MOURNING CARESS / GODSIC / LANDMINE MARATHON

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Jul 262011
 

While continuing with my increasingly pathetic attempt to catch up on reviews and other NCS projects that fell by the wayside while I was away from home over the last two weeks — and relying in the meantime on people like Israel, Andy, and Phro to do the heavy lifting around here — I continue to be distracted by the lure of new music. And “lure” is exactly the right word, because I often feel like a stupid fish that can’t resist impaling myself on a barbed hook because there’s something tasty-looking attached to it, instead of doing something productive like . . . uh . . . eating or procreating.

This morning, the lures dangling in front of my wondering, gap-mouthed face came attached with the names Mourning Caress and Godsic. These were new names to me, but I took the bait anyway, and am now trying to get the fucking hooks out of my gills. Why, I asked myself, should I be the only fish in the NCS sea to greedily chomp down on these razored morsels of distraction? Unable to think of any good reason, I’m serving them up to you, too.

Both bands have new albums on the way, of course, which is why they’ve lowered these new songs into the water . . . hoping to hook some fan-fish and lift them, flopping and gasping, into their skiffs for later consumption. Mourning Caress is from Germany, and their third album, Deep Wounds, Bright Scars (a title that aptly suits my now-overdone metaphor for this post) is tentatively scheduled for release in November on MDD Records. The new song I heard is called “Panic”.

Godsic is a new band from Sweden composed of former members of Construcdead and current members of Carnal Forge. They’ve created a debut album called As the Heavens Burn, with the objective of releasing it this fall once they’ve lured a label into signing them. To date, they’ve released two songs for streaming — “Scars Inside” and “Premeditation” (which features yet another Carnal Forge member, Petri Kuusisto, as a guest on lead guitar). I like the alluring cover art, so I stuck it at the top of this post.

Of course, I like what I’m hearing from both bands, or I wouldn’t be bothering with this post. Can I lure you into nibbling around these hooks after the jump? And at the end, you can see the just-released cover art for the next album by one of our favorite bands — Landmine Marathon. Continue reading »

BLINK AND YOU’LL MISS IT!

 Album Reviews, Phro's Posts  23 Responses »
Jul 262011
 

(Phro claims he lives in Japan, but I’m beginning to suspect that he’s beaming these posts in from another planet. I don’t even know why I bother with an introduction any more. If you don’t recognize this prose by now, you need to be beaten with a tentacle flail.)

Let me start this with a confession.  It’s difficult to say or even admit to myself, but like a cocaine mule with a colon full of ruptured condom coke I must admit it or I’ll never get the help I clearly need.

My name is Phro, and I like Blink 182.

Alright, alright, quiet down and put that fucking garrote away.  I know you sick fuckers have your problems, too.  (Like snorting dried octopus mucus out of a crackwhore`s bloody anus.)  Granted, that’s not nearly as serious of an offense, but come on, cut a guy some slack.

Now, you’re probably wondering why in the name of swollen donkey dick I’m telling you this.  Well, in addition to wanting to get the weight off my chest, I have gotten the most ultimate of scoops.  This was something that I couldn’t tell anyone I was doing until it was done–not even I.S. Lander, the super secret spy deep in the confines of enemy territory. (He does Brittany Spears impersonations to maintain his cover.)  BUT!  Against all odds, I managed to break into the Blink 182 top secret compound and steal the master tracks for their new album.  Not only that, but I was able to kidnap one of them and use truth serum and a completely inappropriate amount of sexual blackmail to get some answers from him.  Therefore what follows is a completely accurate review of their newest album, as well as some choice commentary on the recording process.

I realize you`re probably about to click the back button and go read something with more tits (like pig porn…sows have like 12 nipples!!  fucking awesome!) or at least more metal (like watching the T1000 manually masturbate a tank).  BUT DON`T DO IT!!! Continue reading »

BLOODSOAKED: “THE DEATH OF HOPE”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Jul 262011
 

(NCS writer Israel Flanders delivers a review of the latest release from Bloodsoaked, beginning with this…)

Yeah.  Bow down.  It’s time for the new Bloodsoaked album The Death Of Hope.

