Author Archives: valleyofsteel

Michale Graves – War of Information Tour Update + Drug Bust News

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Good morning, my dear friends and faithful readers! I’ve got more news to report and more album reviews to share, and it’ll all get published eventually so bear with me — it just happens to be a pretty busy time of year for corporate office job slaves such as myself (what with everyone around me taking week-long vacations constantly, leaving me with piles of excess crap to deal with).

Anyway, I wanted to remind you about the Michale Graves “War of Information Tour” that’s still going on (read my earlier post about the tour here or just catch a summary of the remaining dates at the end of this one). Particularly for western or central Pennsylvania readers — note that there’s a stop in Altoona tonight, and once again The Cheats will be enlisted as an opening act!

While we’re on the subject, though, I also wanted to pass along a little tidbit of news (courtesy of Screaming Crow Records) that you might have missed hearing about…

UPDATE – 18 September 2012 – click here to see the latest additions to the War of Information Tour dates!

 
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Now Available: Laster – Wijsgeer & Narreman (FREE Download!)

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Laster – Wijsgeer & Narreman (cassette release 01 June 2012, CD release 01 August 2012; both via Dunkelheit Produktionen)

 
Good afternoon, readers! Are you having a good day so far? I hope so. I know it’s still Monday, but at least it’s almost over, right?

Anyway, I’ve got an excellent serving of black metal I’d like to share with you all. Laster (“libel” or “defamation” in English) is a two-piece band from the Netherlands. Each of the members is also involved in other musical projects, but they both use initials as pseudonyms (and both are credited with “vocals and all instruments”) so it isn’t much use trying to discuss that.

In fact, outside of their city (Utrecht) and country of origin, pretty much everything else about this band is mysterious. They don’t even have a Facebook or Myspace page (as far as I have been able to discover). In a way it’s a shame, because I do like to find as much information as possible so I can be more knowledgeable about what I’m writing about.

At the same time, isn’t part of the allure of black metal its arcane nature, that sense of mysteriousness? Perhaps sometimes the ease with which the internet has put nearly limitless information at our fingertips can actually detract a bit from the magic? Turn the extraordinary and unique into something familiar and commonplace?

In any case, that’s the extent of the details I am able to share. Even the EP title and each of the three song titles have aluded my translation (via Google) abilities. I’ve been able to pick out a few words, but not enough to decipher anything meaningful. For example, the record is called Wijsgeer & Narreman; apparently the first word means “philosopher” or “sage” but the second part has no results however hard I try searching. Perhaps one of my helpful Dutch friends will want to offer some assistance?

 
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What To Do In Pittsburgh Tonight (13 August 2012)

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Allure of the Earth Productions Presents:

Goatwhore, Exhumed, Cerebral Bore, Wrought Iron

 

at the 31st Street Pub

3101 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh (end of the Strip)

 

Monday 13 August 2012 | 10pm | $10 | 21+ only

 
Well, the Summer Slaughter Tour won’t be stopping in Pittsburgh this year — they’re going straight from yesterday’s Heavy TO Festival in Toronto to Cleveland’s House of Blues tomorrow (full list of dates here).

However, some of the bands associated with that tour — and, I might add, some of the ones that I’d be most interested in seeing! — have decided to take advantage of their downtime today, by putting on an abridged version of Summer Slaughter at the 31st Street Pub!

Tonight’s show will feature Goatwhore — whom some people neglect to take seriously on account of them having a sort of goofy name, but believe me, these New Orleanians are the real deal, blackened as a Cajun catfish. The tourmates accompanying them will be Californian goregrind legends Exhumed and Scottish female-fronted brutal deathcore band Cerebral Bore. To kick off the festivities, local support will be provided by Pittsburgh’s own blackened-grind miscreants, Wrought Iron.

 
Find more details on the show, and RSVP, here and here.

Coming Soon: New Daylight Dies Album – Details Revealed

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Ladies and gentlemen, here’s another bit of news I am very pleased to pass along to you. This was actually announced a couple weeks ago, but I didn’t really get a chance to write about it until now.

Daylight Dies is an excellent, excellent melodic-death/doom band, which I was first introduced to with their appearance on a couple Relapse Records samplers (Contaminated 5.0 and VI included the songs “I Wait” and “The Line that Divides,” respectively, both taken from the band’s debut full-length, 2002’s No Reply) — the same way I discovered Neurosis (“The Tide” and “A Sun that Never Sets,” respectively, appeared on those same collections) and literally dozens of other artists that I fell in love with in the early part of this millennium.

Anyway, fast-forwarding through the next decade, Daylight Dies went on to sign with Candlelight Records and put out two more albums, and now we find that Candlelight is set to release a third (the band’s fourth overall, for those keeping score at home)…

 
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Toxic Waste Split – 3rd Pressing Now Available!

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Good morning, readers, and a very happy Monday to you!

Or at least, a non-terrible one, if at all possible.

Remember the Toxic Waste split? Where Tankcrimes put together a couple songs by Municipal Waste and a couple by Toxic Holocaust, put them on each side of some uniquely colored vinyl, then slapped some ridiculously cool artwork on the front?

