NO CLEAN SINGING

BRUTALITY: “SEA OF IGNORANCE”

Jan 262016

(Grant Skelton reviews the new album by the resurrected Brutality.)

Is it just me, or do you ever feel like you enjoy your metal in absentia? The best tours never pass through your city (and perhaps not even your state). Or you discover a new band only to find out they play just 30 shows a year and you’d have to cross an ocean to catch them live. Indeed, the worst possibility is hearing an album, buying said album, then heading over to Encyclopaedia Metallum to get more information on the band. Then, your eyes widen. Your mouth is agape with terror as you behold the 2 most foreboding words in all of metaldom…”split up.”

This was me when I discovered Brutality in recent years. Along with my zeal for the Bay Area thrash scene of the early ’80s, I’ve made no attempt to hide my similar interest in ’90s Florida death. The digital age affords us the capability to hear music from previous aeons of metal history. We can watch interviews and concerts (in all their archaic VHS glory). For some obscene amount of money, we might even find a so-rare-it’s-still-throbbing copy of a band’s demo cassette on eBay. But none of that can replace being part of a scene. Buying CDs and tapes, handing out show flyers. Actually witnessing local bands play for dirt cheap (or nothing at all) just so that they can get their music heard. Continue reading »

MORE NEW MUSIC: ROTTING CHRIST, HIGH PRIEST OF SATURN, KOZELJNIK, HANDS OF DESPAIR

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 9 Responses »

Jan 262016

Sometimes I worry that we bombard you so heavily with new music that it might become exhausting, or just unrealistic to follow what we’re throwing at you. I’m kind of feeling that way today, which is why I changed the title of this post from the usual “Seen and Heard” headline — since this would be the fourth of those in four days. But despite the different title, that’s still what this is — a round-up of recently released music we want to recommend.

ROTTING CHRIST

It seems like only a week ago that Season of Mist released the last advance track from Rotting Christ’s new album (featured here). Actually, it was only one week ago. But yesterday another track premiered. And of course I’m writing about it because I think it’s just as strong as the ones that have preceded it. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): VILLAINY, STRUGGLE WITH GOD, SLABDRAGGER, MUSSORGSKI, SECTIONED, THE MOSCOW DISTRICT PIPE BAND

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Jan 252016

This is the second part of a large Monday round-up of new music that I discovered at various times over the last week, and this two-parter follows yet another round-up I put together on Saturday. Because this is Robert Burns’ birthday, I thought I’d throw in some Scottish music (both metal and not-metal) as the last two entries in this collection.

VILLAINY

The new album by the Dutch band Villainy — entitled Villainy II: Dim — was released last Friday via Bandcamp by Listenable Records. It includes cover art by Manuel Tinnemans (Comaworx).

I’ve been sitting on our advance copy of the album since mid-December and am embarrassed to say that I still haven’t heard all of it. But since I’m this far behind already, I thought I should use the proximity of the Bandcamp release at least to mention the album here — because what I’ve heard of it so far is excellent. Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH’S “JOMSVIKING”: NEW ALBUM, NEW SONG, NEW NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 8 Responses »

Jan 252016

On March 25, those Swedish vikings in Amon Amarth will release a new concept album named Jomsviking, and just an hour ago they premiered a video for the first advance track, a song named “First Kill”. And on top of that, they announced dates for a North American tour that begins in April, with Entombed A.D. and Exmortus along for the trip. Before that, the band will play album release shows in four European cities.

“First Kill” tells the story of a son’s banishment by his father after he takes his first life, leading him on the bloodstained path of a lone warrior and outcast. The song offers no surprises — it’s another galloping Amon Amarth ear-worm that makes me want to reach for my axe and drinking horn, though not in that order. I have no doubt it will quickly become a live staple, because it will get people fired up at shows in short order. The video is fun to watch, too. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): ACERUS, MONOLITH, EMBALMER

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Jan 252016

I’m making an effort to catch you up on all the new music I discovered last week that I’d like to recommend. I was able to post one round-up on Saturday but couldn’t get one finished for yesterday, so the plan is to post two today, this being the first installment.

