Author Archives: valleyofsteel

Now Hear This! Preview Some New Material by Author & Punisher

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Do you remember back in the day when the word “industrial” as a descriptive term for music was actually meant literally?  Back before any snotty little kid with a drum machine could just dial up some digital distortion in Garageband, puke out some techno dance tracks onto his MacBook, and think he’s the next Trent Reznor?

Meet Tristan Shone, the San Diegan mechanical engineer who is otherwise known as Author & Punisher.  In case you hadn’t guessed, those little doodads and whatsits he’s holding in the photo above are not some newfangled kind of XBox controllers or something.  No, Tristan has manufactured himself a virtual army of mechanical and robotic devices whose sole purpose is to make a cacophony of industrial noises. Literally.

 

 

With a few releases already under his utility toolbelt, this one-man noise factory has got a brand new album Ursus Americanus slated to be released by Seventh Rule Recordings on 24 April, 2012.  However, as the kind folks at Catharsis PR have brought to my attention, you can have the opportunity to catch a sneak peek at a couple tracks from that record right now!

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Just Released: Pharaoh – Bury the Light

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Pharaoh – Bury the Light (6 March 2012, Cruz del Sur Music)

Good evening, Readers. How’s it going? I’d like to take a quick poll, if you don’t mind. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone says “power metal”? Is your first impulse to run away screaming? It wouldn’t surprise me much if that were the case, because that would be the reaction of many people — including myself, sometimes.

Why is that? Well, because somewhere along the line power metal got its name blemished pretty badly in the eyes of most listeners. Somehow the genre got associated with bands who, when they heard “Run to the Hills” for the first time, fell in love with the lightning-speed galloping part towards the end, but thought the song would be better if they had cut out all the stuff that builds the tension up to that point, and creates dynamic contrast, and holds the listener’s attention. Bands whose favorite album of all time is Rising Force, but they never realized that their turntable was switched to 78 RPM instead of 33-1/3.

It’s no wonder most people turn their noses up at the thought of this genre, when its most visible representatives are a bunch of over-the-top, ultra-cheeserrific fuckwads whose primary goal seems to be to constantly outdo themselves in terms of speed and wankery, much more than giving any thought to making good quality music.

Of course, this stereotype didn’t just spring into existence overnight; there have been bands that have incorporated cheesy schtick into their repetoires (whether intentionally or not) for decades. It’s almost as if everyone had forgotten it was possible to put together a group of talented musicians and play music that strikes a balance between heavy and powerful but also emotional and melodic; and to tackle lyrical territory that is epic and grand but not corny and overblown. Almost.

A certain group of Philadelphian gentlemen (who, by the way, come from the eastern side of my home state – just a few hundred miles from here) who call themselves Pharaoh haven’t forgotten. And just one listen to their newest album (their fourth full-length, and fifth release overall, dating back nearly ten years) Bury the Light, which is on Cruz del Sur and was released just last week in North America, is all it will take to ensure you don’t forget, either.

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The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Ex Inferis

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Hello, Readers!  Once again it’s Monday, which means it’s time for the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week feature.  As you know by now, this is where I write about a band I’ve discovered on the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website (usually because they’ve written to me asking for a review of their music).  The process goes something like this: I listen to their songs, and I tell you all about them, then you can go listen to them, and bingo! you’ve found a brand new band to fall in love with, and that band has a new devoted fan.  Everyone wins.

Today I would like to share a band from Bandung, Indonesia called Ex Inferis.  That latin phrase (which literally means “from below” or more colloquially, “from Hell”) is also the name of an album by Sweden’s Naglfar, and the two bands happen to share a similar style of melodic blackened metal. Continue reading →

Help Dethlehem Lay Siege to Your City this Summer!

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Hey, folks.  You might remember I’ve talked about these guys before – the Pittsburgh-based lords of RPG/D&D-metal known collectively as Dethlehem.  If you have forgotten already, they got picked as an opening act when Dying Fetus hit town last week, but before that, I wrote a whole big article about them back in January, in advance of a headlining show they did in February.  You can check out that article for some more in-depth information about the band and their music.  When you’re finished with that, c’mon back here because the guys need a little bit of help heading out on tour this summer, and I know you’re going to be excited to have them come visit wherever you live!
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Just Released: Invader – Self-Titled

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Invader – Invader (6 March 2012, Innervenus Music)

Hey!  What are you doing tonight?  If you are anywhere within driving distance of the Southside of Pittsburgh today, cancel those plans now.  You are going to need to get yourself down to The Smiling Moose bar, where they are throwing  a CD release party you will absolutely not want to miss.  More details on that later; first let’s talk about this relatively new (founded in 2009) local band Invader and why you’ll definitely want to check out their self-titled album that has just been released by Innervenus.

Invader first came to my attention when their song “Plow City U.S.A.” was included on the Pittsburgh-area metal compilation Iron Atrocity v.1 (I can’t imagine any reason why you wouldn’t have a copy of it yet, since it’s awesome, and also free to download, but JUST IN CASE, you can grab it from here).  Then, I saw word around town that the band was putting a new record out this week; the official press release had two main points that really caught my eye: first, it listed similar artists “Nicki Minaj, Lady GaGa and The Grateful Dead,” and went on to say the five members of the band’s “goal is to play music that they themselves wanted to hear.”  Now, clearly that first part was a joke, but I did really appreciate the second quotation, because too often people just try to latch onto whatever current trend is out there, instead of playing what is genuine, and I think it really manifests in the sound a band produces.

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The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: The Jack Antonio Project

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Well, it’s time once again for the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week feature, that thing where I talk about a band who has written to me on the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website, looking for reviews of their music.  I listen to it, write about it, and share it with you.  Ready?  Here we go.

“ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT, SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS, IRREVERENT, MISUNDERSTOOD, COMEDY MUSIC!”

That’s how Jack Antonio of The Jack Antonio Project identifies himself.  He goes on to describe this “comedy music” as being “raw and simplistic and almost ‘bad’ on purpose to capture your attention,” with “the humour of Frank Zappa, the bizarreness of Captain Beefheart, the simplicity in songwriting of Daniel Johnston, the leftist politics of Jello Biafra and the voice a mixture of Doctor John and Tom Waits.”

This project was formed last October, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, by a Canadian gentleman operating under the eponymic pseudonym.  During the intervening months, the concept has expanded from being a single singer/songwriter to working with a full backing band; at the end of February an EP was officially released, and is now available for purchase — stay tuned for further details on that, later in this review. Continue reading →

Out Today: Mondrian Oak – Aeon

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Mondrian Oak – Aeon (27 February 2012, Eibon Records)

Okay, stop right there. Before you read another word (and before I write any more) we need to get one thing out of the way immediately. Do you have a short attention span? Do people often refer to you as impatient? Has your mind already begun wandering away from this post, two or three sentences ago? If you answered “yes” to any of these (or if you didn’t answer at all because you lost track of the questions), there’s a chance this might not be for you. You may prefer to do some reading elsewhere this evening, and come back to visit me tomorrow. I’ll miss you, but I can understand.

For those who are still here, though, I’ve got quite a special treat in store for you tonight. Mondrian Oak, the instrumental post-metal (heavy emphasis on the “post”) quartet from Ancona, Italy, have put together their second album, called Aeon, and it’s available on CD right now from Aural Music‘s sub-label Eibon Records. It’s pretty fucking incredible, and you’ll have the opportunity to hear the whole thing before you go buy it.

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The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Dirty Shirt

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Welcome to another installment of the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week feature, that thing where I talk about a band I found on the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website.  You know the drill by now — you listen to some songs from a band you might not have heard before.  Then later, when they explode in popularity and sell a million records, you can scoff at all the bandwagon-jumpers, saying you’ve been a fan since the beginning.

Today, I’m presenting you with Dirty Shirt, who are from the Northern Transylvania region of Romania.  Their sound is made up of a hybrid of many different influences, but for the most part I would describe them as a sort of industrial nu-deathcore.  The band first formed in 1995, and over the next five years toured extensively throughout Romania, while also recording a few demos and a full-length album, Very Dirty, in 2000.

