SEEN AND HEARD: DEAD CONGREGATION, GOD MACABRE, INCANTATION, THE LION’S DAUGHTER, VAINAJA, YOB

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 202014
 

As a result of unusually pressing personal and job-related commitments, and making sure I have enough clean underwear for my MDF trip tomorrow, I haven’t had time for proper write-ups on all the good new songs I came across yesterday. But I have a sneaking suspicion you’ll be happy just listening anyway. So here goes — a big load of music streams (or links) in alphabetical order and damn few words from me.

DEAD CONGREGATION

Promulgation of the Fall, the new album I’ve written about before by the excellent Greek band Dead Congregation, is now streaming in full and available for acquisition on Bandcamp. Part of me thinks this moots the point of a review. Part of me wants to lavish my praise in print anyway. We’ll see — but you should damn sure listen below: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ORIGIN, WRETCHED, DEAD CONGREGATION, DOOM:VS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
May 072014
 

Over the last 24 hours I discovered (thanks in large part to tips from NCS friends) quite a lot of new music and news that I’d like to recommend to you — so much that I’m dividing the discoveries into two posts today, this being the first.

ORIGIN

I always look forward to new music from Origin. I know that, if nothing else, it will simulate the experience of wetting my finger and sticking it in a high voltage electrical outlet, except without the heart stoppage and the hair smokage.  And yesterday brought release details about the new Origin album — Omnipresent:

It will be released in North America by Nuclear Blast on July 8 (yet another birthday present for me!) and by Agonia Records in Europe on July 4. The cover art, which is visible above, is by Colin Marks (Nevermore, Kataklysm, Exodus), who also created the cover for the band’s Entity album.

Drummer John Longstreth, guitarist Paul Ryan, and bass-player Mike Flores are back, and this album will feature the Origin debut of ex-Skinless vocalist Jason Keyser. Colin Marston handled the mixing and mastering. Pre-ordering is available here for Agonia. This is a new band photo: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, CLOAK OF ALTERING, DEAD CONGREGATION

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
May 012014
 

Here are three select items I’d like too throw your way from my recent crawls through the interhole and the NCS in-box.

WOLVES IN THE THROWN ROOM

I was motivated to mention this first album by the stunning artwork you see above. The image is a collaboration between Rachel Carns and Nathan Weaver for Celestite, the forthcoming release by Wolves in the Throne Room. In addition to the unveiling of the artwork, the album’s release date was also announced yesterday: July 8, 2014 — which will make it a nice birthday present for yours truly.

I’ve mentioned this album before, but to recap, it has been described as “an instrumental, experimental companion” to the band’s 2011 album Celestial Lineage and as “a deeper excursion into the crystalline synthesizer-driven domains that have long intrigued them.” Here’s the track list: Continue reading »