WATCH THE NEW FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE VIDEO FOR “PATHFINDER”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 032014
 

When I got around to picking a song from Fleshgod Apocalypse’s 2013 album Labyrinth for our still-evolving list of last year’s “Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs”, the one I chose was “Pathfinder”. Earlier this morning, the band premiered an official video for the same song, and it’s excellent.

As you may know, Labyrinth is a concept album which draws on the legend of the labyrinth at Knossos on the island of Crete as a metaphor for each person’s search for his or her true self. Some knowledge of the myth may assist in following what happens in the video. According to The Font of All Human Knowledge:

“The myth of the Minotaur tells that Theseus, a prince from Athens, sailed to Crete, where he was forced to fight a terrible creature called the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a half man, half bull, and was kept in the Labyrinth – a building like a maze – by the king Minos, the ruler of Crete. The king’s daughter Ariadne fell in love with Theseus. Before he entered the Labyrinth to fight the Minotaur, Ariadne gave him a ball of thread which he unwound as he went into the Labyrinth so that he could find his way back by following it. Theseus killed the Minotaur, and then he and Ariadne fled from Crete, escaping her angry father.”

Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 12

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013  6 Responses »
Jan 272014
 

Here we have Part 12 of our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the two I’m announcing today, click here.

Today’s installment of the series is brought to you by the NCS Department of Bombastic Brutality, with an assist from the Division of Wretched Excess. Those segments of the NCS bureaucracy are just full of suggestions, but as much as I like bombast and excess, I find that although such forms of metal expression are fun in the moment, they often lack that contagious quality that’s necessary for selection to this particular list. But today’s two songs are both infectious AND capable of causing epileptic seizures.

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE

I’ve been such a slobbery fan of these Italian maestros that I had a running joke in my posts years ago that I would pay them enough to come live with me and serenade me whenever I wanted, just as soon as those Nigerians who were always offering me bags of gold dust and stacks of cash paid up on their promises. Except I wasn’t joking. Continue reading »

AN A CAPELLA COVER OF FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE THAT WORKS BETTER THAN YOU COULD IMAGINE

 Exceptions to the Rule, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jan 232014
 

Dan-Elias Brevig is a wonder. He has taken “The Violation”, by those Italian maestros of utterly bombastic death metal, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and created a completely a cappela cover of the song in a YouTube video. And by “a capella”, I mean that he has not only recorded the growls and falsetto cleans from the song, he has also used his voice to mimic the song’s instrumental arrangements.

Think about the original for a moment, and ponder what this would entail. After you’ve stopped shaking your head and going “No Way!”, move past the jump and see/hear for yourselves. Mr. Brevig calls it a parody, but it’s pretty damned impressive.

(Dan-Elias Brevig is from the vicinity of Oslo, Norway; he has a band named Immetic (whose music may be found here); and his Facebook page is at this location. To give you another example of his pipes in action, I’ve included an Immetic song after the video; it’s partially an exception to our rule, but I’m digging it — and it sort of helps explain his affinity for Fleshgod Apocalypse.) Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, VALLENFYRE, NILE, CANNABIS CORPSE, GOATCRAFT, DEFECT DESIGNER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Dec 022013
 

I’m still on vacation, and probably should be vacationing instead of spending time on the internet catching up on what’s been happening in the world of metal. Honestly, I expected that nothing would be happening without me there to notice it. You can imagine my shock and dismay in discovering that the world continues to turn even when I don’t pay attention to it. Something is seriously wrong.

Honestly, I didn’t try to dig too deeply into what I’ve been missing, but I did manage to fight through my depression and found a batch of recent things worth mentioning before returning to fucking off.

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE

The last time a band’s merchandising ploy pulled me up short was when Ghost B.C. started selling dildos and butt plugs. But it happened again yesterday when, thanks to a link sent my way by The Autistic Metalhead, I discovered that Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse had started selling their own brand of pasta. It’s true. They’ve got four varieties and they’re shipping worldwide. In my case, it would cost 28 Euro, plus 20 Euro for shipping and handling. Continue reading »

THE CASE FOR COMPARING BAND X TO BAND Y IN MUSIC REVIEWS

 Mosh Pit  26 Responses »
Sep 222013
 

(It’s been a while since we received a guest post from Dane Prokofiev (who writes everywhere and has his own blog at Zetalambmary), but today he returns with an argument about why it’s worthwhile to use band comparisons in music reviews.) 

I used to dislike comparing a band whose album I was reviewing to another band in my written reviews and only resorted to doing so when I found absolutely nothing interesting about the band’s music to be worthy of description through the use of metaphors. Ever since my exposure to Saussurean semiotics, however, I have changed my mind.

Saussurean semiotics posits that there is no intrinsic connection between words and their meanings. That is to say, it is not natural for the word “dog” to refer to the concept of dog-ness. The word “dog” is a linguistic construct, something that is distinct from the concept of dog-ness. What English-speaking people label as “dog” is labeled as “الكلب” by Arabic-speaking people , “chien” by French-speaking people, “hunder” by Icelandic-speaking people, “犬” by Japanese-speaking people, and “狗” by Mandarin-speaking people. The fact that people use different words for the same object in different languages means that there is no particular connection between the word “dog” and the thing that we refer to as a “dog”.

