SIGHT UNSEEN: ENSLAVED, THE FAT DUKES OF FUCK, CASTLE, AND DEATH GRIPS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 172012
 

Okay, I fuckin’ give up. I wasn’t bullshitting when I wrote in today’s first post that I was having to get on an airplane again. I also wasn’t bullshitting when I said that airports and airplanes make me cranky. That may seem spoiled, since lots of people have never see the inside of an airplane, or only rarely. But it’s just a fact: I have to fly a lot for my fuckin’ day job, and it’s not a thrill.

I do it so much that whenever I’m on a jet with wi-fi, I pay the freight for that, mainly so I can still pay attention to what’s happening in metal and keep NCS current. Which is what I did today. Only problem is that this is a long flight that passes over a whole lotta fuckin’ nothing, and the wi-fi is (a) intermittent, (b) slow, and (c) really fuckin’ slow. Which means it’s good enough that I can read things but not good enough for me to stream audio or video without constant stops and freezes.

I’ve been trying for the last hour to watch three brand new videos, with no luck. The flight has been really turbulent, too, and I feel like I’m gonna barf at any moment.

So I’m just going to assume these videos are good. Also, as you’ll see, there are reasons to believe they ARE good. But I’m mainly just takin’ that on faith and putting them on the site, sight unseen. Hope you like them. The music is from Enslaved, The Fat Dukes of Fuck, Castle, and Death Grips.

Also, I wanted to alert you to the fact that Wintersun’s forthcoming album Time I, is streaming in full HERE (thank you Fersas). Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE . . .UNEXPECTED COVERS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 172012
 

(UK-based NCS scribe Andy Synn makes an appearance with another five-fold list of “favourite” things.  Such wasteful use of vowels.)

I realise I’ve been off the grid for a bit now (though I am working on some reviews, a 30th edition of The Synn Report, and an awesome interview) so in between balancing all that, work pressures, and 2 bands, I thought I’d drop you another irreverent column on five of my favourite things.

 

BEFORE THE DAWN – BITTER END (PLACEBO COVER)

Such an odd choice, but one which works perfectly, taking the darkly gothic atmosphere of the original and replacing its more pop orientation with some heavy metal riffage and a meaty drumming backbone. The vocal interplay is also sublime, the predominant clean croons matched with a bullish, anguished growl from Tuomas Saukkonen. Continue reading »

DIE ANTWOORD, VOMITOR, AND GIVE ZOMBIES THE VOTE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Oct 172012
 

Hey dudes and dudettes, what up this fine morning? I’ll tell you what’s up with me: I’m fuckin’ groggy and worn out from jetting around the damn country for my fuckin’ day job over the last three days, and I’m about to go back out to the goddamn airport AGAIN after one night sleeping in my own bed.

I’m tired of standing in lines. I’m tired of the TSA workers sticking their fingers in my bunghole and giving me the shit eye, as if they knew I was a coke mule, which of course they don’t because they’re not gettin’ far enough up my asshole to know the truth. I’m tired of the screaming brats who seem drawn to my part of the fuckin’ planes like it was a big magnetic nursing tit. I’m tired of other people poaching on my personal blogging time like they expect me to actually work for my pay (what a fuckin’ quaint idea).

And mainly I’m just tired. Lack of sleep compounded by airport and airplane fuckery makes me grumpy, as you might have noticed. But at the moment I’m experiencing a rare moment of cheeriness because of the three items in this post. It will pass, and I’ll become a shitty presence for all the poor motherfuckers I encounter again today, but for now I’m passing on the cheer: A new music video from Die Antwoord (South Africa); new songs from Vomitor (Australia); and yet another new-ish video from Give Zombies the Vote (Zombieland).

DIE ANTWOORD

No, they’re not a metal band, but they’re zef. I don’t know exactly what zef means, but I think it means metal. They released a new music video yesterday for “Fatty Boom Boom” from their album TEN$ION on ZEF RECORDZ. I don’t even particularly enjoy rap music, but this video gave me some big smiles. And if you don’t like it, you can SUIG MY FOKKEN PIEL! Hier kom ek weer, like a lekker smack in da face, right after the jump. Vagina prawn. Continue reading »

“THE ONLY GOOD TORY”: AN UPDATE

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Oct 162012
 

Just over one week ago we released our first album of music in cooperation with GRIND TO DEATH. Entitled The Only Good Tory, it’s a compilation of 46 songs from 46 bands, focused on UK grind, powerviolence, harsh crust, and fastcore, and it showcases a tremendous array of head-wrecking talent.

