SATANIC POP METAL

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  31 Responses »
Nov 212011
 

Oh hell yeah, baby, Semargl is back with another video! Long-time NCS readers know that I have a real weakness for this Ukrainian band, despite the fact that they are not trve, kvlt, grimm, krieg, brootal, or even terribly serious. Despite the corpsepaint and spikes, they’ve never really pretended to be any of those things either. And now, after further evolution of their sound, they’ve abandoned all pretense (what little of it once existed), titling their next album Satanic Pop Metal, which has pretty much been their style of music for quite some time.

Satanic Pop Metal will be the band’s fifth album and it will be released on a not-yet-disclosed date by the German label Twilight-Vertrieb. I expect nothing less (and nothing more) than a bouncy, hook-laden, groove-infused good time, with a dollop of nasty on top and dripping down the sides. It will be finger-lickin’ good, though I don’t know where their fingers have been.

The new official video is a live performance of “Join In Fire”, which will be appearing on the new album. The performance was filmed at a Halloween Night show in Kiev last month. In addition to the new album, Semargl plans to release a live DVD next year that will also include this clip. More metal bands should have black-clad dancers named Alina and Olga. Watch Alina, Olga, and Semargl have some fun after the jump.

Continue reading »

NUNS IN THE NUDE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  39 Responses »
Mar 102011
 

NUNS, NUDITY, AND BLACK METAL.

Okay, now that I have your attention:

I have the kind of mind that’s made happy by serendipitous connections between random occurrences. Maybe it’s a deep-rooted desire for order in the chaos of life. Or maybe I’m just easily made happy. Either way, within a 24-hour period I discovered two new music videos by two somewhat out-of-phase black metal bands that involved . . . nuns and nudity.

Let’s be clear: I do not fantasize about nude nuns. No way, no how. Not me. I just thought it was an interesting coincidence. Plus, these aren’t your average nuns. And this isn’t your typical black metal either.

The first clip is a new single by our favorite Ukrainian party animals, Semargl. They may not be TRVE, but damn, they know how to get you shakin’ your booty. The second clip is from a New York horde called Imperial Triumphant. The song featured in their blood-drenched video is closer to BM-standard, but it also has some rock-the-fuck-out hooks in it and cello riffing. Granted, it’s challenging to focus on the music when your mind is distracted by what’s happening on-screen, but I liked both songs.

A word of “warning”: I’m not kidding about the nudity. Be careful about who’s peering over your shoulder when you watch these. Continue reading »

MOVING PICTURES

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  37 Responses »
Jan 182011
 

I go through stretches when I fall behind in reading other metal blogs because I get too distracted by other things, like this blog — which I know all of you read every day, without fail, even if it means skipping a meal or a shower or letting your cat/dog fend for itself. Yeah, right. But I do always read Steff Metal‘s regular feature called Linking Horn because there’s always something interesting in there that I’d otherwise miss.

Her current Linking Horn feature linked to a Metal Insider piece I hadn’t seen which summarized a recent Nielsen Music and Midem report about music consumption habits. Some of what’s in that report wasn’t surprising — like the data showing that almost 50% of online users obtain their music from the internet without paying; the report found that neither digitally downloading a full album nor a single track reached 20%. What a shock.

But one item did surprise me: The survey showed that 58% of online users consume music by watching music videos through the computer and 20% watch music videos on their mobile phones. Granted, the survey wasn’t limited to any particular musical genre, and the numbers could be entirely different if you were to conduct a survey limited to metalheads. I know I don’t watch metal music videos that often because, mainly, they suck.

Usually, the videos are so bad that they detract from good songs and do nothing to make mediocre songs better. Instead, they seem to function more as bait than actual entertainment — a way of luring you into listening to a song or  a band for the first time out of curiosity (because it’s faster than downloading), though sometimes I’ll watch one for a song I already know just to see what the band looks like. But I don’t claim to be like most people, and the study seems to verify that most people like to consume music (and probably print) when they can see pictures at the same time — which is why moving pictures make such attractive bait.

All of which is a windy lead-in to the real point of this post. Over the last couple of days I took the bait and watched some new just-released music videos, and for different reasons, I thought they were worth sharing.  They feature music from Vreid (Norway), Stigma (Italy), Semargl (Ukraine), and members of Dreaming Dead (U.S.).   (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

LABOR DAY FUCKING OFF, AND OUR THEORY ABOUT HOW TO LEAD A HAPPY LIFE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Sep 062010
 

Today is Labor Day in the United States. Contrary to what someone might think based on the name of the holiday (which originally was intended as an homage to the labor movement in this country), it is not a day for laboring. It is a day for fucking off. It is not a day for serious thoughts. It is a day for getting tanked up and banging yo head.

