VIDEOGRAPHY: SÓLSTAFIR AND GOSPEL OF THE HORNS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 302013
 

New videos have given me an excuse to write again about two excellent songs.

SÓLSTAFIR

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve posted different performances of “Fjara”. I don’t think it will ever grow old for me. And today brought me another excuse to do it again.

On July 25, Iceland’s Sólstafir performed at the Metaldays Festival in Tolmin, Slovenija. Someone with good equipment filmed the band’s performance of “Fjara” and uploaded it to YouTube. It looks like a beautiful setting for a festival (you get a glimpse of it at the end of the clip), though it’s a little strange to see the band performing in blinding sunlight. But apart from some overexposure brought about by all that daylight, the video looks and sounds very good.

And the song remains amazing, and the band remain the Kings of Cool, and I remain very stoked about the idea of seeing them live at Maryland Deathfest next May, where surely they will play this song. Watch and listen next . . . Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NEW DEICIDE TOUR, NEW SOCIOPATHIC MIXTAPE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 302013
 

Here are a couple of items that caught my eye last night.

NEW DEICIDE TOUR

Word has escaped that Deicide will be headlining a U.S. tour this October, though to be honest, the supporting bands are the ones that have really peaked my interest: Disgorge, Necronomicon, and Broken Hope.

I’ve been a fan of Montreal’s Necronomicon for years, and their 2013 album Rise of the Elder Ones is quite good. San Diego’s Disgorge has occupied a storied place in the annals of brutal death metal, and they’re now at work on their first album in eight years, with a revised line-up (Angel Ochoa behind the mic and Diego Soria on bass). And speaking of revivals, Chicago’s Broken Hope will be delivering their first album in 14 years when Century Media releases Omen of Disease in the same month that this tour occurs.

In other words, there’s going to be a full slate of new metal from a group of veteran death metal carnivores, wholly without regard to whether Deicide manages to bring it hard at the top of the bill. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 56: HOUSE OF ATREUS, ZUD, SLOTHS, AND CONTROL HUMAN DELETE

 Free Shit, MISCELLANY  14 Responses »
Jul 302013
 

Many of you already know how this unfortunately infrequent MISCELLANY game works, but for everyone else, here’s what it’s about: I randomly pick bands whose music I’ve never heard (usually bands whose names I’ve never heard either), I listen to one recent track from each of them (though sometimes I cheat and listen to more than one), I write my impressions, and I stream the music for you so you can judge for yourselves.

Every other musical feature on this site, other than this one, involves metal that I or the other writers have heard in advance and want to recommend. MISCELLANY, on the other hand, is a shot in the dark. I don’t know what these selections will sound like. We’ll both find out together. Today’s bands are a trio from the U.S. —House of Atreus, Zud, and Sloths — plus one from The Netherlands (Control Human Delete). They all turned out to be winners.

HOUSE OF ATREUS

I learned about this Minneapolis band via an e-mail from ex-TNOTB writer Tr00 Nate. That makes this selection less random than usual, since I’ve learned through experience to trust his recommendations. And this one turns out to be no exception. Continue reading »

PREMIERES: OBLIVION’S NEW VIDEO AND A NEW NOTHNEGAL TRACK

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jul 292013
 

We’ve already let loose a string of posts about new song and video premieres today, but we have one more. The first is a new video from . . .

OBLIVION

Not long ago we reported that this Bay Area band who we’ve written about frequently (writings collected here) had signed with the Unique Leader label, and that Unique Leader plans to re-issue the band’s self-released debut album, Called To Rise, on October 15 (check our review of it here). Today we got the new official video for the album’s final track, “Omniverse”. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album, a mix of heart-racing death metal performed with technical flare and eerie atmospherics.

That eerie quality that drifts through the song is captured in the visual effects and animation in the cool new video by Brandon Hunt. Check it out next: Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: JOHNAR HÅLAND (IN VAIN)

 Interviews  1 Response »
Jul 292013
 

(About one month ago, NCS writer Andy Synn devoted the 37th edition of THE SYNN REPORT to the discography of Norwegian metal band In Vain [here], and now follows that up with an interview of Johnar Håland.)

Hello! So to start off, please, introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi. I’m Johnar, guitarist and songwriter of the Norwegian metal band In Vain. We have been around since 2003 and released our third album, Ænigma, in April this year.

 

In your own words, describe the In Vain sound, if you would!

We have labeled our music ‘Progressive Extreme Metal’. The term ‘extreme metal’, due to our  combination of Death and Black Metal. The term ‘progressive’ because we are open-minded musicians and incorporate a lot of non-metal elements into our music. In my opinion, progressive also means to evolve and not to be static and stick to one musical landscape. When I write songs I try to combine what I consider as the strengths in the various genres that I enjoy. From the start, In Vain has had a vision of trying to combine all these elements, without making the songs chaotic and non-cohesive. That makes us progressive in one sense I believe.

 

You would be considered one of, if not the main, In Vain songwriting force, correct?

That is correct. So far I have written all the songs. Continue reading »

PREMIERES: NEW MUSIC VIDEOS FROM KEN MODE AND CHIMAIRA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 292013
 

The morning has delivered a slew of premieres, including a new Gorguts song and a new Cattle Decapitation video. And in this post, we bring you two more new videos. The first comes from . . .

