Do you like mathcore? Well it doesn’t matter, you should. More importantly, you should like The Colour Line — an up and coming British mathcore band that are set to release their debut later this year.

Signed to Destroy Everything, which you may know as the recently announced sister label to Basick Records, the band caught my attention initially as probably the most intense and heavy of the first batch of bands that the label announced but quickly sold me on their frantic and mind-bending mathcore. Taking the pedal-to-the-floor approach of bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge, they waste no time in making their intents known in a flurry of off-kilter blasts and skronky chords that you can hear right here and, although new material is thin on the ground at the moment, the band have just released a teaser containing snippets of playthroughs from their rehearsal space:

If even half of those ideas might it into the final product, The Colour Line are going to have something pretty spectacular on their hands. Also, be sure to check out the brilliantly named ‘Thrash Bandicoot‘, it slays.

- DL

Despite whatever I may have said about post-black metal’s sense of homogeneity (oooh, tremolo picking and blast beats!), the sound can be extremely heart wrenching if done with sincerity, confidence, and just the right amount of affect. Deafheaven manage to do this adequately, and if you’ve ever seen the band live, you know the kind of passion these guys put into performing their beautifully haunting black metal compositions, especially frontman George Clarke, whose intensity truly sells the show.

‘Sunbather,’ the band’s new single, is now available for streaming, and as if the previously debuted track ‘Dream House’ wasn’t enough, it paints the upcoming record in an impressive light. The band must be looking to top their debut Roads to Judah, because these two new tracks blow the previous album away. The track is available at The Fader. While you’re listening, follow along with the lyrics:

Sunbather

I held my breath and drove through a maze of wealthy homes. I watched how green the trees were. I watched the steep walkways and the white fences. I gripped the wheel. I sweated against the leather. I watched the dogs twist through the wealthy garden. I watched you lay on a towel in grass that exceeded the height of your legs. I gazed into reflective eyes. I cried against an ocean of light.

Crippled by the cushion, I sank into sheets frozen by rose pedal toes. My back shivered for your pressed granite nails. Dishonest and ugly through the space in my teeth. Break bones down to yellow and crush gums into blood. The hardest part for the weak was stroking your fingers with rings full of teeth..

It’s 5 A.M…and my heart flourishes at each passing moment.

Always and forever.

Woah.

Sunbather will be available June 11th on Deathwish Inc. Come on already with the pre-orders!

- JR

As far as blatant Black Sabbath worshiping goes, Windhand are one of the bands that do it absolutely right. The occult rock thing is getting a bit homogenous, but it helps when you’re able to be as catchy as Windhand. The band have just wrapped up their full-length Relapse solo debut (they had a split album with Cough earlier this year through the label) and are hitting the road this June.

Here are the dates:

06/05 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar

06/06 – Philadelphia, PA – Golden Tea House

06/07 – Brooklyn, NY – St. Vitus Bar

06/08 – Providence, RI – AS220 !

06/09 – Boston, MA – O’Brien’s

06/10 – Cherry Valley, NY – Steve’s Koi Pond

06/11 – Buffalo, NY – Vault Art Space

06/12 – Pittsburgh, PA – Gooski’s

06/13 – Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups

06/14 – Chicago, IL – Ultra Lounge

06/15 – St. Paul, MN – The Turf Club

06/16 – Milwaukee, WI – Quarter’s Rock n Roll

06/17 – Indianapolis, IN – The Sinking Ship #

06/18 – Newport, KY – South Gate Revival House

06/19  -Nashville, TN – The End %

06/20 – Knoxville, TN – The Pilot Light %

06/21 – Raleigh, NC – Slim’s $

06/22 – Richmond, VA – Strange Matter $



! = w/ Elder and Morne

# = w/ Skeletonwitch

% = w/ Generation of Vipers

$ = w/ Inter Arma

The tour actually hits several towns around me in a four hour radius, but they’re all on weekdays. Bummer. Hit up your local spot if you can make it though! Windhand’s new album will be out this Fall. More news when we get it! Check out ‘Shepherd’s Crook’ from their Reflection of the Negative split with Cough below.

- JR

It’s a sad day. UK independent record label Brew Records has announced that they are closing their doors after 6 years of service. The label has been a home to some of the noisiest and loudest bands in the UK including Hawk Eyes, Blacklisters and Nine Black Alps and released over 25 releases during their lifetime. As their parting piece, the label have made all of their releases (barring the latest Humanfly release) available digitally as pay what you want through their bandcamp and have reduced the prices on physical releases, giving you the chance to check out some really great music and hopefully throw their cash their way too. Check it out here, I would highly recommend Blacklisters BLKLSTRS, Hawk Eyes Mindhammers and Humanfly‘s Darker Later, but honestly you really can’t go wrong here.

On their farewell post, the label stated:

“We’ve had the pleasure of releasing some incredible records over the years and have been fortunate to work with so many amazing people. We’d like to thank everyone that has ever supported us, bought a record or a t-shirt and spread our music in general. Humanfly’s ‘Awesome Science’ is our final release and we couldn’t think of a better record to go out on which sums up what we love about physical records both musically and aesthetically. The label will still remain active for a while as we wind things down and continue to take and fulfill orders.”

It’s a shame to see such a hard working group call it a day, but they’re at least going out on a high note with Awesome Science. So thanks to Brew for all they’ve done, they should most definitely be proud of what they achieved.

- DL

Sound Awake is my favorite album of all time. It’s the perfect mix of heavy and harmony, and it’s one of those albums you wish you could have written. However, it’s been four years since the band put it out, and although I’ll never tire of it, it’d be nice to have a new album or even just a new song to jam. Well, ladies and gents, it is nearly time.

Karnivool have announced that their new album will come out midway through 2013, is done being recorded, and a new song from the record, ‘The Refusal’, will be played Sunday night. The best part? They’re also releasing it as a free download on Monday. SWEETNESS. They’ve also announced a new music video is in the works and is being edited now. Being that this is my most anticipated record of the year (and probably also of 2011 and 2012 when I learned they had started writing it), this is huge news. Finally getting close to the release date means that soon the album will be out and everyone can enjoy it. It also means that they can come tour the US again and I can finally see them live, having missed them last time due to work.

The band also released a short video blog about the album, with some little snippets of songs, and judging by what I heard, it sounds like it may be their heaviest and most complex album yet. You can read the full statement from the band after the jump, but stay tuned; we’ll have the single up on Monday!

-SS

There’s endless debate over how to appropriately tackle the problem of album leaks and piracy these days. Some bands and labels ignore the problem and continue on with the press hype machine as if nothing happened. Some bands and labels react actively by seeking out and destroying download links and uploads wherever they may form. Arguably, the best way to go about fighting a leak is to do it constructively by turning the wave of interested fans into legal streams, a trend which is becoming increasingly common. Tesseract‘s new album Altered State isn’t due out until the end of the month, but following a leak this past weekend, their label Century Media opened up the album for streaming on Youtube.

However, the most constructive way I’ve seen a leak tackled was by emo/post-hardcore band The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die and their label Topshelf Records, who responded to the leak of the band’s new album Wherever, If Ever by going ahead and releasing the album a month early. Woah!

Via Topshelf Records’ Tumblr page:

…I am faced with the difficult decision of acknowledging that Whenever, If Ever is actively leaking a month before it’s release date. You can probably Google for it right now and get it.

This is arguably the biggest release we’ll have all year as a label and this spoils a lot of planning we had in place over the last few months, but these things happen. This also forces me to acknowledge the real-world truth that yes, records cost money. This oft-avoided subject in our community is a reality for everyone who tours or postpones real life to make music in nearly any capacity. It’s a thing. This record is no different.

So against my better judgement, we’ve made Whenever, If Ever available to:

• stream on Youtube for free.
• download on bandcamp immediately for just $7.
• listen to on bandcamp for free.
• listen to on soundcloud for free.
• and, of course, order physically on CD or vinyl.

Anyone who has pre-ordered the record already — thank you, sincerely — you’ll be getting downloads as soon as I can get everything set up (we weren’t planning on sending them for another month after all).

So, I’m appealing to you all to please use the above URLs to share, acquire and experience this record. I understand it’s 2013 and you can download and share this for free (and we’re not going to stop you) but I’m not doing my job if I don’t ask. Heh, I don’t have a job if I don’t ask.

Thanks, you guys.

What a wonderful way to turn a negative thing like a leak into a positive experience! After the album was made available on Bandcamp ahead of schedule, the album made its way across my Facebook news feed by quite a few people, so there’s certainly the viral effect and the publicity associated with such a bold move. Hell, that’s why I’m even talking about it right now.

Of course, not every label and band can pull something like this off. It certainly helps in Topshelf’s case because they’re a small indie label, but I couldn’t imagine Metal Blade Records or Century Media releasing an official copy of an album for purchase immediately following a leak in this fashion — at least not any time soon. There are a lot of considerations to take place to orchestrate a major release for an album. Even still, the best way to tackle illicit downloading is the availability of a fairly priced legal source. I wouldn’t be shocked if Topshelf and The World Is A Beautiful Place… got a handful of sales out of this that they might not have otherwise.

So let this be a lesson that there’s always a silver lining to any situation, even if you have to go out and make one for yourself. Check out Wherever, If Ever from the above links or stream it via Bandcamp below.

- JR

“The Wave” is a term that was said as a joke about the new wave of post-hardcore bands, including the likes of La Dispute, Make Do And Mend, and Defeater. The latter has been one of the most captivating bands out of this wave, and their albums are always really emotive and energetic. In keeping with the two year write-record-tour cycle, the band has recorded their upcoming studio album Letters Home and are set to release it July 16th via Bridge Nine Recordings.

Derek Archambault, the vocalist, had this to say in regards to the sound:

“Inspiration for this record came from a few places. Much like with Lost Ground, these stories are based around my two grandfathers’ service in WWII. Musically the record hearkens back to Travels and Lost Ground. EDSN was a bit of a departure for us, and I think we took some good chances on that record but Letters Home brings it back to why we started this band in the first place five years ago.”

Sounds promising! I personally enjoyed the new direction they took with EDSN, but it’s awesome that the band decided to go back to their roots. View the track list below:

01 – “Bastards“
02 – “No Shame“
03 – “Hopeless Again“
04 – “Blood In My Veins“
05 – “No Relief“
06 – “No Faith“
07 – “Dead Set“
08 – “No Savior“
09 – “Rabbit Foot“
10 – “Bled Out“

-SS

[via The PRP]

August Burns Red are one of the few metalcore bands that keep me intrigued. Though I wasn’t much of a fan of Leveler, I think Constellations is one of the best albums of the genre and completely set a new bar for it. I’m super excited for their upcoming record Rescue And Restore as are quite a few of the writers here, and today the band gave us a first glimpse of the record with their single ‘Fault Line’. And it’s awesome. It’s both heavy and melodic, with some of the best guitar work I’ve heard from the band. There’s even some clean vocals on this track, and they fit in quite nicely with the rest of the song. If this is any indication of how the new album is going to sound, I’m even more stoked. Rev up your excitebikes, ladies and gents!

Rescue And Restore is out June 25th via Solid State Records.

-SS

Deafheaven‘s upcoming album Sunbather is on my most anticipated list. From the samples I’ve heard, and the first single, it’s going to be better than the already great Roads To Judah. Anyways, today I’m happy to announce that the band will be doing a tour in support of the album, which comes out June 11th on Deathwish Inc. Of course they only make one Florida stop, on the same day of the Intronaut show. However, I’ve seen Intronaut headline before, so I’m going to be seeing this one. Anyways, check out the dates (with Marriages as support) after the jump, and listen to their single ‘Dream House’ here!

JUN 19, 2013 Yucca Taproom Tempe, AZ. 85282
JUN 21, 2013 Club Dada Dallas, TX. 75226
JUN 22, 2013 Red 7 Austin, TX. 78701
JUN 23, 2013 Mango’s Houston, TX. 77006
JUN 25, 2013 Will’s Pub Orlando, FL. 32803
JUN 26, 2013 Earl Atlanta, GA. 30316
JUN 27, 2013 The Forge Birmingham, AL. 35212
JUN 28, 2013 The Milestone Club Charlotte, NC. 28208
JUN 29, 2013 King’s Barcade Raleigh, NC. 27601
JUN 30, 2013 Rock & Roll Hotel Washington, DC. 20002
JUL 1, 2013 The Barbary Philadelphia, PA. 19125
JUL 2, 2013 Saint Vitus Brooklyn, NY. 11222
JUL 3, 2013 TT The Bears Cambridge, MA. 02138
JUL 5, 2013 Grog Shop Cleveland Heights, OH. 44118
JUL 6, 2013 Subterranean Chicago, IL. 60647
JUL 7, 2013 Magic Stick Lounge Detroit, MI. 48201
JUL 8, 2013 The Record Bar Kansas City, MO. 64111
JUL 9, 2013 Marquis Theatre Denver, CO. 80202
JUL 10, 2013 Kilby Court Salt Lake City, UT. 84101
JUL 12, 2013 El Corazon Seattle, WA. 98109
JUL 13, 2013 Bunk Bar Portland, OR. 97214
JUL 15, 2013 Bottom of the Hill San Francisco, CA. 94107

-SS

We think pretty highly of Arsonists Get All The Girls, even going as far as to say that their 2009 album Portals is among one of the greatest albums in the deathcore genre. I personally thought the band had hit their stride and continued to rise, but following their 2011 album Motherland, their contract with Century Media expired and the band lost two members. These arsonists aren’t stopping though, instead announcing that their new lineup (featuring original vocalist Remi Rodberg) will release their upcoming album Listen to the Color independently via Bandcamp.

Here’s the press release, featuring band quotes and a tracklist for the new record:

Listen to the Coloris a 15-track collection of AGATG resurrecting their thrashy quirky roots. The album was recorded with Zack Ohren (Animosity, All Shall Parish). The album clocks in at approximately 30 minutes and features many guest vocals from Cameron Reed (former vocals/keyboardist AGATG), Rob Smith (Heavy Heavy Low Low/Downstaaiirs), Kevin McCaughey (Ion Dissonance), Robby Bancroft (Five Characters In Search of an Exit).

Vocalist Jared Monette has left the band on good terms to pursue a different career choice. Bassist Greg Howell comments on their vocalist change, “When Jared stepped down it felt natural to bring Remi back into the mix because we knew we wanted to continue with two vocalists to pursue a chaotic album.” AGATG welcomed back former vocalist Remi Rodberg, he comments on his return, “It’s on! Garin and the boys asked if I wanted to participate in the band again after about four years and I am ready. I am pumped to be back and jamming again and it makes our brother in the sky proud to see us taking this further than we ever thought.” Guitarist and founding member Arthur Alvarez has also left AGATG, the band comments on his departure, “Over the past year Arthur and the rest of us weren’t seeing eye to eye. Arthur stepping down was the only thing we could all agree on, it was mutual.”

Despite being a vocalist and guitarist down keyboardist and backing vocalist Sean Richmond complemented Rodberg’s vocal style sharing half of all the vocals on the album. Richmond’s unique piano interludes and 8-bit keyboard tones possess wacky dynamics bringing a funky Nintendo sound to the album. Richmond comments on the album, “This was a really fun album to write with all the boys. I have always been a big fan of Remi’s voice on the first two Arsonists records and I was really stoked to work with him on all the lyrics and vocal patterns for this album.” Guitarist Jaeson Bardoni also stepped up and wrote all of the guitar riffs on Listen to the Color. Bardoni comments on the new album, “With the band moral being so high the writing process was easy! Writing with great musicians such as Sean, Garin, Greg, and Remi has been nothing but fun, it was such an awesome process. It’s amazing to have our longtime friend Remi back in the game with us adding his own influences and creative dynamics to our music once again. Whether you’re a fan of our last few albums or our older music or even none of it at all, there is definitely something for all of you to enjoy on this album!”

Drummer and founding member Garin Rosen comments on the band and album, “We might not be a full time touring band anymore, but this is something we love to do—friends writing music together. I strongly believe this album will go down as a classic AGATG record. It will be one of the most intense 30 minutes you will listen to…”

Listen to the Color

1. Setting Course For Disaster
2. When I Was Your Age Pluto Was Still A Planet
3. Bottle City
4. MK-ULTRA: Psychotropic Puppets
5. MK-DELTA: Glorified Killers (feat. Cameron Reed former AGATG vocalist)
6. Disease Test The Best
7. Balloon Battle
8. Listen To The color (feat. Robby Bancroft of Five Characters In Search of an Exit)
9. Beast Fist
10. Bardonis Chonies
11. Play The Sheep
12. My Newest Vision (feat. Rob Smith of Heavy Heavy Low Low/Downstariis)
13. Ride The Wave (feat. Garin Rosen of AGATG)
14. Watchers (feat. Kevin McCaughey of Ion Dissonance)
15. Sunny places for shady people

It sounds as if the band will see a return to form of their early material. A half hour through 15 tracks could make for some whacky rapidfire grind-influenced progressive metalcore. Hopefully it turns out well! There’s no album art or release date yet, but we’ll share the news when we get it!

- JR

Baroness‘ Yellow & Green was an astounding record. It ended up in my top 5 on last year’s list, and I’ve kept listening to it ever since. I was super stoked to see the band tour, however, with the bus accident that left them with multiple serious injuries and even caused two members to leave the band, it didn’t look like it would happen anytime soon, save for the occasional local gig. However, the band are back!

They have released a video with John Baizley discussing all things touring. I’m glad to see that they’re getting back on the road. Although the dates are scarce, this will most likely be a warmup tour before they do any more extensive touring. It’s going to be a test of how well the rehab has boded them, especially Baizley’s fretting hand and leg. So here are the dates; go stop by and show your support, and pick up Yellow & green via Relapse now!

Featuring support from Royal Thunder:

August 5 | Columbus, OH | A&R Music Bar
August 7 | Rochester, NY | The Club @ Water Street
August 9 | Toronto, ON | Mod Club
August 11 | Boston, MA | Royale
August 13 | Providence, RI | The Met
August 14 | New York, NY | Irving Plaza
August 17 | Champaign, IL | The Highdive
August 18 | Columbia, MO | Mojo’s
August 20 | Colorado Springs, CO | Black Sheep
August 21 | Denver, CO | Bluebird Theater
August 23 | Phoenix, AZ | Club Red
August 24 | San Diego, CA | The Casbah
August 27 | Tucson, AZ | The Rock
August 28 | Las Vegas, NV | Backstage Bar
August 30 | Salt Lake City, UT | Urban Lounge
September 4 | Vancouver, BC | Venue

-SS

To be honest I kind of forgot that August Burns Red had a new album out on the horizon. It isn’t really that I hate them or anything like that, it’s that the band kind of exists in this plane of forgetability in my mind. I always seem to enjoy them during active listening, but after the record ends, so does my attention span. It doesn’t even seem like it’s been two years since their last album. Where has all the time gone?!

At any rate, they do in fact have a new album coming out just around the corner called Rescue and Restore. The eye-popping artwork above hanging out in my Facebook feed tipped me off that we probably should have covered this already. Like, days ago in fact. Consider it rectified. Finals has been hitting us hard.

Here’s the tracklist:

01 – “Provision”
02 – “Treatment”
03 – “Spirit Breaker”
04 – “Count It All As Lost”
05 – “Sincerity”
06 – “Creative Captivity”
07 – “Fault Line”
08 – “Beauty In Tragedy”
09 – “Animals”
10 – “Echoes”
11 – “The First Step”

I’m actually looking forward to this because of the excellent album art. I know we’re not supposed to judge books by their covers, but it certainly helps if your cover stands out from the rest. Rescue and Restore is due out June 25th.

- JR

Touche Amore are one of the best new bands to come around. Their fusion of hardcore music with almost pop guitar melodies is really awesome, and I especially dug their recent split with Pianos Become The Teeth when they took a more post-rock turn. It really boded well for them, and as of today, the band are already done tracking drums for the newest record, set to be released this fall via Deathwish Inc. I’ll tell you, it’s going to be a big year for Deathwish: Touche Amore, Deafheaven, Harms Way, Young And In The Way and possibly even Trap Them all have records set to come out, and I’m stoked for all of them, even more so because I know that Deathwish is a killer label who always puts out quality releases. Watch the teaser video below and keep up with their Facebook, and we’ll have more news as it comes!

-SS

Allegedly, Tim Lambesis, member of As I Lay Dying, Austrian Death Machine, & Pyrithion, tried to hire a hitman, who was really an undercover detective, to kill his wife. Via San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept:

Tim Lambesis, lead singer and co-founder for the heavy metal band, “As I Lay Dying” was arrested without incident today, May 7, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. in a retail business on Vista Way in Oceanside. Lambesis is charged with Solicitation of Another to Commit Murder. 

Information came to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department on May 2 that Lambesis was soliciting another individual to kill his estranged wife, who resides in Encinitas. The Encinitas Detectives, The San Diego Fugitive Task Force and the Sheriff’s Special Investigation Division investigators immediately initiated an investigation.

The investigation culminated this afternoon, when Lambesis solicited an undercover detective to kill his wife. He was then arrested, transported to the Encinitas Station, and booked into the Vista Detention Facility.

Um, WHAT?! I really really hope that this didn’t happen. I talked to the guy, and it’s hard to believe somebody could do something like this, but everyone has their secrets. The story is legit though, with official sources from San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept. and Reuters reporting the story. More info as we get it.

-SS

Using the average two-year album cycle, it was kind of a no brainer that Georgia progressive metal titans Mastodon were working on a follow-up to 2011′s The Hunter. Even still, it’s good to get confirmation! Mastodon have updated their Facebook with the following status update:

For those of you who are interested, Yes we have been VERY busy writing and putting songs together for the next studio MASTODON album, we are down at our space hammering out riffs that can be friends and working our fingers to the bone to put out another great album. thank you to all our loyal fans!!!!