Author Archives: valleyofsteel

Upcoming Shows: Michale Graves – War of Information Tour 2012

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If you’ve ever studied the family tree of people who’ve either been in the Misfits over the years, or at least played in bands with former Misfits members, then you know there are more characters there than in the cast of most soap operas.

Without going into too much detail (or doing any research, so any factual errors are due to my own faulty memory)…

After the original band dissolved in the 80s, singer Glenn Danzig went on to form Samhain, which evolved into Danzig, with a number of different people. Meanwhile, the Misfits were later reformed by bassist Jerry Only. Here again there was a rotating line-up of members, but one of the best-known was the foursome that put out a few albums in the late 90s, which included Only’s brother Doyle von Frankenstein (who I believe had also participated in the band’s earlier incarnation for a time) on guitar, a drummer named Dr. Chud and vocalist Michale Graves. All of those folks have left the band at various times, leaving the bassist once again as the sole original member (and now, as I understand it, also handling vocal duties himself). Von Frankenstein was last seen as a member of the Danzig Legacy tour, which also featured the titular singer. Graves and Chud had set out on their own prior to this, working together in a band called Graves, if I’m not mistaken. Then the two parted ways, playing in other bands, and eventually the singer embarked on a solo career, which finally brings us to the present day.

Michale Graves has been performing solo acoustic shows for the past few years, in addition to releasing the album Illusions Live/Viretta Park via Screaming Crow Records in 2008. Now he’s back with a full band and kicks off his “War of Information” summer tour TONIGHT in New Jersey…

 
UPDATE – 18 September 2012 – click here to see the latest additions to the War of Information Tour dates!
 
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Out Today: Icarus Witch – Rise

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Icarus Witch – Rise (03 July 2012, Cleopatra Records)

So way back in the dark ages (i.e. the 1990s), when I was in high school, Cleopatra Records was my favorite record label. I’d snatch up all of the compilations and tribute albums I could find at my local store, of their bands’ gothic and industrial cover songs, as well as CDs by Electric Hellfire Club, Mephisto Walz, Melting Euphoria, and lots more.

Eventually, my musical interests expanded in different directions, to include a lot more extreme metal genres, and inadvertently I had completely lost track of Cleopatra.

Fast-forward several years later, and it came to my attention that there was a band from Pittsburgh who had signed to that label, called Icarus Witch. Now, I didn’t know anything about that band (at first), but remembering the styles that Cleopatra was most closely associated with, I was very surprised when I learned that the label had also expanded its musical horizons far beyond where they used to be. Icarus Witch, for example, do a more traditional heavy metal thing with, some power metal influence. And, as it turns out, they’re pretty good at it.

 

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Out Today: The Cheats – Pussyfootin!

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The Cheats – Pussyfootin! (03 July 2012, Screaming Crow Records)

 
So I’d just like to go on the record as stating, holidays in the middle of the week are kinda stupid. Basically it’s like having a weekend, but it’s only one day: all day long there’s that feeling of dread that’s usually associated with Sundays, where it feels nice because you aren’t working, but you know you can’t really do anything especially crazy because you have to be up early the next morning to go back to work.

Lots of holidays are specifically designed to coordinate with your weekend — Memorial Day and Labor Day are on Mondays; Easter is on Sunday but most people get off work the Friday before it; and Thanksgiving is always a Thursday, but if you’re lucky that ends up turning into a four-day weekend.

Some of the other major holidays that could fall on any day of the week (because they have a specific date) can be flexible too: there’s New Years Eve, New Years Day, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, and usually it works out to where those holidays end up adjacent to a weekend, or you at least get both days off so it’s like having a second weekend anyway.

However, tomorrow (Wednesday) is the 4th of July, when we Americans celebrate our Independence Day because that was the date (two-hundred-thirty-some years ago) that some folks had signed the Declaration of Independence from Britain. While that was generally regarded as a good thing (people weren’t real happy about the way they were paying a whole bunch of taxes to the king while feeling like they weren’t really getting much in return), as a holiday it’s only significant enough to justify one day off work. That means, when it ends up being on a Wednesday, I get to be all excited to leave work on Tuesday (today), knowing that I’ll get a break the next day… but that excitement will be short-lived because Wednesday (tomorrow) I’ll realize that there’s still two days left in the week and I have to come back.

