I had never heard of New Jersey’s Beyond Dishonor before this week, but I was told that they had a single coming out titled ‘Heisenberg,’ and being a huge Breaking Bad fan, my first thoughts were, “WE HAVE TO COOK.” Apparently the song does in fact take influence from AMC’s Breaking Bad, as evidenced by flashes of the familiar yellow suit and respirator. I can get behind a well executed reference in song titles. Case in point: Bring Me The Horizon‘s ‘Shadow Moses.’
Back on track, there’s more to Beyond Dishonor than good taste in television; the music lands on the good side of the contemporary metalcore/deathcore spectrum, for fans of early Born of Osiris (sans keyboards) or Within the Ruins. Check out the teaser for ‘Heisenberg‘ below.
Monuments caused a bit of a stir this week when they announced that vocalist Matt Rose was no longer involved in the group. The band offered little detail, other than the split was caused by differences between the two parties. Word got out however that Matt Rose had allegedly deleted the band’s YouTube page and email account. Until now, Rose has been quiet on the issue, mostly because he doesn’t have much of a presence in online social networking. This morning, he sent us the following statement explaining his side of the events:
I actually left Monuments before the BOO tour started but decided to carry on for the best of the tour. I was growing increasingly frustrated at the work ethic of the band and at how little music everyone wrote. On our return from the tour we mutually agreed that it was best for everyone including me that we parted ways. I’m not sad at all about this ending and I certainly will not miss the band and all its dramas. My only disappointment comes from the bad blood that seems to have arisen since my departure, which is completely undeserved as I worked very hard whilst I was in the band.
“ The core of man’s spirit comes from new experiences” and I’m already very excited about starting other new musical projects and I’m very much looking forward to hitting the road and playing live with the Qemists who will be supporting Hadouken on their UK tour in April and will be playing festivals in Europe this summer.
My Thanks and appreciation goes out to anyone who came to a show bought a t-shirt or an album or bought me a whiskey whilst I was in the band. I’d also like to thank my label Century Media and Avocado Booking and John Sprich at Euroblast for all their hard work.
Like I had assumed, the split seems less than amicable. Even still, Rose does good work with Qemists and Monuments are already hard at work on a new album and have their eyes on a potential new vocalist, so expect good things to come musically from both parties in the near future. We’ll keep you updated on any further developments.
We are excited to present up-and-coming prog acolytes Ever Forthright‘s new video, ‘Lost In Our Escape.‘ Directed by Andrew Pulaski of Abstrakt Pictures (also known for directing Born of Osiris‘ ‘Follow the Signs,’) this stellar video is a testament to small bands and indie labels’ abilities to come up with videos with great production value. Whoever said the art of the music video was dead? You can watch the stunning video below:
The Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival is something I have loved since it started. Each year it brings something for everyone, and I was lucky enough to be there in 2011 for Disturbed‘s last show before their hiatus, Trivium‘s first tour playing stuff from In Waves, Megadeth for obvious reasons, and to even be front row for Machine Head, singing ‘Halo’ in the pouring rain. This year, though, the lineup is sick. Mastodon, Behemoth, Amon Amarth, Machine Head, Job For A Cowboy, Born Of Osiris…it’s so good! Of course there are some bands I have no care for (ahem, Five Finger Death Punch, Motionless In White) but that’s why there’s multiple stages, right? And speaking of, this year there will be not three, but FOUR STAGES. I am revving up my excitebike as we speak. I’m definitely going to find my way to the Tampa date, and hopefully be able to score some sweet interviews while I’m there! You can read the full lineup and dates after the jump.
Sumerian Records‘s up and coming metalcore band City In The Sea have released their first song Dead Beliefs along with a pretty snazzy music video. For those of you who don’t remember, this is the band that sparked a controversy by letting the fans pick which production style should be used on the album (for what it’s worth, the song in the video seems to have gone with a mixture of the two styles). Regardless of the production, this song (and the previous one) is pretty cool. The band sounds like a mixture of Born of Osiris and As I Lay Dying. Metalcore with synths, clean singing, leads and rhythmic riffs. It’s not the most original thing, but it’s well crafted and catchy, so if you’re looking for a fix of good old metalcore with a bit of a new twist, you can watch the video after the jump. Also, if the other song from the production video is any indication, the rest of the album will be heavier and Dead Beliefs is just the radio-friendly song, so there’s that. The album, titled Below The Noise, will be out on Sumerian Records “soon”.
