METAL FROM NZ – PART 2

 Steff's Posts  5 Responses »
Apr 202011
 

(Man, time does fly. Last June we featured a guest post from New Zealand metal blogger extraordinaire Steff Metal introducing us to six NZ metal bands. Steff saw my appeal for guest posts a couple of weeks ago and, awesome woman that she is, she responded with today’s feature on still more metal from her beautiful homeland.)

After writing about NZ Metal Bands for NCS, I made a promise to Islander and a few other people that I would share a list of some of my favourite underground New Zealand metal bands. Possibly this was a year ago – times passes, I have steamtrains to drive, mad Scottish pirates to interview, and sheep to perform unspeakable acts upon.

While our more popular metal bands – 8 Foot Sativa, Just One Fix, Tainted, Sinate – etc, bear a striking resemblance to many popular US bands, our metal underground takes inspiration from all over the world. With a population of just 4 million, a young, rugged countryside of jagged cliffs and blackened shores, and an indigenous culture with a history of brutality and cannibalism, it’s no surprise our metal tends toward the brutal side. Continue reading »

BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE: CELESTIAL COMPLETION

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Apr 192011
 

(Today, our UK contributor Andy Synn follows yesterday’s retrospective on Becoming the Archetype with a review of the band’s new album, Celestial Completion.)

Perhaps Becoming The Archetype’s most ambitious album yet begins with the strange, symphonic introduction of “The Resonant Frequency Of Flesh”. Haunting choral voices and a sweeping Danny-Elfman-aping score backed by pounding drums and punchy slabs of guitar, which segues seamlessly into “The Magnetic Sky”, juxtaposing Jason Wisdom‘s familiar, powerful roar with a stunning clean vocal refrain, the first incidence of prominent clean vocals since The Physics Of Fire. The oceanic rise and fall of crushing heaviness and sinuous guitar work showcases the band’s joyous song-writing talents, indulging both their love of metallic force and bright, shining melody.

“Internal Illumination” is perhaps the most purely death metal track the band has done on an album since their Terminate Damnation days, replete with hellishly low gutturals, gripping blast-beat sections and an utterly crushing ending slowdown that drags the listener’s ears through a mire of sludgy riffing and dragging drum fills. It also employs the newly developed blackened screams which are now part of the band’s vocal arsenal, adding further variety to their multi-faceted, expressive vocal arrangements.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

PAIN’S NEW VIDEO: TITS, ASS, AND DRUMKIT MAYHEM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Apr 182011
 

Less than two weeks ago, we featured a brand new song called “Dirty Woman” from the new album by Pain — a long-running band fronted by Peter Tägtgren, who’s perhaps best known as the vocalist/guitarist for Hypocrisy. The new album, You Only Live Twice, is due for release on June 3.

The song has gotten under our skin big-time. It’s a dirty piece of Southern-style road-house rock with some catchy-as-ebola metal riffs that will make you wanna bang yo fuckin’ head.

Today, Pain released their official video for the same song, and it’s a hoot and a half to watch. Not surprisingly, given the name, lyrics, and style of the song, the video features some nasty pieces of hotness bumping and grinding and swapping spit. But during the interspersed footage of Pain playing the song, watch what the drummer does to his kit. Wonder what kind of burr got under his saddle?

I’m tellin’ you, if this video don’t put a smile on your face, then you’re one cold motherfucker.  Watch after the jump . . . Continue reading »

NEW ARCH ENEMY VIDEO

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Apr 182011
 

Fans of Arch Enemy get a treat today — the band has debuted the first official video for their new album, Khaos Legions, which will be released by Century Media on June 7.

The video is for a song called “Yesterday Is Dead and Gone”, and for now it’s being streamed exclusively in the U.S. at Guitar World (at this location). If you live outside the U.S., you may not be able to view it there — and if not, the band’s press release says you should visit the world map at this link to find out where you can see it.

If you’re a fan of Arch Enemy (as we are), you’ll like this song. If not, it won’t change your mind, because it sounds like . . . Arch Enemy. The video integrates shots of the band playing the song with shots of masked protestors running, waving flags, and protesting . . . something.

That is all.

SAN ANTONIO GOT GAME

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Apr 182011
 

Over the weekend, we ran a guest post from our bro Surgical Brute spotlighting five bands scheduled to appear at the Rites of Darkness 3 festival, which is scheduled to run December 9 -11, 2011 in San Antonio, Texas. We hadn’t heard about this festival before that post, but 41 bands are already scheduled to appear, and it’s one helluva line-up (as you can see at the bottom of Surgical Brute’s post here).

No sooner was the ink dry on that post (figuratively speaking) than we got an e-mail from “Utmu“, another NCS reader/commenter, alerting us to yet another San Antonio festival scheduled for November 18-20 called The Goregrowler’s Ball. We checked the line-up, which Utmu cryptically said might include a few names that would interest us, and . . . holy shit, was he right.

Check out the names of the co-headliners: Suffocation, Aborted, Exhumed. Yeah, that got our attention. But that’s just the start — there are 54 bands confirmed for this festival so far, and the promoters may not be finished yet. The line-up also includes Lair of the Minotaur, Malignancy, Putrid Pile, Noisear, Dreaming Dead, Woods of Ypres, and The Evil Amidst — just to pick out a handful of our favorite names.

San Antonio’s definitely got it goin’ on, metal-wise. Who knew? I dunno, maybe everyone but us. But now we know, and so do you. You can check out the full line-up after the jump. There may be an Alamo-and-River-Walk visit in our future . . . Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 10: BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE

 THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Apr 182011
 

(Andy Synn is back with another SYNN REPORT. Today, the subject is Becoming the Archetype, and Andy discusses the band’s discography leading up to the newest release, Celestial Completion. Tomorrow we’ll have Andy’s review of that album.)

