Norway’s Shining are a peculiar band that took our hearts and ran with them last year when they released their album Blackjazz. It was easily an album that made a leap to my top 10 albums of 2010. If you’re not familiar with this group, imagine what it would sound like if Nine Inch Nails and Enslaved wrote a jazz record together. It’s absolutely nuts.
At the end of last year or so (I forget), the band recorded one of their live performances, which the band promised would be released as a live CD/DVD combo. I was excited, but eventually forgot about it. Recently, the band has made good on their promise and announced Blackjazz Live! They released the trailer above which highlights clips of the album’s tracklist. NEAT!
Here’s a rundown of the album’s production personnel:
Produced by Munkeby
Mixed by Sean Beavan (Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Slayer)
Mastered by Tom Baker (Marilyn Manson, David Lynch, Nine Inch Nails)
Graded by John Cryer (Muse)
Film directed by Anders Børresen
As you can tell, this DVD is going to be legit! Seriously, this looked so good that I immediately pre-ordered two copies—one for myself and… well… you’ll see!
If you haven’t heard, Marilyn Manson has been working very closely with Shia LaBeouf (the kid from Even Stevens), who wrote a book and and directed a documentary around the creation of Manson’s new album or something like that. I can’t say I paid too much attention, because the only thing I really care about Marilyn Manson is that he was once a member of Nine Inch Nails. It’s true! [EDIT: Manson was just in one of the band's early videos playing backup stuff. SILLY ME.]
But those days were limited, and his solo output as of late has been pretty boring, to put it lightly. Manson’s new song “Born Villain” isn’t much different, but the video, in true Manson fashion, is just way out there. If you’re wondering how NSFW the above video is, there’s full frontal female nudity and a scene where a woman squeezes an eye out of her vagina, among some other oddities that will make your entire office and/or family think you’re some kind of freak. So, mission accomplished?!
All prodding aside, Manson’s always had some interesting and controversial videos, and I can respect that. From an avant-garde artsy standpoint, I kind of like this video even though it confuses me to no end. Watch it above and bask in it. After basking, you should probably take a shower though. I feel dirty.
You know that we here at Heavy Blog—for the most part, anyway—adore ambient music as a counter-balance to the mind-numbingly abrasive music we subject ourselves to, and since our numero uno genre is basically at a stall when it comes to big news this week, I figured I’d take a moment to explore a new finding in the realm of ambient music.
I’ve recently discovered Chicago, IL native Benn Jordan’s The Flashbulb and his special blend of glitch, IDM, and post-rock. I’ve been spinning the album Arboreal, and I’ve got to say that it is really quite breathtaking at times, sounding almost like a more dense, upbeat, and optimistic version of Nine Inch Nails‘ Ghosts records at times. There are also hints of jazz throughout, which is certainly a nice touch. These lush soundscapes are both beautiful and interesting, and you can listen to Arboreal via the Bandcamp player below.
It’s like we get softer by the week. Don’t worry, we’ll feed you more heavier bits of music once the news starts to come back in! In the mean time, enjoy.
Growing up in Eastern Kentucky, I was raised listening to quite a bit of country music. I didn’t like a single bit of it, naturally, and I found a love for heavier music. I discarded modern country as pop music with slide guitars, cashing in on a fickle and conservative demographic (which I still hold to be true, as far as GAC or the radio is concerned.) I thought I’d never hear a band in the realm of country music that I would enjoy, but Wovenhand has proven me wrong.
To call Wovenhand a country band would be only marginally accurate. The Denver-based band grabs influences from a few different genres. Call them industrial folk or post-country, they have a dark and peculiar sound that can be best described as Gothic Americana. Imagine Johnny Cash writing an album with Nine Inch Nails in his final years instead of doing a one-song reinterpretation. You’d most likely have a sound close to Wovenhand.
I know Heavy Blog doesn’t live up to its name as much as it probably should, but I thought our readership had an open enough mind among them to warrant passing something like this on. Hell, they’ve toured with Tool. If that doesn’t give them cred as musicians, I don’t know what will. Their 2004 album Consider the Birds gets a full recommendation from myself and Mitch ‘Dethcaek’ West. Tortured vocal harmonies, haunting piano lines, visceral tribal percussion, and depressive gospel lyrics litter this apocalyptic country album. Forget everything you’ve known about country music, leave your biases at the door, and give this a listen.
When progressive metal band From Exile aren’t writing new material, playing shows, or contributing to friends, they have been putting together an EP filled with Nine Inch Nails covers. Everyone I know seems to have at least an basic appreciation for Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor’s artistic credibility and business/marketing sense, being one of the few bands that seem to get next to universal approval. With that in mind, when you decide to cover such a band, you have to do it right!
In the case of From Exile, I’d say they’re pretty much doing it right; keeping faithful to the source material while simultaneously leaving your own touch of style. From Exile already have a huge industrial influence, so this idea works well. Take a look at the following teaser video for a clip of “The Great Below,” originally from NIN’s 1999 album The Fragile.
This is sounding pretty good! Definitely worth keeping an eye on, with a release expected this spring.
