CHIMAIRA: “CROWN OF PHANTOMS”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Aug 072013
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Chimaira.)

This album was really difficult for me to accept.

Chimaira have had their hooks in me since The Impossibility of Reason, back when that stupid “New Wave of American Metal” label was popular (or as I like to call it, the term for all the genuinely good metalcore that was more metal than core), and have had a sound that to me has been unequaled, uncompromising, and never imitated accurately.  Chimaira were a band with a mission, a real sense of what they wanted to do.  When they released Resurrection (one of those all-time favorite albums of mine), in an odd move unlike other bands Chimaira didn’t claim they were pushing the envelope, going to the next level, or any of that typical PR bullshit.  They openly stated Resurrection was their peak, and there was no use in trying to top it.  They just wanted to have fun.

We got The Infection, a far cry away from their thrashier inclinations but an excellent album that saw them experimenting.  However, when it came to The Age of Hell I think it was pretty obvious that the band as we’d known it were losing steam.  Original bassist Jim Lamarca and keyboardist/backup vocalist Chris Spicuzza left before the album was released due to simply getting tired of doing the band thing in the digital age of music, and this seemed ultimately to be what led to the departure of most of the rest of the band’s members, sans vocalist Mark Hunter.

You’d have to have been into these guys from the beginning to understand that this was a band that had a definitive lineup, a cohesion and persona all their own.  Dudes who’d played together since they were teenagers.  For all intents and purposes, this seemed to be the end for Chimaira, period. Continue reading »

TYRANT OF DEATH: “NUCLEAR NANOSECOND”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 072013
 

(DGR reviews the 2013 album by Tyrant of Death.)

Tyrant of Death is easily one of the most prolific guitar projects out there. At one point it seemed like every Wednesday we were posting something from it, and at one point the ToD project managed to crank out three albums in one year. The artist behind the project, multi-instrumentalist Alex Rise, has toned it down since then, but we still have managed to see at least one Tyrant Of Death project a year. Because of this, I have spent an inordinate amount of time with this project as well, having come across it around the time he released the Blood Lust disc.

It’s been an experience, as each release has improved upon the last, and it’s seemed like we all learned as he did. Compositions got more complex, guitars got more violent, and the drumming remained as insane as ever without moving into the realm of seeming inhuman.  I have found that across the Tyrant of Death catalog there are some very distinct moods, and they tend to create a pretty solid venn diagram of where future releases may land.

There’s the sort of loud, crushing, machine-like death metal insanity of discs like Dark Space and Macrocosmic Lunacy, albums that can at times sound like instrumental or heavily industrialized Anaal Nathrakh, and then there’s the moody, almost dirge-speed and heavily electronics-filled discs like General Bliss and Connect. A few discs have sat in between those, but overall this project tends to shift between one of those two, so you likely will know within the first song or two what sort of experience you’re going to be in for. Both approaches have worked incredibly well, alongside a very loud wall-of-sound production style that tends to scratch the itch for the part of me that worships at the altar of Strapping Young Lad’s Alien. Continue reading »

SIDIOUS: “ASCENSION TO THE THRONE OV SELF”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  5 Responses »
Aug 072013
 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the new EP by London’s Sidious.)

Brutal intensity. Savage technicality. Pure, refined evil.

That should really be all you need to read. Go buy these UK blackened death metallers’ debut EP right now. You won’t regret it.

For those of you who want a little more information (I’ll call you “Cautious Cathys”) let me describe the Sidious sound to you.

Though the music is built around a visceral core of pure black metal poison, there’s also more than a hint of death metal in its punishing, mechanised rhythms, while the whole unholy package is wrapped in an aura of imperial symphonic melody. Ultimately, Ascension to the Throne ov Self is as majestic as it is misanthropic, as menacing as it is morbid, combining the best elements of both black and death metal with a sense of infernal ambition. Continue reading »

STRANGE DAYS

 Metal News  18 Responses »
Aug 072013
 

Metal has a weird streak a mile wide. If you’re honest with yourself, that’ s a big reason you like it so much. But yesterday I saw a new level of oddity. It was a premiere of a new song by Dream Theater. That’s a band I’ve never gotten into, so the news about the premiere of a new Dream Theater song wouldn’t have made me pause — except for where it premiered. If you didn’t already see the news, I could give you 100 guesses, and I’d bet a stack of money the height of your colon, if unraveled and nailed to a telephone pole, that you couldn’t pick the right answer.

