Mar 052013
 

About to begin Day 9 away from home. Still working day and night on that project for my fucking day (and night) job. Averaging four hours of sleep a night. Brain is fried. Unable to write complete sentences any more.

Wasn’t able to check my NCS email at all until late last night. Had no chance to surf the web for new music. Haven’t listened to metal in 24 hours. Starting to get the withdrawal shakes.

Did see these things when I checked my e-mail.

IMMOLATION

Fucking Immolation’s new album is named Kingdom of Conspiracy. Super-badass cover art was unveiled — created by the immortal Pär Olofsson. Super badass. Continue reading »

Feb 272013
 

The last 24 hours have turned out to be full of tour announcements. I collected details about three new ones that appealed to me in an earlier post today, and I just saw another one that elevated my pulse rate.

This North American jaunt is headlined by Sweden’s Hypocrisy in support of their forthcoming album End of Disclosure (which we’ve written about before). That’s sweet news, but it gets a whole lot sweeter when you take a look at the other bands alongside them: Krisiun, Aborted, and Arsis! 

In addition, Starkill (who I’ve featured before at NCS) and Autumn’s End will appear on selected dates.

The schedule is after the jump.  You’ll be relieved to know that the tour is coming to Seattle and that I’ll be able to see it. I know that wil brighten your day. Continue reading »

Dec 192012
 

Not only did Scion A/V finance the production and free distribution of the killer new Arsis EP, Lepers Caress (reviewed here), they’ve also financed production of a video for one of the new songs, “Carve My Cross”, and you can now witness the results.

The song really sells itself. It’s a head-spinning onslaught of tech-death fire and brimstone, with guitar acrobatics and drum pyrotechnics that will make your eyes bug out. James Malone is also in fine voice, which is to say his vocals are capable of stripping paint from the walls.

As the video shows, Mr. Malone has shorn his flowing black locks. Unlike Samson, the loss of hair has not sapped his strength, as a guitarist or as a vocalist.

Apart from revealing the new Malone look, the haunted-house video (directed by David Brodsky) is nicely done and fun to watch (it includes tentacles as well as acting performances by the band) . . . but the song remains the true star. Watch it after the jump. Continue reading »

Dec 162012
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new, free EP by Virginia’s Arsis.)

Scion A/V really needs to stop putting out great metal before I buy a car.

Arsis have returned with a new EP Lepers Caress that crashes into your consciousness at maximum velocity.  I’m going to assume everyone knows who these guys are — they’ve been a long-established band who have stood out as an exception to the idea that only Europeans do melodic death metal well and have had a sound more technical than you’d expect from this style, which causes them to stick out.

It’s hard to say whether this EP is simply its own beast or also a taste of things to come on the next full length Unwelcome, but regardless of the truth in that respect, Lepers Caress is an auditory assault of perfection.  Very rarely do you get melodic death metal that is this technical, yet so succinct and well composed.

However, while still maintaining the band’s tech-y aspects, this EP is a tad bit dialed down, and one might compare its music to Arsis’ highly praised debut A Celebration of Guilt.  It feels like some of their evolution has been purposefully back-tracked for the sake of providing something more straightforward and visceral; and that’s a good thing in this case.  EP’s in my mind best serve as an infusion of adrenaline, showcasing bands at their most intense, as we saw with Revocation on Teratogenesis. Continue reading »

Dec 032012
 

This morning brought us two noteworthy new songs.

The first is “Six Coffins Wide”, which will appear on the new Arsis EP Lepers Caress that Scion A/V will be releasing for free download tomorrow.

The second is “I: The Weapon”, which will appear on Cult of Luna’s new album Vertikal, which will be available in January via Indie Recordings. (Thanks to Karl-Göran for the tip on this one).

Of course, the songs are very different from each other. The Arsis is a blistering, groovy torrent, and of course it includes a sweet James Malone guitar solo. The Cult of Luna is more complex, more atmospheric, more mesmerizing. But I’ve been rocking out hard to both tracks and recommend that you do the same . . . right after the jump. Leave comments, too, with your reactions. Please. Continue reading »

Nov 292012
 

One of these days I may have to actually buy a Scion vehicle. The debts of gratitude just keep mounting, and I do like to repay my debts. Scion A/V’s latest gift to metalheads is a brand new EP by Arsis named Lepers Caress. It will become available for free download next Tuesday at the Scion A/V web site.

I got wind of this yesterday when a couple of my NCS comrades started talking about a Nov 27 interview of guitarist/vocalist James Malone and bass-player Noah Martin that appeared at Hardrock.RVA. In that interview, Malone said: “You can expect the Scion EP very soon and for Unwelcome to come out early next year.  I wouldn’t compare either to Starve… but you will not be let down.  This much I can promise.”

Turns out we didn’t have to wait long for confirmation about that EP, because the official announcement came out this morning. The reference to Unwelcome is about the next Arsis full-length, which was written by Malone and Martin and recorded this past August. And in related news, Arsis will be setting out on a Scion-sponsored tour this December, and they’ll be playing new songs from both the EP and Unwelcome.

