Update: Guitarist Matt Brown informed us that ‘Lairs of the Ascended Masters‘ is just a single and not the name of the upcoming album, which is still TBA.
It’s been quite a while since Blackened Death Metal band Enfold Darkness released some new music. Their debut album Our Cursed Rapture came out in 2009 and since then the band has been plagued with lineup woes and hard times in general. Finally, the band has some new music for us to hear! You can stream the new track ‘Lairs of the Ascended Masters‘ over at Decibel.
The track is pretty awesome. If you aren’t familiar with the band, my friend Mitch once described them as “Cradle of Faceless”, which is a pretty fair assessment, I’d say. Excellent band that I wish we could see more of!
There’s nothing else known about their forthcoming sophomore album, but we’ll be sure to fill you in when details are announced.
Along with being a guitarist and a percussionist, I’m also a bassist. I don’t consider myself as adept at it as the aforementioned, but I don’t think I’m bad. I like to watch videos of bass players to gain inspiration and to get better at my technique. And then I like to watch bassists just to see how insane they are. Enter A.J. Lewandowski, above.
Yeah, he’s insane. He’s an outstandingly good bassist, and I found out he’s the bassist for the band Decrescent, a technical death metal band from Rockford, Illinois. The group as a whole is very talented: the guitarists(one of whom is the vocalist) can do some great riffing, and the drummer can play Fleshgod Apocalypse. Here he is playing my personal favorite track of theirs, entitled ‘A Praise Obscene‘.
That’s pretty awesome, isn’t it? The band is currently looking for donations that will directly allow them to record their debut album. I can’t wait to hear more from these guys, and neither should you.
It seems that for every two or three respectable bands that Sumerian Records signs, they sign one terrible one. Now, I’m all for diversity and I enjoy seeing the massive fits of fanboy butthurt that sparked over the signing of Borgore and Bizzy Bone. However, it just strikes me as odd that a label as rooted in prog and tech metal as Sumerian is also home to a rapper, a brostep artist, and scene-friendly bands like Asking Alexandria,I See Stars, and now latest signings Make Me Famous, who were no doubt signed in spite of Metalsucks’ glowingrecommendations.
As much as I hate to admit it, I can see the logic in it. Anyone in the same position as Sumerian would do the same. Mainstream success = money. Of course, the mass of Sumerian followers weren’t as keen to the idea and have given an apparently noticeable amount of negative feedback, causing Sumerian Records to make a statement on Facebook.
Two things to all you trolls, goblins and tunnel-visioned orcs: Bands like AA and ISS enable us to spend more money on bands like The Faceless and The HAARP Machine. It’s all part of the record label eco-system. We genuinely love AA and ISS just like we do Veil of Maya and Betraying the Martyrs. The younger, open-minded fans that bands like MMF and AA have end up discovering the more prog/technical metal bands Sumerian has been known for as they get older and everyone wins. Ask Born of Osiris and Veil of Maya yourself when they have toured with bands in that scene before. And before you pass judgement on MMF, wait until October 4th when you hear their first song be released that is officially on Sumerian. When AA and ISS were on Jimmy Kimmel, that was good for the entire family. We understand not everyone will like everything on a record label as big as Sumerian because we do not only sign one type of music. What we can promise though is the bands we sign outside of our “future of metal” roster will go on to be massive. Hate on AA but the band is bigger than every act on Rise Records and is direct support to Avenged Sevenfold, the biggest modern day rock/heavy metal band who came out in the past 10 years. You guys act like we sign 10 scene bands for every one BOO or ATB. It’s the other way around fellas!! Now quit bitching and go support Enfold Darkness! See them on tour with Obscura this fall! -Love, The Sphinx.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. As far as shitty acts go, I couldn’t see Sumerian pulling a Victory and signing anything as bad as Design the Skyline out the gate. The dudes at Sumerian aren’t dumb—it’s not like they’ve ever had The Faceless and I See Stars on the same touring bill. Their in-house booking agency tends to keep bands on their relevant tours and markets them the the appropriate people, so as long as I don’t have to hear or see Make Me Famous, I’m good. Also, I appreciate that Sumerian admits they do it for the money. It’s a no-brainer, really. There’s no shame in putting food on the table, am I right?
Disagree? Still want to complain about how bad Make Me Famous is? Mouth off in the comments. I’m sure they have an album due out soon enough, but I didn’t look into it enough to find out when.
Oh boy! Not only will you be able to see every awesome band ever this fall, but you will also get to enjoy a healthy serving of Obscura this winter as well!
With support from Abysmal Dawn and opening acts Last Chance to Reason (Nov. 04- Nov. 25 dates) and Enfold Darkness (Nov. 28- Dec. 7th) this is guaranteed to be an awesome tour!
[Ed. - Enfold Darkness will of course be without mega talented bassist AJ Lewandowski, as we reported last year and got some angry lols out of. I swear we'll never be able to mention this band without the phrase "keep suckin that P P buddy!" coming to mind.]
Sumerian Records recently dropped word of a collaboration album being made with Sumerian Records artists under the name Sumerian Nation. I’m running under the assumption that it will be similar to Roadrunner United and Nuclear Blast All-Stars collaborations where a hodge-podge of different artists from Sumerian-signed bands write songs together. This could be both great and lackluster—the Sumerian roster has a few unsavory bands tucked into the fold, to put it lightly. Here’s a list of bands signed to the label.
After The Burial Animals As Leaders Asking Alexandria Bizzy Bone Born of Osiris Circle of Contempt Conducting From The Grave Enfold Darkness The Faceless I See Stars I, The Breather Lower than Atlantis Periphery Stick To Your Guns Stray From The Path TRAM Upon a Burning Body Veil of Maya
Obviously, The Faceless and Periphery could write a hell of a song between them, but Asking Alexandria and I See Stars coming together on a song could spell disaster. We’ll see how it goes, as it’s pretty split even as far as ratio of good bands to bad, but I’d like to think there’s a high volume of talent on board.
Keep an eye out for more information. This is an interesting idea, and I’d like to hear more about this.
There’s three guitarists that seem to get constant exposure on HBIH, and that’s Tre Watson, Drewsif Stalin, and Mark Hawkins. Seems like each one is doing something new each week, which I’m obligated to post. Not just because all three are friends, but because they consistently put out new great material. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if all three collaborated on a track. The world’s not ready for that yet, and it doesn’t deserve it.
But on point: Mark Hawkins of Soul Cycle and famed YouTube bassist A.J. Lewandowski (aka Cannibalistic Zombie, ex-Enfold Darkness) have collaborated on a new version of Mark Hawkins’ MK Ultra. It’s as awesome as you’d think. Stream and download below!
A.J. Lewandowski, previous bassist and youtube song cover celebrity was kicked from the “technical blackenedcore” band Enfold Darkness to make room for a new guitarist. The old guitarist was going to be pushed over to bass duties to make room for the new guitarist. I’m irked about this personally since the band isn’t very good in the first place, and losing a crazy talented member isn’t really something they should be striving for.
A.J. Lewandowski is a good e-friend of mine, and I wish him the best of luck in his search for a new paycheck.
This is him covering some really crazy shit by ear. Fuck Brain Drill as a band, but Jeff Hughell’s bass parts are insane.
