THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT: “TETRAGRAMMATON”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Apr 192013
 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the new album by The Monolith Deathcult.)

I think what upsets a lot of people (and trust me, there are a lot of angry internet folk out there) is this perception that The Monolith Deathcult don’t take things seriously enough. After all, this is metal goddammit, it’s a serious business, there’s no place for irony here!

That perception is, of course, entirely wrong – but there is a kernel of truth at the centre of it.

For, like the very antithesis of Manowar, The Monolith Deathcult are exceptionally self-aware, and thrive on confronting the potential absurdity that haunts the Death Metal genre. Yet they’re a band who write songs about Nazi death-squads, jihadist extremism, African genocide… you can’t say these aren’t serious subjects! But TMDC understand that no matter how heavy, how dark it may go, no matter how much you try to dress it up, to disguise it, Death Metal can only ever approximate the barest slivers of the horrors that mankind perpetrates upon itself. Yet it’s also the only genre that really goes to these places. The two so often go hand in hand, yet are always so far apart.

Yet instead of running from it, instead of denying it, the band embrace this central contradiction wholeheartedly. Their music is dark, oppressive, and brutal – but also relentlessly energetic, knowingly pompous, and impressively self-aware. If Tetragrammaton shows us anything, it’s that The Monolith Deathcult understand one simple truth – “It’s a joke, it’s all a fuckin’ joke…” Continue reading »

AUTOPSY: “THE HEADLESS RITUAL” IS COMING

 Metal News  9 Responses »
Apr 192013
 

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the artwork up above sitting in my e-mail in-box. I’m surprised it didn’t scare my e-mail program into a state of catatonic non-functionality. It was created by Joe Petagno (Motörhead, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin) and it graces the new album by the legendary Autopsy, The Headless Ritual.

In addition to unveiling that eye-catching piece of grisliness, the band also announced today that the album will be released on July 2 via Peaceville Records. The press release I got also included this quote by drummer/vocalist Chris Reifert:

“Expect nothing less than the monstrous brutality that Autopsy has been known to offer. Laurels will not be rested upon, trends will not be followed and mercy will not be shown. Mark your calendars for June and pick out a coffin to lie down and die in. Darkness and death await…”

Fuck yes. Have a look at the track list after the jump.

Continue reading »

AN NCS EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: SURACHAI’S “SURRENDER”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  8 Responses »
Apr 192013
 

(We are delighted to bring you the premiere of “Surrender” by Surachai, preceded by the following review by NCS writer BadWolf.)

Industrial black metal has not historically produced very many good bands or records—or that many records at all, for that matter—but 2013 is bucking that trend. I’ve heard several records that mix contemporary black metal with electronics and samples to excellent effect so far this year. Spektr and Altar of Plagues immediately come to mind, and now we can add Surachai’s new record, Embraced, to that list.

Ostensibly Surachai is another one-man black metal project, the brain child of Surachai Sutthisasanakul, who has been working as a sound editor by day and making experimental records by night for the past few years. Of course, he is working out of Chicago, home of many such avant-black metal projects such as Nachtmystium and Chrome Waves (and ex-Nachtmystium guitarist Andrew Markuszewski is one of many session contributors to this album).

Embraced sounds richer than your average bedroom black metal record. Surachai layers samples with guitar and various electronic effects to create an almost symphonic atmosphere. That mix is perfected by some of the most intricate black metal drumming I’ve heard since Cobalt’s Gin, courtesy of guest drummer Charlie Werber of Guzzlemug. That percussion absolutely makes the record whole. The magic of Surachai is his ability to make soothing music out of so much abrasive noise.. Continue reading »

OH LOOK, ANOTHER MUSICIAN IS BITCHING ABOUT PIRACY

 Mosh Pit  40 Responses »
Apr 182013
 

Yesterday Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder (a band we like quite a bit around here) went on a rant about piracy on Facebook. That was yesterday. Today, he posted this on the band’s Facebook page:

“I want to apologize to any of you guys that were bummed out by my frustrated, overly aggressive, and pessimistic posts yesterday. Me and the guys are eternally grateful for all of you and your support, whatever form. THANK YOU! We’ll see you this Summer and beyond… – Trevor”

Apart from sounding a retreat, it looks like he and the band have also deleted the original rant, too.

