NO CLEAN SINGING

BOX O’POOPS 3

Nov 092011

(Phro had so much fun with the first two installments of this series that he decided to dump a third one on us. So to speak. Remember, you have to click on Phro’s weird graphics in order to see the surprise.)

Good autumn, fellow scat-munchers! How’s it all hanging?? (I’m pretty sure that is a gender neutral term, since labias kinda hang too.) Are you all bundled up nice and warm (apologies to antipodeans, but, seriously, stop standing on your heads)?? Maybe drinking some hot chocolate by the fire? WELL, IT’S NOT HOT CHOCOLATE—IT’S HOT DIARRHEA!!! AND THE MARSHMELLOWS ARE PIG TESTICLES!!! EWWWWWWWWW!!!

Sorry. I have no idea what happened in that first paragraph. I think the meerkats are getting better with their brain-control waves. We’re doomed, I tell you, doooooooooomed!

Anyway, here’s a little something to take your mind off the imminent doom.

(more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

A SMATTERING OF NEWS

Metal News 30 Responses »

Nov 082011

I haven’t been keeping tabs on metal news while mellowing out here in cloudland. But I have been checking my e-mail every now and then, and e-mails have brought news, so I’ve pulled together a few items in this post, just to keep my hand in, y’know? I’m starting with the really important news.

BRING ME THE HORIZON

Thanks to Jeimssi, who’s in Finland, I have a link to a news article about a brawl. This has probably been picked up by other metal blogs already, but I have something they don’t have. I have a Google Translate rendition of the report about the incident that appeared in the Finnish press. And we know from past experience that there are few things funnier than what Google Translate produces when you let it work on the Finnish language. So, without further ado, here’s the “translated” report about British ~~metal band~~ bandwagon-jumpers Bring Me the Horizon and their scuffle with members of the crowd in Helsinki a couple days ago. The original article appeared here, and there’s a video clip at the end.

The British band Bring Me the Horizon guitarist raged in The Circus gig at a restaurant on Sunday evening.

A man upset the audience came herjasta fists and stormed up to fight among the general public. Who was on the viewer says that the first stage guitarist rose to the security fence on top of the audience and tried to tear him down. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

PATHOLOGY: “AWAKEN TO THE SUFFERING”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Nov 082011

(How could you not read an album review by someone who calls himself The Baby Killer? How could you not guess that someone who calls himself The Baby Killer would just eat up the new album by Pathology?)

Sometimes in death metal the phrase “simple but effective” isn’t just a description, it’s a way of life. Such is the case with San Diego slamsters Pathology, who have risen from relative obscurity to one of the last bastions for tr00 brutal death metal in the space of just a few albums. Their previous release, last year’s Legacy of the Ancients, was not only their first with a major label (Victory), but was also easily one of the best slam albums since Devourment’s Butcher the Weak, and fans of brutality the world over rejoiced that a band this legitimately heavy was getting some mainstream attention. Or at least I was, I dunno about you guys.

And now here we are approximately one year later, and these bad boys have already done more than their fair share of touring, gone through some lineup changes, and still managed to churn out another slab of slams (try saying that five times fast) in the form of their new full-length Awaken To the Suffering. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: JASON WILLIAM WALTON (AGALLOCH, SELF SPILLER, ELS, SCULPTURED)

Interviews 2 Responses »

Nov 082011

EDITOR’S NOTE: Our first guest post of today is an interview conducted by Stephen Parker, the talented guitarist of Oregon’s Arkhum. I’m a big fan of Arkhum and have written about them multiple times at NCS, including this fairly recent post. The subject of Stephen’s interview is Jason William Walton. He’s probably best known as the long-running bass player for Agalloch (another big NCS favorite and still one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen) but his musical resume is a long one. In addition to playing bass for Sculptured, Nothing, and Celestial, he has also played with Self Spiller, Especially Likely Sloth, and a half-dozen other bands that I know of. He’s also the owner and operator of a recording and production studio called Audio Savant. I’m really grateful to Stephen for landing this interview for us, and of course quite grateful to Jason Walton for participating.

SP: First of all, I’d like to thank you for answering these retardedly repetetive questions. I can understand that life has you pretty busy right now, but I genuinely appreciate you taking the time for this.

