Here's my review of Bulgarian groove metal band hereAndNow's new album for Transcending Obscurity webzine.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Monday, June 27, 2016
WINTERHORDE Releases Video for "Worms of Souls"
The video was directed by the multi-talented Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu, who had previously worked with bands such as At the Gates, Carach Angren, Mayhem and many more.
Check out the video for "Worms of Souls" at
https://youtu.be/HXwZT9wD8CA
Maestro was once again produced and mixed by V. Santura (OBSCURA, TRIPTYKON, DARK FORTRESS, etc), with mastering handled by the renowned Jens Bogren (OPETH, SOILWORK, etc), and features guest appearances from Jiří Valter (ROOT) and Peter Huss (SHINING). With renewed energy running through their veins a potent new lineup WINTERHORDE are bound to spread their emotional darkness for those willing to feed upon the new album's magnificence.
"A well-conceived and superbly executed concept album." 4.5/5
- Metal-Rules
"An extreme metal extravaganza."
- Wonderbox Metal
"As ambitious as ever, but Winterhorde zero in on what really works for them, playing up the symphonic death metal element of their sound alongside a more melodic black metal influence. An eleven-track operatic play of absolute madness."
- No Clean Singing
"Winterhorde have created a work of variety and perfection." 10/10
- Metal-Only
"This whole album is total drama. Its unconventional structure, absence of rules, contrasting moods and boundless spirit all make "Maestro" a masterpiece of invention and creativity." 9.5/10
- Ave Noctum
"Winterhorde combines a variety of sounds...which they execute expertly. Blasty melodic black metal is the backbone upon which the band's sound is built, but they are far from limited. Melodic and classic metal, as well as orchestral influences, build the broad boundaries." 4/5
- Angry Metal Guy
"This is one of those records that's just so goddamn deep you can't help but to revisit it time and time again."
- Two Guys Metal Reviews
"Winterhorde have drawn heavily from both progressive metal and black metal influences, to craft what can be considered a masterpiece of the combined genres."
- Glacially Musical
"On this fine album we get a big dose of rather dramatic symphonic metal, a pinch of melodic death metal as well as some good old power metal, all bound together with a thick layer of progressive metal."
- Roppongi Rocks
Between enchanting tenderness and brutality, amongst the fires of the underneath and the coldest fumes of the North, this is the being called WINTERHORDE. Emerged in Northern Israel back in 2001, the Progressive Extreme Metal group has been evolving, seeking to become something greater with each chord they play and record, and only the skies are the limit. Whether through ancient arts of blackened Metal through the gems of progression,
WINTERHORDE are on their way to be the next thing in articulate extremity. Throughout their career, almost spanning two decades, WINTERHORDE saw the battles on stage, performing locally in extreme Metal events and festivals, supporting acts such as DARK FUNERAL, MELECHESH, BEHEMOTH, CATAMENIA. Furthermore, WINTERHORDE shared stages in European festivals such as "OST Mountain Fest", "Metalhead Meeting", "Maximum Rock" with some of the greatest bands in Metal such as W.A.S.P, KEEP OF KALESSIN, ONSLAUGHT, NEGURA BUNGET, CREMATORY, AMORPHIS, BLOODBATH, SATYRICON and more.
Following the releases of their debut albuum Nebula (2006, Burning Star Records) and Underwatermoon (2010, Twilight Vertrieb - produced by V.Santura (DARK FORTRESS, OBSCURA, PARADOX, TRYPTIKON), WINTERHORDE completed their next mysterious epos, Maestro.
www.winterhorde.net/
www.facebook.com/winterhorde
twitter.com/winterhorde
http://www.vicisolum.com/
https://twitter.com/Vicisolum
www.facebook.com/vicisolumproductions
Dark Descent Records Announces North American Release of New VANHELGD Album
The Swedish masters of aversion and forlorn VANHELGD return with an even darker aspect of Death Metal surpassing what is deemed traditional and into the realms of blackened Doom Metal with Temple Of Phobos.
