#soulfly era

[preciadosbass]

23/8/24 [draft from friday — key + significant photos at end]

yay i can finally post this!! woke up at 6:30 and said goodmorning to boris. he was inside again, i think because of how cold it is out. i then got dressed as soon as i could so i was completely ready before the time we had to leave to go away. i put on a light gray low cut shirt, but then started freezing alive so i changed into my sleeping with sirens shirt as it was the only shirt out that i hadn’t already packed. i paired it with black ripped skinny jeans, gray + black striped arm warmers, knee high converse, danger days my chemical romance zip up, my kellin quinn necklace, a surfboard shaped wood carved necklace — and no cuffs/bracelets as this outfit is just to be worn for the car ride to the campus and then ill get changed for swimming.

after getting ready, i had a snack and painted my left hand’s nails with black nail polish. i surprisingly did them pretty neatly to how i usually do it and considering how small my nails are. within a few minutes of them being dried, half of my second smallest nail’s polish came off halfway lmao - i was going to put some more on to cover it up, but i was in a rush and i needed to do my teeth, i finished at 7. i then checked on boris again and replaced the pins on my bag. ive needed to ever since i took a ton off to put onto my jacket. all that’s left now is: incubus pin, spider-man pin, the last of us pin, t-rex pin, saliva pin, kittie pin, shark pin, beetle pin, brendon urie pin, chi cheng pin, soulfly pin, collide with the sky [pierce the veil] pin, and a silent hill pin. which sounds like a lot, but because of the way they’re set out, it dosent look like many. at least not compared to what i’m used to.

once i was done [7:18], i packed my bag. i packed: my camera, skeleton gloves, collage scraps, my collage journal, camera charger, headphone charger, extra bracelets, my spiral earrings, battery packs, my hairbrush, my wallet, hand sanitizer, meds, and my phone charger. after doing that and a few other odd bits around the house [turning off switches, making sure i’ve packed everything, etc] i went to see boris properly at 7:40. i told him about everything that’s going to be going on [who’s taking care of him, that she’s not comfortable letting him out, when we’re getting back, things like that] and said goodbye to him. i finished officially at 8:20. i’m gunna miss him so much while we’re away, but i’m excited to see him again afterwards and tell him everything.

everyone [me, my sister, my parents] got in the car at around the same. unrelated, but i also forgot to mention in yesterdays journal, archie was taken over to my sister’s friends house to be looked after. we set off at 2:30 and i looked through soul punk patrick stump videos along with a few pretty odd era panic! tiktoks. also watched my chemical romance’s song 2 [blur] cover, i don’t know why i haven’t seen this before i’m obsessed. i started journaling at 9:16 and wrote all of the paragraphs above. than at 9:30 i took a break and started listening to some music. [just surrender, fall out boy, gerard way + ray toro, frank iero, falling in reverse, blur, my chemical romance, death of a bachelor panic! at the disco, a static lullaby.]

i had a nap somewhere near 11:30 [on my seal plush] and woke up at around 12:40. i continued listening to music [CKY, HIM, frank iero, darling you should be ashamed, linkin park, lovehatehero, before today, a bullet for a pretty boy [[so underrated]], and sleeping with sirens.] i did so until 1:44 when we arrived at the resort. my dad pulled the car into the drive through place where you get your keycard/folder of leaflets and after driving round to our car park, we started unpacking into the room. on our holiday guide, it said that we could only get in our room at 3, so we were lucky to get in early. as soon as i found me & my sisters room and claimed my bed, and hung up my necklaces on the windows’ handle. along with taking a few things out of my bag + putting cuffs/band bracelets on. we did plan on going to swimming as soon as my extended family arrived, but that ended up not working out as they had to leave late.

i then took out my collage journal and started cutting up the leaflets from the folder into separate letters [etc] to make a collage tomorrow. well i say tomorrow, when i started cutting everything up, i intended for me to put everything together today. [photo at end] but i only got round to collecting the bits of paper i need. i used my stamps to print stars onto a yellow sticky note and took a couple pictures of the leaflets incase we needed anything off them after id cut them up [e.g wifi support]. me, my parents and my sister left for a show and arrived at the venue at 3:12. on the way to the venue, we met up with D [one of my cousins, his girlfriend — L, and her son, W.] we got the time wrong so we thought were really short on time, but it started 20 minutes after we found a table.

first up was a beatboxer, except he made more sound affects than sounds to make into some kind of song. he was also really funny with the way he made and timed the sound affects. it’s impossible for me to explain with unless you were there and saw him, but he was really good. next was four breakdancers, ive never really had much interest in breakdancing, but it was quite cool to watch them. one had come all the way down from japan or something.

after was one of those big hoop acts. there’s not much to say as there’s not much to explain — following on from that, a bmX rider came out and started doing all kinds of crazy tricks. i somewhat remember seeing the show itself around a year ago, but this bmX guy was different than last year. its tricky to explain a bmX show generally, but its even trickier for people to read id they don’t know what it is. so i recommend looking up bmX tricks. once he’d done his thing, a basketballer came onto stage. he was manipulating the ball and circling it around him shoulders etc. behind him was a fake button with “do not push” plastered above it. obviously, it’s a show, he ‘pressed’ the button and everytime another ball would roll out from backstage.

in the end, he was working with 5 different basketballs. it was super impressive. before the show finished, everyone came out and did all their tricks side by side. during the entire show, the beatboxer was singing and making even more sound affects. he actually had a pretty decent voice. at 4:30, after we’d all packed up our stuff and gotten ready to leave and do something else, me, my parents and my sister headed back to our room. D, L and W went off to their rooms aswell. upon getting into our chalet, i went to have a nap but ended up putting on my skates. my sister stuck on hers and we circuited a section of the resort, looking for D’s room. it didn’t take us long before we found it. but during skating around and checking door numbers, i stupidly sped round a corner on the second level of chalets and nearly fell headfirst down a huge staircase.

i assumed that it’d turn and go round the other side, so i could look at the numbers on the other rooms, as a few other of the second story ‘balconys’ or whatever you wanna call them - don’t have stairs and just follow on around the other side. but i was wrong. i slightly toppled down the first two stairs and then grabbed onto my sister’s back. luckily i didn’t make her fall over lmao // at 5:30, all of us [all of my family] went round to our restaurant for dinner. it was a little cheeky of us to even eat together as everyone in the family apart from my parents & sister have reservations for another restaurant.

after dinner, i went back to the room and stayed there for 30 minutes alone before me, my sister and my parents made our way to yet another show. we arrived at the venue and i sat near the front on the floor with my sister. my mum sat on some stairs and my dad stayed standing. it was a magic show, which is quite a complicated thing to explain, especially because i actually didn’t understand how any of the tricks were done, but i enjoyed it. also while the backstage staff were sorting out some more props the start of my generation by limp bizkit played!!

the show finished at 8, and me and my immediate family went round to the rest of the family’s chalets to check them out. i went into the more cousin based one first, the people staying in it were: RY and H, and R and E. i sat on R’s bed and just people watched [mostly] until H offered to paint my right hand’s nails dark purple as id forgotten to paint that hand in black when i was at home. then i went to see the rest of my family’s room. the family members in this chalet are my aunt and uncle, and L/W. when i came in my uncle had a jumper over the radiator and it smelt so bad and was clearly just about to light on fire. i went back into the cousin’s room/s and went to see E and see what she was doing.

she was applying gems to her eyelids with some kind of makeup glue. she asked if i wanted some and i agreed so she sat me down and gently glued the gems onto my face. [photo at end] when she was done and if verified i was happy with it, i went back to my room to quickly get something — i’m not sure what it was as im writing this on the 27th. when i got back at 9:10, we had to leave for another show. we walked across the resort and arrived at the venue to get ourselves some seats. me and E tried taking pictures of our gemmed-up eyelids together but wasn’t able to because of bad lighting. the show was advertised as a ‘rock’ festival, however the music that played was things like lizzo and ed sheeran.

i was kind of disappointed because i thought it’d be punk rock or something else i would be able to sing along to, but it was funny that we were catfished so bad. me and R just sat there making faces for eachother, indicating that ‘this isn’t rock, wtf is this’ - the performance ended at 10:20 and we went straight to another venue to join in with a ‘music dance party.’ as you can imagine, the music was dance music, but i like dance music. i somewhat danced with my grandad, E and R. R spun me around and my sister stayed swaying across the dance floor with my dad. [photo at end]

i haven’t really ever seen my dad dance before, but his favourite ‘party’ track came on and he went mad. he was doing all sorts of weird dance moves but it was cracking me up. if only whoever is reading this saw it in the moment. we parted with the rest of the family and went back to the chalet at approximately 11:30. i started to do a bit of my journal, made a picture collage of the day, and had a little nap. after my nap, i asked my parents questions about boris, said goodnight to boris via a picture of him [the picture in question is at the end] and went to sleep at 1:45.

