FREE SHIT: SINISTER PATH DELIVERS THE SECOND “UNSIGNED/INDEPENDENT METAL BAND COMPILATION”

 Free Shit, Metal News  6 Responses »
Dec 242013
 

Not even two months ago, thanks to a Facebook post by our friend Vonlughlio, I learned about a new free compilation made available on Bandcamp by Australia-based Sinister Path Promotions — and yet Sinister Path has already delivered a second comp. As of yesterday, the new collection became available on Bandcamp. Like the first one, this latest offering is massive, with 42 songs by 42 metal bands. Highlights of this new release include the following (and here I’m paraphrasing from Sinister Path, with a final bullet of my own):

* Slasher (Thrash, Brasil) have included a single from their upcoming album Katharsis: “Overcome”

* Internal Bleeding (Slam pioneers from the US) have provided the track “Castigo Corpus Muem”, which is the first new recorded track with the original line up in close to 15 years

* 8 Foot Sativa (NZ metal legends) have contributed a new single, for which a lyric video was just released on YouTube: “The Shadow Masters”

* Mistur – (legends from Norway in the folk/viking/black vein) have provided “The Sight”, a single from a new album they’re working on Continue reading »

YEAR-END INTERLUDE

 Free Shit, LISTMANIA 2013, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Dec 202013
 


ah yes . . . it’s that special time of year

As this week draws to a close, I thought I would let you know what we have planned for you in the 11 days left in 2013, and then toss some free music your way. And by the way, are you as weirded out as I am to realize that this year will be over in only 11 days?

2013 has been a fantastic year for metal. I had been thinking that even before we started our LISTMANIA series, but all the lists we’ve been posting have really driven the point home. With every list I’ve been finding fantastic albums that I failed to hear or never even knew existed, on top of all the great albums, EPs, splits, and demo’s that I did manage to check out. And we’re far from finished with LISTMANIA.

At the risk of overloading you with still more discoveries, at the moment I have 11 more year-end list articles in the publication queue and am expecting at least another half-dozen to arrive in the next week. They come from NCS readers, fellow bloggers (including a quasi-reunion of writers from The Number of the Blog), metal musicians, and of course the NCS staff writers. And they are as diverse as the list pieces we’ve already published. I think they’ll be well worth your time. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NOCTURNAL, EGO DEPTHS, FATES WARNING, UNIVERSE217

 Exceptions to the Rule, Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Dec 182013
 

Collected in this post are a handful of new songs (and three new videos) that I heard and saw last night. There’s a little bit of everything in here, culled from a lot of other things I found in my rambling through the interhole. Two of the new things are exceptions to our rule, and two involve female vocalists. Hope you like all of this diverse music as much as I did.

NOCTURNAL

Nocturnal (pictured above) are a German band who came to life around 2000 “out of the ashes of Bestial Desecration”, dedicated to churning out teutonic thrash in homage to bands such as Destruction and Sodom. Yesterday they released a new video for a song named “Rising Demons”, which will appear on the band’s forthcoming album Storming Evil — their first in almost four years. It will be released by High Roller Records on February 28, 2014.

The song is a hell of a lot of evil-sounding fun — with whirling dervish riffs, a straightforward but nonetheless compulsive drumbeat, and Tyrannizer’s blackened howling vocals, which sound like a wildcat with esophageal cancer. The DIY video is also fun — B-movie clips interspersed with band performance clips, all in B&W of course. So strap on your bullet belt and spiked gauntlets and check out this thrashing unholiness: Continue reading »

BANDCAMP FOR THE BROKE: BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTER “A”

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Dec 182013
 

(In this post DGR follows up on another of his recent posts with one more collection of recommended new Bandcamp releases that are “pay what you want”.)

