SHORT BUT SWEET: VOLTURYON — “HUMAN DEMOLITION”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 302014
 

 

(DGR wrote this review of the new EP by Sweden’s Volturyon.)

Volturyon are one of those groups I came to incredibly late. I had heard the name before, but my attention wasn’t directed toward them until the guys who made up the band started appearing in other projects I had been listening to — in this case, drummer Christian Netzell, who at the time was playing in In Mourning, and vocalist Alexander Högbom, who turned up in October Tide. Later, bassist Oskar Pålsson from Coldworker would join their lineup as well, but I don’t know if he contributed to Human Demolition. It was, however, one of those coincidences that make the band seem like a death metal explosion built out of the most volatile chemicals that they could find.

The timing of my discovery would prove fortuitous because the band had started hinting at new material, yet I still had enough time to explore, and genuinely enjoy, their earlier works — just so I knew what I would be in for. However, what I hadn’t expected was that when Volturyon took just enough time to put out an EP, they were going to condense the very best of their sound down into four songs and a real quick intro — and genuinely surprise me with some of my favorite material to date.

Long story short, I knew Human Demolition was going to be good, but I did not think it was going to be this good. It’s one of the few discs this year that has left me with whiplash because I couldn’t resist whipping what is left of my glorious mane up and down in rapid-fire sync with the music. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (Part 2): INTO DARKNESS, SABBATIC GOAT, SERPENTRANCE, TREPANATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  8 Responses »
Jun 292014
 

This is Part 2 of a round-up I began earlier today (here). The new songs collected in both parts of this post are the result of my recent submergence in the deepest, dankest pits of black, death, and doom, from which I’ve surfaced with some kind of necrotizing disease that I feel the need to communicate to my fellow lepers. Enjoy!

INTO DARKNESS

After only one listen, I proclaimed the debut demo by Italy’s Into Darkness “one of the best death/doom releases of 2012″. After a line-up change, they then followed that auspicious start with a 7″ EP entitled Transmigration of Cosmic Creatures Into the Unknown (reviewed here), which proved that the 2012 demo was no fluke.

In between those two releases the band produced another demo named Cosmic Chaos (2013) (discussed here and available on Bandcamp), which included a rough mix of a song entitled “Shifted To the Red End of the Spectrum”. Finally, that song is going to be released on a vinyl split with San Diego’s Ghoulgotha, and today it became available inn revised form on Bandcamp. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (Part 1): DEATH VOMIT, EASTERN FRONT, FŌR, FÓRN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  2 Responses »
Jun 292014
 

This is another weekend round-up of recommended new music. A particular kind of new music. The kind that will wreck your head on the shoals of savagery and cast your soul into outer darkness. This collection turned out to be so large that I divided it into two parts; the second part will appear soon. The bands are presented in alphabetical order, which is about the only kind of order you’ll find here.

DEATH VOMIT

NCS supporter Utmu pointed me to the first song presented here. It comes from Gutted By Horrors, the debut album of a Chilean band named Death Vomit that’s due for release on July 1, 2014, by the Spanish label Xtreem Music. The song is “Indestructible Abominations”. It’s a noxious cloud of utterly destructive black/death war metal, whose gargantuan grinding riffs spread a morbid melody like the plague while the vocalist renders inhuman echoing howls and soul-devouring roars. Attractively obliterating music.

I’m including a stream of the song in two different players. The album will be available for order on CD at the Xtreem Music site. Based on past experience, I’m guessing Xtreem will eventually put the album on their Bandcamp page (here) as well. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM XERATH, KING OF ASGARD, AMIENSUS, COLUMNS, AND IKHON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Jun 282014
 

Happy Saturday to one and all, and if you happen not to be happy on this Saturday, we offer our condolences. Perhaps some of the new sounds in the following collection will cheer you up. They sure as hell put a smile on my face.

