Back at the end of February, I pretty much pulled the exact tracklist for Cynic’s Re-Traced out of my ass. How it got up there, I’ll never know. (Actually, it was in the tags for the teaser video on YouTube, so I just put two and two together.)

So at any rate, here’s the tracklist and the artwork for Cynic’s upcoming Re-Traced EP, which includes 4 reinterpretations of songs from 2008’s Traced In Air as well as a new song, “Wheels Within Wheels”, which we heard live before.

1. Space
2. Evolutionary
3. King
4. Integral
5. Wheels Within Wheels

Frontman Paul Masvidal described the sound as “part ’sci-fi prog folk,’ part psychedelic rock, part minimalist restraint.” This sounds pretty awesome if you ask me. Judge for yourself with this teaser clip they released last month.

Re-Traced is due out May 17th.

- JR

Heavy Blog Is Heavy is now in a convenient mobile scheme for those of you who browse on your iPods and iPhones, and I assume it’ll also appear similarly for those using other mobile devices too.

Thanks to deseee of The Number of The Blog for pointing me in the right direction of setting this up.

- JR

Deftones are gearing up for the release of their upcoming album Diamond Eyes, and  releasing their next single. “Diamond Eyes” March 15th via Amazon. A short sample of the song can be heard below.

Diamond Eyes [Sample]

This sounds fucking great. This is shaping up to be a surprise hit for 2010.

Diamond Eyes will be out May 18th.

- JR

If anyone out there tried to sent an email over to mail(at)heavyblogisheavy(dot)com, I did not receive them. DreamHost’s email forwarding system is apparently shitty and didn’t do what it was supposed to do. I now have G-Mail handling all of HBIH’s email, so we now have a reliable mail system.

So once again, if anyone out there tried to shoot us an email, please send it again. Sorry for any inconvenience!

We are still looking for contributors. Send us a review or an article and I’ll get you started posting here. We need more content and variety going on here at Heavy Blog. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

- JR

High on Fire have premiered their new video for “Frost Hammer” over at Pitchfork. The song comes off of their new album Snakes for the Divine, which is a pretty awesome record if you haven’t given it a listen for some reason. It’s a cool video, and has exactly what you expect from the performance footage: Matt Pike without a shirt. Seriously, does he ever appear fully clothed? I saw High on Fire perform live on Gigantour ‘08 and he didn’t wear a shirt then either. Weird. But he can pull it off, because he’s fucking Matt Pike and will ruin your shit if you look at him the wrong way. I read somewhere that he beat Mastodon’s Brent Hinds in a drunken fistfight. This guy is the physical embodiment of metal.

Anyway, without further digression here’s the video, which is apparently an “epic tale of a warrior’s sojourn to the cold and barren Plateau of Leng where he secures the fabled Frost Hammer that will be used to enact the final rites and complete the dark rebirth and reign of the Frost Child.” Awesome.

- JR

Oh fuck yes. This has gotten me pumped for Diamond Eyes. I mean, I was excited about it when I first heard “Rocket Skates“, but the visual of seeing the band perform again has just got me stoked.

Diamond Eyes comes out May 18th on Reprise, I think. If not, fuck it. I’m not looking it up. Just listen to it when it comes out.

- JR

Metalsucks has the high quality stream of the new Dillinger Escape Plan song “Chinese Whispers” going on right now. Sounds so much better and fuller than the radio rip we heard this weekend. I’m so excited for Option Paralysis. I WANT IT NOW.

But it’s due out in three weeks; Tuesday, March 23rd via Season of Mist and Party Smasher Inc. That’s too far away.

- JR

Oh sweet Jesus, “Mordecai”, my favorite song of all time, is now on Rock Band 2 via the Rock Band Network. I’ll be singing along to this and pretending to be Tommy as soon as I get my XBox back.

If you’ve been under a rock and didn’t know, this makes the 2nd playable Between The Buried And Me song on Rock Band. If you buy Rock Band 2, you’ll get a code to download a pack of 2o songs, one of which is a shortened version of BTBAM’s “Prequel To The Sequel”.

