Tag Archives: Canada

Free Music Alert: Grab a Free Track from Tribune’s Latest Release

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Hey there!  I’ve got good news for any fans of death metal or stoner metal, or especially, for those who like both genres equally!  British Columbians Tribune, whom I designated as “stoner/death metal” in my review of their recent double-EP album, Elder Lore/The Dark Arts, have announced that you can download one of the songs from that release for FREE!  Even better, the song in question (“Man on the Outside”) is one of the catchiest and most memorable — and in this reviewer’s opinion, one of the best — from the album.
 
  
 
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Get ’em While They’re Hot: The Fourth (and Final) New Vesperia Song is Available for FREE!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

STOP! You should totally check out THIS POST instead. Vesperia‘s entire The Swordsman demo is now available to download for free; the full details are included there.

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The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week (Memorial Day Hangover Edition): Amy Caudle

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Good morning, friends. A quick peek at the calendar reminds me that it’s Tuesday, which is the day that comes after Monday, so as you’ve obviously figured out by now, this post is getting published a day late.

For those who are keeping track, every Monday I visit the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website to find some new music, either from randomly browsing artist pages, or based on suggestions I receive directly from people or bands who are looking for reviews. Then I come back here and describe what I found, so another artist can get a bit more publicity each week, the lovely and intelligent people who read this blog can discover new music to listen to, and everybody wins.

Well, this Monday (yesterday) was a little different, because in the United States, we have a national holiday every year near the end of May, which is called Memorial Day. One of our favorite things to do in this country is to get together with our families and friends, drink excessive amounts of alcohol, eat some meat which has been charred on a grill (as well as side dishes which often contain eggs or mayonnaise or other perishible ingredients and typically don’t hold up very well when the weather outside is hot), drink some more alcohol, sit around in the sweltering heat and humidity, drink even more, and then eventually get into huge fights with our families and friends.

This is pretty much how most of our holidays (between May and September) are celebrated. Now, we realize that some people in other countries don’t have the same freedoms to celebrate like drunken assholes that we Americans enjoy, so we don’t take this for granted! As a nation, we have a long military history, and there have been many wars fought — and sadly many people have lost their lives in the struggle to maintain our freedom and general standard of living. Hence, we have set aside a Monday each year called Memorial Day, where we memorialize and honor those brave individuals, by giving ourselves a three-day weekend and celebrating like drunken assholes.

Fun times, obviously, but between three whole days of parties and picnics, I sort of wore myself out – and by Monday evening I wasn’t really in a condition to do much writing. But I do have an obligation to you readers (particularly those who live in countries where you had to go to work yesterday!), and so I did make an effort to go and listen to something that I could share with you. And this morning, I will tell you about what I found.
 

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Get ’em While They’re Hot: THIRD New Vesperia Song Now Available for FREE!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

STOP! You should totally check out THIS POST instead. Vesperia‘s entire The Swordsman demo is now available to download for free; the full details are included there.

Continue reading →

Get ’em While They’re Hot: Second New Vesperia Song Now Available for FREE!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

STOP! You should totally check out THIS POST instead. Vesperia‘s entire The Swordsman demo is now available to download for free; the full details are included there.

Continue reading →

Get ’em While They’re Hot: Grab a Song from Vesperia’s New Demo for Free!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

STOP! You should totally check out THIS POST instead. Vesperia‘s entire The Swordsman demo is now available to download for free; the full details are included there.

Continue reading →

The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Patron Saint of Plagues

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Hello there, readers!  Hope your day is going well — or at least, as well as a Monday can be expected. Even though I’m at work, I’m not in a terrible mood, which is pretty unusual for me. Maybe because I feel like I actually got some stuff accomplished over the weekend. More likely, I’m just (still) not awake enough to really feel anything yet. Well anyway, I don’t know about you, but I need some music while I work. Today (just like I do every Monday) I’m heading over to the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website to look for something good, and then I’ll share whatever I find with you!

A short while ago, I got a message from a Canadian band called Patron Saint of Plagues, who describe themselves as “a twisted concoction of ominous tones and eerie melodies melded into dark story-tale like songwriting that touches on the very essence of the darkside of humanity and the terrifying thoughts that plague the mind of a psychopath.”

