ARSIS: “LEPERS CARESS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Dec 162012
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new, free EP by Virginia’s Arsis.)

Scion A/V really needs to stop putting out great metal before I buy a car.

Arsis have returned with a new EP Lepers Caress that crashes into your consciousness at maximum velocity.  I’m going to assume everyone knows who these guys are — they’ve been a long-established band who have stood out as an exception to the idea that only Europeans do melodic death metal well and have had a sound more technical than you’d expect from this style, which causes them to stick out.

It’s hard to say whether this EP is simply its own beast or also a taste of things to come on the next full length Unwelcome, but regardless of the truth in that respect, Lepers Caress is an auditory assault of perfection.  Very rarely do you get melodic death metal that is this technical, yet so succinct and well composed.

However, while still maintaining the band’s tech-y aspects, this EP is a tad bit dialed down, and one might compare its music to Arsis’ highly praised debut A Celebration of Guilt.  It feels like some of their evolution has been purposefully back-tracked for the sake of providing something more straightforward and visceral; and that’s a good thing in this case.  EP’s in my mind best serve as an infusion of adrenaline, showcasing bands at their most intense, as we saw with Revocation on Teratogenesis. Continue reading »

THE DAY AFTER

 Off Topic  48 Responses »
Dec 152012
 

I wanted to write about metal today, as always, but I failed. My mind was still trying to wrap itself around something else, namely, 20 innocent children and six innocent adults gunned down at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, USA, on December 15, 2012.

I don’t know about you, but I’m old enough that I feel pretty hardened against the horrors of the world. Tragedies, big and small, are part of daily life. The world is more interconnected than ever before, and we can read about and watch bloodbaths like this one every day if we want to — because somewhere in the world, each day brings a fresh horror of some kind.

There’s only so much individual human tolerance for bad news. If you don’t armor yourself to some degree against the pain of other people, it’s damned hard to put one foot in front of another and keep going.

But the death of children . . . the unnecessary, unpredictable death of 20 children . . . is especially hard to take.  You have to have really thick armor to deflect something like this.

I know that, somewhere, children die in droves every day, usually in places where disease or starvation or grotesque neglect claim them. But like all horrors, the closer to home they are, the more you feel them. It’s just easier to imagine that they could happen to you, or your children, or your friends, or their children. Evolution is probably to blame for both our increased sensitivity to tragedies that we can more easily imagine as happening to ourselves or those we love, and our comparative indifference to more remote instances of catastrophic loss. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE . . . B-SIDES

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Dec 142012
 

(In this post, NCS writer Andy Synn provides another installment in his “Five of My Favourite” series, with five killer b-side tracks from Himsa, Satyricon, Setherial, Skeletonwitch, and Marduk.) 

Ah, the humble b-side. The bonus track. The Japanese exclusive. How they toy with our emotions and loyalties. How many copies of an album are you willing to buy to get just the right track-list? How completest/obsessive are you? Is that itunes bonus track worth the extra dough? Have the band offered up these extra tracks for free download (some do, you just have to look for them)? Is there ANOTHER Roadrunner digipak re-release on the horizon, scraping the archives for all that they’re worth???

Anyway, recently I’ve started a slow but steady purge of my itunes library, removing the b-sides, bonus tracks and covers which I don’t consider worth the bit-space. This comes after several years of obsessive-compulsive trawling of the internet for downloadable versions of these extra special bonus tracks, or (even worse) buying up another, “better” copy of a cd I already own, just to have the completist’s wet-dream of an exhaustive track-list.

After several intense bouts of therapy I’ve made the first step in getting rid of these superfluous extra tracks that do nothing but clutter up my library and, at their worst, detract from or disrupt the intended track-listing of some of my favourite albums.

But it has also given me a chance to appreciate those b-sides which deserve their time in the spotlight – the very best of which I can’t help but wonder WHY they didn’t make the final cut, in many cases as they’re better than some of the actual album A-sides! So here we are, five of my favourite non-album b-sides. I’ve purposefully excluded covers and re-recordings, and just focussed on five original tracks that honestly deserved to be on an album! Continue reading »

SUFFOCATION: “AS GRACE DESCENDS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Dec 142012
 

As previously reported, the almighty Suffocation have a new album on the way in February via Nuclear Blast. It’s name is Pinnacle of Bedlam. Today, NB began streaming a track named “As Grace Descends”.

