2013 so far, for me at least, has been probably had one of the most brutal starts possible. Many of the best releases have been packed to the brim with blastbeats and the sort of sound that will get you weird looks if your headphones aren’t plugged in correctly (that definitely hasn’t happened to me twice in the last two days). Personal anecdotes aside, one of the better but unfortunately overlooked records that fit that criteria is definitely Hate‘s Solarflesh.
We didn’t cover them in our 2013 primer series of highly anticipated albums, but a few of us at HBIH HQ are looking forward to the new Portal record Vexovoid. The first new song from the record — titled ‘Curtain‘ — was recently unveiled, but now a second song ‘The Back Wards’ has emerged via the always metal-friendly NPR. As odd as it is for me to say, Portal are getting… songier. There are recognizable riffs and structure instead of the meandering droning tech death they’ve done in the past. This is good.
While listening to the track, complete the audiovisual Portal experience by checking out pictures from their recent tour with Marduk right here on Heavy Blog, a photo from which can be seen above. Vexovoid is out February 19th on Profound Lore Records.
- JR
Despite our recent Australian music scene spotlights and contributor additions, we know good and well our largest group of readers are from the US and UK and not many of you can actually begin to even entertain the idea of seeing some of the events that this country has to offer in person. We’ve always wanted to be able to capture the experience of these shows in any way we can, and with our latest contributor, photographer William France, we can do just that!
William attended the Brisbane stop of black metal giants Marduk‘s headlining tour alongside the notoriously over-the-top (in the best way possible) death metal group Portal and regional upstarts in blackened death metal group Order of Orias. You can see his shots from the show below:
Skip to 4 minutes in for the section on Goatwhore.
Breakfast At Sulimay’s is, by far, one of my favourite music review series on the internet, containing real people giving real opinions on real music — which is obviously just the nice way of saying ‘they play intentionally obtuse music to the older generation, just to film the reaction’. So, it’s not really surprising that extreme metal has reared it’s ugly head a fair few times, with the cast taking on tunes from Harvey Milk, Marduk and even The Black Dahlia Murder. But it’s the most recent effort from blackened death metallers Goatwhore that gets the latest Sulimay treatment with some interesting results, making my review a moot point. I’ve included all the aforementioned episodes after the jump.
Marduk1. Warschau 2: Headhunter Halfmoon
2.Wacht Am Rhein: Drumbeats of Death
3. Prochorovka: Blood and Sunflowers
I don’t know a whole lot about Sweden’s black metal blasphemers Marduk. But I do know that when I saw this 2009 video of frontman Mortuus violently dominating a drunken fan who jumped onstage for a harmless bro-hug, I thought it was a totally shitty, gross overreaction. I lost some respect for them that day, but in the post-Dimebag era I suppose this is somewhat excusable. You can never be too careful these days. After learning more about Marduk and their recent output taking a heavy interest in World War II imagery, I’ve come to understand Mortuus’ actions a little more. The stage is their battlefield, and if you step onto their battlefield, you might become a casualty.
This is a concept that Marduk takes to heart on their new WWII-themed EP, Iron Dawn.
