NO CLEAN SINGING

SATANIC POP METAL

Nov 212011

Oh hell yeah, baby, Semargl is back with another video! Long-time NCS readers know that I have a real weakness for this Ukrainian band, despite the fact that they are not trve, kvlt, grimm, krieg, brootal, or even terribly serious. Despite the corpsepaint and spikes, they’ve never really pretended to be any of those things either. And now, after further evolution of their sound, they’ve abandoned all pretense (what little of it once existed), titling their next album Satanic Pop Metal, which has pretty much been their style of music for quite some time.

Satanic Pop Metal will be the band’s fifth album and it will be released on a not-yet-disclosed date by the German label Twilight-Vertrieb. I expect nothing less (and nothing more) than a bouncy, hook-laden, groove-infused good time, with a dollop of nasty on top and dripping down the sides. It will be finger-lickin’ good, though I don’t know where their fingers have been.

The new official video is a live performance of “Join In Fire”, which will be appearing on the new album. The performance was filmed at a Halloween Night show in Kiev last month. In addition to the new album, Semargl plans to release a live DVD next year that will also include this clip. More metal bands should have black-clad dancers named Alina and Olga. Watch Alina, Olga, and Semargl have some fun after the jump.

A WORD OF THANKS

Uncategorized 12 Responses »

Nov 212011

Your humble editor has returned from a most excellent vacation in cloudland, during which my spouse was satisfied that I didn’t spend too much time blogging and was therefore reasonably happy with me (I was hoping for deliriously happy, but she knows me too well to get delirious). The time away from my usual blogging output was good for me, too, because I’m now anxious and excited to dive back in. You know the old saying about absence making the heart grow fonder; so it does.

I was able to restrict my attention to NCS because of all the help I got with daily content, not only from our usual suspects Andy Synn, BadWolf, and TheMadIsraeli (thank you, my brethren, for stepping up), but also from all the folks from around the U.S. and the world who bravely answered my appeal for guest posts (sometimes with multiple submissions per writer). Between November 1 and today (yep, there’s one guest post left, and it will appear later this morning), I posted 23 guest pieces — every one that I received, without exception.

And so I extend a special NCS laurel, and hearty handshake, to our guest contributors in the order of their appearance: jeimssi, Kazz, Austin Slagle-Knauss, the prolific Willard Shrapnelspear, Trollfiend, Stephen Parker, The Baby Killer, Phro, Alex Layzell, ElvisShotJFK, MaxR from Metal Bandcamp, VyceVictus, SurgicalBrute, and The Artist Formerly Known As Dan. All you guys killed it, and therefore prevented me from being killed or mutilated by Mrs. Islander.

Apart from giving credit where credit is due, I’ve got two more things to say (after the jump). Continue reading »

I SAW YOU NAKED THIS WEEKEND

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 38 Responses »

Nov 202011

Nah, just kidding. I didn’t really see you naked this weekend. I just wanted to get your attention. And by the way, those of you who felt a little thrill at the idea of me seeing you naked, please don’t send me photos of you in the nude; I’m pretty sure you’re the ones I do NOT want to see naked.

What I did see were new videos that I thought were worth sharing. Still catching up on what I missed while on vacation, I found:

A new official video from Chthonic for the song “Quell the Souls in Sing Ling Temple” from the band’s latest album, the excellent Takasago Army (reviewed at NCS here); it was posted to YouTube on November 17 (thanks to TNOTB for this one)
A video of Textures performing “Consonant Hemispheres” on Dutch television on November 18; the song is from the band’s 2011 album Dualism (reviewed at NCS here)
A video of Vader performing “I Am Who Feasts Upon Your Soul” at a club in Liverpool, England, on November 10; the song is from Vader’s latest album Welcome To the Morbid Reich (reviewed at NCS here)
“A new fan-filmed video of Italy’s Hour of Penance performing a scorching new song called “Sedition Through Scorn” (posted on November 15)
“A new video for the song “Dagger” from Vildhjarta’s new album Masstaden, which hasn’t yet been reviewed at NCS — but will be soon; I’m putting this one last because the site that’s streaming it hasn’t devoted enough bandwidth to make this thing play reliably

All these videos are available after the jump. Get naked and watch them. Continue reading »

THE BIZARRE WORLD OF DEVIN TOWNSEND

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Nov 202011

Since returning from my vacation late Friday, I’ve been catching up (sporadically) on metal developments while I was away. Quite a few of them turned out to involve Devin Townsend. He is as multi-talented and as exuberantly creative as anyone working in metal today, and as I’ve learned again recently, his live shows are also fan-fucking-tastic. So, I pay attention when I see anything new about him, and I’m collecting in this post all of the recent items I saw — though DT is both so prolific and so unpredictable that I may well have missed something.

