FALLS OF RAUROS: “BELIEVE IN NO COMING SHORE”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Sep 042014
 

(In this post, we share guest contributor Ben Smasher’s review of the forthcoming new album by Falls of Rauros. We will post a second review on Monday.)

Album reviews have pretty much become moot these days. It takes less time to go to youtube and listen to any album than it does to read a total stranger’s thoughts on it. So I try to write reviews only when I feel intensely moved to do so, so that I can create something that offers my personal insight into the music and how I relate to it, in the hopes that you can maybe understand it better after reflecting on my perspective. This album is enthralling, among so many other things:

Believe In No Coming Shore seems almost incidental to me. Falls of Rauros have come such a long way as a band since their beginnings, that when realizing the vast and elaborate scope of their progression and direction, this album seems like a mere checkpoint upon their journey to becoming one of the most fascinating and memorable bands that have graced my ears. They already are that in my eyes, but the path that they are paving with each release is one that utterly disregards boundaries, exudes personality, and gently breathes magnificently vivid tapestries that are absolutely unique to Maine’s Falls of Rauros. Continue reading »

CANNIBAL CORPSE: “A SKELETAL DOMAIN”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Sep 042014
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new 13th album by Cannibal Corpse.)

Cannibal Corpse at this point really are in their musical stride. Even beyond the massive leap in musical proficiency the band made when Corpsegrinder replaced Barnes on vocals, the way they’ve been firing on all cylinders since The Wretched Spawn is really unmatched in the careers of many other long-standing extreme metal bands. In other cases, the quality might still be great, but it hasn’t consistently improved as it has in the discography of Cannibal Corpse. A Skeletal Domain follows Torture, which is a pretty difficult album to surmount, considering it was easily the most savage album they’d ever recorded. A Skeletal Domain is indeed better than its predecessor, though whether you agree may depend on whether you like the approach they’ve taken on this new one.

A Skeletal Domain is a very tactical technical death metal record. Everything about it feels calculated, refined, ground into a fine powder that shimmers like diamonds and will cut flesh at the touch. It’s a very riffy album in the spirit of the Jack Owen/Chris Barnes era, but with Pat O’Brien’s sense of guitar acrobatics. The mix is much cleaner, which really accents this more refined approach as well. I previously would’ve called Evisceration Plague their song-writing record. THIS is their song-writing record in definitive terms. Everything stays true to the Corpsegrinder-era Corpse spirit, but it is at the same time everything Torture was not. I praised Torture for its rather primal assault on the senses, and while A Skeletal Domain is definitely the equivalent of being beaten to death and mauled by a mandrill, it’s much more technical, the song structures much more progressive and more unconventional. Continue reading »

BANDCAMP DESTRUCTION: DAKHMA, ORGAN DEALER, RUINANT

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Sep 042014
 

 

(In this post DGR reviews three pissed-off short releases.)

It’s pretty well known that a huge chunk of the heavy metal spectrum serves as catharsis, a way for us to scream out our daily rage or miseries — the expulsion of energy otherwise pent up that some folks might let lash out or otherwise ruin their day.

In my case, I’ve always had a few go-to songs after a particularly rough work day (because really, I’m not getting pissed off at home), but lately it seems like that list has gotten bigger and bigger, especially as I keep digging deeper into different underground scenes in an effort to find stuff to share with you fine folk.

Right now, that sweet spot for the white-hot, rage-induced thrashabout that usually happens as the result of some sort of bullshit has been where the grind scene tends to slam headfirst into the hardcore punk scene, where musicians seem less interested in what they are actually playing and more in creating a swirling vortex of sonic destruction.

In the case of this post, two of the three releases serve that particular purpose. And the third? Well, the third is just a meaty slab of death metal that I felt like sharing because it would allow us to do a little bit o’ world traveling. Continue reading »

JUTE GYTE: “RESSENTIMENT”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 032014
 

 

(Austin Weber reviews the brand new album by the one-man wrecking machine from Missouri known as Jute Gyte.)

