OVERFLOWING STREAMS

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Apr 232013
 

Within the last few days (and mostly today), seven albums I’m very high on (and have written about here) have begun streaming in full on various web sites. They shouldn’t be missed — it’s a great chance to check out the music before deciding whether to plunk down money for them.

Each of the sites where these streams are now available includes info on how to order or pre-order the albums, so I’m not going to take time to repeat that info here. I’m also not going to take the time to write about the music (though we do plan to review some of these albums) because . . . you can hear them right now! The relevant links are below, in alphabetical order.

ALTAR OF PLAGUES: TEETHED GLORY AND INJURY

http://pitchfork.com/advance/81-teethed-glory-and-injury/ Continue reading »

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN: “WHEN I LOST MY BET” (THE VIDEO)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Apr 232013
 

I’m going to pretend I’ve never heard of The Dillinger Escape Plan. I’m going to imagine that I have no idea what their music is like. I’m going to forget that I’ve heard “Prancer” from their new album and develop temporary amnesia about the fact that they convincingly lose their minds on stage, just as they often do in the studio. I’m just going to watch this brand new DEP video for a song called “When I Lost My Bet” and react to it with no preconceptions. I know I can do this. Here we go:

HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WHAT DID I JUST HEAR AND SEE?!?

The music is totally off the chain — bursts of grind-like freakazoidica, explosions of spastic riffing and un-strung rhythms, vein-bursting yells, fast and slow, loud and soft, insane and . . . insane.

And the visuals? Thoroughly surreal — umbilicals that go where they don’t go in nature, walls with mouths, feathers and blood, faceless heads, dust and dirt, and too many other things to even comprehend on a single viewing. Mitch Massie directed this video, and you can’t not watch it once it starts. So, brace yourselves . . . and watch it! Continue reading »

BLEEDING THROUGH — GOODBYE TO DEATH

 Concert Reviews  8 Responses »
Apr 232013
 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the final UK performance of Orange County’s Bleeding Through and provides his own very personal farewell to the band.)

So on Sunday, 21st of April, Bleeding Through played their final show in the UK. I was originally meant to be heading down to their London show on the Friday, but ended up spending the evening mildly hallucinating from some random illness I picked up, and so came close to missing the band entirely. Thankfully, although I wasn’t 100% by Sunday I was at least able to drag myself out and catch the band, performing the final date of this, their last-ever UK/Euro tour.

Now I realise some of you probably don’t like Bleeding Through, and whether that’s through a sincere dislike of what they do or because you simply wrote them off a long time ago, that’s ok. But I’ve been a fan for a long time now, ever since 2002’s Portrait Of The Goddess (I’m afraid I didn’t get in on the ground floor with Dust To Ashes, which probably makes me some kind of poser), and the announcement of the band’s impending dissolution definitely had me down in the doldrums.

So what I’m going to do here is to give my impressions of the gig, intercut with some video footage, followed by some final thoughts and feelings inspired by seeing the band for the very last time. Continue reading »

AFTER AN EIGHT-YEAR WAIT, EXTOL “OPEN THE GATES”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Apr 232013
 

Today Norway’s Extol released their first new music in more than eight years. The single “Open the Gates” appears on the band’s self-titled fifth album, which will be released by Indie Recordings on June 21 in Norway, Germany, and Austria, and on June 24 everywhere else in Europe, and by Facedown Records on June 25 in North America. Pre-orders in a variety of formats and bundles can now be placed here. Today the band also unveiled the album’s cover art, shown above, by the renowned Travis Smith.

For fans of this band, the wait has been a long one. In 2007, after six studio-releases, a Norwegian Grammy award nomination, worldwide touring with bands such as Mastodon and Opeth, critical praise, and the amassing of devoted legions of fans across the globe, Extol seemingly disappeared without any explanation. Cryptic hints began appearing in 2012 on an unheralded web site which suggested that a film might be in the works — and indeed, it turns out that a documentary film about Extol is indeed in production. And then it became clear that the band was working on new music. (To find out more about all these events, check out our October 2012 interview with Extol’s Peter Espevoll at this location).

We probably have some readers who weren’t even listening to metal during Extol’s hey-day. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the band, check out Andy Synn’s January 2011 SYNN REPORT on Extol, which includes a review of their entire discography plus sample songs. You can find that via this link.

But enough with the background . . . let’s move on to “Open the Gates”. Continue reading »

A BAND CONTEST WITH A VERY NICE PRIZE (FREE ALBUM ART BY SAM NELSON)

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Apr 232013
 

I know that most of our readers don’t spend time on Facebook (or at least most of you didn’t the last time we ran a readers’ poll to find out such things), but for those of you who do, you probably know that every afternoon here in the Pacific Northwest I post a piece of artwork or a photo on the NCS Facebook page. Most of the artwork is surreal or dark, and sometimes I also post artwork by metal album artists whose creations I like.

One of those artists, whose work I’ve also frequently featured here at the main NCS site, is Sam Nelson (“Stigma”). You’re looking at one of his new pieces at the top of this post, which has rapidly become one of my favorites among the things he’s done.

Not long ago, Stigma started a contest for bands, and it’s about time I said something about it. It’s a cool idea, and one that I hope other artists might pick up on. Here’s the message from his Facebook page: Continue reading »

HOWL, HUMILIATION, AND HYBRID

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 222013
 

There’s a theme to this post. Can you guess what it is?

