Feb 022013
 

Work and work-related travel cut short my blog time the last couple of days, but I’m now back in the land of the grey and soggy, also known as home. So, last night and this morning I plunged through the sphincter of the interhole in search of metal things I missed, and here’s some of what I found. These are all new albums or songs that have appeared on Bandcamp over the last day or two — and they all fuckin’ blew me away.

THE FLIGHT OF SLEIPNIR

Our blog brother MaxR (Metal Bandcamp) contributed a line-up of doom favorites in our 2011 Listmania series, and it included a song from an album (“Essence of Nine”) by a Colorado band named The Flight of Sleipnir. I’m pretty sure that was the first time I’d heard of them, and I’m also pretty sure I failed to check out their music even after Max praised them in these words: “Perfectly executed black metal rasps, beautiful clean singing, folk harmonies and a doomy groove. So atmospheric and, yes, mellow.”

Fast forward to last night when NCS supporter Utmu sent me a message about a new album by this band — Saga — that’s due for release on February 15. The album art (above) is awful damned cool, and so is the song from Saga that began streaming on Bandcamp yesterday. Continue reading »

Mar 182010
 

No secret that we’re big fans of grind legends Brutal Truth and we’ve also really been getting into spazzed-out, jazz-infused metal too (see. e.g., our write-ups on Shining and Psychofagist). So, our eyes lit up when we saw a press release today from Brutal Truth drummer extraordinaire Rich Hoak announcing the release of an unusual 3-way split by Reproductive Records.

The split includes one song each from three bands:  27 from Cambridge, MA (the song features Dana Colley of Morphine fame on the electric baritone sax); Gardenbox from Athens, Greece (whose music is described as “intense post-post-rock”); and the band that Hoak started after Brutal Truth originally dissolved — Total Fucking Destruction.

You can get a limited edition white vinyl 7″ here, which comes with an intricately folded cover that features the art of Dan McCarthy (see above). Or you can download the split for the meager sum of $2.97 at iTunes. And Rich says that all the proceeds will be donated to Best Friends Animal Society.

So, why are we shilling for this? Well, mainly because it’s got a new track from Total Fucking Destruction — which just destroys. “Welcome to the Fascist Corporate Wastelands of America, Part 2” is exactly what Rich tells us it is — a “jazz noise grind freakout” — a chaotic instrumental swirl of discordant howling, freaked-out guitar and bass riffs, and out-of-control drumming.

The other two songs aren’t quite as much our style, but we certainly aren’t gonna toss em away. The Gardenbox track is a melodic selection of proggery that starts dreamily and ends with a big rush. “Wood Veins” by 27 is what we think of in our uneducated heads as cool jazz, with cool, jazzy, clean female singing courtesy of Maria Christopher.

Putting all three of these very different sounds together makes for an interesting listening experience. See for yourself, and help out doggies and kitties at the same time.