But all that seems pretty depressing, and I guess I should try to think positive: no matter what day of the week it is, it’s always better to have one day off than zero days! So, fuck it. I’m going to resolve to take advantage of the time I have, however short it may be, and enjoy myself tonight and tomorrow.

But, in order to have a good time, that would also require some good music, right? Naturally. Well, I’ve got just what the doctor ordered, and I’ll gladly tell you all about it…

 
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Hey Look: A New Beastwars Video! Plus, Album Update!

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Good afternoon! Here are two pieces of good news all rolled into one news update. Both of them concern those disciples of the “tune low/play slow” philosophy, Beastwars, who (to be perfectly honest) also happen to be the only band from New Zealand I can name off the top of my head (unless you count The Flight of the Conchords).

Anyway, I’ve learned that their self-titled debut album — which has been available online since early 2011 — will see an official U.S. release in September of this year. Additionally, they’ve just announced the release of a video for “Empire,” the closing track on that album. Just like the rest of the songs on Beastwars, “Empire” is deliciously sludgey and grungey and noisy, as well as giving me the impression that one or more of the band members may possibly have owned (or at least listened to) a copy of Masters of Reality at some point in their lives.

 
Here is the new video, directed by Hamish Waterhouse (full credits available here). They say this took five months to put together, and looks to be worth every minute of it!

 
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Free Music Alert: Azoic – Gateways

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Azoic – Gateways (Self-released, 20 June 2012)

 
Hello readers! Since it’s been 90-whatever degrees here in Pittsburgh lately, and I’ve been sweating my ass off, sometimes it’s nice to think about people who live in other parts of the world, where it isn’t so infernally hot and humid this time of year. Now I’ll admit, I don’t really know that much about the climate in Iceland, but c’mon! They’ve got “ice” in their name! Even just thinking about that makes me feel better.

I don’t know what the weather is like wherever you are right now, Dear Reader, but in any case, wouldn’t your week start out a lot better if you had some new, FREE music to listen to?

Yeah, I thought so. I can help you out with that.

 
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A short while ago, I was contacted by a nice Icelandic gentleman, who kindly pointed me in the direction of the band Azoic. Right around the same time, our friend Ben who maintains the Church of the Riff blog also contacted me, mentioning that I should check out this great band. If that wasn’t already enough, right after that I discovered that Phro, who writes short fiction on his own blog PhroMetal, had written about this same band in a guest post over on No Clean Singing!

Well with that many endorsements, I became really curious and had to check these guys out for myself. I’m glad I did, and I think you will be too. Late last month they announced that they were releasing the album to be freely downloadable, so keep on reading and I’ll tell you where to get it.

 
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Hey, Look: Another New Borracho Video

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Well here’s something interesting. Turns out Borracho has got a video out for another song from last year’s album Splitting Sky.

This song, “All in Play” is one of the more mellow, laid back grooves on the album — and at nearly nine minutes, definitely one of the longer ones.

The last few minutes of the song are made up of an extended fuzzy guitar jam, the kind where if you’re playing Guitar Hero, your fingers are about to fall off and you keep on wondering if the song is going to end soon!

But you aren’t playing Guitar Hero, you’re just kicking back and enjoying the pretty pictures of huge natural phenomena like waterfalls and volcanos, and possibly enhancing your listening pleasure with some sort of herbal supplement from your local pharmacy. Who knows.

 
Here’s the new video:

 
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Out Today: Power Theory – An Axe to Grind

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Power Theory – An Axe to Grind (29 June 2012, Pure Steel Records)

 
So who out there is heading out to the Warriors of Metal Open Air Festival today (or tomorrow, or both days)?

Well, I suppose if you were going today, you’d be there already. But I dunno, maybe you’re heading out later in the afternoon, or maybe you’re catching up on the latest Valley of Steel updates in between bands or something…

Myself, although I’ve been reporting about it for months, unfortunately I’m stuck here at work, which is pretty shitty because it sounds like it’s going to be an awesome time! (Although the heat and humidity are forecasted to be pretty brutal this weekend — hell, when I left home at 5:30 this morning the air was already difficult to breathe — so anyone who’s attending, have fun, but be sure to drink lots of water!)