KEN MODE

The video from this stand-out Canadian band (which premiered on Pitchfork) is for a song named “Secret Vasectomy” from their 2013 album Entrench (which can be streamed and purchased on Bandcamp here). When the song first debuted, guitarist/frontman Jesse Matthewson said this about it:

“Secret Vasectomy” was one of the first songs we put together during the Entrench writing sessions, but more particularly it was the first that we truly collaborated on with Andrew [LaCour], as the other three songs we finished in that first get-together were largely made up of riffs that I’d constructed going into the session. To me, it’s a punk song; a nasty, nasty punk song. Lyrically speaking, I’m sure everyone can relate to the situation of needing to produce, yet feeling utterly uninspired to write anything of any perceived value whatsoever; this is the tipping point. When you refuse to acknowledge the elephant in the room as a muse and instead you slump in your chair and shoot blanks.

The video is an interesting one to watch, with scenes of children manically drawing and coloring, accompanied by animation of their creations. Let’s just say it’s not fun happy playtime. The band have explained that this is only the first part of a two-part “music video saga”. Here it is: Continue reading »

PREMIERES: ANOTHER CATTLE DECAPITATION VIDEO — “YOUR DISPOSAL”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 292013
 

The day is still young out here in the Pacific Northwest, but it has already brought us a handful of notable premieres. We started with a new Gorguts song, and we now follow that up with an official music video for a song from . . .

CATTLE DECAPITATION

The song is “Your Disposal”, which appears on the band’s latest album, Monolith of Inhumanity. This one was again directed by Mitch Massie. Let’s see what frontman Travis Ryan says about it:

“Director Mitch Massie has presented us all with a bizarre retelling of the story of Adam and Eve using themes from our latest album Monolith of Inhumanity. Here we see Eve giving birth to humanity, a living, breathing piece of primordial meat birthed into the dirt making its way through the Garden of Eden, hellbent on destruction… A clean and conscious monolith foretelling what could be possible given the fact that humans exhibit superior traits of intelligence, instead the earth is flooded with technological fallout and debris by the hands of man. This video is very much a prequel to our other videos ‘Forced Gender Reassignment’ and of course, ‘Kindgom of Tyrants’.” Continue reading »

PREMIERES: ANOTHER NEW GORGUTS SONG — “COLORED SANDS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 292013
 

The day is still young out here in the Pacific Northwest, but it has already brought us a handful of notable premieres. Without further ado, here’s one of them (more to come).

GORGUTS

The new Gorguts album, Colored Sands, is so full of win it almost beggars description. Nevertheless, in due course we will attempt to do it justice in a review. In the meantime, Decibel magazine has given us the premiere of a third song from the album, and this time it’s the title track. Here’s what the band’s founder Luc Lemay has said about the song:

“‘Colored Sands’ tells the story about the intricate, poetic, mystic ritual of drawing sand mandalas. Tibetan pilgrims can walk for months, sometime a whole year, prostrating face to the ground every tree footsteps until they reach the place where the mandala will be executed.

Once the mandala completed, the monks will dismantle the mandala, and take the sands to the closest stream of water. This stream will bring the sands to the river, the river to the immensity of the ocean to spread the mandala’s peace and beauty to the planet…

The single harmonic, in the beginning of the song, pictures a single grain of sand hitting the ground…then with the pattern in 5 slowly appearing, illustrates the five elements in the Tibetan philosophy such as: air, water, fire, earth and space which are embodied in the mandala through their specific colors. From there the mandala slowly takes form in the music.” Continue reading »

REMNANTS OF 2012: LATE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

 Album Reviews, Free Shit  3 Responses »
Jul 292013
 

(NCS contributor Austin Weber looks back again at 2012 albums he first discovered in 2013, putting the spotlight on three U.S. bands — Systems, Epistasis, and Singularity.)

I know I already did one of these posts but here’s one more with the three bands I found after my first Remnants article. Each band is completely different but worthy of your attention. All of them have new music or tours in the works that makes them relevant in the present as well. Unfortunately, this post was delayed by a few months since I’ve been too busy to work on writing much. Without further ado, on to the bands and enclosed music!

SYSTEMS – TERRASOMNIUM

A lot of bands are djenting it up these days, and understandably patience grows thin due to the gluttony of mimicry. Most djent bores me because a lot of bands are not bringing anything of their own to the table. One of the best djent bands I’ve heard recently has to be Systems. Sky-high on their own supply and clearly off on their own insidious, shred-heavy, groove-structured tangent.

Systems is technical, lead-heavy djent with a death-metal flavor and spacey jazz interludes and more solos then you can shake several sticks at. Their uniquely mechanical, overflowing guitar leads further set them apart from your average djent and are often what propel the songs forward, though their groove-centered backbone is earth-shakingly heavy as well. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW (Part 1): MIKE VAN MASTRIGT (HOUWITSER, EX-SINISTER)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jul 292013
 

 (NCS contributor and hard-man-to-please KevinP interviewed Mike van Mastrigt, and this is Part 1 of the interview. Stay tuned for Part 2, which includes an announcement you really won’t want to miss.)

K:  Let’s go back in history for a moment. You were in Sinister, left in 1996 after the Bastard Saints EP. Why?

M:  It was time to move on…. I was busy with too many things.  Next to being the frontman, spokesman, I also was the band manager/tour manager and booker. That all was to much and it took away the focus and correct spirit.  I needed a break. So there was no option but to quit.

 

K:  You started up rather quickly (only a year later) in 1997 forming Houwitser. Were the batteries recharged that soon?

M:  I didn’t start Houwitser. I was the singer and only the singer, until they would find someone else. Also, I made the album cover and booklet.  I did no arrangements for shows, etc.

 

K:  So when you joined,  it was known to be a temporary thing until they could find a more permanent vocalist?

M:  Yes Continue reading »

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