LOCK UP: “DEMONIZATION”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 152017
 

 

(We present DGR’s review of the new album by the death-grind super-group Lock Up, which was released on March 10th by Listenable Records.)

It is rare that I find myself admiring a musician for the amount of fun he seems to be having on a disc; but I sincerely hope that one day I have half as much fun as Nick Barker seems to be having with the toms on his kit on Lock Up’s new disc Demonization.

We open with musing on that fact because if there is one dominant thing you won’t help but notice over and over during the vicious barrage of auditory violence that Lock Up wield against their listeners during Demonization, it is the constant drum fills that feature the upper part of the man’s drum kit as he just flies through the whole thing. Someone pulled him aside and told him ‘go fast’, and that is what he did for most of the album, save for three songs where the group actually slow down slightly, and he unleashes some ultra-tight blasts and rolls constantly, making sure every drum and cymbal available to him gets the everliving shit beat out of it.

But of course, that’s much like the entire listening experience; it is why we come to grind-stalwarts Lock Up in the first place, right? Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: LOCK UP, DODECAHEDRON, ALLFATHER, HADAL MAW, UR, CODE, VARAHA, XENOTAPH, CRURIFRAGIUM

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Dec 092016
 

lock-up-band-2016

 

I’ve been immersed in compiling LISTMANIA features the last few days, but at the same time I’ve been noticing the appearance of new songs, many of them from albums headed our way in the new year. I’ve rounded up 9 of them here that I’ve enjoyed, with a range of metallic styles. I organized them sort of like a bell curve, with things starting hard and then getting more melodic in the middle, and then descending again into increasing ugliness and violence by the end.

Also, serious question: Should I divide collections of this length into smaller parts and spread them out over the day? Or does it matter?

LOCK UP

I’m afraid that if I googled “lock up” these days, I’d get stories about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The world obviously needs to grind again, and the real Lock Up is here to help us do that. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: TOMAS LINDBERG (AT THE GATES, LOCK UP, DISFEAR)

 Interviews  6 Responses »
Sep 022014
 

 

(In this post we present BadWolf’s interview with Tomas Lindberg of Lock Up, Disfear, and of course At the Gates, whose comeback album At War With Reality is headed our way in October)

 

“We still have a sense of urgency.”

That’s what Thomas “Tompa” Lindberg, vocalist of Swedish death metal legends At The Gates told me in between vocal takes as he called No Clean Singing from the studio. Now that At The Gates have finally released the cover art for their upcoming album At War With Reality, their first in 19 years, Lindberg is ready to talk—about finding his screaming voice, his political views, and the magical realist literature that has informed his new work.

 

So, you’re in the studio right now?

Yeah.

 

How’s it going?

Very well. All the drum tracks are totally done, and guitar tone is set and Anders has done the long song. We’re going to do guitars on one song, then I’m going to do vocals, because we do the whole setup so I can alternate so I don’t burn out the voice. You know, we’re going to have the first song written, really, finished today.

 

It’s good that you’re taking care of your voice, because I saw you at MDF and I have no idea how you can do what you do for an entire hour.

Me neither. Sometimes, life is a bit of a struggle, but it’s intense live because then no one can really . . . you can’t rewind and listen to it again. Well, you can on YouTube. In the studio, you need to be perfect 100%, all the time. Continue reading »

LOCK UP

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Jul 082011
 

(NCS writer Israel Flanders goes crazy over the new album from Lock Up . . .)

Today is just a get-devastated-by-death-metal/grindcore-that-destroys-my-soul-and-makes-the-remains-consume-themselves-so-I-turn-into-nothing-but-a-lifeless-meat-puppet-of-abysmal-darkness day. Alright, so . . .

Lock Up. Super group that plays blackened deathgrind with thrash metal tinges, but ultimately it’s overall label would be grindcore. Contains members of Napalm Death, At The Gates, Pentagram, and a drummer who’s done his time in MANY bands. What’s my point? This album, Necropolis Transparent, is the phrase “Get Fucked” in audio form. This is an explosive cacophony of pure anger, rage, hate, misanthropy, I don’t even know if enough words exist in the dictionary to describe the pure, utterly unrestrained vitriol blasting at you on this album. Do not underestimate this band, do not fuck with them, for you shall be destroyed in their wake.

