Metal Riot

Monday July 26th 2021 – In a show of force for the band and the loud music genre overall, Knotfest, the music and counterculture experience created by the multi-platinum sonic phenomenon Slipknot, has today announced the band’s biggest Los Angeles headline performance yet, Knotfest Los Angeles, at Banc of California Stadium on Friday November 5th. Knotfest Los Angeles will see Slipknot performing at this stadium for the first time, with a stacked line-up also including Bring Me The Horizon, Killswitch Engage, Fever 333, Code Orange and Vended, with a special guest appearance from Cherry Bombs. Check out the trailer below.

Taking a break from enjoying Henry Rollins camp it up as Tri-Klops to give you all a little death metal fix for your weekend. I had never heard BIZARRE from Spain before this morning and am really enjoying the mix of melodic soloing with the plague ridden corpse-like weight of the marching and oppressive main, rougher sound. This band crushes!

I was especially struck by the ominous might of the beastly vocals of Mark Berserk (APOSENTO), certainly some of the most head turning death metal vocals I have heard in awhile!

Transcending Obscurity will continue their tradition of high quality releases and merchandise with the gift of darkness that shall arrive when Invocation Codex is birthed upon the unsuspecting world! You will head bang! Check out ‘Ex Oblivione’ today (or also peep the Lovecraftian death of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” on the label Bandcamp. Along with Crypts Of Despair and Revulsion, Bizarre prove that Transcending Obscurity is right near the front of the pack in upholding the oozing, pungent legacy of death metal in 2021!

Photo credit: Bob Hannam

Those zany MELVINS (one of my all time biggest influences) have announced a huge upcoming acoustic release, Five Legged Dog. WAY cooler than Five Finger Donkey Punch! I never thought I would type the phrase “acoustic Night Goat”, but here we are. Strange pandemic times, indeed. Fear not, shit is going to rule. I love how the aforementioned “Night Goat” (below) still has Dale basically wailing the shit out of his drums in parts at full volume. Some of the tunes on here I literally cannot imagine acoustic, classic barn burner “Revolve” or solid wall of heavy grooves “Anaconda” among them. Rad to see “Lovely Butterfly” included from Honky. I can imagine that getting warped and mutated into something really cool, as the original was already a total headfuck.

Five Legged Dog (Oct. 15, Ipecac Recordings), a 36-song newly recorded, acoustic collection featuring a career-spanning collection of songs, from 1987’s Gluey Porch Treatments to 2017’s A Walk With Love & Death, the entire gamut of the legendary band’s catalogue is represented.

“I knew I wanted to do something ridiculously big,” explains Buzz Osborne of the band’s first ever acoustic offering. ”36 songs reimagined by us acoustically is certainly ridiculous but it works. The magic of the songs is still there regardless of it being acoustic. Since we weren’t touring we had the time to do something of this size. I’m very excited about this record. Dale and Steven did a fantastic job on this. I think it’s a very special record. I can’t think of anyone else who’s done something like this.”

The band previews the impressive offering with the release of “Night Goat” (https://youtu.be/v61lPiqCr-w). Dale Crover noted: “I think people will be surprised that we can do an acoustic version of a song like ‘Night Goat’ without losing any of the heaviness. We also worked hard on the vocal arrangements. People are going to freak out!”

Five Legged Dog track list BELOW.

Photo Credit: David Robinson

Massachusetts legends CAVE IN have signed to Relapse Records and will release a new full-length album in 2022. In conjunction with the signing, CAVE IN has re-released nearly their entire digital catalog including studio albums, compilations and various live/demo material. The catalog includes Until Your Heart Stops, Jupiter, Tides of Tomorrow, White Silence and more! A full digital release list is available below. Stay tuned for more CAVE IN news including physical releases of the band’s classic catalog.

CAVE IN comments on the signing:

“Cave In and Relapse have been on each other’s radar since the early days, when we’d visit Philly on a regular basis to play shows. They’ve witnessed our wild trajectory as a band firsthand, and having that historical connection with such a powerfully eclectic label is really something special. Massive thanks to everyone at Relapse for honoring our catalog, while fueling the incentive to create new music and continue onward.”

Additionally, two new CAVE IN shirts are available based on classic designs with more to come in the near future. Order the two new CAVE IN shirts HERE.

CAVE IN currently has two confirmed live performances at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, NY on December 1 and 2. Stay tuned for more tour updates.

Listen and order CAVE IN’s discography on Bandcamp HERE.

Greg (Reaper), Gerre, Flori (Reaper) and Frank

Reaper Entertainment proudly announces the signing of the German thrash metal legends TANKARD.

In 1982, when four longhaired metal maniacs from Frankfurt am Main, Germany decided to found a band named TANKARD, nobody expected them to still be going almost four decades later. Not to mention being at the top of the German thrash metalscene! But they are still alive and kicking, and throughout these years there’s barely been a blip in their path!

Now, the band signed a world wide record deal with the up-and-coming label REAPER ENTERTAINMENT EUROPE.

The band states:
“We had really great and successful years with Nuclear Blast, not least because of the sensational collaboration with Florian Milz and Andy Siry.
We are all the more happy to continue the success story with Flori on his own label Reaper. We expect from our new label not only full-page advertisements in all relevant daily newspapers, but also at least one placement in the Top 10 of the official German charts with our next album! Otherwise there`s riots……………stay heavy , thirsty and healthy!“

Flori Milz (Managing Director of REAPER ENTERTAINMENT) states:
“My time with Nuclear Blast probably wouldn’t have been so great if we hadn’t signed my favourite Hessians from TANKARD at some point. A great friendship developed between me and the band. I flew along to shows in other countries as tour manager/merchandiser, was dragged to all kinds of stages by Gerre and often got lost in pubs with the guys. When I left Nuclear Blast, I set myself the goal of bringing TANKARD to my own label REAPER – come what may. And I am overjoyed that this has now worked out and that we will continue to write the history of the band together. Welcome to the Reaper-Family – and now, lets get wasted!”

TANKARD are going to enter the studio later this year to record the Soundtrack for the 40th anniversary.
More Info about the new album soon.

Even if a lot has changed over the last three decades, one thing has remained the same: TANKARD are four metal maniacs from Frankfurt – authentic, loud and sometimes drunk. And this will likely stay the same for the next 40 years!

TANKARD are:
Gerre (Vocals)
Andi (Guitars)
Olaf (Drums)
Frank (Bass)

Photo Credit: Yulia Jennings

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 Cold as 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.