MISCELLANY NO. 47: LIMB FROM LIMB, INSET, AND TO DUST

 Free Shit, MISCELLANY  5 Responses »
Sep 232012
 

Good lord, has it really been two months since the last MISCELLANY post? I knew I had neglected this series, but didn’t realized how pathetically neglectful I’d been. With that much of a lag, I ought to remind everyone of the rules of this game: I randomly pick a few bands whose music I’ve never heard and whose names are new to me. I listen to one recent song by each band (I try to limit myself to just one song, but I sometimes I get carried away). I record my impressions here, and then I stream the song(s) I heard so you can make up your own minds about whether to explore the music further.

I try to limit this game to newer DIY bands as one way for us to help give some visibility and support to underground upstarts. We get so many e-mails and FB messages from bands and fans these days, and so much time has passed since the last time I played this game, that there are dozens and dozens of bands I could pick from. So, how to choose? This time I decided to just pick the last three bands who contacted us on Facebook.

This may lead to even more bands messaging us on Facebook. I wish I had time to give all of them a fair listen and some visibility on our site, but unfortunately I don’t. So I’ll just say in advance: Don’t think I’m a douchecannon for ignoring you. I may be a douchecannon for lots of other reasons, but being unable to expand the number of hours in the day isn’t one of them.

Onward to today’s bands: Limb From Limb (Australia), Inset (Poland), and To Dust (Sweden). Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 63)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  10 Responses »
Sep 232012
 

How the fuck are you today? Are you in the mood for some images, videos, and news items that are metal even though they’re not music? Well if so, you came to the right place. Here’s what I’ve got for you in this installment:

A human hovercraft, a skull flower (accompanied by a weird coincidence), a flight through the universe, cigarette magic, a tornado of fire, a musical prodigy from Hong Kong (okay, this one is music, but it’s not metal, except it’s metal), and Singapore “in miniature”.

ITEM ONE

A little over a week ago, the Lake Union Boats Afloat show started on — where else — Lake Union in Seattle, where I live. On the opening day of the show, a dude named Brandon Robinson put on a demonstration of a device called the “FlyBoard”. It’s a water-powered contraption that allows the “pilot” to hover 20-30 feet in the air and do assorted acrobatic tricks, with the propulsion supplied by a jet ski.

Our local paper ran an eye-catching series of photos of the demonstration, one of which you can see above. You can see a couple more of the pics at this location.

The FlyBoard was invented last year by two-time world champion jet skier Franky Zapata from France. After seeing these photos I had to see if I could find some video of this thing in action, and I succeeded. I found a promotional vid by Zapata’s company, which is selling these FlyBoards for $6,500. A lot of the video consists of Zapata and others speaking in French. I don’t understand French, but I sure as hell got a charge watching the parts of the video that show Zapata getting a workout on his invention. Watch it next . . . Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: LAWLESS — “NITE OF THE WOLF”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Sep 222012
 

The members of the Bay Area’s Acephalix, whose crushing 2012 album Deathless Master I reviewed here, have their claws in a lot of grisly pies. In addition to unleashing sonic destruction in Acephalix, vocalist Dan Butler, guitarist Kyle House, and bassist Luca Indrio are also members of Vastum, another killer band we featured recently and who are now in the recording/mixing phase of their next album at Earhammer Studios in Oakland.

AND guitarist House, bassist Indrio, and Acephalix drummer Dave Benson are also the three members of a band named Lawless, with Indrio and House also sharing the vocal duties. Earlier this month the trio released their first demo under the Lawless banner. Titled Nite of the Wolf, it includes three songs and is available for download at Bandcamp (HERE) for $3, or on tape for $5.90 (limited to 200 copies) from Blood Divine.

The obvious question is how does Lawless’ music compare to that of Acephalix, given that both bands share the same guitarist, bass player and drummer, and given that both Deathless Master and Nite of the Wolf were recorded by the late Jeff Leppard Davis at SF’s Lennon Studios? Well, if you know anything about Acephalix, you would be shocked if I told you that it turns out these guys decided to form an outlet for their interest in acoustic folk music. So, I’m not telling you that. Continue reading »

DYING FETUS, CATTLE DECAPITATION, CEREBRAL BORE TOUR DATES

 Metal News  10 Responses »
Sep 222012
 

A week ago we reported the early hints that Dying Fetus, Cattle Decapitation, and Scotland’s Cerebral Bore would be embarking on a U.S. tour later this fall. We still haven’t seen an official press release, but a more complete schedule of dates has surfaced on the PRP, and most of these dates also now appear on the Tour page of the Dying Fetus Facebook site.

