SHORT BUT SWEET: FEVER SEA — “FEVER SEA”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
May 302014
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new self-titled EP by Fever Sea.)

A band that I’ve been keeping a rather close eye on for a while now, Progressive/Post- Black Metal troupe Fever Sea, recently released their second, self-titled, EP for ‘Pay What You Want’ over on their Bandcamp page, and I thought it about time we covered this strangely compelling, always intriguing release here at NCS.

While the band’s previous EP The Deluge (reviewed by Islander here), still stands out as a phenomenal debut release by a band full of nascent, blackened promise, their self-titled EP somehow manages to be even better, weaving together moments of angular post-hardcore and atmospheric blackened sorcery into a seamless, multifaceted tapestry of light and shade. Continue reading »

TOURISM: AMON AMARTH, EYEHATEGOD, FIELDS OF ELYSIUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 302014
 

I’m slowly moving back into what I normally do at this site after more than a week of living in the world of Maryland Deathfest, first by attending it and then by re-living the experience in NCS posts. And part of what I do is attempt to highlight news items of interest. I’m a bit late featuring the three collected here, but I think they’re worth mentioning, even if tardily.

AMON AMARTH

Beginning in September and running into November, Sweden’s Amon Amarth will be touring the US and Canada. Sadly, they will only have the Viking ship on stage at the October 18 New York City (Manhattan)  date, which is a show that’s part of Decibel magazine’s 10th anniversary celebrations. At that show, the UK’s Vallenfyre will also be appearing.  I would give your left arm to see that show.

Except for that New York City event, Skeletonwitch will also be a part of this tour, which makes it doubly enticing. Sabaton will be on the tour as well. However, although Vallenfyre will be playing the Manhattan date in place of Skeletonwitch, Skeletonwitch and Evoken will be playing later that same night at St Vitus Bar in Brooklyn; that show is also part of the Decibel anniversary festivities. I would give your right arm to see that one. Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST: A TRAVELOGUE (Part 5)

 Mosh Pit  22 Responses »
May 292014
 

I’ve been reliving my experience at Maryland Deathfest XII through these “travelogue” posts. Maybe “extending my experience” would be a better way to say it, because I really didn’t want it to end and still don’t. But I need to move back to what I usually do at the site (as soon as I remember what that is), and so this will be the final installment.

When I left off yesterday I was in the middle of giving a round of applause to the bands I saw at the Rams Head venue during the course of MDF who made the biggest impact on me. To be clear, I enjoyed the performances of every band I heard at MDF, but the ones I’ve mentioned in these posts were the highlights. I’ll wrap up my thoughts about the performances at Rams Head next, and then turn to the bands who were at Edison Lot.

Saturday night after Bölzer finished their set and I finished waiting in line at their merch table to throw money at them, I caught the last half of the set by Finland’s Hooded Menace, a band I like a lot. They were hooded and they were menacing, boulder-sized doom chords falling down like slow rain (if it were raining boulders) and bleak (but entrancing) guitar melodies rising up like graveyard mist. Continue reading »

GOATWHORE: “FBS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 292014
 

I’ve not been paying much attention to new song and video premieres or metal news since leaving town for Maryland Deathfest last week and I’ve fallen way behind. But I did just see what you’re about to see in this post — a pair of brand new goodies from NOLA’s Goatwhore relevant to their new album Constricting Rage of the Merciless.

First, we have the cover art created by Jordan Barlow. Very nice.

Second, we have a lyric video for an advance track from the album named “FBS”. It is also very nice (I’m pretty sure I heard them play this on the recent Metal Alliance tour). It’s a nasty, thrashy stun-gun of blackened speed metal with riffs galore and an off-speed instrumental break that’s just as cool as the pedal-to-the-metal parts. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FALL OF THE ALBATROSS — “LIMERENCE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
May 292014
 

(Austin Weber provides the following introduction to our premiere of a new track by Fall of the Albatross from Queens, New York.)

The bewildering experience of taking in Fall Of The Albatross is overwhelming at first, as they are masters of splicing chaos and calm to form intricate dynamic webs and make every bit of it fit together perfectly. For those who’ve missed my previous posts here regarding the band, they are a highly eclectic instrumental metal band with a focus on blowing your mind. The June 24th release of their new full-length, Enormous Cloud, draws ever closer, and thus another song premiere is in order.

Which brings us today to the adventurous journey contained within “Limerence”, a song that churns out planet-smashing math core, stuffs it with a fluffy jazz filling, and sneaks in sublime swelling post-rock builds as well. They arrange the opposing styles expertly to split-second ping-pong off each another brilliantly. From vicious tempo changes to unwinding solitude, this song encapsulates the essence of the record — no boundaries. Continue reading »

GENOCIDE GENERATOR: “I”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
May 292014
 

(DGR wrote this review of the debut album by Germany’s Genocide Generator.)

