Colorado death metal architects ALLEGAEONwill return to the road to kick off the 12th Annual Summer Slaughter Tour. Sharing the stage with Between The Buried And Me, Born Of Osiris, Veil Of Maya, Erra, The Agony Scene, Soreption, Terror Universal, and Entheos, the tour commences tonight July 13th in Raleigh, North Carolina and will roll through over two-dozen venues upon its conclusion on August 19th in Austin, Texas. Tickets are on sale NOW at THIS LOCATION. See all confirmed dates below.
Posted by Morgan Ywain Evans on Wednesday, July 11, 2018 at 12:32 PM (PST)
Kansas City based tech sickos AHTME and Phoenix, Az’s monolithic death metal titans LAGO have announced that they will be touring alongside headliner Micawber in September as part of “The September Scum Tour”. The tour will run from September 14 – 29 and hit a large chunk of the east coast, midwest, and Texas.
Dates below:
9/14 Austin, Tx @ Come and Take It Live
9/15 Ft Worth, Tx @ Tomcats West
9/16 Houston, Tx @ Acadia Bar
9/17 New Orleans, La @ Santos Bar
9/19 Greenville, Sc @ The Green Room
9/21 Frederick, Md @ Cafe 611
9/22 Trenton, Nj @ Championship Bar
9/23 Brooklyn, Ny @ The Kingsland
9/25 Pittsburgh, Pa @ The Smiling Moose
9/27 Chicago, Il @ GMan
9/29 Denver, Co @ Trailside Saloon
LAGO will be touring in support of their devastating new album Sea Of Duress which is available physically HERE and digitally HERE.
AHTME will be supporting their newest tech death masterpiece Sewerborn. Physical copies are available HERE and digital copies are available HERE.
Plunging through the knee-deep sweltering shit show of this week and we are only at Tuesday, huh? Shout out to my friend Mikey from Islanderwho just got kicked off Warped Tour for jumping into a fucking drum set when they have kept bands on who were super problematic before. Man, I jumped into a drum back line wasted years ago and it started a bar brawl that got a packed place shut down three hours early and my blood all over the place but it still got worked out.
This shit is dumb, yo. Mikey was probably just fired up with adrenaline and excited to be playing the last Warped. Why did they get such a stiff punishment?
Mikey seems deeply apologetic cuz he is a nice guy but it seems pathetic they would kick one of the best bands off the tour and give a lukewarm rebuke to The Dickies when Leonard Graves Phillips made jokes about teen girls and how he would love to snort Viagra off their asses and fuck your daughters and was called out for berating a rightfully disgusted feminist in the crowd by War On Women’s Shawna Potter in 2017.
Anyway, this New York heatwave is still in full effect but here is some more metal and rock news for you hooligans.
West Coast death metal reign seizing band of the momentNECROT have confirmed that they are set to play the first ever Decibel Metal & Beer Fest: Los Angeles. Set to take place December 1st and 2nd at the historic Wiltern, the band will share the stage with the likes of Testament, Triptykon, Pig Destroyer, YOB, Power Trip, Skeletal Remains, and Haunt, with additional bands to be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets are on sale now atTHIS LOCATION.
Our friends in Milwaukee metallic hardcore band KNAAVES have released their first music video. Directed by Brian Radmond, the clip features performance footage merged with a plot about Elizabeth Short, known posthumously as “the Black Dahlia”.
Pittsburgh, Pa based slamming deathcore groupSIGNS OF THE SWARM have recently announced that they have parted ways with their original vocalist CJ McCreery and will be replacing him with Dave Simonich.
The group issued in a collective statement, “CJ Mccreery and SIGNS OF THE SWARM have decided to part ways. The split between the band and CJ was mutual and we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.
With that being said, anyone who has seen us on the Ingested run and Devastation on the Nation may have noticed that we had our good friend Dave Simonich filling in on vocals. We are pleased to announce that Dave will be joining Signs of the Swarm as our new permanent vocalist.
This change has given us opportunities that could not have been possible before, and with that we are beyond excited for the future of the band and what we have to come.”
Watch new vocalist Dave Simonich display his otherworldy chops with this cover of “Cowards Deathbed” HERE.