With this in mind, we’ve selected a few items to put you in the right mood for a day of fucking off. For those readers in other nations who are unable to fuck off today, or those in the U.S. who are compelled to do something labor-like and serious despite what they might wish, we are really fucking sorry to do this to you. Perhaps you could bookmark this page and come back when you’re in a situation more conducive to fucking off.

And the idea of fucking off has inspired us to inscribe on this site, in this post which almost no one will read, because most of our readers are fucking off today, our lessons for how to lead a happy, successful, and fulfilled life. It requires this:

(1) That, when you need to, you can be serious, focused, and wise in your decisions;

(2) That you are not serious, focused, or wise any more than is absolutely necessary, and that the rest of the time you are free, impulsive, even borderline insane, and constantly expecting that good things will come your way, even when all the evidence points in the other direction; and

(3) That you are the beneficiary of pure dumb luck.

The only problem with this formula is that although (1) and (2) are within your control, number (3) is not. Striking the right balance between (1) and (2) is hard enough, and because of (3), you could still go through life as a human toilet brush. But you still need to focus on (1) and (2), because if you fuck up that balance, all the number (3) in the world won’t save you.

Today, we’re just paying attention to number (2), because it’s Labor Day. And so, after the jump, we have a couple of things to help you get in the right fucking-off mood. Continue reading »

SEMARGL UPDATE

 Album Reviews, IQ Subtraction  1 Response »
May 272010
 

Well, fuck, we knew we’d feel guilty about having some fun at the expense of Ukrainian metal band Semargl in our post a few days ago about their latest video, and sure enough: The band was nice enough to leave a comment on our MySpace page complimenting our post.

Gotta hand it to ’em for having a sense of humor about themselves (and about us). And the truth is, we’ve had that song “Credo Revolution” stuck in our heads for days — so much so that we started listening to samples from three other tracks off the band’s new album that are streaming on their MySpace page.

It’s a mix of divergent styles — some death metal, some groove-oriented power metal, some hard rock (as on “Credo Flaming Rain” — with guest vocals supplied by Nera (Darzamat), who’s pictured above with the band). This is definitely not the kind of thing we usually listen to here at NCS — but confession is good for the soul, and we confess that we’ve now ordered Ordo Bellictum Satanas.

Not sayin’ you should, just sayin’ we did.  We’ll probably feel guilty about that too.

SEMARGL (The Pop Fringe of Black Metal)

 IQ Subtraction  4 Responses »
May 252010
 

We don’t spend much time on this site poking fun at metal bands. It’s not that we’re morally opposed to the practice. In fact, we have fun reading other sites that do exactly that on a daily basis. It’s just not our style.

But once in a blue moon, we just can’t resist. Like today. We’ll probably feel guilty about it later.

So, the band that caught our baleful eye today is a Ukrainian outfit called Semargl. Try saying that out loud. Even the name is kinda funny, though it’s probably drawn from some ancient demonology text, or at least H.P. Lovecraft.  [Update: Based on a little more research (see the comment at the end of this post), Semargl appears to have been a Slavic pagan deity, depicted as a winged lion or winged dog.]

In addition to the demonic (but funny-sounding) name, the band has got the corpse-painted aspect of a grymm black metal outfit, plus Latinate album titles like Ordo Bellictum Satanas that inspire thoughts of satanic recipe books for the cooking of your fellow man in the fiery depths of Hades.

And to carry the theme further, the band’s web site includes a creed called Satanosophy that proclaims principles such as “Our message is: God should be destroyed” and “Our superiority is Satanic Infernal fire” (in addition to photos of a naked chick who looks like she’s meditating about Satanosophy).

So, with that lead-in, you probably think you’ve got a pretty good idea about Semargl’s music — but you’d probably be wrong. What we’ve got here, at least on the strength of the band’s new video for a song called “Credo Revolution”, is pop music with black-metal trappings, corpse-paint with plenty of tits and ass, tremolo picking and electro dance beats (courtesy of Jonny Maudling from Bal-Sagoth).

We’re still trying to wrap our minds around that concept — but it seems to be working out quite nicely for Semargl.  And we can guarantee that even if you’re having an unbelievably sucky day, this video (and the song) will put a smile on your face — or your money back! (more after the jump, including that video . . .) Continue reading »