DECAPITATED: “CARNIVAL IS FOREVER”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jun 292011
 

(This seems to be album-review day at NCS. Following our Byfrost review, NCS writer TheMadIsraeli now assesses the new album from Poland’s Decapitated.)

Yeah. It’s that time. You’ve been looking forward to this, I have, we all have, so now you’re wondering what do I, the most boss of all metal-loving Jews, have to say about it? For all you know, I could just be wanting to rub it in the faces of all of you that I have this album (which I do) and you don’t, but well… how do I put this…

This kicks ass. This destroys universes. This is the purest, blackest, weightiest form of sonic nihilism laid to audio I’ve heard all year. And you know what the sad part is? People are gonna hate this because it isn’t “true”, or “kvlt”, or what-the-fucking-ever, whose-it’s, what’s-it’s the elitists like to spout nowadays. Why is this though? That’s simple.  Carnival Is Forever rules because it isn’t old Decapitated. This is a rejuvenated band, with a new sound, new look, new attitude, and new sense of purpose who’ve abandoned their tech death past to go into a much more modern sound. I can just see the elitists complaining because what is it that this album has which makes it so, like, good? Well, we have groove, lots of groove, we got djent, we got progressive song structures, we got clean sections, we have Divine Heresy-machine-precision-like chugging, we have blast-beat frenzies, we have shredding solos — this album has everything.

So where do I start in actually reviewing this and stopping the proverbial salivation over it? Three bands immediately come to mind in describing this album: Divine Heresy, Meshuggah, and Nevermore. If you’re complaining already, I highly suggest you order your whamburgers and french cries pronto. This album has no time for your tom-foolery. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

DECAPITATED: “HOMO SUM”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 282011
 

Seems to be one of those days when everywhere I turn, I see a new song release that perks me right up. This time, the band is Poland’s almighty Decapitated, and the new song is called “Homo Sum”. Before the trollers start in with moronic jokes, that’s Latin for “I am a man”, as in this line from the Roman playwright Terence: Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto (“I am a man, I consider nothing that is human alien to me.”)

The song comes from Decapitated’s next album, Carnival Is Forever, which will be released in NorthAm by Nuclear Blast on July 12 and in Europe on July 15. Guitar World is exclusively premiering the song today, and even though I have the album, I won’t fuck with the label’s marketing plans by streaming it here. To hear it, use this link (and on that same page you’ll see an interesting interview with Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka, who possibly may be getting tired answering questions about the death of his brother Vitek).

And yes, the song is worth hearing (as is the entire album). It’s got a very cool intro, all jabbing riffs and tinkling cymbals, followed by a ramp-up in the intensity level. It’s Decapitated, so you can guess that’s it’s fast and technical, but the song also includes an extended, melodic, reverberating guitar solo that drifts almost dreamily above the rhythmic flash attack underneath. I really like this song. Go check it out.

DECAPITATED! (UPDATE)

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Jun 172011
 

Poland’s Decapitated have a new album scheduled for release via Nuclear Blast on July 12 in North America and July 15 in Europe. Entitled Carnival Is Forever, it’s been on our “most anticipated” list since the beginning of the year. We’ve been greedily tracking the news, with our last update about the album here (focusing on the cover art and the title). Now we’ve got more exciting news to report.

Nuclear Blast has uploaded a sampler consisting of excerpts from the album. It gives you enough of a taste of the music to form some impressions. For example, I’m hearing a lot of djenty riffs in these songs, plus lots of crushing groove, squalling guitar solos, off-kilter rhythms, and technically interesting rhythmic counterpoint going on.

But the dominant impression I’m getting is that this is going to be an absolutely killer slab of extreme metal that justifies all our high expectations. Why I haven’t already listened to the copy I’ve got is a mystery. Well, actually, it’s not such a mystery. I’m just a fucking moron, and that’s all there is to it.

