SHORT BUT SWEET: 4SCUMS — “WE CAN RESIST”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  8 Responses »
Jun 062014
 

I had this little itching sensation in the back of my skull, a nasty little nagging voice buzzing in the brainstem, telling me: “You can’t end the week with that post about In Flames, Mastodon, and Opeth!!! Did you leave your balls in bed this morning??? Where’s the fucking filth?!?!?”

And right about then I stumbled across a link posted by a Facebook friend to a song by a Russian band named 4scums. Problem solved!

A little investigation revealed that 4scums have released a 2009 album named Пёс Войны and a 2010 EP entitled We Can Resist. Because the EP is available as a free download on Bandcamp and is streaming there, I gave it a spin.

We Can Resist serves up five songs that are best played as loud as you can stand it. They’re short, savage, and incendiary — and really well done. The music is a raucous high-speed rampage of metallic crust punk. The riffs are infectious as hell, the soloing is white hot, the drummer can fly, and the vocals (in Russian) are a howling spray of brimstone and grit. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ISHIMURA — TRANSITION: VOL. 1

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jun 052014
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new EP by Ishimura.)

I’m mainly reviewing EPs this week it seems. You’ve probably already seen my write-up of the new De Profundis EP, and although I am working on a full-length album review it’s not going to be published until Monday. So in the meantime here’s a quick look at another short-but-sweet little number, with (fingers crossed) another one to follow tomorrow.

Now there’s actually two bands named Ishimura out there at the moment — a nasty Black/Death/Noise hybrid from Mississippi, USA, and a Progressive/Post- Metal group from Kaliningrad, Russia. And if the above image didn’t clue you in to which one I’m covering here today, let me clear it up – it’s the Russian one. Apologies to all the kvltists and grindwhores I may have disappointed.

Now although this Ishimura veer most closely to the Isis style of Post-Metal (something they freely admit to), they’ve managed to integrate some very interesting ideas and a wealth of their own identity into the mix in the process. Over the course of the EP’s three expansive tracks they flirt with a number of progressive touches, weaving in threads of fluttering electronica and unexpected, esoteric instrumentation amidst waves of shimmering sound and sweeping metallic ambience. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: MECHINA — “TO COEXIST IS TO SURRENDER”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jun 052014
 

(In this post DGR reviews the new single by Chicago’s Mechina.)

I feel like I’ve been spending a lot of time musically in Illinois lately, between (hopefully) getting a review done for Cimmerian’s January release Hollowing at some point (short version; listen to it, great album that plays in the same realm as Insomnium, Be’lakor, and Omnium Gatherum), and then Chicago in particular with the Watch_Dogs videogame, which has the city down in spirit but not so much in actual layout (a problem I’ve also run into with Infamous and Seattle, and Driver in San Francisco), and Warforged’s EP Essence Of The Land (which hit earlier this year and is still on pretty constant rotation as well). And now Mechina call me back again with another new song, a twelve and a half minute precursor — after the group’s already stellar January release Xenon.

The group’s new song “To Coexist Is To Surrender” is apparently the whole ignition point for the series of albums that have previously been released, all tied into one grand and overarching story — though I will fully own up to having no idea where it is at now, as I was initially operating off of old information when I penned my Xenon review.

However, “To Coexist Is To Surrender” continues the Mechina trend of making their long songs absolutely awesome, and this one in particular provides them with an epic. Not only does the song include narration, radio broadcasts, and extended instrumental sections, it also includes multiple vocalists and an intense and passionate closing section provided by longtime co-conspirator and solo singing artist Mel Rose. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: DE PROFUNDIS — “FREQUENCIES”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jun 022014
 

(Andy Synn reviews the forthcoming EP by the UK’s De Profundis.)

De Profundis have always been one of the more… unique… bands on the UK metal scene. And that’s something that’s been both a blessing and a curse for the band, as their diverse and distinctive style of Progressive Extreme Metal has long been both instantly recognisable and yet frustratingly hard to pin down.

Over the years the band’s sound – doomy, progressive, blackened, deathly – has changed and mutated in a number of ways, yet their artful amalgamation of disparate influences – coupled to an always impressive, intricate instrumental flair – has always remained constant. Despite this, though, many people, myself included, have struggled to define or describe the band in any useful way, without simply resorting to an array of vague references to a multitude of other bands.

And trying to fully elaborate and elucidate precisely what it is that makes the band so special, without falling back on the crutch of these predictable, often ill-defined, comparisons, has been a problem for a while now.

But I can confidently say that Frequencies solves this problem with aplomb, and it does so without sacrificing any of the band’s carefully crafted identity or hard-won credibility. Continue reading »

JUST BEFORE DAWN: “OUTNUMBERED”

 SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
May 312014
 

Earlier this month we featured a brand new song named “Counterbattery” from Sweden’s Just Before Dawn. It turns out that “Counterbattery” was just the first track on a two-song single that will be released later this summer on vinyl and cassette via Prowler Records, and a few days ago Just Before Dawn put the second track up on the web for streaming and free download.

The new song is named “Outnumbered”. Anders Biazzi once again wrote and performed the music (with Brynjar Helgetun on drums), and on this track the vocals were recorded by Rogga Johansson and Jonny Petterson.

