TWO BLASTS FROM CALIFORNIA: WORSE AND CALCIFIED BIRD CARCASS

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Oct 022014
 

 

(Here we have DGR’s review of two grind blasts.)

WORSE

Worse hail from lovely San Francisco, California and are a band who have been kicking around in my inbox for some time — a result of my random discovery of the group Dakhma. The two bands seem to be friends with one another so it isn’t too shocking to see arrows pointing in their direction. One of the reasons it took a little bit for me to write about them was that their EP slotted in so well with my listenings that it was like I had always listened to it and it was always there, leading to a lot of, “I wrote about that, right?” scenarios. Plus, I wanted to get these guys in alongside some more music to really set the post off like fireworks.

Worse, to put it politely, sound like a musical temper tantrum led off by a drum count on each song, and their self-titled release is a quick blast of violence. If you have ever been to a city that is really packed together, you’ll often come across houses that are listed as three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and they are three stories tall. It’s because each floor is essentially a bedroom. Listening to Worse, it sounds like the band are set up in one of those houses and recorded their first release by setting the drum kit and guitars on the top floor, counting off to begin the song, and then proceeding to kick those fucking things down the flight of stairs and have somebody scream over the sound. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VENOWL — “SCOUR (PARTS I AND II)” (AND AN INTERVIEW OF THE BAND)

 Interviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Oct 022014
 

 

On October 14, Broken Limbs Recordings is going to release a limited edition cassette split by the Dallas-based band Cara Neir and the hell-based band Venowl. At the risk of traumatizing frail psyches, we’re premiering Venowl’s track, “Scour (Parts I and II)”. And we’re accompanying the premiere with the first-ever interview of this mysterious entity.

“Scour” should be approached with care, or carelessly, depending on how risk-averse you are. At 21 minutes, it’s longer than many EPs and as long as what some bands call an “album”. It lasts as long as Venowl needed it to last. Like all their music, it’s improvisational, almost all of it recorded live in the studio this past July. “Harsh” doesn’t begin to describe it. It’s like a symphony of pain.

The pacing of the song ranges from slow to glacial. The ponderous drum hits and occasional cymbal crashes become the only life preservers you can hang onto as the tide pulls you out into this bottomless black sea — a sea of howling dissonant noise, raw, distorted chords, and nails-on-the-chalkboard feedback. Huge, groaning sounds give way to grinding riffs that generate a squall of brutal, abrasive cacophony and long spaces filled with the reverb-death-rattle of titanic notes.

It’s inexorable doom, an abyss of hopelessness, a miasma of death. The only sign of humanity that rears its head are barely human shrieks and distraught yells that emanate from what must be a very deep pit of emotional despair. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: JAMIE WALTERS (MIDNIGHT)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Oct 022014
 

 

(In this post you will find BadWolf’s interview of Jamie Walters, aka Athenor, of Cleveland’s Midnight.)

Cleveland’s Jamie Walters struck gold (though maybe he didn’t know it) when throwback metal outfit Boulder became inactive and he formed his one-man project Midnight. Part black metal and part cock rock, Midnight has won over a surprising number of fans with a mixture of powerful hooks, depraved lyrics, and shocking imagery. The band’s 2011 album, Satanic Royalty, made me a fan. Their set at 2013’s Maryland Deathfest made me a devotee. Now, with their sophomore LP, No Mercy For Mayhem, I am a fanatic. Still, Walters’ music has the hooks, but perhaps not the ethics we as listeners demand from modern rock music. I got on the blower with Walters to see what satanic royalty has to do with sexism and an undying love for AC/DC.

********

I don’t see that many interviews with you.

Jamie: No, I try not to do too many interviews. I don’t know, over the internet. . . I’m not really an internet type of person, so over the internet you get kind of just like short answers, kind of half-ass, and then over the phone it’s always just like, ‘hey, we’re just talking’. I don’t like talking to people but it’s like, sometimes it doesn’t come across as an interview, because then you start talking about the Steelers, the Lions, kind of stupid shit — you know? — that has nothing to do with an interview. So.

 

You’re from Ohio, you’re like, you’re an Ohio boy, and you never play Ohio.

