AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A SLOBBERY REVIEW): THE FEVERED – “I HAVE SEEN DEATH”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  3 Responses »
Jan 202017
 

 

In 1901, as part of his research on the rates of salivations among dogs, Ivan Pavlov developed a “conditioned reflex” in his test animals. He learned that when a buzzer or metronome was sounded in time with the presentation of food to his dogs, they would first salivate when the food was presented, and then later, after coming to associate the sound with the food, would salivate simply upon hearing the sound itself.

I am like Pavlov’s dogs — when I hear a mighty HM-2 pedal at work, the saliva starts flowing. I’ve gotten especially slobbery over the new album I Have Seen Death from Brisbane’s The Fevered. Through 10 tracks of Swe-death-style d-beat hardcore mayhem, they’ve rumbled my guts something fierce. Put your bib on to protect against soaking your shirt in slobber and join us for a full run through the album. Continue reading »

THE DROWNED GOD: “MOONBEARER”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Jan 202017
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the debut album by The Drowned God from Lansdale, PA.)

Never underestimate the value of good artwork. That’s my advice.

I frequently despair at some of the absolute crap that some bands, both new and old, choose to represent their music. If I see one more badly-drawn “Metal monster” cover that looks like it was produced by a toddler with more crayons than brain cells, or one more soulless and shiny photoshop rendering of a woman standing awkwardly in front of a generic post-apocalyptic landscape, it will be too soon.

Because, like it or not, your album art is often the first experience a potential fan has of your music. And first impressions count. As the old saying goes, the first bite is with the eyes…

Case in point, the fantastic artwork for Moonbearer by Can Pekdemir which you can see above immediately grabbed my attention the moment I laid eyes on it. Eye-catching, evocative, and a little haunting to look at, it immediately raised questions in my mind, questions like:

Who was this band?

What was the connection between their music and the strange, shadowy silhouette which adorns their cover?

And where the hell was I…? Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 14): KRATER, ULTAR, ARKONA, SIMULACRO, DJEVEL, GAEREA

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  6 Responses »
Jan 202017
 

 

I’ve let two days go by without a further installment of our Most Infectious Song list, because my time is not wholly within my control, but whose is? To make up for lost time, I’m doubling up on the size of today’s edition.

But the goal of catching up isn’t the only explanation. As I pondered which songs to roll out today, these six seemed to step forward and proclaim “We belong together”. When you hear them one after another perhaps you’ll perceive the connections between them as I did, and if you do, perhaps you should seek psychiatric care. (The preceding songs on this list can be seen here.)

KRATER

The first track today is “Flammen im Vakuum“, and it comes packaged with a very well-produced video by Melanie Werner that I enjoy watching almost as much as I enjoy the song. Continue reading »

CODE ORANGE: “FOREVER”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jan 202017
 

 

(Wil Cifer wrote this review of the new album by Code Orange, which was released on January 13 by Roadrunner.)

The kids are all grown up now, so welcome to what could become 2017’s equivalent of You Will Never Be One of Us. This album shows a band going from a more post-hardcore sound to refining themselves into a snarling machine.

It’s also worth mentioning before we dig into the nitty-gritty of Forever that the guitar tone on this rather well-produced album is mean as fuck. Gone is the reckless punk attitude, replaced with very precise execution, and the syncopation is ridiculous more often than not. After the opener you are ready for whatever they are going to throw at you, so to my ears it did not feel jarring. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: WITCHMASTER AND VOIDHANGER — “RAZING THE SHRINES OF OPTIMISM”

 Premieres  5 Responses »
Jan 192017
 

 

If you’re in dire need of a big wake-up call, you could jam a live power line down your throat or you could listen to this new split by the Polish barbarians in Witchmaster and Voidhanger. The effect would be pretty much the same either way.

The name of this electrifying barrage is Razing the Shrines of Optimism, and it’s set for release tomorrow (January 20) by Third Eye Temple. We’re delighted to bring you a full stream of all the audio murder today.

Both of these bands infuse their music with the poison of black metal, along with the energy of a power plant in overdrive, but as you’ll find out, their approaches to the task of firing up an audience follow different strategies. Continue reading »

DEVIANT PROCESS : “PAROXYSM”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jan 192017
 

 

(We present Andy Synn’s review of the new album by Deviant Process from Québec City, Québec.)

