GET TO THE POINT: ENRICO SCHETTINO (HIDEOUS DIVINITY)

 Interviews  No Responses »
Jun 062017
 

 

(KevinP brings us this interview of Enrico Schettino, guitarist of Italy’s Hideous Divinity, whose superb new album Adveniens was reviewed by us here and is available now via Unique Leader.)

 

K:  How does it feel to exceed expectations with the new album for the second time?

E:  It feels good indeed, if this is what people truly believe. I mean, to exceed expectations sometimes looks like the only way in death metal nowadays. Competition’s insane. And also, people’s judgments leave you disoriented.  This is our life, sometimes we are at ease with the pressure, it compels us to push the envelope.  Some other times, we decide to take a deep breath, a step back, and do our thing:  rewrite, relisten, erase, rewrite. “Ad libitum”.

In other words, I really didn’t know what “expectations” were!  Too many different awkward ideas about how a band should sound today. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 3): VALLENFYRE, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, NOVEMBERS DOOM, ADRIFT FOR DAYS, DIREWOLVES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Apr 082017
 

 

I had planned to conclude an ever-expanding round-up of new music and videos yesterday, but missed my target. Based on the gagging and gurgling sounds, I think my arrow hit someone in the throat.

So here we are, a day late, and late in the day also. Plus, it’s a Saturday, which means damn few people will even discover this post, and to exacerbate the problems I’ve thrown in music from ten bands, which is probably more than most people have patience for. Oh, but it could have been so much longer! I still have much more music to recommend, some of which will be in tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK feature.

Because this third part of the week-long round-up has metastasized to such a great extent, I’m dividing the tumor evenly into two parts, which means there will be a Part 4 a bit later today — and I’ll also be brief with my own words. Enjoy the music… and do share your own reactions in the Comment section if you’re so inclined.

VALLENFYRE

Vallenfyre‘s new album is Fear Those Who Fear Him, set for release by Century Media on June 2nd. This is an eagerly awaited return from one of our favorite bands, and the video below is for the album’s first single, “Kill All Your Masters”. Continue reading »

HIDEOUS DIVINITY: “ADVENIENS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 282017
 

 

(DGR turns in one of his typically detailed reviews, this time focusing on the new album by Italy’s Hideous Divinity.)

I tried something different with my first few listens of the new Hideous Divinity album Adveniens. I put the whole thing into a shuffled order, so that the first few times Adveniens breathed life into my speakers, it was done in a random order each time. I did so because I wanted to really see what songs captured my attention, which ones really reached out into the ether and punched me hard enough to make me check what song I was on.

I say this, in part, because the branches of the hyperblasting brutal-death metal tree that Hideous Divinity hail from are many, and at times it can be difficult for bands to stick out. Now three albums deep, Hideous Divinity have never had too much of an issue with it — having written their music like lyrical mad scientists unleashed upon the brutal death world — but the line between a solid hunk of speedy and caveman-level groove-heavy death metal and the monotonous whirring of a truck engine can be a little thin, and even the best of bands have failed the wire-walking act and fallen into that crevasse before. Adveniens does not. Continue reading »

HIDEOUS DIVINITY: “ANGEL OF REVOLUTION”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 232017
 

 

I have a much-delayed round-up of new music to post later today. I resisted the desire to make it even longer by including still more new music that surfaced since I first began putting it together three days ago. But I don’t want to overlook this new song by the Italian band Hideous Divinity that premiered yesterday at two European sites. The song is “Angel of Revolution“, and it’s from the band’s new album Adveniens, which will be released on April 28 by Unique Leader in the U.S. and Everlasting Spew in Europe.

This new track follows another one named “Ages Die” that debuted earlier this month, and in case you missed that one, I’ve included it below as well. I’ll also share a comment about the newest song by guitarist Enrico Schettino: Continue reading »

DEATH RITUALS: HATE, SUCCUMB, MAUSOLEUM, PHRENELITH, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, CRYPT ROT, SIGIL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Mar 072017
 

 

As I looked through my list of candidates for a SEEN AND HEARD round-up, and having siphoned off some of the more blackened entries for a continuation of the latest SHADES OF BLACK column, it dawned on me that many of the remaining songs were of a deathly variety. And so I’ve compiled them here with a different post title. Different forms of death, to be sure, but plenty of heaviness and savagery is to be found below.

HATE

Tremendum is the name of the new album by the Polish leviathans (note, I did not say “behemoths”) in Hate. It will be released on May 5 by Napalm Records. This morning the band debuted a lyric video for the first single from the album, a track called “Asuric Being“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: HIDEOUS DIVINITY, FIRESPAWN, WOLFHEART, FUOCO FATUO, ZEAL AND ARDOR, EXOCRINE, SEPULCHRAL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Feb 042017
 

 

It’s been a crazy week for this half-witted editor. Interferences by my fucking day job coupled with interferences by my non-blogging personal life prevented me from posting any news and new-music round-ups all week. That means I’ve accumulated an enormous list of things since last weekend. Unfortunately, I still won’t have time to catch up this weekend.

