NO CLEAN SINGING

NILE: “AT THE GATES OF SETHU”

Aug 082012

(Here we have yet another review by TheMadIsraeli, catching up on 2012 releases that have impressed him. Today, it’s the new one from Nile, which is out now on the Nuclear Blast label.)

As much as it may have sucked total ass in the mainstream, underground metal in the 90’s was one of the absolute definitive highpoints of the music’s evolution to me. A huge component of this was the surge of brutal tech-death giants, most of whom (though not all) somehow have managed not to stagnate one bit, still putting out consistently killer albums while retaining the defining qualities that make these bands who they are. I’m speaking of Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Immolation, Cryptopsy, and obviously in today’s case, Nile.

Nile, like almost all the bands listed above, have a virtually flawless discography. I think the only guilty party in that list who turned out to be an exception needn’t be named, but Nile is definitely a band who’ve never committed such a gaff. Their new album, At The Gates of Sethu, is a monolithic assault of Nile’s esoteric brutality that’s just as good as any of their other work (which is to say fucking excellent), though it seems to be drawing criticism via the tropes and trivialities of the modern metal crowd.

I digress briefly with a rant: I hate most modern metal. I may find a modern metal band worth checking out here and there, and even more rarely, one that I deem fucking excellent. However, I hate modern metal as a whole. I hate the sentiments it comes with, what the crowd expects from the music, and the general idea that if something is not groovy, if it doesn’t have slick, pristine production that’s sterile and as stale as an open three-week-old bag of chips (even though it might very well capture the full spectrum of sound), if it doesn’t have lame, half-assed attempts at syncopation, and if it lacks clean vocals, then it’s bad. Even more obnoxious and condescending is the notion that music which fails these criteria is not relevant, not “with the times”, or some cockamamie horse shit like that. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: AGELESS OBLIVION

Interviews 2 Responses »

Aug 082012

(In early July, Andy Synn reviewed the 2011 debut album by the UK’s Ageless Oblivion — Temples of Transcendent Evolution — and today he follows that with this interview.)

Ok, so recently I conducted a back-and-forth email interview with David Porter (guitar) of current NCS faves Ageless Oblivion, where we touched upon everything from the line between atmospheric/brutal death metal and the joys of chasing cattle, to the perils and pitfalls of hanging around on abandoned military bases!

********

Because you might be something of an unknown quantity to a lot of our readers, let’s start off with the basics: Who are you, where do you come from, when did you first come together?

We are a five piece Death Metal band from Basingstoke in Hampshire UK. The band has existed 5 years or so with countless numbers of guitarists and bassists contributing over time. The band was started by Rich, Steve and myself from a mutual love for old school extreme music and a general tiresomeness of hearing the same two dimensional bands at every show we went to. We wanted to play something fast, aggressive and with no obvious breakdowns.

At the moment the band consists of:

Steve Jones – Vocals
David Porter – Guitar
Richard Wiltshire – Drums
Fahad Sperinck – Guitar
Sam Chatterton – Bass

Sam joined just after the recording of our album and Fahad was added to the fold only a month ago. Continue reading »

FLAYED DISCIPLE: “THE WESTBORO MASSACRE” VIDEO

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Aug 082012

Somewhere, against all odds and all reason, there are pathetic, deluded motherfuckers who believe that the Westboro Baptist Church are doing God’s work, when in truth they are simply whores for publicity who have no reluctance to damage the feelings of innocent people in order to get it. For them, no outrage is too outrageous, and the Bible by which they claim to swear clearly means nothing, because if it did, they would be too fearful of the final judgment to do what they have done.

I have yet to see any metalhead who has condoned or supported the mental and emotional cruelty these animals have attempted to inflict in a very calculated way on people who are already suffering from the random losses and pain and prejudice that the dice-roll of human life has a way of inflicting. It makes me proud to be a part of a community that has condemned their bullshit so consistently and so vehemently.

But now we have an anthem, a way to exorcise the anger, a form of catharsis that sure made me feel good, and I suspect will make others feel good, too. We have the new official video for “The Westboro Massacre” by Flayed Disciple.

Could this song and this video also be taken to task for fighting fire with fire, for reacting to hatred with anger and the suggestion of violence? Absolutely, yes, it could. But I think it’s a lot better to work out through music the anger that people like the Westboro Baptist scum ignite than through actual violence or confrontation.

