Portland’s long-running dark, progressive metal collective, AGALLOCH, will kick off their eagerly anticipated Serpens In Cvlmination Western Hemisphere Tour MMXV next week. Set to commence on June 5th in Eugene, Oregon, the journey will traverse sixteen cities through nine states and two provinces, drawing to a close on June 20th in Portland. The band will be joined by very special guest, Helen Money.
Dates and music Beloweth.
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Swedish trio HYPOTHERMIA, comprising a member of Lifelover and Kall fame, are streaming their brand new album, Svartkonst, ahead of release date, which is set for May 15th in Europe and May 19th in North America via Agonia Records. Svartkonst is an instrumental fusion of black metal, post-rock and shoegaze, and can be listened to exclusively via the following magazines:
Zero Tolerance Magazine (UK)
http://www.ztmag.com/blog/news/?p=24033
No Clean Singing (North America)
http://www.nocleansinging.com/2015/05/12/an-ncs-album-premiere-hypothermia-svartkonst/
RIYL Grayceon, Agalloch, Scorn, Pelican, Mogwai
Norway’s Taake will step from the fog to tour eastern North America for the first time starting June 14 in Allston, Masschusett. The tour, supported by our pals in the ever so nasty Wolvhammer, will visit 13 cities before its conclusion in Brooklyn on June 26. These shows are seriously recommended for extreme music enthusiasts.
The complete list of dates for the tour is BELOW.
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Full dates will be announced soon HERE.
#LEGION1349
#CHAOSRAIDSNORTHAMERICA
#necrophagia
#vattnetviskar
Ereb Altor, one of the band’s in metal with the most consistently good material, have released a new video for the song “Midsommarblot”. While the kids won’t be screaming out that song name at the dub step dance floors anytime soon, real metal heads will surely raise a glass of mead over their fallen brethren’s bloody corpses to honor them with this new musical oath to metal glory. The song is a new entry to the epic and slower side of the band’s material , which tends to either honor the more viking or sometimes fast side of Bathory fandom. That said, Ereb Altor’s saga-esque melodic vocals possess a bold strength all their own and their songs often offer keen insights with poetic lyrics and a yearning for something better than the modern world.
Watch the new clip BELOW! Keep the fire alive!
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If ambient doom music that swallows you whole is your thing you will want to check out this new LeChantFunebre collaboration Ghosts At The Deathbed from Neill Jameson ( – Vocals / Drums) , Jason Phillips (- Guitar), Jeff Wilson (- Guitar / Synth / Bass).
“We’d known each other for years and it just seemed natural to work together on something creative,” says Neill Jameson of the collaboration. “We’re very sardonic and negative people so it’s a very natural work environment to come up with something that’s emotionally very bleak.”
The EP is a forlorn yet inspiring odyssey that has a similar coldness in feel to Krieg‘s latest Transient (though much different music). We’re excited here at Metal Riot to premiere this official stream for you cold hearted snakes. It’s a thrilling and at times inhuman sounding descent into alienation that fills up and underscores the spaces between us in the inanimate, crumbling world (If you like the smothering ambient elements you’ll eat up Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow’s Ex-Machina soundtrack, incidentally). Track 3 on Ghosts At The Deathbed– “Southern Facing Sign” is particularly despondent and satisfying. As Steve Buscemi once said ,” embrace the horror.”
I’ve been listening to a lot of Mindrot again lately and, like those oft-forgotten geniuses, this LeChantFunebre stuff is unafraid to let synth and doom thumb wrestle. The results are a staggering yet humble monument to the organic struggle with life itself, made by three friends. I hope they’ll consider doing more in the future with this, as the atmosphere they’ve crafted is hard to let go of. Order it HERE.
Listen to the full stream BELOW and rise above…or sink deeper, if you prefer.
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Behemoth recently joined forces with director Zev Deans (youtube.com/panoramaprogramming) to compose a video for Messe Noire from The Satanist. The Brooklyn based director brings a visually dark and surreal atmosphere to a song and album that is one of Behemoth‘s most bleak. To add to the atmosphere, costumes were provided by amazing fashion designer, Sharon Toxic (toxicvision.bigcartel.com). The combination of these visual and auditory talents could not be more ideal.
Director Zev Deans adds: “The story of Lucifer’s fall, followed by his defiant rebirth, reminds me of Nergal’s own personal struggles of recent years. Like Lucifer, Behemoth has recovered from hardship, and they are stronger than ever. With Messe Noire, I was lucky enough to work with some of the most talented people in the genre. I owe the success of this project to the intense SACRIFICE that Sharon and the rest of team gave to this work.”
