NO CLEAN SINGING

INTENSITY: NEW VIDEOS FROM WORLD UNDER BLOOD AND MURDER CONSTRUCT

Sep 062012

The subjects of this post are two official videos released today by two California bands, World Under Blood and Murder Construct. The musical styles are of course quite different, but the music (and the videos) have this much in common: They’re intense experiences to hear and to see.

WORLD UNDER BLOOD

Despite the fact that we failed to review this band’s 2011 Nuclear Blast debut album Tactical, we sort of made up for that by naming one of the album’s tracks (“Dead and Still In Pain”) to our list of 2011’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

We could have just as easily picked another song from that album, “Into the Arms of Cruelty”. It really showcases the talents of this band’s top-flight members: vocalist/guitarist Deron Miller (CKY), drummer Tim Yeung (Divine Heresy, Morbid Angel), guitrist Luke Jaeger (Sleep Terror), and bassist Risha Eryavec (ex-Decrepit Birth). It’s a plenty extreme song, but it has an undeniable groove and melodic hooks that really set themselves firmly in the mind.

Today, Nuclear Blast debuted an official video for the song, and it’s very well made (by director Shan Dan Horan). It matches the intensity of the music with a mix of animation and live action storytelling that focuses on violence directed against children. Definitely worth seeing and hearing . . . right now. Continue reading »

SUMMER BREEZE 2012 – THE REVIEW (Part 1)

Concert Reviews 7 Responses »

Sep 062012

(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. In this post, Andy covers the festival’s first two days, and tomorrow we’ll have his impressions of Day 3. We’ve also collected videos of many of the performances at the end of the post.)

So… German festivals go Thursday – Saturday, not Friday – Sunday… who knew? Well apparently everyone else in the world except for us, when we booked an overnight stay in Cologne on the Wednesday night! Still, Cologne was awesome, and only a mere four hours drive away…

Anyway, on reaching the site (after a desperate last minute rush to the petrol station – seriously, make sure you fill up before you reach the Dinkelsbuhl exit guys and gals!) we joined a surprising, infuriating, queue of cars, followed by an interminable security check… time was ticking away and Be’lakor (one of my primary reasons for going to the festival) would soon be taking the stage! So with some slightly rushed stunt driving (I’m pretty certain I went down that grass verge as much sideways as I did forwards) and a breathless scramble… we made it. Just.

DAY 1

Justifying our desperate, occasionally slightly risky, efforts to get to the festival on time, Be’lakor were undeniably awesome. Live, the Agallochian overtones of the music come through a lot more, a melding of misty melancholy with swells of oceanic heaviness giving the band a more distinctive and individual live presence. The group’s image is a little difficult to reconcile with the music though, encompassing a host of short haircuts, laid-back Australian accents, and inappropriate t-shirts! Shame on you guys!

The next band I was dying to see also happened to be one of my favourites, my loyalty to Darkest Hour forcing me to choose them in an unfortunate clash with Glorior Belli. And though it pained me to do so, I’m glad I did. Darkest Hour never disappoint, their punky, hyper-energetic take on melodic death metal fitting perfectly with the blazing sunshine and free-wheeling atmosphere of the festival. Plus, I was still yet to see them live with either the new material or the new line-up, and both absolutely killed it live. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: EYEHATEGOD, KLONE, DE PROFUNDIS, SLASH DEMENTIA

Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 9 Responses »

Sep 062012

Here we are, still rounding up new music (and a new video) that debuted yesterday or early this morning. If you missed the last post because you were doing something unimportant by comparison, like performing open heart surgery, there are killer new songs from other bands in that one, too. In this one we have new music from Eyehategod (New Orleans), Klone (Poitiers), and Slash Dementia (Äänekoski), plus a new video from De Profundis (London).

EYEHATEGOD

NOLA sludge legends Eyehategod have released a new 7″ single via A389 Recordings, who will sell it to you here on laser-etched green vinyl. Its title is “New Orleans Is the New Vietnam”, and it’s apparently the first new track the band have released since the demo tracks on 2005’s Preaching The End Time Message.

