SEEN AND HEARD: DEMIURGON, MAZE OF TERROR, AND AMKEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jun 022015
 

 

I’m awash in new music, with not enough time to cover everything I want to throw your way. Consequently, and as is usually the case, I’m making this selection on a random basis: These are the last two selections of music I heard in my scurrying through the interhole that I really liked. The first two bands I’ve featured before; the third one is a new discovery.

DEMIURGON

About three weeks ago we premiered a song from Demiurgon’s debut album Above the Unworthy, which was mixed and mastered at 16th Cellar Studios by the masterful Stefano Morabito and  features cover art by the masterful Pär Oloffson. Yesterday it was officially released by Ungodly Ruins Production and the entire album is now available for listening and download on Bandcamp, where it can also be ordered on CD. If you’re a fan of well-executed death metal, you really owe yourself to check it out. Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: CONDUCTING FROM THE GRAVE, AENIMUS, FLUB, JOURNAL, THE BROTHERHOOD OF ELLIPSIS (MAY 1, 2015)

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 022015
 

 

(DGR reviews a recent show from Sacramento, California, featuring Conducting From the Grave, Aenimus, Flub, Journal, and The Brotherhood of Ellipsis.)

It is rare these days for a show to line up perfectly with my schedule. It has also become rare these days that the guys in Conducting From The Grave, a group I’ve seen a whole bunch and reviewed for this site before, play live now, so the fact that the two lined up on a Friday felt like the planets aligning.

Conducting From The Grave just recently re-recorded their first EP Trials Of The Forsaken themselves and re-released it under the name Revival Of Forsaken Trials and were celebrating that fact. It was a ten-year anniversary show for that EP and one that also saw the reunion of some old band members to the fold for a limited run. Also on the docket for this show were The Brotherhood Of Ellipsis, Journal, Aenimus, and Flub — many groups I would be seeing for the first time, and that was exciting.

Unfortunately, Entheos had to drop off the bill as they had been a late addition to another tour and the routing made it impossible for them to make it. That was a bit of a bummer because they would’ve been exciting to see live — I get the sense they’re slated for big things. As it stood though, that night was still going to be an assault on the senses spread across five bands — with two of them being on very different ends of the instrumental spectrum. Continue reading »

DARK RITUALS OF DOOM — PART 2

 Mosh Pit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 022015
 

 

(This is the second part of a mammoth essay by our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks, who explores a variety of spiritual rituals and their connections to doom metal. Part One is here.)

Tonight we’re finishing our brief research of Dark Rituals performed by doom bands all over the world. In the first part of this article we took part in Voodoo and Aghori rituals with Pombagira and The Moon Mistress, we participated in Christian and Black Mass ceremonies with Griftegard and Hour of 13, and besides that we even visited the Sabbath in some godforsaken pub alongside Barabbas, we summoned Cthulhu with Arkham Witch, and spent the Beltaine feast with Serpent Warning and the Wakan Tanka ritual with Caronte. Is it too much? Not at all. I have a few more examples of how sacred, ancient, esoteric traditions of dark occult wisdom have been reflected in the music of modern doom bands.

Today Reino Ermitano, War Injun, Ethereal Riffian, Tenochtitlan, Alunah, Stangala, Matus, Obake, Taak, and the almighty Abysmal Grief lead us into the mystic realms of the unknown. And I must warn you once more – don’t even try to perform these mysteries at home! Continue reading »

PYRRHON: “GROWTH WITHOUT END”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jun 022015
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new EP by Pyrrhon.)

The veritable smorgasbord of styles and variants on the Death Metal template available today means that the genre offers the potential to satisfy seemingly every urge and craving.

Whether you’re looking for a quick snack of savagery, or a multi-course feast of diverse, Deathly dishes, there’s always going to be something in the recipe book – from Floridian flavourings to Blackened spice – to tantalise the taste-buds.

Case in point, Brooklyn-based Death Metal mixologists Pyrrhon have certainly come up with their own particular formula for sonic disorder, a foul and brackish brew of scalding fury and sickening intensity that practically compels the listener to gorge themselves senseless on the depraved delights it offers. Continue reading »

A NEW SEPTEKH VIDEO: “SUPERHEATED LIQUID IRON CORE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 022015
 

You can always count on Sweden’s Septekh to bring you the batshit crazy videos. The newest one, just unwrapped and dripping with blood and spit, is for the beautifully named song “Superheated Iron Core” from their last album, 2014’s Plan For World Domination.