Bloodsoaked is a one-man death metal project who’s put out two albums before this one.  If you are at all familiar with Peter Hassalbrack, then you know what to expect: Crushing, old school, grimy death metal that maintains a FINE balance of trudge and speed.  The first thing you will notice right away, however, is that the man has changed his vocal style from his forceful gutturals of the past to a more old-school rasp that really suits what’s going on here.

The album opens with the imperial trudging might of “Lies”, with a slam that’s got the heft of a mammoth.  Peter here works THE EXACT SAME MELODY for two minutes, spinning variations of the riff and managing to keep it interesting the entire time.  Really badass stuff.

Next is “Forever Damned”, which is an under-2-minute onslaught of blast beats and sharp tremolo riffing that hits with flesh-ripping ferocity.  “Infestation” strikes with a furious blasting assault until it transitions into an ABSOLUTLEY DEVASTATING groove that should make you bust your head on the nearest hard surface.  The verse of this song reminds me a lot of Human-era Death.  A welcome influence to be heard.  I like how the song switches between the mid-paced verse riff and the behemoth-sized slamming groove established at the beginning.  Gives it a nice jarring feel, and LOTS of that technical blast-beat action cuts through your skull like a buzz-saw from hell itself. (more after the jump, including a full album stream . . .) Continue reading »

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE FULL-ALBUM PREVIEWS NOW AVAILABLE; SEE NCS BANNER SUBHEADING

 Metal News  42 Responses »
Jul 252011
 

Let’s see, this makes today’s fifth post, so it will be brief. You can now go to iTunes (at least in the U.S.) and hear 1:30 previews of each song on the new album (Agony) from Fleshgod Apocalypse. Yes, a minute and a half from each track, including the iTunes bonus track called “Heartwork”.

For the world at large, less than two weeks remain before the arrival of the official August 9 album release date. I, on the other hand, am now less than 24 hours away from getting my very own physical copy, because FA is selling these little jewels at their SUMMER SLAUGHTER merch table, and SUMMER SLAUGHTER will be in Seattle tomorrow, and I will be there.

It’s a good thing I am being brief, because brevity prevents me from becoming even more obnoxious.

P.S. For those of you who have been wading through all my many posts today from the beginning, you might be interested to see this comment left by a fan of Blastanus on the band’s Facebook page about our review of the new album: “naulan kantaan, vitun hyvä lätty :)”  Not understanding Finnish, I used Google Translate, which provided this rendition of the comment in English: “nail on the head, fucking good pancake :)”

P.P.S. The chance to write a headline like this doesn’t come around very often, but some lucky bastard at Blabbermouth penned this one a few minutes ago: “MEGADETH’S ELLEFSON: ‘I Miss Physically Being Able To Hold A 12-Inch In My Hand'”. And no, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the accompanying video interview to find out what he was talking about. Laughing too hard.

ART, AND A SONG

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Jul 252011
 

Two new works of album art caught my eye today, and I thought I’d pass them around. Also, a bit earlier  this afternoon a song began streaming from a band about which I’ve been very curious, because it includes ex-In Flames guitarist and band co-founder Jesper Strömblad, plus veterans of many other bands. So we’ll finish off this post by listening to that song from The Resistance. Evil corporate overlords have forced the removal of that Mastodon song we posted earlier today, so we have to replace it with something, right?

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM

The first piece of album art disclosed today is the cover for Celestial Lineage, the fourth album from Washington’s own Wolves in the Throne Room. The album by these American black metal heavyweights will be released on September 13 by Southern Lord Records. The artwork was created by photographic artist Alison Scarpulla. In concept, it joins the album with its two predecessors, Two Hunters and Black Cascade.

Don’t let the natural setting of the cover image fool you, though. Although WITTR’s music is inspired by mystical thought and by the unique natural setting of the Pacific Northwest, I think it’s safe to assume this won’t be the kind of music embraced by your average plaid-shirted tree-hugger. Expect a flood-tide of eviscerating power.

After the jump, we’ve got the track listing as well as tour dates for WITTR, plus a striking Travis Smith album cover for the latest offering from a band called Redemption — plus that song. Continue reading »

THE SOUND OF A BLACK TONGUE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Jul 252011
 

I BURNED OUT MY EYES / I CUT OFF MY TONGUE
I SEALED THEM WITH ALL OF THE SILVER
AND NOW I HAVE NONE /YOU KILLED THE LIFE
YOU TOOK THE DIAMOND / YOU KILLED THE VINE
DEATH OF THE…
YOU OWN THE DARKNESS / AND TAKEN MY SIGHT
YOU BURIED THE STARS UNDERGROUND
YOU’VE STOLEN THE NIGHT
YOU CAN RUN TO THE SEA / YOU CAN RUN TO THE FOREST
YOU CAN HIDE / BUT YOU’LL NEVER ESCAPE

Up above? Those are the lyrics to “Black Tongue”, a song from Mastodon‘s new album, The Hunter. And just below is the song itself, which was copied earlier today from a radio stream and spread like wildfire around the web. According to Mastodon’s Facebook page, more about the album (including more music?) was to be revealed at www.mastodonrocks.com at about 9:00 PST tonight. And sho’ nuff — now we have an actual official Mastodon video for “Black Tongue”:

TWO NEWS ITEMS ABOUT MESHUGGAH AND ENSLAVED, AND TWO SONGS TO HEAR WHILE YOU MOPE ABOUT THE FACT THAT WE DON’T HAVE ANY NEW MESHUGGAH OR ENSLAVED MUSIC TO ACCOMPANY THE NEWS ITEMS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jul 252011
 

I have this compulsion to deliver music in our posts. Possibly it derives from a subconscious insecurity about my writing, but at least I tell myself that it’s because this is a music blog, and so there should be music. All the fucking time. This is why we so rarely post about news items that we can’t accompany with the music that’s the subject of the news. But this time, I’m making an exception, because the bands are pretty damned special: Meshuggah and Enslaved.

On the other hand, I can’t get rid of that compulsion, so I’m throwing in some music, too. The songs aren’t from Meshuggah or Enslaved (sigh), but they’re new and they’re good, so there’s that. The first track is from the new album by Cipher System (Sweden), and you can download it for free if you like what you hear. The fetching album cover by Seth Siro Anton (Septic Flesh) is up above. The second song is from another Swedish band, Apostasy.

MESHUGGAH

Guitar World magazine recently conducted an interview with Meshuggah guitarist extraordinaire Fredrik Thordendal. When asked about whether Meshuggah has been working on new music and if he has any new gear he is using, he said, “Yes, we are working on a new album and have been for a long time. I’m so excited about this one. We’ve always tried to change how we write songs to keep it exciting, but on recent albums we’ve also been moving further away from working together as a band. On this album, though, everyone is working together. Every day that we’re in the studio, we’ll play whatever song we’re working on, record a demo version of it to analyze at home, and then come back the next day, talk about it and try to make it better. I think because of this, it’s going to be our best album yet.” (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BLASTANUS: “COLLAPSE”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jul 252011
 

In an album that throws a surprising number of curveballs and knee-buckling change-ups into a normally steady stream of death-grind heaters, Finland’s Blastanus saves the biggest surprise of all to the final track. I’m still looking for my jaw, which dropped off at about the 2:20 mark of that last song, which happens to be the title track from the band’s just-released second album, Collapse. And when I say just-released, I really mean just released — because we’re premiering it as a free download right here at the end of this post.

You’d be forgiven if you jumped to some incorrect conclusions from this band’s name. But the music is no iwrestledabearonce kind of goof-fest. It’s definitely a fest, or a feast, but what’s doing the eating is a mixed horde of banshees and staggering, zombified ghouls, and what’s on the menu is your brain. When the consumption is finished at the end of that 11th track, the inside of your skull will be nice and pristine, scoured clean, waiting for something dark and fanged to take up residence. It’s up to you whether you’ll feel like re-attaching your jawbone.

