Feb 142016
 

Wombbath-Downfall Rising

 

I’m not finished with this list, but I’m making myself stop. It’s the middle of February, and I ought to be using the time I’ve been spending on this focusing on 2016 releases. But I still can’t help but feel bad that I’m stopping without having mentioned all the other 2015 songs I’ve heard that are as deserving as the songs that are on this list.

Tomorrow I’ll have a wrap-up post, with a complete list of all the songs and links for listening to them. Here are the last four, and I’m closing out this list with some good old death metal.

WOMBBATH

Until last year, Wombbath’s last album was 1993’s classic Internal Caustic Torments. The group that recorded Downfall Rising isn’t the same band from more than 20 years ago — vocalist/bassist Jonny Petterson (Ashcloud, Syn:drom, etc.), guitarists Al Riglin and Taylor Nordberg (Infernaeon), and drummer Jeramie Kling (Infernaeon, The Absence) joined forces with founding guitarist Håkan Stuvemark for this new album — but they upheld the Wombbath name and reputation very well. Continue reading »

Dec 302015
 

Integrity-Orgasmatron cover

 

Like a lot of people, I spent most of my music-listening time yesterday with Motörhead. For the hell of it, I also spent time listening to metal bands covering Motörhead songs. A lot of bands have done that. Out of the many covers I listened to,  damned few of them are quite as good as the originals, and at least to my ears, none of them is better.

However, having invested the time hunting for covers that breathed some kind of different life into the classic originals, I decided to put them all here — the good ones and the so-so ones — by these bands: Satyricon, Sepultura, Ringworm (with guest vocals by Barney Greenway), Korpiklaani, Sodom, Machetazo, Avulsed, Overkill, Metallica, Horna, Kvelertak, Warbringer, and Krisiun.

But before I get to those, I’m starting with one that’s definitely a success. It’s a cover  of “Orgasmatron” that Integrity released just yesterday on Bandcamp (here). Continue reading »

Jun 262015
 

 

We had a busy day at the site yesterday, and I thought I wouldn’t have time to explore new music. But my wife decided to strand me at home last night while she went out and whooped it up with some friends of hers, and so what was I to do? I damn sure wasn’t going to venture into the loris compound by myself; my wife’s good with a knife and she usually has my back, but without her I’m not getting close to those devious fuckers. So instead I decided leave the loris ninjas to their own devices, hunker down at the computer, and drown myself in new metal. Here is a collection of new stuff from four bands that helped me pleasantly pass the time.

AVULSED

Let’s first have a round of applause for Juanjo Castellano, because goddamn, is his cover art for the new EP by Avulsed the absolute shit, or what? Continue reading »

Jun 172014
 

The Spanish death metal band Avulsed have been slaughtering souls and raping ears for more than two decades, and the passage of time seems to have had no effect on the strength and immediacy of their powers — their latest album, 2013’s Ritual Zombi, is a classic undead crusher (and as you can see, it’s adorned by deliciously grotesque artwork).

Part of what makes Ritual Zombi such a potent album is the sound of Dave Rotten’s voice. To steal the words from one appreciative review, “his decrepit, rumbling, nihilistic growls remain an immense feature here…. [He] gurgles like a human sewer spewing forth flesh-eating plasma”. But although his vocal presence strides the album’s landscape like a titanic golem, the record is also loaded with grisly riffs and suppurating guitar leads that have a way of getting stuck in your head.

Speaking of grisly old-school riffs and morbid melodies, we’re pleased to bring you the premiere of Avulsed’s lyric video for “Horrified By Repulsion” from Ritual Zombi. Continue reading »

Sep 042013
 

The Horror Division of NCS hereby delivers unto you three new videos. We like them. We would like them better if the first band were named Avulsed Avulsed, because that would provide a second thing in common that all three videos share. As it is, they only share one thing (apart from the fact that they’re all fun to watch and hear): horror thematics.

AVULSED

When my NCS comrades and I were gathered together in Seattle last week we spoke of many important things, including which metal songs included the best opening grunts and growls. No one mentioned “Dead Flesh Awakened” by Avulsed, but then again none of us had heard it last week. It appears on this long-running Spanish band’s brand new album, Ritual Zombi, which just came out (and is available for purchase or download on Bandcamp).

As of today, however, “Dead Flesh Awakened” has become the subject of a brand new video that premiered at DECIBEL. The song starts with Dave Rotten giving voice to what sounds like a lion’s growl. More lionine growling comes later. Along with a lot of skull-cleaving grooves and grisly melody and filthy death metal goodness. Plus zombies. Don’t forget the zombies. Continue reading »