METAL FASTING: DAY 1

 Off Topic  12 Responses »
Apr 012014
 

(Last Friday, NCS guest contributor Leperkahn announced that for a school project he was going to spend a week without metal, and he asked our readers for suggestions of non-metal music to explore. He received a flood of comments, which are damned interesting to read all by themselves — HERE. Beginning today, Leperkahn is revealing his choices and documenting his listening experiences.)

It has begun.

I have not listened to metal since midnight last night, after one last farewell listen to Opeth’s Blackwater Park. In its place, today has been filled with various folk excursions, all of them coming from your lovely suggestions. On the whole, I had a generally positive experience with my selections today: some awesome, some not-at-all-my-thing, some meh. We (the royal we) shall document them chronologically.

The morning started off with the ethereal acoustic guitar of Musk Ox (pictured above), which paired perfectly with the speed of my Monday-afflicted brain (Chai tea helped too). Founding member  Nathaneal Larochette and a changing line-up of cohorts do an excellent job of creating marvelously sparse, yet epic accompaniments to the album covers used (especially the later covers). I only had time to listen to the few single tracks Musk Ox had uploaded (one of which came from the Whom The Moon A Nightsong Sings compilation that was suggested at some point), as well as one of the EPs, Entre La Terre et Le Ciel.

On a surface-level listen (which was all I was capable of this early in the morning) the songs seemed rather similar to each other, aiming for a flowing atmosphere and mood rather than attempting to distinguish songs. All in all, Musk Ox proved a promising start to the experiment. Continue reading »

THE ART OF STREAMING: A GUEST ARTICLE BY BYZANTINE’S CHRIS OJEDA

 Mosh Pit  19 Responses »
Apr 012014
 

(We welcome Chris “OJ” Ojeda, frontman of West Virginia’s Byzantine, with an eye-opening guest article about the economics of music streaming and what fans can do to increase band revenues. Despite the April 1 posting date, this is no joke.)

Hello friends and audiophiles. This is OJ from the band Byzantine. I want to spread some information that I have been wanting to tabulate and disseminate for some time now. This information is based on 1 topic only: Legal Music Streaming and the Amount An Artist Gets Paid.

Before I get into the hard numbers of this topic, I want to make clear that I am completely bipartisan on this issue. I do not feel that legal streaming has ruined my band’s chances at being a top-tier money-earning act. We have attempted to do that all by ourselves and I am completely fine with that. I also do not feel that legal streaming has afforded my band or myself any luxuries. The figures I have compiled will back that up. With that being said, I have to admit I am very grateful to be spreading this information on my band because it means two very important things:

1. At 39 yrs old, I still have a band, and that’s pretty awesome.
2. A small number of people actually listen to our band and that’s even more awesome. Continue reading »

NEW DATES ADDED TO MESHUGGAH’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Apr 012014
 

Yesterday Nuclear Blast announced that Sweden’s hugely popular and hugely influential Meshuggah would be returning to North America this summer for a tour celebrating their “25 Years of Musical Deviance”, with support from Between the Buried and Me. As originally announced, the tour consisted of only 12 dates, two of which were festival appearances. But today the band announced a significantly expanded schedule of tour dates, going well beyond the original 12 cities.

Inconsistent explanations have been offered for the change. In today’s official announcement frontman Jens Kidman is quoted as follows:

“This is our 25th anniversary tour of the North American market, which has been an enormous factor in the success of our band — probably the single biggest factor. Of course, we always planned to make this the biggest tour we’ve ever mounted. To do anything else would have been churlish.

“That miserably tiny run of dates our label announced yesterday was supposed to have been an April Fool’s joke, but as we like to say in Umeå, someone at Nuclear Blast “screwed the pooch” by releasing it a day early. We sincerely apologize to our North American fans for the confusion. The expanded schedule we’re rolling out today will make all the butthurt go away like a big tube of Preparation H.”

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WRONG, WITCHTHROAT SERPENT, SOUL THROWER

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 312014
 

Here are a handful of new songs and videos I found this morning that I thought were worth passing along.

WRONG

I got interested in this new two-man black metal band because the vocalist and drummer is Phlegeton from the excellent Spanish metal band Wormed. His partner, who plays guitar, bass, and piano, goes by the initials DP and is a member of The YTriple Corporation and Neverdie. Their second album, Pessimistic Outcomes, is coming out in April.

In January I featured a Wrong video for a song from their first album, and what I found today is a just-released video for the new album’s title track. The song is slow-moving and depressive, with squalling tremolo guitars and methodically pummeling percussion that moves between rock beats and rolling thunder. Incorporated within this bleak, atmospheric music are two contrast points — ugly, distorted, bile-spewing vocals and eerie, ethereal piano notes. Continue reading »

TOURISM: MESHUGGAH ANNOUNCE A 25TH ANNIVERSARY NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Mar 312014
 

I’ve been unable to check the NCS in-box for a few hours. In more plain-spoken English, what this means is that the intrepid NCS pigeon aeronauts who deliver our metal-oriented mail were distracted by some old dude with popcorn on a park bench. I’ve tried to reason with them about the importance of prompt deliveries, but if you’ve ever tried to reason with a pigeon, you know it’s a daunting task.

