Sumeriancore frontrunners Veil of Maya released the studio version of “Unbreakable” for streaming over on their MySpace page. While it doesn’t stick with me as well as “Namaste” did, I still dig it quite a bit.

“Unbreakable” is from their upcoming album [id] via Sumerian Records. Just as the animation says, it’s due out April 6th. I can’t wait.

While we’re on the topic of Sumerian Records, has anyone noticed that they don’t release vinyl versions? I’d love to have The Faceless‘ discography on vinyl but apparently Sumerian doesn’t put any priority on this at all. With the upcoming VoM and Periphery releases, I’d love to preorder them on vinyl, but no dice. Step it up, Sumerian! Music geeks want to give you their money!

- JR

Are you really good at guitar and can not only think outside the box, but completely obliterate it? If so, Hunab Ku wants your help.

Their current guitar player Luke Jaeger (2nd to left) is looking to part ways with the band, but instead of being a dick, he will continue to play with the band until a replacement is found, and even going as far as teaching the replacement guitar player how to play the parts, if necessary. How boss of him! If you’re a fan of Hunab Ku and have serious talent and is dedicated to touring and writing crazy music, this is your calling.

They’re taking submissions right now, and will send isolated guitar and drum tracks to those who need them. If you think you can do it, send mp3s or links showing off your skills to hunabku5(at)yahoo(dot)com or via message at their myspace.

- JR

I must have missed the memo the first time around on Protest The Hero side project Cheddar Cheese and the Mousetrap. I discovered them this weekend upon news making rounds that they’ve uploaded two new songs, “I Scene Saw” and “Jo Bros Need Chode” up on their myspace page.

“I Scene Saw” is a piss take on the Saw franchise, calling the films out for going down the shithole. “Jo Bros Need Chode” is about the Jonas Brothers being a bunch of faggots. Both songs are hilarious and catchy, but my favorite is “I Scene Saw”, as I too am kind of a disgruntled fan and they rip the movie’s theme “Hello Zep” after the chorus. I love it. In addition to the new songs, there’s an older song called “The Pro-Smoking Cigarette Song”, an acoustic song that’s exactly what you’d expect.

Oh man. This makes me want some new Protest The Hero. I hope the rumors are true and we get a new album this year. It’s been two years and I’d say we’re due for another.

- JR

We aren’t dead. We’ve just been super busy with things outside of the metal world. I’ve got a hell of a lot of stuff going on at school I need to take care of before I can slack off and post here more often. We’ve got some interviews coming up that I’m excited for, so stick around.

But say, we’re still looking for writers to fill the void! Apply by following the directions on the right!

-JR

Hello. My name is Jimmy Rowe. I’m the owner and proprietor of HeavyBlogIsHeavy.com. I needed help running the site, so I enlisted my brother-in-heavy Mitch to be a co-admin. Since the birth of Heavy Blog Is Heavy in the summer of 2009, we have enlisted two more contributors and are always accepting submissions from any of you who wish to contribute. All it takes is an email with a sample writing. If it’s good, we’ll let you post here. If it isn’t, we’ll probably just ignore you. If you’re confident that you don’t suck as a writer, shoot an email at heavyblognews(at)gmail(dot)com.

Anyway, I write to you today to explain a few things, as it may not be overtly obvious to some.

1. We are not professional writers. Well, friend and contributor Chris (Disinformasiya) is on his way to become a professional writer, but we don’t get paid for any writing. Sure, we run ads, but that’s out of my hope that it’ll help pay some of the cost of web hosting. But other than that, we’re just some guys who love music and just want a venue to talk about it.
2. We have our biases. Of course we’re biased. We’re bloggers. This goes in with us not being professional. We’re just a few opinionated dudes who happen to have a redundant domain name. The whole point of this blog is to give some opinions on things going on in metal and other heavy music, and if I’m not mistaken, that’s pretty much the definition of being biased.
3. One writer’s opinion doesn’t necessarily reflect the  opinions of the rest of the writers. The point of having multiple writers is having a little diversity. If we all had the exact same taste, the site would be boring as shit. Mitch has a tendency to listen to heavier death metal, Chris listens to hardcore and post rock, and I fit somewhere in between. Tyler hasn’t posted enough for me to tell yet, but I digress. The point is, we like different music. There’s some overlap, but we have different opinions. Don’t get us confused and lump us up together needlessly.

So that takes care of that. If you thought all this was obvious, I’m sorry. But certain events (which I like to call “ppgate”) have made it apparent that it might not be so obvious to some. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.

I’ve got a lab report due soonish, so you’ll be seeing a bit less of me for a little bit. Try not to burn the place down, okay?

Yours Truly,

- JR

Now you can own, in my opinion, the greatest album to come out last year in colored vinyl format. Oh boy!