In other news, Attack Attack’s “Stick Stickly” is also on Rock Band. Avoid that disgusting pile.

- JR

Clocking in at just under 14 minutes, the new album by Southern California hardcore band NAILS is nothing short of awesome. Every one of the album’s ten tracks will pummel into you unrelentingly, as good hardcore and grindcore should. The Six Feet Under Records website describes NAILS as sounding like “Entombed covering Napalm Death and Drop Dead“, which is damn near spot on. Interesting enough, the album was recorded at Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou’s Godcity recording studio, with Kurt producing. That should already tell you that this album will be good.

The album opens to immediate chaos and aural violence with the 32 second “Conform”. The term “powerviolence” becomes perfectly clear. Before you even realize that song’s over, you’re under hell-fire with more pummeling blasts, maniacal screams, and grinding and screeching guitars that continue throughout the next three tracks, nonstop. This album doesn’t seem to want to let up.

Amidst the pissed off chants of “Suffering Soul”, NAILS step back from the chaos just a bit and play some hardcore riffs with some slower groove. Nails continues the pace into the title track “Unsilent Death”.

NAILS knows how to make 14 minutes feel like a long time, and they make good use of their time. The songs blend together seamlessly at times, giving the illusion of lasting much longer. Speaking on the album’s structure, I’d believe it if this album was written as one piece of music broken up into tracks.

The album is still pummeling away in fury like a jackhammer. A short guitar solo is thrown out in “No Servant”. Now it’s back to business as usual with “Scapegoat”, which leads into the album’s longest song and closing track “Depths”. The guitars are the main voice here. Layered screeches, noise, and feedback take over a lot of the song, creating the sonic equivalent of disaster. A considerably slower and heavy as fuck riff with proper use of pinch harmonics lead the track to close with a mood if impending doom, ending the album in guitar feedback. What a perfect closer.

NAILS – Unsilent Death is a great grind album. Although short, it does exactly what it’s supposed to. If you’re a fan of Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Napalm Death, and Brutal Truth, you need to check out NAILS right away. You can stream the tracks “Your God” and “Suffering Soul” here, as well as buying the album on preorder.

NAILS – Unsilent Death gets

4/5 – Great

- JR

“Exit Stage Thattaway!”

Silly named power metal band Dragonforce have parted ways with their silly named singer ZP Theart.

It is with great regret that Dragonforce announce a parting of the ways with singer ZP Theart. This is due to insurmountable differences of musical opinion but the rest of the band sincerely wishes ZP great success with his future projects.

Guitarist Herman Ri had this to say:

“‘We are rooking for a powerfur, merodic singer to write a new chapter of Dragonforce with us”

A man of few words.

Deciding to totally jump the gun, Dragonforce have also began writing their fifth studio album while looking for a new singer. You can apply for an audition here. Hopefully they are trolled thoroughly.

Maybe a new singer will maybe push them in a new direction. Perhaps they’ll even WRITE A NEW SONG. They’ve played the same one now for like ten years.

- JR

Word on the street has it that Killswitch Engage frontman Howard Jones had to skip out on their last tour, not because of a health problem, but because he knocked up pornstar Allie Foster.

According to Foster’s twitter account, she is about four months pregnant and Howard is the father. And apparently, Howard tried convincing Foster to get an abortion. And to make matters worse for Howard, TMZ is wanting a story.

Howard Jones of Killswitch engage, meet TMZ and your bitter baby momma coming with sweet sweet fuckin revenge you dirtbag

[source]

So, cheating on your wife with a pornstar and getting her pregnant, then suggesting she get an abortion? Howard has really stepped in it. This is all completely unverified by a source other than her, though. She could be some attention whore wanting to make Howard look bad for all we know… but geez, Howard. Way to be the Tiger Woods of metal.

- JR

Also, lol. (LINK NOT SAFE FOR WORK!)

In the process of changing the header and page background, I somehow managed to make the header appear twice. I’ll try to get that fixed as soon as possible.

UPDATE:

Alright, I got it fixed!

- JR

Hello there, ladies and gentlemen. Are you ready to rock? HUGE lineup this week

Abscess – Dawn Of Inhumanity (Peaceville)
Acrassicauda – Only The Dead See The End Of War EP (Vice)
Aldaaron – Nous Reviendrons Immortels (Paragon)
Annotations of An Autopsy – Before the Throne of Infection Re-Release (Earache)
Before Their Eyes – Untouchable (Rise)
The Bled – Heat Fetish (Rise)
Blind Witness – Nightmare On Providence Street (Mediaskare)
The Breathing Process – The Odyssey (Un)dead (Candlelight)
Darkthrone – Frostland Tapes (Peaceville)
Daughters – Daughters (Hydra Head)
Demon Hunter – The World Is A Thorn (Solid State)
Dark Tranquillity – We Are The Void (Century Media)
Eluveitie – Everything Remains As It Never Was (Nuclear Blast)
Fear Factory – Mechanize (Limited Edition) (Vinyl) (Candlelight)
Finntroll – Nifelvind (Century Media)
Immolation – Majesty and Decay (Nuclear Blast)
Murder Death Kill – Fuck With Us and Find Out (Mediaskare)
Of Mice And Men – Of Mice And Men (Rise)
Sectioned – Purulent Reality (Paragon)
Serj Tankian And the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra – Elect The Dead Symphony (Serjical Strike/Reprise)
Van Canto – Tribe Of Force (Napalm)
Varg – Blutaar (Napalm)
White Wizzard – Over The Top (Earache)

[via The PRP and About.com]

Wow, this is a pretty good week. One of the better ones so far this year! There should be something for everyone here. If you can’t find something you like, you’re either too fucking picky or you’re on the wrong website.

Have a good week!

- JR

New Dillinger Escape Plan song “Chinese Whispers” premiered on Full Metal Jackie last night. And just like every other internet radio premier or stream, someone rips it and uploads it to YouTube. Fuck yeah, Faith No More influenced Dillinger is always awesome!

Catch “Chinese Whispers” in higher quality on Tuesday when Metalsucks hosts the stream. We’re about two weeks away from this bombshell dropping on us all; March 23, via Party Smasher Inc and Season of Mist.

- JR

As you may or (most likely) may not know, I’ve written about The Crinn during the early days of HBIH. As a refresher, The Crinn are a mathcore band based out of St. Paul, Minnesota.

From the band’s bio on MySpace:

The Crinn’s self titled EP came to light in the spring of 2007, and after touring the south east to support the EP, The Crinn signed a digital distribution deal with the now defunct record label Corrosive Recordings. This signing allowed the band to greatly expand the reach of their music.

Shortly after the signing with Corrosive, The Crinn and drummer Corey parted ways, which led to the introduction of Chris Zugschwert. He learned the EP in only a few months, then The Crinn embarked on a west coast tour that took them throughout the south, up the west coast and back home to Minnesota.

Upon returning to St. Paul, The Crinn began work on the writing of their next release, “Dreaming Saturn”. In November of 2008, they were offered a record deal by Nuclear Blast to record their next album.

The album, Dreaming Saturn, was promoted as being released on October 19th, 2009 on Nuclear Blast. The year went on and the world of The Crinn went practically silent. The calendar rolled over to 2010 and I’ve yet to hear any new music or word of Dreaming Saturn.

That was until recently when they posted a new song “Man Eating Machine” on their MySpace page. The page also claims that Dreaming Saturn will be out Spring 2010. As far as I can tell, there isn’t an official date set, but they’re having an album release show on April 24th.

Finally, the album is within sight. The idea of Dreaming Saturn is fairly interesting. It’s a concept album, written as one singular piece of music broken up into tracks for the album (as you can tell on Man Eating Machine where it seems to randomly cut off). They used what they call “circular songwriting” with a lot of “ebbs and bows and ups and downs”. The Crinn have stepped up the songwriting by including more varying passages to break up the chaos and the new material sometimes has a more subtle melodic side, while maintaining the twisted technicality.

I think that Dreaming Saturn will surprise the people that hear it, and even has the ability to be a contender as being one of the best albums of the year. That is, if it ever comes out.

- JR