SYMPHONY X: “ICONOCLAST”

 Album Reviews  31 Responses »
Jul 292011
 

(Israel Flanders is back again with something like his 100th review this week. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but he has really been cranking them out. Today, he’s singing the praises of the new album from Symphony X — Iconoclast!

I’m bringing the game up to that next-level shit, son.

Symphony. Fucking. X.

The kings of the power thrash universe (though really why wouldn’t they be? They’ve virtually pioneered their own sound), the undisputed lords and masters of melting your face with ballsy riffs, soaring vocals, and face melting shred. All in an inhumanly precise, well organized package with top-notch song writing to boot.

I was ABSOLUTELY PSYCHED for this album, and I’m glad it turned out as good as I thought it would. But there Is one small thing I wish to address here… if you can manage it, BUY THE SPECIAL TWO DISC EDITION. It is, according to the band, the “true” album, the way it was meant to be heard, and I am affirming this. The standard 9-song version just closes poorly and doesn’t feel right when it ends. Not only is the special edition 12 songs long, but the track list is completely re-arranged, further cementing that this is how they intended the album to be heard. So yeah, I’m reviewing the special edition instead of the standard today.

The opening and title track are over 10 minutes long. Yeah. A 10-minute-plus opener. What do you got for that? That’s what I wondered, and what I thought at first was, Nothing, as a cascade of odd-sounding, static-sounding ambience rushed in, and under it a piano started playing a sinister melody. You really don’t know where the song is going, but everything will be alright my child.

EPIC FUCKING, LIKE, TAPPING ACTION BRO! (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

NOW THIS IS A DRUM-CAM CLIP I CAN GET BEHIND

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 282011
 

On July 24, 2011, Amon Amarth played the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Helsinki Finland. The first song on their set was “War of the Gods”. The video after the jump records the performance from just behind and to the left of drummer Fredrik Andersson. It helps if you know the song already — as well you should — because the sound of the other instruments and Johan Hegg’s vocals are muffled on the audio track, given the camera’s position — but this is still very, very cool.

I don’t know shit about drumming. Basically, to me, watching any capable extreme metal drummer in action is like witnessing a form of supernatural achievement. This is no different. Maybe what Andersson is doing on this song would be basic, ho-hum stuff to a metal drummer watching it. To me, it’s phenomenal.

But that’s only part of the attraction. That supernatural quality is enhanced in this clip by the eruptions of flame that occur throughout the video, as if ejected from the drum kit itself, and by the smoke that eventually enshrouds Andersson before ultimately clearing near the end. True Viking shit.

This gave me a giant [insert slang term for erect penis]. It fucking [insert verb] my [insert testicle reference]. I shot [insert semen idiom] all over my computer screen.  Video after the jump. Continue reading »

SUMMER SLAUGHTER HIGHLIGHTS (YEAH, IT’S ALL ABOUT FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE)

 Concert Reviews  28 Responses »
Jul 282011
 

On Tuesday of this week, my two NCS co-founders and I, plus other friends, attended the SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour stop in Seattle at a venue called The King Kat Theater. The doors opened at around 2:30 and the show went on until something like 11:30. I’d seen many of the bands before, the exceptions being Within the Ruins, Oceano, Powerglove, Six Feet Under — and the band I wanted to see most of all, Fleshgod Apocalypse.

When something is blatantly obvious, it’s best just to admit it. So yes, I admit, I’m a Fleshgod Apocalypse pimp. I’m talkin’ about the kind of BIG PIMPIN‘ that Jay-Z had in mind. I pimp FA at every fuckin’ opportunity I get here at NCS. So, it will come as no surprise that although I found something to like about most of the performances I saw, the highlight of the tour for me was FA’s set (followed closely by a skull-collapsing performance from Dying Fetus). I even got to meet three of the guys in FA and bore them with conversation after they played!

I also took a shitload of amateurish photos of FA’s performance, including the one up above and about two dozen more (the best of a sorry lot) that I’ve posted after the jump. But before getting to that, I have a few awards to hand out (also after the jump). And at the end, I’ve got a link to an audio stream that just appeared today for a new song from FA’s forthcoming album (it’s called “The Egoism”). Continue reading »

HEDONISM NEVER FELT SO GOOD

 Album Reviews, Phro's Posts  No Responses »
Jul 282011
 

(NCS guest contributor Phro returns to us for the second time this week, with another review.)