Anyway, they finally made it to the NCS HQ, and one of the missives caught my eye immediately: The mighty Meshuggah have announced that they will be returning to NorthAm this summer “to celebrate their 25th year of musical deviance with festival appearances, Canadian dates, and clubs that will fill to capacity.”  Opening for them (on all but the two festival dates) will be North Carolina’s Between the Buried and Me.

For people lucking enough to reside within striking distance of any of the following 12 cities, this is strikingly good news: Continue reading »

VIRGIN SNATCH: “WE SERVE NO ONE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 312014
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Poland’s Virgin Snatch.)

I wonder how many people who read this site even know who Virgin Snatch are. They’ve always been a band who’ve never gotten due recognition despite being one of the most killer and consistent death-thrash bands out there, especially considering their particular sound, which has always stuck out to me. I always felt like these dudes were the ultimate intersection between Carcass and Testament.

Sounds fucking silly, I realize, because to some people those two sounds would have absolutely no hope of blending in with each other. Virgin Snatch, though, have managed to do it, and as a result I don’t think there is another band who sound like them. We Serve No One is the bands fifth full length and it’s every bit as filthy and violent as any of their albums. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 45: HORNED ALMIGHTY

 THE SYNN REPORT  4 Responses »
Mar 312014
 

(In his 45th Synn Report, Andy Synn looks back at the discography of Denmark’s Horned Almighty.)

Recommended for fans of: Mayhem, Aura Noir, Goatwhore

Time for something beautifully filthy, brutally heavy, and just downright nasty.

Horned Almighty are a four-piece Satanic coven from Denmark who deal in a ragged, ugly form of Black Metal which melds raw thrash intensity with a Satyricon-esque sense of groove, and a primal punk-ish passion for perversion. There’s even a hint of Death Metal to the band’s sickening sonic synthesis – their gargantuan guitar tone and booming bass lines are delivered with the same crushing, tank-track aggression of early Obituary – while the bowel-shaking, gut-level heaviness of the band’s low-end rumble is pure Celtic Frost.

With four albums of malignant musical menace already under their collective belt, the band are currently in the studio laying down the foundations for their next full-length World of Tombs, so now seems like the perfect time to introduce you all to their brand of balls-to-the-wall blackened misanthropy. Continue reading »

AGELESS OBLIVION: “PENTHOS”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 312014
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by the UK’s Ageless Oblivion, which was released March 17.)

It’s been some time since we’ve checked in with the boys from Ageless Oblivion. After rattling more than a few cages with their stellar debut Temples of Transcendent Evolution, the band have now returned with their sophomore release Penthos, expanding on and redefining their esoteric, atmospheric death metal delivery into something utterly malevolent.

Way back in August 2012 I had the (dubious) pleasure of interviewing AO guitarist Dave Porter, during which we touched upon the ongoing process for this album. His response was illuminating, stating that:

“So far the songs have been a lot more focused on creating a mood and a vibe of tension/release. We’re focusing a bit more on melody… in the hypnotic or generally claustrophobic sense… we’re aiming to write the darkest and most vicious record we possibly can.”

And I’m more than happy to tell you that the band have done exactly what they set out to do. This is a phenomenal album, in the truest sense of the word. Continue reading »

BREAKING BYZANTINE NEWS: A NEW ALBUM IS ON THE WAY (PLUS VINYL)

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Mar 302014
 

For those of you who, like us, were overjoyed at the 2013 comeback of West Virginia’s Byzantine, we bring you more joyous news. We received the following notification yesterday:

“According to Chris Ojeda, frontman for Byzantine, the band has begun writing material for album 5, due out early 2015. Ojeda states, ‘We have been playing some regional shows in support of our last album and, although it’s been a blast, we really need to buckle down and see how we can keep the momentum going from our last record. I was looking to putting out an EP with a few new songs, a few old songs rerecorded and maybe a cover to release this year but the rest of the guys were pushing hard for another full length of new music and they are right.’

“This album will be recorded late summer of this year and will be once again partially funded through Kickstarter. Next week, Byzantine will be releasing a very limited Vinyl release of their last album complete with brand new artwork. Pre-orders are still being taken through www.byzmerch.bigcartel.com.”

Early 2015 is a long way off, but it’s both a relief and an expectant pleasure to learn that Byzantine are forging ahead with another album. Their self-titled comeback was so very strong, and in case you still haven’t discovered it, listen to this: Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” — BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 87)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  12 Responses »
Mar 302014
 

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to another edition of THAT’S METAL!, in which I assemble for your (potential) enjoyment images, videos, and occasionally news items that I think are metal, even though they’re not metal music. For this installment I have eight items.

ITEM ONE

Clark Little is 44 years old. He lives on the North Shore of Hawaii. He is a surf photographer. Armed with a Nikon D300 camera and a fish eye lens encased in a waterproof box, he goes where the surf is breaking and takes amazing photos, usually from inside the tube of the waves. His camera takes pictures at the rate of 9 to 10 frames per second, but he still doesn’t have long to make his shots before the waves bury him. The results are spectacular.

In the one above, Little captured a large wave while lying on dry sand as it broke to create a “shorebreak barrel”. Seconds after the shot, he was washed up onto the beach — his whole body covered in sand. In this next photo of a backlit wave on the West Shore of Oahu, the wind was blowing strongly offshore, creating a mist flying off the top of the wave. Continue reading »

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