GORGUTS: “COLORED SANDS”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Aug 052013
 

Luc Lemay clearly has a split personality. One of them is a modernist composer, capable of creating intricate, avant-garde pieces fit for performance by a chamber orchestra, but transposed to the standard gear of a metal band. The other is a ravenous beast the size of a house. Gorguts’ new album, Colored Sands, is the result of a beautiful partnership between those two unexpectedly amicable facets of Lemay’s personality.

But although Lemay may be the visionary-in-chief of this ground-breaking band, it must quickly be said that Colored Sands owes much to the other people he enlisted for the first Gorguts recording in more than a decade. Guitarist Kevin Hufnagel and bassist Colin Marston added their own string arrangements to Lemay’s compositions, in addition to each writing a song of his own for the album, and drummer John Longstreath stands out every bit as much, throughout the album, as the trio of other unusually skilled performers.

Given the impressive collection of talent behind the new release and the reverence with which Gorguts’ previous albums are discussed among serious aficionados of technical death metal, expectations for Colored Sands have been high. Under those circumstances, the current foursome would be forgiven if they had fallen short, but they didn’t. Continue reading »

CONDUCTING FROM THE GRAVE: “INTO THE RABBIT HOLE” PLAYTHROUGH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 042013
 

(DGR wrote this feature about a new video from Sacramento’s Conducting From The Grave.)

You may remember that the last time we checked in with the Conducting From The Grave guys, they were neck deep in their kickstarter campaign and had just released a song entitled “Into The Rabbit Hole”. Well, the band succeeded, garnering close to 19k out of the original goal of 15,000 and have since announced that the disc will likely see a late-September/early-October release as they figure out how to get the merchandising side of things taken care of.

A few days ago the band also uploaded a playthrough video of the aforementioned “Into The Rabbit Hole” song that rotates between guitarists Jeff and John and bassist Jordan. I think playthrough videos are interesting as hell because you can really learn how to play a song yourself by studying them, or in my case just rest your head in your hands as you’re reminded you’re not even half the musician that these guys who are just shredding away are. I don’t even play guitar and watching these guys fly along to the song is fascinating.

I have heard bits and pieces of the full self-titled release and it’s a pretty good one to look forward to. It has a metric fuckton more guitar playing than Revenants, so if you missed that element from that disc, it’s back, and hybridized with a much more death-metal focused sound. Until we get more to show off from that disc though, you’ll just have to be satisfied with another take on this song. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” — BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 79)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  12 Responses »
Aug 042013
 

Welcome to another fantabulous edition of THAT’S METAL!, in which we collect images, videos, and news items about things we think are metal, even though they’re not music (or at least not metal music). We have eight wide-ranging items for you today.

ITEM ONE

We start with the image you see above. The story behind it, and more complete photos of what you’re seeing, are stunning. There’s no other word for it.

On Tuesday, September 19th, 1989, UTA Flight 772 was scheduled to fly from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo to Paris CDG airport in France. En route, the aircraft exploded over Niger in the Tenere region of the Sahara Desert, which is one of the most inaccessible places on the planet. French investigators determined that a suitcase bomb planted by Libyan terrorists caused the disaster. All 170 people on board died.

Eighteen years later, in May and June 2007, families of the victims gathered at the crash site to build a memorial, funded in part by the $170 million compensation package eventually provided by the Libyan government. It took two months to build, using hand-placed stones trucked to the site from over 70 km away.

170 broken mirrors, each one representing a victim, were placed around the circumference of the memorial. One one side of the memorial, which you can see above, the starboard wing of the downed aircraft was erected in the sand. It was trucked to the site from 10 miles away after workers dug up the wing and emptied it of sand. A plaque bearing the names of the victims was attached to the wing before it was put in place. Continue reading »

MECHINA: “CEPHEUS”

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 042013
 

(DGR shares some thoughts about the new single from Chicago’s Mechina.)

