THE GREAT VOMITORIUM IN THE SKY

 Phro's Posts  12 Responses »
Dec 302011
 

(Phro remembers a few metal greats who left this world in 2011. He assures me that he in no way means disrespect to the departed or their bereaved families — this is just his Phro-like way of saying “Thanks for the rocking!”)

Last night, after forcing a pony to snort enough coke to kill an elephant and then drinking the O.D.ed pony’s blood, I passed out in a pond of vomited up pony blood and enchiladas.  (Nothing helps pony blood go down like Mexican food!)  And, like Paul fallen off his horse on the road to Damascus, I was visited by a savior: Seth Putnam.

“What the Virgin Mary’s bloody tampon??  Seth Putnam??  I though you were fucking dead!  Are you here to rape my dirty nose?”

He laughed like an angel (an angel who’d just woken up after doing a speedball out of a hooker’s torn anus, but an angel none the less.)

“Well, my child, that is true…I am dead.”

“Son of a…I knew that last pint was too fucking much.  Motherfucker.  So, I’m dead too and you’re here to take  me to hell?”

He laughed again.  This time it was more like the mirth of a child watching his or her first Tijuana donkey show.

“No, not at all!  I’m here to reveal my gospel to you to share with all the world!”

I punched myself in the dick to see if I was dreaming.  (A little pinch is nothing when you’re on pony blood—you need to inflict real pain.)  I screamed like a little kid seeing Sandusky’s face on TV.  At least I knew I wasn’t dreaming.  After panting in agony for a while, I regained composure and wheezed out a question.

“What’s…urg…your…gaaaa…gospel…uhhhrrrr…?” Continue reading »

LISTMANIA CONTINUES: A 2011 LIST FROM THE DEMONSTEALER (DEMONIC RESURRECTION)

 Listmania  7 Responses »
Dec 302011
 

(The Indian metal scene is vibrant, multi-faceted, and loaded with talented bands waiting to be discovered on the international stage.  In the vanguard of the movement are Demonic Resurrection and their frontman The Demonstealer.  As a songwriter, a musician, the manager of Demonstealer Records, the host of a heavy metal cooking show, and much else besides, he’s a busy dude, but he made time to answer our request for a list of his favorite albums from 2011.)

Considering I haven’t heard much music this year it was very hard putting this list together. Had I heard a lot of the other albums released this year I might have had a different list. Either way, given a choice, this list would be in no particular order, but since we do this thing, here is my list in order.

1. Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony – Oh my god this was my surprise discovery for 2011. I found it thanks to SickDrummer.com where there was a drum cam video of Francesco Paoli playing the song ‘The Violation”, after which I saw the music video and had my nuts blown off!! I immediately got the album and it’s been in my player ever since. Continue reading »

METAL BANDCAMP DOOM FAVORITES OF 2011

 Listmania  41 Responses »
Dec 302011
 


(Sending his binary bits all the way from Denmark, MaxR — the proprietor of the Metal Bandcamp blog — makes another welcome guest appearance at NCS with this feature on his Top 10 Metal Bandcamp doom favorites of 2011.)

10 tracks in no particular order plus one honorable mention. 2 hours 26 minutes and 1 second of music. Enjoy.

1. Lycus – “Aghast”. Mournful choral vocal lines accompany the traditional death metal vocals and crashing riffs. And that fantastic fast section as the track goes from stately to pummeling. Cathartic.

Continue reading »

WE ARE THE 3%: RECORDING QUALITY v. SONG QUALITY

 Mosh Pit  59 Responses »
Dec 292011
 

(I got sort of caught up in all the year-end Listmania we’ve been feeding you on this site, and am therefore late in publishing this guest opinion piece by Jesper Zuretti of The Binary Code. Check this out and let us [and Jesper} know what you think.  Are we putting too much emphasis on recording quality?)

We Are the 3%: Recording Quality v. Song Quality
a novice attempt at history, psychology, and temptation

Many people hearing music in this day and age tend to put the quality of the recording in the forefront, even ahead of the quality of the composition and music. But how much does the music-hearing individual really understand about the quality of the recording they’re listening to? Should they need to understand anything at all? Should music be over-scrutinized and classified into the depths of genre segregation, with fine-tuning into multiple combinations of classification?

The best part about music, in my opinion, is the freedom you have with it, and yet people are probably pickier about music than they are the food they eat. The history of music proves to us that recording (although it’s the conduit to our musical stream) is but a small aspect of music’s place in the entirety of human existence. I’m no certified musicologist (although I’d like to think I am), but maybe we’ll open some minds – just bear in mind that I’m a long-winded typist! Stay with me:

Human beings have been making music as long as the species has existed. The human voice is considered one of the first instruments we ever used to make music. And beyond that, Humpback whales also spend a great deal of time creating music (and by “great deal of time,” we’re talking Frank Zappa amounts of time). So it’s very safe to assume that music was being created even before mankind came into existence. On that assumption, if you subtract the amount of time during which humans have actually captured music on recordings from the length of time whales have been on this planet (speculated to be 54 million years), you end up with less than 3% of music’s supposed development time dedicated to recording. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2011’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 4

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011  1 Response »
Dec 292011
 

This is Part 4 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

For fans like me who are addicted to old-school, Swedish-style death metal, 2011 was a very good year. We’re in the midst of a revival, and it doesn’t show any signs of abating. One of the best releases of the year in this grisly genre was the second album by Sweden’s Entrails, The Tomb Awaits. Entrails originally came into existence in 1991, became moribund by 1998, but revived beginning in 2009. Their latest, Dan Swanö-produced offering reflects Entrails’ authentically deep roots in the scene.

As we wrote in our review of the album, “The music is a gargantuan beast, dripping with the remains of its last grisly meal of suppurating human flesh — and it’s a headbanger’s delight, too. . . . Dynamic vocals that are deliciously horrible, perfectly toned guitar-and-bass combos that sound like giant earth-moving equipment scooping up disease-infested masses of corpse meat, the booming assault of heartless drums, a surrounding aura of voracious evil — what’s not to like? The answer: Nothing. It’s all good.”

Entrails and their labels Dark Descent Records and FDA Rekotz gave us the chance to premiere a song from the album called “Remains In Red” along with the review, but “End of All Existence” is the most infectious of many catchy beasts on The Tomb Awaits. It’s also one of the most infectious extreme metal songs of the year, in my most humble opinion, so it’s our next addition to this list: Continue reading »

BRUNCH OF BOOZE

 IQ Subtraction  15 Responses »
Dec 292011
 

JAck Dagnellz!  Unformed chicken fetuses!  Bacon!  Candied bacon!  Bacon bits!  Jack ‘n’ yoke!  White Russian cereal!

(Wait, isn’t that redundant?  Aren’t all Russians white?)

Pancake batter!  More pancake batter!  Donut ‘o egg!  More fucken JAck, haters!

While I finish waking up and then working on the next epic post, watch these fuckin guys get toasted and make big mounds of disgusting food.  I’m talking to the 2 or 3 of you who don’t already subscribe to the Epic Meal Time YousTubes channel.  After the yump.

And don’t give me that shit like you got something better to do than watch this.  I’m not buying it.  Unless you’re still listening to all that music in Andy’s post.  But even then, you can take a break, make yourself sick to your stomach, and then go back and finish off all the tunes.  Be sure to stick your finger down your throat first, so the nausea doesn’t interfere with the listening.  That’s what I do.  Pancake batter! Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

 THE SYNN REPORT  15 Responses »
Dec 292011
 

(Andy Synn provides an unexpected SYNN REPORT, seizing upon the imminent calendar change to discuss the re-recording of 12 songs by 12 tremendous bands — and of course we’re including the music, which means 24 tracks. Fuck, this would be a mixtape that KILLS.)

So here it is, a surprise Synn Report to finish off the year. Arbitrary though the distinction may well be, the end of the year provides a perfect excuse to attend to a similar theme, the transition from the old to the new – re-workings and re-recordings.

Are they better? That’s an argument for the ages? Are they necessary? Hell, that’s probably an even worse argument to start up…

Primarily, re-recordings serve a twofold purpose – 1. to reinvigorate songs that might otherwise not be getting the set-time they deserve, and 2. – to royally piss off a band’s fan-base. Although there’s a chance that the second isn’t entirely intentional. Still, the re-recorded album courts controversy like almost no other, whether it’s a varied collection of songs that are chosen to receive the treatment, or a full re-recording of an entire album.

The full re-recording of an entire album is clearly the most contentious option, while single track re-recordings are often a much more successful and welcome proposition, most often appearing as b-sides and bonus tracks for the avid collector. The full-album re-recording, however, remains exceptionally and unequivocally divisive, alienating as many old fans as it attracts new ones.

So here’s a list of some of those renewed tracks that I think definitely have something to offer the listener, both old and new. I’m sure I’ll have to turn in my kvlt card after this, for promoting something so new and shiny, but ah well… Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2011’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 3

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011  6 Responses »
Dec 282011
 

This is Part 3 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

The first song in today’s feature comes from Deathstar Rising, the 2011 album released by Finland’s Before the Dawn. The band was started in 1999 by the prolific Tuomas Saukkonen (also a member of Black Sun Aeon, Dawn of Solace, and RoutaSielu), and that 2011 album is their sixth. Although I reviewed the band’s immediately preceding album, Soundscape of Silence (2008), I neglected Deathstar Rising on this site. Actually, I believe that qualifies as criminal neglect, because I enjoyed the fuck out of that record. As punishment, I’m hoping for probation instead of hard time.

Before the Dawn’s success comes down to two principal factors, which are fully displayed on Deathstar Rising: skilled song-writing that effectively combines hard-driving riffs and rhythms with dark, beautiful, hook-filled melodies; and, on the last four albums, an amazing one-two vocal punch delivered by Saukkonen (whose harsh delivery is killer) and bass player Lars Eikind, whose clean vocals are just as remarkable. (Yes, this band is one of our Exceptions To the Rule.) Continue reading »

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Dec 282011
 

Last night and this morning I saw two new music videos that made an impression. By chance, both bands are from Russia — Impact Fuze and Welicoruss. Though the videos could hardly be more different from each other, both musically and visually, joining them together here just struck me as the right thing to do (and I haven’t even been hitting the vodka) — two sides of a Russian coin: the urban and the rural, the new and the old, a forest of skyscrapers and a forest of pines, the bustle of mechanization and a clash of swords.

IMPACT FUZE

TheMadIsraeli sent me a link to this band’s video for a song called “Moscow”. Impact Fuze consists of three extremely talented musicians — guitarist Fedor Dosumov, bass-player Anton Davidyants, and a French drummer named Damien Schmitt. “Moscow” isn’t really metal. The musical style is closer to jazz/rock fusion, but the performances are so extraordinary that I couldn’t resist this video.

Dosumov’s guitar playing reaches jaw-dropping levels of dexterity and creativity, reminding me of great ones like Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, and Alex Skolnick (when he’s performing with his Trio). Schmitt is equally amazing, especially when he’s on his feet, hitting the skins while spinning like a top. And Davidyants is a match for them on the bass, bounding but tight as a drumhead.

The black-and-white video for the song is also an amazing achievement. It was produced and directed by Vladimir “voff” Youdanov, Tamara Cengic, and a team from a company called Voffilms. The imagery moves as fast as the performers, with time-lapse film of modern Moscow on the move interspersed with a visual kaleidoscope of the band performing the song. It’s an inspired union of music and film, one of the best videos I’ve seen all year. Continue reading »

The Best of 2011: Year-End Lists From DemiGodRaven

 Listmania  11 Responses »
Dec 282011
 

(The Number of the Blog may have drifted out to sea in a blazing longboat, its spirit soaring on flames toward the Valhalla of metal blogdom, but its writers are still with us, and we’ve opened our doors to them until something new rises from the ashes. Today, we’re delighted to post a series of year-end lists and awards from that pillar of TNOTB, DemiGodRaven.)

Hey folks! So uh….how are you all?

I’d honestly thought that I would take the time that TNOTB was down to disappear for a little bit and recharge, then come back full steam ahead, but sadly things didn’t go the way Grover and I had planned them, so we find ourselves in the welcoming arms of Islander and the NCS crew. It has been an absolute pleasure being the court jester/news guy/reviewer over at TNOTB, so thanks to those of you who read my various ramblings over the past two years.

But enough reminiscing, because it is 2011 and I have to fulfill my last obligatory duty as an egomaniacal blogger and issue my top arbitrary number of reasons that my music taste is better than yours for 2011. Originally, I wasn’t planning to number this list since I think that, as I have gotten older (you know, by a whole year), the blood in my veins has cooled somewhat and my desire for conflict has dropped dramatically. This was supposed to be a sort of peaceful declaration of how I had moved beyond numbering things and just wanted to list 10 discs that really stood out for me this year. I’ll be goddamned if I didn’t find myself subconsciously ordering the damn thing anyway because as soon as I wrapped up this list and gave it a quick glance over I noted that the way this thing lined up was pretty fucking close to my enjoyment of each album.

A note though: 2011 was an absolutely incredible year for music, and even though the albums on here may not be consistent with the ratings I gave them over at TNOTB (you guys can go look them up if you want!), this really became an archive of albums that got the most spins from me this year. Also, as I wrapped up this list I started writing out stuff that I wanted to include as well, which I didn’t bother to order and kept small, so once you are done with my 10 keep scrolling down and see what else I thought about this year. Continue reading »

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