Is Survived By

What will your legacy be?

When you are dead, who will remember you and what will they remember?

It's hard, isn't it. To think of yourself as leaving thoughts that others will carry after you were gone. That you will exist only in those thoughts.

Now imagine you are Jeremy Bolm and you are the frontman of Touche Amore one of the principal bands in modern hardcore. Kids love you, look up to you, they follow you to dingy clubs and halls and they scream along to words you have written. You mean something to you.

Once you leave, will they still care, will they remember your words? Will your band fade into the realm of obscurity.

On Is Survived By, Touche Amore question what it means to have a legacy, and they do it damn well.

They've abandoned the formulaic musicianship and overwrought lyrics of Parting The Sea Between Brightness and Me in favor of melodic emo-ish guitar lines and meditative, erudite prose. The newfound musicianship help cover the only flaw in the record- namely, Jeremy Bolm's monotone vocal delivery. He carries the same hardcore bark throughout the record, never change style or pitch.

Despite that issue, this is an excellent album and a big leap forward for the band.

8.5/10

New Warbringer track

Warbringer have released a total fucking ripper of a track entitled "Hunter Seeker" from their upcoming album IV: Empires Collapse due out on October 29

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BfxYMI8L9Q

New Truckfighters!

Psychadelic rock band Truckfighters have released a new song, taken from their eponymous EP coming out October 4th.

I slept on these guys for a while but they totally rule.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnMXxmdzfEI

Make Love Wheat Bread

The Delicious Bread Collective, the  experimental bastions of the nonsensical have released a new album entitled "Make Love Wheat Bread."

I really can't say anything about these guys. Just...give it a listen.

http://thedeliciousbreadcollection.bandcamp.com/album/make-love-wheat-bread

New More Than Life song

Melodic hardcore tour-monsters, More Than Life have released a brand new track entitled "Do you Remember?"

It's very, very melodic alternative rock. A very interesting  change in sound for the band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI2lHSPkW1c

New Inquisition Track.

Black metal duo Inquisition are streaming a new song entitled "Darkness Flows Towards Unseen Horizons"

This track is taken from their upcoming album, Obscure Verses for the Multiverse, set to be released in October through Seasons of Mist.

Tracklist:

1. Force of the Floating Tomb
2.Darkness Flows Towards Unseen Horizons
3. Obscure Verses for the Multiverse
4. Spiritual Plasma Evocation
5. Master of The Cosmological Black Cauldron
6. Joined By Dark Matter, Repelled By Dark Energy
7. Arrival Of Eons After
8. Invasion of the Ethereal White Stars
9. Infinite Interstellar Genocide. 

I'm excited,this track rules and this band always puts out stellar material.

Song can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q98qulfxXcs

Bandcamp artist of the week: Bode Predo

Leather jackets, bullet belts, cutoff t-shirts, satanic rituals, and short songs.

The late 80s, death metal was in its infancy, Celtic Frost, Venom, and Slayer inspired a whole glut of heavy, brutal bands. Some took influence from the Kreator/Slayer model, crafting fast, downtuned songs with guttural vocals, while others took the Hellhammer/Venom blueprint, using fast, high pitched riffs and high vocals. For a while, these new groups, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Death, ruled the world.

In a perfect world, Bode Pedro would have started 3-decades ago, became the cream of the metal crop, and brok eup after one spectacular album.

Alas, it is 2013 and they are relatively unknown. Which is a shame, as they craft some of the best blackened death metal I've heard.

Give it a listen.

http://dnprod.bandcamp.com/album/dark-night-7ep-10-2013

From the Vault: Merzbow

 

You're probably wondering why I chose Masami Akita, a.k.a  Merzbow as the focus of "From the Vault." He is not obscure,he is not overlooked, in fact, he is the face of noise music.

That's what interests me about him, he has taken harsh noise,  a genre that should be confined to basements and art-spaces ,and put it in full view of the masses, playing festivals and club shows all around the world.

I'm not sure why this is. There is a mystique about him, he is sleek and distinctive, and the packaging and themes of his work are certainly interesting. Not many noise artists focus on veganism and animal rights. But his work is harsh to the average listener.

He is challenging to me, not his music but his persona. He is a noise-maker who reached the highest possible level of recognition in a genre that is for obscure and the thoughtful.

I have no bandcamp to post, as his releases are in the hundreds. You've probably heard of him, but check him out if you haven't.

Monomyth stream new album.

