Category Archives: New Releases

Happy Black Friday!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

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!

 

Continue reading →

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

Posted by valleyofsteel on

 

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!!!

 
Continue reading →

What To Do In Pittsburgh Tonight (14 November 2012)

Posted by valleyofsteel on
image

Artwork by Kellan Andersen

 

Profound Lore recording artist Atriarch

with Pray for Teeth, Wrought Iron, and Slaves BC

 

at the Mr. Roboto Project

5106 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh (Bloomfield)

 

Wednesday 14 November 2012 | 7:00pm | $6 | ALL AGES

 
Decending upon Bloomfield this evening: Portlandian blackened/ambient/doom/death-rock band Atriarch, whose Profound Lore album Ritual of Passing was named “album of the week” by MSN Entertainment when it came out at the end of October.

For more info about the band and what they do, you can also check out this interview with Cvlt Nation, from just prior to the album’s release.

Joining them at Mr. Roboto will be an assortment of local hardcore/black/grind/death, including Pray for Teeth, Wrought Iron, and (as a last-minute replacement for Resin, who had to drop out of the line-up) Slaves BC (who just played there on Monday, so it seems like they’re getting plenty of mileage out of their new material!).

More details and RSVP here.

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.

Slaves BC – we mean nothing. EP

Posted by valleyofsteel on

 

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

 
****************
 

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.

 
****************
 

 
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.

 
Continue reading →

Mortuary Drape Studio Update

Posted by valleyofsteel on

 
Hello and good morning! Who wants some good news?

How about this: the Italian blackened death metal band Mortuary Drape is nearly finished working on their new album — their first since 2004, and (if my math is correct) their fifth overall in a career that spans all the way back to the late 1980s!

Did you know Mortuary Drape was working on a new album? If not, then you do now! Throughout the month of October, they were updating their website with studio reports about how things were progressing — and it appears that the recording phase has been completed for pretty much everything except the vocals.

If you aren’t excited about the idea of getting some new material from these guys soon, then you probably just haven’t heard them yet. Try this on for size. Then take a peek below, where I’ve assembled a selection of photos from their various updates over the past few weeks — and keep your eyes right here, because I’ll be sure to let you know when I’ve learned any more details about the upcoming album!

 
Continue reading →

What To Do In Pittsburgh Tonight (02 November 2012)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Hello out there! It’s been quite a wet and wild week, but the end is finally in sight!

It’s Friday, and the weekend is nearly here — which of course brings with it plenty of opportunities to get out there and check out some shows, right? Of course it does.

And I’ve got some pretty good shit to share with you, happening tonight, right here in Pittsburgh! You might want to hold onto your hat…

 
Continue reading →

Hounds of Hate – Cassette 2012 (Free Download!)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

image

 

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)!

 

Continue reading →

FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Punk Aid “Aceh Calling” Compilation

Posted by valleyofsteel on

 

Punks are getting arrested in Indonesia, being forced to shave their heads, being forced to pray, and having their clothes burned.

That’s the story behind Punk Aid and Aceh Calling, the massive (72 bands!) benefit compilation that’s on-sale now to support the underground punk scene in Indonesia.

The compilation was originally released in March 2012 as a digital download, and you can still grab a copy of this titanic collection from Bandcamp for just six bucks. But since that time, enough money has been raised to have CDs made, as well.

This is a three-disc set, and there were only 200 copies produced — at least half of which will stay inside Indonesia for all the punk kids there who may not be able to download the MP3 version. But there are a handful of them available for sale to the rest of the world, so if you want to help out a struggling pocket of the worldwide punk community AND get some new CDs packed full of great music in the process, you should hurry up and take advantage of this!

Movement Records in Jakarta is receiving all of the profits from the album sales, so they can distribute the money to those who need it locally. The bands included on the compilation will receive no money, and neither will the folks who brought it together or those who are selling it. “This is being done for one reason — it’s the fucking right thing to do,” says Punk Aid organizer Michael “Mike Virus” Rothstein.
 

Continue reading →

More Saille News…

Posted by valleyofsteel on

image

 
And here’s an update regarding the upcoming Saille album…

I just told you two weeks ago that the Belgian black metal band had pretty much wrapped up working on their second album — the follow-up to 2011’s Irreversible Decay, but now I have several more tidbits of information to disseminate to you lucky bastards!

First of all, I mentioned before that the artwork for the album’s cover was being designed by Polish landscape artist Michal Karcz. Well, that’s been completed and is now ready to be revealed to you — in fact, it’s that lovely green mountain fortress up at the top of this page.

But that’s not all…. Continue reading →