Go past the jump and listen to that sampler. You’ll be glad you did.  (credit to Heavy Blog Is Heavy for alerting me to this sampler) Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 6)

 Forthcoming Albums  2 Responses »
Jun 022011
 


Damn, I’m finally able to go outside without shivering and being beaten about the head and shoulders with high winds and rain blowing sideways. That must mean it’s June in Seattle!  And so it is. A largely dismal May is behind us, the Seattle Mariners are astonishingly only a game and a half out of first place in their division (that’s baseball for you outlanders), and the summer lies ahead.

What else lies ahead? A bunch of new metal, of course. And because it’s the beginning of a new month, we’re bringing you another installment of METAL IN THE FORGE, in which we collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last month about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, we cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — this isn’t a cumulative list. If we found out about a new album during April or preceding months, we wrote about them in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. Continue reading »

DECAPITATED UPDATE

 Metal News  28 Responses »
May 112011
 

Decapitated have released the album artwork for their fifth studio album and Nuclear Blast debut, Carnival Is Forever.  The album will be released in Poland and  North America on July 12th and in the rest of Europe on July 15.

Now, here at NCS, we think Decapitated is the shit. This new album is on our most-anticipated list for 2011. But, to be brutally honest (which of course is the only kind of honest we know how to be), this album cover is lame. Really, what is this supposed to be? That mask looks like something out of a Disney movie. I’m sorry, this is not metal — and it is a huge fall-off from the awesome cover that Seth Siro Anton (Septic Flesh) did for the last album (which we’ll remind you about after the jump.)

These comments about the cover from guitarist and founding member Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka are revealing, and touchingly honest:

“Very intriguing and quite strange for a metal album but surely staying in memory.  A vital thing is that it’s a photo. We did not want any computer graphics this time or anything artificial or plastic.  The same regards the production of the album. We had actually been thinking about getting a painting for the cover but unfortunately we couldn’t do it. Maybe next time.”

The album title is a bit strange, too. More on what that’s supposed to mean, after the jump . . . Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 3)

 Forthcoming Albums  14 Responses »
Feb 272011
 


We’re jumping the gun on this post, since the month doesn’t end until tomorrow. Why? Uh, because this post is ready to go and we don’t have anything else finished for today yet. Work and other shit interfered with our grand plans for a Sunday post.  We might still get another one up later today, but for now, feast your eyes on the barrage of metal headed our direction.

What we do with these installments of METAL IN THE FORGE is collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last 30 days (or in this case, the last 27 days) about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know them yet. And in this post, we cut and paste the announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

This isn’t a cumulative list, so be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming New Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported in previous installments. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. There’s some awesome shit on the way. Continue reading »

THE SUMMER SLAUGHTER TOUR SLAUGHTERS SEATTLE AND PORTLAND – PART 2

 Concert Reviews  4 Responses »
Aug 242010
 

This is the second part of a two-part post about the SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour’s performances in Seattle and Portland on August 20 and 21. In Part 1, we gave our impressions about the music and posted photos of about half the bands performing in Seattle.

Today, we have a random assortment of observations about our two days of metal in the Pacific Northwest, plus photos of all the bands at the show in Portland.

None of us here at NCS know what the fuck we’re doing with a camera. We like to justify our ineptitude by telling ourselves it’s just like the DIY ethic of underground metal. We also like to make excuses that divert attention from our complete lack of training, such as the constantly changing or almost non-existent light, the non-stop motion on stage, the distance from which we’re taking the photos, and — most important — the fact that we go to shows to listen to the fucking music, not to take photos, so there’s a limit to how much time we’re going to spend snapping away like a fucking tourist.

But, despite our manifold shortcomings as photojournalists, we think these pics are just barely good enough to share, so we’re sharing them — a lot of them, since 11 bands played in Portland and we didn’t miss out on any of them.  (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THE SUMMER SLAUGHTER TOUR SLAUGHTERS SEATTLE AND PORTLAND – PART 1

 Concert Reviews  13 Responses »
Aug 232010
 

This year’s edition of THE SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour was a celebration of death metal in some of its more brutal and technical flavors — and one out-of-place wild card that stole the show. In this case, “stealing the show” is a relative term, because the line-up of bands was so strong.

