While continuing with my increasingly pathetic attempt to catch up on reviews and other NCS projects that fell by the wayside while I was away from home over the last two weeks — and relying in the meantime on people like Israel, Andy, and Phro to do the heavy lifting around here — I continue to be distracted by the lure of new music. And “lure” is exactly the right word, because I often feel like a stupid fish that can’t resist impaling myself on a barbed hook because there’s something tasty-looking attached to it, instead of doing something productive like . . . uh . . . eating or procreating.
This morning, the lures dangling in front of my wondering, gap-mouthed face came attached with the names Mourning Caress and Godsic. These were new names to me, but I took the bait anyway, and am now trying to get the fucking hooks out of my gills. Why, I asked myself, should I be the only fish in the NCS sea to greedily chomp down on these razored morsels of distraction? Unable to think of any good reason, I’m serving them up to you, too.
Both bands have new albums on the way, of course, which is why they’ve lowered these new songs into the water . . . hoping to hook some fan-fish and lift them, flopping and gasping, into their skiffs for later consumption. Mourning Caress is from Germany, and their third album, Deep Wounds, Bright Scars (a title that aptly suits my now-overdone metaphor for this post) is tentatively scheduled for release in November on MDD Records. The new song I heard is called “Panic”.
Godsic is a new band from Sweden composed of former members of Construcdead and current members of Carnal Forge. They’ve created a debut album called As the Heavens Burn, with the objective of releasing it this fall once they’ve lured a label into signing them. To date, they’ve released two songs for streaming — “Scars Inside” and “Premeditation” (which features yet another Carnal Forge member, Petri Kuusisto, as a guest on lead guitar). I like the alluring cover art, so I stuck it at the top of this post.
Of course, I like what I’m hearing from both bands, or I wouldn’t be bothering with this post. Can I lure you into nibbling around these hooks after the jump? And at the end, you can see the just-released cover art for the next album by one of our favorite bands — Landmine Marathon.
MOURNING CARESS
For their new album, Mourning Caress have recorded nine original songs, plus a cover of “Blackout” by Scorpions. One of the original songs, “Wastelands Within” will feature a guest appearance by Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity, and it appears the band intends to release that one as a further piece of bait in September. They’ve also disclosed the album cover, created by Björn Goosses of Killustrations, who have done some very nice work for many bands, including Nervecell and Dew Scented:
Now, as for the song “Panic”, it’s a sharply produced, powerful-sounding piece of melodic death metal that features killer, Scandinavian-style riffage and emotive harsh vocals in the style of Marcus Bischoff (Heaven Shall Burn) — all top-end, and letting it all hang out. There’s a bit of acoustic relief before the song is over, but otherwise it’s nothing but hard driving. Have you heard its like before? Well, yes, you will have. Is it fun to hear nevertheless? I sure think so. Check it out:
The Mourning Caress Facebook page is here and their MySpace is at this location. And now, onward to . . .
GODSIC
The two songs Godsic have released for listening from the new album have been floating around the web since early this year, but the band have recently devoted significant effort to get their name out — starting an official site, a Soundcloud page, a spot on Facebook, and launching an album teaser on YouTube with snippets from songs the band have finished recording to date for their debut album.
“Scars Inside” is simply pneumatic — bursts of staccato rhythm and sharp, jabbing riffs surround a melodic chorus, with abrasive hardcore-style vocals that (thankfully) never quite get clean. “Premeditation” is built around more industrial-sounding hammer blows, but this time the vocals do turn clean in the chorus and there’s an acetylene blast of shred to jazz up the pneumatics. Once again, you’ve heard this kind of music before — I was reminded of early Mnemic — but I still had some fun with it. Here you go:
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/19533827″]
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/19534138″]
Check out Godsic’s Facebook page here. And if you’d like to download your very own copy of “Scars Inside”, you can do that at Godsic’s official site here.
LANDMINE MARATHON
Grace Perry and company will be releasing their fourth album, Gallows, on September 27 through Prosthetic Records. I am in a high degree of anticipation for it. Eventually, the band will lower some musical lures into the water, and all the hungry fan-fish (including me) will fight to be the first to get impaled on the barbs. But for now, what we have is the Gallows cover art, created by UK artist Rob “Mid “ Middleton, who has leant his services in the past to bands such as Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, and Deviated Instinct (in which Middleton plays guitar). This is very cool, in my opinion:
Landmine Marathon guitarist and producer, Ryan Butler, speaks in detail about the Gallows cover art on an exclusive video, now streaming on MetalInjection here.
And thas all I got for you fish right now. Keep swimming, cuz no doubt something toothsome is coming up behind, thinking you look alluring.