REVOCATION: “INVIDIOUS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 112013
 

Not long ago Metal Sucks premiered another new song from the next album by Boston’s Revocation, which is set for release on August 6 in NorthAm via Relapse. The new one is called “Invidious”. It is . . . how shall I say this? . . . a big-booted kick in the ass, plus banjo.

It romps, it stomps, it rocks, it rolls. It thrashes, it smashes, it swarms, it shreds (of course). It has a bass drop, it has a clean-ish chorus, it has gang shouts. It has hooks, it’s arena-ready. Plus banjo.

My only complaint? Needs more banjo.

Go HERE to listen for yourselves. If you haven’t heard the first song from the album that premiered previously, you can catch that after the jump.

P.S. This whole album is awesome. Continue reading »

ELEMENTAL NIGHTMARES: 26 BANDS, 13 SPLITS, ONE MASSIVE PIECE OF ART

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Jul 112013
 

I’m happy as hell to help spread the word about a project I’ve been keeping quiet about since early last fall, the details of which have now finally become public. Its name is Elemental Nightmares and it’s bringing to discriminating metal fans a series of 13 splits on 7″ vinyl (with accompanying digital downloads and with an option to buy only a digital download) featuring 26 up-and-coming bands from around the world — one of whom has yet to be selected.

Each band has contributed an exclusive track, with each split including a pair of them. Each month, subscribers to the series will receive two of the vinyl splits, with three of them shipping in the final month. The artwork for the splits will be parts of a single massive piece of art.

In past posts, we’ve praised many of the 25 bands who have contributed new songs exclusive to this series: Ashencult, Canopy, Dead River Runs Dry, Eternal Helcaraxe, Feared, Hyperial, Kall, Liber Necris, Mondvolland, Oak Pantheon, Obitus, Porta Nigra, Satyros, Septekh, and Wildernessking. The chance to hear new music by bands of this caliber is exciting, and given how good they are, I’m eager to discover music by the bands in the series whose music I don’t yet know. A complete list of the participants in the series appears later in this post.

Three other aspects of this project are important. First, this is an underground endeavor (organized by Dissension Records), which means that the money necessary to finance the project must come from pre-orders.  If the targeted amount is raised through the pre-orders, then the series should begin shipping in late 2013 or early 2014. The Elemental Nightmares web site provides a tracking bar that will let you see the progress of fundraising at any point in time (this project just went “live” yesterday, and as of this writing it’s already reached 13% of the target amount through word of mouth). If the target isn’t reached, then all money will be refunded. Continue reading »

AGRYPNIE: “AETAS CINERIS”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Jul 112013
 

(In this post Andy Synn review the fourth album by German post black metal band Agrypnie.)

Those of you who have been with the site for a while may recall when I first discovered German post-black metal masters Agrypnie. It was just over a year ago when they were announced for Summer Breeze, so it seems fitting that with the festival coming round again I finally get round to producing a review for their newest album, which I’ve been listening to almost religiously ever since it came out back in February.

For the unfamiliar amongst you (exactly why haven’t you read their entry in The Synn Report by the way?), the band, although loosely positioned within the ‘post-black metal’ genre, eschew the hazy fuzz of the Cascadian scene and the introverted ambience of the Gallic sound in favour of a heavier, more overtly metallic sound which possesses a more restless and tormented aura.

That’s not to say that the elements of the band’s sound are entirely divorced from their fellow brothers in bleakness – you’ll find that this album possesses an air of haunted desolation at times reminiscent of Agalloch’s Marrow Of The Spirit, as well as a grasp of subtle melody that echoes Alcest at their most sublime. Yet the Agrypnie sound is undeniably more driving and aggressive than that of their peers, melding the searing melancholy of black metal with a crushing post-metal heft and flashes of melodic death metal grandeur. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GRAVE, PELICAN, WRUST, AND SHEOL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 102013
 

The avalanche of new and noteworthy metallic items that’s been going on all week has continued today. I caught a few of today’s new items in an earlier post, but already there are more. So, another fully loaded round-up follows . . .

GRAVE

More details about the new EP (Morbid Ascent) from Sweden’s Grave surfaced today. First, the release date was announced: August 26. Second, we got the tasty cover art by Costin Chioreanu (above). Third, we learned that Autopsy’s Eric Cutler will be contributing guest vocals on one of the two new songs on the EP — “Venial Sin” (the other one being “Morbid Ascent”). The EP will also include a cover of Satyricon’s “Possessed” as well as a remixed version of “Epos” from Risen From the Tomb and a track from Grave’s 1989 Sexual Mutilation demo (“Reality of Life”). Sounds like a very cool collection.

The EP is going to be released as a 12″ vinyl (in multiple colors) as well as a digital download, and Century Media says both formats will be offered for “a fan-friendly price”. Continue reading »

GORGUTS DELIVER ANOTHER NEW SONG: “OCEAN OF WISDOM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 102013
 

Is it too soon to add the new Gorguts album, Colored Sands, to Best of 2013 year-end lists? I suppose it is, since we only have two songs from the new album to go on, but holy hell, are they good!

The newest one just premiered at Blabbermouth. It’s called “An Ocean Of Wisdom”. It’s heavy as hell, dark as night, and instrumentally acrobatic (as you would expect). It manages to be a dense, dynamic, complex, brutal, and atmospheric song all at the same time, while also providing the kind of top-shelf instrumental performances we knew the talent in this band would deliver.

