MORE DIVERSIONARY TACTICS: NEW MUSIC FROM TARDIVE DYSKINESIA, AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED, AND CARCERI

So, yesterday we threw together a hodge-podge of new music and videos that proved very diverting to us, and maybe to you, too. And then, in an awesome display of synchronicity — or serendipity, or kismet, or some other word that’s supposed to signify things that are coincidental but maybe were meant to happen — more new music appeared on our NCS radar screen, as if sent from an all-knowing über-mind that tracks and understands the strange and twisted paths of our neural connectivity.

Here’s how this happened. One of the bands we included in yesterday’s post was Outcast, from France, and their new song “Elements”. The music put us in mind of some other bands, one of which (as we said) was Tardive Dyskinesia — a Greek band whose music we’ve been hooked on for a while. And then the next thing we knew, we got an e-mail from none other than Tardive Dyskinesia giving us (and everyone else in the world) an entire live album to download for nothing, nada, bupkis.  Fuck.

And that was just the start. We then got another e-mail telling us that one of our grindcore gods, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, had put up two new songs from a split they’ve done with a band called Despise You. Fuck.

And then we got another e-mail from Misha, the vocalist/guitarist for Akelei (a Dutch band whose very impressive 2010 debut album we reviewed here) asking us to check out Carceri, a death-metal band in which Misha’s brother Josha is the drummer, and in which Misha also used to play. In his e-mail, he used words like “fast”, “brutal”, “technical”, and made reference to “twisted lyrics”. Fuck. That pushed all the right buttons for me. And there you have the story of how today’s post took shape.  (more after the jump . . .)

TARDIVE DYSKINESIA

Near the end of 2009, we wrote a feature on math-metal bands that included a short write-up about a Greek collective called Tardive Dyskinesia and their new album, The Sea of See Through Skins. Here’s part of what we said:

The band’s 2009 release on Coroner Records, The Sea of See Through Skins, is a fast-paced, infectious barrage of technically sophisticated music played with genuine skill. Yes, you’ll find the abrupt tempo changes and complex time signatures associated with math metal, but the band manages to thread grooves and melody throughout that blazing tapestry. Never boring and quite addictive. These dudes deserve your attention. I wish to hell Greece weren’t so far away — I’d love to see ‘em rip it up on stage.

We’ve continued to watch this band from afar, and last summer we posted a video of a live TD performance in Athens. And now, we have another way to experience this band ripping it up live.

I can’t think of very many bands who have done something like this, but it’s a great idea:  In between albums, to satisfy hungry fans and attract new ones by doing something new, record a live performance and then just give it away!

This multi-tracked recording captures a show that TD played on November 13, 2010, at a venue in Athens called Gagarin 205, in support of The Dillinger Escape Plan. To add icing to the cake, the band also arranged for the performance to be professionally filmed, using six different cameras, and the video of the 40-minute performance is also up on YouTube, broken into four parts. Here’s a taste of the music (be patient, there’s a slow, feedback-fueled intro that lasts about 2 minutes before the song erupts):

Tardive Dyskinesia: Triggering the Fear Reactor

Now, here’s THE LINK that will immediately begin the download of Live At Gagarin. And here’s THE LINK that will take you to the videos. Tardive Dyskinesia is at work now on their third album . . .

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED

If you’re a fan of grind, then you already know the name of this band. If you’re not a fan of grind, you’re probably already moving down to the next band on this post. So, I’m not gonna say much about Agoraphobic Nosebleed, except they provide world-class ass-kicking along with some jaw-dropping technicality.

They’ve now posted two new tracks, “Possession“ and “Ungrateful“, taken from a forthcoming split with a band I don’t know called Despise You, which can be streamed via the band’s Facebook and MySpace pages (and also in this post, just below). The split, titled And On And On…, will be released on April 26 by Relapse Records. The press release we got explains that the split will feature the first new recorded material from Despise You in almost 10 years, with 18 tracks clocking in at just under 17 minutes.

The Agoraphobic Nosebleed side of the split will be seven new tracks. The whole thing will be available digitally on iTunes, and on 12” vinyl and CD (pre-order here).

Now, onward to the music. The first clip below is “Possession”, and the one below that is “Ungrateful”. Just a word of warning before you listen: Take cover because the bombs will immediately start raining down. These tracks represent the melding of chaos and order. Not sure I can really explain what I meant by that, but that’s what I get from the music — it’s got a feeling of being out of control, but at the same time it includes extremely tight playing with bursts of heavy grooving and injections of flamethrower guitar. I fuckin dig it.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/11423154″]

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/11423220″]

So, what did you think of that?

CARCERI

This Dutch band have been playing together since the 90’s and finally recorded their debut album, The Good Must Suffer the Wicked, last year. They’ve posted one song from the album for streaming both on their official site and on their Bandcamp page. It’s called “Beneath Me”, and it rocks hard — blistering riffs, schizophrenic tempos, technical picking, lots of stopping-and-starting-on-a-dime, roaring bass-register vocals, funky bass-work that you can actually hear, technically impressive and varied drumming, and a fleet-fingered guitar solo.

In other words, it’s a very satisfying combination of Cannibal Corpse-style brutality and Necrophagist-style technicality. Niiiiiice!

The lyrics to this song can be seen on the band’s official site. I prefer to think that the band’s lyrical intent was to represent the mental deviation of a putrid pedophile, and in doing so to offer condemnation — y’know, as opposed to being a diary entry of whoever wrote the lyrics.

The Good Must Suffer the Wicked will be released this spring — assuming this craptastic winter ends and spring ever comes. And now, here’s “Beneath Me”. If you want to sing along, here are the ghastly lyrics . . . on second thought, we won’t put them in this post. Go here to read them.

If you like this and want another taste, there’s one more song from the album here. It’s called “Septum Defect”, and I’m diggin the hell out of it, too — more jittery riffage, more audibly funky bass-work, more tempo inconstancy, more brutal vocalization, more inventive drumming, and a snappy, spidery guitar solo. Cooooool.

That’s it for this post. Enjoy the rest of your fucking day.