SKELETONWITCH: “FOREVER ABOMINATION”

 Album Reviews  18 Responses »
Sep 282011
 

(NCS writer Andy Synn reviews the new album by Skeletonwitch.)

If you’ve followed any of my writings so far, you’ll know that I have a huge love for the riff-fuelled blackened majesty that makes up the work of bands such as Iskald, Elite and Vreid. You’ll also know that I consider those three bands to be amongst the best working today, with songs that are equal parts triumph and despair.

Skeletonwitch have long been upon a path similar to that of these bands, albeit one entirely of their own making, steadily growing and transfiguring themselves, fusing the best of Europe’s scintillating majesty with the best of America’s unlimited ambition, resulting in a singular take on the sound which is equal parts Immortal and Metallica, as much enslaved to Emperor’s eldritch power as it is to Slayer’s berserker fury.

Concision and precision have always been the watchwords of Skeletonwitch’s style, and they remain key elements of each song on Forever Abomination. However, despite their continued short and sharp delivery, each song somehow feels more fleshed out and atmospheric, and indeed longer, than ever before. There’s more meat on the bone, more muscle and sinew exerted with every writhing riff and twisting drum fill; the skeleton now bears a more fully realised body, all pulsing musculature devoid of fat or waste.

With the release of Forever Abomination, I can say that Skeletonwitch can now confidently count themselves amongst the bands whose songs of fire and ice transcend the limitations of any one genre, instead rising to the challenge of embracing the best of multiple styles to create a newly formed monstrosity of unknown, and perhaps unlimited, potential.(more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BOX O’POOPS!

 IQ Subtraction, Phro's Posts  22 Responses »
Sep 282011
 

(I have no idea how to introduce this post.  I’ll just tell you that Phro wrote it, and leave it at that.)

Forest Gump’s mother (apparently, according to legends that are older than time…or at least, possibly, Google) claimed that life is like a box of chocolates and you never know which one is full of roofies.  (It’s all of them, if I gave you them.  Seriously, go ahead, here, have one.  The ol’ tentacledick ain’t gonna rub one out all by itself, you know.  Time for you to get off the couch and contribute to society just like your pappy always wanted.)

But, you know, I’ve never been a fan of chocolates, so fuck you and your goddamn Valentine’s Day.  (A side note: in Japan, on Valentine’s Day, only the girls give chocolate to the boys.  A month later, the boys are supposed to return the favor.  And a month after that, anyone who got nothing is supposed to go eat black noodles.  I like to pretend it’s all a metaphor for tentacle rape, but I have no idea what black noodles have to do with tentacle rape.  I’ll have to get back to you…)

I am, however, a fan of poop.  (I can hear your gasps of surprise ALL THE WAY OVER HERE.  Knock it off.  You sound like mouth breathers orgasming.) Well, I also recently noticed that YouTube links have no identifying information in the link itself.  So, if someone posts a link without telling you what it is, you literally have no idea until you click it.  I’ve decided to use this to my advantage.  (And yours as well!) Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC: NEXT-LEVEL S’MORES

 IQ Subtraction, That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  29 Responses »
Sep 272011
 

Bacon strips, bitches. Authentic camping experience, complete with acetylene campfire starter and urine streams to bring the heat down to proper marshmallow-roasting temperature. Candied bacon strips and Jack Daniels and drizzling chocolate and layering the shit three and four across. And of course stuffing your fucken face with it when it’s all done. That’s metal. That’s all I got to say about this shit.

BLACK METAL: TAAKE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Sep 272011
 

Norwegian black metal band Taake will be releasing their fifth full-length album, Noregs Vaapen, on November 1 in the U.S. on Dark Essence Records. It hit the streets in Europe on September 20, and we’re planning a review of it. It includes guest appearances by some signal names of the black metal elite, including Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone), Attila Csihar (Mayhem), Demonaz (Immortal), and Skagg (Gaahlskagg, Deathcult), as well as producer and Vulture Industries frontman Bjørnar E. Nilsen.

To begin whipping the faithful into a froth of anticipation for the album, today Taake premiered a music video for a track from the album called “Nordbundet” on the website of a Norwegian radio station called Pyro. The video is a mix of expertly filmed and edited live concert footage and scenes of the countryside around Taake’s hometown of Bergen filmed by Taake’s frontman Hoest — snow-covered firs and mountains, grey skies, isolated cabins, panoramas both beautiful and harsh.

The song itself is one I’ve had on repeat play this morning. It’s got a head-thumping, rock-style beat reminiscent of some of Darkthrone’s more recent efforts, charged with irresistible riffing. Near the end, it transitions into a blaze of memorable tremolo’d melody. And, of course, Hoest’s vocals are absolutely scalding. Very cool song, very cool video. Watch it after the jump (and prepare to headbang). Continue reading »

MACHINE HEAD: “UNTO THE LOCUST”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Sep 272011
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new Machine Head album, Unto the Locust, which is being released today on Roadrunner Records.)

It’s time for me to come out of the closet.  I AM A MACHINE HEAD FAN.  I mean yeah, I have no problem admitting that The More Things Change, The Burning Red and Supercharger are nothing but sonic packages of primate anus waste and that every copy of them that exists should be torched in the fires of mallcore hell — but the great albums from this band outweigh the bad.

Burn My Eyes?  Classic post-thrash, the epitome.  Through The Ashes Of Empires was a solid return to form, while using what was good about their… shall-not-be-named-again mid-period exploits.  And The Blackening saw Machine Head taking a respectably ambitious turn, risking looking like complete and utter posers and tools by expanding the scope of their songwriting, breaking into epic song lengths of up to 10 minutes.

Unto The Locust is this band’s best album since Burn My Eyes.  Indisputable this fact shall be.  This is an all-guns-blazing post-thrash assault that actually reveals the MH crew bringing back to the music their old 80’s thrash influences to a surprising extent.  There are even a lot of moments that recall Vio-Lence or Forbidden — bands in which members of Machine Head have previously done time. Continue reading »

CLINGING TO THE TREES OF A FOREST FIRE: “OMEGA DRUNK ON THE BLOOD OF ALPHA”

 Album Reviews, Phro's Posts  69 Responses »
Sep 272011
 

(In this post, NCS contributor Phro reviews an album by Clinging To the Trees of A Forest Fire as only Phro can.)

(Phro’s note: Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire is a Denver (woo!) funeral grind band (band’s words, not mine, but incredibly appropriate) that will rip your face skin off and then burn it as you stare hopelessly and slowly bleed to death.  Today, I listened to their 2008 album Omega Drunk On the Blood of Alpha.  It’s fucking amazing.  If you want to hear or get more of their music, go to their facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/CTTTOAFF) or their bandcamp page (http://ctttoaff.bandcamp.com/))

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!!”

Furious wind whips at my face like tiny dicks fighting for a place in the bukkake circle, desperately trying to get close enough to the girl to avoid just masturbating in a room full of perverts and a slightly uncomfortable woman.  My arms flail as I fight against gravity, Newton, and all that physics has birthed—screaming—into the world.

“Motherfuckermotherfuckermotherfuckermotherfucker!!!”

My screams are nearly drowned out by the robotic howl of the wind. Continue reading »

OPETH: “HERITAGE”

 Album Reviews  14 Responses »
Sep 262011
 

(NCS writer BadWolf reviews the controversial new album from Opeth.)

The mark of a good album is that I cannot stop listening to it, the mark of a great album is that it makes me think, and Heritage is spinning my gears the way Opeth first did six years ago. When I first heard Ghost Reveries, it opened up my eyes to the possibilities of metal to be artful, emotional.  Heritage is opening my eyes to the possibilities of abandoning metal (and genre, period) entirely.  This is in many ways a massive departure, but a necessary one.

But first let’s talk about that adjective “progressive.” Opeth are prog, but not progressive; after all, how can Mikael Åkerfeldt progress when he’s effectively re-written 1999’s Still Life album 4 times in a decade to varying results? For ten years Opeth has only explored Chiarascuro (admittedly, an amazing concept). They have already mastered the juxtaposition between light and dark in a metal context to the point where they’re being imitated constantly (with almost no success).  Heritage needed to happen—Opeth needed to expand their palate or commit to rereleasing lesser permutations of Blackwater Park forever. Here’s a very NCS metaphor: the sex was getting boring. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: MSTIBOG AND KARTIKEYA – “DURGA PUJA”

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Sep 262011
 

In May of this year, NCS writer TheMadIsraeli introduced us to a Moscow band called Kartikeya, and included links for downloads (here). Apart from the stunningly good (and quite different) death metal to be found on the band’s latest album, Mahayuga, that album also featured remarkable artwork by a Russian artist, “Mstibog” Kirenkov. We included a lot of his album art with TheMadIsraeli’s review.

