It’s difficult to extricate new death metal records in 2018 from the context of time and place. While many (including myself) found 2017 to be an absolute treasure trove of death metal goodness that might be unsurpassed outside the work of the early 90s, 2018 has proven equally if not more bountiful. We are in a truly special time in death metal’s evolution, and it’s a glorious thing to behold.…
After listening to metal for a significant amount of time, the threshold for feeling genuinely unsettled by a piece of music is fairly high. It’s like being fed a steady diet of horror films and expecting to be terrified every time a ghoul or serial killer pops in front of…
Honestly, I knew I was in for a wild ride when I asked Netherlands to write this post for us. If you’re still unaware of these guys, let me introduce you: they’re from Brooklyn. They make a kind of poppy sludge that takes Torche and feeds it through a grinder, belching it out some sort of neon pink, noxious and incredibly groovy weirdness from the other side. They’re also don’t take themselves too seriously, infusing plenty of their music and its surrounding aesthetics with lots of self-deprecating and society-deprecating humor. Oh, and they’re also incredibly hard-working, having released an album and an EP in the last two years and now gearing up for Black Gaia, which comes out on the 24th of August and a tour with none other than legends Mastodon and Dinosaur Jr. You can head on over to their site for dates and a pre-order thing.
I love nature. I love post-rock. I also love the intersection between the two. There’s something about the fluidity of post-rock and its dreamy tones that just makes sense for me alongside images of nature. It’s a heady feeling; I always find myself daydreaming when I slip into one of…
The Load-In My July, as you may have already seen from my review, is always dominated by Tech Fest. For the last six consecutive summers, I’ve enjoyed a highly concentrated weekend of general merriment, sub drops, breakdowns and attempting to headbang in 7/4. Which is super. In addition to the main event, especially as international bands playing at the festival like to try and make the trip across the Channel more worth their while, there will invariably be numerous tours snaking around the country in the lead up to, and aftermath of, the weekend itself. With these tours all largely…
We here at Heavy Blog are proud to have been saying “what the hell is in Australia’s water?” for at least five years now. The music scene over there has been blowing up for at least that long, if not longer, creating some of the most innovative, crushing, intriguing and just plain excellent music in the world. To these by-now hallowed annals we can add Cancer, a black metal band that’s all about ambiance, abrasive tonality and depressing atmosphere. Hot off of their second release, Into the Heartless Silence, Cancer seem poised to add to the growing plethora of excellent black metal being made today, offering their own version on the formula with their own off-kilter and disharmonious touches to composition.
Naturally, hearing more about what makes such a band tick, since they seem to fuse black metal with a whole lot more influences operating in the background. And, indeed, when you look at the picks that John Pescod (vocals) included below and their write ups, you find classical black metal influences alongside more discordant and twisted takes on the classic genres. Thus, without further ado, we consign you to the able hands and vocal chords of Pescod, for a dive into what makes a modern black metal band work. Don’t forge to also head on over to the band’s Bandcamp below to listen and order the album. You won’t regret it.
We’ve already spoken in the past about Turin’s musical scene; it’s an esoteric but important one, for those of you who didn’t read that particular musing, with ties to punk and DIY scenes in general. Thus, finding that Ultra-Violence are from there shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to you. Their aggressive thrash is well in keeping with the image of Turin’s past and (maybe) it’s future. On Operation Misdirection, the band showcase their unique penchant for unbridled aggression which, with impressive agility, also allows room for interestingly intricate and progressive segments alongside some more heavy metal influenced arena choruses. Throughout, the trick is going to be keeping the listener on their toes enough to alleviate some of the repetitiveness that’s built into thrash metal.
I guess we’ve hit the doldrums of summer for new music, though you certainly wouldn’t be able to tell that by a look at our most recent Editors’ Picks and Death’s Door columns, which were positively overflowing with good new material. So I’ll revise that: I guess we’ve hit the doldrums of summer for new post-rock. I’m not sure what it is, but July proved to be a struggle to find many releases of note, though what did manage to rise to the top was pretty exceptional. Slower times like these though offer a perfect opportunity to take a look back at some of the bands making waves in the scene in the past year or so and remember why they’re so great, as well as catch up on some things you missed the first time around. And there’s no better vehicle for that than the compilation, which is what makes the timing of the latest edition of one of the best post-rock/metal compilations around from our friends and merch partners at A Thousand Arms impeccable!
July was hot and wet and August is promising to be even worse so let’s stay in the basement and jam some fresh tunes!
God, I’m such a sucker for hopefully named post-rock tracks. The genre, with its over the top crescendos and stark contrast, already makes me introspective and filled with wonder so the track names are like the cherry on top, a final twist of the emotional knife. It also helps when the music itself is brilliant, as is the case here. ISLES, based in California’s Bay Area, have been around for a while now but have yet to garner widespread attention in the post-rock genre. Perhaps now, with the resurgence of amazing music being made in the post-rock spaces that are mostly centered in the US, they can get the attention they deserve. Their groove filled sound certainly draws from the same wellsprings as band like Man Mountain, This Patch of Sky or set and setting do.
This week, regular co-host Cody joins us for a whole lot of news. And of course I immediately derail it by trolling him. But then, we discuss: Revolver’s 20 essential nu-metal albums list, new music from Dol Ammad, Within the Ruins, Skyharbor, Monuments, Metal Allegiance, Doug Moore of Pyrrhon performing with an orchestra, Neckbeard Deathcamp, Science of Disorder, Voivod, Beyond Creation, Geist of Trinity, and Behemoth. Also Testament’s new cryptocurrency. Then we do a cool people section about some games, movies, and Cody’s vegetarian diet. Enjoy!
Influence has led to both amazingly original and incredibly derivative works of art. As fantastic as innovation can be, sometimes…
Hello my Hellions, and welcome to Death’s Door. Don’t even bother wiping your feet on the mat this time around.…
For those who missed our last installment, We post bi-weekly updates covering what the staff at Heavy Blog have been spinning. Given the amount of time we spend on the site telling you about music that doesn’t fall neatly into the confines of conventional “metal,” it should come as no surprise that many of us on staff have pretty eclectic tastes that range far outside of metal and heavy things. We can’t post about all of them at length here, but we can at least let you know what we’re actually listening to. For those that would like to participate as…
