SHORT BUT SWEET: BISONHAMMER III

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Oct 252012
 

Let’s begin with the most immediately apparent accolade for the new EP by Bisonhammer (which is entitled Bisonhammer III): The cover art rules. In fact, I recommend that you click on the image above in order to see a larger version of the art, which was created by Loren Fetterman. I’ll wait.

Okay, now let’s move on to the music: It’s awfully impressive, too.

Bisonhammer are from Manchester, England, and Bisonhammer III is (duh) the third EP they’ve created so far. All three are available for streaming and download on Bandcamp (with the first two available for free or pay-what-you-want).

The new one consists of four songs, and they run roughshod through your cranium in a tidy 16 minutes total. However, they resist tidy genre classification. The music is part thrash, part raunchy death metal, part sludgy Southern rock, part groove metal, part stoner. What pulls all of these influences together is the band’s knack for writing some big-ass riffs and loading up the songs with some mighty sharp hooks. Continue reading »

“BEST” OF BRITISH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Oct 192011
 

(As we announced HERE, NCS is co-sponsoring a UK tour beginning on October 24, headlined by Becoming the Archetype and including UK metal band Bloodguard, which is fronted by NCS writer Andy Synn. In this post, Andy provides more info about the other bands who will be appearing on the tour and also at a post-tour show that Bloodguard is doing.)

Hello everyone. As part of promoting our little tour coming up I thought I’d do a good deed and get some press out there for each of the bands who are joining us on the dates. Sort of a mass-exposure deal where hopefully there’ll be something for (almost) everyone!

As part of our week long festivities Becoming The Archetype and Bloodguard will be hitting:

Birmingham, The Actress & Bishop – Monday 24th October

Manchester, The Roadhouse – Tuesday 25th October

Nottingham, The Maze – Wednesday 26th October

London, The Purple Turtle – Thursday 27th October

And then, moving on from the dates with Becoming The Archetype, we have a show with Abgott:

Leicester, Lock 42 – Friday 28th October

So what bands are joining us? Well here they are… Continue reading »

NCS PRESENTS!

 Metal News  24 Responses »
Oct 122011
 

Is that not the most awesomest thing you’ve ever seen? Or at least the most awesomest thing you’ve seen in the last 5 minutes? And unlike the last thing musical event we presented, this one happens to be real, and there are two other real, related events in addition to this one.

Becoming The Archetype have announced an October/November European headlining tour in support of their latest album, Celestial Completion , which was released earlier this summer on Solid State Records and reviewed at NCS here. As part of that BEARDING EUROPE 2011 tour, the band will be playing three four dates in the UK, with support from a stellar line-up of UK metal bands, and we’re doing our part to help spread the word by co-sponsoring this BEARDING THE UK TOUR. The only band playing with BTA on all three dates is Bloodguard, who are fronted by our very own Andy Synn (congrats to Andy and the whole band for scoring these gigs).

On October 24, BTA will play Birmingham at The Actress & Bishop with Bloodguard and Haerken.. Tickets are £4. On October 25, BTA will be playing Manchester’s Roadhouse with Bloodguard and Bisonhammer. Tickets are £7 in advance from http://www.theroadhouselive.co.uk/. On October 26, BTA will be hitting  The Maze in Nottingham, with Bloodguard, Daor, and Incinery; advance tickets on sale HERE. And then on October 27, BTA will wreck Camden’s Purple Turtle with Talanas, Bloodguard, Chapters, and Ruins of Earth. Advance tickets are available for a paltry £7 here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/137045

And by the way, you can find out more about Talanas by reading Andy’s review of their new album HERE , and you can get an introduction to Chapters via TheMadIsraeli’s write-up HERE. After the jump, check out the other UK tour posters with our humble name appearing on the top and see BTA’s entire European tour schedule, with support from Immortal Souls and Beyond the Dust after leaving the UK. Continue reading »