Author Archives: valleyofsteel

What To Do In Pittsburgh Tonight (22 October 2012)

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Click to enlarge image

 

Drusky Entertainment Presents:

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult 25th Anniversary Tour

with Left Spine Down, Venus in Furs, and Una de Luna

 

at the Altar Bar

1620 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh (Strip District)

 

Monday 22 October 2012 | 7:00PM Show, 6:00PM Doors | $18 ADV, $20 DOS | 21+ only

 
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult (TKK) began their career twenty-five years ago with Chicago’s Wax Trax! Records, and are now considered highly influential in the hybridization of industrial rock with electronic dance music. To celebrate this quarter-century milestone, the band is currently touring all over the country (see the full list of dates in the image at the top of this page), including a stop at Pittsburgh’s Altar Bar tonight.

Along for the ride is Canadian cyberpunks Left Spine Down (LSD), and starting things off for the evening will be a pair of local electronic artists, Venus in Furs and Una de Luna.

Grab your tickets ahead of time here, then check out more details at the Drusky Concert Calendar here and on the Facebook event page here.

The Metal Wreckage Daily Steel: Get Amon Amarth’s Entire Discography!

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Hey guys, have you all seen this yet? Metal Wreckage recently started sending out a daily e-mail message, offering a big discount on boxed sets or collections of CDs. Something different every day. PLUS there’s free shipping (within the U.S.)! It’s definitely worth checking out — sign up for your FREE account here.

Right now they’ve got packages of all eight Amon Amarth albums: Once Sent from the Golden Hall, The Avenger, The Crusher, Versus the World, Fate of Norns, With Oden on Our Side, Twilight of the Thunder God, and Surtur Rising! And almost all of them are reissued special editions with extra discs of bonus content!

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MAKE Announce a New EP, to be Released Soon!

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So the North Carolinian blackish post-something-or-other band MAKE just saw their album Trephine (read my review here, in which I invent the term “post-atmospheric-blackened-doom-metal”) released on vinyl by Devouter Records not quite three months ago, and the original self-release (online and on CD) was just over four months earlier.

However, they apparently didn’t want to sit around and waste any time before getting back to work, because this morning the band announced that not only had they completed work on a new three-song EP, but that it’s all ready to be released in just thirteen days!

 

On November 1st, 2012 we’ll be releasing our latest EP, Axis, on Black Iron Records (that’s us) as a digital download via Bandcamp. We’ll include a PDF of liner notes then, but for now here’s the cover art [above] and tracklisting:

1. Axis
2. Chimera
3. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

 
You can be sure I’ll be bringing you more information about this as soon as I know anything new, but in the meantime you can keep an eye on the band using the assortment of links below…

 
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MAKE: blog, Facebook, Bandcamp

Git Ahtta Tahn! (Your VOS Travel Guide for 19-20 October 2012)

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Sometimes you just feel like you need to get away from it all. If you feel like that either tonight or tomorrow, and you want to catch some great bands in the process, BUT you don’t want to go more than a few hours away, I’ve got just what you need right here.

Or maybe you don’t even live in Pittsburgh. I know there are people who read this blog from all over the place. So maybe you’re already in Ohio, or someplace closer to these shows than to the ones happening in Pittsburgh. In any case, here’s some info about some really cool shit.

 
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What To Do In Pittsburgh Tonight (19 October 2012)

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Looking for some live entertainment to entertain yourself with in Pittsburgh on this Friday evening? Here are some great options you might wish to consider…..

 
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Carpathian Forest Frontman: “Fuck You All!!!”

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Formed more than twenty years ago (in Norway, despite the eastern European name) and with a plentiful number of releases under their (presumably studded leather) belts, black/blackened thrash band Carpathian Forest have remained relatively quiet over the past few years.

Naturally, as is often the case when longstanding groups lapse into a period of inactivity, whispers began to circulate through the grapevine that their dissolution was imminent, as well as a variety of reasons for this turn of events — most prominently (again, as is often the case) being attributed to a communication breakdown or a falling-out among the band’s members.

