Influential progressive metal group Extol have excited us ever since they teased their reunion last year. Now, their long-awaited new studio album Extol — their first in ~8 years — is just on the horizon, June 25th in North America through Facedown Records. We’ve already gotten a glimpse of the new material, but today brings another new song in the way of the music video, ‘A Gift Beyond Human Reach.’
Summer is basically upon us, well at least it is here, but I’ve been wondering what sort of albums will act as the soundtrack for the days where the sun actually manages to show itself. Beyond more obvious contenders like the new Scale The Summit effort and the latest Coheed And Cambria album, I’m putting my money on the upcoming debut from Palms, which, if somehow you’ve managed to avoid this fact thus far, is comprised of members of both Deftones and Isis and creates some of the most lush and beautiful post-rock you’ll hear all year.
The band have been teasing material for a long time now, but most recently debuted the album opener on the Radio 1 over here in the UK. It didn’t take long for it to get uploaded to internet thankfully, so you can listen to it below:
Do you have thirty seconds to spare? Good, then spend it wisely by listening to the first track unveiled from grindcore/powerviolence powerhouse Dead In The Dirt‘s new album The Blind Hole. At a mere half a minute, you’d be forgiven for thinking that ‘The Blaring Eye‘ may be just another brisk surge that exchanges quality for brevity, instead Dead In The Dirt manage to put together a track with the largest intensity per second quota this side of Nails.
Sometimes you stumble upon a track that is so immediate and satisfying that you can’t help but hit that replay button four or five times. That’s exactly what happened with Murdock‘s new video for ‘Brain Face‘. This Irish three-piece take all those white-knuckle inducing moments of bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Refused and Botch and smash them together to create some spectacularly angular mathcore, with their latest video ‘Brain Face‘ acting as the perfect mission statement for the band. Riffs are aplenty but at no point do they ever feel uninspired or unnecessary as Murdock power through this two and a half minute stormer at break-neck speed:
Big news today for Nine Inch Nails fans! Not only did we get a glimpse of the new direction the forthcoming Nine Inch Nails record in the form of a new single, but the band divulged the album title and release date of the band’s eighth full-length album and follow-up to 2008′s The Slip, Hesitation Marks. The record is due out September 3rd through Columbia Records.
Artwork for the album was supposedly teased on Instagram with the caption “rm, 2013.” It didn’t take long for fans to figure out that this was in reference to artist Russel Mills, who contributed artwork to the band’s 1994 hit The Downward Spiral.
Update: The teased artwork is from the single’s artwork, above.
The new single ‘Came Back Haunted’ can be heard below.
If you’ve never experienced Exivious before, then you best buckle up your ears because they’re in for the ride of their lives. The band is made up of former Cynic and current Dodecahedron members creating instrumental jazz fusion fit for fans of progressive metal. Exivious released a self-titled debut album back in 2009 to much acclaim and then went on a bit of a hiatus due to other project. The group was brought back into the spotlight following their reformation and subsequent crowd-sourcing campaign for their new album Liminal, which raised nearly double its €8,000 goal since launch late last year.
Being a writer for a site such as this has its perks, even if the pay is low or non-existent. We’re working on a review of the new Scale the Summit record The Migration, and so far, it’s looking like a glorious album. One of my favorite tracks in particular has got to be ‘Narrow Salient,’ since it’s one of the more riff-oriented songs on the album and boasts a pretty stellar bass solo. Metal needs more bass solos in general.
With the shaken up lineup that involves their reunion with original vocalist Remi Rodberg, Arsonists Get All The Girls have evidently gone back to their roots with more grindcore aesthetic. At least, that’s what the band’s new single ‘Beast Fist’ leads one to believe. The 46-second track is now available through a very odd music video, which you can view below.
The Omega Experiment is easily one of my favorite bands. The fantastic self-titled debut album made it onto a number of our year-end lists, mine included. The band have been doing great things since last year, including the re-release of their album on their new label Listenable Records and announcing that they’ll perform on this year’s Euroblast Festival. On top of this, the band are working on their sophomore album, and during the writing sessions, they’ve released a free download of their cover of the Queensryche classic, ‘Eyes of a Stranger.’
On the eve of a month long nationwide tour, Australian rockers, The Nerve, have released their debut single for Bird’s Robe Records, which follows the release of the teaser track, ‘Witness‘, earlier in the year. Entitled ‘Down There’, the new track is another example of the band’s energetic, bluesy style, and again showcases the substantial talents of ex-Cog drummer Lucius Borich. The track is also accompanied by a video, which can be viewed below, and although by no means groundbreaking, will give those of you unfamiliar with singer Ezekiel Ox some idea as to his power as a performer.
