“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 66)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  25 Responses »
Oct 282012
 

Hey, happy Sunday. It’s THAT’S METAL! time. Time for pics, videos, and news items that I thought were metal even though they’re not music.

I have seven items for you today.

ITEM ONE

The first item is that horrifying creature at the top of the post. Actually, it’s not really a monster. It’s an Old English Bulldog named Coraline. Sexy beast, isn’t she?

I’ve used some pics by photographer Seth Casteel in a previous THAT’s METAL! installment. He takes photos of people’s pets. But he also takes pics of dogs like Coraline underwater, usually while they’re going after a tennis ball. Dogs are like that. If you threw a tennis ball into a pool for a cat to chase, the cat would look at you as if to say, “Really? You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.”

Since the last time I used some of Seth Catseel’s photos from his Underwater Dog series, he’s come up with some new ones, and he also now has a book of them for sale. In addition to the fact that the quality of the underwater photos is amazing, they continue to capture man’s best friend looking really scary and really alien, which of course makes them really metal. Continue reading »

VASSAFOR, PAROXSIHZEM, KHORS, GEHENNA

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 282012
 

Here’s a smattering of powerful music and eye-catching album art I heard and saw yesterday that helped make a wet, gray, cold Seattle day more tolerable — despite the fact that all of the music displays the results of blackening.  But I still want my summer back.

VASSAFOR AND PAROXSIHZEM

I was snooping around the Dark Descent web site looking for news about a release I’ve been expecting. While I was there I spied the two album covers you see at the top of the post. I knew little about the bands, but I thought the album covers were very cool. If you click on them, you’ll see larger versions.

The one on the left is for an album entitled Elegy of the Archeonaut, which collects selected tracks by an Auckland, NZ band named Vassafor. The album will be released at the end of this month and includes music from Vassafor’s early releases as well as unreleased versions of songs and covers. Coincidentally, one of those covers is Vassafor’s version of Beherit’s “Beast of Damnation”, which was also covered by Beyond Mortal Dreams in their excellent EP that I reviewed earlier this week. The killer album cover was created by Aaron Aziel, who’s also from Auckland.

I learned that Vassafor released an album earlier this year named Obsidian Codex, and I found two tracks from it on Soundcloud, both of which can be downloaded for free HERE. More about those after the jump.

The art on the right is for a forthcoming, self-titled debut album by a Toronto blackened death metal band named Paroxsihzem. It’s also scheduled for release by Dark Descent at the end of the month. I haven’t yet found who created the artwork. The artwork was created by the band’s vocalist, Krag. Intrigued by the artwork, I found a Paroxsihzem track called “Nausea” for streaming on Bandcamp. Continue reading »

RICHES FROM GREAT BRITAIN AWAIT!

 IQ Subtraction  30 Responses »
Oct 272012
 

I received the following e-mail today, with the word “urgently” in the subject line.  I replied to it urgently.  Because although not one of these people has ever followed through and sent me money, I know that one day it will happen, because people are generous and good and will eventually recognize all the wonderful things I can do with a few million dollars, such as enhance the electrification of the fencing around the loris compound and install the Grolsch beer fountain and pay Fleshgod Apocalypse to move to Seattle and play music for me whenever I want and buy a head so that Phro will stop making fun of me.

From: “Mr Jackie Gallop“<mr.jackiegallop75039@yahoo.com.ph>
Date: October 27, 2012 8:09:42 AM PDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: urgently
Reply-To: <jackiegallop27@yahoo.com>

Dear Client,

Report : Investigation revealed that you have received Lot of Payment Notification with requests to secure funds Transfer Documents, Pay Diplomatic fees, Transfer Charges etc, yet all effort to receive the Compensation/Lottery payment lawfully entitled to you, have been to no avail. With the help of the best Internet investigators, The International Monetary Funds IMF we have taken out time in screening through your Compensation/Lottery payment project as stipulated on our protocol of operations.

Prior to series of reports (Email, Fax, Telephone and Mail Post) from beneficiaries across Asia, Europe, America just to mention a few, urging us to investigate these irregularities, Special International Dept Settlement Officers attached to this honorable Institution, The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI was deployed to various Compensation payment Centers around the world so as to carry out proper.
Continue reading »

RINGS OF SATURN UPLOAD “DINGIR” FOR STREAMING, THREE MONTHS BEFORE OFFICIAL RELEASE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Oct 272012
 

In June I included the stupendous cover art you’re looking at (sans the band and album names) in a post about new metal artwork.  Then, I didn’t know who the artist was, but now I do:  Mark Cooper (a/k/a Mindrape Art). He created this piece for the cover of a new album by Rings of Saturn named Dingir (din-jeer), and that leads us to a sordid tale of woe, the moral of which is a reminder that the community of metal still includes people with no morals.

