METAL CULTURE – PART 1

 Mosh Pit  26 Responses »
Feb 112013
 

photo by Peter Beste

(We’ve got something different for you, something I hope will provoke thinking and discussion.  This begins a 5-part post by cultural anthropologist [and metalhead] David Mollica on the subject of metal culture, based in part on extensive field research in bars.)

Hey NCS readers, Islander has kindly allowed me to talk at you about the metal community and why we do what we do for a little bit. I’m going to cover the whole media perception, violence, and counter-culture thing first to get it out of the way, then move on to some more interesting stuff in later posts. So first a little background:

I study cultural anthropology and mass media in addition to being a metal head and thought it would be cool to mix a little fun with my serious business. So, a couple years back I somehow managed to convince my adviser that letting me hang out in bars and listen to Iron Maiden was a legitimate form of fieldwork for my Master’s dissertation. The end result was a rambling 33 pages of material, some of which I’ll be talking about here. Since most of my field work took me to places where I had to keep up with the livers of London natives I may have missed a few things, so feel free to voice your thoughts in the comments. I like discussion. If you want a copy of the paper email me at gilderling@gmail.com.

Let’s start with a question you might not think about all the time: Why do you like Heavy Metal and what got you into it in the first place? Not only is this stuff grim, aggressive, angry and over the top, but we also see those things as standard positive qualities of the music. We expect macabre subjects and weird note progressions. So what drives us to listen to this instead of more mainstream or easy going stuff? Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 32: RUINS

 THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Feb 112013
 

(In this 32nd installment of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy Synn reviews the full-length discography of a band from the depths of Tasmania — Ruins.)

Recommended for fans of: Satyricon, Goatwhore, Shining (Sweden)

I’ve had this band primed and ready to go for a while now, but I’ve been waiting for the right moment to unleash it. With the release of their fourth album Place Of No Pity at the tail-end of last year, now seems the perfect time to introduce you to the cut-throat black metal of Ruins.

The Tasmanian twosome (Alex Pope on vocals and guitars, David Haley on drums – recently upgraded to a full quartet) started weaving their black magic in 2004 with the Atom and Time EP, and have since unloaded four lethal rounds of their brutal, remorseless attack into the world.

The guitar tone is the sound of a man strangling the life out of his instrument, wringing every drop of black blood from the contorted strings, the vocals a blast-furnace bellow of pestilential misanthropy, and the drums… Well, it’s the one-man wrecking machine David Haley behind the kit, delivering an overwhelming barrage of sonic devastation and brooding, slithering groove. Continue reading »

VREID’S NEW VIDEO FOR “THE REAP” IS KILLER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 112013
 

In our review of Vreid’s new album Welcome Farewell, Andy Synn compared the listening experience to sex. He said some other things, too, but that’s the part I remember. I remember the music, too. Welcome Farewell is dynamite, and destined to be on year-end lists of all right-thinking metalheads.

I think my favorite song on the album is “The Reap”. It’s massively infectious, with wonderful guitar melodies wrapped around a swinging rhythm, but still black at its core. It’s pretty much guaranteed to be on a certain year-end list I’ll be making 10 or 11 months from now. I’m so happy that the band chose this song for their first official video from Welcome Farewell.

I’m also really fuckin’ happy with the video, especially because it includes animation by Kim Holm, a Norwegian cartoonist who (among other things) created the separate pieces of artwork for each song on  Sólstafir’s 2011 album Svartir Sandar (I collected all of those creations in this post). I’d also like to applaud the video’s director Einar Loftesnes for making something that visually captures the spirit of the music so well.

Check out the video next; the album is due for release by Indie Recordings on March 5.
Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 70)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  6 Responses »
Feb 112013
 

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. It’s time for another edition of THAT’S METAL!, in which I collect photos, videos, and sometimes news items that I think are metal, even though they’re not music.

