Tag Archives: Pittsburgh

Reblog: Argus Interview with That Devil Music

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Good morning, readers, I hope you are doing well today. I just wanted to share this with you in case you haven’t already seen it, because That Devil Music, one of my favorite metal websites, has posted an interview with Argus, one of my favorite semi-local bands! (Semi-local, because they are just outside of Pittsburgh too, but in the opposite direction from me.)

 

Anyway, you can read the interview here — and see the band address such topics as the reaction to their second album (Boldly Stride the Doomed, out last year on Cruz del Sur Music); whether they consider themselves “doom metal” (spoiler alert: they can equivocate about genre as well as anybody); and what the future holds as far as upcoming shows (special mention is made of them playing the 31st Street Pub next month for the Dream Death reunion) and their forthcoming third album.

 

Enjoy!!

REPOST: Help Make Iron Atrocity v.2 a Reality!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Ladies and Gentlemen, one last time I am bringing this to your attention, because this fine organization who is so instrumental in supporting great local music could really use some support from all of you right now. 

There is now less than one day remaining in this fundraising campaign.  If you have been waiting until the last minute, THIS IS IT.  Don’t put it off until tomorrow (Friday), because the deadline is 5am tomorrow morning.  As of the time I am posting this, they have only raised approximately HALF of their original goal.  That leaves less than twenty-four hours to make up the other half!

For those unfamiliar with exactly how Kickstarter works, you don’t need to worry if maybe you don’t get paid until tomorrow and you’ve been trying to wait until then to send in your donation.  This is just a pledge, you aren’t paying anything yet, until after the deadline has passed.

Note: If the pledge drive doesn’t meet its goal before the deadline, it will fail, no money will change hands at all, and the terrorists will have won.  We can’t let that happen.

So get to clicking: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/240758996/iron-atrocity-v2, and show your support for local music.  Please, if you have anything to spare — $10, $5, even $1 — it all adds up.  But do it now, there is no more time to put it off any longer.

Thank you.
—Valley of Steel

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(previously posted on 15 February, 2012):

You might remember I talked about this project before — back in November I posted about some upcoming Molasses Barge shows which included a benefit show in Decmeber to support the Iron Atrocity v.2 compilation.

If you don’t remember, Iron Atrocity is a digital download (available free by visiting www.ironatrocity.com) or CD compilation (I do not know if any copies are still available, but it was given out for free at shows associated with Innervenus or any of the bands on the CD) which highlights some of the best in Pittsburgh-area metal music today.

Well, the second compilation in the series is currently in the works, and the folks at Innervenus are trying to raise a little extra capital to get this thing off the ground…
Continue reading →

Help Dethlehem Lay Siege to Your City this Summer!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

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!
Continue reading →

Just Released: Invader – Self-Titled

Posted by valleyofsteel on

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Invader – Invader (6 March 2012, Innervenus Music)

Hey!  What are you doing tonight?  If you are anywhere within driving distance of the Southside of Pittsburgh today, cancel those plans now.  You are going to need to get yourself down to The Smiling Moose bar, where they are throwing  a CD release party you will absolutely not want to miss.  More details on that later; first let’s talk about this relatively new (founded in 2009) local band Invader and why you’ll definitely want to check out their self-titled album that has just been released by Innervenus.

Invader first came to my attention when their song “Plow City U.S.A.” was included on the Pittsburgh-area metal compilation Iron Atrocity v.1 (I can’t imagine any reason why you wouldn’t have a copy of it yet, since it’s awesome, and also free to download, but JUST IN CASE, you can grab it from here).  Then, I saw word around town that the band was putting a new record out this week; the official press release had two main points that really caught my eye: first, it listed similar artists “Nicki Minaj, Lady GaGa and The Grateful Dead,” and went on to say the five members of the band’s “goal is to play music that they themselves wanted to hear.”  Now, clearly that first part was a joke, but I did really appreciate the second quotation, because too often people just try to latch onto whatever current trend is out there, instead of playing what is genuine, and I think it really manifests in the sound a band produces.

Continue reading →

Just Released: GIRLFIGHT – Holy Fuck

Posted by valleyofsteel on

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GIRLFIGHT – Holy Fuck (22 February 2012, self-released)

Hey readers, how’s it going? Me, I’ve been pretty busy. Between working full-time, running a music blog of skyrocketing popularity, and taking online classes half-time, sometimes it can be a lot to juggle. Like today, when usually I’d be working on blog stuff while pretending to work, I had a bunch of school stuff that needed done instead. So that means for the majority of the day I ended up neglecting my duties here.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I forgot about you, or that I wasn’t busy finding new things to write about. I’ve always got something to listen to throughout the day, and today was no exception. And as luck would have it, on a day when I found myself without a whole lot of time to write, I came across something to share with you that hardly takes up any time at all: a two-song release that runs a mere six minutes.

Of course, just being short isn’t enough to make me want to recommend something to you. I wouldn’t want to waste any of your time, even if it’s only a little bit, with something shitty. Well, no need to worry about that. What I’ve got here is a nice healthy slab — well okay, more like a sliver — of high-quality angry Pittsburgh hardcore, courtesy of GIRLFIGHT.

Continue reading →

Upcoming Show: Fist Fight in the Parking Lot CD Release

Posted by valleyofsteel on

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Good morning, folks.  Did you see last night’s review of the new Fist Fight in the Parking Lot album?  It’s right here, go read it!

Now that you’re all excited about this new release, you can download the album (from Amazon) or order the CD (from Innervenus).  But it gets better — this Saturday (25 February) the official release party is taking place at the 31st Street Pub in Pittsburgh!

Facebook event page (Innervenus) and another event page (31st Street Pub)

Continue reading →

Out Today: Fist Fight in the Parking Lot – Self-Titled

Posted by valleyofsteel on

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Fist Fight in the Parking Lot – Fist Fight in the Parking Lot (21 February 2012, Innervenus Music)

Good evening, readers! Sorry for the tardiness of this review — I totally meant to publish it this morning, but then I got distracted by something shiny. It happens. Actually it was an announcement that the new self-titled album by Corrosion of Conformity was streaming in full over at AOL Music. I hadn’t heard it yet, and I don’t know how long it’ll be available, so I wanted to jump on that. I’m sure you can understand. If you haven’t heard it yet, you’ll probably want to check it out, too.

From what I’d read about it, the new COC album is supposed to appeal to fans of their earlier, more hardcore-oriented work, as well as those who prefer their more recent foray into Sabbath-inspired stoner metal. So I was curious to see what it was all about. What I found surprised me: I heard very little of the sound mainly associated with either era of the band’s history, instead feeling more of an old-school doom vibe — along the lines of some of Wino‘s earlier work, or any of a slew of his bands’ imitators. A style I enjoy, to be sure, but one that can also seem monotonous at times, over the course of an entire record. This was one of those occasions: despite some higher points, the album really didn’t reach out and grab my attention at any point. Missing here were the truly memorable songs that make you want to sing along, or hear them again and again.

Well, all of that soon changed, because a little later in the day I switched gears to the brand new release by Pittsburgh’s Fist Fight in the Parking Lot, made available today through the Innervenus Music Collective.

Continue reading →

The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Closer to Hell

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Welcome to this week’s installment of the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week feature, which is where I profile a band I’ve discovered on the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website, and then give you the opportunity to listen to a few songs from somebody you might never have heard before.  My hope is, you might find something you really dig, and then 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.

All of the bands I’ve written about so far in this weekly column have been people who’ve contacted me directly, actively seeking reviews.  If your band has already written to me, don’t worry, I’ll get to you soon — I’ve got a few more lined up for the next several weeks.  But today is a little different because it’s a band I ran across last weekend when I was writing about the upcoming Dream Death reunion show —  one of the opening acts for that show is a local band I hadn’t heard before, so in the course of writing that article I had to do a little research to find out who they are.  That was Closer to Hell, a death metal band from Ford City, PA (just a little while north of Pittsburgh in Armstrong County).  After I located their Facebook page, I found that they also had an account on Signmeto, where I was able to give them a listen.  So naturally, I decided to include them here so you could do the same. Continue reading →

Help Make Iron Atrocity v.2 a Reality!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

You might remember I talked about this project before — back in November I posted about some upcoming Molasses Barge shows which included a benefit show in Decmeber to support the Iron Atrocity v.2 compilation.

If you don’t remember, Iron Atrocity is a digital download (available free by visiting www.ironatrocity.com) or CD compilation (I do not know if any copies are still available, but it was given out for free at shows associated with Innervenus or any of the bands on the CD) which highlights some of the best in Pittsburgh-area metal music today.

Well, the second compilation in the series is currently in the works, and the folks at Innervenus are trying to raise a little extra capital to get this thing off the ground…
Continue reading →

Upcoming Show: Dream Death Reunite for One Night Only!

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Yes, that Dream Death. The Pittsburgh doom legends from the 1980s. The ones who attained cult status in local metal lore, after they had split up and reconfigured themselves as Penance. They recently posted an update on Facebook announcing that they were getting back together the last line-up of the band (which included all of the founding members except for bassist Ted Williams, meaning that this also includes all the members of Dream Death who later went on to form Penance) for a one-time-only show!

 

Pittsburgh metal legends Dream Death are reuniting for one show.

This will be the line up of:
Brian Lawrence (Goodbread)
Mike Smail
Terry Weston
Richie Freund

With special guests Argus and one more TBA. 21+

Saturday, April 21, 2012
9:00pm

31st Street Pub
3101 Penn Ave. (Penn Ave @ 31st St. Bridge)
Pittsburgh, PA 15201

 

Update, 5 March 2012:

The band has announced that tickets for this event are now available!

Tickets for the April 21st show are now available.

Tickets can be purchased for $15 at Smails Custom Drum Shop.
www.smailscustomdrumshop.com

The following options are available:
Check or Money Order
Cash
Paypal

Make Checks and Money Orders payable to Mike Smail

134 Market Street
Kittanning PA 16201
724-548-4725

PayPal Paypal Address is: mike@smailscustomdrumshop.com

** IMPORTANT **
Please include your return address so the tickets can be mailed back to you.

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You can find out more by visiting the following links:
Dream Death: Facebook
Journey into Mystery album (CD – rare, out of print! | MP3 Download)
Pittsburgh Sludge Metal live album (CD)

Penance: Facebook
Parallel Corners album (CD)
Alpha & Omega album (CD | MP3 Download)

Argus (featuring vocalist Brian “Butch” Balich, also currently of Penance and Molasses Barge):
Facebook / official website
Boldy Stride the Doomed album (CD | MP3 Download)

Closer to Hell: Facebook
Read the Valley of Steel profile of this band as the “Sign Me To Roadrunner Records” Band of the Week

31st Street Pub: Facebook