Spanish brutal death metal band Wormed have thrown their new demo/promo CD out on the internet for you to hear. If you are unfamiliar with the band, their style of brutal death is very distinct. The guitar work on the first album Planisphaerium was muddied in the mix, while Phlegeton’s crazy angry frog vocals slurred away against a solid rhythm section. The brutality achieved by the band was purposeful and didn’t feel forced. The debut full length had a few unexpected sections, such as a very post-rock section in the song “Geodesic Dome”. All the riffs were masterfully constructed with a odd timing and sound. This bizarre sound is continued on the demo Quasineutrality with a early Immolation sounding structure. Peep the new songs “Uncolored Plasma Orifices Transported” and “Undeciphering the Inquantificability” on their myspazzzzz.

-MW

Oh fuck yes. This has gotten me pumped for Diamond Eyes. I mean, I was excited about it when I first heard “Rocket Skates“, but the visual of seeing the band perform again has just got me stoked.

Diamond Eyes comes out May 18th on Reprise, I think. If not, fuck it. I’m not looking it up. Just listen to it when it comes out.

- JR

But it’s due out in three weeks; Tuesday, March 23rd via Season of Mist and Party Smasher Inc. That’s too far away.

- JR

Oh sweet Jesus, “Mordecai”, my favorite song of all time, is now on Rock Band 2 via the Rock Band Network. I’ll be singing along to this and pretending to be Tommy as soon as I get my XBox back.

If you’ve been under a rock and didn’t know, this makes the 2nd playable Between The Buried And Me song on Rock Band. If you buy Rock Band 2, you’ll get a code to download a pack of 2o songs, one of which is a shortened version of BTBAM’s “Prequel To The Sequel”.

In other news, Attack Attack’s “Stick Stickly” is also on Rock Band. Avoid that disgusting pile.

- JR

Clocking in at just under 14 minutes, the new album by Southern California hardcore band NAILS is nothing short of awesome. Every one of the album’s ten tracks will pummel into you unrelentingly, as good hardcore and grindcore should. The Six Feet Under Records website describes NAILS as sounding like “Entombed covering Napalm Death and Drop Dead“, which is damn near spot on. Interesting enough, the album was recorded at Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou’s Godcity recording studio, with Kurt producing. That should already tell you that this album will be good.

The album opens to immediate chaos and aural violence with the 32 second “Conform”. The term “powerviolence” becomes perfectly clear. Before you even realize that song’s over, you’re under hell-fire with more pummeling blasts, maniacal screams, and grinding and screeching guitars that continue throughout the next three tracks, nonstop. This album doesn’t seem to want to let up.

Amidst the pissed off chants of “Suffering Soul”, NAILS step back from the chaos just a bit and play some hardcore riffs with some slower groove. Nails continues the pace into the title track “Unsilent Death”.

NAILS knows how to make 14 minutes feel like a long time, and they make good use of their time. The songs blend together seamlessly at times, giving the illusion of lasting much longer. Speaking on the album’s structure, I’d believe it if this album was written as one piece of music broken up into tracks.

The album is still pummeling away in fury like a jackhammer. A short guitar solo is thrown out in “No Servant”. Now it’s back to business as usual with “Scapegoat”, which leads into the album’s longest song and closing track “Depths”. The guitars are the main voice here. Layered screeches, noise, and feedback take over a lot of the song, creating the sonic equivalent of disaster. A considerably slower and heavy as fuck riff with proper use of pinch harmonics lead the track to close with a mood if impending doom, ending the album in guitar feedback. What a perfect closer.

NAILS – Unsilent Death is a great grind album. Although short, it does exactly what it’s supposed to. If you’re a fan of Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Napalm Death, and Brutal Truth, you need to check out NAILS right away. You can stream the tracks “Your God” and “Suffering Soul” here, as well as buying the album on preorder.

NAILS – Unsilent Death gets

4/5 – Great

- JR

“Exit Stage Thattaway!”

Silly named power metal band Dragonforce have parted ways with their silly named singer ZP Theart.

It is with great regret that Dragonforce announce a parting of the ways with singer ZP Theart. This is due to insurmountable differences of musical opinion but the rest of the band sincerely wishes ZP great success with his future projects.

Guitarist Herman Ri had this to say:

“‘We are rooking for a powerfur, merodic singer to write a new chapter of Dragonforce with us”

A man of few words.

Deciding to totally jump the gun, Dragonforce have also began writing their fifth studio album while looking for a new singer. You can apply for an audition here. Hopefully they are trolled thoroughly.

Maybe a new singer will maybe push them in a new direction. Perhaps they’ll even WRITE A NEW SONG. They’ve played the same one now for like ten years.

- JR

I have a pretty deep connection with hippies. Both of my parents were hippies from 60’s and although neither one of them went to Woodstock, they were in the thick of it in their own right. I really enjoy listening to their old stories of smoking weed, having sex, and sweet bands. I was in a rock band cover Cream before Cannibal Corpse had ever touched my ears. I have watched countless documentaries on Woodstock and Altamont. It seemed like the life. Everyday I wonder why I wasn’t born there. Instead I am stuck in a world corrupted with greed, war, and depression. It seems that everything that is this world is everything that was against the world “corrupted” by hippies. So, the first question I want to address is, “What happened?”

