DGR FAMILIARS: THE GRAVESTARTER COMMENCES, RAINBOWDRAGONEYES, MECHINA, AND TYRANT OF DEATH RELEASE DATES

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Jun 062013
 

(Here’s a newsy round-up by DGR.)

You may recognize a lot of these names because I have personally written about each group a ton of times here at NCS. Instead of infecting other news posts with my bullshit, though, I figured I’d do you guys a favor and lock them all up in one news post that I’d reserve for myself. That way if you have musical tastes similar to mine, then you can jump on this post and enjoy its spoils (with the exception of the Conducting Kickstarter, that’s almost charitable), and if anything in this post interests you but you haven’t heard the rest, maybe do yourself a favor and check out the other bands!

Now I know that some of you may be wondering why these groups have been popping up so much lately, and it’s because they’ve been releasing substantial updates at a pretty consistent clip and they’ve all been very busy. I’ve tried to archive a bunch of the news that may have been drip-fed into this big post as well, to really bring people up to speed.

CONDUCTING FROM THE GRAVE

You’ll remember that late last week we posted news about the plans of Sacramento, California’s Conducting From The Grave to launch a Kickstarter to help cover the physical/merchandising aspect of their new disc, with a goal set of $15,000 – which has been the common goal for bands that have been doing these as of late. The group had posted a video – the same one they would be using as an intro to the project – in order to get the word out as well as share a new song entitled, ‘Honor Guide Me!’. Consider this an additional update, as the group’s Kickstarter has finally launched and we can now see whether they were on the right track with this idea and what some of the rewards for ponying up “that cheddar” may be. Continue reading »

LOW: LYCUS AND ORTEGA

 Album Reviews, Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  8 Responses »
Jun 062013
 

This is the second part of a two-part post about new music that swallowed me up last night. By blind chance, all four of the songs I heard sound like granite must feel, sitting on your chest or coming down in an avalanche on your head. Part 1 (here) dealt with Geryon and Hollow Leg. This one focuses on Lycus (Oakland) and Ortega (The Netherlands).

LYCUS

In addition to delivering crushing music, all four of the bands featured in this two-part post bring us striking cover art for their new releases. As you can see, the debut album by Lycus, Tempest, is adorned with the awesome painted art of the Italian madman Paolo Girardi (go past the jump to see more of the album art).  Tempest is scheduled for release by 20 Buck Spin on July 9 (digitally and on CD/LP).

I haven’t yet carved out time to listen to the album, and nothing from it is yet available for public streaming, but I did check out the first song from the band’s Demo MMXI. That demo was released two years ago by Graceless Recordings (run by Mike Meacham of LOSS) and on vinyl by The Flenser Records, and it’s a name-your-price download on Bandcamp. Continue reading »

LOW: GERYON AND HOLLOW LEG

 Eye-Catchers, Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 062013
 

Sometimes the hands of blind coincidence shuffle the cards of life and deal you a flush. And so they did for me last night. In addition to other blog-related activities, I had time to listen to four new songs, and by happenstance they all turned out to be from the same suit — and they were also a winning combination. I know four cards don’t make a flush, but one of the songs is 18 minutes long, so I think that counts as two cards (at least).

The songs are actually from somewhat different genres of metal, but when I say they’re from the same suit I mean that they have this in common: BASS

I’m dividing this post into two parts, with two songs in each one. The next post will come later this morning.

GERYON

The first song I listened to was brand new, the first track released by a new band named Geryon. I listened to it mainly because Geryon is composed of two members of Krallice, Nicholas McMaster and Lev Weinstein, and the song was produced by a third, Colin Marston. I do like me some Krallice. But there were two other reasons, and you’re looking at one of them at the top of this post. Continue reading »

FUCK THE FACTS: “AMER”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  7 Responses »
Jun 052013
 

Just so you know where I’m coming from: I like grind but I don’t consider myself an expert in the field. Many people are far more passionate and knowledgable about every nook and cranny of it than I am. I do know enough to know that there is considerable variation in the music, despite what some people even less knowledgable than I am might think. I also know that Fuck the Facts aren’t your average grindcore band. Over the course of more than a decade’s worth of records and with a line-up that has remained stable for about the last five years, they’ve evolved into something exceptional, and the qualities that make them so worthy of attention are on full display in their forthcoming EP, Amer.

