SHORT BUT SWEET: KRALLICE COVERS ORPHAN

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jul 242011
 

Orphan was a two-person sludge-punk band from Brooklyn consisting of drummer Speck Brown and bassist Brendan Majewski. Last year they released an album called Decapitated Lovers, and early this year a split with Dope Body to which they contributed four songs. In January, Majewski took his own life at the age of 37 (you can find an obituary here). In April, a group of New York bands played a show at Brooklyn’s Union Pool in honor of Majewski’s life that included covers of Orphan’s music (reviewed by Brooklyn Vegan here). One of those bands was Krallice.

In our humble opinion, Krallice’s 2011 release Diotima has been one of the brightest musical spots of this half-done year. You can read NCS contributor BadWolf’s eloquent thoughts about the album via this link. Suffice to say that Krallice is in the vanguard of U.S. bands who are re-imagining black metal, melding a high level of instrumental skill with innovative songwriting to produce some truly striking music.

Now, Krallice have followed Diotima by releasing a three-song EP — Orphan of Sickness — consisting entirely of Orphan covers, and they’ve made it available for free download. There are actually two download versions available. One consists of mp3’s and a second includes the same songs in the CD-quality AIFF-C format (though you’ll have to sacrifice 150 MB of disk space if you want that version).

The EP’s title was well-chosen, because the songs have an air of rampaging sickness — a flashfire viral contagion that cuts you down like a scythe through mature wheat. I’m totally decapitated by the instrumental vehemence of these three songs. (more after the jump, including a stream of the music . . .) Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: INSISION – END OF ALL EP

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  10 Responses »
Jul 222011
 

(Yesterday’s SYNN REPORT brought us almost up to date on the discography of Sweden’s Insision. Today, Andy Synn finishes the job with his review of the band’s new EP — End of All.)

It’s always a great thing to be able to draw comparisons between the physical art that adorns a band’s release and the music contained therein. The cover for the EP melds elements of gruesome, physical morbidity and disturbing, spiritual horror, sick and decaying human figures haunted by tormented, ghostly faces displaying unimaginable terror and suffering  – condemned to the void and an eternity of pain that goes beyond the physical realm.

Echoes of this duality permeate the EP, mixing as it does elements of the band’s early, gore-soaked malevolence with their more recent forays into transcendent, inhuman malice. Cold and dehumanised in its fury, this is the sound of a band teetering on the edge of madness, unable to convey the extent of the horrors they have seen or the agonies that they have suffered.

The skulking, horror movie ambience of the intro builds an eerie death-march which serves as the calm before the chaos storm of “Expire” is unleashed. Seething with misanthropic passion and deadly intent, its fractured, ragged guitars scrape and weave through a series of crooked twists and turns, while mind-bending leads and helter-skelter drums spin their tale of inevitable collapse. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 14: INSISION

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  10 Responses »
Jul 212011
 

(NSC scribe Andy Synn turns in his 14th SYNN REPORT with a focus on the discography of Sweden’s Insision.)

The grotesque, mutated beast calling itself Insision was expelled from the womb in 1997, an unnatural combination of blood-soaked Floridian death metal violence and Swedish death metal malevolence. Since that time they have unleashed upon the world one EP, 3 albums, and numerous split releases with like-minded deviants. Though perhaps some of you may have heard their name due to the presence of renowned metal author Daniel Ekeroth on bass (although he has recently departed due to his hectic publishing schedule), the group have also shared stages with death metal royalty like Suffocation and Vader, tightening their vicious live show through a hectic and extensive touring schedule, leaving a trail of devastation across Europe.

Yet for all their straightforward, blood-drenched barbarism, to dismiss the group as merely another in a long line of Cro-Magnon misanthropists, eager to express their own bile and misogyny through the medium of down-tuned  brutality, is to miss out on the subtle, insidious growth the band have demonstrated since their inception. From their early years where an unfocussed, yet unrelenting attack was the key to their sound’s success – giving their audience little time to think and inspiring a visceral, instinctive reaction from their willing victims – the band have steadily developed their technical prowess and compositional skills, constructing an ever more warped and twisted vision of angular, incorporeal guitar work and bone-cracking drumming.

