A SENSE OF GRAVITY: “TRAVAIL” (A REVIEW AND A FULL ALBUM STREAM)

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Feb 132014
 

(TheMadIsraeli brings us a review and the premiere of a full-album stream for the debut album by Seattle’s A Sense of Gravity.)

A Sense of Gravity are a terrific band.  Composer and guitarist Brendon Williams has kept in touch with me for the last couple of years, allowing me to hear what they’ve been doing from their demo material onward.  I’ve loved everything he’s ever shared with me, yet I’ve refrained from mentioning them before, mainly because I wanted to see how they turned out. Finally they have completed a full-length.  Travail is brutal, dynamic, and full of twists and turns.  Imagine a cluster-fuck smattering of Meshuggah, Allan Holdsworth, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Scar Symmetry, and Extol, and you have A Sense of Gravity.

This album is diverse, with some songs driven by pneumatic ballet, some driven by pure caustic sprays of speed-powered hellfire, and some delivering pure, undiluted fusion-jam indulgences.  Travail has a great deal of fun contained within it, all while showcasing serious, intelligent musicianship at its core.  The twists and turns are many, producing a sonic labyrinth.  The album almost sounds like metal done by Jazz Fusion guys, as opposed to metal guys with jazz backgrounds, and that turnaround style-incorporation gives the music a unique vibe. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GOATCRAFT, DEATHCODE SOCIETY, FLUB, GREY WIDOW

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Feb 132014
 

Okie dokie, time for another round-up of new and noteworthy music that I came across in my most recent stumbling around the interhole and my in-box. On almost a daily basis I’m left dumbfounded by the diversity, the creativity, and the skill of the musicians in our beloved genre of music. Today’s playlist is just one more example.

GOATCRAFT

Oh, if you don’t know about Goatcraft, you are in for a treat. Goatcraft is a one-man band from San Antonio, the man being Lonegoat. I did not know about Goatcraft until December of last year, when I included the third track from Goatcraft’s forthcoming second album — The Blasphemer — in this post. The album will be released this year by I, Voidhanger Records.

According to a previously reported announcement, “The album is divided in four sections, each one with a central theme based on William Blake’s art and theological interpretations.” It includes, for example, a four-part piece named “The Great Red Dragon”. Just days ago, I, Voidhanger delivered a second track for streaming that draws on another of Blake’s works as its inspiration — “Satan In His Original Glory”.
Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 27

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013  10 Responses »
Feb 122014
 

This is Part 27 of our list of 2013′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the three songs I’m announcing today, click here.

We’re getting close to the end of this list, with only two more Parts to go after today. The three songs I’m adding now are an eclectic mix, both as compared to each other and with respect to the individual songs themselves — and that’s the main reason I’m grouping them together.

VULTURE INDUSTRIES

Although I never managed to write a complete review of this Bergen band’s 2013 album The Tower, I did write about every one of the three songs that premiered before the album’s release, so that counts for something I guess. The album is a strange and wondrous creation that sounds like nothing else I heard last year. The first song to premiere remains my favorite — and it’s the one I’m now adding to this list. Continue reading »

SEPTICFLESH: “TITAN” IS COMING

 Metal News  12 Responses »
Feb 122014
 

Just about a week ago we reported that Septic Flesh had become Septicflesh and had completed the recording of a new album — an album made in collaboration with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir and a full children’s choir.

Today brought us a few more updates. First, the album’s name will be Titan. Second, the band released Part 1 of a video about the creation of the album. In this one, guitarist and composer Christos Antoniou presents the recording sessions with the Prague Philharmonic. You can see that after the jump.

And third, since the band have unified their two-word name, they need a new logo, don’t they? And after the jump you can see that, too, via a short animation

The album will be released this summer via Season of Mist for Europe and via Prosthetic Records for America. Continue reading »

BANJO METAL: ERLING BRONSBERG COVERS DISFEAR

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Feb 122014
 


It’s been a while since I last wrote about Erling Bronsberg, so to recap: He’s a skilled banjo player based in Örebro, Sweden, and performs with an acoustic group called Six String Yada, who play old-time American mountain music — with some metal and punk in the mix as well. Every now and then, he records a banjo cover of a metal tune on video. Yesterday he e-mailed me about a new one. This time he has picked a Disfear song named “Fear and Trembling” from their 2008 split with Doomriders, All Paths Lead To Nothing, There Is Only Death.

So, how does Swedish d-beat punk sound on the banjo? Damned good, that’s how. Erling has slowed the song into a doomy backwoods ballad that really works. Dude can sing, too.

I didn’t know this until reading his note on the video, but the lyrics are just one long quote from Søren Kierkegaard: Continue reading »

SPLITS: CORTEZ / BORRACHO AND UNRU / PARAMNESIA

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Feb 122014
 

Here are some thoughts about two new splits I’d like to recommend, with streaming music for each. They make for quite a contrast.

CORTEZ / BORACHO

My last mention of DC’s Borracho came in connection with a video, which combined a stunning piece of music from the band’s 2011 debut Splitting Sky with a stunning piece of film; since then, Borracho have released several short works and, in 2013, a new album (Oculus). Cortez are from Boston, and this split  was my first exposure to their music. The new split will be a 7″ vinyl from AM Records scheduled for shipping around April 1, and a pre-order of the vinyl will bring you an immediate download of the music on Bandcamp.