Behemoth front man Nergal comments: “It was actually our drummer Inferno’s idea to use Zev Deans. He showed me a PORTAL video that literally blew my fuckin’ mind! For a long time we’ve attempted to reach a new ground and artistically leave the comfort zone. “The Satanist” is THE record that challenges us on so many levels… and here we are, exploring new grounds with a video producer who is a genuine visionary! “Messe Noire” video surely adds new quality to our art and makes it even more transcendental… I am proud!”
Experience Messe Noire now HERE.
Along with the video, Behemoth has made a “Messe Noire” t-shirt available in their official web shop. Check out the design at behemoth-store.com.
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Phil McSorley (ex COBALT vocalist) has apologized for harsh anti-gay comments. Phil has stated that being closeted and afraid to transition led to his “tough guy” approach. He is asking fans for forgiveness and re-instatement in the USBM friendship village. “I have begun hormone treatments and am asking that everyone take my cover of “I am Woman” by Helen Reddy in black metal style in the unorthodox yet earnest spirit that was intended.”
McSorley admitted that he was always more into the black than the metal in “black metal” and had been sorely dissapointed when he found out it was more about “nazi imagery”.
“Flipping burgers in Indiana has been my only gainful employment since being kicked out of the band, and now we have no customers,” McSorley admits.“I was just trying to fit in. But the charade is over and now I can come home.”
Anaal Nathrakh make some of the most tortured and limitless music the UK has to offer, a roaring defiance of forms still with talons ripping out the dark hearts of black and )increasingly) industrial metal/ I’ve become a really big fans of the band and they are finally announcing stateside dates to support their recent all-killer, no-filler limb strewn riff fest battlefield Desideratum ( on Metal Blade).
While the inclusion of Incite and Secrets Of The Sky might seem like a mish mash of styles to some, all three of the bands are fairly criminally under-appreciated and this going to make for some phenomenal nights of metal madness.
Dates below.
NYC’s celebrated Gramercy Theatre was host to a plethora of true metal fans of various stripes, from denim jackets to hipsters to black t shirts to hairbags. The occasion was the inredible package tour of Witch Mountain, Ecstatic Vision plus headliners Yob and mighty black metal/prog legends from Norway, Enslaved. The tour is a celebration of much of what is good about metal right now, deep roots of Yggdrassil extending into the past, present and future.
I was really excited as I’d yet to see any of these great bands live. I’ve been an Enslaved fan since my artist pal Simon Ampel gave me a mix cd years ago with “Entrance Escape” on it along with Malevolent Creation (who turned out to be racists, unbeknownst to me and Jewish Simon at the time, so I never listen to them anymore).Enslaved, however, have left a long lasting impression on me and were pretty much my introduction to black metal. Their viking/Bathory influence interested me a lot more than groveling in the dark for Satan bands and since they have remained a tour de force for pushing metal into new territory. I love their new stuff as much as the old and it was so fucking cool to finally bask in their onslaught.
It was awesome to see the marquis saying “Enslaved Tonight”, like some crazy bondage party was about to go down. It was also cool to catch up with metal scribe Kim Kelly who was holding down the merch table for Yob.
Witch Mountain were up first and Kayla Dixon, the new vocalist, had the job of winning over the toughest crowd of snobs in the world (NYC music fans). Uta Plotkin was a tremendous talent but Kayla amply filled her shoes and people were talking about her all night! At first she seemed a touch nervous and admitted as much at the merch table later but she ended up killing it! I’d say Dixon has a more soulful voice than Plotkin, who is a bit eerier. Kayla kind of stalked the stage like Angela Bassett making grim, contorted faces in American Horror Story one minute and suddenly her face looking like a quite sweet and comely model the next. It was very theatrical. It will be awesome to hear what she brings to the next Witch Mountain record. Kayla really brought the massive sound the band was putting out down from the rafters and into her body, channeling it out in stark wails.
Click HERE for the full review.
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Carach Angren‘s This Is No Fairy Tale is a frightful blend of horror and metal with symphonic elements akin to a Tim Burton score. These hell-forged songs are at times vertigo inducing as well as insane. Definitely a niche band but fans of Septicflesh on a much more horror bent will thrill to it. This is a blackened and death infused updated version of Hansel and Gretel that has heroin abuse and domestic violence (“There’s No Place Like Home”) and a much sicker tone or darker flare than the recent silly, if fun, action movie “Witch Hunters” (give me Monica Bellucci in The Brothers Grimm instead any day).
Anyhow, the Netherlands based band are very tight and complete professionals here, though at times it is usually less about the song than how it feels in relation to the whole story piece. Still, there are way worse things. Many bands can’t come close to the skill of Carach Angren in heavy metal and they obviously don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks. Horns to them for their full embrace of over the edge, dark creativity to shed light on the horrors of the ill nature of deranged psychosis out there. Sickening candy addiction is a metaphor for perhaps shallow culture, the material working on many levels of the psyche. We are lonely in a forest and hunger for blood, convenience or even a deeper, damaged sense of family are all examined.
For more see BELOW.
The first song from Hypothermia‘s new album is available to consume HERE. This initial title track from pending record “Svartkonst” is an ocean of guitars, a controlled and intelligent drum performance and verbed out trancy power. The Swedes newest track is so good it is impossible as background music, if you get my drift. You’ll be pulled adjacent to the beachfront of cold waves before your gaze inexorably goes to the soul’s within. Yes, I was impressed by this song. Thanks, Agonia Records!
RIYL Sonic Youth, Wolves In The Throne Room, Red Sparowes
The track features on the band’s upcoming new album under the same title, set to be released on May 15th in Europe and May 19th in North America. Pre-order here.
Helen Money has been confirmed as direct support for the Agalloch U.S. tour dates in June (starting on June 6th in Sacramento). She continues to support her current release, Arriving Angels (Profound Lore), which was recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio and features drummer Jason Roeder (Neurosis, Sleep). Cellist/composer Alison Chesley, a.k.a. Helen Money, merges her classical training with a lifelong affinity for punk rock and a taste for heavy metal. In addition to her own material Chesley has also performed and/or directed string arrangements for artists like Anthrax (Worship Music), Russian Circles (Geneva), Broken Social Scene (Forgiveness Rock Record) and Yakuza. For her previous album, In Tune, she worked with Greg Norman (Pelican, Russian Circles, Neurosis), Sanford Parker (Pelican, Chris Connelly, Yakuza, Buried at Sea).
Click HERE for dates and music.
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Anaal Nathrakh have announced a big European tour including dates in Estonia, Sweden, France and Poland. The band are touring in support of the epic Desideratum, one of last years sickest albums by far. The industrial strength and insanely creative black metal influenced havoc of opener “Acheronta Movebimbus” into the cathartic “Unleash” will peel back your skin and pour steel shavings onto your red hot insides, for no good reason. Ok, so I just wanted to write something gory and metal sounding, but really the record is sure to confound people with no imagination but thrill fans of the edges of extreme metal’s pioneering spirit of expression and embrace of the ferocity and beauty of the vast cosmos.
I definitely am often still listening to Desideratum when I am supposed to be reviewing newer albums that have come out since, let’s put it that way. \m/
Find more info HERE. The London show is sold out, the band commenting: “We look forward to a blast furnace of an evening.”
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Brooklyn’s Mortals manage to combine some of the most dour yet inspiring extreme metal elements into a new sound. It’s kind of a punker, more melodic style of black metal that is just plain furious and go for the throat with occasional doomy excursions. Cynical? Somehow missed the more prophetic than Cassandra long player Cursed To See The Future? Check out the new Mortals song “Ten Years of Filth” right HERE.
“Ten Years Filth” is Side A of the Mortals/Repellers Split 10,” released on Broken Limbs Recordings. Art by Mike Bukowski. Recorded at Developing Nations with Kevin Bernsten in 2014.
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You gotta have respect for Artillery.
The veteran Danish power thrashers have just released a new video for the song "When The Magic Is Gone", taken off the band's latest album, Penalty By Perception. To watch the video, please visit HERE.
Artillery comments: "Our new video 'When The Magic Is Gone' is a song about death and grief, it is a very personal song which shows the more mellow side of Artillery. The video was recorded in Norrebro, Copenhagen by Terkel Christensen (Aggressive Art) who is an old friend of Artillery."
On Sept. 23rd, Artillery will start their co-headline tour with Onslaught. Artillery will celebrate the 30th Anniversary of their Terror Squad album on this run, playing 5-6 songs from that album, plus new songs from their latest album Penalty By Perception, as well as some more classics. See HERE for dates.