Dutch progressive band Monomyth are streaming their debut album.

 http://burningworldrecords.bandcamp.com/album/monomyth

I'm really excited,you guys. I love their sound. Ambient, spacial, yet rythmick. Very krautrock.

Avatarium!

Avatarium, the new doom metal project of Leif Edling (candlemass) are set to release their new album on November 1st through Nuclear Blast Recordws.

Tracklist is as follows:

1. Moonhorse
2. Pandora's Egg
3. Avatarium
4. Boneflower
5. Bird Of Prey
6. Tides Of Telepathy
7. Lady In The Lamp

Purtenance announce new album.

Finish death metal band, Purtenance have announced their second studio album, entitled Awaken from Slumber, will be released on October 1st.

The tracklisting, and a sample track called "Hour of the Cannibal", can be found here.

http://www.metalunderground.com/news/details.cfm?newsid=95514

Maestus

I live near a body of water and I visit often to sit on the shore and feel the breeze and clear my head a bit. It is off the beaten path so there are no people to watch or to "Clean." There was once a dead fish there and he lie there for several days until a bird picked off its soft flesh from the sides and the eyes and it rotted.

I thought this was beautiful, scary, but beautiful. I realized that there is nothing else but nature and I felt well and whole.

Black Metal gives me the same feeling, the same reverence for the natural world. and its accidental order.

I don't care about about Satan, or misanthropy, or war,or evil, or corpsepaint,that is all secondary.

What matters is the feeling of natural peace, that's what makes black metal worth listening to.

Maestus, an ambient black metal band comprised of members of Arkhum and Weirding Way, captures nature in all his horrific beauty. The album is mostly built with neo-classical keyboard pieces with the occasional harsh black metal break. This creates an uncomfortable listen, bipolar and dissonant, but often beautiful.

This is a plus, generally, but it can lack cohesiveness

8/10

bandcamp: http://glossolaliarecords.bandcamp.com/album/scarlet-lakes

Sweet pants,bro.

Crust punk should be something I enjoy.

I like metal. I like punk. I like anarchism and I like stupid fashion choices. A combination of all of these factors should be amazing but crust is something I never really got along with. It always sounded watery to me, boring and hollow.

While I listened to L' Ultima Caduta by Z.A.T, I realized that's the point.

This is shitty music for shitty, broken people who all want to drink together and have fun jumping around at shows. The riffs are solid, bass is decent, and vocals are gutteral. That's all you really need.

8/10

Bandcamp: http://zonaautonomatemporanea.bandcamp.com/album/l-ultima-caduta

INTHESHIT tour.

Fastcore/Grindcore act INTHESHIT have announced a new East coast tour.

Dates include:

10/15 Providence, RI @ AS220

10/16 Montclair, NJ @ the Meat Locker

10/17 Chapel Hill, NC @ the Cave

10/18 Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter

10/19 Philadelphia, PA @ Pariah House

10/20 Long Island, NY @ TBA

Bandcamp: http://intheshit.bandcamp.com/

Cleric debut new video

Dallas tech-death band Cleric have revealed a video for the song Through The Starless Abyss, from the album Gratum Inferno out on Tofu Carnage records.

It's heavy, it's thick, and the vocals are absolutely killer.Give it a listen.

Video:http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2013/09/video-debut-cleric-through-the-starless-abyss/

Bandcamp: http://clericdeath.bandcamp.com/

On the heels of their album 13, Black Sabbath have returned with a live dvd entitled Gathered in Their Masses containing footage from that tour.

I'm pretty pumped to see it, Sabbath has always been a force of nature live and their last album was a return to form.

They're teasing the new dvd on their youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEJ08MGyQyA

From the Vault: Weird War

Attention culture warriors, psychic soviets, hot-rod drivers, teenage delinquents, and well-groomed terrorists, there is a new group to guide you, to enthrall you, to take you to the unexplored fringes of post-political thought and dogma. These cross-ethnic do-gooders will take you to the mountain, to the stars, to the moon covered in cosmonaut corpses and tin foil flags.

They are Weird War and they are here to save you!

Founded by impromptu prophet and rock n roll medium, Ian Svenonius, Weird War has existed, in one form or another, since the hegemony solidifying year of 2001, when the president read to kids like Nero played the Lyre.

Their first dispatch was I'll Never Forget What's His Name, an aural questioning of the age of stupidity in art and politics. Since then, they have released multiple revolutionary soundbites. 