Although it sucks I’ll be stuck inside a boring office all day with no throngs of screaming metalheads (and no alcohol), at least I can try to make myself feel better by listening to some heavy tunes. No matter how high I turn the volume on this computer, I know a pair of headphones will never compare to a huge stack of speakers on an outdoor stage, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Anyway, when I was trying to decide exactly what I should be blasting into my ears today, the perfect choice suddenly became obvious: the brand new Power Theory album! Not only is German label Pure Steel Records releasing An Axe to Grind today, but the band will be celebrating that release when they take the stage at WOM this evening!

Maybe I won’t be there to see it live, but I can at least experience it vicariously through the studio version — and for all those readers out there who are also unable to make it to the Frontier Ranch in Pataskala Ohio, I’ll tell you where you can hear some Power Theory too, and where you can get your own copy of this album.

 
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A Brand New TrollfesT Song? Free Download? Yes, Please!!

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That’s right, everyone’s favoreite True Norwegian Balkan Metal band TrollfesT, in conjunction with their label NoiseArt Records, have made one of the songs from their upcoming album Brumlebassen available as a FREE MP3 download!

All you need to do to take advantage is: go to the NoiseArt website, click the link and subscribe to their newsletter.  That’s it!

The song will be available for download for one week only, so hurry!  (Offer ends next Friday, 06 July).

 
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Out Last Month: The Reticent – Le Temps Detruit Tout

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The Reticent – Le Temps Detruit Tout (Heaven and Hell Records, 29 May 2012)

 
Well, shit.

I hate when I feel so overwhelmed by all the stuff I’ve got going on, that I start forgetting about things I was planning on doing. Does that happen to you? It’s like, everything needs my attention, everything needs to be a priority, and some stuff just unfortunately ends up falling through the cracks.

For example: it was about six weeks ago that I wrote about The Reticent — that post was just a comment on a news item about a politically-charged message that the band’s mastermind (and sole member) Chris Hathcock had shared on his Facebook page. But, at the same time, I had mentioned the (then) upcoming album (the band’s third full-length) Le Temps Detruit Tout (“Time Destroys All”), and I did mention then that I was planning on writing a review for the album.

Well, two weeks later, the album came out (on Heaven and Hell Records, who also released the previous two — in fact, the band’s 2006 debut Hymns for the Dejected was the first album that label ever released). And since then another four weeks have passed, and now I find myself digging through some unfinished drafts, when I stumbled upon this one. Not only did I forget to finish writing the review, but I almost shared this too late for you to enter the contest to win a copy of the CD!

When I say almost too late, I really mean it — the contest ends tomorrow (Friday, 29 June), so keep on reading, but then hurry up and hit the link near the end of this post, for your chance to win!!

 
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Now Hear This: New A Band of Orcs Song Now Streaming!

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Well, I feel like I’ve just had my head repeatedly bludgeoned, between an enormous hammer and and an even enormous-er anvil.

And I’m about to go back and do it again.

If that sounds appealing to you, too, then feel free to join me… head on over to Hails and Horns, where they are streaming the first single off A Band of Orcs‘ upcoming album Adding Heads to the Pile, “In the Keeper’s Chamber”!

They’ve also collected quite a bit of information on that page about the story of the band and of their soon-to-be-released concept album, so be sure to check that out while you’re there!

“In the Keeper’s Chamber” is due to be released on Saturday (30 June) as a downloadable single, in advance of the album’s August release (via Itchy Metal). If the rest of the songs are as brutal and punishing as this one, then I’ll definitely be counting down the days until then!

As of right now, the album is expected to come out on CD and digital download, but (as you may recall) the orcs are also taking pre-orders for an incredible 2xLP picture-disc vinyl package (through Kickstarter) — click here for the full details on that, and hurry up if you’re interested, because there’s less than a week remaining for them to achieve their target amount to be able to afford to get the records manufactured! (FYI, a free download of this song is just one of the many glorious rewards that await you for your contributions…)

 
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A Band of Orcs: website, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube
Hails and Horns: website, Facebook