“Cowards Deathbed” is from SIGNS OF THE SWARM’s 2017 Unique Leader debut The Disfigurement of Existence which can be purchase physically HERE and digitally HERE.
Catch SIGNS OF THE SWARM on tour with Traitors, Deadland, Distinguisher, and Falsifier in July and August. Dates below.
Posted by Morgan Ywain Evans on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 7:11 PM (PST)
Gojira news to kick off this Thursday. Bloodstock Tickets are on sale this FRIDAY at 9am at bloodstock.uk.com ! Gojira are a big attraction for the UK’s No.1 metal fest this August and will perform alongside other bad ass acts including Alestorm, Cannibal Corpse and Septicflesh.
Gojira have also shared a live performance of their song “Global Warming,” filmed at the band’s New York City headquarters, Silver Cord Studio. Gojira discussed why they chose to film the live performance of “Global Warming,” a standout track from their acclaimed LP From Mars To Sirius, in a note to fans. Seriously, that album still rules all life so hard. Your fave can’t even relate to how hard it rocks.
“A few weeks ago, we played ‘Global Warming’ together for the first time since the recording of From Mars To Sirius (2004). We never played it live before, as it is a challenging one to play, and place in a set list. It’s emotionally heavy, and would almost ‘hurt’ the rest of the songs in a way.” They continued, “Global warming is a reality and a relevant topic, we feel it’s good to be reminded of one of the most important challenges of our time: How to grow as a species without being a parasite to our planet, the only home we have. ‘We will see our children growing’ is a mantra for future generations, and in a figurative way we hope the children in all of us will grow, evolve, and take action for a more compassionate and meaningful world.”
Renowned photographer ESTER SEGARRA has revealed another look at her forthcoming photo anthology, ‘Ars Umbra’. The video, featuring photos from MOTORHEAD, GHOST, ROTTING CHRIST, ABBATH, and much more, explains the creative processes behind the Barcelona-born photographer’s upcoming book, and much more. The video is streaming here and below.
ESTER SEGARRA comments: “This insightful video gives you a glimpse into how ‘Ars Umbra’ came to be – and a little glimpse of my “f*ck it” attitude, which has held me in good stead throughout my career. This video will guide you through what lead up to the creation of the anthology!”
‘Ars Umbra’ will be released worldwide on July 6. The anthology will feature an original score composed by Uno Bruniusson (GRAVE PLEASURES, IN SOLITUDE, PROCESSION, and more). ‘Ars Umbra’ is available for pre-order here.
Regarding the photo-book, Segarra comments: “After 15 years, my music photography comes full cycle with this book. Ars Umbra marks the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one, a point in the never-ending circle of life and death, the serpent that eats its own tail. Designed by Münster Studio and Branca Studio from Barcelona, it is thought to fit in within your vinyl collection. To be experienced together with the soundtrack. To go slow and deep. Much love, effort and dedication has been put into the making of this project and no words can fully express what it feels like to have it released, having been through hell and back. I can only say I am incredibly grateful to everything and everyone that has made this moment possible. May the beast be unleashed!”
Meka Nism have a theatrical music video out for a song called “Trailblazer” (from new EP The War Inside) that will appeal to fans of symphonic and semi-nu metal as well as various strains of gothy influenced hard rock. I like the clean vocals from Ms. Meka and the driving grooves. This Florida band was not really on my radar before so I figured I’d give ’em a shout today for something different.
Hey everyone. June has been a completely crazy month but there was a lot of brilliant stuff released. Let’s get right to it and look at my four favorite releases of June 2018 Below.
Gruesome takes top spot for me this month. The cover art for Twisted Prayers is so damn metal and also summarizes the complete disgust I feel for the so called God fearing power hungry fascist monsters trying to turn us into zombies in a new crusades.
Posted by longhairedpoet on Friday, June 8, 2018 at 9:51 AM (PST)
Wisconsin death metallers Jungle Rot have released their newest track “Fearmonger” which features Schmier of Destruction.
“Fearmonger” comes off of Jungle Rot’s upcoming self-titled album, which is due out July 20.