THE ANTIOCH SYNOPSIS

The Antioch Synopsis have been around for some time in Sacramento. They were a name I constantly heard and I really enjoyed their music, though I lacked the means to drag my ass out to the various local venues to actually see the guys play live. They were a tech-death-core band before that whole scene really exploded, and unfortunately they went on hiatus just as that ship sailed, and likewise right around the time when I had obtained the means to see them live. Thus, I’ve always had the songs they posted up on Reverbnation on my Ipod and a soft spot for them.

The members would go on to be in other great bands, too. Vocalist/Monster Monte Bernard would join Soma Ras, and if you haven’t guessed by now, I really fucking love Soma Ras. That never meant the band were officially done, of course, as they would constantly joke about how they were hiatus-core and post on Facebook that yes, something was in fact in the works. Then, more silence. Continue reading »

BANDCAMP FOR THE BROKE: A ROUND-UP OF FREE MUSIC

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Dec 082013
 

(You can’t say we don’t take care of our broke-ass readers. DGR brings you word of some free Bandcamp releases that are worth your time.)

We’re broke, we’re all broke. We were broke before the holiday season and we’ll be broke after it. One of the huge unifying things among musicians and fans these days, especially the most fervent ones, is that it seems like we’re always fucking broke. That’s why when a band releases something for “name your own price”, which is usually code for “free”, and it is really good, I try to get it out there. While it is always suggested that you donate generously to these groups, it’s nice to get these experiences, and truly enjoy some artwork with serious passion behind it, for little up-front.

So, I found myself slowly (very slowly) collecting free projects over the past few months that had just come out that I found enjoyable and wanted to spread out to the world. This time, the collection includes a bedroom guitar virtuoso project — ever the staple of the name your own price scheme –, a grind band hailing from the Pacific Northwest, and a melodeath project hailing from lovely Corona, California, home of many things and places that are within the city limits of Corona, California. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 62: OBSCURE SPHINX, YITH, TRUE, LIZZARD WIZZARD

 Free Shit, MISCELLANY  4 Responses »
Dec 042013
 

I want to thank all of the guest writers who have sent in such excellent posts for publication during my vacation. I’ve got five days left before returning to earth with a thud, and some really interesting guest posts remain to be published between now and then. And if any of you are still pondering whether to send in something, there’s still time.

Though I haven’t been listening to much music during this trip, I did set aside some time a few days ago to go exploring. And for those who don’t know, that’s what this MISCELLANY series is all about: I pick a band whose music I’ve never heard, usually focusing on names that aren’t household words, and I listen to a song or two. I write my impressions, and I stream what I heard so you can explore right along with me. I picked four bands for this trip, and they turned out to be a really diverse lot.

OBSCURE SPHINX

I came across this first band via an album review by Madam X at Angry Metal Guy. I usually read what she writes anyway, but in this case there was a double attraction — the other being that album cover you’re looking at. It’s a photo of a doll created by Klaudia Gaugier, and once I saw it I knew I would be listening to the music. Continue reading »

FREE SHIT: THE SINISTER PATH UNSIGNED METAL BAND COMPILATION VOL. 1

 Free Shit, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Nov 052013
 

Thanks to a Facebook post by our friend Vonlughlio, I learned about a new compilation made available on Bandcamp today by Australia’s Sinister Path Promotions. It’s quite a hefty offering — 45 tracks from 45 bands located all over the world. But there is quality here as well as quantity. Just to pick out the names of bands we’ve written about here at NCS, the comp includes songs by Hemoptysis (U.S.), Feared (Sweden), Begging For Incest (Germany), Bhayanak Maut (India), Take Over and Destroy (TOAD) (U.S.), and Necrosis (UK).

After the jump you can listen to the tracks on this monster compilation — and you can also download it for free (or pay what you want) at Bandcamp. Continue reading »

AN NCS DISCOGRAPHY DOWNLOAD: PREY FOR NOTHING

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Nov 052013
 

(TheMadIsraeli brings you an overview of an Israeli band named Prey For Nothing and free downloads of their two albums.)