Amer’s music is complex, technically demanding, and in a near-constant state of flux within each of the EP’s seven songs. Those songs aren’t long — five are in the two-three minute range and two are less than two minutes long — but the band pack a lot of variety into those relatively small containers. They can definitely explode with blast-beat shrapnel and a blistering wall of accelerated guitar noise, but that’s only part of the story.

Fuck the Facts also come at you hard with industrial-strength jackhammer riffs and a ton of pulverising groove, accented by a massive bass guitar that oh-so-briefly even takes a lead role in the music. They rush ahead with convulsive rhythms, like a freight train with the trottle open. They drop heavily into slow, lumbering movements that produce a sensation of being slowly crushed into dust. They even weave swirling, near-clean lead-guitar melodies through the heavy explosiveness of the other instruments. Continue reading »

BANJO METAL REDUX: ERLING BRONSBERG COVERS GHOST’S “RITUAL”

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jun 052013
 

Two and a half years ago I wrote a post about “Banjo Metal” that continues to be visited and still leads to the occasional e-mail contact from people interested in the subject (Google “banjo metal” and see what comes up first). That post focused on metal bands who have used the banjo in some of their songs (plus an obligatory item on the magnificent Béla Fleck). Today brought us news of a different type of banjo metal — a banjo cover of a metal song.

Okay, some of you might quarrel with applying the term “metal” to Sweden’s Ghost. Hell, I’ve quarreled with myself about that. But hey, they do sing about Satan!

The cover is of Ghost’s best-known song, “Ritual”, and it’s performed on video by Erling Bronsberg, a skilled banjo player who e-mailed me about the cover last night. He’s based in Örebro, Sweden, and performs with a group called the Black River String Band. He uses “standard sawmill tuning” for this song, which probably means something to banjo players but to me simply sounds cool. His cover is cool, too. He puts a bluegrass spin on the melody without completely losing the song’s familiarity, and the picking is tasty. Check it out: Continue reading »

HEAVIBÄNDI IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

 Mosh Pit  10 Responses »
Jun 052013
 

(Hungarian student of the Finnish language Andrea Balogh, with Wintersun.)

I don’t know about you, but I usually enjoy reading about metal in mainstream publications, sometimes for the humor in seeing writers (who may not know what they’re talking about) trying to describe metal to the masses, and sometimes simply from the experience of seeing our world through the eyes of outsiders. The latest example came this morning in — of all places — The Wall Street Journal, that rightward-leaning, well-written, journalistic bastion of American corporate capitalism. But the article is worth reading not only for the usual reasons described above, but also because it describes a phenomenon that seems to be more widespread than I knew.

The subject of the article is a trend — well, “trend” may be an exaggeration — of people outside Scandinavia being drawn by metal to learn Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. It begins with a story about an American international relations major at the University of Washington here in Seattle named Michael Brown. His career aspirations are in the foreign service, and he’s studying the Finnish language — but not necessarily because it will be a useful language in his projected profession:

“It was heavy metal, unmistakably,” Mr. Brown said when asked what inspired him to pursue a language spoken by a nation that has fewer people, at 5.4 million, than Washington state. Finnish bands perform with a “dark woodsy resonance” that he has come to love, he says, and “the poetic and obscure nature of the Finnish tongue really gave it a unique wave.”

Dark woodsy resonance? Okay. Continue reading »

ENSHINE: “ORIGIN”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 052013
 

(DGR reviews the recently released album by a multi-national collective who call themselves Enshine.)

This is probably one of the most pretentious-sounding opening paragraphs I have ever written and for that I sincerely apologize.

One of the things that has always drawn me to the specific brand of European death-doom that Enshine wallows in is the sense of ethereal beauty that seems to weave its way through each song. Groups like October Tide and Swallow The Sun have mastered it; and bands like In Mourning incorporate many of these elements as well. Yes, it usually is tied into the feelings and delivery of melancholy and depression, but for some reason I’ve always found that stuff like that has a certain aura to which I am unerringly attracted. A person described it to me once, in reference to Swallow the Sun’s Hope disc, as devastatingly beautiful. I know I am going to like a disc like this if it takes me to a certain place I have set aside in my head, one of empty spaces, snow falling from the sky, long-since devastated cities. Places that you just know were beautiful long ago, and the sense of fragility that these vacant places emanates makes them beautiful now. If an album can take me to that place, evoke those images, then it’s almost guaranteed I will enjoy it. And so, even though I finally bit into Origin by Enshine during a heatwave out where I live, I find myself entranced by it.

