FREE SHIT: “ORIENTAL FLAVORS — MIDDLE EASTERN MAYHEM VOL. 1”

 Exceptions to the Rule, Free Shit  6 Responses »
May 182014
 

For those who may be unaware of Misantrof ANTIRecords, it’s a nonprofit organization headed by Daniel Vrangsinn of Carpathian Forest that among other things distributes music for free download, allowing the artists to keep all rights to their own music. Misantrof’s latest release is Oriental Flavors, a free compilation of songs by 19 metal bands from countries across the Middle East. The comp was assembled in collaboration with Middle Eastern Mayhem and Mohareb Records, and it’s also available from Misantrof as a limited 2-CD set for fans who prefer a physical format.

Making extreme metal and getting it noticed is a challenge almost everywhere, but as Vrangsinn observes in his introduction to Oriental Flavors, doing that in certain parts of the Islamic world can be downright dangerous to the welfare of the bands. But as this comp demonstrates, metal lives and grows in even the most inhospitable places.

The music is described by Misantrof as a mix of black metal, death metal, thrash, “and other kinds of lovely extreme metal from extreme people, for extreme people!” Of the bands on the comp, I was previously familiar with only one — Tunisia’s Barzakh, who were included in a series on North African metal that I wrote almost four years ago (here).

I only discovered the existence of Oriental Flavors this morning (it has just been released), so I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of it yet. But I have taken the liberty of uploading three tracks to our Soundcloud so I can stream them for you here, as a sample. Continue reading »

LABEL FOCUS: LAMECH RECORDS (WITH LVXCAELIS, SAPIENTIA, MYSTRUIN, HETROERTZEN)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 182014
 

As explained yesterday, I impulsively decided to write a weekend series on labels whose releases I have rarely (if ever) written about. As in the case of Ektro Records (featured yesterday), I happened upon the songs in this collection at Soundcloud. All of them are by bands whose music has been released by an underground Swedish label named Lamech Records, whose web site is here. I was unfamiliar with all four bands featured here before checking out these songs, but I really like what I’ve heard.

LVXCAELIS

LvxCaelis are from Santiago, Chile. It appears they have released a 2010 demo named Nigredo – The Dead Head and an album in 2012 entitled Mysteria Mystica Maxima XXIII. The song I stumbled across on Soundcloud is “Darkening Sun. Evolving Chaos”, which will apparently be included on a forthcoming four-song Lamech release called Slaughtering of the Lamb.

The song is aptly titled. It is the sound of the sun being eclipsed, and chaos does indeed ensue as murky, eviscerating riffs vibrate ominously and the drums blast and rumble. As grim and frostbitten as the melody is, the music nevertheless has the power to set a hook in your head, even though the vocalist is trying to tear it off at the same time. A really good fusing of black and death metal. Continue reading »

LABEL FOCUS: EKTRO (WITH PLAIN RIDE, RANGER, BEGRAVNINGSENTREPRENÖRERNA, SHAVED WOMEN, AND CIRCLE)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
May 172014
 

Here’s how this post came about:  I listen to Soundcloud every day, following links in our emails or ones I see on Facebook. Usually they’re advance tracks from new albums, and I’m trying to decide whether to write about them. Yesterday I listened to one solely because the band had the longest one-word name I’d ever seen.

When a song finishes on Soundcloud, another one generally starts playing, whether you want it to or not. That also happened yesterday, and it drew me into other bands on the same label as the first one — Finland’s Ektro Records. I’ve written about that label’s releases in the past, but infrequently.

So I had the impulsive idea of writing about a group of songs from recent Ektro releases that I found on Soundcloud. And I decided to do the same thing tomorrow, focusing on another label with which I’m even less familiar.

In the past I’ve found Ektro’s releases very interesting, though a high percentage of them aren’t straight down the metal fairway. The ones you’re about to hear aren’t either. But they’re not down the middle of any fairway — which is why I’m digging them. Continue reading »

NEW SONGS: VADER, VALLENFYRE, AND VOLTURYON; BARGHEST AND BONGRIPPER; DENIED

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 162014
 

Lots of new songs appeared today. I picked six to play for you, despite the fact that I could maintain alliteration for only two groups of them. In a rare display of concision, I will be concise. If you don’t find at least one thing to like in here, there may be no hope for you.

VADER

I’m borrowing Axl Rosenberg’s introduction to the new Vader song at Metal Sucks because it made me laugh:

Vader have released a new song, “Triumph of Death,” which you can stream below. It’s a visceral track which, believe it or not, may make you tear up a bit, as its subject matter is one to which we all relate: a metalhead is forced against his will to go see the (Hed)P.E. and SOiL tour, but he ultimately manages a bittersweet victory when he kills himself mid-show by inhaling next to a guy in a Primer 55 shirt, thereby attaining sweet release. The metal community has lost too many good men and women that way, and I commend Vader for calling attention to these tragedies.

Continue reading »

TOURISM: CARNIVAL OF DEATH 2014 AND ELUVEITIE IN NORTH AMERICA (WITH A NEW ALBUM COMING)

 Uncategorized  16 Responses »
May 162014
 

Here are a couple of North American tours announced this morning that I thought were worth spreading around. The music in the two tours lies on divergent ends of the metal spectrum, but both shows should be excellent.

CARNIVAL OF DEATH 2014

This death metal blockbuster is co-headlined by Suffocation and Kataklysm, with Suffocation closing the shows on the US dates and Kataklysm playing the final sets in the Canadian shows. Accompanying those two heavyweight acts on this tour will be Jungle Rot, Pyrexia, and Internal Bleeding.

As the poster up there indicates, the tour schedule hasn’t been announced yet.

