JAR SOMETHING LOOSE IN YOUR SKULL

To start your weekend off right — NCS style — I’ve got four songs for you. Two of them are old (and set to riveting videos) and two of them are brand new. They may seem like a random selection, but there are connections:

(1) The two older songs involve bands that have just cross-pollinated; (2) all four songs will jar something loose in your heads (you weren’t really planning on doing anything with your heads this weekend anyway, were you?); and (3) this music is perfect if you want to be part of the metal IN crowd, because the names of all four bands include the letters “IN”.

Okay, I didn’t say all the connections would necessarily be meaningful. Meaningless connections work for me, too. Anyway, the music I’ve collected is from Origin (U.S.), Skinless (U.S.), Insision (Sweden), and Insense (Norway). Rattle your head . . . after the jump.

ORIGIN

Origin is one of the two bands that have just cross-pollinated. Both of them happen to be long-running outfits that I think are hot shit, so this news caught my eye.

The background: In February 2010, Origin announced that it was parting company with its long-time vocalist James Lee. Yesterday, the band finally announced a permanent replacement: Jason Keyser — the former vocalist for Skinless. Keyser will be making his Origin debut on a tour the band begins in Texas on June 15 (the dates and places are at the end of this post).

I’m not sure what this means for Skinless — who haven’t produced an album of new music since 2006. I haven’t yet seen anything to indicate whether Keyser will be doing double-duty or has left Skinless permanently for greener pastures. Unlike Skinless, Origin do have new music on the way. They signed with Nuclear Blast last fall and began recording their next album in November.

From that hotbed of extreme metal, Topeka, Kansas, Origin have been an amazing band for a long time. If you’re not familiar with the music, they play a blazingly fast, intricate, highly technical brand of death metal. Reading the news about Keyser’s joining the band made me think of this official video of the band performing “Finite” from their 2008 album, Antithesis.

This song blows my mind. And to borrow a phrase from our buddy Phro, who thankfully survived the Japanese earthquake, watching Origin execute this song blows my mind — and fucks the hole.

SKINLESS

The recent news described above also made me think about Skinless. Though their output has been missing in action of late, they used to play some top-notch brutal death, and their last album has one of the best metal titles ever — Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead.

I found this video for the song “Overlord” from that wonderfully named album. Some genius set this song to footage from the Normandy assault scene in Saving Private Ryan, and put the result up on YouTube. It really works well, as you’ll see — though neither the music nor the film footage are for the faint of heart.

INSISION

Our next skull-rattling item is a new song called “Beckoning” from a Swedish death-metal band called Insision. They’ve completed recording of a new five-song EP called End Of All that will be released later in the year via the U.S. label Sevared Records.

This is the first new music from the band since their third album, Ikon, released in 2007. I hadn’t heard this band’s music until checking out this song, which will appear on the EP. What I found was a pulverizing experience — Cannibal Corpse-style death metal; slamming riffs; quick-but-cool bass solos; quick-but-cool guitar solos; vocals that emanate from the earth’s core; shit that shakes you hard but gets your neck snapping.

Here’s the song:

Insision – Beckoning by Strychneen

INSENSE

This is another band I didn’t know about until a recent press release published on Blabbermouth. The point of the release was the unleashing of “Surviving Self Resentment”, the band’s new video. The song comes off the band’s fourth album, Burn In Beautiful Fire, which will be released on April 8 via Indie Recordings.

I paid attention to this item because In Flames‘ vocalist Anders Fridén, is the band’s manager. He’s quoted as saying, “The first time I heard them, I wanted more. They have this amazing ability to sound extreme yet poised, dark yet beautiful, hardcore yet soft, technical yet simplistic, all without falling into the ‘pathetic’ trap. They are an extreme metal band that’s comfortable to listen to. They’re difficult to categorize that way.”

I think Anders Fridén is a talented guy, and he certainly doesn’t need an extra gig as a band manager, so I was inclined to take what he said at face value. Turns out the song is metalcore, through and through. It builds on a catchy, heavy, metallic, chugging riff – with vocals that alternate between quasi-hardcore shrieking and clean singing. It’s not a bad song, and it grew on me more after about three listens, but I am having trouble understanding what was so unusual about it that it so riveted Anders Fridén’s attention.

Maybe you can explain the attraction. Here’s the video:

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That’s it for the music. As I mentioned, Origin is about to begin a U.S. tour — co-headlining with Hate Eternal, with support from Vital Remains and Abysmal Dawn. Talk about jarring something loose in your skull — that tour holds the promise of head trauma on a truly massive scale. Here are the dates and places (check the footnote to see who’s schedule to headline on each stop):

06/15 Emo’s – Austin, TX
06/15/11 Emo’s – Austin, TX (HE)
06/16/11 Sorority House – Amarillo, TX (OR)
06/17/11 The Marquis Theatre – Denver, CO (HE)
06/19/11 The Clubhouse – Tempe, AZ (OR)
06/20/11 The Key Club – Hollywood, CA (OR)
06/21/11 Slim’s – San Francisco, CA (OR)
06/22/11 The Alley – Sparks, NV (HE)
06/23/11 Branx (Loveland) – Portland, OR (OR) <– NO HATE ETERNAL
06/24/11 Studio Seven – Seattle, WA (OR)
06/25/11 Rickshaw Theater – Vancouver, BC – CANADA (HE)
06/26/11 Sapphire Club – Kelowna, BC – CANADA (OR)
06/27/11 The Distillery – Calgary, AB – CANADA (HE)
06/28/11 Pawn Shop – Edmonton, AB – CANADA (OR)
06/29/11 Sutherland Memorial Hall – Saskatoon, SK – CANADA (OR) <– NO HATE ETERNAL
06/30/11 The Exchange – Regina, SK – CANADA (HE)
07/01/11 Royal Albert Arms – Winnipeg, MB – CANADA (HE)
07/02/11 Station 4 – St. Paul, MN (HE)
07/03/11 The Annex – Madison, WI (OR)
07/04/11 Fubar – St. Louis, MO (OR) NO HATE ETERNAL
07/05/11 Reggie’s Rock Club – Chicago, IL (OR)
07/06/11 Peabody’s – Cleveland, OH (OR)
07/07/11 Wreck Room – Toronto, ON – CANADA (HE)
07/08/11 Les Foufounes Electriques – Montreal, QC – CANADA (OR)
07/09/11 The Palladium – Worcester, MA (HE)
07/10/11 Santo’s Party House – New York, NY (HE)
07/11/11 Sonar – Baltimore, MD
07/12/11 Greene Street Club – Greensboro, NC (OR) <– NO HATE ETERNAL
07/13/11 The Oasis – Charleston, SC (OR)
07/14/11 Firestone Live – Orlando, FL (HE)

* (OR) = Origin Headlines
* (HE) = Hate Eternal Headlines