Category Archives: Free Stuff

Gay Kiss – Fault (Free Download / In Pittsburgh Tonight!)

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Gay Kiss – Fault (Anxiety Machine Records, 21 December 2012)

 
HELLO OUT THERE! HAPPY 2013!! How’s life been treating you, dear readers?

I wish I could say that flipping the calendar over to a new year has also turned the page on all the problems and stresses and worries and other crap that infringes on my time I’d rather be spending with fun stuff like listening to music and writing about music and all that.

So far, that has not been the case. And at this moment I almost literally feel like I am bursting at the seams with stuff I want to share with you, because you’ve all been such wonderful, loyal readers for so long, I feel like you really deserve to be rewarded with some good music you can listen to.

For my first post as we enter into the thirteenth year of this millennium, I want to tell you about an up-and-coming group of young men who come from the city of Tempe, which is just outside Phoenix and is also the home of the ASU Sun Devils.

That band is called Gay Kiss.

 
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Meth Quarry Interview: Pittsburgh’s Grim Hardcore Assault!

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Folks, if you’ve had your ear to the ground over the past few months you might have noticed that there has been some rumbling coming out of the dark underworld of hardcore. There has been so much hype swirling around the crusty, grimy beast known as Meth Quarry lately, that the band has reached a nearly mythical status — without having played a single show yet!

But all of that is about to change, because these guys are finally ready to come crawling out of the dank cellar of Pittsburgh’s underground and expose the good people of the Steel City to their grim “dirge” hardcore style. Last weekend I met up with the quintet (guitarists Chris Smith and Kevin Hogue, bassist Aaron Kaczynski, vocalist Adam Joseph Bailey, and drummer Brandon “Fluffy” Baker) to talk about the story of the band’s formation and what sort of things they’ve got on the horizon — I joined them at one of their rehearsals, which took place in the basement of Kevin’s house, so when I say “crawling out of the cellar” I actually mean it literally…

 
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Supervoid – Endless Planets EP

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Supervoid – Endless Planets EP (self-released, 11 November 2012)

Good afternoon, all you fine people! How are things where you are? Here it’s been rainy and nasty, and of course it’s Monday which is never good, but I’m actually feeling pretty good. For one thing, the day’s over, which means I get to go home. But mostly, I’m starting to feel healthy again!

You may have noticed things have been quiet around here for a while. Part of the reason is all the normal crap that keeps me busy and unable to write as often as I’d like to. But a bigger part — at least for the past two weeks or so — is the fact that I have felt like absolute garbage. My normal yearly sinus infection, which tends to completely drain my energy and make my whole body tired and sore for a few weeks (plus my chest, throat, nose and sinuses feeling congested and clogged — which is miserable enough as it is, but also makes it tough for me to listen to music because my ears don’t work right and my head hurts from feeling stuffed up and in general I’m in a very foggy and cloudy state). But I’ve been to the doctor and got some antibiotics, and they’ve finally started taking effect over the past day or two, so I definitely feel like I’m on the road to recovery.

I’m still pretty exhausted and blah, but no more than on any other workday. So, hooray for just feeling marginally lousy, rather than completely and utterly terrible! BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME.

With a few exceptions, I’ve really been slacking as far as writing anything here, and I’ve been especially remiss in my duties to share new music with you readers. Here it is, nearly the end of the year, and I’ve got a virtual stack of music I’ve yet to write about, which figuratively is towering over me as I sit here. I’d better get moving!

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Here, for example, is something that I’ve been hanging onto for the past few weeks, and kept meaning to write about and share with you — because it’s a really incredible discovery, and I sure hope you all aren’t upset that I didn’t tell you about it sooner!

Endless Planets is the debut release from a relatively new band from the Pittsburgh area called Supervoid. Formed in 2011 by a couple Dethlehem ex-pats, and current and/or former members of several other bands across the region, the band decided to take time to perfect their style of space-rock/stoner/psychedelic/prog-metal before revealing themselves to the public. (By the way, check out this interview with The Sludgelord for more information about the band’s formation and their journey up to this point in their career.)

They had their debut performance at the end of August, and a few more shows since then, attracting a good bit of attention in the local music scene along the way. During that time, the band got together at Pittsburgh’s Treelady Studios to lay down some demo tracks — which they then decided to release in the form of this two-song EP.

