ALL PIGS MUST DIE: “HOSTAGE ANIMAL”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 092017
 

 

(This is Todd Manning’s review of the new album by All Pigs Must Die, which was recently released by Southern Lord.)

Anyone who claims that Hardcore is incapable of reaching the levels of extremity produced by Metal obviously hasn’t heard All Pigs Must Die and in particular their latest full-length Hostage Animal. Make no mistake, the lines between Metal and Hardcore are becoming ever more blurry, but the roots of this album are unmistakable. Hostage Animal is born of pure Punk fury.

With a line-up boasting luminaries from such other outfits as Converge, Trap Them, and The Hope Conspiracy, All Pigs Must Die deftly combine an overwhelming sense of visceral violence with songwriting chops that successfully walk the tightrope between chaos and focused execution. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NO AMNESTY — “PSYCHOPATHY”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 082017
 

 

Psychopathy is the debut album of the Barcelona band No Amnesty. It will be released on November 14th by Xtreem Music — and it’s an explosive metal fireworks display, one that just gets more and more eye-popping the deeper in you go.

We’re told that when the band formed in 2012 the average age of the members was 15, and now it’s 20 — other than the “old man” of the group, new vocalist Albert (ex-Fuck Off), who is 30. (Since the band’s 2013 debut EP, A New Order For Attack, they’ve also recruited a new drummer and a new bassist.) But their relative youthfulness is part of what makes the album so surprising, because it really sounds like the work of far more experienced hands. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): SPOOK THE HORSES — “PEOPLE USED TO LIVE HERE”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  1 Response »
Nov 082017
 

 

Sewing confusion and discord seems to be a persistent part of our mission statement, wholly apart from all the misspellings and typos. And so it’s time once again to flummox people who take our site’s name literally or have become used to receiving severe audio punishment at the hands of most bands whose music we recommend. Even people who are familiar with the previous albums of the band who are the subject of this post may be surprised by what they’re about to hear.

What we have for you is a full stream of People Used To Live Here, the enthralling new full-length by Spook the Horses from Wellington, New Zealand, which will be released on November 10th by Pelagic Records. Continue reading »

SEITA: “MALEDICTUS MUNDI”

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Nov 082017
 

 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by the Dutch band Seita, which will be released on November 9.)

Seita have quickly become one of my favorite bands from The Netherlands. They exhibit a firebrand combination of death, thrash, hardcore, and groove metal, united into a form of frantic obliterating terror that not many bands can rival. These guys are like being force-fed adrenaline by the gallon.

I reviewed their debut Asymmetric Warfare back in 2012, lavishing it with great praise. Since then, the band have been rather quiet. They released some stand-alone songs from an unreleased EP this year, which I expected to be the next release. Instead, they are coming out the gate with a full-length album, the one in question here, and that EP will be arriving later. Continue reading »

MORBID ANGEL: “KINGDOMS DISDAINED”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Nov 082017
 

 

(These are Wil Cifer’s initial thoughts about the new Morbid Angel album, which will be released on December 1 by Silver Lining Music.)

You can’t blame me or any long-time fans of this band for going into their 9th album with trepidation. Trey is the only original member. I hoped Pete Sandoval might come to his senses like a kid who learns Santa isn’t real and drop the Jesus thing to rejoin the band. But that was the wishful thinking of my inner 15-year-old. I never liked the Steve Tucker albums. They just sound like everyone else.

A few songs in, Tucker was still a hard sell for me even though he is certainly trying his fucking hardest here. The new drummer Scott Fuller won me over much earlier on with his aggressive assault. Continue reading »

CONVERGE: “THE DUSK IN US”

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Nov 062017
 

 

(This is Wil Cifer’s review of The Dusk In Us — the recently released ninth album by Converge.)

