NO CLEAN SINGING

DALRIADA

Sep 082011

(Trollfiend displays his erudition about Hungary and about Hungarian folk-metal band Dalriada in this guest post. I’m enjoying laughing my ass off while learning about new metal. And Hungarian pizza.)

The tiny landlocked nation of Hungary in Central Europe is home to, uh…um…wait, I think Bela Lugosi was born there. And, uh…the inventor of the Rubik’s cube. And incidentally when I attempted to Google edutaining facts about the country, “Hungary Howie’s” restaurant was the first thing to come up, so I can only assume pizza was invented there as well. It is also home to a massive and diversified metal scene (some members of which have already appeared in these hallowed halls, such as Thy Catafalque, Gire, Slytract, Mytra, Meankind, and I Divine).

Hungary’s land mass is approximately 36,000 square miles. Preliminary research suggests that at least 87.9% of this land mass is comprised of metal bands. Aside from being the birthplace of the guy who discovered vitamin C (the actual vitamin, not the orange-haired pop singer), it’s also the home of HangSúly, the national Hungarian Metal Awards. Metal Awards? Do WE have that? I mean I know not every country can boast spawning the creator of the three-phase alternating current electric locomotive, but that AND a national metal awards show? It must be something in the water (of Lake Héviz, the second largest thermal lake IN THE WORLD).

I’m only mentioning Hungary here because I am totally craving a pizza right now.

No, wait, there was another reason. Folksy folk metal folk band Dalriada is from there as well. By “there” I mean Hungary, home of the largest medicinal bath house in Europe. Now I know Dalriada is going to be a hard sell to most of the NCS crowd: aside from the clean female vocals, it’s motherfucking PEPPY. Peppy as shit. I wouldn’t lie to you about something like that. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

IN THE NEWS AND IN YOUR EARS: THY CATAFALQUE, HYPOCRISY, AGALLOCH, AND RYE WOLVES

Sep 072011

Here’s another daily round-up of news and new music that I noticed today. All of these items perked me right up, so I thought I’d share them.

THY CATAFALQUE

Compared to other metal blogs, we’re late to the Thy Catafalque party, but we’re making up for lost time because the unique music of this Hungarian band has been a cool discovery (you can see our first post about them here). We knew that the band had recently signed with the dependable Season of Mist label, but this morning we got a message from Tamás Kátai with further details.

Specifically, the band seems to have finished 60 minutes worth of new music (10 songs) that will be released on November 11 in Europe and on January 10, 2012 in North America. It will be entitled Rengeteg, and you can see the cover art up above, which is the result of a collaboration between Tamás and Portuguese photographer Ruy Luz. The art seems connected to the meaning of the album’s title, which is an obsolete Hungarian word referring to a vast, trackless forest. We’ll be all ears when this album becomes available for listening. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MATHDEATHBOOGIE?

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Sep 072011

I had only planned to feature one Finnish band yesterday (Decaying), y’know, because, like, I didn’t wanna come off as such a Finland fanboy that people would think we don’t have any objectivity about Finnish metal at all, like, people will think we get off on the sound of Finnish bands taking a big dump in the gold-plated, mic-ed up toilets that all people in Finland have, with the sounds becoming instant demo’s that metal labels worldwide just eat up like good fucking pancakes.

Where was I? Oh yeah, I was only going to feature one Finnish band yesterday, even though I saw this review at Steff Metal. But that was yesterday and today is today, so I’m going with it now. Maybe if you see just an excerpt from her review you’ll understand why NOT listening to this band was an impossibility for me:

Observation is a shocker of an album – it’s a prime example of a bunch of talented musicians taking an idea and running with it, no holds barred, no stopping to wonder if maybe they’re being a bit silly. It’s an album that, had some lesser bunch of weirdos put it out, it would have been the shittiest album of the year. But this bunch of weirdos know exactly what they’re doing. . . .

