Wailin Storms – One Foot in the Flesh Grave (2015), Rattle (2020)

Wailin StormsOne Foot in the Flesh Grave (Magic Bullet Records, 20 November 2015)

 

Wailin StormsRattle (Gilead Media, 15 May 2020)

 

Good afternoon! In case you were wondering, I don’t ALWAYS write about stuff months (or even years) later; it just usually seems to work out that way. But sometimes I actually do get the chance to share something with you while it’s still brand new!

Today let’s check out one of each: a fantastic album by North Carolina’s Wailin Storms that I really dug quite a bit when it came to my attention half a decade ago (and has been sadly gathering dust in my gargantuan to-do list ever since) plus one that the band will be putting out later this week!

 

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Migration Fest – Tickets On Sale Now! – Pittsburgh, July 2018

 
Back in December we told you that this year Gilead Media + 20 Buck Spin‘s extravaganza Migration Fest would be coming to Pittsburgh in July. At that time the majority of the line-up had been announced. Well, within the past week, the remaining holes in the schedule have been filled in, and tickets have gone on sale! There are some names here we’ve written about before, and several more that we plan to sometime in the near future. Stay tuned for that. But in the meantime, check out the complete updated list down below, and then grab your tickets before they all sell out!

 
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Migration Fest – Pittsburgh, July 2018

 
Following the success of Wisconsin’s Gilead Fest in 2012 and 2014, the organizers (Gilead Media) hooked up with west-coast label 20 Buck Spin to continue the biennial tradition, kicking off the new Migration Fest in Washington state in 2016. Naturally, the next edition of this festival would be slated for 2018, and the labels have jointly announced that it will be held at the highly-esteemed Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale, PA — immediately adjacent to Pittsburgh.

This is, of course, huge news for us at Valley of Steel, and anyone else who lives in the general vicinity. And the first wave of bands has recently been released, which can be found listed below; we’ll continue to bring you more news about this festival as information becomes available. There are many more announcements forthcoming, including the headliners (although just the part of the line-up we know about so far is more than enough to get pretty excited about!)

 
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Anicon – Exegeses (2016)

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AniconExegeses (vinyl Gilead Media / CD Avantgarde Music, 08 July 2016)

 

Good morning, reader — hope you’re having a good, relaxing weekend! Normally this would be my time away from writing, too, but I just realized that Anicon are coming to Pittsburgh tonight. And I realized that last year when these blackened Brooklynites came to town, I had their 2015 EP Aphasia on my to-do list, but something came up that prevented me from attending that show or even getting a chance to write about the band’s most recent release. (I eventually did get around to it earlier this year, but I still felt bad for my negligence.)

So this time around, the band has a brand-new album which just came out earlier this month, and — even though, due to some rotten luck, family obligations will prevent me from being able to see this fantastic band perform again — I definitely did not want to miss the opportunity to share this with you people before tonight.

For those of you in the Pittsburgh area, The Smiling Moose on the Southside is the place to be; here are all the details. For those living elsewhere, the band’s scheduled dates can be found here, and in either case, keep reading to check out their newest record …

 

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Northless – World Keeps Sinking (2013); Primitive Man / Northless – Split (2016)

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NorthlessWorld Keeps Sinking (Halo of Flies / Gilead Media, 23 August 2013)

 

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Primitive Man/NorthlessSplit (Halo of Flies, 04 March 2016)

 

As the end of the week draws near — if you didn’t have enough of Primitive Man after Tuesday’s post, maybe this will do it. Like Fister, whom we discussed on Monday, these Denverites tend to keep themselves pretty busy. Actually, it’s not that surprising to learn, those two bands did a split record together once upon a time! But that’s not what we’re here for right now — rather, I wanted to let you know about a much more recent release: a split that Primitive Man did earlier this year with Milwaukeean band Northless. And that reminded me that a full-length of theirs has been on my to-do list for quite a while (as it happens, 2013’s World Keeps Sinking was that band’s last release until this newer split record). Buckle up, this might be a bumpy ride …

 

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Withering Light / Barghest – Split (2014)

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Withering Light / BarghestSplit (self-released, 18 October 2014)

 

I had alluded to this at least once before, but isn’t it interesting how black metal seems to be the only genre that has been indelibly associated with a specific climate and time of year? This art form that had its roots in the thrash and death metal of the early 80s, got twisted into something more harsh and unforgiving by bands in such disparate locales as England and Brazil — but really was given the unique characteristics we associate with it today, when it had again been transformed in the hands of a bunch of Norwegians in the early 90s. Ever since then, thinking about black metal almost invariably conjures images of a “land of ice and snow”: some of the areas that have developed pockets of practitioners within the genre have included Norway and Sweden, the American Pacific northwest and midwest, Canada, New York and New England — and Louisiana.

No, you didn’t read that wrong. Today we’re discussing a pair of bands who are based in a state that is well-known for having hurricanes and Mardi Gras celebrations; Cajun and Creole culture and some of the biggest sludge metal bands in the world; and of course, for inventing Tabasco sauce. But one thing nobody associates with Louisiana is frigid, wintry weather. Nevertheless, these bands both manage to produce a convincingly bleak, black atmosphere, imbued with plenty of interesting twists like you’d expect to hear from many of their counterparts from further north: Barghest (Baton Rouge) and Withering Light (Hammond).

 

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Tours Galore: All Roads Lead to Gilead Fest

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Wisconsin. America’s dairyland. The Badger State. Home of the Packers. And next weekend, the site of one of the summer’s biggest showcases of filthy, ugly, underground metal.

Gilead Media has made quite a name for itself, mostly by issuing highly sought after vinyl versions of some of the best names in bleak, black noise. And for three days (18-20 July), a huge collection of those will be converging on the city of Oshkosh. I know several people who are making the trip out there, and every year I wish I could too because they always have an incredible “no filler” line-up. This year is no exception, and I’ve got all the details for you below.

But many of the bands playing at the fest have also arranged a series of shows in various other cities on the dates before and after next weekend. Several of these will be hitting Pittsburgh over the next week or so, and chances are some of them may be coming near where you live too. I’ve got details of those tours too (at least, I’ve tried to make this as comprehensive as possible). So check it out.

 

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What To Do In Pittsburgh Tonight? (10 September 2012)

Seriously, that’s a tough question. Must-see shows don’t come around all that often, and even less frequently on a Monday night… but by some strange, freak-of-nature coincidence, there will be two of them taking place in town tonight!

Here are the details for each of them, and then — I dunno, you can flip a coin or something:

 
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Root of Evil Collective Presents:

False, Bellow, Egality, Wrought Iron

 

at the Mr. Roboto Project

5106 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh (Bloomfield)

 

Monday 10 September 2012 | show starts at 7:00 pm | $5 | all ages

 
 
Appearing tonight at Roboto are a pair of bands visiting our fine city from Minneapolis! Neither one (apparently) believes in using Facebook, but you can check out False‘s self-titled LP of angry black metal at the Gilead Media Bandcamp page (here) and Bellow‘s self-titled EP of atmospheric doom on their own Bandcamp page (here — download for free, or pay whatever you like!). Kicking things off will be Egality from Derry, PA, and Wrought Iron from Pittsburgh!

RSVP for this event here.

 
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Allure of the Earth Productions presets…

The Atlas Moth, Supervoid, Falling Upward

 

at The Smiling Moose (upstairs)

1306 East Carson Street, Pittsburgh (South Side)

 

Monday 10 September 2012 | 9:00 pm | $10 | 21+ only

 
 
Chicagoan black/doom metal band The Atlas Moth‘s An Ache for the Distance (Profound Lore Records) made countless year-end best-of lists in 2011. You can listen to the album here, then you can hear the band tonight at the Moose! Featuring the much-hyped local hard rock supergroup Supervoid as well as the Burgh’s prog-metal darlings Falling Upward.

PS: The poster shown here is an old image; the date was changed since then, so disregard where it says “Sunday” — honestly, the show is tonight (Monday)!

RSVP for this show here.