Or maybe I should just speak for myself: I got something nasty out of my system by watching this video and listening to this music, and I feel better for it. Also, the song is just really fuckin’ good metal. Continue reading »

WINTERFYLLETH: “VOID OF LIGHT”

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 9 Responses »

Aug 072012

At the end of July I posted about the plans of Candlelight Records to release a new album by the UK’s Winterfylleth in September. The album’s title is The Threnody of Triumph. When I last wrote about this news, Zero Tolerance magazine reported that it would be including a feature on the band AND a track from the new album — “Void of Light” — on a bonus CD with the magazine. I expressed the hope that the song would surface on the web soon. And so it has.

This morning, Candlelight started streaming the song on Soundcloud. With blasting drums and vibrating guitars forward in the mix, the music rushes like a riptide. The dense wall of tremolo guitar carries a majestic melody of the kind for which Winterfylleth have become known, while the anguished vocals flay the senses with razor-edged shrieking. The song is primal in its power, and though the core melody is a simple one, it’s the kind that will stick in your head.

“Void of Light” makes me even more eager to hear the new album, and I was damned eager to begin with. Find Winterfyleth on Facebook here and listen to the song after the jump. Continue reading »

SYLOSIS FINALLY PREMIERE A NEW SONG, FINALLY: “BORN ANEW”

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 15 Responses »

Aug 072012

Inspired by the Art Nouveau movement, this is the CD jewelcase artwork for Monolith, the new album by the UK’s Sylosis. The artist is Dan Goldsworthy, who also created the cover art for the band’s last album, Edge of the Earth. According to the band, some of the inspiration came from Greek mythology, and that figure on the left loosely represents the devil in disguise or a satyr and may have something to do with the album’s concept.

Also, Dan Goldsworthy created a second piece of artwork for Monolith, which it appears Nuclear Blast is using as an “O-card cover”, whatever that is. You can see that after the jump, too.

Monolith will be released by Nuclear Blast on October 5 in Europe and October 9 elsewhere. Sylosis has been promising to premiere a new song for weeks, setting specific dates and then no-showing. Most recently, the promise was that a new track — “A Dying Vine” — would premiere yesterday on the band’s new web site. Nope. More undisclosed “technical issues” reared their venomous heads. I was beginning to think that this was a new Machiavellian strategy designed to pump up fan frenzy.

However, though not quite johnny-on-the-spot with the premiere, Sylosis have today finally unveiled a new track called “Born Anew”. This song isn’t the one that was scheduled to appear on their web site. It’s one that was broadcast last night on a BBC radio program, which means that it’s now up on YouTube, which means the radio rip is embedded here after the jump. The band are also now streaming “Born Anew” on their Facebook band page HERE.

In addition, Sylosis has stated that they will soon be providing more news about the still-not-yet-functional web site, which presumably will include news about when “A Dying Vine” will be unveiled. To stay on top of that, visit their Facebook page.

And unless you get the wrong idea and think this post is nothing more than a whine session about Sylosis’ delays, allow me to say that “Born Anew” fucking rips.
Continue reading »

THE CONTORTIONIST: “INTRINSIC”

Album Reviews 16 Responses »

Aug 072012

(Here’s the second of TheMadIsraeli’s new reviews in as many days, the log jam having broken on his pent-up thoughts. Today, the subject is the 2012 release by Indiana’s The Contortionist.)

Man, was there a fuck load of hype around this album. I have to say, as much as I like this band and as good as I think their music is (I’m reviewing the album obviously), I didn’t know mixing djent, deathcore, and post-rock would be such a big deal. Other bands have obviously attempted to bank off what The Contortionist have done since their stellar debut Exoplanet was released; probably most notably Substructure, whom I also love to death.

But now we’re here to talk about the band’s insanely hyped and eagerly anticipated sophomore release, Intrinsic. The Contortionist have stepped up their game, expanded their sound, yet they have also refined it. I will be frank and say the experiment here is not entirely successful, but rather that this should be viewed as an excellent, ambitious step forward in establishing an identity. It could be argued, of course, that this band already stood out, but Intrinsic is definitely an album you couldn’t mistake for another. It is for this reason, combined with Intrinsic’s solid ideas and concepts, that make it worthy of an NCS review in my mind.

The music has definitely changed quite a bit. The trademark elements are still here: Brutalizing death core grooves; mantic, technical, brain-hemorrhaging riffs; soothing ambience that makes one envision galaxies moving in space; and crescendos and drops in intensity that showcase extreme dynamic intelligence.