In June, when the album art was released, the band’s label (Unique Leader) also provided a teaser clip of samples from the album and a tentative release date: November 20. The recording and production work on the album was apparently finished. What remained was the promotional run-up to the release.

And then Dingir ran into some potholes on the road to its release. First, as disclosed by the band last night, undisclosed “legal issues” arose which led to a delay in the album’s release from November 20 to February 5. I’ve seen no explanation of these issues. Undoubtedly, that extra two months of waiting for release was a source of frustration for the band.

But second, and more important, an unfinished, unmastered, pre-production version of Dingir leaked yesterday, apparently appearing across a variety of metal blog spots and torrent sites, as well as on YouTube. And that drove the band to take unplanned action to limit the damage. Continue reading »

ENJOY YOUR FOOD

 Off Topic  17 Responses »
Oct 262012
 

I made this.

For the last 24 hours we’ve done nothing on the site but play videos and write about videos, so why stop now? Maybe we’ll do something different tomorrow, but let’s have one more video before we stumble headlong into the weekend.

I don’t know about you, but most metalheads I know inhale their food. They devour it like hyenas who know that any minute the lions will be dropping by for their turn at the carcass. Just shoveling the food in and swallowing, without bothering to expend much energy on needless activity like chewing.

I don’t mean to exclude myself from this description. I try damned hard never to eat when there’s a mirror in the vicinity, for fear of scaring the shit out of myself.

But this is not how we’re supposed to eat. Nutritionists and weight-loss specialists say that you should eat slowly, using small bites and chewing the food well. They theorize that this gives your body time to realize that you’re getting food into your stomach and produce those hormones that tell your brain, “STOP, YOU GLUTTONOUS FUCK!  YOU’RE FULL!” As opposed to getting those signals only after you’ve rapidly eaten twice what an entire tribe in the Amazon consumes in a week.

Also, when we inhale food, we don’t really taste it. Of course, given the utter crap food that many of us eat, maybe that’s not a bad thing. Continue reading »

BLOODSHOT DAWN: “THEOKTONY”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 262012
 

 

Two combined bits of coolness: Bloodshot Dawn have released a new single for download named “Theoktony”, and they’re contributing all sales proceeds to a worthwhile charity. Details to follow . . .

I’ve written a lot about this UK band and their self-titled 2012 album, which remains one of my favorite releases of the year. In addition to my January review, in April we featured an official video for a track from the album called “Visions”, and in August we featured another official video for “Godless”, which is still available for free download at the Bloodshot Dawn Bandcamp page, where you can acquire the whole album, too.

But what we have today is a new song that’s not on the album, and a new video to go along with it. Both the song and the video kick massive amounts of ass.

The music is signature Bloodshot Dawn — an explosion of blast-furnace death metal packed with thunderous grooves, spidery prog-style guitar soloing, and howling wolf-pack vocals. With a sharp-edged modern production, it sounds uber-powerful. The lyrics can be found here.

The video is split-screen footage of the band recording the song in the studio, and it’s loads of fun to watch. Here you go: Continue reading »

CLEAN SINGING (THAT RAWKS): NEW VIDEOS FROM MAMMOTH MAMMOTH, BEASTWARS, AND THE SORROW

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 262012
 

I’m drowning in new videos. Beginning late yesterday, this is the third in a row of posts I’ve written for the site that consist of nothing but videos. But as much as I’d like to finish other things I’m working on, I continue to be distracted by the moving pictures and the quality sounds.

This post is full of Exceptions to the Rule around here, because all three of the new vidz collected in this post include (to varying extents) clean vocals. But all three songs have grabbed me, and I hope they’ll grab you, too. The first two are from down-under bands we’ve previously covered at NCS — Mammoth Mammoth (Australia) and Beastwars (New Zealand) — and the third is from a band I don’t think we’ve ever mentioned before, The Sorrow (Austria).

MAMMOTH MAMMOTH

I first came across Mammoth Mammoth back in May when they released their last video, which was for the title track to their third album Hell’s Likely (featured here). Since then, Napalm Records have picked up the album and will be releasing it on November 23 worldwide (order here).

