ABDUCTED BY SHARKS: “SIEGE ENGINE”

 Album Reviews  13 Responses »
Feb 192014
 

(Guest writer Alain Mower returns to NCS with this review of the new album from Abducted By Sharks.)

Siege Engine, the third full-length release by Seattle-based Abducted By Sharks in as many years, is about as difficult to define as it is to find the droids you are looking for. With cited influences ranging wide and far, from Front Line Assembly to Porcupine Tree to Horse the Band to Mindless Self Indulgence, it’s easy to see how this eclectic culmination of Dance-infused Industrial synthesizer soundscapes tinged with Heavy Metal might be a little out there.

A high-tempo and energizing listen from cover to cover, this unsigned, DIY outfit manages to avoid many of the common mistakes this style of music is known for, with one of their best traits being that they let melodies and songs breathe and don’t over-layer or cluster the sound to the point of detracting from the structure the track is built upon. Continue reading »

LORD MANTIS! (“DEATH MASK” IS COMING)

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Feb 182014
 

If Facebook had a problem with one nipple on Benighted’s album cover, I can barely imagine their reaction to this baby (I’m thinking heart attack, stroke, and rectal prolapse all at once). It’s the demented cover art by tattooist/musician Jef Whitehead (Leviathan, Twilight) for Death Mask, the forthcoming album by Chicago’s Lord Mantis. Today, Profound Lore disclosed additional info about the album, which is on my highly anticipated list.

Even before seeing the latest news, the album was already on my mind, based on a brief conversation I had with the band’s bassist/vocalist Charlie Fell following a stellar Abigail Williams set in Seattle last Friday. Fell is the drummer for Abigail Williams on that band’s current tour, and in a turnabout-is-fair-play kind of arrangement, Abigail Williams’ frontman/guitarist Ken Sorceron is the newest member of Lord Mantis. Rounding out the Lord Mantis line-up are guitarist/vocalist Andrew Markuszewski (Avichi) and drummer Bill Bumgardner (Indian).

2012’s Pervertor was horrifying. I shudder to think what this particular foursome have accomplished on the new album.

The additional info disclosed today, in addition to the cover art and album title, is that Death Mask will be released on April 29 and that it consists of 54 minutes of disturbing, nihilistic punishment recorded by Sanford Parker, who seems to record almost everything worth hearing that emanates from Chicago. Continue reading »

ANDY SYNN’S TOP 10 SONGS OF 2013

 LISTMANIA 2013, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 182014
 

(Amazingly, my comrade Andy Synn thinks I left off some deserving tunes from my list of last year’s most infectious metal songs, and what follows is his supplement.)

Ok, so that title might be slightly inaccurate – what I’ve actually chosen here are ten of my favourite songs from last year that were cruelly, inexplicably overlooked by the NCS “Most Infectious” list/s, not necessarily the top ten all-time best-ever songs of 2013. Subtle but distinct difference.

In all honesty, you’d probably be better off calling this “Andy Synn’s List of Ten of the Most Distinctive Songs of 2013”. They might not be my absolute top ten favourites (though there’s definitely a significant cross-over), but they’re the ones that just felt right to talk about.

I’ve tried to avoid repetition as much as possible – though there are a few artists here who did make an appearance on the main list. Largely, however, I’ve tried to use this as an opportunity to highlight some songs that deserve more attention and that (for whatever reason) didn’t get it on any of the preceding NCS lists! Continue reading »

MAYHEM — A NEW ALBUM, A NEW SONG, A NEW VIDEO (“PSYWAR”)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Feb 182014
 

Are you sitting down? You should sit down for this: Seven years after the release of Ordo Ad Chao, Norway’s legendary Mayhem have recorded a new album due near the end of May from Season of Mist. This morning the band premiered the first advance track, named “Psywar”, through a lyric video with very cool artwork by the very talented Costin Chioreanu. It appears that “Psywar” will be released as a 7″ vinyl EP in advance of the album; it’s already available for pre-order here.

The song is very much worth hearing, wholly apart from the fact that it comes from Mayhem (whose ranks now include Attila Csihar, Necrobutcher, Hellhammer, and new member Teloch). It combines black metal venom, death metal might, and a fog of alien atmospherics.

If for some reason you’re unable to access the video below, Mayhem have provided links on their FB page to other locations around the world where it can be streamed: Continue reading »

TUESDAY TERRORIZING: IMPETUOUS RITUAL, DECAYING PURITY, KING PARROT, NAR MATTARU

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 182014
 

I’m working on my alliteration skills this week. I have my fun where I can find it. Speaking of fun, I have three new songs and one new video to share. If you think there might be no connection between the music and my alliterative word play, think again…

IMPETUOUS RITUAL

Earlier this month I reported about that dark piece of artwork embedded above. It’s the cover for Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambivalence, which is the name of an album by Australia’s Impetuous Ritual that’s due for release by Profound Lore on April 15. The band’s first album, Relentless Execution Of Ceremonial Excrescence, was released back in 2009. Their ranks include members of Portal and Grave Upheaval.

Yesterday an advance track was released for streaming. It’s a good thing “Venality In Worship” is only three and a half minutes long, because otherwise the structural integrity of the planet might be threatened. It’s a thoroughly obliterating blast of blackened death metal, roaring with massive, grinding guitars, militaristic percussion, and bestial vocal vituperation. The piercing guitar solos are utterly demented, too. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ENTHRONED (“SOVEREIGN”), DIRGE (“HYPERION”), MESHUGGAH (“WALL STREET”)

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 182014
 

I’m working on a couple of posts for today but didn’t finish either of them last night and I’m getting a slow start this morning. But I wanted to get something up here on the site for your entertainment while I continue to dither around on those other posts. So here are three entertaining somethings.

