IT’S BEAUTIFUL — AND IT SUCKS

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Sep 022010
 

Sometimes you can admire the idea of beauty from afar, even when you have no chance of experiencing it for yourself. It’s a melancholy kind of fantasy. It’s sublime, and it’s wistful at the same time. It makes you wish, for a moment and maybe longer, that you were someone else, in some different place.

We had that moment today. We have that moment almost every day, prompted by one thing or another. But it passes, as it must, because life must go on, and no good comes from pining too long over what might have been.

Today’s moment was provoked by finding out, finally, about where the following metal tour would be stopping in North America. It will be called THE DECIBEL DEFIANCE TOUR 2010. It is a thing of immense and terrible beauty. It features these bands:

SUFFOCATION
THE FACELESS
THROUGH THE EYES OF THE DEAD
DECREPIT BIRTH
FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE

The thought of this tour transports us into flights of ecstasy, as if soaring high above the earth with all of creation spread before us for the taking. In other words, for our tastes, it’s the most fucking skull-rattling, ass-kicking, intestinally perforating tour of the fall.

It’s also a very melancholy discovery. For all the flights of mental fancy, it brings us very low. At the end, it’s an excrutiacingly suck-tastic discovery. Can you guess why?  (more whining after the jump, of course . . .) Continue reading »

NAME THAT BURGER!

 Off Topic  16 Responses »
Sep 012010
 

International cooperation is a great thing, particularly when it involves coma-inducing food.

Last weekend, I got into a discussion on this site with Niek, the lead perpetrator of Death Metal Baboon – he’s all the way over in The Netherlands – about burgers (a subject near and dear to his heart). A post we put up at NCS featuring Goatwhore got Niek all steamed up for the stuff and in the comments on that post, he shared a recipe for richly topped burgers, including pineapple, bacon, Gouda cheese, and cheese-onion buns.

Niek went on to create the stuff, and he put up links to burger photos in his NCS comments. Well, that pushed me over the edge — those babies looked so fucking good that I had to follow suit.  I hunted down almost all the required ingredients, including the Grolsch beer that Niek included in his burger photographs, and I and 3 other ravenous gluttons made those burgers and wolfed them down for dinner. (I wrote about the whole experience here.) So far so good (and man, those burgers were awesomely good).

But then, the food coma hit with a vengeance, and it sounds like Niek got overwhelmed by one, too. Metal food is — well, it’s metal! But it’s tasty. So, Niek and I thought about naming the thick bastards — a name that ideally pays tribute both to the burger’s heaviness and its tastfulness. But we had a better idea. Niek and I decided we would let you do it!   (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ACACIA STRAIN: THE HILLS HAVE EYES

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Sep 012010
 


THE ACACIA STRAIN – THE HILLS HAVE EYES

THE ACACIA STRAIN (WORMWOOD IN STORES NOW!) | MySpace Music Videos

Who needs fancy production values, special effects, acting, arty story lines, animation, serious themes, or hot models pretending to be the vocalist’s girlfriend?

Yeah, just fuck all that shit. When three of the four members already look like they belong in prison, you just set the thing in what looks like a dusty prison yard, dress up some dudes to look like guards and give ’em shotguns, figure out which of your friends will play the prison bitch, throw in a big cucumber and some fence-pissing, and have a riot.

Helps to have a heavy-ass deathcore song from a heavy-ass band like Acacia Strain to provide the soundtrack. The song is off their new album, Wormwood.  Yuck it up.

K-K-K-KATAKLYSM!

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Sep 012010
 

Anyone who’s listened to metal for very long has a mental list of bands whose new albums they’ll buy sound unheard. For us, Montreal’s Kataklysm is one of those bands. They’ve also been putting out albums for almost 20 years, which means that most diehard metalheads already know whether Kataklysm is their thing or not. But honestly, it’s hard for us to imagine any fan of extreme metal not liking the band’s latest release, Heaven’s Venom. It’s a fucking barn-burner.

It doesn’t represent any kind of seismic shift in Kataklysm’s brand of death metal, but that’s part of the band’s appeal. They have a distinct sound that they’ve stuck with and honed over time like the veteran pro’s they are, and their albums also reliably include a few songs that step outside the band’s dominant territory to keep things interesting. In other words, you know what you’re going to get, and when it’s as good as the franchise Kataklysm has built, that’s just fine.

