AUTOPSY ARE READY TO DELIVER TOURNIQUETS, HACKSAWS AND GRAVES

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Feb 212014
 

To be clear, Tourniquets, Hacksaws And Graves is the name of the seventh studio excrescence by the mighty Autopsy. The deliciously disgusting album art (by Wes Benscoter) was unveiled today, showing the creative use of intestines as a tourniquet before the amputation begins.

Also revealed today: the release date — April 21 (via Peaceville).

“Once again bone crushingly heavy nightmares await…. Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves will awaken the most depraved part of the coldest zombie’s stare…..blood will flow, brains will be destroyed, coffin lids will be opened….”  That’s what the band say. I believe every word of it, too. Extremely eager for this.

And that.  Is all.  (except for this new band photo: Continue reading »

THOU: “HEATHEN”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 212014
 

Thou’s new album, Heathen, has range, but it’s something like the range between the horror of death and an almost peaceful acceptance of its inevitability, between the looming cataclysm and a halting spiritual perception of something that will outlast it — or at least the lesson learned that the finite minutes we have now are worth seizing for all they are worth, and that it is pain which grounds us in what is important.

Heathen is this Louisiana band’s fourth full album and the first since 2010’s Summit. They haven’t been idle during the years in between, producing an assortment of EPs and splits along the way. But Heathen is a monolithic effort — an hour and fifteen minutes of music. It’s a lot to take in, and not simply because of the time required. It taxes your well-being. It drags you down. It’s so crushingly dark, so heavy, and so wholly engulfing in its doomed atmospherics that it ought to come with a warning to the emotionally fragile.

And yet just when you think you’re going to sink beneath the waves, Thou throw you a life preserver, a little something to lighten the load, if only briefly. The immaculate weaving together of those two strands — the sense of drowning and the grasp of a lifeline to the surface — that’s what makes Heathen such a compelling experience. Continue reading »

RECALCITRANT ROUNDUP: A NEW YEAR DAWNS

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Feb 202014
 

(Our friend Austin Weber returns with another collection of short reviews, with album and song streams.)

While 2014 doesn’t appear to have as many big league releases coming thus far, new and upcoming bands of all stripes will no doubt fill the void in quality. What follows are a smattering of different songs to hear and love or hate. Hate is more fun, but who knows maybe you will find something you enjoy?

HANNES GROSSMANN — THE RADIAL COVENANT

Over the last few years, I’ve witnessed numerous metal writers describe a band as sounding like Obscura. Whether or not that’s true, the point remains that it’s hard to get more Obscura-sounding than Hannes Grossmann, because duh, he is in Obscura. The Radial Covenant is his first solo record, written entirely by him, and accompanied by a jaw-dropping assortment of metal gods and legends. The album was crowdfunded into existence and just recently released. I should not need to explain how beyond-badass the ripping technical and melodic death metal core of The Radial Covenant is, though the experimental and progressive sides to the record are just as phenomenal. This is a higher quality death metal release than most of what’s coming out right now. So go buy it now, don’t be a late adopter. Continue reading »

THURSDAY THROTTLING: PILGRIM, MASTIC SCUM, THE GREAT OLD ONES, KUOLEMANLAAKSO, SHROUD OF THE HERETIC

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Feb 202014
 

As you can see, I’ve decided to forge ahead with alliterative titles for the daily music round-ups this week. Lucky for you, there are only two more days in the week after today. Also lucky for you, I have found five pleasurable new songs over the last 24 hours that will put you in a chokehold, kind of like erotic asphyxiation.

PILGRIM

This Rhode Island duo’s 2012 debut album Misery Wizards turned a lot of heads, and now Metal Blade is primed to release their second album — II: Void Worship — on April 1 (a few days earlier in Europe). I was attracted to this news by the colorfully killer album art by Adam Burke, and that in turn led me to explore the album’s first advance track, “The Paladin”.

Whereas Misery Wizards was largely a crawling, bludgeoning behemoth of classic doom, “The Paladin” rocks very fuckin’ hard, driven by utterly filthy and utterly irresistible riffs. It’s a smoking, chugging steamroller of a song, with The Wizard’s wailing vocals riding over the top like a ring-wraith. The doom isn’t gone, but it’s been super-charged. This one is already on my list of candidates for 2014’s most infectious songs. Continue reading »

A NEW BLOODBATH ALBUM! (AND A MYSTERIOUS NEW VOCALIST)

 Metal News  36 Responses »
Feb 202014
 

Are you sitting down?  You should sit down before reading further.  Sweden’s revered Bloodbath added a note on their Facebook page earlier this morning. I’ll share it at the end of this post. In a nutshell, it indicates that Bloodbath have written 10 new songs and will begin the recording process next month. And that should mean we will have a new Bloodbath album in 2014, the first one since 2008’s The Fathomless Mastery.

Based on the note, it’s apparent that there will also be a new vocalist on this album — one who is neither Mikael Åkerfeldt nor Peter Tägtgren. The Facebook note provides clues to the new vocalist’s year of birth by listing a string of deadly disasters, ending with the statement, “The new singer for Bloodbath is born. Oh dear”.

To save you a bit of time, all of the listed disasters occurred in 1971. To save you a further bit of time, I’ve listed after the jump the names of some vocalists born in 1971, identified through my own half-assed research. I will say that the most likely candidate from the names I’ve found is Jörgen Sandström — who is currently the vocalist for my beloved Torture Division and also the vocalist/bassist for The Project Hate MCMXCIX (he also provided vocals, bass, and guitar for Grave on their first three albums and also played bass with Entombed from 1997-2004). Continue reading »

A TRIO OF REVIEWS: URZEIT, PROPAST, SORA

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 202014
 

(We welcome back guest contributor and fellow blogger BreadGod with a trio of reviews.)

Urzeit – Urzeit

Urzeit is a brand new black metal band from Portland, Oregon that released their first demo just a month ago. Urzeit is German for “prehistoric times”. Quite an appropriate name, as this band plays music that is vicious and primitive.

The production is wonderfully raw. The distortion is cold and abrasive. It’s a perfect homage to the D.I.Y. analog production that was a mainstay of early 90s black metal. The music is also a perfect homage to early 90s black metal. The drums are an avalanche of rage and destruction. They constantly switch between savage blast beats and mid-paced rhythms that sound almost punk-like in nature. I especially love the cymbals. They help to add an extra amount of dissonance to what is already a chaotic experience.

The vocals are pain incarnate. They consist of a sick rasp that is cloaked in ghostly reverb. Let me tell you that this guy’s performance is absolutely bone-chilling. It sounds like the sickening calls of a thousand spirits from the distant past. The guitars are excellent as well. The riffs are cold, simple, and ravenous. Like the drums, they sometimes sound punk-like in nature. They also play plenty of riffs that sound like they were pulled straight from early 90s Norway. If you ask me, more black metal bands need to play great riffs like this. Continue reading »

WEDNESDAY WARSTRIKES: ANCIENT ASCENDANT, ANIMALS AS LEADERS, ARCHSPIRE, BLOODWAY, COLTSBLOOD

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 192014
 

I’m still in alliteration mode, though I’m not completely happy with today’s title. Given the bands’ names, I probably should have gone with “The ABCs of Metal”. In alphabetical order, here are six new songs from five forthcoming albums that I discovered over the last 24 hours, all of which come highly recommended.

ANCIENT ASCENDANT

We’ve been closely following the progression of UK-based Ancient Ascendant, with very positive reviews (by Andy Synn) of both their 2011 debut album The Grim Awakening and their 2012 EP Into the Dark. Last month we reported the very nice news that the band had signed with Candlelight Records for the release of a new album (with Dan Swanö again handling the production). Now we’ve got the album title — Echoes and Cinder — and the album art (above), plus a new song that premiered yesterday.

The song’s name is “Riders”, and you can hear it next. It will give you a hell of a blistering, black-thrashing ride, something like being snagged by a giant red-eyed bat horde flying from their cave for a night on the hunt. Damned infectious, too — you’ll want to limber up your neck muscles before listening because heads will bang. Continue reading »

ABORTED HAVE WRITTEN “THE NECROTIC MANIFESTO” (AND RECORDED IT TOO)

 Metal News  12 Responses »
Feb 192014
 

We don’t post many news items in a given week, especially when they don’t come with new music to hear. But this is such good news that we’re making an exception: Aborted will be delivering a new album named The Necrotic Manifesto, with a release date (via Century Media) of April 28 in Europe and a day later for the bastard step-children in North America.

Shockingly, front-man Sven de Caluwé is quoted as saying (“in all honesty”) that the album “is without a doubt the strongest record ABORTED has done thus far and I could not be more proud of everyone involved in the project”. Just once I would enjoy hearing a band leader saying that his newest record is “our weakest effort yet and I’m fucking embarrassed for everyone involved in the project”.

But hey, even if this is only a middling Aborted effort, it’s going to be good. And if it really is “the most brutal, extreme and technical record of the band without losing sight of groove and catchiness” (to quote Mr. de Caluwé again), then holy shit, are we in for a treat. The album art alone is a grisly treat, thanks to the talents of Par Olofsson.

I can’t remember if I mentioned that Aborted will be touring North America beginning in March, sharing the stage on most dates with Kataklysm. Here’s the schedule: Continue reading »

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

 Band Name Fodder  43 Responses »
Feb 192014
 

I was at Seattle’s El Corazon venue last night. I was there for the show headlined by Dark Tranquillty, but as devoted as I am to that band, I was even more excited to see Omnium Gatherum and Exmortus, who I had never seen before. They were both flat-out amazing — as was DT.

But this isn’t a show review. While I was waiting for my companions to arrive, I had a beer in the bar and watched a video screen that scrolled through the schedule of bands on the calendar at El Corazon over the coming months. I had reactions to the bands I didn’t know, based mainly on their names (though the accompanying photos played a role in my reactions, too — so I guess this post could also be considered a commentary on the importance of promo shots).

I don’t think I’m so different from most metal lovers — superficial things like band names make a difference. They trigger reactions. My reactions may not be the same as yours, because I instinctively would want to see a band named Goatfuckers, and you might not. But can we agree that band names do make a difference in how interested we are in checking out music we’ve never heard before? Continue reading »

ABDUCTED BY SHARKS: “SIEGE ENGINE”

 Album Reviews  13 Responses »
Feb 192014
 

(Guest writer Alain Mower returns to NCS with this review of the new album from Abducted By Sharks.)

Siege Engine, the third full-length release by Seattle-based Abducted By Sharks in as many years, is about as difficult to define as it is to find the droids you are looking for. With cited influences ranging wide and far, from Front Line Assembly to Porcupine Tree to Horse the Band to Mindless Self Indulgence, it’s easy to see how this eclectic culmination of Dance-infused Industrial synthesizer soundscapes tinged with Heavy Metal might be a little out there.

A high-tempo and energizing listen from cover to cover, this unsigned, DIY outfit manages to avoid many of the common mistakes this style of music is known for, with one of their best traits being that they let melodies and songs breathe and don’t over-layer or cluster the sound to the point of detracting from the structure the track is built upon. Continue reading »

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