This is our second visit with Blastanus, the first coming in March 2010 after the band ushered forth their debut album, Odd. The band allowed us to make that album available for free download, too, and the download link accompanying our review is still active. Comparisons are unavoidable. The first album held much promise, and I wondered to what degree the band would realize on it in this second offering. Happily, I’m here to report that with Collapse, Blastanus have taken big strides forward from their debut, revealing not only an upgrade in production quality but also leaps ahead in songwriting assurance and instrumental command. Continue reading »

SUNDAY SHARING

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  34 Responses »
Jul 242011
 

Slowed down by two weeks of work-related travel, I’m now in the middle of a bunch of catch-up projects for NCS, none of which are finished. So what have I been doing this morning? In typically ass-backwards fashion, I’ve been listening to a bunch of random tracks thrown my way by NCS contributors and readers.

I have no idea whether this goes on in other genres of music, but one of the great things about metal is how people pass around tracks they’ve discovered (thank you, YouTube). We’ve all got bands we love and follow, and the bands we like are collectively cranking out music at a torrential pace, almost beyond our ability to consume, but we still want to find new music from new bands. Of course, that’s a big part of our mission here — to pass around what we’re hearing and liking.

So, this is a really random collection of stuff I heard just this morning, courtesy of the people whose names I’ll credit as we get to each song. And the line-up is . . . Jamey Jasta (U.S.), M.A.N. (Sweden), Barghest (U.S.), Haemorrhage (Spain), and Sifar (India). Lots of music all across the map of metal genres (actually, Sifar is right off the map), so I’ll keep the verbiage short.

JAMEY JASTA

Yes, that Jamey Jasta — Hatebreed, Kingdom of Sorrow, Icepick, and who knows what else. To be honest, I lost interest in Hatebreed a while back (though I used to be a big fan in their early days), and I didn’t find much to like in Kingdom of Sorrow’s albums, so I was going to take a pass on Jasta’s solo album, which is scheduled for release this week. But NCS writer Israel Flanders told me I really needed to give this solo album a chance.

I’ve listened to three songs that Israel recommended, and I gotta say I’m very pleasantly surprised. There’s some quasi-clean singing on the songs that’s quite good, though that wouldn’t be a big attraction for me. The big attraction is that the songs are HEAVY AS FUCK, and include some seriously headbangable riffs. So, I’ll tell you what Israel told me — give this shit a chance. The song I liked the most follows right after the jump. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: KRALLICE COVERS ORPHAN

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jul 242011
 

Orphan was a two-person sludge-punk band from Brooklyn consisting of drummer Speck Brown and bassist Brendan Majewski. Last year they released an album called Decapitated Lovers, and early this year a split with Dope Body to which they contributed four songs. In January, Majewski took his own life at the age of 37 (you can find an obituary here). In April, a group of New York bands played a show at Brooklyn’s Union Pool in honor of Majewski’s life that included covers of Orphan’s music (reviewed by Brooklyn Vegan here). One of those bands was Krallice.

In our humble opinion, Krallice’s 2011 release Diotima has been one of the brightest musical spots of this half-done year. You can read NCS contributor BadWolf’s eloquent thoughts about the album via this link. Suffice to say that Krallice is in the vanguard of U.S. bands who are re-imagining black metal, melding a high level of instrumental skill with innovative songwriting to produce some truly striking music.

Now, Krallice have followed Diotima by releasing a three-song EP — Orphan of Sickness — consisting entirely of Orphan covers, and they’ve made it available for free download. There are actually two download versions available. One consists of mp3’s and a second includes the same songs in the CD-quality AIFF-C format (though you’ll have to sacrifice 150 MB of disk space if you want that version).

The EP’s title was well-chosen, because the songs have an air of rampaging sickness — a flashfire viral contagion that cuts you down like a scythe through mature wheat. I’m totally decapitated by the instrumental vehemence of these three songs. (more after the jump, including a stream of the music . . .) Continue reading »

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