TOURISM: BEHOLD…THE ARCTOPUS, BOTANIST, LESBIAN (AND TWO STELLAR EURO TOURS)

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Sep 052013
 

Collected in this post are a handful of tours that I decided were worth mentioning, even though only the first one is within my grasp. I’m trying to be less self-centered. This is like trying to levitate, but I should get points for the effort, don’t you think?

BEHOLD…THE ARCTOPUS / BOTANIST / LESBIAN

Earlier today we posted Old Man Windbreaker’s review of the entire discography of Botanist. And only now I come to find out that Botanist will be here in The Emerald City at Highline along with two other stellar bands in little more than a month (October 13). One is the brain scrambling Behold… the Arcoptus (featuring Colin Marston on Warr Guitar, Mike Lerner on Guitar Guitar, and Weasel Walter on drums), and the other is Seattle’s own Lesbian, who are riding a big wave of entirely justified attention drawn by their latest album Forestelevision.

But this turns out to be just one stop on a brief West Coast tour by BtA. On October 12, Behold…the Arctopus and Botanist will be playing together with Agalloch and Eight Bells at Day 3 of the Fall Into Darkness festival in Portland (OR). And on October 11 BtA and Botanist will be playing Oakland along with a Bay Area band named Burmese. Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST’S NEW VIDEO: “666”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 182013
 

Andy Synn’s review for this site of Rotting Christ’s new album, Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy, described it as “a heavier and more aggressive album” than the band’s preceding two releases, and “one that wraps itself in a more black metal aesthetic than we have seen from the band in some time, recalling the bands Non Serviam years, but with added extremity and muscle.” But as Andy noted, although the album is built more on a foundation of black metal guitars and thunderous drums, it’s not without its more esoteric moments, with the ominous, gothic vibe of doom-laden closer “Χ ξ ς” (666) as a prime example.

Today the band premiered an official video for “666”. The beautifully executed black-and-white film by Jon Simvonis captures the dramatic, occult atmosphere of the music and, like the song itself, leaves no doubt that Rotting Christ have not severed the black roots of their past. Watch it next: Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST: “KATA TON DAIMONA EAYTOY”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Feb 252013
 

(In this post, NCS writer Andy Synn reviews the forthcoming release by Rotting Christ, their 11th album since 1993.)

True to thine own spirit – such has always been the mantra of Rotting Christ. And Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy certainly holds true to this. While it continues the martial atmosphere established on Theogonia and Aealo, there’s actually less of a traditional folk-ish vibe to the music, and a much greater feeling of occult darkness (“Grandus Spriritus Diavolus”).

The distinctly Hellenic melody patterns still underpin the twisting, serpentine guitar lines (“In Yumen–Xibalba”), but the album feels less in thrall to history and tradition, and more concerned with underlining the foundations of the “modern” Rotting Christ sound.

That’s not to say that the album is in any way a “stripped down” or “back to basics” release – as it still litters the musical battlefield with strange apocryphal signs and mystical elements (“Ahura Mazdā-Aŋra Mainiuu”), ritualistic murmurings and reverberant war-like chants echoing across the blood-soaked field – but it is, to my mind at least, a heavier and more aggressive album altogether, and one that wraps itself in a more black metal aesthetic than we have seen from the band in some time, recalling the bands Non Serviam years, but with added extremity and muscle (“Gilgameš”). Continue reading »

ROUND-UP: ROTTING CHRIST, HYPOCRISY, TRAIL OF TEARS, VHÖL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 232013
 

When it comes to music debuts and hot breaking news, Friday’s aren’t usually very eventful. But yesterday was an exception. I posted a lot of new things yesterday as they were happening, but still didn’t cover everything, due to day-job bullshit. Today I’m catching up, with a collection of more sweet new items.

ROTTING CHRIST

These Greek heavyweights have been rolling out many new songs from their new album Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy, which Season Of Mist will be releasing next week. But yesterday, the entire album became available for streaming on several sites, including Metal Hammer.

I’m completely sold on this album, though I’ve been holding fire on explaining why because we do have a review in the works. I will once again merely say that you should hear this album. And now you can — via the player I’ve embedded right after the jump. Continue reading »

A FAST ROUND-UP OF NEWS AND MUSIC: VHÖL, ROTTING CHRIST, BEYOND CREATION, AND MEMORY GARDEN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 202013
 

As I write this (which was the night before it will be posted), I’m sitting in a hotel room in Texas with a crap-load of day-job work ahead of me on the day you will read this. Actually, I have a crapload of work I should be doing right now. And so this will be the fastest NCS round-up ever — more like an index than anything else.

So, with few words, here are news items and new music I saw and heard that I want to spread around.

VHÖL

Yesterday Profound Lore unveiled the cover to the VHÖL self-titled debut album, which you can see above. The artwork is by band member John Cobbett with design by Kevin Gan Yuen. The release date is April 16. Why do I care about this album? Because the band is composed of the aforementioned John Cobbett (Hammers of Misfortune, ex-Ludicra, GWAR, and Slough Feg), Aesop Dekker (Agalloch, Worm Oroborus), Sigrid Sheie (Hammers of Misfortune), and Mike Scheidt (YOB). For more about this band, see my previous posts. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC (Part 3): ROTTING CHRIST, STARKILL, CULT OF LUNA, AND MUSE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

This is the third and final installment in my Sunday round-up of new music. These are all items that emerged last week, but I didn’t make room for them on the days of their release. After the first item, the remainder are all new videos.

ROTTING CHRIST

Allow me to repeat, for the third time, the new Rotting Christ album is brilliant. Its name is ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ (“Do What Thou Wilt”), and it’s scheduled for release by Season of Mist in North America on March 5. We’ve previously posted about the first two songs from the album that have been publicly unveiled — the title track “Kata Ton Demona Eaftou” and “In Yumen – Xibalba”. Last week, one more went up for listening — “P’unchaw Kachun – Tuta Kachun”. Since we’ll have a review soon, I’ll say only this about the new track: Listen.


Continue reading »

A SMALL ROUND-UP OF SMASHING NEW MUSIC FROM NADER SADEK, ROTTING CHRIST, AND KRYPTS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Jan 302013
 

Here are a few new songs and videos I heard and saw yesterday and this morning that I thought were worth spreading around

NADER SADEK

Nader Sadek is an Egyptian set designer, visual effects director, and composer. His well-received 2011 debut album In the Flesh featured a host of name-brand guest musicians performing Sadek’s compositions. It made several of our “best of 2011” year-end lists, including one from guest contributor Tamás Kátai, the man behind the brilliant band Thy Catafalque, who wrote about it as follows: “This is exactly like Morbid Angel and Chimera-era Mayhem mixed together. Odd, exciting, dark death metal exploiting the contributing musicians’ ability, charisma, and character to the maximum.”

On February 27, Sadek plans to self-release a live CD/DVD called In the Flesh. It’s a video of the first performance of In the Flesh on November 20, 2011, and includes the album’s original line-up — drummer Flo Mournier (Cryptopsy), guitarist Rune Eriksen (Aura Noir, ex-Mayhem), bassist Novy Nowak (ex-Behemoth, ex-Vader), and vocalist Steve Tucker (ex-Morbid Angel) — plus guest guitarist Sean Frey and operatic backing vocalist Carmen Simoes (Ava Inferi).

Today, GunShyAssassin premiered a song from the live CD, “Petropilia”. It’s completely obliterating and remorseless, a cacophony of blackened death rising up from oil-soaked vaults deep beneath the earth and catching fire in a great conflagration. All the performances sound fantastic, but I have to give an extra round of applause to Flo Mournier’s off-the-charts drumming. And I can’t wait to see the video of this show. Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST DEBUT A NEW SONG FOR FREE DOWNLOAD: “IN YUMEN – XIBALBA”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Dec 182012
 

As we reported recently (and ecstatically), Rotting Christ’s new album is named ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ (“Do What Thou Wilt”), and is scheduled for release by Season of Mist in North America on March 5. Today the band have debuted the opening track from the album: “In Yumen – Xibalba”. And if that weren’t exciting enough, the song is also now available for download at the Season of Mist website.

Here’s the thing. I happen to be on one of those frustrating situations where I’m able to write this post and get it up on our site, but unable to listen to the song. Because I’m in a place where that would be severely frowned upon (and I don’t mean a cathedral). So, please listen to this song and then please leave a comment with your reactions, because I’m dying to know what this sounds like.

And to hear it, go past the jump, where you’ll find a YouTube embed of the track that I found. Continue reading »

ROTTING CHRIST: THE LATEST WORD ON “ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ”

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Dec 112012
 

We’re getting close enough to the end of the year that we’re beginning to have a good idea about at least some of the 2013 albums that belong on a Highly Anticipated list.  Near the top of my list will be the new album from Rotting Christ. Which means, of course, that every time I get even the smallest morsel of news about the album, it will go straight into an NCS post. And so, I have this news, hot off the presses:

The album will be named ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ (“Do What Thou Wilt”), and it has been scheduled for a March 5th release in North America by Season of Mist. It will be available as a CD, a double gate-fold LP, and a limited edition Digibox that includes a pendant in a velvet bag, a flag, and a Digipak CD with the bonus track “Welcome to Hel”.

Frontman Sakis Tolis has further revealed in a recent interview that he has been working on the album for more than a year, and that it was recorded in Athens and mixed in Sweden by Jens Bogren (Amon Amarth, Opeth, Katatonia). He also said this: “I came up with our darkest outcome ever… It’s an interesting album, very apocryphal. It’s a multinational album; it is about underworld Gods inspired by different ancient cultures.”

Sakis’ statement seems borne out by the variety of names and languages reflected in the track list: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ROTTING CHRIST, NECROWRETCH, SCAR SYMMETRY, MACHINE HEAD, KUOLEMANLAAKSO, TAAKE, AND A SQUIRREL RIDING A SNAKE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Nov 142012
 

Sakis Tolis, laying down a soothing lullaby. 

Once again, your intrepid editor has sifted through the ever flowing stream of metal news and new music to find those gleaming nuggets that will enrich your daily lives.  Actually, I don’t know if you’ll give a shit about any of this, but I do, and that’s what really matters, isn’t it?  No need to answer, that was a rhetorical question.

ALBUMS ON THE HORIZON: ROTTING CHRIST AND NECROWRETCH

We’ve already reported that Rotting Christ are at work on their 11th studio album, but today I saw a few more tidbits of news: The album will be entitled Do What Thou Wilt, and it will hit the stores on March 1, 2013. We usually don’t write about such happenings unless we have a bit more juice to go along with it, such as album art or a song premiere. But these Greek maestros are the kind of band whose every move interests me. And I’m particularly interested to see if the new album will be a further step down the path of strongly folk/ethnic-influenced metal exhibited on Aealo.

I also saw today that the French band Necrowretch have finished the recording and mastering of their debut album for Century Media. It was recorded in late August at Blackout Multimedia studios in Brussels by Phorgath of Enthroned and its title will be Putrid Death Sorcery. The cover art is being prepared by Milovan Novakovic from Montenegro, who also created the beastly cover for the band’s last EP, Now You’re In Hell (reviewed here). And if you’re wondering why this news matters, check out some Necrowretch music right after the jump. Continue reading »

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