As many of you may remember, one of last year’s biggest headlines on Heavy Blog was the story of King, a Michigan tough-guy hardcore/nu-metal sort of group who caused the cancellation of the Lansing, Michigan stop of The Contortionist‘s headlining tour with Jeff Loomis, Chimp Spanner, and 7 Horns 7 Eyes. For those who don’t remember, the King refused to stop playing their local opening set, so the venue cut their power to let the nationally-touring bands play, which caused a riot that lead to the cancellation of the show. A member of King is said to have hit someone with a baseball bat during the event. The whole episode was just despicable and I wished nothing but bad things for the group.
Unfortunately, it looks like contributing to such an event can lead you to a record deal and a ridiculous advance from Roadrunner Records, if this email sent to Heavy Blog last month and recent rumors are to be believed.
Since Jon Carpenter made the decision to leave The Contortionist to focus on his fiance (once again, congrats dude!) and his future family, videos have been popping up everywhere of people auditioning to their song ‘Holomovement‘ and ‘Geocentric Confusion’ from their most recent LP Instrinsic. However, as of late last night, some new information came up and it’s very interesting stuff. Keep in mind none of this has been confirmed by the band yet, so this may all turn out false, but right now, it doesn’t appear that way.
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.
Apparently Howard Jones isn’t completely out of the music game since he parted ways with Killswitch Engage. Our friend over at Rebel Pyro Management pointed out to us via Facebook that the former Killswitch vocalist has a new band with members from Devolved and All Shall Perish. This came to light after former Roadrunner A&R consultant and current artist manager at King Artist Management, Noisecreep contributor, and VP for A&R at Century Media Mike Gitter — who was a key player in getting Killswitch signed — left this detail in his ‘About Me’ section:
TesseracT – Altered State – 01 Of Matter; 02 Of Mind; 03 Of Reality…
Color us excited. While we were wrong when we assumed that the single ‘Nocturne‘ would be one of the four main parts, it’s looking like it will be a sub-part in the context of the record. We know that the whole album is one piece of music, but now it wouldn’t surprise us that these four tracks will be cut further into 12 or so other pieces.
So, place your bets on the title of the last section of Altered State. Ours are placed firmly on ‘Of Dreams.’ It makes logical sense in the order and fits in with the theme and lyrics of ‘Nocturne,’ with the chorus, “you’re the plague within my dreams…” and the cries of, “wake me up!” If we weren’t broke, we’d put all our money on it.
… and whatever it is, that’s the album art for it.
Holy hell am I pumped! Between Scion A/V having been a pretty reliable source of great free metal in the past and Meshuggah being themselves, I’m led to believe that this is going to live up to expectations. Even if it’s just a bunch of live stuff it’ll still be great, considering the human-liquifying heaviness and precision in which they deliver their show (which you can experience whilst in the comfort of your own homo home ala their Alive DVD/CD).
Then there’s the big question; what if it isn’t live stuff or shitty remixes? What if this is Meshuggah reaching out to their fans only a year after Koloss with some new stuff in the vein of the I EP? Even better; what if it’s new stuff with a cover song thrown in there? What would Meshuggah choose to represent their brand of innovative musical thinking outside of their own catalogue?
My main argument for the EP being a few new tracks is that Meshuggah haven’t been on tour since December 13th, 2012. That certainly gives them enough time to get into the studio for some quick new tunes that they might’ve written on the road, or even b-sides collecting dust. Sure, that would mean the entire process would have to be done in the span of five weeks, but that seems pretty doable. That’s just my guess; I’m trying to rationalize and convince myself we’re getting new Meshuggah because hey, I want new Meshuggah. Regardless of the speculations abounding, we’ll just have to wait until next Tuesday. For now, you can just read Scion A/V’s post about the EP in anticipation. It doesn’t tell you anything, but you can still read it if you really want to.
Ladies and gentlemen, time to start taking bets and making projections for this year’s Summer Slaughter Tour. Last year, we made a few educated guesses based off rumor and likelihood and more or less nailed a majority of the lineup long before it the best iteration of Summer Slaughter to date was even fully announced. This year, we’ve got a few names being thrown around thanks to the official Summer Slaughter Tour Facebook, and one possible lineup may include Children of Bodom, All Shall Perish, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Gojira, and The Ocean.
