NO RHYME OR REASON: ANAAL NATHRAKH, DEVOLVED, AND CYANIDE SERENITY

Surgical Brute’s first post of our NCS Saturday included songs from five bands, and Misha served up another one today, all of which are well worth hearing. So I’m probably pushing my luck by adding this post with still more songs. I do realize there’s a limited amount of time you’re going to spend listening to new music in a given day, and I also realize we’re not the only metal site most of you visit. But I just can’t resist. There’s probably some psychiatric name for inability to resist impulse, but whatever it is, I’ve got it.

Usually, there’s some organizing principle behind the music collections we feature in a post, even if it’s nothing more than “these songs will flambé your brain.” But today there’s really no rhyme or reason to what I picked, except I came across all three of these offerings in the last 48 hours and just felt compelled to share what I found.

Two of these bands I know well and I’m a big fan of both. The third is a new discovery. What I have for you, then, is a high-quality video of Anaal Nathrakh laying waste in a live club performance; a video for a brand new (and somewhat surprising) song by Australian/California tech-death band Devolved; and a new, crushing re-recording of a song by another tech-death band, UK’S Cyanide Serenity, which features their new lead singer Travis Neal (Divine Heresy). And to top it off, we’ve got the schedule for a just-announced Anaal Nathrakh European tour . . . after the jump.

ANAAL NATHRAKH

I don’t suppose this band needs any introduction around here, seeing as how we recently ran not one, but two different (and equally effusive) reviews of their forthcoming new album, Passion, and last week their last album appeared on .jh‘s list of the 20 best albums of 2000 – 2009 (and on mine).

By coincidence, yesterday I saw this live performance video, which features the same song that .jh included in his post — the title track from In the Constellation of the Black Widow. This performance took place in Birmingham, England, on January 29, 2010. I’ve never seen Anaal Nathrakh live, but this video answered a question that’s been rattling around in my head: Can this band kill as well in the flesh as they do in their heavily augmented studio recordings? The answer: Fuck yes.

And for our next offering, we have . . .

DEVOLVED

We last wrote about this band in January 2010 (here). The occasion was the re-issue by their new label, Unique Leader, of the band’s 2004 album Calculated. At that time, there was word of a new album in the works — the first in six years. Well, it’s finally on the horizon: Oblivion will be released by Unique Leader on May 24.

As a teaser, the band have released a video of a new song called “Wretched Eyes of God”. I doubt that the CGI imagery was created specially as accompaniment for the song, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is the song, and it bodes well for the new album — jolting start-stop rhythms mix with an arresting melody and a surprising range of vocal styles. In the six-plus years since their last album, Devolved has evolved. Listen:

And for our final song of the day, we turn to:

CYANIDE SERENITY

Cyanide Serenity is an unsigned U.K. metal band that came together in 2008 and self-released their debut album, Consume Me, in February of this year. They feature two vocalists and two lead guitarists, and they play a technical, progressive form of extreme metal.

Since the album was recorded, one of the original vocalists departed and the band recruited Travis Neal, former frontman of Divine Heresy, to replace him. Interestingly, the band has decided to re-record Consume Me with Neal providing vocals, along with co-vocalist Matt McKay.

Recently, the band released one of the re-recorded songs — the album’s title track, and that’s what I’ve heard so far. Not having listened to the album as it was released in February, I can’t compare this song with what came before. But considering it as a stand-alone piece of music, I sure like what I hear. It brings the tech-heavy thunder with flashy picking and a fat, thrumming bass line, and the double-barreled vocals create stylistic variety (much like what that Devolved song displayed). Check it out:

One of Cyanide Serenity’s first live performances was as support for Iron Maiden at a performance in Bangalore, India, and the band has attracted a following there. In fact, they’ve just embarked on their third trip to India on a seven-city tour that will last until May 8, to be followed by a string of dates in Sri Lanka.

While in India, the band is scheduled to perform at the Deccan Rock Festival in Hyderbad on May 7 with Decapitated, Sybreed, and Nervecell — and that promises to be a raging show. I wish I could see that. Instead, I’m reminded once again that the fucking tech geeks in Seattle still haven’t perfected the teleporter technology. What a brutal disappointment.

For more info about this band, their Facebook page is at this spot.

Finally, below are the dates and places for Anaal Nathrakh’s upcoming European tour. That’s all for now.

20th May- Werk21, Zurich
21st May- Carlito’s Way, Retorbido
22nd May-Kindergarten Club, Bologna
24th May- Menza Prikoritu, Ljubljana
25th May Tundergyar, Budapest
26th May-V Klub, Presov
27th May- Madness, Wroclaw
29th May- Baroeg, Rotterdam
30th May- Igelrock, Valenciennes
31st May- LeKlub, Paris