RECENT NEWS: IMMOLATION, ARSIS, PIG DESTROYER, NEW STANDARD ELITE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Mar 052013
 

About to begin Day 9 away from home. Still working day and night on that project for my fucking day (and night) job. Averaging four hours of sleep a night. Brain is fried. Unable to write complete sentences any more.

Wasn’t able to check my NCS email at all until late last night. Had no chance to surf the web for new music. Haven’t listened to metal in 24 hours. Starting to get the withdrawal shakes.

Did see these things when I checked my e-mail.

IMMOLATION

Fucking Immolation’s new album is named Kingdom of Conspiracy. Super-badass cover art was unveiled — created by the immortal Pär Olofsson. Super badass. Continue reading »

MORE NEW VIDEOS: PIG DESTROYER’S “THE DIPLOMAT” AND FEAR FACTORY’S “THE INDUSTRIALIST”, PLUS “MR. FROSTY MAN” AND “THE ORIGIN OF CREATURES”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Oct 262012
 

Yesterday we devoted our last post to videos, and now two more new ones have premiered, one from Pig Destroyer and one from Fear Factory. One is “The Diplomat”, one is “The Industrialist”. Plus we have a fantastic Evil-Dead-goes-claymation video (“Mr. Frosty Man”) and a brilliant animation from The Netherlands (“The Origin of Creatures”) that puts a post-apocalyptic spin on the Tower of Babel parable. The music for these two isn’t metal, but the videos sure as fuck are.

PIG DESTROYER

Book Burner, the latest album from the almighty Pig Destroyer, came out in North America via Relapse on Monday of this week. Today saw the premiere of a new music video for one of the longer songs from the album, “The Diplomat”.

When this song had its debut in September, lyricist/vocalist JR Hayes said (here) it was “about the origins of human conflict and how if you look back through history, we’ve never really gotten along.” He explained: “You’re always wrapped up in the time that you’re living in, and right now there’s war and suffering and despair and economies collapsing, but if you look back in history, that’s the way it’s always been.” Can’t really argue with that, can you?

As for the sound of the song, Scott Hull used an opening riff that he had originally written for his other band Agoraphobic Nosebleed five or six years ago, and as he has noted, “The pace of the riff informs the tone and the tempo of the whole song.”

As for the “squawkier” and “angular” riffs toward the end? He was listening to a lot of Gorguts.

The song itself is excellent — and so is the new video. It was directed by Phil Mucci from Doomsday Entertainment, who also directed High On Fire’s killer “Fertile Green” video, as well as many others. It’s an allegorical tale that puts a different spin on the opening of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, with a gray-suited, arms-dealing motherfucker in place of the monolith. The colors are amazing, by the way. Watch it right after the jump. Continue reading »

PIG DESTROYER: “BOOK BURNER”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Oct 022012
 

(In this post, BadWolf reviews the new album by Pig Destroyer.)

Pig Destroyer showed me that grindcore could be good music in 2008, at the lowest point in my personal life. In that time of need, my palate for metal expanded in manifold ways. That was the time I got into Black Metal, Death Metal, and metallic hardcore. Suddenly the idea of NO CLEAN SINGING clicked with me.

And Pig Destroyer (along with early Napalm Death) opened the Grind gateway for me. The album, Phantom Limb, was relatively new then. And up until now it has remained Pig Destroyer’s most current work. Best album or not (probably not), Phantom Limb is my permanent personal Deathgrind yardstick.

So, Book Burner is my first ‘new’ Pig Destroyer album. Until I heard it, the band was synonymous with the Phantom Limb sound. I knew there had been lineup changes—Adam Jarvis now drums in the group—but they didn’t matter until now. Now they do, because Book Burner, while still a great album, is a step away from Phantom Limb. Its predecessor felt Lovecraftian in its looming malevolence. Book Burner, by contrast, is as human as Pig Destroyer have ever been.