In fact, with allowances for the extremity of our musical tastes here at NCS, this was as consistently solid a line-up, from start to finish, as any tour in recent memory: Vital Remains, Animals As Leaders, Carnifex, Decrepit Birth, Cephalic Carnage, Veil of Maya, The Red Chord, All Shall Perish, The Faceless, and Decapitated.

In fact, we were so stoked about this tour that we decided to see it both in Seattle last Friday and again in Portland the next day. The tour’s last show is in San Francisco tonight, so we were catching the bands near the end of a long summer haul that no doubt wore them out. But you couldn’t tell that from the way they played. If we didn’t have day jobs and were closer to SF, we’d be tempted to take in a third performance — it was that good.

As usual, we took a crapload of photos at both performances. And in fact, most of them are crap. But we’ve been painstakingly sorting through them to find the least crappy ones that we wouldn’t be too embarrassed to share.

So, today, we’ve got some high-level reactions to what we heard from all the bands, plus photos from the Seattle tour stop. Tomorrow (now at this location), we’ll have some random observations about the scene and the crowds and a few other thoughts that aren’t really in the nature of a review, plus the best photos from the Portland show (which are a bit better than the ones we’re posting today).  (continue after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

WELL, HOLY FUCK

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 132010
 

The last couple of days my day job has had my head in a fucking vise. I’ve barely had time to create posts for this site, but haven’t had much time to browse other metal sites I usually frequent in order to keep up with what’s happening in the metal cosmos. I did a little catching up last night, and found two stupendous videos that have just been released over the last 48 hours.

Because I’m a little slow to find them, you may have seen the videos already, but I’ve got to put them up anyway because they’re both so cool — in very different ways. Both of them made me exclaim “Holy Fuck!” (hence, the really imaginative title of this post).

The first one is a video of “Alas, Lord Is Upon Me” from Behemoth’s most recent album, Evangelion. I saw a censored version of this video on a couple of other metal sites, but this morning I found an uncensored version that’s now out. The only difference from the censored version is that there are a couple of flashes of nudity (as a priest in his vestments has sex with a naked woman in a church). The images in this slick video (even when they don’t involve nudity) are striking.

The second video is a live pro-shot performance by the reconstituted Polish death-metal band Decapitated. I got excited about this one mainly because Decapitated’s heavy-grooved, technical music is just so damned awesome, and this performance appears to be the first since the awful 2007 van accident that killed the band’s drummer and left its vocalist in a coma.

In fact, the only original member of the band still left is guitarist Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka. But based on the evidence of this video, Decapitated can still kick your ass into the stratosphere.  (both videos are after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

SUMMER SLAUGHTER TOUR 2010

 Metal News  No Responses »
Apr 162010
 

The official line-up for the Summer Slaughter Tour 2010 has now been confirmed (by Metal Sucks).  Here it is:

DECAPITATED
THE FACELESS
ALL SHALL PERISH
THE RED CHORD
VEIL OF MAYA
CEPHALIC CARNAGE
DECREPIT BIRTH
CARNIFEX
ANIMALS AS LEADERS
VITAL REMAINS

That is one mouth-watering band list of extreme metal awesomeness, isn’t it?

But as you scan your greedy eyes over that list, which band doesn’t exactly fit with the rest? If you’re like us, your eyes probably came to a halt at Animals As Leaders. Wonder how they came to be included. Mind you, we’re not complaining at all. We saw Tobin Abasi and his mates play in Seattle last week (and wrote about it here, with photos), and they are gobsmackingly good. But it’s an interesting choice.

Tour dates and places aren’t available yet. You can be abso-fucking-lutely sure that if this tour comes anywhere near Seattle, we will be there.

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