NO CLEAN SINGING

FUCK CHRISTMAS?

Dec 242011

Last year, I vented about Christmas — at length — in a post creatively titled FUCK CHRISTMAS. It seems to be getting a renewed surge of web hits this month, which I suppose proves that the sour taste I have in my mouth this time of year needs to be spit out by other people, too. Except this year I don’t seem to be feeling so bloated with hostility that I need to vent. I’ve been questioning myself, trying to understand what has changed.

ME: So what’s going on with you this year? Are you feeling more charitable, more filled with love for your fellow men and women, more kindly and gushy and huggy?

MYSELF: Fuck no. Also, fuck you.

ME: Well, that wasn’t a very nice answer. Let’s try this again: Have you changed your mind about all those nasty things you said last year about Big Business using Christmas as an excuse to guilt-trip people into spending money they don’t have on presents people don’t need?

MYSELF: Nope, not at all. This year, like last year, retailers are still acting like a horde of vampire squid, sticking their blood funnels up your bunghole and trying to suck out all the cash you’ve got while pretending everything is happy and jolly. It’s tough to remember the event that Christmas is supposed to commemorate when you’ve got a groping blood funnel up your ass. Also, fuck you.

ME: Okay. Well, are you enjoying the Christmas season music more this year? Is it putting you in a cheerier mood?

MYSELF: Surely you jest. Did you see this? Continue reading »

AMORPHIS DEATHMATCH Round 2: “TALES FROM THE THOUSAND LAKES”

Album Reviews 24 Responses »

Dec 232011

(Here’s Round Two of Trollfiend’s head-to-head, no-holes-barred cage fight with Amorphis, and the blood is starting to flow in rivers. To catch up on what’s going on here, read this post.)

It is with heavy heart that I don my armoured codpiece today, knowing that the beast I face in the ring will rip off my head and shit down my neck. Still, none shall be satisfied until my blood stains the sands and my genitals are thrown to the crowd as a token of my defeat, so… onward to battle.

Ah…we open with an instrumental track. The arena master has called for lions; being thrown to starving lions is a gimme. I just have to run fast and hope I can get….Into Hiding.

Shit. It’s lions with bears strapped to their backs wielding axes made of flint and sodomy. I’m doomed! Doomed I say! Wait, what’s with the weird clean vocals? Ha ha! Once more I escape death!

Unfortunately the ass-fucking flint-axe lion-bears were just a distraction so I wouldn’t notice the next entrant into the ring: The Castaway. Metal-plated to the tits, it comes lumbering out of the gate to crush me flat with stomping boots of stompery. Continue reading »

UNDERGROUND METAL FOR THE TRVE CURMUDGEON (Best of 2011 Edition)

Listmania 23 Responses »

Dec 232011

(NCS guest contributor and avid commenter SurgicalBrute provides a Best of 2011 for all trve curmudgeons out there, and I threw in a handful of song clips at the end. Listening to all these albums in a row would be like having a grenade detonate inside your belly while a napalm canister goes off inside your skull.)

I know it’s been a hell of a year for metal, because my credit card statement keeps reminding me. So when I first started writing this, I wasn’t entirely sure what would make it onto my list. While some of my choices were pretty obvious, even from the very beginning, several of my mid-year favorites ended up getting bumped because of some last-minute discoveries. After a little thought, a little time, and a little alcohol (okay maybe more than a little), I finally settled on 15 albums I would call my “must haves” for this year. There are a few honorable mentions as well, just to round things out.

Most of the stuff I really like tends to fall on the death metal side of things, but there’s a mix of black and even a little doom as well. No, there is no Tech, ‘Core, or Machine Head on here. Yes, I like Disma. No, it did not make my list. Yes, I actually have a very good reason for that.

