Sep 292014
 

 

(Leperkahn brings us this piece of breaking news.)

I have another roundup I’m working on right now, but before that I thought I’d let y’all in on a quick bit of breaking news, namely that Godflesh are now streaming their reunion album via NPR, their first album in 13 years.

I myself have just started to understand and appreciate the beast that is Godflesh (as in, it finally clicked for me when I was reading their Decibel cover story and listening to their new EP Decline and Fall), but I’m sure most of you have more history with the band than I do.

Anyway, if you dig it (which you should – I’ll reserve judgment until I have time to listen to all of it myself, but I’m pretty confident they’ll knock it out of the park), you can preorder it on Amazon here, or wait until it comes out on October 14. Continue reading »

Sep 052014
 

(In this post Leperkahn reviews the new EP by Orange County’s Phobia.)

Phobia may have just won the prize for the most hilariously literal release title in existence.

They are releasing a new 7” via Deep Six Records. It’s called Grind Core. If you’ve heard of Phobia before, that’s truly all you need to know to understand this thing slays.

In the hands of most bands, naming your release after the well-established sub genre in which you traffic might be seen as a bit ill-advised. We all might release a collective groan if Morbid Angel named their next album Death Metal, especially after the out-of-touch fiasco that was Ilud Divinum Insanus. A hypothetical new Mayhem album entitled Black Metal would probably warrant a plagiarism lawsuit. But in the hands of Phobia, such a title really does tell you all you need to know before even setting down the needle. It assures you that Phobia haven’t pulled a highly-unlikely genre-180 to explore complextro — and that the band are still churning out grind as potent as ever and aren’t bashful about saying so. Continue reading »

Sep 032014
 

(NCS contributor Leperkahn recently winged his way to France for a period of study abroad — and on the way he penned a couple of reviews, including this one.)

I was just about to get really productive, and start catching up on the backlog of reviews I’ve been meaning to do. I was so ready to get that fulfilling feeling of being back on track, at least in a small part. It was really gonna happen this time – for the first time in a bit of a while, I had the motivation to write, and the emptiness of a couple of long flights en route to Paris to do them. I had it so nicely planned and organized.

Then Noisem released a new 7”, and all of that went to absolute shite.

As I write this (on said plane), I’ve had a digital copy of it for maybe a day at most. I’ve now listened to it probably ten times, if not fifteen. This is a roundabout way of saying HOLY MOTHERHUGGING SHITE THIS THING ABSOLUTELY BLOODY SLAYS. Continue reading »