Category Archives: Videos

True Norwegian Black Metal: Download a Free Blodsgard Video!

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The Blodsgard song “Mentalt Minefelt” was selected by No Clean Singing as one of 2011’s “Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs” and in thanks for that honor the band is giving free downloads of the video for that song. Christianity gets a comeuppance courtesy of the Swedish cult film Häxan‘s Devil, and Blodsgard provides the crushing soundtrack. Click the link below to go to the video page and get the free DL for your computer or your smart phone.

This is the email update that I recently received from Norwegian black metal miscreants Blodsgard (which translates to “blood farm”). If you aren’t familiar with the band, I can’t think of a better way to get acquainted than to check out this video, and then you can grab your very own copy if you’d like.

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More News About Shows (In Pittsburgh, This Time) – Part 2, Dethlehem

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As I said in the last post, after spending yesterday talking about shows that I will never get a chance to see, it’s time for some updates for the local (Pittsburgh) area. If you live somewhere else, NOW YOU CAN SEE HOW IT FEELS!!, but also, hopefully you’ll learn about a couple bands that might tickle your fancy.

 

The second of today’s two updates features Dethlehem, who will lay siege to Stage AE on Pittsburgh’s North Shore in a little under a month (Saturday, 18 February 2012). Continue reading →

More News About Shows (In Pittsburgh, This Time) – Part 1, Ernie and the Berts

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Okay, after spending yesterday talking about shows that I will never get a chance to see, it’s time for some updates for the local (Pittsburgh) area. If you live somewhere else, NOW YOU CAN SEE HOW IT FEELS!!, but also, hopefully you’ll learn about a couple bands that might tickle your fancy.

 

First of all, next Saturday (4 February 2012), “sleazy muppet rock” band Ernie and the Berts will be making their first live appearance of 2012 at Altar Bar in Pittsburgh’s Strip District area, as one of the opening acts for Greek-American Punks Barb Wire Dolls.

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Long Live the King!

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Yesterday morning, the King Diamond Facebook page offered some welcome news: after more than a year away from performing (besides a brief appearance with Metallica during their anniversary festivities last month) while recovering from triple-bypass heart surgery, the renowned Danish vocalist is finally ready to return to the stage.

Normally when I read about upcoming tours and festivals, I get pretty grumpy about the fact that they are so far away from here and it just depresses me.  But in this case, I don’t care where the shows are located, I’m just happy to hear the King is healthy and able to get back out on the road again.

Read the full announcement, including video updates, after the jump.

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Just When We Were Starting to Get Over the Whole Morbid Angel Thing…

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Yesterday, in their newsletter, Season of Mist announced a new video for a song from Illud Divinum Insanus, the 2011 release by self-described “extreme music” band Morbid Angel:

Last November, seminal extreme metallers MORBID ANGEL shot a video clip for the song “Existo Vulgoré”, off latest album “Illud Divinum Insanus”. The video was conceptualized by the band and director Thomas Mignone (SLIPKNOT, MUDVAYNE, AVENGED SEVENFOLD) and produced through his production company Doom Incorporated. Mignone filmed the band in Tampa, Florida just prior to their departure to Europe during their recent tour.

If the band had any hopes of regaining the attention of their longtime fans, who seem to have almost universally despised this album, I don’t think the best way to do it would have been to collaborate with someone who has those particular credits on his resumé.  However, pandering to the legions of death metal fans who have supported this band for decades may be exactly what they are trying not to do.  At least, that’s the impression I get from their upcoming remix project.

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about this album was the fact that, even if they are trying to distance themselves from the death metal scene and branch out in a new direction (i.e. industrial/techno/whatever), fans of those particular styles are not very likely to enjoy it either, because even as those styles go, it isn’t especially well-done.  Not being a fan of that sort of thing, myself, I can’t really judge the accuracy of these comments.  Nevertheless, I can only assume that their forthcoming release of a “3-hour compilation gathering 39 remixes of songs” (done by several presumably well-known artists of the electronic music genres) will help to push the band’s image further into that new territory they seem to be seeking.  I really don’t know, but if that is their goal then I wish them well.