Late last year I went on a bit of a grind kick and found myself exploring a wide variety of bands — a huge chunk of which I eventually reviewed here at NCS. I was not, however, finding them through the usual channels. Instead, I was discovering them through links posted by other bands whose music I was initially listening to — and that’s how I recently discovered Germany’s Genocide Generator.

Distaste were one of the bands whose music I reviewed late last year, and since then I’ve been keeping an eye on the band as well as its various members’ other projects, just to get some idea of what they’ve been up to — as well as catching the occasional really good recommendation. A surveillance practice like this really lends itself to the discovery of very good bands from groups’ local scenes, ones that may not be covered too often in the metal website world. For instance, Mastic Scum (reviewed here) was one of those recommendations from Distaste.

Since then though, I’ve found myself traveling through concentric circles on Facebook via a variety of bands and recently found myself doing so with Distaste once again — with supplemental help from Metal-Archives to get an idea about the bands I was clicking on and looking at. Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST: A TRAVELOGUE (Part 4)

 Mosh Pit  16 Responses »
May 282014
 

Diocletian at Rams Head Live — MDF XII

So far I’ve written about two of the venues at Maryland Deathfest XII – The Edison Lot and Soundstage. Today I’ll cover two more and begin discussing more of the bands who provided, for me, the musical highlights of the four-day event.

My two Seattle friends and I arrived in Baltimore in the early evening of last Wednesday after a long cross-country flight to D.C. and then a numbing crawl through rush-hour traffic from there to Baltimore. It was a steady 20 miles per hour all the way, except for the times when it wasn’t moving at all and about 10 minutes when we accelerated all the way up to a blistering 40 mph.

We hooked up with my NCS comrade BadWolf at the hotel (he had driven all the way from Toledo), and since all of us were feeling hungry and sort of beat to shit, we had some food and drinks at the hotel after checking in and before making our way to the Ottobar for the pre-fest show on Wednesday night. Continue reading »

A NEW SÓLSTAFIR ALBUM COMING IN AUGUST

 Metal News  5 Responses »
May 282014
 

Just last week, Iceland’s Sólstafir absolutely floored me (and hundreds of other fans) with their performance at the 12th  edition of Maryland Deathfest. Hot on the heels of that trump, Season of Mist has just announced that the band will be releasing a new album named Ótta on August 29 in Europe and September 2 in North America.

According to the press release, “As the name suggests, Ótta will include eight songs, which titles will be unveiled later in June.” Pre-orders will start at the SoM e-shop (here) on June 10.

And that’s about all I have to say about that.  I have to go now and change my shorts.

WOMANOWAR: THE ARGUMENT FOR BALANCE & EQUALITY — AN INTERVIEW WITH HELMS ALEE DRUMMER AND VOCALIST HOZOJI MATHESON-MARGULLIS

 Interviews  2 Responses »
May 282014
 

(We welcome the return of guest writer Alain Mower and the fourth in his series of interviews of women in metal. In this edition, he talks with Hozoji Matheson-Margullis, the drummer/vocalist for Seattle’s Helms Alee, whose latest album Sleepwalking Sailors was released earlier this year and whose new split with Young Widows is coming next month.)

This series is dedicated to creating discussion and awareness by expressing the observations, thoughts, and opinions of current prolific metal musicians who, in their spare time, also happen to be women. This is in direct response to the few stragglers in the community who think that there is still a place for misogyny in metal.

If this results in you punching some loud-mouth, drunk sexist at the next show you go to or calling someone out when they question the attendance, attire, or musical capabilities of a woman at a show, then that’s all I could ever ask, and then some. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 47: OV HOLLOWNESS

 THE SYNN REPORT  9 Responses »
May 282014
 

(In this 47th edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy Synn reflects on the discography of Ov Hollowness, and we have Bandcamp streams of all the albums, as well as Andy’s suggested songs from each one.)

Recommended for fans of: Abigail Williams, Nachtmystium, Sólstafir

After the one-two punch of brutality of the last two editions it’s about time for something a little more… nuanced.

Ov Hollowness is the name of an atmospheric/progressive/post Black Metal project masterminded by Mark Rafferty of Edmonton, Alberta (that’s in Canada, for you less geographical types). Since the project’s genesis in 2009 it has produced 3 albums of driving, blackened riffs, thundering rock beats, and cold, haunting ambience.

Though primarily a guitar-driven affair, the vocals are also of prime importance and add their own vital character to the mix, blending bloody, blackened rasps and passages of portentous spoken word with moments of piercing clean-sung melody and clarity. Even the drums, electronically-programmed though they might be, are written and incorporated into each overall song in a way that seems both fluid and natural.

Over time the sound of the project has undergone a slow, organic evolution, moving from a raw, yet fluid early aesthetic, to a grandly melodic, deeply atmospheric, powerfully passionate vision that takes the building blocks of Black Metal and uses them as a foundation upon which to construct something altogether more ambitious. Continue reading »

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