I’m enjoying the album cover. I’m also enjoying the new video for “GO”, which includes a nice tip of the hat at the video’s beginning to Gojira’s “Vacuity” video and also features the same delectable woman who graces the album cover in her birthday suit (though she’s somewhat more clothed in the video). Continue reading »

MORE NEW VIDEOS: PIG DESTROYER’S “THE DIPLOMAT” AND FEAR FACTORY’S “THE INDUSTRIALIST”, PLUS “MR. FROSTY MAN” AND “THE ORIGIN OF CREATURES”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Oct 262012
 

Yesterday we devoted our last post to videos, and now two more new ones have premiered, one from Pig Destroyer and one from Fear Factory. One is “The Diplomat”, one is “The Industrialist”. Plus we have a fantastic Evil-Dead-goes-claymation video (“Mr. Frosty Man”) and a brilliant animation from The Netherlands (“The Origin of Creatures”) that puts a post-apocalyptic spin on the Tower of Babel parable. The music for these two isn’t metal, but the videos sure as fuck are.

PIG DESTROYER

Book Burner, the latest album from the almighty Pig Destroyer, came out in North America via Relapse on Monday of this week. Today saw the premiere of a new music video for one of the longer songs from the album, “The Diplomat”.

When this song had its debut in September, lyricist/vocalist JR Hayes said (here) it was “about the origins of human conflict and how if you look back through history, we’ve never really gotten along.” He explained: “You’re always wrapped up in the time that you’re living in, and right now there’s war and suffering and despair and economies collapsing, but if you look back in history, that’s the way it’s always been.” Can’t really argue with that, can you?

As for the sound of the song, Scott Hull used an opening riff that he had originally written for his other band Agoraphobic Nosebleed five or six years ago, and as he has noted, “The pace of the riff informs the tone and the tempo of the whole song.”

As for the “squawkier” and “angular” riffs toward the end? He was listening to a lot of Gorguts.

The song itself is excellent — and so is the new video. It was directed by Phil Mucci from Doomsday Entertainment, who also directed High On Fire’s killer “Fertile Green” video, as well as many others. It’s an allegorical tale that puts a different spin on the opening of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, with a gray-suited, arms-dealing motherfucker in place of the monolith. The colors are amazing, by the way. Watch it right after the jump. Continue reading »

ON THE TOPIC OF GORY METAL VIDEOS

 Mosh Pit  19 Responses »
Oct 262012
 

(It didn’t take long to get our first guest post in response to our solicitation of two days ago, and even though I hadn’t planned to start rolling out our guest series until Nov 5, I’m going with this one now. Please welcome Tyler Lowery.)

Since the birth of extreme metal, there has always been gore in one sense or another. Be it lyrical content, album covers, stage performance, or music videos, metal heads love to see blood and guts. It’s engrained into the very nature of the music. That being said, there can only be so many decapitated bodies floundering around while a band screams about it in the background, right?

As I’m sure we’re all aware, Cattle Decapitation recently released an extremely gory video for their song “Forced Gender Reassignment”. The video displays sexual assault, rape, and the mutilation of human flesh. With the sophistication in special effects, prosthetics, and computer-generated graphics, making the filthiest video possible is now easier than ever! And because of this, the question has been raised about the feasibility of excessive gore in music videos.

As the post here pointed out, Travis Ryan made the following statement about that video: “It seems nowadays you have to be over the top in your presentation to get anyone to think about anything anymore.” This reminds me of the recent comment made by Ann Coulter about the presidential debates in which she called Barack Obama a “retard”. Whatever point that bat shit crazy nutbag was trying to make was immediately lost under the reckless comment she made. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: ANTROPOMORPHIA, RED FANG, AND MONSTER ROLL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Oct 252012
 

Would you like some quality video entertainment? You would? Well, then, you’ve come to the right place, because I happen to have three clips right here that I think you’ll enjoy.

ANTROPOMORPHIA

Antropomorphia are a Dutch band whose new Metal Blade release, Evangelivm Nekromantia, really snuck up on me. The clues were there, as was a promo sitting in my in-box, and I just missed all of it until last night, when I watched the band’s recent official video for a track from the album named “Psuchagogia”.

The song burrowed under my skin immediately. It’s an occult-flavored form of death metal, reminiscent at times of Behemoth, with heavy use of tremolo guitar, demonic vocals, and a thundering beat. Halfway through, there’s a slow, very cool instrumental break with the bass taking the lead, and in the video, a ritual then reaches its defining moment in the drinking of blood from a skull, with relish.

Though “psuchagogia” doesn’t appear to be a word found in the dictionary, “psychogogia” is a Greek word meaning the leading of the soul and was used in its original context to describe a ritual of raising souls from the dead. Just so you know.

One word about the album art before we turn to the killer video itself: If those three skeletons in red and the shrouded figure in purple ring any bells, it’s because the band wanted to pay homage to the cover of Death’s Scream Bloody Gore. Continue reading »

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