NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND

 IQ Subtraction, Phro's Posts  19 Responses »
Aug 092011
 

(I intended to write my own review of the inaugural show of THE FUCKING GOOD PANCAKE TOUR, but I was blinded by a money shot from one of the Cephalopodic Sperm Packets’ Super Soakers and spent the rest of the show in the ER of the Humptulips Trauma Unit as medics used a cornucopia of solvents trying to remove sticky white stuff from my corneas. Fortunately, Phro was on hand and provided this report.)

As the lights dimmed in the crowded VFW hall of Humptulips, Washington, the throng of metalheads reached maximum thronginess.  It was like being trapped inside of grandma’s underwear right after a healthy dose of Mexican food.  Definitely a place you wanted to be, but still not entirely comfortable.  I even got some smelly splooge on me, though I have no idea where it came from…

Anyway, doors opened at 5:30, but when I got there at 4:00, there was already a 200-yard long line.  Lorises in full black-metal regalia darted in and out of the line, supplying patrons with food, drinks, assorted tour memorabilia and pee/poop bottles.  I noted down a memo to myself to ask Mr. Lander what he did with all the waste material, but I ended up finding the answer out later during the show.  But more about your mother’s fat ass later!  Zing!  (No, but really, what did you do with all that filth, Mr. Lander?)

The doors, amazingly enough, actually DID open at 5:30, and the hall was filled to capacity by 5:45, with nary a soul bitching about not being able to see.  It was like I’d died and gone to heaven!  But there weren’t any naked Valkyries with tentacles, leather wings and dildo swords, so we’ll just assume it was nothing more than a masterfully planned show.  (much more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MORS SUBITA PUTS ANOTHER HOLE IN MY HEAD (AND A SMILE ON MY FACE)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Aug 082011
 

We stumbled across a terrific unsigned Finnish band called Mors Subita at the end of May. They had just released an official video for a song called “The Sermon” from their debut album (then unreleased) called Human Waste Compression. I was so damned taken prisoner by the song that I immediately posted about it (here).

Turns out that I wasn’t the only one taken by the music. This morning, Violent Journey Records announced the signing of Mors Subita and an official release date for Human Waste Compression: September 21. I have to admit, it was cool to see words from our earlier post quoted in the Violent Journey release. But I would have been very happy for these dudes anyway.

As icing on all this good pancake, I also discovered that last Friday the band released an official video for a second song from the new album, called “Burden”. I like the song as much, maybe even more, than “The Sermon”. It’s yet another heavy-grooved blast of compulsive rhythms and catchy melody that punched another hole right through my head. It was really fucken tough to resist headbanging, but I was afraid something would come out through the holes if I did.

Check out Mors Subita’s latest sonic missile after the jump, and start counting the days until Sept 21. Suomi perkele! Continue reading »

COMMUNIC: “THE BOTTOM DEEP”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 082011
 

(Andy Synn follows his SYNN REPORT on the discography of Norway’s Communic (located here) with this review of the band’s brand new album.)

After several listens, my impression is that The Bottom Deep is an overall darker affair than we have seen before from Communic. The progression from Payment Of Existence has seen the group shift their focus slightly from their characteristically expressive melodic nuances to a pressurised, gloomier form of morose and self-absorbed introspection. The songs have a doom-laden vibe that matches the enigmatic concept which underpins the record. The ever-present and insidious synths have taken on a far darker tone, working for the band as yet another tool with which they can mine the rich seam of deep-seated personal tragedy which fits the conceptually-bound constraints of the album perfectly.

“Facing Tomorrow” begins the record in striking style, inflicting heavy damage with a wall of guitars that bears remorselessly down upon the listener from the off. Cryptic and convoluted, the song bulges at the seams with ferocious metallic power, the sheer meatiness of the guitar tone giving every power-house riff and nimble scattering of lead notes a sense of prodigious potency that, coupled with Tor Atle Andersen’s display of manic, multi-limbed drumming, provides each song with a dense, unshakeable foundation.

