AN NCS PREMIERE: ARSAFES – “.onslaught.čoček.”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Sep 092012
 

Moscow-based Roman “Arsafes” Iskorostenskiy is one of those uncommon musicians whose creative impulses are multifaceted and who has the talent to follow them with remarkable success, despite how divergent they are.

We first became aware of him through the striking music of his Indian-influenced melodic death metal band Kartikeya, about which much has been written here at NCS. Later, we discovered his involvement with a Russian pagan-metal band called Nevid (Невидь), which has produced four full-length albums, the most of recent of which is 2011′s Agarta, (discussed here). Most recently, he has also collaborated with singer Aleksandra Radosavljevic (ex-Destiny Potato) to create an “Atmospheric/Ambient/Progressive Metal” project named Above the Earth, who we featured here and whose debut EP is coming soon.

But in addition to all that, Roman also has an ongoing solo project named Arsafes. The first work of the Arsafes project was a solo EP called A New Way of Creation that appeared in 2010. We wrote about that here and in that same post provided a link for a free download of the EP.

Now, the Arsafes project has a new album in the works, which with luck will be ready before the end of the year — and today we are giving you the exclusive premiere of its first single, “.onslaught.čoček.”, which is now available on Bandcamp. It features performances not only by Arsafes, but also by drummer extraordinaire Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork, The Devin Townsend Project, etc.), David Maxim Micic (guitar) and  Bojan Kvocka (bass) of Destiny Potato, and Fedor Vetrov (viola) (Veter Vodi, Nevid), as well as a cameo appearence by the above-mentioned Ms. Radosavljevic.

And if you’ve heard the first Arsafes EP, what you are about to hear is something very different, and it’s very, very good. Continue reading »

ODDS AND ENDS: YELLOWTOOTH, ERYN NON DAE., ODYSSEY, HACKTIVIST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Sep 092012
 

It’s Sunday morning here in the Great Pacific Northwest, and I’m moving at a glacial pace, having headbanged way past my bedtime at a Korpiklaani–Moonsorrow–Tyr–Metsatöll show last night (about which there will be more later). My computer screen is kind of blurry, though I haven’t yet figured out whether that’s because I sneezed on it or my eyes are just filmed over. Still, I’ve been able to make out a few pieces of news that are worth sharing, though it’s possible the band names are all wrong.  Blurry.

My ears are still working reasonably well, though there’s a ringing noise in them. I haven’t figured out whether that’s an after-effect of last night’s show or the space aliens have altered their frequency to get past my foil helmet. Fuck space aliens. Before they fuck you. Anyway, I’ve heard some new music I like, and I’m sharing that, too, though when I mention the ringing noises that I hear in the music, you might want to take that with a grain of salt.

YELLOWTOOTH

I’m gonna start with the music. The music comes from an Indiana band named Yellowtooth and their debut album Disgust, which will be released on Sept 11 by Orchestrated Misery Recordings. Yellowtooth is a trio of 40-somethings who’ve paid dues in other bands going back to the early ’90s, and Disgust reflects an amalgam of their interests. I’ve only just begun listening to the album, but it has really struck a chord in me, and I mean the chord that connects the reptile part of the brain stem and the gonads. That baby is now just twanging away something fierce.

The music is loaded with fat, sludgy, primal, throwback riffs, with a meat-grinding bass tone and well-executed solo’s. And although the music may be best classified in the stoner/doom category, the hoarse death-metal vocals (which I fuckin’ love) turn the songs into something else — something that wants to eat your liver and brain. The shit is really catchy and really foul, and I’m digging it mightily. There’s also an interesting ringing noise that’s like an ever-present atmosphere in the music. Continue reading »

LIVE IN SEATTLE: KATATONIA, THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, PARADISE LOST, AND STOLEN BABIES

 Concert Reviews  17 Responses »
Sep 092012
 

On the night of September 4, 2012, a group of friends and I were on hand at Studio Seven in Seattle to take in the first show of a North American tour featuring Katatonia, The Devin Townsend Project, Paradise Lost, and Stolen Babies, and I brought my fancy camera, which I still haven’t learned how to work very well. And yes, that means there will be a bunch of amateurish photos scattered around this write-up.

Two of us had bought VIP tickets, which gave us the chance to attend a “meet and greet” with DTP in advance of the show. As instructed, we arrived at the venue at 5:45 pm, and eventually a group of about a dozen of us were brought inside, given swag bags, and escorted to Studio Seven’s balcony bar, which was empty except for staff people getting ready for the night — plus Devin Townsend and two members of his live band, drummer Ryan van Poederooyen and guitarist Dave Young.

