SCRIBE

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  10 Responses »
Jan 142011
 

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve been hearing the name Scribe repeatedly since we started exploring Indian metal last year, so we asked our contributor from India, Siddharth Darbha, if he would give us an introduction to the band and its discography — and he obliged, with the following post.

Scribe is a box full of fun-filled pink chocolate confetti hiding a venomous snake beneath its contents. Yeah, that’s what Scribe is.

One of the most original bands found in this era, Scribe is not just two guitars, a bass, a throat, a drum kit and five pseudo-humans. No, definitely not Scribe. A concoction of auditory mutilations, pseudo glitter-infected personae and temporal hallucinations; that’s more like what Scribe has meant to the Indian crowd since its debut offering Have Hard. Will Core., which came out in 2005. A super-group of sorts, they took the nation hostage, winning quite a few national competitions and audiences all around.

Sounding like a not-so-distant progeny of SikTh, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and other mind-enhancing drugs, they incorporate a wide variety of genres into their play. As their debut EP suggests, hardcore is one of them. Frequently setting up djent tones, they also use electronic music. Time signatures fly here and there, but that is not what Scribe is about. Like the music of SikTh, the songs often feel like they are a part of something larger.   (more after the jump, including music . . .) Continue reading »

PRAETORIAN

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jan 112011
 

Out here in the euphemistically named Emerald City (which is just shades of grey right now), we’re on the other side of the continent from Long Island, New York. But we can hear the explosion of metal loud and clear. First, one impressive metal band, then another, then another. Today’s review is about our latest Long Island discovery.

We first came across Praetorian while browsing new music for a MISCELLANY post we put up in early November (here). We liked the one song we heard from the band’s 2010 EP (To Dwell In Darkness) and vowed that we’d listen to the rest of the EP and write a proper review — and then got side-tracked, as often happens around here. Sometimes we get back on track. In this case, it only took two months.

To Dwell In Darkness is an ambitious work of symphonic death metal — especially ambitious for a debut release by a young band — but it’s an auspicious start. The six songs on To Dwell In Darkness are a manifestation of considerable talent, both in the intricate songcraft and in the synchronized execution. If you’re a fan of bands like Keep of Kalessin and Dissection, Praetorian are worth keeping your eyes on.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BELPHEGOR: BLOOD MAGICK NECROMANCE

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Jan 102011
 

[EDITOR’S NOTE: NCS writer Andy Synn reviews Belphegor’s new album . . .]

Well, the 9th album by the real Austrian death-machine is finally here. Immediate impressions are favourable, I’ll grant you that, but really what does one expect from a band like Belphegor whose past releases have all shared the same blast-frenzy?

For one thing, I’d say the sound is more “blackened” in several ways than either of their previous two releases, the guitar tone a little sharper and less “thick” than previous album Walpurgis Rites, the cutting riffs acting more like a scalpel than a bludgeon this time around. There is also a much more refined use of melody, on almost all of the tracks, that adds a sense of atmosphere.

This approach clearly stems directly from Bondage Goat Zombie and Walpurgis Rites (which could be considered the start of a new chapter for the band), but the overall feeling of the new record is of a far more agile and dangerous beast.

Whilst the “chunkiness” of the previous two records may be mostly absent, the song-writing incorporates far more subtlety and nuance (well, as far as a Blackened-Death metal band with an obsession with Satan and Sado-masochism can be considered subtle and nuanced) and uses many of their own familiar tropes in new and interesting ways. The differences in production and tones also allow a wider emotional palette to be invoked and the whole record feels arguably fresher and more supple.  (continued after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ARTILLERIE: ERADEFILED

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jan 062011
 

[EDITOR’S NOTE: When we recently named a song by India’s Demonic Resurrection to our list of last year’s most infectious tunes, we observed that 2010 was the year in which we here at NCS had discovered the joys of Indian metal. In addition to DR, we heard and wrote about albums by Bhayanak Maut, Infernal Wrath, Heathen Beast, and Skrypt. And we also expressed our interest in continuing to explore Indian metal in the New Year. That led to a correspondence with Siddharth Darbha, a musician and close observer of the Indian metal scene. Today, we’re posting the first of what we hope will be regular contributions from Siddharth about Indian metal. This one is his review of a new album by New Delhi’s Artillerie.]

Artillerie’s 2008 release, New Offensive, was well received and validated the addition of a new flavor to Indian metal from a capital perspective, joined by Undying Inc.’s EP, Evilution Of A Manimal. New Offensive was exceedingly groovy and live-worthy, in-your-face material, and it invited high expectations from fans. Artillerie has been playing for about four years now and took a lot of time out, playing comparatively few gigs and concentrating on writing new material. They released a two-song EP Prelude To Chaos, featuring trailers of their new album, Eradefiled.

