THIS AND THAT: PRISTINA, AETERNUS, ZETALAMBMARY, AND VEKTOR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 242013
 

Here are a few things I saw and heard this morning. I hope you enjoy them. And by “enjoy” I mean “whimper fearfully and moan miserably”.

PRISTINA

I was bowled over by this Connectuicut band’s 2010 debut album, The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow), and I wasn’t the only one. It has received plenty of attention and critical praise.  You can peruse my review of the album here, and check out a revealing interview of Pristina’s mainman Brendan Duff by using this link.

I have really been looking forward to Pristina’s second album, Hopeless•Godless, which is now scheduled for release on February 26 through The Path Less Traveled Records. I’ve made my way through it once . . . but needed time to recover and hear it again before attempting to make notes for a review. It’s just utterly crushing and searing. I felt like a raw steak that had been tenderized with a mallet and then char-broiled over a hot open flame. Continue reading »

ENTHRONED – LONDON, MARCH 2ND – WITH SOME OF THE CRÈME DE LA CRÈME OF THE UK UNDERGROUND BLACK/DEATH METAL SCENE

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Feb 242013
 

(Andy Synn wishes to bring a show to your attention.)

So Islander’s been kind enough to let me use NCS for more of my own nefarious purposes, in this case bringing some attention to a big show we have down in London next week.

Now I’m not sure how many of our readers are UK-based, nor how many of you crazy foreign-types have friends over here in this green and pleasant land, but if you are/do, then perhaps you’ll consider coming along and witnessing nine of the UK’s finest black and death metal bands tear up the stage at The Electrowerkz at an event headlined by Belgium’s finest purveyors of obsidian majesty, Enthroned.

That being the case, I thought it would be prudent to introduce you all to the various bands performing, so you can pick and choose your own favourites.

Aeon Promotions in association with Nazgul Agency presents… Continue reading »

REVISITING THE CLASSICS: SOILWORK – “THE CHAINHEART MACHINE”

 Album Reviews, Revisiting the Classics  7 Responses »
Feb 242013
 

(After an extended hiatus, TheMadIsraeli revives the Revisiting the Classics series with a look back at an album from a band who are on the verge of dropping their latest bombshell.)

I figured this series needed to make a comeback some time ago; it was just getting the time to do it.  It’s rather ironic that the album I decided to use for this revival was one I selected five or so months before The Living Infinite was even announced.

The Chainheart Machine represents old-school Soilwork at its absolute finest.  The sharp, punctual, technical riffing, the frantic changes in tempo and time signature that occurred on some songs, the bewilderingly virtuoso-caliber shred of guitarist Peter Wichers, the epic melodies — this album has it fucking all if you ask me.  All the instrumentation is impeccable; the mix for its time is just PERFECT for what was going on here (a dense, industrial tone — odd choice for melodeath); and I just fucking love it, back to front.

The thing that really makes this album is the songs as a whole.  Let me explain. Continue reading »

ROUND-UP: ROTTING CHRIST, HYPOCRISY, TRAIL OF TEARS, VHÖL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 232013
 

When it comes to music debuts and hot breaking news, Friday’s aren’t usually very eventful. But yesterday was an exception. I posted a lot of new things yesterday as they were happening, but still didn’t cover everything, due to day-job bullshit. Today I’m catching up, with a collection of more sweet new items.

ROTTING CHRIST

These Greek heavyweights have been rolling out many new songs from their new album Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy, which Season Of Mist will be releasing next week. But yesterday, the entire album became available for streaming on several sites, including Metal Hammer.

I’m completely sold on this album, though I’ve been holding fire on explaining why because we do have a review in the works. I will once again merely say that you should hear this album. And now you can — via the player I’ve embedded right after the jump. Continue reading »

TOURISM: “DESPISE THE WORLD 2013” – SUFFOCATION AND FRIENDS PREPARE TO STOMP NORTH AMERICAN FLAT

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Feb 232013
 

It seems like every other day the past few weeks is we’ve been writing about Suffocation. We reviewed their new album Pinnacle of Bedlam, we published an interview with Derek Boyer, we posted their new official video for “As Grace Descends”, and now we have details about their first North American tour in support of the new album.

Honestly, if Suffocation were touring by themselves or with support from their postman, I’d roll out for it in a heartbeat — this band is one of the best live acts I’ve ever seen. But this tour includes a bunch of other strong attractions: Exhumed, Jungle Rot, and Rings of Saturn — plus two other bands I have a feeling I need to learn more about: Adimiron and (for West Coast dates) Lord of War.

