Zaum are not your average doom band, combining sitar, bass and drums with mantra and lengthy compositions to electrifying effect. The more esoteric side of OM comes to mind a bit here and there but really this band are on mostly their own trip and it is well worth discovering for new fans. Recent album Eidolon is a rewarding late 2016 release you might have missed.
Now the group are set to tour Canada in August with their friends in Flying Fortress. Dates BELOW.
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Updated tour dates for the impending hive mind smasher of a tour between quite the gathering of extreme and visionary acts Thou, False, Cloud Rat and Moloch can be found as above and so below.
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I feel like I must have misread this but the press release for the Blacktop Mojo Where The Wind Blows Tour coming up says: Keep an eye out all summer for new dates on the band’s Facebook page. As a thank you to their friends, fans, and supporters, ALL of the shows will be free.
Dang, dude. That is some fan service! Hope the fans appreciate such a big gesture and buy some merch. It could be a good promotional play or costly, but either way it is certainly a pretty rad move on the part of the Palestine, TX hard rock band. Currently creating a growing buzz with their new album Burn The Ships, Black Top Mojo’s got the kind of working class hard rock with muscular riffs but radio crossover appeal that fans of bands like Candlebox , Zac Brown Band or Adelita’s Way will appreciate. Nothing too flashy here, just people loving big rock.
More info BELOW.
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Happy metal Monday to you, comrades. I was up at seven doing some chores and jogging, reflecting back on an eventful weekend. We have a lot of news for you but I am not doing a ton of posting today so here is a little start your week condenser of a few announcements in one.
. Mastodon have extended their U.S. headline tour starting on September 26 in Orlando, FL at Hard Rock Live with continued support from Eagles of Death Metal and Russian Circles. The tour also includes stops at several festivals, including the High Elevation Fest in Denver, CO and Louder Than Life Festival in Louisville, KY. Mastodon will also be playing a series of headline shows in the U.K. this December including Brixton Academy in London, England on December 10. Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 16 at 10:00 am local time. Tickets can be purchased at mastodonrocks.com/tour.
. Prog deather’s NYN featuring multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Noyan Tokgozoglu and guitarist Tom “Fountainhead” Geldschläger have a new album Entropy: Of Chaos and Salt.
An early teaser video for the album is now live and can be heard HERE
Pre-orders for Entropy: Of Chaos and Salt are now live here:
https://nynmetal.bandcamp.com/album/entropy-of-chaos-and-salt
. Power Trip have announced dates with Obituary and Exodus. Their latest must hear thrasher Nightmare Logic is out now on Southern Lord and has some of the best songs in the genre you’ll hear anytime soon; stream the record at YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, and find ordering options at THIS LOCATION. It’s a blast.
Lastly, I am going through some family stuff with some fake Christian types and it sent me into a bad mood this past weekend sticking up for an older sibling. I got all sibling defensive as a result. That’s my family. Later in the weekend I ended up posting a different complaint or two directed at Coheed and Cambria for still not acknowledging my youngest sister Cambria is a real person and I also took to task a lot of blogs in general for giving them a pass on this. I was just talking to their original drummer Nate, who is one of my best friends, a few minutes ago. While I do want peace with and also for them – as we have a very troubled history – I can’t do all the emotional labor myself. I am at times VERY manic depressive, non binary and have a lot of ptsd from some very bad shit.
Why run a blog when you have depression? Well, most of the time I am pretty high function but I am still human.
If I have a bad day it can unlock a lot of stuff that is normally on the shelf. It is hard knowing you want to be peaceful but then having some outside push rip off all your scabs. I feel like Claudio hates me but I would really appreciate if he and the band would tell the truth and give my sister respect as a person. People just tell me to let it go because they never will but I think that is unfair. I used to even open for them after the initial band name change from Shabutie and it was cool for awhile but then our friendship deteriorated so badly and then my sis got erased completely. She doesn’t deserve that. It is very hard for me to ever concede that point and I don’t know how any of their feminist fans among the fence ranks could pass that off.
But anyway, I don’t hate them but as someone who struggles with major depression I wish they could also show me the mutual respect of real closure and acknowledge this. It would completely nullify the risk of these outbursts. It is hard working in music and people want favors or press help but meanwhile I have complained about this forever yet whenever it comes up people say ,”What about your integrity as a journalist?”. Um, it shows less integrity of other places to not discuss it for fifteen years or so now. So my word as a journalist only has value when I am helping a label sell something, not raising critical points on a topic just because it is personal?
That said, I really do want to be cool and let it go. Often I am able to do so. But also need their help a bit. I have anxiety attacks and mood problems and when I bury unresolved things it is only a matter of time before the lid pops off. So please be cool back to me, guys.
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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.
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Indiana progressive metallers The Contortionist have released a music video for their song “Reimagined.”
The video for “Reimagined” is the first music video off of the band’s forthcoming full-length album Clairvoyant which will be released on September 15 via Entertainment One Music and Good Fight Music.