Our goal for this release was and is solely to spread the music. Each of the bands agreed to contribute their tracks to this effort, and we in turn have made it available on the NCS Bandcamp page as a free download (along with accompanying tracklist and booklet of artwork for each song by Kex Whelan). In the 9 days since the Bandcamp page went live, we’ve had almost 5,000 song plays and nearly 500 downloads of the album.

We’re also having a limited edition run of cassette tapes made by the awesome DIY Noise, but we’re going to be giving those tapes away, too. Here at NCS, we’ll have a tapes to give away through a contest designed and judged by Special NCS Contest Consultant, Phro. More details about that will be forthcoming.

We’re also in discussions with a label who is interested in releasing the comp as a CD. Of course, we won’t do that without the consent of all bands, and in any case, no profit from any CD sales will go to us.

And last, but certainly not least, we have this one further update: We’ve added a bonus track to the Bandcamp album. Continue reading »

BEHEXEN: “NIGHTSIDE EMANATIONS” ALBUM STREAM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 162012
 

About three weeks ago, after a four-year wait, the fourth album by Finland’s Behexen — Nightside Emanations — appeared via their new label Debemur Morti. It’s an album I’ve been meaning to check out, because Behexen holds such a revered place among die-hard devotees of black metal. Today, that became a very easy thing to do.

DECIBEL magazine’s on-line site (here) has begun streaming the entire album in a feature that also includes an interview with Wraath, one of the two guitarists who joined Behexen after release of the band’s last album, My Soul For His Glory (2008). The new album reflects the contributions of those two, in addition to the band’s two original members, vocalist Hoath Torog and drummer Horns (both of whom are also in Sargeist).

At this writing, I’ve only made my way through the first half of the new album. I’m not sure how it compares to Behexen’s previous releases, but I’m liking what I hear. With the exception of the cathedral-organ “Intro” and “Circle Me”, which is a mid-paced, doom-laden crusher, the music is intense and furious. The vocals are vile, the guitars are flensing, and the drums are vicious.

DECIBEL was nice enough to run the stream in an embeddable player, so you can check out the album following the jump. Continue reading »

KUOLEMANLAAKSO AND DESTINITY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 162012
 

Let’s start this day at NCS with a contrast — two new songs from forthcoming albums that are on opposite ends of the speed spectrum. The first comes from a new Finnish band — Kuolemanlaakso — whose members include some names I’m pretty sure most of you will recognize. The second is from a new release by a French band — Destinity — whose last album I really liked and whose new one is also sounding excellent.

KUOLEMANLAAKSO

This band’s Finnish name means “Death Valley”. It began as a one-man project of guitarist Markus Laakso (Chaosweaver). After recording a handful of demo tracks, he recruited a group of additional musicians to flesh out the band:  vocalist Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun, Barren Earth), guitarist Savon Surma (“Kouta”) (Chaosweaver, ex-Verjnuarmu), bassist Tuomo Räisänen (“Usva”) (Elenium, The Nibiruan), and drummer Toni Ronkainen (“Tiera”) (Discard, Cult of Endtime).

Together they recorded an album at Woodshed Studio in Germany with V. Santura of Triptykon and Dark Fortress fame, who also mixed and mastered the music. The album is named Uljas uusi maailma (“Brave New World”) and it’s now scheduled for release by Svart Records on November 23. The cover art by Maahy Abdul Muhsin is a real eye-catcher — it’s right after the jump. Continue reading »

CATTLE DECAPITATION’S NEW VIDEO FOR “FORCED GENDER REASSIGNMENT” SETS A NEW STANDARD FOR FOULNESS

 Album Reviews  44 Responses »
Oct 152012
 

“WARNING: The video you are about to watch is incredibly gory, violent, and features strong sexual violence including rape and sexual assault. Bloody-Disgusting does not endorse or condone any of the actions seen in this video. It is to be viewed as entertainment only.”

