CLOUDKICKER’S “FADE” IS NOW OUT, AND THERE’S A SONG ABOUT SEATTLE ON THERE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Aug 022012
 

Well, hell, that didn’t take long. On July 31 I reported the news from Ben Sharp’s tumblr that a new Cloudkicker album would be released in August, and today it was released. It is August, after all, and who needs to mess with a big, protracted run-up to a release anyway, with teasers and studio reports and singles and hints all over the social media? I mean, other than every metal label and 99% of all metal bands.

Anyway, yes, the album is up on Bandcamp now where it can be downloaded for the unfuckwithable price of $WhateverFeelsRight.

It consists of seven tracks. I’m in such a rush to spread the word about the release than I only paused long enough to listen to one song, because the song is named “Seattle”. I don’t often see a song by a metal band I like that’s named for this beautiful, cool place where I live. Actually, I’ve never seen one.

“Seattle” is more than 10 minutes long. It makes me really curious to hear the rest of this album, because there’s a blackened/doom feel to this song, which I wasn’t expecting. It rolls through phases, the intensity building and subsiding, and I really liked the drum programming on this song, too. Continue reading »

MINISTRY: “RELAPSE”

 Album Reviews  19 Responses »
Aug 022012
 

 

(As he explains in this review, BadWolf is not happy with the comeback album by Ministry.)

I reacted, somewhat seriously, to “Ghouldiggers,” the introductory track on Ministry’s would-be comeback album, Relapse. Partway through the song, Al Jorgenson breaks into a skit wherein he calls his manager, only to be handled by an aloof secretary—her accent lies somewhere between Sheffield and Valley Girl, her actress did not deserve whatever pay she received—and placed on hold. What is wrong with these people, Jorgenson asks, what is their major malfunction?

A Ministry song actually irked me, right there—with a skit, no less.

In my waking life I work as, among other things, a receptionist. The success of my job depends partially on how well I shield my employer from his or her own clients. I walk into a Ministry album and expect to hear about “thieves and liars.” Not petty annoyances such as myself. And yet I continued spinning “Ghouldiggers” and the tracks that follow it for a period of weeks, despite not actively liking them. What is my major malfunction?

Well, among other things, that I’m listening to a post-Filth Pig Ministry record wherein Jorgenson sings like Larry the Cable Guy. To any musicians reading this: do not write a comeback album called Relapse that relies, heavily, on an unnatural accent. It did not work for Ministry. It did not work for Eminem. It will not work for anyone. Continue reading »

RECENT HEARINGS AND SIGHTINGS: DEVOLVED, TROLL BENDS FIR, MECHINA, AND YOU-TAB

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Aug 022012
 

Here are some things I saw and heard this morning.

DEVOLVED

I heard a new song by Devolved. They’re a band I’ve been following for more than two years here at NCS. They have a new album (their fourth) entitled Reprisal that’s due for release by Unique Leader on November 20. Drummer and lyricist John Stankey is still at the helm, but the rest of the line-up is new. As we reported last December, he’s now joined by guitarist Mark Hawkins (who is also handling the bass parts) and vocalist Mark Haggblad.

We’re told that the album will include a guest vocal appearance by Tony Campos (Soulfly, Prong, Ministry, Asesino, ex-Static X) plus guest solos by Francesco Artusato (All Shall Perish), Nate
Vennarucc (Ontogeny, Anomalous), Malcolm Pugh (Diskreet, A Loathing Requiem), and Vishal Singh (Hawkins’ bandmate in Robots Pulling Levers).

We featured a demo version of a new track the last time we wrote about Devolved, but as of this morning we now have the first finished song from the album — “Supremacy Enforced”. Holy hell, is it a face-shredder! Continue reading »

ZONARIA: “ARRIVAL OF THE RED SUN”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 022012
 

(In this post, DGR reviews the new album by Sweden’s Zonaria.)

Zonaria are one of the first bands I have ever found myself waiting for a long time to produce a new album. The four-year gap between the group’s latest release Arrival Of The Red Sun and their previous disc The Cancer Empire was almost painful. I cannot fathom what it is like being a fan of Necrophagist or Wintersun by this point (I still don’t believe Time exists) and just constantly waiting for that new release to come out.

