LISTMANIA CONTINUES: EXCLAIM.CA’S TOP 18 METAL ALBUMS OF 2011

 Listmania  14 Responses »
Dec 082011
 

We’re still in the mode of scoping out of Best of 2011 lists by “big-platform” web sites. So far, we’ve been U.S.-centric, featuring the lists compiled by Pitchfork, NPR, Noisecreep, and PopMatters. I thought for today I’d go north of the border and let you see the list published by Exclaim.ca.

Exclaim! is a Canadian national print magazine concentrating on music, with a monthly distribution of 100,000 copies. Exclaim.ca is the business’s web presence, with 300,000 unique visitors per month. Like the other big-platform sites whose lists we’ve re-published, Exclaim.ca covers a wide range of music, with metal being only one of the genres, and there’s also an emphasis on Canadian talent.

Of all the lists we’ve re-published to date, Exlaim.ca’s has the highest percentage of bands whose 2011 albums I haven’t heard. In fact, it has the highest percentage of bands whose names I’ve never heard. It also includes a high percentage of grind and noize. Also, I suppose it shouldn’t come as a shock that their album of the year is by a Canadian band (one of those albums I haven’t heard yet). But that same album has been on other lists, including the one that Corey Mitchell contributed to Metal Sucks, in which he said this about the album (which he ranked at No. 4):

“This Kurt Ballou (Converge) produced masterstroke brings to mind the best of Helmet (Strap It On, Meantime), Quicksand (Slip), and Poison the Well (You Come Before You). Alternative noise metalcore (not the bastardization the subgenre has evolved into over the past five years) that rumbles rafters and unsettles neighbors. Aggressive, precise, and one mean bitchin’ Camaro of an aural onslaught.”

The album placed at No. 1 isn’t the only one by a Canadian band. The pick for No. 3 is from Canada, too — but that’s it. Okay, two of the bands are from Washington State, and that’s not far away, but still, it’s not really a parochial list. Continue reading »

THE INAUGURAL METAL SUCKFEST, DAY 2 – 11.05.2011

 Concert Reviews  5 Responses »
Dec 082011
 

(The METAL SUCKFEST that took place in NYC on Nov 4 and 5 was a milestone event — the first U.S. metal festival organized and co-sponsored by a metal blog, and Metal Sucks pulled together a fucktastic line-up to boot. So, NCS decided to document the event up-close and personal by sending two emissaries — NCS writer BadWolf and photographer Nicholas Vechery.  They returned intact, and this is BadWolf’s report of the festival’s second day, along with Nick’s photos. We’ll have interviews to come in the days ahead.)

Photographer Nicholas Vechery and I returned for the second day of Suckfest even more hung over and disgruntled than on November 4th—we wanted to look and feel our best.

I learned about the sad passing of GWAR’s Cory Smoot earlier that day, so I was all frowns… until we walked into the Grammercy and found it bustling. Tickets to the second day must have outsold the first two-to-one.

What’s more, people seemed excited. No one is very visibly excited about anything in New York except exiting a subway train (especially the Green line, ugh!). A mass of goat-throwers chit-chatted, drank, acted like an honest-to-god community—something rare for me, the Midwestern Metalhead.

Community, people coming together—that’s what makes festivals amazing. Continue reading »

THE GREAT KAT: THE MUSIC OF THE FUCKIN 21ST CENTURY

 IQ Subtraction  33 Responses »
Dec 082011
 

Classical music plus metal?  The music of the fuckin 21st Century!!  The most brilliant, vicious music ever heard!!!  Beethoven’s fuckin Fifth Symphony, speed version!

Do not listen to this album after listening to Metallica! You will not get it. You just will not understand it. The progression from the last album to this album? From total genius to impossibly amazing, powerful genius!!!!

You assholes are thinkin because I’m sitting here screaming in the middle of the rain in New York that I’m some kind of nutcase!  No, I just happen to be the only Fuckin Unrepressed Person in all of New York!

Why am I walking backwards? That’s your job!

And guess what? The Japanese are taking over the fuckin world!!!  You fuckin peons. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA CONTINUES: NORWEGIAN METAL TO WATCH FOR (Part 1)

 Listmania, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Dec 082011
 

This is a different spin on Listmania. For this post, we’re jumping outside North America and landing in Norway. Also, this isn’t really a “Best Album” list. Let me explain:

NRK is the state-owned Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. It operates three main TV channels, three main radio channels, and several “niche” channels on radio and the internet. The NRK P3 radio channel is mainly aimed at younger listeners in the 15-30 age bracket, and of course, since this is Norway, it includes a healthy dose of metal. As far as I can figure out with help from Google Translate, “Pyro” is the name of the NRK P3 radio program that focuses mainly on metal and hard rock.