Yesterday I found out that on October 1, a label called Grailight Productions will be releasing a new limited edition Kartikeya “single” titled Durga Puja, and it will include the amazing artwork of Mstibog once again. Up above is the cover, depicting the ten-handed war goddess Durga.

The new single will include covers of songs by Sepultura and Melechesh, re-recorded and re-arranged versions of songs from Kartikeya’s first album The Battle Begins, a live version of a song called “The Path”, and a brand new song, “Durga Puja”, which was mixed/mastered by the producer Logan Mader (Soulfly, Gojira, Divine Heresy, W.A.S.P., DevilDriver, etc.). After the jump, you can see the track list.

Also after the jump you can hear Kartikeya’s cover of “Triangular Tattvic Fire” by Melechesh. It’s a blowtorch blast of wonderfully vicious, hard-charging, eastern-tinged, blackened death metal and it sounds fantastic.  I’m really looking forward to this single. Continue reading »

TEXTURES: “DUALISM”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 262011
 

(TheMadIsraeli provides a glowing, detailed, review of the new album from Textures, and following that we’ve got the album’s first official music video and more tracks to hear.)

FUCKING.  TEXTURES.

This album I highly anticipate will alienate some longtime fans of this band who were expecting a Silhouettes part two.  Dualism lives up to its name — in fact, I was surprised by how much it honors the name on so many levels. Everything on this album is about balance.  Elements are so evenly distributed in their use that it makes the album unusually well-rounded.

Let’s get one thing straight at the outset: Textures isn’t djent. Textures is progressive groove metal, and this album proves it.  It includes songs that really weave hill-and-valley-laden sonic tapestries that take the listener on a journey, sometimes in durations as short as under three minutes.  This is an album that means business, a mission statement by a band really trying to put out the definitive word that they are playing their own game with their own set of rules and always have been. This album simply makes it official.

Duality begins innocently enough. Opener “Arms Of The Sea” starts out with an ominous dissonant lead, building the tension into a mammoth sludge riff filled with dark, southern swagger.  This may be the catchiest riff Textures have ever written, no lie.  The song lumbers on at its methodical pace, an odd choice for an album opener to be sure, but so effective once it clicks with you.  It’s got heavy parts, pretty parts, ascending build-ups and descending crescendos, diverse vocal delivery all over the map, and top-notch tasteful drumming by master of the kit Stef Broks. In retrospect, this song serves as a good summation of the album as a whole, although it may not seem so at first. Continue reading »

AND THE EVISCERATION CONTINUES . . .

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Sep 252011
 

The Greenery is a band from Long Beach, California. They released their debut album Spit and Argue on July 24 via Prosthetic Records. I haven’t heard the whole thing, just three songs, two of which have already been turned into music videos. Those three songs are refreshing, that is, if you find it refreshing to be sucker-punched in the gut and then kicked in the head with steel-toed boots while you’re writhing on the floor.

The Greenery play in-your-face, old-school, hardcore punk with an authentic sound and a blast furnace of venomous attitude. The music takes me back to the days before I got into metal and spent my time getting head-butted by a pretty steady diet of punk music. The songs are fairly short and don’t include the downtuned, chug-heavy riffage of more modern hardcore. They kick the door down, shoot you full of adrenaline, throw you around the room, and then bolt out before you quite know what hit you.

I haven’t kept up with this scene, and we don’t write about it much at NCS, so this will seem like a random selection of music, but what can I say? It kicketh my ass and eviscerateth my gutses, and so I’m sharin’ it.

After the jump, I’ve got two music videos that are a blast to watch (and hear) and then a third track that eases up on the pacing but loses none of the righteous antagonism (and thanks to TheMadIsraeli for feeding me these links.) Continue reading »

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