Aug 032011
 


July is behind us, and the last month of the summer has begun. Drifting along even more stupidly than usual, I let the first day of the month come and go without posting our usual monthly  installment of METAL IN THE FORGE. So, we’re late with this, but I have a feeling no one was holding their breath waiting for it anyway.

You know the drill:  In these posts, 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 before July, we wrote about it 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 you’re stoked about. Continue reading »

Jul 262011
 

While continuing with my increasingly pathetic attempt to catch up on reviews and other NCS projects that fell by the wayside while I was away from home over the last two weeks — and relying in the meantime on people like Israel, Andy, and Phro to do the heavy lifting around here — I continue to be distracted by the lure of new music. And “lure” is exactly the right word, because I often feel like a stupid fish that can’t resist impaling myself on a barbed hook because there’s something tasty-looking attached to it, instead of doing something productive like . . . uh . . . eating or procreating.

This morning, the lures dangling in front of my wondering, gap-mouthed face came attached with the names Mourning Caress and Godsic. These were new names to me, but I took the bait anyway, and am now trying to get the fucking hooks out of my gills. Why, I asked myself, should I be the only fish in the NCS sea to greedily chomp down on these razored morsels of distraction? Unable to think of any good reason, I’m serving them up to you, too.

Both bands have new albums on the way, of course, which is why they’ve lowered these new songs into the water . . . hoping to hook some fan-fish and lift them, flopping and gasping, into their skiffs for later consumption. Mourning Caress is from Germany, and their third album, Deep Wounds, Bright Scars (a title that aptly suits my now-overdone metaphor for this post) is tentatively scheduled for release in November on MDD Records. The new song I heard is called “Panic”.

Godsic is a new band from Sweden composed of former members of Construcdead and current members of Carnal Forge. They’ve created a debut album called As the Heavens Burn, with the objective of releasing it this fall once they’ve lured a label into signing them. To date, they’ve released two songs for streaming — “Scars Inside” and “Premeditation” (which features yet another Carnal Forge member, Petri Kuusisto, as a guest on lead guitar). I like the alluring cover art, so I stuck it at the top of this post.

Of course, I like what I’m hearing from both bands, or I wouldn’t be bothering with this post. Can I lure you into nibbling around these hooks after the jump? And at the end, you can see the just-released cover art for the next album by one of our favorite bands — Landmine Marathon. Continue reading »