MISCELLANY NO. 64: NUCLEARHAMMER, NECHBEYTH, OLD CHAPEL, SLOMATICS

 MISCELLANY  6 Responses »
Mar 192014
 

Are you shocked? I know I’m shocked. After doing these MISCELLANY installments about once every three months, here I am writing another one less than a week after the last. I wish I could say this is the beginning of a new regime, but I ain’t nearly that fuckin’ organized. This is today and tomorrow is another day.

The rules of this road: I randomly pick bands whose music I’ve never heard, I listen to one or two songs and write my impressions, and then I stream what I heard so you can form your own opinions. As I did last week, I decided to just pick the last three bands I heard about over the weekend with recent Bandcamp streams. Although I didn’t know exactly what they would sound like, it turns out there’s a common theme, and it can be summed up in this immortal line from Aliens II: “Nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” Substitute “your skull” for “site”.

NUCLEARHAMMER

I know I’ve heard this Toronto band’s name before. How could you forget a name like Nuclearhammer? But I’m virtually certain I’d never heard their music before. I became aware of them via a message from our longtime supporter Utmu. It turns out they have a new album coming in June named Serpentine Hermetic Lucifer, which follows their debut full-length from 2009, Obliteration Ritual, with an EP and a bunch of splits in between. Naturally, the album is being released by Nuclear War Now. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TEITANBLOOD, CASTLE, INFERNAL CURSE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Mar 182014
 

As explained in an earlier pissing-and-moaning post today, I was way out of touch yesterday and have been spending some time today catching up on what I missed. But of course I found a whole lot of new likable things that appeared today as well. To avoid falling too far behind, I’m gathering a few of today’s goodies in this post and will collect some of those catch-up items in a piece for tomorrow.

TEITANBLOOD

Teitanblood from Madrid, Spain, were one of my first introductions to the kind of apocalyptic music that some people call blackened death metal and others term war metal. I wrote about them here, not long after making the discovery, in a post that also included music from Blasphemophagher and Diocletian. At the time, I was hunting for the right phrase to describe the music — “Atmospheric death metal”? “Apocalyptic prog”? “Post-death metal?” I decided “war metal” was as good as any label.

Teitanblood’s second full-length, entitled Death, is now scheduled for release on May 13 — five years after Seven Chalices. It’s available on CD and double LP from The Ajna Offensive. It features suitably black cover art (and to see a much larger image, click the one above.)

I’m pleased to say that I have an advance copy of the music. I’m displeased to say that I haven’t yet listened to it. BUT, I have heard one song that has became available on YouTube — “Anteinfierno”. Continue reading »

CONQUERING DYSTOPIA: “CONQUERING DYSTOPIA”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Mar 182014
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album by Conquering Dystopia, the instrumental supergroup that features Jeff Loomis, Keith Merrow, Alex Webster, and Alex Rüdinger.)

The instrumental metal conversation has perpetually carried a narrative that it’s inevitably dying, always about to reach its life expectancy, with no room soon to be left for it because no one wants to hear a bunch of musicians directly line-in to a PC and show off.  It’s amazing to me that in a genre that is partially, in some of its sub-cultures, built around technical proficiency, and sometimes excess, that such things are said.  Although to be fair, there is good reason for that narrative as of late, and it boils down to djent.  Djent, especially bedroom djent, nearly killed the instrumental metal market for any widespread appeal. You hear so many Axe-FX rich kids trying to compose generic, boring, ambient soundscapes with chugs — can you blame those who now shy away from instrumental metal?

The thing is, the idea that instrumental metal is an unwanted musical movement not worth exploring is just false.  We’re now seeing some of the best composers, both bands and solo individuals, putting out some of the most stunning material in years:  Mendel, Angel Vivaldi, Exivious, Blotted Science with their comeback a couple years ago, and most relevant for this review, Jeff Loomis with his post-Nevermore output and Keith Merrow.  Not only do these guys all write stellar music, I see educated fans slobbering over this kind of music a lot.  The problem is, we’ve been bombarded by so many bedroom djenters that the good music sometimes seems to be drowned out. Continue reading »

NEW AGALLOCH: “CELESTIAL EFFIGY”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  28 Responses »
Mar 182014
 

“A galloping acoustic guitar-and-drums introduction? A strutting mid-tempo build? Vocals both growled and hissed? A quick and focused race through black metal? A heroic coda of pirouetting melodies and broad feelings? Indeed…”

Those are the opening words to Grayson Haver Currin’s introduction of “Celestial Effigy”, the first advance track from the next album by Portland’s Agalloch, which Pitchfork premiered this morning. The Serpent & The Sphere is the name of the album and it will be released by Profound Lore on May 13, followed by a May 19 European release by Eisenwald. There may be a 2014 album I’m anticipating more eagerly than this one, but if so I can’t remember what it might be.

