Image submitted by Katie Jackson.
Over the past few weeks, there’s been a bit of a crisis brewing in social media that seems to be strangely isolated in bands in the djent, metalcore, and progressive metal scene. Bands have started seeing an outrageous influx of likes from fake pages. On the surface, it could have easily been assumed that bands were buying up fake likes to boost their numbers, but it’s much deeper and complex than that.
Skyharbor‘s debut album is a contender for my “Best of” list, as it’s one of the best progressive metal albums to grace my earholes all year. So I was really excited when they posted a video of the song ‘Aurora’, because it has become one of my favorite tracks on the entire record.
The video is of Keshav and Nikhil playing guitar and bass respectively, and it’s a great video, showing how beautiful their playing is. They also announce that they will be a part of Euroblast 2012, which is super awesome for you folks across the pond.
Oh, and did I mention that Dan Tompkins of former TesseracT fame will be their live singer? Yeah. Time to get on that Excitebike.
- SS
Things get competitive (what Olympics?) in London this September when two of the best underground labels go head to head in a showcase at the Underworld in Camden, for the ridiculous price of £7. Siege Of Amida may not get mentioned as often as some of the Basick alumni like Chimp Spanner, Aliases or Visions but Dyscarnate and Dripback are two of the best underground extreme acts around at the moment — the former peddling some truly crushing death metal and the latter playing some bastardised version of thrash. If you’re in or around London, get to this, every single one of these acts is making waves in the underground and if you need some convincing there’s some audio/visual goodies just after the jump!
Every month, Basick Records has been doing a thing they like to call “Freebie Friday,” where they slash prices at the Basick Store and give customers 24% off of their order for 24 hours, beginning Friday morning at 9AM UK time (4 AM EST) when using the promo code ‘YESITSFRIDAY’. Oh hey, that’s happening right now!
To celebrate flagship artist Chimp Spanner‘s impending US live debut with The Contortionist, Jeff Loomis, 7 Horns 7 Eyes (dates here), Basick are going all out this time, giving us a bunch of cool stuff to give away! Here’s what is available:
So to keep count, eleven people will be winning something today! To enter for these prizes, leave a comment (with your email so we can contact you if you win) with a caption for following photo of Chimpy himself, Paul Ortiz.
Leave a witty caption or turn him into a meme-worthy image macro. Be witty and creative. Remember, eleven people are walking away richer in The Spanner today, so your chances are good!
So help support an independent record label continue their plot for world dominance and make that purchase you were always wanting to make. I saw you eying that Uneven Structure Februus shirt and Glass Cloud bundle. Now you can own it on the cheap.
- JR
Glass Cloud, the new band featuring former Sky Eats Airplane and Of Mice And Men vocalist Jerry Roush and Josh Travis of the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, have recently signed to Basick Records for European release. While I’m no fan of Roush’s previous bands, I’m a hug fan of Josh Travis’ work in Danza and I’ve grown to trust the Basick name, so I’m interested. The group’s new song ‘Counting Sheep‘ is pretty catchy; definitely some solid metalcore that’s a rung or two up the ladder of bands you’d catch on Rise Records. You can check it out below:
Glass Cloud’s debut album The Royal Thousand is out July 2nd on Basick in Europe and July 10th on Equal Vision in America. Speaking of Josh Travis, Danza IV has been done for about a year or so now. Could someone tell Black Market Activities to do something about it? Appreciated!
- JR
7 Horns 7 Eyes01. Divine Amnesty
02. Phumis: The Falsehood Of Affliction
03. The Hill Difficulty
04. Cycle Of Self
05. Delusions
06. A Finite Grasp Of Infinite Disillusion
07. Vindicator
08. The Winnowing
09. Regeneration
The most exciting part about watching a trend in metal is keeping an eye on the peripherals — watching out for the bands that are tangentially related to it, be it by sound or image, but don’t quite fit the pre-defined mould. It’s pretty much a rule of thumb by now that those are the bands that create the most interesting and varied music. Take 7 Horns 7 Eyes, for example. You’d be hard pushed to deny that their off-kilter riffs and movements weren’t inspired by the almighty, chug-titans Meshuggah, but unlike the masses who kneel at that altar and declare all others to be false gods, 7H7E take great pride in lifting other influences from all around the progressive metal world.
