Album Reviews Archives - Page 396 of 557

CATTLE DECAPITATION: “THE ANTHROPOCENE EXTINCTION”

Aug 062015

(DGR provides this typically in-depth review of the new album by Cattle Decapitation.)

We begin by stating the obvious, which has always been a strong suit of mine during my tenure here at NCS. I’ve brought you such hits as “Napalm Death are an important band” and “such and such disc is really good”, without any real qualifications as to why — so I figure why not continue with my trademark and just float this out there:

Monolith Of Inhumanity was a hell of a disc and it did a ton to elevate Cattle Decapitation’s stature. Cattle Decapitation were by no means a newcomer when Monolith Of Inhumanity hit, but it did seem like the disc where everyone finally took notice of them — which was hilarious, because it felt like a solid third of the reaction consisted of other people screaming, “You see? I fucking told you so! I’ve been saying this since Karma Bloody Karma came out!”.

They’re right too, but Monolith Of Inhumanity’s approach of basically being a hurricane of sound, with the band ramming everything and the kitchen sink genre-wise into its runtime and somehow managing to reign it all in so that it could be composed into songs, made the album an intense and incredible experience. It also made it an album that is nigh-impossible to replicate. Many bands didn’t even try to edge close to it, whereas others went chasing after the quickly homogenizing tech-death scene.

By being seemingly everything, Monolith Of Inhumanity became the Ur-Album, and damn near impossible to describe. It was one of those times where the old axe of ignorance being bliss truly applied, because if we had tried to make a thorough effort to capture the music in words, we’d still be stumbling over ourselves, going, “Well, it’s a death metal disc…kind of, it’s got grind elements…kind of”, as our unfortunate victims’ eyes quickly glazed over as they fell into a comatose state.

With essentially no one making a grab for Cattle Decapitation’s crown, they remain at the forefront of metal, but that also means that The Anthropocene Extinction — the group’s new album — has a lot to live up to. With essentially no competition, it means that Cattle Decapitation’s biggest competitor is, well, …themselves. In that context, The Anthropocene Extinction is especially interesting because it doesn’t feel like the band set out to compete with Monolith Of Inhumanity but have instead learned from it, adapted many of its sounds, figured out what parts they like, and experimented with their sound even further. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: KRIEGSZITTERN — “DEMO”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 6 Responses »

Aug 062015

In June of this year a band from Mülheim, Germany, named Kriegszittern released their first demo via Bandcamp, but I discovered it only after learning more recently that Caligari Records would be releasing it on tape. I now try to check out everything Caligari puts out, because I’ve had such good luck with their selections in the past — and this demo proved to be another winner.

The five songs on the demo rush by in less than 17 minutes, but Kriegszittern make those minutes count. The opening track, which bears the same name as the band, begins slowly and dismally, eventually bolting forward in a gritty sandblast of distorted guitars and pneumatic drums, with a vocalist whose echoing roars and howls sounds like a cross between a deranged wildcat and a demonic executioner. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: GENOCIDE PACT AND CAVEMAN CULT

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 15 Responses »

Aug 062015

I got a tip about the two releases featured in this post by NCS contributor KevinP. In this instance, I think he paired these recommendations because the two bands happen to be playing together on August 22 in Orlando, Florida, where Kevin lives (details here about the show). Sometimes he links me to music because he thinks I’ll like it, without commenting whether he likes it or not. I’m okay with that, because after all, it’s my own opinion that counts. And here are my opinions:

GENOCIDE PACT

Genocide Pact are from Washington, D.C. They aren’t a new name for me, but they’re a welcome name — in June of last year I reviewed their 2013 debut demo, which I liked a lot. Thanks to Kevin, I discovered that just a few days ago Baltimore’s A389 Recordings released a Genocide Pact album — or maybe an EP, depending on the length you demand before calling something a full-length — named Forged Through Domination.

Genocide Pact generate a death metal sound that’s titanically heavy, with riffs, bass notes, and drum beats that you can feel from the soles of your feet straight up through your endangered skull. They prefer to stay in mid-paced or slow tempos, all the better to ensure that when they’re chugging or pounding, they can methodically flatten anything and everything in their way (including your cranium). When they do start ripping (and revealing their crust influences), it almost comes as a surprise, and the sheer contrast makes those up-tempo eruptions even more decimating. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: CREEPING — “REVENANT’

Album Reviews, Premieres 2 Responses »

Aug 042015

Steel yourself for a harrowing experience, for we’re about to bring you a full stream of Revenant, the new third album by New Zealand’s Creeping.

This isn’t an idle warning. Making your way through the album is like a brutal descent into a sodden catacombs inhabited by damned and vengeful spirits. The deeper you stagger and stumble into its depths, the farther the light recedes above you, replaced by an ever-increasing sense of implacable menace and wrenching loss. You are about to join the company of phantasms, and Creeping make their terrors your own.

Mostly slow or mid-paced, the songs are often as crushing and remorseless as the most catastrophic doom album you’re likely to find this year. Anchored by titanic, distorted riffs and earthquake drumming, the music is laced with eerie reverberating guitar melodies which enhance the supernatural atmosphere that surrounds the entire album. Continue reading »

WIEGEDOOD: “DE DODEN HEBBEN HET GOED”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Aug 032015

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by the Belgian band Wiegedood.)

Like an idiot I’ve been putting this review off for over a month now, shuffling it back into the pack again and again whenever something else comes along and jumps to the front of my mental queue. And that’s extremely unfair to the band and, perhaps just as much, unfair to our readers as well, as De Doden Hebben Het Goed is one fine-fettered slab of pitch-black savagery and anguish.

