133 – The Sausage Factory

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Another week, another #content. This week we talk about some news, some releases, and some other random stuff. Serj talking about why they’re not working on a new System of a Down album, Mikael Akerfeldt talking about the upcoming Opeth album, Eden talking about his band Instar’s new single, the new Pig Destroyer song, and new albums by Obscura and Between the Buried and Me. Oh, and also the new Horrendous track, and last year’s Ne Obliviscaris album. Finally, cool people stuff with some classic sci-fi, some modern sci-fi, and some horror. Enjoy!

FREE DOWNLOAD: Heavy Comp Is Heavy: Volume Five

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As is Christmas tradition, we at Heavy Blog Is Heavy have yet again reached out to some friends and family in the online metal community to put together a small gift to our readers in the form of Heavy Comp Is Heavy! This year, in our fifth year, we’ve collected eighteen tracks from several genres in order to promote musical discovery for small and independent acts from 2017 and beyond. 

Editors’ Picks – September 2017

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At this point, it must seem like we’re long past beating a dead horse when it comes to using this space atop our Editors’ Picks column to reiterate the mantra of “there’s just too much music!” But as we’re sure many of you have noticed, the amount of new music we face on a weekly basis far outpaces the time needed to digest it all, something we were reminded of yet again when it came to facing the onslaught that was September. Not only did the month have five Friday release days instead of the usual four, each of those official marker points for new music seemed to attract an enormous quantity and quality of releases from all corners of the music landscape. When we (The Editors) finally pared down our playlists and picked our personal recommendations for the month, we found ourselves with perhaps the longest list of album suggestions we’ve ever presented to our fine readers. Among these are albums from artists both old and new that hail from nearly every genre we all listen to on  regular basis. This being the case, let’s not waste any more time and instead get to digging through the gold pile that was September. 

What Heavy Blog Is Really Listening To – 9/29/17

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For those who missed our last installment, We post biweekly updates covering what the staff at Heavy Blog have been spinning. Given the amount of time we spend on the site telling you about music that does not fall neatly into the confines of conventional “metal,” it should come as no surprise that many of us on staff have pretty eclectic tastes that range far outside of metal and heavy things. We can’t post about all of them at length here, but we can at least let you know what we’re actually listening to. For those that would like to participate as well (and please do) can drop a 3X3 in the comments, which can be made with tapmusic.net through your last.fm account, or create it manually with topsters.net. Also, consider these posts open threads to talk about pretty much anything music-related. We love hearing all of your thoughts on this stuff and love being able to nerd out along with all of you.

97 – DMCA Us Right Now

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Finally the crew is back on track! This week we talk about… Stuff. The charges brought against Decapitated, Spotify removing Infant Annihilator songs, Womanowar getting copyright stricken, Phil Anselmo dragging his own racism back into the highlight, Samael’s… incredibly tone deaf video, then new music or material from: Godspeed! You Black Emperor, August Burns Red, Coma Cluster Void, Good Tiger, Veil of Maya, Through The Eyes of the Dead, Gigan, Vulture Industries, and Shokran. Then, we talk about the new album of Eden’s band, Instar! And, per a fan request, we do a mini-interview of me regarding NYN. Enjoy!

Release Day Roundup – 9/15/17

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Each month, we always seem to come to the same conclusion when it comes to our Editors’ Picks column: Friday release days open the floodgates and unleash a seemingly endless stream of quality new music. But while some of our Editors and Contributors sit down gleefully each week to dive into this newly stocked treasure trove, others find themselves drawing a blank at the end of the month due to the breakneck pace needed to keep up to date with what’s been released. Which brings us to this Heavy Blog PSA: a weekly roundup of new albums which pares down the the week’s releases to only our highest recommendations. Here you’ll find full album/single streams, pre-order links and, most importantly, a collection of albums that could very well earn a spot on your year end list. Enjoy!

What Heavy Blog Is Really Listening To – 9/1/17

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For those who missed our last installment, We post biweekly updates covering what the staff at Heavy Blog have been spinning. Given the amount of time we spend on the site telling you about music that does not fall neatly into the confines of conventional “metal,” it should come as no surprise that many of us on staff have pretty eclectic tastes that range far outside of metal and heavy things. We can’t post about all of them at length here, but we can at least let you know what we’re actually listening to. For those that would like to participate as well (and please do) can drop a 3X3 in the comments, which can be made with tapmusic.net through your last.fm account, or create it manually with topsters.net. Also, consider these posts open threads to talk about pretty much anything music-related. We love hearing all of your thoughts on this stuff and love being able to nerd out along with all of you.

Instar Offer “Stepping Stones” To Their Next Journey

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Another homegrown project we are immensely fond of comes straight from our dear editor-in-chief, the aforementioned Eden Kupermintz, and our good friend Greg Greenberg (Seven Circles), who, with guitarists Doug Van Bevers and Nick Maini and drummer Travis Orbin (ex-Periphery, Darkest Hour) form Instar, a beautiful fusion of post-rock, math-rock, jazz/metal fusion, and spoken word. Those who are at all familiar with Eden know that he is an ardent lover and connoisseur of sci-fi and a writer himself, and he lends his own illustrative prose and mellifluous voice to give the project a distinctly cosmic post-y feeling. The last time we mentioned the band on this site it was to recommend their debut EP, which featured Eden on one track and other guest vocalists on the other two. Eden has since joined the project as a full-fledged member, and if the lead track from their upcoming album Ex Nihilo Cycles “Stepping Stones” is any indication, Instar is prepared to take an enormous leap for their first full-length release.

Instar’s Debut EP Is Ready To Take You On An Adventure

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We’ve spoken of Instar before, around a year and a half ago to be exact. Back then the project of bassist (and good friend of the blog) Gregory Greenberg was in its nascent stages and only had one track, “We’re Getting Older” (which also happened to feature vocals from Hayato Imanishi of Cyclamen and Heavy Blog contributor and Omega Experiment creator Dan Wieten). But that one track piqued enough of our interests that we felt compelled to write about it and support him. In fact, one of us felt so compelled by the music that he actually joined on as a contributor to the project. Our very own Eden Kupermintz joined forces with Greg to provide lyrical inspiration as well as his own velvety pipes as narration on one track. After much collaboration and work, Instar’s first official EP is complete and ready for full public consumption, which you should get on pronto!