Prey for Nothing are currently the best melodic death metal band in recent years you’ve never heard of. Their relative obscurity is unfortunate and the reasons hard to imagine; maybe they’re simply the victim of the tidal wave of music that circulates the internet, or maybe it’s their location (Israel), from which very few bands have made a name for themselves outside the country.  All I know is, this band, while relatively young, have not gotten their just due.  Their last record, Against All Good and Evil (2011), was a stunning sophomore effort and one of the best albums of its year.

So who are Prey for Nothing?  Basically, think of an amalgamation of sounds that borrow from schools of thought ranging from Death, to Kreator, to Insomnium, and beyond.  While definitely melodic death, Prey For Nothing would verge on simply being progressive death metal were it not for some of the more pedal-point riffy moments  and harmony/theme heavy guitar sections that are typically not native to death metal.  They are excellent songwriters, more progressively inclined than most, but only to spice things up and keep them interesting and not so much to show off how good they are.  The same goes on the technique front, as all of these guys are immensely talented at their craft, particularly guitarist/main composer Yaniv Aboudy, whose biting character of riffage is exceptionally complemented by his neo-classical flourishes and ferocious napalm spray tech displays.  The music is venomous, dignified, enigmatic and soul-reaping. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (A HALLOWEEN EDITION): BLACK ALTAR, NECROPHAGIA, OLD SKIN, THE CHASM, GAPED, AND SARTEGOS

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
Oct 312013
 

We’ve already delivered quite a flood of posts today, at least measured by our modest standards, but since tonight is the most metal holiday of the year, I couldn’t end our posting day without a round-up of newly discovered music suitable to the occasion. This is a big bag of special treats for your ears, the musical equivalent of those apples embedded with razor blades and worms that I like to keep around in case any neighborhood brats come calling. Just think of it as a big playlist of putridity, and feel to skip my words, as long as you don’t mind the thought of me weeping.

BLACK ALTAR

Black Altar are a black metal band from Olsztyn, Poland, with two albums and assorted shorter releases to their credit since 1997. Their latest offering is a five-song EP named Suicidal Salvation. I had never heard Black Altar’s music before, and all I knew about this EP was that it includes songs that were intended for a split with Shining that apparently didn’t come to pass.

I found two streaming examples of the EP’s music — a full track named “The Sentence” and a teaser reel of excerpts from all the songs. I’ve embedded both of them below. But I’m so taken with the band’s music that I also found two of the four tracks that they contributed to a 3-way split (Emissaries of the Darkened Call — Three Nails In the Coffin of Humanity) with Thornspawn (Texas) and Varathron (Greece) that came out at the end of 2012. Those songs are “I’m Demon” and “Nighthunter”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: PYLAR, SKYDANCER, IMPENDING DOOM, AND ANTERO SLEEPS

 Free Shit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Oct 242013
 

Here’s a round-up of music I discovered today in periodic forays through the interhole and a quick glimpse at the flooded NCS e-mail inbox. Stylistically, the music is all over the place, and it’s scattered geographically, too.

PYLAR

I came across this band via a short post at CVLT Nation, which gave no clue what the music is like (apart from calling it “pure magic”) or any information about the band, other than the fact that they’ve recorded an album entitled Rises In My Mighty that’s being released (on Nov 1) by Knockturne Records. (Actually, the album’s name is Poderoso se alza en my; I can’t vouch for the English rendition of the title.) Pylar have a Facebook page, but it’s not very informative either, providing neither the band’s location nor the identity of its members, though it’s apparent they’re from somewhere in Spain.

But I decided to listen to the song that CVLT Nation premiered because of that eye-catching album cover that you see above. According to the band’s FB page, it was created by “the expert in alchemical symbolism and sacred geometry, Gamaheo, member of the Numinoso Círculo Atlante.” Speaking of which, it’s also apparent that Pylar themselves devote their music (and possibly other activities) to certain ancient alchemical and occult arts, the meanings of which are completely obscure to whitebread me. But I do find that song fascinating. Continue reading »

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