HYPERBOREAN GETS THE 300 TREATMENT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 272012
 

Hyperborean is a three-man melodic black metal band from Sweden.  Although the band came into being more than a decade ago, they didn’t release a debut album (on Abyss Records) until last year, following three demos recorded between 2002 and 2005. Despite having the chance for an advance listen to that album (The Spirit of Warfare) and later seeing an 8-out-of-10 review of it in Decibel magazine, I failed to seize the opportunity.

I have a bad habit of constantly moving on to the next new thing, trying to keep this site current or even ahead of the release curve, and spending almost no time going back to music I missed when it was new. And so it was with The Spirit of Warfare. But yesterday I came across a fan-created video that drove me to learn more about the band and has convinced me to make time for the album amidst the sea of new promos and releases.

The video combines a song from The Spirit of Warfare with excerpts from Zack Snyder’s 2007 movie version of Frank Miller’s comic book mini-series, 300. It’s not the first time someone has used excerpts from 300 as visuals for a metal song, but this combination is especially fitting because the Hyperborean song (clocking in at almost 10 minutes) is “The Last Stand of Leonidas and the Battle of Thermopylae”. It’s also a thoroughly winning combination.

Hyperborean aren’t a typical Scandinavian black metal band. They seem to have no use for the usual trappings of corpse paint and spikes, and their songs aren’t devoted to satanic or occult or pagan subjects. Instead, The Spirit of Warfare takes its inspiration from the historical record of human violence, with references in the well-written lyrics (available here) to the World Wars and, of course, to the stand of the 300 Spartans against Xerxes’ army at the pass of Thermopylae. Continue reading »

THE RE-UNITING OF AUGURY’S ORIGINAL LINE-UP IS AN AUGURY OF GOOD THINGS TO COME

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
May 262012
 

There are times when I catch myself about to say that Quebec is the current tech-death capital of the world, and then I’m reminded by things like the new song from Nile which premiered yesterday that such a claim would be an overstatement. But not by a lot. Quebec seems loaded up with excellent tech-death bands — including Cryptopsy, Gorguts, Neuraxis, and Beyond Creation — and Augury is certainly near the head of the pack.

Their first two albums, Concealed (2004) and Fragmentary Evidence (2009), were both true mind-benders of progressive technical metal, dazzling in their complexity and ever-changing styles, both imminently memorable and satisfyingly brutal.

I had the great pleasure of seeing the band perform twice in 2010 (and reviewed those performances here and here), once on The American Defloration Tour with The Black Dahlia Murder and again on the Panic Over North America Tour with Soilwork. Vocalist and co-lead guitarist Patrick Loisel was especially impressive, perhaps even more so because he’s older than your average death metal frontman and in his day job he teaches history and science.

At the time of those tours, Augury was playing without fretless bassist Dominic ‘Forest’ Lapointe and drummer Étienne Gallo, both of whom were members of Augury when the band recorded Concealed and Fragmentary Evidence. Lapointe had left in February 2010 to focus on another band, Montreal’s Beyond Creation, whose amazing 2011 debut, The Aura, we reviewed here. If you want to have your mind blown by some six-string fretless bass shred, check out this video we featured at NCS of him doing a playthrough of Beyond Creation’s “Omnipresent Perception”. Continue reading »

NILE: “THE FIENDS WHO COME TO STEAL THE MAGICK OF THE DECEASED”

 Metal News  10 Responses »
May 252012
 

Take an Arabic-sounding melody, wrap it up in blazing, unpredictable fretwork and frenzied drumming, add an array of vocal stylings (guttural gurgles, throaty howls, clean chants), and then accelerate the fucker — and what do you have? You have the new song by Nile: “The Fiends Who Come to Steal the Magick of the Deceased,” the second track off of At the Gate of Sethu.

The song just got its exclusive premiere at Noisecreep, and you really should go hear it if you have any affinity at all for tech-death, because it is a fascinating listen. Then come back here and share with us your reactions. (I could just borrow the Noisecreep player and stick it up here at NCS so you wouldn’t have to look at all the photos of Adam Lambert, Kenny Chesney, and Steven Tyler on that Noisecreep page, but I decided not to be a dick for a change.)