Clocking in at around sixteen minutes, Endless Planets serves as a great introduction to Supervoid, as it showcases the band’s talent and is representative of the range they span as performers and songwriters. Plus, it’s available to download for free, so you have no reason not to grab yourself a copy — and once you do, you’ll understand why everyone who has seen this band has been so impressed, and you’ll find yourself anxiously watching to see where this quintet is heading next…

 
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Happy Black Friday!

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Well, good day to all you fine people out there! It’s the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S., traditionally known as Black Friday — and legions of idiots have been lining up outside retailers for hours (or days, in some cases) to get their hands on TVs and junk at discounted prices.

I hate shopping, and I hate crowds of people (or more accurately, I hate most people in general), so would be pretty much the worst possible time for me to go out. Therefore, I won’t be anywhere near any stores today.

However, there are some other good deals out there, if you know where to look — lots of record labels and music stores are offering discounts or bonus gifts or incentives — and this is stuff that interests me way more than anything that people will probably be fist-fighting for at Wal-Mart or Target!

Since many of you readers probably feel the same way (why else would you be reading a music-related blog?) I’ve thrown together an assortment of these special offers right here in this post, for your shopping convenience. Enjoy!

 

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Fistula and Hellbastard Vinyl/Merch Preorders — HURRY! ENDS TOMORROW!!

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Preorder the new Hellbastard and/or Fistula LPs, get exclusive woven patches, colored vinyl, test pressings and T-shirts!

 
From Patac Records head honcho Dan Harrington:

Let’s face it, you have to be crazy to start a record label. It costs a lot of blood, sweat and tears… and a whole lot of cash. Working on a DIY level, I try to do as much as I can for my bands. Pressing a record is one thing, but a record needs touring, ads in zines, etc.

So here’s my plan: I have two records ready to press, the Hellbastard Sons of Bitches 12″ and the Fistula Northern Aggression 12″. The money to complete this project is already secured, we just hope to raise additional funds to create the line of merchandise, new colors of vinyl and provide additional press to help out these two incredible bands. The t-shirts, patches and white vinyl are exclusive to this Kickstarter project, so don’t miss this opportunity to get a bunch of killer collector’s merchandise!

All the merchandise is designed and ready to print. With your pre-orders these records will be released ahead of schedule, promoted to the fullest extent and in addition, both bands will be repaid all proceeds.

One thing that always blows me away has always been the loyalty of my distro customers and fans of the music I have released. My goal is to create a bunch of killer merch and raise some money to help press the records; when the record is out and selling, I’m going to pay back 100% of the money raised to each band to help out with their touring costs. 2013 is going to be a great year — Fistula is negotiating some extensive tours in the US and abroad, and Hellbastard will be pretty much living on the road as well.

All merchandise orders will ship in early December, we hope for vinyl orders to ship by January. The production of vinyl is costly and production times vary, Test pressings will ship in January, however colored vinyl may encounter delays if the pressing plant is backed up.

Thanks so much, hope to see you all on the road!!!

 
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Slaves BC – we mean nothing. EP

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Slaves BC – we mean nothing. EP (self-released, 26 October 2012)

 
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PREFACE/DISCLAIMER:

Somehow this article turned out way longer than I originally intended, and the majority of it is way off-topic.

If you’re a big fan of my rambly writing style, feel free to keep reading.

But if you’re just interested in reading about some quality crust/hardcore/metal with a sprinkling of death/stoner/doom elements… you won’t hurt my feelings if you skip ahead to the next line of asterisks (where it says “Moving right along…”).

And if you really hate reading and just want to get to the music, you can skip all the way to the last set of asterisks, just above the Bandcamp player at the bottom.

 
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So I don’t know if you heard about this, because it didn’t get that much attention in the news or social media recently, but the other day there was an election held here in America.

In case you weren’t paying attention, the president was running for re-election, and quite a few seats in both houses of congress were up for grabs. And as it turned out, whichever political party was already in charge of those governmental positions basically stayed in charge of them. There may have been a few swaps here and there, but overall not a whole lot changed.

Naturally, the folks who wanted the party with more control to retain that power were delighted, and the others were disappointed, and there was a widespread reaction of surprise at just how evenly divided the votes were in some cases.

However, one thing that was made clear by the final results: America was not interested in electing the candidates who kept insisting that raping women is “God’s Will” — as that entire contingency ended up losing their respective contests.

