SEEN AND HEARD: SÓLSTAFIR, SHINING, SHITFUCKER — AND WILDERNESSKING

I noticed a lot of new things yesterday. A few of them are collected in this post — an alliterative line-up of new videos and/or songs from Sólstafir (Iceland), Shining (Norway), and Shitfucker (Detroit), plus some welcome news from Wildernessking (South Africa).

SÓLSTAFIR

Yesterday, I spied not one, but three new things from one of our site’s favorite bands, Iceland’s Sólstafir. The first is a new song that appears on a forthcoming 7″ split with another Icelandic band named Legend.  For this split, each of the bands has covered a song by the other. In Sólstafir’s case, the song is Legend’s “Runaway Train”, the original of which you can find here.

I was hooked from the first compulsive drumbeats and darting guitar notes. From there, Addi Tryggvason adds his gritty vocals to what becomes a dark, urgent, hard-rocking take on the original, enhanced by keyboards and an unexpected chant in the mid-section. Damned catchy.

The second thing I found was a Sólstafir song named “Devilmask”. It was recorded in 2004 as a bonus song for the Masterpiece of Bitterness vinyl release, but wasn’t actually included when the album came out in 2005. Now it’s on YouTube. It’s a hard-rocking number, too, but one that reveals more of the band’s original black metal roots.

And the third thing is a video of the band performing “Pale Rider” from their 2009 album Köld. It was filmed on October 25, 2013, at the Kerubi club in Joensuu, Finland. All I’ll say about this intensity is that it reminds me that I’d kill to see Sólstafir live. Who do I have to kill?

The split will be released on January 24 via Artoffact. You’ll have to go here to listen to “Runaway Train” (the two other songs/videos are below):

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/16473-runaway-train/

https://www.facebook.com/solstafirice
https://www.facebook.com/Legendband

 

 

SHINING

Norway’s Shining appear to be embarked on a video series called “Live On Location”. They set up in unusual surroundings, they do a one-take performance of a song and film it with only one camera, and they unveil it to the public with no audio or video editing. The first of these videos, which was filmed in an urban setting and is great, was for the song “I Won’t Forget”. Yesterday, the band premiered the second one, for “The One Inside”, which appeared on their 2013 album One One One.

This new video was filmed in the Mojave Desert, and so we don’t get the random passers-by that made the first video so much fun to watch, but this is still pretty damned cool, not least because of how impressive it is that these guys did something that sounds so good in one live take.

https://www.facebook.com/shiningnorway

 

 

SHITFUCKER

I’ve been hearing good things about Detroit’s Shitfucker for months. And really, how could you forget a name like that? And if somehow you forgot the name of the band, how could you forget the name of their 2013 album, Suck Cocks In Hell? But though the names stuck out, I didn’t listen to anything by them until watching their new music video yesterday. It’s for a song named “Sex Dungeon”. Of course it is.

Putting aside all the imagery conjured by all these names, the song is actually aces — a filthy, old-school heavy metal channeling of Motorhead and Sodom that’s as vile as it is undeniably fun. As for the video, just be careful you don’t lose your head over it.

http://shitfucker.bandcamp.com/

 

 

WILDERNESSKING

Last but not least, I have a tidbit of very welcome news to bring you: South Africa’s Wildernessking will soon be releasing a new EP entitled The Devil Within. The digital version will become available next Monday, January 13, with vinyl and CDs to follow.

Long-time readers of NCS will know about this band, because we’ve written about them frequently. But if the name is new to you, visit their Bandcamp page and get educated:

http://wildernessking.bandcamp.com/

I’m very stoked for this new EP. No doubt, you’ll be seeing more about it at NCS in the days ahead.

Wildernessking 2014 (photo by Anke Loots)