🗝️ — boris/my cat, archie/my immediate family’s dog, questions about boris/i ask my parents questions about my cat to verify he's okay + will be okay in the morning. its a compulsive thing and i'm hopefully going to be tested for OCD in the future.

have a good day/night O_o

[metalsongoftheday]

Tuesday, November 8: Sepultura, “The Experiment”

Conventional wisdom held that Max Cavalera’s departure drained Sepultura of its creativity, heart and momentum, and for the first few years album and ticket sales reflected that.  But Cavalera quickly found himself in a creative (and eventually commercial) rut with Soulfly, resorting to cheap trend-hopping and burning through the goodwill he accumulated over the years, while Andreas Kisser worked to push Sepultura in ways that were more artistically compelling and fulfilling if not commercially rewarding.  And although not all of these endeavors fully hit the mark- and the chaotic chemistry of the early ‘90s was gone forever- the Derrick Green era held up better than expected.  Certainly Max Cavalera would never have thought to build a concept album based on A Clockwork Orange, but if anything A-Lex took the immersive approach of Roots and applied that philosophy to a different set of textures. Even with that, “The Experiment” balanced the band’s ambition with their foundation in hardcore and extreme metal: Kisser delivered his trademark full-throttle aggression with traces of melody, while new drummer Jean Dolabella was more technical than Igor Cavalera and added a different but still exciting dynamic.  And it was worth noting that by 2009 Green had more than established himself as a vocalist in his own right, his roar getting stronger with each release.  A-Lex wasn’t perfect- it ran a bit long and got a little samey in the back half, unlike the leaner and more effective Dante XXI- but it showed that Sepultura had no interest in standing still, unlike their former bandmate.

[doktordismemberment]

Roundup #5 Albums of the Year III: Last Call

Ok, 2022 has officially ground to a halt and with it so has this list. This thing turned into way more work than I was expecting but whatever, it’s not like I had anything better to do.

As with previous installments these aren’t listed in any particular order.

-

Mizmor - Wit’s End - New mini-album of desolate blackened doom from the consistently awesome Mizmor. First track is an absolute crusher. Second track is an ambient/ ethereal drift. Both are fucking awesome.

-

GGU:LL - EX EST - This is probably nothing you haven't heard before, but man... When it's done right I'm still such a fucking sucker for the Times of Grace/ Through Silver in Blood side of the "post metal" spectrum and GGU:LL hit that mark with sniper precision.

-

Primitive Knot - Ur Metal - Throw Venom, Bathory, Godflesh, and Hawkwind in a blender and what comes out the other side is basically Primitive Knot.

Probably my favorite band on earth right now even if I'm a slightly jealous that I didn't think of it first.

-

Cromlech - Questionable Strategies - Primitive Knot side project with the mixture skewed slightly toward the Godflesh side of what they do.

-

Skuul - The Status of Machines/ New Amerika - Another satellite project orbiting the dark planet that is Primitive Knot... Skuul seem to channel the later Damon Edge era Chrome stuff through industrial and metal in a way that brings me right back to being a Wax Trax/ Invisible Records obsessed teenager.

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Locrian - New Catastrophism - The planet is dying and this is its requiem mass.

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Dalek - Precipice - I've never felt qualified to "review" hip hop but I've been a Dalek fan for ages and I love this new record.

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Raid - Parallels - Straight up baffling combo of noisy lo-fi shoegaze and brutal metallic hardcore that has grown on me steadily since I first checked it out a couple months ago. I initially described this project as sounding like they're toeing the line between suicide and murder and that's still the best description I can come up with.

Sounds like your wife texting to tell you she's leaving you while you're stuck in traffic in the pouring rain.

-

Axioma - Sepsis - Their first album wed swirling blackened riffage to heaving dark dissonance in a way that reminded me of both Cattlepress and Deathspell Omega and this new one continues in that vein so it gets a thumbs up from me... I'm bummed there's not a CD Version of this.

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Petbrick - Liminal - Electronically augmented noiserock featuring Iggor from Sepultura on drums. The track with Jacob Bannon on vox is legitimately what I wish parts of my band sounded like which is weird because I'm not usually the biggest Converge fan, but christ what a psychotic mess that track is.

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Soulfly - Totem - Sepultura were one of the bands that got me into metal and I've been a Soulfly fan since their first album. Feel like Totem ups the amount of tribal drumming over the past couple albums which is cool.

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Amon Amarth - The Great Heathen Army - Awesome from front to back but the track with the dude from Saxon on vox puts it over the top for me.

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Diamanda Galas - Broken Gargoyles - Damaging return to form (or at least a return to a form I enjoy more than her jazz/ blues influenced stuff) from the absolute queen of vocal chords as weapon of mass destruction.

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Et Moriemur - Tamashii No Yama - Weird proggy sludge from Czechia. I really enjoyed this, but fuck I am sooo sick of writing right now. I'm done, tapping out, goodnight.

-

Video Games of the Year:

Chained Echoes

Anno Mutationem

Salt and Sacrifice

Drainus

-

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Max Cavalera

[rastronomicals]

September 25:

On this date in 1976, Black Sabbath released their seventh album, Technical Ecstasy.

Despite the poor reputation, if you give it a listen, you'll find it's actually pretty good, even with the absence of satanic or paranormal content. Nonetheless, it's a step down from any of their first four.

On this date in 1982, The Psychedelic Furs released their third album, Forever Now.

No video may embody the early MTV era more than the trippy "Love My Way," but the real great one here is "President Gas."

Today is the 20th anniversary of the release of Primitive, Soulfly's second album.

And,

On the 25th of September, 2001, Deicide came out with In Torment In Hell, their sixth album.

[happymetalgirl]

Who did it better? (#1)

In the interest of livening up this blog and shaking up the homogeneously review-oriented content, I’m kicking off a casual little series that I thought of a while ago that I think can spark some interesting comparisons. A lot of song titles are shared by multiple artists, especially one-word titles. As is pretty self-explanatory by the title of this series, I’m simply comparing several pairs of songs from different artists that share a title, and decide who did it better, starting with a face-off between old-school and new-school death metal through two titans of the genres:

Sepultura vs. Behemoth: “Amen”

Both these songs come from acclaimed, fan-favorite albums from the heights of both bands’ careers. And while both tracks are solid features of their respective albums, I think the sheer energy and grandiosity that the Behemoth track has edges it out on top over the more standard old-school death metal Sepultura track for me. A more iconic cut from Chaos A.D. might have won Sepultura the prize, but this matchup kind of just presents, through a couple of random samples, the progression and improvement of the genre. The first win goes to Behemoth, on to the next match-up.

Dream Theater vs. Five Finger Death Punch:  “Never Enough”

Both of these bands have their share of detractors, Five Finger Death Punch obviously with the heftier bunch, myself included in that group, and both songs fittingly deal with the unbreakable dissatisfaction of other people. But “Never Enough” lands on opposite ends of the bands’ respective catalogs; for FFDP, it’s one of the of the bonus tracks that caught on from the 2008 re-issue of their 2007 debut album before they became the unbearable pandering act they are today, while for DT, it’s eight albums in on the front-to-back prog metal success, Octavarium. The Dream Theater song finds the band dipping its toes into the electronic alternative rock of Muse with surprising comfort, and even though it’s eclipsed by most of the album it’s on, it still outdoes the passable, but formulaic FFDP bonus cut.

Sevendust vs. Periphery:  “Alpha”

If you exclude the “Juggernaut” portion of the Periphery album, both of these are title tracks, Sevendust’s closing their sixth album. This one, far and away, belongs to Periphery, Juggernaut: Alpha capturing the band at their most meticulous, passionate, and unabashed, and the bold move of the title track’s poppy, yet emotive melody paid off in spades. Sevendust’s alternative metal version of “Alpha”, unfortunately ends the album they titled after it on a drab, formulaic note that pales in comparison to the bombastic Periphery song.

Swans vs. Metallica: “Better Than You”

Alright, now we’re including a band not really considered to be in the metal sphere, Swans, up against one of the greatest of the greats. And while Swans haven’t ever released anything that’s been classified as metal, their contribution to the 80’s “no wave” movement through their incredibly noisy and abrasive early output, particularly their debut album, Filth, and especially by the day’s standards, has had its influence on the metal world. Around the same time, Metallica were making their massive, legendary contributions to heavy metal’s movement away from glam toward the enthralling ferocity of thrash. But neither of these songs come from the bands’ most aggressive eras, but rather their departures from their earlier sounds during the 90’s. The Swans song opens up Michael Gira and company’s full transition into cerebral post-punk on 1991’s White Light from the Mouth of Infinity, and Metallica’s is one of the more upbeat numbers from their 1997 head-scratcher, Reload. Ultimately, the Metallica song serves as a refresher of just how energetic and not-that-bad Metallica was during their more rockin’ moments on Load and Reload, while the Swans track serves as a reminder and representation of how awkward Swans’ transition into their second phase of their career was. While some of their fans swear by it, I’ll take the more abrasive stuff before it or the more sprawling post-rock experimentation that it grew into any day. While it’s definitely not their best song either, I’d rather listen to Metallica’s “Better Than You” 9 times out of 10.