Getting back to the original subject, the video for “Existo Vulgoré” can be found by clicking here; and the label has also kindly offered the song as a FREE mp3 download here.  After watching, let me know what you think in the comments below.  Or if you have anything at all to say on the subject of this band and its new album or new direction, knock yourself out.

If you don’t have the album yet, but you are interested in checking it out (morbid curiosity, perhaps?), you can pick up the CD here, grab the digital download version here, or check out the huge wooden box deluxe edition here. Illud Divinium Insanus – The Remixes can be pre-ordered from the Season of Mist e-shop, here.

The VoS Top 11 of 2011 – Published at No Clean Singing

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Hey.  You should already know this, because you should already be reading the No Clean Singing blog.  But in the event that for some reason you missed this, yesterday morning they published a list that I threw together, summing up some of the top new releases of the past year.  The list represents my eleven favorite albums that I heard, that were released in 2011 by bands I had never heard prior to last year.  I also chose to exclude albums I had already written about here at the Valley blog, because I didn’t want to bore you by just rehashing the same thing over and over again.  I hope you enjoy the list, or at least find something there you might not have heard before.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, either here or there.

Thanks for reading!

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 →

In Case You Missed It: Visions – Home

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Visions – Home (Basick Records, 18 July 2011).

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Dear Reader, I have a confession to make.

I know this has the potential to forever diminish your opinion of me as a music critic, as a metalhead, and perhaps even as a person, but it’s something I need to get off my chest. 

Here goes… I’m just not that into Dillinger Escape Plan.  I never have been, and to be honest, I fail to understand why this band is held in such universally high regard by critics and fans alike, just as I fail to understand the majority of the music they make.

I accept that there are surely listeners out there who thrive on such frenetic chaos and see a complex beautiful sense of order in what appears to be only random madness to my simple ears.  But on the other hand, I expect that there must be some like-minded souls out there, nodding in agreement as they read these words, but afraid to ever speak publicly for fear that (like in the case of the Emperor’s New Clothes) they would be ridiculed by the others who DO get it (or at least who claim to).

Anyway, the reason this discussion is sort of relevant stems from my decision to listen to Peterbourian band Visions‘ debut LP Home, which was released earlier this year.  Since they are a relatively new band (formed in 2009), and given that this is their first album, I didn’t really know what to expect beyond what is written in the official press release and some other advertisements I’ve seen.

First, we have the fact that they had been signed by UK label Basick Records (and the fact that the album itself was mixed and mastered by members of labelmates Monuments and Chimp Spanner), which sort of hints at some proggy/techy/melodic-y leanings.  But at the same, I kept seeing that infamous marketing phrase “for fans of…” and in every case, it seems to include Dillinger Escape Plan.

Well, if any of that made me feel apprehensive at all, I decided to plow ahead anyway (or I guess I should say “plough ahead” since we’re talking about a British band here), and let me just say, I’m really glad that I did.

Keep reading after the jump for some more in-depth analysis, plus your chance to listen to some of the songs (including one available for free download)…

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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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Coming Soon: Undersmile Debut Album Promises to be ‘Hideous’

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Oxonian sludge quartet Undersmile have announced some new details for their forthcoming debut album Narwhal. 

First, near the end of last week, it was revealed on their Facebook page that producer/engineer Billy Anderson (whose impressive resume includes work on albums by such luminaries as Eyehategod, Melvins, High on Fire, and many others) is currently mixing the record.

Then, earlier today, a press release from Future Noise gave a tentative release date of 9 April, 2012.

Hel Sterne, one of the band’s two vocalists and guitarists, personally has assured me that the new release will be “hideous”.  She was also kind enough to provide the following video as a preview of what you can expect in April:

Narwhal will be the band’s first official full-length release, but is coming on the heels of their recent EP Undertaker (a split between Undersmile and Caretaker) which is available for streaming, or for purchase via either digital download or CD, at Bandcamp.

Also available for streaming or digital download at Bandcamp is last year’s EP A Sea of Dead Snakes, although sadly I have learned that the limited-run CD copies (which, like the split EP above, had been made available by Blindsight Records) recently have sold out.

Stay tuned right here for further information as it becomes available, or even better, “like” Undersmile on Facebook for updates direct from the source!