SHORT BUT SWEET: IMBIBED BY THE QUASAR — “DEMO 2014”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Aug 112014
 

(DGR wrote this review of the first demo by a Sacramento group who have apparently been Imbibed By the Quasar.)

Imbibed By The Quasar are a new Sacramento-based death metal band, one born from the seeming ashes of the group Bispora (who at the time had hung up their hats but have since apparently reformed), a project known as Lunar Stereo, and Malevolent (whose drummer Greg Chastain pulls double time in both bands and whose keyboardist Jeff Clifford contributed a ton of material from other projects he had).

It’s super-rare that you’re able to find a project right as it starts out. Sometimes the planets align, however, and you get to see something from its genesis all the way to its baby steps and eventual exposure to the world. In this case I caught word of Imbibed By The Quasar very early while doing my seemingly random monthly check-in with bands I hadn’t heard from in a bit. Though Bispora weren’t going to be doing anything for a while, I was super-interested in learning what might be produced by the combination of a huge chunk of that band and people from Malevolent, a band who at that point had gone radio silent for some time.

On the group’s Facebook page, the guys had said it was going to be more death metal focused than Bispora. Given the history of some of the musicians in the band, this wasn’t too shocking a turn. August 1st saw the release of their aptly titled Demo 2014, ostensibly the world’s first exposure to the band. Let me tell you right away, boy is it a weird way to spend eight minutes and forty seconds. Continue reading »

TOURISM: “IN THE MINDS OF EVIL” NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2014; CARCASS; DTA’S “SWAMP LEPER STOMP ’14”

 Metal News  12 Responses »
Aug 112014
 

Collected in this post you will find news of three U.S. or North American tours. News about the first two is still somewhat incomplete, and I’m a bit late reporting on the third one. All three are enticing.

“IN THE MINDS OF EVIL”

Last month news surfaced about a tour to be headlined by Deicide, named after their most recent album, In the Minds of Evil. Last night Inquisition posted an announcement on their Facebook page about the tour, which was interesting because when the tour was announced last month Marduk was named as one of the support bands, but now it appears that Marduk are out and Inquisition are in. In addition, Abysmal Dawn have been added to the line-up. Here’s the complete list of bands:

DEICIDE
SEPTICFLESH
INQUISITION
ABYSMAL DAWN
CARACH ANGREN

An updated official tour flyer hasn’t been released yet, so I decided to use a photo of an embryo of the short-tailed fruit bat (embryonic stage 19).

Inquisition also included an initial schedule of dates in their FB post, while noting that more dates will be added. Here’s the schedule so far: Continue reading »

KHEMMIS AND GOMORRAH

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHORT BUT SWEET  7 Responses »
Aug 102014
 

Earlier today I posted a review of the Denver Black Sky 2014 festival, which I had the pleasure of attending last weekend with a fine group of old and new friends. I was already a fan of most of the bands on the two-day line-up, but the festival also introduced me to some excellent new discoveries. And two of them were the first two groups we heard on August 2 — Khemmis and Gomorrah.

If I had time, I’d write about more of the bands I heard for the first time in Denver, but I damn sure wanted to say something about these two, because they made such a memorable beginning to such a great weekend of music.

KHEMMIS

Khemmis make their home in Denver, and to date their available recorded output consists of a 2013 self-titled EP.  The cover of the EP is excellent — and it appeared on one of the two shirts that my friends and I bought after their set at Black Sky: Continue reading »

DENVER BLACK SKY RECAP

 Concert Reviews  7 Responses »
Aug 102014
 

Last weekend (August 2-3) I spent two beautiful days in Denver attending the Denver Black Sky Festival. For someone who had never attended a metal festival of any kind before this year, I’ve had three great experiences in a row — MDF in May, Gilead Fest in July, and now Black Sky in August. I’d like to say I deserved it, but who would I be fooling?

The festival took place at The Gothic Theater and at Moe’s BBQ, both located in the same block on S. Broadway. I made the trip with three compatriots from Seattle, and we met my NCS comrade Badwolf from Toledo in what became an MDF reunion (and an unanticipated turning point for BadWolf’s life). We spent Saturday and Sunday at The Gothic, and missed some bands we ideally would have wanted to see at Moe’s, but had to make some tough choices.

The Gothic is a very cool, spacious, multi-level, vaulted-ceiling venue, with a wrap-around balcony on the second level, a big floor, and a great main stage with good lighting. The festival organizers set up a second stage opposite the main one, just in front of the bar at the rear of the floor. They called it “In the Round”, because its location enabled the audience to stand all around the stage; you could stand behind the second stage as well as in front of it (and you could also look down on it from the balcony above). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HORRENDOUS, MONTE PENUMBRA, A BLACK PEOPLE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 092014
 

Happy Saturday. I’m still deep in the heart of Texas with a very unpredictable schedule. Yesterday I didn’t have time to do much listening or any writing, and I’m not sure what I’ll be able to accomplish before flying back to Seattle tomorrow night. But at least I had some time this morning to check out a handful of songs I wanted to hear, and I’ve collected three new ones in this post that I’ve really been digging.

HORRENDOUS

One upon a time our guest writer Kaptain Carbon wrote this about The Chills — the 2012 debut album by the East Coast trio known as Horrendous:

“Horrendous unceremoniously slide into the above-average tier with a knockout death metal record that presents the style with no additives, preservatives, or frilly flavor. This is raw and completely un-distilled death metal extracted from the amber peaks of death metal mountain. Horrendous is the Icelandic yogurt of death metal. What a goddamn weird metaphor. That shit is so expensive. Why does this taste like grass and goats?”

