, unhinged shrieks, and freaked-out, ear-shredding leads. The music also devolves into massive doom stomps saturated by musical misery and accented by gouts of splintering pain. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 3): PUTRESCINE, PYRRHON, REMINISCENCE, TESTAMENT, TITHE, ULVAND, VADER, PANZRAM, VALDRIN, WAKE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 062020
 


Putrescine

 

Seems like a year ago when I started this latest mega-roundup of new songs and videos but it was only last Friday. The alphabetized list swelled between Part 1 and Part 2 on Saturday, when I made it up to the letter P. And now I just need to finish the alphabet as fast as I can, because a new list has already started to take shape since I began this one. In a few days we’ll be back to the letter A.

I wish I had time to say something more meaningful about all the music you’ll find below, but unfortunately quick notes are all I have time for. But rest assured, the fact that these tracks are here means that I like them all and hope you will too. Be well, and stay safe. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 2): FRONT, JUPITERIAN, MAESKYYRN, OCEAN CHIEF, ORTRO, PANOPTICON

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 042020
 


Front

 

I bit off more than I can chew. As you may recall, in Part 1 of this post yesterday I included 12 new songs and videos arranged alphabetically by band name, which took us from A through F. At that point I had 11 more songs and videos in mind for Part 2, with band names from F through W. Of course, Friday has become a “release day”, not only for new albums but also for new “singles”, so by day’s end that original group of 11 swelled in size based on new things I spotted.

Not having started work on Part 2 yesterday, and having spent more than 3 hours last night on a Zoom happy hour with all my day-job co-workers, I find myself on a woozy Saturday morning daunted by the prospect of writing-up the now-expanded Part 2 list of 16. As you can see, I decided to get these first 6 (one of which is an even more last-minute addition) ready to go before the day wears on too much longer. We’re still going in alphabetical order, and this Part 2 takes us up to P.

At this point I don’t know when or if I’ll finish the list with the 10 songs still left, because I need to make time for tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK. Stay tuned… but more importantly, be well and stay safe…. Continue reading »

NCS STAY THE FUCK INSIDE LIST II (BY NEILL JAMESON)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 032020
 

 

(Two weeks ago (here) Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood) shared with us and you a list of musical suggestions to help us get through the current “end of the world” times, and today he follows that with another selection.)

So not a hell of a lot has changed since the last time I sat down to do one of these. Seems that a lot of you are still stuck at home, bitching and moaning that you’re bored while another batch of you (myself included) is considered “essential” and stuck being out with the public every day, most of whom have no real reason to be out of their house except “boredom”. These are the same assholes who’re going to be shocked they’re waiting for a ventilator in a few weeks while the poor sap who never finished college who’s behind whatever counter (me again) still has to go to work without extra pay, wishing they/we/I could be at home or at the very least stop being told by our jobs to be grateful we still have them while the “Today Show” has some montage about how essential employees are “heroes”, a sentiment not reflected in the majority of their paychecks.

That shit-show aside, I’ve compiled a few bands and labels that, since you have the time, are worth your consideration. Hopefully you find something interesting you haven’t heard before or you think my taste is pure horseshit and are moved to compile your own lists.  Either way it gives you something to emotionally invest in for a few minutes while you try to figure out what household item you can use to wipe your ass with. Continue reading »

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