I am so damned happy to hear this track. It fulfills fervent hopes. It’s music that both strips flesh from bone and invigorates the mind with a flurry of technical wizardry, interesting drumwork, and a beautiful solo.

Also, Frank Mullen.  Listen:
 

ROUND-UP: TOURISM NEWS PLUS EVOKEN AND ENSHADOWED

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Dec 142012
 

Here are a few items I saw and heard over the last 24 hours that I thought were worth sharing.

TOURISM NEWS

Featured above are flyers for two North American tours. In Flames headlines the one on the left (the “Another Year Another Tour”), with support from Demon Hunter, All Shall Perish, and Battlecross. A partial schedule surfaced previously, but yesterday I saw what appears to be the complete calendar for the tour. It begins on February 2 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and ends on March 7 in Norfolk, Virginia.

The closest it comes to the Pacific Northwest is Vancouver, so I doubt I’ll catch this one. Otherwise, I would go. I’ve seen the top three bands multiple times before, but would enjoy seeing them again, and I’d like to see Battlecross for the first time.

The tour on the right hasn’t been officially announced. I caught wind of it when I was updating the NCS “NW Metal Calendar” page and saw that this line-up is scheduled to perform in Seattle on March 12. And then I poked around and saw that other sites have reported other leaked dates, including the one in Atlanta that’s featured in the flyer above.

This line-up is bizarre. The only thing the bands have in common is they all use guitars, bass, drums, and a human voice. The leaked dates for this one plus the In Flames tour schedule are after the jump. Continue reading »

KATECHON, MONOMAKH, BITWA

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Dec 142012
 

(We welcome back guest contributor and fellow and blogger BreadGod with his rundown of three 2012 demos, all of which are free.)

Greetings, people of No Clean Singing! I am BreadGod, purveyor of all things dark and obscure! Today I shall share with you three amazing new bands plucked from the deepest and most unknown chasms of Bandcamp!

KATECHON – Tape 2012

In biblical study, the Katechon refers to that which restrains the coming of the Antichrist. The Norwegian band Katechon, who released their second demo this year, has corrupted that meaning, for they wish to use their music to bring forth the Antichrist.

The music can best be described as blackened death crust. They utilize a lot of crust beats, death metal riffs and vocals, and a black metal guitar tone and atmosphere. The crust beats give the dark and nasty music a catchy feeling. The vocals frequently switch between a growl and a low death/thrash shout, and there are times when it’s drenched in reverb. The drums are superb, especially when it comes to fills and cymbal work. As I’ve said before, the guitars play death metal riffs through a black metal filter, and when combined with the crust beats, they become more memorable than most other death or black metal bands.

Katechon plays metal that is both unique and displays excellent musicianship. I am eager to hear more from them. Continue reading »

DIVERSITY: BRAND NEW SONGS FROM PORTAL, STARKILL, AND BLOODY HAMMERS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Dec 132012
 

I’m feeling like a man of leisure today. Which is to say I got hammered last night at a 12-12-12 bash to celebrate my wife’s birthday and am taking the day off from work in order to have my blood processed through a machine that will remove all the toxins in the hope of being able to function at a level better than slime mold by tomorrow.

And, while waiting for my corpuscles to finish cycling through the tubes, I sifted through NCS e-mails and the tangled pathways of the interhole to find what new metal this day hath brought. And holy shit, it hath brought a bonanza. In this post I’m including three new songs that are stylistically quite different from each other, but I thought they were all really good. So here we go:

PORTAL

I’ve experienced mixed feelings of dread, horror, and glee at the thought of a new album from Australia’s Portal. As previously reported here, it’s called Vexovoid, and Profound Lore is threatening to release it on February 19. Today brought the first song premiere from the album. I wouldn’t have guessed that Pitchfork would be the vehicle for the unveiling. Yes, Pitchfork has a big audience, but if I were PL I’d be worried about the liability risk of so many non-metalheads experiencing irreversible psychic trauma.

