Metal Riot

Cave In will always be one of my favorite bands and one who made an undeniable dent on underground history. The band has announced a record called Final Transmission, featuring the last recordings of Caleb Scofield. If this is their final record, it is a fitting and dignified end to the band’s tenure.

It is impossible to hear “All Illusion” and not have some serious feels. Really gorgeous tune and fits seamlessly into their already profound and beloved catalogue. I hope this release serves as a way for the band to feel closer to their legacy than ever and helps to soothe some of the loss whole also comforting fans and giving us great new songs to enjoy for years.

Links to pre-order new album “Final Transmission” available everywhere June 7th, 2019 via @HydraHead

US: https://t.co/LnIbWIQSKf

EU: https://t.co/0OT7nSKL56

Germany: https://t.co/XvVKuRH1HT

UK: https://t.co/j5h530RgAf

— CAVE IN (@SonicDeathwall) April 8, 2019

Arise Blackguard disciples! Drink beer, cry and mosh!

The absence of Blackguard the last few years as I awaited news of their long delayed STORM album charred my soul. It was the Chinese…nay, Canadian Democracy that would never come. It was worse than waiting on a Tool album. I don’t even give a shit about Tool anymore in the slightest. But awaiting STORM? It made me a bitter person, a shriveled gnome forced to sleep 100 years and subsist on berries and ants in my dreams, believing my day of joy would never come. Eternal darkness. Some people I know even irresponsibly had careers and families in the meantime as I pined beneath a solitary boulder for more Blackguard.

Thankfully today I awoke and felt lifeforce flood my limbs as epic metal triumphantly roared across the skies. The boulder had squished me flat but somehow the metal revived me! I shoved the stone aside and then cowered at news of the awesomeness of the holy grail of lost albums I had anticipated for so long.

Behold, the first Blackguard Storm single “By My Hand” featuring Morgan Lander of Kittie…at last! Firefight was the anthem of all the obnoxious metal alkies in my city and the dry spell was rough. Many of us perished in the meantime of drought. No other metal could compare to quench our lust for battle.

Sez the band:

“This has a been a very long time coming, but we’re all elated to finally share with you our first single from ‘Storm’. We have no shame in saying this album is by far our best/heaviest/fastest/bla bla bla, you’ve heard it all before, but sooner than later everyone is going to know why we feel this way. We’d like to send a huge thank you to Morgan Lander of Kittie for doing an amazing job on the chorus of this song, hopefully, she can make it out to a show or two to perform it with us.”

The band recently broke their long hiatus to announce their first show in four years on March 22nd in Toronto with longtime friends Crimson Shadows and Borealis at Coalition.

STORM will be the band’s first album in 8 years and fourth overall.  The group will release the record independently on a surprise date in the coming weeks.

The album was recorded, mixed and mastered by longtime producer and former BLACKGUARD keyboardist Jonathan Lefrançois-Leduc at Silver Wings Studio in Montreal.

The video for “By My Hand” was created by Chris Kells (The Agonist) of FTB Visuals and Artwork by Rainsong Design.

If you are buzzing from High On Fire’s much deserved Grammy win and recognition despite their steadfast riffiness and bad ass gargled biker warlord ogre vocals, let’s keep the good news coming. It is always a great day when we can announce more forward thinking yet riff-tastic albums that keep evolving the scene and subtly challenging the former status quo while still actually rocking your socks off as well. Inter Arma certainly fit in that category and whether they will ever get recognized by music’s most at times clueless night remains to be scene…but they have certainly already had their share of critical hype at the fringes.

The Richmond band continue to follow their own course and new song “Citadel” below is a serious clobber fest. I always love their ability to bridge death and art metal elements with sludge in a concise way that seems seamless instead of like grasping wildly at straws for relevance. Inter Arma always make sure their songs are good and not just style checklists for whatever is hip, it seems. This new track is incredible and lumbers like a brontosaurus beneath screaming banshee demoness pterodactyls flying through geysers of steaming guitar heat!

Anyway, I love this band and have seen them live a few times now. Eager to again. The new album is called Sulphur English ominously and is out April 12th (day after my bday) on mighty Relapse.

Vocalist Mike Paparo comments:

“The lyrics to “Citadel” were written as a sort of clarion call to myself about overcoming depression and the demons that manifest with it. It, like most of the lyrical content on the record, is deeply personal to me.  

For the band as a whole, Sulphur English is an ill-tempered, unrepentant act of defiance towards stagnation and complacency. We create this music on our own terms and we refuse to compromise our collective vision, for better or worse.”

Sulphur English is due out April 12th on CD/2xLP/Digital. Physical packages are available for pre-order via Relapse.com HERE. Digital Downloads / Streaming Services are available HERE.

“Meet me in outer spaaaace…”

Death metal prog tech current crop (circle?) leaders with otherworldly talent? Of course we are talking about Allegaeon. They rock, yo! Man, those dudes really in hindsight now completely won that Mish Way argument. Hard to have the moral high ground complaining about some death metal band crowdfunding when you are writing “Dad of The Moment” puff pieces about Jordan friggin’ Peterson and calling Ben Shapiro an intellectual, blughhh. I am not linking to that but it is in Penthouse if you must know. Anyway, tangent…Allegaeon have revealed details for their new album Apoptosis! Via Metal Blade:

On April 19th, Allegaeon will release their new album, Apoptosis, via Metal Blade Records. A near-perfect symbiosis of technical, progressive, and melodic death metal, Apoptosis is a record that is as crushingly heavy as it is inventive, lithe and intelligent, and marks a significant leap forward in the band’s songwriting. To watch the video for the first single, “Stellar Tidal Disruption” (directed by Robert Graves // http://www.ashadowbeyond.com/), please visit: http://metalblade.com/allegaeon

I was certain “Stellar Tidal Disruption” is actually a secret rallying cry to Incubus fans who are sadly just not that good at surfing, but I might just be having a flight of fancy. Blame the moon! Seriously though, this song goes hard. That solo section at 3:35, woo boy.

Jarboe releases the first single titled, “Karuna” from her spiritually enlightened new album due out on December 14th, “The Cut Of The Warrior”. “Karuna” is streaming now via PopMatters.

The song, a 7+ minute meditation, includes clanging metal percussion, gongs, chanting, and was recorded inside a meditation dome. “Karuna” was then mixed by Kris Force (Amber Asylum).

“The Cut Of The Warrior” is scheduled for release on December 14th via Translation Loss Records. Pre-order is available now.

Jarboe offers a spiritually enlightened work titled “The Cut of the Warrior”. Four gorgeous compositions that pull inspiration from Jarboe’s kinship to buddhism are meticulously crafted and presented. The album is armed with three alternative mixes/collaborations with Byla (featuring members of Gorguts, Dysrhythmia), End Christian and Kris Force (Amber Asylum) while being housed in a stunning layout by Dehn Sora.

“The Cut of the Warrior refers to the practice of Chöd by illustrating repeated attempts to cut through the ego”, explains Jarboe. “The Chöd practitioner seeks to tap the power of fear through activities such as rituals set in graveyards and visualizations of offering their bodies in a tantric feast in order to put their understanding of emptiness to the ultimate test.”

“The Cut of the Warrior” will be released on December 14, 2018.

Track Listing:
1. Wayfaring Stranger In The Bardo
2. GodGoddess
3. Feast
4. Karuna
5. Karuna (Byla mix)
6. Wayfaring Stranger In The Bardo (End Christian mix)
7. GodGoddess reprise (Kris Force mix)

Album credits:
Written, performed, recorded by Jarboe
Mastered by Kris Force

Album layout by Dehn Sora

Integrity covering “Bark At The Moon” by Ozzy? Sign us the Hell up! Even if the candy has push pins in it, we are into this by the handful! Happy Halloween, headbangers.

NYHC kings Sick Of It All are hands down one of the most inspiring bands of all time. Only a knucklehead could overlook the import of the band’s outlook, lyrics, vibe and commitment when it comes to influence on the underground. They are certainly one of, if not the, top hardcore bands of all time and continue to inspire me to keep trudging through the eroding force of modern society with a smile and a helmet on nearly a daily basis.

“Inner Vision” is the dope ass new SOIA lyric video. Let’s try and crank those views up for the boys! I am catching SOIA meets Ignite vibes on this one a little bit, or is that just my half awake ears? This is the first new song from their forthcoming album, Wake the Sleeping Dragon, which is slated for a November 2 release via Century Media Records. Sounding killer so far! Hmmm, too bad the album didn’t come out in time for season 2 of Iron Fist with that title! SOIA packs the hardest punch anyway.