NO CLEAN SINGING

ASHENCULT: “BLACK FLAME GNOSIS”

Jun 212012

(Credit for all photos in this post: Alyssa Lorenzon.)

(Listen up: BadWolf presents his favorite black metal album of 2012 to date.)

2012 has been a great year for metal so far, can we agree on that? Unlike 2011, several strong acts, veteran and green alike, took initiative in releasing powerful works of doom and death metal. On the other hand, the black end of the spectrum has yet to blow me away (although rumor has it that Hell’s Headbangers‘ summer lineup will slaughter). Dodecahedron deserves a second look, and the new Abigail Williams collected strong accolades, both here and elsewhere, but other than that I’m drawing a blank.

Rather, I was drawing a blank until Doug Moore of InvisibleOranges referred me to Ashencult. The Philadelphia PA 4-piece outfit released their debut album, Black Flame Gnosis, on May 31 through Bandcamp. I’ve listened through twice today, and it’s giving me the fever (aye aye).

THE STORY OF MY NIGHT

Concert Reviews 16 Responses »

Jun 212012

(Last night . . . June 20, 2012 . . . Seattle . . .)

Met some old friends and some new ones at The Honey Hole after work (yeah, that’s the name of the place, no lie). Shot the shit. Had some adult beverages. Had half a samitch , made on a crusty French roll with sliced steak, goat cheese, peppers, pesto, and some other shit. Awesome.

The new friends urged me to try a soup with a name I can’t pronounce. Had a cup of that. Was made with hot curry, coconut, cream, veggies, chicken, and I don’t know what else. Extra awesome. Had a second cup, with more adult beverages. Told the pretty lady from the kitchen who made it that it gave me an orgasm. May not have actually used the word “orgasm”, but same concept. She brought me a cup of cheese soup with broccoli in it. And people say men can’t have multiple orgasms.

Reluctantly left the Honey Hole before trying the third kind of soup on offer. Drove with the old friends to Studio Seven. Got there in time to have a beer and a shot before Revocation’s set. Fourth time I’ve heard them, never gets old.

Listened to a couple of songs from the balcony bar while taking pics, then went down to the floor and locked myself in about two feet from the stage in front of David Davidson. Whole band was firing on all cylinders, and then some. Realized again what a fuckin’ wizard Davidson is. Pretty sure I levitated. Pit would start up and then kind of stop, cuz people just couldn’t help but stare. The downside of being so damned brilliant.

Bought a Revocation shirt, so they can eat. Plus the shirt is awful fine. Went outside with the friends to smoke cigarettes and watch the beautiful people in all their black finery. More beer afterward. Then Dying Fetus began to crank it up. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT FROM THE LORD

Free Shit, Metal News 6 Responses »

Jun 202012

“Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

So it says in the Book of Job. I’ve never been quite clear about the being-naked-and-returning-to-my-mother’s-womb part, but I do know the Lord giveth. Witness, this:

Last night in Seattle was the kick-off show of a tour organized by the Southern Lord label (in fact, organized personally by the label’s owner, Greg Anderson), showcasing four of the label’s up-and-coming crushers: Black Breath (Seattle), Martyrdöd (Sweden), Burning Love (Ontario), and Enabler (Milwaukee).

All four of those bands have new albums that have either been released this year or will be coming soon. We’ve run features about two of those bands (which you can find here and here), and I’ve been meaning to write something about Martyrdöd ever since hearing a stream of their new song “Köttberg” when it started streaming at Pitchfork in late April.

At various stops on the tour, this foursome will be joined by the likes of Poison Idea, Noothgrush, Pelican, Power Trip, Wild/Tribe, Dead In the Dirt, and The Secret, almost all of whom we’ve also written about at NCS. So in a nutshell, this tour is going to be one rolling slaughterhouse of hard metal.

And that brings me to the free shit. To celebrate this tour, CVLT Nation, in cooperation with Southern Lord, is hosting a free download of a mixtape consisting of 20 songs — half of them from the bands on this tour and the remaining half from other recent Southern Lord alumni — including tracks from High On Fire, Black Cobra, Wolfbrigade, and a bootleg from Sleep that’s never before been officially released. Continue reading »

NEW KATATONIA: “DEAD LETTERS” FROM DEAD END KINGS

Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Jun 202012

Following up on 2009’s Night Is the New Day, Sweden’s Katatonia have completed their next studio album, Dead End Kings, which will be released on August 27 (a day later in the U.S.) by the Peaceville label (it’s available for pre-order here). Today, Peaceville and the band released a lyric video for one of the tracks on the new album — “Dead Letters”.

It is an Exception to the Rule here, because . . . clean singing. But ever since my one and only witnessing of Katatonia in a live setting, I’ve had a soft spot for the band’s music (it was quite a show), and so I had to pay attention to this. Glad I did.

The video showcases some of the wonderful artwork by Travis Smith that will appear in the album booklet, and the imagery well-suits both the lyrics and the music. The song is a blending of the heavy and the ethereal, both moody and jolting, dark and meditative. I don’t think fans of Katatonia will be disappointed in what they hear. Check it out following the jump.

In addition, Peaceville has made the song available for free download, in exchange for your email address. To get that, GO HERE. Continue reading »

U CAN HAZ GRINDZ!

Album Reviews, Free Shit, Phro's Posts 3 Responses »

Jun 202012

(It appears Phro has taken the early results of the NCS Reader’s Poll to heart. Not the part about hand jobs or using more polite language. The part about writing more shit for NCS. Below, Phro reviews new releases by Strong Intention (U.S.), Wake (Canada), Dephosphorus (Greece), and Chemical Tomb (UK).)

Hi. It’s morning. I’m pissed about that. Also, I have three things I’d like to shove in your ear hole. Don’t worry, it won’t be a pleasant experience. Least of all for the cockroaches. Probably you’ll have the second worst time of it. Unless you’re one of these girls. Don’t worry, that’s totally safe for work if you work in the vomit porn industry. Or a daycare. Very informative for children. Teaches them the dangers of not listening when Daddy tells not to touch the drugs. (Bad Phro, no touching Daddy’s drugs.) But Phro wants to play! Phro wants…

Umm…

First up! Strong Intention’s Razorblade Express!
(http://www.facebook.com/STRONGINTENTION)

Daddy…uh…I mean, Islander sent me some albums for review. The first one was the Rumplestiltskin Grinder album from last week. (Great album, isn’t it?) The other two were short grindcore releases. Usually, when I think of grindcore I think of stuff like Wormrot and Circle of Dead Children. Strong Intention wear their hardcore influences a bit more prominently. In fact, like a lot of hardcore, you can actually almost make out the lyrics. I think. Pretty much all I can accurately catch is “Hate this life!” (Which is incredibly apropos this morning.) It sounds as if there’s a screaming, howling, angry wood-chipper fronting the band. (Daddy says not to play with the wood-chipper or he’ll shove my arm in to teach me a lesson.) Continue reading »

STREAM NACHMYSTIUM’S “INSTINCT: DECAY” – LIVE FROM ROADBURN 2012

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Jun 202012

(BadWolf found us a real gem to start this Wednesday.)

If you still haven’t checked out Nachtmystium, Chicago’s black metal prodigies, where the hell have you been? Their mix of punky black metal with stoner rock, psychedelia, and industrial elements strikes that perfect balance between great songs and great sounds—their two Black Meddle records garnered serious critical acclaim (from myself and others) for it. But Nachtmysitum’s metamorphosis from Norwegian attack clone into unique entity began on their 2006 album, Instinct: Decay.

If you haven’t heard Instinct: Decay, this is the perfect opportunity. It’s required listening for any serious fan of USBM. If you’re a fan of Blake Judd and Friends’ new material, you can hear the beginning of that sound here. If you thought the Black Meddle albums were wussy metal you should still listen: Instinct: Decay is substantially rawer than either of its successors. Nachtmystium played the album front-to-back at this year’s Roadburn Festival, and some German website I have never heard of is streaming the entire performance as recorded straight from the sound board.

http://3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/playerpage.program.14484831.html

I imagine you can figure it out easily enough—hit the big triangle that looks like a play symbol. It’s a play symbol. [Editor’s intrusion: or, you can stream it at NCS right after the jump.]