Looking at these dates, I see a gap at the end of the tour between the Dec 13 date in Boise and the Dec 22 date in Baltimore which suggests that the schedule might not be complete, and that could explain why we don’t have an official announcement yet. Swinging through cities in the northern tier of the country would make sense since the bands have to get from Idaho to Maryland and they’ll be crossing the southern tier on the front part of the tour.

My heart also rose when I saw that the tour would include a Seattle appearance, and then it fell when I saw the date: 12-12-12. That happens to be my wife’s birthday, in addition to being the day the world ends. So, for either reason, I’ll be missing this show. However, some people think that according to the Mayan calendars the 13th Baktun will end on Dec 21, 2012 instead of Dec 12, so if you make this show, you might still have time to let me know how skull-fuckingly great it was before everything goes kablooie.

The schedule is after the jump. Continue reading »

BELPHEGOR vs. CRADLE OF FILTH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  22 Responses »
Sep 212012
 

Today I spent a little time with Belphegor and Cradle of Filth. Despite the title of this post, I don’t really consider them in competition with each other. They’re really in different leagues, and interleague play hasn’t started yet. I know they’re in different leagues because the uniforms are different. Belphegor are in the helmeted-and-gas-masked division and, as you can see below, Cradle of Filth are in the eyeliner-and-funny-hats division:

Cradle of Filth have a new album — The Manticore and Other Horrors — that will be released on October 29 (EU) via Peaceville Records and October 30 (NA) via Nuclear Blast USA. Today I listened to one of the tracks from the album. Belphegor have a new album due for release in March 2013, and today I watched a video of drum and bass tracks being laid down at Erik Rutan’s Mana Studios in Florida. Continue reading »

EX DEO: “CALIGVLA”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Sep 212012
 

(After a bit of a hiatus, TheMadIsraeli reappears with this review of the new album by Ex Deo.)

Whoever thought Roman battle metal would actually be a thing?

I certainly didn’t.  I remember seeing the video for Ex Deo’s “The Final War (The Battle of Actium)” and had three thoughts.  This is one of the most well-done music videos I’ve ever seen, why are all the dudes from Kataklysm producing music better than Kataklysm, and where can I acquire this masterpiece!?

So yeah, Romulus was a pretty sweet album although it did start to drag a bit at the end.  I didn’t really fault them for this, it was a new idea and they were trying something different.  Now we have the band’s sophomore album Caligvla.  I’ve eagerly anticipated this just to see how Ex Deo’s sound would manifest itself after coming into full fruition, and I’m quite enjoying the result.

For the uninitiated, Ex Deo play a style of imperialistically charged melodic death metal with appropriate ethnic instrumentation to capture the spirit and the chaos of Rome at its most bloody.  The most peculiar part of this band, however, is the fact that they are all of Kataklysm, plus one other member.  This is odd for me, considering that if I had to pick a Canadian band who couldn’t possibly bore me more, it would be Kataklysm (although the first three albums did hit a sweet spot with me).  Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NEUROSIS, REVOCATION, HACRIDE, JAY-Z / SWIZZ BEATZ, AND BIG CHOCOLATE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 212012
 

Sifting through what the interhole brung me this morning, here are things I saw and heard that I thought were worth sharing with you. Fair warning: musically, this shit is all over the place, including places outside of metal (gasp!).

NEUROSIS

This band have a new album set for release in Germany on October 26, in the rest of Europe on October 29, and in North America on October 30, just in time to scare the shit out of small and adult-sized children on Halloween. The album is named Honor Found In Decay. The band themselves are calling it “their pinnacle studio effort”, which scares me. I witnessed a live Neurosis performance last year for the first time, and for the first time in my life I wanted to kill myself by the end of it. Do I want that feeling again?