So, in no particular order, here’s my list…enjoy…\m/ Continue reading »

THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2011: STEPHEN AND KENNETH PARKER (ARKHUM) GIVE US THEIR LISTS

Listmania 13 Responses »

Dec 232011

EDITOR’S FORWARD: I’m a big fan of Portland-based Arkhum and have written about them multiple times at NCS, including this fairly recent post. The band includes two brothers — lead vocalist/lyricist Kenneth Parker and guitarist/vocalist Stephen Parker. Recently, each of them has provided NCS with guest interviews — Stephen interviewing Jason William Walton (Agalloch, Self Spiller) and Kenneth interviewing Izedis of apocalyptic black noize merchants Enbilulugugal.

As part of our year-end Listmania series, I asked each of them if they would let me publish their personal lists of the year’s best albums, and they agreed. Both lists include albums I’ve never heard before — which is a big part of why this Listmania thing is fun — and so at the end of this post I’ve randomly included some music from the albums that were new to me. Here we go:

STEPHEN PARKER’S TOP 11

1. Light Bearer – Lapsus

If anyone out there is a fan of the sludge/neocrust titans Fall of Efrafa, you know who Light Bearer are. The first track I heard was ‘Prelapsus’, and it was amazing. The track starts with the signature vocal magic from Alex CF. His harsh but emotional vocals really set the tone for this entire track. After a lengthy but necessary buildup, the track busts into an orgasmic display of bassist Tom Watson’s vocal range. When you hear Watson and Alex sing/scream the lines “We are the sons of fire, we are the daughters of light”, prepare to have chills from your head to your toes. Continue reading »

OKULAR: “PROBIOTIC”

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Dec 232011

Okular don’t fuck around. When they contacted us asking if we would consider reviewing their debut album, Probiotic, I said yes and suggested they could just give me a download link rather than going to the expense of mailing a physical copy from Norway. They sent me the physical copy anyway. When it arrived, I understood why.

The jewel case includes a 20-page booklet. You’re looking at the front cover above, which by itself is strikingly cool. You open the booklet, and what unfolds are a series of two-page panels of equally eye-catching artwork, with green being the dominant chromatic tone throughout. The first two-page foldout includes band photos and detailed album credits. Each of the remaining two-page panels is devoted to a single song, with lyrics.

I read the lyrics and stared at the accompanying art before listening to a single song. The artwork for each song is symbolically connected to the lyrics, which are a kind of very personal poetry that chart a journey of self-realization and that provide a description of beauty and strength (the kind that matter, not the superficial), both within the self and outside the self in the world. When I use the word “poetry”, I don’t mean to suggest that the words are pretentious or “precious” — they aren’t. But the words are still deeply considered and deeply felt and eloquent.

The very personal nature of the lyrics, the consistency of thought among them from song to song, and the connection between the lyrics and the art are the result of the creative work of a dude named Andreas Aubert, who composed the music, wrote the lyrics, and was involved in developing the design and illustration concepts for the album booklet. And he also sings backing vocals on the songs. And he has an interesting personal blog you can find via this link.

Ah yes, the songs — the music. It’s time to write about that. I’m just taking this in the order of my own experience — I read the lyrics and looked carefully at the booklet first, and then I pressed play. And what I heard was nothing like what I expected. Continue reading »

DEMONIC RESURRECTION LIVE

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Dec 222011

It was a good morning on our metallic island. The day here in the Pacific Northwest is dry and bright, I enjoyed BadWolf’s immensely entertaining interview with Arthur Von Nagel (Cormorant), and I’ve been filling my head non-stop with good metal — some cathartic black death from A Hill To Die Upon, a sampling of grindviolence courtesy of Alex Layzell, and a few head-wrecking tracks from Condemned.

I thought briefly about continuing my painful efforts to whittle down the list of most-infectious-song candidates into something less than 100 songs, but decided to put that off a while longer (“Procrastination” being one of my middle names) and instead check out news from the 5,000 bands I follow on Facebook. Turned out to be a wise decision, because in doing that I discovered some extremely high-quality concert video of the mighty Demonic Resurrection performing at the 26th annual Independence Rock festival in Mumbai, India, on November 26.