Though it’s called a North American tour, Montreal and Toronto are the only Canadian stops and the Deep South and Mid-Atlantic regions are getting passed over, but for those of you who aren’t within driving distance of this monster you’ll feel much better when I tell you that I will be able to go. Continue reading »

HORRIFIC (Part 2): GRAVEWURM, PLAGUE WIDOW, AND CURSED ALTAR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 222013
 

Last night, by chance, I listened to six new songs in a row that really grabbed me. In different ways, they were all horrific . . . and horrifically good. The first three were featured in Part 1 of this post earlier today, and here are the next three — from Gravewurm, Plague Widow, and Cursed Altar.

GRAVEWURM

Gravewurm are a band who started life in Pennsylvania in the early 90’s and now appear to be based in Virginia. They’ve released eight albums and a slew of demo’s, splits, and EPs — yet I’m fairly certain that last night was the first time I’ve ever listened to their music. My education continues.

The track I heard last night is named “Mistress of Blood and Fire”. It’s available for download on Bandcamp and will appear on the band’s next album, Infernal Minions, which is due for release by Hells Headbangers on May 14. I got a Bandcamp alert about the appearance of this song yesterday, and once I saw the name Hells Headbangers, I knew I had to check it out. Damned glad I did. Continue reading »

SOILWORK: ANOTHER NEW SONG AND OUR PREVIEW OF “THE LIVING INFINITE”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 222013
 

When I first learned that Soilwork’s new album would be a double disc, I was skeptical. It’s difficult for most bands to create even one album’s worth of solid music at a time, and releasing two at once seemed like an idea fraught with risk — especially because of the unevenness of the band’s last album.

But man, The Living Infinite has confounded my expectations. It’s extremely solid from end to end over the course of 20 songs. That’s not to say that the songs are all of equal quality, but this really is an excellent album that justifies the dual-disc format.

We have kind of an unusual review planned for the album next week, which TheMadIsraeli will tell you about below, along with his own preview thoughts about the album. And then after that you’ll find yet another new song from the album that debuted today: “Long Live the Misanthrope”, from disc 2. Continue reading »

SUFFOCATION’S “AS GRACE DESCENDS” (THE VIDEO)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 222013
 

“Grace” means different things to different people. In the case of Suffocation, it seems to mean guzzling booze, moshing your nuts off, tossing your cookies, and getting your head thoroughly wrecked by a blowtorch blast of death metal. I can get behind that philosophy.

Not long ago the band released their official video for the song “As Grace Descends” from their new album Pinnacle of Bedlam. As for the album as a whole, check out our review here, as well as our entertaining interview with the band’s bass player Derek Boyer. As for this individual song and the video, let’s just say that they’re both badass.

See and hear for yourself right after the jump. Pinnacle is out now on the Nuclear Blast label. (thanks to DGR for the prompt tip about this) Continue reading »

HORRIFIC (Part 1): IMMOLATION, AZRATH-11, HUMANITY DELETE, AND LANTERN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 222013
 

I couldn’t monitor metal news as closely yesterday and the day before as usual, so I tried to catch up last night. I saw and heard a lot that interested me. But I hit one stretch when, by chance, I listened to six new songs in a row that were . . . horrific . . . and horrifically good. The first three of those are in this post — from Azrath-11 (Italy), Humanity Delete (Sweden), and Lantern (Finland). The next three will be in a subsequent post. But first, a bit of welcome news from . . .

IMMOLATION

A new Immolation album? Yes please!

At a time when Slayer seems to be immolating itself after 30 years of existence, Immolation are still going strong in their 27th year. Yesterday they announced that Kingdom Of Conspiracy is the title of their ninth full-length album and that Nuclear Blast will release it on May 14 in North America.

This follows 2010’s Majesty And Decay and the strong 2011 EP Providence.  Very stoked for this. Continue reading »

THE DISINTEGRATION OF SLAYER?

 Metal News  14 Responses »
Feb 212013
 

About 8 hours ago Dave Lombardo, co-founder of Slayer and the band’s drummer for more than 30 years, released a statement in which he states that Kerry King has kicked him off the band’s upcoming Australian tour in reaction to complaints from Lombardo about not being paid for the band’s touring in 2012 and about being denied access to the band’s financial records.

In his statement, Lombardo claims that 90% of Slayer’s 2012 tour income was deducted as expenses, including the professional fees paid to Slayer’s management, “costing the band millions of dollars and leaving 10% or less to split amongst the four of us.” Lombardo states that he and Slayer frontman Tom Araya hired auditors in an effort to find out what had happened to all of the tour income but they were denied access to the detailed information they sought to obtain.

He further states that management demanded, as a condition to paying him, that he sign a contract “which forbade me to do interviews or make statements having to do with the band, in effect a gagging order.” Continue reading »

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