METAL FOR MIXED COMPANY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  29 Responses »
Aug 262017
 

 

I’ve been in this situation more than once, and maybe you have too: I’m hanging out listening to music with people who don’t have much interest in metal and don’t know much about it (though everyone seems to have heard of Metallica), but they’re trying to be polite, so they ask if you’d like to pick something for everyone to listen to, in between whatever they’re playing.

I was in this situation last weekend, which is why I’m thinking about it. It wasn’t the first time, it won’t be the last. I don’t always come up with the same answers. It’s usually whatever pops into my head first. But either consciously or subconsciously, I’m usually thinking about catchy riffs, infectious rhythms, and melodies that people can latch onto fast. It’s usually tempting to steer clear of harsh vocals, but sometimes I just don’t give a fuck about that. Depends on the company I’m keeping and my own mood. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): OMEGA, ANTICHRIST SIEGE MACHINE, SEITA, SLOWLY BUILDING WEAPONS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 242017
 

 

Suppressing the nagging worry that we’re once again overwhelming you with too much new music, I present Part 2 of today’s two-part round-up. Part 1 included recordings by five bands, and this one has music from four more.

OMEGA

I begin with a song called “Sidera” off the debut album by a band ambitiously named Omega. Entitled Eve, it will be released by Dusktone on Oct0ber 1, and it’s apparently based on the 15th century Voynich manuscript, an illustrated volume written in a language that to this day has never been deciphered (read more here).

The participants in Omega are reportedly members of such other bands as Hanging Garden, Nostalgie, Deadly Carnage, Ashes of Chaos, and they’ve been working on the album for four years, with the aim (according to a description on Bandcamp) of creating “a subconscious experience, an atavistic expression that tends to destroy our deepest convictions, which are always limiting and promising”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): REX DEMONUS, ONIRISM, IMPLORE, KRIEG, ROTTING KINGDOM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 242017
 

 

I know I posted a round-up of new music just yesterday, but there are far more discoveries I’d like to share, and these go a bit deeper into the obscure realms of the underground than the ones I picked yesterday.

Lots of interesting stuff here, so much that I’ve divided this post into two parts. You may need to skip a meal and a bathroom break to get through both parts, but you’ll be glad you did, even if you begin gnawing your fingers and wetting yourselves. That ain’t fake news.

REX DEMONUS

The first band here is Rex Venomous, they are a multinational group, and the debut two-song EP you’re about to hear is Tenetur et Relicta. I looked up those two Latin words, and they translate as “bound and abandoned”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BELL WITCH, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, CLOAK, UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 232017
 

 

The unwelcome intrusion of non-blog life has forced me to truncate my usual verbose reactions to the music I’ve selected in this mid-week round-up (cue the weeping and the gnashing of teeth), but I wanted to be prompt in spreading the word about the following items, all of which appeared either yesterday or this morning.

I picked these five new songs in part because they provide a quite varied array of what metal in the modern era has to offer.

BELL WITCH

The new Bell Witch album, Mirror Reaper, will be released by Profound Lore on October 20, with an album cover by Mariusz Lewandowski that we won’t soon forget. The album consists of one continuous 83-minute piece that unfolds as a single track. Continue reading »

HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE (“EMBRACE”)

 Mosh Pit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 202017
 

 

I’m still in Wyoming with a bunch of good friends, now one day away from the total eclipse of the sun that we came here to witness together. Last night was another late session of stargazing, boozing, and the kind of unpredictable conversation that boozing under the shine of the Milky Way can produce.

Much earlier in the day NCS contributor Grant Skelton had sent me a link to a song that I had decided to include in today’s SHADES OF BLACK column (which I haven’t even started writing, but will write, I promise — though I might not post it until eclipse day tomorrow). And the name of the band reminded me of something I hadn’t thought about in years, and that provoked one of the most interesting conversations under the stars last night. Continue reading »

CRUSHING INTOLERANCE VOLUME 5: NEW MUSIC FROM DEAFEST, VERMIN LORD, SCATHED, GUDSFORLADT, SHADOW LAKE, AND MORE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 192017
 

 

Two days to go until the total eclipse. I’m lucky to be in a beautiful place in Wyoming that lies within the path of totality, which cuts across the United States from Salem, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina.

After some carousing and late-night stargazing with friends, I slept like a dead man and wasn’t sure whether I’d write anything for NCS on this lazy morning. I had a few half-baked ideas that I was noodling over, and then I got word that Volume 5 of Crushing Intolerance had been released on Bandcamp. That wound up blowing the other ideas away like dust in the wind. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ASTRAL BLOOD, ALTARAGE, KAWIR, SACRILEGIOUS RITE, KAUAN, SHADOWMASTER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 182017
 

 

And so we come to the end of another work week. Three days have passed since the last round-up of new music I pulled together, and those have been eventful days for the release of new metal, not even counting the many excellent premieres we introduced ourselves. I’ve had to resist the temptation to cram a big mountain of them into this post (instead of a small mountain), in part because I’m off to the airport again for a long weekend in the Rocky Mountains, capped by the coming of a black sun on Monday.

I hope you’ll enjoy the picks I’ve made for this truncated round-up, and that you’ll enjoy the two more premieres we’ll be bringing you later today. I think I’ll have time to pull together some more new music this weekend despite being away from the forested NCS fortress near the Puget Sound.

ASTRAL BLOOD

I’m beginning this collection with a new single by Minnesota’s Astral Blood, in part because it gives me the opportunity to post not one but two pieces of artwork by Luciana Nedelea that will cover the front and back of the album from which it comes. The album is named SYZYGY, and the front piece is above. This is the piece for the back cover: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IN TWILIGHT’S EMBRACE, THE HOWLING VOID, WAR POSSESSION

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 152017
 

 

Non-blog life is rapidly encroaching on me, so I’m forced to make this round-up short. But it’s sweet. It’s short but sweet. I just made that up… pretty good expression, don’t you think?

IN TWILIGHT’S EMBRACE

For me and many others, The Grim Muse by Poland’s In Twilight’s Embrace was one of 2015’s highlights — a multifaceted and uniformly strong melodic death metal album loaded with fantastic riffs, memorable lead-guitar melodies and solos, powerful performances by the rhythm section, and absolutely ferocious vocals. We had the privilege of premiering the full album stream, and then last year we also debuted a full stream of their next release, an EP named Trembling that also consisted of tracks from the recording session for The Grim Muse.

Today I was excited to learn through an announcement at DECIBEL that the band’s fourth album, Vanitas, will be released on September 22 (through their longstanding label partner Arachnophobia Records). At the same time, DECIBEL premiered a track from the album named “The Hell of Mediocrity“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3): CAUSTIC, HELPLESS, IMPALERS, THE BODY AND FULL OF HELL, SERPENT COLUMN, MANGLER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 122017
 

 

Yesterday I launched the first two parts of a week-ending round-up (here and here). As promised (every now and then I do keep a promise), I’m continuing the flood of new music today with Part 3. There’s more to come tomorrow, but the remaining songs I picked out will be packaged in our usual Sunday SHADES OF BLACK feature.

Some of what you’ll find below are full album streams, though I’m just sketching out some brief thoughts about them and hoping you’ll be intrigued enough to dive deeper into the releases. Wish I had time for more complete reviews, but in the words of American clergyman Robert Schuller, “Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.”

CAUSTIC

I admit that my current mood (fairly black and pissed off) may have influenced the first three picks in this Saturday collection. It certainly influenced my decision to listen to Caustic’s new two-track single… because it’s named Murder the World. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): ENSLAVED, ANTARKTIS, AETHERIAN, CLARET ASH, SATOR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 112017
 

 

In this post I continue an end-of-week round-up that I began here earlier today. I’ll post a third installment on Saturday. In this one, we have new music from five favorites of our site, all of whom are returning this year with new releases.

ENSLAVED

I’ve already published two previous posts about the new Enslaved album, E, even without any music to share with you. Now we finally have an advance track, “Storm Son“, which arrived today in the form of an animated music video designed by Josh Graham.

The song is a 10-minute beguiler, described as follows by songwriter/guitarist Ivar Bjørnson: Continue reading »

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