SAVAGE, SWEET, AND IN BETWEEN

The weekend is upon us. Don’t know about you, but I’m fucking ready for it. Tonight I’m going to see Between the Buried and Me, Job For A Cowboy, The Ocean, and Cephalic Carnage, which is certainly one of the more diverse touring line-ups of the year, so far. I’ve seen three of those bands multiple times in the past, and they do not disappoint, and I’m very curious about the fourth, who I’ve never heard on stage — The Ocean.

I hope you’ve got something to look forward to this weekend, too. But even if you plan to wallow in misery because life decided to burn a bag of shit on your front porch, we can at least give you some new tunes to brighten the weekend outlook. Not knowing what kind of metal you may be into, I tried to round up a mix of styles, while staying with the theme of new music.

Maybe you enjoy having your face clawed off by demon spawn. If so, we’ve got yet another new piece of otherworldly scariness from Malfeitor (Sweden). Maybe that’s not enough, and what you really want is music that will leave your flesh so scavenged that even hyenas will lose interest in your carcass. We have an answer for that, with a compilation from CVlt Nation. Maybe you get your rocks off from technical guitar wizardry, with music that transports you into a sublime plane which makes you feel connected to something larger than your own feeble soul. If yes, then you’ll want to hear a taste (two tastes, actually) of the solo release from Christian Muenzner (Obscura).

And maybe you want something in between, something that captures the emotion of your life, with every high and low, from the rocket-ship into the stratosphere to the utter desolation of your worst depression, from the sunrise to the bottomless pit. Yeah, we have that too, from Germany’s Ära Krâ. But before that we have a brand new song from Origin, and we really shouldn’t have to explain how many kinds of awesome that means. Stay with us, after the jump . . .

MALFEITOR

Does this name sound familiar? It fucking should, since we’ve included them in a post every time they’ve exploded a new single on the scene. They shamble down a descending path, deep into a Stygian cavern, the path slick from the liquid seepage of the Earth above or old blood that has run from the wounds of those who came before, they fumble with iron keys on the heavy prison gates, and they unleash hellish, hungry things that rush out, and upward, untethered from what anchors feeble mortals to this fragile coil.

As of yesterday, we have one more new song, the fourth entry in this ghoulish parade. You will cower in the shadows as it beats its black wings on the dank air. This shows no signs of stopping, one beast after another is loosed every few weeks. Eventually, every song on this new album will have escaped. For now, listen to the latest song, “And the Sky Turned To Rage”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDF7iEJj330

You could follow Malfeitor’s news on Facebook, but have no fear, we will follow it for you, too.

CVLT NATION MIXTAPE VOL. 1

Speaking of having your face clawed off by demon spawn, we’ve got something that will do that, and then pour acid into your ear holes. While punching a hole in your gut and pulling out your intestines with hot tongs. Sound good? Course it does!

What we have is a mixtape compiled by a web site called CVLT Nation. Here’s their description of the compilation, upon which we cannot improve: “Today CVLT Nation is releases [sic] Vol. I of our mixtape series. This volume is a sonic blitzkrieg of blackened audio violence! From the time you press play, the attack on your senses is on! CVLT Nation Vol. I highlights many super rad unsigned bands that will totally push your wig back, plus mad signed bands that bring the stench as well. No more words, just fucking listen to this mixtape!”

I listened to all 48 minutes of this thing yesterday, and it turned my brain to jelly. Today I’m fixing some slices of toast to see how that brain jelly tastes. I mean, what else am I gonna do with it?

To stream the tracks, go to this location. To download the comp, follow the instructions you’ll see when you get there. It will pull the ground from beneath you. Not for the faint of heart.

CHRISTIAN MUENZNER

Christian Muenzner is one of the guitarists for one of the best current technical death metal bands on this good Earth, Obscura. He has created a solo instrumental album that promises to be a fucking liberating experience for metal fans. It’s called Timewarp. It’s the sweetness end of the metal spectrum for this post. It includes some guests that are just as talented as Mr. Muenzner.

We have two songs from this album. The first features Hannes Grossmann (Obscura) on drums, Jacob Schmidt (Defeated Sanity) on bass, Daniel Galmarini (Mercury Falling) on keyboards, and Texas guitar master Derek Taylor (Eniac Requiem, Crimeny) does the guitar solo at 3:25. Listen to “Confusion” (you won’t be sorry):

But wait, we have another single from that album. This one features Steve Giorgio (according to whom this song sounds like a Japanese video game soundtrack) on fretless bass, Hannes Grossmann on drums again, and Daniel Galmarini on keyboards. This one’s called “Maybe Tomorrow”. I hope you like it as much as I did.

To order the album as a CD, send 15€ for the CD + 3€ for shipping (worldwide) via PayPal to christianmuenzner@gmx.de , or e-mail him at christianmuenzner@hotmail.de if you don’t have PayPal.

ORIGIN

I fucking love Origin. I fucking love the fact that they will have a new album called Entity released by Nuclear Blast on June 7 in NorthAm and on June 10 in Europe. I fucking love the fact that they’ve now made available for streaming a song from the album called “Expulsion of Fury”. I fucking love that song.

Here’s what guitarist Paul Ryan and drummer John Longstreth had to say about the song in the track-by-track notes that the band put up on their Facebook page:

Paul Ryan: Well I don’t how to put it other than WE’RE BACK! It’s just a taste of what’s to come. Out of the gate at LUDICROUS SPEED with one of the most challenging ORIGIN riffs of all time, then it slams into our traditional pattern blasting. Followed by a new challenge of song composition & dynamics. The last riff is a heartbeat pulse that John throws a machine gun blast that’s just pummeling.

John Longstrength: A heartbeat with a BAAAAAAD murmur. This first half of this song is like going back in time and visiting the Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas days for me.  For 10 years people have been asking ORIGIN to play grooves, so we play some grooves right here. if there isn’t enough on this song, what do we do?

No worries. This is enough. Indeed it is. Listen to the new Origin song and bow down. This puts almost all current tech-death bands into a feverish state of insecurity:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/14374011″]

Tell the truth — that was blistering and tight and was a reasonable aural facsimile of the origin of the universe. Amiright?

ARA KRA

This band is from Germany. I know very little about them, because they intentionally have shrouded themselves in secrecy. But I’ve listened to their debut album, Ferne Tage, self-released on April 15, and I am gob-smackingly impressed. This is a case where I feel it’s better to just let you listen to a track instead of trying to describe it. I will have much more to say about the album in a few days.

For now, here’s one of the songs from that album:

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ÄRA-KRÂ-Ferne-Tage-06-Licht.mp3|titles=ÄRA KRÂ – Ferne Tage – Licht]

And if you’d like to download that song, use this link:

Ara Kra: Licht