BEHEMOTH: THE “LUCIFER” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  24 Responses »
Oct 052011
 

Behemoth’s video for the song “Lucifer” from the Evangelion album debuted yesterday, in both censored and uncensored versions, and it’s a beautifully made, visually striking piece of work. The song itself is dramatic, potent, massive, and the imagery of the video suits the music.

As far as I can tell, the lyrics to “Lucifer” are the lines from a poem by Tadeusz Micinski. The poem is in Polish, but I found a literary (ie, not entirely literal) translation — which tells me that the imagery in the video has very little to do with the lyrics. And the imagery itself, though highly symbolic, is open to interpretation.

It seems to depict a hospitalized girl in the last minutes of a fatal illness or injury, with a priest in the room calling for divine intercession and a red-eyed black unicorn (perhaps symbolizing death) making his steady approach. And from there, I lose the thread of the visuals. They’re arresting to see, but what they are intended to mean I’m unsure, though I’m still thinking about it. I suppose the fact that I’m still thinking about it is a sign that it’s waaaay above average, as metal videos go.

After the jump is the uncensored version of the video (female nudity, of course) plus the translation of the lyrics to “Lucifer”. If you’ve got ideas about what the video means, or at least how you choose to interpret it, please leave us a Comment. Continue reading »

VALLENFYRE: “DESECRATION”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  22 Responses »
Oct 042011
 

If you haven’t yet heard about Vallenfyre, then you must be new to NCS, because we’ve been frothing at the mouth about them ever since August, when we heard samples of a couple of songs and few people knew the identities of the band members (see our first post here and our update here). Now, the mystery has been solved, and the debut Vallenfyre album, A Fragile King, is due for release by Century Media on November 1.

Since our last post, there have been lots of developments coming out of the Vallenfyre camp. Most recently, as in today, a new song from the album premiered on the DECIBEL web site. The song is called “Desecration”, and in a much-appreciated display of generosity, DECIBEL has made the song stream embeddable, allowing us to play it for you right after the jump — but it will only be streaming for two days. I’m rushing at the moment, so I won’t try to craft a description — I’ll just say you need to hear it. (DECIBEL did provide a nice description of the music, and I’m including that after the jump, too.)

Also, (1) Vallenfyre now has a Facebook page (here); (2) you can hear snippets of all the songs on Amazon UK here; (3) you can pre-order the CD and a shirt here; and (4) the eye-catching album art is out (though you probably guessed that one already, didn’t you?).

After the jump, the song. Also, Vallenfyre rules. Continue reading »

WORMROT: “NOISE”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Oct 042011
 

This just in from our Noise correspondent, Phro: SCION A/V has made available for free download a collection of five new tracks from Singapore grind masters Wormrot. The compilation is called Noise. It went up for download on Sept 20, but I missed that news (thank you Phro for the alert). Here’s the track list:

1.  Loathsome Delusions
2.  False Assumptions
3.  Outburst of Annoyance
4.  Breed to Breed
5.  Perpetual Extinction

After the jump, I’ve got a stream of all five songs, plus the download link. But almost as amazing as that, I’ve got Phro’s custom-crafted, NCS-appropriate, pictorial encouragement, urging all of you to listen to Wormrot. Continue reading »

KRAMPUS: “KRONOS’ HERITAGE”

 Album Reviews  29 Responses »
Oct 042011
 

(Continuing with today’s theme, i.e., surrendering NCS to guest contributors, the inimitable Trollfiend let me talk him into reviewing the new EP from an Italian folk-metal band called Krampus.)

Okay, when I was asked to do a review of the new Krampus EP Kronos’ Heritage, I was pretty damn excited, because a) Krampus is folk metal, and I make no secret of my love, b) the Krampus is one of the coolest folk legends pretty much ever, and c) I’d never heard of them before, so yay new shit!

But I approached this album with trepidation. What if they sucked? What if, despite their cool-ass name/logo/concept and the fact that they are folk metal, they compiled into an awesome black hole of suckitude from which not even Norwegians could escape? If you know anything about folk metal, you will know that this is not an unreasonable fear.

