NO CLEAN SINGING

COBOLT 60: “THE GRIM DEFIANCE”

Sep 122012

(Andy Synn reviews the new album about to arrive after a 10-year hiatus from Norway’s Cobolt 60, the two-headed beast that includes members/ex-members of Blood Red Throne and Satyricon.)

To paraphrase a well-known ape, “the only good thrash, is black-thrash!” And death-thrash. Look, the point I’m trying to make here is that over the years my love for the thrashiest of sub-genres has waned pretty dramatically, coinciding with a steady increase in my love for the more “extreme” sub-variants of this music we call metal.

For example, here’s a list of the “-thrash” bands I’m digging these days, all of which are more at home in the black and brutal camp than the high-tops and heshers one: Hellish Outcast, The Wretched End, Skeletonwitch, Vreid, Aura Noir, Ancient Ascendant, Goatwhore, The Crown, The Konsortium… it’s a big list.

Anyway, my point is that to really get my blood pumping these days an album has to offer more than just a thrashy sound and a pissed off vocalist. It’s got to have more grit, more heaviness. Just more. And The Grim Defiance is certainly more than just another blackened thrash album. Continue reading »

DOOMED: HOODED MENACE AND BELL WITCH

Sep 122012

I spent almost all last night writing an album review that isn’t even intended for publication on this site. More about that eventually. But the point for now is that I didn’t have time to finish other projects that were intended for appearance here this morning. Rest assured, they’ll be coming. But for now, I just want to quickly throw you two songs. Figuratively speaking, it’s like throwing you a couple of house-sized granite boulders. Catch!

The first is a lyric video for “Evoken Vulgarity”, which is a song from Effigies of Evil, which is a stupendous album from Finland’s Hooded Menace, which was officially released yesterday, which I’m still hell-bent on reviewing . . . some day. If you wanted to explain to someone how a song could be both horrifying and beautiful, this would be a good example to give them. Though beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.

And in my eye, not only is the song beautiful, but so is the album cover. Click on the image above to see an even bigger, more awesome picture of the art.

The second song is “Bails (Of Flesh)”. It’s by a two-man Seattle band named Bell Witch, and it’s from their debut album Longing, which Profound Lore will be releasing on November 13. “Bails (Of Flesh)” is over 20 minutes long. Yesterday, Profound Lore began streaming the first 11+ minutes of the song. I don’t know about you, but if I’m ready to hear a song that’s 11 minutes long, and it’s as great as this one is, I’d be ready for all 20 minutes of it. So although I’m grateful to hear half of it, I’m also pissed I don’t get to hear the rest. Okay, “pissed” might be a little strong. More like hungry for more . . .

because the song is both horrifying and beautiful. Wait a minute, I said that already. So I’ll say this: it’s both soul-sucking and soulful. Also, devastating. And the Bell Witch album cover (by Bryan Proteau) is also cool. Continue reading »

NERGAL IS BURNING BIBLES AGAIN

Metal News 14 Responses »

Sep 112012

Behemoth’s Nergal has completed work on an autobiography, with the title of Sacrum Profanum — a title that presumably refers to the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, which is a central characteristic of most religions. The book will be released next month in Poland, and unfortunately there are no current plans for it to be translated into English.

The book will be promoted through a series of video trailers that will appear on Behemoth’s YouTube channel. According to Behemoth’s label, Metal Blade, “the trailers will feature Nergal reading portions of the book, as well as acting out portions of stories, which Nergal describes as ‘some funny, some sad, some evil…some related to the band, some not.'” The trailers will be in Polish with English subtitles.

The first trailer went up for streaming today. The thoughts expressed are serious, though the philosophy is certainly not new — but the trailer is also provocative. Yes indeed, I do believe that’s a Bible that Nergal burns in the trailer. After being prosecuted repeatedly in Poland for doing the same thing on stage many years ago, he seems to be courting more legal harassment — and clearly gives no fucks about that. The last line of the trailer makes that even more abundantly clear.

Reports about the book indicate that much of it is an extended and wide-ranging interview of Nergal, rather than him or some ghost-writer laying out a narrative. No doubt, he has led an unusual life, and I suspect this would be a fascinating read. Here’s hoping that an English translation will someday become available.

UPDATE: I found a page on the Behemoth web store (here) where the book (in Polish) can be pre-ordered. It includes this statement: Behemoth’s “THIS IS A POLISH VERSION OF THE BOOK! ENGLISH ONE – ESTIMATED DATE 2013”. That page contains additional info about the book, and after the jump I’ve included a bit more about it after converting the text into English through Google Translate

The trailer is after the jump, too. Continue reading »

THE MORNING MAILBAG: DORDEDUH, BISON BC, WINTERUS

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Sep 112012

I got tired of calling these posts “Seen and Heard”. So, just for the sake of variety I’ve picked a different title for today. I’ll probably go back to “Seen and Heard” soon, because that’s what this is: Things I saw and heard while browsing the web today that I thought were worth sharing.

DORDEDUH

I first learned of this Romanian band in the spring of 2010 when working on a review of Vîrstele Pămîntului, the first album by the revamped Negură Bunget. They were revamped because two of the original members — Hupogrammos and Sol Faur — had left the band in 2009. Dordeduh became the new vehicle for their musical pursuits. Dordeduh released a debut 2-song EP, Valea Omului, in 2010, and have been working on an album since then.

Yesterday, thanks to NCS reader KevinP, I discovered the album’s name — Dar De Duh (“Gift of/from the Spirit”) — and learned just how close the album is to being released: September 28. On the Prophecy pre-order page, I saw that not only is the album going to be available as a CD, it’s also being released as a 2-CD set, a 2-CD + DVD “book”, and a double LP. The second CD consists of the two songs from Valea Omului plus a cover of “Ruun” by Enslaved. Pre-order details can be found here.

I also saw the killer cover art up above, which was created by Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu. AND, last but not least, I heard the album version of a song that originally appeared on the Valea Omului EP — “Cumpăt”. Continue reading »

“THE U.S. TORTURE TOUR” CONTINUES THIS FALL: CANNIBAL CORPSE, MISERY INDEX, HOUR OF PENANCE, DEEDS OF FLESH

Metal News 7 Responses »

Sep 112012

The PRP and Lambgoat have reported this morning that Cannibal Corpse, Misery Index, Hour of Penance, and Deeds of Flesh will be embarking on a continuation of THE U.S. TORTURE TOUR this fall. There has not yet been an official announcement, though one is expected soon. UPDATE: There has now been an official announcement by Cannibal Corpse, and here is a complete schedule:

11/16 Huntsville, AL Crossroads Music Hall
11/17 Little Rock, AR Juanitas
11/18 Springfield, MO Outland Ballroom
11/19 Bloomington, IL The Castle Theater
11/20 Eau Claire, WI House Of Rock
11/21 Madison, WI High Noon Saloon
11/23 Flint, MI The Machine Shop
11/24 Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Smalls
11/25 Poughkeepsie, NY The Chance
11/27 Providence, RI The Met
11/28 New York, NY Rocks Off Concert Cruise aboard The Harbor Lights*
11/29 Allentown, PA Crocodile Rock
11/30 Asbury Park, NJ Stone Pony
12/01 Washington, DC Rock N Roll Hotel
12/03 Louisville, KY Headliners
12/04 Spartanburg, SC Ground Zero
12/06 Miami, FL Grand Central
12/07 Tampa, FL Brass Mug

*Show will not feature Hour of Penance

There will be maiming and killing and the consumption of human flesh and the picking of teeth with bone splinters. It’s nice to see that whoever organized this tour chose not to dilute the brutality by mixing and matching the genre styles. It’s just going to be 100% death metal hell.

We’ll fill in more details when we learn them.

Oh, and one more piece of titillating Hour of Penance news has surfaced. Continue reading »

BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE: “I AM”

Album Reviews 6 Responses »

Sep 112012

(Andy Synn is the author of this review of the new album by Becoming the Archetype, with music from the album at the end.)

Five albums. That’s a pretty good legacy for any band, particularly when they’ve managed to progress with each release, from the unconventional prog-core of Terminate Damnation, through the more esoteric and Extol-infused The Physics Of Fire, the more conceptual and song-oriented approach of Dichotomy, and rounded off with the more stylistically varied Celestial Completion. Through it all though, regardless of several line-up shifts, they’ve retained a core identity that gives the name Becoming The Archetype both its power and its continued relevance.

That being said, let me give you a quick heads up – while I Am continues the tradition of progressing the band’s sound with each release, particularly in this case as a darker, heavier album much of the time, this is not the Becoming The Archetype you’re used to, and almost certainly not the Becoming The Archetype you may be expecting.

“The Ocean Walker” (not an Arrested Development reference, as far as I can tell) immediately sets the stage with its unexpected Periphery style leads and semi-Meshuggah-ised riffs. Thankfully it’s more than an uninspired imitation (it remains distinctively BTA throughout), but the shift in sonic priorities is initially startling. That being said, Chris McCain’s vocals manage to reference enough hints of Jason Wisdom early on to establish continuity, before dropping into a more guttural roar, upping the brutality and paired with a thunderous, chugging riff.

This is followed by two particularly aggressive tracks that recall the more “-core” oriented material of Terminate Damnation. The “Timebender” has a great off-kilter central riff, a warped and dissonant lead refrain, and an almost mechanised sense of rhythm that isn’t far from that perfected by Living Sacrifice. “The Eyes Of The Storm” employs a similarly neck-snapping, rhythmic approach, though the two songs are clearly distinctive entities. The chiming keyboard presence and lightning-fast lead motif draw a line back to the precision compositions of Dichotomy, but with an uncompromising heaviness and visceral vocal intensity that harkens back to the band’s earliest days. Continue reading »

VARG: “GUTEN TAG”

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 14 Responses »

Sep 102012

Last week we reported the news that Wintersun would be embarking on their first tour of North America this fall with Eluveitie. We further reported that a German pagan metal band named Varg (“wolf”) would also be part of the touring line-up. I was pretty sure I’d never heard any music by Varg and I made a mental note to find some immediately, since this is a tour I’m bound and determined to see when it reaches Seattle. However, I was distracted by something important, like the sound of a passing car, and I forgot.

Fortunately, I was reminded earlier today, because somewhere I saw that Varg had just released a new music video for the title track to a forthcoming album by the name of Guten Tag, which was like killing two birds with one stone, getting the reminder and some music at the same time. Before forgetting again, all I had to do was quickly press play. And I did.

The song isn’t really the folky kind of pagan metal. It’s more the thrashing, grooving, headbanging, howling-wolf, infectious kind of metal that one might easily put in some genre other than “pagan”, but since I’ve never been quite sure how “pagan metal” is defined other than by its lyrical themes, and since I don’t speak German, who knows? It’s a catchy romp, though, however you want to categorize it.

As for the video, its meaning is ambiguous. Is it condoning or condemning the suicide that you’ll see? Or neither? I’d be happy to have the interpretations of others, so take a look: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BLUT AUS NORD, PORTA NIGRA, AND ABSU

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 8 Responses »

Sep 102012

The internet is like an ever-flowing stream, and by that I mean downstream of something like this →

One of my jobs here at the NCS metallic island is to sift through all the garbage and toxic waste to find the sparkly little nuggets in the stream that are worth sharing with you. Of course, I only look for the nuggets that are pleasing to my eyes and ears because I’m a selfish bastard. You will either be happy with them or you won’t. Here are the nuggets I came across in my sifting this morning:

BLUT AUS NORD

This morning my NCS comrade Andy Synn sent me a message that the new Blut Aus Nord album had fallen into the hands of certain unnamed bastards, not including us, and that it included a sweet piece of cover art. However, even after my pestering, he would give me no links to anything, which reinforced my ongoing desire to slap him. Therefore, I had to dive into the putrid intestinal fluids of the interhole to learn what I could.

