AGALLOCH: “THE MANTLE” – TEN YEARS ON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Aug 142012
 

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the release by Agalloch of their second full-length, The Mantle. Also yesterday, our brother in blog, Full Metal Attorney, devoted another one of his album-anniversary retrospectives to The Mantle, and as I’ve done before, I’m using his piece as what I hope will be a jumping-off point for discussion here at NCS.

This particular anniversary recognition means more to me than others we’ve featured here. The Mantle was my introduction to Agalloch, who have become one of my favorite bands, and the album itself was a revelation to me. FMA contends that it represented “two radical changes in metal”, which slowly gained in prominence after the album’s release. First, he states that it represented a form of “[m]etal that’s barely even metal” – “neo-folk music with some black metal elements, rather than the other way around.”

Second, he argues that it represented a shift “away from individual songs and toward complete albums”, a kind of cinematic music in which mood is paramount: “The songwriting is brilliant not because of monster riffs, but because it creates atmosphere and holds it together with memorable melodies and musical themes. In that sense, it resembles classical music more than any kind of rock music.”

While acknowledging that other bands such as Ulver had previously been creating music with a “neo-folk-infused musical style and cinematic/classical songwriting”, FMA asserts that “no one plying this trade had made such a strong statement as The Mantle” and that “[p]agan metal and post-black metal would be unrecognizable (or non-existent) today were it not for this record.” And to push the point even further, he states, “By extension, the nation of Ireland would have zero presence on the international metal stage.” Continue reading »

TASTES OF THINGS TO COME: KRAMPUS, CYTOTOXIN, AND PROJECT:ABOMINATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Aug 132012
 

This is a fairly random collection of new music I heard over the last two days from forthcoming albums. Of course, it’s wildly divergent, because that’s the nature of metal. The bands are Krampus (Italy), Cytotoxin (Germany), and Project:Abomination (U.S.)

KRAMPUS

Krampus are an Italian horde (eight members!) whose last EP was reviewed for us by Trollfiend (here), and he followed that with a band interview (here). They’ve now completed a full-length album, Survival of the Fittest, which is slated for release on August 24 by Noise Art Records, and yesterday brought us a new song: “Unspoken”. Previously, the band started streaming another track, “Kronos’ Heritage”, which  if I’m not mistaken also appeared on the last EP.

Krampus bill themselves as a folk metal band, but “Unspoken is much more straight-ahead, Scandinavian-styled melodic death metal, with a metalcore flavoring of both bestial and clean vocals. The bestial vox are indeed beastly (and excellent), and although you know what I think of clean vocals, I admit that they do have a fitting place in this song. The music is an infectious gallop — not ground-breaking by any stretch, but a lot of fun to hear.

A stream of the new song is right after the jump, and I’m also including “Kronos’ Heritage”, a song in which folk influences are more pronounced. Like “Unspoken”, it’s very catchy.  Continue reading »

ASH BORER: “COLD OF AGES”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Aug 132012
 

Though very much adhering to an underground ethos and relying largely on word of mouth and distribution by tape and vinyl, Ash Borer have nevertheless succeeded in spreading their name and their music in ever-widening circles. Their 2009 demo opened a lot of eyes, as did their excellent 2010 split with Fell Voices, but their 2011 debut album (self-titled) really put them on the map. It made many Best of the Year lists (including five that we posted here at NCS) and was praised by BadWolf in our review; in an extended metaphor, he compared it (repeatedly) to sex.

As good as their previous releases have been, however, it turns out they were all just preparation, a slow build to the band’s first album on the Profound Lore label, which is scheduled for release on August 14. On Cold of Ages, Ash Borer have mastered the art of immersion, creating a completely entrancing (if often disturbing) musical experience that should land them on even more Best of Year lists when 2012 draws to a close.

Black metal takes many shapes. Though usually united in certain readily identifiable instrumental and vocal techniques, or at least by a certain unbridled aesthetic, the music spans a continually expanding soundscape. It encompasses everything from black thrash to black ‘n’ roll, from hybridized black/death to avant garde shoegaze, from blasting evisceration to occult-themed psychedelic pop to caustic forms of post-metal. Ash Borer have devoted themselves to richly atmospheric, long-form music — the kind of black metal that tests the listener’s attention span, but when successful, is capable of establishing deep emotional connections and firing the imagination. In that respect, Cold of Ages is an unqualified success.

And Cold of Ages is definitely long-form, with four tracks ranging in length from more than 11 minutes to over 18. Attention is indeed required, but there’s a big payoff — and not much risk of your mind wandering away before you get to the album’s end. Continue reading »

CHATEAU BRUTAL: “MEET MY MEAT”

 Off Topic, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 132012
 

It’s a fact: No one has ever accused the humor at this site of being too sophisticated. We pride ourselves on being moronic, juvenile, and foul as often as possible, or at least I do. For example, I don’t think you can ever have too much dick humor. I know you feel that way, too, which is why this post is just gonna light you up!