And by high-quality, I mean (a) it was filmed with about 100 cameras from about 100 different angles (including, like, just underneath the hand of DR’s keyboardist so you get a close-up of his fingers in motion), and (b) it sounds fucking awesome. Also, the stage is festooned with color and smoke and lights and looks killer.

As for the music, it’s over the top. Despite the fact that “Apocalyptic Dawn” is a single song, it almost sounds like a medley (even more so than on DR’s 2005 album, A Darkness Descends), with elements of symphonic black metal, death metal, power metal, and folk metal all effectively fused together — plus a heavy dose of hardcore vocal violence added by guest singer Sunneith Revankar of another Indian band we love around here, Bhayanak Maut. Continue reading »

CONDEMNED: “REALMS OF THE UNGODLY”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Dec 222011

(NCS contributor The Baby Killer returns to our site with a review of the new Unique Leader release by Condemned — a band previously featured at NCS here.)

I always love watching a band’s evolution; there’s something gratifying about seeing a band that you stumbled upon one day honing their craft and growing as both musicians and songwriters. Such is the case with San Diego’s Condemned, whose newest full length Realms of the Ungodly sees them transcending their humble slam beginnings and coming into their own as a promising technical brutal death metal band.

Of course, this isn’t to say that their key elements aren’t still there. Condemned have always had a unique sound, mostly due to Angel Ochoa’s distinct gutturals and Forrest Stedt’s extremely tightly tuned snare, and all of that is still available in spades, but this time around they’ve cranked everything up to eleven. Ochoa’s voice is deeper and more natural sounding, and the snare has a sharper ring to it now that it doesn’t sound so compressed. Combine that with Steve Crow and Paul Avila’s skillful blending of slams and tremolo riffs and you have the pandemonium that is Condemned.

The band’s previous album, Desecrate the Vile, was no lightweight to begin with, but it was still a fairly straightforward slam album, whereas Realms of the Ungodly could easily be mistaken for Defeated Sanity. Pretty impressive change in the space of just one album, even if they were a few years apart.

The songs tend to blend into each other after a while, but don’t let that deter you. Usually when people say that about an album they mean it gets monotonous, but in this particular case it actually speaks to the band’s consistency. Some songs are better than others, sure, but even the songs that sound the same are all really good, and I don’t know about you but I certainly can’t complain about that. The solo in the title track helps break up the “monotony” for a bit, but it’s pretty brief and it’s the only one on the album. Who knows, maybe Condemned will continue to expand their sound and have more solos in the next one. Continue reading »

GRINDVIOLENCE: ALEX LAYZELL’S LIST OF 10 UNDERDOG RELEASES FROM 2011

Listmania 7 Responses »

Dec 222011

(Here we have a list of recommended 2011 releases from Alex Layzell, the mastermind behind the awesome UK-based Grind To Death blog — and most of this nastiness is available for free download.)

So I recently received via pigeon mail an invitation by Islander to do a best of 2011 list thingy (do these things have an official name yet?), but truth be told, despite agreeing to it I didn’t want to do a best of list, because I produce one on GTD anyway, and there is no point in reproducing or rewording the same set of material twice when the material itself is likely to be ignored and clog up the precious resource known as the internet. Secondly I haven’t really given much thought as to the hierarchy of my favourite releases, nor is the year quite over yet, thus a month is sufficient time to tilt my listening schedule in favour of one band against another, or for a whole new game-changing release to explode on my radar.

So what do I intend to do with this assignment I have willingly agreed to do and in fact from my previous experience found to be quite rewarding given the community response (please set my family free now Islander, I have done as you ask! )? After much thought and deliberation the answer manifested itself quite clearly: Compile a list of 10 underdog bands whose 2011 releases cemented their names in the grind order amongst the regular merchants of grindviolence (on my playlist).

The problem is, this year dozens of newcomers have carved their names into my fragile mind. Not wanting to pick my favourite 10, what criteria do I establish to narrow it down to 10? arghhhhhh it’s no easy life being fair and ethical (fuck this shit I am going to beat a whale to death with a golf club!). So I thought, fudge the lot of ya, first 10 to come to my head win. Maybe if I am feeling exceptionally festive and have plenty of time to kill in-between being a student, a terrible blogger, and general commitments, I may do a part 2 of this list, but we will have to see.

Without further ado here is a first-come, first-serve mental list of undercard bands who gave me such a savage musical beating in 2011 that it’s my turn to unleash these Baskerville hounds on your unsuspecting ears! Continue reading »

A HILL TO DIE UPON: “OMENS”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Dec 222011

(We first came across A Hill To Die Upon in October and posted this feature as an introduction to their strikingly good music. Now, Andy Synn reviews their 2011 album, Omens.)

One of this year’s great discoveries, A Hill To Die Upon ply their trade in the bloodstained arena of blackened death metal, taking their cues from the crushing power of Satanica-era Behemoth and the decaying grooves of Sheol-era Naglfar all wrapped up in a monumental package of fire-brand riffage and pulsing drums that recalls Immortal in their prime.

The album itself is a phenomenal listen, ripe with potential and possessed of a godlike strength and tenacity. As empowering as it is devastating, its perfectly harnessed power grants listeners colossal strength and vigour, enough to challenge all the forces which hold sway upon their lives.

From the moment the imperial march of “Darkness That Can Be Felt” stomps into view, breathing fire and brimstone, A Hill To Die Upon lay all their cards out on the table. The drums pulverise with lightning fast blasting and thunderous kick rolls, while the jack-hammer guitars and rumbling bass combine into a terrifying war-machine of unstoppable groove and power. The majestic chorus refrain showcases the group’s ability to interweave melody and monstrosity, while the skittering guitar solo slices through the song with the cut-throat precision of a straight razor.

The vocals bite and growl with violent intensity, gnashing their teeth through the clashing cymbals and scattergun kick patterns of “The Perfection Of Evil” and the titanic grooves of “Adept In Divinity”. These tracks aptly demonstrate the dominating power of the band’s guitar tone, one akin to the huge, thrumming sound found on the most recent Immortal records but with an unholy life all its own. The former song is a serpentine offering of twisted, barbed-wire riffs and seductive melodies, while the latter is a more controlled burn, primed to ignite in a crippling explosion of earth-shaking drums and scorched earth vocals. Continue reading »

BADWOLF’S #1 ALBUM OF THE YEAR – CORMORANT’S “DWELLINGS”; and AN INTERVIEW

Interviews, Listmania 18 Responses »

Dec 222011

(Yesterday, BadWolf revealed 19 of his Top 20 albums of 2011. Today, he unveils his No. 1 album of 2011 and interviews the top band’s vocalist/bassist/lyricist, Arthur Von Nagel.)

Cormorant’s Dwellings secured my Album of the Year status on the first listen. It’s a staggering achievement, one I’ve already covered in depth on this site [here].

In the following celebratory interview, Cormorant bassist/lyricist/vocalist Arthur Von Nagel broke down a few of Dwellings’ tracks, talked about Cormorant’s future, dished about his recent engagement (congratulations!), hinted to Cormorant’s touring(ish) future, and even dropped some super-kvlt metal recommendations.

BW: How are you, my man?

Cormorant: I’m doing very well, yourself? I’m on cloud nine this whole week.

BW: I bet you are, you lucky dog. Successful engagement, oodles of critical acclaim. You’re having ‘the best week ever.’

Cormorant: The engagement was beautiful. And yeah I’m really glad that so many people are enjoying the album. The band Timeghoul just wrote to us to congratulate us on the album and then I died happy. These dudes are my heroes, you know? It’s really an honor. And then NPR list us with all these bands we look up to and have been influenced by. It’s just fantastic and I can’t thank everyone enough for the kind words and support. This album was a labor of love.

BW: You can totally hear that. On both of them, I think. Well, know not think.

Cormorant: Haha, well Metazoa was a different animal. It was a more hopeful and excited record. Dwellings is just bleak in comparison. Continue reading »

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