Last week, the Pyro web site rolled out its 2011 list of the most promising metal bands in Norway. I found out about this by seeing a Facebook post by a Norwegian band who showed up on the list. I got curious, and so I visited the site. Now, because this is radio programming, I figured the music wasn’t going to be quite as extreme as a lot of the metal that’s our bread and butter here at NCS. On the other hand, this is fucking Norway, and so I decided it would be worth spending some time exploring what they had to offer — and I guessed right.

I don’t speak Norwegian, of course. So, I used Google Translate. It rendered the Norwegian text on the web site into a kind of English . . . the kind spoken by people who’ve suffered some kind of severe trauma to the speech center in the brain. But I could get the gist of the text, and so I’ve tried my best to clean it up and make it mean what I think it means. But since this isn’t really a translation, I may have fucked it up. All errors are mine, not Pyro’s.

On the other hand, I’m not terribly worried about the text, because the site included music from each of the bands, so we’ve got music to hear, and the music is what counts, isn’t it? Continue reading »

FREE LISTENABLE SAMPLER IS LISTENABLE AND FREE

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Dec 072011
 

When I had my head in the clouds on vacation last month, the French label Listenable Records compiled a sampler of music for free download that I completely missed. Fortunately, it’s still available, and it’s quite a collection of music. There are some bands on the list whose names I don’t recognize and a few whose music doesn’t do anything for me, but on the other hand, it includes songs from some bands that are as strong as horseradish. Just to name a few:

GOJIRA

SVART CROWN

HATE

PANZERCHRIST

CAVUS

DARKANE

LIVARKAHIL

THE RED SHORE

There are 22 tracks in all. After the jump, you can check out the full track list and get the download link. Continue reading »

IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T BANGED YOUR HEAD YET TODAY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Dec 072011
 

I discovered a French band called Svart Crown more than a year ago when I reviewed their second album, Witnessing the Fall. I compared them to a joint venture between Immortal and Immolation. Since then, the band signed with Listenable Records, which put the album into wider distribution. It’s still a damned strong listen.

This morning I saw that the band have released an official video for “Into A Demential Sea”, one of the songs from Witnessing the Fall. To crib from my review (since I’m too fucking lazy to come up with any new phraseology), it’s “almost experimental in its combination of raging guitars, complex drumming, and sharp rhythm breaks that cause the song to trudge with death-doom chord progressions.”

But more importantly, it will trigger the old headbang reflex, which is a reflex that needs to be triggered often, so that you don’t get fixed-neck syndrome, which is a precursor to tight-sphincter complex and stick-up-the-ass disease.

And in other welcome news, an Ulcerate-Svart Crown European tour has been announced for February 2012. I say “welcome” because I’m trying to be happy for our European readers. I myself do not find this news welcome, because, since I can’t go to any of these shows, the news simply makes me jealous and slightly miserable because of my loss. I’m going to console myself by watching this video again. It’s after the big goddamn tour poster which immediately follows the jump. I hope all you Euro motherfuckers are happy. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 20: AVERSE SEFIRA

 THE SYNN REPORT  6 Responses »
Dec 072011
 

(In this latest edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy Synn reviews the discography of Austin, Texas-based black metal band Averse Sefira, with musical accompaniment, of course.)

Recommended for fans of: Belphegor, Secrets Of The Moon, 1349

So here it is, my final Synn Report of 2011. This year’s epitaph belongs to the anti-cosmic chaos legion Averse Sefira.

Agents of corruption and occult warfare, Averse Sefira formed many moons ago in order to create something antithetical to the soulless and vapid musical landscape around them. Casting themselves as fallen angels, rejecting the questionable graces of an unthinking order, they exist as agents of change, sounding the battle hymn of a war against creation. Each album chronicles their bloody and abhorrent rebirth, the womb of abomination spewing forth a black winged angel which spreads its pinions with ominous intent, flexing its claws and baring its teeth in a display of vampiric hunger.

Channelling the forces of elemental chaos through the sacramental nature of their music, they bring forth fire and brimstone through their instruments, twisting and hammering upon tormented strings and tortured skins with savage abandon and merciless precision. Drawing upon the collaborative efforts of their blackened cabal, the band are graced by the presence of “The Lady Of The Evening Faces”, who utilises her arcane knowledge to craft a series of unsettling atmospheric interludes and to layer each track with a haunting, inhuman ambience. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA CONTINUES: THE WORST METAL OF 2011

 Listmania  41 Responses »
Dec 072011
 

As I assume everyone knows, part of this site’s philosophy is not to crap on metal bands whose music sucks. Instead, we pretty much just ignore those bands. About the only exceptions are big, famous, wealthy, arrogant bands who just won’t shut the fuck up. If you think a minute, you can figure out who those bands are. But when it comes to just about everyone else, our philosophy is to stay positive and spend our time talking about music we feel we can honestly recommend. There are plenty of other sites that will tell you in amusing ways which music you should avoid like genital herpes.

