VIDEOGRAPHY: DECEPTIC, THE ORDER OF ISRAFEL, EMPTINESS, AND FREE SHIT FROM NAPALM RECORDS

In this round-up to begin our new week here at NCS, I’ve brought you a trio of recommended videos I spied yesterday plus news of a free music sampler from Napalm Records that’s worth checking out.

DECEPTIC

I discovered this first video via a link sent by our friend “deckard cain“. It’s for a song named “Ocean”, which appears on the debut album (The Artifact) by a band from Gothenburg, Sweden, named Deceptic. deckard wrote that the music reminded him of Textures, Scar Symmetry, and Soilwork, and after I heard the jolting song I thought that was a good summing up of stylistic references.

But the video as a whole is really what landed it at the top of this post. It was made by Igor Omodei, and it is truly a feast for the eyes, with both excellent camera work and editing of the band footage and superb animation and visual effects. I had a smile on my face all the way through, and then my eyes really popped wide in the final 30 seconds. Kudos to Mr. Omodei.

The Artifact was just released during the last week and appears to be available on iTunes and Amazon.

https://www.facebook.com/Deceptic/

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE ORDER OF ISRAFEL

I came across yet another new band from Gothenburg, Sweden, because the video you’re about to see was among the recommended clips that appeared on the YouTube player after that Deceptic video finished playing. The screen cap for it looked intriguing so I checked it out, not knowing anything about the music before it began.

The video is for the title song to the band’s forthcoming debut album, Wisdom (with cover art by Henk Jacobson). The video intersperses an animated story shots of the band performing the song in various woodland settings. The music is an Exception to the Rule around here, since the singing is all clean, but vocalist Tom Sutton has a really good voice for this kind of music — which turns out to be an epic-length offering of classic doom and 70s hard rock.

These dudes definitely look the retro part, but don’t brush them off.  The song is damned infectious and proves to be a dynamically changing piece as well, with a combo of massive doom riffs and hard-rocking jams.

The album can be ordered from Napalm Records in a variety of physical formats here. As it happens, the song “Wisdom” is also included on a free sampler of Napalm Records music, which I’ll tell you about after the last video in this post.

https://www.facebook.com/TheOrderOfIsrafel

 

 

 

 

 

 

EMPTINESS

If you haven’t heard Nothing But the Whole, the 2014 album from Belgium’s Emptiness, you really should. It’s a multi-faceted, unconventional, thoroughly intriguing listening experience that’s one of my favorites of the year.

And if you won’t just take my damned word for it, then watch the new music video they’ve released for a song from the album named “Behind the Curtain”. It premiered a couple days ago at CVLT Nation. It’s a live performance (the video was made by Blackout Studio), and the video is really well done. The song is ominous, exotic, disturbing, hypnotic, and bestial, all at the same time.

http://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/nothing-but-the-whole
https://www.facebook.com/Emptiness.be

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAPALM RECORDS HIGHLIGHTS 2014

As mentioned above, Napalm Records has recently released a free sampler of music from the label’s artists. It includes not only “Wisdom” by The Order of Israfel but also tracks by Alestorm, Grave Digger, Arkona, Gormathon, Vintersorg, and nine other bands. To download the sampler, visit this page:

https://www.facebook.com/napalmrecords?sk=app_321711147994557&app_data