TODAY’S ROUND-UP: NEW THINGS FROM AHAB, NACHTBLUT, STAM1NA, AND NE OBLIVISCARIS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
May 022012
 

Here is a typically random round-up of interesting items that cleverly captivated my eager eyes during my ludicrously limited last break from the jacked-up job that plentifully puts bread on my tilted table, unlike this NCS job, which only feeds my spirit. And the pleasurable purveyors of entertainment in this post are: Ahab (Germany), Nachtblut (Germany), Stam1na (Finland), and Ne Obliviscaris (Australia).

AHAB

NCS writer TheMadIsraeli turned me on to this German doom band at some point last winter. Doom is still a taste I am slowly acquiring, and I can’t say that I’m yet able to consume it in large quantities at a single sitting. However, at the right time and if properly prepared, I do find it tasty. And though I haven’t explored the discography of Ahab in depth, I’m interested in their new album, The Giant.

The band have used their music to explore dark literature with a nautical theme. The Call of the Wretched Sea (2006) was devoted to Melville’s novel Moby Dick, and The Divinity of Oceans (2009) was a soundtrack to the 1820 sinking of the whaling vessel The Essex, an event that partly inspired Moby Dick and was also the subject of a great more recent book, In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick. It appears The Giant will follow at least a somewhat similar nautical path. Continue reading »

NEWS AND VIDEO ROUND-UP: NE OBLIVISCARIS, ZOMBIE, INC., BLOODSHOT DAWN, AND OVERKILL

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 042012
 

One exciting news item + three brand new videos = this post.

NE OBLIVISCARIS

I know that less than three weeks have passed since our last update about Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris, but I think I already made clear that just about any news concerning this band and their forthcoming album is going to get space at NCS.

The new album is called Portal of I, and I expect to drown blissfully in the one hour and 11 minutes of unique music it will undoubtedly serve up. Now, finally, after years of work and more difficulties than many bands encounter, we have a release date for NeO’s debut album: May 7, 2012. We don’t yet have pre-order information, but we understand that’s coming soon.

In addition to the release date, NeO have also announced that they will be touring Australia in support of the album. Although I have no hope of seeing any of these shows except in my mind’s eye, I’m swallowing my frustration and including the tour dates anyway:

Friday, May 18@ The Corner Hotel, Melbourne 18+
Saturday, May 19@ The Castle, Dandenong, Melbourne *ALL AGES*
Saturday, June 9@ The Enigma Bar, Adelaide
Saturday, June 16@ The Bald Faced Stag (The Wall), Sydney
Brisbane show: TBA

Now, onward to those three new music videos . . . Continue reading »

NE OBLIVISCARIS: UPDATE

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Mar 162012
 

Normally, we don’t post a news alert simply because a band has added a new drummer to their line-up or releases a new press photo. But this is Ne Obliviscaris, and their new album has been on my personal “highly anticipated” list since I first found out it had been completed last October.

We originally featured this unsigned Melbourne, Australia band with the mouthful of a name way back in March 2010, focusing on a 2007 demo called The Aurora Veil. The new album is called Portal of I — a 7-track behemoth with a total run-time of more than 1 hour 11 minutes, and it appears from a press release we got this morning that the band is finally on the verge of providing an album release date, plus tour info.

Also, NeO have now found a permanent replacement for their former drummer, Dan Presland, who was involved in recording both the Aurora Veil demo and the forthcoming Portal Of I album. The new hitter is Nelson Barnes, who is also the drummer for Brisbane’s The Schoenberg Automaton — a very interesting band whose music we featured here last June.

Perhaps you still haven’t listened to the music of Ne Obliviscaris, despite the fact that we’ve streamed the first track to be released from Portal of I twice at NCS. Just in case, I’m gonna stream “And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope” a third time right after the jump, because pimping this band makes me happy. This song still floors me — it’s so unlike most other metal I hear. I wish I had more tracks to hear without having to wait any longer — but at least that day is finally drawing close.

By the way, the NeO line-up, as pictured above (from left to right) is: Benjamin Baret, Matt Klavins, Tim Charles, Xenoyr, Brendan ‘Cygnus’ Brown, and now Nelson Barnes. Continue reading »

NEWS FROM DOWN UNDER: NE OBLIVISCARIS AND DEVOLVED

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Dec 132011
 

We originally featured this unsigned Melbourne, Australia band with the mouthful of a name back in March 2010, focusing on a 2007 demo called The Aurora Veil. We checked in with them again in October, having learned that they had completed their debut album, Portal of I — a 7-track behemoth with a total run-time of more than 1 hour 11 minutes. In October, the band also released one of the new songs for streaming — “And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope” — which fuckin’ floored me. It’s a long, but remarkably multi-faceted piece of music.