As good as The Chills was, the band’s new album is even better and more multi-faceted. Its name is Ecdysis and it’s scheduled for an October 14 release by Dark Descent. And wow, is that album art fantastic, or what? It was painted by Brian Smith (whose FB page is here). Yesterday, along with the unveiling of the cover, Decibel premiered a song from the album named “Nepenthe”. It’s fantastic, too. Continue reading »

DEMONIC RESURRECTION: “THE DEMON KING”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Aug 082014
 

 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by India’s Demonic Resurrection.)

You know an album is good when you’ve had a hard time getting to the review because you keep listening to it.

I’ve blasted The Demon King by India’s Demonic Resurrection an absolute fuck ton of times.  It’s been about the only metal I’ve listened to in the last week or so (as evidenced by my Last.fm profile, if you were to look for proof).

It should be known by long-time NCS readers that anything spearheaded by Sahil ‘The Demonstealer’ Makhija we eat up like pigs eat slop.  This man knows his metal and is an astounding vocalist and magnificent songwriter, though I have to admit I’ve neglected the existence of his projects in the past.  Demonic Resurrection are an extremely tasty combination of death metal and thrash metal with some 90’s symphonic black metal cheese and power metal seasoning.  It almost feels like I’m listening to a combination of Death, Emperor, and Iced Earth.  It’s something that in theory shouldn’t work, but Demonic Resurrection have been rocking the sound for a while and it really makes them stand out. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: LESSER LIFE — “GO HENCE UNTO A SWIFT AND BITTER DEATH”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Aug 082014
 

 

(DGR reviews the second EP by Lesser Life from Chapel Hill.)

I don’t know exactly who recommended Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based Lesser Life, but I know that their release The Light Will Never Touch You Again appeared on one of the many lists we featured as part of 2013’s annual year-end liststravaganza or what have you will call it. The Light Will Never Touch You Again is a manic release, filled with violence and a heavy dose of grind fed directly into its veins. It is one of those releases that captures nihilism well, and because of that the group have always remained in the back of my mind.

I’ve gotten into the habit of doing random check-ins with bands that pop into my mind, especially the ones who I may not have heard from in a bit, and Lesser Life have been I had consistently kept an eye on until about the end of May. Were it not for my infatuation with their Over In A Millisecond shirt with the artwork from Shining’s V – Halmstad on it, then it would’ve likely stayed that way, a victim of me assuming that they were probably on the two-year album cycle.

However, at the end of July I found myself at the face of a new EP, put out scant weeks after I had taken a breather on keeping up with the band. The title is Go Hence Unto A Swift And Bitter Death, so if there were any worry about the band suddenly shifting course and deciding to write songs about nice things, we can shove those back under the table — because if Go Hence Unto A Swift And Bitter Death is any proof, Lesser Life are still pissed. Continue reading »

IDYLLS: PRAYER FOR TERRENE

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Aug 072014
 

 

(DGR wrote this review of a new album with an arresting cover.)

Idylls are a punk group hailing from Brisbane, Australia, that I came across while wandering through different concentric circles on Facebook, bouncing from one band to another as I worked on my screed for a single song by The Fevered. They’re a dense and hefty combination of hardcore punk with a big emphasis on noise, and they have somehow managed to pack a saxophone into the mix — because if you ever needed an instrument to just have wailing notes that are as loud as possible, a saxophone can pack a ton of power into it.

I took note of them especially, because the group have a new album out known as Prayer For Terrene, which they released back in March, meaning this isn’t the most prompt review, but wow, what a find. There exists a pretty good-sized cross-section of punk, hardcore, and noise that I think appeals to heavy metal fans. The punk side of music is, admittedly, one or our blind spots at NCS, and when we do cover it we usually prefer it with artwork depicting bears with bandoliers strapped across their chests. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (Part 3): TRIPTYKON, WINTERFYLLETH, 1349, OBLITERATIONS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 072014
 

Jet-setter that I am, I’m on the road again this week in my old hometown of Austin, Texas. Until last night I haven’t had as much time as usual to check out new music or write about it. I missed a lot, and am trying to catch up before having to leave the world of metal for the rest of today.

I discovered so many things I want to bring to your attention that I’ve divided them into three parts, this being the third (Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here).

TRIPTYKON

Triptykon’s new album Melana Chasmata is proving to be one of the year’s favorites for me. The band have apparently made two music videos for the album, the first of which has now been premiered by Decibel magazine. It’s for the song called “Aurorae“, and it was directed by Philipp Hirsch (who previously did the video for Triptykon’s “Shatter”). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (Part 2): OBITUARY, ABYSMAL DAWN, PRIMORDIAL-PORTRAIT-BÖLZER, CRYPTICUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 072014
 

Jet-setter that I am, I’m on the road again this week in my old hometown of Austin, Texas. Until last night I haven’t had as much time as usual to check out new music or write about it. I missed a lot, and am trying to catch up before having to leave the world of metal for the rest of today.

I discovered so many things I want to bring to your attention that I’ve divided them into three parts, this being the second (Part 1 is here). The first three items in this round-up are mainly visual.

OBITUARY

Those long-running Floridian death kings Obituary have a new album named Inked In Blood coming out on October 28 via Relapse Records, and yesterday the cover art was revealed. As you can see, it’s brutal. The art is by Andreas Marschall. I’m hoping for equally brutal music. Continue reading »

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