I swear, I must be the only one that hasn’t been riding on Revocation‘s nuts! I mean, I do a lot of nut riding on Heavy Blog and I’m not saying Revocation don’t deserve the praise (because they certainly do!), but I found their debut album Existence is Futile to be hit and miss. Not sure why, really; it’s just one of those cruel things. Why can’t I enjoy things?!
But I do enjoy the band’s new song “No Funeral” quite a bit, which is being streamed via Guitar World. The song is quite striking and filled with more of the insane guitar work that the band are known for. Give it a listen above.
Revocation’s new album Chaos of Forms is due out August 16th on Relapse Records. Needless to say, I’m going to have to try harder on my part!
Well of of course you did, you bunch of elitist hipster douchebags.
I keed, I keed! Still, based on our own poll, a lot of you thought #25 – #2 were fairly off the mark, in terms of order if not inclusion. I’m not sure what you thought of the #1 – David ‘David Davidson’ Davidson of Revocation(not Kirk Hammet, for those of you who got trolled) – but I’m sure many of you will have disagreed.
Ever the diplomatic advocates, V-Man and Rosie are giving YOU bunch of dirty dicksneezes the chance to put the internets to rights by voting on the reader’s poll version, the rules of which are as follows:
Step 1) Decide who your favorite modern metal guitarist is. Remember that only candidates who have recorded and released new material within the past five years are eligible.
Step 2) Search the comments of this post for your choice (Apple-F on a Mac, Control-F on a PC).
Step 3) If your favorite modern metal guitarist is already listed, hit the “reply” button underneath and simply post “+1″ as your comment. If your favorite modern metal guitaristis not listed yet, add him, making sure you that you’ve spelled his name correctly.
You only get one vote, so use yours wisely. I’ve cast mine (see if you can find it – remember, that’s ‘Disinformasiya’ with a capital ‘D’ and a ‘y’ in Asia), and now it’s your turn. Don’t forget to troll those who didn’t read the rules by leaving them a disparaging comment – it is the proper etiquette after all.
It has been a while since I posted something. My power supply in my computer died a few weeks ago and I only got around to fixing it recently. To my dismay, all the news I had planned to post when I replaced it had been posted so I’ve had to do nothing but sit in silence. Regardless, I am back! Since all the writers seem to be hopping on this bandwagon and not wanting to seem like a dirty hipster I will provide my worthless opinion on my favorites of 2011. Without further ado:
10. Protest the Hero – Dunsel
Scurrilous was easily one of my most anticipated for this year after becoming a die hard Protest the Hero fan in 2009, clocking in probably 700 song plays for the band’s Fortress release alone. To (what seems like) everyone’s dismay, Scurrilous failed to meet the gold standard set by their previous release. Still, there are a few songs on the album that I consider some of their best work to date and this is one of them. “Dunsel” shows a progression in sound for Protest the Hero whilst retaining the flavor of Fortress. And c’mon: the ending is simply too good.
9. Origin – Expulsion of Fury
Origin kicks a lot of ass and their previous album, Antithesis, was probably one of the craziest records I’ve heard in a long time. Needless to say, the guys are at it again and there’s no doubt in my mind they’re going to slay with the new album. What makes this song good for me is that it’s pretty memorable. A lot of kick ass riffs packed into 3 minutes.
8. Obscura – A Transcendental Serenade
Much like Scurrilous, Obscura‘s Omnivium failed to meet the hype. It’s still a great record, but I think I was excited for it too much and as a result was rather disappointed with the outcome. Nevertheless, Obscura did deliver on one track and that is this one. It’s memorable, it’s instrumental and the vocoder section at the end is a chilling conclusion to this track. Oh and dat bass.
So following Dormition’s Top Tunes I decided to share my own favorites from this year. There’s some overlap, so I decided to exclude songs that he already included. This is a loosely ordered list, so don’t rage on in the comments section about band A being better/worse than band B.
1) Encircle – “Watch the Sky Fall“
This one’s by my friend Anthony DiGiacomo. I don’t usually like solely instrumental music, but this one’s pretty good. And I’ve heard more tracks from his upcoming debut album, Watch the Sky Fall, and they’re all great. If you’re a fan of Cloudkicker, Veil of Maya and Meshuggah; you should definitely keep your eyes open for this one. As more becomes available, I’ll share them with you. In the meantime, check out his Youtube channel or Encircle’s Facebook page for more stuff by him including other original songs and many covers.
2) Tre Watson – “Charmander is Evolving!“
Tre is also a good friend of mine, and he’s probably the only other artist that I enjoy in this vein. This is a redo of his older track “Charmander used Flamethrower!”. He has an EP coming later this year, and having heard some of it, I can say that it is insane. Again, keep checking back for more news on his work, and in the meantime you can download his previous albums from his BandCamp page, and become a fan on Facebook.
Yeah, awkward song title. Anyway, Revocation have an album coming out on August 16th called Chaos of Forms, and this is the first track that has been made available. It’s pretty heavy, incorporating a bit more death metal elements than their previous record, and it’s also classic Revocation. Very solid. As usual, you can listen to it by going to their Facebook page and clicking “Like”. You really should do that; It’s an awesome track!
Revocation‘s forthcoming album Chaos Of Forms is sounding absolutely spectacular – I mean check out that riffs at 2:55 and 1:35! Dave Mustaine would believe in any religion that gave him the ability to continue writing huge rapid fire riffs like that. Also, I wasn’t aware that the album artwork had been released but it looks very old-school legit, much like the previous album. Reminds me of the early Testament artwork which was consistently amazing.
You only have to wait till the 16th of August for Relapse to release Chaos Of Forms, but until then, you could try making your own fap-gallery to play bass in front of – as shown above.
I feel ashamed of myself for missing this, but nevertheless Massachusetts-based tech death/thrash metal outfit Revocation are releasing a new album this year as well! It was confirmed on their Facebook this past Wednesday that their new record, Chaos of Forms, would be released sometime in August. A lot of us over here at the blog love these guys and their awesome blend of thrash and death metal with only three members, so I’ll just go ahead and say we’re all pumped!
Can 2011 get any better? God damn.
Check out their music video for “Dismantle the Dictator” off their previous album Existence Is Futile because it’s completely fucking awesome.
They’re only playing all of seven dates, but Atheist don’t tour around these parts as frequently as most of us would hope. Take this into consideration if you’re one of the lucky ones with the opportunity to catch this show. I’m pretty stoked that they’re bringing along Last Chance To Reason as well, who have a highly anticipated album Level 2 coming out this year. Prog-Metal March gets proggier once again!
Here are the dates:
March 4 Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven
March 5 Pomona, CA @ Fox Theater / Scion Rock Fest
March 7 Toronto, ON @ Wreck Room
March 8 Montreal, QC @ Le Petit campus
March 9 New York, NY @ Santo’s Party House
March 10 Baltimore, MD @ Sonar
March 12 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
Anyone out there lucky enough to be able to make it?
Last night I was lucky enough to catch Darkest Hour’s Legacy Tour here in Mesa, Arizona. The show was great. In quick summary, Revocation opened and sounded great live, but I had not heard of them prior and they didn’t really hold my interest due to the vocals. The instruments were good though, and at times I found myself headbanging to some nice riffs. They also blew the front two monitors, which somehow Periphery played through and managed to sound fantastic. Unfortunately Veil of Maya and Darkest Hour’s song lists were bastardized and distorted sounded. Luckily my show experience was not ruined though because I’ve spun The Common Man’s Collapse, id, Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation, Undoing Ruin, and Deliver Us to death and could easily follow along. Both Veil of Maya and Darkest Hour played nice varied sets, and maintained a strong energetic performance for the crowd despite the sound quality.
The highlight of the show for me though was undoubtedly Periphery. I’m one of those people who thought their self-titled album was fucking flawless, Spencer’s vocals included. On that point, Spencer’s vocals sounded great live too. I payed particularly close critical attention to his high’s and he hit them fluidly without breaks. Their whole set gave me chills to listen to live, but two songs stood out. The first being an instrumental that isn’t on their recorded album, and I’m quite sure they just play it to open their set with. This thing just sounded like pure progressive riffy evil and I wish it was included on their self-titled.
The second was a new song off their upcoming EP, which for the life of me I can’t remember the title of. At knee-jerk reaction, I want to say this thing instrumentally sounded something akin to the grooviness of Fellsilent on crack. As for the vocals, Spencer seems to be experimenting with more growls and a slight difference in style for cleans. All in all, new Periphery is fucking tasty, and I’m certain their EP will not disappoint.
The metal community at large is divided when it comes to Periphery, and the #1 grievance that I’ve been hearing lies in Spencer Sotello‘s vocal work. For some reason, a lot of people are turned off by his singing. I suppose I get it, though. The aesthetic isn’t for everyone. Personally, I love Spencer’s voice and I hold Periphery’s debut record in high regard, being on of my favorites of the year.
So, you could imagine my excitement when I heard the band are working on not only a new EP, but their second full length album.
Here’s guitarist Misha Mansoor with the skinny.
“Hey everyone, it’s been an amazing whirlwind of a year for Periphery and there are no signs of slowing down anytime soon. We are currently preparing for a long tour with Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya and Revocation, which is going to be a blast and we can’t wait to get back out there to play for everyone. Also, we encourage everyone to come and meet us at our merch booth after each and every show to come and hang with us. We love hearing feedback from our fans and getting a chance to meet new people.
We also will have a fresh new, longer setlist with a BRAND SPANKIN’ NEW SONG and a few fun surprises just for this tour. We are also giving lessons on our respective instruments (a lot of days are already booked!), so please come out early to see us and jam with us. Contact us on myspace or facebook if you are interested in lessons.
I am also really happy to announce that Periphery is well into the writing process for our upcoming EP. We have tracked most of the instrumentation and vocals and are making final tweaks on everything but you guys are in for a treat. There will be some re-tweaked material, some rare material and some brand new material on it so there will be something for everyone.
We have also been working on material for our second full-length now, so that we can have as much time to refine it before we record the final product. Be sure to check our MySpace and Facebook pages regularly for our updates. Our goal with our music is to cover as much ground as possible while staying true to our sound, and hopefully evolve from previous work all at once. It’s a tall order but a fun challenge nonetheless, and we are doing our best to ensure that the new material will fulfill that goal.
We want to thank all of our fans for their love and support. We would be nowhere without you and we want to be able to meet you all and thank you in person, so be sure to come out to the shows and hang out with us. We also want to thank Darkest Hour for giving us the opportunity to be on this very special tour with them and it is such an honor for us. You guys are in for a treat. See you there.”
The evidence is piling up; 2011 will be bigger and better than 2010. BTBAM, The Faceless, Born of Osiris, Necrophagist (oh please Jesus), Protest the Hero, Devin Townsend, and Periphery are already on the horizon for next year. Someone invent the time machine already.
Here’s “Icarus Lives!” from their debut Periphery, out now on Sumerian Records. Did you know Icarus had wax wings and flew to the sun AND LIVED? It’s true! He may have had wings of wax, but he had balls of steel.
