EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE: NEW VIDEOS FROM PRIMAL ROCK REBELLION AND DEATH GRIPS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Oct 112012
 

 

We’re going off our usual beaten path of metallic extremity in this post, with two brand new videos from Primal Rock Rebellion and Death Grips. I thought both were worth watching, and so here they are. We’ll get back to our usual diet of gut rumbling music later today.

PRIMAL ROCK REBELLION

SikTh is no more (though a reunion could still happen), but SikTh’s Mikee Goodman is very much still alive and kicking. His two-man band Primal Rock Rebellion (formed with Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith) released a debut album earlier this year called Awoken Broken.

This morning I saw that PRR had released a new music video for a track from the album, “Tortured Tone”, and I decided to check it out. Goodman himself conceived, cast, and directed the clip, and it’s a visual feast. It includes a log cabins, woodland tranquility, seascape vistas, rainy cobble-stoned hills, Goodman and Smith performing in a huge bright field, a pretty girl, and a bit of creepy stop-motion animation.

As noted, the song isn’t the usual NCS fare, but it eventually pulls out some metal grit and heft, and it’s melodically memorable. Here you go: Continue reading »

DAYLIGHT DIES: “A FRAIL BECOMING”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Oct 112012
 

 

(Earlier this week Candlelight Records released the new album by North Carolina’s Daylight Dies. Here’s TheMadIsraeli’s review.)

Daylight Dies have reshaped the landscape of melodic death metal almost overnight.  Their brand of somber, melancholy, doom-infused walls of mourning melody has proven to be quite fucking badass, with a virtually flawless discography that has consistently commanded attention.  The way they weave the music with signature melodic transitions filled with sonic bereavement and darkness is something no other band does so well, each riff, section, or theme in itself taking the listener on a journey. This is one of those bands who just have a perfect batting record, a capacity for unleashing tear-soaked depressive weight conveyed with jolting heft.

Now we have A Frail Becoming, the group’s fourth LP to date.  Daylight Dies have added a new emotion to their palette of despair and misery, a sense of angst that gnashes at you with a wolve’s fangs.  This is a quality not so much heard in the music, as it is felt (although I would say this album is noticeably more aggressive and angrier than their previous efforts), though the band still maintain their lumbering doom cadence.

The album is definitely a high point of the year. While established bands who’ve followed in their footsteps such as In Mourning and newcomers such as Okera have provided us excellent releases this year, A Frail Becoming proves that Daylight Dies are still the sole masters of their craft. It delivers the same consistently high quality they’ve maintained throughout their three previous full-lengths. Continue reading »

BACK FROM THE FUTURE WITH REVOCATION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 112012
 

 

The engineers at Scion have apparently figured out how to make time machines as well as cars. I know this because yesterday Scion A/V released video footage of a reunion show by Boston’s Revocation from the year 2055. The clip shows them performing “The Grip Tightens” from the band’s new EP Teratogenesis. The song seems to have stood the test of time, because all the geezers in the nursing home where Revocation crank up the song seem to be diggin’ it.

It’s really good to see that the guys have stayed together over the course of many decades, and that they can still cause women to throw their panties during shows. They’re still pretty spry, too, for a bunch of old fuckers. Sure, they need some oxygen supplementation and added dietary fiber, along with the occasional helping hand from the nursing staff, but fuck, they can still really bring the shred.

“The Grip Tightens” is a mind-blowing song. The video, directed by David Brodsky, is a really big smile, too — one of the year’s best. Don’t miss the cameo performance by guitarist Evan Duplessis from Sexcrement as Dr. PeePaw. Watch it after the jump. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: DOOMSDAY S/T

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Oct 102012
 

Chicago guitarist Jeff Wilson is a busy dude. In addition to his bands Chrome Waves and Wolvhammer, both of which we’ve praised here at NCS in the past, he’s also a driving force in a new collective called Doomsday. He’s got some heavyweight talent along for the Doomsday ride, too:

Bassist Bob Fouts (The Gates of Slumber, Chrome Waves, Apostle Of Solitude)
Guitarist/vocalist Jon Woodring (Bones)
Drummer Zack Simmons (Goatwhore)
Vocalist Zion Meagher (Anti-Human Thesis).

In some ways this group is like a Nachtmystium alumni reunion, since Wilson, Woodring, Simmons, and Meagher were all previously involved with that band — and Doomsday’s self-titled, six-song EP was engineered by Nachtmystium’s Sanford Parker, along with Carl Byers (Coffinworm). It will be released on November 6 by Wilson’s newly founded label Disorder Recordings, and it features brilliantly occult cover art by Christina Caperson.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten the details out of the way and nearly sunk this review under the weight of all those links, I do have a few words to say about the music: It’s really fuckin’ good. Continue reading »

PLANKS, TRAINWRECK, LENTIC WATERS, KNIFEFIGHT

 Album Reviews, Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 102012
 

I caved in to impulse again this morning.  While browsing the interhole to see what was happening in the world of metal, I saw a Facebook post by Planks about a show they’re playing in Plauen, Germany on November 16 with two other German bands, Trainwreck and Lentic Waters. Event details can be found here. The show seems to be part of a two-day fest called Deaf Row, and I came across a flyer for the fest that I thought was cool enough to paste on the top of this post.