While still firmly locked into that unmistakable VANHELGD sound, it is clear that on Temple Of Phobos they have steered into a much more despondent territory; very reminiscent of the early '90s Doom. VANHELGD have managed to capture the essence and vibe with such perfection on Temple Of Phobos that perhaps this will go down in VANHELGD's history as one their heaviest, gloomiest and blackest record ever.
Recorded and mixed at Studio Underjord with Joona Hassinen (Year Of The Goat, Saturnalia Temple, Ocean Chief, etc) , mastered by Tore Stjerna at Necromorbus Studio (Watain, Repugnant, Desultory, etc) and once again gracing the ominous artwork by VANHELGD frontman Mattias 'Flesh' Frisk (Ghost, Entrapment, Vampire, etc).
Dark Descent Records will release Temple of Phobos in North America on July 22. The album is scheduled for European release July 1 via Pulverised Records.
www.facebook.com/vanhelgd
www.darkdescentrecords.com
darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/DarkDescentRecords
TRAP THEM: NEW ALBUM 'CROWN FERAL' DUE THIS FALL
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Friday, June 24, 2016
KC Blackdeath Fest II Announced: September 16-17
Building from the successes of its first year, Kansas City's one and only BlackDeath Fest is set to strike the Midwest yet again this September, certain to decimate with two days of underground black, death, grind, and extreme metal. Event details at this location.
Visit the KC Black Fest II Facebook page:
The lineup (in alphabetical order):
Dark Apostle (KS)
Dead Shore (IL)
Falter (WI)
FIN (IL)
Garoted (NE)
Imperial Savagery (IL)
Knifewound (KS)
Napalm Meth (MO)
Nefirum (KS)
Nucleus (IL)
Pigs Blood (WI)
Ritual Combat (CA)
Sons of Famine (IL)
Stonehaven (KS/MO)
Subjugation (WI)
Valdur (CA)
Verräter (NE/CA)
Vickers (NE)
Venue info:
Conjuror
Dark Apostle
Dead Shore
Falter
FIN
Garoted
Imperial Savagery
Knifewound
Napalm Meth
Nefirum
Nucleus
Pigs Blood
Ritual Combat
Sons of Famine
Stonehaven
Subjugation
Valdur
Verrater
Vickers
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
VULTURES VENGEANCE Inks Deal with Gates of Hell Records
 Italian Heavy Metal Horde VULTURES VENGEANCE have inked a deal with Gates of Hell Records (a Cruz Del Sur Music sub-label). The band's 30-minute debut EP Where The Time Dwelt In will be released on October 7. Featuring amazing artwork by Lena Richter, the album will be released in limited edition CD (500 copies) and vinyl (500 copies) formats. Compared to other bands devoted to the 80's sound, VULTURES VENGEANCE has a darker and dustier approach. The band shows a rare virtuosity in its musicianship and approach to songwriting. Thanks to a recording most appropriate to their sound, the compositions give the impression of having just been found in a long lost basement box. In November 2015 VULTURES VENGEANCE emerged out of nowhere with Rising, a tape release limited to 150 copies. The result was amazing, considering that the band has almost no Internet presence. The tape sold out in less than a month solely through word of mouth. The feedback from those lucky enough to obtain the tape was nothing short of spectacular, especially from Japanese and German fans. www.gatesofhellrecords.com www.cruzdelsurmusic.com http://cruzdelsurmusic.bandcamp.com/ www.facebook.com/cruzdelsurmusic Twitter.com/CruzDelSurMusic |
MYRKUR Announces New Live EP Mausoleum; Shares "Jeg er guden, I er tjenerne"
On the one year anniversary of her critically-acclaimed, masterful debut full-length, M, Danish black metal artist MYRKUR unveils a captivating live recording from the historic Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum in Oslo, Norway. Aptly titled Mausoleum, the album features beautifully dramatic & stripped-down acoustic reinventions of seven songs from M plus one brand new song and a Bathory cover; all with the accompaniment of the storied Norwegian Girls Choir. Captured in a cold, dimly-lit tomb covered in morbid frescos that depict the circle of human life from conception til death, Mausoleum is an incredible showcase of MYRKUR's sublime yet haunting voice in a truly chilling, unrivaled atmosphere.