Breaking Benjamin vs.Three Days Grace:  “Home”

As common as one-word titles are, I feel like these bands are still probably just two of many in the alt-metal world to make songs titled “Home”. The concept of home is just so ripe with potential for angst-y situational reflection or broader societal reflection, impossible for alternative metal bands to avoid. But I went with these two artists because I feel like they are some of the more prominent in the genre, and both songs are under-the-radar debut-album hits among fans. The Wizard of Oz-themed Breaking Benjamin track captures the band at their most creatively creepy and heavy, while the juicily angst-y Three Days Grace track rages at the fractures of a distressed relationship between cohabitants. While the Three Days Grace “Home”, I think, does outshine the album’s other (ironically)-iconic single “I Hate Everything About You” and while Breaking Benjamin’s version doesn’t really eclipse the fan-favorite banger, “Polyamorous”, I still prefer the Breaking Benjamin track for its creativity and emotional dynamic.

Ghost vs. clipping.:  “Body and Blood”

While I am certainly more of a Ghost fan than a clipping. fan, “Body and Blood” pits clipping. at some of their best against Ghost on their sophomore slump. “Body and Blood” is one of the more naturally fun catchy songs on the largely overthought Infestissumam, but the punchy industrial energy of the clipping. dance number is just too much to override. It’s like clipping. putting up their star player against one of Ghost’s reserves, so not much of a surprise with the lopsided contest there.

Avenged Sevenfold vs. Mutoid Man: “Afterlife”

I definitely enjoy both of these artists’ songs, and the albums they appeared on. The more recent Mutoid Man song is the shorter of the two, and unfortunately one of the more hum-drum thrashy stoner metal tracks on the otherwise excellent War Moans, whereas Avenged Sevenfold’s track is a live staple that served as the driving lead single to their polarizingly mainstreamed, but retrospectively heralded self-titled 2007 album ten years before Mutoid Man’s version of the song came out. And as much as its formulaic verses and choruses gave fuel to all the band’s detractors, the single is a fine example of infectious 2000′s alternative metal with lots of extra classic heavy metal melodicism. So I’m going with A7X on this one.

Gojira vs. Red:  “Death of Me”

Two sophomore-album bangers square off over the “Death of Me” title, one of my favorite artists whose unique approach to progressive death metal has earned them the deserved attention they enjoy now versus one of the most underrated bands of 2000′s alternative metal whose version of the song highlights their aptitude with symphonic elements in comparison with their contemporaries as a lead single off their sophomore effort. And this one is tough, because I also find Gojira’s The Link to be an underrated part of their catalog, chocked full of unusual but tasty rhythm that rivals even Meshuggah, and “Death of Me” is one of several highlights from that record. With its energetic string melody and climactic build-up bridge to an emotive vocal melody, I think the Red track takes the cake by just a hair, but both tracks showcase well their respective artists’ quality.

Soulfly vs. Meshuggah:  “Bleed”

I had to end with this one; my bias definitely leaks through on this match-up, but it’s undeniable how iconic and influential Meshuggah’s “Bleed” has been since its release, undoubtedly Meshuggah’s most iconic song whose triplet drumming has been ripped off by an entire genre. For Soulfly, “Bleed” kicked off a new era and commitment to nu metal for Max Cavalera in fiery fashion, and it’s one of Fred Durst’s more tolerable moments, but compared to how much of a movement Meshuggah’s spawned and how instantly recognizable, impressive, and groovy the Meshuggah song is, it’s no contest.

[pirraca]

Max Cavalera, nome artístico de Massimiliano Antônio Cavalera,[1] (Belo Horizonte, 4 de agosto de 1969) é um cantor, guitarrista e compositor brasileiro. Formou a banda de thrash metal Sepultura (que no começo era death metal) juntamente com seu irmão, Igor Cavalera. Devido as desavenças, rompeu com a banda em 1996, formando o Soulfly. A voz de Max Cavalera é conhecida mundialmente por ser forte e gutural. Graças a isso, foi escolhido para fazer uma participação no filme O Retorno da Múmia, no qual ele fez os gritos de um demônio.[2] No início dos anos 90, mudou-se para Phoenix, Estados Unidos, e hoje é naturalizado estadunidense Em 2007 formou outra banda juntamente com o seu irmão Igor Cavalera de nome Cavalera Conspiracy, "a conspiração dos Cavalera" que se apresentou com o nome Inflikted em Tempe, Arizona no "11th Anual D-Low Memorial Show" no dia 31 de agosto. Esta banda também serve para mostrar que os irmãos voltaram a se entender. Em outubro de 2008, a revista Rolling Stone promoveu a "Lista dos Cem Maiores Artistas da Música Brasileira", onde Max Cavalera ocupa o 47° lugar.[3] Em 2011, formou o supergrupo Killer Be Killed juntamente com Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Troy Sanders (Mastodon) e Dave Elitch (ex- The Mars Volta), experimentando outros estilos.[4] #djpirraca @maxcavalera_officiale @sepultura @thesoulflytribe #maxcavalera #bday (em DJ Pirraça) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDdyofDFtPC/?igshid=zlga9ex5sowv

[iambenjiijackson]

The Groove Guide - Reviews 2008

The Prodigy - Experience Expanded/More Music For The Jilted Generation With the advent of British big beat/hard dance merchant's The Prodigy's fifth studio album, released by their new record label Take Me to the Hospital, it was inevitable that XL Recordings and Maverick undertook the same treatment EMI gave Radiohead and Capitol gave The Vines in releasing previous albums to capitalize off their success. However, rather than a traditional "Best Of" compilation which, well, has already been done, the shrewd move was to re-master two albums which helped both shape the big beat scene and redefine techno and rave with added b-side and live track bonuses. Experience and Music For The Jilted Generation both became important albums for the dance music scene; where Experience expanded upon early rave culture and fused jungle and techno with tracks such as "Out Of Space" and "Everybody Into The Place", both remixed and contained on the "Expanded" section of this re-release, it's ...Jilted Generation which provided a crossover between the underground to their critically and commercially acclaimed Fat Of The Land; the edgier, almost industrialized sounds emanating from "Break & Enter", "Their Law" and the Nirvana-sampling "Voodoo People" bridging ravers and rockers into the Big Beat sound that sculpted the likes of The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method and Fatboy Slim and gave birth to what we now know as 'electronica.' B-Sides from their single releases, live tracks from their most recent stints at Pukkelpop and remixes from Dust Brothers, the real reward is the re-mastering of the songs and highlighting that despite today's standards highlighting fluro, glamour and fashionista sensibilities, it never needs to be that way.

Los Campesinos  - Hold On Now, Youngster

If you're not really a fan of twee, this may change your mind. Welsh sextuplet Los Campesinos have been making an impression within the 'indie' scene, but rather that come across sophisticated and potentially haughty, the group have a power-pop element which comes across as fun. Catchy, with the ability to muster a smile upon the face of anyone (case point - "You! Me! Dancing!), Hold On Now, Youngster... is nigh on flawless and is once again more proof Wales, who have provided a number of influential acts in the past two decades, are doing something right nurturing their countries music scene.

Akaname - Filthlicker

The internet seems to heavily favour bands of Akaname's variety for good reason - while mainstream outlets omit such "radio unfriendly" one might be inclined to state as being on "Filthlicker", the internet and it's at times quite staunch view on bands place emphasis on talent rather than aesthetics. What we have with Filthlicker is a band who are mixing one part The Dillinger Escape Plan with five parts The Black Dahlia Murder to a great accord. New Zealand's music scene has just been hit with another metal(core) slug to its chest – one that'll be fired on April 11th at Oblivion in Auckland.

Goodnight Nurse - Keep Me On Your Side Goodnight Nurse seem to have turned a trick used by Blink 182; from that bubblegum-esque pop they once honed during their "Always and Never" era, there seems to be a more serious straight-ahead approach to the band. Almost breaking away from the quasi boy-meets-girl, girl-breaks-boys heart formula their new album makes them sound a little less New Found Glory and, strangely, a lot more like Homegrown and their 'darker' punk rock. An apt analogy would be to compare their work used in a Judd Apatow movie rather than a high school comedy akin to American Pie. "Drift Away" perhaps the standout track on the album, with "Lay With Me" there for older fans as not to alienate them. Definitely a goodnight rather than a goodbye from the boys.