01. Sleep Shake
02. Reverb Island
03. Mr. Bird
04. Catch & Release
05. Hamilton Anxiety Scale
06. Scared
07. Reject Falicon
08. Medic
09. Suspend the Death Watch
10. Armchair Travel
11. Hypoxia
[02/01/2011 | Metal Blade]
When we got word that Tommy Rogers of Between the Buried and Me was going to be putting out a solo album, I was both confused, excited, and somewhat skeptical. Tommy’s other first solo album (released under the name Giles) was a tongue in cheek forray into techno and electronic music that, while amusing, wasn’t exactly all that musically creative and fulfilling. I had my fingers crossed that Pulse was going to be a more serious endeavor; the fact that Tommy had chosen to not release Pulse under Giles was a good sign. Not long after pressing play, my hopes had been realized; this time, Tommy was wanting to make an actual record that could stand up to his work in Between the Buried and Me. Mission accomplished, Tommy.
If it wasn’t already obvious, I love anything related to Trent Reznor. Nine Inch Nails, How To Destroy Angels, The Social Network film score with Atticus Ross; Trent’s been on a roll since he’s kicked drugs, going from depressingly goth to a forward thinking hero of geeks everywhere.
I’ll go as far as saying Year Zero is my favorite Nine Inch Nails record ever. Everything about this album was perfect: the concept was interesting, featuring an enthralling and brilliantly executed viral marketing campaign/alternate reality game. Not to mention, the music was absolutely amazing.
Not long after the album’s release, Trent threw around ideas about making Year Zero into some sort of miniseries or even a film, but nothing ever panned out and talk of the project died out. That was of course, until Trent spoke to the LA Times, saying that he is moving forward with the Year Zero miniseries. I think my heart suddenly picked up the pace.
“We are in [the development phase of] pre-production with HBO and BBC [Worldwide Productions] to do a miniseries,” Reznor said Monday. “It’s exciting. I probably shouldn’t say too much about it except that I understand that there’s a thousand hurdles before anything shows up in your TV listing. It’s been an interesting and very educational process and it cleared the HBO hurdle a few months ago and now we’re writing drafts back and forth. So it’s very much alive and incubating at the moment.”
Everything about this shows heaps of promise. HBO have, arguably, the best original programming around, with Bored To Death, Eastbound and Down, and Boardwalk Empire dominating my weekend DVR schedule. Add to that, a series based on one of my favorite concept albums of all time, and you have something worth turning on the TV for. The show airing on HBO means the writers have free range in terms of content; it’s not like HBO are likely to censor anything. And assuming Trent is closely involved with the show’s creation, the series adaptation will likely stay true to the record’s concept.
It really goes without saying, but it would be a bit disappointing if Trent doesn’t personally score the show. Obviously, the building blocks are all there, with both Year Zero and the remix album. It isn’t like Trent to ever half-ass anything, and judging by The Social Network, he can certainly create a soundtrack. Hell, best case scenario: perhaps this could bring about the oft thought about Year Zero 2? One could only hope my wild speculations could come to fruition.
I’ll leave you with the video for the album’s third track, “Survivalism.” I couldn’t find the uncensored video. Apparently YouTube won’t keep the version with gay sex in it. Go figure.
Devin Townsend ain’t stupid. He knows we wanted new music, and we wanted it soon.
Here’s Devin’s word on the clip:
So this is record 4 of the dtp, but I’m recording it third, because Deconstruction (3) is a nightmare technically and I wanted to make something lovely before diving into that.
There are a number of guests on the album, but the core is me, Dave Young (Keyboards) Mike St-Jean (Drums) and the fabulous Kat Epple of flute.
I’m about 2 weeks into this one, and I’ve got about a month and a half more work to do if I keep my schnoz to the grindstone.
I’ll keep you posted…
Oh yeah, please remember (and tell your friends…):
THIS IS NOT THE HEAVY ALBUM, that one is next…but they both get released simultaneously so all us misanthropes will have something to vent with before reading a National Geo to Ghost.
This is so damn good. Musically, it reminds my of NIN‘s Ghosts. There’s a pattern here, no? Not saying Devin’s ripping anyone off (he isn’t), but brilliant minds think alike, and both works are aptly named and fit the atmosphere of the music. I cannot wait for this or Deconstruction, to out early 2011.
Oh man, this project is turning out to be something amazing. This video is pretty cool as well, and is certainly interesting. In the video, you can see Mariqueen Maandig, sort of lifeless and singing next to a dead Trent Reznor, who is laying in a pool of blood. Atticus Ross is sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette and watching TV, sitting adjacent to some blonde woman who is unknown to me. Who is this woman? Is she in on this collaboration, or just randomly there? Hell if I know, but she’s easy on the eyes.
Trent has always had great videos in Nine Inch Nails, and this certainly holds up to par. This is the best music video I’ve seen in a long time. And not only that, the song is pretty great as well!
How To Destroy Angels‘ debut EP is due out this summer. I can’t wait to hear more from this.
Thomas Giles