The new song is named “Curtain”. It’s the third of the album’s seven tracks. It’s a sonic plague of threshing guitars, booming/blasting drums, bass-level hammer blows, and grotesquely distorted abyssal vox. It’s a moving stormfront of boiling black bestiality, heavy as hell and mercilessly destructive. I fuckin’ love it. Go HERE to listen, and then come back and let us know your reactions. Continue reading »

ISRATHOUM: “BLACK POISON AND SHARED WOUNDS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 132012
 

(Earlier this year we featured the venomous, eye-catching artwork by an artist named Held for the new album by Israthoum.  Today, Andy Synn reviews the music.)

Sometimes you decide to check out a band based on a whim, with little more than a few rumours or pinches of information to go on. Such was the case with Israthoum’s new album Black Poison and Shared Wounds. Knowing little about the band (originating in Portugal, and now residing in The Netherlands) it was the evocative title and album art that really drew me in to checking out this album. Remember people – album art is important, and it’s important that it reflects the music within.

The album in question delivers a heavy dose of ritualistic, immortal power, draped in a corpse-shroud of suppurating sedition, blood, and bile. Serrated and raw, without being rusty, sharp and scything, without being overly polished, it retains a heavy layer of grime and grit without losing its edge.

The vocals are a strangled howl, rising and falling in pitch-black despair, reeking of torment and degradation. They bleed darkness and filth, without attempting to sound self-consciously ‘evil’; instead, they thrash wildly and without constraint, wounded and hungry. The guitars hack and hammer with gritty determination, at times forging off at a tangent of bi-polar melody/dissonance, while beneath it all the drums wreak absolute havoc in a furious display of frenzied blasting and stalking, predatory groove. Continue reading »

GIFTS

 Free Shit  9 Responses »
Dec 132012
 

It’s the time of year when record labels and even bands give away their music. And unlike some shitty piece of clothing one of your relatives might give you, you don’t have to accept the gift if you don’t want to. But here are some gifts I think you’ll want to check out.

CENTURY MEDIA’S CARNIVAL OF SOUNDS II

Century Media is offering a free 16-track download that includes songs from the likes of In Flames, Devin Townsend, Jeff Loomis, Napalm Death, Nachtmystium, Paradise Lost, Iced Earth, Borknagar, Vildhjarta, Stealing Axion, and 7 Horns 7 Eyes. It also includes a track from Geoff Tate, but you could give that one to that cousin you can’t stand. Go HERE to see the full line-up and download the sampler.

PROSTHETIC RECORDS WINTER SAMPLER 2012

Prosthetic Records is also offering a free winter sampler. Their collection consists of 14 songs, including tracks from Skeletonwitch, Hour of Penance, Dew-Scented, Ancient VVisdom, Holy Grail, and Castle. There is also a live recording from a 14-string Venezuelan guitarist named Felix Martin. To see everything in this sampler and get it for free, visit this location. Continue reading »

PAOLO GIRARDI STRIKES AGAIN

 Eye-Catchers  1 Response »
Dec 122012
 

Over the last several months we’ve been posting artwork on the NCS Facebook page every day. There’s not a lot of rhyme or reason to the selections, other than the fact that they are strange enough or hellish enough to please my bloodshot eyes. Some of them have been created as covers for metal albums, though most haven’t had that purpose.

The Italian artist Paolo Girardi is someone whose work I’ve included in those Facebook posts, in addition to featuring here at NCS. I watch his Facebook page like a hawk for new creations, because they never fail to make my mouth gape open like a gaffed fish. Today he unveiled the painting you see above. I’m posting this on our Facebook page today, but I decided this should be spread across the front of the NCS site, too.

It’s the cover for a forthcoming album, though Paolo is keeping the band and album names secret for now. I already want it, because with a cover like this, I have a powerful feeling the music will be . . . devastatingly blasphemous.

Be sure to click the image above to see an even larger version of the image. And Merry Fucking Christmas to one and all!

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