The song is now streaming on the A389 Bandcamp page. It’s a cool song, and by “cool” I mean it will punch you in the spleen. Fat stoner riffs duke it out with pachydermal stomps and Mike Williams somehow rises up in the middle of all that heaving weight spewing pure pissed-off punk invective. Give it a listen after the jump, and begin preparing yourselves for the band’s next album, which is in the works. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: RAGE NUCLÉAIRE, DECLINE OF THE I, BLACK SEPTEMBER

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Sep 062012

I realize that recently I’ve been making these “Seen and Heard” posts a daily occurrence when I should have been concentrating more in depth on individual albums or EPs. But I’ve been ~~fucking off a lot~~ pressed for time recently, and although I’ve fallen even further behind on reviewing albums and EPs I like, I’m at least trying to keep up with the news — especially news that involves new music that really strikes a chord.

Yesterday was a big fucken bonanza of new music. In fact, I found so many likable new discoveries that I’ll have not one but two of these posts today (and maybe more, depending on ~~how much I fuck off~~ how today goes). This is the first one, and I’m really excited about the songs I’ve collected here, all of which are dramatically different shades of black metal — from Rage Nucléaire (Montreal), Decline of the I (Paris), and Black September (Chicago).

RAGE NUCLÉAIRE

Late June it was when I saw an announcement by Season of Mist that they had signed a four-piece black metal band called Rage Nucléaire. It got my attention because the band was formed by Lord Worm, former vocalist of Cryptopsy. I wrote about the event (here) despite having no music to hear. Now I do.

As SOM begins the ramp-up to the debut of Unrelenting Fucking Hatred, they’ve now disclosed the release dates — Nov. 6 for North America and Oct. 19 for the rest of the [fortunate] world — and they’ve started streaming the album’s opening track, the name of which is “Violence Is Golden”. And you beginning to detect a theme about the music? Continue reading »

TOUR NEWS: WINTERSUN IS COMING TO NORTH AMERICA WITH ELUVEITIE

Metal News 7 Responses »

Sep 052012

Here’s some breaking news that will be of serious interest to fans of Wintersun (and Eluveitie): The two bands will be joining forces for a 21-date North American tour in late November and December. The tour will begin on November 28 in Tempe, Arizona, and end on December 21 in Boston, and almost half the shows will be in Canada.

This will be Wintersun’s first North American tour, and it will come on the heels of the band’s Time I album. Wintersun’s Jari Mäenpää says, “We’ve had lots of requests from the fans before, but finally we are able to come there and kick some ass with new material from the Time I album and of course play the old stuff too! Hope to see you guys there. Let´s make it special!”

The tour will also include the German pagan metal band Varg.

I won’t make special mention that the tour is stopping in Seattle, because that would be self-centered and boorish. The full schedule is after the jump. Continue reading »

THE LATEST MESSAGES FROM HELL: AN ANAAL NATHRAKH “VANITAS” TEASER AND “WIDOWMAKER” IS ABOUT TO BE DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 19 Responses »

Sep 052012

The two items in this post both appeared this morning. I thought their near-simultaneous appearance was ominous, as if constituting a kind of queasiness-inducing evidence that there really are Great Old Ones in the Earth, and they are beginning to rouse themselves from their slumbers.

Both Anaal Nathrakh and Dragged Into Sunlight are from the UK, they are both favorites of this site, and they both create brilliant, hellish, obliterating music — though not of the same kind. As I wrote the last time we paired news from these bands together, “Anaal Nathrakh give you a nightmarish rocket-ride into the abyss, and Dragged Into Sunlight trap you there in a vat of acid sludge that slowly liquifies your flesh.” Here’s the latest news from both bands:

ANAAL NATHRAKH

As we reported four days ago (here), Candlelight Records will be releasing Anaal Nathrakh’s new album on October 15. Its name is Vanitas, and for that earlier post we even managed to find a small image of the album cover (which has now “officially” surfaced on the band’s Facebook page).

As of this morning we now have a teaser clip of music from the album. It’s harrowing stuff (and we would expect nothing less) — a catastrophic blast of infernal grind that sounds terrifically pissed off; the vocals are intense, even by Dave Hunt’s previous standards. Check it out next: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HIVESMASHER, SUN DRIED INTESTINES, WINTERFYLLETH, BOBÓK, AND MORE

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 9 Responses »

Sep 052012

This is a collection of nuggets that I sifted from the ever-flowing stream of the internet yesterday. I’m going to start with some head-smashing new music and end with some head-warping music. With any luck, by the time we’re finished, you’ll have lost your head altogether.

