KRALLICE: “THE CLEARING”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Apr 032011
 

Since this is an unheard-of third post on a Sunday, it will be short. But it will be very sweet.

Krallice is a powerfully good black-metal band from New York consisting of Colin Marston (who is involved in many other projects, including Behold . . . The Arctopus, Dysrhythmia, and Gorguts), Mick Barr (Orthrelm), Lev Weinstein, and Nick McMaster. Their third album, Diotima, is scheduled for release by the reliable Profound Lore label on April 26. Wholly apart from the music, the album cover (above) is one of the most eye-catching we’ve seen this year.

Among many cool things about Profound Lore, they make MP3s from their artists available for free download at their site.  Within the last few days, they’ve done that for one of the tracks from Diotima. The song is called “The Clearing”. It’s a long one (12+ minutes), but it’s stunning. It’s unrelenting in its ferocity, and just loaded with riveting hooks and instrumental wizardry — an overwhelming listening experience. Stream (or download) it below, or download it from Profound Lore here. We’ll have a full album review in the near future.

Krallice: The Clearing

SAY HELLO TO 7 HORNS 7 EYES

 Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 032011
 

Last week you may have seen, either here at NCS or elsewhere, the announcement of the line-up for this year’s SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour and the chance to vote for the band that will fill the last slot on the tour. One of the 10 bands on the voting ballot is a Seattle group with whom you may not be familiar. So, allow us to introduce you to 7 Horns 7 Eyes.

We first saw this band in early 2010 when they opened for Hypno5e, Revocation, and The Binary Code at the Seattle stop of the METAL AS ART tour (reviewed here), and then we saw them again on other occasions, including their supporting slot on a tour featuring The Dillinger Escape Plan, Darkest Hour, and Animals As Leaders (reviewed here), and at the 2010 edition of THE FINNISH METAL TOUR (which we described here). Every time, they wowed us with their music and their live performances. Here’s what we said about their performance with the Finns:

This was the third time we’d seen these dudes this year as local support for a national tour, and they continue to impress in a big way. Every time we hear them, we adjust the description of their music, but we think we’ve just about got it down now: technical, somewhat blackened, melodic mathcore progressive death metal. Got that?

This is music you can get lost in just as much as you can bang your head to it. It’s a creative blend of styles that works really well, and their live playing continues to be sharp as tacks. We’re hungry for the album they’ve got in the works.

Well, that album — Throes of Absolution — is about to get a bang-up release, because last week it was announced that the band have been signed by Century Media, with the European release being handled by Basick Records. One song from the forthcoming debut album is available for streaming, and you can hear it after the jump . . . Continue reading »

YOUR NERVE CELLS WILL LIKE NERVECELL’S NEW SONG (AND ORIGIN’S NEW ALBUM COVER, TOO)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 032011
 

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve listened to Nervecell’s debut album Preaching Venom since I got my hands on it in 2008. In the sophisticated journalist jargon we use here at NCS, it’s fucking awesome. Nervecell’s second album, Psychogenocide, has already hit the streets in the Middle East (Nervecell is from Dubai in the UAE). It will be released via Lifeforce Records on April 29th 2011 in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and on May 2nd 2011 in the rest of Europe & the UK.  I don’t yet know the plans for distribution in NorthAm.

As we learned through that most excellent metal blog Metality, the band have posted a new song from Psychogenocide for streaming. I had planned to spend my day listening to other things, but this song has trashed those plans. I suppose I’ll eventually tire of pressing “play” over and over again, but I’m not there yet.

The song is called “All Eyes On Them”. If you’re a fan of bands like Nile, Origin, Behemoth, or Deicide, I can pretty much guarantee this song is going to love you long time, or vice-versa. It churns and blasts in a tasty fusion of death metal and thrash, but it also includes a slower-paced instrumental breakdown with a nice little Eastern-flavored guitar solo. And speaking of Nile, Karl Sanders provides guest vocals on a song called “Shunq”, which will include both English and Arabic lyrics, and it appears that Psycroptic‘s Dave Haley laid down the drum tracks for the album, as he did on the band’s debut. The album cover is rad, too. Check out the artwork and the song after the jump.

Oh, and speaking of Origin, we have the cover of their next album — and a release date — also after the jump. Continue reading »

BANned

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Apr 022011
 

I’m really proud of the title to this post. I thought it up all by myself, without any help from my cat on this one. Did you see what I did? I took the word “banned” and capitalized the first three letters, because they stand for Blut Aus Nord. Really clever, huh?

