Oct 312012
 

On the morning of October 1, in a surprising move that we reported soon after it happened, Death Grips put up their newest album, No Love Deep Web, for streaming and free download. Why was that surprising? Well, they had signed a contract with Epic/Columbia to release two albums this year, and No Love Deep Web was supposed to be the second one.

Releasing it for free download didn’t seem like something your average big-name record label would approve. But Death Grips apparently wasn’t happy with the label’s decision to postpone release of the album until sometime in 2013, so they just self-released it anyway. At the time this happened, I wondered whether Death Grips really had given a big-time FUCK YOU to Epic, or instead had just launched a really clever marketing campaign that the label might have even known about and condoned.

Well, we got our answer to that question not long ago, because Death Grips posted on their Facebook page an image of a confidential e-mail dated October 1 from Epic’s chief in-house corporate counsel to the man who appears to be Death Grips’ manager, accusing the band of breaching their contract and demanding that the free download be stopped and that masters of No Love Deep Web be turned over to Epic immediately. To get a better look at the e-mail, click on the image above and you’ll see a bigger copy.

As we know, Epic’s demands weren’t met. So what are we to make of this? And where does this scuffle stand now? Continue reading »

Oct 112012
 

 

We’re going off our usual beaten path of metallic extremity in this post, with two brand new videos from Primal Rock Rebellion and Death Grips. I thought both were worth watching, and so here they are. We’ll get back to our usual diet of gut rumbling music later today.

PRIMAL ROCK REBELLION

SikTh is no more (though a reunion could still happen), but SikTh’s Mikee Goodman is very much still alive and kicking. His two-man band Primal Rock Rebellion (formed with Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith) released a debut album earlier this year called Awoken Broken.

This morning I saw that PRR had released a new music video for a track from the album, “Tortured Tone”, and I decided to check it out. Goodman himself conceived, cast, and directed the clip, and it’s a visual feast. It includes a log cabins, woodland tranquility, seascape vistas, rainy cobble-stoned hills, Goodman and Smith performing in a huge bright field, a pretty girl, and a bit of creepy stop-motion animation.

As noted, the song isn’t the usual NCS fare, but it eventually pulls out some metal grit and heft, and it’s melodically memorable. Here you go: Continue reading »

Oct 062012
 

In your formative years, you learn some things that stay with you. In my formative years, I learned that if you wore white socks and black shoes to school, you were just asking for abuse. Only helpless nerds whose mommas dressed them wore white socks and black shoes. Poor motherfuckers, it was even worse than duct-taped glasses and using pocket protectors with a half-dozen pens. Yeah, that’s how fuckin’ old I am.

At some point, it looked like Michael Jackson would make white socks cool, back before it came out that he was sleeping with little boys. But I think you needed to have patent leather shoes and a white glove to pull that off, and you needed to be cool in all sorts of other ways, too. And honestly, I thought he was still pushing his luck with that shit, even when he was at the height of his powers.

Well, motherfuckin’ Death Grips may succeed where Michael Jackson failed. That pic up there is the new alternate album cover for No Love Deep Web, the new Death Grips album that has become a case study in how to viral-market your music. In case you missed our earlier post about this album and didn’t see the news elsewhere, this is the album that Death Grips released for free download earlier this week despite the fact that they’re signed to the mainstream Epic/Columbia label, who presumably has rights to the music — and used a picture of an erect dick as the album cover.

Supposedly, something about that album art led to the band’s site being shut down, though that still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Web hosts don’t give  fuck what you put on your own web site and I can’t fathom how the band’s label could unilaterally have it shut down since the site pre-dated the band’s signing with them and presumably is paid for by the band.

But in any event, per a post on their Facebook page, Death Grips seem to have created a new alternate album cover, which is at the top of this post. Continue reading »

Oct 012012
 

Especially for an extreme metal site, we’ve showed a lot of love for Death Grips. Why? Because their music is “metal”, even though it’s not metal, and also because they don’t give a fuck.

How many fucks don’t they give? Well, you may recall that Death Grips signed a deal with Epic/Columbia to release two albums this year. The first one was The Money Store (reviewed for us here by groverXIII). The second one was supposed to be released sometime this month. But last night on Twitter the band said, “The label wouldn’t confirm a release date for NO LOVE DEEP WEB ’till next year sometime,” followed by, “The label will be hearing the album for the first time with you.”

And this morning Death Grips just went ahead and put up No Love Deep Web for streaming and free download. Maybe their contract with Epic/Columbia allows them to do this as long as they deliver some other album for label release, but something tells me this wasn’t exactly what Epic expected. I thought Epic was an odd choice for this band anyway, and maybe we’re starting to see why this wasn’t a marriage made in heaven.

Either way, it’s cool to get this new album. It’s so fresh that I’ve barely started listening to it. The SoundCloud player for the stream is after the jump, and you can go HERE to download it while you can (click the smaller “Premium Download” link — it’s the only one that will start the download of the album). You can also download it off the SoundCloud player, or from the other download links I’m including after the jump.

Also, the album cover is a picture of the album’s title written on an erect dick. No fucks given.

Also after the jump, following the erect dick cover art (NSFW): a Phro-tastic write-up I just received from Phro (also NSFW) about this news.

(via Pitchfork) Continue reading »

Mar 282012
 

Work, work, work.  That’s me right now, though I would rather be blog, blog, blog. So this will be short.

MARDUK

You know Marduk. They’re from Sweden. They play tumultuous black war metal. They have a new album coming on May 28 called Serpent Sermon. The album cover is after the jump. So is the first song from the album, which premiered yesterday on Metal Hammer. It’s called “M.A.M.M.O.N.”

It’s not exactly what I was expecting from Marduk, which is not a bad thing at all. Yes, there are bile-vomiting vocals. Yes, there are weapon-like blast beats and double-bass. Yes, the guitars come in menacing waves. But there are changes of pace in which the guitars also ring out slow, chiming melodies while the bass audibly bounds along beneath them in a jazzy progression. Interesting. Continue reading »

Feb 282012
 

BadWolf introduced me and many of you to Death Grips through the first installment of a series in which he spotlights the music of non-metal bands (here) — though I think most listeners would agree that there’s a helluva lot about Death Grips that’s metal. Because of BadWolf’s post, I got interested and starting following the band’s news. Early this month we reported that they intended to release two albums this year, including a song called “Blackjack”, which I included in that earlier post.

More news surfaced yesterday, and it kinda blows my mind: Death Grips has signed a record deal with Epic, the major label owned by Sony whose stable includes artists such as Fiona Apple, Natasha Bedingfield, and Brandy. Okay, to be fair, Epic is also home to Lamb of God, Ozzy Osbourne, and Judas Priest. As well as George Michael and Jennifer Lopez. And Mudvayne.

I hear the distant rumble of a throaty “What the fuck?!?” Or maybe that’s just my throat. I mean, Death Grips isn’t exactly a natural fit with the Epic roster, and I do wonder by what logic Epic saw this as a money-making signing, because this band is definitely out there. Or under there (“I am below / so far below / the bottom line”). Maybe Epic is trying to put some edge on their image.

As for Death Grips, I’m happy they get some label backing regardless of where it comes from; I certainly don’t expect that this group is going to “sell out”. I’m also now waiting for the J-Lo cover of “Beware” — “Dismiss this life / worship death / Cold blood night of serpent’s breath”. Fuck yeah. And I’m also happy that to celebrate the signing news, the band released another new song called “Get Got”. More details about the two albums plus the song are after the jump.

Continue reading »

Feb 082012
 

Death Grips isn’t metal in any conventional sense (shit, did I just use “metal” and “conventional” in the same sentence?!?), but they’re still definitely metal. If you ain’t up on Death Grips yet, you can find a good introduction in BadWolf’s NCS post about them here. That post pushed me to explore Death Grips’ music, and the music made me a believer. Based on the comments we got and the page hits on that feature, there are lots more believers out there, too.

It goes, it goes, it goes, it goes 
It goes, it goes, it goes, it goes
Guillotine – YAAAAAH!

Where was I?  Oh yeah, so, for all Death Grips believers and those who will become believers, we have some news from the Death Grips facebook page: “we’re releasing two full length albums this year world-wide .. first one drops in April ”

We also have some new Death Grips 2012 music . . . after the jump.

I close my eyes and seize it 
I clench my fists and beat it 
I light my torch and burn it 
I am the beast I worship… 

Continue reading »

Jan 192012
 

(Today, BadWolf begins a new ongoing series in which we focus on music that’s not metal, but it’s still metal, if you know what I mean. And if you don’t know what I mean, this first installment in the series may help you figure it out.)

Death Grips : Ex-military

I’ve made no secret of my life outside metal. My annual top 10 not-metal album list is consistently my most challenging—and therefore favorite—list to compile. The fact of the matter is each year a whole host of bands release albums every bit as noisy, chaotic, dark and heavy—if not heavier—than much of the drivel that passes for metal these days. With this in mind I will endeavor to expand your ears into realms of sound outside the borders of our beloved genre.

[Download Death Grips : Ex-military for FREE, HERE: http://thirdworlds.net]

Our first voyage is a free mixtape that’s already garnered critical acclaim outside the metal world—and inside of it. Death Grips play hip-hop… sort of. Of the three members only one, MC Ride, spits rhyme, and his style is so full of belly-growls and whooping yells that many hip-hop websites are dismissing his work as obtuse non-rap. In other words, he’s halfway to a metal singer already. His lyrics orbit around subjects with intense and bitter gravity—drug abuse, social injustice, Tacheons (or taking you on) and . . . DECAPITATION!!! Continue reading »