The sound of this recording is pretty great, but that’s to be expected—I have Nachtmstium’s Live at Roadburn LP from early last year, and it’s fantastic. As a matter of fact, Blake’s vocals aside, this recording sounds better than the actual album, which is in pretty dire need of a remaster, already. Continue reading »

HEAVY T.O. AND HEAVY MTL ARE HEAVY

Metal News 1 Response »

Jun 192012

Though we cover metal bands from all over the world, we do tend to be pretty U.S.-centric when it comes to writing about tours and festivals. So in this post I’m going to make a small stab at remedying that by helping spread the word about what look to be two awesome shows this August in that very civilized nation to the north of us. Y’know, that place where I’ll be spending lots of time if Mitt Romney wins in November.

One of the festivals is called HEAVY T.O., and it will take place on August 11-12, 2012, at Downsview Park in Toronto, Canada. Part of the reason why I’m posting about this now is because Gojira are weighing heavy on my mind (see our post from earlier today about the full-album stream of L’Enfant Sauvage) and Gojira will be playing at this festival. But Gojira are only one of (to date) 27 bands who are scheduled to perform.

It really is a pretty stunning line-up, including (to mention some of my favorites) Cannibal Corpse, Kataklysm, Between the Buried and Me, Job For A Cowboy, Deftones, Goatwhore, The Faceless, Exhumed, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Origin. And that doesn’t include the headliners, Slipknot and System Of A Down, or the reinvigorated, Jesse Leach-fronted Killswitch Engage (who are sounding more and more like a band on the verge of reclaiming past glories).

NCS may have some boots on the ground at this festival, and if all works out, we hope to bring you some show reports in August. The full line-up, plus more info, is after the jump.

But that’s not the only Canadian festival of note in August. On August 10-12, HEAVY MTL will be kicking ass at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal. Continue reading »

ONE MORE NEW NILE SONG: “THE INEVITABLE DEGRADATION OF FLESH”

Metal News 4 Responses »

Jun 192012

Just a quick news flash here for consumers of maniacally active death metal: Nuclear Blast has premiered another song from Nile’s new album, At the Gates of Sethu, which will be released on July 3 (with pre-orders shipping on June 26).

The song is called “The Inevitable Degradation of Flesh”. It’s brootal. And maniacally active. To hear it, you have to visit the Nuclear Blast pre-order page (HERE) and click on one of the pre-order options. That will take you to another page where the song is streaming on a SoundCloud player. You don’t have to buy anything, though I’m sure all concerned would be happy if you did.

Did I mention that the song is brootal? It is that, and worth hearing.

MORE HELLFEST SWEETNESS: SÓLSTAFIR LIVE

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Jun 192012

Earlier today, we posted about a series of high-quality performance videos from the French HELLFEST 2012 festival earlier this month. Iceland’s Sólstafir performed at HELLFEST, but their set isn’t included in the collection featured in that earlier post. But some blessed filmographer just uploaded a video of them anyway.

The song being performed is “Fjara”, and as persistent readers are well aware from all my previous blathering about the song, it’s one of my favorite songs ever, of all time, world without end, amen. Fortunately, this video is of high quality, both in the visuals and in the sound. Among other things, it makes the bass drum and the bass guitar sound super-FAT, but the guitars still ring like heavenly chimes.

I don’t think I’ve expressly said this before, but I think Sólstafir are just incredibly cool on stage. They just have to stand there and bob a little on a slow, powerful song like this one, and they still just look so damned cooooool, including the way Aðalbjörn Tryggvason plays his guitar while bending from the waist like a weeping willow. He’s got an amazing voice, too — love the way he moves from the melancholy crooning to the gritty blast of the chorus.

Man, I’m really coming off like a girly fanboy, aren’t I? I’ll just shut up and direct you to the video after the jump. Continue reading »

GOJIRA – “L’ENFANT SAUVAGE” – FULL ALBUM STREAM!

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 18 Responses »

Jun 192012

For those of you who had the self-restraint not to go download the leak of Gojira’s new album L’Enfant Sauvage, I’m very pleased to inform you that the entire album began streaming at MusicRadar.com today.

Fortunately, the SoundCloud player with the album stream is embeddable, and so I’ve embedded it after the jump.

We will have multiple reviews of the album up here on NCS in the near future. And on the subject of that leak, I really hope that if you enjoy the music, you’ll spend the money and buy it. This band deserves that much respect. Pre-orders can be made HERE.

Check out the music . . .now . . . Continue reading »

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