A TUMULTUOUS TUESDAY (PART 4): CARDIAC ARREST, VEISLAKT, UHRILAHJA

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Feb 062018
 

 

All good things must come to an end, and so I must end this Tuesday torrent of tumultuous sound in order to pay a small amount of attention to the rest of my life. If you’ve managed to make your way through all four parts of this round-up, congratulations on your fortitude and thank you (and I’m sure the bands would thank you too), but I assume no responsibility for the cost of medical treatment for your eardrums.

In this final chapter, I’ve ranged far and wide in genre terms, perhaps more so than in the previous chapters. Buckle up for a swerving ride.

CARDIAC ARREST

Songs like “It Takes Form” make me feel like Pavlov’s dog at the sound of the dinner bell: I start salivating uncontrollably. This kind of utterly morbid but powerfully electrifying vintage death metal, composed and performed this masterfully, always seems to have that effect. Continue reading »

A TUMULTUOUS TUESDAY (PART 3): RUST, ITERU, VISIONS OF THE NIGHT

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Feb 062018
 

 

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends… when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage….”

And I do have some raging metal in this third installment of today’s new-music round-up. Furthermore, despite how much savage new stuff I’ve launched at your earholes today, I have one final installment planned. And now, cry “Havok!” and let slip the dogs of war.

RUST

To begin Part 3 of this round-up I’ve chosen “Windumanouth“, a track from Urstoff, which is the debut album of the Italian black/death band Rust. It will be released in the spring of this year by Dusktone, which characterizes the music as “magical, evocative and enchanting work, as well as tragic, apocalyptic, cruel, painful, fatal, nefarious, violent and deadly….” With one possible exception, I wouldn’t quarrel with any of those adjectives. Continue reading »

A TUMULTUOUS TUESDAY (PART 2): RIVERS OF NIHIL, UNCREATION, DOMEDAG

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Feb 062018
 

 

I’m continuing to parcel out new and newly discovered music as time permits today, almost all of it displaying cyclonic ferocity in different ways, hence my decision to give the “SEEN AND HEARD” title a rest in favor of something more connected to the sounds.

RIVERS OF NIHIL

We’ve been writing about Pennsylvania’s Rivers of Nihil since January 2012. I count 14 posts featuring them since then, including album reviews, song premieres, and live concert reviews. I guess you could say we’re fans. And now they’ve given us a reason to add Post No. 15 to the list.

On March 16, the band will release a new album entitled Where Owls Know My Name, and today the first advance track from the album appeared on Bandcamp. “The Silent Life” is the song’s name, but it isn’t a quiet and contemplative piece of music… though surely no one would have expected that anyway. Continue reading »

A TUMULTUOUS TUESDAY (PART 1): DANTE, DESTRUCTATRON, ENDLESS, FALSEHOOD

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Feb 062018
 

 

I decided to give the “SEEN AND HEARD” title a rest today, if only because DGR used it twice yesterday. And yes, even though his two-part round-up tossed eight new songs and videos at your head to start this week, I have many more I want to hurl your way, too. Most of what I’ve selected tends to hit like a plague of tornados, hence the title to this post.

As the post title also implies, I’ve divided this collection into bite-sized pieces rather than one massive meal (and the next bites will likely be smaller than this first one). I haven’t written the other parts, but will attempt to dribble them out as the day goes on. I’m going to do something similar with a SHADES OF BLACK series as well, picking up where I left off on Sunday. There is just too damned much good metal coming out!

DANTE

It seems that Dimmu Borgir and Vesania drummer Dariusz “Daray” Brzozowski has formed a new band named Dante, along with guitarist/vocalist Lucas and guitarist Yony. Their debut EP Paranoidosaur will be released digitally on February 22nd, and yesterday they revealed a lyric video for a track called “Fathers Die Sunday“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MORBOSIDAD, BLACK ROYAL, LEECHED, ARGONAVIS

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Feb 032018
 

 

I got a late start on this Saturday’s round-up of new music, and then burned a lot of time trying to decide what to include. I didn’t have time to do much rounding up over the last couple of weeks due to the daily roll-out of my 2017 Most Infectious Song list and the usual platter of premieres, and during that interval my notes of things to check out became mountainous.

I know that DGR is pulling together his own round-up for Monday, which will help us catch up a bit, but there’s still quite a lot to do. I’ll at least make a modest start with the four songs I’ve packed into this post.

MORBOSIDAD

I still have vivid memories of the first time I saw Morbosidad play live, which was also the last time. That was at California Deathfest in 2015. They were absolutely barbaric, a blackened death metal war machine unleashing non-stop savagery from start to finish.

They were fronted by original vocalist Tomas Stench, a menacing shaven-headed figure clad in gauntlets with six-inch spikes and crossed bandoliers fully loaded with bullets. When he wasn’t banging his head during instrumental breaks, he was spewing ghastliness with head thrown back like a wolf calling to his kind. He also set an unbound Bible on fire and tossed the smoldering pages into the audience. Since the pages didn’t fully ignite, some helpful audience members finished the job, starting a small bonfire in the mosh pit. Very cool way to start that Saturday night. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (BY DGR): ROTTING CHRIST, HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, PSYCHOTIC PULSE

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Jan 292018
 

 

(DGR presents the following round-up of new music.)

