12-12-12 (WITH INFANT ANNIHILATOR, ULCER, AND ROTTEN SOUND)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Dec 122012
 

Today is a milestone day. It’s really just an unusual alignment of numbers in the Western world’s completely arbitrary way of measuring the passage of time on a calendar, but it’s cool nonetheless: The last 100% repetitive date that most humans now alive will ever see. It’s a long wait until January 1, 2101.

So, how shall we commemorate this arbitrary milestone? In the same way we commemorate the advent of every blessed new day: with some fucken metal. Here are a few things that caught my eyes and ears since last night (and we’ll also have an eviscerating video premiere by Krisiun coming up soon).

INFANT ANNIHILATOR

We have flogged the name Infant Annihilator mercilessly since discovering their artistic, bunghole-plugging video for “Decapitation Fornication”. And now the day has arrived when the band’s debut album The Palpable Leprosy of Pollution has been vomited forth in a steady stream of incendiary munitions and vocal filth guaranteed to fracture spines and necrotize flesh.

After the jump, press play — and then duck and cover. You can buy the album on Bandcamp via this link. Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST: THE LATEST WORD ON “ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ”

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Dec 112012
 

We’re getting close enough to the end of the year that we’re beginning to have a good idea about at least some of the 2013 albums that belong on a Highly Anticipated list.  Near the top of my list will be the new album from Rotting Christ. Which means, of course, that every time I get even the smallest morsel of news about the album, it will go straight into an NCS post. And so, I have this news, hot off the presses:

The album will be named ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ (“Do What Thou Wilt”), and it has been scheduled for a March 5th release in North America by Season of Mist. It will be available as a CD, a double gate-fold LP, and a limited edition Digibox that includes a pendant in a velvet bag, a flag, and a Digipak CD with the bonus track “Welcome to Hel”.

Frontman Sakis Tolis has further revealed in a recent interview that he has been working on the album for more than a year, and that it was recorded in Athens and mixed in Sweden by Jens Bogren (Amon Amarth, Opeth, Katatonia). He also said this: “I came up with our darkest outcome ever… It’s an interesting album, very apocryphal. It’s a multinational album; it is about underworld Gods inspired by different ancient cultures.”

Sakis’ statement seems borne out by the variety of names and languages reflected in the track list: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DEAFHEAVEN, NECROCURSE, CREST OF DARKNESS, AND DEATH I AM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Dec 112012
 

Here’s a round-up of things that caught my eyes and ears today. Eventually, they will let go and I will be able to see and hear again. The first thing is a news item about a band I like a lot. The other three items involve deviant musical filth of the supremely headbangable variety, which of course I also like a lot.

DEAFHEAVEN

I admit it: I’m intensely devoted to the music of San Francisco’s Deafheaven. The last time I wrote about them was in this review of their superb recent split with Bosse-de-Nage.  Today I received a press release stating that they have reserved studio time in January for the recording of their second full-length album, which will be entitled Sunbather and is projected for a Spring 2013 release by Deathwish Inc. They’re sticking with the same engineer (Jack Shirley) who worked with them on the debut album, Roads To Judah.

I was intrigued, though made nervous, by the included quote from Deafheaven vocalist George Clarke: “While the new material is more developed, we’ve strayed from what was previously a more melancholic approach. The black metal aspect to our music is prevalent in the new material, but I don’t think it’s necessarily the focus this time around.”  Lead guitarist Kerry McCoy continued, “There are a lot of harsh, dark vibes on Sunbather, but don’t be surprised at how lush and rock-driven, even pop-driven certain aspects will be.”

It’s pointless to begin forming impressions about music you haven’t heard, but I repeat: The term “pop-driven” makes me nervous. To calm my nerves, I decided to get filthy. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: JEFF BEAUCHAMP (KONKEROR)

 Interviews  3 Responses »
Dec 112012
 

photo by Casey Carlton

(In this post TheMadIsraeli interviews Jeff Beauchamp of Detroit’s Konkeror.)

Konkeror are one of the best breakout death metal bands I’ve heard in a long time, and if you haven’t checked out my review of their debut The Abysmal Horizons, you really should, and then buy the album.  They need the support.  I was fortunate enough to get an interview with his majesty, growl master and bassist Jeff Beauchamp, and here is the result. Hope you enjoy.

P.S: Someone needs to sign these guys.

 

TMI: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to do this man. I’ve been high on the album since I discovered it.

