IN THE NEWS AND IN YOUR EARS: BLACK TUSK, GODSIC, THE CROWN, DREAMING DEAD, AND AMON AMARTH

Yesterday my fucking day job actually demanded that I work instead of blog. Amazingly harsh that they actually expected me to do something I’m being paid to do. How fucking medieval! The result is that this round-up of news and new music is appearing a day later than it should have. Like hemorroids and lung cancer, these things happen.

Despite a waning of some of the excitement that comes with being first and fast out of the shute, and instead being late and resigning yourself to watching the buttholes of all the other horses that got the jump on you, I’m forging ahead anyway, waiting for that massive kick around the last turn that will leave the buttholes in the dust.

BLACK TUSK

Yeah, the black fucking tusk, with the John Dyer Baizley cover (above) for their new album, Set the Dial. This Savannah band’s 2010 album, Taste the Sin, was one we liked and wrote about last year (here), so we’ve been waiting for a taste of the newness, which we got yesterday. It’s a new song called “Bring Me Darkness”, which coincidentally is my order of choice at the bars I frequent. (more after the jump . . .)

The beginning of this song blew my head off, and then the riff-fest that followed finished off the rest of my headless body in a bouncing jam of balls-to-the-wall brawl. If the bass riffing alone in this song doesn’t put a smile on your face, then you’re way too grumpy today.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/22916434″]

GODSIC

Godsic is another band we’ve written about before (right here). They’re a relatively new band from Sweden composed of former members of Construcdead and current members of Carnal Forge. They’ve created a debut album called As the Heavens Burn, and the last tiume we checked with them, they’d released two songs for streaming — “Scars Inside” and “Premeditation”. Both were fucking good pancake.

Now they’ve discharged a third song from the album, a pre-release version of a tune called “Stillborn Life”. Based on the title, I concluded this wouldn’t be a party song. But I’ll tell you what, it’s a motherfuckin groove machine that jammed itself inside my head and wouldn’t let go. I even liked the clean vocalizing in the chorus, which struck connections with latter-day Soilwork. This thing is drecnched in catchy.

THE CROWN

We follow up Godsic with another Swedish band. But not just another Swedish band. As befits their name, they’re a kind of Swedish royalty, and who gives a fuck if King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia don’t invite them to state dinners. Our man Andy Synn reviewed their 2010 album, Doomsday King and called it “a masterpiece of wild fury and calculated aggression.”

Yesterday’s news is that the band have welcomed back to their line-up vocalist Johan Lindstrand. The last time Lindstrand provided the vocals was 2003’s classic album, Possessed 13. We’re not complaining one bit about the vocals of Jonas Stålhammar on The Doomsday King, but yet we have to confess that we’re mighty interested to hear what The Crown does next with Lindstrand behind the mic. Here’s the band’s statement about the change:

“”We would like to thank our metal brother Jonas Stålhammar for the amazing teamwork for the last couple of years!!! Respect!!! Next week we’ll start rehearsing new material (6-7 news songs written at this point). We hope to enter the studio early 2012.”

And here’s what Lindstrand had to say: “Yeah, from now on I am the lead singer in this classic death metal outfit called THE CROWN. Damn! That feels good to say. I will also take some time here to thank Jonas Stålhammar, ’cause he did an amazing job on ‘Doomsday King’. You rule, dude! Other than that I have to say: THE ORIGINAL FIVE HAS RETURNED!!! Go hide your children.”

And here’s what I have to say: Listen to this song, picked totally at random from Possessed 13, because all the songs on that album rule. Here’s “Deliverance”:

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/03-Deliverance.mp3|titles=The Crown – Deliverance]

DREAMING DEAD

The last time we wrote about Dreaming Dead, almost a year ago, it was with these words: “Dreaming Dead is a death metal band from Los Angeles that incorporates a multitude of styles into their music. They also have the distinction, whether they want this kind of attention or not, of being one of those few, good extreme metal bands with a female vocalist (Elizabeth Schall) — who is also an inventively killer guitarist.”

What I saw yesterday was the news that Dreaming Dead are putting the finishing touches on a new album to be released this fall, and that a demo version of the first song from the album could be heard on the band’s Facebook page, in exchange for a like.  I already like them, so this cost me nothing. The song is called “Midnightmares”. It surprised me when I heard it, because it’s unabashed, undisguised black metal — and fucken good black metal at that.

It starts fast — a dose of black thrash, with superb vocals by Schall — and then it kicks into an extended instrumental that maintains the pacing but rivets the attention with tempo shifts and flurries of lead-guitar and strong-bass blizzardry. It’s a waterfall of acidic thrash with melodies that echo off the roar of the falling water. I am really liking this.

Go check out the Dreaming Dead facebook page here and like them, please. Here’s the song:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/10055791″]

AMON AMARTH

We close out this collection of miscellaneous items that caught our interest with a live performance video from Amon Amarth — a band who need no introduction, a band who most metalheads like, regardless of what else they like, a band who know how to make you bang your fucken heads.

This is decent-quality video footage of the band’s August 13, 2011 performance at Metropolis in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was originally premiered exclusively by Musik Universe. It’s a medley of three songs. On the one hand, it was frustrating that none of the songs finished before the next one began. On the other hand, each fragment is a reminder of how great this band’s songs are. Check it out below.

UPDATE: And below the clip from the Montreal show, I’ve added two clips from AA’s Baltimore show on the same tour. The beginning of “Pursuit of Vikings” is particularly awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TixQ8YgPiFo