By now you’re all probably aware of the fate of The HAARP Machine in recent weeks: 3/4 of the band (so basically everyone except Mu’min) left, right before a huge European tour with Born Of Osiris, After The Burial and Monuments, leaving the band, or Mu’min I should say, in quite the predicament. How could he possibly find 3 new band member in time or the tour, which is in a few weeks? Would he get people good enough to play his music? Well, we now have the answer.
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.
Happy new year, everyone! Welcome back to Heavy Blog. So, if you’ve been paying attention, 2012 was an awesome year. Some of the greatest metal records ever were released, and some new bands even hit the scene and made a name for themselves off their debut album. Now with 2013 on its way, we have tons of new records coming out that we are already stoked for! Everything from After The Burial to Soilwork to Frost* to Fair To Midland, this record is already shaping up to be just as good, if not better, than 2012 was. So, as a way to kick off the new year, here are five bands with new albums on the horizon, a reminder of why their last release was so great, and why you should be just as excited as we are.
The Ocean – TBA (Metal Blade)
After releasing two awesome albums in 2010, The Ocean toured the world. Both Heliocentric and Anthropocentric were great in their own right, but the latter was truly spectacular. My favorite record of 2010, it really set the bar high for progressive metal. Honestly it was the most consistent release the band had ever put out. And in 2013 will deliver yet another awesome Ocean release: According to the band:
The new album will be a single album containing 52 minutes of new music. It will be mixed by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, …) in January and will come in 2 versions: instrumental and with vocals. Comments The Ocean’s Robin Staps: “The album was originally written to be instrumental, but in the end me and Loic couldn’t help but try out a few things vocalwise and we soon got pretty excited… so there will be vocals on the album; however, we want everyone to have both versions, and we are also planning to perform the album live that way – with and without vocals.”
The special edition of the album will be released along with a film by Craig Murray (Nine Inch Nails). The 3x DVD “Collective Oblivion” has been postponed for a release later in the year, but shall also see the light of day in 2013.
All eyes will be on Born of Osiris for their forthcoming 2013 album. It will be a very proving record for them; The Discovery was a much raved-about record, but people seemed to attribute its success and flourish to then-new guitarist Jason Richardson. It’s easy to see how people would jump to such conclusions, as the band shifted in direction as soon as he joined. Now after the less-than amicable split with Richardson, Born of Osiris have to prove that it wasn’t Richardson’s influence that made The Discovery such an outstanding record.
Speaking on the new album, guitarist Lee McKinney (above left) said:
“I would say the direction of this album is along the lines of The Discovery, but definitely a lot heavier and a lot more focused when it comes to song structure. We’re trying to give each song a powerful, thematic feel.
This next record takes all of the best aspects of The Discovery and develops the ideas even further. We already have so much material that we plan on revising and refining over the next few months. While we do that we will still continue to write more and in the end I think we’ll pick the strongest 10-12 songs so we can drop the best BORN OF OSIRIS record to date.
On March 22nd we start recording the record with Nick Sampson. We’re very excited to work with him in the studio. He’s a shredder and aside from that a great engineer/producer. Joey Sturgis (Asking Alexandria, Emmure) will be handling the mixing of the project. We felt he was the best for the job since we have a lot of electronic elements in our music and he seems to be the master of all that these days.
Not to mention he obviously has insanely tight production and mixing skills. The disc is set for a summer release and we can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve created…”
Sounds promising! A more refined and heavier The Discovery sounds exactly what the band should be doing at this point; they’ve finally stumbled upon a brilliant sound for them, and it’s good to see that they’re developing it further. Keep your eyes on 2013! We’ll update you when something else happens!
Ash Avildsen of Sumerian Records fame held an “Ask me Anything”-type ordeal on his Twitter last night. Aside from the questions that predictably alternated between asking what Ash’s favorite band is and if he’d listen to someone’s predictable djent band, I managed to catch one that wasn’t garbage; new Born of Osiris. So between now and June 21st of 2013, and assuming Cthulu doesn’t rise from the depths and consume this plane of existence on that fine December day, we’ll get some new jams.
The Discovery was easily one of the best albums to come out in 2011, and the little pre-production teasers that drummer Cameron Losch and guitarist Lee McKinney posted in April only make me believe that this is going to be even better. Lee’s trailers sound like they retain all of the keyboard-backed heaviness that was showcased on The Discovery, but Cameron’s riffing blatantly hearkens back to The New Reign. I can’t even begin to put into words how excited that makes me. The massive stride they took between The Discovery and A Higher Place is astounding and forces one to think that their writing could take them anywhere with the next release. Anyway, keep an eye out for the big news sometime in the near future!
Oh, and quick fun fact for y’all before I’m out; Ash said he doesn’t rule out a reunion of his old band Reflux. That really, really needs to happen.
