WAKING UP WITH KEN BEDENE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 232012
 

Last night I didn’t quite finish the review with which I had planned to start our posting day at NCS before running out of gas. The fact that I spent most of the night drowning my sorrows in whiskey with some friends may have had something to do with that. So, I need a little time to (a) pound coffee, (b) continue writing my review, (c) pound coffee, and (d) pound more coffee.

In the meantime, please amuse yourselves by watching Ken Bedene. He used to be the drummer for Abigail Williams and is now the drummer for Belgium’s Aborted. The two videos after the jump were originally posted by Sick Drummer magazine. They were filmed during Aborted’s performance at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco on May 8. The two songs are “Источник Болезни (The Origin Of Disease)” from Aborted’s 2012 album, Global Flatline, and “The Holocaust Incarnate” from Engineering the Dead (2001).

Ken Bedene is amazing. He appears to be part cybernetic metronome, part wolverine in full attack mode, and part Zen monk. Watching these videos means I need less coffee to wake up, which means less time peeing, which means more time pounding the keyboard, which means I should be back soon with that review. Enjoy Ken Bedene and Aborted.
Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SVEN DE CALUWE (ABORTED)

 Interviews  7 Responses »
Feb 032012
 

We’re as proud as a three-balled tomcat to bring you this very special NCS interview, conducted by e-mail. The victim was Sven De Caluwe, the frontman of Aborted, System Divide, and grindcore trio Bent Sea (which also includes Dirk Verbeuren and Devin Townsend). In part because of his well-known demented sense of humor, we decided to tag-team him with an interviewing duo of Andy Synn and Phro — both of whom also wrote reviews for NCS of Aborted’s ass-ripping new album, Global Flatline (here and here), which is out now on Century Media Records.

********

Phro: Global Flatline. Holy fuck. This album impregnated my ears, impaled the aural baby with a clothes hanger, and roasted it over an open flame. This album was originally slated for a 2011 release . . . WHY DID IT TAKE SO FUCKING LONG???

We were too busy jerking off for the past 2 years. As you can imagine, the fine art of auto felatio can take up quite some time. In all honesty it took this long because we wanted to take our time to come up with the best album we could and not rush things out like we have on some past records.

 

Andy: So first off, can you give us some of the themes behind the title Global Flatline? (the less obvious ones I mean, more what it means to you personally).

As you can tell, it deals with the end of man through man. Different probable causes are taken on topics through the album, such as extremists and religion, drug abuse, social apathy and whatever else causes mankind to show its fantastic attributes to the world—and oh yes, let’s not forget feces. The album talks about feces too. Continue reading »

ABORTED’S “GLOBAL FLATLINE”: THE FULL-ALBUM STREAM

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Jan 202012
 

To flense the flesh from the bones with scalpels and with teeth.  To pulverize and grind the bones into powder.  To mix the powder with spraying arterial blood and force the mangled body to drink deep while the masters of its doom howl with maniacal glee.

To do all this and leave the victim smiling and begging for more. This is the trick.  Many have tried to master it, few have succeeded. On their new album, Global Flatline, Aborted show us how it’s done.

Rising above all else they’ve achieved before, this multinational collective have produced a head-whipping, face-shredding album that will cleave its way into your cranium and take up residence there — and you’ll be begging them not to leave. Scalpel-sharp riffing, obliterating drumbeats, explosive bass drops, tempos that flip upside-down on a dime, solo’s that jet like an acetylene torch, wonderfully bestial vocals — it’s all there.

And that would be enough, but mother of fuck, there’s still more — melodies swimming through the maelstrom of each song that sink them fast into your memory, and thunderous grooves that are irresistibly convulsive. You want the first skyrocket of the 2012 death metal season? Look no further than Global Flatline.

We’ve got two reviews of the album at this site (here and here), but as good as those are, there’s really nothing like hearing the music for yourselves. We’re SO fucking pleased to premiere a full stream of this fine album, which you can hear right after the jump. Continue reading »

ABORTED: “GLOBAL FLATLINE”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jan 202012
 

(This is the second of two reviews we’re publishing today of the new album by Aborted. Andy Synn is the author of this one. And if you haven’t yet listened to our premiere of the full album stream, make haste to this location.)

