AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH, “the most pissed off band live”, from Michigan, USA will be releasing its second album, ‘Proprioception’, in a matter of hours via Earache Records. Band that prefers playing for a crowd of 50 people going nuts over their music then 800 people staring at them in an emotionless maner and whose members could easily get jobs at home and live decent lives, but what's more fun then traveling the world and living off of $5 a day (sometimes less) playing for people who appreciate their hard work, named its second record (the first being ‘Domain’, released through Statik Factory Records) after a sense we people get of our inner organs and body parts when our muscles get tired from heavy lifting – yes, proprioception. And such a title deserves an artist and he is British artist Godmachine. Listen to two new tracks, ‘Rotting Procession’ and ‘Venom Spitter’, at this location (MySpace).
AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH features: Andrew Tate – bass, Kyle McIllmurray – guitar, Nick Holland – vocals, Pat Hahn – guitar and Billy Noffsinger – drums.
Video for ‘Population Zero’ has been released by Canada's ODIUM. ‘Population Zero’ comes off band's debut album, ‘At The Bottom’, produced by Greg Dawson (THE END/MONEEN/CHOKE) and released in 2009 through Year Of The Sun Records. If you click here you’ll get to ODIUM's MySpace page where you can stream three songs off the album: ‘Serenity’s End’, ‘Oblivion’s Gates’ and ‘At The Bottom’. Video is the work of director Chad Archibald
ODIUM was founded in Ontario, Canada in 2006 by drummer Joe Mullen, vocalist Tom Emmans bassist Dale Burrows and guitarists Bo Louther and Andrew Fullerton. After releasing EP ‘Glass Barricade’ in 2007, the band began opening for acts as FUCK THE FACTS and ARISE AND RUIN. They were signed by Year Of The Sun Records in early 2009.
Since my kids are not following their mother's online activities, I’ll risk embedding this new video by Irish rock band KOPEK, heh. ‘Love Is Dead’ comes off KOPEK's upcoming debut album ‘White Collar Lies’, set for U.S. release on June 29th 2010 and, if I understood correctly, worldwide release on September 14th, 2010 (14. 9. 2010) via Religion records. You can download the single entitled ‘Love Sick Blues’ at this location (band's official website) for free.
KOPEK is a three-piece band from Dublin, Ireland. The band consists of three friends, Brad Kinsella on bass, Daniel Jordan on vocals and guitar and Shane Cooney on drums. Trio keeps active and busy since its inception in 2002; since then until 2009 KOPEK toured relentlessly. In 2005 they won Best Live Act at the Global Battle Of The Bands competition with the prize of $100,000 and world tour deal for the winner. In 2009 KOPEK signed a multi-album deal with Religion Records.
One has to make an effort and return from relative cyber-obscurity for ‘Deth Red Sabaoth’, ninth studio album by American heavy metal legends DANZIG, which is to be released tomorrow, June 22nd, 2010 (22. 6. 2010) through Evilive and The End Records. The album was produced by the man, Glenn Danzig, himself and is the first release of new material by the band in six years. The current band line-up consists of frontman Glenn Danzig (who also recorded most of the bass tracks and played drums on the song ‘Black Candy’), Johnny Kelly on drums, Steve Zing on bass and Tommy Victor on lead guitar. Album artwork was designed by award-winning comics artist Joe Chiodo.