After a hiatus of a few years, they reformed in 2004, embarking on more touring and recording more demos, followed by a second full-length, Same Shi(r)t Different Day, recorded in 2009 and released in 2010.  Since that time, Dirty Shirt have kept themselves fairly busy playing more live shows across various parts of Europe, as well as putting together videos for three of the songs from their last album.  Those are now available for your viewing pleasure, and if you like what you hear, at the end of this post you’ll find some details how to download the album for free.

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Out Today: Funeral in Heaven/Plecto Aliquem Capite – Astral Mantras of Dyslexia

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Funeral in Heaven / Plecto Aliquem Capite – Astral Mantras of Dyslexia (25 February 2012, Dunkelheit Producktionen)

Isn’t the internet an awesome thing?  I mean, seriously.  For those of us who are old enough to remember what life was like before, how much awesomer is it now that you have instantaneous access to pretty much any information you could ever want, anytime, anywhere?  Compared to back when you had to rely on just what you could find in books at the library — during the hours when the library was open?  Or, how much more convenient is it to be able to buy pretty much anything you can imagine, from any store anywhere — instead of having to physically go to your local store, again only during the time they were open, and settle for whatever they had to sell you?

Out of all of these things, though, probably the greatest benefit of the internet is not being able to find whatever you are looking for, but rather finding shit you never even had any idea existed.  Stuff you wouldn’t have dreamed about existing.  Now that we are able to communicate with all sorts of people all over the world, it’s amazing what sorts of craziness we now have access to.  Take music, for example, because obviously that’s what I’m eventually getting around to talking about.  Growing up, my only option was to go to the local National Record Mart or Camelot Music (both of which closed up shop ages ago, by the way) and browse through whatever tapes or CDs they had on their shelves.  I was able to hear some songs on the radio or on MTV, and if there was one that I especially liked, I could see if that album was in the store (and hope the rest of it was good, too).  Occasionally, I could rely on friends to introduce me to some things that I might not have heard elsewhere.  But mostly, I had no real way to discover new music aside from just randomly buying something and crossing my fingers.  Not being particularly wealthy, I wasn’t usually able to take risks like this, unless I was digging through the clearance bin (which did result in a few winners, but not often).

Nowadays, though… our musical options are literally endless.  There are so many places where you can sample new songs, new albums, new bands, even entirely new GENRES.  I never would have imagined that so much variation existed out there, or that I’d ever have the ability to be directly in touch with fans and bands from every corner of the globe!  Even without the internet, I knew about metal bands from places like Germany, Sweden, or Brazil, but in recent years that has definitely expanded to include way more parts of Europe, South America, Russia and the Far East, and even parts of Africa.  More recently still, the spotlight has increasingly been shone on the Middle East and India, and I am just ecstatic at the expanding knowledge I am gaining and the way my worldly musical experiences are growing ever wider.

Today, I am listening to a split release from two blackened metal bands from Sri Lanka, and if I’m not mistaken, this is the first music I’ve ever heard from that island nation in the Indian Ocean.  Naturally, I’m thrilled for the opportunity, and hopefully you will be too, so I am glad to share with you: Astral Mantras of Dyslexia, which consists of Astral Mantras by Funeral in Heaven, and Dyslexia by Plecto Aliquem Capite.

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Just Released: GIRLFIGHT – Holy Fuck

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GIRLFIGHT – Holy Fuck (22 February 2012, self-released)

Hey readers, how’s it going? Me, I’ve been pretty busy. Between working full-time, running a music blog of skyrocketing popularity, and taking online classes half-time, sometimes it can be a lot to juggle. Like today, when usually I’d be working on blog stuff while pretending to work, I had a bunch of school stuff that needed done instead. So that means for the majority of the day I ended up neglecting my duties here.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I forgot about you, or that I wasn’t busy finding new things to write about. I’ve always got something to listen to throughout the day, and today was no exception. And as luck would have it, on a day when I found myself without a whole lot of time to write, I came across something to share with you that hardly takes up any time at all: a two-song release that runs a mere six minutes.

Of course, just being short isn’t enough to make me want to recommend something to you. I wouldn’t want to waste any of your time, even if it’s only a little bit, with something shitty. Well, no need to worry about that. What I’ve got here is a nice healthy slab — well okay, more like a sliver — of high-quality angry Pittsburgh hardcore, courtesy of GIRLFIGHT.

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