Everything on Heaven’s Venom is big and powerful: Big-assed, sawing riffs that generate industrial-strength, nail-driving rhythms; those “northern hyperblasts” shot from the drumkit like a cloud of angry hornets; dramatic melodies; and Maurizio Iacono‘s distinctive, passionate, grizzly-bear roars giving voice to powerful lyrics that you can actually hear.

Once again, Kataklysm has produced an irresistible onslaught of powerful grooves and dark melody, fist-pumping anthems and mosh-pit missiles, and enough variability in the pacing and instrumentation to make Heaven’s Venom an album worth hearing from start to finish.  (more after the jump, including a track to hear . . .) Continue reading »

7TH NEMESIS: UPDATE

 Metal News  8 Responses »
Aug 312010
 

This will be short, but sweet. It concerns 7th Nemesis, a French band we found out about for the first time less than two months ago. We sang the praises of their 2008 album, Archetype of Natural Violence, here.

Not long ago, the band started emitting messages to the effect that a new album was on the way. Then last week, they released a really short video teaser for the album, which will be called Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow. Then yesterday, out popped the cover for the album — which would be that nice piece of visual awesomeness up above.

And then today, two new songs from that album magically appeared on the 7th Nemesis MySpace page (which has been completely revamped): “Seeding Devolution” and “Legacy of Supremacy”.

And may we say they are absolutely two killer examples of unpredictable, progressive death metal? Why, yes we may. And you may need to have your head rung like a bell, in which case jumping over to that page will do the trick. By the way, the band has a new vocalist, and that schizophrenic vocal style evident on Archetype has become somewhat less schizophrenic on the new songs but is just as vein-bursting.

No precise word on when the album will become available, but it’s supposed to be “soon”. The band is searching for a label. Hope they find one.

If you want to see that brief video teaser, continue past the jump. Continue reading »

RELAXED, FUN, AND SATANIC

 Metal News  18 Responses »
Aug 312010
 

UK’s Telegraph reports this morning about an article written by the Rev. Rachel Mann, an Anglican priest at St. Nicholas church in Burnage, England, in a publication called Church Times. It’s about metal, and it’s probably not what you would expect from a priest. Granted, our impression is that the Anglican church is somewhat more tolerant and somewhat less judgmental than many institutional forms of religion, but still, Rev Rachel’s article is a refreshing change of pace.

It’s also humorous, in a guileless, probably unintentional way. It’s also a tad condescending. And it doesn’t go far enough.

Nevertheless, we thought it was worth re-printing the Telegraph piece, along with our own running commentary, and of course some musical accompaniment. We also invite you to comment, because we have a feeling this will inspire some thoughts — so don’t keep ’em to yourselves.

Christians could learn a lot about life from heavy metal, says cleric

By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM BST 31 Aug 2010

The Rev Rachel Mann claims that the much-maligned form of music demonstrates the “liberative theology of darkness”, allowing its tattooed and pierced fans to be more “relaxed and fun” by acknowledging the worst in human nature. She says that by contrast, churchgoers can appear too sincere and take themselves too seriously.

This is a defense of metal from an unusual quarter — not that we feel metal needs to be defended, by anyone, especially priests. Sure, sometimes it’s frustrating to hear people who don’t know the first thing about metal condemn it, but usually that frustrated feeling passes quickly, because, basically, we don’t give a fuck what non-metalheads think about our music. On the other hand, we’re not sure we agree with Rev Rachel’s defense.  (more of the Rev’s thoughts, and ours, after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MORE 2010 SICKNESS (Part 8)

 Forthcoming Albums, Listmania, Metal News  No Responses »
Aug 312010
 

Another month has passed. Summer is waning. It’s still as hot as the ninth circle of Hell in most parts of our country, but here in the Pacific Northwest, the air is already beginning to feel like fall. And because fall in Seattle lasts about one week, winter is already what we’re thinking about, because winter means getting soaked with rain. In the dark.

Where were we? Oh yeah, another month is over. And here at NCS, that means it’s time for another installment of METAL IN THE FORGE, a forge being the old name for a place where a blacksmith heats metal and works it into the shape of something useful. We thought it sounded literary.

Another name for “forge” is “smithy.” As in, “the blacksmith works in a smithy.” But “smithy” doesn’t sound literary, and METAL IN THE SMITHY just sounds fucked up. METAL IN THE FORGE is a little fucked up, too, the more we think about it, but not as fucked up as METAL IN THE SMITHY.

