NU SCENE AND HERD: THE SCHOENBERG AUTOMATON, WARFORGED, LAMB OF GOD, BLACK FAST, PERIHELION, DYSTROPHY, NEKROGOBLIKON, DIRE NECRO CERBERUS, GLADIUS SKY, INIQUITOUS DEEDS, SHAPE OF DESPAIR

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jun 102015
 

 

(Austin Weber has stepped up for round-up duties today, with a collection of new music and videos from 11 bands.)

Seeing as Islander is once again away in a work-related hell setting, I figured I’d step in again and keep our readers up to date with several newly released jams as well as newly released albums from a variety of bands.

Unfortunately, however, I’m low on spare time, as you may or may not have noticed from my recent absence from posting here at the site these last few weeks. So, I’m going to try something new and say nary a word about the songs/albums posted below — much as that fucking pains me to do! Not because I don’t feel strongly about each and every one of them, but simply because it’s almost 6 AM here, I haven’t gone to bed, and need to be up again in 4 hours. Thankfully, you came here for the music more than anything I would hope.

Without further ado… Continue reading »

THE SCHOENBERG AUTOMATON RELEASE A LYRIC VIDEO FOR “ULTIMATEWHIRRINGENDMACHINE”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 252013
 

(NCS contributor Austin Weber brings us two videos, one that just appeared and one that’s older, from Australia’s The Schoenberg Automaton.)

Lyric videos in metal trend are rarely done well, as the majority of metal bands have terrible/boring/cliched/wordy-but-goofy lyrics. In some cases viewing a lyric video has made me like songs less, as I’m forced to focus upon cringe-worthy words that are otherwise easily ignored when listening to the music. I say all that because The Schoenberg Automaton just dropped the greatest lyric video I’ve ever seen, for the song “ULTIMATEWHIRRINGENDMACHINE” from their Vela album; it’s practically a music video.

I enjoy their lyrics, as they are often atypical of metal and/or they put a great spin on lyrical tropes. Tracks such as “Arecibo” are rife with painful observations such as, “We are losing the connection with our natural world,” and that lyric has parallels to the apocalyptic themes found in “Ultimatewhirringendmachine”. Included below, along with the new lyric video, is a well-shot horror-themed music video for “A Stone Face Of Piety” that’s been out for a while but I forgot to post about it. I particularly love that they draw you in by giving the story a start before the song kicks in, and that not a moment of it consists of performance footage. Continue reading »

THE SCHOENBERG AUTOMATON: “VELA”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Feb 092013
 

 (Guest contributor Austin Weber reviews the new album by The Schoenberg Automaton, an Australian band we last featured in June 2011.)

The Schoenberg Automaton is a group I’ve followed intensely ever since I first heard rumblings of their bizarre brutality from Australia. The name alone had me hooked, as my love for composer Arnold Schoenberg runs deep. He was a brilliant man who conceived the twelve-tone writing technique still used today, including in metal by people such as Ron Jarzombek. He also made very atonal, dissonant music unlike anything previously heard and was a huge influence on composers from the 19th century to the present.

The band’s 2011 self-titled three-song EP was a powerful notice to the world that something big was coming. Vela delivers in spades and builds upon their unorthodox mix of Ion Dissonance-style mathcore and Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza grooves covered in technical death metal. Vela is overwhelming and full of amazing massively crushing tracks like “Arecibo,” “Pineapple Juice & The Tough Stuffed Olive”, and “All Roads Lead To Rome.”

You have to give them credit for the sly additions and updates when re-recording songs from the EP for the album. This adds some replay to those of us like myself who have already played those songs into infinity. The haunting reprieve of instrumental “Stopping A God Mid-Sentence” emerges from the storm and into the calm. They use sparse meditative bridges to break up the full-throttle intensity that bleeds from the ferocity on tracks like “Ghost Of Mirach,” “The Worm Engine”, and the extraterrestrial overload of  “Ultimatewhirringendmachine.” The Schoenberg Automaton eschew the norm with songwriting full of innovative arrangements. Continue reading »

SKULL SCOURING FROM ALL OVER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jun 142011
 

In this post, I’m collecting a handful of new songs and videos that made a deep impression on me as I listened/watched over the last couple of days. I’m talking about the kind of impression that a stout piece of lumber would make on the back of your head if swung vigorously. What makes this collection of metal interesting to me, apart from the skull-scouring nature of the music, is the diversity of places from which the music originated.

The first band is called DEAtHtUNE (though from here on, I’m typing it as Deathtune to keep my fingers from cramping up on the keyboard). They’re from Iran. Just a wild guess, but I don’t think Iran is the most hospitable place for a death-metal band. But I’ll tell you what, these guys are really fucken good. The video for their song “No War” gives you the chance to see the band in addition to hearing them — and I think you’ll want to hear them over and over again.

The second band is from Australia. They call themselves The Schoenberg Automaton. Musically, they’re making some freaked-out shit that I think is very cool. Norway is home to the third band whose music we’re featuring in this post — Wrath Passion. They’ve just put up two new songs for free download that are killing me. Knowing they’re from Norway, you get one guess about the style of music they’re pumping out.

Last, we have a “band” from Japan and a song in a style of music called Zeuhl. If you know what Zeuhl is, you get a big cookie. If you’ve heard of Kōenji Hyakkei (a/k/a koenjihyakkei) you get two big cookies. If you make it all the way through the song I’ve got for you, you’ll need those cookies to use in place of your brain, which will have liquified and poured out your nose.  (stay with us after the jump . . .) Continue reading »