Okay, so my last review was all a big lie.  What, like you never played with imaginary friends before???  Anyway, this one isn’t.  So, pay attention and then go click the download link towards the middle.

Today, we’re looking at a Ukrainian band called Hedonistic Exility. Both their name and the fact that they’re from a Soviet bloc country are extremely cool to me.  And the fact that Encyclopaedia Metallum states that their lyrical content is “Hedonism, Nihilism, Misanthropy, Abstract themes” makes me just WANT to love this band.  The cover of their 2010 EP Deevolutional Stasis and their 2011 single PsychoTransNymphomania (both pictured below) are as fucking cool as they are…weird.

Honestly, I loved cyborg stuff a bit more than I should probably admit in public, so the Deevolutional Stasis album cover alone is enough to draw my attention.  But what about the music?  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SUN CAGED: “THE LOTUS EFFECT”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jul 282011
 

(NCS writer Israel Flanders is a reviewing machine these days. Here’s his latest, which concerns the new release by Sun Caged — The Lotus Effect.)

This album is as eccentric and beautiful as the cover.

Sun Caged is one of my favorite prog metal bands, stemming from the Dream Theater school of thought and doing it much MUCH (much) better. Hailing from the Netherlands, the band is a collection of really talented musicians, especially vocalist Paul Adrian Villarreal, guitarist/godlike shredder Marcel Coenen, and drummer Roel Van Helden. To repeat, this is one of my fav prog metal bands of all time and one that I feel is criminally overlooked. With that said, let’s get started…

Approaching a description of this album will be difficult, considering it’s such a journey. I mean, let’s look at the opener, “Seamripper (And The Blanket Statement)”. It opens with furious tremolo-oriented 8-string riffing and blast beats that would be found in a more extreme band, only to slip into a really catchy groove that sinks you into head-bobbing complacency. Almost immediately, it becomes apparent that Paul Adrian Villarreal has the most insane ear for superb vocal melodies. It’s easy to become absorbed in the passion of his voice and the seemless flow of his choice of notes over the instruments’ hypnotic groove, weaving in and out like a threaded needle through cloth. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

DICKS, BALLS, AND CUM

 IQ Subtraction  69 Responses »
Jul 272011
 

I paused in my daily labors for a quick skimming of posts on other metal blogs and was struck — for about the millionth time — by all the dick, testicle, and cum references. And I’m not talking about the comments. I’m talking about the posts themselves. Surely you know what I mean — references to the writer’s “nuts being crushed” by a song, or getting “a giant boner” from news about some album, or “jizzing” over the release of some album.

Hey, I have a dick as well as balls, and I have jizzed. However, to be brutally honest (which is the only kind of honest we know how to be at NCS), I have never experienced actual ball crushage, erection, or ejaculation from listening to music (even though, yes, we did have an NCS banner subheading recently that proclaimed, “I Think My Dixie Wrecked”). I know those kinds of references are just metaphors for pleasure, but why are they so fucking prominent in metal blogging?

I’m pretty sure most metal bloggers don’t sprinkle their daily conversations with references to their junk or how hard they cum, and I can’t imagine that most of them really get off on listening to other guys talk about their dicks. So why do those references litter so many blog posts? And am I the only one who stifles a yawn when I see them, over and over again? Is this kind of language just a crutch for people who are too lazy to come up with a more specific descriptions of music or their own reactions to it? Is it a reaction to sexual repression or involuntary abstinence? I dunno.

And what about female readers? Let’s consider that for a minute. (after the  jump . . .) Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: BOOKAKEE

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jul 272011
 

(NCS writer Israel Flanders reviews Invasion of the Depraved, the debut EP from Montreal’s Bookakee, and for a limited time, has arranged to give you a free download of the EP.)

Bookakee is a Canadian progressive tech-death band who’ve got quite an eccentric direction in their sound.  Throwing combinations of ideas into songs that just should not work, it amazes me that they pull it off.

The beginning song “A.A” opens up with a clean intro that sounds straight out of — dare I say — a Mastodon album. After it ushers you in, you’re hit by a blistering onslaught of technical melodic riffing. The production on this EP, as you’ll pick up right away, is INSANELY clean, with a superb degree of clarity.  This is so very much needed, as Bookakee’s music, especially their guitar work, is off the wall.  The song progresses into a VERY Death-like section before continuing on with its melodic onslaught.  There is a bit of a hit of Necrophagist in this song, but not so much that it feels at all like a ripoff.  I also love the clean section that emerges later in the song, adding a Spanish flavor.

“Bookakee Blast” opens up with an insanely fast sweep, moving into a bit more intense and less melodic onslaught compared to the previous song.  This one is full speed ahead and musically just all over the place. “Carcass Coffin” has a VERY nice, eerie clean opening that reminds me quite a bit of Whoracle-era In Flames; same goes for the distorted version that follows soon thereafter.  UNLEASH BRUTAL PLODDING RIFFAGE FOLLOWED BY TECH RAPE.  This song pretty much hits you like a sledge-hammer until the clean section, which gradually picks up speed and delivers a big climax. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

TALANAS: “THE WASPKEEPER”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 272011
 

(Andy Synn reviews a very impressive new album from the UK’s Talanas.)

Progressive is as progressive does. Arguably many of the more “progressive” bands, those who would consider themselves “prog” first and foremost, stopped actually progressing a long time ago, substituting length and embellishment for actual growth. Yet the true ideals of progressive music have long since bled into other genres, allowing them much more room to expand.

This leads us to the progressive form of death metal performed by the UK’s Talanas. Their immutable fusion of raging death-metal ferocity and moody, gothic melancholy – sprinkled with moments of blackened despair – echoes the eclectic, experimental sounds of Septic Flesh, the unerring power and passion of Novembers Doom and the gothic grandeur of My Dying Bride, yet breaks free of these restrictive comparisons with practiced ease. Their sound covers a wide spectrum of themes and emotions, confident and self-assured enough to explore deep layers of nuance and subtlety without ever losing sight of its ultimate goal or a sense of its own individual identity.

After a teasing intro, opener “Ananta (The Portrait)” leads with a scathing series of up-tempo guitars and aggressive growls, matching discordant splendour with haunting ambience. The vocals of Hal Sinden provide a variety of tones and styles, mid-range, broken-glass screams transforming effortlessly into smooth, mellifluous cleans, before delving into the depths of rumbling, guttural fury. Prominent keyboards and enigmatic clean guitars divert the song down unexpected paths, relying on the propulsive drums to maintain momentum as the song proceeds in a tormented, convoluted manner. (more after the jump, including some music . . .) Continue reading »

OPETH: “THE DEVIL’S ORCHARD”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Jul 262011
 

Not long ago, Stereogum premiered the first song to be released from Heritage, the next album from Opeth. It’s the album’s second track, following a piano-led intro. I haven’t tried to embed it, because I’m hurrying off to SUMMER SLAUGHTER, but HERE IS THE LINK to Stereogum, where you can listen. In fact, I’m in so much of a hurry that I haven’t heard this song either. Let me know what you think.

CATTLE CORE! (I’M UDDERLY ENTHRALLED)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jul 262011
 

A tip like this could only have come from our buddy Phro, and so it did. I believe it has made my day, even if SUMMER SLAUGHTER turns out to suck, which it won’t.

In a previous life, I used to work on a ranch. I have attended cattle auctions. I found them fascinating, not because I like to look at cows and bulls, which gets old pretty fast, but because of the auctioneers. If you’ve never heard an auctioneer going full-blast, you’re about to get your first exposure. If you’ve never heard an auctioneer going full-blast with demented speed metal for musical accompaniment, well, you’re about to hear that, too.

Who would think of such a thing? Why, none other than Hank3, a/k/a Hank Williams III. He has a new album scheduled for release on September 6 called 3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin. Actually, he has three albums scheduled for release that day, including Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown, a double disc of country tunes, and an album of doom metal by the name of Attention Deficient Domination. But it’s two tracks from 3 Bar Cattle Callin that have made my day.

I guaran-damn-tee you that you have never heard anything like this before. It takes metal craziness to a whole ‘nuther level. To quote from Jeanne Fury’s write-up on the DECIBEL web site, “it’s so deliriously nuts, it’ll singe your utters and have you reaching for the Bag Balm.” And to top it off, both songs are available for free download. Podna, you really owe it to yourself to stay with us past the jump and expose your delicate ears to this unique form of mayhem. Seriously, Phro and I can’t be the only NCS denizens screwy enough to find this appealing. Can we? Continue reading »

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