MASTODON TO THROW HAIR AND DIRT ON FEIST; FEIST TO PRETTY-UP MASTODON

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Nov 302011
 

I bet this will sound better than Loutallica.

According to a comment by Mastodon’s Troy Sanders, the band will collaborate with a Canadian singer named Feist on a limited-edition 7-inch single due next year. According to this article from The Guardian, the Canadian singer was introduced to Mastodon on a BBC TV show called Later … with Jools Holland and thought “these two worlds [should] collide”.

“We’re going to do everything we can to work with Feist and have a split 7-inch to support independent record stores,” Sanders told MTV Canada . The next international Record Store Day will take place on April 21, 2012. “The idea is for Mastodon to cover a Feist song and throw some hair and dirt on it. [Then Feist will] take a Mastodon song and pretty it up a little bit.”

According to reports, the two acts got the idea in late October, when Feist performed songs from her album Metals and Mastodon performed some of their songs on that BBC show. Feist told HitFix: “[Mastodon frontman] Brent [Hinds] and I were nodding at each other, and he’s like, ‘Nice riff,’ and I’m like ‘Nice tone,'” she said. “So backstage I’m thinking about letting these two worlds collide, how they should collide, so I’m like, ‘How about Metals meeting metal?’ Brent was like: ‘Well, I do like that “Bad in Each Other” song, I could see that.’ Maybe now I will look into learning to cover “Oblivion” or anything off [The Hunter]. That album’s amazing.”

Hmmm, two worlds colliding. When has that happened recently? Will this be a Loutallica-style train wreck or something that can actually be heard without experiencing a wave of nausea? In an effort to anticipate the answer to that question, I watched the video of Feist performing that song “Bad In Each Other” on Later . . . with Jools Holland. Continue reading »

VALLENFYRE: “A FRAGILE KING” (Take 2)

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Nov 302011
 

(This is the second of today’s two NCS reviews of A Fragile King. The author of this one is Islander.)

Much has already been written, including in our own articles at this site, about what prompted Greg Mackintosh to write Vallenfyre’s music and to bring his friends together to record it. But although the album may have been born from the death of Mackintosh’s father, A Fragile King is anything but sentimental.

At a time when the most popular death metal is all about flash and speed, sonic firestorms calculated to make jaws drop in wonder at the performers’ technical wizardry, Vallenfyre throw themselves back in time to recapture the gory glory of European death metal in its early days, when young dudes who would become legendary were prowling the musical landscape under names like Nihilist, Dismember, and Bolt Thrower. Communing with those grisly spirits, Vallenfyre have produced a master work of doom-shrouded, early-days death metal.

The album owes its success as much to tone as to style. The bass and rhythm guitar are tuned low and heavily distorted, producing that beautifully raw, crushing, gut-churning tone of giant chainsaws cutting through dense old wood. The higher-register (but still distorted) guitar leads and solos provide a piercing contrast to all that mammoth grinding — but the sound is no less ill. The beautifully crafted leads and solos writhe and squirm and bore into the skull like overheated brain drills, the insidiousness of radiation sickness compared to the blown-transformer buzz of the other stringed instruments, but equally deadly.

The percussion rhythms are also something of a throw-back. With minimal use of blast-beats and double-bass, Adrian Erlandsson enlivens the music with fills that are as interesting as they are remorseless (and, of course, we get a healthy serving of tasty d-beats, too). And then, there are Greg Macktintosh’s vocals . . . Continue reading »

VALLENFYRE: “A FRAGILE KING” (Take 1)

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 302011
 

(This is the first of two NCS reviews of A Fragile King by Vallenfyre. The author of this one is TheMadIsraeli.)

If you didn’t already get the point from our numerous posts about these guys, they’re the shit.  Islander was going to review this, and I hope he still does. I’d hate to think I stole some fun from him, but considering that this is filthy, dank, dingy, doom-soaked, old-school death metal, it’s right up my fucking alley and I can’t resist writing a review.  If you’re a total whore for bands like Asphyx or Hail Of Bullets, as I am, you’ll find a comfortable home here.

If the banshee wail of feedback that starts “All Will Suffer” doesn’t give you a clue, its crunchy buzz-saw toned opening trudge of a riff will.  The entire song is a slog through disease-ridden, stygian marshes at its finest.  The first thing that immediately sticks out is a quality that makes for great death metal:  The ability of a band to insert subtle hints of melody into an otherwise atonal framework.  This is definitely one of the strengths that Vallenfyre has going for them in spades.  A Fragile King is loaded to the brim with memorable half-melodies, we’ll call them.

“Desecration” actually has a purely melodic outro, a mournful one with an almost funeral-doom character, in contrast to the song’s otherwise dissonant and sinister aura.  Other tunes like “Ravenous Whore” or “Cathedrals of Dread” bring the speedier moments of savagery, eviscerating everything above and below.