The Pitchfork premiere is an exclusive one, so you’ll have to go here to listen. [UPDATE: No, you don’t have to leave us — because the song is now on SoundCloud and I’ve embedded it after the jump.] In addition to those words quoted above, I’d say this about the song: It’s most definitely recognizable as an Agalloch song, with ringing guitars and nimble bass and drum work, a mixture of driving intensity and swirling melodies. But it’s also definitely on the more hard-rocking side of the band’s multi-faceted character — which is just fine. Continue reading »

SHAKE-UPS: COBALT AND ARCH ENEMY

 Metal News  37 Responses »
Mar 182014
 

Phil McSorley — Cobalt

I had to deal with a load of personal shit yesterday, and I do mean a load of shit. For the second time in about six months, my car was broken into on Sunday night while parked in a lot on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Passenger side window smashed in — again. Laptop and other personal valuables stolen — again. When will I learn? I’d like to come across the motherfucker who did this. Killing would be excessive, but I could live with myself if I permanently crippled him.

And then, after spending a crapload of time trying to figure out how to get my car window replaced (again), changing internet passwords to be safe, and working on replacing everything that was stolen, I somehow managed to load malware into my PC at work — the one I almost never use because I prefer to use my MacBook (the one that was stolen) because shit like that never happens to it. And so I had to surrender that PC to our IT department to figure out how to clean it up, leaving me to sit around with my thumb up my butt.

To sum up, my feeble plans to live some kind of blog life yesterday were basically fucked like a tethered goat. Continue reading »

TELLUSIAN: “COLLISION”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 172014
 

(In this post Austin Weber reviews the debut album by Tellusian from Malmö, Sweden, and we’re also bringing you a full-album stream.)

When Crowpath bit the dust  a few years ago, the metal scene was poorer for that loss. Thankfully a group with former members of Crowpath called Tellusian exists, and it comes as no surprise that they are likewise a highly talented and forward-thinking act. It’s not the same line-up exactly, as only drummer Erik Hall  and vocalist Henrik Ivarsson have carried over from Crowpath. Tellusian’s guitarist John Rönnerblad and bassist  Robert Fuchs round out the band. Together, this foursome bring to the table  a fresh chemistry and style that meshes perfectly with the remnants of Crowpath to create something that flashes hints of their former sound — while simultaneously sounding like a completely different group overall. Really, the biggest similarity is the unique way in which they skillfully draw from so many kinds of metal to create their own recognizable style, which sounds like no one else.

Collision takes shape from a dense re-combination of various styles sewn together in a variety of different ways to create a destructive force that thrives on a counterbalance of melody enhanced by progressive experimentation. The core of Tellusian’s sound lies within technically adept sludge, with their use of off-kilter leads amidst heaving grooves coming across in a way that reminds of both The Ocean and Mastodon. Interspersed throughout their high-quality sludge antics are a smattering of death metal, shards of black and thrash, and grind–inserted in whatever way best suits each song and particular moment, for transition purposes and to build and release tension expertly. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: “SATAN SPEAKS” BY A HILL TO DIE UPON

 Premieres  6 Responses »
Mar 172014
 

We’ve been eagerly awaiting the third album from the titanic blackened death metal entity known as A Hill To Die Upon, and now it’s nearly upon us. Entitled Holy Despair, it’s scheduled for release on April 22 via Bombworks Records. The album follows 2011’s Omens, which Andy Synn praised in this review on our site, and an excellent 2013 single called manden med leen (reviewed here). We’ve had the chance to hear the new album in advance of its release, and it’s really, really good. Today, we’ll give you evidence of its strength by premiering an official lyric video for the song “Satan Speaks”.

As the lyrical text for the song, AHTDU used a poem of the same name by noted British essayist and novelist C.S. Lewis. It appears in a collection of poems named Spirits In Bondage that Lewis wrote as a young man after returning from the horrors of World War I. As Lewis wrote to a friend in 1918, the book is “mainly strung around the idea that I mentioned to you before – that nature is wholly diabolical &
malevolent and that God, if he exists, is outside of and in opposition to the cosmic arrangements.”