Otep - The Ascension

Otep were one of the bands that during the golden age of nu-metal at the start of the 00's passed through with both relative success and, more importantly, a deal of anonymity - though they had their fans and were very much "Kittie for the thinking man", they escaped the scathing retrospective views because, sadly, people couldn't have cared less. Their latest effort retains those nu-metal sensibilities while the vocals pulling away from relentless screaming, and where the oft compared Jack Off Jill or, for some reason, Arch Enemy, found their transitional period turbulent, Otep manages such a thing near graceful. It helps, also, they pull off a Nirvana cover with justice.

Satyricon - The Age of Nero Satyricon is an interesting little quandary - though superficially resembling all the aesthetics of a black metal act, they've caused quite the controversy after the release of Now, Diabolical was cited as being "radio-friendly" amongst hardened fans of the genre. Funny how Norway's equivalent of a Grammy can do that to you... However, The Age of Nero retains the hallmarks you would commonly expect from a band of their kind; the high pitched death growl, the bleak outlook within Satyr's lyrics. Unlike other black metal acts, there is a groove involved within their sound, rather than blunt force trauma - 'The Wolfpack' melodically could seat well at home with Dirt era Alice In Chains while 'Last Man Standing' could be a Down b-side, all the funnier Phil Anselmo is rumoured to be working with the band. The black metal fan in me is reluctant to give it a high rating because it's not essentially an album of that kind. But the general metal fan in me concedes it's a brilliant piece of work and, as taboo as it could be amongst the community, is actually very accessible and at the end of the day, isn't that more important to a movement?

Emigrate - Emigrate

Touted as being "industrial metal" and including remixes from Mr. Digital Hardcore himself Alec Empire, the side project of Rammstein's Richard Z. Kruspe sounds like a delectable and, dare I say it, heavy affair. Instead, Emigrate treats us to generic, radio-friendly tracks which you would hardly expect given Krupse's CV. In fact, it seems offensive to even believe this would come from such a person – almost as if the creativity from the German group has finally diminished (let's be honest though, Rosensot wasn't exactly their edgiest, was it). Bland, devoid of anything challenging, it would seem that the aesthetics were more important than the music and by far this is little more than a vanity project for Krupse.

The CHASE - Paranoia

When it rains, it pours. 2008 definitely seems to be the year in which New Zealand's hardcore scene emerges out of the woodwork finally to the acclaim it deserves - none more so than The CHASE, who channel the spirit of good post-hardcore that emanated out of the US underground scene circa. 2002-2004. In fact, with songs such as "The Seconds" and "Boomers", you could have easily mistaken them for a band on early Drive-Thru or Victory Records. Short (the album runs little over half an hour) but both melodic and aggressive, The CHASE are like a double happy; though they make not look it, they can induce a large amount of unexpected splendour. How's NZ DIY hardcore scene going to lay siege once more throughout 2008? With bands The Chase leading the charge. Corporate punk rock stops here.

Franz Ferdinand - Tonight Doth my ears deceive me, or have Franz Ferdinand taken a page out of KISS' playbook and decided to craft a disco song or two? Though where the old aged outlaws alienated the KISS Army with their experiment, Franz Ferdinand has not - there's always been that dance party element within their previous releases and Tonight is no exception. It, however, seems like the band have been caught in a zeitgeist of electro-new-wave eighties - songs like 'Turn It On' and 'Send Him Way' almost seem homages to Synth godparents The Human League, Alex Kapranos and company even seem determined to summon the spirit of Saturday Night Fever with 'Live Alone'. Though it might seem like committing commercial suicide, the thing is Franz Ferdinand have always been eccentric, and their idiosyncrasies are their strengths. Tonight is a record you might be ashamed to admit you'd like, but you will like it... embrace your fear.

Cavalera Conspiracy - Inflikted

There's been a wait in the metal community for the mighty return of influential metal act Sepultura. While that prophecy may not come to pass, Cavalera Conspiracy reunites brothers Max and Iggor Cavalera after too long of an absence. What you'd expect is something loud, noisy and aggressive, and truth be told, that's one extent of the album. The other is the groove that made Sepultura so popular, with well crafted if deceptively simple riffs that command the ability for even a casual rock fan to nod their head. Another bullet fired from the metal scene in 2008 – Inflikted is part Nailbomb at times and at others Arise-era Sepultura, but a huge return for the brothers Cavalera.

The Naked and Famous - No Light Was it rushed? That's the sceptical question posed as The Naked And Famous release the follow up to This Machine in what does feel like a very short space of time. Though many who may not have listened to the group cite that they are simply another electro band flooding Auckland's musical landscape, they couldn't be more wrong. Dirty basslines, distorted guitars, the tracks play out more industrial than electro - leadoff single "Birds" almost a nod to With Teeth era Nine Inch Nails and the sultriness of early Garbage. Second record syndrome? Powers and company taunt it... and leads us into eager anticipation for their debut long-player

Soulfly - Conquer

Max Cavalera has had quite a busy 2008 - earlier this year we saw the long-awaited reunion with his brother Igor conjuring a zeitgeist of prime Sepultura days with his side project Cavalera Conspiracy and now the sixth instalment of Soulfly, the group he formed shortly after leaving the thrash/groove metal outfit he made his name with. With that in mind, was it ever going to be an easy feat juggling his main band with a project many of us metal fans have waited years to see? The answer isn't an easy one and leaves many sitting on the fence. 

Conquer rather than becoming a continuation of the heavier hitting sounds the group gave us with their previous release, Dark Ages, with it's throwback to albums reminiscent of Arise, combines those elements with the groove metal which brought them to such acclaim with their sophomore album Primitive. Though it's an eclectic prospect on paper, sadly in practice it comes across a little disjointed and does beg the question if now Igor is in the song-writing midsts that Soulfly becomes now a second thought to the newer Cavalera project.

.

[moleofmetal]

Soulfly - ॐ /3

om / ॐ

əʊm,ɒm noun

a mystic syllable considered the most sacred mantra in Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. It appears at the beginning and end of most Sanskrit recitations, prayers, and texts.

Everyone and their aunt seem to know the story of Max Cavalera's stardom with Brazilian metal monsters Sepultura and the personal tragedy that inspired him to create Soulfly to be an outlet for his more spiritual side and for his tribal and world music influences. Very fitting for this album to bear this symbol.

The first 4-5 tracks are a little safe, not straying too much from the expected path. As this is a very Alternative and nu metal sounding album, with Soulfly not quite finding the true metal stride until album  “Enslaved” five albums and ten years later, this album being number 3 is firmly in early-2000's vein.  As you can probably guess that album is dripping with tribal feeling and experimental moments. A whole heap of guests is on this too. Some for better, some for worse, but it did make me feel a little nostalgic to hear again after a long time the voice of Ill Nino frontman Cristian Machado, one of my favorite bands "growing up".  

While others such as the cover of Sacred Reich song “One Nation” and “Brasil” are very thrashy numbers, but this is as interesting as Nu Metal era Soulfly got. There are notes of tenderness present too in songs like “Tree of Pain” and the touching 9/11 tribute minute silence track, but I feel this is where the album ends and the filler comes in. The experimental side of the later tracks boils down to world music demos might put some people off but I admire the spirit.

Perhaps if I heard this in 2002 rather than 2018, might have been more influenced by it and god knows I might have been now listening to exclusively ragga-dub music by now.  However, as it stands, this not a bad metal album, just a little bloated. [6/10]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWzjoWxObU0

[xlevelpr]

“Marc Rizzo fue despedido de Soulfly por razones personales”, cuenta Max Cavalera

El líder de Soulfly, Max Cavalera, comentó que el mítico guitarrista de la banda, Marc Rizzo, fue despedido debido a razones personales.

El frontman de Soulfly, Max Cavalera, comentó que el mítico guitarrista de la banda, Marc Rizzo, fue despedido debido a razones personales. Comentó algún detalle sobre el despido del guitarrista, al que le desea lo mejor pese a tener que separar caminos profesionalmente.

Un despido por motivos personales

Cavalera habló sobre el despido de Rizzo en el último episodio de Max Trax:

“Ahora mismo, para la tribu, quiero comentar algo que está pasando con Soulfly. Por supuesto, es sobre Marc Rizzo. Él no se ha ido de la banda. Nosotros decidimos separar nuestros caminos con él por razones personales. Le deseo a Marc lo mejor en su carrera. Quiero agradecerle por sus 18 años con Soulfly”.

Hace unos años, en 2018, las palabras de Max sobre Rizzo eran mucho más positivas. Dijo a The Classic Metal Show lo siguiente sobre el guitarrista:

“Le encanta lo que hace, tocar en Soulfly, trabajar conmigo. Estamos totalmente conectados. Da el 150% en cada show, sin importar que haya 10 personas o 10.000, lo cual es extraño”.

Rizzo se había unido a Soulfly en 2004, y ha participado en muchos álbumes de la banda desde entonces. También participó en el proyecto paralelo de los hermanos Cavalera, Cavalera Conspiracy, con quien publicó algunos discos.

