AN NCS INTERVIEW: JACOBO CORDOVA (MAJESTIC DOWNFALL)

 Interviews  7 Responses »
Jul 222013
 

(Guest contributor KevinP managed to snag an interview with Jacobo Cordova, whose latest album under the name of Majestic Downfall — “Three” — is a doom/death highlight of 2013. You can tell that Jacobo is a cool guy because he continued with the interview even after Kevin insulted the Dallas Cowboys. I would just like to add, on a personal note, that the Giants suck.)

 K:  Ok, just so you know I did my homework here. You were in a dark/doom metal band from Mexico called Antiqua, left in 2006 to start Majestic Downfall and moved to Dallas, TX.  So, why the change, why Texas, and most importantly, please tell me you loathe the Dallas Cowboys, like any self-respecting human being does?

J:  First of all, stay away from the Cowboys! They are too big for you ja.  I won´t go any further on their might, it is well known!

 

K:  Chinga tu Cowboys. JAJAJAJA

J:  Ok, about Majestic Downfall starting in Dallas, TX. I can tell you that I moved there in 2005 cause I got a job offer and that is when I moved to the States from Mexico.  Being there and not playing for 5 years since I left Antiqua, I could afford a home studio and that is when it all started.

In 2007 I recorded my first demo and from there everything became history till today and the new album release.  Regarding Antiqua, some of the ideas of the first Majestic Downfall album were unfinished or not recorded riffs of that band so I had a start already.  And regarding your homework done, nah, you have no idea, I don´t even want to know your shitty team. Continue reading »

THE BRIDAL PROCESSION: “DESCENT INTO ARCOLOGIES”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Jul 222013
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new second album by Parisian metal band The Bridal Procession.)

Two words: Symphonic deathcore.

…

…

…

There, now that I’ve cleared the room, the rest of us can talk privately.

I suppose that first line was like a red rag to a bull, or a canary in a coal mine (some sort of metaphorical animal anyway), to some people. Priming their rage, or warning them off, well in advance.

It was, however, also a little bit misleading. The (now sadly defunct) French band generally err closer to the “Death” than the “core” side of the equation, and their first album Astronomical Dimensions was a veritable kick in the teeth of bone-crunching Behemoth bludgeon and gruesome Whitechapel groove, with some fantastically menacing symphonic flourishes.

There’s still enough stylistic elements, if you’re a genre-Nazi like me, to stick the band with the “Deathcore” tag – despite the fact that a certain proportion of their fanbase is insistent on referring to them as “Progressive Death Metal”. But for me there’s no shame in being “Deathcore” when your material is this strong and your album itself provides a compelling argument for the existence of the style! Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ÆVANGELIST — “OMNIQUITY”

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jul 222013
 

This past weekend I saw two pieces of news concerning the otherworldly black death entity known as Ævangelist, about whom we have written frequently. First, it appears the band have finished recording a new album, Omen Ex Simulacra, which will be released later this year by Debemur Morti. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Second, I saw that in the coming months an Australian label named Aurora Australis Records will be releasing an Ævangelist split with a Philadelphia black metal band named Esoterica . The artwork for it, created by Ralph Stewart, is displayed at the top of this post. Esoterica will be contributing three songs, including one on which MkM of Antaeus and Aosoth will be making a guest appearance. Ævangelist’s track is called “Omniquity”, and they posted it on YouTube yesterday.

It may only be one track, but that one track is the length of at least an EP: 22 minutes, 21 seconds. It’s a dense, harrowing, atmospheric piece, often violent and always unsettling. Yet for all its destructive power it exerts a strange hypnotic hold on the senses. Continue reading »

VARG VIKERNES WRITES ABOUT HIS ARREST, INTERROGATION, AND RELEASE IN FRANCE

 Metal News  14 Responses »
Jul 212013
 

I wrestled with myself about whether to continue writing about Varg Vikernes’ arrest in France on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack and its aftermath. About the only news we generally cover (and we don’t do anything like a comprehensive job of it) involves music, and this episode certainly doesn’t qualify. I also feel uncomfortable adding to the publicity about someone who I don’t want to publicize except to the extent he makes music as Burzum that’s worth hearing (and even then, I have some recurring qualms).

But I crossed a figurative bridge with the first post about Varg’s arrest and the second one about his release, and I’ve decided I might as well finish the story — or at least finish it as far as this site is concerned, especially because so many people read those first two posts.

