AN NCS INTERVIEW (Part 1): MIKE VAN MASTRIGT (HOUWITSER, EX-SINISTER)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jul 292013
 

 (NCS contributor and hard-man-to-please KevinP interviewed Mike van Mastrigt, and this is Part 1 of the interview. Stay tuned for Part 2, which includes an announcement you really won’t want to miss.)

K:  Let’s go back in history for a moment. You were in Sinister, left in 1996 after the Bastard Saints EP. Why?

M:  It was time to move on…. I was busy with too many things.  Next to being the frontman, spokesman, I also was the band manager/tour manager and booker. That all was to much and it took away the focus and correct spirit.  I needed a break. So there was no option but to quit.

 

K:  You started up rather quickly (only a year later) in 1997 forming Houwitser. Were the batteries recharged that soon?

M:  I didn’t start Houwitser. I was the singer and only the singer, until they would find someone else. Also, I made the album cover and booklet.  I did no arrangements for shows, etc.

 

K:  So when you joined,  it was known to be a temporary thing until they could find a more permanent vocalist?

M:  Yes Continue reading »

ROUND-UP: BURIAL HORDES, DROWNED, REPTILIAN SHAPE SHIFTERS, CALIGULA’S HORSE, FALLUJAH, AND REPTILIAN DEATH

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jul 282013
 

Your humble editor has had a busy weekend and this Sunday is going to be busy too, so this will probably be today’s only post. I did find a little time to browse e-mail and wade through the interhole in search of new things yesterday and this morning. As usual, I found many, and have collected a big group of them in this post. As you’ll see (and hear), it’s a diverse mix, including some not-metal. I’ll have to keep the verbiage brief because time is short. I know that will traumatize most of you, and I’m already grieving for your loss.

BURIAL HORDES

I first happened upon this Greek band in January after discovering their split release with Enshadowed, which is excellent (reviewed here). They have a new album on the way, entitled Incendium. I haven’t yet seen a release date, but the band have recently uploaded the opening track — “Unleash Havoc”. It’s a very cool song, raw and ravaging, bestial and atmospheric. Listen:

https://www.facebook.com/BurialHordesOfficial

Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST XII — FIRST LIST OF CONFIRMED BANDS FOR 2014

 Metal News  29 Responses »
Jul 272013
 

Yep, just a bit earlier today the organizers of Maryland Deathfest announced the initial list of bands confirmed to play at MDF XII, which will be held May 22-25, 2014. Here you go:

AT THE GATES (Sweden)
GORGUTS (Canada)
TAAKE (Norway)
SOLSTAFIR (Iceland)
MGŁA (Poland)
EXCRUCIATING TERROR
BONGRIPPER
HEMDALE
DIOCLETIAN (New Zealand)

This may be too much information, but I thought I’d mention that I wet myself when I saw this list. And of course more names will be coming. MDF also announced that At the Gates, Taake, Solstafir, and MGLA will be making exclusive US appearances at MDF. Continue reading »

THE LUNA SEQUENCE: “THE DAY THE CURSE GREW STRONGER”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jul 272013
 

(In this post DGR takes us off our usual beaten paths with a review of the latest album by The Luna Sequence.)

We’ve been on a hell of a reviewing streak lately here at NCS, our front page resembling the inside of a Revolver review section the past week. It’s been pretty cool, but also reflective of the fact that we’ve had a lot of heavy metal hitting our eardrums lately – my own having about eight different CDs cross their path at once (five of which got covered, the others picked up by fellow writers on the site). As a result, I’m taking a bit of a breather with this review to talk about a project that I really enjoy.

It’s an indulgence, if you will. It’s most definitely not metal. Folks who have been with us for a while will remember that we have covered this band before. I did so on a whim, to expose some of my musical tastes outside the realm of heavy metal, such as a very, very light enjoyment of some electronica music – mostly of the variety that hybrids with rock music. If I fish out my armchair psychology degree that I received for spending over ten minutes on the internet, then I’m sure that’s because I enjoy industrial music as well, and the two often overlap.