Hannover is on the other side of the world from where I live in Seattle, so it seems unlikely that I’ll be at that show, unless of course the Seattle tech geeks figure out how to get my fuckin’ teleporter working again. I’ve become a big fan of Planks but didn’t know anything about Trainwreck or Lentic Waters, so I thought, what the fuck, time to check out some new music!

PLANKS

I first heard the music of Planks over the most recent Labor Day weekend and wrote about them here. What I heard was a Bandcamp stream of Planks’ amazing new album, Funeral Mouth, which is being released on October 12 but can be downloaded via that Bandcamp link right now.

In compiling today’s post, I discovered that Planks also recorded a split with one of the other bands featured on that November 16 show, Lentic Waters. The split was released in June of this year on vinyl by Apocaplexy Records (which can be ordered here), but it turns out that Apopoplexy also made the split available for free download via a link on this page. Continue reading »

“EYE OF THE SPARROW”

 Off Topic  8 Responses »
Oct 092012
 


 

This is way off-topic, except it does have singing and music.  Also, I laughed until I pissed myself.  So I thought I would feel even more comfy as I soak in my own urine if I knew that you were pissing yourself, too.  In fact, I do feel comfy already! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DAYLIGHT DIES, ARES KINGDOM, SYSTEM DIVIDE, AND ULCERATE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 092012
 

Here are a few items of interest I saw between yesterday and today that I thought were worth throwing in your general direction. Catch!

DAYLIGHT DIES

A Frail Becoming, the new album by North Carolina’s Daylight Dies, is being officially released today by Candlelight Records. It’s very, very good. I hope we will have a review soon, because the album deserves whatever we can do to help spread the word.

The latest song to be released for streaming is the album’s fourth track, “Dreaming of Breathing”, which is the subject of a music video directed by Ramon Boutviseth that debuted yesterday. It’s a beautifully filmed video, and the narrative portion suits the moody, dreamlike ambience of the music, while the band footage suits all the thundering that Daylight Dies do so well in their doom-influenced brand of melodic death metal.

Check it out next . . . Continue reading »

MARYLAND DEATHFEST ANNOUNCES FINAL 2013 LINE-UP

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Oct 092012
 

About a half hour ago the organizers of MARYLAND DEATHFEST announced the final line-up for MDF XI, the 2013 edition of the best extreme fest in these United States — except for one band whose name is yet to come.

This line-up is stunning.  I don’t really have anything more to say about it.  Feast your eyes on the new additions and the full line-up, plus some explanatory notes and ticket info from MDF at the end:

DOWN
(the) MELVINS
THE OBSESSED
ASCENSION (Germany) – Exclusive US appearance!
UFOMAMMUT (Italy)
COBALT
DEIPHAGO (Philippines/Costa Rica)
EVOKEN
NECROPSY

Confirmed for Baltimore Soundstage (no barricade shows): Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FULL ALBUM STREAM OF UNDERCROFT’S “RUINS OF GOMORRAH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Oct 092012
 

Roughly a decade has passed since Undercroft left Chile for Northern Europe. Roughly six years have passed since the band’s last studio release, during which time Undercroft’s vocalist and bassist Alvaro Lillo became a live performing member of Watain. But this group has re-grouped, and the blood of their homeland beats in this new album, the band’s sixth since 1995, Ruins of Gomorrah.

Undercroft hook you up like Frankenstein’s monster. They drive those iron bolts into your neck and then bring down the lightning in one super-charged rhythmic blast after another until you just can’t help but jump and bang your helpless head. This is maggot-ridden, old-school death metal that’s so packed full of deep-grooved, beefy riffs and mauling percussion that even rotting flesh could not help but move with the rhythm.

But as much of a riff-monster as this album is, it’s also something more. Listen to “El Triunfo De La Muerte” and “Emplando Al Invasor” and you’ll hear the rhythms of South America in the “tribal” drumming and the melodies, and you’ll even be surprised by brief trumpet notes in the latter track before being engulfed in a decimating explosion of blast beats and huge, grinding riffs. And, holy hell, there are congas and acoustic guitar in the title track. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: BLAKE JUDD (NACHTMYSTIUM)

 Interviews  5 Responses »
Oct 092012
 

(One of the most-read pieces we’ve ever published at NCS was BadWolf’s May 2011 interview of Blake Judd and his bandmates in Nachtmytium. This year brought us a new Nachtmystium album — Silencing Machine — and another BadWolf interview of Blake Judd, which follows.)

This interview happened on july fifth.

Yeah.

This interview sat on my hard drive for a few months, gumming up the works. Blake Judd was my first ‘break’ as a blogger on this very website. Since then he’s become one of my favorite people to work with (when you can keep him in one place for more than ten seconds). Honestly, I found that interview so hard to follow that I nearly deleted this one. But you deserve to hear it. Judd only gives excellent interviews, and his new album, Silencing Machine [reviewed here]  is likewise excellent.

Judd and I shot the shit for close to a half hour, talking about the cancellation of Gathering of Shadows fest, Roadburn, the new record, marriage, and what makes a good song.

 

BadWolf: The heat’s really fucking with me. I don’t know how people stand it.

Blake Judd: I was at South by Southwest earlier this year. Probably the tenth time I’ve been to Austin and I love that city, I’d love to live there. When it gets cold I keep saying to the wife we should move down there. Then you get a day like this? No way I could ever live somewhere this hot. Continue reading »

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