I’ve got work I need to do today for an annual event I’m attending tonight with my spouse, and based on past experience, I’ll be in no condition to write anything on Sunday morning. I’ve agreed to post one premiere tomorrow, which I’ll get ready today, but there probably won’t be anything else on the site tomorrow. Maybe the coming week will be less crazy and I can do a delayed Shades of Black thing and/or a “That’s Metal!” post after the new week begins.

Okay, enough with the excuses. On to a regrettably small but diverse collection of new things I noticed last week.

HIDEOUS DIVINITY

When I first started using the title “Seen and Heard“, it was because I intended to include both news about, and artwork from, new albums, even when there was nothing yet to hear, as well as streams of new songs. And I have items in both categories to recommend today in this large collection, beginning with the artwork at the top of this post. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MORS PRINCIPIUM EST, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, CROWHURST, VOIDTHRONE, CRYPTICUS

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Nov 222016
 

eliran-kantor-embers-of-a-dying-world

 

I bet you thought we were finished posting for this Tuesday. Nope, I just got waylaid by my day job on the way to finishing this thing, but now having surmounted those obstacles, I give you this round-up.

This collection a bit different from the norm, in that I’m including a couple of items that aren’t hot off the presses. But we’ll begin with two that are, and then conclude with a new Megamix treat from Crypticus that you probably won’t hear anywhere else.

MORS PRINCIPIUM EST

The artwork up there is by one of my favorite metal artists, Berlin-based painter Eliran Kantor. I’ve already posted it on our site’s Facebook page and made it the cover photo on my personal page. How could I not put it here as well? The artist describes it as “an apocalyptic homage to Vermeer’s ‘The Astronomer'” — and here’s what that famous work (completed in 1668 and on display at the Louvre in Paris) looks like: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: BEASTWARS, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, FEARED, FORMLESS, DENOUNCEMENT PYRE, AND FREE SAMPLERS FROM APATHIA, DARK DESCENT, AND UNSPEAKABLE AXE

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
May 072016
 

Denouncement Pyre-Black Sun Unbound

 

Some people may have noticed that I failed to compile even one round-up of new music all of this past week (unless you count that little Warriors in Forests thing). I’ve still been spending hours every afternoon or evening in a hospital ICU trying to help support my injured friend and her family.

For those of you who have been following my scattered references to this tragedy, my friend came out of her coma yesterday, though she still drifts in and out of consciousness and is now beset with other medical issues in addition to her injury.  It’s too soon to tell exactly how seriously impaired she will be as a result of the injury to her brain.  She can answer some simple yes or no questions by moving her fingers or foot, but she hasn’t attempted to speak and doesn’t move much. I’m trying to remain hopeful, but this is still heart-breaking.

Though I haven’t had time to do much for NCS this week besides write introductions to premieres, I have been keeping a list of new song and album streams and videos that I’ve noticed. As usual, there’s a shitload of them, far too many to write about in one post. I picked a handful to include in this post (and Austin Weber wrote an introduction to one of them as well). I’m also planning to prepare a Shades of Black post for tomorrow to collect others. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HIDEOUS DIVINITY, COFFINS, TEMPLE OF DAGON

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 142015
 

Hey there. I thought I’d quickly throw a few new things your way that I found earlier today. Then I have to go do something that actually pays my bills. Regrettably, on some days there seems to be a limit to how much unvarnished fucking off I can do at my job.

HIDEOUS DIVINITY

There’s a new play-through video for one of the best songs on Hideous Divinity’s latest album, Cobre Verde. The song is “The Alonest of the Alone”, and though you may be expecting a guitar or drum video, because most people seem to find more sex appeal in those things than a play-through on the humble bass, this is A BASS VIDEO. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: MISERY INDEX, KING PARROT, HIDEOUS DIVINITY, VATTNET VISKAR, LELAHELL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
May 022015
 

 

Happy Saturday to all you motherfuckers (and I say that with the greatest affection and respect). A lot of new music videos appeared in the interhole yesterday, and here I’ve collected four of them — plus one somewhat older video that I was tipped to earlier in the week. So grab a big bucket of buttered popcorn, turn down the lights, mute your cell phones, and prepare to be entertained.

MISERY INDEX

The new video for Misery Index is set to the music of “The Harrowing”, which is one of the best songs on one of last year’s best albums, The Killing Gods. The video was made by David Hall (Handshake Inc.), who also directed a previous video for the album for “The Calling” and whose work for other bands we’ve featured here on many occasions.

The new one incorporates film of the band performing on their European tour last summer, new performance footage shot by Jeff Grindstopher, some of the excellent artwork that Gary Ronaldson (Bite Radius Designs) created for the album, and a creepy narrative about a group of Zodiac-style killers. Continue reading »

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