Let me just take a quick breath and describe this song for you, as my reaction upon listening to it for the first time.

Holy shit.

It’s not often that you’re justified in describing a song this way, but my first run through the new Mechina song after having Empyrean in my hands for the better part of eight months was a great feeling. There’s something to Mechina’s hybrid of symphonic elements with industrial death that provides constant moments of absolute excitement. When I first heard the band with Andromeda I felt the need to post about that song almost immediately, and since then I’ve found one or two songs that I can’t help but be incredibly excited by on each release.

I thought they had almost peaked with “Anathema” and “Elephtheria” off of this year’s Empyrean, but then the violence of “Cepheus” hit, and my excitement for anything new by these guys reached a fever peach once again. Continue reading »

GRAVE MIASMA, ALTARS, FACEBREAKER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 032013
 

To start the weekend, I’ve collected new death metal in this post that I strongly recommend, from three very good bands.

GRAVE MIASMA

This UK band made quite an impact with the two EPs they’ve released to date — 2009’s Exalted Emanation and 2010’s Realm of Evoked Doom — and now they’ve completed a debut album entitled Odori Sepulcrorum that’s due for release on September 13 (September 17 in NorthAm) by Profound Lore and the German label Sepulchral Voice. It was reportedly recorded on analog format using vintage equipment, and it features wonderful cover art (above), painted with acrylics on glass by Denis Forkas.

So far I’ve only heard one of the new tracks, “Ovation To A Thousand Lost Reveries”. It made me think of the song we streamed earlier this week from Ulcerate’s new album. It’s a roaring storm of ancient blackened death metal, the riffs moaning and grinding and oozing with putrescence. The drum tone is titanic, and the barbaric vocals echo like roars of the awakened dead across the vault of dank crypts.

Like Ulcerate, Grave Miasma prove that there is still fertile ground for creative growth in the graveyard of wholly dominating death metal. The song is wonderfully inventive while remaining rotten to the core. Stupendous stuff. Continue reading »

RÄJÄ ‘N’ ROLL WITH RÄJÄYTTÄJÄT

 Exceptions to the Rule, Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 022013
 

This has been the kind of day when I’ve wanted to go postal on our web host (Bluehost). Our site — and every other site hosted by Bluehost, HostGator, HostMonster, and JustHost — has been down for nearly the entire day. A few times it has come back up for a few minutes, and then disappears again. It’s up again now, but who knows when it will go down again? Fuckers.

Anyway, I’m posting this now mainly to let people know that we’re still here. But I’m also including some music that cheered me up and diverted my murderous mood, to the point when I’m not even thinking about those Bluehost clowns. It’s not metal, but it’s from Finland, so that kind of makes it metal anyway. Fucking Bluehost.

The band has got more umlauts in their name than Bluehost has IQ points: Räjäyttäjät. Apparently, it means “Detonators” in English. Apparently, in Finland they call the band’s music “Räjä ‘n’ roll”. They’re releasing their debut album on August 30 via Ektro Records. You gotta admire this album title, which I like much better than motherfucking Bluehost:

AWOPBOPALOOPOP ALOPBAM RÄJÄ!

The song I heard is an advance track called “Ei Hauskaa”, which apparently means “No Fun”. But I’ll tell you, I had a shitload of fun listening to it, even while hoping that the earth swallows up Bluehost and shits it out. Continue reading »

EMPEROR RE-UNITES FOR WACKEN 2014

 Metal News  12 Responses »
Aug 022013
 

Well, holy shit, this is some news.  This morning an Ihsahn meet-and-great at Wacken Open Air turned into an Emperor meet-and-greet. Wacken’s organizers converted the session into a press conference at which they announced that Emperor will be re-uniting to headline the 25th anniversary Wacken Open Air, which will be held from July 31-August 2, 2014 (at Wacken, Germany, of course.