That’s the warning that appeared in advance of Bloody Disgusting’s premiere not long ago for the new official video by Cattle Decapitation for “Forced Gender Reassignment”, a track off their decimating 2012 album Monolith of Inhumanity. And that warning appeared after the site explained that the video had been rejected by both YouTube and Vimeo.

I took all this with a grain of salt. I mean, let’s face it, we live in a culture totally stuffed with hype, because hyperbole sells. Having now watched the video, I’m here to tell you: The warning is not hype. Mitch Massie has made something utterly foul and disturbing, with explicit scenes of torture and rape and the brutalization of human flesh. It’s so NSFW that you’re probably not even safe watching it in the same city where you work. Continue reading »

WINTERSUN, FRONT AND BACK: LIVE IN HELSINKI ON OCT 13, 2012

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Oct 152012
 

The very long-awaited new album from Finland’s Wintersun — Time I — is only days away from official release. In the run-up to the official unveiling, Wintersun have begun posting video of their entire sold-out performance on October 13 at the Nosturi venue in Helsinki.

Each day they plan to upload two videos for each song in the set. One video will be a drum-cam clip, showcasing the considerable talents of Wintersun’s hitter Kai Hahto, and the second video is shot from the audience’s perspective, facing the stage.

To inaugurate this series of videos, the band today uploaded the dual clips for “Winter Madness”, a song from their 2004 debut album. The song and the performance combine many of the qualities that made the album such a hit with so many people — the hell-for-leather speed and intensity of melodic death metal, melodies that borrow from both power metal and epic folk/viking metal, and the shred explosions of ex-Ensiferum frontman Jari Mäenpää.

Catch both videos for “Winter Madness” after the jump. Continue reading »

THE LEVITATION HEX AND ATRETIC INTESTINE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Oct 152012
 

I decided to start off the new week of NCS posts with two new discoveries from opposite ends of the Earth: The Levitation Hex from Australia and Atretic Intestine from Finland.

THE LEVITATION HEX

I found out about The Levitation Hex thanks to an e-mail from fireangel of the Night Elves blog. Not knowing anything about them, she caught part of their show at the Progpower Europe festival in early October, and they obviously made quite a favorable impression on her, not only because of the music but also because of their stage presence. I’ve watched their recently released music video and one other track that’s streaming via Soundcloud, and they’ve made quite the favorable impression on me, too.

The band was formed in 2010 by Adam Agius, the former frontman and guitarist of a long-running Australian metal group named Alchemist. He recruited Alarum bassist Mark Palfreyman, and they were eventually joined by drummer Ben Hocking of Aeon of Horus and ex-Alarum guitarist Scott Young. This past summer The Levitation Hex released their self-titled debut album, which features the very cool cover art of Glenn Smith.  Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC: STRATOS SUCCESS FOR FELIX BAUMGARTNER

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  13 Responses »
Oct 142012
 

In one of our THAT’S METAL! posts back in early August (here), we included an item about the plans of Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner (a/k/a “Fearless Felix”) to make a parachute jump from a height of 120,000 feet and break the sound barrier with his body as he was in free-fall. The project, called Stratos, was being funded by Red Bull. And earlier today, Fearless Felix achieved his goal.

He ascended 24 miles into the sky via a gigantic balloon (55 stories tall) filled with 30 million cubic feet of helium and then jumped — from a height of 128,000 feet above the Earth, reaching a top speed of 833.9 mph. That amounts to Mach 1.24, which is faster than the speed of sound. No one has ever reached that speed wearing only a high-tech suit.

In one of those coincidences of history, Baumgartner did this 65 years to the day — Oct. 14, 1947 — after pilot Chuck Yaeger (of “The Right Stuff” fame) broke the sound barrier in an aircraft. If it had been me 128,000 feet up, looking down at the planet through an open door, my final words would have been “FUCK THIS!  I’VE CHANGED MY FREAKIN’ MIND!” Instead, Baumgartner’s words before he took the plunge were these:

“Sometimes you have to go really high to see how small you are.” Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries