Posted by Morgan Ywain Evans on Saturday, September 15, 2018 at 2:55 PM (PST)
Swedish death metal act DEMONICAL have teamed up with their countrymen Lik (Stockholm-based death metal) for a tour of Europe including Poland, Germany and Czech Republic this November. The band will hit the road in support of their fifth studio album “Chaos Manifesto”, released in March on Agonia Records. The opening act will be Of Fire, a death ‘n’ roll performer also from Sweden.
The new album from the band deserves more attention. So much good stuff has come out this year, but this is not one to miss. I am particularly fond of “Towards Greater Gods”, a full bore upper mid tempo thrill ride of all the things that make this band great.
DEMONICAL commented: “We are very much looking forward to November and our return to mainland Europe under the “Carnage Manifesto” banner. As we will be joined by our Swedish brothers in LIK and OF FIRE this tour-package will be something special, a total slap of Stockholm-style old-school death metal and a wet dream for every worshipper of the buzzsaw HM-2 sound! Death metal darkness prevails… and then some!”.
DEMONICAL + LIK + OF FIRE – Carnage Manifesto tour 2018
06.11 PL Poznan, Klub U Bazyla
07.11 CZ Praha, Modra Vopice
08.11 DE Mannheim, MS Connexion Complex
09.11 DE Bitterfeld, Festung
10.11 DE Hamburg, Bambi Galore
11.11 DE Osnabrück, Bastard Club
Posted by Morgan Ywain Evans on Thursday, September 13, 2018 at 3:57 PM (PST)
I am firmly in the REVOCATION have never musically let me down camp. I love every one of their albums and think they consistently knock it way out of the park. Now the band are headlining one of the pound for pound best tour packages of the Fall. As I sit here overworked/with my own frustrations, under-valued as a human being by society and with an ulcer likely widening into a gaping black hole as we speak, it gives me dark joy to know that death metal is wreaking unstoppable chaos across the face of the USA thanks to this band’s inability to be put back in the genie bottle. Support good bands (in any genre) that are making it work. It is hard to make it out there and while I may feel like a frustrated artist, it is fucking awesome that some brilliant bands are doing their own thing and managing to carry the torch for not the most popular of rock genres (though it perhaps ought to be).
Next week, REVOCATION will kick off their long-awaited North American headlining tour. The trek will begin September 17th and run through October 20th. Support will be provided by Exhumed, Rivers Of Nihil, and Yautja. See all confirmed dates below.
Posted by Morgan Ywain Evans on Sunday, September 9, 2018 at 3:12 PM (PST)
Tech death tyrants Arsishave thankfully returned this year with Visitant, a much anticipated new release out in Nov. from the consistently dope labels Agonia Records and Nuclear Blast. The new video for ‘Tricking The Gods’ has some Satan invades star trek borderline moments, but is that a bad thing? Hell no.
Love the lead tones (is that a George Lynch tiger spirit infused guitar or what?) and psycho-charged arrangement in this tune, powered by some serious chops and guttural evil from James Malone. Expect this record should make quite a big red splash. This band always seemed more sincere about their craft than some others, so I am looking forward to this. My punk friends Nightmares For A Week also have an album out this late 2018 which , like Arsis, marks 5 years between releases and y’know, sometimes it really is worth the wait for career milestone material. Kudos to all.
“We had a pretty strong touring cycle for the last album, Unwelcome,” says Malone. “Then, I got involved in Necromancing the Stone. It wasn’t taking up too much time since I wasn’t the main songwriter. It was more of a fun outlet for me, a chance for me to get on stage and play without having to do both guitar and vocals. I didn’t expect Necromancing the Stone to get signed and to go on tour, but all of that ended up happening. That took time obviously, but then Brandon [Ellis] ended up joining The Black Dahlia Murder. It took me awhile to get my wits about me to the point where I wanted to concentrate on a new Arsis record. The time it took to regroup was very much needed.”