Amistad y colaboración con Dino Cazares

El músico también habló sobre el anuncio respecto a Dino Cazares, de Fear Factory, como futuro guitarrista de Soulfly para su gira por Norteamérica, que comienza el 20 de agosto en Nuevo México:

“Estoy emocionado por llevar a nuestro amigo Dino a tocar la guitarra con nosotros para la nueva gira americana. El show debe continuar. Dino es uno de mis compositores de riffs favoritos”.

Dino ya había participado en la canción de Soulfly “Eye For An Eye”, y su relación con la banda viene de años atrás. Cavalera comentó sobre la ayuda que aportó a Fear Factory en su búsqueda de sello discográfico conectándolos con Roadrunner Records, ya que es un gran seguidor de su música.

Rizzo se defiende

Por su parte, Marc Rizzo también ofreció su punto de vista respecto a su salida de la banda. En primer lugar, su conclusión sobre su última década con la banda “no fue demasiado buena”. Su salida de la banda se anunció el 7 de agosto, pero ya había especulaciones sobre el tema debido al anuncio respecto a la incorporación de Dino Cazares unos días antes.

En una entrevista para Rock Talks, Rizzo habló sobre su salida de Soulfly:

“fue un año muy difícil. No tuve apoyo por parte de Soulfly. He tenido que volver atrás y buscar un trabajo diario renovando casas, trabajando muy duro, 10 horas al día. Nunca he visto un céntimo del directo que publicó Soulfly el año pasado. Cuando habían pasado 6 o 7 meses de covid pensé que no quería ya eso más.

Les di 18 años de mi vida, y fue genial. En los años buenos, fue genial. Pero los últimos 10 no fueron muy bien. Estuve separado de mi familia, los horarios eran una locura. Era imposible tener una vida personal, ver a mi familia o hacer planes con ellos. Ahora prefiero concentrarme en mi proyecto en solitario y pasar tiempo con mi familia, donde soy feliz y me valoran lo que hago”.

Afirmó, por tanto, que el dinero fue solo uno de los problemas que tuvo con la banda, especialmente en el último año.

Se muestra realmente feliz con su proyecto en solitario y prefiere dejar atrás los problemas que ha tenido con Soulfly durante la pandemia.

[metalshockfinland]

Indian SYSTEMHOUSE33 Release Official Music Video For 'Lake of Sorrow'

Indian SYSTEMHOUSE33 Release Official Music Video For ‘Lake of Sorrow’

Indian heavy metallers SYSTEMHOUSE33 have released the official video of their track “Lake of Sorrow” from the band’s “End of Days” album. Putting the current state of events in perspective and to commemorate 1 year since the band successfully toured the USA with Soulfly and days before the world went into lockdown mode in 2020, the video is homage to the pre-covid era. SYSTEMHOUSE33 frontman…

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Ozzy Osbourne & Max Cavalera

[rejectedpapers]

Carry On

Sábado 12 de diciembre de 1998, alrededor de las 3 de la tarde, llegaba un joven Ricki de 13 años, junto a su hermano mayor (de 15) a las inmediaciones del estadio Vélez Sarsfield. Ya teníamos las entradas -las habíamos comprado ¡por $20! en el punto de venta de ticketmaster (que en ese entonces dominaba las ventas en argentina) del dexter del Alto Avellaneda- pero no teníamos idea de lo que era un concierto. Mucho menos un festival. Nos había llevado un amigo de la familia que era nuestra forma de llegar a todos lados (mi viejo o aún no tenía auto o todavía no sabía manejar). Recuerdo que días después me dijo “si le decía a tu vieja lo que eran las inmediaciones de Vélez cuando te dejamos, se moría”. Bueno en fin, llegamos e hicimos mil cuadras de cola, por lo que el festival empezó y cuando entramos estaba terminando de tocar la banda de Claudio O’Connor. Fue más o menos así: entramos y dijo “bueno chau gracias”. Entonces fue mi primer intermedio en un festival: el público se sentaba en el piso. En el escenario movían cosas. Armaban una banda. Hacía menos de un año que yo había logrado que mi viejo rompa el chanchito y me compre una guitarra eléctrica y un amplificador. Regateando le regalaron una correa verde marca D’Addario que años después me fue robada vilmente, pero sé que se sigue usando y eso me deja contento. El amplificador de 15 watts marca Dean también me fue sustraído por la misma calaña de gente. Ese sí no sé dónde terminó. Rayos...  Bueno volviendo a Vélez, yo ya estaba que vomitaba arco iris de sólo ver cómo movían cosas en ese gran escenario. Y más o menos en media hora (se tardaba mucho), salió Angra. Esta banda brasileña que yo ya conocía -aunque no tanto-, y el primer frontman que vi en vivo en mi vida: Andre Matos. Arrancaron con Nothing to Say, un te-ma-zo. Tocaron un set sopresivamente corto para lo que yo esperaba, pero no faltó “lisbon”, el hit del disco que estaban promocionando. Esa misma noche vi en vivo a Helloween, a Slayer, a Soulfly y por primera vez a Iron Maiden. Esa noche que tocaron por última vez con Blaze Bayley, porque después del concierto lo mandaron a freír churros para dejarle el lugar a la vuelta de Bruce Dickinson. Y estuve a metros de Rod Smallwood, el manager de Maiden, viendo cómo hablaba con much music. Esa tardenoche estuve por primera vez en un verdadero pogo, sentí el olor a marihuana quemándose cerca mío, vi cómo tipos de más de 100kgs se desmallaban en la multitud, vi la solidaridad del público rockero al ayudar a los que la están pasando mal... Sentí por primera vez la asfixia de estar en la marea de un campo a 10 metros de la valla. Todo ese mismo día. Hoy, 21 años después, mi relación con los escenarios y la música es muy cercana. Es loco cómo algunos días nos marcan para siempre. Y es loco pensar en que algunas cosas las recordamos tan frescas. Hace 3 o 4 días, yo estaba ensayando con un nuevo proyecto y recibí un mensaje de mi hermano avisándome de la muerte de Andre. Y todos estos recuerdos volvieron por un segundo a mi mente. Algunos años después del Monsters Of Rock de Vélez, yo estaba empujando mi primer proyecto de productora -que no sobrevivió- y al mismo tiempo Andre estaba formando una nueva banda, lejos de los grandes escenarios, con dos ex miembros de Angra. Y para este momento yo ya había perdido la vergüenza (o aprendido cómo funciona el negocio) y hablaba con todo el mundo. Entonces un conocido de la incipiente internet me cuenta que Andre vendría a promocionar su nueva banda. Y ahí se dio mi primer encuentro en persona con el verdadero Andre: un muchacho introvertido, bastante petiso, casi ciego de lo poco que veía sin sus anteojos. Hablaba muy bien español y luego de esa foto que nos tomamos con toda la banda en una disquería del microcentro, conversamos un rato. De esa conversación, en la que él me escuchó atentamente contarle mis proyectos, me dijo esta frase que recordé muchas veces y me sirvió de apuntalamiento:

Primero que nada, creé en vos mismo. No importa si es mejor o peor que lo que imaginabas, si a otro le gusta o si te deja dinero o no. Si a vos te gusta, no hace falta nada más.

[happymetalgirl]

February 2020

After a slow, but solid, start to the new decade last month, February sure picked the pace back up with a ton more releases. As usual though, the early month has seen a few more filler albums pushed out without the bands’ labels stirring up much of hype around them, and for some of it, you can see why. We got several more solid projects though that have me excited for what else their associated record labels have in store for the rest of the year. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, there’s plenty to talk about for February, starting with Sepultura.

Sepultura - Quadra

Machine Messiah was the first album I reviewed for this blog, and in that review I made note of the silliness ongoing complaining about this Sepultura lineup not being the “real” Sepultura by fans who still clamor for Max to come back or for the current lineup to retire the Sepultura name. As the size of the Derek Green era discography gradually dwarfs the Max era catalog, Sepultura fans gradually come to accept that the past is the past and this is Sepultura now. And the mild contrast between Sepultura’s output as old late and Max’s creative output through Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, and Killer Be Killed hasn’t really shown any major gulf in class between the estranged artists. Sepultura may not be putting out successive critically acclaimed masterpieces, but they sure have maintained a greater ambition for grander sounds and concepts than Max, who, by contrast, has come through with some solid projects himself, but has largely repeatedly retread the tribal nu metal ground of Roots and tried to give the death metal he practiced with Sepultura some modern updates, with mixed results. Machine Messiah found Sepultura weaving proggy and orchestral elements into their modern form of death metal with respectable success, and the band’s ninth album with Derek Green is a solid continuation of the styles and aesthetics that the band had been evolving into on and leading up to Machine Messiah. Quadra, though, I think just lacks a bit of that creative spark that its predecessor had. It splits the band’s compounded sonic evolution into its main parts by going through sections of thrashy songs, groovy songs, slightly experimental songs, and more moody melodic songs, and it makes for a nice flow to the album, but it feels like each part is missing some of the others while also not going all-in quite enough to make the splitting up of their stylistic components worth it. Again, it’s still solid, just not blowing me away.

