Tag Archives: Washington

Xoth “Exogalactic Actuality” Tour || ABA Community Weekend

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Hey there! I’ve got two (completely unrelated) things to bring to your attention today, both of which might interest you if you live in or around the Pittsburgh area, and one of which might still interest you if you are in any of several other areas throughout the eastern or central United States.

First up:

 


 

ABA‘s Pittsburgh Community Weekend

20 & 21 September, 2025

Join the American Birding Association for a fun weekend of birding in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!

On Sat. morning, Sept. 20, we will bird together at Hartwood Acres Park where we will explore the trails around the estate buildings, meadows, and mature woodland areas. In the afternoon, we head over to Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve for two presentations, one by Brian Shema and the other by Nick Stahlman, hosted by the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. In the evening, come down into the city and join us at East End Brewing for a little urban birding and socializing over pizza and local drinks on their outdoor patio.

On Sun. morning, Sept. 21, we will visit Frick Park, one of the area’s top birding locations, to look for fall migrants. Later we will gather at the Frick Environmental Center for a fun presentation by Mike Fialkovich, president of the Three Rivers Birding Club.

All bird walks, talks, and workshops are free and open to the public (with cash bar/food during the evening social), but registration is mandatory. The ABA’s bird-friendly SongBird Coffee will be served before and after each bird walk and presentation.

We are grateful for the support of Vortex Optics, who are providing a variety of excellent Vortex binoculars for participants to use during our field trips. There are limited binoculars available for loan, and we will distribute them on a first come first served basis, so sharing might be needed and appreciated.

Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to connect with fellow bird enthusiasts and enhance your birding skills. Sign up now and join us for an unforgettable weekend!

 

All of the locations listed here are local hotspots for bird activity — especially Frick which has been buzzing with reports of migrating warblers and flycatchers over the past few weeks. As stated above, all of this weekend’s events are FREE, you just have to sign up here. I’ve been looking forward to this ever since the ABA first announced it early this year, and I hope to run into some friendly faces over the two-day gathering!

 

* * * * *

 

and next:

 


 

Xoth – “Exogalactic Actuality” Tour 2025

Continue reading →

Old Iron – Lupus Metallorum (2017); Old Iron / Verdun – Split (2022)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Good afternoon, readers!

Just a quick shout to let you all know about this brand-new split record that came out last Friday — half of which is by a doom troupe from Montpellier France, whose 2016 album we had written about back when it came out; the other half features a sludge trio from Seattle whose 2017 album really caught my attention at that time but somehow I never got around to writing about that one, an oversight which is being rectified right now…

 

Old Iron – Lupus Metallorum (Good to Die Records, 18 August 2017)

 

Old Iron / Verdun – Split (Satanik Royalty Records, 25 February 2022)

 

Continue reading →

Oryx – Lamenting a Dead World; Melancholia – Static Church (2021)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

More 2021 goodness for you to bludgeon your ears with!

Herein, please find the fourth LP by Oryx (Denver CO) and the fourth EP by Melancholia (Bellingham WA).

 

Oryx – Lamenting a Dead World (Translation Loss Records, 30 April 2021)

 

Melancholia – Static Church (Brutal Panda, 04 June 2021)

 

Continue reading →

Beldam – Still the Wretched Linger (2016), Pasung (2018), Live at the Golden Pony (2021)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Good morning. Kind of gloomy today, feels like a blackened-death-sludge kind of day. Join me for a brief trip down memory lane as we reminisce about the last two Beldam records, in preparation for their first-ever live album coming this Friday!

 

Beldam – Still the Wretched Linger (HPGD Productions, 17 June 2016)

 

Beldam – Pasung (HPGD Productions, 26 January 2018)

 

Beldam – Live at the Golden Pony (HPGD Productions, 17 December 2021)

 

Continue reading →

Awenden / Feminazgul – Split (2021)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

As we all prepare to wrap up an eventful 2021, here’s a quick look back at a two-band/three-song split that came out earlier in the year, and recently had a vinyl pressing announced for early next year. Both participating bands and the label that put this together are all pro-feminism, anti-fascism, and highly LGBTQ+ supportive — all of which are positions we can certainly get behind. And it doesn’t hurt when the music sounds cool as well…

 

Awenden / Feminazgûl – Split (Tridroid Records, cassette and digital 07 May 2021, vinyl expected March 2022)

 

Continue reading →

Adzes – Climate // Capital, A Forest // Digging in the Dirt (2019); No One Wants to Speak About It (2020)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Adzes – Climate // Capital (self-released, 27 February 2019)

 

Adzes – A Forest // Digging in the Dirt (self-released, 02 August 2019)

 

Adzes – No One Wants to Speak About It (digital: self-released, 29 May 2020; cassette: Tridroid Records, 02 July 2020)

 

Good afternoon! I’ve got a surprise in store for you today. Usually single-person recording artists leave a lot to desire as far as the quality of material AND sound quality are concerned. The same can often be said for musical entities with strong political leanings: no matter how valid their point may be, if all they are bringing to the table is a clone of raw punk or lo-fi black metal that’s already been done to death a million times, it’s unlikely to really grab my attention.

With Adzes (named for the primitive wood-hewing implement), self-described by its lone member as “anti-capitalist sludge,” what we find is lacking in quality in neither of those areas. Below we’ll take a trip through a pair of EPs he put together last year, followed by the project’s debut album which is set to be unfurled at the end of this week. Enjoy!

 

Continue reading →

Rat King – Garbage Island (2016), Vicious Inhumanity (2020)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Rat King – Garbage Island (Within the Mind Records, 24 June 2016)

 

Rat King – Vicious Inhumanity (Within the Mind Records, 17 January 2020)

 

As much as I hate to admit it, during the almost eight and a half years I’ve been administrating this website, I have amassed a list of literally hundreds of albums I’ve hoped to find time to write about and share with you folks. Realistically I know I won’t ever get through ALL of them, but at the moment I am striving to keep up with the new ones as well as I can so it doesn’t get any worse; and if I can knock off an older one here and there while I’m at it, wonderful.

So having said that, here’s a record that just came out within the past month, as well as one that’s been sitting on my to-do list far too long. Both are by Seattleite trio Rat King, released on their own label Within the Mind, and both were recorded by the legendary Mr. Tad Doyle — but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. As you will soon discover. Please to enjoy!

 

Continue reading →

Lapsarian – Ruminant (2019)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Lapsarian – Ruminant (self-released, 22 November 2019)

 

Last time we took a look at the latest release from a multiple-platinum artist whose discography dates back many decades. Naturally, today our focus turns to an album that just came out last week, from a band who just formed last year.

With just over 100 Facebook likes so far (does that still even count as a metric in 2019?), and without a huge marketing campaign backing them, it’s probably a safe bet that Washington, DC’s Lapsarian is a new name to most of you reading this. So go check out Ruminant, and then once the word gets out, you can brag to everyone else about how you’ve already been on that bandwagon way longer than they have …

 

Continue reading →

Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper (2017)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper (Profound Lore Records, 10 October 2017)

 

Today we’re going to talk — again — about Bell Witch. Since the release of their demo recording back in 2011, this bass+drums+vocals duo of doom has been delighting our auditory cortices with a combination of immense gravitas and lofty, haunting melodies. With the departure of drummer/vocalist Adrian Guerra following sophomore album Four Phantoms, bassist/vocalist Dylan Desmond soldiered on with a new partner in Jesse Shreibman.

As observed in our 2016 review of that 2015 double-LP, the tragic passing of friend and former bandmate Guerra devastated the members of Bell Witch — who, as it turns out, had just started working together on the first new material with their current line-up. As you might expect, this event would certainly have a strong effect on the writing process, the result of which became Mirror Reaper, revealed to the world last fall.

With these guys hitting the road TONIGHT for a month-long expedition all over North America (including stops at two different festivals this weekend), alongside fellow Pacific Northwesterners Yob, we’ll spend some time with Mirror Reaper, and then share that list of tour dates down below.

 

Continue reading →

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

Posted by valleyofsteel on

 

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.

 
Continue reading →