Good morning, good afternoon, good night, wherever you are. It’s morning for me, three time zones east of where I usually am. I’m pressed for time today because of my day job. I’ll be spending several hours trying to extricate those coke-filled balloons from my ass so I can make my delivery and get back on a plane to Seattle. I got them way to far up in there this time, I’m afraid.
But although I’m pressed for time, I did have time to make a quick review of my usual sources and have a few things to pass along to you, in no particular order: Devourment are releasing a new album; System Divide are going home; Weapon the Factory? are disrobing; Abigail Williams are reuniting; and Cloak of Altering is killing me. Details to follow.
DEVOURMENT
I saw that these grand-daddies of brutal slamming death metal will have a new album out next year on the Relapse label. Relapse released a teaser video for the thing. I’m ready. I’m more than ready. Check it out following the jump.
WEAPON THE FACTORY?
The question mark after this Japanese band’s name actually seems to be part of their name, though I would have added it myself anyway. As in, “Weapon the Factory? What kind of name is that?” But who would answer me?
Phro sent me a link to a video of the band performing on stage. The video he sent me appears to be the 8th of 8 videos shot at this performance. This seems to be the final song of the set. I can tell this because the vocalist/guitarist takes off her bra at the end, kicks her guitar around the floor, and leaves. That part isn’t as enjoyable as it might have been, for reasons you’ll see.
SYSTEM DIVIDE
I don’t know how many of you were planning to see System Divide on their current U.S. tour with Epica, Alestorm, and Insomnium, but if you haven’t seen them yet, don’t hold your breath.
Miri Milman already had to leave the tour about a week ago to return home for a family health emergency. Apparently, that situation has gotten worse, and her husband and System Divide comrade Sven de Caluwé announced today that he is also going home to support her. So, System Divide is dropping off the tour as of today.
I still want to see this tour, for one remaining reason: Insomnium
The full statement appears on System Divide’s FB page, here.
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
On July 2, we reported the unfortunate news that USBM band Abigail Williams were going to call it quits after a farewell U.S. tour that started later that month and ran into the fall. That turned out to be a short-lived ending.
Last night, the following message appeared on the band’s FB page: “New album coming in 2013 . . .”
Scrolling through the comments that followed that status, I saw this further remark from the band after many people expressed surprise at the news: “Its called changing your mind due to changed circumstances.”
I’m a fan of this band, and really liked their last album, Becoming. So I consider this good news. It will be interesting to hear what they do with their music on the next release.
CLOAK OF ALTERING
Last night I got the following e-mail from TheMadIsraeli: “I wanted something gloomy and kvlt as fuck for my study time. Ran across these guys. Avant-garde black metal that makes me feel less frost bitten and more lost inside a bog full of horrific imaginings from an LSD trip.”
Well, that peaked my curiosity. So I checked out the following song from Cloak of Altering, for which TMI sent me a link. I thought his description was apt. The music is a fusion of symphonic keyboards, industrial rhythms, some experimental electronica, blast-beats and tremolo haze, wretched acid-dosed vocals, and a whole lot of dark, depressive atmosphere. I liked it a bunch.
And then I poked around and discovered that this is yet another project of Dutch musician Mories, (Gnaw Their Tongues), whose latest album under the guise of De Magia Veterum I reviewed here. The song below, “The War Has Finally Found Us”, is the closing track from a new album released on October 30 by the name of Ancient Paths Through Timeless Voids. I definitely want to hear more from that album.
(UPDATE: Thanks to a comment from Lord Farin, I now know that the new Cloak of Altering album is available for download on Bandcamp for the ridiculously inexpensive sum of $2, and of course can be streamed there as well. So, I’m including the Bandcamp player below the YouTube clip.)
17 Responses to “A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT: DEVOURMENT, WEAPON THE FACTORY?, SYSTEM DIVIDE, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, AND CLOAK OF ALTERING”
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I’m not sure if AW are going to continue as a touring entity, or even a live entity at all, but I am incredibly glad they’ll still exist as a musical entity.
On Cloak of Altering: “I definitely want to hear more from that album.”
Scrolling down their FB page (the link to which I accidentally clicked, as I wasn’t warned) I noticed a Bandcamp link:
http://gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/album/ancient-paths-through-timeless-voids
at which the full album appears to be available for streaming. I’ll leave it to the NCS staff to amend the post with the further details.
Man, thanks for this info. I just updated the post to include the Bandcamp info and the full-album stream, which I’m very much looking forward to hearing.
Wow, new Abigail Williams album.. Wonder what they’ll sound like this time.. I’m guessing either old school Country or gangsta rap.
I’d probably guess it’ll be an extension of the same natural progression that led from In The Shadow of A Thousand Suns, through In The Absence of Light, up to Becoming.
Would make sense.
Natural progression? Becoming was more regression.
To each their own, I enjoyed it the most out of all their albums. atmosphereical. Sounded more original than their previous works, IMO.
I think you may have wandered on to the wrong website. Sounds like you are looking for MetalSucks.
Nah..I think it will be similar to the last one…in fact the new album title will be “We’ve definitely picked a direction this time”
Weapon the factory? was that Grover ?
I’m not sure. I haven’t seen Grover wear a spiked bra before, but I guess it’s possible.
lol…haha.. i guess so
I like Cloak of Altering. Always nice to hear de Jong’s mellow side.
Very cool stuff. I should have discovered it back when I was exploring De Magia Veterum. Better late than never.
Devourment and Abigail Williams? I approve.
If you have any chance to see Insomnium, just do it. I saw them last week in Buffalo at a little club (literally, 10 by 10 stage, maybe held 150 people) with Alestorm. It was a “day-off” show, so Epica and System Divide weren’t part of the bill. Both bands put on fantastic sets…but Insomnium was the better of the two. As a unit, they were tight as a drum, passionate, and put on a stellar set. I was with a friend who’d never heard the band before, but was in love by the end of the set. From conversations I had afterwards, she wasn’t the only person – a lot of people were there for Alestorm, but Insomnium won them over. If that isn’t testimony enough, I don’t know what is!
Great news about AW. Becoming might be my favorite album of the year.