Vocalist/guitarist Dave Matrise explains the songs origin:
“We covered the Destruction classic ‘Invincible Force’ some years ago and Schmier told me ours is his favorite Destruction cover he has ever heard from any band. Years later we toured together and right away Schmier approached me to start singing the song with him in concert. His trademark style and my vocals worked so well together that when I began writing this new record, the idea immediately came up to have him as a guest vocalist. He loved it and was honored to be a part of it. That’s how we created ‘Fearmonger.’”
Jungle Rot will be hitting the road with Havok and Extinction A.D. later this summer.
You can check out “Fearmonger” as well as Jungle Rot tour dates and the Jungle Rot tracklist here.
The tour begins on June 8 and will run through July 13. Whitechapel will be playing This Is Exile in its entirety in celebration of the album’s tenth anniversary, while The Black Dahlia Murder will be playing Nightbringers in its entirety.
Support on the tour will be provided by Fleshgod Apocalypse, Aversions Crown, and Shadow Of Intent.
Somehow I never heard of this bad ass death metal project Sinsaenum that features a wild combo of harder metal peeps. Joey Jordison (who is much missed in Slipknot), Sean Zatorsky , Attila Csihar, Stephane Buriez, Heimoth and Frédéric Leclercq are members and all contribute to the band’s intense sound.
Sinsaenum will release their sophomore album Repulsion For Humanity on August 10 via earMUSIC. I am very impressed by the band’s memorable writing paired take no prisoners brutality and fiery soloing.
Check out the old school meets modern death metal gut punch “Final Resolve,” featuring the renowned French industrial percussion band Les Tambours du Bronx, who have also worked with Sepultura.
“It is still death metal, it’s undeniable,” said founding member and mastermind Frédéric Leclercq. “But we found it interesting to mix it with other elements that we all like. This is only one aspect of the album and what Sinsaenum is about – ‘Final Resolve’ is just an obvious first single due to its catchiness. Because yes, it is possible to play death metal and be catchy [laughs].”
2018 is proving that each month has had plenty of cool metal and hardcore punk or extreme experimental music to peruse, thus making a choice of just 4 albums rather difficult. Heck, we got a Burn The Priest covers album featuring Melvins, Bad Brains and Cro-Mags covers this month, for pit’s sake. That is ridiculously rad. I decided to focus on original music releases though for my top choices for May. Remember that this is just what I was grooving along with the most. It doesn’t mean I think the new Dimmu sucks or whatever you want to project.
As I turned friggin’ 40 years old in April, I am more and more enticed to talk more about what music I like in my writing than what I don’t. Bands I am not crazy about get algorithm benefit from being discussed that helps them anyway, so I would rather try and put the word out and focus on what I think is actually good in metal rather than shred apart someone else’s gateway band. Unless a group has done something truly horrible and never changed, I am loathe to spend too much time on them when I could be plugging the new Baptists record, for instance.
I think a lot of the time we are so precious about having a better grasp of what music is “supposed to” be that we really wreck the potential for growth. The mainstream to me is like the Democratic party. I would rather participate and improve it with discourse than throw it out entirely and have a Trump style disaster (to use a metaphor) where all mainstream music is divorced from talent because no one stuck up for any real artists once they got famous. It is still a massive tragedy to me that Chester from Linkin Park had to deal with so much initial hate for making the poppier One More Light album that it maybe led to him choosing death. We really need to be more open minded, y’all. Everything has a place in the great wheel, yo.
That said, my list starts out with a lot of melody and ends up with a lot of Savagery, so you just gotta deal with it.
Posted by longhairedpoet on Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 2:30 AM (PST)
Australian tech death metallers Psycroptic and UK metallers Venom Prison are joining Aborted on the “Devastation On The Nation” tour.
The tour kicks off on May 25 at Kingsland in Brooklyn and will include Ingested, Disentomb, Arkaik, Signs of the Swarm (select dates), and Vale of Pnath (select dates).
On their latest album, which is nearing completion, Psycroptic had this to say, “It’s turning out really cool. I think it’s our best album by far. It sounds like a mix of all our albums, plus some newer and darker sounding elements thrown in. Artwork is complete, and looks insane! We’ll unveil that in good time…”
As for Venom Prison, this will be their first ever US tour!
Posted by Morgan Ywain Evans on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 6:21 PM (PST)
French death-grinders BENIGHTED have announced a fall European tour that sees the band joining ABORTED and CRYPTOPSY. The tour kicks off on November 1 and concludes on November 25. A full list of confirmed full dates can be found below.
