NILE: “AT THE GATES OF SETHU”

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

(Here we have yet another review by TheMadIsraeli, catching up on 2012 releases that have impressed him. Today, it’s the new one from Nile, which is out now on the Nuclear Blast label.)

As much as it may have sucked total ass in the mainstream, underground metal in the 90’s was one of the absolute definitive highpoints of the music’s evolution to me.  A huge component of this was the surge of brutal tech-death giants, most of whom (though not all) somehow have managed not to stagnate one bit, still putting out consistently killer albums while retaining the defining qualities that make these bands who they are.  I’m speaking of Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Immolation, Cryptopsy, and obviously in today’s case, Nile.

Nile, like almost all the bands listed above, have a virtually flawless discography.  I think the only guilty party in that list who turned out to be an exception needn’t be named, but Nile is definitely a band who’ve never committed such a gaff. Their new album,  At The Gates of Sethu, is a monolithic assault of Nile’s esoteric brutality that’s just as good as any of their other work (which is to say fucking excellent), though it seems to be drawing criticism via the tropes and trivialities of the modern metal crowd.

I digress briefly with a rant: I hate most modern metal.  I may find a modern metal band worth checking out here and there, and even more rarely, one that I deem fucking excellent.  However, I hate modern metal as a whole.  I hate the sentiments it comes with, what the crowd expects from the music, and the general idea that if something is not groovy, if it doesn’t have slick, pristine production that’s sterile and as stale as an open three-week-old bag of chips (even though it might very well capture the full spectrum of sound), if it doesn’t have lame, half-assed attempts at syncopation, and if it lacks clean vocals, then it’s bad. Even more obnoxious and condescending is the notion that music which fails these criteria is not relevant, not “with the times”, or some cockamamie horse shit like that. Continue reading »

ONE MORE NEW NILE SONG: “THE INEVITABLE DEGRADATION OF FLESH”

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Jun 192012
 

Just a quick news flash here for consumers of maniacally active death metal: Nuclear Blast has premiered another song from Nile’s new album, At the Gates of Sethu, which will be released on July 3 (with pre-orders shipping on June 26).

The song is called “The Inevitable Degradation of Flesh”. It’s brootal. And maniacally active. To hear it, you have to visit the Nuclear Blast pre-order page (HERE) and click on one of the pre-order options.  That will take you to another page where the song is streaming on a SoundCloud player. You don’t have to buy anything, though I’m sure all concerned would be happy if you did.

Did I mention that the song is brootal?  It is that, and worth hearing.

NILE: DOWNLOAD “THE FIENDS” FOR FREE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
May 312012
 

Last week we reported on the premiere of the first song from Nile’s new album, At the Gates of Sethu, which will be released via Nuclear Blast Records on June 29 (Europe) and July 3 (North America). The song is called “The Fiends Who Come To Steal the Magick of the Deceased”. At that point, it was exclusively streaming at Noisecreep.

But now, you don’t have to stream it any more, because Nuclear Blast is making the song available as a free download, in return for your e-mail address.  GO HERE to get the track for your very own. And in case you haven’t yet heard the song — which may not be exactly what you’re expecting from Nile, check it out on the player below:
 

NILE: “THE FIENDS WHO COME TO STEAL THE MAGICK OF THE DECEASED”

 Metal News  10 Responses »
May 252012
 

Take an Arabic-sounding melody, wrap it up in blazing, unpredictable fretwork and frenzied drumming, add an array of vocal stylings (guttural gurgles, throaty howls, clean chants), and then accelerate the fucker — and what do you have? You have the new song by Nile: “The Fiends Who Come to Steal the Magick of the Deceased,” the second track off of At the Gate of Sethu.

The song just got its exclusive premiere at Noisecreep, and you really should go hear it if you have any affinity at all for tech-death, because it is a fascinating listen. Then come back here and share with us your reactions. (I could just borrow the Noisecreep player and stick it up here at NCS so you wouldn’t have to look at all the photos of Adam Lambert, Kenny Chesney, and Steven Tyler on that Noisecreep page, but I decided not to be a dick for a change.)