Because of the previous writing, some of you may recognize The Luna Sequence name, a solo instrumental electronica/rock project belonging to Kaia Young. One of the reasons that I’ve been drawn to this specific project has been its success in fusing electronic music with light heavy metal songwriting. Earlier works were heavily synth-focused and felt like electronic tunes initially that later had heavier elements added on top of it. However, more recently, with the previous This Is Bloodlust release and now this disc — The Day The Curse Grew Stronger — things have taken a heavier turn. Now the songs feel like heavy metal tunes written using electronics and a guitar, metal song structures put through an electronica filter, and it works really well. If you’re looking for something a little different then indulge me as I try to explain further why I’m drawn to this project so much. Continue reading »

BLACK CROWN INITIATE: “SONG OF THE CRIPPLED BULL”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Jul 262013
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the stunning debut EP from Black Crown Initiate of Reading, Pennsylvania.)

I feel like sometimes it’s up to us metal bloggers to take responsibility for making sure some bands get more air time.  There are some bands for which the ignorance of their existence should almost be criminal.  Black Crown Initiate is one such band.  Hailing from Reading PA, Black Crown Initiate are hard to describe or classify.  Equal parts death metal, black metal, and progressive rock, their sound channels hints of lots of what I’ll call the “right” influences, ranging from Opeth, to Daylight Dies, to Behemoth, Anaal Nathrakh, and Ihsahn’s solo work.

The band’s debut EP, Song of the Crippled Bull, is an epic four-part suite of progressive death metal sanctity that shouldn’t be ignored.  The utter brutality matched with a sense of grandeur and melodic reprieve is immensely impressive.   Combine this with a sound that merges old and new schools of thought seamlessly and you have a band to watch not only now but in the future.

Song of the Crippled Bull is in fact one song split into four parts.  What’s impressive is that these four sections are very distinct from one another, which made it even cooler to me when the band looped back around at the end to close on the very section on which the EP starts. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MAN MUST DIE, VASAELETH, DEFEATER, RED FANG

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 262013
 

Here are a few choice items from my recent ramblings around the interhole.

MAN MUST DIE

Some bands die who shouldn’t, some bands who should die seem to live forever, and some bands resurrect themselves against punishing odds. Man Must Die must not die, and in fact it looks like they’ve been resurrected after parting company with their big-label support following 2009′s No Tolerance For Imperfection.

When last we checked in with these Scots in April, they were nearing success on their revised crowd-funding goal at Pledge Music to help them self-finance a new recording. And today brought the cheery news that they’ve found label support once again after a long dry spell. Here’s the announcement from Lifeforce Records:

“We are very proud to announce the signing of Scottish extreme metal maniacs MAN MUST DIE for a world wide release (outside the UK) of their next album in late October via Lifeforce Records. The band is currently at Valvetone studios putting the final touches on the new effort.”

In addition, the band announced that Grindscene Records will be releasing the new album in the UK and Ireland.

Nice work lads! I’ll be ready to get brutalized in October. Continue reading »

MISERY SIGNALS: “ABSENT LIGHT”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 262013
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the just-released new album by Misery Signals.)

Misery Signals are an often underrated and even oft-forgotten tidal wave of force within the metalcore realm.  These guys practically (in my estimation) put technical/progressive metalcore on the map as a “thing” and really set a standard with their debut, close to the genre’s stagnation point — the standard being that you had to do what Misery Signals did, or no one was going to give two fucks about your two-step teeny-bopper crooning.  As evidence of this, so many of the metalcore bands who have survived have been ones who took pages from the Misery Signals playbook.  I would even say that many bands in the so-called “tech metal” UK scene (rightfully criticized by my co-writer Andy Synn) owe as much to this band — except Misery Signals left out the bullshit choruses that pine for commercial adoration and they have a much more refined sense of technicality, both in performance skill and as songwriters.

I say all this because despite how significant this band is, they are criminally dismissed all too often. Absent Light is the band’s latest opus, completely funded from an unexpectedly insanely successful Indiegogo campaign, and it shows the band at their most mature, most morose, most technical, and most intense, all at once.  And that’s the thing about Misery Signals, as opposed to other bands who’ve tried to copy them:  They have intensity, a passion that floods every part of their music.  The technicality and chaos aren’t there for the sake of it; they convey the sincerity that these guys have always had behind their material.