Becoming The Archetype, the four piece Progressive death metal band from Georgia, have gone through numerous line-up changes in their time, yet still consistently deliver vibrant, distinctive albums of stunning musicianship and complex compositions based around a core of crunching, shredding guitar, intricate, growling bass-lines, subtle yet dominating drums and the terrifying, lion-like roar of front-man Jason Wisdom.

Weaving in and out of this maelstrom of metallic might are the extra (yet never superfluous) elements which serve to add yet another string to the band’s progressive bow. Complex keys, piano and organ, transcendent clean singing, buzzing electronics, all tied together in a convoluted, genre-ambiguous package that at all times bleeds passion and sincerity.

With four albums under their belt so far, the band have carved themselves out a distinctive and instantly recognisable identity, despite the sheer variety of styles and approaches they employ. Terminate Damnation was their original exploration of controlled chaos and violent emotion, The Physics Of Fire” a labyrinthine mosaic of enigmatic musicianship and progressive drive, Dichotomy a cryptic synthesis of the band’s history and renewed aggression, with Celestial Completion a tangled yet profound fusion of old and new influences which opens up new doors for the band’s future.  (more after the jump, including sample songs from each album . . .) Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 34)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  5 Responses »
Apr 182011
 

Almost three weeks have passed since our last THAT’S METAL! post, which is way too fucking long. I’m still not able to devote as much time to NCS these days as I’d like (one more week to go before back to normal, or abnormal), so this edition of THAT’S METAL! won’t feature as many items as usual — but better something than nothing, right?

The main item we’ve got today involves mayhem, wreckage, and loud noises — which is why it’s metal, even though it’s not music. It made me wonder why people entertain themselves by destroying shit and making explosive sounds, or entertain themselves by watching the destruction of shit in ways that make explosive sounds. Actually, using the word “people” is probably an overstatement, since men seem to get off on this kind of entertainment more than women. I wonder why that is.

Whatever the explanation, maybe it’s the same reason why there are more male than female fans of extreme metal. If you have any theories about these questions, don’t be bashful about sharing them in the Comments.

As you ponder those weighty subjects, entertain yourselves after the jump by watching a bunch of Finns in the throes of temporary vehicular insanity. Cars seem to have that effect on men more than women, too. Wonder why that is. Continue reading »

MY CORPSE SHALL RISE, BUT IT AIN’T GOIN’ TO HEAVEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Apr 172011
 


Hot off the presses, or whatever it is they call video editing machines, we have a video released today by the almighty Autopsy for one of our favorite songs of 2010 — “My Corpse Shall Rise”.

Like Autopsy itself, the video is old-school: black-and-white footage of the band playing the song in the studio, which isn’t 100% in sync with the audio track, and some cut-rate video flame effects. But I don’t care much about the quality of the video, because the song rules, and watching Autopsy do the dishes while it plays would be just fine with me.

You can see and hear it after the jump. Continue reading »

NO RHYME OR REASON: ANAAL NATHRAKH, DEVOLVED, AND CYANIDE SERENITY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Apr 172011
 

Surgical Brute’s first post of our NCS Saturday included songs from five bands, and Misha served up another one today, all of which are well worth hearing. So I’m probably pushing my luck by adding this post with still more songs. I do realize there’s a limited amount of time you’re going to spend listening to new music in a given day, and I also realize we’re not the only metal site most of you visit. But I just can’t resist. There’s probably some psychiatric name for inability to resist impulse, but whatever it is, I’ve got it.

Usually, there’s some organizing principle behind the music collections we feature in a post, even if it’s nothing more than “these songs will flambé your brain.” But today there’s really no rhyme or reason to what I picked, except I came across all three of these offerings in the last 48 hours and just felt compelled to share what I found.

Two of these bands I know well and I’m a big fan of both. The third is a new discovery. What I have for you, then, is a high-quality video of Anaal Nathrakh laying waste in a live club performance; a video for a brand new (and somewhat surprising) song by Australian/California tech-death band Devolved; and a new, crushing re-recording of a song by another tech-death band, UK’S Cyanide Serenity, which features their new lead singer Travis Neal (Divine Heresy). And to top it off, we’ve got the schedule for a just-announced Anaal Nathrakh European tour . . . after the jump. Continue reading »

KRYTERIUM

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Apr 172011
 

(Today, our guest contributor Misha clues us in on an Idaho extreme metal band called Kryterium.)

Boise, Idaho isn’t the richest of extreme metal environments, and I’ll be the first to attest to that. Sadly, few extreme acts originate from the State of Idaho period, notwithstanding the greater population numbers in what we locals call the Treasure Valley.

Of those few bands, fewer still are actually signed to record labels. Kryterium is one of those few bands. Formed in 2006, Kryterium has shared the stage with numerous extreme bands. I know that saying you shared the stage with a different band is like saying you once made a skiing trip to Sun Valley, where Bruce Willis purportedly owns a home. What Kryterium shares in common with those in the substantial list of bands is extreme metal. I’m not going to waste precious time and space by name-dropping every band they’ve played with, but I can list some of the notables like the following: Darkest Hour, Suffocation, Necrophagist, Dying Fetus, Pyscroptic, The Acacia Strain, Incantation, Samael. For all the good that list does, Kryterium cannot truly be compared with any of them.

I would describe Kryterium’s music as a chunky brand of groove metal mingled with elements of grindcore and death metal.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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