NACHTYSTIUM IS KAPUT. . . BUT HATE MEDITATION IS STILL COMING

 Metal News  8 Responses »
Apr 152013
 

[UPDATE:  In reaction to this post and similar reports elsewhere, Blake Judd has stated that Nachtmystium is NOT kaput and is in fact re-grouping to record a new album for release in 2013. Details here.]

Over the weekend, the news made the rounds on the interwebz (e.g., here) that Chicago’s Nachtmystium is no more (although, as you’ll see in a minute, this news actually broke in March). The following “official statement” was re-published by various sources:

“We are sorry to inform you that NACHTMYSTIUM have decided to cancel all their live activities in the foreseeable future. The band has parted ways with their long time lead guitarist, Andrew Markuszewski, and their recording engineer/synth player, Sanford Parker. The remaining three bandmembers of NACHTMYSTIUM as of today are going to bring the band to a state of hiatus.”

Although I didn’t see it at the time, the handwriting appeared on the wall via a March 7 article on Stereogum, in which writer Michael Nelson reported the following message he received from Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd: “Hate Meditation is my main focus currently as Nachtmystium is on somewhat of a hiatus for the time being.”

I guess it’s now more than “somewhat of a hiatus”. Among other things, Nachtmystium’s official Facebook page has disappeared. Continue reading »

KEYBOARD WARRIORS: AZMODES OF METAL-ARCHIVES.COM

 Interviews  19 Responses »
Apr 152013
 

(In this post, Dane Prokofiev returns to NCS with another installment in his Keyboard Warriors series, in which he interviews metal writers — and now branches out to provide an in-depth look at the inner workings of metal’s most comprehensive single resource of knowledge. We are also indebted to Azmodes for the time he devoted to this fascinating discussion.)

Comprised of a large number of dedicated staff members and innumerable ordinary members, the non-profit cyber encyclopedia of metal bands is a project that requires a huge amount of constant effort in order to stay online and remain relevant and useful to metal music writers, fans, and researchers alike.

If you have ever wondered about the internal workings of Metal-Archives.com, here’s an inside look. A fairly new administrator of the site discusses a multitude of issues ranging from the hierarchy system to the controversial topic of what makes a band “metal” enough to be officially recognized and registered in the database. Continue reading »

DARK THINGS RISING: DIABLERIE, THOU ART LORD, AND SLIDHR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 142013
 

Here are a pair of dark new discoveries from yesterday, new music from two bands with veteran members who have new albums on the way — Diablerie from Finland and Thou Art Lord from Greece — plus an update (with music) about the debut album coming from Ireland’s Slidhr.

DIABLERIE

I found out about this band via an e-mail from fellow blogger fireangel (Night Elves Forest), who keeps her fingers pressed tightly to the pulse of Finnish metal. Diablerie began in 1998, released a debut album in 2001 (Seraphyde), dissolved in 2003, and re-formed in 2006. The members of Diablerie’s current line-up have been active in other bands, with four of them being current or former members of a melodic doom/death band named Rapture and drummer Petri Mäkipää spending time with Fleshred, Ghoul Patrol, and The Nibiruan.

Last year Diablerie put out an EP (Transition), and according to fireangel’s report, they’ve now recorded material for a future full-length release. Recently, the band put two new demo tracks on Soundcloud — “Selves” and “Osiris” — and both are really good. Continue reading »

PSY COMES BACK WITH “GENTLEMAN”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Apr 142013
 

Nope, not metal, not even close. But since I slapped “Gangnam Style” up on the site last August, I figured I might as well do the same with Psy’s new music video, “Gentleman”. I’m a little faster this time — I missed the premiere of “Gangnam Style” by a month; “Gentleman” debuted only yesterday. Of course, as I write this it already has over 6.9 million YouTube views. In case you were wondering, the “Gangnam Style” video now has over 1.5 billion views.