ENTHRONED

The first thing I saw in my e-mail inbox this morning was a press release announcing the news that Agonia Records will be releasing the 10th studio album by Belgium’s Enthroned on April 15. The title is Sovereigns, and the eye-catching artwork can be viewed above. It’s now available for pre-order at this location. Enthroned’s Facebook page can be accessed through this link.

And other than expressing my figurative tumescence over this news, that’s about all I have to say on this subject. I will let this stream of music from Enthroned’s fantastic last album, 2012’s Obsidium, say the rest. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: THE COMPLETE LIST

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013  12 Responses »
Feb 172014
 

Last week I finally finished rolling out our list of 2013′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs — or more accurately, I made myself stop. The list mushroomed in comparison to my lists from previous years, but as long as it was, I could easily have gone on. 2013 was just a great year for metal across a wide range of genres.

I know everyone reading this had favorite “infectious” songs from last year that I didn’t include, either because I ran out of time or just overlooked them, but also because this is really just one person’s list. I received recommendations from many sources, including my co-writers here at the site, and my own tastes are pretty diverse — but the responsibility for the choices is mine alone. And so although I tried to express the vast diversity of metal in my selection, it’s still limited by my own preferences.

What I’ve done in this post is collect the names of all 73 (!!) songs in one place, in the order in which they appeared in this series, with links to the installments where each song was discussed and can be streamed. (I thought about putting all the song streams in this post, but was afraid it would then take forever to load.) Continue reading »

INFERI: “THE PATH OF APOTHEOSIS”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Feb 172014
 

(In this post NCS writer DGR reviews the new album by Inferi.)

Inferi are a band who I’ve had every intention of talking about for a very, very long time but never had the perfect moment to do so. The Nashville, Tennessee based group play a style of metal that can rotate between technical death metal, melodic death, and epic-fueled thrash metal at the drop of a hat. They have always seemed to be defined by two things for me: The sort of insane ambition of a band who cut absolutely no corners and make absolutely no compromises; and the sort of high-speed energy equivalent of a spark landing on a trail of gunpowder, rapidly accelerating and heating into a massive explosion.

The group have been fighting it out as something of a working band’s band for the better part of seven years, and as of late January they have finally put out another disc — five years after their last one — entitled The Path Of Apotheosis. It was a long time coming, and so massive in scope and scale that it is hard to believe it came from a group scratching it out day-by-day in the underground. There is a reason why it has taken me longer than two weeks to review this album, because holy hell, is this thing a packed disc. I can say right away that if you’re a bang-for-your-buck person, you can probably understand my yammering, because wow, is there a lot here.

Yet, with five years and finally some momentum behind them, do Inferi get to take advantage of their moment in history? Does the massive wall of sound and scale that the band put forward actually become anything other than grandeur for grandeur’s sake? Continue reading »

MONDAY MEANDERING: SATURNIAN MIST, BRYMIR, DODSFERD, HERETOIR, SQUAREPUSHER x Z-MACHINES

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Feb 172014
 


Saturnian Mist (photo by K. Lehto)

Happy fucking Monday. Here’s a random assortment of music I discovered over the last 24 hours. The key word here is “random”, but all of this suits me quite well. Mayhap it will suit you, too.

SATURNIAN MIST

Saturnian Mist are from Tampere, Finland. Because they are from Finland, I figured the odds were high they would be worth hearing. Candlelight Records thinks so, because they just signed them and will be releasing the band’s second album, Chaos Magick, later this year. When I saw that news this morning, I went in search of recent music and found a demo version of one of the songs that will appear on the album — “The Heart of Shiva”.

It’s thumping and grinding, bone-scraping and body-moving, ugly but hooky. I’m now thoroughly infected by that jumping repeating riff, my head bouncing like a bobble-head. Digging the unexpected drum fills, too, which sound almost like congas. Listen: Continue reading »

BENIGHTED: “CARNIVORE SUBLIME”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Feb 172014
 

(Our man BadWolf reviews the new album by Benighted.)

Extreme metal musicians traffic in abrasion. Part of the music’s appeal stems from its opposition to the traditional harmonies of western musical tradition (which persist well into popular music). I believe the downside to abrasive, dissonant sound is that, much like spicy food or drugs, the human brain builds up a tolerance to it. Metalheads can grow tired of what normal people would consider highly abrasive music (say, Arch Enemy) and move toward even ruder sounds (say, Pig Destroyer).

But there is one sound that even the most dissonance-starved metalheads often cannot stand: the high-pitched inhaled shriek. The pig squeal. The bree.

Perhaps I am an unconscionable addict. Consider me a fan of the bree. And my pusher man into pig land is vocalist Julien Truchan of French brutal death outfit Benighted, whose new album, Carnivore Sublime, has rarely left my earbuds this week. Truchan’s vocal talent is formidable in all areas—he growls deep, shouts loud, and does it all while enunciating better than many vocalists claiming English as a native tongue. He transitions between all of these styles with the fluidity of mercury suspended in a vial. Then again, so do lots of vocalists.

What Truchan can do like nobody else is bree. Whether they serve primary vocal duty, or accentuate some other style, his shriek pierces through all levels of noise. The man has elevated the mating cry of swine into art, in the way Mariah Carey did with her falsetto on her song “Emotions.”

Yes, I am suggesting that we call Truchan the Mariah Carey of death metal. Continue reading »

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