NCS LABOR DAY MIXTAPE

Here in the U.S., today is a holiday for most people. It’s called Labor Day, and it’s intended to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers. It was established as a federal holiday in 1894, but 30 States had already established state Labor Day holidays by then. Traditionally in this country, it marks the end of summer, and it’s a time when people congregate, drink bucketloads of beer, and stuff themselves with grilled food while enjoying the sunshine (or baking in the heat, depending on where you are).

I thought it would be appropriate for NCS to provide some brain-coring musical accompaniment for today’s revels. Hell, even people who live in countries that don’t have a holiday today might enjoy a bit of brain-coring.

So, I put together a multi-national 15-song mixtape that you can download for free. Over the course of this summer, we wrote about each of the bands whose music is included, and on the track list after the jump, I’ve included links to those posts in case you want to learn more about the bands and the music.

I impulsively compiled this mixtape on the spur of the moment this morning, so I didn’t take the time to ask any of the bands for permission. Instead, I used “deductive reasoning”: Each of these bands have themselves made this music available for free; therefore, I reasoned, they probably wouldn’t care if I made it available for free, too. (more after the jump, including the download link . . .)

I suppose my reasoning could be flawed, and if any of the bands don’t want their songs spread around on this mixtape, I hereby invite them to e-mail me and I’ll remove their songs from the download.

Here’s the tracklist. If you click on the band’s name, that will take you to the original NCS post where we featured this music, and those posts usually include links where you can download the entire albums for free. Hope you enjoy this shit, because I sure have. Happy Fucking Labor Day.

NCS LABOR DAY MIXTAPE (2011)

1.  Byzantine (U.S.) – “Oblivion Beckons”

2.  Beyond Creation (Canada) – “Omnipresent Perception”

3.  Cult of Endtime (Finland) – “Nuclear Witch”

4.  Architecture of Aggression (South Africa) – “Memetaphage”

5.  Krallice (U.S.) – “Fetus in Fetu”

6.  Shangren (Australia) – “The Battle of Water and Fire”

7.  Gire (Hungary) – “Az Ozek Futasa”

8.  Reclusive Forest Council (Taiwan) – “Romanticized Reality”

9.  Blastanus (Finland) – “Evolutionary Dead End”

10.  Meankind (Hungary) – “Incomprehensible Appetite”

11.  Science of Demise (Sweden) – “Fleshcrown Envoy”

12.  Aurora Borealis (U.S.) – “Crucible of Creation”

13.  Quarter the Villain (U.S.) – “Frontier Justice”

14.  Above This (U.S.) – “Versatile”

15.  Oak Pantheon (U.S.) – “In the Dead of WInter Night”

Now, here’s the link to a .zip file containing all the songs. Right-click on the link, save it to your hard drive, un-zip the file, and begin the brain-coring.

NCS LABOR DAY MIXTAPE (2011)