AHAB: “THE GIANT”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 082012
 

(TheMadIsraeli recently went on a reviewing rampage. We may have one from him every day this week. Today’s review focuses on “The Giant”, the new album by Germany’s Ahab, which will be released by Napalm Records on May 25.)

Doom metal is a genre that is often hard for many to accept or buy into.  I get why.  I didn’t even start to appreciate it until only last year when I forced myself to sit down and really listen.  In the end, I found it to be ideal contemplation music, music to which I could meditate about my life.  It’s not so much depressing as I find it to be the soundtrack to introspection, often the introspection of one’s mortality and shortcomings.

Funeral doom, however, is where my love for this style really shines.  If you aren’t going to be chaotic and frantic, you best be as morose and macabre as possible.  Four bands have accomplished this for me with the most powerful of results: Mournful Congregation, Colosseum (R.I.P), Pantheist, and Ahab.

Ahab’s new album The Giant continues their tradition of seafaring melodic death doom.  Their music has always penetrated my soul to its very depths, but The Giant is a whole other beast entirely.  An added strong presence of stoner vibes is evident throughout, creating something of an otherworldly experience akin to drowning yet not feeling or experiencing any of the fear, pain, or frantic desperation.  You are simply accepting.

The Giant is only six songs long.  That may not sound like much, until I tell you the shortest song is about eight minutes and the longest is about thirteen.  Ahab have taken a much more introspective and dynamic heavy approach this time around, crafting a journey that leaves the listener feeling like that lone shipwreck survivor holding onto a single plank of wood, floating in the middle of the ocean, hoping he’ll find land soon. Continue reading »

SIX FEET UNDER: “UNDEAD”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 072012
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by the reconstructed Six Feet Under. The album is set for North American release on May 22, 2012 through Metal Blade Records.)

I can just envision all of you fuckers rolling your elitist holier than thou eyes at me. I see every single one of you from here on out disregarding my opinions as a music critic with the explanation that “he likes Six Feet Under”. Check your opinion at the door, let me do my thing, and hear me out.

Six Feet Under have sucked. Oh fuck, have they sucked. I don’t think anyone can watch the video for “Amerika The Brutal” and take it or the song itself seriously. After putting out six terrible albums of the most painfully bland and sloppy death’n roll ever to exist, Chris Barnes apparently finally had the revelation that maybe people didn’t want Graveyard Classics Vol. 218843284832483-fucking-2. Something changed once the band’s seventh album Commandment came out. The music was meatier, dark as fuck, and even had a bit of a doom characteristic in some of the song’s pieces, such as the chorus in “Doomsday”.

After being persuaded to give them a shot after hearing good things about their latter output, I subsequently actually enjoyed Commandment as well as Death Rituals — good hefty slabs of some beastly, groovy death metal. Undead is a startlingly strong new album that seems even more of a progression in SFU’s journey to death metal legitimacy, no doubt helped by the band’s recent new addition of Chimaira’s Rob Arnold, who left his longtime outfit to become the band’s new ax man. Not only have SFU completely ditched the bullshit death’n roll elements for good, but they’ve become even groovier, while Rob Arnold has made the riffage quite a bit more sinister sounding. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: WTCHDR

 Album Reviews, Free Shit  8 Responses »
May 062012
 

Long-time readers may remember my repeated praise for a Vancouver, BC, grind band called Burning Ghats (the latest of multiple posts about the band can be found here). It turns out that two of the guys in Burning Ghats (Cam and Kevin) are in another Vancouver band called WTCHDR (along with members of other area bands, Spirals and Memorial). Last month, they released a self-titled debut EP, which you can stream and download for free on Bandcamp (HERE).

I had high hopes for this EP because I lost so many brain cells listening to the Burning Ghats releases and I’ve found that life is more enjoyable now that I’m able to comprehend less of it due to brain cell loss. But, to be brutally honest, I was also kind of afraid. I could stand to lose some more brain bits flying out my ears and nose, but if one or both of my eyeballs exploded out of their sockets, that would complicate important daily activities such as being able to locate the toilet paper and getting a beer out of the fridge for a big swig instead of the hot sauce.

So I tied a blindfold really tight, to provide some extra reinforcement, and started listening to this EP. Seven songs raced by in less than 11 minutes and left smoking tread marks across my face. The ingredients: Distorted guitar and bass chords tuned to subterranean levels of low, alternately slamming hard and dragging the listener through pools of filthy sludge; bursts of squalling lead guitar and ear-splitting feedback; a vocalist being strangled by barbed wire; percussion that sometimes pounds like a massive sledge and sometimes attacks with d-beat fury. Continue reading »

SOUL CYCLE II

 Album Reviews, Free Shit  2 Responses »
Apr 292012
 

(groverXIII reviews the recently released second album by Soul Cycle, a two-man project consisting of Chris Catharsis and Mark Hawkins.)

