NO CLEAN SINGING

THE 40 BEST METAL ALBUMS I HEARD BEFORE DECEMBER 15: A LIST BY KAZZ

Dec 292012

(In this guest post, NCS supporter Kazz lights the way through his list of the Top 40 metal albums of 2012, with selected commentary.)

This is a top 40. But instead of just writing some stuff about the top 10 (or, frighteningly, all 40) I just picked out a few releases that I felt were under the radar and needed to have some more words on the internet about them (except for my number one pick, which I couldn’t resist adding my 2 cents on). I’ll start at 25 because all the albums I wanted to write about are in that portion.

25. Arkhamin Kirjasto– Torches Ablaze

24. Six Feet Under– Undead

23. Forefather– Last of the Line

Forefather isn’t reinventing the wheel here, but they’re playing a style that they’ve been one of the leaders in for over ten years. Their melodic/epic take on Viking/folk metal is full of memorable and stirring hooks. Vocals alternate between competent rasps and soaring cleans while keyboards add some texture to their driving Anglo-Saxon anthems. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF 2012: LISTS FROM AUSTIN WEBER

Dec 292012

(We welcome back Louisville-based music writer Austin Webber with his personal round-up of the year’s best metal, organized by genre and accompanied by lots of music. This is a really diverse list with lots of names that haven’t appeared in our previous lists. The album art for almost all of these picks is also amazing.)

2012 was a great year for a wide range of metal subgenres and one that also solidified its future through the progression of many genre-muddying acts to quite interesting results! I’ve decided not to elaborate on the merits of this year’s obvious biggies and a large number of other bands because they are already on everyone else’s lists, and thus you’ve been made aware of them too many times. A few here you may know, but hopefully you find something new. That’s my goal and the reason for this list.

For albums I already reviewed through my gig with LEO Weekly (a local Louisville, KY print publication with additional online component) I will paste in my reviews of them instead of writing a short synopsis. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2012’s MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 1

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2012 11 Responses »

Dec 282012

(To see what this list is all about, read the introductory post via this link.)

I listened to a greater variety of metal this year than ever before, branching out more seriously into certain sub-genres that I had largely neglected in the past. It was fun, but I’m now paying a heavy price.

How heavy? Here’s how heavy: My list of candidates for this year’s selection of the Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, drawn from my own listening and recommendations from readers and NCS staff, consists of more than 230 songs from over 160 bands.

I’ve explained before that I don’t make my own annual list of the year’s best albums because I have so much trouble comparing large numbers of albums from different genres to each other. Also, I’m indecisive by nature. So how in the world am I going to whittle own a list of more than 230 songs into a smaller group of 20 or 30? Honestly, I have no fucking idea. However, as the Chinese philosopher Laozi wrote, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. So I’m stepping off now . . . and I hope I will find a way to finish the list before old age claims all of us.

Because I felt the need to get this thing going despite the fact that I haven’t finished the final list, I decided to start with a couple of easy decisions. We begin with two great songs by two bands who are favorites of this site and whose 2012 albums have become quite popular across much of metaldom. Continue reading »

YOUTUBE TAKES DOWN BILLIONS OF PHONY MUSIC VIDEO VIEWS

Metal News 21 Responses »

Dec 282012

UPDATE: The following post as originally written was based upon reports from the two sources identified at the end of the post. It now appears that one of those reports — which claimed that YouTube’s reduction in view counts was due to fraudulent count-inflating practices by record labels — was an exaggeration. While a portion of the view counts were indeed eliminated because they did not represent legitimate views, the vast majority were apparently removed for other reasons, at least according to this article, which was published after my original write-up:

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/what-really-happened-to-sony-and-universal-1008059892.story

********

Here’s an interesting piece of news: Within the last 30 days, YouTube has deleted more than 2 billion fake video views in the music channels of Universal, Sony, and RCA. And it didn’t stop there. At the same time, YouTube deleted preexisting views from more than 500 other prominent YouTube channels.