That, coupled with the photos of the quartet (guitarist Dead Boy, bassist Robbie Graves, drummer Bonez, and founder/frontman/vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Opi Saint) looking like a cross between The Spooky Kids and The Misfits on Halloween, definitely let me know that we’re in for a fun ride today.

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In Case You Missed It: The Noumenon – Apocrypha

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The Noumenon – Apocrypha (Self-released, 13 December 2011)

Well, would you look at that — the week’s halfway over already. But then again, that means there’s still half of it left. And I’ve got a terrible fucking headache. Feeling lousy seems to be a common problem this time of year though, especially living in a city that’s notorious for its unpredictable and ever-shifting weather patterns. The past couple mornings the temperature has been hovering just above freezing level, but it’s supposed to go up about 25 degrees higher by the time I leave work this afternoon. It’s hard to get adjusted to stupid shit like that, and the fact that every day this week has had high or very high pollen levels has not helped things one bit. But, whatever. I can sit here and whine and bitch about it, but that won’t do me any good — so instead I’ve decided to take some allergy pills, drink a shitload of coffee, and throw on my headphones with some loud fucking metal music until I can’t feel anything anymore.

Fortunately, I find that today I’ve got a new CD with me, Apocrypha by Edmontonian band The Noumenon, which is pretty much just what the doctor ordered…
 
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Out Last Month: Tribune – Elder Lore / The Dark Arts

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Tribune – Elder Lore / The Dark Arts (Corpse Corrosion Music, 20 March 2012)

Whenever I discover a new band, I usually try to learn as much as I can about them, including where they come from. If it’s a country or a city I’m not especially familiar with, occasionally I’ll hit Wikipedia and see if there are any interesting facts to be learned there. Maybe I’m just a major dork, I don’t know. Whatever. Sometimes I like to look at a map of where a band comes from, just to see where it is in relation to things I do know about. This is how I discovered that the city of Burnaby, British Columbia, is right next to Vancouver, near the Pacific coast and just above the U.S./Canada border. Playing with the settings a bit, I found myself looking at a topographic map of that general area. In this way, I found that Burnaby is surrounded by a few lakes, and most of the land seems to be pretty close to sea level anyway. From that I would surmise that there just might be a good bit of swamps or marshlands near that area.

Now, I wasn’t just randomly seeking out information on the geographic characteristics of various cities in Canada. No, I was learning about Burnaby because it’s home to the band Tribune*, to whose recently-released double-EP Elder Lore / The Dark Arts I had just been listening. The blend of riffs and vocals they incorporate into their particular version of death metal might give you the impression that they come from the same backwater bayou country as Down or Crowbar, rather than the frozen tundra of British Columbia, which is what set me on that particular path of research. But anyway, hometown notwithstanding, these guys have put together a combination of styles that I’ve decided to call stoner/death metal. You just need to check it out to see what I mean.
 
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* By the way — I don’t know if it’s a Canadian thing or what, but I’ve learned that the band’s name is pronounced differently than I originally thought. It’s actually supposed to be “TRY-bune” (as in “tribunal”), rather than “TRIB-une” (as in “tribute”).
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The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Obscurcis Romancia

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Well, it’s Monday again, and that can only mean one thing.  It’s time for the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week!  As you are already aware, this is that thing where I go to the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website and check out the messages that bands have written to me asking for a review of their music.  Then I pick one at random (where “at random” usually means “whoever wrote to me the longest amount of time ago”), I listen to the songs they’ve got posted, then I write about them here so YOU can discover some awesome new music. 

This week we’ve got a nice sample of black metal from the frozen tundra of the far north — except instead of northern Europe like you might be expecting, this is northern North America.  Specifically, we’re looking at a band who come from the French-Canadian province of Québec, who call themselves Obscurcis Romancia.  If you couldn’t decipher it yourself, the band’s name (which seems to be a hybrid of French and Latin, as far as I can tell) translates to something like “Obscured Romance.”  They play a fantastically proficient form of classically-influenced black metal, and they’ve also recently released their second full-length album (details on how to get your hands on a copy, later in this post!)

 

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