ITEM ONE

The first item is captured in the poster above. No sooner did DT finish his four-night series of special shows in London last week (one of which our own Andy Synn reviewed here) than he announced another very special London show — though this one is nearly a year off in the future. This one he’s billing as the biggest show he has ever done and the culmination of his entire career. It will involve “an art exhibition, actors, Ziltoid, stilt walkers, fire breathers” and a host of guest musicians “playing music that has never been attempted due to the size of the songs and the need for certain things“. The extravaganza will happen on October 27 at the Roundhouse, and tickets went on sale last Friday. Details are available here.

By the way, for poor schmoes like me who are too distant from London to make this show, it will be filmed for DVD.

After the jump, I’ve got three more items, and all of them are listening experiences. Continue reading »

BETRAEUS: “TOWARDS THE SUN”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Nov 202011

(In this post, TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut EP by Mancunian metallers Betraeus, released on November 14 by Seige of Amida.)

“For fans of Opeth, Death, Cynic, Bloodbath and Insomnium”

This was all it took to pique my curiosity when I saw the words in Hold Tight! PR’s press release about Betraeus. Towards The Sun is not an EP I want to beat around the bush about: This is really, really, really good, and I want to see a full-length post-haste.

Despite the comparisons above being true to one degree or another, though, I’d add that there is quite a bit of Daath and Gojira influence going on as well. If you haven’t gathered already, this combination of influences results in a sound that is quite diverse. None of the music is entirely death metal, or thrash metal, or any such thing. It’s its own sound. While Betraeus peg themselves as a prog death outfit, I would be more inclined to call them a straight-up progressive act.

This EP contains six tracks, three studio recordings, two live tracks, and a radio edit of one of those studio recordings. The first studio recording, “Towards the Sun”, which is the EP’s opener, does a pretty good job of summarizing what this band is all about and it was a smart choice as a lead-in track. It’s a nearly 10-minute epic spanning everything from Opeth-ian, dreary, macabre doom-death tendencies, to Gojira/Daath-styled technical thrashy riffing, to Insomnium-style melodic passages and themes, all combined with jarring yet fitting transitional phases that keep the music unexpected and fresh. I think you’ll be hard pressed to predict any part of this song.

WEEKEND NACHOS: “WORTHLESS”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Nov 202011

Record Label: Relapse | Year: 2011 | Genre: Powerviolence

By Willard Shrapnelspear

You regretted taking that step. Your curiosity just had to get the better of you. Oh, why did you not listen to me? You were just doing fine walking around the cliff top, but you had to literally poke your nose into an oddly out-of-place bush—and wound up falling through a hole, landing right smack into the hard surface of frothy, lake water. Ouch.

At least all is calm, or so you thought. A rumbling sound resounded throughout the mysterious cavern, and a spurt of boiling hot spring water gushed towards you, turning your skin an angry red color while propelling you out of the cavern’s exit with the majesty and likeness of a cow releasing pent-up methane gas through its rear. You are finally free, or so you thought. You crash head-first into the cold, glassy surface of more lake water, skipping across its top comically like a flat pebble thrown by a middle-school kid. Finally, all is quiet. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

KRODA LIVE

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC No Responses »

Nov 192011

In July I reviewed the new album, Schwarzpfad, by Ukrainian black metal band Kroda. I tried to sum up my thoughts with these words: “Schwarzpfad is without doubt one of the best albums I’ve heard this year and one of the most memorable black-metal albums I’ve ever heard — an immaculate marriage of beautiful, folk-influenced melodies, black ‘n’ roll strut, and bestial voraciousness. It’s a brilliantly conceived, complex work that yields something new with every listen. Highly recommended.”

As the end of this year approaches, I haven’t changed my mind — Schwarzpfad is still one of the best albums I’ve heard in 2011, and certainly among the handful I’ve listened to most often.

On February 20, 2011, Kroda performed at the Metal Point Fest in Khmelnistkiy, Ukraine. Two days ago, the band uploaded the entire 33-minute set to YouTube, and I spent my early waking moments this morning (my first morning back home after vacation) watching and listening to it. It includes three songs: “Schwarzpfad II (Universal Provenances)”, “Schwarzpfad III (Forefather of Hangmen)”, and “Schwarzpfad IV (Heil Ragnarok!)”.