Posted by Morgan Ywain Evans on Thursday, September 6, 2018 at 2:45 PM (PST)
Germany’s progressive death metal masters OBSCURA announce Winter 2019 headlining tour dates supporting the recently released Diluvium full-length. Presented by Metal Hammer, Ibanez Guitars, Guitar Magazine, FUZE Magazine and Metal.de, the tour begins February 1 in Germany and ends February 23 in Austria. Support will be provided by Fallujah, Allegaeon & First Fragment. A full list of confirmed tour dates in available below.
OBSCURA’s fifth studio album Diluvium is out now on CD/LP/Digital via Relapse Records. Truly a monumental work, this record proves once and for all that OBSCURA deserve to be given a very high seat within the hall of death metal’s all time heroes. It is ear shattering, inventive and brilliantly executed musical expertise threaded through the tight needle eye of a well thought out concept. Physical packages are available via Relapse.com HERE and Digital Downloads / Streaming Services AT THIS LOCATION.
Posted by Morgan Ywain Evans on Tuesday, August 14, 2018 at 4:13 PM (PST)
Bosse-de-nage
2018 has been downright chock full of great music to devour, thank the Elder Tentacled Old Ones. I mean, for real, every month there has been a ton of great shit this year which is awesome cuz a lot of us need a good soundtrack to get through the muck and mire of things at the moment. I am particularly grateful for Soft Kill’s Savior for when you want something both beautiful and bleak but also want to purge or revel in your sadness and transform it into as much of a positive as you can muster from the lessons. Just a fucking amazing album. Been driving around listening to some other stuff too like Deaf Kids that I didn’t get into as much when it first came out a few years ago but now am absorbing on the regular like a sponge. There’s so much good music out there from this or recent years if you keep digging.
But let’s talk about some stuff that lies directly ahead!
Hate Eternal
Eric Rutan and Hate Eternal return this year with Upon Desolate Sands, touted as their ‘heaviest yet’ in promotional materials. That remains to be seen (er, heard?) as they have a fuckton of super intense music in their wake already, but the new song is certainly massive! This band has always delivered in such a no bullshit way that all you can kind of do is be blown away by them. It’s just a complete hurricane of extremity every time, jaw droppingly nuts.
HATE ETERNAL North American tour
All dates w/ CANNIBAL CORPSE, HARMS WAY
Nov. 2 Columbia, SC @ The Music Farm (tickets)
Nov. 3 Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel (tickets)
Nov. 4 Norfolk, VA @ Shaka’s (tickets)
Nov. 5 Lancaster, PA @ Chameleon Club (tickets)
Nov. 7 Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground (tickets)
Nov. 8 Providence, RI @ Fete (tickets)
Nov. 9 Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall (tickets)
Nov. 10 Rochester, NY @ Anthology (tickets)
Nov. 11 Columbus, OH @ Skully’s (tickets)
Nov. 13 Grand Rapids, MI @ The Intersection (tickets)
Nov. 14 Toledo, OH @ Civic Music Hall (tickets)
Nov. 15 Bloomington, IL @ The Castle Theater (tickets)
Nov. 16 Palatine, IL @ Durty Nelly’s (tickets)
Nov. 17 Madison, WI @ The Majestic Theater (tickets)
Nov. 18 Des Moines, IA @ Wooly’s (tickets)
Nov. 20 Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room (tickets)
Nov. 21 Oklahoma City, OK @ Diamond Ballroom (tickets)
Nov. 23 Corpus Christi, TX @ House of Rock (tickets)
Nov. 24 Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live (tickets)
Nov. 25 Baton Rouge, LA @ The Varsity Theater (tickets)
Nov. 27 Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlies (tickets)
Nov. 28 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theater (tickets)
Nov. 29 Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue (tickets)
Nov. 30 St. Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall (tickets)
Dec. 1 Columbia, MO @ The Blue Note (tickets)
Dec. 3 Memphis, TN @ Growlers (tickets)
Dec. 4 Athens, GA @ Georgia Theater (tickets)
Dec. 5 Orlando, FL @ The Abbey (tickets)
Dec. 6 Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ The Culture Room (tickets)
So, the new one from Bay Area post-blackened-whatever the fuckers Bosse-de-nage entitled Further Still is pretty much completely amazing, overflowing with organic and thrilling chemistry between the players. Loving the simple cover art. Can we get them on a tour with Tribulation? Has that happened yet? I would probably shart.
It is pretty wild how both this band and Deafheaven managed to take great strides into longevity with their newest releases. Whichever angel or devil on their shoulders they have been listening to, the advice has been good.
But yeah, “Vestiges” or “A Faraway Place” from the new Bosse-de-nage perfectly slice through the doldrums of modern burnout and make you remember life is all raw nerves and awe that we regularly compartmentalize just to cope with the fact we are on a massive planet spinning through a chaotic yet somehow orderly Universe where survival is never certain. This record feels alive and demands attention but never in a ham fisted way. The performances are so next level that you are thrown headfirst into the band’s conviction like a sailor walking the plank falling into a turbulent sea of bittersweet emotions. This feels like a huge purge up there with Oathbreaker for believability.
Anyway, I wanted to remind you to please pre order this fucking thing. Albums like this aren’t a dime a dozen and the band delivered an ear ringing winner on all fronts for the band and The Flenser. It drops 9/14 so plan to do nothing but rock that day.
Posted by Metal Riot on Tuesday, August 14, 2018 at 2:04 PM (PST)
After recently completing their massive summer co-headliner with The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel will head out on the road again this November/December, to embark on their “Ten Years of Exile” USA tour, commemorating the 10th anniversary of This Is Exile. Featuring Chelsea Grin, Oceano, and Slaughter To Prevail as support, this trek will also see Whitechapel perform This Is Exile in its entirety, plus a selection of other songs – and will be the last run of shows before the band returns to the studio to finish recording their upcoming album, due out spring 2019 via Metal Blade Records. See below for all dates!
Posted by longhairedpoet on Sunday, August 12, 2018 at 7:38 AM (PST)
New York death metallers Internal Bleeding have announced that their forthcoming album Corrupting Influence will be released on October 19 via Unique Leader Records.
Founding guitarist Chris Pervelis commented, “Corrupting Influence is filled with all of the gut twisting heaviness and groove you’d expect from us, but there’s also plenty of unexpected twists that take a listener to places we’ve never gone before. Additionally, the production is right where it should be — heavy as f*ck, organic and live sounding.”
Guitarist Chris McCarthy added, “I grew up as a fan of IB, so I put everything in my ability to make this the sickest IB album ever.”
The album was produced by the band alongside Joe Cincotta at Full Force Studios (Suffocation, Dehumanized) in Ronkonkoma, Ny, engineered by Cincotta, and features artwork by guitarist Chris Pervelis.
In support of Corrupting Influence the band will be going on tour in the fall as part of the Bloodletting North America Tour XII along side Decrepit Birth, Arsis, Pyrexia, Angelmaker, and Within Destruction.
Check out the track list and album art for Corrupting Influence as well as the tour dates for the Bloodletting North America Tour XII here.
Posted by Metal Riot on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 5:50 PM (PST)
CHTHONIC, the Taiwanese metal band recognized with its unique signature of performance, is to release an all new album, Battlefields of Asura, on October 10, the first new music since 2013’s full-length album, “Butik”.
Formed in 1995, CHTHONIC has hit the road touring over forty countries with hundreds of concerts and festivals. CHTHONIC has become the most visible Taiwanese metal band with international publicity. In the past five years, all five members of CHTHONIC have turned a new page in their lives respectively. The frontman of band formed a new political party but also got elected into the Parliament while the others established their families. Nevertheless, they have not forgot the promise to release new material to the fans. This year, CHTHONIC has Randy Blythe, frontman of Grammy-nominated metal band Lamb of God, and Denise Ho, iconic freedom fighter and singer from Hong Kong collaborating with the creation of the album and appearing in the preview of title track which has raised huge resonance in the music circle.
To tease the album, a secretive promotion plan saw the debut track in new album, “Millennia’s Faith Undone”, remixed and published by five new bands and artists with their own distinctive styles– Elephant Gym, Hom Shenhao, Unfamiliar Friends Party, Bison Country, and Angry Youth, which raised the speculation and attention among fans and people in music industry about the song and the series of remixes. Listen HERE. The speculation even hinted the possibility of renaissance of lyrics in Taiwanese. Days ago, Denise Ho, the iconic Hong Kong singer, published her version of “Millennia’s Faith Undone”, as her first Taiwanese song mixed with the voice of Freddy Lim, the frontman of CHTHONIC, throughout the song, which has become a hit in Taiwan and Hong Kong. As the talks about the relations between the song and CHTHONIC continues, the answer finally reveals today that the 60-second preview of the original version of “Millenia’s Faith Undone” can be heard below and the full version will be out on September 4.
According to CHTHONIC, the new album Battlefields of Asura depicts the adventure of deities in Taiwan through eleven songs carrying messages about resistance, freedom and fraternity. The journey is full of hostility, adversary, impregnable fortresses and desires but also inspires infinite courage to search for eternal wisdom. Anyone deeply touched by this album will eventually realize that it is the origin of all thrilling epic stories portrayed in the past albums. This album sounds like gods versus devils and fights among evil spirits on the surface; however, everyone can feel the empathy of fury, grief and even strength of resurgence from the lyrics. When asked why the band names the new album “Battlefields of Asura”, Doris, the spokesperson of CHTHONIC, states, “This album is the prologue of the albums released in the past and was inspired by and dedicated to the activists of Taiwan’s first modern political reform movement back in 1920s.”
Pre-orders on CD & Vinyl are available now! The album marks the first vinyl released by CHTHONICsince its formation. Pre-order of album box set is also available in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong which includes the album, T-shirt and caps, thematic candle glass, rosary plus 7″ vinyl collaboration single of CHTHONIC and Denise Ho.
Hello, friends. Friendly reminder that Queen’s ‘Princes Of The Universe’ is the greatest pillar of human achievement. Before we get into some death metal from around the world, let us contemplate the glory.
Ok, so I worked hard all morning and then saw my mom at her elder care facility and then passed the fuck out way too long and now am really delirious. I woke up and made a peanut butter and banana sandwich and ate it one handed while sitting down to pee and I kind of feel like Elvis. My gf is practicing (awesome) Goo Goo Dolls covers on her acoustic guitar and our cute ass cat Amber will not stop staring at me like she knows more than me about The hydrostatic equation. I need some herbs.
Anyway, one thing I can kind of do even when half asleep and moronic is give my opinion on upcoming death metal releases! Let’s remember what we came here for?! Hello? Is anyone there?
Friendly reminder that Friday, September 07, 2018 sees the release of a monstrously massive new onslaught from death metal stalwarts Krisiun entitled Scourge Of The Enthroned. That is about as death metal an album name I have ever heard and I can not believe it has not already been taken by Carcass or Hate Eternal.
Anyway, Krisiun have literally always kicked ass. I remember reading about them years ago as a new death metal and thrash fan wanting to widen my net beyond Sepultura as far as bands from Brazil. The cover art by Eliran Kantor is based on Sumerian mythology and shows three ancient gods transcending the beginning of creation. The title track on the new rager is particularly fucking stunning and will take your head clean off, so I am not sure why they put it first on the album unless they plan to re-animate fans corpses with every song.
I just got the promo for this record and am rapidly devouring it. I can’t believe these guys are on their eleventh album. Man, it is so inspiring when bands manage to reach such heights doing what they love! Hail Krisiun! Check out the first single, released a few weeks back, called “Demonic III” below! Pre Order HERE.
Svart Records is proud to present Megalohydrothalassophobic, an all-new Abhorrence EP full of old-school Finnish death metal. The EP will be released by Svart Records on September 15th.The lineup of the Finnish DM trailblazers is the same as back in 1990, with the addition of drummer Waltteri Väyrynen, of Paradise Lost and Vallenfyre fame.
This release continues the ancient spooky ass Gods theme I was mentioning about Krisun above, as the band have promised they bring us ,”… a vision of Lovecraftian horror in the age of the ecological catastrophe. The lyrics fuse together the deeply unsettling tales of H.P. Lovecraft with the thought-provoking philosophy of Timothy Morton, arguably the most important thinker of the anthropoce, the current catastrophical age of human existence.” Blessed Altar Zine has a pretty fair review of the promo Here . I personally would have given it a little bit higher rating.
I hope they release new song “Hyperobject Beneath the Waves” as another single because it will rock your socks off and also because it somehow takes the kind of deep sea metal chaos theme vibes that many bands have done a lot and makes it still terrifying.
Abhorrence
Get a taste of the record below with the also rad and uncompromising “Anthem for the Anthropocene” below. Then try to say the album name ten times fast, we dare ya!
I love how metal fans are so single minded that you can type the word “metallic” and we will ALL think of Metallica first before the actual meaning of the word, hahaha. How are ya out there today, riff ragers? I have decided to stop putting off fixing a shelf in my apartment but discovered I need a new hand drill so here I am blogging about metal instead of running to the hardware store. How’s that for dedication?
Here are some news items to get us deeper into July’s dark and hot embrace.
TODAY IS THE DAY has announced a run of US tour dates for August, with shows leading up to and following their performance at Psycho Las Vegas festival. 2017 saw TODAY IS THE DAY celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their seminal Temple Of The Morning Star LP with a reissue of the album an an extensive tour.
TITD really changed things for me as far as helping me merge in my mind the love of Am Rep style weirdness and skronk with savage extreme metal and the more brutal extreme hardcore. This band is such a gift to real fans and always also have the ability to weird out your cupcake metal fan who thinks (all due respect) that things don’t get much heavier or more emotionally barren than, say, Megadeth or some shit. Steve Austin will always reign in psychic pain and any band he puts together always slays and displays riffs, skulls and the dying modern world’s relatively fresh corpse in the sun halitosis reek of hypocrisy.
BEYOND CREATION have announced an extensive North American tour beginning this Fall. The “Diluvium North American Tour” kicks off on September 13 in Oakland, and sees BEYOND CREATION joining forces with OBSCURA, ARCHSPIRE, and more. A full list of confirmed tour dates can be found below. The absurdity of how awesome this tour is…I just…it’s off the fucking charts! So metal!!!
BEYOND CREATION are touring in support of their critically acclaimed second record, Earthborn Evolution. Earthborn Evolution, which has been described as “The best death metal album so far this year, one that will surely propel them to the upper echelon of progressive and technical death metal.” (New Noise Magazine), is streaming at the band’s official Bandcamp page.
BEYOND CREATION Tour Dates
All dates with OBSCURA, ARCHSPIRE, INFERI, EXIST
Sep. 13 Oakland, CA @ Metro Opera House
Sep. 14 Portland, OR @ Bossanova Ballroom
Sep. 15 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
Sep. 16 Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
Sep. 17 Calgary, AB @ Dickens
Sep. 19 Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall
Sep. 20 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
Sep. 21 Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room
Sep. 22 Joliet, IL @ The Forge
Sep. 23 Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
Sep. 24 Quebec City, QC @ Salle Multi
Sep. 25 Worcester, MA @ Palladium
Sep. 26 Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory
Sep. 27 Philadelphia, PA @ Voltage Lounge
Sep. 29 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
Sep. 30 Orlando, FL @ The Haven
Oct. 01 New Orleans, LA @ Southport Hall
Oct. 02 Houston, TX @ Scout Bar
Oct. 03 Austin, TX @ Come and Take It Live!
Oct. 04 Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Gas Bar & Grill
Oct. 06 Mesa, AZ @ Club Red
Oct. 07 Los Angeles, CA @ 1720
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.
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.