Hear "Jeg er guden, I er tjenerne" now at this location.
Mausoleum is due out this August 19 on CD/LP/Digital via Relapse. Physical pre-orders are available at this location, and digital versions can be pre-ordered via MYRKUR's Bandcamp here.
Info/Bio:
From the darkness of Scandinavia emerges MYRKUR. Hailing from Denmark, the one-woman project signed to renowned independent label Relapse Records in 2014 off the strength of just one EP, its eponymous debut (released September 2014). Envisioned and realized by classically-trained multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Amalie Bruun,MYRKUR combined the rawness of second-wave black metal bands like Ulver and Darkthrone with a natural, ethereal sonic beauty. MYRKUR introduced a wholly unique perspective on the genre of black metal––one that immediately put her on the map and caught the attention of listeners and publications worldwide.
Though the word "myrkur" means "darkness" in Icelandic, Bruun's music is far from monochromatic. With its distinct sense of Nordic isolation, MYRKUR's compositions are at once brutal and delicate. Choral and folk elements abound, lending the music a mystical, legendary quality and an untouchable equilibrium between dark and light.MYRKUR’s influences range from nature to traditional Scandinavian folklore to Norse mythology and far beyond. Bruun elaborates, "I always dreamed about becoming a Huldra, an Elver girl, a Valkyrie, the goddess Freja. These powerful women in Norse Mythology have an element of beauty and mystique, but they are also deadly.”
That power was more than evident on MYRKUR’s debut EP, but fully came into its own on Bruun’s first full-length, M, released by Relapse in August 2015. Featuring production and guest appearances from renowned metal legends such as Krystoffer “Garm” Rygg (Ulver), Teloch (Mayhem/Nidingr) and Christopher Amott (Arch Enemy),M showcases Bruun’s learned and mature perspective on black metal alongside her prodigious compositional and vocal talents. In its 8/10 review, Decibel Magazine characterized M as “a black metal record that respects tradition without drowning in it.” Publications including NPR, Stereogum, Pitchfork, Spin and dozens of other outlets worldwide have shared this sentiment, hailing M and MYRKUR as the very thing they stand for - not a drastic reinvention, not an atavistic homage, but a unique, timeless, and true expression of black metal. With two acclaimed releases, US and EU tours with Behemoth and Deafheaven, and a number of worldwide festival appearances under her belt, MYRKUR is ready to help her homeland reclaim its role as a global leader in extreme music.
MYRKUR is:
Amalie Bruun - All Instruments, Composition
Mausoleum Tracklisting:
1. Vølvens spådom
2. Jeg er guden, I er tjenerne
3. Skøgen skulle dø
4. Byssan lull
5. Den lille piges død
6. Frosne vind
7. Onde Børn
8. Song to hall up high
9. Dybt i skoven
STREAM KAYO DOT’S ‘PLASTIC HOUSE ON BASE OF SKY’ BEFORE ITS RELEASE THIS FRIDAY LP out June 24th from The Flenser / Listen on Noisey
"...like a multi-headed prog beast held together by a fractured new-wave beat and seriously sticky psychedelic duct tape." - Tiny Mix Tapes
Kayo Dot has never made the same record twice. From chamber music to progressive black metal, from goth to jazz and avant-garde classical, Kayo Dot is undeniably experimental and utterly unclassifiable. Since its inception in 2003, the band has released seven full-length albums, including their debut Choirs of the Eye (2003), the conceptual double-album Hubardo (2013) and most recently Coffins on Io (2014, The Flenser). Now, Kayo Dot is gearing up for the release of a new LP: Plastic House on Base of Sky, due out June 24th, 2016 from The Flenser. In advance of the album's street date, Noisey is streaming it in full today.
