The scourge of the metal scene and the source of crabcore themselves Attack Attack have finally called it quits. I’m not gonna be snarky and add my own commentary; I believe this news speaks for itself.
Category: Another One Bites The Dust
Ever since I first heard Nachtmystium‘s Assassins: Black Meddle Part I, I considered myself a bit of a passing fan and enjoyed each of their albums since. Their blend of black metal with psychedelic and industrial flourishes made them an interesting listen. With this in mind, I was at first a bit surprised when browsing No Clean Singing this morning to find out that the band have apparently disbanded.
For only being a month into the year, 2013 hasn’t been very kind to bands. Lineup changes have been happening left and right, and a few bands have already called it quits. Just this week, doom metal band Ramesses threw in the towel, and now it appears that psychedelic/occult rock group The Devil’s Blood have also decided that enough was enough. The band made a strangely unceremonious door-slam via Facebook:
As of the 22nd of January 2013 The Devil´s Blood has returned into nothingness.
All planned Rituals will be cancelled.
No interviews will be done.
Consummatum est.-SL & F
The Devil’s Blood – 2007 / 2013
As far as the modern occult rock scene goes (think stoned out Black Sabbath worship and denim vests) , The Devil’s Blood were a major highlight with their doomy Heart-influenced sound, and it’s a shame they didn’t quite take off like their labelmates Ghost. I never considered myself a fan of the band, but I’ll never forget their stellar set at Maryland Deathfest 2012. They were a killer live band for sure, and it’s a shame they won’t be experienced again.
- JR
It’s a sad, sad day when a band that never quite got the respect they deserve call it a day. That band today is UK doom contingent Ramesses, initially formed by the departure of two thirds of the line-up that created the classic Electric Wizard masterpiece Dopethrone and its follow-up Let Us Prey. The announcement came through the band’s Facebook page:
After a decade of doom RAMESSES are now in hibernation for the foreseeable future.
Sadly this means we have to cancel our appearance at Desertfest 2013.
A massive blackened heartfelt thanks to all who have helped and supported us over the last 10 years…you will not be forgotten..
We are all 3 continuing with new musical projects….stay tuned….the trip continues..
Despite their association with one of the most revered doom albums of all time, the music they created with Ramesses was a beast of it’s own, combining sleazy apocalyptic riffs with an atmosphere so bleak and oppressive that very few others could match it. In nearly 10 years, the band provided us with 3 full lengths of crushing material, alongside a whole host of EPs and demo releases so after the jump there’s few of my own personal highlights. I would highly encourage anyone, with even a passing interest in doom, to check them out!
Today is a sad day indeed. The Mars Volta, creators of one of my all-time top ten albums, masterminds of avant-garde/prog rock/space rock/salsacore albums such as The Bedlam In Goliath and my favorite, Frances The Mute have broken up. Damn.
Frontman Cedric Bixlert Zavala announced the breakup via a series of tweets, including:
All I can do is move forward with my music and just be happy that mars volta ever happened at all. God Damn we had a blast. Thank u again
— Cedric Bixler Zavala (@cedricbixler_) January 24, 2013
This sucks. I never had the chance to see them live, but I was hoping they would tour off their new album and that I could see them sometime. Now it looks like it’ll never happen. Such a shame that their relationship soured; they were a great musical pair, and made some of the most memorable rock I’ve ever heard. While their later albums may not have had the same intensity as their earlier records, they were definitely a band that did things differently and made it all work. So R.I.P. The Mars Volta. We’ll miss you.
2001-2013
-SS
Statement from Dusty, Sergei, Serj and Jimmy from Make Me Famous
We are currently in the middle of our first, and unfortunately the last headline tour as the band Make Me Famous. This will also be our last tour and time playing in the band known as Make Me Famous. As it were, most the members of Make Me Famous were very excited and grateful for this opportunity. We would like to say that we love playing music; love touring and most importantly
WE love the fans.
We would like to make a statement on the state of Make Me Famous. We four members were never treated like equal musicians to Denis Shaforostov. According to Denis, he was the only member in the band and he treated the rest of us as unpleasant as humanly possible, it was not fun being in a band with him. It was as if everybody but Denis were hired musicians and were expected to do any and everything that he would tell to us to do. Denis would also expect to keep a larger portion of any band income, in return he would treat us disrespectfully and give everyone in the band and the bands team an everlasting negative attitude. From those on the inside of the industry, this might not come as much of a surprise.