After some half-assed research (which is the only kind of research I know how to do here at the Trollcave), I discovered that Krampus is an 8-piece band from Italy that plays Celtic-inspired folk metal. Okay, so far so good (with a small serving of lolwut). Also, they fully embrace the legend of the Krampus as a theme, which gets them extra points from me. But the real test was coming… what does Krampus sound like? More to my concern, are their vocals some kind of clean, hippie-esque trololol that is going to set my teeth on edge and make me lump them into a big stinky pile with bands like Kamelot and Skyclad? Continue reading »

PROFANE OMEN: “WASTEHEAD”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Oct 042011
 

Got a tip this morning from our favorite Finnish Night Elf, Fireangel. She advised that a Finnish band called Profane Omen had just released a new music video for a song called “Wastehead”. With a song title like that, I figured it was a tailor-made theme song for moi. So I watched the video. It opens with a hella good scream. Made me think about the fact that lots of metal songs start with screams, or roars — just a good ol’ vocal eruption, like the singer is trying to turn his body inside out. I can’t immediately think of any other genre of music where that happens. So fuckin cool.

After the vocal Vesuivus, Profane Omen proceeds to just rock the fuck out. As Fireangel correctly pointed out, the music is both melodic and intense, with a mix of harsh screaming and clean vocals. It’s a blistering slice of thrash ‘n’ roll with a catchy chorus, and it’s from Finland, which means even if you don’t love it, you will respect it. Also, it’s from Finland.

“Wastehead” appears on the band’s third full-length album, Destroy!, which was released by Spinefarm Records in Finland last week and will be issued in the rest of Europe and in North America . . . someday. Catch the “Wastehead” video (and one more older video) after the jump. As I watched the chick in this vid, I was thinking she looked like she’d just read one of Phro’s reviews. Continue reading »

CTTTOAFF WILL DESTROY YOU

 Album Reviews, Phro's Posts  30 Responses »
Oct 042011
 

(Phro was so obviously omega drunk on the blood of alpha when he reviewed Omega Drunk on the Blood of Alpha by Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire that he seemed the obvious candidate to review the two more recent releases by the same band, which the band was kind enough to send our way. My only word of advice to CTTTOAFF is to be careful what you wish for.)

So, I “reviewed” (seriously, who decided to let me get away with calling anything I write a “review”?) Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire’s Omega Drunk on the Blood of Alpha the other day. And, I tell you what, it is good aural baby-flesh pancakes.  Well, Islander set me up with review MP3s of their newest album Visceral (July 2011), as well as their just-released split with France’s Nesseria (I’ll only be “reviewing” the CTTTOAFF songs).  I’ve listened to them both about 10 times since then, trying to think of what to say.  I’ll tell you this right now: If you don’t get at least the split (which is free on bandcamp), CTTTOAFF will do horrible things to your mutilated corpse and e-mail photos of said doings to your family, your dog, and all your exes.  Only the exes will enjoy it.

“Have you ever heard the sound of giants stalking the skies, intermittently raping Gaia with cocks the size of horses?”

“What?”

“Not horses’ cocks…the giants’ cocks are as big as a fucking thoroughbred.”

“I’m….uhhhh…are you talking to me?” Continue reading »

WHITECHAPEL: “RECORRUPTED”

 Metal News  1 Response »
Oct 032011
 

Well, well, well.  What a coincidence. This morning I included a new Whitechapel song called “Section 8” in a somewhat random hodgepodge of music. At that point, it appeared the song was going to appear on a new EP. Now, we have confirmation of that, plus more details, plus a video for the song. So, for the sake of completeness . . . I give you this post.

The EP will indeed be called Recorrupted and it will indeed be released by Metal Blade on November 8. In addition to “Section 8“, the EP will include a cover of Pantera’s “Strength Beyond Strength”, an acoustic version of “End of Flesh”, a Big Chocolate remix of “Breeding Violence”, and a remix of “This Is Exile” by Ben Weinman from The Dillinger Escape Plan. “Section 8″ and “Strength Beyond Strength” are also the first recordings with new drummer Ben Harclerode. 

