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 »

MORE GOJIRA NEWS (GUESTS ON THE EP AND A NEW FULL-LENGTH)

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Jun 012011
 

Thanks to Metal Injection and The Number of the Blog, both of whom just wrote about the following delectible pieces of news in posts I read almost simultaneously. Both of them were getting their info from an interview that Joe Duplantier of Gojira gave to Metal Hammer (which can be found here).

First, Devin Townsend and Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah) are not the only artists who will be making guest appearances on the new Gojira Sea Shepherd EP. Those two joined Gojira on the first single from the EP, “Of Blood and Salt”, which we featured here. In addition to them, Duplantier revealed to Metal Hammer that the EP will also include guest vocals by:

Randy Blythe (Lamb of God)
Anders Fridén (In Flames)
Max Cavalera (The Cavalera Conspiracy, ex-Sepultura)

Second, feast your eyes on this morsel from the Metal Hammer interview:  “The Sea Shepherd EP will be followed later in 2011 by the band’s brand new studio album (“We are still composing,” admits Duplantier, “but it will come out this year, I promise!”).”  After the jump, a few more excerpts from the Metal Hammer interview, including what Duplantier says about the music on the next album. Continue reading »

NEW GOJIRA SONG: “OF BLOOD AND SALT”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  26 Responses »
May 262011
 

I’m in a hurry, so no words, other than to say my new hero (and occasional NCS writer) Siddharth Darbha just e-mailed me a link to this, which purports to be a new Gojira song from their long-awaited EP, The Sea Shepherd, and that it purports to include guest participation by Devin Townsend and Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah).  I have to go change my underoos now.

NEW GOJIRA SONG!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  20 Responses »
May 082011
 

We have been anticipating The Devin Townsend Project’s new album Deconstruction for quite some time, but have been positively slobbering over the prospect since we found out the identities of the guests who will appear on the album (see the line-up, matched with the track list, here). Among those guests are Joe Duplantier, the vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the almighty Gojira, and Paul Masvidal, the vocalist and guitarist for Cynic. Both of them join DT and his bandmates on a song called “Sumeria”.

The modern musical world being what it is, Deconstruction has already leaked, which is a shame. And from leakage of the album to download sites, of course it will be a short step before the songs start to appear on YouTube for streaming. One already has. Guess which one.

Initially, “Sumeria” appeared as a track recorded off a broadcast by a Finnish radio station, with subpar sound quality and sounds of the DJ talking at the end. But now, some asshole has put the actual album track up for streaming, with album-quality sound (well, at least mp3 quality). So, of course, we completely ignored that, in protest of the leakage of what is likely to be an album-of-the-year candidate from one of the most creative metal artists working. That protest lasted about 60 seconds.

Having registered our protest by waiting 60 seconds, we listened to the song, and it’s stunning — a massive, complex, heavy, beautiful, many-layered creation that will take many listens before the contributions of all the parts become clear. But there is no mistaking Joe Duplantier’s contribution — there are passages in the song when those lumbering, instantly recognizable Gojira riffs begin to stomp and Duplantier’s instantly recognizable voice begins to proclaim the verses. Not that Devin Townsend stands in anyone’s shadow, but if you’ve been pining for a new Gojira song, there’s one lurking inside “Sumeria”.  And even though we really do think it’s a shame that this album has leaked, as responsible journalists reporting the news as it happens, we’re embedding that YouTube clip of “Sumeria” right after the jump. Continue reading »

GOJIRA UPDATE

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Mar 142011
 

No, we don’t have any new Gojira music, but we do have an update from the band. We don’t usually post about band updates, but this is Gojira — pretty much the consensus NCS pick for best current metal band in the world, so we are running this update right here, right now (from Gojira’s Facebook page):

“Hello Everybody

We are currently working on a live DVD with important bonus section : “The Way Of All Flesh From The Inside”, the Sea Shepherd EP, (a non profit operation with a lot of people involved is a bit complicated to wrap, but we’re getting there and we promise to release these songs soon). We’re also composing a new album! We’ve written pretty much half of it, and we are very excited by this new material. It’s a big step for us. These songs are original and a good reflection of what we are today.

We are so focused on these things, that sometimes we forget to communicate with you guys, but we’ll try to post more updates from now on.

Big thanks to all of you for your patience and support.

Cheers from the practice room!!!

Gojira”

That is all.

WE WANT TO SIN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Oct 192010
 

The pervasive influence of Meshuggah on the evolution of metal has been on my mind the last several days. Partly, I’ve been thinking about some comments we got on a post about Gojira written by my all-too-infrequent collaborator IntoTheDarkness. Partly, I’ve been thinking about a Meshuggah-influenced band from the Philippines called SIN that NCS reader Jaime Abellar introduced to me just a couple days ago. And because all three of these bands are stupendously good, I thought it might entertain you to share my thought processes.

