MISCELLANY NO. 26

 MISCELLANY  21 Responses »
Mar 022011
 

Yeah, I did one of these MISCELLANY posts just two days ago, but I’m doing another one now anyway. See, I’ve been getting e-mails from one of the original co-founders of this site, IntoTheDarkness. He doesn’t write for NCS any more despite my nagging, but he does send me e-mails periodically with new music to check out. He seems to hit times in his life when he just consumes massive amounts of new metal for what must be hours, if not days, and then I hear about it.

So, this post is a variation on the usual MISCELLANY, because none of these bands came off the “official” NCS list of new music to check out (that would be the list I keep on scraps of paper, post-it notes, and crayon-scrawlings on the wall). Instead, I’ve pulled bands off the rush of e-mails ITD sent me over the last week. Still, they’re two bands I’ve never heard before, so they do fit that part of the MISCELLANY rules.

And to cap off this post, I’m adding music from two more bands I’d not heard before that were recently sent my way by NCS readers. So, yes, it’s a lot of music, some of it pretty wild, but I think you’ll find it worth exploring.

After the jump, my brain-scrambling experience with songs from Monumental Torment (Russia/Arizona), Kakuna vs Metapod (Australia), Blut Aus Nord (France), and Walking With Strangers (Sweden). Continue reading »

HOLY FUCK: NEW XERATH

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  28 Responses »
Mar 012011
 

Xerath is one of our favorite UK metal bands. Their 2009 release was called “I” (that’s a Roman numeral one). We liked that album so much that we’ve written about Xerath here, here, and here in the past. If you haven’t listened to Xerath before, here’s their own description of what they do (which is pretty accurate): “Xerath is a modern cutting-edge orchestral metal band – combining crushing metal riffs and grooves with cinematic symphonic arrangements.” For short, they call the sound “orchestral groove metal” or “chug-score”.

Think of an amalgamation of Strapping Young Lad, Meshuggah, and Dimmu Borgir. Think of the kind of syncopated guitar rhythms that make djent fanboys slobber combined with meaty melodeath riffs and epic keyboards.

Xerath has finished work on a new album, entitled “II”. It’s due for release by Candlelight Records on May 3. And the reason for this post is that yesterday Xerath made the first track from that album available for streaming, plus they revealed the cover art for the album, which is an eye-catcher. We’ve got the song and the artwork after the jump . . . Continue reading »

NOMAD

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 012011
 

In sporadically sampled reviews of previous releases by Poland’s Nomad, the phrase “brutal death metal” appeared often (along with words like “evil”, “blackened”, and “satanic”). Four years have passed since the band’s last release (The Independence of Observation Choice). In that time, perhaps their musical interests have evolved, because that “brutal death” label doesn’t fit Nomad’s forthcoming album, Transmigration of Consciousness.

What label does fit? Must we afix a label? No, we don’t. Gazing at the stupendous album cover by Michael “Xaay” Loranc, we can instead think of the music that paces the stroke of oarsmen on a giant longship plowing the waves of interstellar gas, emerging from a galactic vortex to carry cities and citadels into an ominous void where no humans have gone before.

Or, to be more prosaic, we could tell you that Transmigration of Consciousness is a kind of death-metal rave, a seamless flow of syncopated rhythms and synth-driven interludes that effectively combines elements of melodic black metal, industrial metal, and tyrannical death.

Or we could just tell you that we’ve near-destroyed our neck muscles repeatedly snapping our rattled heads to this album.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

AMORPHIS: THE EGG IS ABOUT TO HATCH!

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Feb 282011
 

It takes very damned little provocation for me to post about Amorphis. I’ve got no new music for you to hear. All I have is the just-released cover for the band’s next album and a few morsels of additional information about it: It will be called The Beginning of Times, it will include 12 songs, it will be released by Nuclear Blast at the end of May, and a single called “You I Need” will be released in April.

Yes, the giant egg suspended above our metallic world is about to hatch, ushering forth the awe-inspiring, Phoenix-like Amorphis bird, fully formed and shrieking its heavenly cries to the skies, and before the glorious hatching a few drops of golden Phoenix-like albumen will be allowed to escape and bathe our anxious, upturned faces in its golden elixir, comforting us in the message from the firebird inside, “You I Need!”

Actually, it’s not really the egg of a Phoenix pictured in Travis Smith‘s album art, which is intended to interpret the mythological birth of the world from the egg of a goldeneye (for more details about the creation myth in the Finnish national epic, Kalevala, go here), but I’m not being graded on this thing. Am I?

Hey, sorry about all the egg metaphors. I promise, I’m finn-ished with them. My Monday work-day has turned my brain to uncooked yolk. Oops! Well, anyway, since I’ve now got Amorphis on my yolk-like mind, I might as well play a couple of videos.  (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 25

 MISCELLANY  11 Responses »
Feb 282011
 

We don’t usually start the week with one of these posts, but I got jammed up with non-blogging life over the weekend and didn’t get it done for Sunday. I hate when life does that.

So, here we are, late as usual. But the rules of MISCELLANY haven’t changed: I look at the NCS running list of bands we’re interested in checking out, compiled from e-mails, press releases, MySpace friend requests, and the whisperings of my cat. The thing about the list is, it’s limited to bands whose music we haven’t heard. I stab names off the list, more or less at random, and I go listen to a song (or maybe two). I record my reactions (to make myself feel important), and then make the songs available for you to hear, too (given the remote possibility that you might feel like making up your own minds about the music).