DANZIG - the band, was founded by musician, singer, songwriter, author, entrepreneur, father of horror punk and godfather of dark metal, founder of MISFITS, SAMHAIN and DANZIG band, owner of Evilive record label and Verotic (adult comics publishing company) and celebrated baritone - Glenn Danzig in 1987, New Jersey, USA. He gathered some heavy weights of the time, namely his great friend Eerie Von (MISFITS) – bass, John Christ (SAMHAIN) – guitar and Chuck Biscuits on drums, to form DANZIG, the band. In 1988, self-titled debut album was released through Def American Recording. ‘Danzig’ remains the band's best-selling full-length and was certified gold in United States in 1994 and re-released by American Recordings label in 1998. In 1990 the band released - my personal favorite - ‘Danzig II: Lucifuge’. This album is considered to be DANZIG's most diverse; blurring lines between classic blues and hard rock. As with the previous album, the distributors - Geffen Records - refused to put its name on the packaging due to the nature of the music (love, sex, evil, religious themes and inverted crosses). The album was reissued in 1998. Glenn Danzig co-produced the following album, ‘Danzig III: How The Gods Kill’, along with the band's long time producer, Rick Rubin. The album cover is the 1976 painting called “Master and Margarita” by famous Swiss surrealist painter H.R. Giger (the man who showed us how the really nasty “Aliens” look like ) who modified the original painting slightly, covering “the Master's” erect penis with a dagger bearing his interpretation of the Danzig's skull mascot. Steve Huey of Allmusic argued it to be “the definitive DANZIG album”. The band released an EP entitled ‘Thrall: Demonsweatlive’ in 1993. DANZIG got the watered-down version of the video ‘Mother’ finally played on MTV, putting them into the mainstream; such spotlight got Glenn Danzig into into no end of trouble with religious groups accusing him of being Satanist. He answered their accusations with the following words: “We welcome their disdain.” 1994's album ‘Danzig IV’ is the last to feature the original line-up: “The music here comes the closest to reflecting the darkness of Glenn Danzig's lyrics” commented Steve Huey, AllMusic. With the “classic DANZIG era” being over, their fifth album, ‘Danzig V: Blackacidevil’ - released in 1996 via Hollywood Records and re-released by E-Magine Records in 2000 – was, style-wise, harder, edgier and industrial-sounding. In 1999, ‘6:66 Satan’s Child’ was released to mixed reactions by critics and fans alike. Seventh studio effort entitled ‘Danzig 777: I Luciferi’ was released in 2002 by Danzig's Evilive label and distributed by Spitfire Records. It was received with great relief by many of band's fans, marking the return to DANZIG's music roots: “A quite listenable and welcome return to truly metallic form for Glenn Danzig, who, for the most part, successfully aims for the gray area between truly menacing evil and nudge-nudge wink-wink dark humor - something conveyed best on early DANZIG material.” - John Serba, AllMusic. ‘Circle Of Snakes’ was produced and released by Glenn Danzig himself in 2004. ‘The Lost Tracks Of Danzig’, a compilation album of previously unreleased tracks, was released via Megaforce Records in 2007.
Follow-up: AOL's Noiscreep has premiered DANZIG's new video for the song ‘On A Wicked Night’, taken from the new album ‘Deth Red Sabaoth’. The album that was nearly two years in making was produced by Glenn Danzig himself, taking analog approach to recording: “I wanted to have an organic sound, bigger and thicker, so I went out and bought some 1970s Kustom tuck ’n’ roll bass amps to play some of the guitar parts through. You’ll hear real reverb, real tremolo on this album, which sounds completely different than the stuff that's done with computer chips.” The album features appearances by TYPE O NEGATIVE/SEVENTH VOID drummer Johnny Kelly and PRONG's guitarist Tommy Victor. ‘Deth Red Sabaoth’ became DANZIG's highest-charting album since the release of ‘Danzig 4p’ in 1994. It sold 11,700 copies in the US in its first week of release and landed at number 35 on the Billboard 200. In Europe the album debuted at number 26 on Finnish Albums Chart and made it to positions 45 and 48 in Sweden and Germany, respectively.
Noisecreep's Amy Sciarretto wrote a wonderful review of the record for Ultimate-Guitar: “Glenn's signature voice doesn't deviate from what it does best and that is really what we all need and want it to do. His low, ominous and ultimately soulful vocalizations about demonically inclined subjects are here and appreciated as usual. So I issue this challenge, on behalf of Glenn Danzig. Head out to your car and turn this music on. Blare it from your stereo. As loud as you can. It does not matter if you use an actual CD or an iPod adapter. Now hit the road and see if your ride doesn't feel if it's going to fall apart from the bolts from the sheer power that is omnipresent on ‘Deth Red Sabaoth’. The low end boom of the rhythm section is certainly complemented by Glenn's from-the-depths-of-his gut style of singing. His voice is truly showcased on ‘On A Wicked Night’; it feels slightly processed and sails over a simple but dream-haunting acoustic riff.” Read the rest of it here.
Follow-up: ‘Ju Ju Bone’, the new video from DANZIG released in May 2011, can be viewed below (courtesy of ARTISTdirect.com). The eerie, visually stunning clip, full of red and black tones, was co-directed by Glenn Danzig and John Osteen, who is also the director of the horror cult classic “Black Devil Doll”.
Video for the track ‘Bad Company’ by FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH has just made its way onto YouTube. The song comes off group's second studio album, 2009's ‘War Is The Answer’. The album was released through Prospect Park records, produced by Kevin Churko (OZZY OSBOURNE) and mixed by Randy Staub (METALLICA/STONE SOUR). It landed at number 7 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart and sold over 44,000 copies in its first week of release.
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH was formed by former U.P.O. guitar player, Zoltan Bathory, who recruited guitarist Darrel Roberts (W.A.S.P.), vocalist Ivan Moody (MOTOGRATER/GHOST MACHINE), bassist Matt Snell (ANUBIS RISING) and drummer Jeremy Spencer (W.A.S.P.) into his Los Angeles heavy metal army in 2005. The band released its debut full-length entitled ‘The Way Of The Fist’ in 2007, through Firm Music/Spinefarm Records (400,000 copies sold to this date).
Listen to the American melodic black/death metallers', THE FUNERAL PYRE, upcoming album entitled ‘Vultures Of Dawn’ at this location (LambGoat). The album will be released on June 8th, 2010 (8. 6. 2010) through Prosthetic Records.
THE FUNERAL PYRE formed in 2001 and released an EP entitled ‘Whispering To The Shadows’ under the name ENVILENT in 2002. The following year the newly named band released another EP, ‘October’, and in 2004 they self-released first full-length, ‘Immersed By The Flames Of Mankind’ . THE FUNERAL PYRE's second studio album, ‘The Nature Of Betrayal’, released in 2006 through Creator Destructor Records, caught the attention of Prosthetic Records that re-released the album the following year. Group's next album, ‘Wounds’, was the first not to feature keyboards, since they parted ways with long time keyboardist, Daniella Jones citing musical differences and replacing her with second guitarist. Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic remarked on band's change of musical direction: “The only thing left smelling remotely like death metal (or any other kind of metal) was producer Eric Rutan (MORBID ANGEL/HATE ETERNAL). Obviously, this decisive change of direction may seem like bad news to fans who were perfectly happy with those previous albums and their more textured songwriting tableau, but it's great news for all those in unfailing league with Satan. And despite having seemingly limited their own creative options thus, fact is THE FUNERAL PYRE still manage to inject a fair amount of deliciously despairing melodies and necessary tempo changes into their newfound black metal austerity.”
THE FUNERAL PYRE features: Jimmy Joyce – guitar, Alex Hernandez – drums, John Strachan – vocals, Adam Campbell – bass and Justin Garcia – guitar.
KINGDOM OF SORROW is a side project of James Jasta (HATEBREED) and Kirk Windstein (DOWN/CROWBAR). The band formed in 2005 with the intention to pay their own individual homage to some of the heavier legends of the genre, namely BLACK SABBATH, IRON MAIDEN and PANTERA. In 2008, KINGDOM OF SORROW released debut self-titled album comprised of hardcore/metal on vocals and sludge metal instrumentally which debuted at number 131 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with 6,000 records sold in its first week of release.
James Jasta commented on the new effort: “This new album is much more memorable and that the songs are really catchy but still heavy and raw.” And after listening to it I tend to agree. But, I somehow managed to sing-along the first album as well. Plus, I’m in a sensitive state of mind anyway (feeling world's condemnation upon me -while having done nothing wrong, of course,) and you should not! take my word for it but should listen to the album yourselves, heh.
Listen to two tracks off the new KINGDOM OF SORROW's album below:
