AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): REPLACIRE — “THE CENTER THAT CANNOT HOLD”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Jun 202024
 

Behind every album there is a tale — of course there is. Sometimes the tales are mundane, but in the case of Replacire‘s new album The Center That Cannot Hold, the story brings to mind the  travails of Sisyphus, that benighted figure from Greek myth whom the gods punished for cheating death by forcing him to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top.

In legend, the fate of Sisyphus is one of eternal toil. but fortunately Replacire did eventually manage to reach the summit and stay there, not only completing this new album but also achieving a new summit in their music.

We’ll give you an excerpt of information about why the completion of the album turned out to be such a struggle, but our main mission today is to present a full stream of the album on the eve before its June 21 release by Season of Mist. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: REPLACIRE — “DO NOT DEVIATE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Mar 142017
 

 

“A plethora of humongous, technical riffs, slamming, slithering drums, noodling, prog-inflected lead melodies, and vicious, guttural vocals which occasionally transform into a soulful, enigmatic croon when you least expect it” — that was a top-level description of the music on Boston-based Replacire’s new album, Do Not Deviate, written by my comrade Andy Synn in his review. He didn’t stop there, of course, because the album is so intricately plotted, so idiosyncratic in its interweaving of metallic musical styles, and so focused and razor-sharp in its execution that fairly summing it up in a few words is a task doomed to failure.

And while I do intend to repeat and paraphrase more from our review by way of introduction, and to share some perspectives from the band’s guitarist Eric Alper, the main point of this post is to bring you a full stream of the album so you can form your own impressions in advance of its March 17 release by Season of Mist. Continue reading »

REPLACIRE: “DO NOT DEVIATE”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Mar 102017
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Boston-based Replacire, which will be released by Season of Mist on March 17, 2017.)

How do you like your Death Metal? Old-School? New School? Proudly Uneducated?

How about Prog, how do you feel about that? Positive? Negative? Oddly ambivalent?

How about a band which mixes the pummelling intensity of Dying Fetus with the proggy eccentricity of Leprous, along with shades of both Yattering and The Faceless?

Sound good? Continue reading »

UNDERDOGS IN THE UNDERGROUND: ROUNDABOUT ROUNDUP (PART 1)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 072013
 

(In Part 1 of a two-part post, NCS contributor Austin Weber puts the spotlight on three underground bands — Cognizance, The Conjuration, and Replacire.  Part 2 will come tomorrow.)

The new age of music has been creeping into a higher plane of existence for some time, due to more inexpensive and accessible sound-recording equipment intertwined with the development of  many new exciting avenues for independent distribution. Combined with the ability to raise funds without label support, this has leveled the playing field for the creation of new music. But this is a dual-edged sword because it can mean a lack of promotion for many groups who truly are doing great things. This is an article for those kinds of bands.

Cognizance – Inquisition

By now we all know Alex Rudinger left The Haarp Machine and joined The Faceless. What we weren’t made aware of is that he recently did session drumming for a tight group of  young UK death metallers on their debut EP Inquisition. Cognizance create death metal heavily entrenched in a pervading brutality but are smart enough to prop up their songs with memorable guitar playing.

As a group they clearly draw from the absurdly steamrolling nature and rhthms of Beneath The Massacre but make it their own by smoothly matching it with an elegant melodic embrace similar to Fallujah. They just so happen to approach that ballpark but then conveniently step away and find their own place with grace.  Continue reading »