The Belgian three-piece, whose name is also the Dutch term for “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome” (way to keep it morbid, guys), possess an enviable knack for pumping out a ferocious torrent of rage and fury, whilst maintaining a keen melodic edge, that’s neither weak, nor overbearing. That may not sound like much, but it’s a hard balance to get just right, and these guys make it look like child’s play. Pun intended. Continue reading »

RIFF POWER: APE CAVE, BLACK EARTH, BLOOD RED THRONE, CLANDESTINE BLAZE, MOTÖRHEAD, OBESE, VALDUR

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET 14 Responses »

Jul 312015

I have for you a big selection of new and newly discovered songs and videos that I’d like to recommend. As you can tell, I got tired of using the “Seen and Heard” title for these round-ups, at least for today. Also, the riffs really are the kings and queens of most of these songs (but not all). I’m presenting all this stuff in alphabetical order by band name. Genre-wise, the music is all over the place….

APE CAVE

Ape Cave are from Portland, Oregon. At the end of May they released what I think is their debut EP, named Primordium (with the eye-catching cover art above). I found out about it through a link posted by a Facebook friend.

When you press “play” on the Bandcamp stream below, you’ll hear the EP’s final track first. It hooked me hard, and the other two songs are just as good. Ape Cave blend thick, heavy riffs and gut-rumbling percussion with psychedelic lead guitar machinations and raw, wretched vocal vituperation, creating a bleak and often disorienting atmosphere while punching hard enough to rattle your bones. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: BITTERED — “HUBRIS AGGRESSION”

Album Reviews, Premieres 5 Responses »

Jul 312015

Today, Friday, July 31, Virginia’s Lost Apparition Records will release Hubris Aggression, the debut album of Bittered from York, PA, and we have a full stream of it to share with you.

Bittered was spawned in 2014 by Paul Folk, founder and long-time guitarist for the Maryland death metal band Exterminance and drummer Dennis Matos, both of whom had played together in other bands that had their roots in punk and grind. Paul Folk and Bittered’s vocalist Kasey Harrison are also members of a grind band called Police State. But although Bittered’s lyrical themes share a political focus with some of the members’ other projects, the music goes off in different musical directions — and there’s not much light at the end of those tunnels. Continue reading »

JUST HOW METAL IS CHELSEA WOLFE’S “ABYSS”?

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule 8 Responses »

Jul 302015

(Wil Cifer presents some thoughts about the new album by Chelsea Wolfe — Abyss.)

It is no secret that Chelsea Wolfe has managed to gather a fan base in the metal community without actually playing metal, aside from a Burzum cover. Rumors have been abounding that Abyss was going to be her metal album. Considering some of the stylistic shifts she has made with each album, going in a heavier direction would make sense — but how do the rumors line up against the actual album?

Well, this is a spoiler alert as to just how metal Abyss is. Continue reading »

SIFTING: DROWNING: MORO MORO LAND, SERPENTSPIRE, HOLLOW WORLD, ZAN, IMMORTAL BIRD

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Jul 272015

(DGR has been pawing through great piles of new and forthcoming releases and has sifted out five of them especially deserving of praise.)

It has been a little bit since we’ve gotten a chance to do one of these — the chance to send me ping-ponging across the internet in a mad quest for new music, doing the equivelant of drunkenly stumbling into a band’s house after-hours, pulling up a chair, kicking my feet up on their table, and going, “So, tell me about yourself,” like I’m the leading authority on all things metal.

Sometimes, these Sifting articles tend to be built organically. At other times they’re built out of sheer desperation — a sense of “Oh god, I need to talk about this to some people now,” as we come across music. This one is a tad bit different, as it was brought on like most fun things in life, out of me opening my idiot mouth and promptly learning another lesson as to why, if I’m ever tempted to say anything, just to let it slide.

I’ve been part of the working world for ten years now, no longer a young’un by any means, but still stupid enough to occasionally slip up. You’d think by now I’d remember the #1 lesson of any workforce, which is to never, ever, EVER inform your boss of how much work you have left, especially when you’re getting to the downslope of your work pile. I made this mistake recently, gleefully informing my superiors that after I had done a certain number of reviews, I’d be in a holding pattern since most of the stuff that was coming out was spoken for — so really, that at the end of a certain week I’d be done for a bit. Continue reading »

RIVERS OF NIHIL: “MONARCHY”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Jul 272015

(Austin Weber reviews the new album by a band we’ve been following since early days — Rivers of Nihil.)

While it’s only been two years since Rivers Of Nihil dropped their fantastic debut, The Conscious Seed Of Light, the band are already about to release their sophomore follow-up, Monarchy, at the end of August. It’s been interesting to see the band’s evolution from their more stripped-down beginnings to the truly top-shelf act they’ve become. After even a single listen to the record, it becomes clear that Monarchy is a big step up for their sound, achieving the potential that in some ways they only hinted at on The Conscious Seed Of Life — and I say that as someone who is a massive fan of their debut.

Their growth from then until now manifests itself in different ways, but arguably the biggest change is that the atmospheric quality present in “Mechanical Trees”, “Rain Eater” and “Airless” from the last record has become the direction the band have pursued throughout Monarchy. They have done this tastefully, overall adding an epic extra sheen to the music that contrasts well with whatever segment it’s paired with. Often it lends moments of pure esoteric beauty, not something you’d normally find in furious, technically-leaning death metal. Continue reading »

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