The music consists of sporadic, fuzzy riffs, catchy hooks and song structures that could only occur when Dr. Frankenstein took the brains of every member of Kalmah and stuck them into Rammstein. The vocals alternate between a artificially distorted screeches, and that low goth industrial rumble that turns most girl’s insides all mushy. Add a splattering of electronic blips and bloops, and some lyrics about science gone mad, and you’ve got mathdeathboogie, my new favorite made-up genre.

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

THE METAL SUCKFEST: ANOTHER UPDATE

Metal News 4 Responses »

Sep 072011

Yes, we are pimping the MetalSucks-sponsored METAL SUCKFEST again. When another metal blog succeeds in pulling off something this good, we will pimp the shit out of that, too.

Seriously, get a load of the almost-fully-revealed lineup for this show, which will be held in New York City on November 4 and 5. There are still 4 bands yet to be announced, and I’m already blown away by who’s appearing. There’s tremendous variety in the metal that will be on display, and the announced bands include some of my current favorites in the world of metal, including Today is the Day, Howl, Black Tusk, Magrudergrind, Obscura, The Red Chord, and Scale the Summit — and I don’t mean to imply that the others are only tolerable.

I have to make special mention of A Life Once Lost. There was a time, back when metalcore was a thing, when I would go for days without listening to anything but A Life Once Lost, and I’m usually the sort of listener that constantly flits from one band to the next when I’m in listening mode. I was massively disappointed when it appeared ALOL had broken up, and super-happy when I found out last year that they were back and working on new music. The latest word is that a new album will be coming in 2012 — the first since 2007’s Iron Gag. I would dearly love to see them at the SUCKFEST. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BLISTERING: NEW SONGS FROM NIGHTRAGE, DAGON, AND SKELETONWITCH

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 1 Response »

Sep 072011

Last night I came across three new songs — from Nightrage, Dagon, and Skeletonwitch. Each of them individually is blistering. Listening to them all together runs the risk of leaving you like this:

So, y’know, maybe it’s better to listen to one now and then another one tomorrow and then the third one sometime next week. Unless that picture up above would be an improvement in your looks, in which case just GO FOR IT!

NIGHTRAGE

Right after the jump, we’ve got the second song to premiere from Insidious, the new album coming on September 27 (a day earlier internationally) from Sweden’s Nightrage. Based on this track (“Hate Turns To Black”) and the one we featured last month (here), this album sounds like it’s going to be the strongest Nightrage release since Sweet Vengeance (2003) and Descent Into Chaos (2005). Continue reading »

KITTIE: “I’VE FAILED YOU”

Album Reviews 20 Responses »

Sep 072011

(Stop rolling your eyes! I know what you’re thinking: Kittie on NO CLEAN SINGING?!? But hold your horses and read Andy Synn’s review. You will be pleasantly surprised.)

Straight off I’ll say this – this is the best Kittie album to date. And I say that as a huge fan of both Oracles and Funeral For Yesterday in particular. However, I think that identifies the crux of Kittie’s occasional problems – the former is clearly the band’s heaviest record, while the latter is clearly their most darkly melodic, and the band have spent the rest of their time trying to marry the two together with varying results, the intervening and subsequent albums pulled in several directions at once by these competing pressures.

Like many of you (and indeed the band themselves at times), I would much rather ignore the existence of the execrable Spit, as the band really only developed into a proper musical entity with the release of the utterly devastating Oracles, whose self-loathing, Obituary-esque stomp and grind was lightened solely by occasional injections of emotionally fraught, PJ Harvey-channelling clean vocals.

Since then, building from a core of steady, grinding riffs, harsh blackened screams and chilling, ethereal clean vocals, the band (primarily the Lander sisters) have slowly attempted to expand their sound, giving it more energy and life with a steady influx of snappier riffs (“Until The End”), expressive and expansive structuring (“Funeral For Yesterday”) and nuanced leads (“Into The Black”) which, when added to the unflinchingly precise drumming of Mercedes Lander, all mix to create a rich melting pot of ideas from which to draw. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

NCS T-SHIRT UPDATE

IQ Subtraction, Metal News 11 Responses »

Sep 062011

Let’s see now, it was August 7 when we decided to give away NCS t-shirts featuring the eye-catching Dan Arena poster for our fictitious FUCKING GOOD PANCAKE TOUR. Once we had that idea, we jumped on it faster than the crack of a bullwhip, speedier than a bullet fired from a high-powered rifle, so fast that if we’d been flying we’d have created a sonic boom.

Okay, maybe that’s exaggerating just a bit. We actually moved on the idea more like this:

But, we’ve actually made real progress. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ABSU PREMIERES A NEW SONG

Metal News 4 Responses »

Sep 062011

Last Thursday, we published BadWolf’s review of Abzu, the next album from Absu. Judging from our internet stats on BadWolf’s post, a lot of people seem to be anxiously awaiting this album, and very interested in hearing what it has to offer. Well, now you can have your first taste of Abzu.

Pitchfork Media, whose audience is somewhat bigger than our own, sort of in the way that Goliath is somewhat bigger than Bambi, was selected to premiere “Abraxas Connexus”, and that song is now streaming RIGHT HERE.

The song is also now available for download via iTunes as a single at this location.

That is all.

IN THE NEWS AND IN THE EARS: CANNIBAL CORPSE, MASTODON, FUCK THE FACTS, AND ANAAL NATHRAKH

Uncategorized 33 Responses »

Sep 062011

Here are four things that got my attention earlier today. I’m betting that everyone who reads this will be interested in at least one of these items. And, just in case that’s a bad guess, we have porn after the jump.

ITEM ONE

I don’t think I have to do anything but excerpt these quotes from the Metal Blade press release. It was enough for me.

Cannibal Corpse has begun recording their twelfth studio album at Sonic Ranch studios in Texas with producer Erik Rutan. The band has spent months writing the album and has recorded at Sonic Ranch in the past, but never with Rutan at the helm. More details on the album, including art, songs, title and more will be revealed in the months to follow. For now, the band is hard at work forging their next death metal offering.

Erik Rutan worked with Cannibal Corpse for both Kill (2006) and Evisceration Plague (2009) and is returning for a third time. Rutan explains further: “I am super excited to work with Cannibal Corpse for our 3rd album together. We are determined to make the best album we possibly can. Everyone is very focused and the new material is awesome. There is a great blend of classic, old school CC with a newer, more heavy, dynamic and aggressive approach. I look forward to the challenge of making one heavy as hell record!”

(more after the jump, including porn . . .) Continue reading »

RED SEAS FIRE

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Sep 062011

(TheMadIsraeli brings us this review of a new, free EP by Red Seas Fire.)

Red Seas Fire is the baby of Adam “Nolly” Getgood, a guitarist who was quite significant in the early development of the djent scene, trading ideas with other djent giants such as Misha Mansoor or Acle Kahney back in the days when they were just posting random shit on soundclick pages. It’s been hard for him to be able to reach the point where he could finally produce a professional, totally put-together product to offer to the public, but now we finally have it in Red Seas Fire’s self-titled debut EP.

The EP begins with an instrumental intro that lulls the listener. It’s a bit of ambience, nothing special — that is, until “Epinephrine” comes crashing through your speakers with mammoth, down-tuned grooving assaults and crushes your balls with a sledgehammer. From this beginning, however, it’s obvious that Red Seas Fire aren’t really a djent project anymore.

Yes, there is a metallic guitar tone and a heavy use of syncopated groove and polyrhythmic attack, but the music has far more in common with Scar Symmetry or Fear Factory then it does Meshuggah or CiLiCe. The chorus of “Epinephrine” speaks far more of modern melodeath than it does anything else, and the riffs otherwise feel more like something that courses through the veins of brutal industrial metal. The particular choice of electronic and industrial tones and noises throughout this song cements this impression even further to me. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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