Category Archives: New Releases

Ion Vein: Another Digital Release is in Progress

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Hello again, good people who have subscribed to this blog or like it on Facebook and read my rambly words sometimes! I hope you all are having a pleasant Monday — except for whoever the fucker was that unliked my page today! That person probably won’t ever see this, but still, I hope they have the worst day ever, and then keep re-living it Groundhog Day style!

Haha, but not YOU, dear faithful reader who is currently reading this! In fact, to show my appreciation, I’ll let you in on a secret — for the second time today, I’ve got some information about a band we’ve talked about in the past, who plans on having some new material for us soon!

 
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Decaying: Currently Recording Their Next Album!

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Good morning!

I am pleased to pass along the news that Finnish deathstars Decaying are currently in the midst of recording tracks for their third album!

After their promising debut Devastate in early 2011, and the much-acclaimed Encirclement in January 2012 (reviewed here), this young trio is wasting no time putting together the follow-up, which they’ve titled The Last Days of War.

The record is set to feature eight tracks, expected to clock in at approximately 46 minutes, and will be due for release in early 2013 through Poland’s Hellthrasher Productions.

 
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The Sword: Details for New Album & Pre-Order Bundles On Sale Now

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Hey, here’s another bit of good news for you — since you’ve all been good boys and girls (as far as I know!)…

Texan stoner metal ensemble The Sword — who saw their career really take off with the inclusion of one of their early singles as part of the Guitar Hero II video game (at least, that’s when they first popped onto my radar screen) — are now just a few weeks away from releasing their fourth full-length album!

Apocryphon will hit store shelves (as well as the iTunes equivalent of shelves, whatever that may be) on Monday, the 22nd of October. And I’ve got the cover art and tracklisting right here, in addition to a whole plethora of pre-order bundles you can choose from! Also, there will be some tour dates further down, if you keep on reading.
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The Fat Dukes of Fuck – Honey from the Lips of an Angel

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The Fat Dukes of Fuck – Honey from the Lips of an Angel (self-released, 25 September 2012)

 
Hey there, fellow music afficianados.  I don’t know if you noticed, but it feels like all of a sudden, there have been all kinds of huge releases over the past couple of weeks!  Not in the sense that they’re bands who’ll appear on the cover of major magazines, or will hit the mainstream radio airwaves or anything like that, but significant to me, because I’d been looking forward to them for a long, long time!

Well, in any case, there have been a few that I’ve been excited about, and I’ve been listening to them and I definitely plan on publishing reviews for some of those in the very near future.  Don’t worry, we’ll get there.

Today, though, I feel compelled to share something with you, which was not one of those highly anticipated albums. Not because there’s anything wrong with it, I don’t want to give you that impression — but simply due to the fact that I’d never heard of this band before their new album came out last week, so obviously I wouldn’t have been able to look forward to it!

Yeah, the Las Vegas-based group called The Fat Dukes of Fuck, and their brand-new album Honey from the Lips of an Angel caught me completely by surprise. But I have to be honest, as soon as I heard the band’s name, I felt overcome by curiosity, and immediately knew this was something I needed to check out…

 

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Cultura Tres’ El Mal del Bien to be Released on CD!

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All I can say is, Hell Yeah! Devouter Records is putting out another winner of an album…

Venezuelan sludge-doom lords Cultura Tres‘ album El Mal del Bien was self-released back in 2011, and around the beginning of 2012 it became available worldwide on vinyl. It has also been available for digital download, but never has been released on CD — until now!

I discovered this album earlier this year (and wrote about it back in May), and Cultura Tres very quickly became one of my favorite South American exports. So I’m pretty excited about this, and I’ll be ordering a CD for myself very soon — see below for information on how you can get one too!

 

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Incantation Reveals: a New Album is Coming Soon!

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After more than two decades, American death metal pioneers Incantation just keep going and going, showing neither any signs of slowing down nor any inclination to follow the latest fad or change their style… despite the fact that sole original member John McEntee is now working with (if my counting abilities are accurate) the three-hundred-eighty-seventh different line-up of the band since its inception in 1989.

In the years since then, Incantation has made its mark as one of the very first bands signed to Relapse Records (growing alongside that label during their decade-long relationship), and as one of the originators of the New York Death Militia sound (remaining very close to former labelmates Mortician, and even sharing bandmembers with their NYDM brethren from time to time). In addition to having an ever-shifting cast of characters, the band has also called various locations its home — New York, Ohio, and Johnstown, PA.

Throughout this history, Incantation has put out numerous demos and EPs, participated in countless splits and compilations, and released a total of eight LPs. After a trek through Brazil earlier this year and several stops at European festivals during the summer, the guys have returned home to the States and announced that album number nine would be arriving sometime next month via the label that has handled their past few releases, Listenable Records.

 
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A Band of Orcs’ New Album Now Available for Pre-Order

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Dear Readers, how are you on this lovely Monday afternoon??

Haha, I’m just kidding. Of course there’s no such thing as a lovely Monday afternoon, unless by some chance you happen to accidentally sleep through the entire day.

But I do have a little bit of good news to share with you … Adding Heads to the Pile, the debut full-length album by A Band of Orcs, will be released in exactly thirty days — on Halloween, fittingly — and starting right now, you can pre-order it to make sure you are one of the first to get your hands on the album! (Also to make extra sure the orcs are going to spare you during their forthcoming world domination — they obviously aren’t going to warn you in advance when it’s coming, so you’d better not take any chances!)

 
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Vesperia Searching for a New Guitarist (Plus, a Preview of their Upcoming Live DVD!)

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Canadian Celtic/Viking metal band Vesperia are definitely not strangers to change. In fact, as you may recall, it was just a few months ago that they announced they had undergone a metamorphosis and rebirth with a brand-new name (they had formerly been known as Bolero).

Well, the winds of change just keep on blowing, it appears, because the band is now announcing that they are looking to replace a guitarist.

 
In the words of bassist/lead vocalist Morgan Rider,

Hey guys,

It really sucks to have to be typing this and we never thought in a million years we would be doing so… Change has been a defining word for Vesperia in 2012 and so far we have held our heads high and kept our sights in the clouds with all these testing changes and new commitments we have been taking on each week that would have normally seen a band dissolve. Aspiring for the greater purpose with our music and selves has always been our focus.

Our comrade, lead guitarist and brother-in-arms, Tim, has recently felt that in his and the band’s best interest he must hang his hat on guitar duties for Vesperia. There is no tension or bad blood between any of us and him business-wise or personal whatsoever and we will carry on feeling the mutual respect and brotherhood we’ve always had for each other.
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Hey, Did You Hear? There’s a New Soundgarden Album Coming Soon!

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Iconic Seattle grunge/rock/metal band Soundgarden plans to release King Animal, their first new studio album in over 15 years, on November 13th, 2012!

The band had pretty much been on extended hiatus ever since I was in high school, during which time singer Chris Cornell put out a couple solo records (in addition to working with three-quarters of Rage Against the Machine as Audioslave), bassist Ben Shepherd and drummer Matt Cameron formed Wellwater Conspiracy (while Cameron also served as a member of Pearl Jam — by far the longest-tenured drummer in that band’s Spın̈al Tap-esque revolving door at that position), and guitarist Kim Thayil occasionally popped up with guest appearances but otherwise kept a generally low profile.

However, the quartet emerged from the woodwork a little over two years ago, playing various shows all over the world. And now they are announcing that their sixth full-length will be available in just about two months. I doubt there’s anyone reading this who isn’t already familiar with Soundgarden, but just in case your only exposure happens to be the small handful of maddeningly-overplayed singles (for example, “Black Hole Sun”) that constantly grace the airwaves, you really owe it to yourself to dig deeper into their discography — over the course of a decade or so, these guys put out some incredible albums that never faltered in quality. From their earliest singles like “Flower” or “Loud Love” up through the gems from the Down on the Upside album (“Pretty Noose” or “Ty Cobb”, to name a few) in the late ’90s, there really aren’t any weak spots or low points in the band’s career.

 
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Now Available: Low Man – Self-Titled EP

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Low Man – Low Man EP (self-released, 14 August 2012)

 
Hey there, friends and comrades, how are you all doing?! Feel free to imagine all the typical witty “oh man it’s Monday, I really hate Mondays” rhetoric here. Honestly, though, I’m not really feeling that terrible so far.

It could just be that I’m still not quite awake enough to really feel it yet, or maybe it could be a lingering positive feeling from watching (my local football team) the Steelers utterly demolish the visiting New York Jets yesterday. (By the way, if anyone reading this is a Jets fan, I’m sorry — for many reasons…)

But anyway, whatever the explanation, I think I’ll take advantage of this ultra-rare pleasant mood (relatively speaking, of course), and do something productive. The first thing I want to do is talk to you about Low Man.

Now I’ve mentioned these guys a time or two in the past, when they’ve had various shows scheduled, but I’ve never really taken the time to discuss the band at length before. And since they’ve recently released their self-titled debut EP (which has been online for the past few weeks, but will also be available on CD starting today), it seems like a good time to start!

 
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