6/10

Ihsahn - Telemark

Kind of an odd one here, just a quick five-track EP: three originals and two covers. The first of two EPs to come this year from the Emperor frontman and black metal progressive progenitor finds him largely continuing in short form the slightly blackened prog-rock he had going on on Ámr. The opening track, “Stridig”, rides this mostly continuous guitar rumble over a few intriguing proggy passages while Ihsahn snarls in classic fashion. On the vocal front, his style is raspy and distinctly black metal, but he keeps the roughness on his throat to a minimum to not overpower the instrumentation around him and to make more potent use of melody with his vocals. The second track, “Nord”, introduces a few little modern Opeth-isms and some subtle horn accents to up the prog factor as the EP gets a little lighter. The title track in the middle of the record really goes to prog town even more dramatically than the previous two and takes with the horns with it. With covers of Lenny Cravitz’ “Rock & Roll Is Dead” (which sounds like it wouldn’t be too far off from a Marilyn Manson cover if he also decided to cover the song) and “Wrathchild” by Iron Maiden rounding the album, Ihsahn continues his use of raspy vocal tones and meager black metal rasp over the rock and metal classics while giving the Maiden cut a sweet extra flair with the brilliant addition of a little horn section. It’s a splendid little addition to Ihsahn’s solo catalog and a continuation of his proggy vision for his brand of black metal.

7/10

Intronaut - Fluid Existential Interventions

I have kind of long seen Intronaut as the heir apparent to Isis, with their spacy, sludgy brand of post-metal taking that of the post-metal godfathers’ into more proggy territories, and the L.A.-based trio have gradually grown more into their skin over the past few records, taking , and with The Direction of Last Things having been released almost five years ago, I was starting to get a little worried about if they’d hung it up for some reason. The band shows that the longer break has not dampened their boldness or creativity as they pick up right where they left off with the marriage of gargantuan sludge heaviness and ethereal post-metal atmosphere. The band get a little Meshuggah-type jazz fusion going on in the song “The Cull” and keep that jazzy flow going on the spacy sections of “Contrapasso”, while getting infectiously headbangingly groovy on “Pangloss”. I love the ways the band finds to shift in so many different directions so smoothly. I’d say though that the repetition of smooth movements in similar directions from song to song continue to be the band’s Achilles heel, sometimes really needing some kind of X factor or some kind of compositional surprise to break their cycles in these songs so as to not feel so circlular. The groovy riffage on “Pangloss” is probably the closest the band comes to diverting from their post-metallic mould, and as much as I love it there, I wish there was more. It’s a strong effort from them nevertheless, but I hope the band don’t take so long to progress in this vein on their next album.

7/10

Napalm Death - Logic Ravaged by Brute Force

With a new record on the way this year, I’m sure happy to get a little appetizer from the grindcore legends in the form of this two-song EP. The first song, the titular “Logic Ravaged by Brute Force” kicks off on a melodic brooding note, but quickly ramps up into the band’s famous high grinding death gear. It’s a pretty solid track, just a bit lacking in aggressive pay-off during the choruses, the verses constantly bringing the tempo down. But it’s definitely the kind of Napalm Death song that fixated on its melodic brooding mood and its titular hook, not necessarily representative of the band’s whole catalog or the album to come. The second track of the two, the cover of Sonic Youth’s “White Kross”, is a bit more of a burner, but it fits quite well into that mould for that kind of Napalm Death track like “Omnipresent Knife in Your Back” that could work as an album closer as well.

It’s just two songs and you want a number? Come on./10

Anvil - Legal at Last

The long-running Canadian outfit’s previous album, Pounding the Pavement, served little more than a reminder of why they never ascended to the heights of thrash metal during that genre’s peak of cultural relevance, and I have not revisited that record since re-listening to it to figure out exactly where to place it on the year’s worst-of list. The bar has never been super high for Anvil, and Pounding the Pavement really made it seem like the only way to go was up. The corny cover art to this follow-up here, though, didn’t give me much hope, and it sure isn’t much of an improvement. As with any Anvil project, the lyrics on Legal at Last are malignantly atrocious, and any attempt to enjoy the album is going to have to overcome the serious hurdle of tuning out some of the dumbest lyrics that sound like they were lifted from a high-schooler’s math notebook. I, again, kind of went into the project not expecting much, and knew I was going to hear some truly cringy bars. The “Chemtrails” song, nevertheless, manages to astound me with its ridiculously stupid lyricism feeding into the titular conspiracy theory seemingly unironically. Nice one guys. I’ll say, the band at least kind of redeem themselves with their pointing out the obvious corruption surrounding the fossil fuel industry and government surveillance. Anyway, predictably shitty lyrics aside, the band channel the same Motörhead-esque proto-thrash they’ve channeled their whole career with similar compositional predictability and lack of imagination, and it tires really quickly. And there really isn’t much to say about it musically. The riffs here, I’d say, are marginally better than those on Pounding the Pavement, and this album at least slightly more tangibly fun than its even more bumbling predecessor.

4/10

Sylosis - Cycle of Suffering

For some reason I didn’t quite like this album when I first heard it, and what an idiot I was in that moment, because damn this album is solid! Blending thrash with some technical death metal much like Revocation and knowing when to inject a little metalcore rhythm, Sylosis have come through with a ferocious and pummeling, but melodically nimble record that channels pure thrash aggression in every direction it travels. The band works in rewarding thrash breakdowns in songs like “Arms Like a Noose” and gripping harsh vocal melodies on songs like “Idle Hands”, and all sorts of little touches that only make the compositions more and more intense; I think this may be their best effort yet!

8/10

God Dethroned - Illuminati

The trajectory of blackened death metal has really been impossible to separate from Behemoth’s highly influencial landmark album, The Satanist, with bands in the field all aware and taking cues from the Polish juggernauts on how to size up the already-mammoth-y style to biblical proportions. And while they still have their instinctive old-school death metal war-like brutishness showing through on songs like the title track, God Dethroned seem to be more willingly working in ethereal choirs and . Songs like “Spirit of Beelzebub”, “Eye of Horus”, and “Gabriel” show a clear Behemoth influence wrapping itself around the band; the intro of “Broken Halo” is perhaps the clearest tribute or rip-off of “Ov Fire and the Void” I have ever heard, and the song only continues to expound on the integration of Behemoth’s style into God Dethroned’s. As nice as the alternating mesh of old and new for the band is aesthetically, there are a few too many bland, filler cuts on here like “Book of Lies” and “Satan Spawn” weighing down the more excitingly volatile tracks with dragging performances that can only sound so good over such dry compositions.

6/10

Five Finger Death Punch - F8

Ivan Moody did a little phone interview with Loudwire prior to this album’s release and his assessment of his band’s recent output was actually pretty sober and realistic. Along with detailing the mental health benefits that have come with his newly committed sobriety (which I am genuinely happy about for him) Moody admitted that the band’s past two albums (And Justice for None and Got Your Six) have not been very special, and he’s right. He even said that the band’s double album pair was bloated and should have been trimmed down to one album, and he’s definitely right. He stated that he felt that the band has been in a rut for awhile and expressed a rejuvenated desire to make music that isn’t so here-today-gone-tomorrow, and he’s right about that. And he said that on this album, F8, the band really stepped it up and improved their craft to finally make something special again, and that’s where his hot streak of correctness ends. Don’t get me wrong, he’s partially right about F8 being better than the past two albums, but that’s not a very high bar to clear. I was very critical of And Justice for None when it came out in 2018 and I agree that it and Got Your Six are without a doubt the band’s worst albums, and that is saying something because they were on a downward slide for a long time and it wasn’t very surprising the way they bottomed out so badly on those two albums. While I don’t think the improvement was quite as dramatic as he made it out to be, I will say that I can see what Moody was talking about with the refined songwriting on F8, it really does seem like the band tried to inject a little more boldness into their writing and their performances have a bit more of a sense of purpose this time around. The band gives us a few glimpses of their younger selves with returns to The Way of the Fist heaviness on a couple songs, and even though they still don’t have the best track record for ballads, the few mellow tracks on F8 are certainly better than the past two albums’. On that subject, the track sequencing on F8 isn’t quite so disjointed and awkward as it was on And Justice for None. But again, the improvements still aren’t as dramatic as Ivan Moody might see them. The band still don’t really break out of their box too much; it’s not so much an album of them finally getting them out of their creative rut as it is an album of them slowly making their way out of that rut or getting them more capable in that rut. Again, it is a noteworthy enough improvement over the past two (or four even) albums’ drivel, but it’s not quite a full return to form. Hopefully this gets them back in the right direction though if it’s not too late.