As expected, Varg has now written — at length — about his arrest, interrogation, and release by French authorities. What may surprise some is that it is not a rant, nor does he seize on the events as an excuse to play the persecuted victim (at least not much) or to re-publish his anti-Semitic and racist ideologies. To the contrary, he is respectful and complimentary of the French police, particularly by contrast with his views about his treatment in Norway (which he refers to as “Soviet Norway”). Ironically, his treatment appears only to have solidified his love of France as an adopted home. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 78)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  3 Responses »
Jul 212013
 

Welcome to another edition of THAT’S METAL!, in which we collect photos, videos, and news reports about things that are metal, even though they don’t involve metal music. Today, we have a whopping nine items for you.

ITEM ONE

We’ll start with a pair of items from the natural world, and I’m not talking simply about the pair of eyes that are gazing hungrily at you from the photo at the top of this post. That alien-looking fucker is Phidippus pulcherrimus (Salticidae), one of the 5,000 species in a family called the Jumping Spider. And those aren’t all of the Jumping Spider’s eyes. There are two other pairs of eyes on the back of its head, making a total of 8 eyes.

Not surprisingly, The Font of All Human Knowledge reports that “Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among invertebrates and use it in courtship, hunting, and navigation”. Yeah, courtship. They can see a hot piece of spider ass both coming and going. But the main point of this item isn’t the Jumping Spider’s superior ability to check out potential sex partners. No, today we’re talking about predation.

Butterflies are among the prey of Phidippus pulcherrimus, but one species of butterfly has evolved in a way that gives it a unique ability to survive attacks by the Jumping Spider. Continue reading »

NECROSADIST, NECROSADIST, MONOMANIAC, AND WITCHRIST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 202013
 

Your humble editor’s ass is dragging this morning, because this is a Saturday morning and Saturday mornings always seem to bring ass impairment here on my metallic island. Saturday mornings, they follow Friday nights, and on Friday nights I seem drawn to the demon alcohol like a fly to shit. It’s all fun until the new day dawns. The sun rises above the clouds, and the sun in my head goes supernova and then collapses into a black hole from which no light or sentient thought can escape.

Ah, what to do on mornings such as this? Lying curled in the fetal position and moaning can only be indulged for so long. Crawling into a chair, slumped over a computer screen, looking for something new to hear — that seemed like a viable alternative to suicide, so that’s what I did. On some Saturday mornings I just want to be surrounded by the silence of the void, but today it seemed like a better idea to find something that would overwhelm the destruction in my head with superior destructive force. I succeeded.

You might think that given my current state of mental impairment I made a redundancy-related typo in the title of this post, but you would be wrong. I will explain.

NECROSADIST

One of the things I found this morning was a debut album released on 11-11-11 under the name Abstract Satan. I can tell you from immediate personal experience that there is nothing abstract about Satan, and that I must have done something terrible to offend Him last night, given the magnitude of the punishment I am currently suffering. But listening to Abstract Satan does not produce suffering, although it is indeed punishing. Abstract Satan makes me glad to be alive, despite all the self-inflicted pain. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SEPULTURA, GYRE, UNKIND, SAKTMÓÐIGUR, DUNKELNACHT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jul 192013
 

The last few days brought many new discoveries that I thought were worth sharing. However, I haven’t had the chance until now because I’ve been dealing with the fallout caused by some asshole who smashed in a window on my car on a downtown Seattle street and stole a bag that contained my laptop and other valuables. Fuck that guy, and fuck me for being dumb enough to leave the bag in the car. Enough with the whining, onward with the metal . . .

SEPULTURA

This morning brought further news about the next album by Brazilian heavyweights Sepultura. Its title was inspired by Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 film Metropolis: The Mediator Between the Head and Hands Must Be the Heart. It was recorded by Ross Robinson, who also produced the band’s equally classic Roots album, and in an effort to cement the connection to past glories guitarist Andreas Kisser had this to say:

“The album is brutal, fast and straight to the point, I feel this is the best SEPULTURA ever, no bullshit. To work with Ross Robinson again was a privilege, one of the best producers out there. He has a strong connection with nature, the human heart, with life in general. We did an album that is alive, no fake studio tricks, we were jamming together in the room exploding in an energy so strong you could grab it.”

