VOLUMES: “VIA”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Oct 022011
 

(I think this makes 7 days in a row when TheMadIsraeli has graced us with his presence. Sleep is obviously not one of his daily requirements. Today we have his review of the latest album from SoCal’s Volumes.)

Are you by any chance in the mood for grooves so infectious your head won’t stop bobbing, EVEN WHEN YOU’RE NOT LISTENING TO THE ALBUM?!  This is what Volumes’ Via does to you.  It’s a non-stop weighty groove machine of epic proportions, fucking shit up and furrowing fields with mass graves.

Who are Volumes?  Well, they deliver still more djeathcore, but this is honestly my favorite djeathcore band out there right now, mainly because these Californians don’t fuck around with anything but the core of their sound.  The minute that the staccato’d, djent-tinged groove of “Paid In Full” kicks in, it’s IMPOSSIBLE not to groove to this.  The band’s assault of low-end, 7-string, open-note grooving and djent chugging is a thing I should hate with all my heart and soul, BUT I LOVE IT HERE!  Volumes make it interesting and captivating in a way I have trouble describing, and I wish I could.

What REALLY stands out about Volumes is their ability to weave in and out of melodic and atonal parts in a seamless and often unpredictable manner.  The melodic bridge of the song “Wormholes” just appears out of FUCKING NOWHERE before transitioning into a pretty boss breakdown.  “Limitless” is another good example, with the band bringing in powerful, atonal deathcore chugs with eerie Meshuggah-esque leads, only to transition into a melodic hardcore section.  DO WHAT!?  Yeah, it’s pretty sweet. Continue reading »

WOLVES

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  30 Responses »
Oct 022011
 

“They say not to anthropomorphize — not to think of them as having feelings, not to think of them as being able to think — but late at night I like to imagine that they are killing; that another deer has gone down in a tangle of legs, tackled in deep snow; and that, once again, the wolves are feeding. That they have saved themselves, once again. That the deer or moose calf, or young dumb elk is still warm (steam rising from the belly, as that part which contains the entrails is opened first), is now dead, or dying.

“They eat everything, when they kill, even the snow that soaks up the blood.

“This all goes on usually at night. They catch their prey from behind, often, but also by the nose, the face, the neck — whatever they can dart in and grab without being kicked. When the prey pauses, or buckles, it’s over; the prey’s hindquarters, or neck, might be torn out, and in that manner, the prey flounders. The wolves swarm it, then. They don’t have thumbs. All they’ve got is teeth, long legs, and — I have to say this — great hearts. (more after the jump  . . .) Continue reading »

NEW VIDEOS: GOATWHORE, INSOMNIUM, GRENDEL, AND REVOCATION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Oct 012011
 

I spent some time yesterday catching up on metal news over the last week and came across an assortment of videos I thought were worth sharing.

The first one is footage of the almighty Goatwhore playing a club in Fort Walton Beach, Florida on September 16. What makes this video worth sharing is that they’re playing a NEW SONG, called “Beyond the Spell of Discontent”, and it’s a smokin’ hot piece of black ‘n’ roll. The video quality isn’t great, but the sound is pretty good. I’ll have the vid of that song for you after the jump; video of the band’s entire set can be viewed here.

The second video is a clip of Insomnium playing “The Gale” and “The Mortal Share” at the 2010 Summer Breeze Festival. The band linked to this video on their FB page last night, which is how I found it. Again, the video quality isn’t pro-standard, but the sound is decent, and it’s fucking Insomnium, and I’m getting tremendously tumescent in anticipation of their new album, so yeah. (Okay, this video isn’t exactly new, but I’m going with it anyway.)

The third video is a recent official release by a Finnish band called Grendel for the song “Apocalyptic Rain”. I wasn’t familiar with Grendel before seeing the video, but I likey the song — it’s a headbanging blast of melodic death metal. The video, which is organized around a game of Russian Roulette, proves two things: (1) the guys in this band weren’t very lucky that night; and, as if we needed more proof, (2) dudes will do almost anything for a chick with big knockers.