As it stands, this is the third time I have written about Jute Gyte here, the consistently crushing solo project of Missouri native, Adam Kalmbach. After writing up his previous album from this year, Vast Chains, my sense of curiosity led me to email the man behind the band and inquire as to his lack of social media presence. I was greeted with the answer that he, in so many words, has a disagreeable personality and does not play well with others, thus the lack of an official band Facebook page or other account.

I found this very interesting, as it speaks volumes about himself as an artist. If we are being honest, what musician doesn’t want to hear his work praised? Either as a form of validation or as an appeal to narcissism, or both?

It would seem to me that Adam Kalmbach’s desire to stay hidden in the shadows may show how much darker and cathartic of a release creating music must be for him. Further evidence for this suspicion may be found in his lack of press releases. The man drops several releases a year, but because there is no band page or other online presence, the music simply appears without a whisper. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: NOISEM — “CONSUMED”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Sep 032014
 

(NCS contributor Leperkahn recently winged his way to France for a period of study abroad — and on the way he penned a couple of reviews, including this one.)

I was just about to get really productive, and start catching up on the backlog of reviews I’ve been meaning to do. I was so ready to get that fulfilling feeling of being back on track, at least in a small part. It was really gonna happen this time – for the first time in a bit of a while, I had the motivation to write, and the emptiness of a couple of long flights en route to Paris to do them. I had it so nicely planned and organized.

Then Noisem released a new 7”, and all of that went to absolute shite.

As I write this (on said plane), I’ve had a digital copy of it for maybe a day at most. I’ve now listened to it probably ten times, if not fifteen. This is a roundabout way of saying HOLY MOTHERHUGGING SHITE THIS THING ABSOLUTELY BLOODY SLAYS. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: OUTER HEAVEN, DRONES FOR QUEENS, OCCULT 45

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Sep 022014
 

 

It’s rare for us to look back over our shoulders at releases from past years (or even past months). We have too damned much trouble trying to stay abreast of current releases. But I’ve recently discovered some short releases by three bands from Pennsylvania that I felt I had to write about, despite the fact that most of the music is from 2013 — if for no other reason than to introduce you to some names I suspect you’ll be hearing more about in the future.

The first one is a 2013 demo by a band named Outer Heaven, and the second is a 7″ split by Drones For Queens and Occult 45.

OUTER HEAVEN

I discovered the existence of Philadelphia’s Outer Heaven as a result of some glowing Facebook remarks by Krieg’s Imperial about their performance at last weekend’s Detest Fest Vol. 1 in the band’s home town. I hadn’t heard the name before, but after some poking around I learned that they include guitarist Jon Kunz from Rivers of Nihil and that they released a 7-track demo last year. But having said that, I suggest you now put Rivers of Nihil right out of your head, because Outer Heaven is a very different beast.

On that 2013 demo they drop ropey sludge riffs down from the rafters, knot them around your neck, and then push an anvil-heavy counterweight over the edge — and up you go, while the band beat you like a piñata with crowbars. Continue reading »

HORNED ALMIGHTY: “WORLD OF TOMBS”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 022014
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Denmark’s Horned Almighty.)

Horned Almighty know what they want, and they know how to make it happen. From the shit-kicking swagger of the album’s title track — replete with pumping, jackhammer riffage, brutish, bellowing vocals, and rib-cracking drum work – through to the ominous grind and blackened groove of closer “Blessed By Foulness”, the Danish deviants unleash a sickening torrent of rabid hostility and ugly misanthropy over a chaotic cacophony of pustulent riffs, choking bass-lines, and neck-snapping drums.

The band’s sound, a thrashed-up and scathingly savage form of Black Metal, delivered with a perverse, punkish energy and a rumbling, clanking Death Metal backbone, is instantly recognizable and instantly gratifying, and picks up pretty much right where their previous album, the damningly aggressive Necro Spirituals, left off.

If anything, World of Tombs might even be a little darker and a little more depraved than its predecessor, immediately grabbing the listener by the throat and proceeding to drown their screams and struggles beneath a torrent of blackened bile and metallic filth. It’s undoubtedly ferocious and pestilentially infectious, and utterly, unrepentantly, nihilistic to the core.

