SÓLSTAFIR: “FJARA”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Oct 222011
 

About 10 days ago, I put up a post about the forthcoming album by this Icelandic band, which had then just started streaming on a Finnish metal site. I also featured one song from the album, which had simply floored me. That song drew an extremely positive response here at NCS. I just discovered that two days ago Sólstafir appeared on Icelandic television, with a live performance of another song from the album called “Fjara” (Icelandic for beach) and it’s now up on YouTube.

This is clearly fated to be an atypically mellow day at NCS, with that new Devin Townsend demo and that William Basinski track included in our last post. At least for the day, we may have to adopt Andy Synn’s tongue-in-cheek re-naming of the site: “No, Clean Singing!”

“Fjara” is a slow, doom-y, song that’s quite beautiful and, to me, quite arresting. Just like the first song I heard from this album, it made me stop, pay attention, become fully drawn into the music, and start playing it again as soon as it finished. I have no doubt it will follow me around like a ghost the rest of this day.

The black-and-white video really suits the music, too; you can tell that the band members were emotionally invested in this song to the hilt when they played it. Do check it out after the jump. Svartir Sandar is out now on Season of Mist. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could watch bands like this on American TV? Continue reading »

CATCHING UP

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Oct 222011
 

Because of work-related travel and longer hours than usual this week, I didn’t have time for my usual daily interhole browsing for metal news and new music. So I did that this morning, while listening to the last piece of music in this post. I found a half-dozen items that I thought were well worth sharing, and they’re collected in this post. Almost all of them are new videos, and there’s tremendous diversity in the music. The subjects are Vallenfyre, King Conquer, Devin Townsend (with a new song), Shining, Decapitated, and finally, William Basinski.

And yeah, the meerkats are still secretly controlling the world, according to the NCS lorises. They think they’ve identified the kingpin. I don’t buy this nonsense for a minute, of course, because, really, this one looks way too young to be the kingpin.

VALLENFYRE

In our continuing coverage of Vallenfyre (UK) and their forthcoming album, The Fragile King (due for release on Oct 31 in Europe and Nov 1 in North America), I found a video preview that surfaced yesterday on Metal Injection. It was filmed during the making of a music video for a song from the album called “Cathedrals of Dread” and features comments from each of the band’s members about how this “supergroup” came together and about the genesis of the music. It also includes snippets of the song, which provide further confirmation (though none is needed here) that this album will be a must-hear release.

Our most recent previous posts about Vallenfyre can be found here and here. The video preview is right after the jump. Continue reading »

REVISITING THE CLASSICS: DEVASTATION’S “IDOLATRY”

 Album Reviews  40 Responses »
Oct 222011
 

(Here’s yet another Revisiting the Classics piece by TheMadIsraeli.)

I know. Another thrash album. Tell me it’s not your thing all you want, but this genre is still the shit AND I THINK YOU GUYS MIGHT ACTUALLY DIG THIS ONE, as it has a bit of a death-thrash vibe going on.

Devastation were, and are, one of my favorite cult bands from the late 80’s/early 90’s. They combined death metal ferocity and riffing with the speed and technicality of thrash metal, and it is all too unfortunate that they released their masterpiece in the form of Idolatry at the wrong time. Released in 1991, this album, full of speed and brutality, hit just as a groove-focused surge was starting to take over in heavy music.  This album had no realistic chance of getting anywhere, and really, it didn’t, but solely because of the musical landscape of the time period surrounding it.

Let it be known, though, that this album is just utter chaos. The riffs are atonal, dissonant, frightening, and full of fury. The vocals are as well, vocalist Rodney Dunsmore delivering a Chuck Schuldiner-esque howl that foams at the mouth and gnashes with blood-hungry fangs. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

FUCK YOUR POWER TRIP

 Concert Reviews  16 Responses »
Oct 212011
 

I just wanted to use my favorite word in a post title today. Actually, that’s only part of the reason for this. The other part is that I saw Chimaira last night, headlining a show in Seattle that included Impending Doom and Revocation. Chimaira played “Power Trip” and about 10 other songs.