Their sound evokes ungodly visions of towering monoliths of mangled flesh and distorted bone sculptures, their progression from thuggish nihilism, through psychotic, serial killer chic, to the possessed ravings of their current, demonic incarnation evident in the channelling torrents of iniquity and incoherent horror which flow through and tie together each album they have regurgitated from the depths of their decaying souls.  (more after the jump, including sample songs with which to wreck your ears . . .) Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: BURNING GHATS’ NEW EP

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  14 Responses »
Jul 202011
 

This is the third time we’ve written about Vancouver’s Burning Ghats. Previously, we reviewed their initial three-song demo last July (here), and then we reviewed their first EP — Fool’s Gold — last September (here). Now, the band have a second EP scheduled for release on August 2. It’s called Different Names for the Same Face. As in the case of the band’s first two releases, it features eye-catching artwork by the band’s bassist, Cam Strudwick (only half of which is visible up above — we’ll show you the rest later).

I had to think carefully about where and how to listen to this new EP. The first time I cranked up the volume on Fool’s Gold, it took me hours to get my cat down off the ceiling, I found a hole in the wall curiously shaped like my head, and I’d busted up a bunch of furniture but didn’t remember doing it. On the plus side, the music killed all the insects in my house and left them liquified in a pool of their own guts.

This time I decided to take precautions and just listened to the EP’s five songs through headphones. While tied to a chair. With a piece of rawhide between my teeth so I wouldn’t bite my tongue off. Actually, I couldn’t find a piece of rawhide, so I just used one of my cat’s chew-toys. I made it all the way through the EP without damaging any more furniture, except for the chair. I did bite through the chew toy. I’m pretty sure I swallowed part of it. My cat is pissed.

After the jump, I’ll try to explain the experience. And guess what? We also have the pleasure of premiering the EP’s first song for your listening pleasure — though we take no responsibility for any injury that may occur to your person, property, or pets. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: CARCINOGEN’S “HUMAN ATROPHY”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  10 Responses »
Jul 182011
 

When last we checked in with New York-based Carcinogen, they were building up to the release of their debut EP, Unholy Aggression. That was last October, and now they’ve released a follow-up EP with four new songs called Human Atrophy. For the cover art, they’ve turned once again to that Indonesian underground artist who calls herself Oikwasfuk (of Nothing Sacred Artwerks). Nice to see that she hasn’t toned down the grisliness.

Carcinogen haven’t toned anything down either (thank goodness). When we wrote about the band in October (here), we praised their “stripped-down, fuzzed-out, palm-muted, drop-tuned, guttural-voiced, percussive approach” to old-school, thrash-paced death metal. On the new EP, Carcinogen continue to perfect their daunting assault on the senses, enhancing the technicality of their playing and jazzing up the pyrotechnics with even more pronounced tempo dynamics.

What Carcinogen haven’t done is turn down the temperature in their blast furnace. Pressing play on this EP is like sticking your unprotected head into that furnace. You’ll come out at the end with all your hair burned off and your face converted into a charred ruin — but your crispy, senseless head will still be bangin’. (more after the jump, including a stream of the whole EP . . .) Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SENTINEL’S “E.P.”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jul 162011
 

Back in mid-February we wrote about a hellaciously good Massachusetts metal band called Sentinel, who we’d come across in one of our MISCELLANY posts. Back then, the band had only produced two songs for public consumption, but they were really impressive — a fusion (as we wrote then) of “no-holds-barred speed, technical complexity, ass-on-fire vocal delivery, djent-style bass execution, and a successful combination of deep groove and head-exploding mayhem.”

Early last week, we found out that Sentinel had released a new five-song EP. I’d intended to put up a quick post about it on Wednesday, but as I got into the songs I realized that I’d need more time to do it justice. But before getting to the music, is that cover art an eye-puncturing bit of awesomeness or what? It’s by Wes Benscoter (Slayer, Dio, Sabbath, Hypocrisy, Cattle Decapitation, Mortician, etc.), courtesy of a contest selection by Revolver magazine’s editor-in-chief based on those first two Sentinel songs.

With artwork like that plus the hugely promising debut songs, I had high expectations for the new EP — and guess what? It does not disappoint. The music is a genre-bending avalanche of technically impressive metal extremity that will rivet your attention from start to finish. And to add icing to the cake, Sentinel have made the EP available for download at Bandcamp with a “name your price” option.

After the jump, we’ve got a few more words about the EP, plus a stream of one of the five songs, plus the Bandcamp link. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: CULT OF ENDTIME

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jul 152011
 

Cult of Endtime is a five-man death-metal machine from Joensuu, Finland, who came to our attention via a Facebook post by the excellent South African band A Walk With the Wicked. Cult of Endtime created a 2010 demo with three songs, which we haven’t yet heard, and then more recently a three-song EP with the most excellent title of Nuclear Witch. Those three songs are what made our playlist.