Absent Light is really fucking heavy.  Even when the band are engaging in some of the lighter maturations of their sound (the album makes constant references to prog and post-rock) and aren’t beating you to a pulp, they are only ever building up to it.  Their constant use of thrashy rhythms, jazzy, proggy, rich chord progressions and a taste for melody that resides in a weird limbo between introspective and dissonant/depressive drag results in an album that is quite varied, not just song to song but section to section within every song. Continue reading »

MAJALIS: “CATHODIC BLACK”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
Jul 262013
 

Majalis is one of those “after work” side-projects whose debut release leaves such a powerful impression that one can only hope, fervently, that it continues. It began years ago as a songwriting collaboration between two of In Mourning’s guitarists, Tobias Netzell (ex-October Tide) and Björn Pettersson. Eventually, they enlisted vocalist/bassist Daniel Jansson and drummer Jonas Martinsson and recorded Cathodic Black, an EP released earlier this month by Pulverised Records. And together, they’ve created something wonderful.

If you’re familiar with In Mourning, you know that Netzell and Pettersson are experienced in dropping the weight of oceans upon listeners while interweaving melodies that have a way of sticking fast in the memory. They do something similar in the three long songs that make up Cathodic Black, but have stepped outside the realm of dark melodic death metal to do it. This time they’ve moved into the territories of post rock, sludge, and doom.

The weight of the mid-paced music comes via massive, fuzzed-out, doom-drenched riffs and a drum-and-bass duo that can really bring the heavy lumber when they put their minds to it. But the music is also a study in contrasts, and the power and intensity of the passages when Majalis starts to crush is magnified by the softer measures that often precede them — the beautifully somber piano piece that begins the EP, the isolated guitar strumming and echoing percussive sounds within “Rusting Sun”, the contemplative guitar duet in the middle of “Tooth and Bone”, and other similar moments when the band dial back the intensity. Continue reading »

REVIEWED: FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE — “LABYRINTH”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jul 252013
 

(Andy Synn reviews the highly anticipated new album by Fleshgod Apocalypse.)

It’s amazing to think that these Italian extremists, who only really started to make waves within the underground with 2009’s Oracles, are now already on their third album.

Following the over-indulgence of Agony, Labyrinth finds the band more at ease in their own skin – not exactly comfortable, in the sense of resting on their laurels, but definitely imbued with a quiet confidence – something that allows them to simultaneously both push the envelope in terms of their symphonic embellishments and give more depth to the crunching, death metal aspect of their sound (something that critics have, in the past, criticised for being almost a secondary concern behind the orchestral and operatic frippery).

Fundamentally a brutal and brilliantly punishing listen, Labyrinth is actually far cleverer and more delightfully esoteric in places than the band are often given credit for. And, despite the devastating shock and awe on display, it’s also more interested in leaving a lasting impression, rather than simply impressing, and is all the more impressive for it.

Once you’re past the initial shockwave, you’ll find that the key to the band’s success is not just a product of their blitzkrieg sonic assault, but an often underappreciated ability to find a balance point between operatic pomp, symphonic melody, and death metal brutality, allowing the subtle undercurrents of each song to insinuate themselves into your subconscious.

Continue reading »

MERCENARY: “THROUGH OUR DARKEST DAYS”

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 252013
 

(DGR reviews the new album by Mercenary, and following the review you can stream the whole album.)

Two things come to mind when discussing Mercenary these days: One, that the band are releasing their seventh full disc and are still slamming their heads up against the glass ceiling of popularity. Mercenary are one of the best gateway bands for heavy metal in all senses, with powerful singing and songwriting that take them not only through heavy metal but a wide variety of its sub-genres as well. They can move from death metal to power metal in the blink of an eye. That people still turn to radio-friendly schlock as the heaviest music they’ve ever heard rather than Mercenary is truly an exercise in stupidity.

Two: Although the band basically asked for a hard reset (which is something you do by naming your disc Metamorphosis, or by pulling a Before The Dawn and using the Phoenix theme, releasing one album with a new lineup, and then killing the project) after two of their members bailed (the voice of the band at the time, Mikkel Sandager, and brother/keyboardist Morten), it is still incredibly difficult to divorce the band from their prior legacy.

Metamorphosis was a good album and it introduced the world to a slimmer, scrappier Mercenary, but it still drew comparisons to earlier highs such as The Hours That Remain and 11 Dreams. In the face of albums like those, Metamorphosis had a deck stacked against it.

Now we’re one album removed from that and about to hear the band’s latest effort, Through Our Darkest Days. Now that the band are stable again and have gotten used to songwriting as a smaller unit, what effect has that had on the sophomore release of lighter Mercenary? Have they become a nostalgia act? Did they pull away from the gravitational effects of their prior discs? Did they top Metamorphosis? Did they just put out a second Metamorphosis? Question Mark? Continue reading »

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