For today’s foray into the unknown, I listened to a new track from Monolith Deathcult (Netherlands), a couple new songs by Neongod (Norway), and new music from The Doomsday Prophecy (New Jersey).

MONOLITH DEATHCULT

I’m not sure why it took me so damned long to listen to this Dutch band. They’ve produced four full-length albums since 2003 — though the most recent (The White Crematorium 2.0) was a re-recording of the band’s second album. I’ve read about them here and there, but never took time to listen, even after the controversial buzz generated by 2008’s Trivmverate. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 3)

 Forthcoming Albums  14 Responses »
Feb 272011
 


We’re jumping the gun on this post, since the month doesn’t end until tomorrow. Why? Uh, because this post is ready to go and we don’t have anything else finished for today yet. Work and other shit interfered with our grand plans for a Sunday post.  We might still get another one up later today, but for now, feast your eyes on the barrage of metal headed our direction.

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 27 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. Continue reading »

TECH YOURSELF TO DEATH: NEW MUSIC FROM OBSCURA, GORGUTS, AND BTBAM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Feb 262011
 

This will be quick, because I hadn’t planned on any posts today besides the earlier THAT’S METAL! nonsense, but what I’ve found this morning is just too much awesomeness not to share with you: brand new songs from Obscura, Gorguts, and Between the Buried and Me.

OBSCURA

This band have a new album called Omnivium due for a March 29 North American release on Relapse Records.  In mid-January, we featured the first song from the album, called “Septuagint”. Now, the band have released a second song, called “Vortex Omnivium”, which you can stream after the jump. As you listen, you can also gaze upon the wonderful album art above, executed by Orion Landau (who has also created art for the likes of Origin, Dying Fetus, and Disfear).

Obscura, if you don’t know, is a German progressive death metal band from Germany composed of guitarist/vocalist Steffen Kummerer (Thulcandra), guitarist Christian Müenzner (ex-Necrophagist), fretless bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling (Pestilence), and drummer Hannes Grossmann (Blotted Science, ex-Necrophagist). All of these dudes are exceptional musicians — very fast, hyper-technical, jaw-droppingly good. As their last album (2009’s Cosmogenesis) abundantly demonstrated, they can also write songs that are as catchy as they are technically challenging.

For purposes of this post, it’s also fitting to note that the band took their name from a 1998 Gorguts album called Obscura. Listen to the new song right after the jump. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 30)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  2 Responses »
Feb 262011
 

Here we go again: a round-up of news items and other stuff that made us think, “That’s metal!”, even though it’s not music.  As usual, we’re adding our own tasteless commentary at no additional charge — and given the nature of the first two items today, our commentary is even more tasteless than usual. Let’s get right to it:

ITEM ONE

I don’t know about you, but I was bottle-fed as a baby, or so I’m told. Since those long-ago days, breast-feeding has made a resurgence. So have breast pumps for new mothers who work and want to store up bottles of the white stuff for their babies when they’re not around.

It was only a matter of time before some creative entrepreneur realized the possibilities of bottled breast milk — and the time has arrived. If only I lived in London, I could finally get the breast milk that was denied me as a baby. The wait might even have been worth it, because now you can get it in an ice cream cocktail with whiskey.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

WOUND UPON WOUND

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Feb 252011
 

Black metal in Ireland seems to be alive and well and exploding with talent. I have a feeling that metalheads outside of Ireland will be hearing more and more about that scene. Here in the Emerald City, where the weather is now probably even more dank and dreary than in the Emerald Isle, we know the names Primordial and Altar of Plagues, but we have now heard the music of two Irish black metal bands in as many weeks — Eternal Helcaraxe (which we wrote about here) and now Wound Upon Wound — that have truly knocked us down.

Listening to the five-song, 2010 EP (Grievance) by Dublin’s Wound Upon Wound is like witnessing a musical odyssey. Whether what we hear is evidence of the band’s song-writing progression over time in a particular musical direction or simply canny track organization, moving from the first song to the last is a fascinating and immersive experience – like being slowly pulled into an increasingly dark and somber dream.

It is also a genuinely impressive experience, because the band play with great confidence and a remarkably mature understanding of song structure and the ways in which music can elicit a range of emotional responses. This is a taste of potentially wonderful things to come, and we won’t have to wait long for confirmation, because Wound Upon Wound have a debut album on the way.  (more after the jump, including a track to hear . . .) Continue reading »

NEW SOILWORK VIDEO; SHOULD HAVE GONE WITH MY FIRST IMPULSE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Feb 242011
 

Do you remember that not long ago we compiled an NCS list of THE MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS OF 2010? Well, some of you do. Others are newcomers and still others have recently destroyed the brain cells that were responsible for remembering that list.

On that list, we included a Soilwork song, “Epitome”, from their Panic Broadcast album. I really wrestled with that one, because I thought there were three songs on the album that were viable candidates. The first time I thought about it, my choice was “Let This River Flow”. And then I changed my mind, partly because many of you let it be known, through comments and otherwise, how much you liked “Epitome”.

“Epitome” is a very infectious song, and a good song, too. But I’ve still got a soft spot in my heart, or in some other organ that functions when I feel heartless, for “Let This River Flow”. So, imagine my excitement in seeing, just minutes ago, that Soilwork has released an official video for that song. I so excite that I gotta put it up here on our web site — especially because it’s my favorite kind of metal video. (go watch it after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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