EYE-CATCHERS (Part 4)

 Album Reviews, Eye-Catchers  14 Responses »
Jul 022010
 

Yes, it’s time again for another installment in our irregular “Eye-Catchers” series. In case you’ve forgotten, this is both an ongoing experiment and a vehicle for discovering new music. The experiment is designed to test the completely illogical hypothesis that cool album art tends to correlate with cool music. There’s really no reason why the two should go together, but in our experience, they do go together more often than not.

Of course, our experience is completely random and anecdotal, with no statistical significance behind it at all, and undoubtedly the day will come when we’ll see a cool cover and then run for the vomitorium after we start listening to the tunes. But since we started this experiment back in April, most of our test cases have validated the hypothesis.

This experiment also provides a way for us to explore new music that we otherwise might not discover. We see eye-catching album art, and based on nothing but that, we go listen to the music.

As we explained in an earlier post, as a way of picking new music, it’s like throwing a dart at a dartboard or putting a quarter in a slot machine and pulling the handle. It makes no logical sense, except there’s so much new music from so many new bands out in the world that randomization sometimes seems as good a way as any to make choices.

Today we’ve got two test cases — two bands we had never heard before. The first one is a band from Poitiers, France, called Klone. They recently released their third full-length album, Black Days, on Season of Mist. The album cover is at the top of this post.

The second one is an unsigned band from Oregon called Arkhum, and they’re on the verge of releasing their first album, Anno Universum, in August.

How did these bands fare in our Eye-Catchers test? Read on after the jump to find out (and, for your trouble, we’ll have some music for you to hear . . .) Continue reading »

GOOD LINES

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jun 292010
 

Why do people read album reviews? In an extremely rare moment of logical thought, I decided that was a question worth considering when I started writing them myself. Just seemed to me that if I really wanted anyone to give a fuck about what I wrote, it might make sense to figure out what people were looking for. Here are the answers I came up with:

First, some people are looking for advice in deciding whether to spend their time (and maybe their money) on the music.

Second, even if readers already know the band and have their own opinions about the album, they’re curious about how the particular writer has reacted to it, and why — maybe as validation for their own opinions, maybe as a test about whether their own musical taste has finally fallen all the way into the shitter.

And/or third, they want to be entertained by the writing — even if they don’t really give a crap about the album itself.

I read album reviews for all three of those reasons, and I try to keep those reasons in mind when I write my own, even though I know full well that (a) anyone who looks to me for advice is scraping rock-bottom; (b) no one in their right mind would use my opinion as a standard by which to judge their own; and (c) my best shot at being entertaining depends on using words like “shitter,” “crap,” “fuck,” and “anus” as often as possible.

For me, the best reviews are those that satisfy all three of the criteria listed above. But I confess that, more and more, I read reviews for the third reason — to be entertained. I still read reviews to find new music, though the truth is that I already have so much new music to hear that I need more like I need a second anus. And I figured out a long time ago that I like so much of what I hear that testing my opinions against those of respected critics would just make me feel even more retarded than I already feel.

So, realizing that the desire to be entertained is a big part of why I gravitate to particular reviews, I decided to sample for you some of the best lines I found in music reviews over the past week. Why? Because it’s fucking entertaining.  (so, if you want to be fucking entertained, continue reading past the fucking jump . . .) Continue reading »

METAL FROM NZ

 Album Reviews, Steff's Posts  9 Responses »
Jun 282010
 

(Today, the half-wits who usually write for this site are stepping aside to make way for another post from our occasional guest contributor, the awesome Steff Metal. You can see Steff’s other NCS contributions via the Category link on the right called Steff’s Posts, and you can (and should) visit her own site at SteffMetal.com.)

New Zealand. Land of hobbits, sheep, bare-breasted hippies, shoddy public transport and an abundance of lame indie bands. Barring ten months I spent exploring the world, I’ve lived in New Zealand my entire life, and – despite the sheep and the hippies – it’s a wicked place to live. Cheap as chips, an abundance of wilderness and a generally laid-back attitude.

Probably due to the laid-back attitude (and the hippies) New Zealand is not known for our metal. Our remoteness from the two major world metal scenes – Europe and the US – means our metal tends to mimic trends 6-12 months old.

Nevertheless, metal bands we have, and a decent variety, too. If I had to define a NZ sound, it would be “Pantera with a few more sheep jokes.” I’m not saying that’s exactly a bad thing.

Here are a few New Zealand metal bands for you to check out. (brave souls should continue reading after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SUNDAY SLAUGHTERFEST

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 272010
 

For some people, Sunday is a day of rest. For us, it’s just another day when we parboil our heads with metal. And on this Sunday, we’re featuring two unsigned bands we think are worth checking out. As it happens, both have made their latest offerings available for free download, and we’re making it easy on you by adding download links right here at NCS. So, if you’re in the mood to flash-fry your gray matter while you, uh, rest, then read on.

BURNING GHATS

Burning Ghats is a band from Vancouver, British Columbia, and they’ve produced an eclectic, three-song demo that’s very cool. “Contombs” is a high-energy blast of grindcore that features unusually inventive, technical guitar leads, pummeling drums, and Converge-style vocals. We would have been happy with two more songs in the vein of “Contombs,” but we got a surprise with the second song, “Chorea Pseudonym”. It starts off with the pacing ratcheted down, but the time signatures then proceed to jump all over the place, with bursts of flashy, math-metal technicality in the guitar leads.

There’s more nimble-fingered guitar mayhem in the third installment, “Hemophiliac Gash,” which zooms back up to grindcore pace. Right before the song’s mid-point, there’s a jazzy solo (almost sounds like a sax), and then the bottom drops out of the rhythm — a long, slow breakdown carried along by the bass and drums and experimental-sounding guitars meandering in the background, before one last eruption of blowtorch fire.

In a nutshell, the Burning Ghats demo is packed with hardcore attitude, grindcore energy, and tech-death flash. It’s a real head-turner. (lots more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

EARLY GRAVES

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jun 262010
 

START OF TRANSCRIPT:

Me: Hey man, can I get a light?

Random Metalhead Outside a Club (“RM”):  Yeah, help yourself.

Me:  Thanks man.  (firing up a coffin nail) So, what did you think of that last band, Early Graves?

RM:  Mayhem, man! Just absolute fuckin’ mayhem!

Me:  Exactly!  It was like bein’ hit by a big fuckin’ truck, wakin’ up with tread marks embedded in your face.

RM:  Fuck yeah! That was some amazingly heavy shit. What the fuck were they playin’?

Me: All those songs were from their new album, Goner.

RM:  Good name for this kind of music, that’s for sure. It’s just, raw, eye-gouging, fuck-it-all shit. It’s like punk rock except with the heaviness dialed into the red zone.

Me: Yeah, I’m with you on that. Kinda reminded me of early Entombed, except faster, Entombed on a grindcore binge. Definitely heavy. That fuzzed-out bass is really up-front in the sound, and the fucking drummer just crushes his shit, absolutely fuckin’ berserk. But you’re right about the punk rock thing. It’s definitely got those punk rhythms and pacing.

RM:  But, you know, it wasn’t all just non-stop scorching. There was that one song that just started grinding down into a sludgy, crusty rhythm. That shit reminded me of this sweet car I used to have, the day the fucking engine just seized up on me. Sounded like the whole fuckin’ thing was coming apart and then it just stopped. Gaskets were just corroded to shit. I had to rebuild the motherfucker with money I didn’t have.

(more after the jump, including a song to hear . . .)

Continue reading »

THULCANDRA

 Album Reviews  13 Responses »
Jun 242010
 

C.S. Lewis was a British scholar and author. He was born in Belfast and died on the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination at the age of 64. He was a prolific essayist whose most profound works dealt with his Christian faith, though he is probably known most widely as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia.

He was an immensely thoughtful, extremely compassionate, constantly questioning man, and a writer of beautiful prose — and pretty decent fiction, too. If I were still a Christian, he would be one of my role models. But that’s probably because I think the world would be a gentler place if there were more doubt and less certitude in matters of religious faith. That way, we could get more of our fill of brutality from metal and less from the daily news. But what the fuck do I know? I’m just a part-time metal blogger and full-time half-wit.

In addition to The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis also wrote a sci-fi/fantasy trilogy consisting of books called Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. In part, they tell the story of human encounters with a race of immortal extraterrestrials called the eldila.

One of those aliens rebelled and was imprisoned on Earth (sound familiar?), which cut it off from the eldila on the other planets in our system. And for that reason, in the language of the eldila, Earth was called Thulcandra — the Silent Planet.

