Monthly Archives: June 2012

Coming Soon: Krampus Reveal Title, Artwork, Release Date for Debut Full-length!

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Well, good morning!  I’m still half-asleep, or perhaps even less-than-half, but this little piece of news grabbed my attention anyway…

Italian folk-metal band Krampus, whom we’ve discussed in terms of their two EPs from 2011 (here and here), have been working on putting together their first LP.  Today they’ve unveiled the cover art (see above) as well as tracklist for the upcoming album!

Survival of the Fittest, which seems aptly named when you consider their typical subject matter of the eventual reassertion of nature’s dominance over humans and their technology, will be available on CD and digital download through NoiseArt Records on 24 August 2012.

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Free Music Alert: Grab a Free Track from Tribune’s Latest Release

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Hey there!  I’ve got good news for any fans of death metal or stoner metal, or especially, for those who like both genres equally!  British Columbians Tribune, whom I designated as “stoner/death metal” in my review of their recent double-EP album, Elder Lore/The Dark Arts, have announced that you can download one of the songs from that release for FREE!  Even better, the song in question (“Man on the Outside”) is one of the catchiest and most memorable — and in this reviewer’s opinion, one of the best — from the album.
 
  
 
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Upcoming Shows: What To Do In Pittsburgh TONIGHT (5 June 2012)

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“The original Scottish Canadian punk band”

Vancouver BC’s The Real McKenzies coming to Pittsburgh tonight!

with The Goddamn Gallows, “twanged-out punk rock gutterbilly” from Detroit

and featuring The Bloody Seamen and Ernie and the Berts

Altar Bar 1620 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh (Strip District)

Doors 6:30, Show 7:30 | $13 ADV, $15 DOS | 21+ only

 
Around for nearly two decades now, The Real McKenzies were one of the first to come up with the idea of blending old Scottish drinking song styles with punk rock music — incorporating bagpipes into all their songs (as well as appearing in traditional highland dress). You can read more about the band’s inception and their long history here; then head on out to the Altar Bar this evening for some great, rowdy fun!

Shows in the middle of the week are always tough — I’m on my way to work right now and already feeling like I’m running out of gas; knowing I have to do this again tomorrow morning makes me especially unhappy. But they’ve really sweetened the pot with the rest of this line-up: you won’t want to miss this show!

Taking the rockabilly/psychobilly concept to ridiculous new heights, The Goddamn Gallows have augmented the typical “punk band with an upright bass” arrangement by also adding mandolin, banjo, accordion, and washboard; this has prompted the band to describe themselves as old-timey “gutterbilly” punk. You can read up on their story here.

And as an added bonus, there will be two a great local opening acts — pirate rockers extraordinaire The Bloody Seamen (recently profiled by Valley of Steel here) and sleazy muppet punks Ernie and the Berts (discussed in brief a few months ago, here)!

**UPDATE: Unfortunately, I’ve just learned that The Bloody Seamen will not be able to make it to this show tonight, but the other three acts should be performing as previously scheduled.**

Find all the details you’ll ever need here, including links to all the bands’ Facebook pages, information on buying tickets, and how you can win a pair of Ernie’s pants (there’s still time to get entered, but it’s running out quickly!) As an added bonus, there are additional Facebook events here, here, and here!

The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Scent of Remains

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Good evening, blog readers of the world! Another new week has begun, which means another trip to the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website to find some new music! Remember last week when we were too hung over from a long holiday weekend and I said I had skipped over some great heavy bands in favor of something mellower and more relaxing? Well now we’re going to back it up and revisit one of the more brutal metal bands…

Scent of Remains, from Knoxville, in the eastern end of Tennessee, play some pretty heavy-hitting music that hovers somewhere between melodic death metal and a more thrash-groove-oriented style. They’ve been at it for about three years now, during which time they’ve released one full-length CD, as well as a recent EP of teaser tracks from a second album due to be released in the near future.

 
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Free Music Alert: New Compilation from ThrashHead Magazine

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Hey, Readers!  How are you on this fine Saturday evening?  Just wanted to throw up this quick update to let you know about a great new collection of FREE music you can download right now from ThrashHead Magazine!

This was brought to my attention when Armor Column posted about it on their Facebook page — the collection A Gallery of Rogues includes a song of theirs, plus a whole bunch of other great bands, like: Hellbastard, Helm, Humungus, Amebix, Arkham, Rezet, Cormorant, Ramming Speed, Out of Tune, Hell’s Thrash Horsemen, Resistant Culture, Conan, Hellkrusher, Impalers, Suicide State, Occultist, Hot Graves, SMD, Toe Tag, Slomatics, Monger, Insane, Rat Damage, Worshit, Juventud Podrida, Cain, Aphatos, Fucktard, Krang, Hollow Leg, Church of Disgust, Violentor, and Randomorder!

Grab it here:

Enjoy…

 
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ThrashHead: website, Facebook

In Case You Missed It: Banda de la Muerte – Pulso de una Mente Maldita

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Banda de la Muerte – Pulso de una Mente Maldita (29 March 2012, Zonda Records)

 
So remember about two weeks ago, when I published a review of the most recent Cultura Tres album? At that time I talked about rectifying my previous oversight of South American bands, and hinted that there were two in particular I had my eye (or, ears) on. Well this is the second one: Argentina’s Banda de la Muerte.
 
My original plan was to write up both of these reviews and post them on the same day, but then I came to the realization that there would be so much similarity between the two, that you might get some weird sense of déjà vu — hence the delay in finishing and publishing this one. Now, I’m not trying to say that the two bands are the same or that their music is very similar; that wasn’t the problem. However, the way I first got introduced to these guys was virtually identical.
 
Like Cultura Tres, the name Banda de la Muerte first came to my attention as part of a European tour with Undersmile. And also, just like their neighbors to the north, these Argentinians had a song included in the recent Grip of Delusion Radio compilation The Book of Riff-elations. Once again, the band name jumped out at me when I recognized it in the track listing, and I found that I especially enjoyed their contribution, “Parte de Mi Historia” (Part of My Story).
 
The parallels don’t end there, either, because these guys also have had two releases, with the first one (2009’s Banda de la Muerte) being offered for a free download through Bandcamp (details included at the end of this post). Their newer album, Pulso de una Mente Maldita has been out since March (via Argentina’s Zonda Records, who also handled the earlier self-titled work), but it was recently announced that (just like Cultura Tres’ El Mal del Bien) it’s now available worldwide on vinyl (details on that included later as well).
 
So as you can see, there are quite a few similarities between the two bands’ stories, and in particular, my own road to discovering them. But enough of that — now I’d like to talk about what makes Banda de la Muerte unique.
  
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