I sort of wish he had stuck to his guns, even if he did go a bit overboard with yesterday’s missives to the masses. Saying nothing that might conceivably alienate a potentially paying customer, or apologizing when you do, is the way mainstream recording artists are trained (and ordered) to behave by their handlers, and are therefore bland as shit to listen to (except when they’re wasted and going after the paparazzi). And besides, what potentially paying customers did Trevor risk alienating? A bunch of thieves who think they’re entitled to download and probably aren’t going to spend any money on TBDM anyway?

Truthfully, Trevor really didn’t say anything new, and nothing new has come  out of the flood of vitriolic comments, rants, and counter-rants that have swept through the interhole since his first broadside. It’s the same old story. It’s like listening to the latest round of “debates” over gun control. Not one new thing gets said, and not one thing seems to change. But still, I think Trevor should have been making a different argument than the one he made. Continue reading »

NERVECIDE: “IMPERMANENCE”

 Album Reviews, Free Shit  1 Response »
Apr 182013
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album by Nervecide.)

The ever-growing reputation of the Italians to craft perfectly shaped caskets of technical evisceration is really starting to hit a fucking high point.  So many bands are coming out of there who can really shred that it’s almost like there is something in the water.  Nervecide is not a band, but a solo project by Giorgio Benedetti, a very talented multi-instrumentalist who’s put together an album that brings forth the non-stop, relentless, over-the-top assault of the likes of Behemoth, Cryptopsy, or Hate Eternal along with other elements such as Meshuggah’s ambience (particularly what was found on their first albums) and an overall harsh industrial character.  This first album by Benedetti, Impermanence, has made a staggeringly overpowering impression on me.  This is brutal, chaotic, technical death metal with a definitive character.  It’s kind of like the impact force of a steamroller at 100 MPH.

Giorgio has a voice with a perfect fit for his music, emulating the harsh, forceful, guttural style of vocalists like Corpsegrinder, Erik Rutan, and Glen Benton.  This is on top of his guitar acrobatics, which gracefully leap between bits of plague-rat-infested sludge, fret-board-blazing knife stabs, and Middle Eastern melody. Continue reading »

VIDEO BONANZA (Pt 2): ABNORMALITY AND FORCEPS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 182013
 

Yesterday turned out to be a banner day for new music videos, and I’ve collected the ones I didn’t have time to write bout yesterday, dividing them into two posts. This one is Part 2, and it’s devoted to the new vidz from Abnormality (U.S.-Mass.) and Forceps (Brazil).

ABNORMALITY

DGR reviewed this Boston band’s 2012 debut album Contaminating the Hive Mind last July, calling it “solid brutal death with very little in the way of compromise or ridiculousness . . . a meat-and-potatoes death disc with a lot to offer genre fanatics and [that’s] also accessible enough to lure new people into the madness”.

Yesterday Metal Injection premiered Abnormality’s music video for the track “Fabrication of the Enemy.” The video is sure to be controversial — especially the narrated preamble and its claim that for most of the world, it is the U.S. who are the terrorists. The fact that the video appeared only two days after “Marathon Monday” will no doubt inflame the controversy. Continue reading »

LASCAILLE’S SHROUD: “INTERVAL 01: PARALLEL INFINITIES-THE INNER UNIVERSE”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Apr 182013
 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the latest album by Lascaille’s Shroud, who are based in the Eagle Nebula.)

How are you set for progressive death metal this year? Still looking for that ultimate fix? Well you’ve found it my friend. This is currently one of my top albums of the year, without a doubt.

Now as phenomenal as this album is (and it is), this review very nearly didn’t happen, for a couple of reasons.

1. I’ve been listening to this album a LOT. So I had trouble getting any critical distance from it (yes, I strive to at least pretend to have some sort of distance and “relative” objectivity when doing these things).

2. Other albums have come along and cut the queue. Now although we’re not slaves to the labels or PR companies here at NCS (note the conspicuous absence of banners and pop-ups) we do understand that putting out a review for a more prominent band can serve the greater good. Case in point – if we review a (relatively) big band with a new album out, then that band might get in touch with the site, maybe get asked if we want to premiere a song or a video… and when we do that we’ll attract more new readers, to whom we can then spread the word about other, less prominent bands. You dig?

