SEEN AND HEARD: BROOD OF HATRED, PLANKS, A TRIBE CALLED RED, AND ALLEGAEON

It may be Labor Day Weekend here in the U.S., and although it’s fair to say that I’m fucking off even more than usual with a 3-day weekend to enjoy, I’m also still prowling the interhole in search of new metal experiences worth sharing with our beloved readers, without whom I would just be talking to myself like the average homeless person. And man oh man, did I find some intriguing items yesterday.

I knew only one of these bands before seeing and hearing what I saw — Allegaeon. But we’ve slobbered over them a lot at NCS already, and they’re getting buckets of slobber from fans and critics already, so despite the fact that their new video is indeed awesome, I’m putting them last today. In front of them come three more obscure collectives that deserve the front end of the spotlight.

BROOD OF HATRED

I’m pretty sure that the first and last time I wrote about a metal band from Tunisia was in July 2010, when the subject was a band named Barzakh, in a series on Metal From North Africa. Yesterday I found another Tunisian band named Brood of Hatred, thanks to the wonderful Middle Eastern-based metal blog, Metality. This past March, Brood of Hatred released their debut EP, New Order of Intelligence, which is available for free download on Bandcamp (here). But though I’m now interested in hearing that, what I heard (and saw) yesterday that grabbed my attention was something even more recent.

It’s a brand new video for a new single called “Cacophony In Creation” that will appear on the band’s debut album, Skinless Agony. The song is excellent, both very well written and very well performed. 

The music is mid-paced death metal, deep and dark and voracious, but it includes wonderful progressive elements that reminded me of old Pestilence, including an active bass line and a memorable (though grim) melody. Here it is:
 

 

Metality reports that “the band’s frontman and founder Mohamed Melki says he plans on moving out of the country to finish recording with a well known producer “because of the extreme conditions that prevented [him] from developing [his] project.'” I sure as hell hope that they finish this album. Brood of Hatred is definitely a band to watch. Their Facebook page is here.

PLANKS

Planks is a German band whose name I know but whose music I had never heard until yesterday, despite the fact that they’ve generated a fair amount of output since recording their first demo in 2007.  They’ve now completed their third album Funeral Mouth, which is scheduled for an October 12 release on CD and LP by Golden Antenna (and it can be pre-ordered here).

I discovered the music because CVLT Nation provided an exclusive full-album stream on August 31 and I listened to a couple of the tracks yesterday. But, curiously, I then found a Bandcamp page where the entire album is also streaming — and despite the fact that the official release isn’t until October, it can be downloaded digitally from there right now (which I’ve done).

The explanation for the unexpected Bandcamp appearance seems to be that some asshole figured out a way to do a poor-quality rip of the CVLT Nation stream and upload it to the net, so the band went ahead and put quality files on Bandcamp in the hope of getting paid for their efforts.

And when, may I ask for the 1000th time, are all the members of our community going to learn that it’s bullshit to steal music from bands who haven’t chosen to give their music away?

At this writing, I’ve still only listened to the first two songs on Funeral Mouth. I found them so striking that my first thought was to listen carefully to the whole album and write a review. But I say that to myself about something almost every day, and I’ve learned painfully that I often just don’t find the time to review everything I think deserves detailed attention. So I’m including the music here, at a minimum, because it’s amazing.
 

 

You can find Planks on Facebook via this link.

A TRIBE CALLED RED

I credit our old friend Trollfiend for this discovery, because he posted about it on his Facebook page. The music isn’t metal, but it’s “metal”, if you know what I mean. It’s a mash-up of styles created by three Native American DJs from Ottawa, Canada — Bear Witness, DJ Shub, and Dee Jay NDN — with the idea of making an urban aboriginal style of music. It’s a mash-up of club music and tribal Pow Wow music that the dudes call Pow Wow Step.

It’s heavy and it’s infectious, and it’s just a fucking cool thing to see. I’m pretty sure you’ve never heard anything else like this. And if you dig it, the band’s debut album can be downloaded for free here.
 

 

There’s a cool interview with A Tribe Called Red that you can watch at this place, and they have a Facebook page here.

ALLEGAEON

Okay, we finally come to the band that needs no introduction at NO CLEAN SINGING (because we’ve written about them 756 times) — Colorado’s Allegaeon. TheMadIsraeli reviewed their 2012 album Formshifter here, proclaiming them one of “only two melodic death metal bands started in America who have ever been worth a shit”. Speaking for myself, I can think of others, but I agree that this band is something special.

Yesterday I saw a just-released music video filmed at a live performance at the Bohemian Nights fest in Ft. Collins, CO, on August 11th, 2012. The song is called “A Path Disclosed”, and it will blow so many holes in your head that you’ll look like a block of Swiss cheese.

And yes, both Greg Burgess and Ryan Glisan play 8-string guitars, and unlike some bands who sport those monsters, it sounds like these guys actually use all the strings.