Dawn Of The Shred. Evil Shred. The Quick And The Shred. Shred Poets Society. Better Off Shred. Shred Rising. Shred Man Walking. Shred Alive. The Shred Pool. Things To Do In Denver When You’re Shred. Shred Reckoning.

OK, I think I’m about out of “movie titles using the word ‘shred’ in place of the word ‘dead'”. I couldn’t think of a better way to start my review of the new Soul Cycle album, Soul Cycle II, which is an instrumental album full of, you guessed it, shred. Soul Cycle is the brainchild of guitar wunderkinds Chris Catharsis and Mark Hawkins, the band’s sole members; Catharsis handles writing, production, bass, and drum programming in addition to guitars, while Hawkins provides mostly guitar leads. The first Soul Cycle album (the cleverly-titled Soul Cycle) was a great collection of instrumental guitar pyrotechnics with bits of groove and, yes, a little bit of djent mixed in, and they have not deviated from that particular mix on their sophomore release.

However, in order to up the ante a bit, they went out and assembled the largest group of guest soloists I have ever seen. Seriously, this is like a combination of the Avengers and the Justice League, except instead of super heroes, this group is comprised of some of the most talented guitarists (and a couple of keyboardists) you’ve never heard of (and a few you have). To put things in perspective, I’ve compiled a list of each guitarist, along with a link to some of their work, in order of appearance: Continue reading »

BEFORE THE DAWN: “RISE OF THE PHOENIX”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Apr 262012
 

(In this post, Andy Synn reviews a new album that’s been highly anticipated by your friends here at NCS — Rise of the Phoenix by Finland’s Before the Dawn.)

So, to atone for my most recent sinning, I’ve decided to bring you an album that thoroughly adheres to the site’s name. Truthfully, there is no clean singing on this album.

That in itself might be a bugbear for some, though, as Before The Dawn have become somewhat synonymous with their clean vocal sections in recent years. Indeed, mainman Tuomas Saukkonen’s declaration that he has decided to make a conscious shift away from this sound puts the listener in something of a quandary – as good as this new album is (and it is very good), how will previous records be represented in the band’s setlist in the future?

This, and other important questions remain to be answered, but Rise Of The Phoenix sets the stage for another new era for Before The Dawn. Remember that the band’s sound has shifted and grown since its very inception, shedding its more gothic skin along the way to become the Number 1 capturing entity they were up until this, their most recent transformation. Quite where they will go from here only they can say, but credit to Saukkonen for pursuing a purely artistic change in direction, having achieved chart-topping dominance with their previous style. Continue reading »

7 HORNS 7 EYES: “THROES OF ABSOLUTION”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Apr 252012
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the awesome new album by 7 Horns 7 Eyes.)

Here it is folks.  The moment of truth.

For me, the best metal albums always have these qualities: a dignified, almost regal vibe; exceptionally well-composed guitar work; and the ability to convey the gamut of human emotion in its most agonized states.  If an album can bewilder me, evoke emotion in me, and make me feel crushed under its presence while displaying musical virtuosity in all of its glory, it will win me over for life.  It’s these kinds of albums that embody the idea that music can be a journey.

We at NCS have been anticipating this debut album by 7 Horns 7 Eyes like none of you would believe since each respective member here was made aware of its existence.  At the time of writing this, I just finished listening to Throes of Absolution for the fifth time — the fifth time TODAY.  To say I can’t get enough of the punishment is a severe understatement. I’m also enthusiastic about reviewing this audio tome of morose brutality because 7 Horns 7 Eyes are known for being a rather openly Christian band;  A Christian band with the professionalism, compositional breadth, depth, and technical ability that match any of their hottest contemporaries.  Listening to this album has been an invigorating experience, and it’s a pleasure and an honor to review it.  Beyond a shadow of a doubt, it’s a landmark for the legitimacy of mixing Christianity and metal.

I also got my pre-order package at the time of writing this, which further pumped me up for this review and led me to review the album as a whole (and you’ll see what I mean by that).

7 Horns 7 Eyes have been the subject of much classification debate, but I’m personally going to lob 7H7E in with the melodic death doom metal crowd.  There are shades of In Mourning and Daylight Dies that PERMIATE EVERY FIBER of the band’s music.  Don’t be misled by my that statement, though . . . in their approach to the style, 7H7E are undoubtedly unique and recognizable virtually from first note.  Their Christian background also has a tangible influence in the music, as certain musical hallmarks the Christian music of old, as well as heavy classical influences, are evident.  The result is a sound that is quite dark and bleak, but one that communicates light at the end of the tunnel. A lot of elements contribute to this result. Continue reading »

DEATH GRIPS: “THE MONEY STORE”

 Album Reviews  16 Responses »
Apr 242012
 

(groverXIII reviews the new album by NCS favorites, Death Grips.)

