VOS Videography 2013: A Mid-Year Retrospective (Part 1)

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VOStube

 
Well folks, here we are on another lovely Monday morning.  Another weekend has come and gone, and consequently, I find myself back at work once more. Even though I keep crossing my fingers and checking the results at lottery.net. I always see them reporting these huge dollar amounts followed by plenty of zeroes (and not just dollar amounts, either — jackpots in pounds and euros and stuff like that, for games all over the world that I’ve never even heard of). However, what I haven’t seen — yet — is any winning numbers that correspond with my numbers. I keep hoping, and thinking about how a few hundred million dollars (or whatever) would be pretty helpful in being able to live a more leisurely lifestyle; one in which my days are spent playing in a band, attending as many shows as I want to, listening to music. I’ll tell you one thing: I’d have a lot more time to get some writing done! And not having a job to go to would definitely mean I’d get the videos from shows edited and uploaded in a much more timely fashion.

But of course, I haven’t won any huge jackpots (yet), so I still do have to be back at work today. But following that incredibly awkward transition, speaking of going to shows and uploading videos to YouTube and stuff… we’re now halfway through this year, meaning I’ve now got six months worth of incredible bands’ performances available for your viewing pleasure!  On reaching this milestone, I’ve decided to invite you to join you in taking a retrospective look at that vast collection.

 
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Deathcrawl – Accelerated Rate of Decay

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Deathcrawl – Accelerated Rate of Decay (self-released, 16 October 2012)

 
Okay, true story: earlier this month, I had a cookout for a handful of friends (mostly musicians or music-related folks, just because that’s how I roll). At some point in the evening, as we were standing around the fire and socializing, I remember talking to someone about a song that was playing (I’d hooked up my MP3 player and set it to shuffle); during that conversation, the song ended and the next one began — and on hearing the grimey riffs that were pouring out of the speakers, I then remarked, “Oh, and this is Deathcrawl.”

Well. Standing nearby just happened to be Josh Thieler, vocalist for Slaves BC. You may recall that his band creates some awesome music, and so it’s no surprise that he’d generally have pretty good taste in stuff to listen to. Anyway, I could see that his eyes were all lit up. “I was just about to ask you what this is,” he told me, “because it’s really good. This is Deathcrawl?” I nodded, and he added (I’m paraphrasing here; this was a couple weeks ago), “So, my band is playing with this band at the end of the month??” I nodded again, and his face lit up even more.

Because yes, I’m pleased to say, the Ohioan sludge factory that is Deathcrawl is finally playing a show in Pittsburgh, and that show is tomorrow night!! In addition to Slaves BC, that line-up will also feature Meth Quarry and (coming back to the city for the first time since last summer) The Osedax from Virginia. More details on that show coming up soon, but first, I’d like to bring you up to speed on a band and an album that you really need to be listening to (if you haven’t already)!

 
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Breaking News: TrollfesT Begins Work On Another New Album!

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trollfest-recording

 
I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to the TrollfesT Facebook page (if not, then you should be ashamed of yourself!), but all this week they’ve been teasing the fact that some sort of major announcement would be made on Thursday. Guess what: now it’s Thursday. And here’s what I’ve just learned…..

 

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VOS Interview: Travesty Reunion Edition

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travesty-cover

 
The past year or so has been quite an exciting time for classic Pittsburgh bands… for example, Derkéta finally got around to releasing their debut album; Dream Death had such a big response to their reunion show that they decided to do it a few more times; and hardcore/thrash legends Castle Blood followed suit last fall with a couple reunion shows of their own.

Well, here’s another one to add to the pile: after 25 years of broken-uppedness, Travesty — the hardcore/thrash band which included some of the members of Castle Blood during a couple years in which that band had gone dormant — is reassembling all of its original members for some local gigs, in addition to finally putting some of their classic material on tape!

Their first show together since 1988 is happening this Saturday — tomorrow night!! — so I had a little chat with a few of the band’s members this week, to find out more about Travesty, what they’re doing now, and what the future might bring…

 
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Fuck Yeah! New The Matador Album Coming Soon!

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the-matador

 
The last time we heard anything out of this group of Queenslandians was two years ago, when their debut Descent Into the Maelstrom dropped out of nowhere (which I originally learned about thanks to the terrific folks over at Heavy Blog is Heavy). That disc’s combination of raw emotion — ranging from soul-crushingly heavy ugliness to soul-wrenchingly mournful beauty, and all points in between — really grabbed me and still hasn’t let go. Later that same year, when I started writing about music myself, it was the natural choice for my first review. (Note that this was a brand new experience for me at that time, and I had no idea what I was doing — unlike now, over eighteen months later, where I still have no idea what I’m doing!)

