SEEN AND HEARD: TAU CROSS, SÓLSTAFIR, TENGGER CAVALRY, TREST

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jun 122019
 

 

I had grand ambitions for this post, with many more selections than you’re seeing here. I also had the goal of posting it yesterday before I left for the airport to begin a trip to Iceland. That’s where I am now, having arrived foggy-eyed and fuzzy-headed at Keflavik Airport this morning after a red-eye flight. I obviously didn’t get this done in time for yesterday, and had to cut it back to finish in time for today,

TAU CROSS

I’m a huge Tau Cross fan, and therefore was excited to see yesterday’s announcement by Relapse Records that a new album named Messengers of Deception will be released on August 9th. Equally exciting, the band rolled out a video for a new song to mark the occasion. Continue reading »

SEEN BUT (MOSTLY) NOT HEARD: TAU CROSS, GOATWHORE, OF WOLVES, F41.0, URN, ROTTEN SOUND, COSMIC REEF TEMPLE, SOLAR TEMPLE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 242017
 


Tau Cross

 

As I begin typing these words I’m on an airplane just entering the air space of Michigan, and if all goes well will be landing in Baltimore in 1 hour and 52 minutes. Maryland Deathfest awaits.

I spent the first part of the flight scrolling through the NCS in-box, adding to my very long list of music to check out. As you know, that’s a ridiculously long list. I don’t expect to get much blogging done while MDF is in progress, so I impulsively decided to write this thing.

Since the wi-fi on this jet isn’t good enough to permit streaming, I haven’t heard most of what I’m putting in this post, nearly all of which I found during that e-mail reconnaissance. I encourage you to leave a comment with reactions, since I have almost none (so far). Continue reading »

ROADBURN 2016: A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY (DAY THREE)

 Metal News  No Responses »
May 042016
 

Roadburn-2016-OfficalArtwork1

 

The 2016 edition of the Roadburn festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands, is now in the history books. It was the first edition of the festival to be presented at the newly renovated 013 venue, and it boasted a typically impressive and diverse line-up of bands. While none of the NCS scribes was on hand for this year’s event, we do have beautiful photos of many of the performances, thanks to Kris T. Therrian of 17 seconds photography.

We’ve divided these photo collections into four parts, one for each day of the festival, and we’re rolling them out on successive days here at our site. You can see photos from Day One here and Day Two here. The remaining installment will appear tomorrow. Many thanks to Kris for letting us share these memories with you. For more info about her work, visit these links: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: MOONSORROW, TAU CROSS, WORMED, CIRITH GORGOR, INTERMENT, EREB ALTOR, KATLA

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jan 212016
 

Moonsorrow-Jumalten Aika

 

I’ve had a crazy week, much of the craziness resulting from the demands of my fucking day job, coupled with hours spent yesterday morning anxiously working with our web host’s tech support to figure out how to get into the WordPress software for our site so I could write and post things — because it had spontaneously decided to lock me out.

Anyway, the net result of all this is that I’ve fallen way behind in both listening to and writing about new music — other than the enormous number of premieres we agreed to post this week. I’ve also been unable to write new installments of our 2015 Most Infectious Songs list. With luck, I can get that going again tomorrow.

Intermittently since the craziness began, I have managed to discover the interesting new things I’ve collected in this post, though I still have lots of catching up to do. I’ll begin with two news items and then move into actual music.

MOONSORROW

Yesterday brought the very welcome announcement that Finland’s Moonsorrow will release their seventh studio album on April 1 (via Century Media). The title is Jumalten Aika, which means ‘The Age Of Gods’ in English. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2015’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: (PART 3)

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2015  3 Responses »
Dec 262015
 

Tau CRoss cover

 

Welcome to Part 3 of our list of 2015’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For the third day in a row, I’m adding three songs to the list, and I’ve again combined three selections because I think they sound good together.

For more info about the criteria I’ve used in picking these songs and to check out the preceding songs on the list, click this link.

TAU CROSS

By this time of the year I would guess that most fans of heavy music have at least heard the name Tau Cross, especially since their debut album has been popping up frequently on lots of year-end lists. But for those who may still be unaware, it includes Amebix vocalist/bassist Rob “The Baron” Miller, Voivod drummer Michel “Away” Langevin, Misery guitarist Jon Misery, and War//Plague guitarist Andy Lefton. Continue reading »

WEEKEND BLOG BREAK

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Apr 042015
 

I’ll be counting the days ’til I see you again. (Photo by Tim Flack.)

Today (Friday) my wife and I are leaving home to spend the weekend with some friends in a cabin on the Eastern side of the Cascade Mountains. I doubt there will be any internet. Even if there is, I think I would be fed to the bears and cougars as punishment for antisocial behavior if I tried to blog.

So this will be a rare weekend — in fact, only the second of its kind in the 5 1/2 years NCS has been running — when there won’t be posts on both Saturday and Sunday (and this will be the only post today — though it does include music). Continue reading »