Yesterday I was introduced to a French band called Chateau Brutal by the always entertaining Church of the Riff — and if you’re not reading that blog on a regular basis, you’re missing out on some primo entertainment. For example, here’s what the Church had to say about Chateau Brutal’s new second album, Ham Slicer:

This French garage rock duo’s second album is 10 tracks of rump rattling, ear splitting, foot tapping rawk and fucking roll. It’s the drunk guy at the bar who’s lost his pants and is screaming at the half-empty pint on the table to fill itself up again. Noisy, fast and frenetic, it’ll grab you by the nose and shake you until the screaming stops.

Take one porterhouse thick guitar tone, mix in a hammering percussion section and season with everything from turntables to saxophones. Then soak it in beer, rip it’s pants off and stay the fuck out of the way. It goes hard, but not on the sonic destruction front, on the “drink all your beer, then steal some more, then get laid, then find more beer, then steal a zebra from the zoo and get the police to chase you”…front.

Well, fuck, don’t mind if I do!

You just know an album is going to be good when it’s opening track is “My Dick”, and it’s followed immediately by “Meet My Meat”.  Continue reading »

A FIRST TASTE OF CRYPTOPSY’S NEW ALBUM

 Metal News  14 Responses »
Aug 122012
 

I got an e-mail from Crypotopsy this morning. My pulse rate spiked, and so did my curiosity? Why, I wondered, was Cryptopsy writing me? And then I remembered.

I pre-ordered their forthcoming self-titled album — the album that I and every other Cryptopsy fan on the planet hopes will be a resurrection of the band who brought us None So Vile (1996) and other wonderful offerings over the following years — but who took a wrong turn with The Unspoken King (2008). And one of the perks that was to come with a pre-order was the chance to get a download of two tracks from the album in advance of its September 11 release date. And in that e-mail were codes for download of those two songs — which turn out to be the opening track, “Two-Pound Torch”, and the third one, “Red-Skinned Scapegoat”.

Well, of course, I dropped what I was doing and immediately downloaded the two tracks. I strapped on the patented NO CLEAN SINGING headphone-helmet with the built-in rawhide bit (to prevent biting through your tongue), the vacuum-seal goggles (to keep your eyeballs from popping out), and the forehead padding (to prevent skull fractures if you headbang your noggin’ straight into a wall or other inflexible surface). You see, I had my hopes up.

And I played those two songs. And then I played them again.  And then I listened to None So Vile.  And then I played the two new songs again.

And I’m here to report that Crytopsy are FUCKING BACK! Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 60)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  5 Responses »
Aug 122012
 

Good morning, good afternoon, good night, to all our metal brethren and sistren of all time zones, and welcome to another edition of THAT’S METAL!, in which we take a rare break from hammering our heads with extreme music and instead root around like truffle-hunting pigs in search of delicious images, videos, and news items that we think are metal, even though they’re not music. I have eight items for you today.

ITEM ONE

Our first item is metal on almost too many levels to count. It involves an unusual advertising agency based in Sweden by the name of Studio Total. They work for clients, but their philosophy is not to pay anyone for advertising space. Instead, they do things designed to get people talking, for free. To draw attention to whatever brand, product, or cause they promote, they’ve pulled some . . . out-of-the-box stunts. This is a story about their most recent adventure.

Studio Total decided to work, without charge, for an organization called Charter 97, which is a pro-democracy news site located in Belarus. Belarus is a country to the west of Russia, north if the Ukraine, and east of Poland. Since 1994, it has been run by an autocratic asshole named Alexander Lukashenko, often referred to as “Europe’s last remaining dictator”. Belarus’ Democracy Index rating continuously ranks the lowest in Europe, and it’s labeled as “Not Free” by Freedom House.

To highlight Lukashenko’s repressive policies against free speech, Studio Total chartered a small private plane, and the agency’s co-founder Tomas Mazetti and another employee, Hannah Lina Frey, illegally flew it into Belarus air space on July 4, dropping 876 teddy bears by parachute on the capital of Minsk and the small town of Ivyanets. The teddy bears each held small signs reading, “Belarus freedom” and “We support the Belarus struggle for free speech.”  Continue reading »

HAMFERÐ

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Aug 122012
 

The United States has always been run by a plutocracy whose power has rarely been challenged in any meaningful way, regardless of which political party happens to be in office. For complex reasons, class warfare has just never really been a serious factor in the civic and political life of the U.S. The big dogs gobble up an ever-increasing share of the pie, and most people don’t ever seem bothered enough by it to rise up politically and demand that their own interests be put first. But as a people, strangely enough, we do like to root for the underdog, and we tend to cheer when the underdog wins. I’m no exception . . . and hence, this story.

Wacken Metal Battle is a globe-spanning competition designed to showcase up-and-coming bands in the world of metal, and this year it celebrated its 10th anniversary. National competitions are now held in 33 countries, with the winner of each national competition journeying to Germany to perform on the first day of the Wacken Open Air festival, playing for all the marbles. And it’s a big bag of marbles, too. Apart from the thrill of getting to play at the world’s biggest metal fest, the winner this year was to receive a world-wide record deal with Nuclear Blast and a shitload of other prizes, such as a Marshall Full-Stack, Washburn guitars, and Paise Boomer cymbals (the whole list of prizes can be seen at this page).

