NEW HYPOCRISY: “TALES OF THY SPINELESS” IN VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Apr 042013
 

On March 22, 2013, Sweden’s Hypocrisy performed at a record release show in Stockholm for their new album End of Disclosure, which is out now on the Nuclear Blast label. Director Ville Lipiäinen was on hand to film some of what transpired. Lipiäinen was also the director of Hell Over Sofia, the band’s live 2011 performance DVD, and today Nuclear Blast released his video of Hypocrisy performing “Tales of Thy Spineless”.

There’s a lot of old-school, thrashing, grinding death metal in this track, but with a nice little catchy melody that sneaks into the front and back of the song. Actually, the song is like a Hypocrisy sandwich, with one song sandwiched in between parts of another quite different one. I’m happy with both parts (listen for dat base in the middle segment).

The video is, of course, well done. It was filmed from multiple camera angles, including one trained on the front row of the audience. Watch it after the jump. Continue reading »

TOURISM: “END OF DISCLOSURE” TOUR ANNOUNCED — WITH HYPOCRISY, ABORTED, ARSIS, STARKILL, AND AUTUMN’S END

 Metal News  7 Responses »
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 »

ROUND-UP: ROTTING CHRIST, HYPOCRISY, TRAIL OF TEARS, VHÖL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Feb 232013
 

When it comes to music debuts and hot breaking news, Friday’s aren’t usually very eventful. But yesterday was an exception. I posted a lot of new things yesterday as they were happening, but still didn’t cover everything, due to day-job bullshit. Today I’m catching up, with a collection of more sweet new items.

ROTTING CHRIST

These Greek heavyweights have been rolling out many new songs from their new album Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy, which Season Of Mist will be releasing next week. But yesterday, the entire album became available for streaming on several sites, including Metal Hammer.

I’m completely sold on this album, though I’ve been holding fire on explaining why because we do have a review in the works. I will once again merely say that you should hear this album. And now you can — via the player I’ve embedded right after the jump. Continue reading »

A NEW HYPOCRISY VIDEO AND FRESH FILM OF A METEORITE STRIKE IN RUSSIA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
Feb 152013
 

This is an odd pairing of items, I suppose — half of it metal and half of it in the vein of our THAT’S METAL! — BUT IT”S NOT MUSIC series. Here we go:

HYPOCRISY

Last month we featured an edited stream of the title track to Hypocrisy’s new album, End of Disclosure. Nuclear Blast was then — and still is — giving away the song as a free download. This morning, NB debuted a lyric video for the full song, which turns out not to be much longer than the edited version.

As I wrote when we first streamed the track, it’s like welcoming a familiar old friend — very recognizably a Hypocrisy song. But if you dig Hypocrisy as much as I do, new music from them is a prize.

The new album End Of Disclosure will be released March 22, 2013 (EU) and April 02, 2013 (NA). Watch and hear the video after the jump. Continue reading »

NEW SONGS FROM HYPOCRISY, OCTOBER TIDE, AND VREID

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jan 252013
 

Thanks to tips from DGR, I learned about two attention-grabbing developments this morning — new details about the forthcoming albums by Sweden’s Hypocrisy and October Tide plus new songs from each of them. And then on my very own I found a new single from the next album by Norway’s Vreid. It is a good day to be alive.

HYPOCRISY

Here’s how I progressed toward the new Hypocrisy song: First, I saw the cover art for the new album, End of Disclosure, which was created by Wes Benscoter (Slayer, Kreator, Nile, Vader, and more). I found it pleasing. Kind of a Zen demon. Also, many skulls. Second, I read, and was intrigued by, this quote by Hyporcisy’s main man Peter Tägtgren in the Nuclear Blast write-up on the album:

“This time I wanted to go back to basic, felt like we lost it for the last couple of albums , it’s straight to the point, it’s more Hypocrisy than ever, the fast, the heavy, the epic.. Enjoy!”

And then I listened to an edited version of the album’s title track, “End of Disclosure” — which you are about to hear, too, and which is available for free download. Continue reading »

FIVE OF MY FAVOURITE . . .UNEXPECTED COVERS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Oct 172012
 

(UK-based NCS scribe Andy Synn makes an appearance with another five-fold list of “favourite” things.  Such wasteful use of vowels.)

I realise I’ve been off the grid for a bit now (though I am working on some reviews, a 30th edition of The Synn Report, and an awesome interview) so in between balancing all that, work pressures, and 2 bands, I thought I’d drop you another irreverent column on five of my favourite things.

 

BEFORE THE DAWN – BITTER END (PLACEBO COVER)

Such an odd choice, but one which works perfectly, taking the darkly gothic atmosphere of the original and replacing its more pop orientation with some heavy metal riffage and a meaty drumming backbone. The vocal interplay is also sublime, the predominant clean croons matched with a bullish, anguished growl from Tuomas Saukkonen. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

 THE SYNN REPORT  15 Responses »
Dec 292011
 

(Andy Synn provides an unexpected SYNN REPORT, seizing upon the imminent calendar change to discuss the re-recording of 12 songs by 12 tremendous bands — and of course we’re including the music, which means 24 tracks. Fuck, this would be a mixtape that KILLS.)

So here it is, a surprise Synn Report to finish off the year. Arbitrary though the distinction may well be, the end of the year provides a perfect excuse to attend to a similar theme, the transition from the old to the new – re-workings and re-recordings.

Are they better? That’s an argument for the ages? Are they necessary? Hell, that’s probably an even worse argument to start up…

Primarily, re-recordings serve a twofold purpose – 1. to reinvigorate songs that might otherwise not be getting the set-time they deserve, and 2. – to royally piss off a band’s fan-base. Although there’s a chance that the second isn’t entirely intentional. Still, the re-recorded album courts controversy like almost no other, whether it’s a varied collection of songs that are chosen to receive the treatment, or a full re-recording of an entire album.

The full re-recording of an entire album is clearly the most contentious option, while single track re-recordings are often a much more successful and welcome proposition, most often appearing as b-sides and bonus tracks for the avid collector. The full-album re-recording, however, remains exceptionally and unequivocally divisive, alienating as many old fans as it attracts new ones.

So here’s a list of some of those renewed tracks that I think definitely have something to offer the listener, both old and new. I’m sure I’ll have to turn in my kvlt card after this, for promoting something so new and shiny, but ah well… Continue reading »

CAN WE GET MORE FREE SONG DOWNLOADS? WHY YES WE CAN!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Oct 072011
 

Free song downloads are good. They are better than simply getting the chance to stream a new song, which requires you to be hooked up to your computer or some other device with a solid net connection. They sound better when you play them back, and you can carry them around with you so you can listen while you’re out and about doing whatever scintillating things you do while out and about, or even when you’re parked on the throne in the midst of an eye-watering bowel evacuation.

Yesterday I discovered three free song downloads from bands we like around here: Hypocrisy (Sweden), Graveworm (Italy), and Immolation (U.S.). The songs? We like them, too. Quite a lot, in fact. And the Immolation offering was a very pleasant surprise — while only one song was promised, the download link provides an entire EP of music, and it happens to be one of the best death metal releases of the year.

HYPOCRISY

On October 21, Nuclear Blast will release a new DVD/CD combo from Hypocrisy called Hell Over Sofia – 20 Years of Chaos and Confusion. The disc will contain film of the band’s February 27, 2010 concert at the Blue Box club in Sofia, Bulgaria — which Hypocrisy called “one of our best shows ever in our history” — as well as a 90-minite documentary about the band’s 20-year history. Yesterday, Nuclear Blast made available for free download (at this location) one of the live performance tracks — “Roswell 47”, from the band’s 1996 album, Abducted. Continue reading »

IN THE NEWS AND IN YOUR EARS: THY CATAFALQUE, HYPOCRISY, AGALLOCH, AND RYE WOLVES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Sep 072011
 

Here’s another daily round-up of news and new music that I noticed today. All of these items perked me right up, so I thought I’d share them.

THY CATAFALQUE

Compared to other metal blogs, we’re late to the Thy Catafalque party, but we’re making up for lost time because the unique music of this Hungarian band has been a cool discovery (you can see our first post about them here).  We knew that the band had recently signed with the dependable Season of Mist label, but this morning we got a message from Tamás Kátai with further details.

Specifically, the band seems to have finished 60 minutes worth of new music (10 songs) that will be released on November 11 in Europe and on January 10, 2012 in North America. It will be entitled Rengeteg, and you can see the cover art up above, which is the result of a collaboration between Tamás and Portuguese photographer Ruy Luz. The art seems connected to the meaning of the album’s title, which is an obsolete Hungarian word referring to a vast, trackless forest. We’ll be all ears when this album becomes available for listening.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

WHY IS GERMANY SO FUCKING BRUTAL? (postscript)

 IQ Subtraction, Listmania, Metal News  No Responses »
Dec 192009
 

wacken10smallVans WarpedYesterday, NCS Co-Author IntoTheDarkness posted a piece on the brutality of German extreme metal bands. In an episode of synchronicity, this morning I saw three news updates about festivals scheduled for 2010 — one in the U.S. and two in Germany. And the comparison speaks volumes. On the one hand, we have the 2010 Vans Warped Tour spreading across the US next summer like a brain-sucking plague. On that tour, you’ll have the opportunity to see such stupifyingly awful bands as Attack! Attack!, Breathe Carolina, and Eyes Set to Kill. There are a few saving graces on the tour — Parkway Drive, Suicide Silence, and Whitechapel. But suffering through the rest of the 67-band lineup for the opportunity to see those dudes would be worse than a garden-hose colonoscopy without anesthesia.

SUMMER_BREEZE_2010On the other hand, next year in Germany we’ll have the latest installments of (a) the Summer Breeze festival scheduled for August 19-21 in Dinkelsbühl; and (b) the Wacken Open Air festival scheduled for August 5-7 in (where else) Wacken, Germany. At Summer Breeze, you could see the likes of Asphyx, Barren Earth, Behemoth, Dark Tranquillity, Despised Icon, Dying Fetus, Hypocrisy, Necrophagist, Obituary, Sepultura, Swallow the Sun, The Crown, and Maroon. And Wacken Open Air will feature bands such as Amorphis, Arch Enemy, Caliban, Immortal, Iron Maiden, and Slayer.

What’s really mind-blowing about the contrast is that those German festivals, each spread over just a few days in a single location, will draw tens of thousands (e.g., 70,000 tickets were sold for the 2009 edition of Wacken Open Air more than 200 days in advance). To get that kind of attendance in the U.S. for metal, you apparently need to have a line-up of largely craptastic bands and a schedule of about 40 dates in 40 cities.

To be fair, the German festivals draw crowds from all over Europe, and the U.S. does have some legitimately extreme festivals that are drawing headbangers in increasing numbers (the Maryland Deathfest, now in its 8th year, comes to mind most prominently). But still, so far, it’s no contest.

For full lists of the bands scheduled to date for these 3 tours, continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading »

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