AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): WOLFBASTARD — “HAMMER THE BASTARDS”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 072022
 

Anyone with eyes to see and a mind that hasn’t been brainwashed or turned into docile slag knows full well that the world is mainly ruled by bastards — bastards in the boardrooms, bastards in the halls of government, bastards in the church. They do what they want, they get their way, and they’re rarely held to account for all the ways in which they make the lives of the powerless so much more miserable than they need to be.

What ought to be done? Isn’t the answer obvious? HAMMER THE BASTARDS.

That’s the name Manchester (UK)-based Wolfbastard gave to their new third album, which is set for release by Clobber Records on January 14th, and they back that message to the hilt with their music, which is a feral and ferocious barrage of D-Beat, crust punk, black metal, and blackened hardcore that takes no prisoners and asks for no mercy.

The press materials for the record include an evocative summing-up of the sensations the album channels, and it’s worth quoting here before we give you our own impressions along with a complete streaming premiere: Continue reading »

FIVE FOR THE FOURTH: AL-NAMROOD, DECLINE OF THE I, VANHÄVD, PANZER SQUAD, WOLFBASTARD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jul 042018
 

 

Today is the Independence Day holiday here in the U.S. The first thing I saw upon scanning the local Seattle paper after waking up was a fascinating story that included the photo above, and this headline:

 

Puget Sound explorers partied so hard for July 4, 1841, a sailor blew up his hand with a howitzer

 

We’ve come so far since that event, marked by the monument above near Puget Sound, which was reportedly the first official Fourth of July celebration held west of the Mississippi: Now we can blow off our hands without using military armament; inexpensive fireworks will do the job just as well. And what better way to commemorate the birth of the nation than by an orgy of drunkenness and self-inflicted wounds? Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ABYSMAL LORD, NIHIL KAOS, WOLFBASTARD, NIGHT, VERHEERER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Sep 202015
 

Abysmal Lord-Disciples of the Inferno

 

This is the second part of a two-part post I began earlier today, the purpose of which is to collect new music that I discovered in an extended bout of listening yesterday, most of it from bands who were also new discoveries. It gets the Shades of Black label because much of it is black metal, though as you’ll discover, there’s quite a lot of diversity in these songs.

ABYSMAL LORD

In August of last year we premiered a song from a debut EP named Storms of Unholy Black Mass by Louisiana’s Abysmal Lord. That EP was a hell of a debut, and now the band have completed their first full-length, which is scheduled for release on November 27 by Hells Headbangers. The strength of the EP would have provided reason enough to look forward to Disciples of the Inferno, but the first advance track from the album (“Sabat”) seals the deal. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VALDUR, WOLFBASTARD, IRRITUM, DOMGÅRD, CRUCIAMENTUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Jun 152015
 

 

About a week ago I explained that I was leaving Seattle for Texas, where I’d be buried in chores for my fucking day job for the next two weeks. It turned out that the first week wasn’t too bad, and things around the site were pretty much par for the course. But beginning today and continuing through Friday I really am going to have to bear down, day and night, and my blog time is going to be cut to the bone.

For my last hurrah before running the gauntlet, I’ve collected some new and newly discovered music that I hope you’ll check out, plus one new piece of album art and related news.

VALDUR

The mammoth Valdur from Mammoth Lakes, California, have a new album on the way entitled Pathetic Scum. Today the band released a sample from one of the new songs, named “Blessings of the Goat”. It’s a massive, grisly, gruesome death metal monster, with a thoroughly morbid and diseased atmosphere. Continue reading »