OUR LIST OF 2010’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 11

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2010  3 Responses »
Jan 072011
 

As of yesterday, we had rolled out, in no particular order, 20 of the metal songs released in 2010 that we thought were the most infectious (and if you’re just joining us, read this to find out what we’re talking about). Here’s the list so far:

Byfrost: “Desire”
Evocation: “Sweet Obsession”
Keep of Kalessin: “Dragon iconography”
Living Sacrifice: “Rules of Engagement”
Kataklysm: “Suicide River”
Kalmah: “Bullets Are Blind”
Finntroll: “Solsagan”
Eluveitie: “Thousandfold”
Coliseum: “Blind In One Eye”
Kvelertak: “Blodtørst”
Demonic Resurrection: “The Unrelenting Surge of Vengeance”
Sargeist: “Empire of Suffering”
Heaven Shall Burn: “Combat”
Kenos: “Revolver Revival”
Soilwork: “Epitome”
As I Lay Dying: “Anodyne Sea”
Cloudkicker: “We’re goin’ in. We’re going down”
King Conquer: “Wasted Potential”
Canopy: “Menhir”
Incarnia: “Yersinia Pestis”

We’re now starting on the home stretch, with 10 songs left to go. Yes, we finally gave up trying to chop the list down below 30; just too painful. Today’s new entries on the list are from Rotting Christ and Arise. They’re quite different from each other, but they’re both guaranteed to get your head banging.  (hear the songs after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ARTILLERIE: ERADEFILED

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jan 062011
 

[EDITOR’S NOTE: When we recently named a song by India’s Demonic Resurrection to our list of last year’s most infectious tunes, we observed that 2010 was the year in which we here at NCS had discovered the joys of Indian metal. In addition to DR, we heard and wrote about albums by Bhayanak Maut, Infernal Wrath, Heathen Beast, and Skrypt. And we also expressed our interest in continuing to explore Indian metal in the New Year. That led to a correspondence with Siddharth Darbha, a musician and close observer of the Indian metal scene. Today, we’re posting the first of what we hope will be regular contributions from Siddharth about Indian metal. This one is his review of a new album by New Delhi’s Artillerie.]

Artillerie’s 2008 release, New Offensive, was well received and validated the addition of a new flavor to Indian metal from a capital perspective, joined by Undying Inc.’s EP, Evilution Of A Manimal. New Offensive was exceedingly groovy and live-worthy, in-your-face material, and it invited high expectations from fans. Artillerie has been playing for about four years now and took a lot of time out, playing comparatively few gigs and concentrating on writing new material. They released a two-song EP Prelude To Chaos, featuring trailers of their new album, Eradefiled.

Artillerie tied up with Grey and Saurian Records to work on Eradefiled, later choosing to release it independently as a free internet download. (You can download it here.) It consists of 9 songs spanning 40 minutes. Artillerie spent a lot of time adding depth to the theme of this lyrically conceptual album, with their blog detailing the self-fashioned fictional background storyline for their album.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2010’S MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS: PART 10

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2010  4 Responses »
Jan 062011
 

If you’ve been a regular reader of NCS since August, then you’ll know there was no way we would finish this list of “most infectious” songs without including today’s two additions to the list. It seemed like the whole month of August at NCS was devoted to these two bands — and with good reason: The music just grabbed us by the throat, the back of the neck, and other body parts that will go unmentioned, and wouldn’t let go.

Neither band has yet achieved the level of global visibility captured by most of the other bands whose songs are on this list, but that’s simply a sign of how much good metal is being created that, for one reason or another, hasn’t yet made the kind of big cannonball splash that the music deserves. We count ourselves lucky that we found these bands. We hope we’ve done our picayune part to expand their audience. Selfishly, we hope they continue to create the kind of music we’re featuring here today.

If you happen to be tuning into this series for the first time and wonder what we mean by “most infectious”, read this. To see the 18 songs we named to the list before today, click the Category link over on the right called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2010. And to read more about the next two songs — and hear them, if you haven’t already — follow us after the jump for todays’s songs from Canopy and Incarnia. Continue reading »

PARTY HEARTY, BLEED PROFUSELY, AND THEN DROWN IN AGONY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jan 052011
 

The post title is our way of summing up two new videos we saw yesterday and a new song we just heard. We exercised a bit of literary license in doing that, but we know you’ll forgive us.

