NO CLEAN SINGING

OCULUS INFERNUS: THE INTERHOLE JUST BECAME A MORE INTERESTING PLACE

Jun 112012

The demise of The Number of the Blog was one of those “their loss is our gain” kind of events. Since TNOTB went to the Valhalla of metal blogs in a burning longboat last fall, the site’s founder groverXIII has been slumming here at NCS, gifting us with reviews and always-interesting write-ups about new free music, biding his time until the advent of the Next Big Thing.

The Next Big Thing hasn’t yet arrived, but groverXIII has decided to spice up our lives with something else in the meantime: Over the weekend he launched a new site that he has named OCULUS INFERNUS, which is Latin for “The Eye of Hell”, with “the express purpose of documenting his thoughts regarding the Devil’s music and the world of the occult.” Mother pus bucket!

He has also taken upon himself a new moniker, befitting his role as preceptor of the paranormal: Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.

And what, you may ask, does the good Professor have in store for us in the curriculum of OCULUS INFERNUS? Continue reading »

APOSTATE: “THE TOWN”

Jun 102012

I came across this song and video after I had finished the post that preceded this one today, or I would have included it there. On the other hand, that post was pretty long anyway, and besides, this song deserves a spotlight of its own.

The band is Apostate. They’re from Prague in the Czech Republic. Almost exactly a year ago, I reviewed their debut EP, Seaborne. They’re now putting the finishing touches on a follow-up, five-song EP called Λ ♦ Λ ♦ Ø.

Near the end of last week, they put up a video in collaboration with Vice magazine for the first track on the new EP, “The Town”. I’ve been listening to it over and over again since yesterday afternoon. It’s a beautiful piece of music — beautifully imagined and beautifully rendered. It’s almost entirely instrumental, in a style I suppose could be branded post-rock, until the explosion near the end (and I love that they ended it the way they did).

There were hints of this kind of song in Seaborne, but in most ways it seems quite different to me, and makes me even more curious to see what else Apostate have gotten themselves into on Λ ♦ Λ ♦ Ø. They’re showing that, musically, they’re mature way beyond their years.

The video shows the band playing the song in what looks like a rehearsal studio, with no distractions from the music other than the sights of some serious dudes playing some serious music, which works just fine. Check it it out following the jump and let me know what you think.

UPDATE! Apostate has just made “the Town” available for free download on bandcamp (though I’d encourage you to chip in some bucks to help the band finish recording their latest release). HERE is the link for that. Continue reading »

HAPPENINGS BEQUEATHED UPON MY (SENSORY) SYSTEM BY THE (PHYSICAL) WORLD AND (THE PASSAGE OF) TIME, or BRAIN FUCKERINGS! I HAZ THEMS!!!

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Jun 102012

Lately I’ve been writing posts in which I collect new music, album art, and metal news items that I’ve seen recently which I think are worth sharing. I keep saying it’s not going to become a regular kind of series, but I might as well stop fooling myself. I still need to find a title for them. Today I’m trying out a couple of ideas I got from Kazz (with my addition of some Demilich-style parentheses) and Phro. I’ve got some more reader suggestions I might try out the next time I do this.

SCARAB

I saw that Egyptian death-metal band Scarab have revealed the artwork, tracklist, and title for their next album — Serpents of the Nile. The artwork (above) is by an Egyptian artist who calls himself Bombest, (Mohamed El Sherbieny). and I think he did an awesome job with this, don’t you? Actually, the album cover is only a part of a larger piece, which you can see after the jump.

I discovered Scarab back in July 2010 when I put together a series on metal from North Africa, and wrote this post about them, focusing on their superb last album, Blinding the Masses. It reminded me of bands like Behemoth, Immolation, and Italy’s Hour of Penance, but with a marked use of oriental melodies in the riffs.

Along with details about the new album, Scarab also premiered the title track two days ago. “Serpents of the Nile” still calls to mind those bands I mentioned above, and it’s an excellent song. It proves all over again that this is a band who deserve to become more widely known internationally. Continue reading »

RUMPELSTILTSKIN GRINDER!!!

Metal News 1 Response »

Jun 092012

Rumpelstiltskin Grinder is a Pennsylvania band formed by current members of Absu, Woe, Azure Emote, Ashencult, Fucked Forever, Total Fucking Destruction, Smoker & the Rollers, and more. I have their last album, Living for Death, Destroying the Rest (2009), which I really enjoyed. Their new album Ghostmaker is set for release by Candlelight Records on June 19. The eye-catching cover art is by artist Mike Hrubovcak.

I’ve held off listening to our promo copy of Ghostmaker because I’m hoping Phro will review it for us so I can perceive the music through the gloss that Phro puts on it, and by gloss I mean that translucent sticky substance that turns crusty when it dries.

However, yesterday our friends at Stereokiller premiered Ghostmaker‘s title track, and I couldn’t resist giving it a listen while deciding what else I need to give Phro as a bribe for his review, other than the ebullient gratification that will come to him for pleasing me. And man oh man, is that song a sweet head-fucker. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: SOMA RAS — DEMO

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Jun 092012

I have DGR to thank for introducing me to Sacramento’s Soma Ras. Back in March, he wrote a review (posted here) of a show headlined by Conducting From the Grave that included a Soma Ras performance, and he was obviously very impressed. By chance, it wasn’t long after when Soma Ras uploaded a three-song demo to Bandcamp, and off and on since then I’ve been letting it wreck my fucking head. It seemed only fair that I ought to provide a public thank-you. So . . .

Thank you Soma Ras for wrecking my fucking head.

To be clear, I quite enjoy having my head wrecked by death metal when it’s as vicious, voracious, and well-executed as the songs on the Soma Ras demo. And I chose those adjectives with care, because the music definitely has a predatory quality. Soma Ras attacks like a ravenous beast that’s fast, nimble, and loaded with big teeth.

The drumming (by Flint Marshall) is off the hook — an almost non-stop flood of blast-beats, double bass, and pounding toms. It triggers an immediate adrenaline rush and maintains the intensity level in the red zone from start to finish. The blazing drum assault is matched by rapid-fire riffing and heated bursts of swarming shred, punctuated by big, jolting breaks and slams in the rhythms and rapidly slithering melodies. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT: AN UPDATE (No. 2)

THE SYNN REPORT No Responses »

Jun 082012

(Here’s a bit of news from Andy Synn about two bands we’ve praised at NCS in the past.)

While I am beavering away on another full edition of The Synn Report (and also endeavouring to tweak the format a bit to find a balance between the original form and what it has become since it was started) I thought I’d drop you all another update on 2 bands, one a former Synn Report alumnus, the other a proto-Synn Report band whose write-up on NCS not only inspired me to start the column, but is also partially responsible for getting me the gig in the first place.

BENEA REACH

Norway’s Benea Reach, a band of whom I expect huge things in the upcoming years, have a new album (Possession) all but ready to be released and have put together a track sampler over on their Soundcloud page. Consecrated disciples of the Cult of Luna, their new album promises to be a collection of proggy atmospherics, oceanic post-Meshuggah dynamics, and raging, hardcore-derived belligerence. Just what the doctor ordered.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/48099557″ iframe=”true” /]
Continue reading »

PURIFIED IN BLOOD: “MOT GRAV”

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Jun 082012

Norway’s Purified In Blood have a new album via Indie Recordings called Flight Of A Dying Sun due for release on June 11 in Norway, June 15 in the rest of Europe, and some other day in North America. The album’s eye-catching cover art (above) was created by Jondix Mahashakti. Here are a few more intriguing details about the album:

It features guest appearances by Glenn Reaper (the band’s second singer who otherwise wasn’t involved in the recording of this album) on a power anthem called “Iron Hands” and Erlend Hjelvik (Kvelertak) on a song called “Mot Grav”. It also includes performances by a guest saxophonist, a guest organist, a guest on double bass, and a guest Siberian throat singer.

Today the band released an official video for that “Mot Grav” song, and Erlend Hjelvik is in it, along with worms, skulls, chains, falling water, and some sketchy looking activities. Along with all that, the video further includes chunky, viral riffs — the kind that will get your headbang on. There’s one thing missing from the video — clean singing. There’s just the kind of vocals that you could use in lieu of a sandblaster if you had a big paint-stripping job ahead of you.

Neck-snapping follows the jump, along with artwork for the “Mot Grav” single.
Continue reading »

WHITECHAPEL: “WHITECHAPEL”

Album Reviews 19 Responses »

Jun 082012

(In this post, UK-based Andy Synn reviews the new self-titled album by Whitechapel.)