XERATH

A couple days ago Candlelight Records announced that it will release the third album by UK-based Xerath on September 16 in North American (September 15 for Europe). The title is III, and it was produced by Jacob Hansen (Volbeat, Epica). The album is a mammoth one, with 14 songs and a run time of almost 70 minutes, and the cover art was again created by Colin Marks. The album also marks the appearance of new guitarist Conor McGouran, who has replaced the formidable Owain Williams. Also appearing on the album will be a live string quartet and classically trained alto and soprano vocalists.

I really enjoyed this band’s first two albums and have had high hopes for the new one. We got a first taste of the album in late April when Candlelight released a sampler that I wrote about here. The sampler included a previously unreleased Xerath song named “Sentinels”, and although I didn’t know it at the time, that turns out to be the seventh track on III. And then two days ago, a teaser of additional new music appeared on YouTube. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: TORTURE DIVISION — “THE REAPING”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jun 272014
 

Well, this is a damned fine way to end the damned work week — with the release of yet another free demo by Sweden’s Torture Division. This new one is named The Reaping.

As followers of the band know, they periodically release demos for free, and each time they complete a trilogy of demos they package them up for release on a compilation CD. In 2013, Torture Division released two demos, both of them (as usual) mixed and mastered by the masterful Dan Swanö at Unisound. The first one was named The Worship, and I reviewed it here. The second one was The Sacrifice, and I reviewed that one, too. And then I also picked one of the 2013 songs — “All Rise” — for my list of 2013’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

The Reaping completes the latest trilogy of Torture Division releases. This one was also mixed and mastered by Dan Swanö, and in addition to providing a free download of the songs in mp3 format, this time Swanö has prepared a download file of the songs in full dynamic range FLAC format for the audiophiles out there. So go thank Mr. Swanö by liking his Unisound Facebook page, dammit!

And while you’re in a thankful mood, go throw some money at Torture Division via this link so they’ll continue showering us with the best goddamned death metal masterpieces the world has ever known (I know these are masterpieces because Torture Division says so, dammit!).

And now, for a few words about The Reaping. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: DISPLAY OF DECAY — “OUTBREAK OF INFECTION”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jun 272014
 

Display of Decay roam the badlands of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. They released a self-titled debut album in 2012 and have followed that up with a five-track EP named Outbreak of Infection, due for release on August 26. Today we bring you the premiere of the EP’s title track.

“Outbreak of Infection” is a Deicide-al rampage of fast, rapacious riffing and spitfire soloing, with gut-punching drums and a gruesomely guttural vocal performance. These dudes do a good jump injecting the music with snake venom and radiating an aura of ravenous evil. They bring the death metal brutality, spiced up with insidious melody and high-voltage fretwork. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: ZAUM — “PILGRIMAGE OF DOOM ORACLES”

 Interviews  1 Response »
Jun 272014
 

(Our Russian contributor Comrade Aleks returns with another interview — and this time he talks with Kyle Alexander McDonald from the Canadian band Zaum, whose first album debuted earlier this month. We’ve got a stream of the album in here, too)

A caravan from distant Sweden comes into our city, as I Hate Records brings rich gifts, and among them I’ve found a rare one: Shining with colours of the sun, a disk with scriptures ancient, the 2014 debut CD of Zaum from Canada, with psychedelic heavy vibes. Enriched with the wisdom of Oracles, the melodies are spreading and full of Eastern mystic rituals that come and blind our feelings. Kyle, the master of the voice and heavy guitars, answers our questions and reveals secrets of the band and of long-gone tribes that make their stories come alive. So, welcome pilgrims of doom and praise the gods for rain.

********

Salute Kyle! First of all let me ask a straightforward question: What does the band’s name mean? I know only an accordant word in the Russian language, but I wonder if you meant that when you give your band such a name.

For us, ZAUM defines the form of communication beyond that with which we are commonly familiar and have used as humans.  By harnessing ZAUM, one is able to communicate at a higher form without the boundaries of a modern spoken language.  ZAUM tells of a deeper meaning in the medium beyond the borders defined by the music, experienced as a deep mental elevation.  We indeed reference the invention of ZAUM by Russian Futurist poet Aleksei Kruchenykh – so I suppose in that regard we do have a Russian connection.  I’ve used the name as a label for my personal demos since 1993, and when the time came to name the band – it just made sense, as this is my first band in which I’m writing 100% of the music rather than in collaboration.  That said, Chris [Lewis] does have a hand in the song arrangements.  Hopefully we can play there soon.