 

My last appearance with a news roundup was, admittedly, a little ridiculous. I will say, however, that I was not initially aware it had gotten so huge as I just kept adding things that I had noticed we had missed in my vain effort to cover everything I thought the NCS crowd might be interested in.

The nice thing about that method, though, is that the act of doing so with such a large dragnet, combined with the massive three-part Shades Of Black post that went up shortly after, means that we’re able to keep this roundup small, covering just three groups that barely missed the bus when those posts went up. One in particular was released right after the post that was perfect for it went up.

So, we return once again to do a little globe-trotting, skirting around the edges of heavy metal and talking about three more newly released songs that have popped up over the past week and a half. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MOURNFUL CONGREGATION, HEADS FOR THE DEAD, NATTRAVNEN, GREBER

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Jan 162018
 

 

I had originally planned to get a SHADES OF BLACK post ready for today since I couldn’t do it on Sunday (or yesterday), and I might still finish it before I turn into a pumpkin today. But instead I decided to begin this Tuesday with a collection of other things I spotted over the last 24 hours in the midst of the flood of new metal that’s been rushing out on a daily basis since the first of the year.

MOURNFUL CONGREGATION

More than six years after their last album and almost four years after their last EP, Australia’s Mournful Congregation will release a new album named The Incubus Of Karma through 20 Buck Spin on March 23rd. This morning those details were revealed along with the album art — and the album’s first single, “Scripture of Exaltation and Punishment“. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VENOM PRISON, SLUGDGE, AGRONA, HRVST, THY FEEBLE SAVIOUR, TOTENWAGEN

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Jan 152018
 

 

In 1983 the U.S. Congress passed a bill by a veto-proof majority, subsequently signed into law by President Reagan, establishing Martin Luther King Day as an American federal holiday. It’s being observed here today in the U.S., though one wonders whether such a law would have been passed by the current Congress or signed by the current President, what with all the talk about shitholes and such.

Here in our own metallic shithole we’re conducting our own kind of observance, the kind that doesn’t depend on Acts of Congress or presidential largesse, but only on the continuing brain-blasting creativity of metal musicians, which seems never-ending. The torrent of new music since shortly after New Year’s Day has been kind of staggering. I may have to try to do one of these round-ups every day this week in an effort (one doomed to failure) to keep up.

VENOM PRISON

My colleague Andy called Venom Prison’s debut album Animus “nothing less than a neck-wrecking explosion of audio ultra-violence that fans of Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy, and Cattle Decapitation should already be salivating over”. Roughly 18 months after that all-killer, no-filler advent, Prosthetic Records will reissue the album on February 23rd. To pave the way, the band released a new video late last week (via Revolver mag) for a track off the album called “Immanetize Eschaton“. Continue reading »

NORTHWEST TERROR FEST 2018 ANNOUNCES COMPLETE LINE-UP — TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

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Jan 082018
 

 

For the second year in a row, NCS is proud to co-present Northwest Terror Fest, which will take place this year on May 31 – June 2 in Seattle, Washington. We and our co-conspirators in the NWTF crew have been gradually releasing the names of bands who will appear this year, but today we’ve revealed the entire line-up, which in our completely objective opinion is wonderful. And the revelation of the full line-up is timed to coincide with the launch of further ticket sales, following our sale of limited early-bird passes last year.

Here’s a tip: Act quickly, because the ticket sales began at the moment this post appeared — 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time — and we expect the full three-day passes will sell out fast. Info about how to acquire tickets is down below.

And now, let’s talk about that line-up. As you can see, thanks to the festival poster created by Becky Cloonan, the three headliners for the three nights of NWTF 2018 are Panopticon, Integrity, and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. They are supported by a stellar group of other bands, and we’ve organized them all below according to the dates of their performances and the venues. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: PANOPTICON, PHENDRANA, ANCST, ALLEGAEON, VAELMYST, ESTUARINE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jan 062018
 

 

I had a very busy week, both on and off our site, so busy that I wasn’t able to cobble together a round-up of news and new music. However, I did try to keep abreast of what was coming out, and my list of intriguing tracks that appeared over just the last week is YUGE — so YUGE that I’m afraid I’ll have to resort to an OVERFLOWING STREAMS post on Monday, one in which I don’t do anything but just stitch together new music streams and release details without commentary.

But I decided I would do something for today as a head-start (in addition to working on a SHADES OF BLACK post for tomorrow), and here’s what I’ve done: I picked the latest recommendations from three of my NCS colleagues, and then added one of my own, which happens to be the latest new song premiere that I’ve listened to. But first, a news item…

PANOPTICON

A few days ago the administrator of Panopticon’s official Facebook page posted the artwork you see above, along with these few words: “Slip case cover for the new double album. the scars of man on the once nameless wilderness. Out in March on Bindrune Recordings in the USA and Nordvis in Europe. Art by Hanna Larsson of Sólfjall Design.” Continue reading »

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