Twenty years ago a friend of mine said to me, “There is this band you would like called Converge, they are like if Sunny Day Real Estate was metal-as-fuck hardcore”. Over the course of those 20 years things have changed for the band. They got a new drummer and put out this album called Jane Doe that turned heavy music on its head. Their guitarist Kurt Ballou is now a highly sought-after producer. With their guitarist behind the mixing board for The Dusk In Us, you might expect to be hit by a wall of guitar. This is not the case. Instead you get guitars with a warm organic sound that sit back in the mix like they are just running straight into their amps. Even in the album’s more experimental moments it retains a very organic sound.

“Eye of the Quarrel” makes it pretty clear that their punk side has not gone anywhere. Bannon’s vocals are not screamed with the same emotional tumult of earlier albums. You can actually understand what he is yelling. They do return to the kind of grit I want from them on “Under Duress”. The chorus is almost sung in a throaty bellow, with the drummer throwing in angular accents and odd-timed punches. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): HALPHAS, INSANITY CULT AND ISOLERT, ASGRAUW AND MESLAMTAEA

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Nov 052017
 

 

To blacken the Sabbath this week I picked a lot of new music to share with you. I again decided to split the collection into two parts, to make it a bit less daunting, and also because I’m not positive I could finish writing a post that included all the choices before having to leave my computer for the rest of the day. For that same reason I’m not sure I’ll finish Part 2 in time to post it today. If I can’t, you’ll see it tomorrow.

HALPHAS

To begin, I have a track named “Through The Forest” from the forthcoming debut album Dawn Of A Crimson Empire by the German black metal band Halphas. It will be released by Folter Records on December 15. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: CRUCIAMENTUM, KAUNIS KUOLEMATON, RABID DOGS

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Nov 042017
 

 

I have a big bulging list of new music I’d like to recommend, but rather than try to stitch them all together, which would probably take all day, I just picked one new EP and two singles. As usual, the selection of these three bands off the list was pretty random. But as usual, I like the music a lot and I wanted to provide some variety, and as you’ll discover, there sure as hell is some variety here.

CRUCIAMENTUM

I wrote no fewer than four posts about Cruciamentum’s 2015 debut album Charnel Passages, including one in which I picked a song from the album called “Piety Carved From Flesh” for my list of 2015’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. Cruciamentum have now returned with a new EP called Paradise Envenomed, which was released digitally via Bandcamp and other platforms (and on 7″ vinyl by Profound Lore) just two days ago. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEVILPRIEST — “DEVIL INSPIRED CHANTS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  7 Responses »
Nov 032017
 

 

Hailing from the Silesian region of Poland, Devilpriest is a trio whose turbocharged debut album Devil Inspired Chants will be released by Pagan Records on November 10, and we have the premiere of a full album stream for you today.

This is an example of a debut release that doesn’t sound anything like a first effort, but rather the kind of supremely powerful and highly accomplished music that you would expect from a band deep into their career. Fueled by satanic fervor, the band combine elements of mainly ’90s-era death metal and black metal and deliver the addictive results with clarity, stunning force, ravaging ferocity, and eye-popping technical skill. Continue reading »

DEVANGELIC: “PHLEGETHON”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 032017
 

 

(Our brutal-death-minded friend Vonlughlio from the Dominican Republic wrote this review of the new album by Italy’s Devangelic, and if our damned editor weren’t so scatter-brained it would have been posted before the album was released. On the plus side, you can listen to all of it now.)

I’m honored, to say the least, that I have the opportunity to review Italian BDM band Devangelic’s sophomore effort Phlegethon.

The band was founded back in 2012 by Mr. Mario Di Giambattista (Vulvectomy, Corpsefucking Art). That same year the band released a demo of two songs, and it was raw and crushing from start to finish, one of the most-played, if not the most-played, demo for me that year.

Subsequently they signed to Comatose Music and in 2014 released their debut album Resurrection Denied, one of the sickest albums from that year, from the gory cover of a decapitated Jesus to the songs themselves, just raw and riffs for days on end with relentless blast beats. Also Mr. Paolo Chiti’s vocals may have been the best part of it all — the man is one of the best in the genre, with low gutturals and vocal patterns that are memorable. I certainly have to say that among my top debuts in BDM, Resurrection Denied is one of them. Continue reading »

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