At the Gates of Sethu will be released via Nuclear Blast Records on June 29 (Europe) and July 3 (North America). The handsome cover art (there are two versions) was created by Seth Siro Anton (Septic Flesh). Check out the other version after the jump, along with a nice photo of Nile. Continue reading »

CATCHING UP (Part 3): NILE, MUTILATION RITES, PSYCHOPATHIC TERROR, KATAKLYSM, MEANS END, AND BLACKLODGE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  22 Responses »
Apr 272012
 

As explained previously, I’ve been catching up on what I missed in the metal world over the last couple of weeks while being otherwise occupied. So much happens every day that I can’t include everything I’ve discovered, but I’ve been trying to feature a mix of news and stylistically divergent new music that might have escaped your attention as well as my own. This is the final installment.

Some of what’s in here is VERY recent. And yes, this is long . . . but just treat it like six posts in one. Just pretend that it dribbled out all day long, like posts on some other metal sites that don’t want to tax their readers’ attention spans. Or you could set your alarm to go off once an hour and come read another piece of this as if it had just appeared. Or I could just shut up and get on with it.

NILE

Actually, I suspect this didn’t escape many people’s attention, because it’s Nile, after all. Thanks to Metal Sucks and TheMadIsraeli, I found out yesterday that Nile has now released the cover art for their next album (above), At the Gate of Sethu, which Nuclear Blast plans to release in Europe on June 29 and in the U.S. on July 3. The artwork is by Seth Siro Anton of Septic Flesh.

The central figure looked familiar, and after a bit of  research at The Font of All Human Knowledge, I confirmed that it’s the Egyptian god Thoth, which The Font describes as a god who, in the later history of ancient Egypt, “became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes,the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.” Continue reading »

NOW THIS IS HOW YOU REPRESENT!

 Metal News  12 Responses »
Apr 262012
 

That, my friends, is Happy Metal Guy wearing the NCS Fucking Good Pancake Tour shirt with none other than Frank Motherfucking Mullen and Terrance Motherfucking Hobbs of the almighty Suffocation, and the photo was taken in motherfucking Singapore, no less. And that’s not all — not by a long shot.

After the jump, you’ll see photos of Happy Metal Guy, once again looking just smashing in the old massive wall of penis, with members of Nile and Psycroptic. Yes, HMG collared all of these bands yesterday in advance of  the Diablo Open Air Festival in Singapore, which took place on April 26 (Singapore time). He is covering that festival for Teeth of the Divine, and I understand he’ll be meeting up with Arch Enemy by the time you read this. Of course, I expect he will have the same exemplary culinary taste when he dresses for that meeting. UPDATE: HMG did get a quick meet with a few Arch Enemy members, and there’s a pic of him with awesome drummer Daniel Erlandsson and new guitarist Nick Cordle after the jump.

If you don’t immediately recognize the name “Happy Metal Guy”, that’s the pseudonym he uses when he writes for Angry Metal Guy, but he has other names, including a couple he has used when he contributes posts here at NCS (including the “Keyboard Warrior” interview series). He also writes for a bunch of other sites, too — the dude just plain gets around, y’know? But he made me proud wearing the NCS shirt for his meetings with all those big-name metal bands half a world away from where we run this site. So fucking cool.

Also, very fucking cool that none of these bands had HMG ejected from the premises after they saw that shirt.

More fucking cool pics after the jump . . . Continue reading »

GORY BLISTER: “SOUL-BORNE MALADIES”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Feb 092012
 

This is the third of three posts today featuring single songs recently released for streaming by bands who are new blips on our radar screen. This one comes from an Italian band named Gory Blister.

Now, it seems that the core members of Gory Blister have been playing off and on since the early 90s, with three albums to their credit and a fourth one scheduled for release by Bakerteam Records on April 23, to be titled EarthSick. What caught my eye was the report that Nile’s Karl Sanders would be making a guest appearance on two songs — one of them being “Soul-Borne Maladies”, which the band have recently released for streaming.