We didn’t just pull these names out of thin air, either. Summer Slaughter often throws out possible names to gauge reaction, and more often than not, those bands make it to the final lineup. One such band that could be seen with top billing in this year’s Summer Slaughter is The Dillinger Escape Plan, who were recently signed to Sumerian Records, a label that has a major stake in the tour. This yearly tour is starting to branch out to wider variety lineups — last year’s had something for everyone, having Periphery and Cannibal Corpse on the same bill which would have previously been unheard of in a non-festival — so having a band rooted more in the realm of hardcore than death metal like previous top-billing bands would still make sense depending on how the rest of the show looks. They have a new album coming out this year as well, and will be in the market for a tour such as this that would put them in front of a large number of fresh faces. It’s perfect for everyone involved.
“Who will be the fourth man?” reads the caption of this photo on Aegaeon‘s Facebook page. If you haven’t been in the loop with these guys over the past few months, they’ve lost frontman Jim Martin, who still remains one of my favorite vocalists in any metal band to date. More importantly for the continuation of these upcoming metal titans, who’ll replace Martin’s sub-sonic growls in Aegaeon? Well as far as I’m concerned, look no further than Pathology‘s Jonathan Huber.
Huber was supposed to fill in with Aegaeon as their vocalist for a Canadian tour that was unfortunately cancelled. This would lead me to believe that at the the band thinks he’s capable of the job, which he absolutely is. Don’t believe me? Observe the footage of Huber and Aegaeon very loudly demolishing the entire universe below during rehearsals.
If I were to base this entire article off just that video, it would be the shittiest speculation this site has seen to date. In order to help you see what I’m seeing, head on over toPathology’s website and click on the section that deals with the band members. Where’s vocalist Jonathan Huber? Just to be sure it isn’t an error on the site or something of that nature, their Facebook page is displaying the exact same information.
I’m well aware that the band were holding video tryouts for the frontman spot, and as of October 15th posted a picture of them actively watching the videos on their Facebook page. This was also the last time they posted about checking out the audition material, which is roughly around the time they had started practicing with Jonathan Huber for the cancelled Canadian tour. Keep in mind that Aegaeon and Pathology have also been tour mates on the Slaughter Survivors Tour this summer, which means they’ve had more than enough time to be around each other and get a feel for personalities during a tour cycle.
Oh, and then there’s the rumor that Pathology are taking a break from touring right now, or at least playing very few shows. The only one scheduled right now is for December 23rd, which marks their first show since August 19th. The last date of the Slaughter Survivors Tour. Could this be due to a lack of vocalist? I guess we’ll find out in the coming months (or weeks. My guess is as good as yours).
The bottom line is that I really, desperately hope I’m right about this.
People theorize Jim Morrison is still alive, while others strive to prove Paul McCartney died. Some people stay closer to believability and posit ideas about tours or upcoming albums. There’s always some wild speculation going around to some degree, and I’m presently guilty of it.
I think progressive metal legends Extol are coming back.
Extol have posted three trailers for “Extol Film” since the beginning of May. Each trailer is more revealing than the last, with the third (above) ending showing something peculiar. It briefly shows who appear to be Peter Espevoll (vocals), Ole Børud (guitar) and David Husvik (drums) in the studio preparing to track. The footage aroused the interest of a few YouTube commentors, but nothing more.
Going forward with this news piece, there are three possibilities; A) Sumerian and The Faceless previously announced the tracklist to Autotheism in some fashion and it snuck right by me, B) someone leaked the tracklist, or C) someone’s very good at coming up with bullshit. At any rate, the tracklist that mysteriously appeared on Wikipedia without citation does certainly look legit. It contains the two tracks we already know about and The Faceless have always done multi-part tracks before, so it certainly grounds the list in possibility. Still, take this with a grain of salt:
01. Autotheist Movement I: Create
02. Autotheist Movement II: Emancipate
03. Autotheist Movement III: Deconsecrate
04. Accelerated Evolution
05. The Eidolon Reality
06. Ten Billion Years
07. Hail Science
08. Hymn of Sanity
09. In Solitude
Autotheism is out August 14th on Sumerian Records.
