Tag Archives: USA

No Funeral / Livid – Split LP (2017)

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No Funeral / Livid – Split LP (Live Fast Die Recordings, 15 August 2017)

 

Where the hell did October go? Or September, or fall, or most of this goddamn year? What’s even happening anymore?

I don’t know. But I do know this: I’m quite literally drowning in excellent music over here, that I need to share with you people. And there’s just never enough time — but I’m not here to whine or make excuses, I’m here to get something published that I’ve been wanting to tell you about for a while. This is gonna be a short one, but that’s better than nothing, right? Right?

Anyway, check out this split LP featuring a pair of Minneapolitan bands, Livid (whose Prosthetic Records debut Beneath this Shroud, the Earth Erodes, which we discussed here, came out just about a month earlier) and No Funeral (who just got back home yesterday from a tour of the east coast, and who also happen to run the label responsible for releasing this split) …

 

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P. Moss – Vegas Tabloid (2017)

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P. Moss – Vegas Tabloid (Squidhat Press, 01 October 2017)

 
Hey there, ladies and gentlemen of the internet. It’s been some time since we’ve done a proper review around here, as you may have noticed. Things should be getting back to normal soon, but the simple reason is that there just hasn’t been much time available for listening to anything lately! With an abnormal amount of turnover at work over the past couple of months, I’ve found myself spending my days training quite a few temp employees, which has drastically cut into time I’d normally spend tuning out the world with my headphones blasting. A lot of the actual writing is done on the bus or in small bits here and there as I have spare time, but it’s virtually impossible to listen to anything on the bus because it’s so noisy I can barely make out anything — even with my Walkman turned up dangerously high.

Bus rides do afford me some quality time for keeping up with email though, or just for reading. So I find myself doing a lot of the latter, either via analog paper copies borrowed from the local library or digital books downloaded onto my phone. And that’s why, in a space where you’d normally come for music news, today I’m doing a book report like I’m back in middle school or something. Hopefully you all will enjoy this diversionary change-of-pace. Feel free to let me know in the comments. And be sure to stop back for more music-related stuff soon!

 

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Steel Bridge Promotions Presents: MANILLA ROAD (Pittsburgh, 20 October 2017)

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Steel Bridge Promotions and Shadow Kingdom Records Presents:

Manilla Road (Wichita, KS)

with Lady Beast and Legendry

Friday 20 October 2017

at The Smiling Moose, 1306 E Carson St, Pittsburgh (South Side) PA 15203

Doors 9:30 – Show 10:00 | $15 @ door

http://www.facebook.com/events/1674169725950809/

Steel Bridge Promotions — who have been responsible for putting together all sorts of really solid shows in the Pittsburgh area over the past few years, as well as being among the most genuinely nice people you will EVER meet — recently announced that their final shows will be taking place this October. While that’s terrible news for this city, SBP will definitely be going out with a bang! Today, we’ll be sharing some information about another of those final shows.

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Steel Bridge Promotions Presents: FISTER / UN / GIF FROM GOD (Pittsburgh, 15 October 2017)

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Steel Bridge Promotions Presents:

Fister (Saint Louis, MO) / UN
(Seattle, WA) / .GIF from God (Richmond, VA)

local support by Sarlacc (Pittsburgh, PA)

Sunday 15 October 2017

at The Rock Room, 1054 Herron Ave, Pittsburgh (Polish Hill) PA 15219

Doors 9:00 – Show 9:30 | $5-10, door only (no advance sales)

 
http://www.facebook.com/events/1377974022309542/

 
Steel Bridge Promotions — who have been responsible for putting together all sorts of really solid shows in the Pittsburgh area over the past few years, as well as being among the most genuinely nice people you will EVER meet — recently announced that their final shows will be taking place this October. While that’s terrible news for this city, SBP will definitely be going out with a bang! Here, we’ll be sharing some information about the one of those final shows.

 
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A Stick and a Stone – The Long Lost Art of Getting Lost (2017)

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A Stick and a Stone – The Long Lost Art of Getting Lost (cassette Sentient Ruin / Breathe Plastic, CD Spirit House; 21 July 2017)

 

Hey… remember several months back when Bandcamp donated all of their profits one day to the ACLU to aid in the fight for equal rights for all? Well apparently that was a big success, and they’ve decided to do something similar again, TODAY.

Their announcement earlier this week said, in part (read the whole thing here):

We support our LGBT+ users and staff, and we stand against any person or group that would see them further marginalized. This includes the current U.S. administration, and its recent capricious declaration that transgender troops will no longer be able to serve in the military.

In response, we will be donating 100% of our share of every sale on Friday, August 4th (from midnight to midnight Pacific Time) to the Transgender Law Center, a nonprofit organization that works tirelessly to change law, policy, and culture for the more equitable.

That announcement also included a list of featured artists of various gender identities, and they’ve also posted a follow-up detailing hundreds of bands and labels who’ve pledged to join in by donating all or part of THEIR profits from today as well.

Of course, our archives here at Valley of Steel are filled with releases that are available on Bandcamp as well, if you’re looking for something to buy today. And if you keep reading, here’s one more recent release you may wish to consider.

 

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Doom Side of the Moon (2017)

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Doom Side of the Moon – Doom Side of the Moon (self released, 04 August 2017)

 

So this weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd releasing their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. That’s a pretty significant milestone, and anyone who spends much time poking around this website will soon realize that they are one of my favorite bands of all time. That has been the case for at least half of the past fifty years, ever since I really started to discover their catalogue of work when I was in middle school — and that fandom has been borderline obsessive during much of that time.

Evidently someone else who feels the same way is Kyle Shutt, guitarist for The Sword, who has chosen to mark the occasion of a half-century of Pink Floyd albums by recreating their best-known work (and one of the biggest selling records in history) The Dark Side of the Moon.

“The idea came to me after getting baked and wanting to hear a heavy version of ‘Time’,” he explained. “I thought, why not just cover the whole album?” While admitting that “It felt a little strange messing with someone’s legacy,” the guitarist went on to say that he is “treating it as a celebration of one of the greatest bands to ever rock, a party that everyone is invited to.”

Recruiting two of his bandmates, bassist Bryan Richie and drummer Santiago Vela III, the project was completed with the addition of vocalist Alex Marrero, saxophonist Jason Frey, and keyboardist Joe Cornetti, and thus Doom Side of the Moon was born.

Their lovingly crafted tribute will officially be released on Friday (04 August), and then on Saturday (05 August, the exact anniversary of Piper‘s release) they’ll be performing the whole thing at Emo’s in Austin TX, along with a laser show performed by The Mustachio Light Show.

 

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God Root – Salt and Rot (2017)

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God Root – Salt and Rot (CD self-released / digital Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, 11 July 2017)

 

The music world suffered a great, if largely unheralded, loss around the end of 2014, when ambient-experimental blackened doom duo Sadgiqacea, one of the only good things to ever come out of Philadelphia, ceased operations. (Our review of their last album can be found here). The pair briefly reunited to perform at last year’s Shadow Woods festival, but otherwise it seems they’ve been occupied with other projects. While guitarist/vocalist Evan Void continued on as a member of Hivelords and Tombs (both of which were discussed here), drummer/vocalist Fred Grabosky (aka the artist behind FTG Illustrations) was quietly assembling some other like-minded individuals to form a brand new group. After shifting a few pieces around for a little bit, the line-up stabilized with bassist/vocalist Ross Bradley, guitarist/vocalist Joe Hughes, guitarist Keith Riecke, and Jordan Stiff who is credited with “noise” and guitar, all joining forces as God Root.

The band’s second official release, Salt and Rot saw the light of day just a few weeks ago, and the guys are now gearing up to hit the road with New Jersey’s Sunrot. A full list of those dates, all over the northeastern and midwestern U.S., can be found down below, but first let’s check out that new album!

 
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Neurosis – Fires Within Fires (2016)

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Neurosis – Fires Within Fires (Neurot Recordings, 23 September 2016)

 

So Neurosis are heading out on tour RIGHT NOW. That news by itself will immediately be a huge deal to most people who read this sentence. They’re only hitting a handful of cities across the northeastern U.S. (and southeastern Canada) over the next week and a half, but this is a band that infreuquently performs live in the first place, and very rarely visits the east coast outside the context of a larger music festival (such as Baltimore’s Days of Darkness which they’ll be headlining in October). So, yeah.

But sometimes when it comes to bands that have been around seemingly forever (well over thirty years, in this case) and have achieved a near-universal legendary status (at least, for these guys, among the majority of fans of post-hardcore/sludge metal), it’s easy to forget that there are some folks out there who may not already be intimately familiar with them. Easy to just assume that everyone knows them, disregarding the fact that there’s always somebody who has yet to make that big discovery.

After all, though, that’s the whole point of writing about music: to help someone learn about something that could potentially be life-changing. The About page of this website describes exactly that — while also referencing a particular time period of exploration for myself, which in that narrative was described as “The Napster Years,” but frankly a huge part of my own rebirth as a metal music fan directly resulted from finding Relapse Records CD samplers (like this one and this one) at a local record store (more info here and here for the younger readers). Interestingly, three of the artists that had really jumped out at younger me and grabbed my attention are ones I have written about here, just this month: Today is the Day, Dying Fetus, and now, Neurosis.

Specifically, there were a couple of songs from the band’s then-new album A Sun that Never Sets which I bought not long afterwards, and which was — front-to-back — one of the most amazing things I’d ever experienced. So in light of all that, I’m pleased to present — to any of you who may not have heard this yet — their latest release, 2016’s Fires Within Fires.

 

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Molasses Barge – S/T + Covered in Molasses (2017)

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Molasses Barge – Molasses Barge + Covered in Molasses (Blackseed Records, 28 July 2017)

 

So I’ve been writing about Molasses Barge basically as long as I’ve been writing about music in general. It all started way back in late 2011 when they had a few shows scheduled, and I threw together a little synopsis of my first experience seeing them perform live (earlier that year when they opened for Pentagram). This was followed by an interview with drummer Wayne Massey in 2012 (as they were about to open for Tombs and 16), and then guitarist Justin Gizzi also answered a few questions as part of our coverage leading up to the Winter’s Wake festival in 2013.

In all, these Pittsburgh-based doom-metal workhorses have appeared (at least mentioned in passing) on this website a few dozen times. And yet, as active as they are (and despite having been in existence for close to a decade now!), the band’s official recorded output thus far has consisted of one EP six years ago, plus a three-song demo a few months later. (Both of them are available to stream or download FREE at Bandcamp.) But that all changes now: this Friday they will be unleashing their stunning debut self-titled LP, and as a special added bonus (perhaps as a thank-you to all the fans who’ve been patiently waiting so long), it’ll come bundled with a second disc filled with cover songs.

 

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Ketchup Day: Upcoming Release News (Septicflesh, Unsane)

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Yeah, it’s a silly name and a silly concept, but we’re doing this thing again. Further explanation for those who need it here.

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