The clear pink double vinyl of Between The Buried and Me’s The Great Misdirect is a Victory Records exclusive limited to 200 copies, so if you’re a fan of the band, that’s the one you need to get, and fast. I ordered mine last night. So there’s AT LEAST 199 left, but I can’t be the only one who nabbed one, so get one if they’re still there. They’re the same price as the clear orange double vinyl (around $20), but the orange isn’t as limited, so by extension it isn’t as cool. But it fits the artwork of the album better.

The album is currently on pre-order. They start shipping March 16th.

In similar news, Victory Records is also releasing the newest Manure Emmure and Darkest Hour albums on vinyl. You can find them here, due out on the same day.

- JR

And I wouldn’t have him any other way.

- JR

Right now I’m going to compose a list of what I believe to be criminally underrated or underground metal albums/bands. Not that you care.

Suffocation – Effigy of the Forgotten (Suffocation as a whole are underrated but this album is probably the best death metal album ever and it needs more appreciation.)

Wormed – Planisphaerium

The Lord Weird Slough Feg – Down Amongst the Dead Men and Traveller

Morpheus Descends – Ritual of Infinity

Defeated Sanity – Psalms of the Moribund and Prelude to the Tragedy

Immolation – Dawn of Possession and Here in After

Possessed – Seven Churches

Psychobolia – Fisting You All

Cormorant – Metazoa

Fleurety – Min Tid Skal Komme

Ved Buens Ende – Written in Waters

Wastelander – Wardrive

Solefald – Discography

Skinless – Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead

Demilich – Nespithe

Thorr’s Hammer – Dommedagsnatt

Warning – Watching From a Distance

!T.O.O.H.! – Rad a Trest

Mortician – Discography

Incantation – Discography

Malignancy – Intrauterine Cannibalism

Lymphatic Phlegm – Show-off Cadavers – The Anatomy of Self Display

Lair of the Minotaur – The Ultimate Destroyer and War Metal Battle Master

Darkthrone – Sardonic Wrath

Grayceon – Grayceon (Giant Squid just slightly more interesting, imo)

Fuck… I’m Dead – Bring on the Dead

Eternal Suffering – Drowning in Tragedy (One of the best slam albums ever, imo. Really defies the stereotypes.)

Dot[.] – Discography

Cyaegha – Steps of Descent

Coffins – Discography

Capricorns – Ruder Forms Survive

Bongripper – The Great Barrier Reefer

…and Oceans – A.M.G.O.D.

Reverend Bizarre – Discography

Panopticon – Collapse and Panopticon

There are more, but I don’t want it to stretch on any longer considering most people won’t give half these a chance. I love you if you at least try them though. I understand some stuff isn’t for everybody as extreme metal is a weird and harsh genre that shouldn’t be discounted of its art because of bad stereotypes it receives. Why the hell am I talking about this here and now? Just listen to this stuff and buy their stuff.

-MW

I was meaning to post about Corporate Love Day sooner, but I was busy being with my lady. Hopefully you were lucky enough to do the same. If not, well… sorry.

Seeing how, according to the coffee shop where I spend a large chunk of my school day, “love is GRIND”…

- JR

“I think that everyone who hated Limp Bizkit before will continue to hate Limp Bizkit. It’s not like we, all of a sudden, grew up and started making smarter music.”

At least he knows what’s up.

- JR

As you may or may not know or figured out by looking around, I am a college student from Pikeville, Kentucky. I go to Pikeville College, which is a private liberal arts college. Because of this arty liberalness, I’m required to take courses that have absolutely nothing to do with my major of choice, which is Social Work.

Future social worker running a blog about metal? What can I say, I’m a bleeding heart hippie liberal. Death to Fox News.

Anyway, I’m taking Music Appreciation: History of Rock and Roll. I’m not complaining because that’s a cool class to have, especially if I’m gonna be opinionated and shit all over this place. At least I’ll get a better understanding of where we are and how far we’ve come to reach this style of music.

So, first day of class rolls around and I’m fairly confident in my ability to succeed in the class. My professor tries to play that “LETS INTRODUCE OURSELVES” game and has everyone in the class say their name, where we’re from, major, and favorite genre of music.

Oh shit.

I look around the room in panic. Just what I feared… I’m the only person in the class the even looks like they would listen to metal. Dammit. This is going to be awkward. If you’re wondering to yourselves why I’d bother worrying, put yourself in my shoes: I’m sitting in the middle of the room, long hair and The Faceless shirt making it completely obvious. I’m also from a small town in Kentucky. It’s apparent that I’m going to be the odd man out here. Maybe I’m making this out to be bigger than it really is? I dunno. I was just hoping someone would say “metal” before I did.

Me

Read the rest of this entry

From Lambgoat:

Oceano guitar player Andrew Mikhail has quit the band. Lambgoat contacted Mikhail this afternoon for comment and he had the following to say:

“From day one, I’ve had a vision of being in a ‘band of brothers’ to play aggressive music with all across the globe. Whether it was fast, heavy, dark, whatever, I just didn’t care. My concerns were if we did it, it was from the heart, and if it got the point across to the world.

“Also, music is an art form and an expression of self and surroundings. I, over time, simply felt like I wasn’t getting EITHER out of Oceano. That’s possibly the SIMPLEST way I can say why I quit without doing the typical bashing and such. I will say this, I took many ‘for the team’ personally and for all the people that dug what we did. But, the line has to be drawn somewhere for my OWN well being and creativity.

“All-in-all, I’d like to thank anyone and everyone who has supported/hated my work and endeavors with the band, you all will be seeing me soon whether you like it or not. Haha.”

Looks like a sugarcoated way of saying he was tired of playing shitty music. It’s not like I need to elaborate on this. To say the music was boring would be an understatement. I don’t blame him for feeling the way he does, but I can’t imagine whatever future project he’ll be in will be much better. But if he ever pulls of something good and surprises us all, I guess I’ll eat my words.

- JR

Veil of Maya are one of those bands that are pretty split as far as the metal community goes. Mitch hates em while I think they’re okay. As far as deathcore goes, it could be worse.

But on to the point: Chicago based Sumeriancore darlings Veil of Maya have just completed recording their new album [id], with The Faceless‘ Michael Keene at the helm producing. No new studio quality music has been posted yet, but here’s a clip of them playing a new song last month:

The album is due out some time in April. Oh hey, Periphery’s debut is also due out April. Looks like April will be a busy month for Sumerian.

Go ahead. Pick on this man. I FUCKING DARE YOU.

Okay, so assume you’re writing for MTV, for whatever reason that may be. Mark McGuire admits he’s used steroids (shocker). So, what are you going to do? Write about the rampant drug use and the decline in the standards of sportsmanship?

Fuck no. This is MTV. You’re going to rip on hard working artists for no good reason.

James Montgomery of MTV Newsroom rattled off a list of artists from across the board, like Dr. Dre, Trent Reznor, Glen Danzig, Iggy Pop, and of course, Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato. Here’s what Montgomery had to say:

“The diminutive wailer for New Jersey spazzers Dillinger Escape Plan is ripped enough for a man five-times his size, and though he’s denied using steroids (he chalks his physique up to “eat[ing] a lot of protein and work[ing] out a lot”), we’re still not entirely convinced. Then again, positively destroying the stage on a nightly basis has to have some benefits, right?”

- James “Dickhole” Montgomery (via MTV)

I could waste my time by bitching about how fucktarded this is, but Greg issued a statement on AOL’s Noisecreep, verbally ripping Montgomery a new asshole.

Read the rest of this entry

Sometimes news comes my way about a band I don’t particularly care about, but it’s so hilarious I need to share. This is one of those times. Stoner/Sludge metal band Weedeater have postponed plans to record their new album because bassist/vocalist Dave Collins SHOT HIS FUCKING BIG TOE OFF. From Weedeater’s myspace:

“As most of you know, here in the Weedeater camp we pride ourselves on a long tradition of shooting our band in the proverbial foot right before we’re supposed to do something important. Whether it’s a big tour, a recording session, or whatever else we’re supposed to do, invariably we will find some way to try and thwart our grandiose plans. Well, it’s no different for this recording session, except that this time we really did shoot ourselves in the foot. In fact we regret to inform all of you that this weekend, Dixie Dave shot his big toe off whilst cleaning his favorite shotgun. Yup, that’s right. When reached for comment, Mr. Collins gave a quote that speaks for itself…‘It wasn’t my intention to shoot off my big toe. This really fucking sucks and the pain is unbearable.‘ Mr. Collin’s doctors have advised that he is to be bedridden for the next few weeks during his recovery. This will obviously affect the recording session (and the few surrounding shows in Jan/Feb), which will now have to be postponed until after the March/April ‘nine-toe’ tour. Said tour is still 100% on, however, so check back soon for updates on venues and exact dates. It looks like the support bands will be awesome and the band is really stoked to play this new material after touring for so many years on the same basic set. Yeah…we knew that too, sorry but we’re about to make good on it. And of course after all, we gotta keep workin’, like workin’ men do. Shooting your big toe off isn’t free, for fuck’s sake! So to re-cap…Keko sacrificed his pinkie for Down/Melvins, Shep broke his hand for Today is the Day, and now Dixie has generously offered up his big toe for Steve Albini to nibble on. Unless overtly fond of Limburger cheese and rotten flesh, Master Steve is advised to decline.”

Heh. I wonder if he was high when he shot himself? If so, it’s a mixed blessing in that sure, he shot himself, but the pain could have been MUCH worse.

- JR