It has been a heavy few days for rock and metal fans with alumni of ZZ Top, Metal Church and Slipknot crossing over, but today we have a little bit of good news. Let’s celebrate life and ambition today with a progressive rock album announcement about possibility.
Dream Theater, giants of prog metal, have announced their 15th record. A View From The Top Of The World is the name of the newest from this esteemed act of tireless creators, due via InsideOutMusic/Sony Music on October 22.
“We just love to play our instruments,” says guitarist John Petrucci to Louder Sound. “That never goes away. I love to be creative, write, and exercise that part of my mind. We’ve been able to do this for a long time, and we don’t take it for granted. Whenever we get together, we know we can’t disappoint ourselves or our fans, so we manage to try even harder.”
“We approach every album like it’s our first,” adds frontman James LaBrie. “It’s been such a great ride, but we’re not going to stop.”
1) The Alien (9:32)
2) Answering The Call (7:35)
3) Invisible Monster (6:31)
4) Sleeping Giant (10:05)
5) Transcending Time (6:25)
6) Awaken The Master (9:47)
7) A View From The Top Of The World (20:24)
“We’ve been able to do this for a long time, and we don’t take it for granted” – @JPetrucci
“We approach every album like it’s our first. It’s been such a great ride, but we’re not going to stop.” – @jameslabrie
To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the vital underground label,NEFARIOUS INDUSTRIES has released a massive 74 song label sampler celebrating everything they have put out! Acts like Blight House, A Fucking Elephant, Maid Myriad, Cinema Cinema, Hiraki, Gridfailure, Nequient, Globelamp, BedtimeMagic, Lavisher, Trillionaire, Those Darn Gnomes, Megalophobe, El Drugstore, East Of The Wall, my project Walking Bombs, Ghost Simpson, Psychosomatic, Dying Whale, Bangladeafy and many more are present and accounted for!
Originally founded as an outlet for El Drugstore and A Fucking Elephant, two of the most obnoxious bands to come out of the great state of New Jersey in recent memory, Nefarious Industries has grown into a label that showcases the most adventurous and least commercially viable artists it can manage to locate.
Between The Buried And Me have premiered new track, “Revolution In Limbo,” the second song off their forthcoming album, Colors II, which is slated for an August 20 release through Sumerian Records.
Check out the sophisticated statement below (we expect nothing less from these masters):
Ross Jennings of Haken fame has released an official visualizer for a beautiful shimmering progressive ballad that will appeal to fans of artists like Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd and even perhaps solo Chris Cornell. The song is the second moving solo single from Jenning’s forthcoming debut solo album A Shadow of my Future Self , set to be released on November 19th, 2021, with Pre-sales going live this Friday, the 23rd. Give this one a listen and let the feeling wash over you and carry you away.
“I was aiming for something along the lines of ‘Nothing Compares 2U’ meets ’Shine on you crazy diamond’ so that was intentional, but I feel like I was able to put my own stamp on it too.”
The single once again features Ross on Guitar and Vocals, Simen Sandnes (Drums), Nathan Navarro (Bass) and Vikram Shankar (Keys) who also arranged Ross’s orchestral ideas into a full score.
Meanwhile, tickets for RJ’s one-off Global Livestream event ‘Acoustic Shadows’ which airs on July 23rd via Munin.live are still available. This is a unique opportunity to hear stripped down versions of his new material plus tracks from Haken & Novena. Buy your standard or VIP ticket here: https://munin.live/x-event/acoustic-shadows/
Ross adds about the event: “I miss performing live so much and with both of my bands taking a break to write, I decided to seize the opportunity to dust off my guitar and put on an intimate acoustic performance. I’m really excited to introduce some of my solo material and there will be a couple of recognisable RJ related tracks in the mix too! ”
“The string arrangement on this track is stunning and I have Vikram to thank for unpicking the themes I had in my brain and making them work in practice”
The single is accompanied by a visualizer created by Daniel Levy, who has recently worked on visuals for Transatlantic’s ‘The Absolute Universe’. Ross has the following to say of the video’s concept:
“Grounded is a song about mindfulness, healing, and mental wellbeing. I wrote this song about a skeptic having a spiritual experience and opening up to the possibilities of a higher power or a higher purpose, but also someone who is simply reconnecting with nature and learning to find stillness in a chaotic life. This is a topic I’ve become fascinated with on my own spiritual journey and in my own meditative practices.”
As someone almost solely operating this site on a budget of nothing and out of a labor of love, I don’t always get around to covering things on an industry timetable. It is corny af to me that it is frowned upon to review an album that is only a few months old instead of, like, only release week. Or the worst…having to ghoulishly rush publish when someone famous dies without having a chance to absorb the very human loss. What about processing music and living with it awhile?
This is, for obvious reasons, a terrible example but I couldn’t enjoy any Harry Potter movies when they were super hyped until the roar died down and I could take it in and experience it for myself (and now, with all apologies to my faves Luna Lovegood and Bellatrix Lestrange, it is hard not to sometimes regret that decision despite loving those stories when the author is campaigning against my community on the regular to a horrific fucking degree. Also, the irony of her having a Nonbinary actor Ezra Miller being the repressed obscurus is HUGE).
File Empire Of Love under Gaze rights? Albums with fantastic cover art that will enrage shitty people yet that Sense8 fans will cherish? In actuality it is nigh impossible to classify the new Violet Coldas anything other than great and much needed. I usually lie around in a diabetic, demiflux depression stupor most of the day and listen to black metal then go to my overnight vampire shift job at a 24 hour gym that forces members to overdose on Ava Max and Dua Lipa, so it is really compelling to hear the shameless pop vocal elements that would normally be cranked way too high in any dance mix buried here amidst radiant blackened technical opuses as if they were told to sit in the corner and have vocals be subservient to some guitars ala some Steve Albini olden days vocal mix until they learn how to play texturally with others. And to clarify, Ava and Dua both have talent and appeal, I am mostly talking about the vocal production in that kind of chart centered pop and how creative decisions get structurally imposed onto the zeitgeist in the name of commerce and centering familiarity.
Music doesn’t have to be only some commercial dominant morass of nutrition free cynicism and seeing what sticks to the wall, yet all styles can still be repurposed and have new meanings (like when Jennifer Herrema used auto tune in RTX and it absolutely slayed and likewise cracked the skye. Pitchfork, y’all needed to fuckin’ give that album a higher score).
Note- I am also not throwing shade on some trap or disco artists who are genuinely trying to produce weird, trippy textures and use auto tune as an instrument more than a crutch and other modern pop elements, as long as the content isn’t shite.
In other words, I thought this entire album was a mish mash of my subconscious cracking open wide into a multiverse. Pretty refreshing when many black metal types are still wallowing in the mire debating if it was “ok” for Mayhem to make the stylistic shifts on Grand Declaration of War. Fucking yawn.
The “can vegetarians wear severed pig heads and throw skulls at their fans and still cover Rudimentary Peni” debate is much more interesting, but I digress.
Anyway, “Be Like Magic” literally stopped me in my tracks and made me ask aloud wtf is going on (and of course has a brilliantly subversive title). Some of the results here are breathtaking and shocking (speaking of “allowed/aloud”), like Moby’s “God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters” grew up to have a progressive metal half brother. I mean, maybe don’t underestimate someone who probably singlehandedly gave Deafheaven their entire new direction. Violet Cold is already three steps into further pastures while (no shade to them, but…) a band like The Lion’s Daughter, for example, is only just discovering recently that they don’t need to care what others think and can make some of their best ever art by coloring outside the lines and USING KEYBOARDS, lol. Extreme Black metal is supposedly so transgressive and the “cutting edge” Max Martin school of pop was supposed to be ‘transformative’ as well in a much more socially palatable way than sniffing bags of dead crows before singing, but both became parodies and subsumed by narrow dogma…a Golden Dawn or Golden Ratio, hahaha (I’m dying).
Violet Cold again throws cold water in the face of multiple genres and cultural limitations in the name of exhilarating, soulful freedom. I’m convinced “Life Dimensions” is the widdly waves of music Steve Vai would dream after absorbing post-gaze into his musical hive mind like the Phalanx in X-men. Liturgy and Frantic Bleep, Candiria or Anneke van Giersbergen’s work with Devin Townsend are some of the only artists I have ever heard be this crazy and make it work so fluidly. This is a highly addictive record to inhabit awhile and a revolutionary work of art for individuality, collective love and solidarity outside the exploited, barren wasteland of capitalism’s binary Matrix. Dark Funeral once promised humorously to Teach Children To Worship Satan but in this genuine, Earth in crisis moment where we need an actual Aquarian shift, Violet Cold will teach your kid to worship possibility, learn to be themselves and above all…that it is ok to hope, despair, rage, celebrate and be complicated. And still be loved. And to the edgelord brigade stuck in the past who can’t adapt to new horizons, (not to be ageist) but as Anal C*nt once said…”You’re Old (Fuck You)”. Better an empire (Empyre?) of love in 2021 than Bard from Emperor stabbing marginalized people in Lillehammer in the 90’s.
(Reading, Pennsylvania – July 12, 2021) – Progressive death metal bandBLACK CROWN INITIATE have just announced the Doom Escape Tour 2021. The band’s U.S. headlining tour, which features support slots from Inferi and Arkaik, starts on September 30th in Reading, PA and wraps on October 17th in Manchester, NH, making stops in massive markets along the way, such as Brooklyn, Nashville, and Atlanta. Tickets are available to purchase now, HERE.
“It’s obviously been a long time coming for us all, and we couldn’t be more stoked to play the songs from “Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape” live. To be able to do that with our brothers in Inferi and Arkaik is the icing on the cake. See you all on the Doomed Escape Tour,” states BLACK CROWN INITIATE guitarist Andy Thomas.
BLACK CROWN INITIATE will be touring in support of their 2020 release, Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape (Century Media Records), which was recorded at Think Loud Studios by Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland (Rivers Of Nihil, August Burns Red, Lorna Shore). The album is available to purchase and stream,HERE.
Having released two critically hailed, fan-worshipped works of progressive death metal, 2014’s Wreckage of Stars and its 2016 follow-up Selves We Cannot Forgive, BLACK CROWN INITIATE have found a new label home with Century Media. Formed in Reading, Pennsylvania in 2012, BLACK CROWN INITIATE have created a stir that’s stretched far beyond the underground with a sound that is at once sweeping, chaotic and epic in scope and ambition. The release of Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape, which was featured on numerous “Best Albums Of 2020” lists,was no exception to the band’s impressive pedigree.
BLACK CROWN INITIATE is James Dorton (vocals), Andy Thomas (guitars), Nick Shaw (bass), and Ethan McKenna (guitars).
DOOMED ESCAPE TOUR DATES:
w/Inferi and Arkaik
September 30 – Reading, PA – Reverb
October 1 – Pittsburg, PA – Preserving Underground
October 2 – Cleveland, OH – Now That’s Class
October 3 – Indianapolis, IN – Emerson Theater
October 5 – Ft. Wayne, IN – Piere’s (Stan’s Room)
October 6 – Chicago, IL – WC Social Club
October 7 – Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room
October 8 – Dallas, TX – Reno’s
October 9 – Austin, TX – Come and Take It Live
October 10 – Houston, TX – Scout Bar
October 12 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade (Purgatory)
On June 25th,Fractal Universe will release their new album, The Impassable Horizon, via Metal Blade Records. For a first preview of the record, a video for the new single, “A Clockwork Expectation” (directed by Vincent Tournaud), can be viewed at: metalblade.com/fractaluniverse – where The Impassable Horizon can be pre-ordered on CD, vinyl, as well as digitally. Fans can also visit Fractal Universe‘s official store for additional vinyl and more: https://shop.fractaluniverseband.com/categorie-produit/the-impassable-horizon/
RIYL Cynic. Gojira, Atheist, Archspire.
Shot at Gouffre de Poudrey – France’s largest equipped cave – Fractal Universe had this to say about the video for “A Clockwork Expectation”: “We wanted this music video to be shot in a grandiose natural environment. It was a unique and unreal experience to spend two days all alone in the extreme conditions – seventy meters underground, 7°C – of this otherworldly beautiful location. In the middle section, we used UV light and customized the instruments accordingly, to give that part a particular dark vibe! The body-painting parts contributing to that atmosphere were designed by Kazim 2C.”
April 27 2021, Perth, Australia — Karnivoolpresent “The Decade of Sound Awake” livestream – an exclusive event on May 12 from the Heath Ledger Theatre in their home city of Perth, Australia.
The one-time livestream concert will see the band perform their seminal, platinum selling second album Sound Awake in its entirety plus new material and, captured on film properly for the first time, the fan favorite song, “Fade.” Tickets are available now: https://shops.ticketmasterpartners.com/karnivool-livestream.
Originally planned as a short Australian tour in early 2020, “The Decade of Sound Awake” was rescheduled (twice!) in an attempt to make the tour happen normally, safely and in the way the band had envisioned but that was not possible with what’s going on in the world.
Singer Ian Kenny says:
“Diving back into Sound Awake as a complete performance was a sweet reminder of the layers and complexity that make it one of our most important releases. The music pushes and pulls in complex directions, I continue to find something new when lost in its emotional turbulence.”
Singled out for its incredible contemporary design and unique acoustic properties, The Heath Ledger Theatre, designed by Australian architect & AIA Gold Medal winner Kerry Hill, is named in honor of the actor. The theatre sits in the CBD of Perth, the remotest city on earth and is far more accustomed to ballet, theatre and orchestra recitals – this beautiful room has not seen or heard the likes of Karnivool! The visually stunning performance was directed by Matt Sav, mixed by frequent Karnivool collaborator Jan Kerscher and brought to you by the streaming service behind the incredible Nick Cave “Idiot Prayer” performance.
In order to accommodate fans all over the world, this livestream event will be broadcast across multiple time-zones with 8 pm screenings happening for both pacific and eastern time zones. There are no restrictions on which stream can be viewed.
Karnivool acknowledges the Whadjuk Nyoongar people as the traditional custodians of the land on which we work, live and play. We pay respects to all Aboriginal elders and people, standing united towards a shared future. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
Todd La Torre has a new lyric video out for hard charging hard rock/metal hybrid track “Critical Cynic.” Check it out below. La Torre is an awesome dude with so much talent and has contributed wonderful things to the Queensrÿche legacy!
“Rejoice In The Suffering was truly a labor of love. It’s a pure metal record that certainly showcases a wide range of my vocal abilities. I feel there is something for any true fan of metal on this album. This album is full of groove, dynamics, power, and substance and I can’t wait for people to hear it,” explains Todd La Torre.
Experimental musical gymnasts GENGHIS TRON have of course returned in a new configuration. I was hesitant at first because I loved the old records but have been low key digging and absorbing the new stuff as I can check it out.
The band’s first new studio outing in over a decade, Hamilton Jordan and Michael Sochynsky are now joined by two new collaborators: vocalist Tony Wolski and Sumac/Baptists drummer Nick Yacyshyn. It helps a lot that Nick is one of the best drummers on the fucking planet and I like that Tony is not just copying their older approach.
Check out “Pyrocene” below which gives me Russian Circles/Autolux vibes in places. Order Dream Weapon HERE (with cover art that gives me Scale The Summit meets Sabbath’s Technical Ecstasy feels).
Errahave a new harsh/melodic varying track out today called “Shadow Autonomous”, a vibrant and lively complex track from their new arsenal of material. Getting BTBAM/Saosin vibes from this one a little bit. Pre Order their new release HERE.
On Thursday, March 25th at 12PM PST//3PM EST//8PM CET, The Ocean will host a special livestream show, featuring a performance of 2018’s Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic in its entirety!
The Ocean comments: “We will be performing ‘Phanerozoic I’ in its entirety on Thursday, March 25, 8PM CET – streamed live from Pier2, a shipyard in the port of Bremen, Germany. Please join to make this evening special – it will be a show without any audience in the live room. We’ll be playing for you guys at your homes, wherever they are. After more than a year of absence from playing music, we’re stoked to be getting back together to rehearse and perform – even more so, because we have a new space which we are currently transforming into our own recording studio. This is the beginning of a new era for us. We’ve battled against the inertia of 2020 with writing a whole bunch of new material, and the result is that we’ve got 2 new albums ready to record once the construction work is done. For now, there are no plans to make this available online after the event, nor to do this again, so don’t miss out on this. If this goes well, we‘ll promise to do something for ‘Phanerozoic II’ a bit later in the year. ;)”
Hungarian avant garde collective THY CATAFALQUEare now unveiling a brand new music video for the track “Napút,” which is taken from their latest album ‘Naiv.’ The video can be seen at THIS LOCATION.
Mastermind Tamás Kátai comments on the stream: “This is a video we shot in my home town, Makó. Many of these locations are the places I grew up in and although nothing fancy is going on, it was nice to get back to where the songs came from. With this one, we close the lid on ‘Naiv’ and focus on the next album.”
Nov. 13, LONDON – Periphery, who released Periphery: Live in London today, have made the 10-song album available as a hyper-limited cloudy blue vinyl variant, limited to 250 copies (https://store.periphery.net/). Vinyl purchasers will receive an exclusive bonus CD of the album.
“For years Periphery has wanted to do a live record. We’d always talk about it, what show would we capture? When would we do it? What would we want it to sound like? On November 15, 2019 we figured out the answers to those questions by capturing our entire show in London and we couldn’t be more excited to show it to everyone,” explains guitar player Jake Bowen. “London has consistently been one of our favorite places to play and this show was certainly one we’ll never forget, so we present to you our first live album…Periphery: Live in London!”
Intronaut has released a new digital single, “Run Through the Jungle” – a cover version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic! Guitarist/vocalist Sacha Dunable comments: “Sometime during the writing process for ‘Fluid Existental Inversions’, I had the idea to cover this song, from one of my favorite bands and songwriters of all time. The relatively simple harmonic structure of the original recording made for a great blank canvas for us to ‘Intronaut’ the song up quite a bit. We tracked most of the song during the ‘FEI’ session but didn’t have time to finish until this spring.”
Intronaut released their sixth full-length, Fluid Existential Inversions, this past February via Metal Blade Records. Featuring some of the most dramatic and epic sounds of their career, Fluid Existential Inversions is a unique album that stands apart from their catalogue. “We pushed ourselves to be bigger and better, musically speaking, and to me that’s the essence of progressive music,” states guitarist/vocalist Sacha Dunable. “On this album, there are drums played in ways I’ve never heard before. There are synths used in contexts I’ve never heard before. Intronaut has the most unique bass player in all of heavy metal as far as I’m concerned, and I even practiced guitar to get myself out of my comfort zone. So I think we progressed and made the best album ever.”
The gnarliest punk album of the year just dropped. Love Is A Lie, Filth Is Eternal from Filth Is Eternal (formerly F'd and B'd) reminds us that there was a time when Seattle bands were considered dangerous, when Mudhoney might jump on your face and half the roster of Sub Pop didn't look like even Starbucks wasn't gentrified enough for their tepid, pale faced indie rock bullshit. Filth Is Eternal plays an explosive blend of go for the throat, not a moment wasted punk n' roll married to Sonic Youth flirting dissonance and with tones ugly enough to make Fudge Tunnel blush and The Bronx seem like Captain & Tennille. Fronted by an actual snarling wild animal over some of the best riffs and beats you have ever heard.
This record reminds me of a show I played in 1997 with my old band Fuse where I got wasted on unclean tapline Rolling Rocks and bottom shelf whiskey after getting a tattoo and ended up rolling on a country bar floor half nude and bleeding and smearing black grime and tattoo inky residue and blood everywhere, waking up the next day feeling kind of aroused and ready to fight literally anything but also half dead. Sirhan Sirhan is gonna get out of jail and be all stoked to enter polite society and this shit will play and it will retrigger a hypnotic trance and make dude go all Winter Soldier on some dudes.
If your band doesn't bang as hard as the ending of "The Dog", just quit now.
