EYE-CATCHERS: NEW ALBUM ART FROM BORKNAGAR, LECHEROUS NOCTURNE, AND ENSHADOWED

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jan 202012
 

We hardly ever actually “plan” anything around here.  Impulse is in the driver’s seat most of the time.  But sometimes a pattern develops despite the absence of design, and this week our content has been heavier than usual with videos and album art. Yesterday I saw even more eye-catching artwork for forthcoming albums, so I’m collecting them here (along with some music, of course).

BORKNAGAR

This long-running avant-garde Norwegian band is one I learned about through readers on this site back in the early days of NCS. What with all the clean singing, I didn’t immediately love the music, but I’ve developed an appreciation for what they do, and so I’m interested in the new studio album they recorded with Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios (Opeth, Paradise Lost, Katatonia) in Örebro, Sweden. The album is titled Urd and will be released on March 26 in Europe and March 27 in North America via Century Media Records.

The eye-catching album art was designed by Brazilian artist Marcelo Vasco, who did the cover for this band’s previous Universal album. He has also created album art for many other bands, some of which we’ve featured here, including Belphegor, Einherjer, Dimmu Borgir, The Faceless, Noctem, and Keep of Kalessin.

The cover for Urd captures the look and feel of a Nordic wood carving. More info about the design and the album can be found on a post at Borknagar’s official site, here. As for the clean singing, the new album will feature three pretty talented vocalists working together – Vintersorg, Lars Nedland, and ICS Vortex. One of the heavier tracks from the band’s last album comes right after the jump. Continue reading »

DESERT SANDS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  20 Responses »
Jan 202012
 

(TheMadIsraeli’s former boss at The Metal Register, Kyle Brady, requested that he write a piece on Middle Eastern metal, and here we have it. We’ve spotlighted bands from that region in previous writing at NCS, and I’ll add some further examples at the end of this post.)

When I say “Middle East”, what comes to mind?  War?  Brutal weather conditions?  The desolation of endless expanse of desert?  Regardless of what you think of, it’s probably not a region you’d immediately associate with metal, but with the evolution of the internet and the advent of file-sharing, becoming a successful band over there is slowly but surely becoming more of an option as we speak.  As a result, over the last four so years, a rash of bands have cropped up who are proving they’re already prepared to take the world by storm.

Consider this a sort of primer, or introduction to bands from the Middle East, with a mix of older and newer. Without further delay let’s begin doing a little analysis of the kind of shit we got going on over there.


Continue reading »

LAMB OF GOD: A NEW, ANIMATED “GHOST WALKING” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jan 192012
 

Almost six weeks ago, Lamb of God premiered the first track from their next album, Resolution, which will be released on January 24. At that time, they gave us a visually interesting lyric video for “Ghost  Walking”. About an hour ago, they released a second video for the same song. This one is an animated story set in some kind of apocalyptic future, with a protagonist who seems intent on preventing a catastrophe. If you’ve heard the song already, you can probably guess how that turns out.

This video is well-done, and I’m finding that the song is growing on me. You know you’re going to get some heavy-grooved riffs from this band, but what I’m appreciating even more are Randy Blythe’s vocals. They are . . . badass.

The animation was created by Moreframes Animation. Watch the video after the jump, and let us know what you think of it. Continue reading »

THE BROWN BOOK: “QUEER STREET”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 192012
 

I guess there are other stories like this one. It’s a big country after all, and a bigger world. But this story is running through my head this morning:

Three self-taught musicians join together back in 2008 (probably earlier) to form a band and make music. At the time, two of them live in Quincy, Mass (guitarist Jay O’Malley and drummer Ryan Lavery), and the third in Brooklyn (guitarist Mike Kvidera). They self-release an album in 2009 called Thirty-Nothing, which was written in a room by that name, pictured on the right — basically a utility hallway in the basement of an old shipping mill in New Bedford, Mass. A real underground, DIY operation.

I find out about the album the next year; I don’t even remember how. The music is heavy, it’s pummeling, it’s hypnotic, it’s discordant, it’s melodic, it’s unpredictable, it’s organized mayhem. It’s all of those things, plus some. I write about it here. I’m so taken with it that I track down guitarist Mike Kvidera and interview him, which runs along with that review.

