Category Archives: Videos

I Can Has Videos?

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VOStube

 
So here’s something pretty neat. I was playing with this over the weekend and announced it all over Facebook, but if you aren’t one of the select few that get to see my posts in your news feed — or even worse, if you somehow forgot to “like” my page in the first place! — I figure I ought to say something about it here, too.

So there’s officially a Valley of Steel Youtube channel now.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/user/valleyofsteelDOTnet/videos. There’s just a handful of videos there so far, but feel free to subscribe to it, because my plan is to continue adding performances from all the great bands and shows I’m constantly telling you about.

 
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The Top Ten Shows I’ve Seen This Year: A Supplemental Video Guide

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This was me on Christmas Eve. In a couple hours, this'll most likely be me again.

This was me on Christmas Eve. In a couple hours, this’ll most likely be me again.

 
Good afternoon, Dear Readers, and a Happy Fucking New Year to you all! I hope you enjoyed the collection of top-ten lists I published yesterday!

Before we finally put 2012 to bed, though, here’s a quick supplemental post to go along with my personal contribution to that conglomerate of lists. I’m calling it…

 

The Top Ten Shows I’ve Seen This Year:

A Supplemental Video Guide

 
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Supervoid – Endless Planets EP

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Supervoid – Endless Planets EP (self-released, 11 November 2012)

Good afternoon, all you fine people! How are things where you are? Here it’s been rainy and nasty, and of course it’s Monday which is never good, but I’m actually feeling pretty good. For one thing, the day’s over, which means I get to go home. But mostly, I’m starting to feel healthy again!

You may have noticed things have been quiet around here for a while. Part of the reason is all the normal crap that keeps me busy and unable to write as often as I’d like to. But a bigger part — at least for the past two weeks or so — is the fact that I have felt like absolute garbage. My normal yearly sinus infection, which tends to completely drain my energy and make my whole body tired and sore for a few weeks (plus my chest, throat, nose and sinuses feeling congested and clogged — which is miserable enough as it is, but also makes it tough for me to listen to music because my ears don’t work right and my head hurts from feeling stuffed up and in general I’m in a very foggy and cloudy state). But I’ve been to the doctor and got some antibiotics, and they’ve finally started taking effect over the past day or two, so I definitely feel like I’m on the road to recovery.

I’m still pretty exhausted and blah, but no more than on any other workday. So, hooray for just feeling marginally lousy, rather than completely and utterly terrible! BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME.

With a few exceptions, I’ve really been slacking as far as writing anything here, and I’ve been especially remiss in my duties to share new music with you readers. Here it is, nearly the end of the year, and I’ve got a virtual stack of music I’ve yet to write about, which figuratively is towering over me as I sit here. I’d better get moving!

***

Here, for example, is something that I’ve been hanging onto for the past few weeks, and kept meaning to write about and share with you — because it’s a really incredible discovery, and I sure hope you all aren’t upset that I didn’t tell you about it sooner!

Endless Planets is the debut release from a relatively new band from the Pittsburgh area called Supervoid. Formed in 2011 by a couple Dethlehem ex-pats, and current and/or former members of several other bands across the region, the band decided to take time to perfect their style of space-rock/stoner/psychedelic/prog-metal before revealing themselves to the public. (By the way, check out this interview with The Sludgelord for more information about the band’s formation and their journey up to this point in their career.)

They had their debut performance at the end of August, and a few more shows since then, attracting a good bit of attention in the local music scene along the way. During that time, the band got together at Pittsburgh’s Treelady Studios to lay down some demo tracks — which they then decided to release in the form of this two-song EP.

Clocking in at around sixteen minutes, Endless Planets serves as a great introduction to Supervoid, as it showcases the band’s talent and is representative of the range they span as performers and songwriters. Plus, it’s available to download for free, so you have no reason not to grab yourself a copy — and once you do, you’ll understand why everyone who has seen this band has been so impressed, and you’ll find yourself anxiously watching to see where this quintet is heading next…

 
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MAKE – Axis EP

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MAKE – Axis (01 November 2012, Black Iron Records)

 
Hellooooooooo out there, readers! I vaguely remember that I used to do this thing where I’d listen to music, and then write about it, and then you’d read it and listen to the music too, and then everyone was happy. I don’t know why I haven’t been doing much of that recently — I guess a variety of reasons which could pretty much be summed up as “life getting in the way” — but I do want to get back into the habit.

Today let’s talk about this EP that was released by the North Carolinian post-atmospheric-ambient-blackish-doomy band MAKE back at the beginning of this month. I told you it would be coming (here and here) and if you’ve been reading my stuff for a while you already know how much I fawned over their debut LP Trephine (reviewed here).

Somehow during the course of all of that, I neglected to share the preview video for the EP — for which I apologize, but I shall make up for it by adding it here:
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Fistula and Hellbastard Vinyl/Merch Preorders — HURRY! ENDS TOMORROW!!

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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!!!

 
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More Saille News…

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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 →

Another Mortal Music DR Coming Soon: Monsterworks

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Well holy shit, check this out.  It’s just like they say: speak of the devil and he appears at your elbow.

In this case, “the devil” is Mortal Music‘s Digital Releases — their little gift packages containing a few tracks at a time from a particular band, and made available for free download for a limited time, eventually leading up to a full-length album from that band.

Just this afternoon I was talking about the fact that Ion Vein is getting the details straightened out for their second DR, and I had literally just hit the “Publish” button on that article, when an email suddenly popped up in my in-box telling me that Monsterworks has announced details for the release of their second DR!

 
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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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Win a Test Press Copy of the Author & Punisher LP from Seventh Rule!

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image

 
Hey readers, here’s another cool contest you might want to check out — but hurry, you only have until tomorrow (Friday, the 5th of October) to enter!

Seventh Rule Recordings is giving you the chance to pick up a test press of Author & Punisher‘s newest LP, Ursus Americanus! If you haven’t seen it yet (or if you’ve blocked it out of your conscious memory), you can check out my review for this gem of industrial-doom here — which was without a doubt the most fucked-up thing I’ve written in a long time.

So anyway, if you’d be interested in grabbing one of these (since the record plants only produce a very limited number of tests for each album, these are very rare and hence they’ve become a pretty hot commodity among vinyl collectors), all you have to do is throw together a mash-up video using the A&P song “Terrorbird” …

Now that sounds pretty daunting, right? I mean, you’ve only got til tomorrow to do it! (I didn’t get a chance to post this right away when I got the email from Seventh Rule, or else you would have had two whole days’ notice — sorry about that!) But fear not: you have a tool available to you that will drastically simplify the process! It’s called Youtube Doubler, and it looks like it’ll be a lot of fun to play with…

 
So, check out these rules for the contest, and then get to it!!

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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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