SEEN AND HEARD: BLOOD OF KINGU, GIGAN-PYRRHON-ARTIFICIAL BRAIN, VUKARI

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 262014
 

Happy goddamned Saturday to one and all. I’m in the middle of a mini-vacation with family and friends, which means I’ve spent more time over the last 24 hours making lists of new music to check out than actually listening or writing. But I hate to let a day go by without posting something at NCS (that’s happened on a grand total of 3 days since we started this site in November 2009), so here are a few quick things I’d like to recommend. With luck, I’ll have a few more to bring your way tomorrow.

BLOOD OF KINGU

As previously reported here, the Ukrainian black metal band Blood of Kingu (started by Roman Sayenko of Drudkh) will be releasing their third album via Season of Mist on September 2 in North America (and August 29 everywhere else). The title is Dark Star on the Right Horn of the Crescent Moon. Last month Terrorizer premiered the first advance track from the album — “Enshrined in the Nethermost Lairs Beneath the Oceans” — and a few days ago Metal Underground premiered a second track. Continue reading »

PYRRHON: “THE MOTHER OF VIRTUES”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Apr 082014
 

(In this post BadWolf reviews the new album by Pyrrhon.)

Let’s talk about PR for a moment. Brooklyn outfit Pyrrhon have a pretty darn good PR outlet—one of the best when it comes to metal, in fact, and even they are having trouble pitching the band’s new album, The Mother of Virtues. In one email, they described the record as “Investigational Death Metal,” which is a patently ridiculous descriptor. First, how can music be investigational? I read it and think of True Detective, not riffs and blast beats. It isn’t as if listening to Pyrrhon will answer any mysteries in your life. In fact, it’s more likely to raise some serious questions, if you’re willing to listen. Second, I’m not entirely sure I’d call Pyrrhon a death metal band.

Which isn’t to say they’re doing a bad job. Quite to the contrary, Pyrrhon’s sophomore LP is earning rave reviews, and will probably end up on quite a few year-end lists, as well it should. The issue is that Pyrrhon’s sound is so out there that succinctly describing it is difficult.

It’s a difficult task for me, in particular, because Pyrrhon’s vocalist and lyricist, Doug Moore, is a friend, as well as my supervisor at Invisible Oranges. The details of our relationship, and a more in-depth disclaimer, precede my interview with Moore. Continue reading »

DISCOVERIES: PYRRHON AND GRAVEYARD

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Feb 062014
 

This is just another one of those “Seen and Heard” posts, collecting new and noteworthy things I came upon over the last 24 hours. I was just getting tired of that title.

PYRRHON

Last September we reported that New York’s Pyrrhon had signed a deal with Relapse Records for the release of their second album, The Mother of Virtues, which was tracked and mixed by Ryan Jones (Today is the Day, Mutilation Rites) and mastered by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia, Krallice). Yesterday the band disclosed the cover art for the new album, created by Caroline Harrison, and it hooked my eyes hard — really excellent.

In addition, the band premiered one of the album tracks, “Balkanized”. It’s a substantially re-worked version of a song that originally appeared on Pyrrhon’s 2012 demo. It will scramble heads, with horror-blasting roars over the top of squalling, shrieking, fret-burning guitars and a bounding rhythm section that justifies a listen all by themselves. It’s both technically impressive and thoroughly unhinged, both complex and carnivorous. And voracious, violently voracious. Continue reading »

PYRRHON SIGNS WITH RELAPSE

 Metal News  1 Response »
Sep 272013
 

It’s not every day that we pause to take note of a band signing with a label, but we’re doing it now for reasons that will become evident. The band is New York’s Pyrrhon (pronounced “peer-on”, as the press release says), and the label is Relapse.

The new multi-album deal follows release of the band’s debut EP (Fever Kingdoms) on The Path Less Traveled record label in 2010, and by the 2011 release of their first album An Excellent Servant But A Terrible Master by Selfmadegod Records. A new album has been completed — tracked and mixed by Ryan Jones (Today is the Day, Mutilation Rites) and mastered by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia, Krallice) — and it obviously got Relapse’s attention. Its name is The Mother of Virtues, and we’ll all get to hear it sometime in 2014.

September has been a good month for Doug Moore. He’s the vocalist and lyricist for Pyrrhon, but this month he also took over the reins as Editor of Invisible Oranges following Fred Pessaro’s departure for a position at Noisey. This elevation follows several years of writing for IO and other music sites. There may have been another serious metal blogger whose band has signed with a label the magnitude of Relapse, but if there is, I’m not aware of it. That’s a pretty good September two-fer. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: DOUG MOORE OF PYRRHON

 Interviews  1 Response »
Jan 212013
 

(In this post, BadWolf interviews Doug Moore of Pyrrhon and brings us new Phyrrhon music, too. The fantastic photos accompanying this interview were taken by Caroline Harrison of Brooklyn Vegan. To see all of them, go HERE.)

Pyrrhon might be extreme metal’s best-kept secret; their sound is hard to pin down, but resides somewhere between Am-Rep style noise rock and progressive death metal of the most confrontational variety. The Brooklyn four-piece’s first album, An Excellent Servant But A Terrible Master, racked up a positive review in Decibel, and some powerful blog acclaim in 2011. This weekend Pyrrhon uploaded the third demo track from what will become their as-yet-unnamed second album for Selfmadegod Records.

I sat down to chat about Pyrrhon with vocalist and lyricist Doug Moore. It was hardly our first extended conversation. In the interest of full disclosure, I would proudly call Doug a friend since we attended Maryland Deathfest together last May. We both write on staff at InvisibleOranges and contribute to Stereogum.com—any prospective professional musicians would do well to read his industry analysis for a dose of healthy Schopenhauer-level sobriety. None of that changes my professional opinion of him, though.

Objectively speaking, Doug is a powerful vocalist and one of the best lyricists in contemporary metal, period. Our interview evidences his ferocious intellect, and personal dedication to extreme music. Continue reading »

 Newer Entries