It’s the sort of album that just wants to watch the world burn… Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: SINMARA — “APHOTIC WOMB”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  17 Responses »
Aug 282014
 

 

Right about now, as this article is being posted on our site, Iceland’s Sinmara will be revealing the contents of their new album Aphotic Womb at an official listening party at the Beyond the Gates festival in Bergen, Norway, where the band will also be performing live tonight along with an impressive list of other extreme metal bands. But even if you’re unable to teleport yourself to Garage Bergen to hear the album, we’re hosting our own listening party right here through our U.S. premiere of Aphotic Womb.

Sinmara (formerly known as Chao) now includes members of other impressive Icelandic bands — Wormlust, Svartidauði, and Rebirth of Nefast — and I’ve written enthusiastically about each of the songs from the album that have premiered to date:

The squalling dissonance of the riffs, the extremely creative drum rhythms, the extraterrestrial atmosphere of the melody, the sheer vehemence of the acid-spray vocals — all of that combines to make “Verminous” a song that’s both utterly unnerving and utterly riveting. And the album’s title track is an otherworldly flowering of poisonous thorns, shrouded in a miasma of tremolo chords, serpentine leads, thrumming bass notes, and fantastic drum work that you can feel in your spine. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: SOLACE OF REQUIEM — “CASTING RUIN”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 272014
 

 

(In this post we premiere a full-album stream of the new release by Virginia’s Solace of Requiem.  Austin Weber provides the following review by way of introduction.)

As a hardcore death metal junkie, I pride myself on my extensive knowledge of the genre. Especially the many underground, unorthodox, obscure, and defunct acts of the genre. As such, I feel like an idiot for being unaware of the Virginia-based group Solace Of Requiem until now. But even in my shame, I can rejoice in having spun their new record, Casting Ruin, numerous times already. To mix my metaphors, it’s a voracious technical death metal beast and a feast for the ears, one whose smorgasbord of sounds has been intricately intertwined into a singular weapon of immense hatred.

Solace Of Requiem write with a diverse array of metal influences, and the in which way they string those influences together in various combinations is the crux of what makes Casting Ruin stand out. Overall, their style weaves around massive bone-crushing columns of racing riffs and brimstone-exploding blast beats, topped off with highly venomous vocals. But to further dissect it, the death metal side of their sound often brings to mind the jackhammering propulsive beatings that Hate Eternal brought to life. In addition, they accent each song with a plethora of aggressive melodic leads and round them out with scathing infusions of blood-curdling black metal blasphemy.

A symphonic undercurrent with classical and orchestral motifs then further enhances most of the songs, including the monstrous savagery present in “Heaving Bile And Ash”. They also display a penchant for beginning and ending several tracks with samples — of such things as chains, clinking machinery, and echoing water droplets. If I had to guess, maybe the cold clang of chains and mechanical whirrings was intended to represent our mental self-imprisonment, societal restraints, and existence as a helpless cog in a larger grinding machine, with the graceful sounds of water drizzling down showing the flip side — freedom and the serenity found freely in nature. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AUTUMN’S DAWN — “GONE”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  12 Responses »
Aug 252014
 

Autumn’s Dawn is a new two-man band from Australia whose debut album Gone is being released today by Eisenwald. And today we bring you the premiere of a full-album stream — though when you hear the album you may think a site with a name like ours is a peculiar place for a premiere of an album such as this. But read on…

Autumn’s Dawn may be a relatively new project, its only previous release being a self-titled EP, but its two members are not newcomers: Tim Yatras (who uses the name “Sorrow” in this project) has made a name for himself in such bands as Germ, Austere, Woods of Desolation, and Grey Waters, while Matthew Bell (“Anguish”) is a member of Rise of Avernus and Troldhaugen. Following our album stream, we’ll bring you an interview with Tim Yatras about the origins of Autumn’s Dawn and the new album.

With names like Sorrow and Anguish, an album entitled Gone, and song titles such as “The Ashes of A Life”, “Until My Heart Corrodes With Rust”, and “Blank Stare, Dead Eyes”, you might think you’re in for a thoroughly depressive listening experience. There is indeed a sorrowful air to much of the music, but it’s also full of life, highly memorable, and often strikingly beautiful — and it also includes scathing elements of black metal and songs that often rock very hard. Continue reading »

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