Category Archives: Free Stuff

Just Released: MAKE – Trephine

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MAKE – Trephine (Devouter Records, 30 July 2012)

 
Well hello there, readers! I know it’s been a long-ass time since I’ve posted anything, and for that I apologize. Things have just gotten super-busy at work and at home, and so there’s barely been any time for writing … I definitely hope to get some more posts published in the very near future, because I do have a ton of stuff to share with you! To start with, here’s my review of an amazing album that just came out on vinyl…

Originally self-released digitally and on CD in March of this year, Trephine by Chapel Hill’s MAKE is now available via Devouter Records as of this Monday (30 July).

As you’re surely aware, a trephine is a special type of saw used to cut a hole in the skull, allowing a brain surgeon access to operate.

Similarly, the album Trephine will enter your head, forcing its way deep into the recesses of your mind, but there’ll be no anesthæsia here; you’ll be fully aware the whole time, to witness the journey down to the darkest depths of your psyche.

 
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Upcoming Shows: What To Do In (And Around) Pittsburgh This Weekend (27-29 July 2012)

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What’s up, readers!??

Pittsburgh metal. Good stuff. FREE. Read about it, download it. You won’t regret it, and I won’t stop bugging you until you do it. Seriously.

A whole bunch of the bands who have songs on that comp are playing shows this weekend, along with a whole bunch of other bands. If you’re in the Pittsburgh region over the next couple days, you’ll want to pay attention because here’s your guide to what awesomeness you might have missed if I wasn’t here to help you out!

 
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Get to Know: Cenobite (Review of ‘The Black’ EP)

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Cenobite – The Black (05 July 2011)

 
Okay, first of all I feel like I need to clear this up right away: regardless of how it might sound, a “Cenobite” is not a unit for measuring computer memory. Don’t go into your local electronics store and try to buy a 50 Cenobite hard drive or something.

No, as my research has taught me, the word stems from the Greek roots κοινός (“common”) and βίος (“life”), and refers to individuals involved in the practice of communal living, as typified by Buddhist or Christian monks.

Researching a little bit further, I found that the name was also used for the race of formerly-human beings who live in an extra-dimensional void (but can be summoned to earth through a portal created by solving a complex puzzle-box) in the Hellraiser series of movies and comic books.

As I understand it, these creatures were named Cenobites because their apparently-religious-like devotion to hedonism and sadomasochism had ultimately transformed them into a state where they had completely lost all semblance of humanity, just like monks’ religious-like devotion to — well, to religion — inspires them to give up all earthly possessions and pleasures and enter a communal living environment. I guess.

I’d heard of the Hellraiser series before, but never actually knew anything about it until I read all this stuff earlier today. The funny thing is, the brief overview of the characters, and the synopsis of the first film’s plot that I read, both sounded awfully familiar to me — when I remembered that there was a Mortician song that incorporated a lengthy sample (as many of their songs do) where they talked about these demon-like beings who’d been summoned by using a box, and then they wanted to take somebody back to another dimension of hellish torture, someone who had escaped from their clutches previously. So I poked around a bit more, and found that the song “Hell on Earth” (from Zombie Apocalypse) did, in fact, make use of a sample from the original Hellraiser movie.

Isn’t it funny how sometimes a quick search on Wikipedia can turn into a whole chain of discovery?

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Upcoming Shows: Orwell to Embark on a West Coast Tour

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Hey readers! Here’s information about yet another tour that I’d like to share with you. Once again, this isn’t coming anywhere near my neighborhood, but the message I got from Orwell referred to visiting some foreign lands for the first time (this will be the Wisconsinians’ first trip to several of these western locales) and they politely asked for these details to be shared — which I am more than happy to do.

Any of you who live on the other side of the Mississippi, you need to check out the dates listed below. If, like me, you don’t happen to live near any of the scheduled stops for the band’s tour, you should still keep reading anyhow, because I’m also going to tell you how to grab a copy of their album A View of Heaven from a Seat in Hell totally free!

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Get Yourself Some FREE Pittsburgh Metal: Innervenus Music Collective – Iron Atrocity v.2

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Innervenus Music Collective – Iron Atrocity v.2 (Innervenus Music, 03 August 2012)

 
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past nine months, or have never ever seen a post on this blog before, chances are you’ve heard me talking about the Iron Atrocity project. This is purely a labor of love by the wonderful folks who run the Innervenus Music Collective, and designed as a showcase for the array of high-quality metal (and other related music) we’ve got here in the Pittsburgh area.

It’s been a long time coming, and there have been many trials and tribulations along the way, but the second edition of this compendium of local talent has been completed! Just like volume 1, this new collection will be handed out for free by Innervenus-related bands at shows and other events (beginning with the Iron Atrocity Vol.2 release show, which is scheduled for Friday 03 August 2012), but also just like its predecessor, the compilation can be downloaded for free — and it’s available right now!

The new CD has assembled tracks — some newly recorded, exclusively for the compilation, some taken from recent releases — from sixteen different local bands, all of whom have been mentioned on this website in some form or fashion, at one time or another. Nevertheless, I’ll give you the full rundown on all the songs, about an hour and a quarter in all, that will be yours FREE when you grab this download. All you need to do in return is listen and enjoy, spread the word, and whenever possible, show your support by heading out to some shows (or buying some merchandise)!

 
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Get Yourself Some FREE Canadian Metal: Canuck Metal Vol. 2

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Heavy Metal Music Association of Canada – Canuck Metal Vol. 2 (01 July 2012, LoudTrax)

 
The H.M.M.A.C. recently announced the release of their second collection of Canadian metal music (actually, it was about two weeks ago — the official release was on Canada Day)!

If you missed out on the first volume from back in October, it’s no longer free, but you can still grab a copy for really cheap right here from LoudTrax.

Spanning a variety of hard rock and heavy metal as wide as the Canadian countryside itself, Canuck Metal Vol.2 includes an hour’s worth of songs from a bunch of bands that might be familiar to you, and some that might not be but should be!
 
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Get Yourself Some FREE Chinese Metal: Rock in China – Core in China Compilation

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Core in China - cover art #1 (by Joe Wu)

 

Rock in China – Core in China (15 May 2012, Rock in China Records)

 
Hello readers! As you may have noticed, I’m pretty interested in learning about where different bands come from, and I try to seek out material from places that are unfamiliar to me. Well until now I’ve never written about any music from China, so when I learned about the Core in China Project, I decided it would be a great opportunity to share something that was totally new to me, and probably new to you as well. I’d never heard of Rock in China Records before this compilation was brought to my attention, but I think it’s really cool what they are doing — working to help Chinese musicians find greater exposure across the world.

Despite the censorship and controls on the internet within the Chinese borders, it seems that many people have managed to gain access to foreign recordings and videos somehow, and then post them to websites within that country (which basically serve as Chinese versions of Youtube, etc.); through these means, young bands have been inspired by some of the trends that are taking place across the world and are now able to produce their own take on many new musical genres and sub-genres.

Core in China (described as a “free online compilation of Chinese Metalcore, Deathcore, Nintendocore, Hardcore and Screamo bands that have been selected via an open song submission process from January to May 2012”) is an attempt to document some of what is happening within China (also including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Inner Mongolia). It was officially released online about two months ago, as a free download.

Since this compilation covers a pretty wide range of material, I wouldn’t expect most people to fall in love with everything you’ll find here (for me, personally, it breaks my heart — and also makes my ears bleed a bit — to find that the awful trend of abusing auto-tuning has found its way to that part of the world), but this is a cool way to discover some music you might never have been exposed to otherwise. With around ninety minutes of music, there should be a little something for everyone here!

Below, I’ll give you a brief run-down on what you can expect from the tracklisting, as well as where you can get more information on the project and the bands, and finally where you can grab these free tunes!

 
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Out Last Week: Monsterworks – Man::Instincts (FREE Download!)