We heard from the band yesterday with a bit of news. As reported on their Facebook page, the band has parted ways with their drummer, Dan Presland, who was involved in recording both the Aurora Veil demo and the forthcoming Portal Of I album. The band is already rehearsing with a new drummer, and we hope the loss of Presland (who’s quite good — he won the Australian finals of the World’s Fastest Drummer competition) won’t be a setback. At least it won’t delay the release of the album, since that’s already finished.

In an offsetting bit of good news, the band’s lead guitarist Benjamin Baret has been allowed to return to Australia after protracted wrangling over obtaining a visa. Baret lives in France, and his imminent return to Australia on Thursday of this week appears to be the prelude to release of Portal of I and touring in support of it. The band is still in discussions with labels, and so we’re not yet able to provide a specific release date — but you can be sure we will as soon as that’s set.

So, why are we spending time with this bit of news? Go past the jump and listen to “And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope” and you’ll understand (or be reminded, if you’ve heard it before). It’s not like anything else I’ve heard this year — and it makes me so damned curious to hear the rest of the new songs when the album drops next year. Also after the jump, a scorching new track from Devolved . . . Continue reading »

ROLLERCOASTER – PART 1

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Oct 172011
 

Over the weekend I came across a divergent array of largely new music that I feel compelled to share here at the beginning of the week. It’s really all over the place, up and down, swerving right and left. Tracking through these songs and videos put me in mind of a rollercoaster ride, hence the title of this post. There’s so much here that I’m dividing this into two parts. The next one will follow in a couple of hours. I’ll keep the verbiage brief and let the music do the talking for itself. In Part 1, the music comes from Ne Obliviscaris (Australia), God Is An Astronaut (Ireland), and Apostate (The Czech Republic).

NE OBLIVISCARIS

We originally featured this unsigned Melbourne, Australia band back in March 2010, focusing on a 2007 EP called The Aurora Veil. At long last, they’ve completed their debut album, Portal of I, which will be released in the near future (I haven’t yet found a specific date or how it will be distributed). It will consist of 7 tracks, with a total run-time of more than 1 hour 11 minutes. So yes, the songs are long ones. The band released one of them to their Facebook page on Friday night. It’s called “And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope”. I heard it via a link from NCS reader Kevin this morning — and it has floored me.

I know that I’m given to impulsive bursts of enthusiasm and that this undoubtedly devalues the weight that some people give my opinions. So, those people will want to take this with a grain of salt. Actually, take it with a pound of salt and choke ’til you pass out, because I’m serious: this is a wonderful song. It begins with a sweeping, violin-led melodic instrumental section and then moves on through a changing splash of musical colors and tones, part black metal, part melodic death metal, part prog metal — all good. It’s right after the jump. Continue reading »

HIT AND RUN

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 282010
 

Not long ago, we confessed on this site the reason why we so rarely post negative reviews about new music. It’s not because we like everything we hear (though undoubtedly some readers think we’re too easily impressed). It’s because we’re devoted to extreme metal and we’d rather sing its praises than spend our time slagging hard-working bands whose music doesn’t happen to zap the right chords in our addled brains.

The problem is that sometimes we hit a stretch of listening where, by sheer chance, we go through several albums in a row that don’t strike those chords — and then we’re out of time. We’re under self-imposed pressure to get something new up on this site, but we just don’t have any new music we can honestly praise at that moment. So then what the fuck do we do? We post pictures of catz. Or woodpeckers.

We hit one of those stretches the last couple of days. So, what to do? We were thinking about pictures of toads (don’t breathe sighs of relief too quickly — we might still do that eventually). But this time, with apologies to all our toad lovers, we’re trying something new. Just for a change, we’ll say a few brief words about those albums we heard recently that, by random chance, just didn’t get us all hot and bothered. They’re not bad. In fact, the musicians are extremely talented, and there’s parts of them we think are pretty fucking cool. But on the whole? Not music we’re likely to listen to a second time, given our tastes.

So, after the jump, hit-and-run comments about Triptykon (pictured above), Ne Obliviscaris, and Persefone.  And just so you can form your own conclusions, we’ll give you a song to hear from each album — because this really comes down to a matter of personal preference.  (continue reading after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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