AND STILL MORE TOURISM: CARCASS TO PLAY SIX DATES IN NORTH AMERICA

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

This seems to be a day for tour announcements.  In addition to those we’ve already posted about, Carcass have now announced that they will be playing a select group of “intimate” shows in North America this September in support of their forthcoming album Surgical Steel. I like the tour’s name — Colonial Irrigation — though I wonder if maybe it should have been “Colonic Irrigation”. I also enjoyed bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker’s statement about the tour:

“Well we thought we’d play a few small key shows, kinda like the vibe we had in London earlier this year.  Maybe we’re being a bit optimistic thinking we can fill these venues? Well to make sure we do we’re bringing along some old friends & bands who will probably blow us away. We’re too much of a bunch of tight wads to throw a record release party so this is the closest you’ll get – come on down, and bring your receipt with the new album purchase and demand a refund!”

Those old friends he referred to? Macabre, Immolation, and Exhumed. Not too shabby.

There’s only one problem: Unless you live in the vicinity of Calgary, Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles, you’ll miss out on this deliciousness (that’s right, there is a Calgary date even though it’s not on the tour flyer above — it’s at the Noctis Festival, which has a stunning line-up). Maybe there will be a more widespread tour later on. Here are the tour’s confirmed dates: Continue reading »

ANOTHER NEW SONG FROM FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE: “MINOTAUR (THE WRATH OF POSEIDON)”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

You already know what we think of Labyrinth, the new album by the almighty Fleshgod Apocalypse, because surely you have read Andy Synn’s laudatory review of it. And surely you have already heard “Elegy”, the first track from the album to be released for streaming. And surely you will now listen to the second song that just appeared on YouTube as a lyric video, “Minotaur (The Wrath of Poseidon)”. Surely.

Labyrinth will be out on Aug. 16 in Europe, Aug. 19 in the UK, and Aug. 20 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records. Listen to “Minotaur” next and please share your thoughts in the comments. Continue reading »

MORE TOURISM: WATAIN, IN SOLITUDE, TRIBULATION TO TOUR NORTH AMERICA

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

I suppose this is mainly a rumor, since there hasn’t yet been an official announcement, but that flyer up there sure looks official.

[UPDATE: it’s official now. The full schedule can be found at the bottom of this post.]

Two venues have so far reported dates for THE WILD HUNT NORTH AMERICAN TOUR, headlined by Sweden’s Watain and named after their forthcoming album, and featuring two more excellent Swedish bands, In Solitude and Tribulation.

As you can see, one of those two venues is in Detroit, and the second date that has surfaced is in Denver on October 18 at The Marquis Theater.

This has awesome written all over it. When we get the full schedule, we’ll post about this again. Seattle better be on there or I’ll throw a temper tantrum.

[Read on to see the full schedule.] Continue reading »

TOURISM: GWAR, WHITECHAPEL, IRON REAGAN, A BAND OF ORCS, KATATONIA, CULT OF LUNA, INTRONAUT, TESSERACT, ORGAN DONOR, COFFIN DUST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

Collected here is news about three new tours that surfaced yesterday.

MADNESS AT THE CORE OF TIME TOUR

GWAR is the headliner of this tour, and the rest of the line-up consists of Whitechapel, Iron Reagan, and A Band of Orcs. It’s tough to find a unifying theme for the selection of these bands, other than the fact that the line-up is book-ended by inhuman creatures. But I’ve found that some of the best shows are those in which the combination of bands makes you scratch your head. One band might pull you in, and you might then discover another band you like.

In this case, Whitechapel have kicked my ass every time I’ve seen them and I’m also interested in seeing Iron Reagan and A Band of Orcs (HAIL GZOROTH!). I’ve never gotten into GWAR, though I can’t say I’ve ever given them much of a chance. Maybe that will be my new discovery on this tour. Here’s the schedule: Continue reading »

A NEW ULCERATE SONG: “CONFRONTING ENTROPY”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

The new album by New Zealand’s Ulcerate is entitled Vermis. It’s due for release by Relapse on September 17 in North America and on somewhat earlier dates elsewhere. It’s one of our most highly anticipated releases of the year. And late yesterday, the album’s first advance track became available for listening.

“Confronting Entropy” sounds like the warring of alien behemoths on some distant, poisonous planet during an earthquake while a meteor strike is in progress. The sound is massive, with huge, catastrophic riffs, squalling, shrieking guitar leads, and earth-splitting percussion. It’s tumultuous avant garde death metal with teeth. Check it out next (I’m including both the YouTube and Soundcloud streams for the hell of it).

(Vermis can be pre-ordered here. Ulcerate’s web site is at this location.)

Continue reading »

KAUNIS KUOLEMATON

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

Kaunis Kuolematon are a Finnish band with current or former members of Black Sun Aeon, Sinamore, and End of Aeon, who have released three songs so far in their brief career. Two of them appeared on a self-titled EP in November 2012 and the third is a single released in June of this year. Both the EP and the single are available on Bandcamp for a pay-what-you-want price.

The new single — “En Ole Mitään” (I Am Nothing) — is the best of the three songs, and it’s really good. In fact, it’s so good that I’ve added it to the list of candidates for our year-end selection of 2013’s most infectious extreme metal songs.

The musical style is the kind of melancholy, doom-influenced melodic death metal that should appeal to fans of bands such as Swallow the Sun, Before the Dawn, and In Mourning. It slides back and forth between soft, sorrowful passages carried by the strong, clear tenor voice of Mikko Heikkilä (ex-Black Sun Aeon) and heavy sections in which concrete-slabbed riffs rain down and Olli Suvanto (End of Aeon) howls in anguish or roars like some void-faring behemoth.

The guitar-driven melody, which feeds both the soft and the heavy measures and is enhanced ever so slightly by what sounds like an occasional synthesizer backdrop, is sublime — and highly memorable. Continue reading »

FROM THE VASTLAND: “KAMARIKAN”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jul 312013
 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the second album, released earlier this year, by Iranian one-man project From the Vastland.)

When it comes to writing about albums from further afield – in particular those somewhat removed from the terrifying hegemony of Western imperialism (cue scary music) – there’s an occasional tendency for reviews to offer up the sort of opinions that are ultimately damning with faint praise, in the guise of being positive and supportive.

All too often I’ve seen reviewers focus on the “hardships” or “difficulties” of being a metal band from a country where the political or religious climate is far from conducive to it, to the extent that the actual quality of the musical output is considered only as a secondary factor.

Now I’m not saying that Metal should be a genre confined solely to the privileged few of the First World, but what I am saying is that excusing an album’s lack of quality because of its creators’ circumstances is akin to saying “that was good, for a girl” – condescending and ultimately unhelpful. You shouldn’t write a review if you have to lower your standards to give it a positive appraisal. It does everyone involved a disservice.

Thankfully, there’s no such issue with Kamarikan, which is a nasty little phenomenon in its own right. I just felt it was something to bear in mind for the future. Continue reading »

BLACK AS NIGHT: ÆVANGELIST, THE RUINS OF BEVERAST, AND KÊRES

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jul 312013
 

By coincidence, I heard new music from three bands last night, right in a row, that had a few things in common: The music is all superb, and it’s all black as hell. I don’t mean to say it’s all black metal, though some of it is. I mean to say that it’s all dark, heavy, and harrowing.

ÆVANGELIST

Little more than a week has passed since I reviewed Ævangelist’s lengthy (and brilliant) contribution to a forthcoming split that will be released in the coming months by Aurora Australis Records. I also mentioned that the band had finished recording a new album, Omen Ex Simulacra, that will be released later this year by Debemur Morti. And lo and behold, yesterday Debemur Morti gave us a precise release date — October 11 — and premiered a song from the album named “Abysscape”. [Update: we also now have a preview of the album art by Andrzej Masianis, which you can see above.]  Interestingly, “Abysscape” is the last song on the album, though it’s the first one being released.

It’s another long one, though in the music of Ævangelist, time is an important ally. “Abysscape” is a dense, bottomless, indigo whirlpool of doom, made for immersion. Immense grinding guitars match up with immense, horrific vocals and stunning drumwork. Alien keyboard melodies call out like the cries of homeless souls. The ravaging music alternately storms and drifts. You look into the void, and “Abysscape” is there, looking back at you. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BROKEN HOPE, INQUISITION, HANK3

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jul 312013
 

Here’s some recent album-release news that got me excited.

BROKEN HOPE

Early yesterday we reported about a U.S. tour scheduled for October that will be headlined by Deicide. One of the supporting bands is Chicago’s Broken Hope. I mentioned in that post that Broken Hope had recorded their first new album in 14 years and that it would be released by Century Media in October under the name Omen of Disease. And then later the same day we got an official announcement of the release dates: October 1 in NorthAm and September 30 in Europe.

We also got an unveiling of the album art, featured above. That’s one imaginatively nightmarish creature, isn’t it? I think I saw one of those fuckers in the corner of my bathroom one night. Right before I blacked  out. That was a bad night.

The cover was painted by the illustrious Wes Benscoter, who has created artwork for the likes of Slayer, Hypocrisy, Autopsy, Kreator, and many more. In a coming-full-circle kind of episode, he also did the covers for two of Broken Hope’s own albums, though that happened in 1995 (Repulsive Conception) and 1997 (Loathing). Continue reading »

PISSED

 Off Topic  55 Responses »
Jul 312013
 

This is a rant, so if you’re not in the mood, just skip it. Won’t hurt my feelings.

I got pissed off by something that happened on the NCS Facebook page yesterday. That’s pretty rare. The fact that I’m still pissed off is even more rare (I’m old enough to have figured out that although giving in to my temper occasionally has its uses, most of the time it accomplishes nothing good).  So, dumbass that I am, I’ve stewed about it, trying to understand why.

In a nutshell, I wrote a post yesterday about a re-recorded song by Deprecated. Like just about everything I write here, I was excited about it. Like everything we post here, I added a status on our Facebook page about the post for people who follow us there. In my FB status, I asked the rhetorical question whether people would like to hear some brutal death metal performed by Derek Boyer and Terrance Hobbs of Suffocation, Matt Sotelo of Decrepit Birth, AJ Magaña (ex- Disgorge (USA), and drummer Torrey Moores, and then I added, “I’m going to assume you said yes”.

Someone who shall remain nameless put this comment on the status: “I really really don’t like suffocation or decrepit birth. I’ll pass.” I suppressed the desire to respond with some snarky retort, and simply wrote, “I guess I made an erroneous assumption. :)” To which the original commenter wrote: “It happens when you’re trying to promote something. c:” Continue reading »

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