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BLACK METAL (PT. 2): A COLLECTION CURATED BY NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

Jul 272016

(We welcome back Neill Jameson (Krieg) with the second installment of a multi-part post devoted to under-the-radar black metal releases worthy of greater attention. You can find Part 1 here.)

As we slog through the bullshit heat and humidity of the summer one could say the best activity to beat the heat is to stay indoors, shun your asshole friends who think hiking on the surface of the sun is enjoyable, grab a drink and bide your time listening to music. It’s a good distraction and perfect excuse not to go outside and get skin cancer in the name of “fun in the sun”.

This is the second part of my blathering about black metal releases you should listen to because I’m under the misguided impression that I have decent taste. This might turn into a three-part series because I keep thinking of random records at inopportune times like when my boss is trying to explain new vital procedures at work. Continue reading »

BLACK METAL (PT. 1): A COLLECTION CURATED BY NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

Jul 112016

(We welcome back Neill Jameson (Krieg) with the first installment of a multi-part post devoted to under-the-radar black metal releases worthy of greater attention.)

While it seems a lot of what’s going around in black metal these days is more driven by aesthetics and shock value than ever, it still has a certain potency that other genres within metal don’t seem to be able to match. That being said, I can’t think of a lot of current bands that I obsessively listen to the way I would when I was younger and potentially more full of shit than I am now at this ripe old age.

Elderly bitching aside, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about records and bands that went somewhat under the radar at the time of release and sit in relative obscurity now, mostly because people have shitty taste (myself included), so I figured I’d use a column or two and shed some light on some records in the genre I’ve never been able to walk away from for whatever reason, the sort of releases that if I ever came into an excess of money I’d love to release on vinyl so that they would sit in my office unsold while people download it along with some weird virus that broadcasts Russian incest porn to their e-mail contacts. Here’s a few to start with: Continue reading »

DARK HARDCORE: RECOMMENDATIONS FROM NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

Album Reviews 9 Responses »

Apr 202016

(In this post we bring you the first of what we hope will be many recommendations of music at NCS by Neill Jameson (Krieg).)

Over the weekend I saw Nails at Choosing Death in Philadelphia. Much like the previous times I’ve seen them it was the audial equivalent of a bulldozer; aggressive, violent, and most importantly, ugly. It made me remember that their Unsilent Death record was a very important moment in my life, creating and feeding my interest in hardcore as a genre beyond either what seemed to me to be loaded with guys lifting weights and shopping for baseball hats on one side of the fence and old bands like Black Flag and Poison Idea who made some of my favorite punk records on the other. I learned that there was hardcore out there that was negative, dark, and expressed something beyond what seemed like a frat house aesthetic.

In the few years since then I’ve been digging into the genre and finding a lot of really, to me, interesting records that fed the need for the dark and heavy sounds of metal while expressing the sort of negative emotions that are fairly constant in my life. Labels like A389, Organized Crime, Melotov, and Magic Bullet are just some that work within this area and are good spots to check out if you have further interest.

I approached NCS with the idea to occasionally pop in and write about music that’s important to me that other folks into metal might not be familiar with but could appreciate. I figured dark hardcore would be a good place to start. So without giving you more back story you don’t care about, here’s a few bands & records to check out. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: A YEAR-END LIST FROM NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

LISTMANIA 2015 7 Responses »

Dec 162015

(Once again, we invited Neill Jameson of Krieg to share a year-end list with us as part of our LISTMANIA series, and once again we are very happy to report that he agreed.)

We’re now at that part of the year where everyone sits and jerks each other off in the form of lists of what records industry people are breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for releasing and the inevitable think tank that follows in the comments section complaining that whatever bullshit they like got ignored by the publications they spent the other 364 days of the year saying they hate anyway.

I personally like to use these lists to look into releases that fell through the cracks for me during whatever given year (this is for 2015 I think, I don’t remember anymore) and also when someone is nice enough to want my opinion (sorry in advance) a way for me to show people some bands they might not even know about.

Much like last year I’m going to skip a lot of the more well-known releases from this year, opting to focus on some great recordings you may have never heard but definitely should look into. If you really must know what captured the top slot for the year for me, go listen to the newest Killing Joke record or Leviathan’s Scar Sighted; both records show an energy and focus that both bands have always been capable of, but in a more urgent manner than before. Both are absolutely brilliant and essential. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA: A BEST OF 2014 LIST FROM NEILL JAMESON (KRIEG)

LISTMANIA 2014 10 Responses »

Dec 042014

Photo by Hillarie Jason

(We invited Neill Jameson (Imperial) of Krieg — whose Transient album is one of our 2014 favorites — to share with us and you his thoughts about some of the best releases he’s heard this year, and he agreed.)

2014 has been one of those years that honestly didn’t leave much of an immediate impression when I glance back at it, but I’m positive it’s more of a slow burner. At least I’d like to think so, rather than the first real signs I’ve become old mentally which means I probably should look into an IRA or what flavor bullet to eat, either sounds about as appealing as the other.

I think I listened to a lot more non-metal music this year in terms of new releases, but rather than spend 500 words telling you why I think Bob Mould’s new record wins the year, I’ll go over the metal & metal-related pieces that I’ll probably continue to listen to past January. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: A LEVIATHAN / KRIEG SPLIT

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 6 Responses »

Oct 012014

I’ve been waiting for this one anxiously. And then, as (bad) luck would have it, when my beautiful pumpkin orange vinyl copy of this 7″ split arrived late last week from Holy Terror Records, my turntable decided to turn mulish and uncooperative. Fortunately, Holy Terror relieved my frustration and spared that turntable a severe beating when it decided to begin streaming the two songs on Bandcamp beginning late yesterday.