Google, which owns YouTube, has asserted that all of these companies and YouTube users violated its terms of service by artificially inflating their video views through the use of so-called “black hat” view-building services who use automated methods to create video views that in fact never existed.

Sony/BMG’s YouTube channel was hit the hardest with views dropping from a total of more than 850 million to just 2.3 million. RCA declined by 159 million views to a total of 120 million. Universal lost more than 1 billion views and now stands below 6 billion.

In addition, each of these labels’ YouTube archives have suddenly dried up. Universal’s channel now features only five videos, none of which are actual songs, and Sony’s page is currently empty.

Among individual musician channels, Britney Spears’ channel lost 462,567,893 views and Chris Brown’s lost 187,412,448. LOL.

I checked YouTube statistics compiled by analysts at SocialBlade, to see if any YouTube channels for any metal artists had been subjected to this purge. Skimming their data, I found this: Continue reading »

RICHARD DONAHUE’S FAVORITE RECORDS OF 2012 (and a few other lists)

Listmania, LISTMANIA 2012 4 Responses »

Dec 282012

(In this guest post, NCS reader Richard Donahue shares his lists of favorite 2012 albums, honorable mentions, and the best metal tracks of the year.)

1. Goatwhore – Blood For The Master (TIE)

Their best record to date; if you consider yourself a fan of metal and don’t listen to Goatwhore or own this record, I pity thee.

AND

1. Testament – Dark Roots of Earth (TIE)

Featuring some of the best guitar work of the year by Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson, Testament prove yet again to be one of the most consistent bands of their genre; Pure Heavy American Thrash Metal at its finest. Continue reading »

OMNIUM GATHERUM: “BEYOND”

Album Reviews 9 Responses »

Dec 282012

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the forthcoming sixth album by Finland’s Omnium Gatherum.)

Now this… this is a special little something.

While superficially it might seem that the album is simply a continuation of the (pretty phenomenal) direction established by the previous two albums, it’s actually far more than that. Beneath the sheen of stainless melodic steel and furious Finnish thunder lies an electric current of progressive dynamism, all fused together into one state-of-the art musical package.

Looking at the previous two albums, if The Redshift was where the band discovered and started to stretch their new-found musical muscles, surprising even themselves with their growing potential, then New World Shadows was where the band put those muscles to a real test… and STILL found themselves surprised by what they were capable of. Which makes Beyond the moment where they realised that maybe there’s nothing they can’t do…

PUNMAN’S TOP 10-ISH OF THE YEAR

Listmania, LISTMANIA 2012 7 Responses »

Dec 282012

(Today we forge ahead with year-end Listmania by bringing you a guest post by a dude who calls himself Punman. So far, every list we’ve published has brought us something new, and this one is no exception.)

I’ll preface this with an immediate apology that many of these bands break the nominal rule of this site. But these are the albums I’ve found most compelling this year. Are they the best? Maybe. Most listened to? Not necessarily. The material I enjoyed the most — yes, that’s more like it. They’re not genre-busters, they’re not necessarily the most innovative (though some are), they’re just what I liked, what caught my ear, what I played and replayed and said “WOW THIS SHIT IS GOOD” or something like that.

I find lists of this sort to be a real masturbatory exercise, but that can be fun sometimes. Mostly, I just like looking at others’ lists. (And … shit just got creepy, didn’t it.)

So, here we go: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: TAAKE, WORMROT AND A GOAT, YELLOWGOAT, and MOTH

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 12 Responses »

Dec 272012

And here we go again . . . a round-up of things I saw and heard by sifting through the effluent of the internet and my e-mail in-box in search of shiny nuggets.

TAAKE

I learned this: It turns out that 2013 will mark the 20th anniversary of metal musicianship for Hoest, the main man behind Norwegian black metal veterans Taake. The fact that Hoest is still alive and making music of any kind is worth celebrating all by itself. The fact that Taake continue to deliver superb metal is icing on the birthday cake.