It may be impossible for Septekh to ever replace their video for “Burn It To the Ground” in my affections, but this new one comes damned close. Bar fights are always fun to watch (as long as you’re on the sidelines), especially when they involve a bat-wielding waitress, knives and folding chairs, a man beaten with his own severed arm, a chainsaw to settle everything, and a bored kid who makes off with the spoils of war. And, of course, a band who don’t look like any other band. Continue reading »

NE OBLIVISCARIS: THE “CURATOR” VIDEO

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jun 022015
 

Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris have just released a video for the song “Painters Of The Tempest (Part II): Triptych Lux / Movement III: Curator”, from their 2014 album Citadel. I’m glad they picked that song for a video. The intro to the song probably makes it my favorite on that album — the finger-tapped bass, the plucked violin string, the shimmer of the guitar, it all works. There are of course other things to like about the song, too.

The video was directed by Joe Ritson, with lighting design by Joshua Tanidis. When a live performance is this well-filmed and edited, you don’t really need anything else going on to make it worth watching. Continue reading »

GET TO THE POINT: MARCIN RADECKI (OUTRE)

 Interviews  3 Responses »
Jun 022015
 

 

(KevinP brings us this “Get To the Point” interview with Marcin Radecki, bass player for Outre from Kraków, Poland, whose new album Ghost Chants has made quite a splash.)

K:  How does it feel to have one of the, if not ‘THE’, best albums of the year (so far)?

M:  Nice to hear that someone uses such huge words to describe our album.  It definitely feels good but it also brings up a bigger challenge to keep such a level or even exceed it on future releases. Continue reading »

A BYZANTINE TOUR UPDATE

 Metal News  1 Response »
Jun 012015
 

 

For East Coast fans of Byzantine, we’ve got an update on the schedule for the tour we’re sponsoring that begins later this month, with support from Mobile Deathcamp. The new schedule, which reflects a few changes, is shown on the flyer above.

The tour begins in Elmhurst, NY, on June 12 and concludes in Wilmington, NC, on June 26, and will lay waste to 15 cities along the way. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: AMESTIGON — “THIER”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 012015
 

 

Earlier today our contributor KevinP, a notoriously hard man to please, named Amestigon’s new album Thier the best release of the month just ended (here). That’s not to suggest it’s merely a highlight of the month of May, because its impact can’t be confined to a single month’s worth of new albums. Though 2015 isn’t even half-finished yet, we expect to see Thier in the upper reaches of year-end lists when 2015 draws to a close. Take the opportunity now to hear this remarkable work for yourselves, as we stream all four of Thier’s titanic tracks for the first time.

Though Amestigon trace their roots to the mid-’90s, the album is still something of a surprise. The band did not release a debut album until 2010’s Sun of All Suns, and despite the quality of that debut, Amestigon still flew under the radar. Thier should change that, in dramatic fashion. Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: SEPULTURA, DESTRUCTION, ARSIS, BORIS THE BLADE, MICAWBER

 Concert Reviews  9 Responses »
Jun 012015
 

 

(In this post our man DGR reviews a Sacramento performance by Sepultura, Destruction, Arsis, Boris the Blade, and Micawber.)

Two shows in two days can sometimes be a difficult prospect, especially when you’re used to working those evenings. When you’ve barely recovered from one, dragging yourself to another can feel like a herculean labor. You don’t have the ‘holy shit I’m here’ adrenaline of being at a festival, it’s just two separate events on two different days, and as it would turn out, on two fairly different scales.

The previous night before this show, I wind up seeing Anaal Nathrakh in a venue the size of a fairly large kitchen (that show reviewed here), and this time I was slated to see Sepultura at Ace Of Spades — a venue that I have lavished many loving words over, mostly in hopes that they keep booking metal shows because they have a knack for bringing bands that normally wouldn’t roll through to Sacramento. Of course, you have to keep in mind that this show was a fairly large cultural icon at this point, with both Sepultura and Destruction being long-running international bands at about thirty years a piece. Hell, this was a Sepultura thirty-year anniversary tour, all things considered. (While we’re on the subject, Boris The Blade turned out to be from Australia, meaning this was quite the international tour.) Continue reading »

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