Keyboardist Eric Guenther spoke on the album:
“’Clairvoyant’ is the product of not only months of writing and recording dozens of song ideas over the last year, but also a definitive creative artifact outlining the artistic confluence of the six members of The Contortionist for our past and future endeavors. Collectively, we’re feeling proud, apprehensive, but ultimately excited to finally have this record speak for us as a meticulously sculpted voyage into our musical psyche. On album and stage, between the art’s presentation, zealous and even forceful sonic immersion, and interpretable lyrical and visual metaphor, we are attempting to bring the listener deeper into the world and musical language of The Contortionist. ‘Reimagined’ struck everyone simply as the most truthful and sincere place to start in this new universe.”
Check out the video for “Reimagined” as well as the cover art and tracklist for Clairvoyant and The Contortionist tour dates here.
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Ontario rockers Abandoned Souls have premiered a lyric video for their song “Make It Last.”
You can check out the lyric video for “Make It Last” over at Metal Nation Radio.
The song is the title track off of the EP that Abandoned Souls released last April.
The band comments on the EP:
“We want to give the fans a pure and unfiltered listening experience, one that reflects us and where we are at in our musical journey and our lives. It is as much a reflection of who we are as musicians as it is of us as people. The philosophy behind “’Make It Last’ is a reference to always trying to make the good times in life last as long as you can. As much as possible, try to live every minute like it could be your last…Time is fleeting, so…Make It Last!”
Check out the cover art for Make It Last as well as Abandoned Souls show dates here.
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Oakland blackened thrashers Wilderness Dream have premiered their song “The Observer” over at Decibel.
“The Observer” comes off of the band’s forthcoming EP Paralysis Rise out July 14 via Creator-Destructor Records.
Wilderness Dream guitarist/vocalist and label owner Ben Murray proclaims:
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to bring you the first single from our upcoming second EP! After some deliberation, we came to the consensus that ‘The Observer’ was the most violent, crushing preview of the tone of this record, and we hope that you all enjoy it! ‘The Observer’ is the closing track on Paralysis Rise, and definitely reveals the shift in our sound towards a darker, less melodic realm of the blackened thrash metal universe…Turn the lights down and turn that shit up!”
Wilderness Dream will be hitting California the first week of August, you can check out those tour dates and music from the band’s bandcamp here.
North Carolina metallers Between The Buried and Me are preparing to embark on a tour in support of the tenth anniversary of their album Colors.
The tour will feature The Contortionist, Polyphia, and Toothgrinder as support.
Between The Buried And Me comments:
“‘Colors’ was our statement of rebellion. We were challenging how others identified us in the context of heavy metal, and ultimately we were challenging how we identified ourselves. It was some kind of musical manifesto, in which we found new purpose and direction simply by throwing caution to the wind and purging every ounce of creative energy we had, regardless of how unhinged it may have seemed at the time. Ten years have passed and we are lucky enough to be able to play this album from front to back on stage for our amazing fans. See you all soon!”
Check the tour dates out here.
Virginia’s Inter Arma have announced a new stretch of European tour dates with Der Weg einer Freiheit.
Inter Arma will be on tour starting May 25 with Pallbearer and Gatecreeper. They will start their tour with Der Weg einer Freiheit on September 21 and that tour will run til October 14.
Check out the full list of tour dates here.
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Morbid Angel have announced a headlining tour that will see support from Revocation, Suffocation and Withered.
Revocation will be touring in support of their sixth full-length, Great Is Our Sin, released last year via Metal Blade Records.
The tour is starting May 23 at The Beacham in Orlando, Florida and is running through til June 27, where the tour will wrap up at the House of Blues in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Check the full list of tour dates here.
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Vancouver’s Anciients are an astounding act who wield extreme metal, a semi-melodic sludge ala Blood Mountain Mastodon’s heavier moments and more progressive or Tool-esque elements into their own can of wyrms. My favorite track from them “Pentacle” is a perfect introduction if you have never heard it.
The band’s 2016 effort Voice of the Void was quite worthy and gets the full Metal Riot seal of approval…which means I have head banged to it and spilled coffee on myself more than once at this point in my life, basically. Now the band are returning to America to back up the warriors of Goatwhore for a tour that shall yield utmost conquest, beyond a doubt!
Dates BELOW.
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Hickory, North Carolina symphonic metallers Rapheumets Well are preparing to tear up Mexico.
The tour is in support of the band’s upcoming album Enders Door out via Test Your Metal Records on May 26.
The tour will have four dates: two in Mexico City, one in Queretaro and one in San Luis Potosi.
If this is your introduction to Rapheumets Well, get ready for some gurgling, growly, death metal inspired symphonic metal with plenty going on between the layers of instrumentation without ever seeming crowded or busy. Well worth a listen!!
Check out the full list of tour dates as well as videos for “Ghost Walkers Exodus” and the title track “Enders Door” here.
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Defy The Tide have been placing themselves in as many circumstances that will spread their music to the masses as they can since forming in 2014. The Pittsburgh, PA melodic metal band has just released a new music video for their current single "Traced In Flames", a meld of metalcore and classic heavy metal elements paired with the warm voice of Carly Simon-Warneke. She almost sounds like a female version of Devil You Know's Howard Jones' famous clean vocals. We ship a duet, please! The cool song comes from their four track EP, Soteria which was produced by John Burke of Vibe Studios and released this past April.