Time passes. I lose track of this band until April 2011, when a Bandcamp page appears with The Brown Book’s name on it. The band has become even more geographically dispersed. O’Malley has moved to San Diego, and the band has enlisted a permanent bassist, Sam Matson, who’s conveniently located in Cookeville, Tennessee. They manage to self-release a new EP called Pyramid Scheme. It’s even heavier than the album, but like Thirty-Nothing, it’s deceptively chaotic and it captures my imagination. I write about it here.

More time passes, and then a few days ago a new song appears in my e-mail in-box. Continue reading »

“THAT’S MUSIC” – BUT IT’S NOT METAL (NO. 1)

 That's Music -- But It's Not Metal  11 Responses »
Jan 192012
 

(Today, BadWolf begins a new ongoing series in which we focus on music that’s not metal, but it’s still metal, if you know what I mean. And if you don’t know what I mean, this first installment in the series may help you figure it out.)

Death Grips : Ex-military

I’ve made no secret of my life outside metal. My annual top 10 not-metal album list is consistently my most challenging—and therefore favorite—list to compile. The fact of the matter is each year a whole host of bands release albums every bit as noisy, chaotic, dark and heavy—if not heavier—than much of the drivel that passes for metal these days. With this in mind I will endeavor to expand your ears into realms of sound outside the borders of our beloved genre.

[Download Death Grips : Ex-military for FREE, HERE: http://thirdworlds.net]

Our first voyage is a free mixtape that’s already garnered critical acclaim outside the metal world—and inside of it. Death Grips play hip-hop… sort of. Of the three members only one, MC Ride, spits rhyme, and his style is so full of belly-growls and whooping yells that many hip-hop websites are dismissing his work as obtuse non-rap. In other words, he’s halfway to a metal singer already. His lyrics orbit around subjects with intense and bitter gravity—drug abuse, social injustice, Tacheons (or taking you on) and . . . DECAPITATION!!! Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: ENFOLD DARKNESS, VALE OF PNATH, AND KEN SARAFIN

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jan 192012
 

A couple days ago TheMadIsraeli sent me a link to DECIBEL’s online site, and what should greet my eyes upon landing there but THAT piece of arresting artwork up. I was so struck by the colors and the imagery that I almost forgot there was supposed to be a song on that page, too.

The song is a new single called “Lairs of the Ascending Masters” by a Nashville band signed to Sumerian called Enfold Darkness. It’s an interesting blackened take on tech metal, with spidery riffing, swarmy soloing, spit-fire drumming, and vocals that vault from growly lows to torture-victim shrieks of pain — all of it rushing along well above the speed limit. If that sounds attractive, hop over to DECIBEL and let “Lairs” give your head a good scouring.

Since I’ve heard the song several times, what I want to do is talk more about the artwork. It was created by Ken Sarafin, who happens to be the vocalist for a Denver-based band named Vale of Pnath. Vale of Pnath released a self-titled EP in 2009 and then a debut album last August on Willowtip Records called The Prodigal Empire. I haven’t heard the whole album, though I’ve seen good things written about the band in comments here at NCS as well as elsewhere, and I was certainly intrigued enough by the artwork of Vale’s vocalist to finally dip a toe in the water. As noted, I also took a deeper dive into Ken Sarafin’s art. Continue reading »

SOPA/PIPA

 IQ Subtraction  19 Responses »
Jan 182012
 

I guess you’ve figured out by now that we didn’t black out the NCS site today.  Frankly, I got confused.  I thought on-line sites were organizing a protest against sopapilla.  I’ve long been a supporter of sopapillas.

I used to eat them all the time in Tex-Mex restaurants when I lived in Texas.  They’re popular in other border states, as well as in many countries in Central and South America.  If you’ve never eaten one, you’re really missing out.  They’re kind of a fried pastry, sometimes powdered with sugar and/or cinnamon and served with honey.  They’re light, they’re crispy, they’re kind of chewy.  They’re just damned good eating.

So why, I wondered, were people up in arms over sopapillas?  Y’know, they may not be the healthiest food in the world, but shutting down places like Wikipedia and Reddit in protest seemed like an overreaction to me.  I mean, buffalo wings and pizza are crappy kinds of food and you don’t see anyone organizing internet blackouts over them.

