Category Archives: Reviews

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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Contest Alert: Fatality Seeking the Silliest Silly Walk!

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Happy Friday, readers! Just a few more hours left ’til quitting time, which means no more work until next week… You have no idea how nice it feels to say that. I think I’ll say it again: HAPPY FRIDAY!!

 
It has turned out to be kind of a dreary day, and of course it’s made all the more dreary simply from being at work. Feels like it’s about time for something to lighten the mood a bit, and I’ve found something perfect for that! If you’re as big of a Monty Python fan as I am, or if you’re as big of a thrash metal fan, or especially, if you’re heavily into both, you’ll definitely want to pay attention to this…

 
One of the most famous Monty Python’s Flying Circus segments of all time was the wildly popular “Ministry of Silly Walks” sketch. It seems this is exactly what came to mind when guitarists Spencer Le Von and Eytan Gordon of Canadian thrash quartet Fatality were really bored one night and tried to think of a way to amuse themselves. As Spencer (who is also the band’s vocalist, and writer of the band’s official blog) wrote in a blog post earlier this month:

 

…It took a while for me to realize how astonishingly important killing time is as a musician. It is a vital component of what we do. Whether it is mind bending travel time to a gig or waiting to perform, metal musicians have killing time down to a delicate science, and a band that laughs together stays together.
 
To better illustrate this point we have devised a CONTEST based on our latest “weekly challenge” video. The video involves Eytan and I acting like complete assholes in public, because that is what makes us laugh and that’s what we find funny.
 
For this video we decided to pay tribute to Monty Python and the Ministry of Silly Walks. In this clip you can see me and Eytan going for a swift jaunt in our local Metro to purchase some late night munchies.

 

 
For their contest, the band want you to take a video of the silliest walk you can come up with, and then submit the video to their Facebook page.

The person who submits the silliest video (as judged by the band themselves) will win a cool prize pack including the following:

  • Free Fatality T-Shirt
  • Free CD
  • Free patch, beer cozie or 3 pins
  • 2 free tickets to our next local show (if applicable)

 
This contest was first announced about two weeks ago — there was an update on the band’s Facebook page earlier this week stating that they’re still looking for submissions, but I haven’t heard any official word about a deadline. It seems like the contest is pretty informal, but you won’t want to miss out on these great prizes so you’d better get stepping… as silly as you can!

 
Oh, and just in case you aren’t already familiar with Fatality’s material, and you want to get a better idea of what you’d be winning, I’ve got some stuff here for you to hear — including several tracks you can download for FREE…

 
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Now Available for Free: Svartby – Elemental Tales

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Svartby – Elemental Tales (17 February 2012, Trollzorn Records)

 
Svartby are an extreme folk metal band from Saint Petersburg, Russia, which was formed back in 2003 by a keyboardist/composer/lyricist named Giftsvamp. Actually, “extreme folk metal” is a phrase they sometimes use to describe themselves, but they actually prefer the term “Svartcore” because the unique sound they create just doesn’t quite fit with what you’d normally consider “folk” music, or “extreme metal” or even “metal” music. They blend elements of all of these, but essentially “Svartcore” is centered around the band leader’s orchestral creations, which are then augmented by heavy metal guitars, drums, and death-metal-style vocals.

“Svartby” itself is the name of a fictional “black village” which is inhabited by mythical creatures — mostly either mischevious or malevolent ones (such as witches, gnomes, and imps) — and these form the main basis for the band’s lyrical content. Despite the band’s Russian origin, at first their lyrics were written entirely in Swedish, although over time, they began adding many songs in English as well.

The latest of these releases, Elemental Tales, first saw the light of day in February of this year, on CD via German label Trollzorn Records. However, the band is of the opinion that music ought to be freely available to all listeners: they have been quietly encouraging the album to be shared on the internet since the time of its release, and now they have established a Bandcamp page for themselves, where all their albums can officially and legitimately be downloaded for free. Bear in mind, though, you also have the opportunity to pay any price you choose — which would be highly appreciated by the musicians, who say they had never earned any money from their own music before now (explaining that, instead, everything has always gone to the record labels to offset expenses). (Read more about the band’s decision to give their music away for free here.)

So without any further ado, let’s discuss this recent album, and then I’ll give you the opportunity to listen to it and grab a copy of it…

 

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In Case You Missed It: Stangala – Boued Tousek Hag Trau Mat All

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Stangala – Boued Tousek Hag Traou Mat All (05 December 2011, Solitude Productions)

 
Good afternoon, Readers. How are you? This day has been dragging on forever, and I’m so glad it’s finally ending! There seems to be no amount of coffee sufficient to keep me alert today — no matter what I do, I feel like I’m stuck in slow motion and surrounded by fog. This morning I was feeling pretty terrible but then I took some allergy pills, and now I’m feeling… nothing. Just sort of dazed. Which would be totally fine if I didn’t have to be at work, and even then it might not be so bad if my job didn’t revolve around numbers and thinking and stuff. Times like this, I feel pretty nervous to come back the next day, because I’m always afraid I’ll hear about some big mistake I made where, like, I forgot how to add and I ended up being off by a million dollars someplace, or that I totally zoned out and missed a step, and some important thing didn’t get paid on-time or whatever.

Ugh, it would totally hurt my head just thinking about it, except for the fact that at the moment I am more or less incapable of feeling any pain. So, nevermind.