4/10

Blaze of Perdition - The Harrowing of Hearts

The Polish quartet’s fifth full-length is another set of solid modern occult black metal with just enough of a sense of atmosphere and emotional rawness lifted from blackgaze. I certainly wouldn’t call this an atmospheric black metal album, but the band does venture into those more ethereal realms of black metal too. They do well to maintain their intensity throughout it too, as the atmospheric elements serve to create a more expansive and grand feel to the music rather than just breaking up and diluting the darker, heavier aspects.

7/10

Sightless Pit - Grave of a Dog

After a pretty big past few years for them, Lingua Ignota mastermind Kristen Hayter, The Body’s Lee Clifford, and Full of Hell frontman Dylan Walker teamed up for a seemingly casual dark-ambient-noise-venture to kick the decade off. I’m contrast to the extreme abrasiveness most of these artists peddle through their main projects, Grave of a Dog remains predominantly ambient until Dylan Walker’s distorted-noise-backed screams on “Drunk on Marrow” usher in the industrial noise of “Miles of Chain” and “Whom the Devil Long Sought to Strangle” being the standout exceptions. I enjoy Kristen Hayter’s ever-languishing operatic vocals across the album, especially on the minimal, piano-driven closing track and on “Violent Ruin”, on which the trio play with some autotune on her voice that actually comes out nicely. But for the most part, this album is so casually below all these artists’ punching weight, it’s no doubt just a quick bonus album project for all three of them that I’m sure pales in comparison to their past and future releases.

6/10

Insect Ark - The Vanishing

With clear influences from avant-garde elites like Sumac, Deathspell Omega, and Neurosis seeping through the pores of this album, Dana Schechter continues to refine Insect Ark’s spooky, psychedelic brand of instrumental doom metal with the help of newly-recruited drummer Andy Patterson’s well-tempered percussive accents to give the brooding songs more than just a steady anesthetized heartbeat, but also a newly percussive sense of punch. And the two gel in artistic partnership in such an seemingly innate way you would think they’d have been bandmates for years. The Vanishing, again, continues to hone the spacy, darkly ambient metallic psychedelia Insect Ark has carved out a niche for, floating from unnerving oppressive heaviness to eerie drones of dark, brassy ambiance with ease and confidence. I definitely respect and recommend this one highly.

8/10

Godthrymm - Reflections

Godthrymm is the offshoot project of a couple of former members of My Dying Bride, and Reflections is the trio’s first full length project together after a couple of EPs (from which a few songs on this album are pulled) that gave me mixed anticipations for this full-length. A Grand Reclamation in 2018 sounded very prototypic and derivative of Candlemass without the crucial bombast to back it up, but the band made some strides on 2019’s Dead in the Studio that clearly piqued Profound Lore’s interest, with much more melodically compelling songs like “We Are the Dead” and “Cursed Are the Many” making it into this LP. The band had a more I like the emotive Spirit-Adrift-esque guitar melodies that “The Sea as My Grave” incorporates and the more straightforward funeral dirge of “The Light of You”, and the band even improved the originally amateurish “The Grand Reclamation” from the first EP greatly with a more professional vocal performance and better drum accents. Still, much of the melody on here is not enough to really conjure any strong emotions and the grand doom the album shoots for isn’t quite as epic as it should be as a result. The band did well to improve upon their first efforts together, but I think they do still have a way to go.

6/10

The Amity Affliction - Everyone Loves You... Once You Leave Them

I didn’t totally hate The Amity Affliction’s pop-oriented direction on 2018′s Misery, but I didn’t like it much either (granted they’ve never really been my style), and I wonder if fans felt similarly about the stylistic drift because Everyone Loves You... Once You Leave Them is a definitive return to the band’s roots that, while still not entirely for me, I can definitely appreciate more than Misery. The band’s older sound that makes its way into this album is proportionally much more metalcore than the sound they trended toward on Misery, and even though I still don’t find the pop-punk-ish vocal style and melody writing to be a very fitting compliment to the early 2000’s metalcore the band rides instrumentally, I can much more clearly see the appeal this time around and enjoy a greater portion of the tracks here.

5/10

Kvelertak - Splid

Norwegian alchemists Kvelertak have been eccentrically fusing punk at varying degrees of hardcore and rock ‘n’ roll with black metal for four albums now and they’ve been pretty damn successful at it the whole time so at this point it’s a matter of what the band do with their established style, how far they can take what they already, and how much expanding they have to do to keep it sustainable. Splid shows that the band’s answer to all those questions is “yes, we can”. While much of the vibrant novelty of the self-titled debut and Meir has worn off, what’s left is a band showing that they are indeed more than an attention-grabbing novelty act and can keep their style going beyond that initial excitatory period. Stylistically Splid only occasionally draws from new-ish territory, occasionally going significantly light-spirited and even dancy, but otherwise it’s pretty much the Kvelertak we know and hopefully love, maybe some of that initial charm is a little worn and sensible through the compositional repetition, but sure as hell not to the point where it’s not a good time.

7/10

Frigoris - ...in Stille

Germany’s Frigoris continue to struggle to set themselves apart from the ambient black metal pack, which they present themselves as little more than a statistic in the growing homogeneity of the genre with all the baseline competence to pass but nothing stylistically or compositionally unique or forward-thinking.

5/10

殞煞 Vengeful Spectre - 殞煞 Vengeful Spectre

Blending ambient elements of traditional Chinese folk music into the atmosphere of Deafheaven-esque blackgaze (the vocals being some of the closest I have ever heard to George Clarke’s) this anomaly of a self-titled debut from 殞煞 Vengeful Spectre is a fantastic way to enter the fold for the Guangdong outfit, establishing a signature style early and with impressive genre-blending competence. I am eager to hear what this band has in store for the future.

8/10

Tombs - Monarchy of Shadows

A pretty sizeable EP from the Brooklyn-based four-piece, Monarchy of Shadows gives a pretty concise and tasty portrait of the band’s crushing Gorgoroth-esque black metal that sacrifices hardly any heaviness for its dissonant atmosphere. The compositions get a little repetitive as the EP draws on though, which does do a harsh number on the project’s otherwise consistently solid aesthetic. Luckily the more death metal-infused portions of the album like “The Dark Rift” and “Once Falls the Guillotine” kick some needed energy and compositional life into the project. I’d say it’s worth a go for anyone with a hankering for black metal with unrestrained distorted heaviness and occult vibes more than shoegazy ambianc; it’s not a mind-blower, but it’s a good quick dose of it.

7/10

Delain - Apocalypse and Chill

After being thoroughly disappointed by Within Temptation’s writer’s-block-ridden LP last year, I was honestly not in much of a mood for any more pop-oriented neoclassical symphonic metal this year, but after hearing a lot of praise for this new Delain project, I thought I’d give it a try, and Delain sure did change my appetite for the genre. The band sound so much more cathartically vibrant with their willingness to depart from the neoclassical norm into synthetic and other diverse stylistic territories, incorporating adrenaline-fueled downtuned guitar riffs, upward key shifts akin to alternative metal and power metal, and resounding melodic choruses into modern symphonies with big but tasteful production bolstering, and the Lacuna Coil-esque vocal trade-offs across it all are executed brilliantly. And even when the band go more traditional they show they can accomplish similarly invigorating results with a more bare production pallet, a truly impressive display of symphonic versatility and creative courage.

8/10

Suicide Silence - Become the Hunter

After the calamity that was their ill-fated attempt to branch out into Deftones-imitation and clean vocals on their self-titled album, Suicide Silence show that they thoroughly learned their lesson with their gruff, classically deathcore groovy sixth LP, Become the Hunter, which finds the band playing much more to their instrumental strengths and their signature style of deathcore chug (there is a lot of thicccc, delicious chug on this project), finds them taking their riff-writing style back a bit to The Cleansing and No Time the Bleed and feels more natural than what they were trying to do on the self-titled record. Eddie Hermida got the memo about his vocals on the self-titled; it’s all screams and growls here, not a “tee-hee” in sight. Unlike the aforementioned albums with Mitch Lucker behind the mic, Become the Hunter isn’t quite as productionally rough around the edges or as horror-movie eerie and menacingly evil. It’s all about the crunchy guitar rhythms all across the album, which finds the band repeating themselves a bit, but not so much that it feels more like derivative writing rather than convergent compositional tactics across the song. While it could certainly be seen as a run through the motions or a retreat to the band’s safe zone, this was definitely the return to form Suicide Silence needed after the misfire that was the previous record, and definitely a more exciting album for Hermida to showcase his deathcore vocal talent than You Can’t Stop Me. For me though, it’s definitely an improvement on the band’s meager first album with their new vocalist and its subsequent creative dry heave, and it sets a much more convincing tone for Suicide Silence going forward with Eddie Hermida.

