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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Jan 052015
 

 

Today we present Part 12 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

Today’s songs come from two outstanding albums by death metal bands who are quite skilled at putting a vigorous bludgeoning on your ass — and doing it in the context of actual songs that prove to be quite memorable.

ABYSMAL DAWN

Abysmal Dawn’s Obsolescence came loaded with highly infectious material, and so morbid that it might have been hand-delivered by the grim reaper. I think “Inanimate” is the most infectious track on the album, but only by a hair. It had lots of competition all around it. Continue reading »

Nov 182014
 

 

(DGR reviews the new album by Italy’s Hideous Divinity, which is out now via Unique Leader.)

The tree of the Italian super-fast death metal scene, as it has currently come into focus, is one that has so many branches that have crossed over with one another that photos of it could be turned into logos for other death metal bands. It is also one that has been intensely vibrant, dropping new seeds and allowing new trees to form underneath it, becoming slight permutations of the initial home from whence they came.

The section that houses bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hour Of Penance is one that has seen groups not only founded off of each other, but also exchanging musicians time and time again. People have left and rejoined and likewise gone off to form their own groups. Despite making conscious efforts to be clear of that musical style, some of the offshoot bands can’t seem to help themselves and go back to the super-fast, intensely brutal branch of death metal from which they sprouted. Continue reading »

Nov 102014
 

A collection of things, good and bad, most of which I noticed over the last 24 hours:

HIDEOUS DIVINITY

We’ve written about every one of the advance tracks that have premiered from the new album Cobra Verde by Italy’s Hideous Divinity — in fact, we helped premiere one of those ourselves. The reasons we’ve devoted so much space to the music is that it so successfully combines explosive violence, trauma-inducing groove, and memorable strains of melody within well-structured songs.

It’s superbly performed, obliterating death metal that’s not only exhilarating to hear the first time through but also delivers the same level of adrenaline rush on subsequent listens. And there’s not a single soft spot in the whole album. Now the entire album is available for listening, so you don’t have to take anyone else’s word for its strengths. Continue reading »

Oct 162014
 

 

We’re pretty damned hyped about the new album from Italy’s Hideous Divinity. We’ve already written about the first track from the album that debuted last month (“Sinister and Demented”), and we helped premiere the second track (“The Alonest of the Alone”) — and now we’ve got one more advance song from the album to bring your way. This new one is the title song.

When we interviewed Hideous Divinity guitarist Enrico Schettino about a week ago (here), he emphasized the importance of writing actual songs, even in the arena of brutal death metal: “We care about the song. We care about its structure and hooks and mood.” You don’t have to look any further for proof of that than “Cobra Verde”.

The song is undeniably bludgeoning — explosively so. For most of its length it moves at the speed of a blast front following a megaton detonation, with a sonic power that’s just as destructive, driven by the off-the-hook percussive militarism and high-speed riff flurries. Continue reading »

Oct 132014
 

 

(Our interviewer KevinP, a notoriously hard man to please, somehow convinced Enricho Schettino, guitarist for Italy’s Hideous Divinity, to speak with him. This is what followed.)

K:  The band was formed in 2007 when you left Hour of Penance and moved to Norway.  What caused you to move and would you have stayed in Hour of Penance if you hadn’t moved?

E:  I thought I was gonna drop death metal as soon as I’d start a new life in a foreign country… god I was wrong. About my moving reasons… a Norwegian friend of mine once told me that people move there either for love or to escape from a war conflict.  In my case it was the first one. Have no clue about how things would have been in the band if I stayed, I just remember that at the time for me it was really difficult to stand the company of many Hour of Penance members.

 

K:  Then you rejoined in 2009 for a short period of time?

E:  Yes. Got the proposal to re-join and I was extremely happy to play live again with them. I was not involved at all in their new album’s songwriting process but I thought it was fair.  I took it all extremely easy. Then we played in an Italian festival, apparently the sound was messy and I took all the blame. Asked if there was any problem, but everyone said “No no we’re fine 100%”… One week later, just before a fest in Switzerland, I got the call — with no face-to-face explanation to this date — saying, “We’re better off as 4 piece”. These are the facts, just want to stick to them, or at least I wanna try. Continue reading »

Sep 242014
 

 

Earlier this month we featured the first advance track from Cobra Verde, the new album by Italy’s Hideous Divinity, and today we have the pleasure of featuring a second one, in the form of a lyric video. This track is named “The Alonest Of The Alone” and it features Dallas Toler-Wade from Nile and Narcotic Wasteland).

Cobra Verde will be released by Unique Leader on October 28 in the U.S. and on October 27 in the UK and October 31 in the EU. As we previously reported, it’s a concept record inspired by the 1987 German film of the same name directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski in his final collaboration with Herzog before his death. The album also includes a cover of “Last and Only Son” by Ripping Corpse (from their 1992 EP Industry).

“The Alonest of the Alone” is yet further proof that Cobra Verde will be an unusually accomplished rendering of sonic savagery, combining a lot of highly accelerated technical whiz-bang with a talent for pummeling grooves and seductive melody. It abundantly earns the appellation of “brutality” without falling into the cesspool of mindless wankery or commonplace brutishness. Continue reading »