OUR LIST OF 2012’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 21

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2012  13 Responses »
Jan 302013
 

Welcome to Part 21 of our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. In each installment, I’ve been posting at least two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the three I’m announcing today, click here.

All good things must come to an end, and this seemingly endless list will end tomorrow with Part 22, going out in a blaze of death metal glory. Today’s three songs, however, are another set that don’t come from the same genre of metal. If they have anything in common besides my belief in them, it’s that all three are heavy as hell.

HIGH ON FIRE

Our friend and fellow blogger Professor D. Grover the XIIIth reviewed High On Fire’s 2012 album for us (here), and I think it’s fair to say that he had mixed feelings about De Vermis Mysteriis, which he viewed as a bit of a step backward compared to the step forward represented by 2010’s Snakes For the Divine. I had the opposite reaction. Where the Professor viewed Snakes as HoF’s crowning achievement, I enjoyed De Vermis Mysteriis more than anything I’ve yet heard from the band.

I preferred the grimier, grittier tone that Kurt Ballou’s production brought to the sound and the utter darkness that suffused so much of the music. The standout track for me — a song that has gotten a shitload of play since I first heard  it — is “King of Days”. Continue reading »

TOURISM: CANNIBAL CORPSE, NAPALM DEATH, AND IMMOLATION

 Metal News  15 Responses »
Jan 232013
 

I think this qualifies as a HOLY FUCKING SHIT moment, and if you disagree then your mouth must be much better behaved than mine.

Word leaked last week about this tour, but yesterday it was confirmed, and dates were disclosed. The second annual DECIBEL MAGAZINE TOUR will include Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, and Immolation. In other words, genuine death metal and grind royalty from both sides of the Atlantic.

Other face-ripping bands will join the sonic evisceration party on selected dates: Beyond Creation, Cretin, and Magrudergrind.

I have to say that DECIBEL is not fucking around, any more than they did last year for the Euro-centric inaugural edition of this tour (which featured Behemoth, Watain, The Devil’s Blood, and In Solitude). It’s refreshing to see a tour packaged without any effort to pander in any way to the tastes of people who don’t want to get their fuckin’ teeth kicked in. Continue reading »

EARACHE AND OSMOSE ON BANDCAMP

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Nov 122012
 

We’ve been singing the praises of Bandcamp since the early days of that platform. In a relatively short time, it has become a vital source for the streaming and distribution of metal, recently expanding its service to become a vehicle for the distribution of merch as well as digital music in a variety of high-quality formats. One sign of Bandcamp’s success is the increasing use of the site by metal labels to stream and distribute albums in their catalogues.

Thanks to MaxR at Metal Bandcamp — which remains THE best way to keep up with the appearance of new metal releases on Bandcamp — we’ve learned that two more labels have recently established Bandcamp beachheads: Earache Records and Osmose Productions.

EARACHE

As far as we’re concerned, this is really big news. Earache Records was founded in the late 80s and was one of the true pioneers in releasing extreme music. Of course, they’re still going strong today, but their back catalogue is like a museum for the history of hardcore and metal.

So far, Earache has added five albums from their catalogue to Bandcamp: Slaughter of the Soul by At the Gates (1995); Five Serpent’s Teeth by Evile (2011); Pressure and Time (Redux) by Rival Sons (2012); Scum (1987) [Full Dynamic Range 2012 Edition] by Napalm Death; and From Enslavement To Obliteration (1988) [Full Dynamic Range 2012 Edition], also by Napalm Death. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: NAPALM DEATH, MALEVOLENCE, AND WEST OF MEMPHIS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 022012
 

When I resort to two posts in one day that do nothing but throw new music videos at you, you can infer that a lot of good videos have come out in a short space of time AND that I’ve been busy at the old fuckin’ day job. Today, both inferences would be correct. And so here I am, following the five-video post from earlier today with a three-video post now. This one includes new ones from Napalm Death (UK), Malevolence (Portugal) — plus a brand new trailer for a feature-length documentary about The West Memphis Three that’s opening in theaters on Christmas Day.

NAPALM DEATH

The new Napalm Death clip is billed as the “Everyday Pox” tour video. It is indeed a tour video of sorts, since it consists of performance footage synced to the recorded music. And it does include the song “Everyday Pox” (including the cool, creepy John Zorn sax solo), which appears on the band’s 2012 monster Utilitarian, but there are actually two songs in the video.

It begins, as the album does, with an instrumental number called “Circumspect”, and I love the combination of these two tracks, the first bleeding into the second. Those two songs are not side-by-side on the album, but maybe they should have been. “Circumspect” is slow, atmospheric, and icy. It’s not the kind of song most people would expect from this band, but it’s not the first time Napalm Death have thrown curve balls into their albums either. “Everyday Pox” also proceeds at a slightly slower pace than the typically explosive Napalm Death grind blast (though there’s certainly plenty of blasting in the song). Pairing them is a match made in hell. Continue reading »

TOURISM: NAPALM DEATH AND CONVERGE ANNOUNCE HEADLINING TOURS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Aug 202012
 

Here are two new tours that metallic denizens of the U.S. and Canada should know about, both of which were announced today. One is co-headlined by Napalm Death and one by Converge. And what a nice coincidence that is, since not long ago we got a Napalm Death / Converge split release, from which we’ll play some music after coughing up the tour details . . . Also, both tours are stopping in Seattle, which makes me all smiley.

NAPALM DEATH / MUNICIPAL WASTE / EXHUMED

This tour is actually billed as a co-headline gig by Municipal Waste along with Napalm Death. I decided to put only Napalm Death in the headline mainly because it fit better with the recent release of that split. Exhumed is also along for the ride as direct support, which makes this tour even more awesome. But that’s not all! Depending on the dates, one of the following four bands will also be performing:

Sci-fi Arizona thrashers Vektor, Canadian punk band Dayglo Abortions, Bay Area crossover band Attitude Adjustment, and Colorado speed thrashers Speedwolf.