Then I figured out that people weren’t protesting sopapillas. They were protesting SOPA and PIPA!  Turns out these are acronyms for bills that are pending in the U.S. Congress — the “Stop Online Piracy Act” in the House and the “Protect IP Act” in the Senate. They seem to be targeted at non-U.S. web sites that pirate intellectual property owned by U.S. businesses, but there are (or were) provisions in the bills that would require U.S.-based sites to make sure they aren’t linking to foreign sites that engage in piracy. Continue reading »

THE MADISRAELI’S TOP 15: XERATH – “II”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Jan 182012
 

(Slowly but surely, TheMadIsraeli is reviewing or re-reviewing his picks for 2011’s best albums. Today, the pick is Xerath’s second full-length.)

Few bands have impacted me in the last year more than Xerath has.  Combining the regalness of Vader, the rhythmic mind-fuckery of Meshuggah, and the bone-grinding groove of Pantera, and smothering it in grand, romantic-era orchestral overlays, they’ve been at the forefront of what appears to be a rash of extreme orchestral metal.

Other bands such as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Septic Flesh, and Gromth are also proving that the classical music of old and the metal of now are really not all that incompatible by bringing forth a style in which the metal and the orchestral are joined as one, constantly weaving in and out of each other.  It could be argued that this is the synthesis of the two most legitimate styles of music ever created, the ultimate product.

Maybe I’m being overly grandiose or overstating the importance of what’s going on here, but Xerath and other bands who are fully incorporating orchestration are hitting me the right way, breathing new life into heavy music for me.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that I have a feeling this orchestral extreme metal thing is going to become extremely prominent in the future, and I think that’s for the betterment of metal as a whole. Continue reading »

ANOTHER NCS EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: THE LYRIC VIDEO FOR “TRANSITION” BY SIGHT OF EMPTINESS

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 182012
 

Lyric videos for metal songs seem to be increasing in popularity, but many of them are disappointing. They often consist of nothing more than images of an album cover or the band, with the words scrolling or fading in and out. And many times you’re better off not knowing the words. Lyrics aren’t critical to the kind of metal we listen to at NCS, because you usually can’t understand what the vocalist is singing, and they often turn out to be a forgettable distraction from the music — or worse — when you see them in print while listening.

Well, the brand new lyric video for the song “Transition” by Costa Rica’s Sight of Emptiness turns out to be a different breed of cat. This is a video well worth seeing, and we’re proud to give it an exclusive premiere.

You should already be familiar with the song — we premiered it here at NO CLEAN SINGING one week ago, and it’s damned cool. The lyric video now enhances the listening experience, creatively interpreting the lyrics through an intriguing (and ominous) animation that ends with the unfolding of the cover art for the “Transition” single, which you can see above.

The eye-catching animation was created by Andrés Montero Conde at B2crea (http://www.b2crea.com/), and it’s a kick to watch. The lyrics themselves tell the story of a rebirth, a transition and transformation of a being . . . but there’s a dark undercurrent to this story. Watch it after the jump (we recommend you take this to full-screen mode if you’re viewing it on a computer). Also after the jump, some exciting recent news about Sight of Emptiness. Continue reading »

AN NCS-SPONSORED KING GIANT CONTEST

 Metal News  20 Responses »
Jan 182012
 

The January 21 official release date for Dismal Hollow, the new album by Virginia’s King Giant is fast-approaching, and we’re teaming up with the band to bring one lucky NCS reader a special prize package: either a CD or the color-vinyl LP of Dismal Hollow (whichever the winner chooses), signed by the band — plus any one of the band shirts to be found at their Big Cartel site as long as the winner’s size is available (and if not, winner’s choice of one of the hats).

We’re thrilled to help promote interest in Dismal Hollow, because this album is so damn good that it knocked us flat — stretched out on the ground, eyes rolled back in our heads, and drool coming out our mouths. To quote BadWolf’s review (posted here), “prepare yourselves for the first excellent album of 2012, a slow cruise through doom country.”

And to quote myself from yesterday’s post on the excellent video for “Appomattox”: “It’s simply one of the new year’s first great albums — a dark, raw, smoke-filled crusher of Southern doom that rocks hard and is also one of the heaviest beasts you’ll hear in 2012. Massive, hook-filled riffs link up with thundering rhythms, head-spinning guitar solo’s, and Dave Hammerly’s incredible vocals to produce one memorable song after another.”

So what do you have to do to put yourself in the running for this prize? Find out after the jump . . . Continue reading »

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