Author Archives: valleyofsteel

Upcoming Shows: What To Do In Pittsburgh TONIGHT (13 June 2012)

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EARTHRIDE featuring Vulture and Molasses Barge

at the 31st Street Pub

3101 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh (@ 31st St. Bridge)

 

9pm | 21+ only | $5

For well over a decade now, the mighty Earthride have been making quite a name for themselves in the world of doom metal — no small feat in the over-crowded Maryland scene. Their last album, 2010’s Something Wicked, was an absolute masterpiece, and they haven’t shown any signs of slowing down anytime soon…

     More Earthride info: Facebook, Myspace, Southern Lord (label)

Our neighbors from the south will be paying a visit to our fair city this evening, appearing alongside two of the best local acts in the sludge/doom milieu, Vulture and Molasses Barge!

     More Vulture info: website, Facebook, Innervenus (label)
PLUS, read the Valley of Steel review of their full-length debut Oblivious to Ruin here.

     More Molasses Barge info: Facebook, Myspace, Innervenus (label)
ALSO, I wrote up a quasi-review of one of the Barge’s shows here,
AND, check out this really cool interview with guitarist Justin Gizzi (courtesy Hellride Music) here!

     For further details about the show: see the Facebook event pages here and here, and the 31st Street Pub Facebook page here.

Upcoming Shows: What To Do In Pittsburgh This Weekend (08-11 June 2012)

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Hey, Pittsburgh-area friends.  Here is your weekly digest of shows and events that are happening in town.  There are some good ones coming up over the next few days, so listen up.

As always, a reminder: I can only write about what I know about — so if you work for a local promotion company, a venue, or a band, please be sure to get in touch with me with anything you want to share.

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Now Hear This: A Brand New Song by Moths (FREE Download!)

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(Click for larger size)


 

Moths – Horsebreaker single (06 June 2012, Self-released)

 
As a music blogwriter based in the Pittsburgh area, I feel like it’s my obligation to keep myself relatively informed in terms of what’s happening in the local scene, and then to spread this information to you, the loyal reader, whether you live near here or on the other side of the world. It’s a pretty big job, but I really do try to stay on top of things.

Sometimes I need a little bit of help, though. In one particular case, I had to discover a pretty amazing local band when their 2011 demo tape was featured on another (non-local) blog. That was The Number of the Blog, and I’d you link to the original post, but several months ago TNOTB went off to live on a farm somewhere with lots of land where it could run around with other blogs and be happy and free…

However, the band — Moths — is still alive and well; that two-track demo still features some excellent tech-metal drumming and guitarring as well as nicely-done death-metal vocalling, AND it’s still available for free download (stay tuned till the end of this post); and in fact, just yesterday they released a brand new song that you won’t want to miss…

 
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Somebody Please Tell Me: Where Can I Hear More “Gipsy Punk Rock”?

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Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I’m going to share some more new music with you, but first somebody out there has to promise to answer the question in the title of this post. Deal? Okay, good.

 

 
So our good friend Mihai, who is a guitarist/keyboardist/songwriter for Dirty Shirt (more about that band here), also has a solo career (using the name M.T.) as a remix artist. Now, I know what many of you are probably thinking: a “remix” just means taking a song and adding some kind of techno dance beat behind it, right? Well, a lot of the time that’s true, unfortunately, and admittedly there really isn’t much artistry involved there. However, the work that M.T. does is more like re-composition, because he generally takes the original vocal part, but very little else from the actual song; instead, adding instruments and sounds of his own.

Anyway, earlier this week I learned that he had taken a number of these creations and compiled them into a digital album called Rock RMX Collection. Due to legal complications (with the various copyrights on the original source material) this release will not be made available to download or to purchase in any format, but it’s out there in cyberspace for you to listen to, if you choose to do so.

 
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More News About Upcoming Releases: Video Teaser for New TrollfesT Album

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Good morning again, Readers! We’ve already had some great news today involving details of an album due out via Noise Art Records this August, but there’s another exciting release scheduled for around that same time, on that same record label!

If you recall, about two months ago we learned the title, tracklist, and the narrative behind TrollfesT‘s forthcoming fifth album Brumlebassen, and at the same time we were treated to a glimpse of the cover art (reproduced at the top of this page).

 
Well, now there’s more treats for your eyes and ears! The band has put together the following video teaser, which contains a large dose of nature scenes, hiking, and picnic lunches, though a very small amount of either metal music or information about the actual album…

 
Coincidentally, following the release of this album, TrollfesT will also be taking part in the Heidenfest tour across Europe, alongside Korpiklaani and Wintersun, as well as Krampus (as reported earlier today).

 
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TrollfesT: Website, Facebook, Myspace, Reverbnation, Soundcloud, Webstore

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