The sound has been taken out to dry, especially in Jarvis’s drums—the snare pops like Chinese firecrackers here. Jarvis also rolls with a little more slop than his predecessors, which probably works to his advantage—grind albums all flow together anyway, and at least this one doesn’t have any jarring breaks. Scott Hull’s guitar has dropped some heft in exchange for clarity. The spaces between his notes are audible. You can imagine his fat monkey fist sliding up and down the neck of his guitar. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: DYING FETUS, GOD SEED, VILDHJARTA, PIG DESTROYER ON PIANO, AND A BAND OF ORCS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 262012
 

Yours truly is on the road again, and by “road” I mean in airports and on airplanes and therefore spending hours of tedium separated from the internet. As a result, the postings between now and Monday are going to be scattered and probably fewer than normal. I did have time last night and this morning to survey what’s been happening over the last 24 hours and found the following nuggets of interest.

ITEM ONE: DYING FETUS, ET AL – “THE BLOOD OF POWER TOUR”

I started posting about this tour when there was no official announcement and just a few dates had surfaced, because I was so fuckin’ excited about it. Yesterday it became official. I saw on Metal Sucks (which is co-sponsoring the tour) that Dying Fetus, Cattle Decapitation, and Cerebral Bore will indeed be touring the U.S. in November and December.

But this official announcement has revealed something I didn’t know: Malignancy will be taking the place of Cattle Decapitation during the last week of the tour. The two bands are very different, of course, but they’re both just excellent at what they do. If you want a taste of Malignancy’s forthcoming album (which is amazing), check out this post. Tour dates are right after the jump. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SYLOSIS, PIG DESTROYER, HAIDUK, AND KAWAK IJEN BY NIGHT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 152012
 

Here are a few things I spotted last night and this morning that I thought were worth passing along.

SYLOSIS

October 9 is the North American release date for Monolith, the new album by Sylosis (Oct 5 in Europe). We’ve previously featured two of the songs from the album — “Dying Vine” and “Born Anew” — and “Born Anew” is being offered as a free download by Nuclear Blast at this site.

Now, someone has posted a teaser reel on YouTube that includes minute-long samples from each of the album’s 11 tracks. I can’t tell if this was an authorized compilation and upload or not. I guess we’ll find out. But for as long as it lasts, it provides a pretty good tasting of an album that a couple of us here at NCS have been spinning and enjoying quite a bit. You can find that teaser reel right after the jump.

As you may know, Sylosis are also opening for Lamb of God, In Flames, and Hatebreed on their North American tour beginning in October. I’ve put the tour schedule after the jump, too. Continue reading »

PIG DESTROYER LIVE IN TOKYO (WITH NEW SONGS)

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 042012
 

Pig Destroyer’s new album Book Burner will be out in the U.S. on October 22. A bit earlier today I watched a fan-filmed video of most of their set on August 23 in Tokyo. Here’s an index to what’s on the video that I found in the YouTube comments — including some new songs:

1:10 Rotten Yellow
2:23 Deathtripper
3:52 ?????
7:00 Pretty in Casts
8:14 Dark Satellites
9:08 Trojan Whore
10:50 Sheet Metal Girl
12:43 Alexandria
16:56 New Songs!
21:12 Piss Angel
25:11 Cheerleader Corpses
25:45 Terrifyer

The video and audio quality are pretty good. Explosively violent music. Video is after the jump. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SOILWORK, PIG DESTROYER, AND THE TONY DANZA TAPDANCE EXTRAVAGANZA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Aug 302012
 

Here’s a quick round-up of news items I saw today. I may have more later . . .

SOILWORK

That’s a really good promo shot up there, don’t you think? It was taken by Hannah Verbeuren. Could there be a relationship to the band’s fabulous drummer Dirk Verbeuren?

In addition to seeing that great photo, I also saw the news that Soilwork’s new album, The Living Infinite, is going to be a double-album. According to the band’s front dude Björn “Speed” Strid , it will be: “A REAL double album, in the true sense of the word, which means no fillers and no left-overs.”

Oh, let’s hope that will prove to be true! And let’s further hope that with all that extra room it will include the kind of harder-edged, melodeath marauders like “Needlefeast”, “Follow the Hollow”, “Like the Average Stalker”, and “The Chainheart Machine” that Soilwork once enjoyed delivering, in addition to the catchy, poppier, cleanly sung stuff that dominated The Panic Broadcast (2010). I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy that last album, because I did, but I kept waiting for something with real teeth in it . . . and waited in vain. Now I’ll start waiting again . . . .