Here’s one of the things that’s being done to celebrate the anniversary: On March 1 in Norway and March 4 everywhere else, Dark Essence Records will be releasing a 20-song, 2-CD collection of Taake music entitled Gravkamre, Kroner og Troner (“Burial Chambers, Crowns and Thrones”). The contents are primarily rare and previously unreleased songs, as well as alternative versions and recordings that have previously been available only on vinyl — but the album will also include exclusive new tracks.

Today I saw that Taake have begun streaming one of the tracks from this anniversary album named “Et Pust av Oeyne”. It’s a riff-heavy mosh-trigger of a song, marked by Hoest’s scathing vocal attack and some old-school, hard-rocking rhythms. It also includes a dose of blasting and thrashing, as well as a lengthy, spiraling melodic breakdown.

I’m really digging the variations in the song and hope you will, too. Continue reading »

HAPPY METAL GUY’S SOUNDTRACK TO THE METALOCALYPSE

Listmania, LISTMANIA 2012 4 Responses »

Dec 272012

(As part of our continuing year-end Listmania series, we welcome back guest contributor Happy Metal Guy. This post may make somewhat more sense to you if you also read Happy Metal Guy’s Metalocalypse Survival Guide.)

The unmetal horde is spreading its presence faster than I thought, and I dread the day their inferior presence taints the great, freezing kingdom of true metal in the North.

I can see the horde approaching in the distance. I need to plan my escape route to the next safehouse as soon as possible. But first, if you are reading this and this abandoned safehouse seems deserted and bloodless, it means that I have already safely made my way to the next safehouse.

This fateful year, I could not have made it through the unmetal apocalypse without the aid of the following soundtrack. These are the records that get me “into the mood” to slaughter those unmetal beanpoles as mercilessly as Scyther slashing through a field of burnt Bellsprouts. However, listen to them at your own risk! ‘Cos if they don’t work for you, you might be better off not listening to them at all while on the run; better to have your ears unplugged while escaping than to stubbornly adhere to someone else’s personal playlist. You wouldn’t want to end up like Egoistic Metal Guy, who is now that emaciated figure shambling about the floor just above you. The following soundtrack did not work for him, but he plugged those earphones into his ears anyway to give himself a “handicap”, so that the “piteous unmetal poseurs” could have a fair fight with him.

Well, so much for his valor. Continue reading »

NEW PESTILENCE? YES, NEW PESTILENCE — “OBSIDEO” IS COMING

Metal News 3 Responses »

Dec 272012

I can say two things about Pestilence with utter conviction. First, your education as a trve fan of extreme music is incomplete unless you have heard Consuming Impulse (1989) — or really, any one of their first three albums. And second, their most recent album Doctrine (2011) was extremely divisive. Many critics and fans slammed it hard, while others (including yours truly) enjoyed it, notwithstanding (and indeed partly because of) the forays into groove, the renewed adventuring in jazz fusion, and Patrick Mameli’s vocal acrobatics, which were more often elevated into a higher range than on previous releases.

In the wake of Doctrine, bass player extraordinaire Jeroen Paul Thesseling and drummer Yuma van Eekelen left the band to concentrate on other projects, and it was unclear what would happen to Pestilence next. We now have a much better idea. Shortly before Christmas, and without much fanfare, the album art you see above surfaced on Facebook. It’s for a new Pestilence album named Obsideo. It was created by Santiago Jaramillo of Triple Seis Design and it’s damned cool.

In addition, as previously announced by the band, the new album will feature Stephan Fimmer (Necrophagist) on bass and David Haley (Psycroptic) on drums, and the plan is for both of them to play with Pestilence at live shows as well as in the studio.

I don’t have a release date yet — in fact, I don’t think recording has begun, although the writing of the songs has been completed. However, I do have some comments by Patrick Mameli about the new album. Continue reading »

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