SEEN AND HEARD: ULCERATE AND CARCASS STREAMS, SLAYER-GOJIRA-4ARM TOUR UPDATE, A NEW VEIL OF MAYA TOUR WITH VILDHJARTA, A NEW SONG BY HAIL OF BULLETS, AND ALBUM NEWS FOR GIFT OF GODS AND SARKE

Painstakingly selected from among the detritus that litters the interhole and the NCS in-box, here are items of interest that appeared over the last 24 hours.

ULCERATE

If you need more darkness in your life — and who doesn’t? — then you should listen to Vermis, the new death metal monstrosity by New Zealand’s Ulcerate. The album won’t be released in North America until September 17 (a day earlier in the UK and September 13 in certain European countries), but yesterday Metal Sucks began hosting an exclusive stream of the album. Ulcerate are one of those rare death metal bands who are pushing (or dragging) the genre in new directions. The music of Vermis is harrowing and inhuman, but it exerts a powerful attraction. You should hear it.

THIS is the link for the stream.

CARCASS

The new Carcass album, which we reviewed here, is due for release on September 16. I have a feeling that anyone interested in hearing the new Carcass album has already heard it, but just in case, it’s now streaming in full, too. Nuclear Blast has uploaded the entire album to YouTube. Obviously, it’s one of the biggest releases of 2013, and it also happens to be a fine album. You can hear it next.  (thanks Daniel for the tip)

 

SLAYER-GOJIRA-4ARM TOUR

Now let’s move to tourism news. Previously we reported that Slayer, Gojira, and 4ARM will be touring North America this fall. Yesterday, as expected, additional dates were added to the schedule, including Seattle, so yay for that. Some Canadians will be saying yay, too.

Tickets for the new dates go on sale this Friday, September 13, but I noticed that pre-sales are beginning today (at least for the Seattle venue). Here are the new dates and venues:

NOVEMBER
01 WAMU Center, Seattle, WA
03 Stampede Corrall, Calgary, AB
04 Shaw Center, Edmonton, AB
05 Praireland Park Center, Saskatoon, SK
07 MTS Center, Winnipeg, MB
21 Ricoh Colibsum, Toronto, ON
23 CEPSUM/University of Montreal, Montreal, QC
24 Pavilion de la Jeunesse, Quebec, QC

 

VEIL OF MAYA – STRUCTURES – NORTHLANE – VILDHJARTA – HERE COMES THE KRAKEN

As you can see, these bands also plan to tour North America. The tour poster appeared last night. No dates yet.

 

HAIL OF BULLETS

On September 2 we posted a teaser for the new album by Dutch death metal vets, Hail of Bullets, which is entitled III The Rommel Chronicles. Yesterday the band premiered the first complete track from the album, “Pour le Mérite”. Metal Blade also launched a “landing page” for the album (here) where you’ll find pre-order info. I also got a good look at the album cover for the first time (above), and I like.

“Pour le Mérite” is quite likable, too. It’s shot-through with an eerie, otherworldly melody, and it’s really damned heavy. When it hits that chugging slowdown in the mid-section, heads will bang hard. And there’s just no one who sounds quite like Martin Van Drunen. I have a feeling this album is going to be must-own material for fans of the old school.

 

 

GIFT OF GODS

Gift Of Gods is the name of a new band from Nocturno Culto, who of course is half Norway’s Darkthrone. I found out about this project only yesterday and at the same time learned that its debut EP, Receive, will be released by Peaceville Records on November 5. All I know about the music is what I read in the press release

Commented Nocturno Culto, “Finally, the mini-album is done. Gift Of Gods has been a great ride for me. I don’t want this to end now, so I will most likely work on new material. Thanks to my partner in crime, K.A. Hubred, we got to rehearse during the last two years. What to expect? I have no idea how to describe this, but it’s metal for sure.”

For Gift Of Gods, Nocturno turned his hand to creating pure, unbridled heavy metal excellence, taking in a vast array of influences from decades past to concoct a special whirlwind of melodic riffing and headbanging anthems on this 30 minute heavy metal pilgrimage. Receive also features a rendition of “Looking For an Answer,” originally by obscure Swedish 80’s band, Universe.

Okay, so now you know what I know, which isn’t much: It will be “heavy metal excellence”. I iz still interested.

SARKE

Speaking of Nocturno Culto, he’s involved in another not-Darkthrone band with a new album on the way — Sarke, who will also be playing at Maryland Deathfest next May. The album’s name is Aruagint and it’s due from Indie Recordings on September 20. Look who’s in the band:

SARKE (Khold, Tulus), bass.
NOCTURNO CULTO (Darkthrone), vocal.
ASGEIR MICKELSON (Spiral Architect, God Of Atheists), drums.
ANDERS HUNSTAD (El Caco, Autopulver, Morten Abel), keyboard.
STEINAR GUNDERSEN (Satyricon, Spiral Architect, System: Obscure), guitar.

What will this music sound like? “Our music is inspired by the great 70’s rock bands, 80’s speed metal bands and 90’s black metal bands. Put this together with the creative mind of the band and your get pure dark rock music sounding is clear, raw and honest.” Not the most seamless translation from the Norwegian, but yeah, this sounds interesting, too.

UPDATE!  Here’s one of the new songs:

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I also found some other new music worth sharing, but this post is already pretty long, so I’ll save it for later today. Bye for now.