Yeah, you’re right. It’s as lame as a three-legged dog. I need to get the cat back into the post-title work. I guess I’ll have to start feeding the little fucker again.

Anyway, back to Blut Aus Nord. In my continuing effort to get better educated about black metal, BAN is a band whose music I’ve only recently started exploring, and I’m finding it really interesting. They have a new album — 777 – Sect(s) — scheduled for release on April 19 (one day earlier internationally) via Debemur Morti Productions. And for a limited time only, the whole album is available for streaming.

And when I say “limited time only”, I mean it’s really limited — as in today and tomorrow. After that, the music turns into a pumpkin, leaving only a glass slipper on the steps.

Okay, that Cinderella metaphor was as weak as my fucken post title. Just go listen to the album. I’m doing that right now, and diggin’ it. The tracks are embedded in a player after the jump, though I presume the links will go up in smoke come Monday. Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 4)

 Forthcoming Albums  15 Responses »
Apr 022011
 


Technically, we should have posted this yesterday, but yesterday was April Fool’s Day, and people might have thought we were making up some of this shit. But it’s all true, and nothing happens on April 2 to plant doubt about truth. Except for what causes doubt to be planted about truth on any other day of the year.

Here we are at the beginning of the second quarter of 2011 — the time when for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, spring is supposed to spring.  Where I live, spring has apparently been victimized by a brutal street mugging and is hospitalized at the moment.  A few plants have been deluded into thinking it’s spring, but for the rest of our local world, it’s still fucking winter.

Fortunately, the change of the seasons have fuck all to do with the release of metal. What we do with these installments of METAL IN THE FORGE is collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last 30 days (or in this case, the last 31 days) about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know them yet. And in this post, we cut and paste the announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

This isn’t a cumulative list, so be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming New Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported in previous installments. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. There’s some awesome shit on the way. Dive in after the jump. Continue reading »

RICHES FROM GHANA AWAIT!

 IQ Subtraction, Off Topic  8 Responses »
Apr 012011
 

Even for people as gullible as me, the trials of harsh experience can produce a thimbleful of wisdom.

As I’ve recounted in these pages, people from all over the world (okay, mainly from Africa) have written me with offers of pre-funded ATM cards, wire-transfers of vast sums of money, bags of gold dust, boxes of cash, and more. Those messages have come from British bureaucrats, orphans on the run from murderous uncles, ovarian cancer survivors, bank officers, you name it. Sometimes, they’ve discovered I’m the sole survivor of dead relatives I never knew I had.

I took them at their word. I promptly wrote back to every one of these people, trying to do my part to make possible the delivery of wealth into my hands, so that I might fulfill grand projects that would turn NCS from a half-assed metal blog into a global empire of awesomeness. And every one of the slimy motherfuckers has failed to deliver. And yes, I’ve learned something from these hope-crushing experiences: Don’t trust anyone offering you money if they don’t know what Fleshgod Apocalypse is.

But, I confess, hope springs eternal. And an e-mail I received just this week from a dude in Ghana has revived my hopes. It’s just so eloquently written that I know something good will come of it. Plus, I think this is the biggest offer of cash I’ve yet received. After the jump, the message I got and my heart-felt reply to it. Continue reading »

SUMMER SLAUGHTER 2011!

 Metal News  8 Responses »
Mar 312011
 

Tonight, the official line-up of this year’s SUMMER SLAUGHTER TOUR was announced. Well, there’s actually one slot yet to be filled. More about that in a minute. But first, here’s the line-up except for that one slot:

The Black Dahlia Murder
Whitechapel
Darkest Hour
Six Feet Under
Dying Fetus
As Blood Runs Black
Oceano
Fleshgod Apocalypse

Powerglove is also listed for a “special half time show”, whatever that means. I am going. Definitely. I don’t love all these bands equally, but I would pay money to see every one of them — but most especially Darkest Hour, Dying Fetus, and . . . Fleshgod Apocalypse! Kinda blows my mind that the almighty FA is down at the bottom of the bill, so small you can barely see them. Fuck that shit! Anyway, I don’t yet know the dates and places for the tour. That info won’t be released until April 20. Motherfuckers better be comin’ to Seattle, that’s all I have to say.