Before you Nile fans get too wild, Sanders is contributing vocals, not guitars, and the vocals are a near-chanting monotone, cavernous and cadaverous. But Gory Blister do just fine with their own instrumentals and song-writing. Their brand of technical death metal is all flying fingers and blazing footwork, constantly changing tempos and bludgeoning rhythms. And when the guitar solo in this song erupts, it’s like the second coming of Vesuvius.

Damned fine blowtorch metal, and it appears we have another Italian death metal album to anticipate this year besides the next one from Hour of Penance. Put on your asbestos suit and have a listen after the jump. Continue reading »

NILE ANNIHILATES

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Oct 282010
 

We’re starting to get our engines revved up for Nile’s fall NorthAm tour with Ex Deo, Psycroptic, Keep of Kalessin, and Pathology — which will detonate in Seattle on November 12. And just to make our fucking day, Nile has recently released an official video for the completely awesome song “Permitting the Noble Dead To Descend To the Underworld” from their completely awesome 2009 album Those Whom the Gods Detest.

If you know this song, then you know it includes a blistering Karl Sanders solo — but you watch this video and you’ll see living proof of just how blistering it is. See if you notice any change in the appearance of vocalist/guitarist Dallas Toler-Wade. And if you don’t, time for that eye exam you’ve been putting off.

The vid is after the jump . . . Continue reading »

GRAVE

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jul 202010
 

Grave stalks the burial ground in its recently released ninth album like an undead thing that knows the territory like the back of its decaying hand.

The nine songs collectively represent a stark contrast to the modern death-metal sound of the band (Noctiferia ) whose album we reviewed yesterday. Over the near quarter-century of its existence, Grave has remained true to the early-stage school of Swedish death metal that it helped found — a school that will flunk your ass out if your mind wanders from the approved curriculum.

But if you’re in the mood to study the evil classics, with some subtle updating, Burial Ground will pay dividends. To mix our metaphors, Grave has got the bone saw gassed-up and running — rough and loud. It won’t be a clean amputation, but as the jocks say, no pain, no gain.

Throughout the album, the bass and guitar hum and buzz and crackle like massive, overloaded transformers, producing the classic, downtuned, distorted sound that reviewers have unsuccessfuly struggled for two decades to describe (for the sake of variety) without using the word “chainsaw.”

It’s not all the sound of a burred grind. Tremolo-picked leads surface in “Semblance In Black”, “Ridden With Belief”, and “Bloodtrail”. Mournful, dissonant melodies peer out of the maelstrom on songs like “Liberation” and “Conqueror”, and squalling solos erupt in rapid bursts in almost every song.

But if the sound of those Swedish death-saws isn’t music to your ears, then you ain’t gonna like Burial Ground, because there’s no escaping them.  (more after the jump, including a track to stream and some eye-catching artwork . . .) Continue reading »

INSIDIOUS DISEASE (Update)

 Metal News  4 Responses »
Jun 302010
 

We’ve been waiting for the seed of Insidious Disease to blossom forth from the fertilized earth. Will it be a putrescent mass of unearthly purplish life, writhing with hungry tentacles and awesome in its otherworldly magnificence? Or will it be just another pumpkin?

Why do we wonder? Because of who’s in the band:

Marc “Groo” Grewe (ex-MORGOTH) – Vocals
Sven Atle Kopperud (a.k.a. Silenoz) (DIMMU BORGIR) – Guitar
Shane Embury (NAPALM DEATH) – Bass
Tony Laureano (ex-DIMMU BORGIR, NILE, ANGELCORPSE) – Drums
Jon Øyvind Andersen (a.k.a. Jardar) (OLD MAN’S CHILD) – Guitar

We got so stoked when we first heard about this line-up that we wrote about it two months ago, and we’ve been waiting not-so-patiently for more news ever since.

Now we know that Insidious Disease will release their debut album, Shadowcast, on July 12 in Europe and July 27 in the U.S. via Century Media Records. And now we have a video of the band performing a track from that album called “Rituals of Bloodshed”. Watch it after the jump, and decide for yourself: Awesome putrescent mass or just another pumpkin? And while you’re deciding, be stunned and amazed by the infernally amazing special effects. Continue reading »

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