Category Archives: Interviews

What To Do In Pittsburgh Tonight (12 November 2012)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Hey, party people of Pittsburgh! Remember last weekend when there was a football game that started out so terrible and the officials had some kind of conspiracy and they just completely made up rules and penalties that had nothing at all to do with the game we were watching? And then we all got so disgusted with the whole thing we just quit watching it? And then later that night or the next day we heard that somehow, miraculously, the Steelers had managed to overcome all of that and ended up winning the game anyhow? Remember how cool that was and how surprised we all were?

Well, for those out there who are superstitious, maybe you’d rather not watch tonight’s game either — and maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised with a similar outcome. I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I’m just saying, it could happen.

If that sounds plausible to you — or if you’re one of the three or four people living in this area who doesn’t care about football in the first place — I’ve a suggestion to keep you otherwise occupied this evening:

 

Apologies for shitty image quality — will be replaced if I manage to find a better one somewhere!

 

Lost Empires, Slaves BC, Seas We Fear to Sail

 

at the Mr. Roboto Project

5106 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh (Bloomfield)

 

Monday 12 November 2012 | 7:00pm | $5

 
Oklahoma’s Lost Empires, described as “punked-up melodeath” in this Decibel Magazine interview from last Friday, are hitting Pittsburgh’s Mr. Roboto Project tonight, along with locals Slaves BC (for those with super-short attention spans, I just told you about their new EP last week) and Seas We Fear to Sail. (If you see any information floating around the internets about Save Us from the Archon, they were originally scheduled for tonight as well, but due to circumstances which I have no knowledge about, they will not be performing at this show.)

RSVP to this event here.

VOS Interview: A Drummer Double Feature! Molasses Barge vs. Vulture!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Hello folks, and a happy Friday to you! Just when it felt like it would never happen, the weekend’s finally here. I’ve got a feeling this is going to be an especially good one, because there’s a ton of amazing shows and events happening! I’ll have more on that later, so stay tuned.

One of them in particular stands out, though — tomorrow night at the 31st Street Pub is the first date on the joint headlining tour between Relapse Records artists 16 and Tombs. That by itself is reason enough to get excited, but opening the show will be two of my absolute favorite local bands, the heavy doom armada that is Molasses Barge and Steel City sludgelords Vulture!

I’ve only seen Molasses Barge once before (and it was over a year ago! — read more about that here), and (believe it or not) although I’ve been listening to Vulture for a long time, I’ve never had the chance to see them play live yet! So needless to say, I’m really looking forward to this show. I’ve already got my tickets (they can be ordered here) but if you don’t, it’s just twelve bucks when you show up at the door. More info on the show itself can be found here.

Anyway, in anticipation of this event, I decided to get a couple of interviews lined up. If you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you may have picked up on the fact that I often tend to focus on drumming while listening to music. It’s just the way I hear things, I guess — and I don’t know if it’s because I play drums (occasionally) or if I chose to play that instrument because it’s something I pay a lot of attention to.

In either case, the drumming in each of these bands’ genres is one of the main things that attracts me to those particular styles. So, it only seemed natural for me to talk to the two bands’ drummers. Here, then, are the questions and answers from Molasses Barge’s Wayne Massey and Vulture’s Kelly Gabany…

 

 

 
Continue reading →

VOS Interview: Dethlehem!!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

 
Good evening, readers! As I mentioned earlier today, local RPG-nerd-metal band Dethlehem are headlining The Pittsburgh Scene‘s second birthday extravaganza at Stage AE tomorrow evening.

Preparations have been underway for this show for quite some time — the Dethlehem guys have been sharpening their swords and patching their chain mail, as well as rehearsing their music. But during a recent practice, they were kind enough to allow me exclusive access to their underground lair to sit down and chat, and to find out what’s been happening with the band.

 
Continue reading →

Upcoming Shows: Orwell to Embark on a West Coast Tour

Posted by valleyofsteel on

 
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!

Continue reading →

Out Today: Power Theory – An Axe to Grind

Posted by valleyofsteel on

 

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.

 
Continue reading →

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

Posted by valleyofsteel on

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.

Reblog: Argus Interview with That Devil Music

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Good morning, readers, I hope you are doing well today. I just wanted to share this with you in case you haven’t already seen it, because That Devil Music, one of my favorite metal websites, has posted an interview with Argus, one of my favorite semi-local bands! (Semi-local, because they are just outside of Pittsburgh too, but in the opposite direction from me.)

 

Anyway, you can read the interview here — and see the band address such topics as the reaction to their second album (Boldly Stride the Doomed, out last year on Cruz del Sur Music); whether they consider themselves “doom metal” (spoiler alert: they can equivocate about genre as well as anybody); and what the future holds as far as upcoming shows (special mention is made of them playing the 31st Street Pub next month for the Dream Death reunion) and their forthcoming third album.

 

Enjoy!!