Artillerie tied up with Grey and Saurian Records to work on Eradefiled, later choosing to release it independently as a free internet download. (You can download it here.) It consists of 9 songs spanning 40 minutes. Artillerie spent a lot of time adding depth to the theme of this lyrically conceptual album, with their blog detailing the self-fashioned fictional background storyline for their album.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

DESULTORY

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jan 042011
 

2010 saw powerful new releases from two first-wave Swedish death-metal bands that we meant to review: Evocation and Interment. We failed miserably in following through on our intentions, as much as we liked those albums. However, the new album from yet a third first-wave band is now almost ready for release, and we’re not going to miss the chance to write about this one.

Formed in approximately 1989, Desultory was caught up in the hotbed of Stockholm death metal. They released three demos between ’90 and ’91 (From Beyond, Death Unfolds, and Visions) and a 1991 EP called Forever Gone. That led to a signing by Metal Blade for a three-album deal. 1993’s Into Eternity and 1994’s Bitterness (both recorded at Sunlight Studios) were well-received and solidified Desultory’s role as one of the progenitors of a more melodic brand of Swedish death metal. And then the train went off the rails.

Guitarist Stefan Pöge left the band, and the remaining members made a musical course change, producing an album called Swallow the Snake that apparently left death metal behind in favor of hard rock and groove metal. We haven’t heard that album, but from what we’ve read, it clearly disappointed Desultory fans in a major way. For all intents and purposes, Desultory came to an end, with the three members from the Snake album continuing on as a rock band under the name Zebulon.

But Desultory is now back.  The remaining three members from the 90’s — Klas Morberg (vocals/guitars), Hakan Morberg (now on guitars), and Thomas Johnson (drums) — have recruited bassist Jojje Bohlin and have produced the first Desultory album in 14 years. It’s called Counting Our Scars, it’s scheduled for release later this month, and it’s a welcome throwback to glory days. We got an advance listen — and yes, Desultory is indeed back, with a vengeance.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

FINLAND TRIBUTE WEEK: BILL SKINS FIFTH AND MEDICATED

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Dec 072010
 

Thanks again to all the commenters who’ve sent us band suggestions for our ongoing tribute to Finnish metal — and by all means, keep those suggestions coming. We’re still calling this thing a “Tribute Week”, but we’re being really flexible in how we define “week”.

For today’s installment, we decided to focus on relative newcomers. We picked one band off the suggestion list in fairly random fashion — Medicated. And for our lead item, we’re focusing on a band with the attention-grabbing name of Bill Skins Fifth, who contacted us about their first EP in September. We listened to the EP’s opening song back then and got immediately addicted. But we still put the EP aside because of something else we were in the middle of, and our attention wandered, as it often does.

We’ve kept that EP on our list of music to check out more thoroughly, and now maybe it’s just as well we didn’t write about it earlier, because it’s a natural fit in this Tribute Week series.

If you like music that sticks in your brain and rattles the fuck out of it at the same time, we think you’re going to dig both of these outfits. So stay with us after the post to learn more and hear some tracks.

Continue reading »

GOD DETHRONED: UNDER THE SIGN OF THE IRON CROSS

 Album Reviews  14 Responses »
Dec 062010
 

In our oh so humble opinion, God Dethroned‘s Passiondale was one of the best albums of 2009 — even though, in our typically half-assed fashion, we didn’t get around to reviewing it until January 2010, nine months after its release (here). It was unusual in that it was a concept album about one of the most horrific battles of World War I, fought for control of the village of Passchendaele near the town of Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.

In that battle, the British launched massive attacks, without any decisive success until the Canadian Corps took Passchendaele in November 1917. The result? The Allies had captured a mere 5 miles of new territory at a cost of 140,000 combat deaths — about two inches per dead soldier. And then five months later the Germans recaptured the ground they had lost, without resistance.

Passchendaele became a symbol of “grinding attrition warfare” and the heedless sacrifice of human life by inept military commanders. It would have remained a symbol of senseless sacrifice to this day, except with the passage of time, most people now know nothing about it. But God Dethroned resurrected the memories and constructed a masterful soundtrack to the horrors of that war.