As one writer described the bleak message of the poem, “Death, not life, is the victor. The spider catches the fly, creation returns all its creatures to the dust from where they came, even the sun will in the end be ‘consumed’ by maximum entropy.” To the end of Lewis’ poem, AHDTU added their own final couplet: “I am Satan, accuser accursed / Heed not my words, I was not first.” Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: BLOOD OF THE WOLF FEST

 Concert Reviews  4 Responses »
Mar 172014
 

(Our long-standing supporter and guest writer Black Shuck turns in this report on the inaugural Blood of the Wolf Fest, which took place in Lexington, Kentucky, on Feb 22, 2014. All photos are by AnnSydney Taylor.)

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of experiencing the dark, mysterious ritual known as the Blood of the Wolf Fest. What’s that, you haven’t heard of it? That’s because this was the first one to ever take place. I’d be very suspicious if you had. (For any reader who had heard about it, take your scrying pool and begone, wizard. We’ll hold no truck with your starry-hatted nonsense here.)

This festival was the brainchild of those Kentuckian warriors of chaos, Tombstalker. Primarily organized by vocalist/guitarist Anton Escobar and bassist Chuck McIntyre, the lineup featured several bands from a group known as the Wolven Brotherhood. The Brotherhood was founded several years ago by Tombstalker and Dawn of Wolves (now Valdrin), when they released their split Cemetery Wolven Ritual (are you sensing a theme here?). The Brotherhood has now expanded to include many other bands from across the country. Presumably their collective subject material has also expanded to cover things that are not wolves, although I hold out hope that I will have a place there once my one-man black metal band, Death to the Three Little Pigs, gets off the ground.

Anyways, on with the fest. Note: All of the excellent photographs that appear here were taken by one AnnSydney Taylor. The festival poster and banner were designed by Lucas Ruggieri. Continue reading »

LIVE: VAMPILLIA AND BAPTISTS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Mar 162014
 

I’m usually in such a hurry to find new music worth saying something about that I rarely make time for videos of entire live sets. But I did that yesterday, not once but twice. In both cases I didn’t really intend to sit through the whole sets, but in both cases I couldn’t tear myself away. These two bands could hardly be more different from each other, but I think both videos are worth your time.

VAMPILLIA

I’ve heard this Japanese band’s name before, most recently in connection with a Japanese tour in June planned by an interesting two-man outfit named Mossenek, which features guitarist Mick Barr (Krallice) and electronic manipulator Chuck Bettis; Vampillia will be along for that ride, together with Nadja. But although the name rang a bell, I had no idea about the music until our supporter Christian Molenaar (whose own Bandcamp page is here) encouraged me to watch the following video.

The performance was filmed at a New York City venue named Pianos on March 9, 2014, by the incomparable (((unartig))). (((unartig))) undoubtedly had his hands full trying to capture everything at this show, what with 8 people on stage and one of them frequently getting down on the floor (and writhing around on it). The performance is incredibly strange and unpredictable — unique, even — and I’m confident it will not be most peoples’ cup of tea, but it includes some rich rewards. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DEATHWINDS, KHONSU, NIGHTBRINGER, SARCOLYTIC

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  11 Responses »
Mar 162014
 

Hey there. Happy goddamn Sunday to one and all. Most metal blog proprietors take the weekend off, to rest from their work-week labors and to recover from their binge drinking on Friday night. We’re not smart enough to do that. For the last four-plus years we’ve treated Saturdays and Sundays as just two more opportunities to mess with your earholes. Onward to the messing, with four items I filtered from the effluent of the interhole yesterday, presented in alphabetical order:

DEATHWINDS

I came across this Vancouver band via a Facebook post by Vault of Dried Bones, who will be releasing a cassette EP or album (I’m not sure which) by Deathwinds named Endless Wastelands. The only other thing I know about the band is that their three-person line-up (Nocturnal Black, Filth Destroyer, and Desolator) includes members of Chapel and Radioactive Vomit.

Yesterday Vault of Dried Bones began streaming a song named “Black Tombs’ Spirit” on SoundCloud, but after a little poking around I discovered that both “Black Tombs’ Spirit” and another song (“Death Rule”) are up on Bandcamp as pay-what-you-want downloads. I think I can safely say that I love the shit out of them. Continue reading »

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