“What is today’s agenda? Ah yes, evisceration!”

Rejoice brethren, for the scions of sickness have returned. Sven De Caluwe and his band of morbid misfits, now featuring ex-Abigail Williams men Ken Bedene (drums) and Michael Wilson (guitar; also in System Divide) have produced a record that picks up where the stunning return to form of Coronary Reconstruction left off.

The new blood has definitely helped re-animate this fetid corpse, as the band bring a renewed bloodlust to the table, delivering  all the grinding intensity and raging death metal ferocity one might hope for, carrying over the undercurrent of malignant melody from Slaughter & Apparatus and Strychnine.213 whilst deftly sidestepping those records’ weaker elements.

Sven’s blast-furnance roars and morbid screams cut through the grime like a buzz-saw through rotting flesh, his always distinctive delivery showcasing the versatility of his vocals as an instrument, those vomitous Tardy-esque gutturals and rabid, Jeff Walker-style screeches accented by an Anselmo-level of belligerence, delivered in a gravelly mid-ranged bellow. Continue reading »

ABORTED: GLOBAL HARD-ON

 Album Reviews, Phro's Posts  15 Responses »
Jan 202012
 

(This is the first of two reviews we’re publishing today of the new album by Aborted. Phro, a displaced American forced to take refuge in Japan, is the author of this one. He also made suggestions to Aborted about how they might re-word the album and song titles. Shockingly, they didn’t change any of the titles. But they did let us premiere the full album stream of the new album, which you can find at this location.)

So when Islander sent me the album for review, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  I’ve experienced the hallucinogenic side effects of great death metal and grindcore albums before…but even so I was hardly prepared for this soul rampage.  It’s not because it’s the most br00t41 thing this side of cutting tin with a chain saw—no, there’s melody woven into this chainmail blanket of angry hatefuckery.

In fact, it is precisely this use of melody that makes the reptile beast, jerking off and eye-fucking saggy-titted old ladies on the train, need to kill.  The melody homes in like a laser sight on that dull lizard lolling about in your lower brain and then drops about fifty billion metric shit-tons of grrarrrfuckshitpissraaaaawrrdetroyyourfuckingfacerrrrr brutality right on that stupid tongue flicking motherfucker.  Pure, goddamn obliteration.  Total fucking wasteland.

Unfortunately, not all brain-lizards really care much for the brains within which they dwell.  Mine hates me more than those stupid fucking worthless pieces of shit the Westboro Baptist Nuttybars hate Bert and Ernie.  And, apparently, so does Aborted. Continue reading »

ABORTED: “THE ORIGIN OF DISEASE” VIDEO!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Jan 112012
 

Remember that Aborted song we premiered last month? That song called “The Origin of Disease”? The one that kicked your motherfucking ass over the hills and far away? The one from the Global Flatline album that Century Media will be releasing on January 24?

Well, today the band premiered an official music video for that very same ass-kicking song. Part of the video is Aborted doing their kicking-ass thing, just ripping all kinds of hell out of the song. And the other, interspersed part of the video is about a private communion that turns out not to go so well for the lecherous priest.

Kudos to Phil Berridge of Creative Junkie Media for a very nice job on the vid. Gaze upon it after the jump . . . and prepare for some gooooore! Continue reading »

2012: METAL IN THE FORGE (Part 1)

 Forthcoming Albums  28 Responses »
Jan 062012
 

December and 2011 are both over, and with the end of the last month, it’s time to round up what we saw over the last 30 days about forthcoming albums.

We usually try to post these updates on the first of the month, but the first of this month was New year’s Day, and I was moving kinda slowly that day. Plus, I’ve been focusing on year-end lists from a variety of sources, and, well, I’m late with this. I have more excuses, if you’d like to hear them.  No?  Okay, I understand.  I’ll just shut up and get going with this list.

So, here’s the deal:  In these METAL IN THE FORGE posts, I collect news blurbs and press releases I’ve seen over the last month about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like at NCS (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, we cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — THIS ISN’T A CUMULATIVE LIST. If we found out about a new forthcoming album before December, we wrote about it in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier.