Like everything else this project has delivered to date, the lyrical subject matter concerns warfare, in this instance the fate of an outnumbered unit of soldiers surrounded by the enemy in a ruined city, lying in wait for one last strike and a final grasp at redemption. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: FEVER SEA — “FEVER SEA”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
May 302014
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new self-titled EP by Fever Sea.)

A band that I’ve been keeping a rather close eye on for a while now, Progressive/Post- Black Metal troupe Fever Sea, recently released their second, self-titled, EP for ‘Pay What You Want’ over on their Bandcamp page, and I thought it about time we covered this strangely compelling, always intriguing release here at NCS.

While the band’s previous EP The Deluge (reviewed by Islander here), still stands out as a phenomenal debut release by a band full of nascent, blackened promise, their self-titled EP somehow manages to be even better, weaving together moments of angular post-hardcore and atmospheric blackened sorcery into a seamless, multifaceted tapestry of light and shade. Continue reading »

GENOCIDE GENERATOR: “I”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
May 292014
 

(DGR wrote this review of the debut album by Germany’s Genocide Generator.)

Late last year I went on a bit of a grind kick and found myself exploring a wide variety of bands — a huge chunk of which I eventually reviewed here at NCS. I was not, however, finding them through the usual channels. Instead, I was discovering them through links posted by other bands whose music I was initially listening to — and that’s how I recently discovered Germany’s Genocide Generator.

Distaste were one of the bands whose music I reviewed late last year, and since then I’ve been keeping an eye on the band as well as its various members’ other projects, just to get some idea of what they’ve been up to — as well as catching the occasional really good recommendation. A surveillance practice like this really lends itself to the discovery of very good bands from groups’ local scenes, ones that may not be covered too often in the metal website world. For instance, Mastic Scum (reviewed here) was one of those recommendations from Distaste.

Since then though, I’ve found myself traveling through concentric circles on Facebook via a variety of bands and recently found myself doing so with Distaste once again — with supplemental help from Metal-Archives to get an idea about the bands I was clicking on and looking at. Continue reading »

REMNANTS OF 2013 (PART 4)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
May 162014
 

(Austin Weber puts the spotlight on a big load of 2013 (and 2012) releases that he feels were overlooked. This is Part 4 of a four-part piece. Previous installments appeared on each of the preceding three days.)

SNAKE BAPTIST

Snake Baptist are a group I found through The Number 12 Looks Like You Facebook page when I recently scrolled through it. Even though they are broken up, I curiously checked their page after listening to #12 all day. I felt moved that day by the somber intro to #12’s “Jay Walking Backwards”, as they were a band who my late brother and I mutually enjoyed. So the sadness contained in that intro really hit me hard for some sentimental reason.

Anyways, on to the serpentine bastards in Snake Baptist. Basically, they mix The Sawtooth Grin type of chaotic grind (a comparison helped by the presence in the band of The Sawtooth Grin’s vocalist Rich) with a Dillinger tinge, and then make the sound more insane with a scalding powerviolence influence. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: A SPLIT BY BENCHPRESS AND MARTYR’S TONGUE

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
May 162014
 

It’s time for audio mauling, with flair, as we bring you music from two metal-weighted hardcore bands who’ll slug you in the mouth and then kick you in the cojones before you have time to pick up your teeth.

The bands are Benchpress from Lewiston, Pennsylvania, and Martyr’s Tongue from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Get This Right Records has just released a split 7″ that includes two songs from each band. We’re premiering streams of all four songs after a brief introduction.

BENCHPRESS

As the band’s name signifies, the original members apparently came together with the tongue-in-cheek idea of making “beatdown anthems for gym-rats”, but the two songs on the new split aren’t joking around. “Penance” and “Pissed Away” rocket through the bloodstream in about six minutes. They inflict the punishment with thick, rebar-strength riffs delivered in both flashing jabs and brutal hammer blows, with squalling feedback leading to thunderous breakdowns. And you can feel the vocalist’s jugular veins coming apart violently as he vents his venom. Merciless and heavy-grooved, these tracks will make your bad moods murderous. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: TEMPLE DESECRATION, TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE, MORTUUS, VUYVR

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
May 162014
 

I started writing this post last weekend, when the featured songs were fresh out of the blast furnace and had just appeared online, but every day since then has thrown distractions in the way of finishing it. Finally, it is done. I’m afraid there’s nothing in this collection that’s suitable for the faint of heart, but if you’ve become acclimated to ravaging sonic assaults I think you’ll find a lot to like.

TEMPLE DESECRATION

I re-ordered the appearance of Temple Desecration since I began writing this post because what started as a feature about a single song is now a review of a two-song 12″ EP, the name of which is Communion Perished. It’s due for release by Germany’s Iron Bonehead Productions on June 27.

Temple Desecration are a blackened death metal band from Poland and their previous output consists of a 2012 demo named Abhorrent Rites, which I’ve not heard. The new release includes two songs — “Ghoul Prayer” and “Apotheosis”. Both of them intertwine passages of rapacious, storming riffs and merciless percussive fusillades with ghastly doom dirges, the guitars and bass drenched in distortion and the bestial vocals reverberating as if recorded in a catacombs. Continue reading »

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