PATHOGEN, NONEXISTENCE, AND DEVIL

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 012013
 

Hey there dudes and dudettes. I’m just quickly checking in from the bottomless pit of my day-and-night job with a few goodies I discovered on a break early this morning.

PATHOGEN

Pathogen are based in the Philippines. Since forming in 2001 they’ve release an assortment of demos and splits and three full-length albums. The second one, Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations, was self-released on tape in 2010 but was recently picked up for re-issue today (on CD and vinyl) by the German label Dunkelheit Produktionen. The release includes new cover art, which, as you can see, is fuckin’ aces.

This morning I came across a song from the album named “Atrocity Exhibit” that Dunkelheit put up on YouTube, and that led me into the rest of the album. Listening to Pathogen is like cracking open a subterranean vault and finding a tape created in the late 80s or early 90s in a rehearsal room. It has an authentic old-school sound reminiscent of Autopsy and Morbid Angel, with maybe a little Celtic Frost in the mix, too, and it’s catchy as hell. Continue reading »

TALANAS: “CORPSEFLOWER”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 012013
 

(In this post Andy Synn discusses a forthcoming release by Talanas.)

Much befitting their classy, semi-retro image, Talanas have decided that their next release (available March 1, 2013) is going to be put out on a more traditional format, the 7” vinyl.

Originally developed and released solely on their recent UK/Euro tour with doom legends My Dying Bride, it contains two tracks, both of which will form part of their in-progress second album Daylight. The songs showcase the many varied facets of their gentrified and rarefied death metal sound. Continue reading »

“BYZANTINE”: OUR REVIEW AND A FULL STREAM OF THE NEW ALBUM

 Album Reviews, Premieres  27 Responses »
Feb 272013
 

(The long-awaited fourth album by West Virginia’s Byzantine is out now, and we’re delighted to provide a full stream of the new album along with TheMadIsraeli’s review.)

I wish I could find a way to adequately express how much I was absolutely frothing at the mouth in anticipation of this album.  You’ve got to understand, this is a band who I musically idolized but who I thought had called it quits for good, and while I wasn’t originally stoked on the reunion since it lacked an integral founding member, his rejoining the band soon after sealed the deal for me.  Byzantine were back in business and ass kicking was soon to follow.

I’ve sung the praises of this band to the high heavens on this site already, so if you are unfamiliar with these guys or have forgotten what they’re about, go read my Byzantine discography retrospective, which also included their three previous albums for download.  Get educated.

Anyone who thinks that this album is a mere sequel to Oblivion Beckons would be sorely mistaken.  These guys have been out of the band game for five years, but have still pursued music in a personal way and have thus evolved.  What we have here isn’t a different Byzantine, but definitely a wiser, more sophisticated and diverse Byzantine.  Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST: “KATA TON DAIMONA EAYTOY”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Feb 252013
 

(In this post, NCS writer Andy Synn reviews the forthcoming release by Rotting Christ, their 11th album since 1993.)

True to thine own spirit – such has always been the mantra of Rotting Christ. And Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy certainly holds true to this. While it continues the martial atmosphere established on Theogonia and Aealo, there’s actually less of a traditional folk-ish vibe to the music, and a much greater feeling of occult darkness (“Grandus Spriritus Diavolus”).

The distinctly Hellenic melody patterns still underpin the twisting, serpentine guitar lines (“In Yumen–Xibalba”), but the album feels less in thrall to history and tradition, and more concerned with underlining the foundations of the “modern” Rotting Christ sound.

That’s not to say that the album is in any way a “stripped down” or “back to basics” release – as it still litters the musical battlefield with strange apocryphal signs and mystical elements (“Ahura Mazdā-Aŋra Mainiuu”), ritualistic murmurings and reverberant war-like chants echoing across the blood-soaked field – but it is, to my mind at least, a heavier and more aggressive album altogether, and one that wraps itself in a more black metal aesthetic than we have seen from the band in some time, recalling the bands Non Serviam years, but with added extremity and muscle (“Gilgameš”). Continue reading »

REVISITING THE CLASSICS: SOILWORK – “THE CHAINHEART MACHINE”

 Album Reviews, Revisiting the Classics  7 Responses »
Feb 242013
 

(After an extended hiatus, TheMadIsraeli revives the Revisiting the Classics series with a look back at an album from a band who are on the verge of dropping their latest bombshell.)

I figured this series needed to make a comeback some time ago; it was just getting the time to do it.  It’s rather ironic that the album I decided to use for this revival was one I selected five or so months before The Living Infinite was even announced.

The Chainheart Machine represents old-school Soilwork at its absolute finest.  The sharp, punctual, technical riffing, the frantic changes in tempo and time signature that occurred on some songs, the bewilderingly virtuoso-caliber shred of guitarist Peter Wichers, the epic melodies — this album has it fucking all if you ask me.  All the instrumentation is impeccable; the mix for its time is just PERFECT for what was going on here (a dense, industrial tone — odd choice for melodeath); and I just fucking love it, back to front.

The thing that really makes this album is the songs as a whole.  Let me explain. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FEARED – “FUROR INCARNATUS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  10 Responses »
Feb 212013
 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Sweden’s Feared, and then we’re stoked to give you a stream of the full album.)

Ola Englund is a name that guitar geeks like myself will probably know better than anyone else.  His YouTube channel hosts a myriad of really badass guitar and gear demos that I and fellow guitar players have flocked to frequently for ideas about what gear we want.  In addition to his membership in Six Feet Under, however, Ola has a musical outlet that not many may be aware of: The name is Feared.

Feared are a badass band, a band with a sound all their own, a band who will curb stomp the shit out of you repeatedly until you beg for mercy.  Their unusual combination of melodic death metal charged with trademark Swedish excellence and ballsy incorporation of groove metal creates a sound that’s refreshing.  Even though Furor Incarnatus is the band’s fourth record, it’s the first time I’ve heard them, and I suspect it may be a first for many of you, too. Continue reading »

ASH BORER: “BLOODLANDS”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 192013
 

With relatively few hammer blows, Ash Borer have already chiseled their name into the obsidian edifice of American black metal. They’re bringing the hammer down again with the the impending debut of their newest album Bloodlands, which will be co-released on vinyl by Gilead Media and Psychic Violence.

I’ve been following the band since discovering their 2011 split with Fell Voices, and each release has brought signs of growth and deeper exploration into the heart of darkness, with their 2012 Profound Lore release Cold of Ages (reviewed here) really cementing their reputation as a band worth watching closely.

On Bloodlands, Ash Borer continue to throw themselves (even more intensely) into the uses of long-form music as a palette for the creation of emotion-changing soundscapes, and confronting even more daringly the concomitant challenge of maintaining listener interest over songs of extended length: Bloodlands includes only two tracks, one about 15 minutes in duration (“Oblivion’s Spring”) and the second running about 20 minutes (“Dirge/Purgation”).

The average human attention span being what it is here in the 21st century, i.e., only slightly longer than that of a hummingbird, the challenge is evident. But, in the right hands, the opportunities for pulling listeners along in a truly immersive experience also can’t be matched by songs of normal length. This is the tightrope Ash Borer have chosen to walk, high above the ground without a net. On Bloodlands, they walk the line confidently, never losing their balance.  Continue reading »

ARKHUM: “EARTHLING”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Feb 192013
 

 (In the following post NCS contributor Austin Weber reviews the new album by one of our favorite bands, Oregon-based Arkhum.)

When Anno Universum dropped like a bomb all the way from Eugene, Oregon, in 2010, many sites and fans were made curious and became stuck on this new group’s virulent combination of technical death metal with brutal vocals and black metal soaked in sci-fi concepts. Earthling finds Arkhum in an even more mature place where instead of merely crossing genre streams, they’ve upped the black metal aesthetic and given it considerably more room to grow.

Like the last record, they decide when and where things will switch from black metal to death metal, but they do it with much more skill, and oftentimes that integration and the decision of when to do it are the coolest parts of their music.They have an unparalleled skill in fusing black metal and death metal together. This leads to two interesting dichotomies: black metal-fueled death metal and death metal-fueled black metal. Continue reading »

SUFFOCATION: “PINNACLE OF BEDLAM”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Feb 182013
 

(Below, NCS writer TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Suffocation.)

Suffocation are THE pinnacle of technical death metal.  Every single moment of music they’ve written from Human Waste on has been full of eviscerating brutality, technical instrumentation brought together by one of the best senses of songwriting in the entirety of the genre, and the signature trademarks of Frank “The Tank” Mullen’s vocals, Terrance Hobbs’ indescribable but instantly recognizable brand of riffing, and in this particular case David Culross’s drumming (I think his approach on Despise The Sun was unique, and it definitely sounds like him here). So, the chance to review Pinnacle Of Bedlam was something I leaped at.

In addition to Vader and Dying Fetus, Suffocation are at the head of my trinity of brutality.  No one has EVER matched up to this band’s body of work, not even close.  They define the three things that make a great band: Consistency, legacy, and relevancy.  I don’t think anyone would dare have the nerve to say Pierced From Within sounds old; at least to my ears, that album is as musically current as it ever was, which may raise some questions about the state of modern metal.  What does it mean when many newer bands out now sound older and outdated while certain old school stalwarts still manage to sound not only relevant, but still ahead of the times?  To this day, Suffocation still maintain a commitment to excellence and a standard of quality that exceed that of most other bands.

Pinnacle of Bedlam is the shit.  That’s the essence of what I’m trying to say.  Continue reading »

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