For the first time in 2012, the Faroe Islands joined the Metal Battle competition. The Faroe Islands are a country consisting of 18 mountainous islands located in the North Atlantic between Iceland and the rest of Scandinavia. The total population is about 49,000, with nearly half the people living in the capital region of Tórshavn. They are the descendants of Vikings (and Irish), they have their own language, and they have metal (as those of you who know bands such as Týr, The Apocryphal Order, or SiC are well aware).

This year, eight bands competed in the Faroese national Metal Battle event, and the winner was a band named Hamferð. Hamferð made the trip to Germany and took the Wacken W.E.T. stage on August 6 to throw down against bands from throughout Europe, plus countries as far away as China, Japan, Russia, Mexico, and Brazil. And guess who won the whole thing, as their nation’s first-ever competitor in Wacken Metal Battle? That’s right — Hamferð did. Continue reading »

MERCH ON BANDCAMP!

 Metal News  18 Responses »
Aug 112012
 

As if there weren’t already enough reasons for metal bands to set up camp on Bandcamp, there’s now one more.

On August 1, Bandcamp launched new functionality that allows bands to create a separate, dedicated merch section for their site, through which they can offer shirts, posters, and other shit indepenently of the music. But it also allows bands to create music+merch bundles, and it allows checkout through the same shopping-cart function that exists for music.

The merch sections can be tabbed in the navigation bar at the top of the band’s Bandcamp page — though I suspect fans will need a bit of training to realize it’s there. Bandcamp is also planning to have the merch feature added to the Bandcamp app that can be integrated with Facebook, so merch sales can be processed directly from within the Facebook band page.

Yes, Bandcamp will take 10% of the revenue, but they’ve got some pretty reasonable-sounding arguments about why bands will still make more money using Bandcamp for merch orders than standalone sites.

And while I’m on the subject of Bandcamp, it’s worth mentioning that a couple of months ago they rolled out a Discover feature that allows fans to browse for music by genre. The “Metal” category is further sub-divided into “new arrivals”, “best selling”, and “artist-recommended”. The “artist-recommended” category is further sub-divided in a way that allows you to see the albums most-recommended by artists. When you click on an album cover in these sections, you get to hear a sample track immediately, without leaving the Discover page. Continue reading »

SHUFFLE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHUFFLE  17 Responses »
Aug 112012
 

As much as I like working on this blog, it has changed my listening habits. One of our missions is to stay abreast of song and video premieres and new albums, sifting through the flood of new metal to find things we believe are worth recommending and reviewing. So I spend almost all my listening time nowadays checking out metal I’ve never heard before. The cost, unfortunately, is that I rarely listen to what’s in the library of albums I’ve accumulated over the years. No more “oldies but goodies” for me.

But yesterday, on a whim, I decided that I’d spend the time walking to and from my job listening to what was on my iPod already, and I used Shuffle to pick what I heard. My iPod Classic is full. It has 22,331 songs on it, and almost all of the shit is metal. To put a new album on there requires that I delete another one, which is horribly painful to do. That process has made the library more top-heavy with newer music over time, which may explain why most of the Shuffle choices turned out to be of relatively recent vintage.

Anyway, it turned out to be a blast, because the first five songs that Shuffle picked were all really good and really beastly. The next couple weren’t as killer, so I decided to just go with the first five in this post. Oddly, two of the five turned out to be from Japanese bands.

DISMEMBER

Fuckin’ Dismember! What an auspicious way to start the Shuffle medley! I didn’t need reminding about how completely amazing Like An Ever Flowing Stream was — and still is — but it’s been a couple of years since I’ve listened to “Skin Her Alive”. What a thoroughly skin-flaying, meat-grinding experience. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: AUTARCH

 Album Reviews, Free Shit, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Aug 112012
 

Genre mixing and matching can lead to wretched results, with music that sounds like a forced integration of cats with dogs, or worse (if such a thing is possible). But it can also lead to interesting listening experiences where the genre crossing works even when you think it might not. Autarch’s new self-titled EP works.

This Asheville, NC, band say that they play what they want to hear, and it appears that what they mainly like to hear, based on this EP,  is crust/punk and post-metal. Those two genres may not seem like a natural fit, but Autarch’s four-song mash-up makes for an appealing listen.

The most interesting and most thorough combination of the styles occurs on the EP’s opening track, which is also its longest (at nearly 8 minutes): “Kings”. The song’s extended instrumental introduction makes use of gripping dual-guitar melodies and a tremolo-picked lead that rises and falls through a darkened scale, with enough distortion and hard-hitting percussion to give warning that something brutish lurks in the shadows.

When the guitars begin to growl and prowl and grow more dissonant, and harsh barking vocals join in, things take a turn toward the crustier, more aggressive side of the mix. Though the pacing is dynamic, the band stomp, storm, and gallop with a vengeance before the song ends, yet the atmospheric quality established by the intro never completely disappears. Continue reading »

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