Where were we? Oh yeah, at the end of every month, we update the list of forthcoming new albums we first posted on January 1. (All the other updates can be found via the “Forthcoming Albums” category link on the right side of our pages.) Below is a list of still more projected new releases we didn’t know about at the time of our previous updates, or updated info about some of the previously noted releases.

Once again, we’ve cobbled together news blurbs about bands whose past work we’ve liked, or who look interesting for other reasons. Perhaps needless to say, these are bands that mostly fit the profile of music we cover on this site — the kind that would like to tear your head off.

So, after the jump, in alphabetical order, you’ll find our list of cut-and-pasted items from various sources since our last update about forthcoming new releases. Look for the bands you like and, if you’re really obsessive like we are, put reminders on your calendar. Continue reading »

“THAT’S METAL!” – BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (No. 13): THE BULLETS, BALLS, AND BEEHIVES EDITION

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  5 Responses »
Aug 302010
 

Can you tell that we like alliteration? The last “That’s Metal!” post was subtitled “The Bull, Boobs, and Beer Edition”. Maybe next time we’ll move on to the C’s, or backwards to the A’s. Or not.

Yes, here we are again, having crept forth with trepidation from our comfy informational cocoon to see what might be happening in the outer world — the world inhabited by people who don’t listen to metal and instead blow themselves and others to smithereens, sodomize the planet, debate the wisdom of government regulation as if it were a brand new subject, hang on the every word of vapid celebrities, and so on, ad nauseum. You know the world we’re talking about: the one we live in.

This is why, to the greatest extent possible, we try to get our news only from metal blogs. But every now and then, we have to wade through the festering putridity of “hard news” in order to find those little nuggets of life that make us say, “Fuck! That’s metal!”, even though it’s not music. And life never fails to reward our searching.

Today, we have news items about people who get shot in the head and don’t realize it (for five years), a testicle-cooking contest, and a dog with a cast-iron stomach. Of course, we’re including our typically tasteless commentary, plus musical accompaniment.

Also, it occurred to us that our musical accompaniment should precede the stories, instead of being lumped together at the end, as we’ve been doing.  ‘Cause if you listen to music after you’ve finished reading, it’s not really “accompaniment,” is it? This is typical. We usually have these kinds of revelations after the train has left the station. And is long out of sight.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MISCELLANY (NO. 8)

 MISCELLANY  7 Responses »
Aug 292010
 

Sunday mornings really aren’t any better than Saturday mornings, but we’ve run that riff already, so no more NCS prescriptions about how to get your ass in gear (at least today). Instead, this is just another installment of MISCELLANY.

We did one of these earlier in the week, but we’re still catching up, so we’re doing another one. May have to do even one more before next weekend, because the list of things to check out has grown to ginormous proportions.

To remind you of the ground rules: I randomly check out music I haven’t heard or videos I haven’t seen, trying to stick with bands I’ve never heard before, and keeping my fingers crossed that it will be worth the time. I make a list during the week of things that come our way and then go exploring without much rhyme or reason.

It would be like throwing darts at the list, except I’m not allowed any sharp implements. So I just imagine I’m throwing darts. In my mind, I’ve only put out someone’s eye once.

What’s fun about this game is that I don’t know what I’m gonna find, or whether it will be worth a shit, except (usually) I know it will be metal. Here’s what I heard or saw, in the order of doing it, for this installment of the series: Mytra (Hungary), A Life Once Lost (U.S.), Vulture Industries (Norway), SiC (Faroe Islands), and Loading Data (France?).

Yes, this is a long list, but it’s fucking Sunday. What else are you gonna do today? You can hear and watch what I heard and saw, after the jump . . . Continue reading »

METAL FOOD = FOOD COMA

 That's Metal -- But It's Not Music  8 Responses »
Aug 282010
 

One of the many things we like about the comments on this site is that you never know where they’re going. They can start on one subject and finish in an entirely different place. Usually, they stay within the bounds of music, but not always.

Yesterday provided a good example. One string of comments started with Goatwhore and finished with a burger recipe. No shit.

And not just any burger recipe. This one came by way of Dutch metal blogger Niek, and included cheese-onion rolls, fried egg, bacon, gouda cheese, and a pineapple slice. And here’s what Niek’s finished product looked like:

Well, that just looked and sounded so fucking good that I had to try and duplicate it, right down to the Grolsch beer in Niek’s photo. Our results are at the top of this post, and the story is after the jump, along with suitable musical accompaniment. Continue reading »

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