Back to that one unfilled slot. The tour organizers have left that slot open on purpose. They’ve put together a list of 10 bands and they’re asking fans to vote on which one should fill the last slot as the opening act. The list of candidates and how to vote are after the jump. Continue reading »

A CHANGE OF PACE: THE ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO, ECHTRA, AND SENSER

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 312011
 

We started this week with a trio of posts on . . . viciousness (beginning here). Then we assisted in the disfigurement of a goddess. And yesterday was all about the venomous hatred in Anaal Nathrakh. Granted, we did have the thing about the epic Indian feed and the photos of Phro in a miniskirt, but musically speaking, it’s been a pretty pummeling week so far.

We do like to keep you a little off-balance here at NCS, so this seemed like a good day for something . . . completely different. Three completely different somethings, to be precise. We don’t often venture outside our comfort zone around here, but we’re definitely doing that today. The thing is, we’re still sort of staying true to the “no clean singing” mantra — because there’s no singing at all on our first offering, and almost none on the second.

So, ready, set, GO!

THE ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO

The last time we featured music similar to this next band (pictured above), it was the day before Thanksgiving last year. In a post called “Guitar Wizardry”, we featured new music from Joe Satriani and old music from Buckethead. That set off an interesting dialogue in the Comments section about guitar heroes and the connections between them, and of course, Alex Skolnick‘s name was mentioned more than once, in the same company as Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Young, Jeff Beck, and John Petrucci, along with Satriani (with whom Skolnick studied long ago) and Brian “Buckethead” Carroll. (more after the jump, including ear candy . . .) Continue reading »

ANAAL NATHRAKH: THE PROPAGATION OF DISCOMFORT

 Album Reviews  19 Responses »
Mar 302011
 

No band I’ve yet heard is currently pushing the limits of extreme metal more extravagantly and more successfully than Anaal Nathrakh. However, I won’t say they’re blazing a trail into the territory where the future of metal will take root. Metal will have many futures, but I suspect few of those futures will unfold along the tortured path Anaal Nathrakh is blazing; there’s too much risk of injury. More reason to live in the present – this present.

Some metal bands specialize in hair-on-fire, grindcore mayhem, played at the speed of bullets. Some specialize in the delivery of compulsively headbang-able riffage, heavy on the chainsaw guitar cutting through the bone. Some bands use keyboard-driven anthems to propel their music to emotional heights of struggle, or defiance, or loss.

Some plant their flag in the territory of industrial metal, with blasts of cold rhythm and waves of chaotic electronic noise. And some bands leaven their metallic catharsis with bursts of melody, voiced by soaring clean vocals, head thrown back and all of body and mind concentrated in the delivery.

Anaal Nathrakh does all of this within almost every song on their new album Passion, and more besides. They dissect and segment and re-combine the elements of extreme metal in blazingly creative ways — but without fail, what they achieve is profoundly unsettling. It’s wondrous, but it’s almost unrelentingly disturbing. Passion is an expression of the “otherness” of extreme metal in one of its purest forms. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ANAAL NATHRAKH: PASSION

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 302011
 

(Our UK contributor Andy Synn provides the following review of Anaal Nathrakh’s forthcoming album, Passion. This is our first of two reviews of the album — the second, by your humble editor, is in the post above Andy’s. Some albums just demand extra attention.)

Passion is one thing that Anaal Nathrakh have never lacked, as their instrumental work is as frenzied and violent as one would expect and the terrifying vocals of Dave Hunt remain as overwhelmingly powerful as ever. But the word has other meanings as well, invoking images of suffering and martyrdom which seem appropriate given the harrowing atmospheres and inhuman cacophony the band conjure, as well as the lyrical bent of certain songs, whose themes of anarchy, dedication and personal desolation are perfectly captured by such a simple, yet complex, term.

The sheer, unadulterated misanthropy and seething hate which spews from the music of Anaal Nathrakh has always spoken to me in a particular way; the bile and fury they vomit forth clearly comes from a deep-seated, internal sense of existential angst and frustration. Yet the true strength of the band has always been their ability to take this incoherent rage and shape it consciously into a weapon directed outward at specific targets, turning an internal fury into an external fire. Thus, their urban-warfare approach to blackened grind and the cold, calculated lethality of their grinding black metal remains balanced by a very human element, making the band’s sound both natural and inorganic in equal measure.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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