The world seems to be filled with death metal bands — new, old, and ancient. By our lights, this is good. The more death metal, the better. But with so many choices, how is a poor, confused soul to judge what’s worth hearing? What separates the good from the so-so?

As always, separating the death metal wheat from the chaff comes down to mature songcraft, superb execution, and the right kind of soul — all of which Cult of Endtime have. You listen to these three recent songs, and you would never guess they’re only the fourth, fifth, and sixth songs this band has yet produced for public consumption.

Dense, tarry riffs and a titanic drum beat drown you in a vat of sweet filth. Razor-edged guitar leads carve and decimate. At times, the songs attack relentlessly, at times they roll like a mid-paced phalanx of volcanic magma, but the songwriters didn’t lose sight of the magnetic effect of a convulsive groove. It’s disgustingly evil, and at the same time, the music’s morbid threads of reanimator melody and ghoulish rhythms sink their hooks firmly in your head. (more after the jump, including all three songs . . .) Continue reading »

FLOURISHING: “THE SUM OF ALL FOSSILS”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Jul 142011
 

The new album from Flourishing is not for kids, unless they’re kids who grew up fast and hard. It’s not happy music. It’s not party music. It won’t get your head bobbing very often. It’s not music that you’ll be running through the speakers in your mind days later. It won’t lift you up. It’s the sound of catastrophe, the sound of everything falling apart. It will roll over you and break you down.

It’s not music you can really use as background to anything else you’re doing either — it compels you to listen as it grinds over your frail person like some massive machine made for smashing human bones and flesh. I suppose the one thing you could do while listening is launch yourself into a mosh pit with violence on your mind, but that’s about it.

I have no good idea about how to classify this music within standard genre references. At times, it sounds like some kind of virulent black grind — a kind of Anaal Nathrakh-like misanthropic rending, except with more sludge. At times, industrial rhythms take hold in the low end, but if it’s industrial, it’s the sound of a deafening factory that’s consuming itself in an effusion of oily smoke.

At other times, it sounds like a dismembering kind of progressive metal, as in the last part of a song called “In Vivid Monochrome”. In certain stretches, it reminds me of the harrowing brand of hardcore-influenced venom delivered by Pristina (whose last album we reviewed here). At still others, it sounds like a catastrophic cascade of avant-garde experimental metal, reminiscent of Ulcerate.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

G.I.S.M.’S “DETESTation”

 Album Reviews, Phro's Posts  17 Responses »
Jul 132011
 

(NCS guest contributor Phro delivers this . . . uh . . . unusual look-back at an unusual album. Make sure you’re not eating or drinking while reading this, unless of course you LIKE having liquids and partially chewed food explosively ejected through your nose.)

I’m gonna go ahead and start this by just linking you to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GISM).  I’ll wait.  It’s kinda important.

Next, watch this:

Now, let’s talk about the album DETESTation by G.I.S.M. (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

EARTH CRISIS: “NEUTRALIZE THE THREAT”

 Album Reviews  29 Responses »
Jul 122011
 

(NCS writer Andy Synn reviews the new album by venerable metallic hardcore act Earth Crisis.)

A confession – though my tastes these days run more towards black metal and melodic death metal, when I originally “found” the alternative scene it was through hardcore. Introduced by an older, wiser friend via a series of bootlegged tapes of various hardcore acts (Snapcase, Earth Crisis, Sick Of it All, Vision of Disorder, etc), it was music with a primal grasp of aggression that was totally different from anything else I’d heard. I was familiar with rock and metal, there were bands I really liked in both genres, but the passion of hardcore really hit me hard. I was hooked. And although following my induction into hardcore I got deeper into much heavier styles of metal, ending up discovering the speedy melodic attack of melodic death metal and the oblique darkness of black metal, I still retain a love for the sound and am anxiously awaiting the next V.O.D. record in particular.

But this is about Earth Crisis, once a relentless hardcore force of straight-edge aggression, who after several years in the wilderness returned to the fray with 2009’s To The Death, kicking and screaming with renewed energy and vitality which carried them all the way to the front of the hardcore pack once more.  Now Neutralize The Threat doesn’t make many massive changes from the formula that brought Earth Crisis back to prominence, but it does serve to further cement their position as an unstoppable and fundamental force in heavy music.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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