As for what the new music will sound like, the interview contained this additional preview from Noah Martin, which includes references to previous Arsis releases A Diamond For Disease (2005), We Are the Nightmare (2008), and Starve For the Devil (2010): Continue reading »

Mar 192012
 

You know a band is close-knit when they share the experience of man-sized bowel movements. But can they rock as well as they can roll?

It’s been a little more than two years since Arsis released Starve For the Devil. Since then, the band have undergone some changes. Bass player Noah Martin re-joined the band, and less than two weeks ago, it was revealed that guitarist Nick Cordle had departed to replace Christopher Amott in Arch EnemyJames Malone was forced to sit out the band’s “Frets of Fury” tour last fall “due to professional and personal commitments” — but Malone is back in harness, and Arsis are working on a new album for release either late this year or early 2013.

As proof that Arsis are still rocking on despite the line-up upheavals, today Guitar World premiered a pre-production demo of a new song called “Choking On Sand”.

I don’t think fans of Starve For the Devil will be disappointed.  Continuing the trend on the last album, this song is more melodic death metal than tech-death. Malone’s blackened rasp will be familiar, as will the Gothenburg-style riffs, and the song includes a shrieking melodic solo as well as healthy doses of double-bass pummeling. Check it out following the jump. Continue reading »

May 232011
 

With increasing frequency, we’re seeing bands inviting their fans inside the creative process before their songs are all fully mixed, mastered and packaged into an album’s worth of music. I think that’s smart marketing, in addition to satisfying the impatience of hungry fans like me who hate waiting around for new music from bands we like.

We had one example yesterday when The Monolith Deathcult put up on SoundCloud a preliminary version of a new song called “H.W.A.” (Human Wave Attack). And today we have yet another example: Arsis has posted a brand-new song for streaming via SoundCloud called “Since the Shadows”. Yes, that does indeed mean that Arsis is writing a new album.

Early days yet, but based on this demo version of the new song, it’s not too soon to start panting for that album to come. At least if you’re a panter like me. If you just breathe normally, like a human instead of a beagle, then you may just want to smile when you hear this song. As they say in the field of professional music journalism, it fucken rawks.

ARSIS – Since the Shadows (Demo) by NuclearBlastRecords

Nov 122010
 

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s guest post comes to us from Dan, who apparently is now called The Artist Formerly Known As Dan. Dan is an American temporarily transplanted to Adelaide, Australia. He has a list for you.]

So, I realize it’s cliche to make one of these lists (and maybe a bit premature?), but they’re usually useful for several reasons.  Firstly, it allows me to shamelessly plug the bands I like and push my agenda on you.  Secondly, it allows you to post lists of the records I forgot and tell me why my first list was wrong.  I can then subsequently go back to the records I may have forgotten or never owned in the first place.  Everyone should theoretically win here, since there is always music overlooked or forgotten about throughout the year.  So, let’s begin.

10. The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza – Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events

Technical, but so brutal.  A perfect recommendation for someone who listens to too much vanilla-breakdown deathcore (and, for some of you, “too much” implies listening to any deathcore at all).  I highly recommend seeing them in concert; they bring tons of energy.  Yippie-Kay-Yay-Motherfucker.

(more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

Sep 152010
 

This is the second post of the day, which we don’t do very often. As the title says, this is mainly a sappy thank-you post.  Of course it is, because “sappy” is my middle name. Well, it comes right after my other middle names, i.e., “wordy” and “half-assed.”

For many months after we started this blog, no one posted any comments on what we wrote.  Okay, to be honest, for many months no one read what we wrote.  But even after the reading started, our words were greeted by silence.  Figuratively, the sound of crickets.

Not all bad, because I’ve missed the sound of crickets ever since moving to Seattle from Texas years ago. I don’t miss the appearance of crickets, just the sound of them, on warm nights, when you can’t see them. Kind of a dreamy, hypnotic sound. The sound of nature around us, undisturbed.

Where was I?  Oh yeah: No one posted any comments at NCS for a long time.  But now that has changed, and it’s been an exhilarating change for us.  We look forward every day to seeing what readers write, even when someone calls us retarded, and we feel kinda empty on the days when none come.  That’s mainly because the comments are usually better than the posts we write.

Yesterday was a classic example, certainly one of the best comment days ever.  We did a half-baked riff on band names and got a slew of comments that were smart and funny and creative and educational and took the discussion off in unexpected directions, which is part of what’s so much fun about the comments we’re getting.

And did I say the comments are educational?  They’re really educational!  Of course, when, like us, you start in a state of embarrassing ignorance, it may not take much to be educational in our eyes, but still. After the jump, I’ll tell you the things I learned yesterday, and one thing in particular that drew me back to an album I haven’t listened to in a while, and it was just a perfect end to a beautiful Indian summer day in Seattle.

But first: Thank you to the people who commented yesterday — to Dan, and ElvisShotJFK, and Brian, and Andy, and byrd36 — and to everyone else who has taken the time to add something to this site since we started.  And we don’t mean to slight those who simply read and don’t write (which is mainly what I do on other sites).  We are sappily grateful to all of you, too. But if you usually don’t write and are are tempted to write something someday, don’t worry — we won’t bite! (more sappiness, plus some music, after the jump . . .) Continue reading »