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Monsterworks – Man::Instincts (Mortal Music, 10 July 2012)

 
Whoah.

Despite all my attempts to stay alert and focused on doing my job, I think I might have accidentally dozed off a little bit just now.

And let me tell you — I had one fucked up dream.

Picture this: King Diamond and his band, Chris Cornell and the rest of Soundgarden, Rob Zombie, Glen Benton and the rest of Deicide, and all four dudes from Mastodon somehow all met up at a party, where they ended up playing cards and drinking and having a good time, and suddenly they decided they wanted to collaborate on a musical project. All of them.

Naturally, with so much talent in the room, nobody could decide who should be the vocalist, so they figured the only fair way would be to let everyone sing — sometimes they’d take turns, or sometimes they’d all join together in like this massive heavy metal choir. Something like the chorus in the Blue Öyster Cult song “Extra Terrestrial Intelligence,” just on a much grander scale.

Another issue arose when it came time to start writing songs, since they all came from such diverse musical backgrounds. But this supergroup soon discovered that they at least had some influences in common — all the great old-school metal, proto-metal, and hard rock bands. So they let this sound be the foundation for their new music, and as they began working together on the songs, they found that the little bits of death metal, stoner metal, thrash, NWOBHM, and whatever else kept creeping into the writing process seemed to mesh together surprisingly well. (I know it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense — I told you it was a pretty crazy dream!)

 
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Coming Soon: Titans Eve – Life Apocalypse (Free T-Shirt with Pre-Order!)

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Titans Eve – Life Apocalypse (13 July 2012, Self-Released)

 
Good morning, readers!

You may have noticed that I don’t normally publish album reviews before the official release dates. Part of the reason might be because I want to share things with you when they’re actually available for you to get your hands on them, because I know how short people’s attention spans can be sometimes — myself included! Sometimes when I read about something several months before it comes out, I might think to myself, “Oh that sounds great, I’ll have to check that out” and then I completely forget about it a few days later.

More than that, though, it’s mostly because I usually just don’t get around to it. I hear about loads of great music and I want to write about all of it, because I want to make sure the bands get the exposure they deserve, and I want to make sure YOU have every opportunity to hear about the new music you want. Besides that, I try to spend as much time as possible with something before I start writing — albums usually get numerous listens on several different days, so that I feel familiar enough with the material to be able to describe it adequately AND so that I can be sure I wasn’t hearing something wrong just because I was grumpy or preoccupied on a particular day.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an unlimited amount of time for writing, which means I’m perpetually running behind. I’ve still got a bunch of albums from 2011 I haven’t even listened to yet, not to mention how much stuff I haven’t had the chance to write about!

When I heard this album full of killer thrash music by Vancouver’s Titans Eve, I knew I would want to write about it and share it with you, but then when I found out that they have pre-order packages (either the digital or CD versions) where they are throwing in a FREE t-shirt, I decided I needed to bring this to your attention sooner rather than later! This Friday (the 13th of July) is the official release date, so hurry up and finish reading, then at the end of this post you’ll get the chance to hear the album for yourself, and I’ll give you all the links you need to take advantage of this special pre-order deal.

For my Canadian friends, I’ve also provided the dates for the band’s July/August tour of western Canada with Anvil, as well as a list of stops when they will be heading east across the rest of the country with Kill Devil Hill.

 

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Free Music Alert: Download the New Telepathy. Single!

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Telepathy. – Lucretius (03 July 2012, self-released)

 
Hello there, Readers. How are you enjoying your Monday so far?

I guess that’s kind of like asking for your opinion on receiving surgery without any anaesthesia, isn’t it…

Personally, I am really having trouble getting re-acclimated to the whole “working” thing — it’s like that feeling when you’ve been away on vacation for a whole week and somehow forgot how to do everything.

Oh well, I do have one piece of good news to share with you, that just might help give you a little bit of motivation (or at least help you wake up) today. I’ve learned that the UK-based instrumental prog band Telepathy. have just put out a brand new single!

 
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