I watched this new thing with low expectations. Don’t get me wrong, I thought “Gangnam Style” was a kick in the ass, but holy hell, every time I turned around over the next two months there the damned thing was, either the original or some parody of it. Shit got old. And I was afraid we were in for a re-tread with “Gentleman”.

But it turns out to be pretty good. I mean, the novelty of Psy’s schtick has worn off, and it would be really tough for him to top the batshit craziness of the earlier video, but the song is catchy, and I like the fact that at least as much of it is in Korean as in English. And the video, while not as nuts as the first one, gets points for self-parody. And for the catapult springboards. And what dude doesn’t want to stick a finger up his butt and pass it beneath the nose of a cute chick?  Here you go: Continue reading »

NEW FREE AMON AMARTH SONG: “DECEIVER OF THE GODS”

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Apr 132013
 

Yesterday Amon Amarth unveiled the cover art, title, and release date for their new album Deceiver of the Gods, which I duly reported here. I seem to have stirred up some shit on our site with a less-than-enthusiastic reaction to the album art. I still maintain that it’s a mixed bag, but I try not to judge a book (or an album) by its cover. More important is what lies within.

With this band, here in 2013, you know with a high degree of certainty what will lie within. Both thematically and musically, the band have settled on a formula that has made them exceedingly popular. It’s a formula that happens to appeal to me, though I must admit that I would love it if the band broke their own mold every now and then and fired something different in the kiln.

Today brought us a stream — and a free download — of the new album’s title track. It’s a thrashier attack than much of what was to be found on 2011’s Surtur Rising, but no less catchy than what you would expect from this band, and with an appealing dual-guitar melody in the mid-part. As my NCS colleagues have pointed out, it also includes a key change!

Have Amon Amarth broken the mold with this song? Nope — it will not throw the Amon Amarth faithful for a loop, nor will it change the minds of those listeners who aren’t impressed with this brand of Viking-themed melodic death metal. But it’s only one song. We may still hear something we aren’t expecting. In the meantime, listen to this one after the jump. Continue reading »

THE DEVIL’S BLOOD, ORCHID, AND UNCLE ACID

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 132013
 

I went hunting for new music this morning and found a trio of songs that just cried out to be bundled together. Crying makes me uncomfortable, so I relented. All three songs are exceptions to our rule around here. All three songs reach back into the 60’s and 70’s for their inspiration. None of them is a skull-cleaver or a face-melter, but they’ve nonetheless wormed their way into my head. Before I de-worm myself with something that’s more typical for this site, I’m sharing the experiences.

THE DEVIL’S BLOOD

On January 22 of this year, this occult Dutch group announced that they were disbanding, but would be releasing additional recordings before disappearing into the void from whence they came. The first of those is a full-length album entitled III: Tabula Rasa or Death and the Seven Pillars, which Metal Blade plans to release on June 11.

Selim “SL” Lemouchi has explained that all of the songs are demos recorded in his home recording studio and given only “a simple mix”. The first song from the album that debuted yesterday is “White Storm of Teeth”.  Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH REVEALS NEW ALBUM TITLE (“DECEIVER OF THE GODS”) AND QUESTIONABLE COVER ART

 Metal News  44 Responses »
Apr 122013
 

Well, as DGR wrote in a message I just saw, “In case you guys were worried, it appears that Amon Amarth’s new cd will in fact be about vikings.” Whew, that’s a relief.

Today, the band disclosed that Deceiver Of The Gods is the title of their new album, and that it will be released in June via Metal Blade Records. Andy Sneap, handled the production and there will apparently be a guest appearance by former Candlemass singer Messiah Marcolin, which is intriguing.

Metal Blade also unveiled the album’s cover art, which is supposed to depict “the last battle between the Gods and Loki who arrives at Vigridr field accompanied by the army of the dead during Ragnarok, the end of the world.” The event, of course, is a badass slice of legend. However, I must say that the cover art is not quite as badass as the event it is supposed to depict. Maybe it will grow on me. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 34: MITHRAS

 THE SYNN REPORT  11 Responses »
Apr 122013
 

Recommended for fans of:  Morbid Angel, Pestilence, Fallujah

Let’s stay in the UK for a second straight edition of The Synn Report, shall we?