8/10

Neaera - Neaera

Despite their fluctuating quality across the first run of their career, I was a surprised and disappointed when Neaera disbanded back in 2014, but equally enthralled to hear the band return to the fold thankfully not too long after. With this self-titled record being the German act’s first after returning from the grave, the band rose back up in the most emphatic way I can imagine. As self-titled albums are generally meant to, Neaera represents Neaera at their essence, blending Swedish melodic death metal with modern NWOAHM metalcore as they always have throughout their career. Indeed, the fascinating thing about this self-titled album is that it’s really not significantly stylistically different from the band’s previous efforts aside from some minor production tweaks. But Neaera really found the sweetest balance for themselves between the menacing blend of death metal urgency with a thrashy metalcore sense of rhythm and the cathartic guitar leads of melodic death metal, and I can’t honestly think of any other project that makes a better case for the intermingling of these styles than the case this album makes. While plenty of metalcore out there incorporates some elements of melodeath, Neaera’s brand that they crystallize on this album is the other way around, primarily melodic death metal but with the raw pounding drive of metalcore to provide a more punchy dynamic to a style that often finds itself in great need of it. And the band manages to mesh these genres in a manner that, rather than diluting them both, brings out the best in both of them. I could seriously sing this album’s praises for much longer, but I think I will leave it at it being the best album I’ve heard so far this year.

9/10

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man

I’ll admit that I don’t really follow the public life of the original Black Sabbath frontman too closely or intentionally, but it is pretty hard to avoid as well so it’s not like it’s even possible for me to be completely ignorant of how he’s doing. It goes without saying of course, but Ozzy Osbourne is a bonafide icon and singular figure for heavy metal that very very few, if anyone else, can compare to, and with his career and musical output kind of petering out over the past decade as his old age begins to get the better of him, there seems to be a greater sense of awareness in the metal world that we probably only have a few years more with Ozzy, if that. And it’s going to be a very profoundly somber day when the vocal godfather of heavy metal is gone. That being said, this is quite possibly the last album we will get from the prince of darkness and yet listening to it doesn’t quite feel that way. In the weeks leading up to the album, Ozzy’s supporting tour was postponed (or maybe just cancelled), and the man himself said that he does not have his health as is not happy. Yet the album sounds like a very stale, yet modern take on Ozzy’s doomy and classic heavy metal sounds with some modern rock production updates that honestly sound a few generations younger than its seventy-one year old apparent creator, and Ozzy himself sounds uncannily clear, coherent, and healthy. I saw a little bit of dismissal of this album as not being a profound conceptual contemplation of mortality like David Bowie’s, Leonard Cohen’s, or David Berman’s last albums, and while I definitely enjoy those artist’s swansong albums more than this and while I do feel like Ozzy deserves a proper album that better represents his importance to and impact on metal and culture at large, I don’t know if that’s the kind of album Ozzy wants to make. The man is struggling with Parkinson’s disease and based on his music leading up to this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he just wants to make fun rock music therapeutically to get his mind off the pain rather than honing in on it and intensifying it. Going back to criticism of the album though, Ozzy still sounds so checked out in his performances despite his suspiciously healthy-sounding voice that I can’t help but wonder how touched up it is, the exception being the title track featuring Elton John on which Ozzy does get a little introspective about realizing his ambitions and cementing his legacy as a music legend. Ozzy also sounds more enthusiastic in his performance with Post Malone on the galloping, blood-pumping closing track “It’s a Raid”, but for the majority of the album, it really sounds like he doesn’t even want to be there, and I just hope this wasn’t something people around him pressured him into. I really do want to reiterate my utmost respect for Ozzy Osbourne and all that he has done for the music I love so much, and I would love to hear him round out his legendary career in a more fitting manner. But if he needs to end it here to rest and heal, which it really seems like he does, I won’t begrudge the man or take anything away from his legacy and what he’s accomplished for music. Thank you forever Ozzy, and whatever you do next, as always, go fucking crazy.

5/10

[moochilatv]

Los hermanos Cavalera regresan  para un setlist especial de Sepultura

Los legendarios hermanos Max & Iggor Cavalera se presentarán el sábado 10 de noviembre en el “Teatro de Flores”, Av. Rivadavia 7806, Flores, en el marco de de su nuevo tour “Max & Iggor Cavalera 89/91 Era Special Set Lits”.Donde celebraran la mejor época de Sepultura banda que los consagró en la historia del Heavy Metal. El show  se enfocara en dos obras muy importantes de Sepultura “Beneath The Remains” (1989) y “Arise” (1991).

Las bandas locales invitadas serán Hueso, Manifiesto  y Castigo.

Entradas anticipadas disponibles a través de

- Sistema Tuentrada.com y sus puntos de venta https://bit.ly/2ITu9vd

- Fade to black (Bond Street) - Metalmania (Microcentro) - Locuras (Once, Flores, Moron) - Laser (Moron) - La Caberna (Merlo y Moreno) - Santa Guadalupe (Merlo) - Esquina Rock (San Miguel) - La Cueva (Lanus) - Lemmy Rock Shop (Lomas de Zamora) - La Estaka y Xennon (Quilmes) - Corrosion (San Isidro) - Rocktown (San Isidro) - Ragged Music (San Fernando).

Un poco de historia...

Max e Iggor se presentaran nuevamente en Argentina para celebrar la mejor época de Sepultura según sus fanáticos más acérrimos.

Si es seguro decir que los lanzamientos de “Beneath The Remains” (1989) y “Arise” (1991) cambiaron completamente el escenario de la música metal en toda América, ayudando a crear y solidificar una escena que se destaca como una de las más fuertes en todo el mundo. Este show tan esperado por los fans revivirá los tiempos de oro de los hermanos Cavalera.

Desde los inicios, los hermanos Cavalera han sido un éxito incomparable en la industria musical con sus producciones. Esto se ha mantenido hasta la actualidad con los trabajos más recientes de Max con Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy y Killer Be Killed, además del proyecto de Iggor  MIXHELL de Iggor.

En esta oportunidad los hermanos Cavalera estarán acompañados por el guitarrista de Soulfly y Cavalera Conspiracy, Marc Rizzo.

Fuente: HP Prensa

[maryjouniverse]

Potete acquistare t-shirt (maschile/femminile) + cd tramite me (MJ) alla cifra di € 8 anziché 10, scrivendo una mail a -> niamhthedefinitivemetalband@gmail.com Parliamo un po' del gruppo:  Nella mitologia irlandese e celtica, Niamh (pronuncia [ni?v] o [niv]) era figlia di Manannan mac Lir e regina di Tír na nÓg. (Wikipedia) Noi non lo sapevamo ma i nomi più fighi erano già stati presi. (Metallica, Linkin Park, DarkThrone...). Quindi eccoci qui.   Dopo un anno di duro lavoro in sala prove, esce Corax, il nostro album di debutto. Non sto a elencare le influenze o a descriverlo perchè è molto più facile ascoltarlo. E poi che altro vi resterebbe da fare? Perchè chiamarlo Corax? Beh, che domanda, perchè tutti i titoli più...no, dai, scherzo. Corax: oscuro, poetico, noir. Un po' Poe e un po' goth. E molto Niamh.   Nonostante la nostra giovane età (a livello di nascita della band eh) abbiamo già ottenuto diversi consensi in sede live: sia in Italia che nei festival estivi, in giro per l'Europa. E continuaiamo a battere strade (no, non pensate male), quindi date un occhio al nostro Facebook, facebook.com/niamhthedefinitivemetalband si sa mai che suoniamo vicino casa vostra.   Sinceramente, qualche bella soddisfazione ce la siamo già tolta: abbiamo suonato con i Soulfly, con gli Enter Shikari, con i Lacuna Coil, con i Placebo, e tanti altri. EH? Non ci credete? Nemmeno io all’inizio, ma poi ho trovato questo ->  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgbLpS3tHZE oppure questo -> https://youtu.be/RMmkdT0v284 ( e scusate la bassa risoluzione) Abbiamo già girato l'Europa, la distanza non ci spaventa. Chi siamo? Beh, personcine di tutto rispetto: Mike: Urla scream, growl & canta melodico ma non per questo è schizofrenico. Ah, non ditegli che sta ingrassando. Tommy: Adora i Deftones e i riff dove all'inizio non si capisce nulla. Non preoccupatevi se parla poco. Mateja: Ce la mena col punk ogni tanto ma non è un cattivo ragazzo. Ma se dovete fissarci alle 16, ditegli che l'appuntamento è alle 15,30. Bellix: Suona e ascolta un po' di tutto, ma rende meglio nei blast in 128esimi. Ed è meglio non farlo arrabbiare.   Noi siamo i Niamh (presso Rock y Metal) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnyBwd6F0KO/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=z2fo5v63myfn