I got into Zonaria after randomly stumbling upon the group’s video for the song “At War With The Inferior”, which is a pretty slow yet epic-sounding song that picks up a bit at the end. I was overjoyed when I got a hold of The Cancer Empire and found that the band had the chops to go incredibly fast as well, and were a huge-sounding collective who had the melo-death speed but seemed heavily influenced by Hypocrisy. The similarity is commonly pointed out by this point, and yeah, it is very much there, especially if you listen to Hypocrisy’s latest, but Zonaria have nonetheless always felt like their own band anyway.

They’re a young group from Umea, Sweden, who have just nailed it from the get-go, with the only real roadblock being the gap between this latest release and the previous one. I’ve been chomping at the bit for the new one and was excited as hell when I heard the few songs they had released in advance. The music was different enough, and the guitars seemed a little thinner, but it still retained the band’s massive, apocalyptic sound. However, those were only two songs, and there are ten on Arrival Of The Red Sun. So how does the rest of the album hold up? Continue reading »

GRAVE: “ENDLESS PROCESSION OF SOULS”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Aug 022012
 

In a year that has delivered a hearty helping of very good old-school, Swedish-style death metal produced by a phalanx of newer bands, the tenth album by Grave is still the one I’ve been most eagerly anticipating. Not that the newer bands can’t grasp and execute on the basic blueprint, but after all, Grave helped draw the blueprint in the first place more than 20 years ago and they’ve been turning out solid albums ever since.

Only Ola Lindgren is left from the original line-up that gave the world Into the Grave in 1991, but he ‘s been the heart and soul of the band for such a long time that it doesn’t much matter. On Endless Procession of Souls, which marks the band’s return to the Century Media label after a two-album dalliance with the now-defunct Regain Records, Lindgren is joined again by drummer Ronnie Bergerstål, who’s been the hitter since 2008’s Dominion VIII. Two new faces round out the current line-up — second guitarist Mika Lagrén and bass-player Tobias Cristiansson.

Together, they’ve created 10 new songs that will cause most die-hard fans to salivate, though it may not be without controversy for some. For my money, Endless Procession of Souls is one of the best old-school death metal albums of 2012 and a worthy addition to this legendary band’s evil discography. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE . . . BANDS YOU WOULDN’T EXPECT ME TO LIKE

 Off Topic  38 Responses »
Aug 022012
 

(Here we have another of our UK scribe Andy Synn’s collections of five favorite things. The last such post was about five of his favorite guitar solos. This one is going to take us outside our usual stomping grounds.)

Ok, so if you follow the site at all closely, I’m sure you’ve got at least a vague idea of the areas each of the regular writers tends to specialise in. You might even be able to make reasonable predictions about what bands we listen to, and what bands/albums coming up we’d be expected to like and give coverage to.

You’d know, for example, that my bread and butter these days is black metal, the more interesting the better, with a side helping of more melodically inclined (but still heavy as hell) death metal. I’m not so much of a thrash or hardcore guy as I was when I first started my metal journey, and while I still have a soft spot for some metalcore (and its ilk), that’s very much on a band-by-band basis. Overall though, I like metal for its variety, for its honesty and integrity, and for the skill and effort it takes to compose.

So what I’m thinking is that I’ll throw away any remaining kvlt or tr00 cred I have left, and namecheck 5 bands – all peripherally related to rock/metal – who I absolutely love, but who I don’t think any of you would guess at in a million years. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT FROM THE PHOENIX

 Free Shit  3 Responses »
Aug 012012
 

The Boston Phoenix is one of many “alternative” weeklies around the country published by the Phoenix Media/Communications Group. The Boston weekly goes back a long way — all the way back to 1966, when it was started under the name Boston After Dark. Today, the parent company announced that it is going to combine The Boston Phoenix and another local publication into a glossy weekly mag simply called The Phoenix.

More or less to commemorate the event, The Phoenix did something pretty awesome: It released a 17-track compilation of music for free digital download. It’s called “Vol. 2” because unbeknownst to me they released another comp last year. This new one looks killer.

It includes a track (“Weight of the World”) from Shadows Fall off their May 2012 album, Fire From the Sky, as well as Doomriders covering Devo (“Girl You Want”) and that awesome “Trucker Bombed” song from Sexcrement’s 2012 album Sloppy Seconds. It also includes a song from Abnormality (“Schismatic”), whose new album DGR reviewed for us just two days ago. It includes songs from Morne, Tenebrae, Wormwood, and a whole lot more.