Tech-death before tech-death became a pissing contest between directionless shred-lords, Mithras deal in a form of technically gifted, wilfully complex death metal that successfully marries progressive ambition with stunning instrumental prowess, without short-changing the listener in either regard.

Drawing from the more imperious side of Morbid Angel’s dark death metal aesthetic as their primary influence, together with an ear for the more challenging, arty side of Pestilence’s body of work, the duo who form the core of Mithras have woven these influences into a sound entirely their own – unique, difficult, esoteric, but ultimately rewarding – one that served, in hindsight, as a precursor to the spacey death metal sound slowly gaining traction today. Trend setters and taste-makers without meaning to be, they were one of the first death metal bands I had heard in a long time to truly take the sound and do something so distinctive with it.

Their mix of raw, pummelling drum work, crippling riffage, and finger-blistering technical skills stood head and shoulders above their competitors at the time, and remains so today. This is due not only to their impressive abilities behind the kit and on the fretboard – their bio-organic symbiosis of natural progression and seamless mechanical precision is nearly unparalleled – but can also be attributed to their patient perfectionism, whose song-writing focussed just as much on atmosphere as it did on aggression. Continue reading »

THE BODY: “MASTER, WE PERISH”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Apr 122013
 

You can’t say The Body fail to give warning about what’s coming on their new three-song EP, Master, We Perish. The broken, contorted, skeletal form on Manifester’s album cover provides the first clue. Further hints lie in the first two song titles — “The Ebb and Flow of Tides In a Sea of Ash” and “The Blessed Lay Down and Writhe In Agony”. And the first track does begin with the wailing sound of an air raid siren, in case you weren’t paying attention: It’s time to duck and cover.

Chapter 1:  “The Ebb and Flow of Tides In a Sea of Ash” drags doomed guitar chords across a scarred wasteland of distortion, with horrific howling and screaming as accompaniment and the screech of feedback as the climax. It’s relatively brief. For the sake of sanity, this may be a good thing.

Chapter 2:  Clanging notes reverberate at the outset of “The Blessed Lay Down and Writhe In Agony”, muttering is heard in the background, and a soprano’s voice soars skyward. Fuzzy electronic pulses beat a rhythm. Someone pumps a shotgun, and the drum blasts and cymbal crashes come down like meteor strikes. The song begins to rumble and roll with sludged-out riffs, the drumbeats lurching ahead, caustic cries coming from the deep distance. Distortion fills your head, black matter drowning your mind. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: FOUR TICKETS TO “DEATH TO ALL” AND ONE COOL COMP

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 122013
 

Life can be summed up as follows: You don’t get what you pay for, and then you die. Which is why getting things for free is so damned important. It gives you that little flicker of hope that maybe things will balance out before your tiny spark gets sucked into the void. Of course, it’s a false hope, but the capacity for self-delusion is vital in leading a happy life.

Okay, now that I’ve got you in a cheery mood, here’s some a that free shit.

“DEATH TO ALL” TICKETS

The Death To All tour, which pays tribute to late legendary vocalist and guitarist Chuck Schuldiner and raises money for the Sweet Relief charity, is starting its 2013 run tomorrow night in West Hollywood and will continue through the end of this month. Unlike last year’s inaugural edition, this tour will feature one line-up, the Human–era Death lineup consisting of guitarist Paul Masvidal, bassist Steve DiGiorgio, and drummer Sean Reinert (with Max Phelps of Exist providing the vocals). The set list will focus on Human and the three Death albums that came before it, Scream Bloody Gore, Leprosy, and Spiritual Healing. 

And guess what? Thanks to Live Nation, we have two sets of two tickets to give away for the tour’s April 24 stop in New York City at Irving Plaza. Continue reading »

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