Denis not only lied to our label and management about who wrote what in the band, but lied to the fans as well. Denis told everyone that he wrote and recorded 99% of the bands music; in actuality all of Make Me Famous had a large portion in the creation of both. The music we made, including production and recording of our album was a collaborative effort involving all members of the band. We were not appreciated for anything by Denis, he would take his front-man position in the band to his advantage. He lied to the bands label and management in order to get paid more on royalties, payouts and even daily band tour allowances. Meanwhile it was us, the rest of the members of Make Me Famous, who did what normal, hardworking touring musicians do (setting up our gear, loading in merch, driving to the shows) as Denis refused to help while doing nothing but making nasty comment after nasty comment such as, “I brought you here, you owe me! You’re nothing without me”!!
After around 10 months of dealing with Denis and the stress that came with him, we approached our team about his behavior and told them how we did not want to continue on without him. As of right now Denis has overstayed his welcome, he has a plane ticket booked home to the Ukraine and is flying back mid-tour. We will finish the tour without Denis, but sadly is not the first show without him as he has missed out on a whole tour previously because he simply did not want to play that tour (due to the fact that he once told the headlining band vocalist over twitter that THEY would be opening for Denis in 6 months).
In summary, Denis has some issues and according to Denis, the fault to his issues is everyone and anyone but himself. This will be the end of our current incarnation, but we promise you the rest of the members, minus Denis will continue on making music and touring under a new forthcoming name. Our industry team continues to back us and we look forward to playing for you in 2013!
Please come out and support our final Make Me Famous shows (dates below). We would surely appreciate the support from our fans, various singers from the support bands will be filling in on Denis’ spot and it will surely be a good time to mark the end of something that we all loved and were excited about but was ultimately ruined by one person—Denis Shaforostov
Of course, their label Sumerian Records were none too happy about all of this and dropped the band from their roster:
Sumerian Records has dropped Make Me Famous. It’s a shame when band members cannot get along with each other. We wish all of them the best in their future endeavors.
So I take this to mean that Sumerian won’t be signing the next band that these four dudes will carry on with, which makes sense from the label perspective, though it isn’t really their fault that their vocalist was an asshole. At any rate, that’s the end of that mess, and hopefully the next “Euphrates Roster” band to sign to Sumerian will not be so terrible.
- JR
French symphonic deathcore group The Bridal Procession, whose last album Astronomical Dimensions was well received around these parts, have announced their plans to disband in 2013 following the release of their final album Descent Into Arcologies. The band explains all in the statement below, taken from Facebook:
There is no easy way to put it so let’s get straight to the point. After almost 6 years, The Bridal Procession is calling it a day.
Throughout the years, TBP has been what you could call a cursed band. Van wrecks, stolen gear, stolen money from associates and collaborators, countless member changes, horrible financial health, constant foreverlasting set backs of new music release and so on. It happens to most bands after all, but the love of music always overshadowed the worst times, the worst financial hits, the worst disappointments, until eventually, one day, the thread starts to get thinner and thinner and you just have to rip it off when you realize it’s hurting you more than anything.
Months ago, I told the rest of the guys that I would be leaving the band because my life was falling apart and I had to get back to the full time real world grind. I suggested the band should carry on without me because I really believed in the potential of the guys to bring the band back up on its feet and on the road again in support to our new album. I even personally picked potential new vocalists to step in my place but a straight “No. There is no point in us continuing on without you.” answer from the rest of the band made it clear what had to happen.
Do I even need to say it?
Terrible chuggawuggahbrocore group Dr. Acula have been in the business of displeasuring our existence since their inception (alright, admittedly at the time I enjoyed Below Me, but those were dark times), but no longer! The band have decided to call it a day and go do some other stuff, and I bet no one is more stoked than our writer Gunnar, who I was going to make review every one of their future releases. He gave their album Slander a review, and spoiler alert: it sucks.
Here’s some statements from some dudes, via Lambgoat.
Bill Graffeo: “After almost 8 years the band named Dr.Acula will be put to rest. Being the only original member that was left, it is very sad for me to actually have to say this. Dr.Acula started off as a joke back in 2005. Over the years we kept our sense of humour and pissed off many people. I have nothing but love and respect for ALMOST everyone that’s ever been a part of DA. Especially my brother Kevin who saved this band on many occasions. I had quit the band a little less than a month ago. I had some personal problems of my own holding me back from continuing with DA. Most importantly I could not handle the ‘sketchy’ things some people would do within the band itself. Casey, Oli and Chris will always be my dearest friends. Thank you to everyone that’s ever given DA a listen, wether you liked it or not you were a part of this. Unlike some people, I never forgot the roots of this band and where our success came from.”
Oli Miclett: “It’s time for us to move on to new stuff. This band wasn’t going in a direction that pleased everyone in DA. Some members kept cancelling tours for no valid reasons, without respect for the fans. With the departure of Bill and the cancellation of our European tour, Casey and I decided to part ways with the rest of the band to concentrate on a new band with a good friend of mine, Blake Moore (ex-Demolisher). We will announce the band and release stuff in January 2013.”
So yay, I guess. Another one bites the dust.
- JR
Completely out of left field yet not really all that shocking, but Christian metalcore group Underoath have called it quits. Forming in 1999 and now sporting no original members, they’ve decided to call it quits.
Here’s the statement:
“It’s sad to say that we feel like it’s time to close this chapter, but we have never seen things more clearly,” says vocalist Spencer Chamberlain. “These have been the best years of my entire life, and I owe that to every single person who ever supported this band along the way. This wasn’t a quick decision by any means. It’s just time for us to move on.”
“Over the past decade or so of our lives, we have been able to live a dream traveling the world, playing music that excites us, and meeting more amazing people than we could have ever fathomed,” says keyboardist Chris Dudley. “This couldn’t be a more bittersweet moment for us. We have accomplished more, met more friends, seen more places and have just done more than we could have ever imagined, and we really wanted to just go out on the highest note possible.
That’s why we have put together a group of great friends and musicians for what will be our final tour ever. We are taking every moment of this tour as an opportunity to say goodbye to you all, as well as celebrate what has taken place over all these years. The love we have and the debt of gratitude that we owe to all of you is not able to be measured in any way.”
“We don’t take this very lightly and it’s heartbreaking for all of us,” Chamberlain says of the band’s announcement, “but all good things must come to an end. We love all of you and hope to see you again soon.””
The band’s farewell tour will happen in 2013 (to be announced), but the “best-of” compilation release, titled Anthology 1999-2013 is released November 06th on Solid State Records. The tracklist is available after the jump.
01 – “Sunburnt” (new song)
02 – “Unsound” (new song)
03 – “In Division“
04 – “Catch Myself Catching Myself“
05 – “Paper Lung“
06 – “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures“
07 – “Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear“
08 – “In Regards To Myself“
09 – “You’re Ever So Inviting“
10 – “Writing On The Walls“
11 – “A Boy Brushed Red Living In Black And White“
12 – “Reinventing Your Exit“
13 – “It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door“
14 – “I’ve Got Ten Friends And A Crowbar That Says You Ain’t Gonna Do Jack“
15 – “When The Sun Sleeps“
16 – “Cries Of The Past“
17 – “Heart Of Stone“
- JR
Terrible news, everyone. Internet prog darlings Iron Thrones have called it quits.
Iron Thrones is no more.
Our sincerest apologies to those who were looking forward to a new Iron Thrones album. As has been somewhat obvious, we have been on an unplanned hiatus for the past couple of years, and although there were occasional moments of synchronicity, ultimately the flame died out and we gradually moved apart. We had a good run, and met a lot of fantastic people who truly appreciated our music. The same honesty that drove our creative process, now forces us to admit to ourselves that any new material we created as Iron Thrones would be missing what truly made our music special to us, and so it is time to lay this project to rest.
Sometimes, things just don’t turn out the way you would’ve liked. Time passes on, and things that you thought would never change, do. People change. Passions change. Regardless, the world continues to spin, oblivious to the changes within us, and we move on.
With two brilliant albums under their belt — one of which was released by Scion A/V — it’s definitely sad to see them go. If you for some reason are unfamiliar with Iron Thrones, they’re definitely for fans of bands like Burst and Between the Buried and Me. Their work is available on Bandcamp, so go in revel in memorium.
- JR