Today, our collection includes mirrored, floating trees; art that’s meant to disappear with the waves; spiders in the sky; a Kraken on camera; reflections that turn nothing into something; possibly the best condom ad ever created; “My Vag” (well, not mine); and a movie trailer that shines on like a crazy diamond.

ITEM ONE

Tracy Griffin is a professional photographer. For the last four years, off and on, she has been working on a project she calls “mirrors”. I haven’t found a description of exactly how she creates the photos, but in effect she makes mirror-image symmetries of trees, causing them to reflect back on themselves. As you can see in the example above, it appears as if the branches are floating.

The web site where I found the photos describes them as “looking alternately like enormous insects, or family crests, or racks of antlers on unseen stags”. Of course, to me and I suspect most of you, they look like black metal band logos — which is why they’re metal. Here are a few more: Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC (Part 3): ROTTING CHRIST, STARKILL, CULT OF LUNA, AND MUSE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

This is the third and final installment in my Sunday round-up of new music. These are all items that emerged last week, but I didn’t make room for them on the days of their release. After the first item, the remainder are all new videos.

ROTTING CHRIST

Allow me to repeat, for the third time, the new Rotting Christ album is brilliant. Its name is ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ (“Do What Thou Wilt”), and it’s scheduled for release by Season of Mist in North America on March 5. We’ve previously posted about the first two songs from the album that have been publicly unveiled — the title track “Kata Ton Demona Eaftou” and “In Yumen – Xibalba”. Last week, one more went up for listening — “P’unchaw Kachun – Tuta Kachun”. Since we’ll have a review soon, I’ll say only this about the new track: Listen.


Continue reading »

BANDS YOU NEED TO HEAR: SHATTERED SKIES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

(In this post, TheMadIsraeli reminds us about an Irish band he first introduced to us back in June 2011 — a band who have just released a single and video called “15 Minutes” from their forthcoming debut album.)

I decided to use a shirt design by this band since they don’t have official artwork for their upcoming full-length revealed yet.  I thought it quite badass.

Shattered Skies are a band I only gave a brief mention to on the site when I first started writing here.  They had a free to download debut EP out at the time called Reanimations which I included in an EP download bundle I had put together. I’ve followed the band since, because I really liked their sound and found it quite engrossing.  I felt doing a spotlight feature on them was appropriate at this time, especially since they’ve finally announced a full-length to be out this year titled The World We Used to Know.

Shattered Skies are a rather interesting band, stemming from the djent movement but having moved out into a rather odd arena that is all their own.  This band is an exception to the rule around here, a huge one, but one I feel worth bringing to the forefront.

Essentially what we have is a band who combine djent rhythmic conventions with Evergrey-style power metal. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC (Part 2): A HILL TO DIE UPON, THORNGOTH, AND OBLIVIONIZED

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

Here’s our second installment, with one more coming, of a Sunday smorgasbord of new metal for your entertainment and edification. Once again, we’re graced with brand new music from three old favorites around these parts. Let’s cut right to the chase:

A HILL TO DIE UPON

This Illinois band is a big favorite of ours; all of our previous ravings about them can be found here. Their last album, 2011’s Omens, garnered these words of praise from Andy Synn: “One of this year’s great discoveries, A Hill To Die Upon ply their trade in the bloodstained arena of blackened death metal, taking their cues from the crushing power of Satanica-era Behemoth and the decaying grooves of Sheol-era Naglfar all wrapped up in a monumental package of fire-brand riffage and pulsing drums that recalls Immortal in their prime.”

Yesterday, A Hill To Die Upon released a new single named “manden med leen”, which can be acquired for the dirt-cheap price of $1 on Bandcamp. The mid-paced song is majestic and magnetic (in part due to the effective addition of keyboards to the band’s repertoire), and includes an unexpected and quite interesting acoustic-sounding interlude. But at its core it still rips and crushes. Killer stuff. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC (Part 1): BILL SKINS FIFTH, KAKUNA Vs METAPOD, AND CONDUCTING FROM THE GRAVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

This may be a Sunday, but it’s not a sleepy one here on our metallic island. I have many new musics to spread around — so many that I’m dividing this round-up into 3 parts, this being the first. So as not to get too bogged down in rolling these out, I will attempt to minimize the verbiage, which of course goes against every fiber of my being. Ready, set, GO!

