BARREN EARTH: “THE RAINS BEGIN” VIDEO

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Mar 022012
 

I really liked The Curse of the Red River, the 2010 debut album from Finland’s Barren Earth. I had high expectations for that album because the members of Barren Earth include such Finnish metal veterans as vocalist Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun), Olli-Pekka Laine on bass (Ex-Amorphis, Mannhai), drummer Marko Tarvonen (Moonsorrow)
, and Kreator guitarist Sami Ylisirniö.

With such a strong debut, I’ve had even higher expectation for the band’s second album, The Devil’s Resolve, which is scheduled for release on March 13 in North America (via Peaceville Records). It was mixed by Dan Swanö, it features cover art by Paul Romano, and it includes guest appearances by Mathias Lillmåns (Finntroll) and Jaakko Lemmetty (Korpiklaani). Based on an initial listen to The Devil’s Resolve, I’d say my expectations have been satisfied once again.

In an earlier post, we told you about a chance to download a song from the album called “The Rain Begins”, and as of today the band have now released an official video for the song. The song itself is immensely memorable, with a dramatic, piercing melody delivered by keyboard and guitar that easily takes up residence in your mind. It’s a melodic blend of doom and death marked by Kotamäki’s contrasting clean and harsh vocals.

But the video is almost as fun to watch as the music is to hear. Rather than try to explain why, I’ll just let you see it for yourselves . . . after the jump. (And unlike the song from Spawn of Possession featured in our last post, the lyrics to this song matter, and they’re wonderful.) Continue reading »

ANOTHER SPAWN OF POSSESSION SONG PREMIERE: “SERVITUDE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  20 Responses »
Mar 022012
 

I’ll spare you a lengthy introduction, because I’ve already written a novella-length review of Spawn of Possession’s new album Incurso, which is rapidly approaching its March 13 release date. I’ll repeat only this over-the-top concluding paragraph from the review:

“Incurso is a landmark album. In the rarified air of technical death metal, it has re-set the bar to a new height. Compared to it, the vast majority of even very good albums in this field seem . . . rudimentary.  We may see its equal someday, but to this simple mind, it’s difficult to conceive how it could be surpassed.”

The first two songs from the album that have been officially released are included with the review, and today we have a third: “Servitude”. It appears in the form of a lyric video. I find the words distracting. I recommend that you close your eyes and just allow the music and the sound of the vocals to tie your neurons in knots. Thanks to Metal Injection’s premiere, we have the lyric video after the jump. Continue reading »

REVIEWING SHOWS THAT HAPPENED TWO WEEKS AGO FOR YOU TIME TRAVELERS

 Concert Reviews  4 Responses »
Mar 022012
 

(DemiGodRaven provides this review of the Testament-headlining show in Sacramento, CA, on Feb. 17. Except for a drag-ass job of posting by your humble editor, the interval between the show and the review would have only been one week.)

Two weekends ago kicked the everliving fuck out of me. I went to two shows over the span of two days and basically spent Sunday in a coma because of them. Saturday was a huge local band party at the lovely venue out here known as The Boardwalk, and while I would love to review that one, my weekend was so hectic and tired that to be honest with you, the whole experience feels like a fever dream.

I will admit that’s probably shortchanging the dudes in Bispora (whose first show it was), Journal, GBAA, and Slaughterbox, but I know that I will be presented with other chances to talk about those groups at length. All I can say for now is you should look them up, they’re all really good.

The picture that you see above is the reason why I found myself in such a state. Friday, February 17th, I flew solo to a show for the first time in a while and went and fucking saw Testament. If I had to sum up my position on Testament as a group, it would be that they have been one of the most consistent thrash bands out there to date. When rumors of a big thrash tour would begin circulating, I was the one asshole who was secretly hoping that Anthrax would drop off and Testament could take their slot, or that the promoters would at least put Exodus and Testament on the bill as a bigger Titans Of Thrash-style tour.

You can tell these guys are icons in their own right, so all I really would’ve been pushing for would be to pull out the fans who went to those Big Four shows because they thought Metallica’s Black Album and the ones that followed have been fucking masterpieces.