Ah Whitechapel, a name to inspire an instantaneous reaction from pretty much anyone who hears/reads it. In fact, I’d imagine many of you have already formed your opinions based on seeing the name of the review alone, and that they’re either going to be “Whitechapel are the sickest band ever dude!” or “deathcore posers aren’t real metal”… and seriously guys, I thought we were past a) the ignorant fanboyisms of declaring band x, y, or z “the sickest band ever”, and b) pre-judging by association with (often outdated) stereotypes. They’re two ends of the same scale, and both are pretty played out by now.

Now, personally I didn’t really “get” Whitechapel at first. Though their debut was a cut above the rest of the cookie-cutter, faux-aggro deathcore out at the time, and their second record saw some vast improvements in their sound and overall direction, I still wasn’t sold. The reason the group finally “clicked” for me was not just the release of their third album (though it is a very good album), but down to the WAY I was listening to the band – something facilitated by their third release, but which has also allowed me to appreciate their second album more than I ever did.

You see, the HOW and the WHY of listening to an album are just as important as the WHAT (genre, etc). And what finally clicked for me was when I queued up a Whitechapel album right after listening to one of my favourite death metal acts, the genre-defining Vader. The similarities were astounding, and this comparison finally got me to look at Whitechapel in a fresh light.

Phil Bozeman’s vocals are the modernised, spitting-image of Piotr’s, while the band’s overall blueprint bears the genetic fingerprints of the Polish masters all over it – the blinkered brutality, the sheer speed, the singular focus on aggression, the minor melodic teases, the twisting solos… they all scream VADER to me. That may be blasphemous to some of you, but it’s how my mind finally managed to categorise Whitechapel, and I think the comparison is only a positive one for them. Continue reading »

EPHEL DUATH: “ON DEATH AND COSMOS”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Jun 082012

With six albums to their credit between 2000 and 2009, Ephel Duath is a band with whom I should have become familiar by now, but alas, no. It took their new EP, On Death and Cosmos, to finally pull me in. Given my state of ignorance about the band’s past, this review won’t provide a comparison of the new music to what preceded it. I am the proverbial blank slate, on which the EP’s three songs will write what they will.

And maybe that’s just as well, because the Ephel Duath that gave birth to On Death and Cosmos after a nearly three-year hiatus is nearly a new band. Songwriter and guitarist Davide Tiso is still at the helm, but he has changed, wrenched by personal tragedy, economic pressures, and disappointments with the music business. Undoubtedly, those experiences have fed the fires that flow through this EP.

Davide has also recruited an eye-catching company of new names to round out the line-up: ground-breaking vocalist Karyn Crisis (Crisis), who is also Davide’s wife, and legendary bassist Steve DiGiorgio (formerly of Death, Autopsy, and Testament, among others) have joined master drummer Marco Minnemann (Adrian Belew, ex-Necrophagist, ex-Kreator), who also collaborated on Ephel Duath’s last album. In fact, given that line-up, it’s not really a stretch to call this new Ephel Duath a “super group”.

And on top of that, from what I’ve read, it appears that no one Ephel Duath album has sounded much like any of the others anyway. So, let’s start fresh, shall we? Continue reading »

NEW TRIBUTES TO ENSLAVED AND EMPEROR

Metal News 3 Responses »

Jun 082012

Enslaved at the Quart-festival, photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen, Scanpix/NTB

“Emperor and Enslaved are two of the most well-known bands in the history of Norwegian extreme metal, and June strangely enough brings tributes to both bands. On June 25th the album A Tribute To Emperor-In Honour Of Icon E will be released, and a week before Önd-A Tribute To Enslaved will see the light of day.”

And so begins an article by Totto Mjelde that appears today on Lydverket, a Norway-based web site affiliated with the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, NRK. We’ve written about Totto’s coverage of Norwegian metal in the past, and this most recent piece by him is definitely worth reading. It includes interviews of Raphael Henry (Pictonian Records), the curator of the Enslaved tribute; Ivar Peersen of Enslaved (who, interestingly, plays guitar on Taake’s contribution to the Emperor tribute); Nocturnal, from Tryzna Productions, which is releasing the Emperor tribute along with Candlelight Records; and Ørjan Nordvik of Helheim., who perform on that tribute.

But that’s not all. Totto’s article also includes exclusive streams of two songs from the Enslaved tribute compilation: Ribozyme’s performance of “To The Coast”, and Vreid’s cover of “Lunar Force”.

GO HERE to read and listen to Totto’s feature. After the jump I’ve included the cover art and track lists for both albums. Continue reading »

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