There’ s a point to this laborious background story, and the point concerns a German metal band also called Thulcandra, whose members are also involved with Obscura, Helfahrt, and Dark Fortress. Despite the C.S. Lewis connection,Thulcandra is not a Christian band — in fact, they play the kind of melodic black- and death-metal that calls forth the ghost of Dissection. Their story is an unusual one, and their debut album — Fallen Angel’s Dominion — is fucking awesome.  (more after the jump, including a track from that album . . .) Continue reading »

SMORGASBORD

 Album Reviews, Metal News  5 Responses »
Jun 212010
 

Smorgasbord is originally a Swedish word that has entered the English language with gusto. As all you metalhead carnivores (and herbivores) undoubtedly know, it means a big spread of different varieties of food laid out buffet-style on a groaning table. Here at the NCS Island, for our smorgasbord, we generally lay out a spread of pizza, followed by yesterday’s pizza (now appetizingly at room temperature), followed by last week’s chips, followed by cat food (for the cat, of course, but only if he’s fast).

As delectable as we know that sounds, we don’t have enough of it to go around. So instead, we’re serving up a smorgasbord of music today. A little bit of this, a little bit of that — Texas In July, We Are Building Ruins, and Anata —  and before you know it, you’ll be pleasantly full.

TEXAS IN JULY

We first wrote about this young collective from Lancaster, PA, back in December (at this location). Their debut album, I Am, displayed songwriting talent well beyond their years, accomplished musicianship, and a powerful one-two punch of honest, blast-furnace brutality married to massively infectious melodic hooks. And now, Texas In July has made available some kick-ass new music.

(lots more after the jump . . . WARNING: there’s a little music player embedded on the jump page that seems to have a mind of its own and will start playing unless you pause it) Continue reading »

THERE’S A NEW KING IN TOWN

 Album Reviews, Metal News  3 Responses »
Jun 202010
 

Ever Forthright is good. Really, really fucking good. A few months back I did a review of their self-titled album, which quickly propelled Ever Forthright into my ten favorite bands. This time around, I listened to the new songs that they’ve recently put on their MySpace page. All the new songs, as you can now hear them, are missing a vocalist, but guess what? They’re even better than their fantastic debut album, vocalist or not.

The thing about Ever Forthright that separates them from the endless sea of other technical metal bands is that each and every one of their songs sounds completely different from the last. It’s apparent that Ever Forthright knows what the fuck they’re doing. They’ve become masters of transition between technical guitar riffs, jazzy piano playing, melodic rhythm sections, and crushing breakdowns. Their music has become an eclectic mix of a wide range of styles that, with the right vocalist, could come together to form a masterpiece. (More after the jump, including a song and a download link . . .) Continue reading »

THE FUNERAL PYRE

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 202010
 

The Funeral Pyre describe themselves as: “A metal band with no ambition or hope. We have given up on people and life.” We assume they say this with at least a bit of tongue in cheek, because the band’s fourth album, Vultures at Dawn, was released June 8 on Prosthetic Records. We also hope they’ll postpone their surrender a while longer, because the album is damned good.

The Funeral Pyre’s sound has evolved over the course of those four albums and assorted EPs and splits, becoming increasingly “blackened,” to the point where Vultures at Dawn is charred through and through. On the new album, the band harnesses most of the traditional accoutrements of black metal to produce music that’s dense, foreboding, almost claustrophobic. It’s a torrent of mood-altering sounds that roll forward like a lowering sky, heavy and ominous.

The band’s last album, 2008’s Wounds, was itself a significant shift into the cold depths of non-symphonic black metal. If anything, Vultures plumbs those depths with even more intensity and an even more rigorous adherence to the core elements of the genre. But it’s nonetheless a riveting experience, and in our humble opinion, as excellent as Wounds was, the new album is even better.   (more after the jump, including a track to get lost in . . .) Continue reading »

HAMMERED

 Album Reviews, Metal News  No Responses »
Jun 192010
 

I’m way later than usual getting today’s post up for your reading and listening pleasure. Nobody likes a whiner, but I whined in yesterday’s post about my fucking day job and how it’s really been cramping my style here at NCS the last few days.

Well, the job-related vise that my head’s been in loosened up yesterday, and things should get back to normal around the NCS Island. Of course, I had to celebrate the vise-loosening by getting completely hammered last night with a bunch of other people who were no more capable of exercising restraint than I was.

I blame all of them for the way I feel today. I’ve been debating whether to hunt them down and kill ’em all, or keep it simple and just kill myself. I’m still thinking about it. Problem is, the thinking part of my brain, which was vanishingly small to begin with, was obliterated last night and is still recovering.  So it may take me a while to choose between those two options.

In the meantime, without a whole lot of introduction or commentary, I’m gonna serve up a couple of musical items for you, including another new music video. These items are brought to you courtesy of two bands: Shadow of the Colossus and Coliseum.  (continue reading after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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