Enshine is the two-man project of Jari Lindholm (Seas Of Tears, ex-Slumber) and Sebastian Pierre (Fractal Gates, Inborn Suffering). The group was founded in 2009 as a solo project for Jari, but eventually Sebastian would find his way into the group. According to their Facebook page they spent about two years in the studio working on what would become Origin, with the final dates being wrapped up in 2012. Hence, if you look them up elsewhere and see that even though they’ve been around for four years they only have Origin to their name, you will know why. Quality does take time, and who knows what was happening behind the curtain that could stall an album recording? All we really know is what we have in front of us, which is an excellent hybrid of death metal and doom metal that spreads out enough melody and melancholy to make this an enjoyable listen. Continue reading »

HARDBANGER: “FOURSOME”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jun 052013
 

I’m late to the Hardbanger party. This French band started releasing singles and accompanying videos back in the spring of 2012, beginning with “Neck”. Before the year ended, they released “She Says” and “Civilization” (a cover of a song by a French band named Justice). And then this past April they collected those three songs plus one more new one (“Shapes of Envy”) and released it as a debut EP in an unusual format, with the title of Foursome. I finally paid attention only yesterday. But believe me, in the case of Foursome, late is much better than never.

There are many things to like about what Hardbanger have done, beginning with the music of course. It doesn’t fit neatly into any recognizable sub-genre, which is part of its attraction. The sinister, mid-paced songs are built on a foundation of huge, beefy, stomping riffs, crushing bass tones, and relatively simple but utterly brain-thumping, low-end, rock-style drumbeats. The songs come at you like a blunt meat cleaver, and they’re about as instantly headbang-inducing as you could imagine.

The vocals are uber-deep, growled, and somewhat distorted. It’s like listening to Peter Steele doing harsh vocals, and I don’t mean something like the sound of his Carnivore vox. I mean that rich bass voice for which he’s best known in the music of Type O Negative, but rumbling like a cement mixer loaded with gravel. Yet the vocals are almost completely intelligible, with lyrics (particularly in the chorus) that make you want to sing along. Continue reading »

WOULD YOU BELIEVE A WINTERSUN-FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE-ARSIS-STARKILL TOUR? BELIEVE IT.

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Jun 042013
 

Well, North American Wintersun fans may have to wait until early 2014 for Time II, but we won’t have to wait that long to see the band in the flesh. Following up on a short run of 2012 dates in support of Time I, MetalSucks have just announced their sponsorship of a much more extensive Wintersun tour beginning this August. That alone would be hot news, but look who else will be along for that ride:

Fleshgod Apocalypse
Arsis
Starkill

Damn, this is going to be sweet. And maybe extra-sweet, because Wintersun are already hinting at surprises in their set list. Music from Time II maybe?

Check out the tour schedule next . . . . Continue reading »

GO WORSHIP “THE WORSHIP” BY TORTURE DIVISION

 Album Reviews, Free Shit, Metal News, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Jun 042013
 

Fuckin’ Torture Division have just released a new, free, three-song demo — The Worship — and it fuckin’ destroys, as pure Grade A undiluted death metal should.

For those who somehow remain ignorant about Torture Division, here’s a quick primer: The three members of the band – Lord K Philipson (guitar), Tobben Gustafsson (drums), and Jörgen Sandström (bass/vocals) — collectively have over 60 years of combined death metal experience, including membership in bands such as Grave, Entombed, Vicious Art, The Project Hate MCMXCIX, Vomitory, and God Among Insects.  In their words, “we know what we do, we love what we do and that we will keep on doing it until the end of days.”

They also have an unusual approach to recording and distributing their music. Their modus operandi is to release short demos and give them away for free. And today they made available The Worship as the latest installment in the series. It was again mixed and mastered by the masterful Dan Swanö, and is now available for download (along with a booklet) from his Unisound web site.

But first, you really need to read Torture Division’s introduction to The Worship, which is funny as shit. Plus, if you love what Torture Division are doing and how they’re doing it, as I do, then you need to throw them a donation to help finance the continuation of this fine demolition project. And to do both of those things, go HERE. Continue reading »

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