As far as blatant Black Sabbath worshiping goes, Windhand are one of the bands that do it absolutely right. The occult rock thing is getting a bit homogenous, but it helps when you’re able to be as catchy as Windhand. The band have just wrapped up their full-length Relapse solo debut (they had a split album with Cough earlier this year through the label) and are hitting the road this June.
Athens Ohio’s blackened thrashers Skeletonwitch have announced plans to enter the studio in April with Converge guitarist and prolific producer Kurt Ballou. The band offers:
“Happy New Year! Hope everyone is off to a great start. First off, thanks to everyone who supported Skeletonwitch during this past year. We did some serious gigging in 2012, and your support on the road and of ‘Forever Abomination’ was overwhelming. We would be nowhere without you.
“It’s not just idle hands that do the devil’s work — we’re already deep in the process of writing a new record, which is shaping up to be quite an epic slab of metal, if we may say so ourselves. Keep an eye out for frequent updates. Drink it, smoke it, eat it!”
The band recently completed the U.S Abomination Tour with Mutilation Rites and Havok, further cementing their place as a fearsome live act. Check out this video of them playing ‘Bringers Of Death’ live, and get stoked for the new album.
See you in the pit.
- CK
It seems like Early Graves are coming out swinging with their new material. After all, it’s likely that the hardcore band would have a lot to say after the passing of their vocalist Mahk Daniels in 2010 during a van accident while the band were on tour with The Funeral Pyre. Now with TFP vocalist John Strachan filling the void, the band has just announced their new album Red Horse and are streaming the title track over at Pitchfork. The track is all kinds of filthy, and is dripping in vitriol.
Red Horse will be out October 30th on No Sleep Records and will likely rock faces clean off. You can pick up a pre-order right here. After the jump, peruse through the band’s tour dates, which includes shows with Skeletonwitch, as if the shows weren’t going to be sweet enough.
- JR
After seeing their mind bending 11 in the morning slot at Bloodstock, another great live show with The Black Dahlia Murder and the release of Forever Abomination, an album which ended up on my Best Of 2011 list, I was pretty much sold on Skeletonwitch. Their take on blasphemous blackened thrash is nothing short of dizzying and over the past few months I’ve been slowly working my way through the back catalogue album by album, so this b-side from Forever Abomination is a welcome addition to my listening schedule.
‘Tragedy Of Days‘ is pretty high quality considering it was cut from the final track listing and contains all those hallmark riffs that define their ‘Venom on steroids’ template, I sure wouldn’t have minded it being included in the relatively short running time of Forever Abomination. Alongside this, the band also released a ‘live video’ for ‘The Infernal Resurrection‘ which must’ve slipped under my radar as that track is pure aural hatred and the video contains some standard but still great black and white festival footage to back it all up.
- DL
Goatwhore
01. Collapse In Eternal Worth
02. When Steel And Bone Meet
03. Parasitic Scriptures Of The Sacred Word
04. In Deathless Tradition
05. Judgement Of The Bleeding Crown
06. Embodiment Of This Bitter Chaos
07. Beyond The Spell Of Discontent\
08. Death To The Architects Of Heaven
09. An End To Nothing
10. My Name Is Frightful Among The Believers
Goatwhore are just one of those bands that embody the spirit of heavy metal – the kind of band that goes hand in hand with drunken air guitar, bullet belts and invisible oranges. Having been pumping out blackened odes to the darker side of life since 1998 and constantly refining their sound to a sharpened point, Goatwhore’s efforts culminated in 2009′s Carving Out The Eyes Of God which garnered near-universal praise, not for reinventing the wheel, but for merely indulging in that base need all metalheads have for rocking the fuck out. Featuring members of Acid Bath, Crowbar, Nachtmystium and Soilent Green, they certainly have the pedigree and they’ve shown they can produce the goods before, but how does Blood For The Master stand up to the high expectations left by their previous outings?
The Black Dahila Murder just aren’t resting; they’ve been road warriors ever since the release of their great album Ritual. This time, they’re embarking on a nationwide headlining tour of the U.S. with Nile, Skeletonwitch, and Hour of Penance. I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing any of these bands live, but if their albums are any indication of their live shows, this is a tour you do not want to miss. With this, Summer Slaughter, and the rumored Mastodon/Opeth/Ghost tour, we are in luck this year. Here are the dates:
3/24 – Grand Rapids, MI @ The Intersection
3/25 – Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Club
3/26 – St. Paul, MN @ Station 4
3/27 – Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
3/29 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
3/30 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
3/31 – Las Vegas, NV @ Desert Breeze Skate Park (Extreme Thing) *
4/02 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
4/03 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater
4/04 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
4/05 – Los Angeles, CA @ House of Blues
4/06 – Phoenix, AZ @ Nile Theater
4/07 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theatre
4/09 – Dallas, TX @ Prophet Bar
4/10 – San Antonio, TX – White Rabbit
4/11 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
4/13 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
4/15 – Toledo, OH @ Headliners (Jamboree Music Festival) *
4/17 – Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live
4/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
4/19 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
4/20 – Worchester, MA @ The Palladium (New England Metal & Hardcore Festival)
* indicates The Black Dahlia Murder performs only
- GR
You know it’s been a good year for music when:
Matt DeVries (far left) and Rob Arnold (second from right)
Bit of sad (probably) news for Chimaira fans broke this morning, in the shape of an announcement that guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries will be leaving the band at the end of the year. A statement from the band read:
“Early in July we were informed that Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries would be leaving Chimaira at the end of 2011. Of course this was a huge blow, but there were no hard feelings. We understand that life invades art, everything runs its course, and we have to take different paths.
We respect their decision and wish them only the best. We made heavy metal history together and that is all that matters at the end of the day.
Chimaira Christmas 12 will be their last show, and we’ve been preparing to make it one that you’ll never forget.”
Chimaira Christmas 12 is, as you’ve probably deduced, Chimaira’s annual Christmas show, being held this year in Cleveland, Ohio on December 30th, which will this year also feature Skeletonwitch, Salt The Wound and Rogue.
The band continued by saying that they won’t yet be announcing replacements:
“Rather than try and make light of unpleasant news, or downplay this by hyping up a new line-up, let’s take a few to honor Rob and Matt.
My favorite solo of Rob’s is on The Heart Of It All and my favorite riff of Matt’s is The Dehumanizing Process. I’ll be cranking those today. What about you?
See you in Detroit”
So they’ll definitely be carrying on, which is certainly something. In honouring the closing statement, here’s “The Heart Of It All” from their 2009 album Infection. Enjoy!
- CG
Man, I’m really dropping the ball today aren’t I? Never mind; there’s not much else to report bar Weezer‘s bassist predicting his own death on Twitter and Metalsucks completing the line-up for the first inaugural Suckfest this November, which features a stellar line-up including Cynic, Last Chance To Reason, This Is Hell and Obscura. Any chance of plane tickets, guys? No? Shit.
Anyway, as the aforementioned dudes were kind enough to remind me, Skeletonwitch are also streaming their new album Forever Abomination over at Guitar World, and contrary to the title, it’s pretty damn good and in no way abominable. Shit’s out today via Prosthetic Records. Huzzah!
- CG
Black Tusk01. Brewing the Storm
02. Bring Me Darkness
03. Ender of All
04. Mass Devotion
05. Carved in Stone
06. Set the Dial to Your Doom
07. Resistor
08. This Time is Divine
09. Growing Horns
10. Crossroads and Thunder
For quite a while now, Georgia has breed its fair share of bands that all utilize that brand of southern-tinged music, albeit to a much heavier degree. Bands like Mastodon, Baroness and Kylesa have made a name for themselves and despite their different paths, they’ve all retained certain characteristics such as massive hulking riffs, booming vocals and an all around gritty sound. And in the case of their backwater brethren, Black Tusk, they are no different. But what sets Black Tusk apart from the other bands is there no holds barred approach to writing high-energy hard rock/metal music that bodes well their overall hell raising attitude. And with the release of their latest album, Set the Dial, Black Tusk continue that formula, bringing back that southern hospitality which will undoubtedly have you banging your head and stomping your feet!