Do you ever have days like this? It’s actually not so bad, like being all cozy inside a drug-induced cloud. Of course, in this particular instance, those drugs are ones that were legally purchased from a pharmacy (actually I think they’re even Wal-Mart brand, how stupid is that), but, whatever. This afternoon I’ve been listening to some equally tripped-out, hazy, cloudy music, and I thought just maybe you’d like it if I shared it with you — keep on reading and then give it a listen; maybe you won’t even need any chemical substances to feel like you’re in an altered state!

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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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In Case You Missed It: Greed & Rapacity – Loki Bound

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Greed & Rapacity – Loki Bound (9 April 2012, Milam Records)

 
Good afternoon, Readers! Time for another album review. It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these things; I hope I remember how…

 
With its roots in Australian soil, but being a collaborative effort between members (who are also involved with various other projects, including Azoth, Bleakwood, and Ironwood) living in both Sydney (NSW, AU) and Portland (OR, US) Greed & Rapacity have the goal of “channeling and venting the worst of human nature in sonic form” — not surprising, considering they have deadly sins as namesakes.

Following a demo in 2010, this spring the band’s debut EP Loki Bound was released on cassette by Milam Records (although it’s also available as a digital download, so don’t worry if you never bothered to get a new tape player after the batteries leaked and corroded your Walkman’s innards fifteen or twenty years ago).

The album was named for the god of chaos in Norse mythology, who was bound by the other deities for his mischievous crimes, and had a serpent suspended above him, from which venom would occasionally drip onto the captive, causing him to writhe in pain and agony.

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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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In Case You Missed It: Banda de la Muerte – Pulso de una Mente Maldita

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Banda de la Muerte – Pulso de una Mente Maldita (29 March 2012, Zonda Records)

 
So remember about two weeks ago, when I published a review of the most recent Cultura Tres album? At that time I talked about rectifying my previous oversight of South American bands, and hinted that there were two in particular I had my eye (or, ears) on. Well this is the second one: Argentina’s Banda de la Muerte.
 
My original plan was to write up both of these reviews and post them on the same day, but then I came to the realization that there would be so much similarity between the two, that you might get some weird sense of déjà vu — hence the delay in finishing and publishing this one. Now, I’m not trying to say that the two bands are the same or that their music is very similar; that wasn’t the problem. However, the way I first got introduced to these guys was virtually identical.
 
Like Cultura Tres, the name Banda de la Muerte first came to my attention as part of a European tour with Undersmile. And also, just like their neighbors to the north, these Argentinians had a song included in the recent Grip of Delusion Radio compilation The Book of Riff-elations. Once again, the band name jumped out at me when I recognized it in the track listing, and I found that I especially enjoyed their contribution, “Parte de Mi Historia” (Part of My Story).
 
The parallels don’t end there, either, because these guys also have had two releases, with the first one (2009’s Banda de la Muerte) being offered for a free download through Bandcamp (details included at the end of this post). Their newer album, Pulso de una Mente Maldita has been out since March (via Argentina’s Zonda Records, who also handled the earlier self-titled work), but it was recently announced that (just like Cultura Tres’ El Mal del Bien) it’s now available worldwide on vinyl (details on that included later as well).
 
So as you can see, there are quite a few similarities between the two bands’ stories, and in particular, my own road to discovering them. But enough of that — now I’d like to talk about what makes Banda de la Muerte unique.
  
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Out Now: Young Hunter – Stone Tools (Touring with Cormorant!)

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Young Hunter – Stone Tools (18 May 2012, Self-released)

 
A couple days ago, I saw an announcement that Cormorant would be heading out on an eight-night tour all along the west coast. (If you need a refresher on that band, check out this review of their latest album Dwellings, which incorporates a discussion of their entire discography.) Now, as they operate independently and self-fund all their activities, they don’t get the chance to do shows all that often, so for them to announce a multi-date tour is a pretty big deal. (Full details are included later in this post.) When I read that all the arrangements were made in collaboration with another DIY band, Young Hunter (who are also appearing on almost all of the scheduled dates), it made me want to check these guys out as well.
 
I’m glad I did, and now I’m going to share them with you — so you can be glad too.
 
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In Case You Missed It: Vattnet Viskar – Self-Titled EP

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Vattnet Viskar – Vattnet Viskar (15 March 2012, Broken Limbs Recordings)

 
So I decided it was time to reach into my great big pile o’ stuff waiting to be reviewed, to find something to write about today, when the name Vattnet Viskar jumped out at me. Since they released their self-titled EP through Broken Limbs back in March, I’ve been seeing a lot of buzz surrounding this band, culminating in the announcement last week that they had been signed to Century Media Records.

Prior to this recent EP, the band had self-released a demo tape in 2011 in extremely limited quantities (only 30 copies were made, according to my research). But, before you go scouring eBay, don’t dispair: since that time they’ve made that recording available for free download; I’ll hook you up with the details at the end of this post.

Anyway, then the EP came out on 10″ vinyl and CD and within about two months this relatively obscure band from New Hampshire was inking a deal with one of the biggest labels in the metal world. So what’s up with all the hype surrounding this American band with a Swedish name (it translates to “Whispering Water”)? You’re about to find out. And pay close attention, because these guys are about to get huge. No, astronomical. Trust me.

 
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