Recently, though, the band have been appearing on a gradually increasing number of festival line-ups for 2013 (including a first-ever appearance in these United States!), and so it has become clear that these rumors have been exaggerated — if not outright fabricated.

 

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Vesperia – Voyage from Vinland (FREE DOWNLOAD, LIMITED TIME ONLY!!)

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Vesperia – Voyage from Vinland (self-released, 08 January 2011)

 
Ladies and gentlemen and whoever else might be out there reading this:

This coming Saturday — the 20th of October — blackened folk/pagan metal band Vesperia are headlining a show in the band’s hometown of Oshawa, Ontario (city motto = “Prepare to be amazed.” I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.) Also appearing will be Battlesoul, Will of the Ancients, and Unbowed, and for more details on the event you can check out this page.

Anyway, in celebration of this occasion, Vesperia wanted to do something special for their fans. Giving away downloads of their new demo EP from earlier this year (The Swordsman) wouldn’t work though, because they’ve already done that (see here for a full write-up about that release) — so instead they’ve decided to give away their previous album for free!

Voyage from Vinland was actually the first (and only) full-length album released by Bolero (in January of last year), prior to that band changing its name to Vesperia. But the whole thing — all eleven tracks, forty-five minutes of it — has been re-released digitally under their new name on their Bandcamp page, and for this week ONLY you can download all of it absolutely FREE! This is only supposed to last until Saturday’s show, though, so ACT FAST!!

 

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What To Do In Pittsburgh Tonight (18 October 2012)

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Drusky Entertainment Presents:

The Misfits

with special guests The Attack, Revenge Memorial, Gods & Aliens, A Lovely Crisis

 

at the Altar Bar

1620 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh (Strip District)

 

Thursday 18 October 2012 | 7:00pm Show, 6:00 Doors | $23 ADV, $25 at door | ALL AGES

 
It’s the motherfucking Misfits, what more is there to say? The band was formed thirty-five years ago, and even though bassist (and now vocalist) Jerry Only is the only original member remaining, their popularity has never wavered. They’re currently touring the nation with Florida’s The Attack, and now visiting Pittsburgh alongside a handful of local openers.

Come on out to the Altar Bar tonight — (and see if perhaps the atmosphere of the venue inspires Jerry to dust off some of the tunes from his old Christian metal band Kryst the Conqueror!)

Get your tickets here, or find more info at the Drusky concert calendar here, or Facebook events here and here.

Some Shocking News About Krampus’ Drummer

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(NOTE: this photo is apparently now outdated)

 
The mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, for all its over-the-top ridiculous storylines and dialogue, nevertheless must have been extensively researched prior to being written and produced.  So often do touring and recording artists encounter similarly ludicrous situations (or similarly terrible luck) resembling the fictional band from that film, that “a Spinal Tap moment” has basically entered our lexicon as a widely-understood descriptive term for such an event.  In fact, I’ve heard that many longtime music industry veterans don’t even see the movie as a comedy, because so much of it rings just a little too true-to-life.

Having said all that, I’d like to share a bit of news with you, which honestly can only be accurately described as “a Spinal Tap moment.”

Northern Italian modern folk metal octet Krampus recently found themselves temporarily reduced to a septet, as they are currently finalizing the process of replacing their drummer.

Effective immediately, the band announced, former drummer Carlo is no longer a part of the band, due to the fact that he has been struck by lightning.
 
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Coming Soon: Fen Wrapping Up Work on Third Album

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So here’s some more exciting news coming from Italian label Code666 Records: the final details are coming together for a forthcoming release by UK progressive/atmospheric black metal band Fen, which the band just finished working on — this will be their third full-length album, and also their third release through Code666.

Not only that, but Fen have also renewed their contract with the label for another three album deal!

 
Frontman The Watcher stated:

We have been happy with the way we’ve been treated by Code666 in respect of the first three albums, and were impressed by the enthusiasm that the label has always shown for Fen and the faith they have placed in us, so it was logical for us to continue a relationship that was obviously working well.

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