3. A couple of weeks back a post suddenly appeared on the Lascaille’s Shroud Facebook page about how Prometheus was their favourite film, and if you’re aware of my… less than positive… opinion about that vapid clusterfuck of a film, then you can see why I immediately went and deleted all the band’s music from my itunes and vowed never to listen to them again.

Ok, not really. This album is WAY too good to let something as inconsequential as all that get in the way of things. Continue reading »

VIDEO BONANZA (Pt 1): LEGEND AND DEATHCHAIN

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Apr 182013
 

Yesterday turned out to be a banner day for new music videos, and unfortunately I didn’t have time to write about all of the good ones I saw. So I’m making up for lost time by collecting them in two posts, this one being the first. Herewith, for your listening and viewing pleasure, are new videos from Legend (Iceland) and Deathchain (Finland).

LEGEND

I found out about this Icelandic band’s new video via a Facebook post by Sólstafir, who are apparently friends of the two men who make up Legend — Krummi Björgvinsson and Halldór A Björnsson. I confess that neither Legend nor those two gents were familiar to me, and the music isn’t metal, but the song and the video have hooked me right through the gills.

The song is “Benjamite Bloodline” and it’s from the band’s most recent album Fearless. The music is a building swarm of electronica that eventually unfolds into a thunderous beat, with vocals that are mainly clean but ultimately caustic. The strange video is as interesting to watch as the music is to hear — though I make no attempt to describe it. It’s next . . . Continue reading »

MY KIND OF CHAMBER MUSIC: OBLIVION’S VERY COOL VIDEO FOR “CANON 1 IN E MINOR”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Apr 172013
 

In September 2012 we published what I think was the first review of Called To Rise, the debut album by Bay Area death metal heavyweights Oblivion. It was so early that the album hadn’t yet been released, so early that no release date had even been set. Since then, of course, the album has debuted, and Oblivion have earned themselves quite a following. One of the things the band have had going for them since the beginning was a lot of instrumental talent, plus the significant songwriting contributions of a guy (vocalist/bassist Nick Vasallo) who happens to be an accomplished classical composer.

Vasallo’s classical training and interests shine through in different ways on Called To Rise, but most clearly on the song “Canon 1 in E Minor”. As Vasallo has explained, the song was “a conscious effort to bridge the worlds of Metal and Classical music”:

“A canon is a compositional technique that requires strict repetition in all musical voices. This is also an example of triple counterpoint–a very old contrapuntal device that is rarely (if ever) used in modern popular music, especially anything branching from rock and roll. There are essentially three different lines: the middle guitar (Alto) begins, then the high guitar (Soprano) answers, and finally the low guitar and bass enter (Tenor and Bass). All voices play the same line in 3 different positions so that the melody exists as the top voice, middle voice, and bottom voice. The trick is getting all the voices to work melodically, harmonically, and functionally.”

Today Oblivion released a music video for this song, with the three guitar parts performed by Vasallo, Ted O’Neill, and Victor Dods and the bass part played by Ben Orum. And what’s extra cool is that the performance was staged as you would expect to see if the piece had been performed by a chamber music ensemble. Continue reading »

SCORNED DEITY: “ADVENTUM”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Apr 172013
 

(Below, TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Detroit’s Scorned Deity, which was released yesterday)

Scorned Deity are an American blackened melodic death metal band I’ve been following for some time now.  I was a fan of their debut The Monarchy Memoirs for its commitment to blistering brutality combined with cheese levels of epically delightful proportions.  Sometimes you just need the theatrics.  Since then Scorned Deity have been working on a second album, Adventum, and it’s finally arrived.  The album as a whole is quite a bit darker and savage than The Monarchy Memoirs, but the signature combination of melodic death metal, black metal, and symphonic incorporations (including things like opera on this album) are still present and stronger than ever.  The result is an engrossing album, and an evolutionary step that I think warrants this band getting some notoriety.

The things that make Adventum a great album are its savage delivery, fantastic melodic texturing, and its tasteful use of symphonic elements, which are incorporated not as half-assed attempts to make a song sound epic, but to bring the songs into expansiveness.  It’s not often that a band succeed in using such elements to actually serve the song, distinguish it, and set it apart.  The electronic elements, the operatic vocals, the choirs and harpsichords — they all really lend a sense of majesty to the music despite the unrelenting beating that the album delivers.  There is nothing entirely new here, these guys just do what they do undeniably well and are skyscraper heights above a lot of their contemporaries. Continue reading »

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