At the Gates of Sethu will be released via Nuclear Blast Records on June 29 (Europe) and July 3 (North America). The handsome cover art (there are two versions) was created by Seth Siro Anton (Septic Flesh). Check out the other version after the jump, along with a nice photo of Nile. Continue reading »

THE HOWLING WIND: “OF BABALON” AND “THE MOUNTAIN VIEW”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
May 252012
 

I went back and re-read my May 2010 review of The Howling Wind’s last album, Into the Cryosphere, and I cringed a little at how much I had loaded it up with ice metaphors: “Massive distorted riffs that alternately race like an avalanche, chug, or relentlessly trudge forward with the grinding power of a glacier in motion. Guitar leads that establish chilling melodies, as if reverberating off the walls of icy caves. Bleeding solos that howl like inversion winds across a blasted tundra. Icy vocals that hold out no hope of mercy . . . .”  And shit, there was even more . . .

Even though I’m slightly embarrassed to read what I wrote, I do remember vividly how hard that album knocked me down. The intensity of my enthusiasm simply exceeded the limits of my literary skills. When I started hearing rumblings of a new album in the works, I got excited all over again — and now we’ve finally received details about the release, plus a new song.

The Howling Wind’s next album will be titled Of Babalon, it was recorded by Colin Marston (Krallice, Dysrhythmia, Gorguts), it has a cool album cover, and it’s scheduled for release by Profound Lore on July 17. This week Profound Lore also started streaming the fifth track on the album, a song called “The Mountain View”. Continue reading »

ENTOMBED: “AMOK”, RE-RECORDED

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
May 252012
 

Almost five years have passed since Entombed released their last album, Serpent Saints – The Ten Amendments. Two days ago, the band finally released a new recording in Sweden, and it’s available for download as of today in the U.S. And what have the band given us after five years of creative hibernation? A re-recording of a song from Serpent Saints called “Amok”.

This “new” single is the result of a collaboration between Entombed and Ninetone Records, a Swedish rock/metal label that has released albums by Soreption, Corroded, and a bunch of other bands whose names I don’t recognize. I don’t know know whether Entombed and Ninetone have plans for something more than the “Amok” single — such as a new album or EP. I guess we’ll find out in due course.

The artwork for the new single is sort of a re-issue as well. It’s a stylized painting of a moth called “Instar” that was created by the super-talented Dan Seagrave (and still seems to be available here as a limited edition print if you’ve got $95 you don’t know what else to do with). As used for the sleeve of this single, it bears a resemblance to the cover of a 1995 album — also called Amok — by the now-defunct but highly influential Finnish band Sentenced. (who were the lead subject of an NCS feature during our Finland Tribute Week series in late 2010). Based on a post by Entombed on their Facebook page, this appears to be coincidental — but man, what a coincidence.

As mentioned, the new single is a re-recording. I haven’t yet found any explanation of why Entombed picked “Amok”, among all the previous songs they could have chosen, for a new recording. it’s a puzzle, especially since the band’s membership hasn’t really changed significantly since they recorded “Amok” for Serpent Saints (bassist Victor Brandt has joined the ranks since then, with former bassist Nico Elgstrand moving to guitars).

Whatever the reason, it’s definitely a different take on the song. Continue reading »

WINTERFYLLETH: “THE GHOST OF HERITAGE” RE-ISSUE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
May 242012
 

In September 2010 I went on a MISCELLANY expedition (posted here), and one of the bands I discovered was Winterfylleth, from Manchester in the UK. At the time, they were on the verge of releasing an album called The Mercian Sphere, and another web site had started streaming a track from the album — “A Valley Thick With Oaks”. Stunning song, and it led me to get the album and begin following the band.

Two days ago Candlelight Records re-issued Winterfylleth’s 2008 debut album, The Ghost of Heritage. The songs on the re-issue have been remastered by Colin Marston , the multi-instrumental member of Krallice, Dysrhythmia, and Gorguts. Candlelight also commissioned the new album artwork you see above.

