DARK FORTRESS / SECRETS OF THE MOON / SCHAMMASCH — LIVE AT THE UNDERWORLD, OCT 20, 2014

 Concert Reviews  2 Responses »
Oct 222014
 

 

(Our Nottingham-based writer Andy Synn ventured down to London to catch the Venereal Dawn Tour MMXIV and files this report, with video of the performances.) 

From the moment it was announced, there really was no way I was going to miss this show. Two of my absolute favourite bands, Dark Fortress and Secrets of the Moon, along with one of this year’s best discoveries, the ineffable Schammasch, all on the same bill?

Sold.

The fact that it was down in London, at The Underworld (a venue I’ve always loved) was both a blessing a curse, as it pretty much guaranteed a great sound and atmosphere for the night, but also necessitated leaving work early and making a three-hour (give or take) drive through the irritating London traffic.

Still, totally worth it. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BLOODBATH, DARK FORTRESS, GHOST BRIGADE, KAUAN, ODYSSEY, SCHAMMASCH, VARATHRON

 Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  12 Responses »
Oct 142014
 

 

Here’s a rather large selection of new songs and videos released in the last few days that I decided were worth your time — and who better than me to decide how you should spend your time?  Exactly.

I’ve arranged these offerings in alphabetical order by band name. It’s quite a varied selection, so I’m hoping everyone will find something to like.

BLOODBATH

We’re now two songs into the ramp-up for one of the most highly anticipated extreme metal releases of the year — Grand Morbid Funeral, the first album by Bloodbath since 2008. The second song, “Famine of God’s Word”, was revealed yesterday through a lyric video. I’m of two minds about the song.

On the one hand, the instrumental music is just downright vicious — a brutally heavy, galloping, squalling, skin-flaying, gut-punching romp, with an eerie lead guitar melody that floats through the song like a phantasm. Continue reading »

THE BEAUTY REPRESENTING THE BEAST (PART 2)

 Eye-Catchers, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Aug 182014
 

 

(Guest writer Ty Lowery has assembled a personal list of favorite metal album covers for 2014 to date, divided into two parts. Part 1 appeared here. Once again, Ty asked his wife Heather (who he says isn’t very big on metal music as a whole) and his friend Adam (who is) to look at the album art and provide guesses about the music. Once again, please feel free to add your own favorites in the Comments.)

Alright, so the first round went pretty well for my two assistants. Where we left off, they were neck-and-neck in our little guessing game. So, time to finish this thing up and see if the trend continues. Lets get right to it, shall we?

Schammasch – Contradiction

There’s just something about the color red with me, for some reason. I really like how while the majority of this artwork is solid red, yet there’s enough variation that you can divine the angel, the demon, the symbols, and the serpents. With that knowledge, Heather was able to correctly suggest that this album was steeped in religious undertones, probably in the vein of black metal, as did Adam. He suggested that it might have something to do with atheism, but changed his mind after seeing the symbols along the bottom.

The cover art is by Valnoir of Metastazis Studio in Paris. NCS reviewed the album here.
http://www.graphic-noise.com/valnoir Continue reading »

SCHAMMASCH: “CONTRADICTION”

 Album Reviews  17 Responses »
May 082014
 

(Andy Synn reviews the second album, released late last month in Europe, by the Swiss band Schammasch.)

Oh how I have fallen in love with this album. All 85 fantastic minutes of it. Over the course of nine songs, straddling two cds, the music on Contradiction combines elements drawn from some of my all-time favourite artists – the primal riffage of Keep of Kalessin, the pained rhythms of Deathspell Omega, the brooding darkness of Secrets Of The Moon, the impious grandeur of Behemoth – into, something utterly spellbinding.

Yet despite the references I’ve made above, Contradiction is still very much its own distinct entity, the culmination of an ambitious vision, far greater than the mere sum of its parts. Although the band’s underlying DNA shares many strands in common with the Black Metal genre, the music they produce interbreeds and interweaves elements from across the metallic spectrum, a natural synthesis of dissonant sounds and disparate styles all combined in one bold, enlightened display of unbound creativity. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ROTTING HILLS, SCHAMMASCH, SABBATORY, BLACK MONOLITH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  6 Responses »
Apr 032014
 

Over the last 48 hours I found a lot of really good new metal. I’ve picked three of those new songs to feature in this post. The “Shades of Black” post title doesn’t mean all the music is black metal, and it isn’t.

ROTTING HILLS

Rotting Hills are a Vancouver sludge/doom band consisting of four drummers, two guitarists, and a bass player (and one of them is a vocalist, too). As far as I can tell, they’ve put out three singles so far, all of which are available on Bandcamp. The second of those, released in mid-2012, is named “Belgrave”. For that song, the band’s Brian Sepanzyk wrote and directed a striking video with a different title — “Seventh Prayer” — that premiered just a few days ago.

Everyone who worked on the video should be congratulated; it’s beautifully made, with a high level of professional skill. And Rotting Hills should be congratulated on the song as well. It’s slow, spare, and deeply sombre, a gradually unfolding piece that moves from the beautifully melancholy to a wrenching cataclysm. The video is one of those prized accomplishments in which the music and the visuals not only complement but also enhance each other. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: INIQUITOUS SAVAGERY AND SCHAMMASCH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 192013
 

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I spent a large part of my Sunday listening to Ulver’s just-released new album more than once (featured here). I think it’s very, very good, but just as it suited a Sunday extremely well, I felt the need for something else with which to face this Monday. Something with teeth and claws, and maybe some bleeding flesh dripping from its jaws. You know, something that would help me get my game face on for the new week.

Mission accomplished. In my searches last night, I came across music from five bands and I’m dividing up what I found between two posts, in the order in which I found the music. All the bands are new to me, except the last one in the second post.

INIQUITOUS SAVAGERY

This Scottish group produced an EP in 2012 named Compelled By Perverse Immorality. I haven’t heard that one, but last night I did hear a new promo single entitled “Propagating A Pestiferous Enmity”, which comes with cover art by Mike Majewski of Devourment (“touched up” by Tom Bradfield, who also mixed and mastered the thing).

This is a mighty fine offering of brutal slamming death metal. It has all the basic ingredients down pat — the hammering riffs, the prominent snare drumming, the brutish rhythms, the grotesque guttural vocals. On top of that, it really turns on the after-burners just as often as it delivers the big, methodical, sledgehammer blows. And it’s not completely atonal either. I certainly won’t use the word “finesse” to describe the music, but I will use the word “flair”.  Continue reading »

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