If not, I’ll give you a quick refresher on all the press coverage we’ve done so far: here was the story from May, about the initial pressing, which goes into a bit of detail about both bands, and the artwork, and also described the brilliant glow-in-the-dark vinyl (which was already sold out forever ago). Here was the story from June, right around the same time the first pressing was released, saying that the first thousand had already disappeared, but that a second set were available (and also that the four songs could be downloaded FOR FREE).

Well, the second thosand records also got snapped up pretty quickly — at this time there are still a few of the “Highlighter Yellow” and the green-yellow-blue “Striped” available, but less than a dozen of those are left! The “Toxic Spill” variety from the second batch is completely gone.

But don’t despair, because the those nice people that run Tankcrimes Records have announced that a third run has been produced, and they now have another thousand copies in stock — this time you can get Toxic Waste in the colors you see pictured above: 400 copies in “Slime” green, 350 in “Xtra Wild Party Blue,” and then 250 in “PP Spill” (clear vinyl with a big piss-yellow spot in the middle — yeah, they went there).

Once more, you can pick up one of these records (including the quickly-dwindling supply of second-editions) here.

And if you still haven’t heard it, you can listen to the split (and download the songs free) here:

 
———————————————–
Municipal Waste: website, Facebook, Myspace, Reverbnation
Toxic Holocaust: Facebook, Myspace, Reverbnation, Bandcamp
Tankcrimes: website, Facebook, Myspace, Bandcamp

What To Do In Pittsburgh This Weekend (10 – 12 August 2012)

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Hey Pittsburgh, it’s Friday! The weekend is just about upon us, so of course everyone is looking for something to entertain themselves with over the next few days, right? I’ve got all the answers RIGHT HERE!

 
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Upcoming Shows: Chrome Waves Tour Starts Tonight!

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Okay, folks, listen up. Here’s another tour you need to know about. It’s only nine days long and only covers the north-eastern quadrant of the United States, but if you live in or near any of the cities listed below (including Pittsburgh!) you won’t want to miss Chrome Waves. How’s this for a super group: Stavros Giannopoulos (The Atlas Moth), Jeff Wilson (Wolvhammer, ex-Nachtmystium), and Iron Bob Fouts (The Gates of Slumber)!
 
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Currently Touring: The Catalyst

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Here’s another announcement about a current U.S. tour, which somehow slipped past me until after it actually got underway. If you live in Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, or Texas, then I am very, very sorry.

Just like Windhand, whose summer tour I wrote about yesterday, The Catalyst also come from Richmond, Virginia, and also are with Forcefield Records. These folks are really starting to make waves with their grunge/noise-rock/hardcore sound (Decibel Magazine mentions the “multi-directional weirdness of their AmRep-meets-Melvins-meets-thrash-meets-Lollapalooza-when-it-was-cool sonic soup”).

Their new album Voyager is set to be released on 04 September, in a 12″ vinyl format with full-color gatefold. However, you can get your hands on it earlier: during their tour, the band will have an advance limited run of the LP on clear and orange haze vinyl (limited to 200 pieces) available.

If, however, The Catalyst aren’t coming to your city (or if you live in one of the places they’ve already played), you can also pre-order a copy from Forcefield (here), limited to 100 copies in an orange and yellow swirl with black and red splatter. The pre-orders will ship on 13 August, so you’ll have it very soon — and around three weeks before the official release date!

 
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Damnit! Windhand Tour Started Last Week! Anyway, Here’s the Details…

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In reviewing their self-titled debut album, Cvlt Nation calls Windhand “way more than a band that you should be on the look out for, they are a group of humans that will change the way you hear doom.”

With members who’ve also done time in bands like Alabama Thunderpussy, The Might Could, and Facedowninshit, Windhand are gaining enough recognition and accolades to stand out in what sometimes seems like a pretty crowded field of female-fronted occult doom, and rightfully so.

…Which is why I was pretty pissed off when I came across this announcement about their month-long U.S. tour, a week after the tour had already started — particularly when I discovered that they had already been to Pittsburgh last weekend and I hadn’t even heard anything about it until now! Clearly, I’ve been spending way too much time dealing with less-important bullshit (work, for example), and not enough time paying attention to goings-on in the world of good quality music!

So anyway, all of us folks who live in the northeast, and some parts of the midwest (Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan earlier this week) have already missed out — unless some of you readers have been more perceptive than me, and managed to catch one of those shows. But for the rest of you, who live all over the middle of the country or in the southeast, you’ve still got a chance. A full list of tourdates can be found below.

 
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What To Do In Pittsburgh This Weekend (3-4 August 2012)

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Hey yinz guys, good afternoon! As I write this, Thursday is approaching an end, which means the end of the work week is not too far off, meaning it’s almost time for the weekend to start! Probably the best news I’ve heard all day.

Do you have your weekend plans all figured out yet? If not, then please allow me to offer a few suggestions — I’ve got the details about some shows taking place around town on Friday and Saturday, and trust me, you aren’t going to want to miss these!

(Unfortunately, a few of these do overlap, so you’ll definitely be missing something, no matter what you end up doing… #firstworldproblems)

 

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