The first video is from The Burning — a Danish band whose 2010 album Hail the Horde we’ve had a blast listening to since it was released in November. We’ve previously featured the first video from that album, for the awesomely headbangable song “Bait the Hook” (go here for that). The Burning have now released a second video for the album’s title track. It’s a straight-ahead, no frills party anthem, and the video matches up quite nicely with the music — a montage of performance footage and behind-the-scenes clowning around.

The second video is for a song called “None Shall See” by a Swedish death metal band called My Own Grave. The songs comes off the band’s latest album, Necrology, which was produced by the ubiquitous Dan Swanö at Unisound and released on Pulverised records last July. We haven’t heard the album yet, but this song makes us want to. It’s old-school Swedeath with modern attention to hooks and grooves. And there’s lots of bleeding in the video, like the bleeding that would occur if someone hit you in the mouth with a brick.

And then there’s that new song, now available for free download, by The Project Hate MCMXCIX. It’s an epic-length, 12 1/2-minute offering that we won’t even attempt to sum up in words.  So, get ready to party, bleed, and drown . . . after the jump. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 25)

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  8 Responses »
Jan 052011
 

Time for another edition of THAT’S METAL!, where we attempt to entertain you with things that aren’t music but are still metal — as in items that would make you say, “Shit! That’s fucking metal!” — at least if you liked the words “shit” and “fucking” as much as I do.

Usually, we pick wacko news stories for these posts, but today we got on a video kick. In fact, three of our four items are videos. Two of those are visually stunning, and the third one is . . . fucking funny as shit. And the fourth item consist of drink recipes. I just know you’ll want to try them out for yourselves without delay, and then write us with photos and descriptions of the tasting experience. I really encourage you to do that, because there’s no fucking way in hell I’m doing it.

ITEM ONE

This first item is a short film by Carl Erik Rinsch called “Parallel Lines – The Gift”, which I first saw on the consistently awesome TYWKIWDBI blog. It was made for the promotion of the Philips Cinema TV. Philips gave six lines of dialogue to five filmmakers at Ridley Scott Associates, and commissioned each of them to create short films using those lines. All five were released by Philips last April. “The Gift” is one of them, and the one I thought was the best.

It’s a futuristic piece set in Moscow that involves a robot on the run from the police. It’s amazing to watch, and reportedly spawned a bidding war between several big Hollywood movie studios, including Warner Bros and Fox, who want to turn the short film into a feature. Rinsch is currently developing a remake of Creature From The Black Lagoon and is in preproduction on an “epic period samurai film” titled 47 Ronin starring that great thespian Keanu Reeves.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2010’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 9

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2010  2 Responses »
Jan 052011
 

So far, our list of most infectious songs has been heavily weighted with music from European bands. But today we’re adding selections by two bands from the good old U.S. of A (though the word “band” is a misnomer in the case of one of the artists). And if you happen to be tuning into this series for the first time and wonder what we mean by “most infectious”, read this. To see the 16 songs we named to the list before today, click the Category link over on the right called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2010.

CLOUDKICKER

Here at NCS, we were latecomers to the musical phenomenon known as Cloudkicker. But late is better than never, and when we had our eyes opened, they opened wide. NCS co-founder and occasional contributor IntoTheDarkness put Cloudkicker’s 2010 album, Beacons, at No. 3 on his personal list of the year’s Top 25 releases, calling it “the best instrumental album all year.”

Our regular contributor BadWolf had it at No. 6 on his list of the year’s best, calling it “one of the first pieces of genuinely brilliant metal-as-art to be released not only outside of the label system but outside of capitalism period.”

And another of our frequent contributors, The Artist Formerly Known As Dan, assigned it to the No. 8 position on his best-of-2010 list, with these words: “He doesn’t need a label because he can already do everything he needs to by himself.  And he’s beyond talented.”  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THE FAMINE: “AD MORTEM”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 042011
 

Seems like it was only yesterday that we had a metaphorical orgasm over a new song from a forthcoming album.

Huh. It actually was only yesterday. No wonder it seemed like only yesterday. Well, yesterday we were raving about a new song from Omnium Gatherum. And it seems like only today that we came across a brand new song from a brand new forthcoming album by yet another band we’re very high on — The Famine.

Actually, it was only today when we came across this song. Because The Famine only posted the song a few hours ago.