Anyway, that particular release was pretty monumental — not because I chose to write about it when my journalistic career was in its infancy, but totally on its own merits. If I hadn’t arbitrarily chosen to exclude the small handful of albums I wrote about from my year-end list, I can assure you Descent would have found its way to the very top of my Top 11 of 2011. So after numerous reports of line-up changes and rumors about writing and recording, it’s with great excitement that I’ve received official news about the band’s follow-up, which I will now pass along to you…

 
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TONIGHT: Psychostick at the Hard Rock Cafe in Pittsburgh!

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PSYCHOSTICK, humorcore/comedy-metal band from Arizona, have been trekking back and forth across America on their “My Tour Can Beat Up Your Tour” Tour for the past couple months…

 
…and they’re just about ready to wrap things up and head home — but they’ve got one last stop to make, in Pittsburgh! They’ll be hitting the Hard Rock Cafe tonight, and you won’t want to miss it…

 
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Person or Persons Unknown: Six Questions with Lycosa Guitarist “Tree”

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Six Questions with Lycosa Guitarist “Tree“

by Mrs. Valley of Steel

 

So my next Person or Persons Unknown interview subject is someone I did not know very well before I decided to ask him for an interview, but I suppose that was the point of these: to shed some light on people not very many people knew much about. This one definitely qualifies. I first officially met Tree when his band Lycosa was having their Innervenus dual-release show with Grisly Amputation. Over the course of meeting all these new people, I would say that I am constantly surprised at how warm and friendly they are — which is a vast contrast to the mood and feel of the music that they play. No one surprised me quite as much as Tree — he’s sweet and kind and, just like my husband, you sometimes have a hard time hearing him because he really doesn’t talk all that loud (when he talks at all!). I have since gotten to know him slightly more speaking to him via Facebook messages and seeing him out at shows, and I am happy to now call him a friend. I hope you guys will find him as interesting as I do, and that you’ll check out Lycosa — maybe even venture out to Kent, Ohio, this weekend for a mini road trip to check them out. The band is great on CD, but even better live! Take it from me, it would be worth the drive from Pittsburgh.

 
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The Secret Dethlehem Code, Deciphered (FOR REAL This Time)!

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4 13 13

 

I WAS SO CLOSE!

 
 
…by which, of course, I mean that my article from a few days ago analyzing Dethlehem‘s mysterious image (above) speculated that the answer had something to do with Dethlehem doing something. That much of it turned out to be absolutely 100% accurate. (The rest of what I wrote, not so much. Although those who are interested in the ins and outs of the recording process still can benefit greatly by visiting producer Patrick Lammie‘s blog as he details the creation of the band’s third full-length album!)

So what I thought was a crazy eye thing actually turned out to be a representation of a magical portal; the fact that the middle part of the “eye” looks like the number zero wasn’t just a coincidence; the other numbers superimposed on the image, surprisingly, had NOTHING to do with an encrypted message, but rather they indicated a significant date. That date, 04.13.13, was this past Saturday — and at some point during that day, the band uncovered a really exciting secret project…..

 
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The Secret Dethlehem Code, Deciphered!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

4 13 13

 

What the hell is Dethlehem up to??

 
I’m sure that is the question that’s foremost on everyone’s mind this week. Recently, the above image — some kind of creepy hypnotic eye thing, with a cryptic numeric code imprinted in front of it — mysteriously surfaced on the internet, leading to a huge flurry of speculation from all over the place.

Some people are hazarding guesses about what these symbols mean and have even gone so far as to speculate that they represent a specific date — on which something new and exciting will be revealed to us. Like, “A new video, perhaps? The first single from the upcoming album? An update on Overlord Brom’s beard growth?”

Not bad, GeekDad. But those are all the sort of things the band probably wants us to think about — anything that will keep us off the scent of their TRUE plot! But through painstaking and fastidious research, I have uncovered the real meaning of the numeric code in the mystical JPEG sigil!

 

Dethlehem at The Foundry (Lakewood, OH) in November 2012. Photo courtesy The World's Worst Camera Phone Ever.

Dethlehem at The Foundry (Lakewood, OH) in November 2012. Photo courtesy The World’s Worst Camera Phone Ever.

 
As you surely recall from the last time we spoke with the RPG-metal band, following a couple line-up changes and the occasional dragon-slaying quest, they were soon intending to get to work writing and recording their third full-length album, the as-yet-untitled follow-up to The Ghorusalem Codex Vol. 1: Enthroned Upon a Spire and The Ghorusalem Codex Vol. 2: Of Magick & Tyranny.

Well, apparently the writing process has concluded, because over the past month or so the band has started on the actual recording. I know this because their producer/engineer Patrick Lammie began tracking their progress in a studio blog.

BUT SUDDENLY with a blinding flash of TRUTH, it hit me. What is disguised as an innocent commentary on recording gear and microphones and stuff, is actually the solution to the whole mystery! One of the oldest known tricks for encoding information is to write a bunch of nonsense words and hide the REAL message in the middle of it, totally undetected to anyone who doesn’t have the decryption key. OBVIOUSLY the scary green eye holds that answer: the numbers 4, 13, 13 are a key to deciphering the hidden meaning among the (otherwise nonsensical) technical jargon in that studio report!

 
So without any further ado, I give to you:

 

TO HERE ON ALBUM
GHORUSALEM VOL. AS WITH ON ENTER
THIS I BLOG
TO ONLY MAKE COURSE OF REGRET OF MIXERS
SO THAT BE WHAT
IN THAT’S EVERYTHING RECORDING TALK
AND SPEND IT CHOSE
TRY PROVIDE THE DON’T YOU AND SWEETWATER
WANT IF THEM OFFER
NEEDING WOULD TO SCORE

HAVE CAN AT SO
HAVE THIS ENTIRE
WHEN THE UP EVERYTHING DETAILS
THE HAVE XLR
WHAT PATCHES IT WHILE
PLACE THEN OF EQS OUT
TO GO SNAKES ARE SNAKE
NOTHING IF A AROUND AND EITHER
OUT A ANY PROJECT
IF AND MY TEST
TAKE SO REPLACEMENTS TRACKING

 
It goes on and on like that, but I think you get the general idea. Really earth-shattering stuff, huh? I mean, you still have to read between the lines a bit to get the actual meaning they are trying to get across — it’s pretty deep and metaphoric, and requires a bit of extra thought to make it out. But I’ve already done most of the hard work for you, right? That makes everything an awful lot clearer at least, doesn’t it?

 
*
 
*
 
*
 
*

Okay, okay. I hate to admit it, but it looks like I was wrong. It seemed like such a brilliant idea, too, but I guess in truth I’m just as clueless as the rest of you. To be honest, I think I wrote the title of this article a bit prematurely, and once that was set in place, I had to really try and sell the concept, to avoid being totally embarrassed. But it looks like it didn’t work out that way.

Anyway, it seems as though we’ll all just have to sit here and wait til the brave warriors of Dethlehem decide to tell us all what they’ve been dropping hints about!

 
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Dethlehem: website, Facebook, Twitter, Bandcamp, webstore

Person or Persons Unknown: Six Questions with Annakarina’s Craig Hodgkins

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Person or Persons Unknown

 

Six Questions with Annakarina‘s Craig Hodgkins

by Mrs. Valley of Steel

 

Have you ever been going to an event somewhere, where you don’t really expect things to be different — you figure it’s totally going to be a fun night, but nothing out of the norm — then suddenly after you’ve walked in the door, something begins and BAM!, you are completely blown away?

Yes? No? Doesn’t matter, that’s basically the exact scenario of how I first heard Annakarina: I was attending a punk show with the husband in Charleroi, PA, last December. This show was about five minutes from our house — quite a change from our normal hour-plus drive, so I was happy to be attending for that reason — but with the inclusion of the word “punk” I didn’t expect to be hearing something that he later described to me as “Post-Mathcore,” but we did. It was seriously gorgeous in its expression of angst and precision side-by-side.

So Annakarina and their music really never left my mind after the show. Soon afterwards, I found out that someone had taped their whole set and put it on Youtube, and I’ve probably watched it like five times since then — needless to say, I was a fan.

Anyway, last month we were attending another punk show at the same venue — where as it turns out, Annakarina was going to be making another appearance — and on this day I happened to decide that I needed to drink A LOT of tequila before the show (and during). Probably because we were so close to home I was feeling a little more rebellious, I don’t know. Drunk or not, I was extremely excited to see Annakarina again, but this time I decided that I needed to talk to those guys. In my drunken stupor, I basically poured my inner fandom out for them, sharing the fact that my husband was a blogger, that we attend shows at least once a week in Pittsburgh, all sorts of stuff.

[Editor’s note: at one point, I recall she had told bassist Kurtis Kelley about the description I made up the first time we’d seen them. He seemed a bit puzzled, but then said, “Well, I know what post-hardcore is, and I know what math rock is, and — yeah I guess I can see that.”]

I’m sure they were like, who’s this crazy lady, but even so they were all very kind. I got introduced to them all one by one, and in particular I felt drawn to [guitarist/vocalist] Craig. In between bands I talked casually to him (or as casually as I could manage — remember I was very drunk) about his music, his friendship with the drummer and other bandmates, and soon I realized this guy was special pretty special.

In a way, I was feeling sort of annoyed that no one else we knew really knew anything about this band — because I’ve never seen them at any shows in Pittsburgh, and (I mean this in the nicest way possible) honestly they’re better then a few bands that we’ve seen playing other shows in the past. So I decided I needed to introduce Craig and his music to more people — so there’s the core reason for this interview. I think you’ll agree he’s quite a special guy — that magical combination of intelligence, wit, weirdness, awkwardness, and sincerity that you couldn’t fake if you tried. So here he is, pouring his heart out to you, via my six questions; I hope you will find him as endearing as I do, and I hope you will venture out to the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg this Sunday to see his band playing a charity show benefiting PLEA. Trust me, Annakarina is a band you won’t want to miss, and this guy is one of the major reasons for that.

 
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