JW: Of course. I enjoy doing interviews from time to time, and it has been a while.

SW: I’d just like to jump into some business. How are things going with Audio Savant Studios? I know you recently relocated, so has that played a part in a lull, or has it really mattered?

JW: I have had a lull in business over the last year, but it has nothing to do with location, and everything to do with time. I do expect a couple projects coming up this fall and winter, but I have had less work this year than usual. Plus, Agalloch touring has taken precedence over Audio Savant. It is always a balancing act. In 2012 I hope to refocus my energy on Audio Savant.

SW: From all of the reviews I’ve seen, it seems like Marrow was widely regarded as “fantastic.” I remember even seeing it on Tom Gabriel’s list of the best of 2011 in Decibel. Do you think you’ve achieved a better response to this album, compared to Ashes Against the Grain or The Mantle?

JW: I don’t think it is fair to say a better response, but it has undoubtedly been very positive. Way more positive than we had anticipated. Each of our albums receives negative and positive feedback, and for different reasons and Marrow of the Spirit has been no different. I think it may appear that we are getting a better response for this album, but I also think we are more in ‘the public eye’ this last year than we have been in quite some time. I think if you asked the average Agalloch fan what their favorite album was, most people would still say The Mantle. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

F#@%!?£ VIDEOS: HOW DO THEY WORK?

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 10 Responses »

Nov 072011

(Andy Synn ventures outside his usual meat and potatoes with this one. I’m not objective, of course, but this post includes many observations that ring true to me, and maybe will to you as well. Also, this post includes a heavy cargo of highly-worth-watching videos.)

I’ve been looking at doing some shorter pieces on various topics for a while now, spreading myself a little more widely and letting the material do most of the talking for me, and Islander’s sabbatical seems like the perfect opportunity to do so.

So I wanted to bring your attention to a couple of music videos which you may have overlooked, and highlight why I like them and what I think makes them a good example of the video “art-form”. Equally, however, the success (relative or otherwise) of these videos highlights some of the regrettably common failures of most metal videos!

Now bear in mind that most metal videos are a missed opportunity. I’m a fan of a good solid performance video, this is true, be it live footage (purpose-shot or amalgamated) or the traditional warehouse/barren-field performance, as long as it gives you a sense of the intensity and power of a band really getting into their music and their instruments. However, this is where most of them fall down, simply giving us a general shot of “hey look, this is what we look like when we’re playing” rather than any sort of “feel” for the intensity of the experience. And I’m not saying this is easy, far from it.

I do, however, want to highlight the issue that for so many bands (and most recently I’m looking at the plethora of metalcore/deathcore/djent bands) videos become merely a case of being SEEN without actually SAYING anything with the opportunity they’ve been given. Just because you’re moving/jumping/posing does not mean you’re coming across as doing anything more than singing into a hair-brush in front of the mirror. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MELLOWNESS

Uncategorized 33 Responses »

Nov 072011

Only two days have passed since I began my vacation, and I’m already feeling mellow. My brain is slowing down, as I would imagine the molecules of freezing water slowing as they approach the tipping point between liquid and solid. Time is passing, but the firing of neurons in my head are becoming muffled, and so time is beginning to feel like something that happens to other people, but not to me. I am entering a kind of stasis.

Part of me relishes this experience, and part of me is disturbed by it. While wallowing in the absence of any need to act, I am not yet entirely comfortable. Why is this? I know why. It’s because daily life in the Western world makes no room for mellowness, except grudgingly. You can make your own room for it, but in my case there’s a nagging fear that if I become completely mellow, I will be crushed like a line of ants in the path of a steamroller. While you meander at the pace of universal entropy, something or someone else is at the steamroller’s controls and doesn’t give a rat’s ass about your inner peace.

Is this a sickness or simply a clear-eyed recognition of the way the world works?