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/04-Power-Trip-Album-Version.mp3|titles=Chimaira – Power Trip (Album Version)]

After full audio immersion in the music of those three bands, my neck muscles were so destroyed when I woke up this morning that I had to strap on the custom-designed NCS neck brace, the one with the heated gel packs on the inside and the drinking straw attached to a pouch of chilled Stoli.

Chimaira had the strobe lights flashing and the smoke machine pumping and Sean Z (Daath) on keyboards, carpet-bombing the crowd with more bass drops than I’ve ever heard before and growling backing vox, and it was fucking glorious. A packed crowd on the floor was in non-stop mosh mode, and the Chimaira dudes looked like they were having the time of their lives on stage. And speaking of glorious . . . Continue reading »

WE BLOW THE COVER OFF PHRO’S SECRET LIFE! LOUTALLICA, BABY!

 IQ Subtraction  16 Responses »
Oct 212011
 

You may think that NCS contributor Phro is an American ex-pat living in Japan and splitting his time between teaching English to Japanese and presiding over a vast tentacle-porn industry, but that’s all just a cover. And we’re tired of covering for him. Time to out Phro. Time to reveal THE TRUTH: Phro is a lyricist for Lou Reed and Metallica.

You doubt THE TRUTH? Well, who else could have penned these immortal lyrics from “Pumping Blood” by the infernal collaboration of Lou Reed and Metallica:

“Tied up in leather
Would you take the measure
Of the blood that I pump”

“If I waggle my ass like a dark prostitute
Would you think less of me”

“I will swallow your sharpest cutter
Like a colored man’s dick”

To see all of Phro’s moving lyrics to this tender ode, go past the jump. (If only the music were as good as the words. Actually, to be brutally honest, I know nothing about the music to this song. I would rather have a colonoscopy without anesthesia or shove hot needles up my nose than listen to this song.) Continue reading »

MORS SUBITA: “HUMAN WASTE COMPRESSION”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Oct 212011
 

For a band I like as much as Finland’s Mors Subita, I’m inexcusably late in reviewing their debut album Human Waste Compression. I’ve been listening to it off and on since long before the September 21 official release by Violent Journey Records, and it hasn’t worn out its welcome.

The band’s winning formula combines elements of thrash, groove, and Bodom-style melodic death metal. The music moves like a racehorse burning up the track, with slamming beats, frenetic riffs, and swarming guitar solos. Antti Haapsamo snarls like a really pissed-off bobcat, backed by bear-like roars. Put all that together and you get 11 tracks of modern metal that are electrifying and head-whipping.

The musicians can all really fly, the guitars and the heavy metallic sound of the bass generating rapid, jabbing pulses, their rhythms working seamlessly with the heavy artillery blasting away from the vicinity of the drum-kit. The rhythms have a pneumatic, almost industrial quality to them. The band also benefit from a talent for creating short melodic choruses via the lead guitar (or through dual-guitar harmonies) that are catchy and invariably will get your foot tapping and your head nodding. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BLOTTED SCIENCE: “CRETACEOUS CHASM”

 Uncategorized  3 Responses »
Oct 212011
 

If this doesn’t make your whole damn week, well then you’ve had a stupendously sucky week. Fuck, this may make your whole damn month.

A scant 10 days ago, first-time NCS guest contributor The Baby Killer gave us his review of the new album by the wonderfully inventive and technically mesmerizing Blotted Science. The album is called The Animation of Entomology. Before it came out, guitarist Ron Jarzombek was reported as saying:

““As many of you know, all 24-plus minutes of the EP are a musical score to some type of bug movies. We will reveal the first one at my YouTube channel next Friday [Oct 14]. We’ll miss Friday the 13th by one day, but hopefully this viewing will be creepy enough for you. And so until the video appears, enjoy the audio. I realize that it all may be beyond wacky at this point, but it all will soon make perfect sense.”