The product of this arbitrary relationship between the signifier (“dog”) and the signified (the concept of dog-ness) is called the sign, which is the mental image that is conjured in a person’s mind when he or she sees the signifier and understands that it is referring to the signified, aka certain properties that constitute the thing-ness of something. Continue reading »

WINTERSUN / FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE / ARSIS: LIVE AT STUDIO SEVEN, SEATTLE, AUG 23, 2013

 Concert Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 272013
 

(All of the regular NCS staffers have been together in Seattle since last week and collectively took in the performances by Wintersun, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Arsis at Studio Seven on August 23. In this post Andy Synn reviews the show and shares with us some video clips that he filmed that night.)

So… we may have missed Starkill. Apologies all. We were busy having drinks across town at The Oak (very cool place by the way) and ended up staying a bit later than we’d anticipated.

No worries though, because we made it to the venue just in time for Arsis who were, for me, at least, the most anticipated band of the night.

ARSIS

I’ve never seen James Malone and his melodeath marauders before, but I’ve been a fan of the band ever since they released A Celebration of Guilt, so this was a big moment for me, and the band did not disappoint at all.

Malone himself is both a fantastic guitarist and a vicious vocalist, shredding and riffing away flawlessly while barking his venomous, diseased lyrics. Continue reading »

MUSINGS

 Concert Reviews  12 Responses »
Aug 242013
 

This is a photo by Jun Tiangja of rice terraces in the Philippines. It has nothing to do with anything else in this post. I just think it’s beautiful.

I forewarned you that there would be a drop in NCS content for about one week beginning yesterday because I planned to confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with my brother wizards here in the Emerald City. And if you’re now laughing at the notion of yours truly and my fellow NCS scribes being characterized as wizards, you’re welcome.

All of us have indeed congregated in Seattle, with BadWolf arriving yesterday afternoon and TheMadIsraeli, Andy Synn, and DGR swooping in at various times on Thursday. And though I expected our collective blog time would dwindle drastically, I didn’t foresee that we wouldn’t post a goddamn thing yesterday, not even a notice saying we wouldn’t be posting a goddamned thing yesterday.

We’ve fallen down on the job because I think we’ve been enjoying each other’s company. I say “I think” because I’m not a mind-reader and am mainly speaking for myself, and speaking for myself, I am happy to learn that people who seemed like cool dudes over the internet have turned out to be cool dudes in person, too. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ELIRAN KANTOR / KATAKLYSM, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, AND BONE DANCE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 122013
 

A few quick hits for you from my own quick spin through my e-mail and the interhole this afternoon.

ELIRAN KANTOR AND KATAKLYSM

Last week we brought you some news about the next album by Canada’s Kataklysm, Waiting For the End To Come, including the artwork for the CD. I thought the artwork was okay, but it didn’t elevate my pulse rate. HOWEVER, the artwork previously revealed is only for the standard jewel case version of the CD and a limited edition cassette tape of the album. There is an alternate cover for “the deluxe digipak” and the LP versions of the album, and you’re looking at it.

No disrespect intended to Peter Sallai, but I find this creation by the stellar Eliran Kantor much more appealing. It reminds me of what a collaboration between John Martin and Gustave Doré might have produced. Love it! Continue reading »

ANOTHER NEW SONG FROM FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE: “MINOTAUR (THE WRATH OF POSEIDON)”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Aug 012013
 

You already know what we think of Labyrinth, the new album by the almighty Fleshgod Apocalypse, because surely you have read Andy Synn’s laudatory review of it. And surely you have already heard “Elegy”, the first track from the album to be released for streaming. And surely you will now listen to the second song that just appeared on YouTube as a lyric video, “Minotaur (The Wrath of Poseidon)”. Surely.

Labyrinth will be out on Aug. 16 in Europe, Aug. 19 in the UK, and Aug. 20 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records. Listen to “Minotaur” next and please share your thoughts in the comments. Continue reading »

REVIEWED: FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE — “LABYRINTH”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jul 252013
 

(Andy Synn reviews the highly anticipated new album by Fleshgod Apocalypse.)

It’s amazing to think that these Italian extremists, who only really started to make waves within the underground with 2009’s Oracles, are now already on their third album.

Following the over-indulgence of Agony, Labyrinth finds the band more at ease in their own skin – not exactly comfortable, in the sense of resting on their laurels, but definitely imbued with a quiet confidence – something that allows them to simultaneously both push the envelope in terms of their symphonic embellishments and give more depth to the crunching, death metal aspect of their sound (something that critics have, in the past, criticised for being almost a secondary concern behind the orchestral and operatic frippery).

Fundamentally a brutal and brilliantly punishing listen, Labyrinth is actually far cleverer and more delightfully esoteric in places than the band are often given credit for. And, despite the devastating shock and awe on display, it’s also more interested in leaving a lasting impression, rather than simply impressing, and is all the more impressive for it.

Once you’re past the initial shockwave, you’ll find that the key to the band’s success is not just a product of their blitzkrieg sonic assault, but an often underappreciated ability to find a balance point between operatic pomp, symphonic melody, and death metal brutality, allowing the subtle undercurrents of each song to insinuate themselves into your subconscious.

Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries