The surprisingly so-so All Stars Tour now has tour dates! The trek — featuring Every Time I Die, Veil of Maya, iwrestledabearonce, and more — will run through July and August. Special guests Volumes will be performing July 26th-August 11th and Structures will appear July 19th-25th and August 12th-17th. Here are the dates:
I tend to think of these yearly summer package tours that Sumerian Records and the Pantheon Agency put on as falling on a certain spectrum. One one end you have Summer Slaughter, meant for fans of more extreme music which has now branched out to appeal to prog fans. On the other end All Stars Tour appeals to more hardcore/scene fans — think a selection of bands that you could see on the heavier end of Warped. I tend to align myself with Summer Slaughter Tour and avoid All Stars like the plague, but this year’s All Stars tour has at least three bands I’d LOVE to see!
Some of you may be aware of who I am. AlucardXIX on youtube, amongst other websites. The guy who does all the Veil of Maya covers, the mind behind Encircle, and another writer on this here great ol’ blog. 2012 was both an interesting and disappointing year to me, musically. Some absolutely astounding albums came out this year, and some serious let downs as well (The Faceless, The Contortionist). Originally it was hard for me to pick a top ten; I thought about all the albums I’ve heard that I abandoned after a few listens, albums I loved at first listen and then wondered how I even thought that to begin with. I thought I could barely muster together 10 albums to begin with, but remembering back to the beginning of the year, I managed this humble fifteen:
The Schoenberg Automaton is one of Australia’s shining lights of extreme metal, having shared the stage with the likes of Between the Buried and Me, Veil of Maya, and Sybreed. The Schoenberg Automaton’s Gojira-meets-Dillinger-esque trudging mathematics takes the band’s name in a more literal sense, painting them as a wild and mechanical force of forward-thinking metal. The band’s new song ‘Ghost of Mirach‘ has been made available, and it bodes well for their impending debut album. Stream the track below:
The Schoenberg Automaton’s forthcoming album Vela will be out January 21st on Myriad Records.
- JR
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
On the tour, Periphery took along guitarist Mark Holcomb’s brother Jeff Holcomb as a fill-in bassist, and during the trek, he filmed throughout the tour and put together a documentary of sorts of the tour. Unfortunately there isn’t any sort of narrative or plot to the story, which is something I was hoping to see. It’s more of an hour-long tour diary sort of thing than what one would think of as a “documentary,” but it’s still really cool nonetheless.
- JR
Circle of Contempt’s final mixes for the upcoming release are in!
Which makes me wonder; who listens to Circle of Contempt? Their 2009 debut Artifacts in Motion wasn’t exactly a chart topper for Sumerian, though it deserved to be. It’s well-written technical metal played to perfection by a band of young kids at the time. Keep in mind this is when Sumerian becoming popular, having big releases in ’08 with Veil of Maya‘s The Common Man’s Collapse, After The Burial‘s Rareform and The Faceless‘ Planetary Duality.
Now it’s time for a follow up which I’m sure will be great. Not sure? Find out for yourself in the studio updates below! Each one has a snippet of new tunes that sound refreshingly original and ridiculously heavy. Watch their Facebook for news regarding the release, as well as a single that the band encourages fans to annoy out of Sumerian via wall posts.
- GK
Pictured above: Tommy Rogers of Between the Buried and Me
With The Summer Slaughter Tour coming to a close this week, it’s about time we unveiled our photos from the show! Resident photographer Chris Collins attended the July 25th date at the House Of Blues in Dallas, Texas. Unfortunately, Chris’ day job prevented him from attending the entire show, but you can see the second half of the tour’s billing below!
I’m a lover of vinyl records and I often talk about albums I love getting the vinyl treatment, especially when they’re seeing the format long after initial release. Sumerian Records are starting to catch on and tap into the market, and it seems like they’re working on getting select entries in their back catalog pressed to vinyl. The latest Sumerian vinyl pressing comes in the way of Veil of Maya‘s [id]. Why they jumped to [id] before pressing their latest release Eclipse is beyond me, but I ain’t even mad.
The record comes in either purple or white (above) and will become available early September. Pre-orders are available at Soundcheck Hollywood.
- JR
As mentioned on my post about Stillborn Messengers, I occasionally go on these “Bandcamp Hunts”, in which I go to the metal section of Bandcamp, and download everything that is both free (or name your price) and relevant to my interests. Well, I have decided to make it a periodic column! These posts are not unlike the column “Bandcamp Recommendations” by The Soda Shop. These posts will feature 3 bands per post that follow the following criteria:
Also, I will not be mentioning very well-known bands, such as Cloudkicker or Returning We Hear the Larks, who are well known for releasing their music for free. My goal is to highlight albums that have not been talked about enough. If you don’t see your favorite band, feel free to leave a comment. I may have them planned for a future column. This column will hopefully be posted every week, but it all depends on the influx of bands I find or that you all send us. Now, without further ado, here are three bands that deserve your attention:
Imagine with me Veil of Maya meets Sikth riffage, djent qualities, keyboards that are both ambient and quick, and powerful clean vocals. What you will have created is an up-and-coming Canadian band named Annex Theory. Their EP was self-released on May 21. I knew a lot of people was talking about it, so I downloaded it, and I was absolutely floored. The songwriting here is incredible, and the technical chops executed are of the highest quality. I also noticed that their lead vocalist is Trevor Birnie, formerly of one of my favorite tech-death bands of all time, Quo Vadis, which explains their high quality. If you’re into intense metalcore and progressive metal, definitely download this.
Oh, and there is this awesome cover of Rush‘s “Subdivisions“, in case you needed a final push to click the download button.