Now, changing gears… Continue reading »

REMNANTS OF 2013 (PART 4)

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
May 162014
 

(Austin Weber puts the spotlight on a big load of 2013 (and 2012) releases that he feels were overlooked. This is Part 4 of a four-part piece. Previous installments appeared on each of the preceding three days.)

SNAKE BAPTIST

Snake Baptist are a group I found through The Number 12 Looks Like You Facebook page when I recently scrolled through it. Even though they are broken up, I curiously checked their page after listening to #12 all day. I felt moved that day by the somber intro to #12’s “Jay Walking Backwards”, as they were a band who my late brother and I mutually enjoyed. So the sadness contained in that intro really hit me hard for some sentimental reason.

Anyways, on to the serpentine bastards in Snake Baptist. Basically, they mix The Sawtooth Grin type of chaotic grind (a comparison helped by the presence in the band of The Sawtooth Grin’s vocalist Rich) with a Dillinger tinge, and then make the sound more insane with a scalding powerviolence influence. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: A SPLIT BY BENCHPRESS AND MARTYR’S TONGUE

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
May 162014
 

It’s time for audio mauling, with flair, as we bring you music from two metal-weighted hardcore bands who’ll slug you in the mouth and then kick you in the cojones before you have time to pick up your teeth.

The bands are Benchpress from Lewiston, Pennsylvania, and Martyr’s Tongue from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Get This Right Records has just released a split 7″ that includes two songs from each band. We’re premiering streams of all four songs after a brief introduction.

BENCHPRESS

As the band’s name signifies, the original members apparently came together with the tongue-in-cheek idea of making “beatdown anthems for gym-rats”, but the two songs on the new split aren’t joking around. “Penance” and “Pissed Away” rocket through the bloodstream in about six minutes. They inflict the punishment with thick, rebar-strength riffs delivered in both flashing jabs and brutal hammer blows, with squalling feedback leading to thunderous breakdowns. And you can feel the vocalist’s jugular veins coming apart violently as he vents his venom. Merciless and heavy-grooved, these tracks will make your bad moods murderous. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: TEMPLE DESECRATION, TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE, MORTUUS, VUYVR

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
May 162014
 

I started writing this post last weekend, when the featured songs were fresh out of the blast furnace and had just appeared online, but every day since then has thrown distractions in the way of finishing it. Finally, it is done. I’m afraid there’s nothing in this collection that’s suitable for the faint of heart, but if you’ve become acclimated to ravaging sonic assaults I think you’ll find a lot to like.

TEMPLE DESECRATION

I re-ordered the appearance of Temple Desecration since I began writing this post because what started as a feature about a single song is now a review of a two-song 12″ EP, the name of which is Communion Perished. It’s due for release by Germany’s Iron Bonehead Productions on June 27.

Temple Desecration are a blackened death metal band from Poland and their previous output consists of a 2012 demo named Abhorrent Rites, which I’ve not heard. The new release includes two songs — “Ghoul Prayer” and “Apotheosis”. Both of them intertwine passages of rapacious, storming riffs and merciless percussive fusillades with ghastly doom dirges, the guitars and bass drenched in distortion and the bestial vocals reverberating as if recorded in a catacombs. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NADER SADEK, RAGE NUCLÉAIRE, MEPHORASH, MOONSORROW

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
May 152014
 

With the album collections that Professor D. Grover the XIIIth and Austin Weber recommended earlier today, we’ve thrown a lot of music your way in a short stretch of time.  But does that mean we will stop? No, of course not. We’re like a hyperactive yappy little dog that will not stop trying to hump your leg. So you might as well just sit back and prepare for a sticky leg.

NADER SADEK

Three years ago the extravagantly talented musical and visual artist Nader Sadek delivered an album named In the Flesh, with the help of an eye-popping line-up of guest musicians. Now, Sadek has re-recorded a song from the album named “Mechanic  Idolatry” and re-titled the new work “Re:Mechanic”. This time the recording artists include Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstrosity), Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy), Rune Eriksen (Mayhem, Aura Noir), Orestis Nalmpantis (Greek band Genna Apo Kolo), and Kelly Conlon (Death, Monstrosity).

But that’s not all. Sadek has also directed a new video for the song that debuted today at DECIBEL. Visit that link to learn more about Sadek’s vision for the video. But to see it without delay, just go past the jump. Continue reading »

MISERY INDEX: “THE KILLING GODS”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
May 152014
 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Baltimore’s Misery Index.)

Misery Index have really come into their own over the course of their last couple of records.  Their transformation (for lack of a better term) from Dying Fetus-lite to a straight-up death metal titan all their own has been a pleasure for my ears, and has resulted in some of the finest death metal you can get your hands on nowadays.  I’ve always liked this brand of death metal (Man Must Die do something similar) — lots of grindcore, old school death metal riffage, hardcore groove, and the odd incorporation of melodic death metal, but with their own flavor, not to mention a taste for lyrical sociopolitical vitriol.  Of course, key early members of Misery Index were in Dying Fetus first, which had made a name as a musically excellent death metal band that addressed social issues with the anger and outrage they deserved.

The Killing Gods is the Misery Index standard-setter.  The song writing fat (what little fat there was) has been trimmed and the songs have been turned into efficient killing-machine Spartan warriors.  A toning down of the grindcore elements results in riffs that stick out more, quite a bit more melody has been introduced, and the central focus of this record seems to lean heavily on their particular brand of imperialistic might.  Misery Index have always had this quality, and it’s a vibe unique to them I think.  The “imperial vibe” has always been a Polish standard, but Misery Index never sound like they are copping the Polish sound.  Something is distinctly American, distinctly ruthless, about the majesty presented on The Killing Gods.  This truly is the definitive Misery Index record. Continue reading »

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