The prog level is definitely turned up on this album, though. The song structures are much more frantic, with little to no cohesiveness whatsoever. A lot of the songs jump unexpectedly from part to part. There may be a returning section at some point during the song, but even in those situations, the returning part is thrown in with the most unorthodox logic. Continue reading »

THINGS I HEARD TODAY (AND YESTERDAY, AND THE DAY BEFORE): NORSKA, OBSCENITY, AND MENDEL

Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Aug 062012

I didn’t hear all the songs in this post today, because my nuts are clamped in a day-job vise and I’m spending more time squirming with the agony than I am listening to new music. Actually, that’s been true since Friday. But even though my listening time has been viciously pinched, I have heard some tunes over the last three days that I wanted to pass along — from Norska (U.S.), Obscenity (Germany), and Mendel (The Netherlands).

NORSKA

About two weeks ago I came across the name of this band for the first time (and mentioned them in this post) because they were listed as participating in a new tour headlined by YOB and also featuring Cormorant. What I knew about them then (which was not much) I put in that earlier post: “Norska features YOB bass player Aaron Rieseberg and his brother Dustin and is described as a ‘progressive tech-sludge rock band.’”

Well, guess what? Today, MetalSucks premiered a song from Norska’s self-titled debut album, which is due for release on September 18 by Brutal Panda. The song is called “Nobody One Knows”, and man, I’m diggin’ it. Listening is like being beaten . . . slowly . . . with sledgehammers . . . wielded by a crew that’s staggering relentlessly toward the brink of insanity. Continue reading »

KARYBDIS: “FROM THE DEPTHS”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Aug 062012

(TheMadIsraeli returns to NCS after a break with this review of the new album by Karybdis, which we had the pleasure of premiering here.)

Ok, so I’m really fucking late on this and blah blah blah, really don’t give much of a fuck because I’m back now and NCS shall be restored to its former glory. K? We good with that? Alright.

Talking about what is good music and what good music is in a public setting is near fucking impossible. You’ve always got some post-modernist asshole wanting to tell you about opinions and about tastes who feels the need to remind you, condescendingly, that your opinion is only your opinion, as if it were their responsibility to keep your opinion in check. Not theirs, of course.

Yeah, everyone has their own tastes, everyone has their preferences (as do I, for sure, tightly knit and strict ones), but I never have a problem finding things outside my own niche that I like. At the same time, I think some music is simply undeniable, and that the only reason anyone would dislike it is because they care more about establishing and maintaining their identity rather than simply partaking in and enjoying the art. Karybdis are a band I get such a feeling about.

Now, we already featured a stream of this album a couple weeks back, and if you all had good sense, you got on that shit pronto and broke your computer desks in half. It’s just pure, unrelenting metal at its finest. Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH AND DARK FUNERAL: LIVE AT WACKEN

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Aug 062012

Over the weekend just ended, the Wacken Open Air festival laid waste to a horde of lucky fans in Wacken, Germany. And now, pro-shot video of many of the performances has surfaced on YouTube.

After the jump, we’ve embedded film of Amon Amarth’s entire set, plus clips of the performances by Dark Funeral and Overkill.

I don’t think I really need to say anything more. Continue reading »

SEX IN SPACE: CURIOSITY ON MARS

Off Topic 18 Responses »

Aug 062012

And thank you to George Takei for circulating that stunning photo of the first image to be transmitted back from Mars by the Curisoity rover.

I’ve discovered through our previous posts on things like the discovery of the God Particle and verification of the existence of Dark Matter that many of our readers are science geeks, just as I am. So, I decided that what happened last night on Mars really couldn’t be overlooked on our site — though I nearly overlooked it since I was stuck at my fucking day job most of the weekend with my head up my ass (and thank you, Phro, for making me aware of what I nearly missed).

And yes, NASA successfully landed the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars at approximately 1:30 a.m. EDT on August 6. The more you know about what this required, the more stunning the achievement becomes.

Curiosity is the size of a small car, weighing about one ton. There’s not enough atmosphere on Mars to allow aerobraking, and Curiosity is too heavy to bring it down to the surface by parachute and air bags. So what did NASA do?

Once the aeroshell separated from the rocket, a giant parachute was used to slow the descent, but just below 6,000 feet above the surface, the parachute was jettisoned and the aeroshell began firing its own rockets to slow the descent further. But they couldn’t use rockets all the way to the surface because those eventually would have kicked up a shitload of dust, throwing rocks and other debris back up into the rover’s instrumentation. So they invented the Sky Crane.

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