Category Archives: New Releases

Just Released: Mondvolland – Pestvogel

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Mondvolland – Pestvogel EP (Self-released, 28 January 2012)

I’ve learned that internet radio can really be a blessing during a long, boring day at work. There are stations out there that specialize in literally any genre or style you can imagine. I can usually find one that suits whatever mood I’m in on any given day, and as an added bonus, I often end up discovering new bands I never heard before. Whenever I hear a song I really like, I usually stop what I’m doing to search for that band on Facebook so I can “like” them and then keep informed about what they’re up to.

This is how I came across a band called Mondvolland; once upon a time I was in a folk-metal mood (when this happens, Warrior Radio is usually my drug of choice), and I heard some excellent quality blackened folk, which turned out to be by this Dutch group.

Fast-forward to December, and I started seeing updates from the band about some new material they were recording. I asked them at that time to please let me know when they had anything finished, because I was anxious to hear it. Well as it turns out, I didn’t have to wait long, because this week I got an email from bassist/vocalist/co-founder Mickeal who told me they had just put out a press release: to give fans a taste of the new direction the band are taking, they decided to release a 3-song EP to download for free!

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Just Released: Nephelium Offering First Single from Upcoming Album for Free Download

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Brutal death metal band Nephelium formed more than ten years ago in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Although they have long since relocated to Canada, they never left their roots far behind, as is apparent from the music they create, which blends technical death metal with exotic Middle Eastern melodies and flavors. Their debut LP Coils of Entropy is scheduled to be self-released in just over a week (7 February 2012), but as an appetizer they have served up samples of all the songs, including one full song you can download for free!

 

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Now Available for Pre-Order: (drama) – Zastor Tišine

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(drama) – Zastor Tišine (Altsphere Production, 24 February 2012)

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Fuck me, I can’t seem to keep my eyes open.  I’ve probably had about five cups of coffee today, but still, here I sit staring at this computer screen and it keeps going out of focus.  Why does the last day of work before a break– especially a nice, long holiday weekend– always seem to drag on forever?  Not that things will get any better when I leave here; I am completely dreading the fact that later tonight, and probably much of tomorrow as well, I will have to venture out into the world of holiday shopping!  Suffering through the world’s worst drivers (they always seem to come out in hordes this time of year, don’t they?) to struggle to find a place to park; pushing through huge crowds of horribly annoying people to get the chance to spend money I can’t really afford on a bunch of crap that my family members don’t really need anyhow… it’s enough to seriously bring on an anxiety attack just thinking about it!

Of course, that’s why the past few days I have been cheering myself (and hopefully some of you out there in internet-land, as well) with great big heaps of awesomely depressive doom metal.  Today’s post will complete the trilogy I described earlier (part I | part II), as we voyage to Croatia to check out the debut LP of a band from Zagreb called (drama), which is entitled Zastor Tišine (Croatian for The Curtain [or Shroud] of Silence).

Following a 2006 demo, the band actually recorded this full-length back in 2010 and made it available through various digital outlets earlier this year.  I can’t remember, now, where I first became aware of them, but I know I heard one of their songs somewhere; I enjoyed it enough to be willing to put in the effort necessary to track down more info about the band– which was no small task!  You try Googling the word “drama” – with or without the parentheses, it makes no difference – and see how easy it is to wade through the billions of results!  (By the way, for your benefit I’ve included a list of links at the bottom of this post, so you can have a much easier time learning more about the band and keeping informed about them.  You’re welcome.) Continue reading →

Just Released: Ever Circling Wolves – Chapter III

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Ever Circling Wolves – Chapter III: In Which the Protagonist Finds Himself at the Bottom of the Ocean as well as in a Petrified Forest (December 2011, Dethroned Productions)

Well, believe it or not, Christmas is almost here. I know I can’t believe it, myself — these past several months have been so busy for me that they’ve just flown by. Often it seems that all the stuff that needs to be done exceeds the amount of time available in which to do it, which of course means there is actually less than zero time left over in which to do anything that I want to do. That sucks, and it’s made even worse by how short the days are (the only time I see a little bit of sunlight is on my way to the bus stop when I leave work in the afternoon — unless it’s raining or snowing, which is often the case). When you add all the stress and anxiety involved with the holiday season on top of everything else, it’s no wonder so many people go into a deep depression around this time. Clearly, we need something to shake off these dark feelings and bring joy and cheer back into our lives. I don’t know about you, but for me there is nothing that can turn my frown upside-down faster than some good ole DOOM METAL!!  The doomier it is, the better it makes me feel.  So I’ve scoured the world in search of something to cheer me up, and I’ve found just what the doctor ordered.  Three different doses of it, in fact, and so I will be sharing these over the next three days — just long enough to take us through Christmas eve.

The first stop on our global quest for euphoria is in Finland, where death-doom quartet Ever Circling Wolves have just released their third recording (an EP, appropriately titled Chapter III) on CD via Dethroned Productions… Continue reading →

Out Tomorrow: Phase Reverse – Phase Reverse

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Phase Reverse – Phase Reverse (Aural Music, 16 December 2011)

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If you enjoyed yesterday’s dose of heavy rock with a metallic edge, now I’d like to introduce you to Phase Reverse, the debut full-length from Athenian trio Phase Reverse. Originally available in a limited Greece-only release in December 2009, the album is now being made available to audiences worldwide on CD and digital download via Italian label Aural Music. Continue reading →

Just Released: My Ruin – A Southern Revelation (Free Download!)

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My Ruin – A Southern Revelation (self-released, 7 December 2011)

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Imagine this: your band has just been offered a deal with a record label, to include help with promotion, distribution, and touring support for the new album you’ve just recorded.  You’re happy with your new music and thrilled with the new contract and all the benefits that the head of the label promised you.  Then suddenly, without warning, the rug gets pulled out from underneath you, and nothing is happening according to the agreement, resulting in delays to releasing your record, cancelled tourdates, huge losses in profits, and eventually, nasty messages sent through lawyers.  What would you do?  Run off in a corner somewhere and cry?  Decide that life as a musician is too hard, and that you might as well just give up?

Well, according to southern-fried-hard-rock/alt-metal duo My Ruin, that’s exactly what happened to them, but their reaction to the situation was to write and record another whole album full of kick-ass, angry music. And then as a great big “fuck you” to the whole industry, they decided to give it away for free!  Keep reading to learn more about this band, their new album A Southern Revelation, and where you can pick up a copy absolutely free of charge…
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Get ’em While They’re Hot: Basick Records Offering a Free 2011 Sampler!

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Okay, I realize it isn’t 2012 yet, and I’m pretty sure Basick Records knows it too, but this sampler represents a cross-section of the British prog-tech-metal label’s roster going into the new year.  Several of the tracks here are swiped from Basick bands’ latest (i.e., 2011) releases, including “Oceans” from Visions‘ debut album Home (of which, coincidentally, I am in the middle of writing a review), and several others; however, also included are sneak peeks at a couple of the label’s recent signings who haven’t yet put out a record through Basick, such as Blotted Science and Skyharbor.

Best of all, it’s absolutely free!  Check out the announcement on Basick’s website  for additional information.  Or if you’re really impatient, you can just skip on over to Amazon to grab a copy.  However, if you aren’t able to download MP3s from Amazon.co.uk due to country restrictions, they have also made it available to download via their Bandcamp page (just see the embedded widget below).   Also free!  You can’t lose, either way.

Just Released: MorgueMart – Skeleton of the American Dream

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MorgueMart – Skeleton of the American Dream (Deadslab Records, 25 November 2011)

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At a time when the world of heavy music is bemoaning so many of its heroes falling from grace, whether that means abandoning any remaining metal characteristics in favor of a hard rock sound (sometimes not even all that hard, either!), watering everything down with shitty electro-industrial garbage, or trying to spice things up by adding the semi-coherent ramblings of an aging beat-poet, it can sometimes be a refreshing change of pace to see some consistency.

