After the Burial‘s Road To Metalfest tour was a progcore dream tour! Featuring support from Within The Ruins, The Contortionist (who had Last Chance To Reason‘s Michael Lessard filling in on vocals!), and Glass Cloud, the trek took the bands to and from the annual New England Hardcore & Metal Festival. Needless to say, the Eastern US got rocked — hard. Our regular contributing photographer Maclyn Bean shot the stop in West Chester on April 22nd, and photos from the show can be viewed below!
This year’s Road To New England Metal and Hardcore Festival features a top-notch selection of bands from this year’s NEMHF. Headlined by After the Burial with support from The Contortionist, Within the Ruins, Glass Cloud, and City in the Sea, the tour takes the aforementioned bands to and from the annual fest across the Eastern US for those of us who aren’t lucky enough to make it to the big event.
Thanks to Live Nation, we have two pairs of tickets for the tour’s New York City stop at April 21st at Santos Party House! To enter, send us an email with the subject ROAD TO NEMHF to mail[at]heavyblogisheavy[dot]com with your full name and cell phone number. You have until next Friday, April 19th at 5 PM EST to enter! Good luck!
- JR
Major bummer, everyone: Jonathan Carpenter, vocalist and keyboardist for The Contortionist, has left the group to focus on his personal life, as he got recently got engaged and is expecting a child:
“It’s going to be a jarring change of pace for my life, not being on the road most of the year. Making songs with the band and then performing them in front of the best fans has been a once in a lifetime experience. I wouldn’t trade the perspective I’ve found in the past few years for anything. I got to meet so many amazing people and see a good chunk of the world. I absolutely intend to keep creating and playing music in the future, albeit in a more personal pursuit.”
“I will miss seeing everyone in the TC family very much. I wish the best to all of my band buds and everyone who supports live music and all this heavy banger music we’ve been making. I feel very excited for my future with the love of my life and our pups, and our little one on the way.”
“Music has always been one of my passions and that’s what drew me to this band in the first place. The music comes first, and I know that the talent of the band will rise above this member change and they will find a new arrangement that will blow your minds.” - Jonathan Carpenter
Progressive Deathcore outfit The Contortionist have been getting on a lot of big bills lately. Recently they have been announced as support for Deftones, which is huge for such a small band, especially in comparison to some of the recent bands that have supported Deftones! They’re also playing New England Metal and Hardcore Festival which has huge string of dates with several tours all converging on the festival. The Contortionist have decided to do a small four date trek to the first tour leading up to NEMAHF with Within the Ruins and I Declare War. Then, it connects directly to the After the Burial headliner on the Road to New England Metal and Hardcore Festival tour which leads to, you guessed it The New England Metal and Hardcore Festival. I’ve decided to compile the dates for you after the jump!
Despite the graceful bowing out in their swan song Danza IIII, the spirit of The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza still lives on in the whacky guitar antics of guitarist and songwriter Joshua Travis‘ new band Glass Cloud, which also features former Of Mice and Men frontman Jerry Roush. Without even taking into account the smart but catchy tunes, their live show is a must-see what with Josh’s charismatic stage presence and Jerry’s penchant for commanding a crowd. While on tour supporting Silverstein, resident photographer Chris Collins captured Glass Cloud’s set, which you can view below.
In the lead-up to the annual New England Metal and Hardcore Festival, After The Burial have announced a new headlining tour featuring Within the Ruins, The Contortionist, Glass Cloud, and City in the Sea. This progcore dream tour is a must see for fans of non-shitty metalcore. Of course, some would argue that there’s no such thing but then again those types of people wouldn’t frequent this site anyway. So yeah, let’s all gather around and salivate over this evening of sweet breakdowns and noodly guitars.
You’re likely already familiar with UK independent label Basick Records. We’ve ranted and raved over them and their impressive roster of bands that make the label a leading force in progressive and forward-thinking music. I’ve always argued that there isn’t a single bad band signed to the label, and I still stand by the claim. Whenever a new release from the label is announced, it immediately ends up on my shortlist of anticipated records, the latest of which comes from No Consequence.
The band’s sophomore release IO will be hitting ears this spring, and a taste of the record has been made available via band’s new single ‘So Close To Nowhere,’ which can be streamed below:
Fans of Periphery, Tesseract, and Glass Cloud will likely find No Consequence highly interesting and worthwhile. I for one am looking forward to IO and can’t wait for the album’s next single ‘Coerce:Conform’ to be dropped on March 4th. We’ll pass the word along when more is made available.
- JR
O hay, it’s The King Of Procrastination! I’ve been letting the world of music pass me by the past couple of months as I’m creating my website and writing my horror novel and almost let the top of the year list slip by me. Luckily, Riddick the Cat called me up yesterday and told me to get the hell to work with this because I’m a “better interest to him than the human he lives with.” So there’s that. But, why shall we be bound to doing a list in a multiple of five? “Nay,” says Deadite, “Let’s beat the system and do eleven top albums of the year!” So dark, edgy, and kvlt.
Hello! This is Kyle Bishop, singer, songwriter, and piano player of the shitty band, Numbers. For some reason, HBIH thinks my opinion matters, and asked what I’ve been listening to this crazy year of 2012. So, without wasting anymore of your time, here are a few!
T’is that beautiful time of year again. A season of good will, understanding and compassion towards your fellow man — a time for giving, loving and appreciating. The cold may have rolled in and the trees may have shed their once vibrant foliage, but the world finds solace in the love and company of others. It’s a time to reflect on the memories of the year and plan ahead for the next.
But most of all it’s a time to listen brutal fucking metal and drink a fuck tonne of Advocaat, because 2012 was full of great releases and now’s your chance to catch on releases you may have missed or may have never even heard of. My first draft of this list was composed of 30 albums, which then shot up to 37 when I realised that I had forgotten to include EPs. Everything from new bands that came out of nowhere to blow my mind (We Are Knuckle Dragger, Bloodshot Dawn, Oddland, Exotic Animal Petting Zoo etc) to the old guard continuing their brilliant legacy (Gojira, Aborted, Napalm Death, Deftones etc) all unfortunately fell by the wayside in the ruthless culling exercise that produced this list. And I regret cutting every single one of them, but alas, if I was talk about every album this year that was great, I’d probably lose your attention pretty quickly. Who am I kidding? You’ve most likely already skipped on to the list and you’re not even reading this bit. I could write anything I want here and no one would notice. Anything at all.
