THE SAFETY FIRE: “GRIND THE OCEAN”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  3 Responses »
May 092012
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by The Safety Fire.)

So it’s time for my first true Exception to the Rule in quite a while. I decided at some point I would try to avoid breaking our site’s moniker as much as I could, but I feel this album deserves the occasion.

The Safety Fire have been picking up quite a bit of steam lately, introducing an interesting sound that has me slightly baffled, yet plenty fascinated. They mix in the low-tuned brutality and odd time signatures of bands we’ve come to know and love such as Textures, CiLiCe, and yes, Meshuggah, with technical, highly interwoven counterpoint dual-guitar mind-fuckery and add a heavy-handed dose of post-rock to taste.

To say that their sound is jarring would be a bit of an understatement, but also considering that I saw them live at The Masquerade in Atlanta last month and experienced this material full force (which convinced me to buy the album on the spot), I’d say this is a band to watch in the future. However, the future is currently irrelevant. What’s relevant is now, and Grind the Ocean is an impressive, technically adept, and progressive morsel of delightfully unorthodox taste.

The album’s opener “Huge Hammers” is immediately indicative of this. A subdued riff plays in the background, only to crash forth into the song’s gravitas-inducing, disorienting verse riff. It’s full of low-tuned rumble, high-end micro-shredding, and lots AND LOTS of pinch harmonic squeals and badass moments of harmony and interplay on the guitar front. Continue reading »

REVERENCE: “THE ASTHENIC ASCENSION”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 092012
 

(Here, Andy Synn reviews the new album from those French nihilists in Reverence.)

 

As you may know, I like my metal like I like my women – black, blasphemous, and cold to the touch. Reverence’s newest album brings all these cards to the table, but ups the ante with a distinctively industrial edge.

Staking their claim to the barren lands somewhere between the crippling insanity of The Axis Of Perdition and the warped humanism of Glorior Belli, the band have been successfully fusing the angular chaos of the former with the sinuous darkness of the latter for years now, with this, their most recent release, taking pride of place alongside the arcane experimentation of Blut Aus Nord and the ritualistic self-loathing of Deathspell Omega.

Opening track (and de facto album intro) “Earth” has a slow, menacing build up, its haunting ambience coalescing into a rippling stormfront of cryptic strings, marching, martial drums, and morbid vocals. The more overt, metallic elements creep, rather than leap, into the fray, predatory, chugging guitars and restrained blast-beats chomping at the bit to be unleashed. Continue reading »

DOOMED THINGS: FUNEBRARUM, UNDERGANG, AND ALDEBARAN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
May 082012
 

Here’s how this post evolved:

Finland’s subterranean death-doom miscreants Hooded Menace have signed with Relapse Records and have finished recording a new album called Effigies of Evil, which will be released sometime this summer. I’ve been monitoring Hooded Menace’s Facebook page, waiting for enough new info to justify a post. Something, anything . . . the album art . . . a  song . . .something!

I haven’t yet found anything like that, but I did find that the band’s second album Never Cross the Dead (2010) is being released in a limited vinyl pressing by Doomentia Records. So I visited the Doomentia web site, which I haven’t done in way too long. While there, I discovered that Doomentia has recently established a Bandcamp page (here). So I went there.

One of the first things I saw was a stream of a split that Doomentia released on vinyl in April 2012 by Funebrarum and Undergang. I will have difficulty describing the music, because it has impaired my higher brain functions, leaving me in a drooling cretinous state. It makes me feel both obliterated and happy. Though the split consists of only two songs, it is hands-down one of the sickest, heaviest releases of the year. Continue reading »

AHAB: “THE GIANT”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 082012
 

(TheMadIsraeli recently went on a reviewing rampage. We may have one from him every day this week. Today’s review focuses on “The Giant”, the new album by Germany’s Ahab, which will be released by Napalm Records on May 25.)

Doom metal is a genre that is often hard for many to accept or buy into.  I get why.  I didn’t even start to appreciate it until only last year when I forced myself to sit down and really listen.  In the end, I found it to be ideal contemplation music, music to which I could meditate about my life.  It’s not so much depressing as I find it to be the soundtrack to introspection, often the introspection of one’s mortality and shortcomings.

Funeral doom, however, is where my love for this style really shines.  If you aren’t going to be chaotic and frantic, you best be as morose and macabre as possible.  Four bands have accomplished this for me with the most powerful of results: Mournful Congregation, Colosseum (R.I.P), Pantheist, and Ahab.