Last, but not least, I have a recently posted MetalInjection video of Revocation performing “Conjuring the Cataclysm” live. I always have a shit-ton of fun at Revocation shows, and I really like this song, so there. Continue reading »

GUILTY PLEASURES NO. 1

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  27 Responses »
Oct 012011
 

(TheMadIsraeli confesses to a guilty pleasure.  The jury is deliberating his sentence.)

Ok… we all have guilty pleasures, right?  I’m not the only one, right?  Inside all of us is that total douche who listens to Circa Survive and masturbates to his poster of “The Rev” directly across from his bed TO SOME DEGREE OR ANOTHER.  Right?  You do that, don’t you?

So at the risk of losing all respect and reverence (begging the question how much I had to begin with), I present to you: Guilty pleasures.  So who is my band of choice for this first installment?

Death By Stereo.

So, who is Death By Stereo?  Well, the band started out as a hardcore punk outfit, but guitarist Dan Palmer joined them, and after 2 albums they apparently decided that the hardcore punk sound sucked on its own and decided they needed to re-vamp themselves.  After the band decided to take a small break and regroup, they unleashed their third album, Into The Valley Of Death.  Suddenly, they were taking the sounds of punk, thrash, hardcore, melodeath, metalcore, and pop and mixing them together into one cohesive sound.  I mean, just look at their list of primary influences. (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 10)

 Forthcoming Albums  40 Responses »
Oct 012011
 

September is behind us. Here in Seattle, it was such a beautiful month that it seemed like nature’s compensation for how late the summer started. Unfortunately, with September’s end, we’re on a short track to the onset of winter, which means about six months of short, cold, grey, ceaselessly wet days. Ain’t that just fuckin’ great?

Well, bitchin’ about the winter ahead won’t change one fucking thing. I prefer to think instead about the deluge of new metal that’s headed our way and try (momentarily) to forget about the deluge of rain on the horizon. Which brings us to the latest monthly edition of METAL IN THE FORGE.

You know the drill:  In these posts, we collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last month about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, we cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — this isn’t a cumulative list. If we found out about a new album before August, we wrote about it in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. As usual, also feel free to tell us about how we fucked up by omitting releases that you’re stoked about. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: MORDBRAND, INFERNAL WAR, AND KRIEGSMASCHINE

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  20 Responses »
Sep 302011
 

In these SHORT BUT SWEET posts, we focus mainly on releases that are shorter than full-length albums. Today, I’ve got two gems for you, the kind of sparkling indigo jewels that wide-eyed, doomed innocents find in fairy tales shortly before something horrific happens to them. For us, of course, it’s just pure, evil pleasure.

The first gem is an EP from a three-man Swedish band called Morbrand, which is already the subject of giant, infernal, wasp-like buzz. The second is a split by two Polish bands whose hands are dripping with the black slick of blood on a moonless night — Infernal War and Kriesgsmaschine.

MORDBRAND: NECROPSYCHOTIC

Mordbrand has been drawing attention, like honey draws flies, based in part on the presence of Per Boder — who fronted an early and well-regarded Swedish death metal band called God Macabre (their debut album, The Winterlong, appeared in 1993). After a 20-year hiatus from recorded music, Boder has returned, and the six-song EP he and bandmates Björn Larsson (guitars, bass) and Johan Rudberg (drums) is a powerful return indeed. Continue reading »

EVILE: “FIVE SERPENT’S TEETH”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  10 Responses »
Sep 302011
 

(Damn.  Unless my math is wrong, this makes TheMadIsraeli’s fifth straight review in as many days. Lest you think he cranked these out in less than 24 hours a piece, I know for a fact that he held onto these to make them more timely — and then flooded me with them, just to make sure I didn’t lay around all week like a beached whale watching TV and eating Cheeto’s.)

Alright, I know most of you NCS readers are simply not cool enough to love thrash, but THAT IS OKAY.  I will show you the way, be your Moses that leads you to the metal promised land and SHOW YOU THE ERROR OF YOUR WAYS.  I will be like Noah and part the waters of your tainted metal taste! [EDITOR’S NOTE: The author’s comment about your lack of coolness is solely the opinion of the author and doesn’t necessarily represent the official position of NCS, which generally sucks up to its readers like a $2 meth whore.]

In all seriousness though, how anyone can dislike thrash is beyond me, especially when it’s this good.  Evile already have two albums to their credit, the delightfully old school and take-no-prisoners Enter The Grave, and the technical and progressive ecstasy that was Infected Nations.  Now we see Evile returning to whoop asses again with their third outing Five Serpent’s Teeth — the only thrash album that matters all this year. Continue reading »

HEAD WOUNDS: A FOURSOME OF VIDEOS FROM TRUTH CORRODED, TROLLFEST, VOMITORY, AND LECHEROUS NOCTURNE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Sep 292011
 

Long story short, but I haven’t had much time for blogging over the last week. Fortunately, Phro, TheMadIsraeli, and Andy Synn have stepped up with lots of reviews and . . . a box o’poops? The truncation of my blogging time will continue through the weekend, but I’m still hoping to find time for a few odds and ends — such as this post.

These four videos randomly came my way from different sources. The first two are new, the second two are older, but all four feature music capable of inflicting head trauma, which is the kind of metal I prefer. The perpetrators are Truth Corroded (Australia), Trollfest (Norway), Vomitory (Sweden), and Lecherous Nocturne (U.S.). Let’s get to it:

TRUTH CORRODED

Truth Corroded is a band whose music I hadn’t heard before seeing the video featured in this post. Their new album Worship the Bled was released on September 16 in Europe and Japan by a Belgian label called Ultimhate Records. It features the hard-working Kevin Talley (Daath, Misery Index, Six Feet Under, Chimaira) on session drums as well as a guest appearance by Jonas Kjellgren of Scar Symmetry, who also mixed and mastered the album. The pretty artwork you see above was designed by Killustrations, whose work has also graced the covers of albums by bands such as Aborted and Dew Scented. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THREAT SIGNAL

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Sep 292011
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album from Canada’s Threat Signal, calling it “one of the best albums of the year”, and then after the review we’ve got two songs and three videos — including a solo that Threat Signal guitarist Travis Montgomery composed for one of the new songs by . . . Textures.)

Total reinvention.  It’s rare to see a band do this, and it’s even more rare to see a band do this and have the result turn out better than the original product.  Not only did Threat Signal suffer a huge blow to the line-up, vocalist Jon Howard being the only member left from the Under Reprisal crew, but although their sophomore album Vigilance was good, it didn’t do so well in the realm of public opinion.  It killed all the steam generated by their debut — and before Vigilance, they had been in a position to come out, kick ass, and kick ass even harder with material that bested their debut.

So where did this leave Threat Signal?

This band stayed relatively quiet for the longest time until this video cropped up: (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

HATESPHERE: “THE GREAT BLUDGEONING”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 282011
 

(TheMadIsraeli has been a reviewing machine lately, and here’s his assessment of the new album by Denmark’s Hatesphere., which is out now on Napalm Records.)

Hatesphere.  One of my favorite bands of all time.  How anyone could develop the capacity to dislike this Danish deathrash legend is ENTIRELY beyond me; they produce some of the sickest riffs, melodies, grooves and overall bewildering sonic assaults of any band in their genre niche.

I was NOT a fan, however, of their previous album To The Nines.  The band had lost its signature lineup, including favorite vocalist of mine Jacob Bredhal, and while the true core of the band remained in founding guitarist Pepe “Lyse” Hanson, the new line-up he’d aquired just… wasn’t working.  At all.

Now we’re here at the new Hatesphere album The Great Bludgeoning.  New musicians in hand, specifically a new drummer, vocalist, and bassist, and I’m happy to say this album has undone the bad taste To The Nines left in my mouth. Continue reading »

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