Each band contributed one song to the split. Borracho’s “Know My Name” is a real skull-breaker. The riff is king, but a king so soaked in radioactivity that the Geiger counter is going off the scale. It’s ultra-swampy and ultra-groovy, a stoner metal monster with a chorus meant for sing-alongs (except few people will be able to hit Steve Fisher’s gritty highs). Awesome track. Continue reading »

PAPA EMERITUS II UNMASKED? (AND NEW IN-STUDIO GHOST PERFORMANCES)

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Feb 122014
 

Part of the popular attraction of Sweden’s Ghost B.C. is their anonymity — and the masks, make-up, and costumes with which the members conceal their features. Fans and music writers have speculated about who the Nameless Ghouls and the band’s frontman really are, but no names have ever been officially revealed. Last September, the current frontman — Papa Emeritus II — appeared without make-up in a mini-documentary about the band. In the clip, he spoke Italian, and, having revealed his face,  it became clear that he had also appeared in Ghost’s official video for “Year Zero”. But he didn’t sing, and there was still some lingering doubt about whether we were seeing the real deal. Any doubts have now been erased. Or have they?

During their recent Australian tour, Ghost stopped by the studio of Music Feeds and played three songs live: “Ritual”, “Year Zero”, and their cover of Roky Erickson’s “If You Have Ghosts” (from their 2013 covers EP). Videos of the three song performances surfaced on YouTube yesterday, and Papa Emeritus II appears without make-up — and yes, it’s the same dude who is interviewed in that mini-documentary.

I still don’t know who the guy is, and his position in the band appears to have a shelf life — one day, there will be a Papa Emeritus III. But the dude can sing, and for all Ghost fans, the following videos will be fun to hear and see. I’ve collected them after the jump, followed by that documentary clip.  (via Blabbermouth).

But… it appears that even Papa’s face without the skull make-up is still… a mask. See for yourself. Clever Ghost trolling. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 26

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013  13 Responses »
Feb 112014
 

Here we have the 26th Part of our list of 2013′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the three songs I’m announcing today, click here.

Three parts left after today, and then I’ll be done. In this part I’ve collected three songs that you could fit under the heading of black thrash. They’re fast, they’re corrosive, and they’re hot as hell.

HEXER

A certain kind of purist will object to my selection of this next song by Philadelphia’s Hexer. It comes from a self-titled album released by Gilead Media in 2013, but that album was a remastered re-packaging of two EPs that the band originally distributed on cassette in 2011. But I found the song on the album and that’s good enough for me.

For a complete discourse on the infernal joys of Hexer, plus an album stream, you can visit my review at this location. In a nutshell, it’s a romping blast of hellfire and brimstone, with the kind of riff mastery that will cause foaming at the mouth. Fans of black thrash should not miss it.  Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: MANTAR, CHROME DIVISION, BARREN WOMB, BABYMETAL + CHTHONIC

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 112014
 

Culled here from the ever-flowing effluent of the interhole are four new ear- and eye-pleasing treats, with a bit of impressionistic verbiage. The songs have nothing in common, except my liking for them.

MANTAR

Mantar (above) are a new two-piece band, half German and half Turkish, whose debut album Death By Burning is scheduled for North American release by Svart Records on February 25. I previously wrote about one advance song, “Spit”. Today DECIBEL delivered the premiere of a music video for a second one, “White Nights”.

Men at work, wolves at work, strobes in the studio, shadows in the forest (and something else in the forest), amps and pines. The squeal of feedback, the squall of a fuzz-bombed guitar, riffs that open wounds, vocals that cauterize them, drum strikes that will bring you to your knees. Stripped-down and flesh-stripping, obliterating and head-nodding. Continue reading »

THIS SPLIT WILL RULE: FALLS OF RAUROS / PANOPTICON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 112014
 

2014 has barely begun and it has already delivered a slew of mouthwatering new releases. But few have caused your humble editor to salivate in anticipation quite like the forthcoming 12″ split by Maine’s Falls of Rauros and Kentucky’s Panopticon. Finally, it is has been sent to the pressing plant and is now ready for pre-order. I am here (having wiped the slobber from my face) to deliver many enticing details that were just disclosed this morning — including a nearly 17-minute trailer of music.

Detail No. 1:  That fantastic cover art you see above. Click the image to view a larger version.

Detail No. 2:  The Falls of Rauros side consists of two songs: “Unavailing” (11:53) and “The Purity of Isolation” (6:45). The Panopticon side consists of four songs: “Through Mountains I Wander This Evening” (4:33), Can You Loan Me A Raven?” (7:29), “Gods of Flame” (4:26), and “One Cold Night” (7:56). No need to get out your calculator — the split brings a total of more than 43 minutes of music. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the song titles, the music was inspired by the time that both bands spent in Norway.

Detail No. 3:  Bindrune Recordings, which is releasing the split, describes the Panopticon music (in part) as follows: “The mountains, landscapes, and memories of living and studying in Norway have crept into Austin/Panopticon’s ever evolving and vital sound to embody more of a stripped down and dark Norwegian BM influenced atmosphere for this release which harkens back to Panopticon’s more aggressive and raw S/T album…. The 4 songs on this split embrace the pure essence and influence of the 90′s Norwegian black metal movement in all of its driving, chilling and endlessly atmospheric grimness.” Continue reading »

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