JB: Thank you very much, we’re glad you’re enjoying it.

 

TMI: So, tell me, how did Konkeror come together and why?

JB: All of us knew each other when we played in separate bands. I was in The Vala and Enochian, Jake [Plater] and Eric [Zwicker] in When Heroes Fail, and Toby [Dennis] in Kenshiro. Konkeror mainly formed from the ashes of Jake, Eric, and Toby’s previous band called Iliad which formed roughly in 2006 (I believe). They dissolved rather quickly after recording a demo but began writing new material after some time away in 2011. When I joined the mix in early 2012, about 80% of the music was written for The Abysmal Horizons. They weren’t completely settled on a name. I guess logically I was the final piece of the puzzle to craft the songs out with vocals and patterns. After about a month of jamming together, we went right into the studio. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA CONTINUES: EXCLAIM!’S LIST OF THE YEAR’S BEST METAL AND HARDCORE ALBUMS

 Listmania, LISTMANIA 2012  3 Responses »
Dec 112012
 

We’re continuing to re-publish lists of 2012’s best metal as compiled by magazines and “big platform” web sites. As we did last year, today we’re going north of the border and showing you the list revealed today by Canada’s Exclaim!

Exclaim! is a Canadian national print magazine concentrating on music, with a monthly distribution of 100,000 copies to over 2,600 locations across Canada. Exclaim.ca is the business’s web presence, with 300,000 unique visitors per month. Like the other big-platform sites whose lists we’ve re-published, Exclaim! covers a wide range of music, with metal being only one of the genres, and there’s also an emphasis on Canadian talent.

Last year, Exclaim! had a metal-only year-end list (in addition to lists from other music genres). This year they’ve created a Best Albums list that combines metal and hardcore, with 15 entries.

Last year, of all the lists we re-published, Exlaim!’s had the highest percentage of bands whose 2011 albums I hadn’t heard. This year, I’ve heard most of them, but still not all. Here are some observations before we get to the list: Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC: A VIDEO INTERLUDE

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  17 Responses »
Dec 112012
 

This isn’t a full-fledged THAT’S METAL! post. I just saw three videos this morning that I thought would brighten your day, because they brightened mine.

ITEM ONE

The first one relates to that photo above. I’m a sucker for cats, large or small, and I’m a particular sucker for cheetahs. If you don’t give a fuck about cheetahs, you’ll want to move on to our second item. But if you do, I found a video that you need to see.

It was made at the Cincinnati Zoo by National Geographic using a Hollywood action crew and a Phantom camera filming at 1200 frames per second. Using an installed track, they kept pace with five different cheetahs, from both alongside and in front, as the cheetahs hit speeds in excess of 60 mph chasing a lure. At that frame rate, they were able to create a crystal-clear, super slo-mo film of the cheetahs in action. If you hang in ’til the last part of the video, you’ll see how they did this, and you’ll see how fast the cheetahs were really moving.

To me, this is amazing to watch. There’s only one problem with the video: the soundtrack. It’s one of those angelic, ultra-gooey things that Hollywood uses to over-dramatize things that are already dramatic enough. I mean come on, a cheetah is a fuckin’ predator. If there’d been something alive in front of it instead of that lure, there would have been blood spray at the end of the chase.

In other words, this video needs music that’s more appropriate to the subject matter. I think Krisiun will do nicely. Continue reading »

VHÖL, BOSSE-DE-NAGE, AND LAWLESS: LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO – DEC 7, 2012

 Concert Reviews  4 Responses »
Dec 112012
 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please welcome a new guest writer who calls himself stop_arcturus. He brings us the following review of the second-ever live performances by a “super group” about whom we’ve been quite intrigued since we first found out about the band’s formation — VHÖL. At the same show, stop_arcturus also caught a rare performance by Bosse-de-Nage (whose most recent split we reviewed recently), as well as the opening set of another Bay Area band whose debut demo we reviewed here — Lawless.

********

VHÖL played the Elbo Room in San Francisco with Lawless and Bosse-de-Nage.

