Category Archives: Videos

The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Mind Structure

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Good evening, readers!  Well, another Monday has come and gone.  That’s okay by me; coming back to work after a three-day weekend is never fun, and I am glad to get it over with as quickly as possible.  Before the end of the day, though, I need to check in with the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website to find something good to listen to, so that I can share it with you!  Today, I found a message that I’d received from Mind Structure, a band whose members come from the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv (Київ) and Kryvyi Rih (Кривий Ріг) asking for a review of their music.  Now, I’m familiar with Kyiv (also called “Kiev”), which is the capital of the country, but Kryvyi Rih was brand new to me.  Thankfully, I have Wikipedia to help me; it informs me that this city is located in the middle of a large iron mining region, and in fact, that it’s one of the most important locations in eastern Europe’s steel industry.  Sounds like a place I can relate to!  Besides that, I had such success listening to Ukrainian black metal last week, I figured it would be a good idea to check out someone else from that country.

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Hey, Look: A New Borracho Video (Plus Drinking Game)!

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You remember Borracho, don’t you? Their debut LP Splitting Sky landed on my Top 11 of 2011 list which was ever so graciously published by No Clean Singing. In that list, I referred to the band as “Fuzzy, grungy, balls-out stoner metal from the District of Columbia,” because that’s exactly what it is.

 

Anyway, just yesterday they sent out an email announcing that they were releasing the first official video from that album, for the single “Concentric Circles.” The video “frames the band’s live show energy and punctuates it with vintage clips of destruction, atrocity and mayhem,” and those clips are the key to the drinking game that accompanies it! As they explained:

… it wouldn’t be a proper Borracho project without an official drinking game to go along. So before you press that play button, grab many beers, assemble a throng of your closest head-banging friends and challenge them to a round of “Boom!” – a beer down for every explosion you see. That’s right! We’ve got your buzz all worked out: every time something blows up, you drink! It’s that easy.

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In Case You Missed It: Krampus – Kronos’ Heritage

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Krampus – Kronos’ Heritage (Self-released, 24 August 2011)

Good afternoon, readers.  So how is your day going so far?  Mine’s almost over, but still it seems to be dragging on far too long.  I could sure use a break, and I’d be willing to bet you feel the same.  I’ve decided to take a  folk-metal break, care to join me?

Amazingly, just a few short years ago I had no idea that there existed such a thing as folk metal.  I’ve been a long-time fan of the orchestral and symphonic stuff that sometimes gets incorporated into black or power metal, and any other music that brings together unexpected juxtapositions of style or instrumentation, but for whatever reason, I’d just never really been exposed to the folkier stuff.  Once I did discover it, though, I instantly was knocked off my feet, and ever since then I just can’t get enough.

Today I’m taking a quick look back at the EP Kronos’ Heritage, released last summer by the Udinesi octet Krampus.  Just a quick look, though, because the EP is only three songs, clocking in around twelve minutes.  Following that, I’ll also be glancing ahead, because right now this troop of Italians is busy laboring on their forthcoming debut release for  Noise Art Records, which is due out late this year.

The Krampus, as I understand it, is a scary monster with goat-like features, somewhat like a satyr, which originally came from the pagan folklore of the pre-Christian Alpine lands, but nowadays is thought of as the Christmas demon, serving as a counterpart to Saint Nicholas in many central European countries, and coming around to deal with the naughty children who don’t deserve any gifts.  Similarly, the band that shares its name with this creature seems to be intent on punishing those who have misbehaved, except in a metaphoric sense: here, the “children” represent all of mankind, and the “misdeeds” for which we are to be reprimanded involve polluting and destroying the planet on which we live.

 

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Now Hear This! Preview Some New Material by Author & Punisher

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Do you remember back in the day when the word “industrial” as a descriptive term for music was actually meant literally?  Back before any snotty little kid with a drum machine could just dial up some digital distortion in Garageband, puke out some techno dance tracks onto his MacBook, and think he’s the next Trent Reznor?

Meet Tristan Shone, the San Diegan mechanical engineer who is otherwise known as Author & Punisher.  In case you hadn’t guessed, those little doodads and whatsits he’s holding in the photo above are not some newfangled kind of XBox controllers or something.  No, Tristan has manufactured himself a virtual army of mechanical and robotic devices whose sole purpose is to make a cacophony of industrial noises. Literally.

 

 

With a few releases already under his utility toolbelt, this one-man noise factory has got a brand new album Ursus Americanus slated to be released by Seventh Rule Recordings on 24 April, 2012.  However, as the kind folks at Catharsis PR have brought to my attention, you can have the opportunity to catch a sneak peek at a couple tracks from that record right now!

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Help Dethlehem Lay Siege to Your City this Summer!

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Hey, folks.  You might remember I’ve talked about these guys before – the Pittsburgh-based lords of RPG/D&D-metal known collectively as Dethlehem.  If you have forgotten already, they got picked as an opening act when Dying Fetus hit town last week, but before that, I wrote a whole big article about them back in January, in advance of a headlining show they did in February.  You can check out that article for some more in-depth information about the band and their music.  When you’re finished with that, c’mon back here because the guys need a little bit of help heading out on tour this summer, and I know you’re going to be excited to have them come visit wherever you live!
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The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Dirty Shirt

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Welcome to another installment of the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week feature, that thing where I talk about a band I found on the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website.  You know the drill by now — you listen to some songs from a band you might not have heard before.  Then later, when they explode in popularity and sell a million records, you can scoff at all the bandwagon-jumpers, saying you’ve been a fan since the beginning.

Today, I’m presenting you with Dirty Shirt, who are from the Northern Transylvania region of Romania.  Their sound is made up of a hybrid of many different influences, but for the most part I would describe them as a sort of industrial nu-deathcore.  The band first formed in 1995, and over the next five years toured extensively throughout Romania, while also recording a few demos and a full-length album, Very Dirty, in 2000.

After a hiatus of a few years, they reformed in 2004, embarking on more touring and recording more demos, followed by a second full-length, Same Shi(r)t Different Day, recorded in 2009 and released in 2010.  Since that time, Dirty Shirt have kept themselves fairly busy playing more live shows across various parts of Europe, as well as putting together videos for three of the songs from their last album.  Those are now available for your viewing pleasure, and if you like what you hear, at the end of this post you’ll find some details how to download the album for free.

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Out Last Month: Mouth of the Serpent – Manifest

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Mouth of the Serpent – Manifest (10 January 2012, Swimming with Sharks Records)

Good afternoon, Valley of Steel reader.  Or depending on where you live (or when you come across this post), good morning or good evening. If whatever time of day it happens to be is perhaps not so good for you, just bear with me, it’ll get better.  I’m going to introduce some more music to you, and I’ve got a feeling pretty soon everything will be just fine.

For starters, just look at that cover art up there!  Now that’s some cool shit, huh?  It was created by Tony Koehl, who has been responsible for quite a few other album covers (check out this gallery), probably the most high-profile of which was Black Dahlia Murder‘s 2009 album Deflorate (as seen here).

Anyway, back to this present work of art.  People say you shouldn’t judge what’s inside
a book or album or whatever, just based on the cover.  Good advice, but not very practical in real life — after all, isn’t that why there is a cover in the first place?  To give you an idea what you will expect from the contents, and to get you started in your decision whether you think you will like it or not?

Well in this case, the artwork definitely catches your eye, and that odd juxtaposition of themes could possibly confuse the viewer, but in a way that should leave you feeling curious about what lies within.  ARE you curious, Dear Reader?  I can’t quite tell what that giant swamp monster thing is doing, but it might be inhaling a tree — definitely it looks like it’s causing some sort of massive destruction.  The creature itself looks pretty grim and brutal, like you might expect to find on the cover of some pretty brutal death metal, right?  Then in the background, the scene is all outer-spacey and there’s like a transdimensional portal or something, exactly the sort of imagery that would be well-suited to some experimental tech-death music, wouldn’t you say?

I think you can probably guess what this is leading up to, and you’d be right: the material found on Manifest, the recently-released EP by Los Angeles’ Mouth of the Serpent, turns out to be an interesting amalgamation of all of the above — and much more!

 

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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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