The album opens up with the grinding fury that is “Brethren Of The Pentagram”. The music is fast, makes you want to break shit, induces feelings of homicidal rage even Dahmer and Hitler would be terrified of. What’s that you say? Super groups always suck and are for nazi-loving liberal facist pinko’s who are taking our jobs? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of how awesome this album is. There is no mercy once the first song starts. (more after the jump, including a bunch of Lock Up tracks . . .) Continue reading »

LOCK UP WILL GRIND YOUR HEAD DOWN TO A SHARP POINT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Jun 282011
 

When your head is already kind of pointy-shaped to begin with, as mine is, then you have to ration how often you listen to grind. With too much grinding, there’s a risk that your head will become sharper and sharper until it just disappears or snaps clean off like a pencil lead. But even though I already somewhat resemble a unicorn, I just couldn’t resist cranking up the new songs from Lock Up. I reasoned that because the music isn’t really straight grindcore, I could get away with it.

You probably know all about Lock Up, but just in case you don’t, it’s a super-group that works, by which I mean it’s a super group. The veteran line-up includes Shane Embury (Napalm Death, Venomous Concept) (bass), Nick Barker (ex-Cradle Of Filth, ex-Dimmu Borgir) (drums), Tomas Lindberg (At The Gates, Disfear) (vocals), and Anton Reisenegger (Criminal, Pentagram) (guitars).

Their third full-length album — Necropolis Transparent — is scheduled for release by Nuclear Blast on July 12. In addition to the band’s usual line-up, there will be guest appearances by former Lock Up member Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain) and Jeff Walker (Carcass). Just gets better and better, doesn’t it?

To date, Lock Up has released two new Necropolis Transparent songs for public consumption. At the urging of NCS writer Israel Flanders, I finally got around to checking them out yesterday. So glad I did, because it’s fucking savage music — a conglomeration of death, grind, and thrash, with a blackened crust — and I’ve developed a savage kind of attraction to both songs. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 6)

 Forthcoming Albums  2 Responses »
Jun 022011
 


Damn, I’m finally able to go outside without shivering and being beaten about the head and shoulders with high winds and rain blowing sideways. That must mean it’s June in Seattle!  And so it is. A largely dismal May is behind us, the Seattle Mariners are astonishingly only a game and a half out of first place in their division (that’s baseball for you outlanders), and the summer lies ahead.

What else lies ahead? A bunch of new metal, of course. And because it’s the beginning of a new month, we’re bringing you 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 April 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. Continue reading »

MORE 2010 SICKNESS

 Forthcoming Albums, Listmania, Metal News  No Responses »
Feb 022010
 

No, we’re not talking about the swine flu, or the avian flu, or the next animal virus that decides humans would be a nice host environment upgrade. We’re talking about new metal that has the potential to be sick.

On the first day of the New Year, we posted a round-up of new extreme metal albums forecast for release 2010, along with our list of the 21 we most wanted to hear.

One month has now passed, and we’ve discovered some forthcoming releases we didn’t know about on January 1. Seems like a good time for an update! So, we’ve cobbled together news blurbs about forthcoming albums from bands whose past work we’ve liked, or who look interesting for other reasons. Needless to say (but we’ll say it anyway), these are bands that fit the profile of music we cover on this site (with a couple of Exceptions to the Rule).

So, in alphabetical order, here’s our list of cut-and-pasted blurbs from various sources over the last 31 days about forthcoming releases we missed in our January 1 list:

AGALLOCH: “So what can we expect from the band’s long-awaited follow-up to Ashes Against the Grain? According to an interview songwriter John Haughm gave to German TV last May, ‘expect the unexpected.’ Haughm says that the next release will be ‘completely different’ from its predecessors — ‘a bit darker,’ closer to black metal, but with the same kind of dynamics that Agalloch is known for.  As for when we can expect the new album, Haughm said that he hoped it would be out by May 2010.”

APOCALYPTICA:  “Finnish rock cello quartet APOCALYPTICA has entered Sonic Pump studios in Helsinki to begin recording its new album for a spring/summer release.” [This is one of those Exceptions to the Rule.]

APOSTASY: “Four new songs from the Swedish black metal act APOSTASY are available for streaming on the band’s MySpace page. The tracks will appear on the group’s forthcoming third full-length album, Nuclear Messiah, which will be released later in the year.”  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »