Metal Riot

It is not often you hear someone as clearly at home with a guitar in their hands as true virtuoso Al Joseph. I don’t listen to mostly instrumental guitarists that often, though I do get down to some Marty Friedman and love Scale The Summit, but I was so blown away when I heard Al Joseph’s recent stratospheric All Of Creation record that I had to track the man down and ask him about writing it, his technique, inspirations, hope and dreams, etc.

What a cool person! I promise if you listen to this record you will be very inspired to create, experience and LIVE! Satriani, Pettruci, Townsend Project and Reid fans will be into this for sure, but really you don’t have to love technical leads to find a human element here to latch on to. We here at Metal Riot highly advise you make some time for Al’s amazing art.

Read MORE BELOW.

Barishi are a band more fans of the proggy side of more extreme metal should really be aware of if they aren’t already, combining melodic and intricate guitar passages with pained chords barely contained by the marching and elaborate yet tasteful rhythms. Almost like a more harsh yet compatible cousin of some of the Hark or Baroness stuff with much more snarling than bellowed vocals, Barishi’s Blood From The Lion’s Mouth turned some heads in late 2016. Here and there a few of the guitar textures even remind me slightly of Quicksand (who incidentally have a new fuckin’ record on the way).

Anyhow, Barishi are headed out on a short Eastern Canadian run in early September. The band will be making stops in Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec city, and more.

BARISHI Tour dates
Sep. 7 Montreal, QC @ Piranha Bar
Sep. 8 Ottawa, ON @ House of Targ
Sep. 10 Quebec City, QC @ L’Anti
Sep. 11 Portland, ME @ Geno’s

The progressive blackened metallic vikings of Enslaved have released a new video for “Storm Son” from pending record E. As ever, the band remain one of the premiere extreme metal groups who actually continue to grow and challenge audiences while remaining awesome. Comments on the album and video below.

The cover artwork was once again hand-painted by our friend and artist Truls Espedal and this time around we are also very happy to announce a few guest musicians on board for the songs “Hiindsiigh”‘ and ‘”Feathers Of Eolh”, including our dear friend of Wardruna Einar Kvitrafn Selvik as well as flutistDaniel Mage and jazz saxophonist Kjetil Møster.

Ivar explains about the title E:
“The concept of the album lies in both its meaning as a letter in the latin alphabet, and it’s runic reference: the rune “Ehwaz”, that is depicted as an “M” when drawn as rune (just to make sure it gets really confusing) – the runes are drawn to look like what they literally mean. Ehwaz (pronounced and used as what’s known as E, but drawn as an “M”) looks like and means ‘horse’. Which is closely linked to its esoteric meaning; which is ‘trust’ and ‘co-operation’. One of mankind’s oldest and deepest pairings/collaborations with any “outside” entities is with the horse. When they were first tamed and utilised there must have arisen the notion of some esoteric link between the two; now we could move swiftly, escape faster and even eat and drink from the animal (both horse milk and horse blood), and of course show off and brag before our enemies and peers with the most spectacular horses.
So, no, it is not about horses! It is about the symbioses that surrounds us; which are vital to our existence, to our development – on all scales: man and vessel (for instance horse, yes), a person and its significant other, child and parent, musician and instrument, chaos and order, subconscious and conscious, Oden and Sleipnir – wisdom and communication. There are many levels and variations of this concept on the album; the duality of man and nature, present and past personalities within one self, the conscious fear and the subconscious drive. And other symbiosis.”

The video was designed by the mega talented Josh Graham of A Storm Of Light/Battle Of Mice/Neurosis fame. E is out October 13th on Nuclear Blast.

Prog djent technicians Periphery have announced a tour with Animals As Leaders plus Car Bomb and Astronoid on select dates. Any date is sure to be a night of unique music you won’t forget.

The Convergence Tour with Animals As Leaders is happening this fall! Car Bomb and Astronoid will also be on select dates! Tickets go on sale Friday at 10am local time.

Keep up on tickets/RSVPs HERE.

ORPHANED LAND are excited to reveal plans for a headlining North American tour later this fall following their featured performance at the prestigious ProgPower USA festival in Atlanta, GA on September 6. The tour will feature support from Swedish industrial metal outfit PAIN and Chinese metallists’ Voodoo Kungfu on select dates. See the above tour admat or find full dates listed at the bottom of this page. Tickets are on sale now!

Vocalist and founding member Kobi Farhi comments, “After 6 years of absence we are thrilled to be back and tour North America! We’ve missed all our fans all over the States and can’t wait to rock you all. Let’s all get ready for some Oriental Metal party!”

ORPHANED LAND recently celebrated their 25th year anniversary with a digital compilation featuring special versions of some of their most popular songs and previously unreleased material titled, “Orphaned Land & Friends”.

Stream and download the album now HERE.

Tour dates BELOW.

There are some records I have been waiting for a long time, such as Blackguard’s troubled Storm. Others that are in progress but aren’t near to being done such as the next Wax Idols, for example. Then there are bands like Icelandic rock band SÓLSTAFIR who I don’t follow super closely but am certainly a true fan of. Everything they have done has been stellar and moving stuff, like a kind of Sigur Rós with black metal roots.

I met a film director the other day rocking one of their t shirts and we had a spirited discussion about how great they are. This made me also recall that they had sorted some inner band issues and have a new record almost upon us. In fact, it is called Berdreyminn and is due this May 26th! This one seems to also explore some more of their hard rock influences, but in very non conformist ways.

The album, produced by Birgir Birgirsson (SIGUR RÓS, ALCEST) and Jaime Gomez-Arellano (GHOST, PARADISE LOST, ULVER), is lauded as “a compelling journey that offers ’80’s-style synths, chuggy rock riffing, Pink Floyd-y prog overtones, sweeping Fields of the Nephilim guitars, haunting orchestral arrangements and occasional metallic crunch” (Decibel Magazine) and is available across multiple formats at the Season of Mist E-Shop.

SÓLSTAFIR recently unveiled all of the stunning new music from Berdreyminn. The album stream appears alongside an interview with vocalist Aðalbjörn Tryggvason at Noisey. Dive into another special experience from this smart and original group pushing the boundaries of our scene now.

EARTH ELECTRIC, the hard rock brainchild of Norwegian guitarist Rune Eriksen (ex-MAYHEM, AURA NOIR, TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, ex-AVA INFERI) are streaming another new track off their forthcoming album, ‘Vol. 1: Solar’. The track, a symphonic hard rock opus titled “The Endless Road” is streaming now, here.

Regarding the new track, EARTH ELECTRIC comments:

“We have chosen ‘The Endless Road’ as the third and final single from ‘Vol.1 Solar’. This one used to be called ‘Burn’ when it was in my Cubase folder – most likely due to the umpteen amount of times I’ve traveled abroad with that glorious Deep Purple album on my headphones. Somehow something must have slipped in; however, I digress. For me, this song represents something alluring and charming yet indefinitely old, something untamed and wild, something that transcribes perfectly into our unique take on hard rock. Carmen’s interest in Gypsy magic and aesthetics is massively present in the lyrics and the hypnotic melodies move forward in a carefree and sort of ‘unattached’ way assisting the music. To be honest, what is a rock band without having a song dedicated to these mysterious traveling people?”

As the press release says: ‘Vol. 1: Solar’, sees the renowned musician joined by front-woman Carmen Simoes (ex-AVA INFERI, ex-MOONSPELL), and marks a return to his roots by exploring a more progressive sound firmly based on rock music. Recorded in Orgone Studio with acclaimed producer Jaime Gomez Arellano (GHOST, CATHEDRAL, PARADISE LOST, PRIMORDIAL), ‘ Vol. 1: Solar’ will be released via Season of Mist worldwide on May 12.

I interviewed Rune once for the defunct Crusher Magazine years ago in the real Myspace days when he was in Ava Inferi and he was great to talk to. So cool to know he is doing music with Carmen again, one of the greatest singers in rock and metal who deserves way more acclaim. I also felt Mayhem was never as powerful again since Rune left, though they tried.

‘ Vol. 1: Solar’ is available for pre-order across multiple CD and LP formats at the Season of Mist E-Shop.

The artwork  was illustrated by Costin Chioreanu (GHOST, WATAIN, MAYHEM).