But propaganda is only as good as its readers. Embrace it, envelope yourself in it, join the band of bite marched, suit-swaddled youth!

Bandcamp artist of the week: Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy. are a band from Chicago that play raw, snotty hardcore in the vein of Black Flag or Leftover Crack. The guy in the picture looks to be quite young and I'm assuming the rest of the band is too which makes their mastery of hardcore mixed with psuedo-crust all the more surprising.

Guitars are power chords, fast,brutal, a thin,but effective framing device for the angry, raw-throated delivery of Victor, the vocalist.

The rhythm section slays, the bass player has a nasty, bile-choked tone and the drummer sounds like he actively hates the instrument and wants to beat the piss out of it.

As you can tell from the name, they sing about politics or, I think they do, because the vocals are so buried under the chunky chords and slimy bass that I can't discern a single word. Oh well, they probably have stupid opinions anyway.

http://foreignpolicy.bandcamp.com/album/hogwash

Cerebral Ballzy track review.

Honor Titus, frontman of Cerebral Ballzy,  likes The Dead Boys. He likes them a lot. He's sported t-shirts, patches, he even tattooed Stiv Bators on his arm.

That's cool, I guess. Who doesn't like The Dead Boys? Young, Loud, and Snotty kind of ruled and for a few years, between 1977 and 1980, they were the most dangerous band on the planet.

 But admiration of Bators and co is one thing, completely aping their sound is another.

Cerebral Ballzy, with their new single, have abandoned their furious combination of throwback hardcore and speed metal for a watery retread of the '77 sound.

I really can't recommend this track for Ballzy fans,butpeople who dig The Casualties might like it, and that pretty much says it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFFm7kOyxsg

New Loss of Self album.

Australian experimental metal group Loss of Self are streaming their new album on bandcamp. This is their first studio LP and it contains three songs from their early demo period. Loss of Self are currently signed to Flenser records.

http://theflenser.bandcamp.com/album/twelve-minutes

Windhand Streaming two new songs

Virginia occult doomsters, Windhand, are streaming two new songs on their bandcamp. The tracks, entitled 'Orchard' and 'Woodbine', are taken from their upcoming album Soma, due for release on September 17th through Relapse Records.

http://windhandva.bandcamp.com/  

Pig Destroyer release new song.

Virginia grindcore act Pig Destroyer have released a new song, entitled The Octogonal Stairway', via Adult Swim's William Street Records. The song will feature on a compilation entitled Adult Swim Singles. 

Link: http://video.adultswim.com/music/singles-2013/

Drink

Gin, juniper berries and 30% alcohol. It's also called Wacholder or Genebraba but those are foreign words so they lack gumption.

He sits outside, on a bench he made, sipping the drink and gazing into the snow. A fire burns behind him, in the fireplace in the cabin, and he knows he should be tending to it but he also knows it will most likely go out on its own.

There are many things to do in the morning, hunt,of course, and walk to the well but for now he is content to drink.

This man is my father, not my real father who I barely knew, but a fictitious example, an idea of masculinity that I know is bullshit and that I know I can never obtain but an idea that I am fascinated with nonetheless.

I thought about this character often as I listened to Rebellion Hymns, the debut album from one-man, americana-come-alternative rock band, Man Gin. I thought about this character, and I thought about gin,but who could blame me? In the course of the albums 12 tracks, Man Gin's sole-member, Erik Wunder, conjures up images of booze-drenched Americana, of rugged men taming wilderness, of murder and humanity and inescapable sin.

It would be  damn near- impossible to separate the real Wunder from his art. A veteran of tours in Iraq and South Korea, he undoubtedly experienced man at its worst. He drowns this all in drink, a big preoccupation of these songs, and I thought what that means in art and I thought about Gin

Gin makes me think of Manhattan clubs, bad comedies, and white men wearing suits. But Van Gogh is 94 proof, and it will get you drunk and if the problems you face are strong enough, you will drink it. I can't think of anything purer than that.

10/10.

http://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/smiling-dogs
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mans-Gin/163217557044788

Breath

Every once in a while, I will hear a band that forces me to stop what I'm doing and tell someone about them. When I was ten, it was The Beatles. At fifteen, At the drive in. Now, at eighteen, that band is Nighttime in the Abyss.

They combine every style of music that I have grown to love in the last year- black metal, noise, ambient, doom, into a potent mishmash of satanic expression and misanthropy.

Listen to them. Buy all of their records. Now.

http://torturecultofficial.bandcamp.com/