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Hey folks — a very Happy (Belated) New Year to all of you! 2013 definitely turned out to be an interesting year for me, with lots of big changes, new projects, new responsibilities, etc., but an unfortunate side-effect of some of that was (as you’ve surely noticed) that the amount of time I’d been spending writing really tapered off as the year went on, to the point where I didn’t post
anything here for the last few months! Well, as you may have seen, I’ve started writing reviews of some new 2014 releases — and as time allows I promise I will also be sharing plenty of older stuff I’ve missed writing about, because believe me there has been a TON worth sharing!But more on that later. As I started doing last year, I’ve once again put together a collection of various people’s “best of” lists from 2013. Admittedly I sort of got a late start on this (I didn’t even put out the open invitation until after most websites had already finished with publishing all their year-end stuff), but several people have answered the call and contributed some really interesting lists that you’ll want to check out…
Tag Archives: Vektor
Winter’s Wake Winterview: Meth Quarry
Hello, once more! Time keeps ticking away, it’s almost time to go to Winter’s Wake tonight!
Here’s another band interview! I talked to Adam Joseph Bailey, the vocalist from Meth Quarry, about what’s been happening with that band since I spoke with them back in December.
Admittedly, this interview was even more brief than most of them have been, but I already covered most of the topics — such as how the band formed and their entire history, all of their influences and how they molded their unique “Grim Dirge Hardcore” sound — in the much more in-depth interview from December. To learn everything there is to know about this band, go read it!
Here’s what Adam told me about the band’s latest developments:
Winter’s Wake Winterview: Dendritic Arbor
The Winter’s Wake 2013 Thursday Night Pre-fest Show is coming up very soon! Here’s an interview with another band that’s playing tonight!
Once more, since there have been so many different bands to talk to, I’m keeping these relatively short and sweet. Hopefully there’ll be enough here for you (the reader) to get a bit of background info about each band, and you’ll get excited about getting to see every single one of them this weekend!
Below you will find the result of chatting with Quercus, guitarist/vocalist for the ecologically-minded harsh black metal band Dendritic Arbor…
Winter’s Wake Winterview: Vit
Good morning readers, here’s another Winter’s Wake band interview I’d like to share with you!
Once again, with so many people to talk to, I tried to keep these short and sweet. Just long enough for you (the reader) to get a bit of a lesson about each band’s history, to learn a little about where they came from and what they’re doing now, so that you can be as excited about seeing all of them as I am!
This one comes from Vit percussionist JK.
Winter’s Wake 2013 Presented By Allure of the Earth
So all the final details for this year’s Winter’s Wake festival are finally here! The venues, scheduled bands, and ticketing information all have been announced, and I’ve collected all of it right here for you!
Allure of the Earth: Winter’s Wake Line-Up **ALMOST** Complete!
*** NOTE: ALL THE FINAL DETAILS FOR THE WINTER’S WAKE FESTIVAL HAVE BEEN COLLECTED AT THIS LOCATION: https://valleyofsteel.net/2013/01/28/winters-wake-2013-presented-by-allure-of-the-earth/ ***
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Ladies and Gentlemen, three more bands (***) were just officially announced for the upcoming Winter’s Wake festival!
At this moment the nearly-complete line-up is scheduled to run as follows:
FRIDAY, 22 February 2013:
*** Vektor (sci-fi thrash from Philly)
Black Anvil (black metal from NYC)
GNAW (experimental industrial/drone/noise, from NYC)
Vit (experimental black/doom/folk from Ohio)
Liquified Guts (brutalgoredeathgrind from Pittsburgh)
*** Meth Quarry (Grim “Dirge” Hardcore from Pittsburgh)
SATURDAY 23 February 2013:
Dream Death (doom metal from Pittsburgh / exclusive area appearance for 2013!)
Blood Ceremony (occult doom rock from Toronto)
Evoken (death-doom from NJ)
Occultation (traditional metal from NYC)
Vattnet Viskar (black metal from New Hampshire)
*** Derketa (doomy death metal from Pittsburgh)
Molasses Barge (doomy traditional metal from Pittsburgh)
Vulture (doomy sludge metal from Pittsburgh)
So that’s where things stand as of right now.
LAST UPDATED 10 January 2013: There will be a pre-show (no details available yet) on Thursday the 21st! More information about that, plus the full details (including venue and ticket information) for the festival will be announced on Wednesday, the 2nd of January, 2013. very, very soon. We hope. Any further information will be shared with you here at Valley of Steel, as soon as we learn anything ourselves! Stay tuned!
Facebook event page for Winter’s Wake: http://www.facebook.com/events/147586328726944/
What To Do In Pittsburgh This Weekend (08-09-10 November 2012)
Hello, friends. I hope you’re having a good week, and I hope you have a great weekend. If you don’t already have plans, there are all kinds of HUGE events going on over the next few days (including Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) and I bet you’d be really sad if you were to miss out on any of these things!
Say, hypothetically, if your sister-in-law was getting married this weekend, and even though your wife isn’t in the wedding itself, she’s still in charge of handling all the decorating and stuff — and so that means you got yourself volunteered to help with stuff too, which is going to basically occupy every waking moment of the next three days. Even though nobody really is excited about any of it because, hypothetically, everyone thinks that your sister-in-law is marrying the most worthless piece of shit who ever lived. If you found yourself stuck in a situation like that, I’d feel really bad for you because you’d be missing out on some serious awesomeness. Hypothetically.
Cormorant Are Touring All Over the U.S.! (Well, not ALL Over…)
Regular readers of this blog (or the occasional random Googler) will already be familiar with my feelings on Californian blackened progressive metal band Cormorant. For anyone else who might be unaware, here is a brief overview of their discography which I wrote upon the occasion of their most recent release, Dwellings, back in December.
Knowing that this DIY band manages to put together strings of tourdates fairly infrequently, it’s always a big deal when they announce some shows. However, when I saw Primordial (Irish black-metal-turned-blackened-doom-metal, of whom I’m also really really fond) announce a jaunt through the eastern U.S., and Cormorant’s name appeared on the poster too, well I almost passed out.
Unfortunately, on closer inspection (and with helpful guidance from Cormorant bassist Arthur von Nagel), I realized that these two bands — along with the epic/melodic doom band While Heaven Wept — were only playing most of the dates listed.
While Pittsburgh’s Smiling Moose bar is shown in the image (see below), the asterisk next to that date, according to the legend at the bottom, means “WHW only”.
I’ve heard that that literally means “WHW only”… I’ve also heard (from Bandsintown, and later from Primordial themselves when they shared that event) that Primordial would indeed be playing Pittsburgh that night. Later, Primordial’s wall post was deleted, although the Bandsintown event remains. And the dude from Meatmeadmetal tells me that Metal Blade has confirmed there will be no Primordial.
What a huge fucking mess — I have no clue what’s happening. Opening bands at the Pittsburgh date will also include two local greats, Argus and Vermithrax. Those are both worth seeing, and if you like While Heaven Wept, then there’s another plus. Go check out the show, maybe Primordial will show up, maybe they won’t. Maybe fucking Black Sabbath will reunite with Bill Ward for one night only and play a secret show at The Smiling Moose. I wouldn’t be surprised by anything at this point.
Personally, I can’t help feeling a good bit of disappointment at the absence of Cormorant; however, Cleveland is only a few hours away, so ‘Burgh-area fans may want to keep that possibility in mind… or possibly Rochester or Philadelphia, if you’re feeling especially adventurous.
Anyway, here is the tour poster, in all of its bewildering confusingness, followed by a full list of dates:
Valley of Steel 