But wait, there’s still more!

Again depending on the locations, fans will also get to see guest sets from U.S. grindcore bastards Repulsion, Chicago punks Dwarves, and Seattle’s Martha Splatterhead’s Revenge. Continue reading »

CATCHING UP (Part 1): ENSLAVED, DAN DANKMEYER, NAPALM DEATH, AND CONVERGE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 102012
 

So much happens so fast in the world of metal that even being out of touch for two days means that you miss a lot, and some of what you miss is actually worth knowing about. I was in a remote location over the last two days with no internet connection, and since returning last night I’ve made an admittedly incomplete effort to find out what I missed that was important/entertaining to me. Turns out, there was a lot — so much that I’m dividing what I found into two posts, of which this is the first. The second one will start off our postings tomorrow.

In no particular order, this post includes news, new music, or new videos from Enslaved, Dan Dankmeyer, Napalm Death, and Converge.

ENSLAVED

Enslaved made a few announcements about their twelfth studio album RIITIIR — including the name of the album, the disclosure of the cover art (above) by long-time collaborator Truls Espedal, and the release dates (via Nuclear Blast): September 28 in Europe and October 2 in North America.

“Riitiir” doesn’t appear to be a real word, even in Norwegian or ancient Norse. As the band explained today, it’s a version of the words for “rites” and “rituals” and is intended to mean “The Rites of Man”. How that concept or the artwork connects to the lyrics or the music hasn’t yet been revealed, but the band say they intend to “discuss some key concepts and potential interpretations in deeper song-by-song analysis” in the weeks and months ahead. Enslaved are so talented and so creative that I’m actually interested — though of course I’m most interested in hearing the music. Continue reading »

NAPALM DEATH: “UTILITARIAN”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Mar 012012
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album from Napalm Death.)

“We Simply Will Not Acknowledge What We Choose Willingly To Ignore”

These potent words are the first spoken on Napalm Death’s new opus Utilitarian.  They’re a fitting intro to another sonic napalm run brought to you with only the most intense of politically charged vitriol.

Napalm Death are my favorite extreme band of any sort who have a heavy focus on politics besides Dying Fetus.  To say that I’ve been anticipating this album is an understatement.  To say I was prepared for what awaited me, as I thought I was, would be wrong — a delusional and oft-repeated stupid fucking mistake that resulted in having my jugular ripped out (a common mistake when it comes to these guys).

You may know I usually review grindcore albums in brief “x-treme” style, and I usually do so because it fits the music.  However, to treat a Napalm Death album this way would be missing the point entirely, and would under-value the music itself — a sound that has become much more than their grindcore origins.

The sentence quoted above comes from the album’s opening track, a largely instrumental song entitled “Circumspect” that evokes a feeling of lumbering doom.  Such an intro does not adequately prepare the listener for the rest of the album by any means: “Errors in the Signals” immediately lashes out like a pack of hyenas with late-stage rabies, fitted with dogs-of-war collars.  Continue reading »

VIDEO ROUNDUP: NAPALM DEATH AND COMEBACK KID

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  17 Responses »
Feb 012012
 


The thoroughly awesome Napalm Death will be releasing their 14th (!) studio album, Utilitarian, on February 27th in Europe and February 28th in North America. I’m really looking forward to it. Yesterday, thanks to a tip from TheMadIsraeli, I realized I had missed the album teaser that the band released last week.

The video was created by the band’s guitarist and backing vocalist Mitch Harris. It’s a politically charged animation interspersed with news clips of protests, and it’s a head-trip and a half to watch. A comment I saw on YouTube pretty much sums up the message: “Fuck the System, Fuck Governments, Fuck Aliens!”

And the music goes really fuckin hard, too. The riffs crush without remorse, and Barney Greenway sounds raw and pissed off. I’m also liking the use of clean vocals (I know, that’s heresy, but I’m just being honest). This is grindcore done right.

Watch that after the jump if you haven’t see it yet . . . and then we’ll move on to the new video from Comeback Kid. Continue reading »

NEW NAPALM DEATH: “FUCK ME WITH A BUZZ SAW”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jan 062012
 

At the moment, I’m not able to stream the new Napalm Death song that just premiered. I’m currently moving stealthily among the many secret locations I use to avoid detection by paparazzi who are hoping for something like a candid shot of me sunbathing in a thong.

Actually, I’m just commuting right now and my internet connection is too slow for streaming. I have more sympathy for the tender sensibilities of the human race than to be caught dead in a thong. Plus, it seems like it would impair my already impaired ability to concentrate to have a line of fabric up my butt crack. I’m afraid the next time the cops pull me over and ask if I know how fast I was going, I’d blurt out: “Fuck no! All I can think about is what’s trying to cut through my butt crack like razor wire!” I don’t know how chicks do it, wearing thongs, not that I’m complaining about that, mind you.

Where was I?  Oh yeah — there’s a new Napalm Death song streaming from their next album, Utilitarian, which will be released on February 27 in Europe and February 28 in North America via Century Media Records. I can’t stream it right now, but when I got an e-mail from TheMadIsraeli alerting me to the stream, he added this pithy message: “All I can say is fuck me with a buzz saw.” That seemed like a positive review, so I’m posting this alert.

The song isn’t called “Fuck Me With A Buzz Saw”. It’s called “Leper Colony”, and it premiered earlier today at Brooklyn Vegan. So go over there and give it a listen, and then please come back here and let me know if it fucked you like a buzz saw. Thank you in advance.

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