We spent the first 10 or 15 minutes talking with Ryan, who couldn’t have been more friendly and humble (and who clearly was in love with the songs DT had written for Epicloud). Eventually, we wandered over to where DT was holding court with the rest of our group of admirers, and he seemed very much the same person as he does on stage — full of energy and humor, making jokes and funny faces, and enjoying talking with all of us mostly tongue-tied well-wishers. If there’s a big rock star ego anywhere in his personality, it’s well-hidden. (We had talked earlier with one of the venue’s security guys who we know, and he confirmed the impression — that DT has always been outgoing and nice to all the staff people every time our friend has worked one of his Seattle shows).

We had our photos taken with DT and then were escorted back out of the venue to wait for the doors to open along with everyone else (though our swag bags contained VIP laminates that allowed us to get back in first). The goodies inside the bag also included a signed copy of the Epicloud CD, which hadn’t yet been released as of the time of this show. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VASTUM, AMBASSADOR GUN, HAM AND SKÁLMÖLD, AND FULL ALBUM STREAMS FROM WINTERFYLLETH AND BEASTWARS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Sep 082012
 

Here are a randomly noticed assortment of art, news, new music, and a video I saw and heard yesterday that I thought were well worth sharing.

VASTUM

Vastum are a Bay Area band who began under the name Corpus as a side project of vocalist Dan Butler and guitarist Kyle House from the amazing Acephalix, whose titanic 2012 album Deathless Master I reviewed here. They were eventually joined by guitarist Leila Abdul-Rauf (Hammers of Misfortune, ex-Saros), bass-player Luca Indrio from Acephalix, and drummer  Adam Perry. Their five-song debut, Carnal Law, which was originally released as a demo, made quite the splash in 2011, delivering a filthy, crusty, punk-influenced take on death metal.

Yesterday I happened to see the artwork at the top of this post. It’s one of the latest creations by the uber-talented Paolo Girardi, whose work I follow closely (and have featured at NCS many times before). When he posted it on his Facebook page, it came with this notation: “VASTUM – PATRICIDAL LUST (2012)”.

I’ve seen no other news that Vastum are planning on a new release this year, but that’s sure what Paolo Girardi’s artwork and explanatory note suggest. I really hope that’s what it means. If you’re unfamiliar with Vastum, Carnal Law can be streamed and purchased at Bandcamp (here), and you might want to give it a listen after the jump. Continue reading »

AN NCS SONG PREMIERE: ACRANIA – “SUSCEPTIBLE TO RETINAL BASED REPROGRAMMABILITY”

 Premieres  8 Responses »
Sep 082012
 

Introducing people to new music from the underground and eye-catching cover art are two of the things we enjoy most at this site, and today we get to do both. Acrania are a band from southeast UK who are on the verge of releasing a split (Galactic Infections) with California’s Blue Waffle, and today we give you the exclusive premiere of Acrania’s contribution to the split: “Susceptible To Retinal Based Reprogrammability”.

Yes, that song title is a mouthful. The music is also a brutish slug in the mouth — and a flurry of heavy-booted kicks to the head. Acrania inflict severe bodily damage with slamming rhythms, a seething hive of buzzing riffage, rapid-fire percussion, and vocals that span the range from grisly gurgling to unhinged shrieking. It’s brutal, but it’s also groovy. You may feel inclined to bust up your abode while you listen, but you can bang your head while you take the sledgehammer to your walls.

As you can see, Acrania and Blue Waffle also have good taste in art. The cover for their new split is graced by the grisly renderings of Ken Sarafin of Sarafin Concepts, whose work we’ve featured at NCS more than once (check out these posts, for example). Acrania also have a debut EP in the works that will feature cover art by NCS favorite Pär Olofsson, and you can take a look at that after the jump.

But first, get some demolition tools ready and check out “Susceptible To Retinal Based Reprogrammability” . . . Continue reading »

GOJIRA: AN “EXPLOSIA” LYRIC VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 072012
 

Gojira have now released a lyric video for “Explosia”, the first track on L’Enfant Sauvage. The visuals are not fancy. In fact, you’re looking at them right now (except for the words).

The photography, which is beautiful, is by some guy named Mario Duplantier.

Any excuse to listen to “Explosia” again, right? That’s my attitude. Watch/listen after the jump. Continue reading »

AN NCS SONG PREMIERE: NYLITHIA – “HYPERTHRASH”

 Premieres  11 Responses »
Sep 072012
 

What do you get when you combine blazing speed, mind-blowing intricacy, head-slapping grooves, and creative song construction? You get Hyperthrash. More specifically, you get the latest single from the thoroughly entertaining Nylithia, which we are delighted to premiere for you today.

We first came across this Vancouver/Langley-based band through a recommendation from an NCS reader back in March and included a feature on them in one of our MISCELLANY posts. They are in the midst of a project that’s somewhat unusual in the current scene: They’ve been periodically releasing one song at a time, beginning with a premiere of the song (Metal Sucks debuted the last one) and following that with a month-long free download of the track on Bandcamp, after which it becomes available as a “pay what you want” download.