HIVESMASHER

I like this band’s name. Any band with “smasher” in their name is already past second base and headed for third. “Hivesmasher” also reminds me of the time when my brother and I thought it would be a good idea to smash a hive of wasps after we thought they were all dead, because we had burned their nest first. We were young and stupid, and very soon we were also in agony.

Hivesmasher, the band, is also about as pissed off and poisonous as that nest of undead wasps. They’re from Massachusetts and they have a debut album named Gutter Choir that’s due on October 23 on the Black Market Activities label. Yesterday I heard two tracks from the album. Lambgoat premiered one of them — “En Route To Meat Land” — which I think is what those wasps were singing when they delivered some hellfire retribution to my brother and me.

It reminds me of Pig Destroyer. It’s berserk, but really skillfully played. You should definitely go HERE to check it out. Continue reading »

PIG DESTROYER LIVE IN TOKYO (WITH NEW SONGS)

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Sep 042012

Pig Destroyer’s new album Book Burner will be out in the U.S. on October 22. A bit earlier today I watched a fan-filmed video of most of their set on August 23 in Tokyo. Here’s an index to what’s on the video that I found in the YouTube comments — including some new songs:

1:10 Rotten Yellow
2:23 Deathtripper
3:52 ?????
7:00 Pretty in Casts
8:14 Dark Satellites
9:08 Trojan Whore
10:50 Sheet Metal Girl
12:43 Alexandria
16:56 New Songs!
21:12 Piss Angel
25:11 Cheerleader Corpses
25:45 Terrifyer

The video and audio quality are pretty good. Explosively violent music. Video is after the jump. Continue reading »

HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE, THE GATES OF SLUMBER, FLOOD THE DESERT @ The Pyramid Scheme, Grand Rapids 7/19/12

Concert Reviews 3 Responses »

Sep 042012

(photo credit: Craig McGillvray)

(BadWolf provides this review of the July 19, 2012, live performances by Hammers of Misfortune, The Gates of Slumber, and Flood the Desert in Grand Rapids, MI. All photos in this post, except the one above, were taken at the show by by Robert Shooks.)

In a summer stuffed to the gills with excellent tour packages, none coaxed more ropes of saliva from my lips than Hammers of Misfortune and The Gates of Slumber. The Gates may be Indiana’s finest sons in doom, but they’ve largely foregone midwestern tour dates. As for Hammers of Misfortune, what justification do you need? The band roared back to life last year after an extended hiatus (during which several Hammers members made some of the finest black metal I’ve ever heard in Ludicra) with a revamped lineup. To sweeten the pot, they toured behind last year’s 17th Street, their most focused album since 2003’s The August Engine.

D00shc00gr and I made the trek across the state to the Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids—a fine venue tucked behind a cafe and pinball arcade, complete with a small but top-notch selection of Michigan microbrews on tap. I suffered through a complimentary glass of Bell’s Two-Hearted IPA ( I wished it was Oberon) but Short’s Soft Parade still tastes like sweet dreams! Venues such as the Pyramid Scheme are growing like weeds in Grand Rapids.

Having spent a sizable portion of my adult life in the erstwhile metal-free state of Michigan, I can say with some authority that Grand Rapids is the place to live at the moment. Lansing may have the finest local scene, But Grand Rapids draws many larger tours with its bounty of clean, up-and-coming venues, compared to the largely bitter remnants of Detroit Rock City.

A FLOOD OF NEW VIDEOS FROM OBLIVION, NEKROGOBLIKON, HEAVENWOOD, DROPBUNNY, AND ENGEL

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 5 Responses »

Sep 042012

Holy shit! The last 24 hours have brought a flood of brand new music videos that are (a) constructed around kickass music of considerable diversity, and (b) fun to watch. I’ve collected five of them in this post, and have kept my introductory verbiage to a minimum so you can spend your time listening and watching. Go!

OBLIVION

Oblivion are Nick Vasallo (vocals, bass), Ted O’Neill (guitar), and Luis Martinez (drums). They are tech-death hell on wheels. TheMadIsraeli reviewed their 2012 demo here, and we’re damned excited about their forthcoming debut album, Called To Rise.

Today they debuted a video for the first song to be aired from the album, “Black Veils of Justice”. The song just blazes. And the video is cool, too, mixing a band performance together with an animated short film called “ARK” by Grzegorz Jonkajtys.

We’ll have more news about the new album in the near future. You can keep track of what Oblivion are up to by visiting their Facebook page. Here’s the video: Continue reading »

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