After four years of silence, Witchery is back. Yes, the band who tried—valiantly—to introduced the ‘W’ hand gesture into heavy metal culture have returned with Witchkrieg, the Swedish metal misfits’ first full length since 2006′s Don’t Fear the Reaper.
Patrick Jensen—founder and Riffmaster General for both Witchery and Svensk post-thrashers The Haunted—is pretty excited about the whole thing, admitting, “It’s been much too long. The album has been written for quite some time now, I think Rikard [Corpse] and I put down all the guitars in late 2008, Sharlee [D’Angelo, bass] and Martin [Axenrot, drums. Also of Opeth] put done drums and bass between Christmas and New Year’s Eve 2008 and 2009… then it took until January 2010 until we got the vocals done. We feel that the band’s new album is much anticipated and that people who like Witchery arent ‘turn coats’ that listen to what happens to be the flavor of the month. They are serious music fans that keep track of the bands they like and decide for themselves what they want to listen to.”
In other words, there seems to be no question of priority when it comes to Witchery for all the members involved, despite the fact that they all have other projects of their own on the respective burners. (more…)
SVARTSOT is a Danish Folk Metal band. They sing in their native Danish tongue and bring you a singing style that is prevalent on the Pagan/Folk metal scene which is slanted towards death metal growls. They also mix in a twinge of SATYRICON type vocal lines as well, which helps differ them slightly from others in this sub-genre. Their music is very reminiscent of other Pagan Metal bands that has been around for decades, but I honestly don’t think anyone is checking them out to see if they’ve reinvented the wheel. The bottom line with this type of metal is to be entertained. Bands that play up this sub-genre either have the death metal vocals mentioned above, the anthemic hooks you might find at an Oktoberfest, or come to expect from the bar scene of a Tolken, viking, or medieval movie.
What SVARTSOT does have is great instrumentation, a lot of these bands lean towards progressive material, mixing in a multi-instrumentalist that takes care of the whistles, accordion, and mandolin, violins, etc. In SVARTSOT you have HANS-JORGEN MARTINUS HANSEN handling these duties. The rest of the band is filled out by CRIS J.S. FREDERIKSEN on lead guitars, CLIFF NEMANIM on rhythm guitars, JAMES ATKINS on bass, DANNI LYSE JELSGAARD on drums, and THOR BAGER on vocals. (more…)
This is the second outing by Californian’s THE GHOST INSIDE. For those of you not familiar with the band rose from the ashes of A DYING DREAM. They mix everything from hardcore vocals to metalcore breakdowns, to post-hardcore like riffs in their music.
Some of the album is very cookie cutter, in that the band really doesn’t do anything to separate themselves from the rest of the bands in the pack. Similar to a lot of albums that just have shredding for the sake of playing notes, this album has breakdowns for the sake of having breakdowns. In this day and age there is a fine art in applying breakdowns to your songs so that you aren’t boring the crap out of the listener. Not that this album is boring, it’s just let’s say predictable, you hear bass blast, then a breakdown. We’ve all heard it time and time again, well it’s all over this album.
I reviewed hardcore legend SICK OF IT ALL’s Based On A True Story last month. They weren’t reinventing the wheel or anything, but the album was entertaining. It had melodies, and hooks as well as riff that came out of nowhere and slowly crept into your head. Every time THE GHOST INSIDE builds to a point where some type of anthemic part should kick in, or a hook should be embedded in a song, we get a run of the mill metalcore breakdown. And don’t get me wrong, it seems like the band has the chops, it’s just that they aren’t delivering the total package aside from a few select songs. Again, they aren’t separating themselves from the pack. (more…)
It isn’t every day that you put your greedy little mitts on a record, gaze at its cover art, and know exactly what you’re in for. Oh, sure, you might have some idea, an inkling perhaps, but you can’t decipher entirely what’s contained behind whatever-artist’s vision because it either was something commissioned, or part of an artist’s continual ties to a label or artist, or it was some piece of art someone just thought would look good behind the jewel case door or on the digipak’s front flap. But what’s its connection?
CASTEVET’s debut album Mounds of Ash, however, is different. You see what appears to be a thick blanket of fog choking out a rocky, mountainous terrain, and you instantly feel like if you were trapped there, you’d be searching day and night, not sure if you should put your had atop those pointy peaks for fear it’ll pierce your palm, or even worse, that it could contain some sort of poisonous creature that knows no better than to do you harm. What if your next step is off a ledge? Dizzying and disoriented, you say? No kidding.
The cover art served as a sort of spiritual center (drummer Ian Jacyszyn explained to noisecreep.com that they started with the picture and went into Colin Marston’s Menegroth: the 1,000 Caves studio trying to interpret the image’s depth and foreboding energy) and what resulted is a suffocating, journey-rich album that’s both impossibly heavy, intelligently proggy, and emotionally enthralling, leaving the listener with the feeling that even at the fog’s densest, there’s got to be some way out. If not, you’ll certainly die trying. In addition, CASTEVET, not surprisingly, hail from the same forward-thinking New York underground metal scene that brought us Marston’s KRALLICE and LITURGY, so having to put on your thinking cap shouldn’t come as a surprise. (more…)
GWAR RETURNS TO AMERICA FROM ANTARCTIC STRONGHOLD TO CONTINUE THEIR ASSAULT ON HUMANITY
ODERUS URUNGUS CALLS WEB PRESS CONFERENCE
ALSO SET TO APPEAR ON FOX NEWS “RED EYE” THIS FRIDAY NIGHT
Al-Jazeera today announced that renegade shock-rockers GWAR have recently and secretly returned to North America to begin the final preparations for a host of promo events and concert appearances in their continuing two-year long 25th Anniversary. After a lightening-quick four-month break spent in the band’s hulking south-pole fortress (“fighting penguins…” claimed GWAR front-thing ODERUS URUNGUS, “and working on a new album…”), the band reportedly made landfall late Wednesday evening, arriving in their signature bat-shaped helicopter at an undisclosed location.
In order to publicize their pressing agenda (and display the pressing of genitals), the band (GWAR) announced that on Friday, May 28th, at 10:00 p.m. E.S.T. ODERUS URUNGUS will hold an web-based press conference, which can be viewed at gwar.tv, where he is expected to mouth-off about the insignificance of humanity and make a long and complicated set of demands. Viewers will be able to ask Oderus questions through the chat room, and he might even answer some of them. You can also check out the press conference streaming at MetalBlade.tv!
The LA based heavy metal themed gourmet burger truck, http://grillemalltruck.com is coming to New York City tomorrow.
Here at Metal Army America WE LOVE BURGERS and what’s better than burgers? HEAVY METAL BURGERS!
So here’s the deal, the guys have been participating in a reality show that has pitted a number of food trucks against each other. 7 trucks started in San Diego and have been moving East. In each city they start fresh with nothing in their trucks except certain spices and random things production allows. It is up to the truck to figure out where to find fresh meat, buns, and toppings for their burgers. The truck who makes the least amount of profit at the end of the weekend has to make the shameful (and long) trek back to Los Angeles. In each town 1 truck is eliminated.
NYC is the final battle to determine the top food truck in the USA and it starts TOMORROW!
The Grill ‘Em All Guys wont be given time and location until later today, but then the race is on. We want to reach out to the NYC metal community to see who would want to participate in helping the guys win the battle. It only requires you to show up, maybe bring / tell friends.
“For us it is very important what other people think. We only make music that others want to hear, and we only do things that others expect or allow us to do, carefully, not to step on anyone’s toes. I thought that was how Black Metal was supposed to be done, at least that was the impression I got when I last checked what bands were defined as ‘black metal!’
A sarcastic opening salvo from Watain bassist and frontman Erik Danielsson, expressing his distaste and disgust for those who would pigeonhole art, and who would regiment how black metal is ‘supposed’ to sound. Luckily for Danielsson, however, this Swedish outfit has clearly entered The Big Leagues™ with their fourth full length, Lawless Darkness. With this masterpiece, Watain have officially entered a pantheon as conquering kings: clear and present masters of their craft. This journey hasn’t been without its struggles, however, according to Danielsson.
“It hasn’t been easy, that much I can say,” admits the Swede. “Then again, we wouldn’t have wanted it that way either. Metal such as ours should be created under filthy and fiery circumstances, and it’s because of that I think that our art has finally progressed into such a wondrous mixture of blood, fire and death as Lawless Darkness.”
Indeed, with many—including yours truly—shouting to the highest heavens (or deepest hells) about Watain’s position as the legitimate heirs to Dissection’s throne, Lawless Darkness seems to cement this reputation even further—a reputation which, according to Danielsson, is more the result of critical acclaim and zealous fervor than anything of the band’s design.
“The idea that we would be taking Dissection’s place is something that others have come up with, certainly not us. Their place as such will never be taken, their monument shall stand alone and unchallenged, until the not so distant twilight of time. We did indeed have a lot in common and we worked in many ways toward the same goals, but people must remember that Dissection and Watain, no matter how close in spirits, were two different artistic outlets with separate wellsprings of creativity and vision. No matter what, we will always honor their legacy!”
With a number of North American tours under their bullet belts—to rapturous response—Watain have done quite a great job at creating a legacy of their own here in the States as one of the most fearsome live acts around.
“Like I’ve said many times before, I very much enjoy touring America, due much to the willingness of the crowd to openly participate emotionally in the show. If people weep, vomit or lose their grip of reality during our concerts, that to me is a very good thing, and such things are not too rare in the US. From the outside, it might look like U.S. is a country consisting of well-organized, civilized, wet combed patriots, but I am starting to realize that this is absolutely not the case, at least not in metal circuits. A very rewarding discovery which I look forward to examine further on the tours to come…”
The band has done this very well for some time now, to be quite honest. Such landmark full lengths as Casus Luciferi, 2007’s breakthrough Sworn to the Dark and the respected Rabid Death’s Curse debut have all cemented Watain as a force to be reckoned with, with Lawless Darkness upping the ante even further in terms of massive, grandiose songwriting.
To Danielsson, the band’s progression has been a simple one. “Change is not as important as it is inevitable. We always strive for perfection, and there is no way we would sit back and say ‘ok, we reached our peak.’ Not in a long time at least. Watain as a whole has throughout its course become richer and gone more and more towards a brotherhood rather than a band. Simultaneously, there has also been an evolution on the creative side; we have intentionally distanced ourselves from external musical influence and focused more on what lurks inside of the band. Watain is now like an organic abomination feeding on its own tentacles, or a glowing, ardent lump of iron. Throughout our eleven years as a band, we have forged and sharpened that divine piece of iron into a glimmering sword. That refinement and sharpening will be ever ongoing, until we are able to cut off the very head of Christ.”
Good ol’ Ozzy took a trip to the wax museum in light of his new album ‘Scream’ which releases 6/22, to do what he does best: make people scream. Get it? HA. Don’t worry… we think it’s lame, too. However, it’s highly entertaining to watch him scare the shit out of people. Enjoy.
Metallica finished recording the album “Kill ‘Em All“.
1988
“Monster Of Rock” touring festival opened at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin with Van Halen, Metallica, Scorpions, Dokken, and Kingdom Come.