Each song comes with its own distinctive hand-drawn artwork by Ryan “Humanburger” Jones. And on top of all that, the band have been releasing sweet music videos for each track — and those have been racking up a slug of hits on YouTube.

Eventually, all of the singles will be combined into an album — Hyperthrash — and we hear that when all of the singles have been released and the album is thus complete, it will be made available on vinyl with a booklet containing all the artwork, as well as released in CD format.

But that’s all in the future, because the single we’re premiering today is only the fourth track to be released so far, and more are coming. However, the song we have for you today is nothing less than the album’s title track — and man, fair warning: “Hyperthrash” will blow out your circuits. All of them. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: KARL SANDERS OF NILE

 Interviews  3 Responses »
Sep 072012
 

(Our man BadWolf interviewed Karl Sanders of Nile by phone earlier this summer, and they discussed . . . well, I’ll let BadWolf give you the preview.  I’ll just say that I had so much fun reading this that I wish it had gone on a whole lot longer. We reviewed the band’s latest album, At the Gates of Sethu, here.)

 

What hasn’t been said about Karl Sanders? The man plays some of the best guitar in all of technical death metal, and in a scene ripe with imitators and mindless noodling, Nile stands out. In other hands an Egyptian motif would be a mere gimmick, but Sanders turns Nile’s aesthetic and musical choices into an original and compelling statement. Most death metal sounds like muck, Nile sounds like a grand adventure.

And his secret, as divulged to the BadWolf, is unstoppable work ethic. We chatted on the merits of hard work, ancient wisdom, and the Arab Spring. Oh, and codeine cough syrup. Tech death goes Crunk after the jump. Continue reading »

SUMMER BREEZE 2012 – THE REVIEW (Part 2)

 Concert Reviews  2 Responses »
Sep 072012
 

(Our UK-based writer Andy Synn made the trek to Germany for this year’s edition of the SUMMER BREEZE festival, and provided us with a review of the bands whose performances he witnessed.  We’ve divided the review into two parts. Part 1 was yesterday, covering performances on the first two days of the festival. In this post, Andy covers the festival’s third and final day, and at the end we’ve again collected videos of some of the performances discussed in the review.)

DAY 3

Day 3 saw a late start (which may have had something to do with the amount of alcohol consumed the night before) with Naglfar over on the main stage, kicking out some lethal melodic black metal despite the blazing sunshine and clear blue skies. It’s really only in the live setting you can fully appreciate both the anthemic quality of the group’s material, as well as the technical skill behind it.

Over on the second stage Unleashed wasted little time getting into the swing of things, their brutish, occasionally melodic, Viking-obsessed death metal garnering a surprisingly loud reaction (at least for this early in the day). The only niggling problem is that where Amon Amarth are more obviously self-aware, using these tales of Viking lore to inspire and uplift their fans, Unleashed seem to treat their subject matter as a manifesto, and their uncomfortable “we should all be Vikings!” schtick is both extremely geeky and embarrassingly ill-informed.

Over in the third-stage tent Incantation were unleashing their own brand of filthy, blood-spitting aural horror, dropping some gut-clenching death metal grooves and breakdowns into the whirlwind death metal stew, even throwing in a few Possessed covers for good measure. Slightly breaking the atmosphere though was John McEntee’s use of an uber-gravelly Batman voice for his between-song banter, unintentionally hilarious in its own special way. Continue reading »

“TREAT INSPIRATION LIKE THE BITCH IT IS”!!!

 Mosh Pit  5 Responses »
Sep 062012
 

I hadn’t planned to post anything else today, but I just read something that’s so wise and so vividly expressed that I just have to pimp it.

It’s an article that just appeared at Metal Sucks by Eyal Levi, guitarist and co-writer of Dååth, co-creator of the wonderful Avalanche of Worms by Levi/Werstler, and a talented record producer with Audiohammer Studios (founded by Jason Suecof). The subject of the piece is creativity and inspiration, and how to deal with the unfortunate reality that inspiration can’t be summoned on demand.

In a nutshell, his messages are as follows: Understand and accept that no one can be creatively inspired 100% of the time — and don’t let the low points throw you; but also understand that creativity behaves like a muscle, and the more you work at it, the more natural it will become to achieve a creative state. This requires you to work hard, to force yourself to create even when the inspiration has deserted you, rather than to sit around and wait for that “elusive fucker” to show up again in its own good time. He writes:

“Treat inspiration like the bitch that it is. Move forward with or without it and you will find that it will tag along more often than not.  If you are in the habit of flexing that creative muscle as often as possible your ruts will be of shorter duration. Your next great idea will be that much closer.”

Levi writes primarily (though not exclusively) from the perspective of a songwriter and musician. I am neither, but I think his observations are just as valid when it comes to writing, or for that matter any other form of creative endeavor. What he says certainly fits my own experiences and my own observations of successful creative people I’ve known in my life. They are messages worth taking to heart. Continue reading »

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