SEEN AND HEARD: ENSLAVED, DEMONICAL, DOWN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Feb 072015
 

I’m finally finished with the project for my fucking day job that has kept me on the U.S. east coast for the last three weeks. Tomorrow I return to Seattle and some semblance of normalcy, both for life in general and for NCS.

I still feel like I’ve been put through a goddamn meat-grinder, and it will take some time to get over being exhausted (and to finish posting what other writers sent me over the last week), but I did spend an hour this morning trying to figure out what I missed in the way of new music over the last couple of days. As usual, given the persistent flood of new metal that’s been coming our way since this new year began, I found A LOT. I’m going to include three new videos in this post. I hope I can get another round-up done tomorrow before heading to the airport.

ENSLAVED

Enslaved’s new album In Times is one of my “most anticipated” 2015 releases, so it’s been frustrating that I haven’t had time to listen to it since our advance copy arrived about a week ago. But this morning I did listen to the first advance track, “Thurisaz Dreaming”, which began streaming as a lyric video at Noisey yesterday along with an excellent interview of Ivar Bjørnson. Continue reading »

STILL MORE PREMIERES: TRAP THEM, HOUR OF PENANCE, DOWN, MERCENARY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
May 142014
 

As you know if you were following our site, yesterday brought such a great flood of new song, video, and album premieres that it was hard to keep up — in my case, like trying to keep up  with Usain Bolt over 100 meters (even if he were wearing flip-flops). In fact, I couldn’t keep up. By noon I had spotted three more new things worth featuring (and one that’s a few days old), but instead had to stop blogging and start doing what I’m paid to do. So, later than I would like, here’s that foursome.

TRAP THEM

Prosthetic Records will be releasing a new album from this vicious East Coast band on June 10. Its name is Blissfucker, and how could you forget that name? One song has previously appeared for streaming and yesterday brought another (via Lambgoat), by the name of “Organic Infernal”. It begins like an alien ant swarm, and then the ants start rocking hard (while continuing to devour whatever writhing creature is caught in their mandibles). Vicious, and memorable.

Blissfucker can be pre-ordered via Prosthetic Records or iTunes. If you missed “Salted Crypts”, which premiered last month, I’m including that below as well. But first, “Organic Infernal”… Continue reading »

NEW VIDEOS: HOODED MENACE, DOWN, AND RED ELEVEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 282012
 

(Artwork by Sandro of Undead Creep.)

Not long after I posted that new Gojira video earlier today, I found three more new videos that I thought were worth sharing with our readers. The bands are: Hooded Menace (Finland), Down (US-NOLA), and Red Eleven (Finland).

HOODED MENACE

I’ve been writing a lot about this Finnish group’s new album, Effigies Of Evil, which is out now on Relapse. Of course, the one thing I haven’t yet written is a review, though I haven’t given up hope that I’ll find time to explain in more detail why I think this album is so titanic.

The latest from Hooded Menace is a music video premiered today by Metal Injection for “Crumbling Insanity”. The video was directed by Justin Oakley for Burial Offerings (Ulver). It intersperses footage of the band performing with images of such things as crucifixion, impalement, murder, and the collapse of churches. The song well-represents the talent of Hooded Menace for blending necrotic melodies, hard-charging death metal riffs, and the suffocating weight of funereal doom into a potent brew. Here’s the video: Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 7)

 Forthcoming Albums, Interviews  19 Responses »
Jul 012011
 


June is behind us, July lies ahead. Here in the U.S., we’re about to start the long weekend leading up to Independence Day, when Americans celebrate the birth of the nation by buying explosive ordinance wherever fine explosive ordinance is sold and lighting up the night sky (in addition to blowing the shit out of objects and sometimes themselves). People will also be exposing unsightly parts of their bodies wherever sun can be found and eating large quantities of health food prepared on outdoor grills. Our Founding Fathers would be proud of what they wrought!

Because the last month has ended, that means it’s time for 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 May 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. And feel free to tell us about how we fucked up by omitting releases that we overlooked. Continue reading »