Personally, I applaud this outcome, as (in my opinion) it seems to represent a triumph — for a majority of the voters living in each of those states or congressional districts, anyhow — of morality, human decency, and modern scientifically-based medical knowledge over ignorance.

Nevertheless, this is America, and of course we are all granted equal freedoms under our constitutional amendments — and many people are now worried that there is no outlet for the ultra-religious nut-jobs to voice their opinion publicly. (Okay, to the best of my knowledge no one is actually worried about that, just bear with me here…)

So that brings us to today’s discussion of the Pittsburgh-based hardcore band Slaves BC.

 
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Hounds of Hate – Cassette 2012 (Free Download!)

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Hounds of Hate – Cassette 2012 (BHF Records, 22 October 2012)

 
Hey, good afternoon! Hope everything’s going well for you, dear readers. Here, it’s still pretty damn dreary and wet, but it looks a little bit less black outside than it has for the past few days — seems like that bitch Sandy might finally be leaving us alone.

Anyway, that’s all pretty much off-topic from what I wanted to tell you about this afternoon, which is how you can get your hands on some FREE music by a group of guys from my local area (not exactly the same part of town as me, but they’re from a little further downriver along the same valley that this website was named after) — plus how you can get a chance to see them play live (if you live in the midwestern or eastern United States, that is)!

 

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Who Wants Some Free Music?

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Hello there, folks! In case you can’t read a calendar (or you just woke up from a coma or something), it’s Monday again. So that means back to work, or school, or whatever the hell you do all day. Generally this isn’t really a good thing. But, once you see what I have to share with you, maybe you won’t mind as much…

See, I didn’t really get around to doing a lot of writing over the past week, besides a couple updates about shows happening in the Pittsburgh area over the weekend — if you hadn’t noticed, my last article before those was on Tuesday, when the Doommantia Vol. 1 benefit compilation for Ed Barnard was released.

Since then, I’ve bought myself a copy and downloaded it, and believe me it’s well worth at least the minimum purchase price — which, once again, goes towards helping out a friend in need. If you missed the news last week (or if you saw it and said you’d come back to it later and then forgot about it) you can check iit out here.

Anyway, I was saying I hadn’t really written much since then. That’s mostly due to the fact that things were so busy at work last week. But don’t worry, I spent tons of time listening to music and finding some good quality stuff to pass along to you!

Besides the Doommantia compilation, I’ve run across several more good ones recently, many of which can be downloaded for FREE, and I’d like to tell you about those today!

 

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The Metal Wreckage Daily Steel: Get Amon Amarth’s Entire Discography!

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Hey guys, have you all seen this yet? Metal Wreckage recently started sending out a daily e-mail message, offering a big discount on boxed sets or collections of CDs. Something different every day. PLUS there’s free shipping (within the U.S.)! It’s definitely worth checking out — sign up for your FREE account here.

Right now they’ve got packages of all eight Amon Amarth albums: Once Sent from the Golden Hall, The Avenger, The Crusher, Versus the World, Fate of Norns, With Oden on Our Side, Twilight of the Thunder God, and Surtur Rising! And almost all of them are reissued special editions with extra discs of bonus content!

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Vesperia – Voyage from Vinland (FREE DOWNLOAD, LIMITED TIME ONLY!!)

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Vesperia – Voyage from Vinland (self-released, 08 January 2011)

 
Ladies and gentlemen and whoever else might be out there reading this:

This coming Saturday — the 20th of October — blackened folk/pagan metal band Vesperia are headlining a show in the band’s hometown of Oshawa, Ontario (city motto = “Prepare to be amazed.” I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.) Also appearing will be Battlesoul, Will of the Ancients, and Unbowed, and for more details on the event you can check out this page.

Anyway, in celebration of this occasion, Vesperia wanted to do something special for their fans. Giving away downloads of their new demo EP from earlier this year (The Swordsman) wouldn’t work though, because they’ve already done that (see here for a full write-up about that release) — so instead they’ve decided to give away their previous album for free!

Voyage from Vinland was actually the first (and only) full-length album released by Bolero (in January of last year), prior to that band changing its name to Vesperia. But the whole thing — all eleven tracks, forty-five minutes of it — has been re-released digitally under their new name on their Bandcamp page, and for this week ONLY you can download all of it absolutely FREE! This is only supposed to last until Saturday’s show, though, so ACT FAST!!

 

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