Whichever way you slice it, last year was a very good year for fans of the more technical side of Death Metal. From the weird and the wonderful, to the brash and the brutal, 2016 offered a wealth of diverse delights and hidden gems across the length and breadth of the ever-expanding Tech Death spectrum.

And one of those hidden gems was Paroxysm, by Canadian destroyers Deviant Process.

So, as yet another part of my ongoing attempt to catch up with some of last year’s most overlooked and underrated albums, here’s my succinct summation of the band’s full-length debut.

It’s awesome. Now go buy it.

What? You wanted a bit more detail than that? Fine… but never say I don’t do anything for you! Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): STELLAR DESCENT AND AYLWIN — “SECOND SEQUENCE”

 Premieres  10 Responses »
Jan 192017
 

 

Tomorrow the West Cost atmospheric black metal bands Stellar Descent and Aylwin will release an immersive new split under the title Second Sequence, marking the bands’ second collaboration following their 2013 split, Farallon. We have the first public stream of the split today, preceded by some thoughts about the music. The split will be released digitally at these locations — with all proceeds going to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the U.S., which funds both NPR and PBS:

http://stellardescent.bandcamp.com
http://aylwin.bandcamp.com

And there will be a tape release from Red River Family and a CD edition through Arcane Angels.
Continue reading »

TALSUR: “SLOUGH OF DESPOND”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Jan 192017
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new fourth album by the Russian project Talsur.)

I would guess that Funeral Doom is a hard kind of metal to write. Your songs are long, your tempos are agonizingly sluggish, you’re running the risk of using hammy black metal synths and killing the intended vibe, AND you have to write captivating melodies, all at the same time. It is a style of metal that, for me, has the smallest number of noteworthy bands, yet at the same time those bands who stand out REALLY stand out. In truly capturing the essence of sorrow, despair, and the lamentation of your own fragility and mortality, Funeral Doom offers a musical experience that truly doesn’t exist anywhere else in the pantheon of the metallic arts.

Talsur is a one-man Russian project with multiple releases to his name, boasting different stylistic inclinations on each one (the samples I checked out of his last record had a sort of industrial blackened take on a doom sound), and now finds himself doing ANOTHER new approach with Slough Of Depond. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3 OF 3): WOE, APOSTATE VIATICUM, CHRCH, NECROWRETCH, CONSUMMATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Jan 192017
 

 

This is the third part of a mid-week round-up that I had originally planned to post yesterday, along with Part 1 and Part 2.

When I originally planned this tripartite collection of a dozen songs and videos, I had found a kind of musical theme or connection between the songs I allocated to each Part. But since I didn’t get Part 3 posted as planned, in the meantime I’ve changed one of the tracks I had originally planned to include here, and then also added a fifth one. So the theme of Part 3 has fragmented, and now we’ve got a lucky 13 items in this collection as a whole.

The music in here is still damned good though — and I’m still keeping my verbiage (relatively) short.

WOE

Man, it has been a long and sorrowful wait for new music from Woe (you should thank me for not saying “woeful”) — because I’ve really enjoyed the band’s previous releases, and four years have passed since the last one, an album named Withdrawal. The wait is over. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2 OF 3): POWER TRIP, BAT, BLOOD FEAST, ROOT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jan 182017
 

 

I find myself at the middle of the week, drowning again in new songs and videos from forthcoming albums. As I made my way through my list of discoveries this morning, it dawned on me that an even dozen of them could be conveniently divided into three segments, with the songs in each segment bearing a relationship to each other — at least to my twisted mind. So that’s what I’ve done.

My original plan was to post all 3 parts today, interspersed among other things — and no sooner had I written that than my fucking day job diverted me for hours. I can’t believe they actually expect me to work for my pay. So, in the face of that outrage I’m only able to post Part 2 today, and Part 3 — along with all the other posts I had planned for the balance of today — will get shoved into Thursday, which will make Thursday overstuffed here at our rotund site. I’ll still keep my commentary brief.

POWER TRIP

The first song in this collection comes from Texas-based Power Trip. It’s called “Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe)”, and it appears on the band’s new album Nightmare Logic, which will be released by Southern Lord on February 24.

According to the band, this song is the catchiest one they’ve ever written — which is saying something. However, I’m not prepared to argue with them, because it really is ridiculously catchy. Continue reading »

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