If you don’t know The Famine, you should check out this song, or you can check out their 2008 album, The Raven and the Reaping, which is fantastic. The new album will be called The Architect of Guilt, and it’s scheduled for release on February 15 on Solid State Records. The Famine has had more than its fair share of trouble finishing this album. Among other things, their studio burned down last February, destroying all their equipment and all the tracking for the new album as it then existed.

But based on this song, the wait and the travails were worth it. This song is a blistering, hair-raising, full-on, high-speed assault — but with a mighty sweet groove. Continue past the jump, and listen to “Ad Mortem”. Continue reading »

DESULTORY

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jan 042011
 

2010 saw powerful new releases from two first-wave Swedish death-metal bands that we meant to review: Evocation and Interment. We failed miserably in following through on our intentions, as much as we liked those albums. However, the new album from yet a third first-wave band is now almost ready for release, and we’re not going to miss the chance to write about this one.

Formed in approximately 1989, Desultory was caught up in the hotbed of Stockholm death metal. They released three demos between ’90 and ’91 (From Beyond, Death Unfolds, and Visions) and a 1991 EP called Forever Gone. That led to a signing by Metal Blade for a three-album deal. 1993’s Into Eternity and 1994’s Bitterness (both recorded at Sunlight Studios) were well-received and solidified Desultory’s role as one of the progenitors of a more melodic brand of Swedish death metal. And then the train went off the rails.

Guitarist Stefan Pöge left the band, and the remaining members made a musical course change, producing an album called Swallow the Snake that apparently left death metal behind in favor of hard rock and groove metal. We haven’t heard that album, but from what we’ve read, it clearly disappointed Desultory fans in a major way. For all intents and purposes, Desultory came to an end, with the three members from the Snake album continuing on as a rock band under the name Zebulon.

But Desultory is now back.  The remaining three members from the 90’s — Klas Morberg (vocals/guitars), Hakan Morberg (now on guitars), and Thomas Johnson (drums) — have recruited bassist Jojje Bohlin and have produced the first Desultory album in 14 years. It’s called Counting Our Scars, it’s scheduled for release later this month, and it’s a welcome throwback to glory days. We got an advance listen — and yes, Desultory is indeed back, with a vengeance.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2010’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 8

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2010  8 Responses »
Jan 042011
 

So far, we’ve named 14 songs to our list of 2010’s most infectious tunes, and so far the songs have been without clean singing. No shock there, of course. But today we’re including a couple of exceptions to the normal rule around here, with songs from Soilwork and As I Lay Dying.

Both of these bands have been favorites of this site’s founders for many years. We’ve always found something to like in their albums, even when the overall album strength has dipped a bit, and 2010 was no exception. Plus, both bands put on great live shows, and we snap up tickets whenever they venture into the PNW.

Both bands released new albums in 2010 that we reviewed, and both albums contained multiple songs that made our master list of “most infectious” candidates. In the end, we picked one song from each. For a full explanation of what we mean by “most infectious”, read this. And to see the songs we’ve named so far, click the Category link over on the right called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2010.

To read about and hear the songs we picked for our final list from Soilwork and As I Lay Dying, continue on after the jump. Continue reading »

OMNIUM GATHERUM: “SOUL JOURNEYS”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 032011
 

 

Look what we just found! It’s a brand new video for a brand new song from a forthcoming brand new album! It’s all just brand new, just like 2011! And it’s from Finland’s Omnium Gatherum. They’re not brand new, but they are fucking good.

And this song? It’s the best new song we’ve heard in the New Year. Granted, the New Year isn’t even 3 days old yet, but we’ve got a feeling that 362 days from now, this song will still be one of our 2011 favorites — it’s that strong.

This is melodic death metal done right. It hits hard, it makes you wanna headbang, but it’s catchy, and it has a surprising — and surprisingly dreamy — interlude in the middle with clean singing, of all things.

The album will be called New World Shadows, and as we explained when we featured Omnium Gatherum in our Finland Tribute Week series (here), it was produced by Dan Swanö and it includes guest vocals from Mr. Swanö. In fact, that’s probably his voice during the middle interlude of this song. What a fucking coincidence, seeing as how we wrote about Mr. Swanö just yesterday (here).

Enough of our blather. Watch the video. You won’t regret doing it. Fucking awesome song.

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