The riffs are solid, burdensome, and colossal in scope.  Listening to them almost produces a sensation of being drowned in a tidal wave of blood-soaked flesh. What also hooks me about this album is the absolutely immense Winter vibe (fittingly, I recently wrote a “Revisiting the Classics” piece on Into Darkness). “Seeds” really channels that feeling, but raises it (or rather sinks it) to an entirely new level of grim and morbid.  You can literally feel yourself subsiding into the floor. Continue reading »

NOCTEM: “THE ARRIVAL OF THE FALSE GODS” (PIG HEADS FOR EVERYONE!)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Nov 292011
 

Just so that last post featuring me tooting my own horn about myself doesn’t linger at the top of the NCS site for the next 8 1/2 hours until tomorrow’s first scheduled post, I have this official video, just released, from the most excellent Noctem, whose new album Oblivion our most excellent Andy Synn reviewed here and who Andy also interviewed here.

The featured song is called “The Arrival of the False Gods”, which Andy described as “all piledriving rhythms and violent vocal catharsis whose brooding guitar adds a palpable sense of menace to the proceedings”. If you’re an epileptic off your meds or have a moral problem with bands who play with pig heads on stage and eat pig organs during the performance, don’t watch this.

P.S. My interview by The Number of the Blog can be found via THIS LINK.

THE DEFINITION OF A SLOW NEWS DAY: THE NUMBER OF THE BLOG INTERVIEWS ISLANDER

 Interviews, IQ Subtraction  56 Responses »
Nov 292011
 

You know, if I don’t spread the word about this, who will?

A new writer at The Number of the Blog who goes by “Rev. Will” over there (and has masqueraded under a different name at NCS) is running a new series called “Keyboard Warriors”, in which he interviews other metal bloggers. He started off strong, featuring interviews of Adrien Begrand (Decibel, Terrorizer, Dominion) and Vince Neilstein (MetalSucks). And then he went right off the rails by electing to interview . . . me.

If you have nothing better to do, go check out the interview at TNOTB (here) and leave comments appropriate to the subject matter.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF SWALLOW THE SUN’S NEW ALBUM

 Metal News  15 Responses »
Nov 292011
 

We are pleased to re-post some early remarks by Matti Riekki from the Inferno (Finland) web site about Swallow the Sun’s fifth album, Emerald Forest and the Blackbird, which will be released on Feb. 1, 2012, by Spinefarm Records. Thank dog for Google Translate:

“Swallow the Sun’s boss Juha Raivio said recently Inferno haastiksessa band from the forthcoming album to tell stories.

“If you mirror this against the Emerald Forest and the Blackbird is the atmosphere like a colorful blend of narrative, but the brutal teachings Grimm production, and even M. Night Shyamalanin life and fantasy adventures of the world movies.

“Musical waves are familiar in a large scale, tunnelmamelodisen matelumetallin marks go, but the trip can be found quite surprising ports, which should be enough to explore in the corners for a long time. Let’s just say this, that if one of the O-beginning with the band moving away from the metal market, annoying, this disc may be found in moments of comfort. (And do not now, pliis, take this, so that StS sounds like it is now beginning with the O-band. The question is more about building a political parable of the song.)

“Speech Shares, clean and rough vocals korinat alternate style, and the plate is sovitusten behalf of a good and balanced reverb. As far as the quality of the compositions, so deuce take, for the most part the songs do not leave a huge mind squeezing all correct any invalid. Right now, huimin kipale typeonegatiivisen atmosphere of the north end of the rotation period of a hymn on April 14th, which gets all the body hair sojottamaan smalliron bar. So is the man as the porcupine.

“Listening to the sum of the three in one sentence: I think this is definitely the most interesting Swallow’ta bushes, then come as a surprise debut. Invalid kaamosmasennella here.” Continue reading »

CORMORANT: “DWELLINGS”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Nov 292011
 

(NCS writer BadWolf provides this review of the new album by Cormorant, which is still streaming at NPR, and which BadWolf calls “the album of the year.” )

These times are trying. The throat of winter is upon me here in the Midwest as my country prepares to enter its third year of depression and poverty, its eleventh of war. I drive home from work, NPR has nothing but bad news, and the only metal I can find on the radio during daylight hours is The Devil Wears Prada on the local Christian station. It was just Thanksgiving, what have I got to be thankful for (besides my family, friends, and relatively good health)?

Cormorant.

When these Bay Area wunderkinds released their debut, Metazoa, it was an amazing experience lost amidst a bumper-crop of instant-classics. Cheers to the underdog, the completely independent album that fought for our attention against heavyweights like The Way of All Flesh, ObZen, Crack the Skye, Watershed, and Blue Record.

Three years later, the follow-up, Dwellings, has arrived.