On the other hand, I don’t think lack of teeth will be the problem with this next band’s new album. Continue reading »

HEAD-EXPLODING TOUR NEWS: “CONQUERORS OF THE WORLD 2012” — AND HEAD-EXPLODING PIG DESTROYER NEWS

 Metal News  15 Responses »
Jul 102012
 

Oh my fucking dog. Take a close look at that tour poster above. Upon returning from my birthday Blog Break, I found a message from BadWolf with a link to this beautiful thing, and I nearly peed myself with excitement.

Okay, to be brutally honest, which is the only kind of honest we know how to be at NCS, I did pee myself, though it’s possible that’s the result of general diminution in bladder control that comes with advancing age and an “I can’t be bothered” attitude about going to the bathroom when the first tingling urges appear. Some people would say that I ought to quit fucking around and start manufacturing the NCS-branded adult diapers I’ve written about before, with the “Massive Wall of Penis” logo in the front and the Blastanus logo in the rear, and then start wearing them myself. But for me, I think a little urine stank improves my personal aroma.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the Conquerors of the World 2012 Tour. It’s a North American tour and it features these bands:

Septic Flesh
Krisiun
Melechesh
Ex Deo
Inquisition

As for the tour schedule, it’s still developing, but it starts in October, and after the jump you can see the initial list of 13 dates. Also . . .  PIG DESTROYER! Continue reading »

A GUITAR, DRUMS, AND FUCK ALL ELSE

 Concert Reviews  8 Responses »
Sep 112011
 

Last night some friends and I saw not one, not two, but three bands who made music using nothing more than one guitar, a drum kit, and a human voice. And using only those instruments, they made some of the most extreme, most wholly obliterating live music I’ve ever heard. I don’t mean to slight the other three bands in concert — they were all great. But Pig Destroyer, Jucifer, and Numb were revelations.

I have just a few notes about the experience, a few half-assed photos, and some studio recordings from each band, which honestly fall far short of capturing the immensity of the live music.

NUMB

Numb is an unsigned band from Everett, north of Seattle. There’s one guitarist, one drummer (who shares vocal duties), and a lead vocalist who shrieks and roars. Numb plays music for the waiting room of the methadone clinic, a mix of rancid, smacked-out grind and tarry sludge. The very good drummer was a barbed octopod behind the kit; the guitarist churned out one loud, fat riff after another. And the vocalist was just flat-out unhinged. Top hinge off, bottom hinge off, door falls flat with a smack, and all the banshees come roaring out.

Did I mention they were really LOUD. That’s one way you can make up for the absence of a bass and a second guitar — distort the fuck out of the one guitar you have and shatter some ear drums. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

LARGE COJONES AND LOOSE WIRING

 Off Topic  8 Responses »
Jul 042011
 

No, I didn’t forget that it’s Independence Day. I’ve been without high-speed internet service for the last 36 hours, and of course there’s no fucking way it will get fixed on the 4th of July, so I’ve had to fall back on a data card on a different carrier, which is slower than a three-legged sloth and just randomly disconnects as if it can’t be bothered — which makes uploading and downloading tedious, and streaming is impossible.

Well, enough spoiled whining from me. Happy Fourth to all you motherfuckers! Hope all you Americans are enjoying your holiday. In honor of the occasion, I thought it might be worth remembering a bit of history.

Almost five years ago, I found myself in Philadelphia with some time to kill and I sought out the Christ Church Burial Ground because I wanted to see the grave of Ben Franklin — who, among many other things, was a signer of The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution — and the grave of Commodore William Bainbridge, for whom the island where I live was named. Also, I like graveyards.

After prowling around the cemetery for an hour, I wandered into Christ Church itself, which was founded in 1695. It’s a relatively un-ostentatious building, but it’s steeped in history. It was the first parish of the Church of England in Pennsylvania, it was the birthplace of the American Episcopal Church, and the rector of the church gave the opening prayer to the first meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774. (more after the jump . . . and there will be metal . . .) Continue reading »

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