Tag Archives: USA

Seven Sisters of Sleep – Opium Morals (2013)

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Seven Sisters of Sleep – Opium Morals (20 March 2013, A389 Records)

 

Well folks, the last weekend in May is upon us, which means that most of my peers in the music-writing industry (and many of my other metal-loving friends as well) have made their annual pilgrimage to Baltimore for the year’s largest metal festival (outside of Europe, of course), Maryland Deathfest. Once again, a number of huge names jumped out at me from the announced schedule (Hooded Menace! Crowbar! Fucking Candlemass!!), but also once again, various factors have conspired against me being able to attend.

But — whatever, I’m not just going to sit around all weekend and whine about it. I’ve got plenty of good music to keep me company, and I fully intend to listen to all of it. All of the musics. For starters, although I will not be seeing Californian sludge band Seven Sisters of Sleep performing at the MDF kick-off show tonight (Thursday, 22 May 2014), I can always stuff their second full-length Opium Morals (which happened to rank among my favorite albums of 2013) into my ears. And while I’m at it, I can share it with you readers (who, I assume, are reading this because you also not at the festival in Maryland right now). So here goes.

 

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New Zealand’s ULCERATE Invading North America This Month!

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ULCERATE: Vermis North America MMXIV Tour Now Underway

 

Sometime in the latter half of last year, the bands for this month’s Maryland Deathfest were announced, and as I recall, Ulcerate was one of the names that many people were really excited about. At the time, the name was somewhat familiar to me but the band itself was not.

Well, a bit more recently, my family acquired a new tv which has Pandora Radio built-in — which is nice for putting something on in the background while working around the house, because previously we’ve had Sirius-XM satellite radio through a satellite tv provider, and now these Music Choice channels through our local cable tv company, and believe me, each of those options are equally worthless. So anyway, within the past few months I’ve seen Ulcerate appear a few times (mostly stuff from their 2011 Willowtip release The Destroyers of All) on one of our Pandora stations (I’m not sure which, but possibly Agalloch, which is a household favorite), so finally I can see what all the hype was about.

Anyway, getting back to my original point, the New Zealandian band is heading for the eastern U.S. for an appearance at MDF; furthermore, and seeing as how they just put out a new record a few months ago (Vermis, their first release via Relapse), apparently they decided to make the most of the trans-oceanic trip by hitting a whole bunch of stops across North America along the way.

This tour, presented by Metal Injection, will be the band’s first appearance in this part of the world since they had a mini tour in conjunction with an appearance at MDF back in 2012. Fellow Relapse artists Inter Arma will also be appearing on a handful of tour dates. See below for the full list, and then keep reading for a peek at Vermis…

 

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Atlanta’s Order of the Owl, Volume IV Hit the Road En Route to Stoned Goat Festival

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Atlanteans Order of the Owl and Volume IV are northwardly bound, on their way to the Eye of the Stoned Goat in New England next weekend. But along the way, they’re making a few pit stops — the “No Sleep Till Stoned Goat” mini-tour kicked off last night in Tennessee, and will be followed by jaunts through Pennsylvania and New York before hitting Massachusetts for Sunday’s festival. If you happen to live in the general proximity of any of these shows, I can’t recommend highly enough that you take advantage of your chance to check out both bands.

 

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Just Released: Gholas – Litanies

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Gholas – Litanies (Dullest Records, 11 February 2014)

 

Hello out there! I’m going to make this quick — because these folks are playing a show in Pittsburgh in just a couple of hours, and I wanted to make sure I told you all about them before that happens. Also they’ve got a brand-new album that just came out earlier this week, and so for those of you who don’t live near this area (or near any of their remaining tour dates — listed below), you’ll want to go check that out anyway.

I’ve written about new albums from people who happen to be touring and coming through this city before, but this one is pretty unique for me — because it just happens that my band LAST has been added as the opening act for this particular show! We’ll be joined by locals Low Man and SuperVoid (each of whom I’ve written about several times — see here and here) at the Rock Room in Polish Hill (1054 Herron Avenue). But of course the main attraction will be Gholas who are coming from Philadelphia. Based on their just-released album Litanies, I’m really looking forward to this one. You should be, too…

 

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Devouter Records Does It Again: Solar Halos’ Self-Titled Debut (Review)

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Solar Halos – Solar Halos (20 January 2014, Devouter Records)

 

When halo rings the moon or sun, rain’s approaching on the run.

So goes the old saying. The atmospheric phenomenon known as a halo (which could be solar or lunar) involves the refraction of light through ice crystals in the air; as a beam of light strikes the crystalline structure at just the right angle, it is refracted as if passing through a prism, and the rays end up being bent into an arc shape that appears (to the viewer on the ground) to encircle the source of that light (i.e. the sun or moon). Traditionally this has been seen as an omen of approaching bad weather — which makes sense because, as people discovered when they started learning more about the science behind meteorology, the conditions that produce this optical wonder involve a certain amount of moisture being in the air as well as the approach of a warmer front which would generally precipitate (pun intended) impending rainfall. A quick Google image search shows that these halos are beautiful to look at, even though they may be foreshadowing that things could soon turn dark and unpleasant.

There’s another truism that says an email that comes from Devouter Records is a sign of excellent music on its way. Although not nearly as old or well-known, I’ve found this statement to be 100% accurate, dating back to the 2012 LP Trephine by MAKE and through every release since then. Added just a week ago to this impressive list is the debut album by Solar Halos, who just happen to come from the same North Carolina town (Chapel Hill) as their labelmates.

 

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Go Beyond the Mirror’s Edge with Myopic

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Myopic – Beyond the Mirror’s Edge (17 January 2014 CD / 04 March 2014 cassette, Grimoire Records)

 

Good afternoon, folks, and HAPPY FRIDAY! You all are probably anxious to get the weekend started, perhaps with some awesome music to listen to, and perhaps without a lot of crap to read before you get to listening. I understand. I’ll try to make this short and sweet. Which makes sense, because with just four tracks spanning approximately 25 minutes, this EP that was just released a week ago by Baltimore-based Grimoire Records is short — and also pretty fucking sweet.

The Beyond the Mirror’s Edge EP is the first thing I’ve ever heard from both Myopic, a three-piece band from Takoma Park, Maryland (just outside Washington), and from the Grimoire label. But if this little package of blackened post metal (with just a touch on the experimental side) is any indication, then I’m pretty excited to see what the future holds for both of them.

 

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Good Gnus (New Stuff From Inter Arma And Today Is The Day!)

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Good Gnus!

 

Hey, good afternoon! We’ll be returning to our regular schedule of album reviews and snarky remarks shortly. But first I wanted to pass along a couple of tidbits that have hit my in-box courtesy of Earsplit PR. Apparently there will be some new material emerging in the near future from two bands who both happened to be among the most impressive live acts I’ve seen in the past year: Inter Arma and Today is the Day. Also Inter Arma has a shit-ton of tour dates coming up over the next couple of months, including a stop in my nearest metropolis — and perhaps a city near you as well. You’ll find the full list below.

 

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Celebrate The Year Of The Ox With Fist Fight In The Parking Lot

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Fist Fight in the Parking Lot – Year of the Ox (self-released, 11 January 2014)

 

Good afternoon, readers! Happy Monday to you all. Hope you had a good weekend. I was out of town visiting relatives the whole time — which, surprisingly, wasn’t really as bad as that sounds. So that’s cool, I guess. Although being away from Pittsburgh did have one unfortunate consequence: I wasn’t able to make it to the Fist Fight in the Parking Lot CD release show that took place Saturday night. They always put on a very energetic, entertaining show (and plus, our Ohioan neighbors Black Plastic Caskets also played that night, and I’ve only seen them once and have really been looking forward to having another chance).

But anyway, at least I can check out the new FFITPL CD, and I can tell you about it so you can go check it out too. And then we can all party like it’s 2021.

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Two New Splits From Tankcrimes!

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Cannabis Corpse / Ghoul – Splatterhash (7 January 2014, Tankcrimes Records)

 

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Exhumed / Iron Reagan – Split 12″ (7 January 2014, Tankcrimes Records)

 

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Tankcrimes Records has been known to put out some fairly unique and sought-after releases over the past few years. (For instance, who could forget 2012’s hugely successful Toxic Waste split featuring Toxic Holocaust and Municipal Waste?) Well yesterday, just barely a week into 2014, we find the label has issued not one but TWO more excellent split records to add to that impressive repertory.

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Fatality – Psychonaut (New Album // Coming to Pittsburgh TONIGHT!)

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Fatality – Psychonaut (self-released, 28 June 2013)

 
Hey, guys and gals! Remember Fatality? I first introduced you to this cool Canadian thrash band last summer when they were holding a contest, but at the same time I wrote a few words about their 2011 T.F.E.S. EP. That three-song release is still available to download for free (I’ll toss the Bandcamp widget at the bottom of this post), and the title track (“Thrash Fuck Eat Sleep”) is still one of the catchiest pieces of thrash metal I’ve heard in ages.

Anyway, the guys have a brand new album out now — they released Psychonaut two months ago, and since then they’ve been jaunting all across the United States and Canada on what they’re calling the “Towards Disastour”. (It’s a play on words, because there’s a song on the new record called “Towards Disaster”. Funny, right? These guys are just full of hilarity — just check out vocalist Spencer Le Von‘s ongoing tour blog over at Dead Rhetoric, or his series of Backseat Podcasts, or the band’s blog which he occasionally updates “with fervent apathy”. Seriously, check that shit out.)

The Towards Disastour tour is coming to a close tonight — Wednesday 28 August 2013 — with a stop in Pittsburgh, PA. Readers who live nearby are highly encouraged to come on out to Howlers in Bloomfield tonight. The show will also feature local thrash/traditional heavy metal greats Vermithrax and the NWOBHM-flavored Lady Beast (see full details about the show here). If you need more convincing than that (or if you live somewhere far away and won’t be able to go see the band in person tonight), keep on reading and I’ll tell you a little more about the new album Psychonaut.

 
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