[CLEAN VOCAL WARNING]

[ACTUALLY, RAPPING WARNING]

Now that we’ve got that out of the way… By now, you should have heard of Death Grips. This Sacramento-based experimental rap trio has been mentioned several times by myself and BadWolf, and the aural insanity that is the Exmilitary mixtape has been spread everywhere. (It’s downloadable for free on the Death Grips site, along with several tracks off of this album, and the whole album can be streamed there.) Following the buzz that Exmilitary generated, Death Grips signed with Epic Records (on the condition that they maintained full creative control) and have released the first of two highly-anticipated 2012 albums, The Money Store. And that, my friends, is what brings me here.

Now, if somehow you missed out on Death Grips, they’re a bit hard to describe. They are ostensibly a rap project, but the experimental nature of the group pulls them into completely foreign territory. Let me put it this way… With most of the good rap (read: not the shit that they play on the radio), the MC is an instrument of surgical precision, utilizing intelligent wordplay and a deft delivery the way a master swordsman wields a rapier. Death Grips, on the other hand, are a warhammer being swung recklessly by a berserk, half-mad barbarian tweaking on meth. I initially compared them to the rap equivalent of black metal, but the more I think about it, the less accurate I think that comparison is. No, I would say that Death Grips is more like the rap equivalent of Gorguts, taking a fairly established sound and twisting it into something bizarre and otherworldly. Continue reading »

WOLFBRIGADE: “DAMNED”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Apr 232012
 

Tomorrow, April 24, Damned will be released in North America by the increasingly can’t-miss Southern Lord label. It’s the latest riptide to be unleashed by a venerable Swedish band who haven’t lost the reflexes or the bloodlust that inspired their first music in the mid-90’s. Wolfbrigade remind us about the vital contribution of punk to death metal, but Damned is no history lesson. It’s an explosive, immediate, vibrant album that’s a hard boot to the ass.

I’ll come back to the rest of the band in a minute, but I have to start with what infected me from the beginning of this album: The vocals of Micke. His voice sounds like it’s been regularly bathed in a concoction of napalm, sandblaster grit, and pure grain alcohol from a backwoods still. It’s abrasive, pissed-off, and bleeding from a dozen raw wounds. It’s all smoke and shrapnel, and it lights up this music like a free-fire warzone at midnight.

The vocals suit the music, because Damned is one raw skin-scraper after another, and they leave no time to breathe — 12 songs in under 35 minutes. The majority of the tracks are a boiling stew of d-beat drums, swarming chainsaw guitars, slamming rhythms, and molten guitar solo’s that come for you like grasping alien face-huggers that are a shitload stronger than you are. Continue reading »

WE MADE GOD: “IT’S GETTING COLDER”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  3 Responses »
Apr 182012
 

(And here we have an Exception to the Rule: Andy Synn review the 2011 album by Iceland’s We Made God.)

It seems like we’re at one of those unfortunate confluences where all 4 members of the NCS Hive-Mind (myself, Badwolf, TheMadIsraeli, and our host-body Islander) are all somewhat busy and snowed under with other things. However I made an off the cuff promise to have something for today, just to keep all you salivating comment-jockeys satisfied for a bit longer.

Now the album we have here is far from the usual NCS fare. It’s a slab of Icelandic post-rock with overtones of late-90’s emotional hardcore, mixing a majority clean-vocal delivery with some cathartic, gasping screamed sections. The vocalist brings to mind drummer/singer (and latterly screamer) Francis Mark of the now-departed From Autumn To Ashes, while musically the band wax and wane with elements of Explosions In The Sky-esque dynamism, Sigur Ros-ian calm, and the fiery heart of early Thrice.

See, I told you this wasn’t your usual NCS band. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: TWILIGHT’S EMBRACE – “TRACES”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 172012
 

Twilight’s Embrace are based in Nottingham, England, and on April 6 they released their second EP, titled Traces. Although the EP only includes three songs, the total run-time is more than 20 minutes, and as the band themselves correctly state, it covers a lot of ground.

In its style, the music reminds me of Finland’s Before the Dawn. I get a little shame-faced when I compare one band to another, like I’m undermining the first band’s individuality or implying that the music doesn’t have the spark of something original. But that’s not my intention. I just know you’re asking yourselves right now, should I bother finishing this review or let my itchy fingers fly across the keys and take me someplace else? So, I’m giving you a shorthand idea about what the music is like, so you can hang in, or twitch yourselves away.

Traces had an impact on me. Last week, I was feeling pretty low, so low that I didn’t even want to listen to music, which tells you how low I felt. This EP was recommended to me, and I thought I’d listen to just one song out of curiosity, before returning to the dark place in my head where I was wallowing. The one song led to the next one, and the next, and over two days this EP was all I listened to, off and on. It both suited my dark mood and also made me feel better. Continue reading »

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