According to this report, Ihsahn and Samoth were both present at the press conference and answered questions about the band’s reunion dates in 2014 as well as the possibilities of a new album (!!!).  I’m still hunting for details about what was said on those subjects, and I’ll update this when I learn more.

Emperor played played Wacken in 2006 and last performed together in 2007 at festivals in France and Finland. Their last album was Prometheus – The Discipline Of Fire And Demise, released in 2001. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: BEAST WARS, BLOCKHEADS, UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS, DREAMING DEAD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Aug 022013
 

Yesterday brought a big group of video premieres. Here are four that I liked a bunch.

BEASTWARS

This New Zealand band’s 2013 album Blood Becomes Fire remains one of my favorites of the year (I reviewed it here), and the opening track “Dune” is one of my two favorite songs on the album. It’s a high-intensity mauler marked by Matt Hyde’s no-holds-barred vocals, by massive riffs that grind like giant grit-encrusted gears about to lock up, and by drums that punch and rumble.

Yesterday the band released a stunning animated video for “Dune”, funded by a government program called NZ On Air and created by Skyranch.tv, with ingenious work by director Simon Ward, illustrator Cory Mathis, and a cool FX team. It’s a freaky time-travel story that’s a feast for the eyes. It’s fitting that it’s loaded with dinosaurs, since Beastwars’ riffs are saurian in their immensity. You’re in for a wild ride, next. Continue reading »

DEATH METAL: WAR MASTER AND MORTHRA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Aug 022013
 

Yesterday was kind of a strange day here at the NCS metallic island. We put up a big stream of posts, but most of them were short-and-fast alerts about new tours or new songs, because your humble editor was preoccupied with the demands of his fucking day job and didn’t followed through on more time-consuming ideas that were originally slated for the day. Better luck today.

I’d like to begin whatever emerges at NCS on this Friday by flattening you with some metal of fucking death. I have two songs. I heard both of them yesterday when I came up for a gasp of air from the miasma of my paid work. If you like fucking death metal, I believe you will smile when you hear them (after you finish picking up your teeth).

WAR MASTER

War Master are a new discovery for me. They’re from my one-time hometown of Houston, Texas, and their last release was a 2011 debut album named Pyramid of the Necropolis. They’ve now recorded a new EP entitled Blood Dawn, which will be released on August 7.

Last month they began streaming an advance track on Bandcamp called “Bastard Horde”, which can be obtained right now for $1. It’s goddamn titanic — a blasting, grinding, heavy-as-hell battle-tank on a merciless old-school rampage in the vein of Bolt Thrower. The monstrous riffs and irresistible grooves in this baby will smash you into smithereens. I’m in love. Or at least in lust. Continue reading »

AND STILL MORE TOURISM: CARCASS TO PLAY SIX DATES IN NORTH AMERICA

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

This seems to be a day for tour announcements.  In addition to those we’ve already posted about, Carcass have now announced that they will be playing a select group of “intimate” shows in North America this September in support of their forthcoming album Surgical Steel. I like the tour’s name — Colonial Irrigation — though I wonder if maybe it should have been “Colonic Irrigation”. I also enjoyed bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker’s statement about the tour:

“Well we thought we’d play a few small key shows, kinda like the vibe we had in London earlier this year.  Maybe we’re being a bit optimistic thinking we can fill these venues? Well to make sure we do we’re bringing along some old friends & bands who will probably blow us away. We’re too much of a bunch of tight wads to throw a record release party so this is the closest you’ll get – come on down, and bring your receipt with the new album purchase and demand a refund!”

Those old friends he referred to? Macabre, Immolation, and Exhumed. Not too shabby.

There’s only one problem: Unless you live in the vicinity of Calgary, Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles, you’ll miss out on this deliciousness (that’s right, there is a Calgary date even though it’s not on the tour flyer above — it’s at the Noctis Festival, which has a stunning line-up). Maybe there will be a more widespread tour later on. Here are the tour’s confirmed dates: Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries