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"



If flaccid, identikit, breakdown-laden "metal" is the disease, Necromancing The Stone is the cure. With their upcoming debut full-length,Jewel Of The Vile, the group - featuring current/former members of Arsis (James Malone, guitars), The Absence (Jeramie Kling, drums),The Black Dahlia Murder (Ryan "Bart" Williams, bass) and Brimstone Coven (guitarist Justin Wood and vocalist "Big" John Williams) - plans to vanquish "Breakdownicus Gratuitous" with 11 tracks that are uniquely Necromancing The Stone."Call it what you will, or describe our music however you feel is best, but to us it is just heavy metal," comments the band."It is riffs and melodies. It is sonic savagery worth banging your head to."

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



Composition wise, INVERTED MATTER have just ultimated their new album. They will go on to record it through this summer.

There have been some changes in their line up and the band is proud to announce that Michael Smith joined (former Suffocation) in to play drums, Leonardo "Lispio" Langaro on bass and Jason Nealy on guitar. And just like it happened with the first album, Ivan Odorico will be featured as guest lead guitarist on some tracks.
Here's a taste of their new material: http://youtu.be/7fNay1N4eVA