Well, the first clip has now been released. Whatever you may think of the 2005 remake of King Kong, starring Jack Black and Adrien Brody, it was worth every penny because it has furnished the video accompaniment to a Blotted Science song called “Cretaceous Chasm”.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

VISCERAL DISGORGE: “NECROCOPROPHAGIA”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  27 Responses »
Oct 202011
 

I’m sitting in an airport, waiting on a plane, with a few minutes to kill. Just a few minutes, though. Just long enough to kill you with a song while I kill time.

The band is Visceral Disgorge, from Baltimore, Maryland. They released a debut album over the summer called Ingesting Putridity. Can you guess what the music will sound like, based on these clues: the name of the band; the name of the album; and the album cover? Here’s one more clue: The name of the song is “Necrocoprophagia”.

Let’s break that song title down: “Necro” is a Greek prefix meaning “death”. Copro is a prefix derived from the Greek word kopros, meaning “dung”. “Phagia” is a suffix, also derived from the Greek, which refers to the eating of a specified substance. “Coprophagia” means the eating of dung. Therefore, “necrocoprophagia” must mean eating the shit of the dead.

Do you have enough clues? If you guessed that this band plays brutal death metal, you would be correct. If you guessed that the music is the shit, you would also be correct, because it is. This band pulverizes, but they do it with flare and groove. Very, very nice.

This song, by the way, will be featured in the October edition of SickDrummer magazine and CD compilation. Go past the jump and let it kill you. My plane is boarding. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS: PLAGUE OF ASHITAKA

 Eye-Catchers  3 Responses »
Oct 202011
 


Yours truly hasn’t been posting much the last couple of days. The old fucking day job has unexpectedly had me traveling again and working nearly around the clock. Today won’t be much different — I’ll be on an airplane for about 6 hours going home.  So, this may be the last post until much, much later today. I’ve got a lot of stuff in mind for future posts, just no time to get them done. Tomorrow should be more back to normal.

So, this will be really fast. TheMadIsraeli sent me a link to a new video by an un-signed band from Brighton, England called Plague of Ashitaka. But I also saw the cover art for their new EP, which they call “Part I” of a new album, and this “part” is called Elder Luminaries. It’s by Richey Beckett, and it’s an eye-catcher for sure.

The song featured in the video is “Onyx Scroll”. It’s satisfyingly fast, vehement, and technically proficient. It’s got some -core elements, too, which either will or won’t appeal to you depending on your tastes. I enjoyed it.

The band’s Facebook page is here. The EP will be for sale here, but doesn’t yet appear to be available. Check out the video following the jump. Continue reading »

TRE WATSON – DOUBLE REVIEW

 Uncategorized  1 Response »
Oct 202011
 


My good friend Tre Watson is a very busy man who’s up to pretty much everything you can imagine in the world of music.  He’s either recording and producing someone else, writing and recording his own music, or playing with his band Carthage.  I’m reviewing not only the debut EP of Carthage, but also Tre’s recent solo EP called Gravestones.

Carthage plays a style of less-is-more and simple-is-best deathcore with “a little of everything” thrown in, as he put it.  This is pretty accurate, as the music has very small doses of thrash, melodeath, traditional hardcore, and death metal thrown into the mix to keep it varied despite the music’s simplistic approach.

Listening to the EP is like getting smashed over the head with boulders repeatedly.  There is undeniable, consistent groove here, combined with moments of melodeath riffing, deathcore and djent syncopated chugs, tremolo riffing, and badass lead-work everywhere.  I really like what’s going on here — it’s worth checking out.  It’s only a tiny bit underdeveloped, but that’s to be expected with even the best of first EP’s.  The potential is bursting at the seams.  You can stream the entire EP at Bandcamp, or right here at NCS after the jump. Continue reading »

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