AMORPHIS, PRISTINA, AND CENOTAPH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 022013
 

Nothing has changed, my blog time is still restricted by paying work, but I still have a few discoveries from the last 24 hours to spread around.

AMORPHIS

These Finnish icons have a new album named Circles that’s coming from Nuclear Blast on April 19 (EU), April 22 (UK), and April 30 (US). Yesterday they premiered a lyric video for a new single that’s being sold right now. The song’s name is “Hopeless Days”. It will be welcomed by die-hard Amorphis fans.

What the song has: Morose lyrics, a captivating melody, a memorable chorus, heavy chugging, a climactic guitar-led finish, and Tomi Joutsen hitting the clean notes cleanly with his distinctive delivery. What the song doesn’t have: Bite. Continue reading »

LIVE IN HARRISBURG: ROYAL THUNDER, ANCIENT VVISDOM, AND BACKWOODS PAYBACK (Feb. 28, 2013)

 Concert Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  1 Response »
Mar 012013
 

(In this post, guest contributor The Uncool Guy Down the Hall gives us a show review with photos.)

I thought while Islander is off working on his Evil Super-Science project this would be the perfect opportunity to break the NCS rules and present an all clean singing review. And while I know Islander did provide a review (here) of Ancient VVisdom and Royal Thunder along with Pallbearer when they supported Enslaved, the focus of that review was (understandably) more on Enslaved. I’d like to put the focus on Royal Thunder and Ancient VVisdom for this review, as well as perhaps introduce Backwoods Payback to the NCS readers who may not have heard of them.

First off let me talk about the venue a little bit. The Fed Live is located in downtown Harrisburg, PA, a city well known around the Commonwealth not only for being the location of the state capital, but also for having filed for bankruptcy. This, combined with the fact they were hosting three metal acts, did not give me high expectations of the place.

Turns out, the bar/restaurant portion of venue (The Federal Taphouse) is a rather upscale place featuring a tap room of over 100 craft/micro brew beers and a respectable food menu. Getting there pretty early and having time to kill, I indulged in both the food and beer offerings, feeling a bit out of place mixed in with the after work suit and tie clad business types and/or legislators, but the food and beer were both excellent. Continue reading »

PATHOGEN, NONEXISTENCE, AND DEVIL

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 012013
 

Hey there dudes and dudettes. I’m just quickly checking in from the bottomless pit of my day-and-night job with a few goodies I discovered on a break early this morning.

PATHOGEN

Pathogen are based in the Philippines. Since forming in 2001 they’ve release an assortment of demos and splits and three full-length albums. The second one, Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations, was self-released on tape in 2010 but was recently picked up for re-issue today (on CD and vinyl) by the German label Dunkelheit Produktionen. The release includes new cover art, which, as you can see, is fuckin’ aces.

This morning I came across a song from the album named “Atrocity Exhibit” that Dunkelheit put up on YouTube, and that led me into the rest of the album. Listening to Pathogen is like cracking open a subterranean vault and finding a tape created in the late 80s or early 90s in a rehearsal room. It has an authentic old-school sound reminiscent of Autopsy and Morbid Angel, with maybe a little Celtic Frost in the mix, too, and it’s catchy as hell. Continue reading »

TALANAS: “CORPSEFLOWER”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 012013
 

(In this post Andy Synn discusses a forthcoming release by Talanas.)

Much befitting their classy, semi-retro image, Talanas have decided that their next release (available March 1, 2013) is going to be put out on a more traditional format, the 7” vinyl.

Originally developed and released solely on their recent UK/Euro tour with doom legends My Dying Bride, it contains two tracks, both of which will form part of their in-progress second album Daylight. The songs showcase the many varied facets of their gentrified and rarefied death metal sound. Continue reading »

BANDCAMP ROUNDUP: THE BLACK MORIAH AND SATYRASIS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 282013
 

(Our man BadWolf has made a couple of discoveries through Bandcamp and writes about them below.)

I wish Bandcamp forced artists to offer at least some of every release for download. I’ve stumbled across two short streams—one of a demo, and another of a short song collection—that I want to put on my iPod right fucking now. Sadly, life is not that easy.