That was a rhetorical question. Though I’d rather not have that feeling again, I can’t help but be drawn to this new album, especially after hearing the track that NPR premiered this morning. Its name is “At the Well” and it’s mesmerizing. It falls down on your head with cataclysmic impact and it shimmers with ethereal light and it rumbles and rolls like an avalanche. It’s agonizing and it grooves and it’s loaded with interesting synthesized sounds. It did not make me feel suicidal.

It’s very much worth hearing. Go to THIS PLACE to do that. Continue reading »

AS I LAY DYING: “AWAKENED”

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Sep 212012
 

(DGR reviews the new album by As I Lay Dying.)

As I Lay Dying are one of the few metalcore bands who still have new releases to look forward to. While the first two releases from this group may have been somewhat mixed, the quality and sheer heaviness that the band aimed for on the following releases, An Ocean Between Us and The Powerless Rise, is almost undeniable.

They’re able to take some fairly standard metalcore writing and advance it by adding elements of thrash, death metal, and even moving into the realm of groove. Though they’ve never been the perfect song-writers, I have often believed that As I Lay Dying were one of the few bands who could work well within the boundaries of the metalcore realm, because they’ve mastered what they can do for it and clearly have an understanding of what elements of that genre are boring, and how to spice things up. Very few bands can do that, and it really does require a love and reverence of the material that you’re working on in order to pull it off.

Now we have Awakened, a new As I Lay Dying disc with album art that veers dangerously close to Paradise Lost’s Tragic Idol in its color scheme, and that has seemingly sneaked up on us since, holy crap, this thing is out in a few days. Even though I really hadn’t heard anything from As I Lay Dying’s latest release prior to this review outside of the song “Cauterize” once or twice (and I have gained somewhat of a reputation for rarely liking the lead-off from any new disc because CHANGE IS BAD, GRAH!, though “Cauterize” is pretty alright), there was still reason to be excited. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: EARLY GRAVES, THE TONY DANZA TAPDANCE EXTRAVAGANZA, AND ARCHONS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Sep 202012
 

Here’s a quick round-up of new things that caught my eye this morning.

EARLY GRAVES

I’m very fucking stoked for the new Early Graves album, Red Horse, which will be out October 30 on No Sleep Records. The title track debuted at the end of August, and I included it in this feature. Now, NPR has premiered a second song — “Pure Hell”.

According to NPR, the band’s new vocalist John Strachan (Funeral Pyre) wrote the song for Makh Daniels, Early Graves’ original vocalist who tragically died in a van accident a little more than two years ago: “He always had that pure hell back patch. So I wrote this for him and the way he lived.”

The song title has a second meaning, too: Sonically, it’s pure hell, too — an explosive, violent, smoking-hot rush of grindcore insanity with a massive, skull-crushing breakdown in the back half. Go HERE to get smashed by this music. Continue reading »

OKERA: “A BEAUTIFUL DYSTOPIA”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 202012
 

(I originally wrote this review as a guest piece for Metal Bandcamp and am re-posting it here, just in case Metal Bandcamp collapses under the weight of all the words.)

When MaxR asked me to write a guest review for Metal Bandcamp, he said he wanted to give me something a little out of my usual comfort zone, and specifically, something connected to the realm of doom. When I agreed, the album he picked was A Beautiful Dystopia, released earlier this year by Okera from Melbourne, Australia. I’m afraid Max failed in his mission. Not only am I comfortable in the company of A Beautiful Dystopia, I’m ready to marry it and have kids.

As a genre term, “doom” is a big tent, encompassing a wide range of music, particularly when it’s joined through a hyphen with other styles of metal. A Beautiful Dystopia is one of those hybrids. All of the music is wrapped in the blanket of night, moving in an atmosphere that is often suffused with sensations of melancholy or even the energized bleakness of agony. But the music is also heavy and compulsively rhythmic at the same time as it’s wonderfully melodic. To varying degrees, depending on the song, Okera meld together melodic death metal and doom to produce dramatic, memorable songs.

Every one of the sevens tracks share certain hallmarks: Most of them are long, with three of them lasting more than nine minutes and three others ranging between almost seven minutes and eight — which means they depend on changes in pacing and intensity. Okera establish core melodic themes and then weave them through a course that drops and rises, with soft, contemplative, occasionally acoustic passages and sudden enormous crashes of might and power. The music ebbs and flows, and ultimately the songs build toward an almost overpowering surge of emotion. Continue reading »

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