The smoke-shrouded performance was filmed from multiple camera angles, and although the video quality isn’t razor-sharp, it’s suitable for this music. The audio quality isn’t razor-sharp either, with particularly noticeable distortion in the bass-end, but fuck, the songs are so damned good and it’s so motherfucking cool to see Kroda performing live that it’s a small price to pay.

As I remember, Schwarzpfad was written and recorded by one man — Eisenslav — but he recruited some talented brothers to bring about this live performance. The video is after the jump. Bang yo fucken heads. Continue reading »

READY, SET, FALL! – “BURIED”

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Nov 192011

(TheMadIsraeli has a recommendation for you.)

Who’s ready for some Italian metalcore? How many of you even knew Italy had a metalcore scene in the first place? Not many do, I suspect, because the number of noteworthy Italian metalcore bands isn’t large — but the ones that do exist I’ve always loved, especially Slowmotion Apocalypse, who prove convincingly that there is still life left in the metalcore genre. Ready, Set, Fall! is a band who are obviously hoping to reinforce this notion.

Buried is the name of their debut EP, and despite its brief span of five songs, the longest of which is only three minutes, it’s very effective. The music displays a heavy Soilwork influence, with a touch of Misery Signals going on, too. Lots of awesome groove combined with explosions of fury provide a solid musical contrast — and this band’s vocalist, Christopher Volpi, has a fucking killer voice.

Of those five songs, four are solid melodic metalcore and one is ambience-laden dubstep. It’s a short EP, so I’m gonna be all appropriate and shit and make this a short review. It’s good stuff. Check out the music after the jump, and check out the band’s Facebook page for more info. Continue reading »

NAETU: “THE BURNING LANDS”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Nov 192011

Record Label: Blood Black Productions | Year: 2008 | Genre: Melodic Black Metal

By Willard Shrapnelspear

Disclaimer: No animals or real forests were harmed in the making of this album’s front cover design.

Yeah, I just pulled that out of the air, so what? All I need is the music, baby.

Naetu may be an obscure black metal act from the kangaroo kingdom of Australia, but they shriek, shred, blast-beat, and solemnly solo like the lovable melodic black metal acts of Sweden and Norway. No, no, no, I’m not gonna make some unoriginal comparisons to Watain or Gorgoroth; they display the general traits of the kind of melodic black metal coming out of those countries (e.g., Dissection-style atmospheric riffing … oh shit, I just made comparisons didn’t I?), but that is not to say that they are completely imitating their influences chord for chord, or solo for solo.

The vocals, for one, do not sound like another one of those typical dudes trying to imitate Jon Nödtveidt’s trademark raspy barks or Dead’s droning chants. Give these blasphemous Australians some credit, man. They come from a country so isolated from the main black metal hubs of the extreme metal world, and yet they still managed to conceive such a high-quality record (by that I mean having no filler tracks) with surprisingly high-quality production as well. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

TWO NEW NON-METAL ALBUMS FROM CLOUDKICKER

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Nov 182011

I am very slowly making my way home from vacation today, with limited net access, so I’m writing this in a hurry. Still, I thought the news was sufficiently interesting that I wanted to get this out there before tomorrow.

Here at NCS, we were latecomers to the musical phenomenon known as Cloudkicker (a/k/a Ben Sharp). But late was better than never, and when we had our eyes opened, they opened wide. NCS co-founder and infrequent contributor IntoTheDarkness put Cloudkicker’s 2010 album, Beacons, at No. 3 on his personal list of the year’s Top 25 releases, calling it “the best instrumental album all year.”

Our more regular contributor BadWolf had it at No. 6 on his list of the year’s best, calling it “one of the first pieces of genuinely brilliant metal-as-art to be released not only outside of the label system but outside of capitalism period.” And one of our guest contributors, The Artist Formerly Known As Dan, assigned it to the No. 8 position on his best-of-2010 list, with these words: “He doesn’t need a label because he can already do everything he needs to by himself. And he’s beyond talented.” And last, I included a song from Beacons on our list of 2010’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

With that backdrop, you can imagine how interested I was to see an e-mail from MaxR at Metal Bandcamp today with this news: Cloudkicker has just released not one but two new albums — Loop and Let Yourself Be Huge. I’ve turned the album titles into links that will take you to the Cloudkicker Bandcamp pages where each album is available for free download, or any donation you feel is fair. Both albums are streaming here after the jump — and I’ve got a few more observations about the music, too (it’s not metal). Continue reading »

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