For those who are unaware, Cormorant’s music fuses narrative drama and melodic riffage. They borrow techniques from nearly every metallic subgenre, as well as folk and even classic rock, but don’t adhere to a single school of heaviness. This is the mixed martial arts of extreme music—Amon Amarth riffage into Ved Buens Ende weirdness. Their songs can be long, short, or anywhere in between. Those people put off by Opeth and Enslaved’s new records should find Cormorant to be a more than worthy successor. Continue reading »

NEW NACHTMYSTIUM TRACK ON THE WAY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 292011
 

About the only way you could get Nachtmystium to stand still would be to nail their feet to the floor. Blake Judd and company are just too musically peripatetic to expect that what comes next will resemble what came before. Or at least that’s what I thought. But Nachtmystium and Chicago black metal band Murmur are releasing a 7″ split EP on a Lithuanian label called Inferna Profundus Records, which will include a new track from each band, and here’s what Nachtmystium has said about their contribution to the record:

“Our track is a total return to form, harking back to the writing styles of “Demise” and “Instinct: Decay”. This is a good sneak peak of what’s to come on our next full-length, which we intend to start recording in January / February, 2012 and will be released world-wide on Century Media Records.”

The 7″ vinyl can be ordered from Inferna Profundus here and will be available for shipping in a week or two. Following the vinyl release, Nachtmystium’s new track, “I Wait In Hell”, will also be released digitally via iTunes, Amazon, and other online music outlets via Century Media Records.

So, is the track really a throwback to Demise and Instinct:Decay? Well, hearing is believing, and I like what I hear (from both bands). After the jump, we’ve got a clip that includes two-minute segments from “I Wait In Hell” and Murmur’s song, “Shuttle I”. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA CONTINUES: PITCHFORK’S TOP 40 METAL ALBUMS OF 2011

 Listmania  37 Responses »
Nov 292011
 

I have a feeling that not many of our readers spend much time at Pitchfork. Extreme metal isn’t exactly Pitchfork’s main brand affiliation. BUT, well-credentialed metal writer Brandon Stosuy has recently revived a monthly metal column at Pitchfork called Show No Mercy, and yesterday he posted his list of “The Top 40 Metal Albums of 2011”. I thought it was a fine, diverse list, and so I’m reprinting it here.

I haven’t heard all the albums on the list, but I’ve heard the majority of them, and if I had the energy and the mental clarity to make a Top 40 list of my own, I think many of the titles on Brandon’s list would be on mine, though not necessarily in the same order (of course). His list is also missing some albums I’ve liked a lot this year — for example, the 2011 releases by Krisiun, Vallenfyre, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Taake, Esoteric, Kroda, Thy Catafalque, Vader, Insomnium, The Devin Townsend Project (Deconstruction), Decaying, Decapitated, Entrails, Ghost Brigade, Xerath, Solstafir, Revocation, Alghazanth, Flourishing, Septic Flesh, Byfrost, Origin, The Black Dahlia Murder, Noctem, The Konsortium, Shining, Acephalix, Kartikeya, Infestus, Anaal Nathrakh, Rudra, Moonsorrow, Puteraeon — and there are more. I’m not saying I’d put all these albums in place of a like number on Brandon’s list, but there would certainly be some replacements. Still, I do like his list.

After the jump, take a gander at the Pitchfork Top 40 — but you should also visit the page where the list appears at Pitchfork because it includes well-done brief descriptions for each of the top 26 albums on the list, plus tracks to stream for each of those. You can get there via this link.

One more thing — that Tombs album that made it to the top of DECIBEL’s year-end-best list (as we reported yesterday) finishes very fucking high on this list, but not at the top spot. That honor goes to . . . well, you’ll see. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA SEASON IS UPON US: DECIBEL’S ALBUM OF THE YEAR

 Listmania, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Nov 282011
 

As the end of 2011 approaches, we are about to be deluged with lists of the year’s best metal. We’re going to be doing again what we’ve done the last two years — publishing (1) lists of the year’s best albums by our regular writers, by guest contributors, and by our readers, and (2) our list of 2011’s most infectious extreme metal songs. As usual, we’re going to invite your participation in this frenzy of listmania at our site. Details about how you can do that will be coming later this week.

Listmania has already started at DECIBEL magazine — the only U.S.-based print metal mag still worth reading, in our humble opinion. The January 2012 issue will include their annual list of the Top 40 best extreme metal albums of the year. We haven’t yet received our copy here at NCS, but this morning we learned that DECIBEL has named Path of Totality by Brooklyn-based Tombs as the “Album of the Year”.

We’ve featured music and videos from Path of Totality several times this year, and it’s definitely one of my own favorite releases of 2011. So, congrats to Tombs for this signal recognition by DECIBEL. After the jump, you can stream the whole album, and if you like what you hear, it’s available on the Tombs Bandcamp page (here). Also after the jump, check out a cool video of Tombs performing live on a Hudson River metal cruise on October 22. We featured this video previously, but one good turn deserves another. Continue reading »

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