Don’t waste your time. I’m telling you, you’d lose, even if you guessed the Kazakhstan Death Metal Observer and Livestock Market Journal. “The Enemy Inside” premiered at USA Today.

That’s right, that full-color organ of shallow American journalism made for people who don’t like to read much, found in printed form in motel rooms and airplane seat-backs across the length and breadth of Our Great Land. This is the same underground publication whose last story about metal was a report about a Black Sabbath concert in Bristow, Virginia, that began with this lively prose:

“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees (Class of 2006) took the stage here to flashing red lights and the sound of sirens, thundering drums and a devilish laugh — “Ha, ha, ha!” — emitted unmistakably by frontman Ozzy Osbourne.”

Ha, ha, ha! Yes, the kind of sound that only Ozzy Osborne could make unmistakably, that’s the sound I made when I thought about what this means. Continue reading »

WITHERSCAPE: “THE INHERITANCE”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  12 Responses »
Aug 062013
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album by Witherscape, the highly anticipated joint effort of Dan Swanö and Ragnar Widerberg, which hits the streets today via Century Media.)

Without a doubt, the Swedish have an innate ear for metal of the melodic sort.  The Gothenburg scene, the forming of formidable death metal titans such as Bloodbath, Hypocrisy, and Grave, who retained a distinctly more melodic bent than many of their contemporaries, the proggy labyrinth-crafters like Opeth and In Mourning — all are testament upon testament to what can truly be called Swedish excellence.  When you tell people in a metal context that the music is Swedish, people tend to know exactly what you mean.  It’s melodic, yet retains a darkness and ferocity in a combination that’s distinctive.

If there were ever a single figure who sits on the throne of the Swedish pantheon, as the prime example of what I’m trying to describe, Dan Swanö is the man.  His musical endeavors, whether it be the groundbreaking Edge Of Sanity, his work in Bloodbath and Nightingale, his Moontower solo album, his influence has been staggeringly overpowering.  He has consistently produced music that is stellar, always at the top of its respective field.

Swanö has been on a hiatus for a while now, the last anyone heard from him being his collection of cover songs as Odyssey.  Now he has returned with a new album, with a new project named Witherscape, the album called The Inheritance.  It’s a concept album and one that will divide the Swanö fan base, to be sure, because this is a risky, unorthodox album for a figure best-known for his brutal yet melodic offerings. Continue reading »

BURNING GHATS: “SOMETHING OTHER THAN YOURSELF” (A REVIEW AND A SONG PREMIERE)

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 062013
 

The one thing Vancouver’s Burning Ghats have always had going for them is the capacity to trigger an explosion of abrasive mayhem. They sound like they’ve got high-octane gasoline for blood that someone ignites with an acetylene torch right before they kick into gear. But as time has passed, they’ve become ever more interesting, and their debut album, Something Other Than Yourself, is their best music yet.

It takes a special kind of talent to rip through 10 songs in 20 minutes, with more than half of them coming in at slightly more than a minute or less, and have each of the songs sound like they mean something. They’re like members of a big violent family — you can see the DNA all the cousins share, but they’re each distinctive. Not that you’d want to have a sit-down dinner with this family, at least not without putting away the breakables and all the sharp things.

What they share: discord and dissonance, feedback galore, hardcore fury, crust-punk chords, kidney-punching bass, drums that clatter and hit the d-beat, and vocals bled raw, like a throat being cinched with barbed wire. (Oh man, are the vocals good.) Continue reading »

WATAIN: “THE WILD HUNT”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Aug 062013
 

(BadWolf reviews the fifth album by Sweden’s Watain, and their first on the Century Media label. It’s due for release on August 19 in Europe and August 20 in the US.)

With a series of critically-acclaimed albums under their belts, a dead-serious take on satanism, and a notoriously bloody live show, the members of Watain are the current poster children for European black metal. Deathspell Omega may be more artistic, and Alcest may make more palatable music, but neither of those bands land on the cover of Decibel magazine. Under this level of public scrutiny, many metal bands, and black metal bands in particular, stop producing excellent work. At this point, Watain is in the company of Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, who, like Watain, rode into success on the backs of powerful imagery, strong melodies, and a few good records, though they ultimately fell into the rut of overproduced kitsch.