Despite an apparent lack of local promotion, San Francisco’s Elbo Room, an intensely intimate venue, was packed by the time newly minted Profound Lore act VHÖL took the stage. No wonder, considering three of the four members have deep roots in the Bay Area metal scene. Aesop Dekker (Agalloch, Worm Oroborus) was a member of the now-disbanded SF black metal band Ludicra, while Sigrid Sheie plays keys and sings in Hammers of Misfortune. VHÖL guitarist John Cobbett was an integral member of Ludicra and still is with Hammers, as well as having been involved with GWAR and Slough Feg. Only vocalist Mike Scheidt (YOB), VHÖL’s ostensible leader and frontman, hails from outside the Bay. Continue reading »

FIST BUMPS FOR RIVERS OF NIHIL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Dec 102012
 

We were first introduced to Pennsylvania’s Rivers of Nihil by NCS guest writer The Baby Killer (who still needs to stick his head back in our lair). The focus of his post back in January was not only the band’s ripping recorded music but also their ability to play a fire-breathing brand of technical death metal with immaculate skill on stage, stirring the shit out of the pit while delivering spot-on execution of their complex music. More recently, we featured the band’s official music video for an ass-blasting song called “(sin)chronos”, which appeared on their 2011 EP, Temporality Unbound.

Today, we learned the happy news that Rivers of Nihil are now signed to Metal Blade Records and will be recording their full-length debut for the label with Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal) at Mana Recording Studios next March. And today we also got a demo version of a new song that will appear on the album — “Rain Eater”.

I had the volume on my computer turned up a tad too loud when I started streaming “Rain Eater”, and I think it blew some of my brains out my nose. I lost a little blood out of my eyes, too. It’s a roaring blaze of tech-savvy death metal with a flurry of progressive guitar and bass flourishes (and yes, I’m still a sucker for the prominence the bass enjoys in this band). Very nice.

Check out the new song after the jump, after you check your volume controls. Continue reading »

SUBHUMAN: “TRIBUTO DI SANGUE”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 102012
 

(After a scholastically forced absence from NCS, TheMadIsraeli returns with a review of the latest album by Italy’s Subhuman.)

Celebrate NCS readers. My time in the corrupt prison of academia is over.  I can write about shit that’s fucking metal again.

Subhuman are a somewhat long-running savage death-thrash band from Italy, and if you’ve been following us, you know Oblivion guitarist Ted O’Neill has been telling us about how awesome Italy is right now in producing music that’s all things brutal.  It’s finally my turn to get on board with something of substantial value, and that is Tributo Di Sangue.

In my estimation, we’ve had few releases this year that comprise the sheer adrenaline rush this album delivers.  That isn’t to say that albums without the adrenaline rush haven’t been good, but it’s refreshing, always, to have something this straight-forward amidst what else is out there.  This is exactly just death-thrash.  If you like Hatesphere, Dew Scented, or Vader, then this is up your alley for sure.  It’s up mine.

The music of Subhuman is a torrent of double-bass-saturated, blast-beat-intense drumming, razor-sharp riffing with Exodus swagger, Decapitated ferocity, and Vader-esque war-making intensity, accompanied by vocals of in an old school Obituary/Death/Pestilence vein. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA CONTINUES: STEREOGUM’S TOP 40 METAL ALBUMS OF 2012

 Listmania, LISTMANIA 2012  45 Responses »
Dec 102012
 

As you undoubtedly know by now, part of our year-end Listmania series consists of re-publishing lists of the year’s best metal that appear on what I’ve been calling “big platform” web sites. We didn’t include a year-end list from Stereogum in previous years, but I think it’s worth doing now.

Stereogum was one of the web’s first blogs to offer mp3 downloads, and it has evolved into a high-traffic portal with a focus on independent and alternative music news, downloads, videos, and gossip. Today Stereogum published its list of The Top 40 Metal Albums of 2012. I paid attention to the list, as I have for other “big platform” sites, because I’m curious to see what metal albums are being recommended by sites whose audiences probably consume a lot more non-metal than metal. But I also paid attention to the list because some writers with taste were involved in compiling it:

The extended introduction to the list was written by Stereogum’s news editor Michael Nelson, and the list itself list was compiled by Nelson plus Stereogum contributors Aaron Lariviere, Wyatt Marshall, and Doug Moore, all of whom also write for Invisible Oranges.

Interestingly, unlike other “big platform” lists we’ve published so far this year, the Stereogum list consciously excluded some albums that other cross-genre sites have included, in part because of doubts about whether the albums are really metal — and I’m talking about the 2012 releases by Baroness, Swans, Torche, and Converge. As you might predict from these exclusions, the albums on the list are also more consistently extreme than what we’ve seen from other big sites. Continue reading »

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