 

You’ve been playing heavy tunes since the mid-90’s. What have been the most memorable periods in your artistic life?

Speaking for myself — I formed and played bass in a 3-pc stoner/noise band called COPSHADES and did a lot of touring with that band, which is now defunct, though it was very dear to me and my artistic journey.  Additionally, I fronted a 3-bassed psych/doom monstrosity called SHEVIL – a band which is currently on hiatus due to 2 of the 4 members relocating for jobs.  We recorded an EP and most recently a full-length which was just pressed to vinyl and is available to purchase from shevil.bandcamp.com — only 100 copies pressed so get one while you can! Continue reading »

YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! SCIENTISTS SAID IT COULDN’T BE DONE!

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jun 272014
 

Okay, maybe you’ll believe that Darkest Hour and Abigail Williams are making new albums. And I don’t actually know of any scientists who said they couldn’t do it. I mean, it’s not as if these new albums are going to open wormholes that tunnel to distant galaxies — but it could happen! They could also include 5 weight loss tricks guaranteed to give you six-pack abs while you sleep!

I hate click bait with a fury hotter than the flames of hell, but I’m getting kind of bored with those “Seen and Heard” headlines. Anyway, here’s the news and snippets of music.

DARKEST HOUR

Yes, Darkest Hour have indeed finished recording a new album, just in time for them to hit the road on the Mayhem Festival tour, where they will be joining Cannibal Corpse, Wretched, Erimha, Body Count, and some other bands (and in what world do Emmure and Korn get higher billing than Darkest Hour and Wretched?).

Yesterday DH posted a snippet of music on a site called FuckWaitingAroundToDie. It’s all of 18 seconds long. It sounds scorching. Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN PRESENTS: REVIEWS IN HAIKUS:

 Reviews In Haikus  6 Responses »
Jun 272014
 

(Andy Synn delivers another installment of his irregular series of album reviews in haiku. Two more reviews come after the jump. With music, of course.)

So it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these columns, as my productivity on NCS has been particularly dire recently. While I’m working to correct that though, I thought I might as well use the format of this particular column to try and catch up on a few things we’ve missed out on.

As part of that I’ve decided to shake things up slightly, and give each of these albums a small introduction preceding each haiku. It’s a good time to bring it in, too, as each of these albums fits vaguely under the “Post/Atmospheric Black Metal” banner, so are all somewhat disparately united under a common theme, despite all hailing from different countries around the globe.

Anyway, enough of that blather, on to the poetry! (that sounded way more metal in my head)

ION – ION

A Post/Ambient Black Metal three-piece from San Francisco, Ion released their self-titled debut in April this year and I was immediately blown away. This is a brilliant, mesmerising album of blackened blast beats and gleaming celestial melody, based around a vibrant core of feverish riffs and soaring leads, that gets better and better with each listen. It completely renews my faith in this style of music every time I hear it. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VEX — “TO ANACREON (STRANGLING THE MUSE)”

 Premieres  13 Responses »
Jun 262014
 

If you’ve been lucky enough to catch the Southeastern leg of Agalloch’s current tour, then you’ve already had the chance to witness the live performance of Vex from Austin, Texas, who’ve been along with Agalloch for that ride. For those who haven’t had that chance, we’ve got the next best thing — a premiere of a new Vex song that’s destined to appear on the band’s third album, Sky Exile.

This really well-written, mainly mid-paced song employs the kind of heavy, hammering riffs and flesh-raking vocals that will be familiar to fans of classic Scandinavian melodic death metal, but as the song unfolds it moves in increasingly interesting and unexpected directions, becoming a sophisticated, multi-textured work with the power to draw you back again and again. Continue reading »

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