Went out on the town last night with a bunch of good people to celebrate a friend’s 30th birthday. Had a blast, and got blasted. Today I feel like a demolition crew is excavating my fuckin’ head with dynamite. Honestly, listening to any kind of intense music right now isn’t an appealing idea. If there’s going to be any music in my near-future, it will be something like Hammock, a band Phro introduced me to. I’m guessing he must have been really hungover when he did that.
But even though I can’t bring myself to add any musical dynamite to the blasting that’s already going on in my cranium, I do want to contribute something to the blog today. So here’s how this will work: I saw three items this morning that I’m guessing are really good, but I can’t bring myself to listen to them. So do me a favor, will you? Leave a comment and let me know if my guesses are right or wrong.
ANTESTOR
This is a coincidence. Just yesterday we posted the milestone 30th edition of Andy Synn’s SYNN REPORT, the subject of which was the discography of Norway’s Antestor. We also reported that Antestor had recorded a new album entitled Omen — their first one in seven years — and that it’s scheduled for release on November 30, and that it uses a painting by NCS favorite Zdzisław Beksiński for the album cover. And here’s the coincidence: Today the band started streaming a track from the new album called “Unchained”.
With so much time having passed since Antestor’s last album, there’s no telling what the new music is going to sound like. Actually, I could tell you what it sounds like if I had listened to “Unchained”, but I haven’t. So what does it sound like?
AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED
Twelve days ago I reported that Agoraphobic Nosebleed had recorded a “holiday EP” that will be included as a Flexi-Disc in the January 2013 issue of DECIBEL magazine. As you can see from the image above, the band are helping us get in the holiday spirit by titling their release Merry Chrystmeth. I guessed it would be the kind of sing-along carol you could enjoy with the whole family, with egg nog and candy canes and reindeer (carcasses) for everyone.
A couple of days ago Metal Sucks started streaming the EP and also featured a music video for it, but I didn’t notice until this morning. I’ve always really liked this band — which consists of Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer), Richard Johnson (Drugs of Faith), Kat Katz (ex-Salome), and Jay Randall — but there’s no way I’m going to let them play in my head this morning. No. Way.
I did watch this video with the sound turned down. It looks really festive. There’s a Santa and candy canes and stockings hung on the mantle and people dancing. There’s also people smoking meth and drinking vodka and pictures of really bad teeth. The lyrics are festive, too. You can read them at Metal Sucks. What do you think about the tune?
Merry Chrystmeth from Handshake Inc on Vimeo.
FINSTERFORST
Finsterforst are a German band whose name means “dark forest”. Napalm Records is planning to release their next album, Rastlos, on November 27 in North America. Yesterday they released the band’s first-ever official music video for a song from the album named “Nichts als Asche”. Actually, it appears this is an edited version of the song — the album only includes five tracks, and presumably they are longer than usual.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard this band’s music. But I like the cover art for Rastlos. I’ve also watched the video for “Nichts als Asche”, with the sound turned down. It mainly shows a half-naked man crusted with something (blood? mud?) trudging through the snow with a box, stopping now and then to rant or howl at the heavens. Something happens at the end that I haven’t figured out yet. I wonder if listening to the music would help.
Here you go. What’s this sound like? Is it good?
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Okay, I’m done here. I’m going to go curl up in the fetal position and whimper for a while. I might listen to some of Hammock’s new double- album on Bandcamp. I’ll return to see if anyone leaves comments. In the meantime, as always, enjoy the rest of your fucking day.
10 Responses to “IS THIS NEW STUFF FROM ANTESTOR, AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED, AND FINSTERFORST ANY GOOD?”
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As much as I love ANb they really are starting to tone down their sound this recent Xmas jingle no exception. They are still great, but are becoming more and more “human”, alright for some, but my personal fatal attraction to the band was that blistering crazy stuff they used to do.
Finsterforst is interesting – some accordian in metal! They’ve got that stomping sound reminiscent of Rammstein or Eisbrecher, but with more folk influence. I see from their website this doesn’t come out till 23rd Nov, and the only other tunes they have up on their facebook page are from old albums. I might have to listen over another track or two and see if I can find a copy after it drops.
I’m a big fan of Finsterforst, which should pretty much tell you exactly what they sound like.
Anthropomorphic penises in kilts?
That would have been my guess.
Hmmm…normally, I would say great minds think alike, but I fear everyone would see through
our ruse.
GIANT-COCK-HAVING-BEAUTIES THINK ALIKE!!!
I heard the new Finsterforst in its entirety a few weeks ago, and I thought it was phenomenal.
I’d never heard of Antestor until yesterday, but if that new track is anything to go by, I need to hear more…once I’m done picking up the pieces of my face left behind by the guitar buzzsaw.
There’s an amazingly well written piece just a few columns down from this one if that helps…
The author is a modern day Hemingway, in my humble opinion.
“A modern day Hemingway.”
Dude, don’t be so hard on yourself. I think you’re a pretty good writer.