Colored Sands will be released on August 30 in Europe and September 3 in North America via Season Of Mist. Here’s “An Ocean of Wisdom” (and big thanks to Vonlughlio for tipping me about this): Continue reading »

NEW SOUNDS: CARCASS, MERCENARY, MISERY SIGNALS, BEYOND, ENTRAILS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 102013
 

I mentioned in today’s first post that I was cut off from the interhole most of yesterday and missed lots of stuff that should have been the subject of yesterday’s posts. So I’m catching up. I’ve found so many interesting developments from both yesterday and this morning that I’m going to hold my verbiage to a rare minimum and let the music speak for itself.

CARCASS

The band’s first single (“Captive Bolt Pistol”) from their new album (Surgical Steel) proved controversial. (The song appeared on a CD exclusively sold with the 85th issue of the German “Legacy” Magazine in order to promote the Party.San Metal Open Air festival, and someone uploaded it to YouTube from there). The haters (I’m not one) seemed primarily to be those fans who think Carcass jumped the shark after Necroticism, and therefore they’re disappointed in the Heartwork-style stylings of the new song.

Yesterday brought us another taste, an official video teaser that appears to be a playthrough of an instrumental part of another song. Haters will still hate. I am still not one of them; I still like what I hear. You can listen to the teaser after the jump. But today also brought us the very cool album cover for Surgical Steel, which you can see above. It was created by British photographer Ian Tilton, who also did the cover for Necroticism. Now, here’s the teaser: Continue reading »

COOKING: KRALLICE, VJESHITZA, MASTODON, NIGHTINGALE, AND CARNIFEX

 Metal News  10 Responses »
Jul 102013
 

I had the misfortune of being able to spend only an hour total on the internet yesterday between about 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. That made it really difficult to keep up with happenings in the world of metal, especially when so many things happened yesterday (as I later discovered). I mean, hell, even though I did manage to dash off a post about the new Fleshgod Apocalypse song, I couldn’t even listen to it until late last night. I blame my fucking day job.

There’s no realistic way I’m going to catch up, but I’ll at least make a stab at spreading some news I found interesting about some very good bands in the process of cooking up some brand new releases.

KRALLICE AND VJESHITZA

This news item is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, U.S. black metal band Krallice are spending a week in the studio this month recording three songs for a forthcoming split release. According to one of the band’s guitarists, the awesomely talented Colin Marston (also in Gorguts and Dysrhythmia), “all three songs we are recording are shorter than usual for us and perhaps display more diversity. One of the Mick [Barr]-initiated songs is potentially our busiest, ‘progiest’ song yet, whereas his other song is our most restrained and simple piece. My song for this recording is part three of a loose series begun on Diotima—”Litany of Regrets” being part one and “Telluric Rings” being part two. It’s on the dronier, more meditative side, but features very active bass parts. We should end up with a pretty compelling small collection of songs, and then … who knows!?”

Intriguing, no? But the second part of what Colin Marston had to say is equally interesting:

Continue reading »

THE BEST OF 2013 SO FAR: A READER’S POLL

 Listmania  178 Responses »
Jul 092013
 

We’re just past the halfway point of 2013, and it seems like a good time to take stock of what the year has delivered so far. As I’ve said before, I’m terrible at making “best of” lists. I overthink it, I agonize over it, I have great difficulty comparing metal across different genres. I have great difficulty choosing among albums I like even within a specific genre. When I contemplate making a “best of the year” list, my brain tends to just lock up like an engine that’s had a hole punched in the oil pan. So I’m not providing a list of my own — and I haven’t told my fellow writers that I’m doing this post, so I don’t have anything from them to share either.

No, the main point of this post is to solicit your choices. That’s more fun anyway. I mean, it’s clear that NCS readers have superb taste, because you’re reading NCS; I rest my case. It’s also clear from the comments we get that the readers at this site have diverse interests in metal and, with a few exceptions (those being the people who disagree with me), are highly intelligent. So I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with. That’s one of the best reasons to read lists of the year’s best metal — to make new discoveries — in addition to seeing confirmation of the wisdom of your own opinions.

So, in the comments to this post, please leave your lists of the best 2013 metal albums and EPs you’ve heard so far this year. Explanations or descriptions are welcome, but don’t feel you have to make time for that; a simple list is fine, too. A couple more things before you start pecking away on your keyboards or touchpads: Continue reading »

NARCOTIC DEATH: “DIES IRAE”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jul 092013
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Narcotic Death from Wakefield, England.)

Are you looking for your daily dose of brutality, the sort that hits hard, cuts deep, and leaves a lasting impression? Then allow me to introduce you to Narcotic Death.

Back in April the band released their second album, Dies Irae, a gloriously nasty little death/black hybrid of Suffocation-style brutality, Dismember-ish aggression, and pulsating, Mayhem-esque evil.

The bludgeoning guitars have a thick and ugly tone, rough and rancorous and yet brutally clear, all buzz-saw teeth and sick, diseased chords. The drums cut through the filth and fury with almost reckless abandon, producing a bone-rattling racket that’s both pleasingly organic to listen to, and perversely intoxicating to experience.

The grimy, cancerous vocals add the icing to this poisonous cake, delivering their misanthropic magic in a repellent snarl that at times descends into a cavernous growl, before rising to a savage, sulphurous shriek. Continue reading »

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