Recorrupted is a limited edition print run and will only be available through the Whitechapel Webstore, Metal Blade’s Webstore, iTunes, and at the band’s merch table.

The video features studio footage shot and edited by guitarist Alex Wade, with animations by Vince Edwards. You can see it after the jump. Continue reading »

SCRAMBLED BRAINS FO’ BREAKFAST: NEW MUSIC FROM KRISIUN, CENSURA, THE BROWNING, WHITECHAPEL, AND SUBROSA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  75 Responses »
Oct 032011
 

I don’t have any scientific way of knowing the musical tastes of the people who visit this site, just rough guesses. My rough guess is that most of the music in this post will be on the outer edge of the comfort zone of most visitors, or maybe outside it altogether. But since I’m starting with Krisiun, maybe that will buy me some leeway from all our necrovorous readers on the final four entries in this round-up. And if it doesn’t, well, I’ve got teflon skin, so you can piss on me in the comments and it will roll right off, no harm done.

I admit that Krisiun is more down the middle of my own comfort zone, too, but for me, the outer edges of the zone are way out there, as the spectrum of this music proves. So, in addition to the new song from Krisiun, I found something to like about all the other new songs included in this post — from Censura (Ireland), The Browning (U.S.), Whitechapel (U.S.), and Subrosa (U.S.). Two of these new songs, by the way, are captured in well-made music videos, and so maybe you’ll be distracted by the moving pictures, though I hope you’ll get something out of the music, too.

KRISIUN

The three, mean-ass, Brazilian death-metal overlords in Krisiun have a new album on the way. Called The Great Executioner, it will be released by Century Media in Europe on October 31 and in the U.S. on November 1. About 10 days ago, Krisiun released a song from the album called “The Will To Potency”. Somehow, I missed it until this past weekend. It’s stupendous, titanic, mind-bending. It lashes together strikingly proficient technical musicianship, bursts of head-spinning melody, guitar solos so white-hot as to melt lead, and the voraciously unclean vocal roars we all know and love so well. And wait ’til you hear the song’s intro. Limber up your neck muscles and hear this (right after the jump): Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: MITHRAS, SETHERIAL & ENSLAVED

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Oct 032011
 

(Andy Synn reviews a trio of new EP releases by three NCS favorites – Mithras, Setherial, and Enslaved.)

For today you’re getting a combined review of three new EPs from three brilliant – if extremely different – bands, in one post. With each only being a 2-track release (barring the live cuts which bolster the Mithras release), it seemed only fitting to group the three releases into one column.

MITHRAS – TIME NEVER LASTS

If you don’t know Mithras, then you have two options: 1) immediately after you finish reading, go forth and buy all their albums, or 2) wait a little while until the inevitable SYNN REPORT on them appears… THEN go forth and buy all their albums. The choice is yours.

Their complex, cosmic take on the death-metal template is wholly individualistic and utterly compelling, and this EP is no different, building from the focussed intensity and progged-out melody of their last album to give birth to two songs which, although quite different in style, express the multiple facets of the Mithras sound powerfully and eloquently. Continue reading »

GOJIRA UPDATE

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Oct 022011
 

If you’re like your friends here at NCS, you occasionally wonder, “what the fuck is going on with Gojira’s Sea Shepherd EP?” Well, we spotted the following note posted by Gojira on the band’s Facebook page earlier today. Now you will know what we know:

“A lot happened since our last message so we wanted to give you some news today and let you know we are still alive! We know you are all eagerly awaiting the Sea Sheperd EP release. We are sorry for the delay. Some of the material was on a hard drive that crashed but we are nearing the end of a long and difficult recovery process. Now the Good news: the new Album is ready! All the music and lyrics are waiting to be recorded. Joe is already in NY to check out the Studio and make sure everything is sorted so we can begin to record next month. A new website is being built and we are working on ways to improve the communication between the band and our fans. You guys fucking rule! Thanks!”

Uh, well, okay, we’re trying to remain calm, but having some difficulty doing that, because that little tossed-in bit of “good news” is pretty fucken cool, ain’t it? Sort of compensates for the lateness of Sea Shepherd.

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