That said, there are advantages to Testament being a bit on the underrated side, and one of the big ones is that I got to see them up-close and fucking personal at Sacramento’s Ace Of Spades. That to me is fucking incredible, because even though the Testament crowd is now much, much older than it used to be, it still felt like I was part of the burgeoning Bay Area thrash movement . . . which I missed because a) I hadn’t been born yet, and b) by the time a lot of these bands were gaining steam or simplifying their stuff for radio, I was a whopping three. Continue reading »

KEYBOARD WARRIORS: CHRIS GONDA

 Interviews  No Responses »
Mar 022012
 

 

(Rev. Will’s interview series focusing on metal bloggers and metal print journalists continues today with Chris Gonda, the founder of PureGrainAudio.)

 

So after cruising through a bunch of American subjects, I’m finally back on Canadian territory with the founder of multi-genre music website, PureGrainAudio. While not a physically-published metal journalist like his fellow countryman Adrien Begrand, Chris Gonda spends his day toiling away for BlackBerry and working his ass off on PureGrainAudio logistical and miscellaneous matters at night—all in a passionate bid to keep the already 7-year old project running so as to promote both Canadian and international music. Talk about keeping yourself busy.

Like Islander and Erik Thomas (of Hails And Horns, Teeth Of The Divine), I’m a cyborg survivor of the Artificial Intelligence Holocaust of 93,1349 Mars years ago back when Earth was dominated by T2’s sent back in time by Skynet and humans were learning how to make Coca Cola. Hence, it was mindless of me to have wanted to interview Chris in person initially, since I don’t have a head (and haven’t had one since the conclusion of the holocaust). Oh, I didn’t get the tattoos though. They didn’t have the Immortal cat design!

After my efforts to force Chris to reply over cyberspace while, ahem, persuading him with an animated .GIF file of Burger King blowing McDonald’s head off, the humorous Canadian gave in to my tyrannous request and shed light on the origins and workings of PureGrainAudio (and more, when I proceeded to show him the .GIF file of Burger King w-a-t-c-h-i-n-g ALL OF US!!!!!!). For example, the dude needs alcoholic rehabilitation.
Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC: GOD FORBID AND WRETCHED

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Mar 022012
 

Once upon a time, when metalcore was a new thing, I ate it up, all I could get and as much as I could hold. And one of my favorite bands was God Forbid. My listening tastes have moved off in different directions, but I’ve still got a soft spot for this band, and I’m getting curious about what’s happened to their music. We’re all about to find out, because their sixth album, Equilibrium, is going to drop on March 26 via Victory Records.

The line-up hasn’t changed much since the early days — Dallas Coyle is gone and Matt Wicklund is in — but the world of music has changed a lot since the days of Determination, and God Forbid have done their share of changing along the way, too, with a more dominant thrash attack, jacked up by the head-spinning guitar solo’s of Doc Coyle and even the incorporation of progressive influences. But three years have passed since Earthblood, and I’m wondering where we’ll find God Forbid now.

Well, so far we’ve got two pieces of evidence — a portion of one song called “Cornered” and as of yesterday a full song called “Don’t Tell Me What To Dream”. And I’d certainly say, based on yesterday’s release, that God Forbid have . . . “modernized.”

More thoughts about that, plus the new song, after the jump. Also after the jump is a new song from another Victory band, North Carolina’s Wretched, whose 2010 album Beyond the Gate I praised in this NCS review. They also have a new album due for release — Son of Perdition. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC: AN INTERLUDE

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  10 Responses »
Mar 022012
 

Blashyrkh Prototype SubZero D-Grees is a full-hybrid four-wheel drive, all-weather sports car with heater technology to warm you down to the bones in the bitter cold of the North. It has a 666-horsepower engine that is guaranteed to cause avalanches everywhere you go, but don’t worry, the car’s Kraken shell frame will protect you from even the sharpest of battleaxes.

The scintillating performance and efficiency of this highly environmentally-unfriendly vehicle, which delivers 496.636115 kW (674.818538 hp) and 1516.44615 Nm of torque yet achieves a combined animal-fat consumption rate of 6.66 litres of mountain goat lipids per 666 km and combined CO2 emissions of between 66.6 and 99.9 g/km, makes it the perfect wintry companion for the freezing journeys along lonely, desolate mountain paths.