Judging by Watain’s fifth album, The Wild Hunt, however, these three Swedes won’t make the same mistakes. The Wild Hunt is a confident step outside of Watain’s comfort zone—one that dials down black metal cliches while taking more risks than they have before, and producing several excellent songs in the process. Continue reading »

STUFF I HAD TO FIND ON MY OWN ‘CAUSE ISLANDER & HIS CRONIES MISSED IT – 2ND EDITION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Aug 062013
 

(I guess it’s obvious that neither I nor my NCS cronies wrote this.  Just like the first installment back in January, NCS guest contributor KevinP did this.)

IGORRR – Hallelujah

I was gonna save the best for last, but I was too excited and figured we’d start off with a huge mindfuck.  This is also my new favorite thing of all time (for this week anyways).  I’m even willing to give partial credit to our CEO for posting the Apathia Records Comp recently, which featured ÖXXÖ XÖÖX.  IGORR is the main solo project of Gautier Serre (of ÖXXÖ XÖÖX fame).  While listening to the prior band, I stumbled across this gem.

I’m not going to spoil it for ya, just listen and keep listening, it has a little bit of everything (even chicken clucks).  The French have officially cornered the market on weird shit.  “Vegetable Soup” makes me feel like I’m walking around EPCOT (yeah Walt Disney World), then a techno opera, a farm, a techno farm dance club, whatever.  (It also has plenty of metal parts, don’t be scared.)

http://adnoiseam.bandcamp.com/album/hallelujah
http://adnoiseam.bandcamp.com/album/nostril
https://www.facebook.com/IgorrrBarrroque Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BLOOD AND THUNDER, TWILIGHT’S EMBRACE, ARCHSPIRE, BEYOND CREATION

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Aug 052013
 

Here’s my almost daily collection of news and new music that I’d like to recommend for your edification and enjoyment.

BLOOD AND THUNDER

The first item involves Blood and Thunder, a Seattle-area band who I’ve written about repeatedly, going all the way back to the first time I saw them perform live back in April 2010. They’re about to embark on their first Northwest regional tour. The sharp-eyed among you will see our name on the tour flyer at the top of this post, and yes indeed, we’re proud to help sponsor this adventure.

That’s not something we do very often, but I wanted to help spread the word in this instance not only because I like B&T’s music a lot, but also because I’ve gotten to know some of the guys in the band, and I’ve seen firsthand how hard (and how persistently) they’ve worked to get to this point. It has been a totally DIY effort, and it hasn’t been easy. But they now have quite a long and impressive list of national and international bands for whom they’ve opened in Seattle, in addition to their own headlining appearances, and it’s time for them to take their show on the road.  Continue reading »

“YOUR CARCASS IS LEAKING”: A REJOINDER

 Mosh Pit  30 Responses »
Aug 052013
 

Three days ago a writer named Jordan Campbell wrote a piece on the Last Rites web site under the title “Your Carcass Is Leaking – The Surgical Steel Saga”. As the title suggests, what prompted the article was the recent leak of the highly anticipated “comeback” album by Carcass on the Nuclear Blast label — an album that isn’t due for release until mid-September. I saw references to the article, most of them complimentary, by several metal bloggers I keep up with on Facebook. It’s a lively, punchy diatribe, and I was sympathetic to parts of it, but the more I thought about it the more I disagreed with it. So I thought I’d provide a contrary point of view.

To explain why I don’t buy most of the arguments, I need to summarize them. Summarizing arguments with which you don’t agree runs the risk of failing to do them justice, so I’d encourage you to read it for yourself HERE. In a nutshell, Campbell makes these assertions:

Nuclear Blast is still living in the dark ages, ignoring the power of online media and limiting their distribution of advance album promos to print magazines such as DECIBEL. (“Essentially, they’re still mired in the old-world record label M.O., refusing to alter their business model until the roof collapses. . . . Thus, print mags get the advances, and their readers the spoils. Digital ‘zines get the album at the release date, if they’re lucky.”)

Nuclear Blast does this as a form of collusion with DECIBEL and its ilk, in which the print zines get content that will boost their advertising and in return they help promote Nuclear Blast releases. (“One filthy hand washes the other, and their iron fists lord high above the lowly ‘net serfs. We clamor for the scraps.”)

To make this business arrangement work, Nuclear Blast must prevent leaks, which is another reason why they don’t give promos to webzines. (“Along this winding road, the entire package is carefully kept out of undeserving hands, preventing the dreaded leak.”) Continue reading »

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