This month’s list begins right after the jump. It includes some real eye-openers. In fact, it’s not too soon to say that 2012 is already looking like yet another royally skull-fucking year for metal. But as usual, this list is half-assed rather than comprehensive. I confess that in December I was even more half-assed than usual in keeping my eyes open for news about new albums. So, feel free to leave Comments and tell all of us what I missed when I put this list together. Let us know about albums on the way that  you’re stoked about, even if you don’t see them here! Continue reading »

PHRO HELPS ABORTED REVISE THEIR TRACK LIST

 IQ Subtraction, Phro's Posts  26 Responses »
Dec 212011
 

Like gutted fish left waiting on a sunny river bank before a fry-up, we’re still basking in the glow of premiering a song from Global Flatline, the forthcoming album by those multinational gore-spatterers in Aborted. As is true of all Aborted albums, the track list for this one just gets your mouth watering:

01. Omega Mortis
02. Global Flatline
03. Источник Болезни (The Origin Of Disease)
04. Coronary Reconstruction
05. Fecal Forgery
06. Of Scabs And Boils
07. Vermicular, Obscene, Obese
08. Expurgation Euphoria
09. From A Tepid Whiff
10. The Kallinger Theory
11. Our Father, Who Art Of Feces
12. Grime
13. Endstille
Bonus track: “Nailed Through Her Cunt”

However, as delectable as this track list is, it could be improved. For example, that song we premiered — “The Origin of Disease”: Don’t you think it would have sounded better if it had been called “The Origin of My Penis”? I think so, even though I didn’t come up with that name (and he who did shall remain anonymous for now).

In an effort to enhance the appeal of the track list, we turned to Phro, our resident expert on branding (and I’m not talkin’ about coming up with names and slogans). Phro’s proposed revisions to Aborted’s album title and track list appear after the jump. Continue reading »

AN EXCLUSIVE NCS PREMIERE: ABORTED’S “THE ORIGIN OF DISEASE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Dec 212011
 

Instead of being institutionalized for long-term treatment, the psychopaths in Aborted are about to release their seventh full-length album, Global Flatline. This monstrosity will be vomited forth on the unprotected public by Century Media on January 24. Today, we’re as happy as zombies feasting on a putrid corpse to premiere the album’s third track, “The Origin of Disease”.

Over the course of their storied career, Aborted have churned out a grisly body of work that has stood the test of time and amassed a global following of fans who are now hungry for more. From what we’ve heard of the album so far, they won’t be disappointed.

“The Origin of Disease” is on the bleeding forward-edge of speed, propelled by a relentless drum barrage and scalpel-sharp riffing. It’s caustic and crushing, but it’s also loaded with powerful grooves and spiced up with infectious bursts of lead guitar and a solo near the end that spins out in unexpected directions. It features titanic bass lines, explosive bass drops, irresistible chugging, and dual vocals — Sven De Caluwé’s hair-raising shrieks and sink-hole gutturals courtesy of guest vocalist Julien Truchan (Benighted) — which carve quite viciously.

In short, it’s a fully loaded, jet-fueled, razor-sharp head-fucker of a song: a blast of modern death metal from a band who definitely aren’t just regurgitating the gory glories of the past, but who haven’t pulled up their roots from it either. Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 7)

 Forthcoming Albums, Interviews  19 Responses »
Jul 012011
 


June is behind us, July lies ahead. Here in the U.S., we’re about to start the long weekend leading up to Independence Day, when Americans celebrate the birth of the nation by buying explosive ordinance wherever fine explosive ordinance is sold and lighting up the night sky (in addition to blowing the shit out of objects and sometimes themselves). People will also be exposing unsightly parts of their bodies wherever sun can be found and eating large quantities of health food prepared on outdoor grills. Our Founding Fathers would be proud of what they wrought!

Because the last month has ended, that means it’s time for another installment of METAL IN THE FORGE, in which we collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last month about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, we cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — this isn’t a cumulative list. If we found out about a new album during May or preceding months, we wrote about them in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. And feel free to tell us about how we fucked up by omitting releases that we overlooked. Continue reading »

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