Ahab’s new album The Giant continues their tradition of seafaring melodic death doom.  Their music has always penetrated my soul to its very depths, but The Giant is a whole other beast entirely.  An added strong presence of stoner vibes is evident throughout, creating something of an otherworldly experience akin to drowning yet not feeling or experiencing any of the fear, pain, or frantic desperation.  You are simply accepting.

The Giant is only six songs long.  That may not sound like much, until I tell you the shortest song is about eight minutes and the longest is about thirteen.  Ahab have taken a much more introspective and dynamic heavy approach this time around, crafting a journey that leaves the listener feeling like that lone shipwreck survivor holding onto a single plank of wood, floating in the middle of the ocean, hoping he’ll find land soon. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: KEITH MERROW, THE SEQUENCE OF PRIME, and DÖDAREN

 Free Shit  3 Responses »
May 082012
 

(groverXIII brings you some excellent music that’s free — though you can certainly kick in some money if the spirit moves you.  At the end of his post, you can hear music from the albums he’s about to recommend.)

Greetings and salutations, NCS readers. It is I, your old pal groverXIII, here with another round of free goods for you all to download for your listening pleasure. Join me on a sonic adventure!

KEITH MERROW

We start with an old friend of The Number Of The Blog, the inimitable Keith Merrow. Keith, as you all should be quite aware, is one of the best-known one-man home-recording metal artists to arise in recent years. He’s put out some amazing music over the last few years, most recently 2011’s Awaken The Stone King, and on Sunday he gave us a new EP, entitled Retrospecial. This is what he told me about the EP:

“The album has a nerdy, light-hearted kinda Sci-Fi thing going on even though a couple of the tunes sound sort of serious. I’ve always been inspired by the 80’s sci-fi I grew up on… also old Atari and Nintendo games. I’ve been feeling really nostalgic the past year or so. The name Retrospecial is basically a culmination of that inspiration, but there’s also a couple older songs on here that have been redone. So those are in “retrospect”. It’s just a simple EP, with 8 tracks on it. I don’t expect it to blow anyone’s mind.”

It may not be mind-blowing, but it is a fantastic release from a very talented artist. Continue reading »

DEATHSPELL OMEGA: “DROUGHT”

 Metal News  13 Responses »
May 072012
 

Well, this sure as hell snuck up on me silently and quickly and pounced from behind without warning. Season of Mist has begun taking pre-orders for a new EP titled Drought by Deathspell Omega that’s scheduled for release on June 22. The pre-order page (HERE) says that artwork will be revealed soon, but the image above appears right alongside the order info, and it looks like artwork to me.

Deathspell Omega have no official web site or social media pages, and they don’t talk much, so I suppose that explains why this arrived unheralded and without fanfare. But I have no doubt word will spread quickly. Here’s the verbiage that accompanies the order info at the Season of Mist e-shop:

“Drought has the sour taste of the inexorable; it is a musical journey through the last moments before disaster hits. This recording displays some of the most lethal song writing ever witnessed from the band while retaining their unmistakable sound.”

My first exposure to the band was their 2010 album Paracletus, which made me an immediate fan. I suspect we have more than a few equally devoted fans among the readers of this site. This post, therefore, should make your fucking day. And since Deathspell Omega is now uppermost in my mind, I think I’ll play a song for you after the jump. I picked this one because, for those of you not familiar with the band, it happens that Season of Mist is still offering it for free download HERE. Also after the jump is the track list for Drought. Continue reading »

ALLEGAEON’S NEW LYRIC VIDEO FOR “BEHOLD (GOD I AM)” MAY BE GOOD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 072012
 

Allegaeon’s new album Formshifter will be released tomorrow on Metal Blade. Today, we have a new lyric video for a song called “Behold (God I Am)”.

I have seen this video, but that is all I have been able to do.  To be more precise, I have not heard this video.  I am in a secret location where I can look at my computer, but I can neither turn up the volume nor employ ear buds or headphones.  I could tell you why, but then I would have to kill you.

Having seen the video, which includes lyrics because it is a lyric video, I know what the song is about. It’s about the age-old war among religions, with the lives of innocents caught in the crossfire. Endless sermons . . . endless carnage . . . all in the name of one Creator. Nope, it’s not a happy song.

I also know the song includes a long intro, because much time passes before the words appear. There are also instrumental sections, because the words disappear at times.