BUT, since we’re here in December and Listmania is rampant, other sites are making lists of the worst metal albums of 2011, and I thought I’d feature one of those lists in this post to go along with all the “Best of 2011” lists we’ve been posting — just to get the conversation started, because I know all of you have heard some music this year that disappointed you, or worse yet, made you want to stick your finger down your gullet to relieve the nausea.

So, the list I’ve picked as a conversation-starter is one put together by Adrien Begrand for MSN Entertainment. MSN Entertainment is another one of what I’ve been calling “big platform” sites, i.e., websites that have huge amounts of traffic but cover metal as only one of dozens of interests. As in the case of other big-platform sites whose Best of 2011 lists I’ve been featuring, I’d be surprised if any of you visit MSN Entertainment to get guidance about good and bad metal. But Adrien Begrand writes for lots of sites and publications and I certainly respect his opinions.

So, after the jump, we’ll take a look at his list of the 10 Worst Metal Albums of 2011, and then we’ll open up the Comments for discussion. And yes, you will be able to guess which albums are in the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. Continue reading »

THE FIRST INAUGURAL METAL SUCKFEST – DAY 1, 11.04.2011

 Concert Reviews  8 Responses »
Dec 072011
 

(The METAL SUCKFEST that took place in NYC on Nov 4 and 5 was a milestone event — the first U.S. metal festival organized and co-sponsored by a metal blog, and Metal Sucks pulled together a fucktastic line-up to boot. So, NCS decided to document the event up-close and personal by sending two emissaries — NCS writer BadWolf and photographer Nicholas Vechery.  They returned intact, and this is BadWolf’s report of the festival’s first day, along with Nick’s photos. BadWolf’s Day Two report will be tomorrow, and we’ll have interviews to come after that.)

Blogs will control the entertainment industry within our lifetimes (if the industry lasts our lifetimes). TMZ will overtake Entertainment Tonight. In some ways, Pitchfork has already taken Rolling Stone’s place.  Case in point: MetalSucks just threw the first (to my knowledge) blog-driven extreme music festival on US soil, Suckfest, and NCS was there to cover it.

On November 4, 2011, suckalos—yours truly included—flocked to the Grammercy Theater in Manhattan for seven hours of thrash. NCS photographer Nicholas Vechery and I rolled in sleep-deprived and sore after a 20+ hour bus trip from Ohio. The venue –the Grammercy Theater—was indeed a theater once and remains dark and sparse.

Initially, I thought the Grammercy would be too small to fit a decent crowd, but the first day was poorly attended.  Attendees shouted “Occupy Grammercy!” between songs, but otherwise behaved themselves too well by my standards. New York headbangers seem more reluctant to mosh than when I lived in the Big Apple. I smelled a division between lineup and audience—the first day’s bands all shared a background in hardcore punk, but in general MetalSucks caters to a more technical/progressive metal loving audience. The lineup was strong, but perhaps suited for a more intimate venue. After all, who wants to see Magrudergrind behind a security barrier?

Audience aside, the first day’s bands exploded over the lower-east side with white-knuckle intensity. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA CONTINUES: THE POPMATTERS TOP 20

 Listmania  20 Responses »
Dec 062011
 

PopMatters is a popular culture web site with broad coverage of music, film, television, books, comics, software and video games — you name it. It distributes a syndicated newspaper column, its articles get picked up regularly by the mainstream media, and it claims a readership of more than 1 million unique visitors per month. In other words, it fits the profile of “big platform” web sites whose lists of 2011’s best metal we’ve been re-publishing here at NCS over the last few weeks — not because these lists are necessarily ones we’d recommend as reliable arbiters of extreme music, but because we’re curious about what metal is being touted to big segments of the reading public (many of whom aren’t likely to be metalheads).

Recently, PopMatters published its list of “The Best Metal of 2011”, ranking the chosen albums from #20 to #1. The list was compiled by Adrien Begrand, Chris Colgan, Brice Ezell, Craig Hayes, and Dane Prokofiev (who has contributed to NCS under a different pseudonym). To see the list with accompanying descriptions and explanations of the choices along with sample tracks from the listed albums, use this link.

You will see some names that have appeared on every list we’ve published so far. You’ll also see some new entries, including — finally – Amon Amarth, as well as Dir En Grey, Leviathan, and (gasp) Liturgy. I predict that many of you readers who dwell deep in the underground of metal will find too much hipster in this list, and I suspect most of you are going to disagree about the placement of the Top 5 albums. Anyway, the PopMatters list is right after the jump. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries