Indiegogo is great as it has provided a great opportunity for individuals to bring their ideas and creativity to fruition outside of traditional distribution markets such as record labels. Similar to Protest The Hero, Misery Signals has now hopped on board with IndieGoGo and with great success.
By now, you are aware that Protest the Hero, our Canadian progressive metal friends, ave decided to go about releasing their new album by doing it themselves. No record contracts, self-produced and totally free of obligations. They had also put a campaign on Indigogo, with some sick incentives, including a limited edition vinyl (which I, along with a few others at HBIH picked up), so sick hoodies, even a pizza party at Tim’s house. Well, as of today, their campaign has ended. And were they successful in reaching their $125,000 goal? Uh, you could say yes.
Look Right Penny is exactly what you get when you take radio sensibilities and drop it in a pit with Protest The Hero-like musicianship. Killing it right out of the gate with their 2012 debut album Sugar Lane, they seem to only be getting better with their brand new single ‘What Good Am I For?‘ Take a listen:
Hey everybody, it’s Shjon Thomas and Ryan Mattheu from The Deadstation! We’re a dystopian progressive metal band based out of Boston, MA. The awesome guys at Heavy Blog have given us the opportunity to write another article on whatever we wanted… so we put on our thinking caps and tried our hardest to narrow down the infinite possibilities to ONE idea.
We decided to list five bands that are, in our humble opinion, the FIVE MOST IMPORTANT bands in metal right now. These bands are the ones who are shaping metal music of the future, by kicking major ass in the present.
We have to reiterate though that this is just our opinion, and that we are not stating it as fact in any way! Everybody will have their own opinion on this subject, and they are all just as valid as ours.
In fact, why don’t you post YOUR list in the comment section below! We love to hear about what bands people are digging these days.
If you’re interested in checking out The Deadstation, you can download our free EP “Episode 01” here. It was mastered by the one and only Jens Bogren (Devin Townsend, Opeth, Katatonia)!
So anyways… here we go!
Quick, before they get bored and do something else: Protest the Hero are currently on Reddit doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) to promote their new album and IndieGoGo campaign. For those who aren’t familiar with the Reddit and its lingo, they’re basically just answering fan questions. Hop on into the thread and upvote questions you want to see answered, to ask your own. I wonder which they’d rather fight, 100 duck sized horses or one horse sized duck?
- JR
UPDATE: Following the original posting of this editorial piece, the band has updated their perks packages to include more incentive to donate, including a lower price to get the album early, an exclusive t-shirt bundle, a discography bundle, among others. Also of note as a correction: the $15,000 isn’t the budget to record their new album, but the majority of their budget for the full year of 2013, which includes a music video, traveling costs, and more. I’ve since donated and I urge you to do the same, and I would like to reiterate that the original post was not intended to discourage the band, but was an offer of constructive criticism. If you’re unfamiliar with Aegaeon, you can hear their single ‘Demise‘ below:
The original and no longer applicable post can be read below after the cut.
Everybody’s favorite Canadian goofballs Protest the Hero recently launched a fundraising campaign in preparations for their new album. They’ve set up some neat perks to motivate fans in participating in the campaign, and the accompanying video is as hilarious as anything you’d expect out of this bunch. They even smuggle in some footage of the new material, and it sounds pretty promising. As the band themselves acknowledge, they’re nowhere near the first to come up with this idea, but it really boils down to a win-win situation for musicians and fans alike, and PTH make it seem particularly alluring. Hence, a number of us here at Heavy Blog HQ have already made our contributions, even though, personally, I rarely (if ever) partake in these things.
At the time of writing this post, the band have reached over $68,000 of their $125,000 goal. It’s safe to say that they should have no problem reaching their goal, and at this rate, we wouldn’t be surprised if they reached the goal by the time this post has been published. Record #4 is supposed to come out some time later in the year. If you’ve been stoked on it, this is your chance to make sure it arrives on time.
- DA
Every day my Facebook, Instagram, and even sometimes my personal email account become inundated with requests to check out a new band that is either unsigned or that is releasing a demo EP or something. I used to check every single band out, but lately I’ve ignored a lot of them because they say something along the lines of “Hey! If you like……..we are perfect!” I don’t want to listen to you if you sound like another band, because I’ve still got the original, and the rest are just imitators. No band should present themselves in this way, and it is a major turnoff for labels, but I digress.
Horde of Sirens are a progressive metal band a la Protest The Hero mixed with Between The Buried And Me. And when they said I should check them out, they said “We are Horde Of Sirens. We make heavy music.” And that was enough for me. So I checked them out, and ended up liking them enough that I bought their EP, which they just released on iTunes as well as on Spotify. You can check them out, and if you like it enough, buy the record! It’s a really awesome release from a young band. Meantime, like them on facebook!
A couple of years ago, right about the time djent started to catch on but wasn’t really a “thing” yet, an instrumental band by the name of RXYZYXR made their name known online through a couple of singles and an EP. You may remember their rehearsal video for ‘Orgasmic Ceiling’ being featured both here and on Metalsucks at the time. Now two years later with a lineup rounded out by vocalist Tommy Wills and having shared stages with the likes of Protest the Hero, Veil of Maya, Vildhjarta, and Volumes, RXYZYXR have finally released their debut album LMNTS. We’re excited to share with you guys the official stream for the record, which can be heard via the SoundCloud player below:
LMNTS is out now, available for purchase at Bandcamp. Be sure to visit the band on Facebook, and check out a compilation of drum playthrough footage of LMNTS at Got-Djent!
- JR
Californian melodic metallers Corelia blew us away with their 7 track EP titled Nostalgia last year. Technical guitar lines with overtly infectious melodies, swooning vocals, and a tasteful dose of Protest the Hero influence make them well loved at the Heavy Blog camp. It goes without saying that it’s well worth paying for. However, Corelia are spoiling you rotten by releasing a torrent of their EP on the Pirate Bay for free, with the front page of the site featuring a promo dedicated to the band! I knew there was a reason Nostalgia featured a pirate ship on the artwork!
There is no telling how long the promotion will last though, so torrent away! Also, I’m sure the free quality release is worth a like on Facebook and a follow on Twitter. And if you’re still skeptical, stream Nostalgia and other goodies through their Bandcamp.
- CD
