T.R.A.M.

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Mar 082011
 

I just saw an announcement this morning that riveted my attention. I hadn’t heard any previous buzz about this, and it’s an amazing surprise. There will certainly be tremendous buzz ahead.

The announcement is about a new “supergroup” called T.R.A.M., which I’m guessing is an acronym for the band’s members. Check this out:

Adrian Terrazas (The Mars Volta) on saxophone, flute, bass clarinet and percussion.

Javier Reyes (Animals As Leaders) on guitars.

Tosin Abasi (Animals As Leaders) on guitars.

Eric Moore (Suicidal Tendencies) on drums.

They’ve been signed by Sumerian Records, and their debut album, Lingua Franca, is scheduled for a May release. There’s no music to hear yet, but a new song is supposed to appear soon. The band is supposed to perform their first show ever at SXSW as part of NJ’s WSOU 89.5FM’s showcase on Thursday, March 17th in Austin. I have no idea what this music will be like, or if it will even be metal, but in light of who’s in this band, I will sure as fuck listen to it at the first opportunity. We will keep you updated, and if you want to follow developments on your own, T.R.A.M.’s new Facebook page is here.

THE HUMAN ABSTRACT: DIGITAL VEIL

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Mar 082011
 

(Our workaholic contributor Andy Synn checks in for the second day in a row, this time with his review of The Human Abstract‘s new release, which debuts today.)

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING ALBUM CONTAINS LARGE DOSES OF CLEAN SINGING. THOSE WITH A WEAK DISPOSITION SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM WITHOUT MEDICAL PERMISSION.

A remarkably divisive band, the career of the collective known as The Human Abstract has had many ups and downs, infuriating their core fan base with various changes in direction, alienating the metal elite with their associations (perceived or real) with many of the more maligned bands and sub-genres of the modern age, and frankly pursuing an altogether contrary and wilfully difficult career path.

Of particular note has been the band’s inconsistent and frequently changing line-up. Since their formation in 2004 the band have accrued a large number of ex-members and existed in a surprising variety of different forms.

The plus side of all this has been that the band have forged a fiercely unique identity within the metal sphere. While they will never be heavy or “legitimate” enough to cross-over with fans of truly heavy death metal influenced bands, they do incorporate some truly abrasive moments of honest to god metallic harshness amongst the neo-classically influenced guitar-work and soaring, prog vocals lines. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THE AMENTA: V01D

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  59 Responses »
Mar 082011
 

As a general proposition, I can only take industrial metal in small doses, but The Amenta‘s 2008 album n0n was such an extreme, brutal piece of mindfuckery that I couldn’t resist it, and still can’t. The band took elements of black metal and death metal and stewed it in a smoking vat of industrial rhythms and synthesized noise. The result was something cold, vicious, disgusting, nihilistic, raging, hate-fueled — and yet often as catchy as ebola in its rhythmic hooks and small infusions of melody.

Today, The Amenta have returned with an unusual “multi-media release” called V01D. There’s an audio component and a video component. The audio is a 16-track album mastered by Alan Douches consisting of one new song (the title track); six new “electronic experiments”; re-recorded versions of five songs from n0n and the band’s previous album Occasus (2004); and re-mix versions of four of those five previously released songs.

The video component includes professionally filmed and recorded clips of the band performing four songs live in Sydney, Australia, plus one music video for the song “Vermin”.

All of this — the 16-track album and the five videos — have been released as of today, and what’s even more unusual is that despite the obvious effort that went into creating this, The Amenta are making all of it available for free download at www.theamenta.com. In the band’s words, this is their “response to download culture” — which I guess is a way of saying, “our shit will be up on the web in no time anyway, so what the fuck?”

After the jump, we’ve got the disturbing music video for “Vermin” and the new song, which is a surprise, but a very fine one. Continue reading »

ARCH ENEMY: KHAOS LEGIONS

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News  9 Responses »
Mar 072011
 

Arch Enemy revealed the cover art for their next studio release, Khaos Legions. I thought it was so damned cool that I had to stick it up here for all to see.

The artist is Brent Elliott White, who has done covers for the likes of Megadeth and Death Angel, and many others.

The album is due in the late spring or early summer on Century Media and will mark the band’s return to new original songs after the re-recordings album, The Root of All Evil (2009) and the live DVD/CD they released in 2008, Tyrants of the Rising Sun.

Wonder if they’ll perform wearing those masks now? We’d still be able to recognize Angela, don’t you think?

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 7: MYRKSKOG

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  3 Responses »
Mar 072011
 

(NCS contributor Andy Synn joins us again with a look back at the music of Myrkskog.)