Of course, we wouldn’t expect him to say, “the new album is going to be a mediocre rehash and one of the lamest things ever to be released under the Sepultura name”, even if it were true. Yet the fact that he’s stuck his neck out there with this kind of a statement provides some reason to be hopeful. The album is due in October. Continue reading »

THE RESISTANCE: “SCARS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jul 192013
 

(DGR reviews the debut album by The Resistance, out now on Armoury Records.)

Everyone around these here parts knows I enjoy a bit of the melo-death scene, so it shouldn’t come as a shock that we were eventually going to come around to talking about The Resistance. It’s been a pretty good year for that scene, with a couple of groups firing on all cylinders for the first time in a long time and just dishing out absolutely amazing discs. When word got out that Jesper Stromblad of In Flames was involved in a group called The Resistance way back in late 2011/early 2012, I immediately perked up. I felt that he was responsible for a lot of the speed that In Flames had, and when he left, there was a big gap in that band’s sound. It seemed that he took the speed-playing with him to bands like Dimension Zero and now The Resistance.

The Resistance are something of a melo-death supergroup, composed of former (or once former and now current) members of groups such as The Haunted, In Flames, Carnal Forge, and many others. They’re a group formed of long-time veterans, so it’s not surprising how quickly the “supergroup” tag became affixed to them during the media blitz that lead up to this album’s release. Scars, which hit in late May, is a very solid slab of melo-death, but it also includes some other interesting ingredients as well.

Scars kicks off with “Clearing The Slate”, a pretty loud statement about what The Resistance are up to. It’s a quick, roughly two-minute flame-blast of pretty straightforward death. It sounds as if it were designed to rid the listener of prior expectations based on the previous band memberships of this group’s roster. However, things change the moment the vocals kick in, as The Haunted’s Marco Aro roars throughout the whole song, and by extension, the whole CD. Continue reading »

I TECH, THEREFORE I AM (PART 2): THE RISE OF ADULT-ORIENTED TECH METAL

 Mosh Pit  7 Responses »
Jul 192013
 

(Here’s Part 2 of Andy Synn’s two-part article, the first part of which you can read here.)

In part one of this short series of musings on the place of “technicality” in today’s metal world I made some short mentions about how the specificity and restrictive nature of the “Tech Death” moniker is often seen as a wholly negative epithet. However, you could equally say that it also grants those bands an instantly recognisable identity. You know it’s going to be “Tech” and it’s going to be “Death”, and the sheer brevity of the name gives you a clue that it’s going to be an all-out, no-frills assault on the senses. And sometimes that’s exactly what you’re looking for.

By contrast, however, there’s been a big thing for a while now of bands proclaiming themselves (or being proclaimed as) just “Tech Metal”. And I’m not entirely certain what to make of it. Certainly, the bands seem to be saying that they don’t fit within, and shouldn’t be associated with, any one particular sub-type of Metal (Thrash, Death, Black, etc) and they’re often right to make this distinction – after all, few things are more irritating than bands miscategorising themselves in an attempt to graft on some credibility. But this very lack of a specific identity seems to BE the identity for many of these bands. It’s as if the entire sub-genre is composed of left-overs.

Obviously, though, high-speed intensity is not the only way to display technicality in your music, and one thing indeed that defines much of the “Tech Metal” movement is a tendency for less extreme speeds (and less extremity overall), while retaining a similar level of complexity, particularly when it comes to shifting time-signatures and clever, often wonderfully complex, rhythmic transitions. Continue reading »

CONQUERING DYSTOPIA WANT YOUR MONEY (AND WHEN YOU SEE THE LINE-UP YOU WILL GIVE IT TO THEM)

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Jul 192013
 

Yes, my friends, yet another crowdfunding campaign has been launched by yet another band (Conquering Dystopia) who need help financing a recording. To be precise, they would like to raise $15,000, with most of the money going to professional audio mixing and mastering and the rest to be used for travel expenses and creating merch. And in less than a day they’ve already raised $12,301 as I write this.

When you see who’s in this band and the perks they’re offering for donations, you’ll understand why the money is already rolling in at such a fast pace. Here’s the line-up:

Jeff Loomis (guitars)
Keith Merrow (Demisery) (guitars)
Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse) (bass)
Alex Rüdinger (The Faceless, Ordinance) (drums)

That’s an awful lot of metal goodness in one band. All the way back in January, Keith Merrow put up a Facebook status in which he said that he and Loomis had decided to collaborate on an album, but not many details have surfaced since then, until yesterday. Last month we featured a video jam by those two (plus Ola Englund), still not really knowing what was cooking. Now we know. Continue reading »

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