Jamie: Well, I wouldn’t say never, but not as much, you know, I guess just as much as any other cities.

 

Well, I mean, you played Cleveland maybe twice last year, you’re from Cleveland. . .

Jamie: Yeah, yeah.

 

. . . and you’re about to do this Hell’s Headbangers warehouse show.

Jamie: Okay, it’s just a warehouse, essentially, so I’m sure you’ve been to a warehouse, it has a bay door, a garage, and all that kind of stuff, and it’s a warehouse. You know, it’s basically like a private party here, just do a little gig here in the parking lot and play in the, you know, the bay doors, and just have bands play, and just have hotdogs and pop or whatever the shit and those guys are good and it would be cool. And of course they think on a little more bigger level I guess, and it’s like yeah, well, just have it open to everybody…. I thought it would be like a private party at most, you know, 40 people or something like that, but I guess beyond that it grew bigger than we anticipated. I don’t know. We’ll see, but it seems like there are a lot of people coming. Continue reading »

STUFF LEPERKAHN DONE FOUND AND DONE LIKED — PART 3?

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Oct 022014
 

 

(Leperkahn continues to soldier on with roundup duties…)

Hello again! My stint emulating Islander continues. This time I put all of the songs and videos in alphabetical order, mostly because that happened on accident.

ABUSIVENESS

I’ve come to learn that the opinions of some MetalSucks scribes are either very good or very bad, so that it can be hard to tell whether something a given writer is recommending is worth my time. I tend to gamble on some of their posts in the hopes that a given band will fall into the former category, and I hit a bit of a jackpot in Poland’s Abusiveness. To put their sound succinctly, they sound somewhat like what newer Marduk would sound like if they subtly included some atmospheric keys and/or strings (or at least I think I hear keys and/or strings). On first gander, pitting those two together could be an odd match, but Abusiveness do it with aplomb on the song “Proces”, crafting an exhilarating six-ish minutes with blistering leads and an absolutely radiant solo maybe three or four minutes in. (There’s an ambient bit for the last minute or so that I don’t quite understand, but at that point you can just skip the end.)

“Proces” is from their new album Bramy Nawii, their new album on Arachnophobia. You can pick up Bramy Nawii with free shipping worldwide here if you dig the song featured below. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 51: KHOLD

 THE SYNN REPORT  3 Responses »
Oct 012014
 

 

(Andy Synn presents Part 51 of THE SYNN REPORT, and this time he reviews the discography of Norway’s Khold — including their new album Til Endes.)

Recommended for fans of: Satyricon, Shining, Taake

Sometimes deciding what band to cover for an edition of The Synn Report can be a difficult, complex process, with many different variables to consider. At other times though, circumstances endeavour to make the decision for me. Case in point, this week has seen the release of Khold’s sixth album, Til Endes, after 6 years of relative silence, so now seems like the perfect time to introduce you all to the band’s signature brand of grim nihilism and pitch-black groove.

Formed back in 2000, the band’s sound is a seamless melding of old-school venom and new-school aggression, built around a raw, stripped-down aesthetic, but delivered with a multi-layered, modernised sonic crunch and a bullish, belligerent strut which at times verges on a more Black ‘n’ Roll style swing and swagger.

Khold’s focus is primarily on riffs – massive, rumbling, evil riffs, which grind and groove with grim intensity and malicious intent. Blasting is generally kept to a minimum, with the drums instead embedding themselves right in the heart of every pounding piece of primal riffage, anchoring every groaning chord and venomous tirade to an irresistible metallic stomp, here and there cracking open to allow touches of sadistic melody or seditious dissonance to bleed through. Continue reading »

STUFF LEPERKAHN DONE FOUND AND DONE LIKED, PART THREE(ISH): EISTNAFLUG, FUCK THE FACTS, BLUDDED HEAD

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 012014
 

 

(Our man Leperkahn continues forging ahead with some round-up posts while I pretend to be doing other things.)