BILL SKINS FIFTH

Let’s start with metal from Finland. I’ve been following this band (whose name will be recognized by sharp-eyed fans of the movie Silence of the Lambs) since 2010, and have reviewed both of their EPs, which I recommend. For background, and a link for free download of their last EP (which we hosted), see all my previous blather here.

Bill Skins Fifth have now completed work on yet another EP, this one with the title For the Threat, and on Friday they premiered a lyric video for one of the new tracks, “Spotlight Junkie”. As I’ve come to expect from this band, “Spotlight Junkie” is a hook-filled slice of galloping/jabbing melodic death metal, with skull-scouring vocals, tasty dual-guitar dueling, a catchy chorus, and high energy. Check it out next (the EP can be pre-ordered here): Continue reading »

MANILLA ROAD’S NEW ALBUM “MYSTERIUM” IS NOW UP ON BANDCAMP

 Exceptions to the Rule  No Responses »
Feb 102013
 

This caught me by surprise.  I was taking one last, fast look around the internet before crawling into bed last night and happened to see a blurb that Manilla Road had released a new album for streaming and download on Bandcamp. Its name is Mysterium. The last I knew, it had been projected for release on February 19, but the debut clearly has been accelerated.

This is Manilla Road’s 16th full-length album in a career that goes back more than 30 years. But as someone who turned to metal relatively late in life, I missed most of that career, and really only started learning about them through my interest in Mark “The Shark” Shelton’s Hellwell project, which released an excellent debut album last year by the name of Beyond the Boundaries of Sin (featured here).

As I write this, I’ve only just begun listening to the album, but I sure am intrigued by what I’m hearing. This is, of course, a departure from the Rule around here — but even though the singing is clean, much of it still sounds evil. And the guitar performances are head-spinning (check out the fire-breathing solo on “Stand Your Ground”, for example). I’m digging the rough guitar tone, too. I’m even digging “The Battle of Bonchester Bridge”, which is pure old-school ballad, with another riveting guitar solo.

I’ll shut up now, schedule this post to appear on Sunday morning, and go back to listening to this album — which you can also do right after the jump. Continue reading »

KATAKLYSM: “PREVAIL” AND “HEAVEN’S VENOM”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Feb 092013
 

(After a bit of a break, TheMadIsraeli completes his reconsideration of the music of Kataklysm. To see what this is all about, check out his introduction to the series here. Previous installments can be found via this link.)

Alright! Now that we’re finally getting back to this, it’s time to wrap it up with the final two albums in Kataklysm’s present discography. Prevail and Heavens Venom are albums that, until this point, I never even listened to, but about which I always heard extremely mixed opinions.

Starting with Prevail, this was pretty much an attempt to recapture what Kataklysm had channeled on In the Arms of Devastation. I don’t blame them, because that album was definitely the best work of their modern era. Prevail is not as impenetrably unstoppable as In the Arms…, however it is still an extremely solid, excellent piece of work. I really love the opening song (title track) especially; it’s full of bulldozing groove and surging power.

The problem is, this album is obviously trying to cash in on the mark its predecessor left. The songwriting is as solid and MOST of the songs are as good, but this album suffers from a couple of draggers that really harm the consistency factor. That’s a flaw this album couldn’t afford, given that In the Arms… was a perfect record, insofar as their current sound is concerned. Songs like “Taking the World by Storm” just feel shamelessly phoned in. Contrasted with trailblazing numbers like “Chains Of Power”, they just feel a bit off as you listen. Continue reading »

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