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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
It seems that for every two or three respectable bands that Sumerian Records signs, they sign one terrible one. Now, I’m all for diversity and I enjoy seeing the massive fits of fanboy butthurt that sparked over the signing of Borgore and Bizzy Bone. However, it just strikes me as odd that a label as rooted in prog and tech metal as Sumerian is also home to a rapper, a brostep artist, and scene-friendly bands like Asking Alexandria,I See Stars, and now latest signings Make Me Famous, who were no doubt signed in spite of Metalsucks’ glowingrecommendations.
As much as I hate to admit it, I can see the logic in it. Anyone in the same position as Sumerian would do the same. Mainstream success = money. Of course, the mass of Sumerian followers weren’t as keen to the idea and have given an apparently noticeable amount of negative feedback, causing Sumerian Records to make a statement on Facebook.
Two things to all you trolls, goblins and tunnel-visioned orcs: Bands like AA and ISS enable us to spend more money on bands like The Faceless and The HAARP Machine. It’s all part of the record label eco-system. We genuinely love AA and ISS just like we do Veil of Maya and Betraying the Martyrs. The younger, open-minded fans that bands like MMF and AA have end up discovering the more prog/technical metal bands Sumerian has been known for as they get older and everyone wins. Ask Born of Osiris and Veil of Maya yourself when they have toured with bands in that scene before. And before you pass judgement on MMF, wait until October 4th when you hear their first song be released that is officially on Sumerian. When AA and ISS were on Jimmy Kimmel, that was good for the entire family. We understand not everyone will like everything on a record label as big as Sumerian because we do not only sign one type of music. What we can promise though is the bands we sign outside of our “future of metal” roster will go on to be massive. Hate on AA but the band is bigger than every act on Rise Records and is direct support to Avenged Sevenfold, the biggest modern day rock/heavy metal band who came out in the past 10 years. You guys act like we sign 10 scene bands for every one BOO or ATB. It’s the other way around fellas!! Now quit bitching and go support Enfold Darkness! See them on tour with Obscura this fall! -Love, The Sphinx.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. As far as shitty acts go, I couldn’t see Sumerian pulling a Victory and signing anything as bad as Design the Skyline out the gate. The dudes at Sumerian aren’t dumb—it’s not like they’ve ever had The Faceless and I See Stars on the same touring bill. Their in-house booking agency tends to keep bands on their relevant tours and markets them the the appropriate people, so as long as I don’t have to hear or see Make Me Famous, I’m good. Also, I appreciate that Sumerian admits they do it for the money. It’s a no-brainer, really. There’s no shame in putting food on the table, am I right?
Disagree? Still want to complain about how bad Make Me Famous is? Mouth off in the comments. I’m sure they have an album due out soon enough, but I didn’t look into it enough to find out when.
The Faceless mastermind Michael Keene has been working super hard on the new album, writing and recording at a steady pace. Unfortunately though, the album’s progress has just been put on hold these last couple of weeks, as he somehow cut his hand open pretty bad, requiring 17 stitches. Woah!
After looking back through Michael Keene’s twitter account, apparently it happened a few weeks ago when he tripped over a table with glass in his hand. That’s not nearly good enough, so I’m going to assume it was something comical, like drunkenly whipping around guitar strings while making alieny sounds. Guitar strings can be sharp, you know—especially in the presence of alcohol, which was probably in the glass that he was allegedly holding! Good, eh?!
Seriously though, as always, we’ll keep you informed when more word on the new album gets out. Get well soon, Michael!
I totally understand why some people don’t like Betraying the Martyrs. The clean vocals and orchestrations may turn some people off. I, on the other hand, absolute adore them. Their vocalist has a low that is comparable to Phil Bozeman (of Whitechapel fame), and it’s all well arranged, orchestrated, and epic. So imagine my day when I found their new video, which you can see here:
My day did indeed become boneriffic, and so should yours, if this kind of thing appeals to you. The video is well shot and well edited but it brings the cheese, and at its core is nothing more than the band doing this awesome tune, which debuted in the form of this video. The song, entitled “Man Made Disaster“, is a total tour-de-force of well produced, well balanced metal, changing moods and time with ease. Some parts honestly remind me of a toned down Deconstruction gone deathcore, which is not a bad comparison at all.
Breathe In Life will be released on Sumerian Records and Listenable Records on September 20th, and I’m foaming at the mouth for it.
If you follow Metalsucks at all, you might well have noted the large amounts of coverage, and in particular read the back-and-forth between Vince and Century Media’s bigwigs. For those who haven’t, basically: Vince <3 Spotify, CM </3 Spotify (and showed this by pulling all of their artists’ records from the service).
The issue has been covered quote a lot, but the latest to wade in – largely unprovoked – has been Sumerican Records’ Founder and CEO Ash Avildsen.
Structures
