Tag Archives: Roadrunner Records

The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Chtonium

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Welcome to yet another installment of the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week feature, which is a profile of a band I’ve discovered on the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website.  You’ll find a huge variety of material here; each week you’ll have the opportunity to listen to a few songs from a different band 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.

This week we’re talking about Chtonium, from Uddevalla, in southern Sweden near the Norwegian border.  If that artwork above didn’t contain the word “THRASHMETAL,” I’m guessing the look of the logo and flaming skull might still have given you a pretty big hint about what direction we will be heading today! Continue reading →

The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Amorphead

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Hello, and welcome to another installment of the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week feature, which is a profile of a band I’ve discovered on the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website.  As always, you’ll find a huge variety of material here; each week you’ll have the opportunity to listen to a few songs from a different band 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.

Today’s featured artist is Amorphead, who describe themselves as “melodic death and groove metal,” from Catanzaro, Italy.  Since forming in 2007, the band has toured all over Europe, “meeting the approval of the public,” and they have had two releases so far: an EP entitled Psychotic in mid-2009, followed by Chaos Expression which emerged on 3 March 2011.  The two songs we’ll talk about today were taken from that second EP.

Continue reading →

The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Victorian

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Hello, and welcome to another installment of the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week feature, where I post a profile of a band I’ve discovered on the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website.  As always, the material here may be of varying quality, but each week you’ll have the opportunity to listen to music from a  different band; my hope is, maybe you’ll find something you really dig.  Then one day, 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 their first demo recording or whatever.

Today’s featured artist is Victorian, a symphonic/gothic metal band from Indonesia.  As I understand it, they have been around since January 2008, and started out with only male vocals.  After some lineup changes and about a year of inactivity, the band was reignited in mid-2010, deciding to instead feature a female vocalist.  Their first demo single “Beginning of Sorrow” was released in early 2011, and the band has stated that they are hoping to expand their reach beyond their hometown of Bandung (West Java), especially using the internet as a means of promotion “with hope of acceptance from the metal lovers in Indonesia and abroad.”  I first heard these guys in early 2011 and fell in love with that first single.  Then, they contacted me in September saying they had added a second single, called “Weak” and they were looking for some opinions.  After the jump I’ll tell you more about these two songs and you’ll get a chance to discover them for yourself.

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The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Necro

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Hello, and welcome to the second installment of the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week, the weekly profile of a little-known unsigned band for you to check out.  As I have said before, the material here will be of varying quality, but in every case you’ll have the opportunity to listen to whatever music the band has available at this point in their career; my hope is, maybe you’ll find something you really dig, which you might not have heard otherwise. 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 their first demo recording or whatever.

Once again, for those who might not have been paying attention: “Signmeto” is a division of the Roadrunner Records website, where unsigned bands get the chance to upload their recordings for other users to hear and rate, as well as (hopefully) to catch the ear of a label representative (hence, “Sign Me To Roadrunner Records”). I don’t know if anyone who uses that website has ever gotten a record deal out of it, so I don’t have any idea how useful it is from that perspective. However, as a music fan, it can be a good resource for seeking out new things to listen to, and perhaps in that way it can be good for the bands as well. That is, maybe they won’t be picked up by Roadrunner, but maybe putting their songs out there will help attract some sort of attention anyway, and get a little bit of publicity for themselves. That’s how I intend to use it, at least; I’ll be digging through the Signmeto archives for some hidden gems, and then sharing them with you, dear reader.

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The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: Golah

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Hello, and welcome to a brand new feature here on Valley of Steel! As you may have gathered from the title, this is intended to turn into a weekly profile of a little-known unsigned band for you to check out. As you might expect, the material here will be of varying quality, but in every case you’ll have the opportunity to listen to whatever music the band has available at this point in their career; my hope is, maybe you’ll find something you really dig, which you might not have heard otherwise. 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 their first demo recording or whatever.

Now, about the rest of the title, in case you weren’t aware, “Signmeto” is a division of the Roadrunner Records website, where unsigned bands get the chance to upload their recordings for other users to hear and rate, as well as (hopefully) to catch the ear of a label representative (hence, “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records”). I don’t know if anyone who uses that website has ever gotten a record deal out of it, so I don’t have any idea how useful it is from that perspective. However, as a music fan, it can be a good resource for seeking out new things to listen to, and perhaps in that way it can be good for the bands as well. That is, maybe they won’t be picked up by Roadrunner, but maybe putting their songs out there will help attract some sort of attention anyway, and get a little bit of publicity for themselves. That’s how I intend to use it, at least; I’ll be digging through the Signmeto archives for some hidden gems, and then sharing them with you, dear reader.

Continue reading →