Singer Oddleif Stensland has altered his vocal style subtly, delivering his abstract lyrics with a more resonant croon, deeper and more constrained than before. His grittier delivery adds another string to his bow, not yet as strong as his traditional mode of singing, but showcasing the man attempting to grow and develop the use of his instrument further. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SLYTRACT: “EXISTING UNREAL”

 Album Reviews  35 Responses »
Aug 082011
 

Slytract is a three-man band from Hungary whose new album (their second) is one of the most pleasant discoveries I’ve made this year. I gather from my reading that their 2008 debut, Explanation: Unknown, was a raw mix of thrash and death metal, but the new release, Existing Unreal (which will become available on August 26), stands four-square in the territory of hi-octane melodic death metal, and man, is it an accomplished planting of the flag in that territory.

There are no ho-hum songs on this album — I thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. Because of the mature song construction and the band’s facility in the creation of distinctive melody and rhythm, I looked forward to each track on the third and fourth listens as much as on the first. Though there’s continuity in the band’s stylistic identity from the record’s beginning to its end, most reminiscent to me of the almighty Insomnium (except with more pedal-to-the-floor pacing), each song has its own personality.

In its execution, what makes Existing Unreal a cut above the average MDM offering comes down to one person — Gábor B. Melegh. He provides most of the vocals and he’s the band’s sole studio guitarist (Gyula Czeglédi is the second guitarist when the band plays live). Vocals first: He sounds like Amon Amarth’s Johan Hegg, which means that no matter how high-flying or approachable the melodies may become, the songs have a counter-balancing bestial edge that will scare away all the hipsters and casual metal dabblers, which is just fucking fine by me. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

GUILT ASSUAGEMENT

 IQ Subtraction  34 Responses »
Aug 072011
 

OK, yes, I feel like a dick. There is no actual NCS tour (at least not yet), merely my own hair-brained idea of humor. I could have just put up that spoof post today with no advance teasing, and everyone would have seen it for what it was, eventually, and maybe gotten a chuckle or two out of it. But no, I had to be a dick and put up a facebook status hinting that we would have news today of a tour sponsorship.

And that led to lots of heartwarming “likes” and comments and e-mail messages from people who thought this would be real and were genuinely excited and happy for us that we were sponsoring a tour. Fuck. I should have known.

So I’ve been feeling guilty over the last 48 hours over my dickishness. Guilt, for me, is a powerful motivator, and so I’ve been thinking of how I could assuage my guilty feelings. I came up with this idea, which does make me feel better, though “dickwad” may still remain my new name in the minds of many.

We are going to create and give away 100 black t-shirts with the fake tour poster you see up above on the front of the shirt (and a big thank-you to Dan Arena of Dormition Designs, the poster’s creator, for permission to do this). Yes, I said give away — we’re even paying the shipping charges. Details about how to get one of the shirts follows the jump. Continue reading »

WE SPONSOR OUR FIRST TOUR! GET EXCITE!

 IQ Subtraction, Metal News  22 Responses »
Aug 072011
 

Here’s the news you’ve all been waiting for . . .

Sponsoring tours is old hat to big-boy metal sites like MetalSucks, but it’s a dream come true for us. We are so fucking proud to announce the first-ever NCS-sponsored nationwide metal tour, which kicks off on September 1 — and man, have we lined up some radical acts for this baby. It’s like a dream line-up for us, headlined by the awesome, penetrating extremity that is Massive Wall of Penis.

Some of these names may not be as familiar to you as MWOP, but trust us, from top to bottom, this bill is as strong as a big, stiff . . . uh . . . thing of stiffness. We’ve got those masters of old-school Swe-death, Thor’s Uterus. We’ve got the dominatrix-fronted grind of Trollcock Fetish. We’ve got the tentacle-metal of Raging Hectocotylus (the actual multi-orifice penetration on stage is not to be missed).

And let’s not forget about the brutal death metal served up by the inimitable Putrid Fugue, who refuse to bathe beginning a month before a tour starts until a month after it ends and eat nothing but cold canned chili on the road. Fans have been known to faint from the stench when these dudes take the stage!

We’ve also got that demented Pink Floyd cover band, Dildo Resin. If you haven’t heard their tech-death take on “Dark Side of the Moon”, you’re in for a fucken treat. And to get these shows off on the right foot, we’ve scored Cephalopodic Sperm Packets as the opening act, with their namesake fluid sound of dank, sticky, Neurosis-style sludge and their projectile fluid canisters to get the moshpit good and lubed up for the remaining acts.

Trust us, this tour will blow your shit away. Check the schedule after the jump to find the tour stop nearest you. Continue reading »

ALIASES: “SAFER THAN REALITY”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 072011
 

(Israel continues to pump out the reviews. Here’s his take on the latest from UK tech-metallers Aliases.)