The Altamont Free Concert has been stapled as the end of the age of the hippies but one concert mishap can’t really be the end of social movement that could be labeled as great as the Renaissance. Can it? After much deliberation, I would have to say, yes. For many reasons: It was run and created by one of the leading bands of the hippy movement, The Rolling Stones; Many people became physically hurt by the guards of the event, The Hell’s Angels; A person died; The whole reason for security was to make sure people weren’t being raped; There wasn’t even security at Woodstock, a.k.a. the concert that Altamont was trying to copy. The biggest mishap at Woodstock was the rain and the spread of some bad acid and both of those problems were fixed creating a huge mud slide and playing music with cans and also having something called a “Trip Tent” where experienced acid users hugged people with bad trips for sometimes up to four hours. There are many reasons why you could say that Altamont failed but nobody can really but a definite reason. But did hippies fallout after this failure?

The 70’s are the next stage for the hippies which is where we can find a lot of 60’s influence, good and bad. Musically, the 70’s were very different from the 60’s. Tony Iommi has been quoted many times of saying that Sabbath’s darker tones grew out of being tired of the “feel good” attitude of the 60’s. So, one could say that the hippies’ reign was the birth of metal. Another thing that effected the music of the 70’s was the drug use and it’s intentions. In the 60’s, drugs were used to expand the mind and to love each other. In the 70’s, drugs were used to escape reality, not expand it. Also, the idea of major drug dealers and cartels of drugs being shipped across the world was really expanded on in the 70’s. Heavier drugs means weirder music: Rush. I’m not sure if Rush would have been as big as they are now without heavier drug use.

A few hippies survived and kept on truckin’ on in the 70’s, Black Sabbath parted ways with Ozzy, and with the death of one of rock’s best drummers, the world was thrown into another decade: the 80’s. And then the 90’s. And here we are. The reason I skipped all those years is because hippies can be seen doing pretty much the same thing they have been doing: drugs. The new millennium is what seems to be the darkest age for the hippy. Too many reunions to count have occurred and the resurgence of the old dirt bags that rocked our minds coming out of rehab and the books. Oh, the books! The memoirs! The autobiographies! It seems that every single band member of any band from the 60’s has a story to tell about doing drugs, how low they got, did heroin, went to rehab, got out, started treating their wife better, had a legitimate child, and started touring with the old band again. I’m not saying that these things are bad by any means and I’m glad that you got your life back on track and everything, but do you have to make a quick buck off of it?

And speaking of touring with the old band again, have you been to one of these “shows”? It’s horrible! A bunch of old guys that are 200 lbs over (or a 100 under if you’re Mick Mars, zing!) that are playing the same songs from 30 to 40 years ago. I think that the best bands that have made a comeback are Sabbath with Dio (a.k.a. Heaven and Hell) and Iron Maiden. Those two bands announce tours every summer and sell out each venue and, more importantly, release new music that doesn’t sound like crap.

“Get on with it!”

Hippies are dieing out of what they shouldn’t have done 40 years ago, as much acid that could fit in their mouths. You get what you deserve I guess.

-ECDEU

Epitaph have just released this video for Every Time I Die’s After One Quarter of a Revolution, in which two dudes force some people to touch their wangs. I’m not even joking.

There might be some other stuff going on too…probably.

This is part of the reason why I love Every Time I Die. Not only does their music just plain rock, but their shows always look ridiculously fun. Hot Damn.

- CG

Word on the street has it that Killswitch Engage frontman Howard Jones had to skip out on their last tour, not because of a health problem, but because he knocked up pornstar Allie Foster.

According to Foster’s twitter account, she is about four months pregnant and Howard is the father. And apparently, Howard tried convincing Foster to get an abortion. And to make matters worse for Howard, TMZ is wanting a story.

Howard Jones of Killswitch engage, meet TMZ and your bitter baby momma coming with sweet sweet fuckin revenge you dirtbag

[source]

So, cheating on your wife with a pornstar and getting her pregnant, then suggesting she get an abortion? Howard has really stepped in it. This is all completely unverified by a source other than her, though. She could be some attention whore wanting to make Howard look bad for all we know… but geez, Howard. Way to be the Tiger Woods of metal.

- JR

Also, lol. (LINK NOT SAFE FOR WORK!)

UPDATE:

Alright, I got it fixed!

- JR

Hello there, ladies and gentlemen. Are you ready to rock? HUGE lineup this week

Abscess – Dawn Of Inhumanity (Peaceville)
Acrassicauda – Only The Dead See The End Of War EP (Vice)
Aldaaron – Nous Reviendrons Immortels (Paragon)
Annotations of An Autopsy – Before the Throne of Infection Re-Release (Earache)
Before Their Eyes – Untouchable (Rise)
The Bled – Heat Fetish (Rise)
Blind Witness – Nightmare On Providence Street (Mediaskare)
The Breathing Process – The Odyssey (Un)dead (Candlelight)
Darkthrone – Frostland Tapes (Peaceville)
Daughters – Daughters (Hydra Head)
Demon Hunter – The World Is A Thorn (Solid State)
Dark Tranquillity – We Are The Void (Century Media)
Eluveitie – Everything Remains As It Never Was (Nuclear Blast)
Fear Factory – Mechanize (Limited Edition) (Vinyl) (Candlelight)
Finntroll – Nifelvind (Century Media)
Immolation – Majesty and Decay (Nuclear Blast)
Murder Death Kill – Fuck With Us and Find Out (Mediaskare)
Of Mice And Men – Of Mice And Men (Rise)
Sectioned – Purulent Reality (Paragon)
Serj Tankian And the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra – Elect The Dead Symphony (Serjical Strike/Reprise)
Van Canto – Tribe Of Force (Napalm)
Varg – Blutaar (Napalm)
White Wizzard – Over The Top (Earache)

[via The PRP and About.com]

Wow, this is a pretty good week. One of the better ones so far this year! There should be something for everyone here. If you can’t find something you like, you’re either too fucking picky or you’re on the wrong website.

Have a good week!

- JR

New Dillinger Escape Plan song “Chinese Whispers” premiered on Full Metal Jackie last night. And just like every other internet radio premier or stream, someone rips it and uploads it to YouTube. Fuck yeah, Faith No More influenced Dillinger is always awesome!

Catch “Chinese Whispers” in higher quality on Tuesday when Metalsucks hosts the stream. We’re about two weeks away from this bombshell dropping on us all; March 23, via Party Smasher Inc and Season of Mist.

- JR

As you may or (most likely) may not know, I’ve written about The Crinn during the early days of HBIH. As a refresher, The Crinn are a mathcore band based out of St. Paul, Minnesota.

From the band’s bio on MySpace:

The Crinn’s self titled EP came to light in the spring of 2007, and after touring the south east to support the EP, The Crinn signed a digital distribution deal with the now defunct record label Corrosive Recordings. This signing allowed the band to greatly expand the reach of their music.

Shortly after the signing with Corrosive, The Crinn and drummer Corey parted ways, which led to the introduction of Chris Zugschwert. He learned the EP in only a few months, then The Crinn embarked on a west coast tour that took them throughout the south, up the west coast and back home to Minnesota.

Upon returning to St. Paul, The Crinn began work on the writing of their next release, “Dreaming Saturn”. In November of 2008, they were offered a record deal by Nuclear Blast to record their next album.

The album, Dreaming Saturn, was promoted as being released on October 19th, 2009 on Nuclear Blast. The year went on and the world of The Crinn went practically silent. The calendar rolled over to 2010 and I’ve yet to hear any new music or word of Dreaming Saturn.

That was until recently when they posted a new song “Man Eating Machine” on their MySpace page. The page also claims that Dreaming Saturn will be out Spring 2010. As far as I can tell, there isn’t an official date set, but they’re having an album release show on April 24th.

Finally, the album is within sight. The idea of Dreaming Saturn is fairly interesting. It’s a concept album, written as one singular piece of music broken up into tracks for the album (as you can tell on Man Eating Machine where it seems to randomly cut off). They used what they call “circular songwriting” with a lot of “ebbs and bows and ups and downs”. The Crinn have stepped up the songwriting by including more varying passages to break up the chaos and the new material sometimes has a more subtle melodic side, while maintaining the twisted technicality.

I think that Dreaming Saturn will surprise the people that hear it, and even has the ability to be a contender as being one of the best albums of the year. That is, if it ever comes out.

- JR

Greetings,

We’ll be releasing a split EP with our good friends in Cyclamen (UK), due out tentatively next month! We’re almost done with it, just putting the finishing touches on one more track on our end, as well as some artwork. From the bits I’ve heard of the Cyclamen material it is gonna be something truly special. Appearing on the split EP will be final versions of “When in Oslo” and one more song (which we will be posting here soon!). After that comes out Chris and I will resume work on the new album! We’ve been writing together a ton and are beyond excited to share it with you guys. I also wanted to formally thank all of you who have given us positive feedback on the new iteration of HS. We really take it to heart, especially considering the fact that we’re kind of getting a fresh start if you will. So thanks to all who have listened… tell your friends aboot us!

If you haven’t heard of Cyclamen, shame on you. I interviewed Hayato Imanishi earlier this year. They’re a really great band and are playing their first show with Tesseract March 19th in High Wycombe, UK. Haunted Shores, on the other hand, is a thrashier sounding djenty band based out of Washington DC, featuring Mark Holcomb on guitar and bass and ex-Periphery singer Chris Barretto. Periphery songwriter Misha Monsoor apparently makes studio appearances and handles some of the production.

Everyone should check this EP out and help support independent artists like Cyclamen and Haunted Shores. It will definitely be worth checking out.

- JR

To be honest, I was completely unaware that Cancer Bats were releasing an album this year. I like them, but have never been overly into them, which is weird, because they’re exactly the kind of band I should love, a-la Every Time I Die.

This album has the potential to change that though. I really really like this song, and as a result will probably be getting Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones when it hits stores on April 13th.

Job done, promotional advertising. Job done.

- CG