I’m not familiar with more than half the bands on the comp, but the ones I do know I like — which tells me this whole comp is probably worth checking out. Besides, you can download it for free off Bandcamp right now, and that makes it pretty much a no-brainer.

Stream all the tracks after the jump if you’d like to get a taste before you leap over to The Phoenix Bandcamp page. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM KRALLICE AND ARCHSPIRE AND A STUNNING NEW VIDEO FROM ALARIC

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Aug 012012
 

Here’s the second part of the two-part feature we began here, spotlighting a slew of new videos and new songs from some of our favorite metal bands that surfaced over the last 24 hours.

In this Part 2: release information and a brand new song from Krallice (U.S.), a new video from Alaric (U.S.), and a new song/video from Archspire (Canada).

KRALLICE

Well, this is the third of our posts about Krallice’s forthcoming album since July 15, which is an indication of our enthusiasm for what’s coming.  And what’s coming is Years Past Matter, a collection of five songs totaling about one hour of music. The album, which is being self-released by the band in a limited edition, will begin shipping on August 25 and is now available for pre-order here. We’re told that a double LP version of the album will be released by Gilead Media soon after.

There will be a record release show on August 25 at St Vitus in Greenpoint Brooklyn, NYC, where Krallice will be performing with Ancient Wound and Sea of Bones.

And today, we are beyond stoked to stream for you one of the new songs from Years Past Matter. The title is “IIIIIIII”. It’s a whirlwind of slashing/ringing guitars, bounding basslines, and percussive pandemonium that rumbles and thunders. It’s a lightening strike, sizzling with electricity. It’s also a black dream of rushing clouds, the kind of music that’s hypnotic as well as violent. Dense, dynamic, atmospheric, compelling — this is a long song that well-justifies its length. So much happens that the song rewards repeat listening – indeed, demands it. Here it is: Continue reading »

NEW VIDEOS FROM THREE NCS FAVORITES: BLOODSHOT DAWN, A HILL TO DIE UPON, AND DEMONIC RESURRECTION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 012012
 

Between last night and this morning, I’ve come across so much new shit worth spreading around that I’m dividing up the collection into two pieces, this being the first one.

In this post are a new video from Bloodshot Dawn (UK), a new video from A Hill To Die Upon (U.S.), and another new video from Demonic Resurrection (India).

BLOODSHOT DAWN

I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve written about this UK band and their self-titled 2012 album, which remains one of my favorite releases of the year (as explained in my January review). In April, we featured an official video for a track from the album called “Visions”, and this morning they released another official video. This time, the song is “Godless”, which is still available for free download at the Bloodshot Dawn Bandcamp page, where you can acquire the whole album, too.

Man, I do dig this song. It kicks you in the head like a pissed-off hyperkinetic mule. Killer riffs, killer drumming, and eye-popping guitar soloing leave no part of your face un-melted. And once again, we have a video — directed, filmed, and edited by Jordan Saunders of Dead Parrot Productions — that visually captures the head-whipping fury of the music. Check it out: Continue reading »

NEW VIDEO FOR STAM1NA’S “RABIES” REVEALS THE STUNNING TRUTH: THE FINNS HAVE BEEN SINGING IN ENGLISH THE WHOLE TIME!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Aug 012012
 

Finland’s Stam1na make excellent metal. They also make excellent videos. To be more precise, they make excellent humorous videos (check out the one in this post, for example). But Joe Barresi has out-funnied Stam1na. He has also revealed a stunning truth.

See, I thought Stam1na sung their lyrics in Finnish — Finnish, the language that utterly defeats Google Translate’s efforts to provide a rendering in English and gave birth to the NCS motto, “Fucking Good Pancake”. But it turns out that Stam1na have been singing in English all along! It just sounds like Finnish because the words make no sense and Antti Hyyrynen sings them really fast.

But Joe Barresi has now made everything clear in his video for a Stam1na song called “Rabies”, which appears on the band’s Nocebo album. By providing subtitles that lay out the lyrics, along with helpful illustrations, he has blown the cover off the Finnish language — there really is no Finnish language. It’s been English all along!

Watch the video after the jump (and please give a round of applause to Finnish NCS reader jeimssi for the tip on this one).  Fuuuuuuuunnnnnnny! Continue reading »

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