On Plastic House on Base of Sky, Kayo Dot fully embraces Coffins on Io's electronic allusions, incorporating a variety of synthesizers (many of them vintage analog) to create another work of ambition and magnitude that fuses the explosive musical imagination of a band like Magma with the forward-thinking experimentalism of Conrad Schnitzler or Morton Subotnick. This 40 minute-long, 5-song LP goes beyond the future-noir theme of Coffins on Io and is an innovative and biomechanical work of art. Think seemingly impossible architecture, dead satellites, trashed space stations, wasted old lady heroin addicts hanging out by cheap motel pools, broken people, and a hopeless dead and polluted world transitioning into artifice and mechanism and reacting by being self-destructive, either to the point of utter obliteration or a glorious transhuman condition.
Toby Driver, the primary composer and bandleader of Kayo Dot, has been fiercely productive over the years, and while that usually refers to how many songs or albums an artist has made, with Driver the productivity is in the realm of ideas as much as music itself. In the course of a single Kayo Dot song, the amount of risks and liberties taken with form and convention usually outnumbers what other artists cover in a full album. For as much ground as they cover, it's always in the service of a carefully curated mood and this is apparent on Plastic House on Base of Sky's exploration of our mechanical post-human future-present.
The core of Kayo Dot might be that mood– one that lies at the crossroads of darkness and mystery. In film, music that accompanies mystery is often nocturnal, playing on a primal relation in our brains between the unknown and the night. It's this intersection that is the essence of Kayo Dot. Driver, who recorded Plastic House on Base of Sky in various locations from August 2014 to December 2015, again collaborates with lyricist Jason Byron. Byron, a lifelong student of the occult, gives the listener a feast of words to unpack that are as elusively satisfying as the labyrinths of sound they travel through. Whether by way of menacing guitars, ethereal woodwinds, or aggressive electronics, there's always a sense that a new passage could open, that around the next corner could be anything.
Plastic House on Base of Sky Track Listing:
1. Amalia's Theme
2. All The Pain in All the Wide World
3. Magnetism
4. Rings of Earth
5. Brittle Urchin
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OBSCURA Share "Ten Sepiroth" Music Video via Vevo, Announce Headlining "Akroasis Europa" Tour
A new music video from German tech-death force OBSCURA has just premiered via Youtube/Vevo. "Ten Sepiroth," taken from the band's recent full-length Akroasis, can be streamed in full at this location.
In addition to their series of festival appearances this coming summer (including Brutal Assault, Tuska Open Air, and more), OBSCURA have also announced a new headlining European tour this October! They'll be laying waste to Western and Eastern Europe alongside a stellar lineup of Revocation, Beyond Creation, and Rivers of Nihil. View a full itinerary of dates below.
Produced by the band and V. Santura (Triptykon, Pestilence), OBSCURA's newest album Akróasis (released this past February via Relapse) is eight songs diverse enough to serve as a near-comprehensive introduction to all of extreme metal. Packed to the gills with virtuosic musicianship, compelling themes, and airtight songwriting,Akróasis has breathed new life into death metal, progressive metal and beyond. Akróasis is out now worldwide via Relapse Records on CD, 2xLP and Digital - physical orders are available HERE, and digital orders can be placed HERE.