Hello ladies and gents. This edition of The Synn Report is going to be somewhat shorter than usual as I’ve also been focussing on getting one or two reviews done as well. Not to worry though, the next edition will once again be a lengthy and comprehensive retrospective (truth be told, next week’s band was originally intended to be this week’s band, but their discography is longer and a lot harder to define than this one, so I’ve gone for the easy option this time around!).

Forming in 1993 in Drammen Norway, Myrkskog fuse rampaging death metal brutality with the bleakness of black metal and the harsh clamour of industrial elements into a focussed, unstoppable killing machine. Their first release, Deathmachine, was an intense powerhouse of wall-of-sound industrial noise, blackened melody and death metal power. Second album Superior Massacre saw the band pursuing a more death metal oriented direction (partially due to the departure of guitarist Savant M) which paid tribute to the Floridian death metal sound, albeit still incorporating some darker, black metal tones and underlying, inhuman synths.

The band’s notoriety is partially down to their connection to Zyklon, the post-Emperor project of Samoth and Trym, effectively a continuation of Myrkskog’s musical legacy and featuring both Destruchthor and Secthdamon of Myrkskog. Early guitarist Savant M also went on to form the militant industrial black metal outfit Disiplin after playing his part in the recording of Deathmachine. However, you may or may not be aware of the members’ more high-profile positions in some legendary extreme metal acts, as drummer Secthdamon played bass for Emperor on their recent reunion dates and guitarist Destructhor has served time as a touring guitarist for 1349 and is currently a permanent member of Morbid Angel. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

WHAT WE IMAGINE WENT DOWN AT THE OSLO CENTRAL STATION BURGER KING (AND WOULD WHOEVER TOOK KVELERTAK’S PASSPORTS PLEASE GIVE THEM THE FUCK BACK!)

 IQ Subtraction, Metal News  12 Responses »
Mar 062011
 

A conversation among the members of Kvelertak
Friday night, March 4, 2011
The Burger King, Oslo Central Station
Oslo, Norway

(translated from the Norwegian)

Vidar: “Did you get me the Double Whopper with cheese like I asked?”

Erlend: “Of course dude. You think I’m a fuckin’ moron? Just cuz we’re eatin’ in an American fast-food shithole doesn’t mean I’ve suddenly become as stupid as Americans who eat this kind of food.”

Marvin: “Do we really have time to eat? Shouldn’t we be moving our asses onto the train? I really don’t wanna miss this flight to the U.S. I’m so stoked about this tour!”

Erlend: “Fuckin’ chill, dude. Our flight doesn’t leave for two hours. We got plenty of time. We can carbo-load here at the BK, catch the train to the airport, and be on board with time to spare.”

Kjetil: “I can’t believe we’re about to eat all this shit. Erlend, you do this every time you smoke a bowl. It’s like some kind of special BK blend of weed. You smoke up, and then you make a straight line for the nearest Whopper. Fuck, since we got the Statoil prize, we can afford decent food. Cheap-ass motherfucker.”

Erlend: “Fuck you bro. No way am I gonna sit on that fuckin’ airplane for 9 or 10 hours without gettin’ my smoke on.”

Bjarte: “Erlend, man, you got the passports?”

Erlend: “Of course, I’ve got the fuckin’ passports. You sound like my mom. They’re right here . . . wait . . . fuck! WHERE’S MY FUCKIN’ BACKPACK!!!”  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

STILL MORE DIVERSIONARY TACTICS: FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, EASTERN FRONT, AND TAAKE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Mar 062011
 

We seem to be stuck on triads. On each of the last two days, we featured the music of three bands. This being the third day, it appealed to our rudimentary desire for symmetry to feature three more. A triad of triads. Today, we’ve got a fairly new video of Fleshgod Apocalypse (Italy), a song from the recent U.S. label debut of Eastern Front (UK), and a not-new video of a not-new song from a not-new band — but one we finally decided to check out — Taake (Norway). Let’s get right to it:

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE

Don’t know how I missed this.  On February 21, a video appeared on YouTube of Fleshgod Apocalypse performing live at The Bonecrusher Fest 2011 in Utrecht, Holland, the night before. If there were such a thing as an official NCS “mascot”, this band would be it. We’ve probably dropped their names in posts and comments more than any other band.

We fantasize about offering them vast sums of money to come live in Seattle and be our official house band, y’know, after one of those stupendous offers of cash from Nigeria or Ghana or Mali or Hong Kong materializes — which we know will happen if we’re patient and continue to lead a clean, godly life and do good works for those less fortunate than ourselves. Can I get a big “Amen!”?

No, no, no, I did not ask for a big “Hail Satan!” Let’s try that again:  Can I get a big “Amen!”?

Well, I can tell that ain’t gonna fuckin work with this crowd, so let’s just go back to FA.  (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MORE DIVERSIONARY TACTICS: NEW MUSIC FROM TARDIVE DYSKINESIA, AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED, AND CARCERI

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  10 Responses »
Mar 052011
 

So, yesterday we threw together a hodge-podge of new music and videos that proved very diverting to us, and maybe to you, too. And then, in an awesome display of synchronicity — or serendipity, or kismet, or some other word that’s supposed to signify things that are coincidental but maybe were meant to happen — more new music appeared on our NCS radar screen, as if sent from an all-knowing über-mind that tracks and understands the strange and twisted paths of our neural connectivity.

Here’s how this happened. One of the bands we included in yesterday’s post was Outcast, from France, and their new song “Elements”. The music put us in mind of some other bands, one of which (as we said) was Tardive Dyskinesia — a Greek band whose music we’ve been hooked on for a while. And then the next thing we knew, we got an e-mail from none other than Tardive Dyskinesia giving us (and everyone else in the world) an entire live album to download for nothing, nada, bupkis.  Fuck.

And that was just the start. We then got another e-mail telling us that one of our grindcore gods, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, had put up two new songs from a split they’ve done with a band called Despise You. Fuck.

And then we got another e-mail from Misha, the vocalist/guitarist for Akelei (a Dutch band whose very impressive 2010 debut album we reviewed here) asking us to check out Carceri, a death-metal band in which Misha’s brother Josha is the drummer, and in which Misha also used to play. In his e-mail, he used words like “fast”, “brutal”, “technical”, and made reference to “twisted lyrics”. Fuck. That pushed all the right buttons for me. And there you have the story of how today’s post took shape.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

DIVERSIONARY TACTICS: NEW MUSIC FROM PESTILENCE AND OUTCAST, AND A NEW MASTODON VIDEO

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  21 Responses »
Mar 042011
 

Are you in the mood for a diversion from whatever else you’re doing or were about to do? Good!  Because we thought we’d share some new music that we heard in the last 24 hours from Pestilence and Outcast, plus a new video clip of Mastodon playing “Crack the Skye”, which will appear on their forthcoming DVD. It’s all ridiculously good. Why else would we want to share? Get ready to be . . . diverted.

PESTILENCE

Dutch death metal band Pestilence has been cranking out skull-crushers since 1986 — not counting that extended hiatus between 1994 and 2008.  The band count among their alumni the likes of Tony Choy (Atheist, Cynic) and Martin Van Drunen (Hail of Bullets, Asphyx). Their current line-up is also loaded with talent, including fretless bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling (Obscura) and original or near-original members Patrick Mameli (vox/guitar) and Patrick Uterwijk (guitar).

They’ve got a new album due in late April on Mascot Records called Doctrine, and it’s been on our “highly anticipated” list. Two days ago, Pestilence made the seventh track from the album available for streaming, and we’ve got it here. It’s called, appropriately enough, “Sinister”.

It combines enormous pile-driving riffs with near-experimental, prog-sounding guitar leads/solos, and pummeling double-bass. It’s a head-smasher of a song, but it also engages the non-reptile part of the brain (ie, the part you sometimes think with). For some of you, the throaty vocals may take some getting used to, but trust me, this is a cool song. It’s coming your way right after the jump . . . Continue reading »

MOONSORROW: VARJOINA KULJEMME KUOLLEIDEN MAASSA

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 032011
 

(UK contributor Andy Synn is back with a review of the brand new release from Finland’s Moonsorrow.)

One of the greatest, and grandest, of all folk-derived metal acts, the proud men of Moonsorrow have always been consummate storytellers, mining a rich seam of Finnish folk-history in order to weld its themes and melodies onto a more traditional metal backbone of heavy, surging guitars and rampaging drums.

Never a band for catchy choruses per se, the songs on this album instead feature numerous recurring melodic themes which act as character pieces, holding the narrative of each song together via their tasteful deployment and haunting hooks. These variable refrains serve as our guides through the often linear progression of the album, keeping us invested whilst the band ignores the standard trappings of metal composition and song-writing in favour of a more organic approach to story-telling, performed at its own pace and with little regard for the more stock conventions of the modern album as a commercial entity.

The folk elements are perhaps less vibrant this time around, as the subject matter of the album requires a more sombre tone, although there remain moments of uplifting melancholy and heroic themes which rise and swell as the songs dictate. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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