ACERUS

In a recent edition of our weekly Rearview Mirror series I featured some music from the long-running death metal band The Chasm, a group that came together in Mexico City and now makes their home in Chicago. I mentioned in that feature that The Chasm’s main man Daniel Corchado has a side project called Acerus, and Acerus released a new full-length on January 15 entitled The Clock of Mortality. If you know anything about The Chasm, I doubt I have to sell you on this new Acerus release. But in case this is all new to you, I’ll say this: Continue reading »

ULVER: “ATGCLVLSSCAP”

Album Reviews 11 Responses »

Jan 252016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Norway’s Ulver.)

Every Ulver album is unique. But the manner in which the band set about creating their latest opus is certainly more unique than usual.

The music and sounds found on ATGCLVLSSCAP are, in essence, the results of a series of lengthy live improvisations and extemporisations that saw the band taking hold of whatever idea or inspiration would come to them, whether new or old (some of these tracks building from seeds sown in earlier material), and spinning it off into strange and uncharted territory, creating and conjuring new songs and new sounds almost on the fly.

And yet, that isn’t the whole story, as the fruits of these recordings were then taken back to be analysed, deconstructed, re-tracked and (in some cases) further reimagined in the confines of the band’s home-studio, with the final results managing to capture and maintain the sense of spontaneity and invention from those early live sessions whilst bolstering them with 1.21 gigawatts of pure sonic super-science! Continue reading »

KEVINP’S ALBUMS OF THE MONTH — JANUARY 2016

LISTMANIA 2016 22 Responses »

Jan 252016

(Here’s the first of KevinP’s monthly selection of releases for 2016, naming his Top 5 favorite albums released or scheduled for release during January.)

Writing these little “intros” for the monthly picks are by far my least favorite part of what I have to do. I always try and keep it pithy even on the off chance I have something profound to say. So on that note, here we go…… Continue reading »

EMBEDDED: “BLOODGEONING”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Jan 242016

Germany’s Embedded released their first demos back in 1996, and their debut album Banished From the Light in 2001. Two more albums followed that one, but the last of those (Beyond the Flesh) was in 2009. Finally, Embedded are on the verge of releasing a new full-length, appropriately named Bloodgeoning, via Apostasy Records, and we’ve got a full stream of the album for you right here.

The new album delivers eight tracks of full-throttle, no-holds-barred, no-mercy death metal. Deep, flesh-tearing riffs combine with bullet-spitting drum munitions and an array of growls, howls, and gruesome gurgles to produce a thoroughly brutal and galvanizing listening experience. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD FOR A SATURDAY: RAGNAROK, DECAPITATED, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, SKÁPHE, ENNUI

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Jan 232016

I’m still catching up on the flood of new music and videos that appeared this week, in part because I spent so much time on the flood of new tracks we ourselves premiered since Monday. Because I’m short on time this Saturday, I’m mainly going to let the music speak for itself. Unless I damage myself too badly tonight at a big party I’m attending, I’ll have another collection of recommended new streams tomorrow. But before we get to the music, I have one news item.

RAGNAROK

In mid-December I posted the news that Norway’s Ragnarok would at long last be releasing a new album named Psychopathology. This week, further details were disclosed, as well as the cover art (above) by Marcelo Vasco (Slayer, Machine Head, Dimmu Borgir). The album will include 11 tracks and will be released by Agonia Records on March 25 in a variety of formats, including a limited-edition CD box set that will include a bonus compilation CD entitled Chaos and Insanity between 1994-2004, which features all of the band’s early demos and EP’s (the compilation will also separately be released on vinyl).

No music to share with you yet, but you can be sure we will as soon as something becomes available for streaming. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2015’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 15)

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2015 3 Responses »

Jan 222016

Oh, this is a bad sign: I’ve let the entire week go by without a new installment in our list of last year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, yet I had promised myself I would finish the list by the end of January. Just too many other things going on, both with the blog and my own inconvenient life outside the blog.

Anyway, with renewed hopes that I can get back on a consistent track, here are two more entries — neither of them easy on the soul, neither of them exactly straight-forward toe-tappers, but both of them intense experiences, and the kind of music that seeps into your head like poison and comes back to haunt you.

DEVOURING STAR

This Finnish band produced one of the best album titles of 2015 — Through Lung and Heart — and it also brought us a fantastic piece of album art (by Manuel Tinnemans). For a debut full-length, it also made quite an immediate and striking impact. Continue reading »

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