But Passiondale did not exhaust Henri Sattler‘s interest in World War I. He and his bandmates in God Dethroned have now released the second concept album about “The War To End All Wars”. Under the Sign of the Iron Cross (the band’s 9th studio release) is, if anything, even more intense, more emotionally powerful than Passiondale, and it’s simply brilliant — a raw, ravaging assault on the senses that’s also loaded with infectious riffs and dark melodies. If we had the ambition to make our own list of 2010’s best albums, Under the Sign of the Iron Cross would be on it.  (more after the jump, including a track for you to hear . . .) Continue reading »

LONG SONGS: OBITUS

 Album Reviews  22 Responses »
Nov 282010
 

You probably thought we were finished with our mini-series on long songs — but no, we’re not finished. We have one more. Well, maybe two more, if we ever get around to the second one in between reviewing the flood of stunning new albums that were released the last couple of weeks. But at least one more, today.

In our previous installments of this series, we reviewed long songs by Hull, Agalloch, Akelei, and Radiance. Today, we’re writing about the longest song yet in this series: It’s an album-length song released last year by a black-metal band called Obitus. The album is divided into seven tracks, but that’s merely to facilitate jumping to favorite passages; Obitus intended the album to be heard as a single, seamless work, more than 47 minutes in length.

Now, in today’s frenetically-paced, attention-deficit-afflicted world, asking music fans to sit still for an entire album’s worth of non-stop listening is like trying to stop a surging river in its course with kind words. But in our heart-of-hearts, we know that unless we slow down and focus, at least every now and then, we will miss out on some valuable experiences. And so it is with the second full-length album from Obitus — The March of the Drones.

Obitus was formed in May 2000 by a couple of Swedes, Anders Ahlbäck (who plays all the instruments) and Johan Huldtgren (vocals and lyrics). Since then, they’ve produced a demo, a split, an EP, a debut full-length that was never released, and The March of the Drones. They took some risks creating an album-length song, testing the patience of a mostly impatient population of metalhead fans. But they clearly poured their hearts and souls into this work — and don’t be misled by the title: It refers to the album’s lyrical themes. Musically, The March of the Drones is a full-body immersion into a surging torrent of dark fire.  (more after the jump . . . including a sample of the music) Continue reading »

AFTER THE BURIAL: IN DREAMS

 Album Reviews  23 Responses »
Nov 242010
 

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Today we’re stepping aside again to make way for another album review by our UK contributor Andy Synn. It’s about the latest release, In Dreams, from one of NCS’s most beloved bands — AFTER THE BURIAL — but brace yourselves, because Andy is underwhelmed with the effort — and backs up his opinion in detail. Comments please!]

Apologies all, but I’m afraid this is going to be my first ever mainly negative review.

To qualify myself for this, I’d like to state that although I found Forging A Future Self to be a little stock for the majority of its running time, the band’s sophomore release Rareform remains one of my favourite albums of the more modern iteration of metal. It’s a skillful display of technicality and melody, mixed with a sense of interesting and progressive song-writing and a great sense of (non-derivative) Meshuggah-influenced groove. It had energy to spare and was organic in its ability to shift styles and tones.

Unfortunately, the third album In Dreams seems to have forgotten much of the positive growth demonstrated by Rareform, aiming for a more derivative and mass-appeal based sound. In a move similar to much of the “djent” movement (and also in a way reminiscent of the development of UK hardcore darlings Architects) the band have regressed to a more simplistic, and arguably less “metal”, sound. Now whilst not every record needs to be “tr00”, “kvlt”, or whatever is the precisely elitist terminology of the day, this record comes across as rather forced and lacking in certain departments, leading me to wonder if the band have lost a lot of interest in the “metal” element of their sound. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

KING CONQUER

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Nov 212010
 

Yesterday was the 21st birthday of NCS co-founder and occasional contributor to this site, IntoTheDarkness. I saw him all-too-briefly last night before he embarked on some first-time-legal-debauchery with his buds and bud-esses (all badass, no doubt). I hope he’s alive today to see this tribute to his legal adulthood.

As you regular readers know, ITD is our resident deathcore maven. Though his tastes run in other directions, too (for example, he’s the one who finally pushed me to listen to Cloudkicker and Dan Dankmeyer), he still dearly loves his deathcore and knows the genre pretty damned well. The day before his birthday, as I was on my way back to Seattle from vacation, I got this text message from him: “I might have a new favorite deathcore band. check out king conquer’s new album. HOLY SHIT.” (As I’ve noted before, ITD doesn’t bother with capitalization except for emphasis.)

So, in honor of ITD’s birthday, I did check out the debut album from King Conquer without delay. It will be officially released on November 23 on Mediaskare Records and it’s called America’s Most Haunted. And . . . well . . . holy shit, indeed.

King Conquer are a howling horde of barbarians on a rampage, swinging downtuned axes and blast-beat mallets straight for your head — but there’s more to their musical attack than the usual blunt instruments. This band is one of the most promising new purveyors of hardcore-influenced death metal we’ve heard this year. (more after the jump, including some King Conquer music . . .) Continue reading »

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