HOWL

I’m so far behind in listening to new albums that I’ve given up home of ever catching up. The new one named Bloodlines from Howl is one I really want to hear. But so far all I’ve heard are two tracks, both of which are publicly streaming. I thought today would be a good day to mention them because today I saw the complete album art for Bloodlines. Kicks ass, don’t it?

The two tracks you can hear at moment are “Your Hell Begins”, which premiered at Loudwire but is now on Soundcloud, and “Attrition”, which is now on YouTube and Bandcamp. The former is a diseased death/doom juggernaut that will throw you for a loop before it finishes, and the latter (also diseased) is an up-tempo number that jabs like a prize-fighter, but with a lot of sludgy, low-end weight. I like both of them. Continue reading »

MISFORTUNE

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Apr 222013
 

My NCS comrades and I follow a large number of bands and labels on Facebook and through other news outlets. Not a week goes by without seeing a report of some new misfortune befalling one or more of them. During some weeks it’s a daily occurrence. Many of the misfortunes involve van break-downs or vehicular accidents while on tour. Others involve theft of gear or money. Sometimes, as you’ll see below, even the weather gods get involved.

The past week saw a string of calamities affecting bands we like quite a lot around here. They’ve all reached out to fans for financial support. This is not exactly a sure-fire means of getting back on your feet, because the average metal fan isn’t exactly swimming in free cash, but what else are you going to do?

We could easily make this a weekly feature: bands who’ve been fucked by human scum or fisted by the fickle hand of fate and who need help. I’m not saying we’re going to do that, but we’re doing it today. Here are stories and appeals for help from A Hill To Die Upon (Illinois), Jeff Loomis (Washington), and Eyeconoclast (Italy). Continue reading »

ROADBURN 2013 VIDEOS ONLINE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 222013
 

The 2013 edition of the Roadburn Festival took place over the last four days, from Thursday, April 18, to Sunday, April 21, 2013, in Tilburg, The Netherlands. There’s a dude whose web moniker is kkpgijsbers who lives in Tilburg and attends a lot of live shows and films them. He attended the 2013 edition of Roadburn and has been uploading a bunch of videos he shot of performances at the festival.

The audio and visual quality of these clips is generally excellent — kkpgijsbers obviously has good gear and he sets up at balcony-level, front-row vantage points that provide unobstructed views of the stages. So far this morning I’ve watched the film of Lantlôs performing “Intrauterine”, High On Fire performing “Snakes For the Divine”, Primordial delivering “The Gathering Wilderness”, Electric Wizard with “Witchcult Today” and “The Nightchild”, and Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats doing “Valley of the Dolls” with a excerpts of Sharon Tate’s appearance in the movie of the same name on the screen behind them.

I’ve embedded those videos after the jump, plus a random selection of other performances by Alcest, Godflesh, and Cult of Luna. You can find more Roadburn clips by visiting kkpgijsbers’ YouTube channel, and it appears that still more will be uploaded today and in the days to come. Continue reading »

A SUNDAY SERVING OF SOUNDS: ALRAUNE, HAUST, AND QUEST OF AIDANCE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 212013
 

Happy Sunday, motherfuckers (and I mean that in the most affectionate possible way). My ass is dragging this morning because (duh!) last night was Saturday night. I won’t go into detail about what I did, but it was the kind of activity that produces Sunday morning ass-dragging. Still, I found time while attempting to kick my ass-gear out of idle to listen to a scattering of new music, some of which I’d like to share with you now.

ALRAUNE

Allow me to introduce you to Alraune. They are from Nashville, but there ain’t no country in their music. There is, instead, a whole lot of napalm, poison, razor blades, heavy drum artillery, and truckloads of musical talent. They’ve put a two-song album preview up on Bandcamp. The songs are named “Exordium” and “Kissed By the Red”. They’re both about 8 minutes long. I love them both.

“Exordium” is a black metal blast furnace — a strong, hot wind of hell-ripping guitars, off-the-hook drumming, and throat-ruining shrieks — and as added bonuses, it includes not only an ass-kicking black ‘n’ roll break and but also very cool melodic lines that slither through the music like snakes. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DJEVEL, POWER TRIP, AND IN THE BURIAL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 202013
 

Here are three excellent new songs that caught my attention over the last 24 hours. The bands are Djevel (Norway), Power Trip (U.S.-Texas), and In the Burial (Australia).

DJEVEL

This band is composed of musicians from other well-known Norwegian bands, including vocalist Erlend Hjelvik (Kvelertak), bass-player Lloyd Hektoen (“Mannevond”) (Koldbrann, NettleCarrier), and drummer Dirge Rep (NettleCarrier, ex-Enslaved). But despite the impressive collective talent of those people, the star of this show is songwriter/guitarist Trond Ciekals (also in NettleCarrier). He shines on one of the band’s new songs, “Stjernesluker”, which premiered last week and will appear on Djevel’s second full-length, Besatt av Manne og Natt.

Even when the song is blasting and whipping like a cyclone, the tremolo melody casts a dark spell, but the music also transitions into a slow groove that will get your head nodding while more swirling guitar melodies work their magic. The rhythm section is also top-notch on this song, and Hjelvik delivers a sulfurous vocal performance. I like this song a lot, and it’s a promising sign for the album as a whole. Continue reading »

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