Tag Archive: Sumerian Records


Artist: Born of Osiris

Song: “Follow The Signs”

Album: The Discovery

Director: Andrew Pulaski of Abstrakt Pictures

When it comes to metal music videos, I tend to prevent myself from getting my hopes up. More often than not, I am tragically disappointed when my favorite bands release a music video. Lately, I seem to be drowning in boring, mediocre, and cookie cutter videos that wouldn’t dare push the boundaries of a cliché but rather just pump the video out, get paid, and move on to the next half-assed gig. It’s rare to find a director or crew that are passionate enough about the music that they are motivated to actually produce something unique, powerful, and fitting for a song. Basically, there needs to be more directors like Andrew Pulaski at Abstrakt pictures, who put the work and artistic vision of his videos above all aspects like money, time, and risk. His latest piece for Born of Osiris is a perfect example of the bars he is aiming to raise.

The video opens with a gorgeous high-speed ascendance into space, (of which I’ve watched countless times because it fits absolutely perfectly to Born of Osiris’ ambient interlude ‘The Omniscient’), to a dimension beyond ours where we get to see the amazingly talented Cameron Gray’s artwork explode into life. Turn it on 1080p and keep your third eye wide open, because this video is quite the trip, and one of my longest reviews yet.

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Progressive/technical deathcore pioneers Veil of Maya are preparing to release a new album called Eclipse soon, and I caught up with them at a show to ask them a few questions. I was able to talk to singer Brandon and guitarist Marc, and we chatted a bit about stuff, including their new album and the band’s writing process.

Hi, this is Noyan from Heavy Blog Is Heavy. So, you guys have a new album coming up…

Brandon Butler: Yeah, it’s called Eclipse, it comes out February 28th.

What can you tell us about the new album? [Marc walks in] Is it like a continuation of your sound, or something different, or maybe going back?

Marc Okubo: I would say it definitely sounds like us, but we’ve gotten better. Our playing’s improved, I like the production on it a lot. We added more elements like more synths and… it’s like more over the top sounding.

BB: Yeah.

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Update: Guitarist Matt Brown informed us that ‘Lairs of the Ascended Masters‘ is just a single and not the name of the upcoming album, which is still TBA.

It’s been quite a while since Blackened Death Metal band Enfold Darkness released some new music. Their debut album Our Cursed Rapture came out in 2009 and since then the band has been plagued with lineup woes and hard times in general. Finally, the band has some new music for us to hear! You can stream the new track ‘Lairs of the Ascended Masters‘ over at Decibel.

The track is pretty awesome. If you aren’t familiar with the band, my friend Mitch once described them as “Cradle of Faceless”, which is a pretty fair assessment, I’d say. Excellent band that I wish we could see more of!

There’s nothing else known about their forthcoming sophomore album, but we’ll be sure to fill you in when details are announced.

- JR

So the eagerly anticipated new Veil of Maya single ‘Vicious Circles‘ from their forthcoming album Eclipse is now available on iTunes. How does it stack up? It could be some of Veil of Maya’s most accessible work yet, with less chugging and plenty of synth layers and melodic guitar work. It changes things up a bit, which is what I’ve been hoping for. The influence that Misha had on the songwriting and production is pretty noticeable, as well! Some long-time fans of Veil of Maya might not dig it so much, but I can get into this. You can stream the song below.

All in all, you can count me excited for the new VoM. It won’t be long until we get to hear more! Eclipse is due out February 28th on Sumerian Records. Once again, be sure to check back this Friday when we post our interview!

- JR

Alright, so the news of the new Veil of Maya album details have been known for the better part of a week now, but I was holding out on a new song release or a large enough album art to post about it. Gotta be efficient, right!?

Veil of Maya’s forthcoming album Eclipse, which is the band’s third Sumerian release and was produced by Periphery‘s Misha Mansoor, has recently been announced with a release date of February 28th. Above, you can check out the album’s teaser, which features the intro track. The band’s new single will be available on iTunes starting tomorrow, January 17th. Album pre-orders are available at this location.

Also, be sure to keep an eye out for our interview with Marc and Brandon of Veil of Maya later this week!

- JR

I’m not all too keen on this whole straightforward metalcore thing that’s going on now where it’s all Christian bands that sound pretty much exactly like August Burns Red. It’s not that I particularly hate any of it, but it doesn’t necessarily speak to me most of the time. I like some ABR and Oh, Sleeper, but I could live without bands like Texas in July and Miss May I. I, The Breather are sort of in between. I sort of enjoy them while they’re playing, but I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to listen to them. Just my two cents, I guess.

I, The Breather are streaming a new song called ‘Bruised & Broken,‘ above. It’s completely inoffensive metalcore for fans of pretty much any other band I listed above. I know a lot of people out there are excited about their new record, but I’m more fixated on the new Veil of Maya artwork they slipped into the video still.

I, The Breather’s upcoming record Truth and Purpose is due out February 28th on Sumerian Records. You know what also comes out that day on Sumerian? The new Veil of Maya album Eclipse and the debut T.R.A.M. record. There’s something for everyone that day!

- JR

Structures – Divided By

Structures

Divided By

01. At Las[T]
02. hydroplaning
03. Encounter…
04. Paralyzed____
05. In Pursuit Of
06. Clockwork
07. Relapse; Signs.
08. Tunnel Vision
09. I.N.T.E.N.T.
10. /

[10/25/11]
[Sumerian Records]

Structures took many people by storm with their debut release All Of The Above. The EP was innovative and fresh – though rather chuggy – and it represented both the youth and talent of a band in a concise package that displayed what the band was all about. In fact, the record was good enough to catch the eye of a grand ol’ record company called Sumerian. It seemed as if they were signed without any hesitation, and sometimes that is one of the best signs that a band is good – but it seems that the signing has brought out the worst in the band.

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I’ve got a bone to pick about Structures‘ debut album Divided By, which was just released this week on Sumerian Records.

First off, I’d like to say that this isn’t to be considered our official review; we’re saving that for later. Typically when we review things, we try to focus on the good and bad parts about an album and try to give things their fair shake — I do take some sort of pride in being able to find nice things to say about Limp Bizkit and Design the Skyline. No, today I’m focusing entirely on a glaring and unignorable flaw to what could have been an otherwise good album that was worth your time:

Divided By sounds absolutely terrible, and could very well be the worst produced album from a widely-distributing label this year.

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The HAARP Machine is one of the more exciting debut albums coming up on the horizon (besides Uneven Structure‘s Februus of course, but more on that later today). These British Sumerian Records newcomers have been teasing us with stuff from their upcoming record, slated for a fall release (they don’t have much time left!), and I’m excited. As a fan of bands like The Faceless, The HAARP Machine is right up my alley. They’ve posted a third studio video, showcasing some bass tracking. That’s neat and all, but I recently came across this instrumental pre-production track which tickled my fancy quite a bit.

NEAT.

We’ll have more The HAARP Machine info when it comes to us.

- JR

A collaboration between The Faceless and Borgore is an unlikely pairing that should have stayed unlikely. The pairing of shit-tier brostep (not to be confused with dubstep, which is actually good when it’s done right) with even the greatest of metal guitarists out there would have yielded results ranging from terrible to decent at best no matter what two artists you fill in the blanks with. There’s no possible high ground. That didn’t stop this trainwreck from happening.

Keene’s riffing could not save this song; the lyrics are just way too vapid, as the song’s title may have lead you to believe. Borgore is just a terrible rapper and songwriter altogether, and his appearance rubs me the wrong way in general (flat-brim hat and a Justin Bieber shirt that may or may not be ironic—I honestly can’t tell). The thought of The Faceless’ highly anticipated upcoming album being put off because of this little ditty is a bit unsettling, to tell you the truth. Hopefully there isn’t more to come from this duo.

So that’s enough of that.

- JR

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