Skeleton of the American Dream, the latest release from Charleroi (PA, USA) grind/crust/punk band MorgueMart, literally picks up where its predecessor, 2008’s Ten Cent Cadavers, left off. Continue reading →

Out Today: Cormorant – Dwellings

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Cormorant – Dwellings (self-released, 6 December 2011)

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First off, let me just say, I fucking hate Tuesdays. If I worked with that obnoxious lady from payroll or whatever in Office Space, she’d surely tell me I have a case of the Mondays every Tuesday. See, most people complain about Mondays because they don’t want to go back to work after the weekend, and they’re still a bit groggy throughout that morning. Well, I take this to a higher level, because I basically sleepwalk through Monday, go through the motions without really accomplishing much; you could say I’m virtually dead to the world for the entire day, so I’m more or less numb to how truly awful Monday really is. Then, after getting by on just vapors, I end up completely out of fuel by that night, and start out Tuesday feeling the way most people do on Monday. Anyway, that’s pretty much my story so far today.

There is one good thing I can say for Tuesdays though: that’s most often the day new music gets released. Ordinarily that would not be much of a consolation, but every once in a while, a Tuesday will roll around where there is a new release I have been looking forward to so much, that I almost forget how dreadful it is to be alive that day. Almost. And today is one of those rare days, because I’ve been counting down the days for the past few months, since I first saw the announcement from Californian blackened metal band Cormorant‘s bassist/vocalist/lyricist/spokesperson Arthur von Nagel, and now their new LP, Dwellings, is officially here.

For those out there who are already familiar with this band, and who have heard their earlier releases, you probably pre-ordered this weeks ago, and you are probably already listening to the digital copy while anxiously awaiting the CD (and all its fantastic artwork) to be delivered. If you know their past discography but you haven’t bought the new one yet, then probably you just missed seeing the news or you don’t know where to get it, so here you go: click this link.

If you’re still with me, then I assume you’ve never been exposed to Cormorant or their music before, so keep reading and we’ll go on a little trip through history.
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Just Released: Enid – Munsalvaesche

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Enid – Munsalvaesche (28 November, 2011 – Code666 Records)

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Last weekend, my wife and I traveled to enemy territory* to catch the Korpiklaani+Arkona show.  Because my mother’s farm is about three hours closer to Cleveland than the Valley of Steel is, I had arranged for us to spend Thanksgiving weekend at her place.  Well, I think mom saw through my thinly veiled ruse, because in exchange for a couple days’ worth of free food and shelter within easy driving distance from Peabody’s, she decided that I needed to help put up her Christmas tree and hang the lights on it (she has an enormous nine-foot artificial tree, and lately it has become more difficult for her to get up and down a ladder). 

Anyway, during all this decorating nonsense, we were treated to a variety of Christmas-themed music from mom’s extensive collection.  This included a number of albums by Mannheim Steamroller, a multi-platinum selling, new-agey, electro-orchestral project of which she’s always been fond.  Anyway, during the process of assembling the tree, my wife remarked to me that some of the music we’d heard the night before (i.e. the concert) was not too far removed from what was being played at the house that morning.  I can see where she was coming from here — for example, the incorporation of traditional folk melodies and styles, and instruments such as the flutes and bagpipes used extensively by Arkona, into a more modern format, might superficially resemble the methods employed by Mannheim Steamroller.  However, to me the pagan/folk metal movement seems to take the folk/traditional instruments, melodies, song structures and attitude, and directly blends these with metal instrumentation (and often, metal vocals). On the other hand, the traditional folk Christmas carols that are reinterpreted on the albums we heard, seem to be rearranged in more of a classical orchestration and then reproduced with modern, synthesized instruments. I would be more inclined to compare this with something like Wendy (née Walter) Carlos‘ Switched-On Bach series of albums, although the correllation would be more apt if it were electronic versions of works by classical composers who, unlike Bach, often incorporated traditional folk tunes (either of their own cultural heritage, such as Dvorak’s “Slavonic Dances,” or those picked up elsewhere, such as Tchaikovsky’s “Cappriccio Italien”).

Anyway, all of this rambling is leading up to my review of the latest album, Munsalvaesche, by German epic/fantasy/symphonic metal artist Enid, which was just made available last week (28 November) through Code666 Records/Aural Music. Continue reading and you shall see (and hear!) why this album should appeal to fans of the folk-metal approach as well as the modernized folk-music-via-classical-arrangement approach.
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