The split features songs by two of the longest-running and most influential of U.S. black metal bands, Leviathan and Krieg. It is a natural pairing in many respects, not least because of the friendship between Leviathan’s Wrest and Krieg’s N. Imperial, and thus it’s not surprising that the idea for it was conceived almost a decade ago. Yet only now has the split become a reality. Impressions of the music follow… Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KRIEG — “RETURN FIRE” (AND A REVIEW OF “TRANSIENT”)

Album Reviews, Premieres 5 Responses »

Aug 192014

There’s a song premiere at the end of this post. It’s a really good song. Those of you who are squeezed for time or afflicted with attention deficit disorder, I won’t blame you if you jump to the bottom and press Play. But I’m going to have my say about the whole album, because Transient is one of the most interesting I’ve heard in 2014. It might even be the best album Krieg has yet produced in a career that’s coming up on two decades. And if you think that any one song on this album will faithfully represent all the rest, even the one we’re premiering, you might want to read on.

Increasing age is a double-edged sword for all of us, and it’s a particularly unpredictable blade for musicians, one that’s just as liable to cause self-inflicted wounds as to carve new trails through the underbrush. On the one hand, skills can improve and the accumulation of life experiences can add maturity and new depth to an artist’s creativity. But goddamn, it can also make you boring, or lazy, or both. Some bands are content to tread water, some of them try to force-feed a fire that died out long ago, and the sparks sputter instead of blaze. Transient is about the furthest thing you could imagine from that.

Neill Jameson (aka Imperial), the man behind Krieg, cemented his place in the black metal underground a long time ago. He’s older now. By the sounds of Transient, he might not be any happier, but he sure as hell isn’t treading water. What he’s done instead is to feed the smoldering fires of the black metal vehemence he has tended so well with an array of new and different fuels, producing flames of different colors, though the overarching emotional hue of the album as a whole is still mostly bleak, blasted, and broken. Continue reading »

KRIEG: “ORDER OF THE SOLITARY ROAD”

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Aug 012014

I’m about to get really high. I’m guessing 35,000 feet once the plane takes off and reaches cruising altitude. I’m hoping it will land in Denver instead of disappearing. There seems to be a lot of that these days. If it doesn’t land, I’ll miss Denver Black Sky and this post will be my epitaph.

I intended to include more than just one song in this post, but one is all I’ve got time for before I have to run the TSA gauntlet at Sea-Tac Airport. So I’m going with Krieg.

KRIEG

Krieg’s new album is named Transient. It’s coming out September 2 on Candlelight. I haven’t heard it yet, but some of the people at Decibel have, and they say it’s “killer”. They say it’s Krieg taking their music to its “next logical place” — “further down the rat hole of desperation, frustration, and monochromatic hate.”

They said that by way of introducing their premiere of the first song from the album, “Order of the Solitary Road”. I don’t know about the rest of the album yet, but yessir, this song is killer. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: KRIEG — “WORTHLESS NOTHING”

Premieres 6 Responses »

Jun 252014

On July 15, Unholy Anarchy Records will release a four-song split by Krieg and Ramlord, and today we’re delighted to premiere one of Krieg’s two tracks, “Worthless Nothing” — a cover of a song from the 1993 LP The Greatest Invention by the seminal UK crust band Doom.

As I wrote in my recent review of this excellent split, Krieg’s decision to cover this particular song makes perfect sense in the context of this release. It’s a natural pairing with both Krieg’s other song, an original composition named “Mocking Dead Empires”, and the blackened crust-punk assaults mounted by Ramlord. “Worthless Nothing” drives hard and fast, propelled by a combination of virally infectious jumping riffs and doused in acid by one of the best voices in US black metal.

Krieg long ago cemented its place as one of the cornerstone bands of black metal in the U.S. After two decades in the trenches, Krieg has nothing left to prove — but the creative fires are obviously still burning hot and bright. Listening to Krieg turn back the clock to the spawning grounds of crust while putting the band’s own vicious stamp on the sound is proof of that, and it’s also an enticing tease for the Krieg full-length (Transient) that’s expected later this year. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: A WOLVHAMMER-KRIEG SPLIT

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Jun 242014

Two of my most highly anticipated 2014 albums are Crawling Into Black Sun by Wolvhammer (due for release by Profound Lore on July 8) and Transient by Krieg (coming from Candlelight Records in September). And today Broken Limbs Recordings has released a split by both of those bands that just provides more reasons to get stoked for the coming albums.

WOLVHAMMER

Wolvhammer’s contribution to the split is “Slaves To the Grime”, an alternate version of a track that will appear on Crawling Into Black Sun.

I’ve heard the album version, which is a standout song — a body-moving bulldozer of concrete-heavy riffs and vocals that are acid enough to etch glass, with other alternating segments that lumber into a sludgy, soul-sucking abyss and gallop like a hell-horse. The version on the split is, if anything, even more thoroughly pulverizing. The production gives it a thoroughly radioactive quality, and it’s shot through with bolts of squealing, squalling lead guitar, like that crazy part of your brain trying to get out of its prison. And man, when it hits those doomed, dragging segments, it falls like granite blocks dropped from a great height.

Truth be told, I like this version even more than the album track (and I’ve been a big fan of that one since the first listen) — completely crushing, but also infectious enough to warrant a call to the Center for Disease Control. Continue reading »

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