EISTNAFLUG 2015

We received an exciting announcement today presenting the names of the first 12 confirmed bands for the 2015 edition of the EISTNAFLUG festival in Iceland. (For Gemma Alexander’s lively three-part report on the 2014 edition of the festival for NCS, go here.) The 11th edition of EISTNAFLUG will take place in Neskaupsstadur on the east coast of Iceland from the 9th to the 11th of July 2015. The confirmed bands are:

Brain Police (IS)
Conan (UK)
Dimma (IS)
Godflesh (UK)
In Solitude (SE)
Inquisition (CO)
LLNN (DK)
Lvcifyre (UK)
Rotting Christ (GR)
Skálmöld (IS)
Vampire (SE)
The Vintage Caravan (IS) Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: A LEVIATHAN / KRIEG SPLIT

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Oct 012014
 

 

I’ve been waiting for this one anxiously. And then, as (bad) luck would have it, when my beautiful pumpkin orange vinyl copy of this 7″ split arrived late last week from Holy Terror Records, my turntable decided to turn mulish and uncooperative. Fortunately, Holy Terror relieved my frustration and spared that turntable a severe beating when it decided to begin streaming the two songs on Bandcamp beginning late yesterday.

The split features songs by two of the longest-running and most influential of U.S. black metal bands, Leviathan and Krieg. It is a natural pairing in many respects, not least because of the friendship between Leviathan’s Wrest and Krieg’s N. Imperial, and thus it’s not surprising that the idea for it was conceived almost a decade ago. Yet only now has the split become a reality. Impressions of the music follow… Continue reading »

STUFF LEPERKAHN DONE FOUND AND DONE LIKED, PART TWO(ISH)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 012014
 

 

(Our man Leperkahn continues forging ahead with some round-up posts while I pretend to be doing other things.)

I forgot I had this theme for an earlier round-up post, but we’ll return to it now.

FORESEEN

I tend not to associate 20 Buck Spin with crossover thrash. Because of that, I avoided streaming the new track from Helsinki’s Foreseen at first, until I saw it later in an email from Islander. Short response from me would be feck me for not checking this out earlier, ‘cause this track absolutely rips.

What I had neglected to remember was that 20 Buck Spin pretty much always puts out kickass releases, and this one is no different, even if it’s a bit different than their normal fare. Anyway, if you like your thrash searing, sizzling, and ferocious, give the below track, “Death Injection”, a spin, and look for their debut album Helsinki Savagery on November 25. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AMIENSUS — “WOLFHEAD’S TREE”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Oct 012014
 

 

Minnesota’s Amiensus are a band we’ve followed closely, from their excellent 2013 debut album Restoration (reviewed here) to their split last year with Oak Pantheon, entitled Gathering (reviewed here). The band are now recording their second album, Ascension, but to keep fans at bay until it’s completed they’ve released a new free single that we have the pleasure of sharing with you today.

The song is named “Wolfhead’s Tree”, and it was originally recorded by the British duo known as Forefather for their 2008 album Steadfast. I wasn’t familiar with the song before listening to the Amiensus cover, but it’s really a perfect choice for the band, and they more than do it justice.

“Wolfhead’s Tree” is a dramatic and highly memorable pagan metal song, and it showcases both Amiensus’ aggressive side and their talent for performing grand and emotionally affecting melody. They stay close to Forefather’s original template, delivering both warlike black metal and folk metal that’s soul-stirring and sombre, while effectively adding keyboards in a way that enhances the mythic atmosphere of the music. Fitting the demands of the original, the vocals are an impassioned mix of jagged howls and strong, clean vocal harmonies. Continue reading »

PRIMORDIAL RELEASES THE TITLE TRACK FROM “WHERE GREATER MEN HAVE FALLEN”: YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Sep 302014
 

(Leperkahn introduces the just-released title track from the forthcoming album by Ireland’s Primordial.)

This is pretty late for our normal posting schedule, but when it comes to Primordial, scheduling becomes irrelevant. These guys are my favorite band from Ireland and one of the strongest on the planet, and I’ll be damned if Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill isn’t one of the best vocalists to have ever walked the Earth.

On the heels of their positively euphoric and magnificent Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand, Primordial have just released the title track as the first song premiere from their new album Where Greater Men Have Fallen. True to form of their past efforts, “Where Greater Men Have Fallen” encompasses roughly eight minutes of swelling melodies, epic soundscapes, and the darkly poetic bellows and croons of Nemtheanga. Continue reading »

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