OBSCURA Live:
Jul 7 Helsinki, FI Tuska Open Air
July 24 Tel Aviv, IL Gagarin / Progstage Festival
July 24 - 30 Tolmin, SI MetalDays Festival
Aug 11 Jaromer, CZ Brutal Assault
Aug 17 - 20 Dinkelsbuhl, DE Summerbreeze Festival
Aug 21 Brittany, FR Motocultor Festival
***All Dates with Revocation, Beyond Creation, Rivers of Nihil***
Oct 20 München, DE Feierwerk
Oct 21 Weinheim, DE Café Central
Oct 22 Haarlem, NL Patronaat
Oct 23 London, UK The Dome
Oct 24 Sheffield, UK Corporation
Oct 25 Aarschot, BE de Klinker
Oct 26 Paris, FR Divan du Monde
Oct 27 Aarau, CH Kiff
Oct 28 Les Pennes-Mirabeau, FR Jas'Rod
Oct 29 Calenzano/Florence, IT Cycle Club
Oct 30 Brescia, IT Circolo Colony
Oct 31 Ljubljana, SI Orto Bar
Nov 01 Wien, AT Viper Room
Nov 02 Kosice, SK Colosseum
Nov 03 Dresden, DE Scheune
Nov 04 Prague, CZ Nova Chmelnice
Nov 06 Oberhausen, DE Kulttempel
Nov 07 Berlin, DE Lido
Nov 08 Hamburg, DE Markthalle
Nov 09 Stockholm, SE En Arena
Nov 10 Oslo, NO Parkteatret
Nov 11 Aalborg, DK Aalborg Metal Festival
SACRED STEEL Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Forthcoming Release of 'Heavy Metal Sacrifice'
German Heavy Metal veterans SACRED STEEL have announced the forthcoming Cruz Del Sur Music release Heavy Metal Sacrifice on October 14. The album was recorded at Music Factory Studio Kempten (Germany) and produced by Sacred Steel and Christian Schmid. Cover artwork and track list will be announced soon!
The release of Heavy Metal Sacrifice will be a celebratory event marking the group's 20th anniversary, offering fans SACRED STEEL's most compelling album yet. Featuring highlights "Let There Be Steel," "Hail The Godz Of War," "Children Of The Sky," and the title track, SACRED STEEL sets in motion a war machine that will crush all enemies of true heavy metal!
The band has already announced a round of shows to accompany the release of the album. Confirmed dates are as follows:
10.15.2016 - 20 years of Sacred Steel Festival & Heavy Metal Sacrifice Record Release Party with SACRED STEEL, TANKARD, STALLION, TRAGEDY DIVINE (Reunion Gig), and SEPTAGON
Ludwigsburg (GER) - Scala
10.21.2016 - Vienna (A) - Escape
10.22.2016 - Phantoms of Pilsen - Pilsen (CZ)
11.12.2016 - Burn This Town Festival with ROSAE CRUCIS, HAMMER KING, BATTLE RAM, and GRAAL
Rome (IT) - Traffic Club
1.13.2017 - Hamburg (GER) - Bambi Galore
Photo Credit: Matthias Leiss
http://www.sacredsteel.eu/
Necromancing The Stone declares war on "Breakdownicus Gratuitous" with new album, 'Jewel Of The Vile'; launches first single, "The Siren's Call"
Due out August 5th worldwide via Metal Blade Records, Jewel Of The Vile is now available for pre-order in various formats at metalblade.com/necromancingthestone - where the first single, "The Siren's Call", is also streaming. If you've ever stolen music, now is the time to pay the piper: buy the album and support true heavy metal!
Featuring artwork by Ariel Zucker-Brull and guest appearances by Taylor Nordberg (The Absence, Infernaeon) and Jeff Loomis (Arch Enemy, Nevermore, etc., etc.), Jewel Of The Vile immerses the listener in fantastical tales, like those found in fantasy novels, or in the playing of an intense game of D&D. The sparing inclusion of death metal growls for characters within the stories adds an extra dynamic to the already epic vocals, which are backed by gigantic riffs and pulverizing rhythms. From the moment the aptly titled "Crusher" rushes from the speakers, Necromancing The Stone own you. True heavy metal fans, look no further - your salvation has arrived with Jewel Of The Vile!
Jewel Of The Vile track-listing:
1. Crusher
2. Bleed for the Night
3. The Descent
4. The Siren's Call
5. Ritualistic Demise
6. The Old One
7. Rotted Reunion
8. Unfinished Business
9. Honor Thy Prophet
10. From Graves to Infamy
11. The Battle of Morningstar
Necromancing the Stone line-up:
"Big" John Williams - vocals
James Malone - guitars
Justin Wood - guitars
Ryan Williams - bass
Jeramie Kling - drums
Necromancing the Stone online:
https://twitter.com/NecrotheStone
https://www.facebook.com/necromancingthestone
https://www.indiemerchstore.com/b/necromancing-the-stone
INVERTED MATTER: New album, new single and new line up
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