I like this band quite a bit, which is why I’m posting about a song I’ve never heard. Please tell me whether that was a mistake, or a boon to your day, won’t you?  The vid is after the jump. Continue reading »

SUMMER SLAUGHTER SURVIVORS TOUR

 Metal News  1 Response »
May 072012
 

Last year, the SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour promoters came up with the clever idea of sponsoring a fan vote for the tour’s opening band and then organizing a second tour for the bands on the ballot who lost the election. This year, they’ve done it again, giving metal consumers two tours instead of one.

This year’s SLAUGHTER SURVIVORS tour is headlined by Pathology and includes Enfold Darkness, Fallujah, Fit For An Autopsy, and Aegaeon. We’ve complimented the music of all these bands in previous NCS posts (if you don’t believe me, type their names in the search box), and this should make a worthwhile show for those who live in the right U.S. cities.

Speaking of which, the schedule is after the jump. Continue reading »

SIX FEET UNDER: “UNDEAD”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 072012
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by the reconstructed Six Feet Under. The album is set for North American release on May 22, 2012 through Metal Blade Records.)

I can just envision all of you fuckers rolling your elitist holier than thou eyes at me. I see every single one of you from here on out disregarding my opinions as a music critic with the explanation that “he likes Six Feet Under”. Check your opinion at the door, let me do my thing, and hear me out.

Six Feet Under have sucked. Oh fuck, have they sucked. I don’t think anyone can watch the video for “Amerika The Brutal” and take it or the song itself seriously. After putting out six terrible albums of the most painfully bland and sloppy death’n roll ever to exist, Chris Barnes apparently finally had the revelation that maybe people didn’t want Graveyard Classics Vol. 218843284832483-fucking-2. Something changed once the band’s seventh album Commandment came out. The music was meatier, dark as fuck, and even had a bit of a doom characteristic in some of the song’s pieces, such as the chorus in “Doomsday”.

After being persuaded to give them a shot after hearing good things about their latter output, I subsequently actually enjoyed Commandment as well as Death Rituals — good hefty slabs of some beastly, groovy death metal. Undead is a startlingly strong new album that seems even more of a progression in SFU’s journey to death metal legitimacy, no doubt helped by the band’s recent new addition of Chimaira’s Rob Arnold, who left his longtime outfit to become the band’s new ax man. Not only have SFU completely ditched the bullshit death’n roll elements for good, but they’ve become even groovier, while Rob Arnold has made the riffage quite a bit more sinister sounding. Continue reading »

SHOW REVIEW: “THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS” TOUR – ACE OF SPADES – APRIL 28, 2012

 Concert Reviews  4 Responses »
May 072012
 

(DemiGodRaven checks in with this review of the Sacramento stop of the THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS tour, featuring All Shall Perish, Carnifex, Fleshgod Apocalypse, The Contortionist, and more.)

First off, before I really begin, I need to give a huge shout out to the folks at CapitalChaos and RockHardLive. Whilst at the moment they are both competing with each other at least in one sense, we’re all able to reap the rewards because they both had people out at this show recording it, and as a result we have some decent live videos on both ends. Check out both the Capital Chaos and Rock Hard Live youtube pages, because both of them have been doing more for Sacramento than anyone could imagine. Believe me, if a band has played here recently, there’s a pretty good chance the live footage you see pop up on youtube is because of one of those two groups. They deserve far more credit and love than what they get.

Now then. I arrived at the show late. I actually had it planned where I would get there around 6:30, believing that since the doors opened at 5:30, there would be about an hour delay (as has been standard fare at the other shows at Ace that I’ve been to) so I could get there right as things were kicking off. This provided me an opportunity to enjoy some fine 20-year old hooch that my friend’s Grandfather had made at his Dad’s birthday. Meanwhile, my friend is over in Japan teaching. I am nothing if not an appreciator of weird social situations.

I was looking forward to this show for a few reasons. I’d finally get to see The Contortionist. (Okay, I’ve actually seen them before, but it was at something like 1 am in The Boardwalk. I was so fucking tired I actually found myself dozing off in the corner of the venue. I couldn’t believe it, you could’ve been blasting grindcore in my face and I still would’ve dozed off.) I’d finally get to see All Shall Perish, and as part of a touring cycle for an album I enjoy the hell out of. I’d get to see Conducting From the Grave on a larger stage than The Boardwalk’s.

Oh, and Fleshgod. Did I mention Fleshgod? Because I’d finally get to see Fleshgod Afuckingpocalypse in a live setting. I could’ve listened to two hours of Hare Krishna bullshit as openers if it resulted in me getting the solid forty or so minutes I did of Fleshgod on stage. Continue reading »

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