SEEN AND HEARD: SKELETAL SPECTRE, DARKTHRONE, KAOTOXIN, AND OBLIVION (the movie)

In no particular order, here are things I saw and heard this morning that I thought were worth tossing your way.

SKELETAL SPECTRE

I really fuckin’ enjoyed this multi-national band’s last album, 2011’s Occult Spawned Premonitions (reviewed here). The band includes an extraordinary extreme vocalist named Vanessa Nocera as well as Roger “Rogga” Johansson of Ribspreader and Bonegnawer fame. I’ve been watching Skeletal Spectre pretty closely as they move forward toward the release of their next album, Voodoo Dawn. This morning I saw the unveiling of the finished cover artwork by Adam Geyer, which is up above. Very nice.

I’m still blasting “Bone Dust”, the one song from Voodoo Dawn that has surfaced to date. In case you missed it the first time it was featured at NCS, here it is again; the album is due out in early 2013 from Pulverised Records.

 

DARKTHRONE

I saw a Facebook post by Darkthrone that their new album The Underground Resistance should be released on February 25. There will be CD and vinyl formats, and for the first time the band had a separate mastering done for the vinyl edition. I’ve seen the names of only two songs so far — “Lesser Men” and “Valkyrie” — plus reports that the songs are going to be long, with at least one topping 10 minutes.  Is there any doubt that this album is going to be interesting?

KAOTOXIN

I saw that the French extreme label Kaotoxin has created a free winter sampler (Toxic Kaos) for download on Bandcamp. I may have noticed something about this before, but stupidly didn’t give it the attention it deserves. The sampler includes songs from bands we’ve showered with compliments here at NCS — Antropofago, Eye of Solitude, Unsu, and Total Fucking Destruction — plus 8 other tracks. Go here to download the sampler.
 

 

OBLIVION

I love science fiction. I also love sci-fi movies. I love them even when they’re mediocre, that’s how much I love them.

This morning I learned from Ben C (Church of the Riff) about a new trailer that premiered today. It’s for a sci-fi movie named Oblivion that’s due for release next April.

On the one hand, it stars Tom Cruise. He isn’t one of my favorite actors, but to his credit he has a habit of throwing his considerable box-office weight behind sci-fi movies.

On the other hand, the movie also stars Morgan Freeman; the trailer looks pretty fuckin’ cool; and . . . it’s a big-budget sci-fi movie. I will probably love it even if it’s mediocre. The trailer is below, and there’s a web site for the movie at this location.