BENIGHTED are touring in support of ‘Necrobreed’. ‘Necrobreed’ will “rip you to shreds… Not even a second after the album’s introductory soundbite is over, the French deathgrind outfit are tearing into eleven fast and furious tracks” (Decibel Magazine), and is streaming now at Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, and many more!
BENIGHTED are currently slated for a number of festival dates in 2018 with more live dates to be announced in the months to come. Appearances already confirmed for this year include Hellfest in France, Obscene Extreme Festival in the Czech Republic, Party San in Germany, and many more. A full list of confirmed tour dates can be found below.
Germany’s progressive death metal masters OBSCURA complete their long-running, four-album conceptual circle with the release of Diluvium (defined as a great oceanic flood), their most evocative, diverse and vibrant release to date. Diluvium is due out July 13th on CD/LP/Digital via Relapse Records.
Watch the official video for “Diluvium” via below and all digital streaming services AT THIS LOCATION. “Diluvium” was directed by Mirko Witzki (Kreator, Blind Guardian, Caliban) and further explores the album’s celestial themes.
Finland’s death/doom overlords HOODED MENACE have announced a string of European tour dates this summer. The mini tour kicks off on June 22 in Oberhousen, and sees the band playing at Death over Drachten in the Netherlands. A full list of dates can be found below.
HOODED MENACE are touring in support of their new album, ‘Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed’. Their most ominous, dark, and mature album to date, ‘Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed’ sees HOODED MENACE expertly weave dreary funereal atmospheres with dark melody, which only adds to emotional gravitas of what is sure to be one of the heaviest albums of 2018.
Track list 1. Sempiternal Grotesqueries 2. In Eerie Deliverance 3. Cathedral of Labyrinthine Darkness 4. Cascade of Ashes 5. Charnel Reflections 6. Black Moss
Posted by longhairedpoet on Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 9:20 PM (PST)
Brazillian metallers Drowned have released their newest music video “Violent March of Chaos.”
“Violent March of Chaos” comes off the bands upcoming album 7th, which will be released on June 15, 2018. The record will be released in Brazil by Cogumelo Records and in the U.S. by Greyhaze Records.
The album was self recorded and produced by the band along with mixing and mastering by guitarist Marcos Amorim.
The band had previously released “Rage Before Some Hope.”
You can check out “Violent March of Chaos” and “Rage Before Some Hope” here.
Phoenix, Az based critically acclaimed death metal groupLAGO have premiered a Matti Way (From the North Films) directed music video for their song “Soiled Is The Crown” today via Metalsucks. The track, which saw Metalsucks commenting “If you like your DM with guts churned, ear drums rattled and knees shaken, this is the stuff for you!”, comes from their highly anticipated Unique Leader debut Sea of Duress which will see a June 8th release date and sees the band further refining their blackened, menacing brand of old school influenced death metal.
LAGO commented on the video, “This was our first experience making a video, so we were VERY apprehensive about the idea. We tend to have a mentality of “less is more” in terms of our artistic direction, so the fear of doing something over the top and ridiculous was definitely there. This video is honestly the brain child of Matti Way. We had a really simple idea and he really took it and ran. We were thrilled with how it turned out. The textures, the graininess, the cuts and especially the lighting turned out incredible! This video really encompasses the tone of the whole album in our opinion.” Matti Way added, “So what I wanted to do with the video was really bring out Lago’s eerie and ominous musical vibes that are interwoven throughout Sea of Duress…”
If you were only allowed to pick one black metal album to hear for the rest of 2019, I would strongly suggest you choose False's Portent. A dizzying leap forward from an already very talented and rightfully well regarded act, it does not take long into ten minute opener "A Victual to Our Dead Selves" for the song to grab your undivided attention and never let go. Dedicated to the memory of several friends, the record is professional, passionate, heartbreaking and exhilarating. "Rime On The Song Of Returning" is an exceptionally poetic ode to natural abandon that seems to question our size in the scope of the march of time. The band have never sounded more precise, empowered and fiery, like there is a fortune teller at band practice urging them to claim destiny's heights. If this album holds significance of metal's future it is one that honors the best of the past while boding very well for the genre's horizons.