Of course, it might also reduce your IQ so that it becomes closer to my own. This is the risk you take by visiting NCS.

To begin at the beginning: IntoTheDarkness wrote a post proclaiming and explaining his opinion that Gojira is the best metal band in the world. That was almost three months ago, and yet we’re still getting comments about it, one of which, from a reader whose a/k/a is Ox Drum, said this about a week ago:

If you enjoyed The Art of Dying that much, I’d suggest checking out a badass Swedish metal band that’s been around since the early 90’s called MESHUGGAH! The influence is especially obvious on Esoteric Surgery off of The Way of All Flesh (one of the riffs is exactly based off of the riff in the Meshuggah song ‘Bleed’). Both are great bands and I love them each in different ways.

Anyways, yeah, Gojira is most def one of the best metal bands out there right now (and have been since Terra Incognita actually :P ) Being a drummer myself, Mario is a huge inspiration! In fact, I’m inspired by the band as a whole; even the guitarists!

(lots more after the jump, including a bunch of tracks to hear . . .)

Continue reading »

Why Gojira is the Best Metal Band in the World

 Uncategorized  41 Responses »
Aug 012010
 

Okay so I know I don’t write as much for No Clean Singing as I should, being a part of the brutal triad of authors and all, but I started watching the new 72-minute pro-shot live performance by Gojira that Islander posted the other day and it inspired me to explain to all of you metalheads out there why Gojira is the best the world has to offer. So gather ’round cause it’s story time. (Explanation after the jump…) Continue reading »

I WILL NEVER WASH MY ASS AGAIN

 MISCELLANY  4 Responses »
Aug 012010
 

This is really the fourth installment of MISCELLANY, but I like my photo caption better as a title than “Miscellany (No. 4)”.  And actually, seeing the photo up above was part of my morning’s journey around the webz, so it’s a legitimate part of this post.

The eye-catching image at the top is a new addition to the photo albums on Grave’s Facebook page. I don’t know whether the person executing the autograph is a member of Grave or another band, but his penmanship is amazingly good, under the circumstances. (To see our review of Grave’s new album, go here.)

The rest of this post is a log of my morning’s browsing around the internet, randomly checking out music from bands I’d never heard before. The way this MISCELLANY thing works, I have no advance idea whether the music will be good, bad, or indifferent, so I can’t offer you any guarantees either. I just dutifully set out what I found, and presume you’ll be interested.

Here are the bands I checked out this morning: Drudkh, Sickening, Psycho Enhancer, and Infinite Tales.

Oh yeah, as icing on the cake, we’ve got a stupendous Gojira video to close out this post.  (all this shit, after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SOTAJUMALA

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 032010
 

“Death metal. That’s what’s on the menu today. In fact, that’s all we’ve got on the menu today. No fancy sauces, no creative side dishes, just a big slab of red meat, charred on the outside and bloody on the inside. But it’s Grade A prime, and it do taste good!”

OK, those words are the notes I made to myself as I listened to the first 4 songs on the new album from a Finnish band called Sotajumala (which in English means “Wargod”). And what I wrote to myself continued to hold true until I reached the 8th and final song on the album — the title track, called “Kuolemanpalvelus”.  (Unless you’re Finnish, don’t try to say that out loud because you’ll hurt yourself.)

And that song fucked up my nice, neat encapsulation of this album. Why? Well, I’ll get to that.

On Tuesday, we promised that in the next two days we’d tell you about two new albums that would make your heads explode. Yesterday, it was MAFIA by Fleshgod Apocalypse. If you’re reading this post today, it means that some part of your head is still intact. Today ought to Finnish the job.  (more after the jump, including a track for you to sample, and a new video . . .) Continue reading »

APOCALYPTICA GETS THE GOJIRA TREATMENT

 Metal News  No Responses »
May 062010
 

Those chill cellists in Apocalyptica are set to release their seventh studio album 7th Symphony on August 23rd (August 20 if you live in Germany). Per a press release issued yesterday, the band will continue its relatively recent but oh-so-successful practice of including guest vocalists on some of the songs.

The first single, “End Of Me”, will feature Gavin Rossdale, best known as the vocalist of Bush. Another one, “Broken Pieces”, will include vocals by Flyleaf singer Lacey Sturm, and “Not Strong Enough” will be sung by Brent Smith (Shinedown).  Looks like we’re in for more hard rock from Apocalyptica.

We can’t honestly complain about this, because we’ve got a serious weakness for Apocalyptica, even though their music has drifted far beyond the boundaries of what we write about here at NCS.

But here’s the part of the press release that’s worth a mention on this site:

The album also features a number of other notable guest performances: Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo plays on “2010”, [and] “Bring Them To Light” features Joseph Duplantier, singer and guitarist of the French death metal band Gojira . . . .

Say what?!?  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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