I just happened to be randomly flipping through the Basick Bandcamp pages when I discovered that the new Skyharbor album Blinding White Noise is now streaming in its entirety for free! There wasn’t so much as a mention on Basick or Skyharbor’s facebook pages, which seems kinda odd. I mean, normally they would tell their fans when an album is available, especially ahead of release. Who knows if its an accident or what, but you can listen to the record via the Bandcamp player below.
Blinding White Noise is due out next week on Monday, April 23rd on Basick Records. Spencer thought it was awesome, and chances are, you will too.
- JR
SkyharborIllusion
01. Dots
02. Order 66
03. Catharsis
04. Night
05. Aurora
06. Celestial
07. Maeva
Chaos
08. Trayus
09. Aphasia
10. Insurrection
Metal is and always has been a global community. No other genre of music is as encompassing as it is, and no other type of music has such a devoted following. Festivals like Download, Rock In Rio, and Sonisphere highlight this ideal by bringing metal acts from all over the world to perform on their stages in front of crowds that can exceed 100,000 people. There is just one problem; there appears to be less of a concentration of metal as far east as China, Japan, Indonesia, etc. You have Acrassicauda from Iraq, a fairly healthy scene in Australia, and even Ulcerate from New Zealand, but in between those places there has always been a large gap not filled by many bands.
…Strangely close to April Fools day.
However, while the band hasn’t announced any affiliation with the new Soundcloud page that the track was posted on, I’d say it was a pretty elaborate and even pointless ruse if it turned out that the band had nothing to do with this. Got Djent posted the track last night, noting that the band had already found a new singer and were regularly posting updates about it through their Facebook page, so whilst there aren’t any changes to the instrumentation, the move from two singers to one makes for an interesting comparison.
It definitely gives the track a different feel, missing a lot of the rhythmic refrains that made the track before but I was already predisposed to hate this as I loved the way that the departed duo of Neema and Greg meshed with those huge djent riffs so I’ll definitely give this one some more time before making a final judgement on it. Either way, here’s to hoping that 2012 is the year that we finally get to hear these tracks — honestly, a studio version of ‘Doxa‘ would suit me just fine — in their studio album form whether it’s with this vocalist or not. I’ve included the We Are The Foundation EP version of ‘Admit Defeat‘ after the jump so you can make up your own mind.
It seems, at least to me, that 2012 will be the year of the debut. Every few weeks I learn about a new band that are rearing up to release a debut album, and so far I haven’t been disappointed; Pallbearer, The Omega Experient, The Safety Fire and many more are currently dominating my playlists, and now I can add 7 Horns 7 Eyes. I wasn’t too aware of these fellows until Metalsucks started running their Albums That Will Fuck Your Face Off series, but I’m definitely glad Vince decided to mention them. As he put it:
“7 Horns 7 Eyes are like Nevermore 2k12, an updated version of that band for the modern era.”
I have to agree. Of course, there’s a lot more going on than just that simple description, but it is a fitting one.
Anyways, Metalsucks are currently streaming an exclusive track from 7 Horns 7 Eyes’ debut album Throes of Absolution, and it does in deed “Fuck Faces Off”. The song is called ‘Divine Amnesty‘ and it’s the opening track from the album. It sets a heavy precedent for the band, and with it I’m more than eager to experience the full force of this album. Throes of Absolution is out April 23rd through Century Media or Basick Records, depending on your region. Also, if you haven’t done so, go check out the band’s teaser for the upcoming album. Here’s to a great a debut, guys!
- EC