Where was I? Oh yeah, feeling mellow. I haven’t been listening to metal, because it has dawned on me that I have almost no metal that’s mellow. The only recent thing that comes to mind is Devin Townsend’s Ghost. I may listen to that. Surely I have something else that will suit my current mood, something that will ease my irrational worries and aid me in the honeyed slide into . . . mellowness. Do you have any ideas? (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

A BRUTAL ASS MORNING (Part 2)

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 7 Responses »

Nov 062011

(I had a few hiccups with yesterday’s posts because I was hurrying to get them formatted and scheduled for appearance while at the same time trying to bolt from my abode for the vacation I am now enjoying. One of my hiccups was to post only half of a piece that TheMadIsraeli had sent me called “A Brutal Ass Morning”. So, pretending that I did that on purpose, today we’re running “Part 2” of that two-part post.)

I featured Rooks in a little EP download package I posted a long-ass time ago (here) which included their debut EP Infinite. I completely forgot they were coming out with a second EP Infinite II, and it completely passed me by. It’s more of the same brutally-pissed-off-as-all-consuming-fuck djeathcore that attracted me to them in the first place. How anyone can deny the power behind this music is beyond me. I also enjoy the fact that the lyrics of the tune I’m including — “Bounce” — are basically a vehement mission statement against black metal bands. You can check out Rooks on Facebook here. And there are more bands and music to come after this clip:

(moar after the jump . . .)
Continue reading »

SENSELESS RAMBLES – DJENT

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 12 Responses »

Nov 062011

(Ramblings from TheMadIsraeli . . .)

Until yesterday, I’d been a bit scarce around NCS recently, mainly due to illness, school being fucking lame, and the well being rather dry in terms of good shit for me to review. I’ve only got five major reviews on the horizon that I give a damn about at the moment — Vallenfyre, Demisery, Vildhjarta, Vektor and Ever Forthright. So as you probably guessed, this ain’t none of that reviewin’ shit. Instead I’m gonna just talk. Talk about stuff within metal, within the scenes, share my thoughts.

I figured a good start would be to talk about this djent thing. I just reviewed a djent album in Uneven Structure’s Februus (here), and two of my above-mentioned choices for future reviews, Vildhjarta and Ever Forthright, are also djent bands. I know that before I hopped on board with NCS they covered Ever Forthright quite a bit here, though Vildhjarta not so much. Fuck, part of the reason I think I was picked up to write for NCS was to be the designated “djent guy”, since it was an interest of mine outside the tastes I shared with the other writers. So I thought, finally, I might try to collect my thoughts about djent. Continue reading »

SVARTTJERN: “TOWARDS THE ULTIMATE”

Album Reviews 16 Responses »

Nov 062011

(Today’s second guest post comes your way from the depths of Trollfiend’s lair, where you can’t walk without tripping on a femur or mashing a skull further into the muck. He’s reviewing the new album by Svarttjern.)

Genres are a good thing. There, I said it.

Okay, I admit that I have zero musical knowledge and only know what a ‘blast beat’ is because I looked it up on Youtube (and I’m still not 100% sure, as the video I watched appeared to be in Swedish).

I could argue endlessly about what constitutes pure blackened crustgrind doomcore and would still not be able to tell the difference between it and blackened doomgrind crustcore, even if it came up and blackenedly doomground the crust right off my own core. But having said that, I still say genres are good. They give us a foundation to build on, they prepare our ears for the particular kind of ass-fucking ears get from the metal we love, and they give us something to argue endlessly about on metal website forums.

So I’m going to go out on a limb and call Svarttjern ‘blackened death’. I have no fucking idea if such a thing exists, and I’m willing to bet my priceless collection of Burger King collectible sippy cups that at least seven people are going to call me a goddamn moron for not knowing that Svarttjern is, in fact, not even close to blackened death and is more like deathified black. Bring it, bitches.(more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

GHOST: “OPUS EPONYMOUS”

Album Reviews 26 Responses »

Nov 062011

Record Label: Rise Above/Metal Blade | Year: 2010/2011 | Genre: Hard Rock

By Willard Shrapnelspear

Death Cab For Cutie is one band you will never dream of mentioning in an album review about a band under a record label like Metal Blade, and one that was even featured on the June cover of extreme metal magazine, Decibel, earlier this year. However, I am about to accomplish the unthinkable: When this album’s opening instrumental track, “Deus Culpa”, started off with tranquil synths, I had to double-check that I was not playing Death Cab For Cutie’s Plans album by mistake. It simply sounds so similar to the introduction of “Marching Bands Of Manhattan”!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Se4NBz5N_SA
Continue reading »

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