I love SikTh. I don’t think any band is ever going to be able to recapture the sense of quirkiness and eccentricity they had in their unique sound. People have been waiting for them to reform. It hasn’t happened YET, and I’m more or less reconciled to it never happening. So now what?

Well… one of the masterminds, if not THE mastermind, behind SikTh, guitarist Graham “Pin” Pinney, has formed a new project by the name of Aliases. What is Aliases you ask? The initial reaction would be, most definitely, to brand them as djent, although this isn’t entirely fair. Graham’s signature style of guitar playing is indeed on display here, but the man has obviously evolved beyond his initial roots in SikTh to something, dare I say, more sophisticated.

Aliases is comprised of guitarists Graham and Leah Woodward, Jay Berast on vocals, Darren Pugh on drums, and Joe Heaton on bass. All are extremely proficient at what they do, all definitely in it to win it. So the question is, just how good is the music found on Aliases’ debut, Safer Than Reality?

What do you think? (hold that thought until you see what comes right after the jump) Continue reading »

DRINK WITH THE LIVING DEAD!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Aug 062011
 

A big thank-you to the lovely Fireangel from the wonderful Finland-based Night Elves blog for her e-mail alerting me to this serving of Saturday awesomeness-ness.

Ghoultown is a Texas-based “hellbilly” band whose music is a metal-tinged, ghoul-themed amalgam of cowpunk and rockabilly. I don’t claim to be an expert on the band’s lengthy discography, but I do like the catchy bit of cautionary storytelling embodied in their song “Drink With the Living Dead”, which appears on the Life After Sundown album. And I especially like the brand new animated video produced for the song.

The artwork in the video was entirely created by Finnish artist Juha Vuorma, who is both a comic-book artist and a creator of album covers, including the art for the first three Kalmah albums as well as covers for records by Usurper and Altars of Destruction, among others. The video’s storyline (and the song) were written by Ghoultown frontman Count Lyle, and the final animation and directing for the video were completed by LA-based Laume Conroy.

Regardless of whether the music sounds like your kinda thing, the video is absolutely worth watching. After the jump, I’ve got a few more thoughts and then the video. Continue reading »

THE BYSTANDER CHRONICLER: SE7EN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 062011
 

(NCS contributor Siddharth Darbha has become The Bystander Chronicler . . .)

INTRODUCTION

Back at the Man Cave, a.k.a., NCS HQ, we were doing the usual shit; plumbing, repairing cars and teaching Don Draper how to drink Scotch. Somewhere between the overdose of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine and the disproportionate ratio of LSD in our jam toast, a flash of light told us we have to feature seven bands that haven’t appeared on NCS yet, and pretty much blur the sense of reality we create for ourselves. We followed to the word. We are weak at math, but added roman numerals to compensate.

Most of the artists here don’t give a fuck about being metal enough. You have been warned. Also, somehow, through the alignment of all the planets from the CQ34R system, all except the first turn out to be instrumental bands, fitting nicely into our basic rule welded into the URL itself. Why did we chose these artists? We fear most of you are turning into serial necropedophilic rapists, and we need to calm you down. *Hypercool Dr. Evil grin*

I : THE HAARP MACHINE

We listen to a good amount of technical metal, and can tell when we hear a good one. Though their debut album is yet to release this year under Sumerian Records, we will hold our panties in a bunch until these Britishers (pictured above) throw those discs at us. Excellent note choices, good grooves and a weird middle eastern-ish ambient touch; they know what they’re doing. Here, to reinforce our opinion, we feature their track “The Escapist Notion” (immediately after the jump): Continue reading »

VADER RELEASES A DECAPITATING NEW SONG

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Aug 052011
 

All of you know how very, very stoked we are here at NCS for the release of the new album from Poland’s Vader, Welcome To the Morbid Reich. About a month ago, we got the first song from the album, “Come and See My Sacrifice”, and now we have a second one: “Decapitated Saints”, which appears to be a re-recording of a song that first appeared on the band’s 1989 demo, Necrolust.

I’m so damned excited to share this with you that I’m not even going to waste time trying to describe it to you. Fuck, you’re going to listen to it anyway, right? (If the answer to that question is No, please keep it to yourself.) After the jump, stream “Decapitated Saints”, but first be sure you’ve tied your head down firmly to your neck and shoulders. Continue reading »

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