The Black Moriah – The Black Moriah Promo

I wonder did they mean The Black Maria? Black Maria is an antiquated slang term for a hearse. Spell check ist not krieg! Perhaps this Dallas black-thrash quintet were just feeling cheeky. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: IMPERIUM DEKADENZ, VEIN COLLECTOR, KONTRUST, AND SVART CROWN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 282013
 

 

I’m still in day-job hell, or more accurately day-and-night-job hell. All personal plans for listening to albums and EPs and writing reviews are on hold. Actually, everything I do here is pretty much on hold except for quickly checking metal news and doing some fast web surfing in search of new songs — and I make time for that mainly to preserve some feeble semblance of balance in my existence.

In this post are new or new-ish things from four bands that I randomly happened upon. By the end of the post, you may conclude that my efforts at preserving balance have failed and I’ve fallen off the edge.

IMPERIUM DEKADENZ

I discovered this German band in the spring of 2010 and wrote a review of their then-current album Procella Vadens (which is superb), except I wrote it as if Suffocation’s Frank Mullen were writing the review. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Continue reading »

TOURISM: “END OF DISCLOSURE” TOUR ANNOUNCED — WITH HYPOCRISY, ABORTED, ARSIS, STARKILL, AND AUTUMN’S END

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Feb 272013
 

The last 24 hours have turned out to be full of tour announcements. I collected details about three new ones that appealed to me in an earlier post today, and I just saw another one that elevated my pulse rate.

This North American jaunt is headlined by Sweden’s Hypocrisy in support of their forthcoming album End of Disclosure (which we’ve written about before). That’s sweet news, but it gets a whole lot sweeter when you take a look at the other bands alongside them: Krisiun, Aborted, and Arsis! 

In addition, Starkill (who I’ve featured before at NCS) and Autumn’s End will appear on selected dates.

The schedule is after the jump.  You’ll be relieved to know that the tour is coming to Seattle and that I’ll be able to see it. I know that wil brighten your day. Continue reading »

LONG DISTANCE CALLING – “THE FLOOD INSIDE” ALBUM STREAM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 272013
 

 

(DGR provides some thoughts about the band Long Distance Calling as a prelude to their new album, which has recently become available for streaming.)

This one is more of a personal share because I know for a fact that Long Distance Calling probably don’t line up with much of this site’s stated ethos (although to be fair, we’ve had to explain the No Clean Singing thing being like the speed limit – a suggestion) but Long Distance Calling are a really good group of musicians who haven’t failed me yet when it has come to making enjoyable music.

I first got into these guys with 2006’s Avoid The Light – which saw Jonas Renske of Katatonia performing on the song “The Nearing Grave” —  and found out that the rest of their disc was entirely instrumental, something I had only known groups like Scale The Summit to do. It was a similar atmospheric, progressive approach but seemed less reliant on atmosphere and more on melody.

I plowed through the group’s back catalog and then enjoyed the hell out of their self-titled disc when it hit back in 2011. Now we find ourselves in the opening of 2013 and the group are releasing a new album entitled The Flood Inside, and there have been some big changes. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (Part 2): WITHIN THE RUINS, AOSOTH, AND NEAERA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Feb 272013
 

This is Part 2 of a round-up of new things I saw and heard last night that I thought were worth sharing. Part 1 can be found here.

WITHIN RUINS

As the years have rolled on my interest in deathcore has waned, but I haven’t completely lost the taste for it. Within the Ruins (from Westfield, Mass.) is one of the bands in this genre who have maintained my interest, and from what I’ve heard of their new album Elite (released on Feb 26 by eOne Music), I’m still interested.

Yesterday the band premiered a music video for one of the new album’s tracks, “Feeding Frenzy”. The song brings high-caliber pneumatic thrusting, bestial hardcore vox, and a bunch of instrumental flourishes that remind me of a carnival atmosphere.

And the video (directed by Kevin J. Custer) is a complete hoot to watch. I’ve never been to a dinner party like this one, and I honestly can’t say that I worked up an appetite watching it. But I do pronounce it egggzelent. Here ya go: Continue reading »

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