As you can see, I found the album cover to Cosmosophy, which is indeed sweet (it’s a collaboration between French artist Dehn Sora and Metastazis). I also found that the album is available for pre-order HERE (CD, LP, plus shirt), and that pre-orders will begin shipping from Europe on Sept 21. I also found that the official updated release date (though this may be only for NorthAm) is Oct 10.

As you may know, Cosmosophy is the concluding part of the 777 trilogy that began in 2011 with Sect(s) and The Desanctification. I found this description of the new album: Continue reading »

NEW TOUR CONFIRMED, WITH DATES: DETHKLOK, MACHINE HEAD, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, and all that remains

Metal News 2 Responses »

Sep 102012

Last week, numerous metal blogs reported the rumor that Dethklok, Machine Head, All That Remains, and The Black Dahlia Murder would be touring North America together this fall. Preferring to wait for something more concrete, we didn’t post about that. But this morning we saw confirmation via Lambgoat that the tour really is happening, along with a schedule of the dates and places.

The tour will hit 31 cities, beginning on October 30 in Norfolk, Virginia, and ending on December 8 in Atlanta. It’s almost entirely a U.S. tour, but there will be shows in Montreal and Toronto.

My feelings about the tour were pretty well summed up by Axl at Metal Sucks when he reported the rumor: “[T]his tour . . . does have one weak spot, in the form of a certain auto-tuned metalcore band whose frontman loves guns. That being said, I still wouldn’t skip this tour — thirty or forty minutes to take a breather at a show with three other awesome bands on the bill isn’t a bad thing.”

I still have great memories of Dethklok’s performance when they toured with Mastodon a few years ago and would think hard about paying to see them regardless of who else was along for the ride. But The Black Dahlia Murder will put on a helluva show, and I’ve never seen Machine Head and want to.

And as for All That Remains, their early albums were among my favorites for years when metalcore first exploded, but I’ve gradually lost interest. Still, maybe ATR will play some songs from This Darkened Heart and The Fall of Ideals, which could be a cool nostalgia trip. But I’m not counting on that. What are your thoughts about this tour?

Check out the schedule after the jump, and stream a song (“I Ejaculate Fire”) from Dethklok’s new album while you’re at it. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: HYPERIAL – “INDUSTRY”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Sep 102012

There is a certain style of death metal that I think of as “imperial”, and sometimes as “infernally imperial” to account for the demonic shadows that often fall across the music. Those words come to mind, for example, when I think of Poland’s now best-known metal export, Behemoth. Obviously, I’m not using the term to convey a sense of glittering ostentatiousness, but instead as a means of capturing an atmosphere of dark might and majesty.

Hyperial is a four-man, one-woman band who have just released a six-song EP entitled Industry that incorporates that kind of blackened majesty into their music, but also use keyboards and ethereal guitar solos in a way that adds a sense of futuristic atmosphere to the brutish pummeling of the riffs and drums.

With the exception of a brief synthesizer instrumental that creates a moody ambience (“MMXII-MMXXX”), the songs are fast, with jabbing, choppy riffs and slightly off-kilter rhythms, anchored by a huge, groaning bass presence and percussion that frequently erupts in explosions of blasting. The songs are packed with massive (and even bombastic) grooves and the near-constant presence of moaning (and sometimes squealing) guitar chords that conjure up not only images of Behemoth but also Gojira (especially on the title track).

The vocals add to that ominous sense of rampant bestiality, with low-end roaring that sounds like a cross between a barking wolf and an enraged bear, though the vocals also include a trade-off with high-end shrieking that avoids any risk of monotony. Continue reading »

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