Call (666) 999-1349 to book an appointment with a Blashyrkh representative at our mountaintop showroom and get your free trial today!

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Rev. Will wrote this report. The price of the vehicle may be your soul, so think twice before calling that number.)

2012 METAL IN THE FORGE (PART 3)

 Forthcoming Albums  10 Responses »
Mar 022012
 

For a change, I actually remembered on the second day of the new month that that the preceding month had ended; usually takes longer than that. My creditors would be happy, except I think their bills need to age a while longer. But yes, February is history — and that means its time to post our usual monthly round-up of news about forthcoming albums. Today’s list is a little more comprehensive than the half-assed job I did at the end of January, which means it’s about three-quarters assed. One of these days it will be fully assed.

Here’s how this round-up usually works: In these METAL IN THE FORGE posts, I collect news blurbs and press releases I’ve seen over the last month about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like at NCS (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, I cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — THIS ISN’T A CUMULATIVE LIST. If I found out about a new forthcoming album earlier than the last 30 days, I probably wrote about it in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier.

Having said all that, please feel free to leave Comments and tell all of us (me and your fellow readers) what I missed when I put this list together, because I’m abso-fucking-lutely certain that I missed all sorts of shit. So let us know about albums on the way that  you’re stoked about, even if you don’t see them here! Continue reading »

NAPALM DEATH: “UTILITARIAN”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Mar 012012
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album from Napalm Death.)

“We Simply Will Not Acknowledge What We Choose Willingly To Ignore”

These potent words are the first spoken on Napalm Death’s new opus Utilitarian.  They’re a fitting intro to another sonic napalm run brought to you with only the most intense of politically charged vitriol.

Napalm Death are my favorite extreme band of any sort who have a heavy focus on politics besides Dying Fetus.  To say that I’ve been anticipating this album is an understatement.  To say I was prepared for what awaited me, as I thought I was, would be wrong — a delusional and oft-repeated stupid fucking mistake that resulted in having my jugular ripped out (a common mistake when it comes to these guys).

You may know I usually review grindcore albums in brief “x-treme” style, and I usually do so because it fits the music.  However, to treat a Napalm Death album this way would be missing the point entirely, and would under-value the music itself — a sound that has become much more than their grindcore origins.

The sentence quoted above comes from the album’s opening track, a largely instrumental song entitled “Circumspect” that evokes a feeling of lumbering doom.  Such an intro does not adequately prepare the listener for the rest of the album by any means: “Errors in the Signals” immediately lashes out like a pack of hyenas with late-stage rabies, fitted with dogs-of-war collars.  Continue reading »

TUNE-UP: NEW JAMS FROM HOUR OF PENANCE, ENTHRONED, HIGH ON FIRE, FOUL BODY AUTOPSY, AND JEFF LOOMIS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Mar 012012
 

Lots of new music relevant to my interests debuted yesterday. Because it interests me, I presume that it will interest you, because of course if something is interesting to me it will necessarily interest you simply because I find it interesting. If you disagree with that statement, please keep it to yourself so that I can retain my high opinion of myself.

Because this post includes so much music, I will attempt to keep my verbal diarrhea in check by using the patented NCS butt plug, figuratively speaking of course. Not literally. Literally, I’ll limit my song descriptions to two words each.

HOUR OF PENANCE

We previously featured the artwork for this Italian band’s new album. It will be called Sedition and will be released on March 27 in North America, April 2 in the U.K., and April 6 in mainland Europe via Prosthetic Records.

HoP will be following the release of Sedition with a North American tour — their first — which will be headlined by The Black Dahlia Murder and will also include Nile and Skeletonwitch. I already climbed out on a limb and predicted that this will blow up Hour of Penance in North America much as their fellow Romans in Fleshgod Apocalypse blew up through NorthAm touring in the wake of last year’s Agony.

Now we’ve got the first track from Sedition:, which Terrorizer premiered yesterday: Bone splintering. Continue reading »

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