Category Archives: New Releases

Just Released: Dead Guys – Duties

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Dead Guys – Duties (self released, 02 June 2012)

 
Hey there, folks. How’s it going? (For the record, that question isn’t always rhetorical — if the mood ever strikes you, you can feel free to hit me with some feedback using the comments section at the bottom of each post!)

It’s Saturday, and I’m in sort of a mellow mood, myself. It’s been a long week, and we especially tend to get pretty busy at work as we get closer to the end of the month — hooray for accounting — with the peak usually coming about a week before month-end, so in other words, approximately yesterday. I wouldn’t say that what I do is particularly difficult or strenuous, but sometimes it can be very mentally taxing or feel overwhelming at times. So like I said, I’m basically in the mood for relaxing this weekend.

I’ve mentioned before about how sometimes I need to step outside of the “metal music” box, and treat my ears to something a little different. I’d wager that’s true about everybody: it’s hard to listen to nothing but amps turned up to eleven, pounding drums, and screaming vocals all day every day. Sometimes you need some variety in your life, and for me, today is one of those days.

So I’ve got some mellow bluesy rock to share with you today — but of course I don’t expect all of you readers to be feeling exactly the same way I am when I write these posts! That’s why there’s a whole archive of stuff out there for you to check out (about 193 articles not including this one); surely there’s something there that’ll tickle your fancy. And then the next time you’re feeling like you’re in the mood for some mellow bluesy rock, you can come back to this one. Or even better — I’ll give you the chance to download this EP for free, and then you can hang on to it to listen to anytime you choose!

 
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Coming Soon: New Icarus Witch Album (But They Need Help Making a Video!)

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So the fifth album by Cleopatra Records recording artists (and Pittsburghers) Icarus Witch is coming out in two weeks!

 
Here is a video teaser for Rise, to be released on the 3rd of July:

 
You can also listen to the album’s title track here.

 
Furthermore, the band has filmed a video for the track “The End,” which they hope to be able to get edited and released prior to the release of the album… which is where you come in!

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BREAKING NEWS: Municipal Waste / Toxic Holocaust – Toxic Waste Split – 2nd Pressing and FREE DOWNLOAD!

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toxic-waste-cover

 
Good morning! It’s early as hell — I haven’t even had any coffee yet and I can’t quite see straight — but this news is too big to wait around before sharing. Sometime in the middle of the night, I got an email from Scotty at Tankcrimes Records saying that there is now a second pressing available of the Municipal Waste / Toxic Holocaust Toxic Waste split!

 
You can read all about this split 12″ release at this earlier post, if somehow you missed the news the first time around — including the track listing, a brief history of each band, summer tour dates, etc.

(And don’t forget — there’s also more free Municipal Waste tracks available to download for free here!)

 

 
But the big news right now is that 1000 more copies of this record are NOW AVAILABLE to buy (ORDER HERE), since the first ones flew off the shelves almost immediately. Pictured above, the new versions include:

200 – Striped (Green/Yellow/Blue)
350 – “Toxic Spill”
450 – Highlighter Yellow

 
And that’s not all — Tankcrimes has also released all four tracks from the split for FREE DOWNLOAD grab it here…

 
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Municipal Waste: website, Facebook, Myspace, Reverbnation
Toxic Holocaust: Facebook, Myspace, Reverbnation, Bandcamp
Tankcrimes: website, Facebook, Myspace, Bandcamp

Coming Soon: A Band of Orcs’ New Album on Vinyl Picture Disc – Pre-Order Now to Help Fund the Pressing!

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California’s A Band of Orcs would love to release their forthcoming self-titled album in the huge, full-color glory that is a double-LP picture disc vinyl format. They would also love to come to your house and slay you and your family, then steal all your gold and eat all your food. They don’t seem too particular about which of those things takes place, but I suspect you might have strong feelings about one or the other.

Fortunately, the band has decided to give you the opportunity to help ensure the first outcome can happen — which would also ensure that you are spared during the orcs’ eventual quest for world domination. If that sounds appealing to you, here’s how it works…

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Yet Another TrollfesT Update: TONS of Free Shit Available with New Album!

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Is it just me, or does it seem like we’ve gone a little troll-crazy lately? Over the past couple of months, there have been quite a few posts about the “True Norwegian Balkan Metal” band TrollfesT…

We’ve had the revealing of the artwork for their upcoming NoiseArt Records album, Brumlebassen (shown above) as well as information about the story behind the troll-in-a-bee-costume character; later we learned about the release date (24 August) and watched a video teaser for the album, just to name a few.

Well, as it turns out, the merry band of trolls have even more surprises hidden up their sleeves! (Do trolls have sleeves?)

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Free Music Alert: Now You Can Download Vesperia’s Whole Demo for FREE

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Vesperia – The Swordsman Demo (Self-released, 01 May 2012)

 
Ladies and Gentlemen, if you’ve been paying attention to this blog over the past month, you’ve seen the name Vesperia a few times. That’s because this newly-renamed band has put together a brand-new demo to reintroduce themselves to the world, and each week throughout the month of May, they released a new track for free.

Well, now that they’ve all been made available, the whole four-track package can now be downloaded for free (or any price you choose), for your convenience. There’s also more stuff on the horizon for these guys — including a newly-added tour date and an upcoming live DVD!

So I’ve taken this opportunity to collect all the information I’ve previously shared about the band, combined it with the new stuff, and while I’m at it, I’ll say a few words about the music contained in the demo. Which, again, you can go download for free. Ready? Here we go…

 

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Now Hear This: A Brand New Song by Moths (FREE Download!)

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(Click for larger size)


 

Moths – Horsebreaker single (06 June 2012, Self-released)

 
As a music blogwriter based in the Pittsburgh area, I feel like it’s my obligation to keep myself relatively informed in terms of what’s happening in the local scene, and then to spread this information to you, the loyal reader, whether you live near here or on the other side of the world. It’s a pretty big job, but I really do try to stay on top of things.

Sometimes I need a little bit of help, though. In one particular case, I had to discover a pretty amazing local band when their 2011 demo tape was featured on another (non-local) blog. That was The Number of the Blog, and I’d you link to the original post, but several months ago TNOTB went off to live on a farm somewhere with lots of land where it could run around with other blogs and be happy and free…

However, the band — Moths — is still alive and well; that two-track demo still features some excellent tech-metal drumming and guitarring as well as nicely-done death-metal vocalling, AND it’s still available for free download (stay tuned till the end of this post); and in fact, just yesterday they released a brand new song that you won’t want to miss…

 
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Somebody Please Tell Me: Where Can I Hear More “Gipsy Punk Rock”?

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Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I’m going to share some more new music with you, but first somebody out there has to promise to answer the question in the title of this post. Deal? Okay, good.

 

 
So our good friend Mihai, who is a guitarist/keyboardist/songwriter for Dirty Shirt (more about that band here), also has a solo career (using the name M.T.) as a remix artist. Now, I know what many of you are probably thinking: a “remix” just means taking a song and adding some kind of techno dance beat behind it, right? Well, a lot of the time that’s true, unfortunately, and admittedly there really isn’t much artistry involved there. However, the work that M.T. does is more like re-composition, because he generally takes the original vocal part, but very little else from the actual song; instead, adding instruments and sounds of his own.

Anyway, earlier this week I learned that he had taken a number of these creations and compiled them into a digital album called Rock RMX Collection. Due to legal complications (with the various copyrights on the original source material) this release will not be made available to download or to purchase in any format, but it’s out there in cyberspace for you to listen to, if you choose to do so.

 
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More News About Upcoming Releases: Video Teaser for New TrollfesT Album

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image

 
Good morning again, Readers! We’ve already had some great news today involving details of an album due out via Noise Art Records this August, but there’s another exciting release scheduled for around that same time, on that same record label!

If you recall, about two months ago we learned the title, tracklist, and the narrative behind TrollfesT‘s forthcoming fifth album Brumlebassen, and at the same time we were treated to a glimpse of the cover art (reproduced at the top of this page).

 
Well, now there’s more treats for your eyes and ears! The band has put together the following video teaser, which contains a large dose of nature scenes, hiking, and picnic lunches, though a very small amount of either metal music or information about the actual album…

 
Coincidentally, following the release of this album, TrollfesT will also be taking part in the Heidenfest tour across Europe, alongside Korpiklaani and Wintersun, as well as Krampus (as reported earlier today).

 
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TrollfesT: Website, Facebook, Myspace, Reverbnation, Soundcloud, Webstore

Coming Soon: Krampus Reveal Title, Artwork, Release Date for Debut Full-length!

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image

 
Well, good morning!  I’m still half-asleep, or perhaps even less-than-half, but this little piece of news grabbed my attention anyway…

Italian folk-metal band Krampus, whom we’ve discussed in terms of their two EPs from 2011 (here and here), have been working on putting together their first LP.  Today they’ve unveiled the cover art (see above) as well as tracklist for the upcoming album!

Survival of the Fittest, which seems aptly named when you consider their typical subject matter of the eventual reassertion of nature’s dominance over humans and their technology, will be available on CD and digital download through NoiseArt Records on 24 August 2012.

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