Artist’s rendering of my life at the moment.
The old fucking day job has been railing me from behind so vigorously that I can’t sit down. I’m still stuck on the east coast of these United States, mired in one of those day-and-night projects that periodically consumes me like a school of piranha on a bloated cow carcass. On the plus side, the threatened snowpocalypse from earlier this week never arrived where I am. On the minus side, I’ll remain mired in work for the next 8 days.
I’ve barely had time to post what other people write this week. The “Most Infectious Song” list has gone into hibernation, and the “Seen and Heard” column has become virtually non-existent. I’ve collected links to new music I’d like to hear, but have had no time to actually listen to it. So all I’m doing in this post is embedding some of those new songs. I don’t know what they sound like.
So maybe you’ll write the reviews for me in the Comments. I’ll pay you what I pay myself and all the other regular writers, by which I mean, not a goddamned thing. But you will obtain the priceless pleasure of knowing that you helped me in my time of need.
BARREN EARTH
VOIVOD
DOOMRAISER
KLONE
SLUGDGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro4N0hk3rVc
OUTER HEAVEN
ALKALOID
http://www.metalsucks.net/2015/01/28/exclusive-track-debut-cthulu-alkaloid/
CREMATORY
CRYPTIC HYMN
21 Responses to “SEEN AND HEARD (OR WHAT I WOULD HAVE SEEN AND HEARD IF I COULD HAVE)”
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Well… lets just put it this way… SLUGDGE!!!!
That is all. And thanks.
Hell yeah! Slugdge is awesome!!!
Alrighty then mr. Islander, since you asked nicely 🙂
I’m probably no good at this but these songs deserve some commentary I thought. I couldn’t find for all bands whether there’s a new album or something related involved, so please don’t hate me if I seem to advertise for some bands more than others!
Barren Earth – On Lonely Towers: This track sounds a lot like Barren Earth from both their debute Curse of the Red River and The Devil’s Resolve – so a stellar combination between 70s prog rock, classic heavy metal and melodic death metal – with the most notable difference the replacement of former vocalist Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun) by Jón Aldará. In comparison to Mikko, Jón is a relatively unknown name, but I think he does a grand job. His cleans have a more classic heavy metal sound to them, but his growls are very, very similar to Mikko’s deeper grunts.
On Lonely Towers (as the album will be named too) will be released via Century Media Records on March 30th, 2015 in Europe and March 24th, 2015 in North America.
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Voivod – We Are Connected: I have to admit – despite the amazing reviews Target Earth received in 2013 – I am no too familiar with Voivod. However, this track has a trippy version of 80s heavy metal going on that’s very pleasant on the ears. Especially the riffage going on here is real nice.
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Doomraiser – Mirror of Pain: I didn’t know them before, but I will most certainly get to know them now. This track is a combination between classic doom and death/doom and it’s heavy as fuck and deadly ferocious. Real nice find.
Reverse (Passaggio inverso) – Doomraisers fourth full-length besides a number of splits, demos and EPs – came out January 13 via BloodRock Records.
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Klone – Immersion: A progressive metal band with quite the discography on their name already, as the Encyclopaedia Metallum enlighted me just now. There’s a lot of clean singing going on here (such as is common in ‘normal’ symphonic/progressive metal), but the singers voice is actually pretty amazing; the raw edge on his mournfully sung texts remind me a bit of Maynard Keenan. For the rest, this is a highly melodic but also very depressing track with some really nice and surprising instrumentation in the middle.
Klone’s newest album – Here Comes the Sun – comes out March 9th and is released by Klonosphère; most likely their own label.
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Slugdge – Spore Ensemble: Sludg.. Slughd.. eh Slugdge. Right. Try and pronounce that out loud (I did and I sounded like a complete idiot). Seeing the fact that on previous albums these guys mainly discussed the whereabouts of slugs, I guess this is an unpronounceable bit of wordplay. Anyway, so yeah this is sludge metal alright, reminiscent of Indian’s and Lord Mantis’ style. So it sounds dirty, insane and quite dangerous; just the way I like it.
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Outer Heaven – Vault of Whispers: I couldn’t find too much about these guys besides from the fact that they’re releasing Diabolus Vobiscum (so the album from which this song is taken) on February 10. The song is a pounding fusion between death and doom, with more of the former than the latter I’d say. Impressive song!
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Alkaloid – Cthulhu: It’s the debut album of tech-death metallers Alkaloid, and with what better subject to you get people to sponsor recording your album than Cthulhu himself? Anyhow, this ode to Cthulhu is a worthy one; demonical growls, hypnotizing drums with mathematical precision and bonecrushingly heaving riffage.
So yeah, there trying to get this album off the ground through crowd-funding, so if you like this song (or if you want to pay a tribute to Lord Cthulhy) you’ll find where to dump your cash after the jump 🙂
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Crematory – Virus: Oh Crematory. These Germans don’t know when to stop and continue to pummel with their combination of gothic and industrial metal with some real strong electronical influences. As with their former albums, they aim for pure infectiousness with this song, which works out alright since it’s indeed catchy as fuck. Seriously, I am nodding along with the song now, whether I like this or not.
Virus comes off the Antiserum album from last year February and can be bought from Steam.. eh Steamhammer.
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Cryptic Hymn – Revel in Disgust: A relentless piece of blackened death metal this song is. Nothing much else to comment on, but the song is worth checking out 🙂
Holy shit man! You really did it! This took some effort, and I thought it was a cool read and gave me a sense of what I would be in for (since I STILL haven’t been able to listen to these tracks). I really appreciate the time you took to do this.
Glad to be of service!
There’s certainly some really interesting stuff going on in some of these tracks so when your job eases its death grip just a little bit on you be sure to check some of these out 🙂
Godspeed in your money-earning endeavours for the upcoming 8 days!
Badass man. Awesome write ups.
Your appreciation is appreciated 🙂
It is worth noting that the new singer of Barren Earth is the vocalist of awesome doom band Hamferd, where he does an amazing job both live and on record. I think this change of vocalists will end up great.
Technically, it was supposed to be a snowmageddon, but I’m glad you were spared nonetheless.
These meteorological terms always confuse me.
Love that Barren Earth track.
That Klone track
oh man
!!!!!!!!!
2 thumbs up
I’ve finally gotten to listen to it, and agree. You probably know about this band already, but if not, I have to mention “Rocket Smoke”, which is still a song that pops into my head at random times and I have to go listen to it. I’ve lost count of how many times.
That Beksinski drawing is pretty descriptive of my life at the moment, too, as well.
So i have that going for me, which is nice
I definitely identify with that Beksinski artwork right now too, after having two papers and a midterm this week, all due tomorrow, in various states of completion at this moment. I’m gonna need the Russian Circles show here tomorrow to detox.
I wish I was still in school 😛
Detoxing, letting go, or just unwinding with a gig works really well for me too. Just headbanging and having a few beers, not even thinking about when I have to get back to my daily hell of emails, phones, and documents.
That Alkaloid track is unreal. BTW: they’ve long surpassed their crowd funding goal.
Hell yeah. I’m pissed I missed the close of the campaign by 1 day, I would have bought in for sure. This is my most anticipated album of 2015 now.
The Barren Earth track is fantastic! Voivod never disappoints, this is great! Cryptic Hymn sounds awesome 🙂
CREMATORY IS ALIVE?! AND IT’S A GOOD TRACK?!
Hot damn.
Slugdge. That is all I need to say. Wow.