When the band originally created The Ghost of Heritage, they recorded two songs that weren’t included on the album when Candlelight released it in 2008 — “The Ruin” and “The Honour Of Good Men On The Path To Eternal Glory”. Both of those songs as they were originally recorded in 2008 are now included as bonus tracks for the re-issue. The only reason I can imagine why these songs were left off the album originally is their length. The album was 49 minutes long without them, and those two songs would have added another 18+ minutes.

But that’s truly the only reason I can think of, because the songs are great. Admirers of The Mercian Sphere will recognize the titles of the two bonus tracks, because re-worked versions of both appeared on that album. Continue reading »

FILLER

 IQ Subtraction, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 242012
 

Uh . . . yeah . . . I fucked up again. I just woke up, not having finished a post last night. There’s a story behind the failure, but I’ll keep the details to myself because they don’t really put me in a good light, and I’m all about being in a good light.

So, not having prepared a post last night that’s up to our usual supremely high quality standards, I had to grab something really fast to put up on the site that would allow me to finish waking up in a leisurely manner without feeling too guilty about not having a morning NCS post.

Fortunately, I had a few very important items already rattling around in the back of my head. Continue reading »

NEWNESS: DYING FETUS, BLACKLODGE, AND PANOPTICON

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
May 232012
 

Come on now, you didn’t really think I was going to let a new Dying Fetus song pass by, did you? I’ve been a little slow on the draw lately, but I can still clear the holster. And yes, there’s a new Dying Fetus song that’s been released for public streaming. It’s called “From Womb To Waste”, and of course it appears on the Reign Supreme album that will be released on June 19. It’s really good.

In fact, I’ll just go ahead and be a douchebag and say that the whole damned album is really fuckin’ good. In fact, it’s definitely in the running for the best death metal album of the year. Speaking of which, because I have such a hard time comparing albums and ranking them, I’ve decided that I’m going to use a loris race to rank the best death metal albums of 2012. I’ll round up a bunch of them from the NCS loris compound, tie band names around their necks, and let them race for the finish line.

Of course, they’re really fuckin’ slow, so I’ll have to start the race in, like, August.  That will be hard on the bands who release albums in the last four months of the year, but I don’t feel too bad about that because it’s not like bands are waiting around holding their breaths to see if they make the NCS year-end list, especially since we’ve never had an NCS year-end list.

Where was I?  Oh yeah, the new Dying Fetus song. It debuted at AltPress. I borrowed their little player to stream the song after the jump. There’s more new music after the jump, too — from Blacklodge and Panopticon. Continue reading »

GOJIRA: THE “L’ENFANT SAUVAGE” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 232012
 

Gojira will be delivering their new album L’Enfant Sauvage to the masses on June 26. We’ve already reported on the release of the album’s fantastic title track, which you can still hear at this location. Today, the band released a video for that song, which is being displayed exclusively at Brooklyn Vegan.

Gojira’s official music videos have been unfailingly interesting to watch, and this new one is no exception. Using black-and-white imagery, a stuttering mix of animation and real people, the video appears to show a transition from urban towers to a state of nature (which is in keeping with the song’s title). Check it out HERE.

ETERNAL HELCARAXE: “AGAINST ALL ODDS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 232012
 

Irish pagan/black metal band Eternal Helcaraxe walk a fine line between the dramatic and the melodramatic on their new album Against All Odds, but for the most part stay on the right side of it. Drawing on Irish mythos and a national identity marked equally by tragedy and a spirit of indomitable resilience, Eternal Helcaraxe have crafted anthems that both tug at the heart strings and rake at the flesh with sharpened swords.

This is not our first exposure to the band. In early 2011, I reviewed their EP, To Whatever End (2010). The distinctive characteristics of the music on that very mature EP are still present on the new album. Even if you lacked access to the lyrics, even if you didn’t know that this is an Irish band, the music itself conveys the obviously heart-felt emotions and principles that inspire Eternal Helcaraxe.

Against All Odds conveys a sense of epic struggle, the will to fight to the death for lost causes, the rising up of subjugated people with weapons in hand — no backing down and no quarter given or taken, ready to fall or to triumph in the service of honor and freedom. Jaded cynics in the audience may start rolling their eyes simply by reading those words, but for those romantics out there, there’s not a single song on this album that will fail to get the blood pumping and the heart soaring. Continue reading »

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