Artist of the Month
2009
Eluveitie clearly belongs to the fastly growing "Pagan Metal" scene, anyhow brings some "fresh wind" into it: Eluveities sound is authentic, traditional Celtic Folkmusic combined in a unique way with modern styled Melodic Death Metal, strongly influenced by the classic Gothenburg sound.
Originally formed by mastermind Chrigel Glanzmann in Winter 2002 as a mere studio project, the first MCD "Vên" was recorded in spring 2003 - already unique in it's way of having Folkmusic on an equal footing with the Metal sound.
The self-financed MCD was ardently received by scene and press and sold out within a few months. In 2004 Eluveitie signed to the Dutch label Fear Dark Records, which released a re-mastered (and partly re-recorded) version of "Vên", and continued as a "real" band, playing gigs together with bands such as Finntroll, Amon Amarth, Korpiklaani, Ensiferum and many others while touring Europe and playing festivals & openairs.
Although some line-up changes still had to happen, Eluveitie grew into being a band and developed their very own style, formed by the different influeces of eight musicians, rooted in diverse styles of music.
DARKANE, formed in 1998, rose out of the ashes of Agretator, an ill-fated yet talented band giving Watchtower (of course you remember them!) a run for their money. When Agretator became history, drummer Peter Wildoer and guitarist Christofer Malmström teamed up with fellow six stringer Klas Ideberg and bass player Jörgen Löfberg. This new outfit immediately began to crystallize a more aggressive, straight-forward sound, both technical and brutal. The combination of Peter Wildoer's unique drumming style and a steady flood-wave of blistering guitar work created an eerie feeling that can only be described as... Darkane!
After the addition of singer Andreas Sydow (who replaced Lawrence Mackrory who sang on the debut "Rusted Angel" - an hyper-fast, technical Thrash opus!) the band released three other mind-boggling albums: "Insanity" (the name says it all!), "Expanding Senses", and “Layers of Lies”. Never before have you heard such a unique mixture of technique, brutality, wickedness and musicality.
Now, after three years of silence and the entering of new huge range vocalist Jens Broman, it is time to get even LOUDER!
Demonic Art, the fifth chapter in DARKANE's history will pierce your brain with 48 minutes of pure agressive, brutal, melodic, modern, skillful, technical, furious, fast, heavy and insane thrash metal. Darkane has developed in a way that will give them new fans as well, not meaning that they’ve turned softer or more mainstream... just better! Are you prepared?
Heavy modern rock with intelligible vocals and top quality songwriting.
The Furnace formed in 1997 in Phoenix, AZ. Since that time, the band has been named Unsigned Band - Song of the Year 2000 ("Bury My Bones") on KUPD (AZ’s Premier Rock Radio Station) and received increased airplay on 92.3 KOMP Las Vegas. They were named 2002 Best Hard Rock Band Of The Year in the Dreams To Reality Award for their Beyond What’s Become CD. They worked with Grammy award winning producer Jeff Thomas on their 2005 release Find A Way. The Furnace was also voted Band Of The Week and Song Of The Week ("Comfort") on Garageband.com while reaching the #3 spot.
Now, The Furnace have released their 4th disc Words I Never Said with award winning producer Larry Elyea (Interscope) at Mind’s Eye Digital Recording Studios. The band has achieved a pinnacle in songwriting and performance standards with this offering. They strive to bring great songs to as many people as possible delivering intensity, sincerity and quality in their music.
Henrik Lundberg and Mattias Wellhag (Preserved in Grace) met during a studio session outside of Skövde, Sweden, some fifteen years ago. Henrik was playing bass in Masquerade at the time, and Mattias was singing in some crap band that were going absolutely nowhere pretty quickly…
The two became really good friends when Henrik later joined that very same crap band. Ever since, they've talked about how cool it would be to write some music together, just for the fun of it.
Many hours were spent drinking beer and head banging to 80’s hard rock, fantasizing about putting a band together. Nothing happened, of course, until Masquerade more or less fell asleep and Mattias’ crap band disappeared into oblivion about ten years later.
It was about that time that Mattias bought himself a Gibson Explorer (the coolest guitar known to man, if you ask him) and some cheap studio equipment and started experimenting away, not really knowing what the hell he was doing.
At the same time, Henrik was rockin' out hard man in his living room creating interesting noise with his Gibson Les Paul arsenal (the coolest guitars known to man, if you ask Henrik). Things suddenly started sounding pretty awesome and the result of that is: House Of Heavy.
After two years of writing and recording together in Mattias’ living room, the self titled debut album is, believe it or not, finished!
In September of 2008, House of Heavy signed a digital distribution deal with Metal Blade and also manage to flirt their way into a worldwide deal by signing on for the mighty Spiritual Beast Records in October of 2008, for a physical release.
Nathan Thomas - drums
Rico Marziali - bass / guitars
Joe Miller - guitars / keyboards
Ryan Noble - guitars
Corey Spencer - vocals
“Time discovers truth.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
And so it has rung true with Charlotte, NC, metal band Seneca. Formed in 2002, SENECA have been hard at work creating a name for themselves over the past six years. Since the release of their first “Self-Titled” full-length in 2004, Seneca has indeed seen the true colors of their musical identity brought to light in the subsequent years. Although their first album was received with an abundance of positive fan and critical response, Seneca was determined to evolve from both a musical and creative standpoint. In order to do so, the band spent the next few years concentrating primarily on writing new material and building their already solid fan-base through several U.S. tours.
Early – Mid 2009 will see the release of the band’s Lifeforce debut and second full-length LP entitled “Reflections.” Mixed, mastered, and produced by genre stalwart Jaime King (Between the Buried and Me, Glass Casket, Beneath the Sky), “Reflections” offers a unique blend of lyrical sincerity, sweeping melody, and vicious anger. As an added bonus for long time fans and new fans alike, there will be a limited edition pressing of “Reflections” that will include a free bonus disc of the band’s first 2004 Self-Titled full length record, re-mixed and re-mastered by Jamie King himself.
Rob Arnold - Lead Axe
Matt DeVries - Rhythm Guitar
Andols Herrick - Drums
Mark Hunter - Singar
Jim LaMarca - Bass
Chris Spicuzza - Keys
There's an obscure Chinese proverb that roughly translates as "There is one thing greater than money and power: Enthusiasm." While some of the more cynical bastards in the world would dismiss that statement as some kind of hollow fortune-cookie philosophy, that lesson is something the Cleveland-based metal outfit Chimaira have taken to heart. With four records and a decade of service in the trenches behind them, the band—singer Mark Hunter, guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries, bassist Jim LaMarca, drummer Andols Herrick and keyboardist Chris Spicuzza—have created The Infection, their second release for Ferret Music and their most ambitious recording yet.
Sounds like typical record-company bio nonsense, right? Doesn't every band tell you that their latest release surpasses everything they've done up to this point? How many times have you heard the words "maturing" or "progressing" as a rationale to deliver a crap album? For their fifth album, Chimaira didn't have any brushes with death, rehab memories or dalliances in musical genres that have nothing to do with "the rock" as we know it. Sounds crazy, but the truth is that the band have come around full circle, returning to the headspace that brought them together in the first place.
"Every album we've ever made has a back-story that made the creation of that album a pain in the ass," says Mark Hunter about his band's evolution. [Continue]
Official Site
Myspace
interview
"Destroy and Dominate" video
Ben Falgoust - vocals
Sammy Duet - guitar
Nathan Bergeron - bass
Zack Simmons - drums
Duet sums it up simply: “If you don't like it, kiss my ass.”
Emerging from the swamplands of New Orleans, Louisiana — a city rich with urban legends of voodoo curses, ghosts and murder — Goatwhore was formed in 1997 by guitarist Sammy Duet (Acid Bath, Crowbar, Ritual Killer etc.). Their history is a winding one marked by lineup shifts, temporary paralysis, haunted studios, and the survival of one of the five most destructive hurricanes in US history. Influenced by the raw savagery of bands like Venom and Celtic Frost, their unrefined, fuck-all approach to black metal first revealed on the Serenades To The Tides Of Blood demo and expanded upon on the now legendary Eclipse Of Ages Into Black debut nearly a decade ago earned the band instant underground credibility. Then comprised of Duet, vocalist Ben Falgoust and guitarist Ben Stout (both of Soilent Green), bassist Patrick Bruders and drummer Zak Nolan, Goatwhore toured relentlessly and by 2003 had garnered a loyal cult following of metal fans old and new. Second full-length Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun was a slower, more introverted affair that transcended well beyond the confines of traditional black metal. Impossibly heavy and lyrically dense, with Falgoust’s and Duet’s high-to-low vocal tradeoffs fusing its menacing atmosphere, the 12-tracks within were met with equal approval and the band quickly returned to the road. [Continue]
Amorphis
Founded 1990 in Helsinki, AMORPHIS have worked their way to the apex of the European metal scene and won international renown. [Continue]
The new album Skyforger shares the lyrical concept of the two previous albums, its central character being Kalevala blacksmith Ilmarinen. Musically, the band soars to unprecedented heights; not abandoning the cherished ingredients of their sound but rather refining them, augmenting them with fresh elements, and delivering them with breathtaking passion and intensity. The first single, Silver Bride, was another number 1 hit for Amorphis, and the live qualities of the new songs shall be proven at Finland's biggest festivals this summer as well as on the extensive Forging Europe Tour in the fall.
The tale goes ever on...
Official Site
Myspace
review (coming soon)
Nuclear Blast Records
The Black Dahlia Murder
Still riding high on waves of acclaim for their rabidly-received DVD spectacle Majesty, Michigan’s unstoppable sons of molten melodic death metal The Black Dahlia Murder triumphantly bring you their fourth thrashing opus Deflorate. An epic expansion of the stunning pitch-black cacophony that was 2007’s Nocturnal, Deflorate boasts Black Dahlia’s brand of seamlessly-mixed Swedish influenced blackened thrash and pounding American death metal muscle, and sees one of metal’s most outstanding underground outfits at the peak of its unmitigated musical brutality. [Continue]
Deflorate was produced by The Black Dahlia Murder, Mark Lewis (Deicide) and Jason Suecof (Beneath the Massacre, Job for a Cowboy) with mixing duties handled by Suecof. Deflorate is multifaceted death trip: beautiful, evil, and morbidly addicting. The Black Dahlia Murder’s fourth thrashing epic sees no punch pulled, no gravestone unturned, no soul uncorrupted. Guard your precious innocence all you like, it will do you no good—Deflorate is here.
Suicide City
SUICIDE CITY was first conceived when Biohazard vocalist/guitarist Billy Graziadei met Karl Bernholtz, vocalist of the south Florida band The Groovenics. The pair was joined by drummer Danny Lamagna, who had been recommended by members of Sworn Enemy. Soon after, Groovenics guitarist AJ Marchetta was added to the fold, and the lineup was finally rounded out by former Kittie bassist Jennifer Arroyo. [Continue]
SUICIDE CITY releases their debut full-length effort, entitled ‘Frenzy,’ via Brooklyn label THE END RECORDS. The album was recorded at Underground Sound Studios, produced, engineered and mixed by Billy Graziadei, and mastered by UE Nastasi at Sterling Sound. “’Frenzy’ is such an eclectic blend of music,” says Marchetta. “This band is unafraid and unapologetic about what we create, and because of that we have an album with a really wide musical landscape.” Graziadei points out, “In our short time together, Suicide City has achieved more on our own than most bands do in their whole career with the help of a label.” Perhaps Bernholtz sums it up best: “Suicide City thrives on making people happy and smile through our music without having to candy coat anything. Life does not ‘suck and then you die.’ Life is great, dangerous, exciting, strange, and then you die. I guess that’s what we’re trying to portray with our music.”
Skeletonwitch
The drought is over. After years in the wilderness, homegrown heavy metal has finally returned. No longer the domain solely of our European forefathers, metal pure in both delivery and creativity is gaining momentum at breakneck speed in the Western Hemisphere. Leading the charge domestically are Ohio’s sons of Midwestern darkness SKELETONWITCH, who have emerged as forerunners of this new American sound. The ‘WITCH’s mighty sonic fortress is an amalgamation of classic Bay Area thrash, Scandinavian death/black metal and NWOBHM. Upping the ante from their Prosthetic debut, Beyond the Permafrost, these five gnarly longhairs show no mercy and take no prisoners on their new long-player, Breathing the Fire. [Continue]
SKELETONWITCH brings together the old and sacred elements of true heavy metal, melts them down, and forges them into a brand new monolith of riffage. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll come out and bang your head when SKELETONWITCH comes to your town. Worship the ‘WITCH!
Devin Townsend Project
In a world of increasing conformity and musical banality, Devin Townsend is among the few real personalities who have character, charisma and surprising innovative creativity. As a solo artist and producer, a member of the (by now disbanded) Strapping Young Lad, with whom he played Ozzfest and the main stage at the Download festival, and vocalist on Steve Vai’s album, Sex And Religion, – Townsend has always inspired fans and critics alike. The latest chapter of his extremely diverse career is entitled Ki and will be out in May/June 2009. “Ki is the first in a series of four albums under the moniker ‘Devin Townsend Project’. Each album is essentially a different band or collection of session musicians playing my music,” Townsend explains. “They were chosen based on what the theme of the album is and the vibe that the album is trying to project. The album Ki is very specific in this quartet of albums in that it controls its anger throughout, barring one song – ‘Heaven Send’ – and really is an exercise in having little to prove.” [Continue]
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