THE MORNING MAILBAG: DORDEDUH, BISON BC, WINTERUS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Sep 112012
 

I got tired of calling these posts “Seen and Heard”. So, just for the sake of variety I’ve picked a different title for today. I’ll probably go back to “Seen and Heard” soon, because that’s what this is: Things I saw and heard while browsing the web today that I thought were worth sharing.

DORDEDUH

I first learned of this Romanian band in the spring of 2010 when working on a review of Vîrstele Pămîntului, the first album by the revamped Negură Bunget. They were revamped because two of the original members — Hupogrammos and Sol Faur — had left the band in 2009. Dordeduh became the new vehicle for their musical pursuits. Dordeduh released a debut 2-song EP, Valea Omului, in 2010, and have been working on an album since then.

Yesterday, thanks to NCS reader KevinP, I discovered the album’s name — Dar De Duh (“Gift of/from the Spirit”) — and learned just how close the album is to being released: September 28. On the Prophecy pre-order page, I saw that not only is the album going to be available as a CD, it’s also being released as a 2-CD set, a 2-CD + DVD “book”, and a double LP. The second CD consists of the two songs from Valea Omului plus a cover of “Ruun” by Enslaved. Pre-order details can be found here.

I also saw the killer cover art up above, which was created by Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu. AND, last but not least, I heard the album version of a song that originally appeared on the  Valea Omului EP — “Cumpăt”. Continue reading »

WINTER IS COMING: A WINTERSUN UPDATE AND A WINTERUS SONG

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 052012
 

We previously reported that after 8 long years, Finland’s Wintersun will soon be returning with, not one, but two new albums: Time I and Time II, with each album containing approximately 40 minutes of music — 80 minutes of new Wintersun altogether. Based on an earlier press release, the mixing and mastering of Time I is scheduled for completion this month. Today, we learned that Nuclear Blast has finally set a release date for that album: October 19, 2012.

And that’s not all. Yesterday, Nuclear Blast posted a short video trailer on YouTube showing Jari Mäenpää playing orchestration effects for a part of the song “Sons of Winter and Stars”.

Man, am I looking forward to this album. It will be difficult to resist posting every future teaser and trailer that leads up to the album’s release. Maybe I won’t resist. This first video trailer is after the jump.

Yesterday also brought new music from another wintry band — Winterus, who we first featured way back in October 2010 through a MISCELLANY post. This Michigan-based USBM outfit is at work on a new album to be titled Dark Womb, and yesterday they released the cover art and a first demo track from the album, “Hell Form”. A rumbling current of drums flows beneath, tremolo’d guitars rise and fall above, a clean lead guitar weaves an enchanting melody, acid vocals slice through the middle, and an acoustic interlude provides a change of mood. It’s a promising teaser for the album.

The cover art for Dark Womb and a stream of “Hell Form” are after the jump, too — but first, that Wintersun trailer . . . Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 4)

 Forthcoming Albums  15 Responses »
Apr 022011
 


Technically, we should have posted this yesterday, but yesterday was April Fool’s Day, and people might have thought we were making up some of this shit. But it’s all true, and nothing happens on April 2 to plant doubt about truth. Except for what causes doubt to be planted about truth on any other day of the year.

Here we are at the beginning of the second quarter of 2011 — the time when for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, spring is supposed to spring.  Where I live, spring has apparently been victimized by a brutal street mugging and is hospitalized at the moment.  A few plants have been deluded into thinking it’s spring, but for the rest of our local world, it’s still fucking winter.

Fortunately, the change of the seasons have fuck all to do with the release of metal. What we do with these installments of METAL IN THE FORGE is collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last 30 days (or in this case, the last 31 days) about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know them yet. And in this post, we cut and paste the announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

This isn’t a cumulative list, so be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming New Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported in previous installments. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. There’s some awesome shit on the way. Dive in after the jump. Continue reading »

MISCELLANY (NO. 14)

 MISCELLANY  13 Responses »
Oct 132010
 

I’m still trying to recover from the insanity of the comments on yesterday’s post. It’s apparent that all I need to do to open Pandora’s box is write some shit about band names. It’s like ringing the dinner bell for Pavlov’s dog — it apparently triggers a reflex of saliva and barking and the expulsion of bodily waste. Of course, that’s just what we hope for here at NCS, so it’s all good!

But I now tremble in fear, realizing that I hold the keys to a great convulsion of dementia. I’m concerned that all I have to do now is use the word “Jambalaya” or another word that shall not be mentioned but begins with “Va” and ends in “goo”, and the earth will open up beneath my feet and spill forth all manner of skittering, black-winged, red-eyed things that will jibber and vomit out terrible, terrible imaginings that involve ElvisShotJFK‘s mom. Fortunately, I know that with great power comes great responsibility, and so I shall keep these keys hidden away in a carved, ebony box with the numerals “666” carved in the lid, to be used only when I’m bored shitless.

But I am not yet bored today. Today is a new day, and I am content to do something more mundane, like write about actual music. So, it’s time for a little MISCELLANY.

I’m still playing catch-up with a growing list of bands who look interesting but whose music is unknown to us. We compile that list here at NCS based on press releases that come to our in-box, Blabbermouth blurbs, MySpace friend requests, and demos that arrive via the ether or in the mail from all over the world. If we had nothing but time, and an endless supply of your attention, we could run a MISCELLANY column every day. Alas, we can’t do that, but to help with the catching-up, we’re running two installments back-to-back, one today and one tomorrow.

The rules of the game: I pick names off the list at random and listen to the band’s music, usually only one song per band, and record my impressions in an installment of this series. More often than not, I find good music that’s worth sharing. But the way this game works, I share exactly what I hear, even if I wish I hadn’t heard it.

The MISCELLANY installments today and tomorrow are based on listening I did last weekend. I checked out six bands, and today we have the results of the first three. All three of these bands are from the U.S., and they each occupy very different locations on the metal spectrum: Quarter the Villain (U.S.), Winterus (U.S.), and The Browning (U.S.). Continue reading »