Washington DC's Magrudergrind release new full length effort

Washington DC’s Magrudergrind recently released their self-titled debut on Willowtip Records with the European release scheduled for June 29th through Candlelight Records.

The CD was recorded at Godcity Studios with famed engineer Kurt Ballou (Converge, Misery Index, Torche). The album was mastered at Visceral Sound by Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Phobia, Maruta).

Click here to view the Candlelight Records e-card or go to the band’s MySpace page for audio samples.

I haven’t listened to it yet but… it’s grindcore on Willowtip Records.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad grindcore album on Willowtip Records, so this should be a good one!

Story Tools: Subscribe To RSS | Link

View & Post Comments (1) |

Thulcandra, featuring Steffen Kummerer of Obscura, complete new full length

German black metallers Thulcandra, featuring Obscura guitarist/vocalist Steffen Kummerer, have completed work on their latest full length offering Fallen Angels Dominion.

Thulcandra — the reactivated German black/death metal band featuring members of Obscura, Dark Fortress and Helfahrt — has completed work on its new album, Fallen Angels Dominion, at Woodshed Studios with producers V. Santura and Steffen Kummerer.

The group is currently looking for a suitable label to release the CD.

Audio samples from the new release are available on the band’s official MySpace page.  Material sounds rather promising.  I’m interested in hearing the full effort once it’s released, could be decent.

Story Tools: Subscribe To RSS | Link

View & Post Comments (0) |

Legendary grinders Napalm Death release video for "Time Waits For No Slave"

Legendary grinders Napalm Death have released a video for the title track of their most recent full length effort, Time Waits For No Slave.

According to vocalist Mark “Barney” Greenway, the clip “encompasses all the features of a dour, sterile, product-driven world and the sheer joy of freeing up your mind and appreciating the simplicity of the world evolving around you rather than flogging yourself to death all the time to get ahead. [It was] done in Norwich (Eastern U.K.) with Tom Blyth, who you might not have heard of. But he was in a really old U.K. hardcore band called Goober Patrol. We saw his work and he really seems to understand the art of protest without the cheesiness or cliché.”

You can watch the video right here:

European (and Japanese) fans, be sure to catch Napalm Death on tour this year on the following dates;

19.06. Nummijarvi – Nummirock Festival (Finland)
21.06. Clisson – Hellfest (France)
25.06. Copenhagen – The Rock (Denmark)
26.06. Gothenburg – Metaltown Festival (Sweden)
28.06. Milano – Gods Of Metal Festival (Italy)
04.07. Albertville – La Bathie (France)
05.07. Chur – Stadthalle (Switzerland)
06.07. Tolmin – Metal Camp (Slovenia)
11.07. Kilafors – Rockweekend Festival (Sweden)
12.07. Leiden – Werfpop (Netherlands)
17.07. Svojsice – Obscene Extreme Festival (Czech Republic)
24.07. Obersinn– Eisenhardt (Germany)
31.07. Wacken – Wacken Open Air (Germany)
01.08. Viveiro – Resurrection Fest (Spain)
09.08. Blackpool – Rebellion Festival (Great Britain)
29.08. Waterfront – Low End Festival (Ireland)
04.09. Lindau – Club Vaudeville (Germany)
05.09. Osnabrück – Hellflame Festival (Germany)
06.09. Flensburg – Roxy (Germany)
11.09. Porto – Caos Emergente Fest 2009 (Portugal)
18.09. Solothurn – Kofmehl (Switzerland)
19.09. Genf – L’usine PTR (Switzerland)
26.09. München – Backstage (Germany)
08.10. Poitiers – Le Confort Moderne (France)
09.10. Caen – Le Cargo (France)
10.10. Le Thillot – Waterproof Festival (France)
11.10. Metz – Arena (France)
18.10. Tokyo – Loudpark Festival (Japan)
09.01.2010 Mons – Darkside Winter Fest (Belgium)
13.02.2010 Giessen – Winterfire Festival (Germany)

Video is… uhhh… interesting?

Story Tools: Subscribe To RSS | Link

View & Post Comments (0) |

Unlocked sign with Crossfirecult Records

Unlocked, the extreme metal project featuring former members of Prostitute Disfigurement and Gorogoth and current members of Enthroned and Tombe, have announced they’ve signed with Crossfirecult Records;

Unlocked, the new band featuring former Prostitute Disfigurement guitarist Benny, has inked a deal with Crossfirecult Records. A seven-song full-length album was recently completed with the help of session drummer Michiel (Prostitute Disfigurement, Detonation, Toxocara) and is scheduled for release before the end of the year.

Unlocked Is:

Joost (Tombe, Mindgrinder) – Vocals
Benny (Prostitute Disfigurement) – Guitar
Sebastiaan (Tombe, Abhorrence) – Guitar
Dani “Garghuf” Robnik (Gorgoroth, God Seed, Nefarium) – Drums
Phorgath (Enthroned, Emptiness) – Bass

Unlocked‘s sound is described in a press release as “extreme music combined [with] thrash elements.”

Unlocked will embark on a three-date European mini-tour in October with reunited legendary death metal masters Deranged.

I checked out the samples available on the band’s MySpace page and was really unimpressed by what I heard. Pretty generic stuff.  Hopefully the full length will be more entertaining, but I highly doubt it.

Story Tools: Subscribe To RSS | Link

View & Post Comments (0) |

Dutch death metallers Hail Of Bullets set to release "Warsaw Rising"

Dutch death metallers Hail Of Bullets, featuring Martin van Drunen of Asphyx, Gorefest drummer Ed Warby, Thanatos guitarists Stephan Gebédi and Paul Baayens and former Houwitser bassist Theo van Eekelen, are set to release a new EP, Warsaw Rising, on July 17th on Metal Blade Records.

Featuring two brand new tracks, one cover and three live recordings, it will be released as a six-page digipack and will be available in a strictly limited edition of 2,000 copies only!

Warsaw Rising contains the new songs Liberators (an ode to one of the most magnificent bombers ever built) and the title track (which tells the tragic tale of the bloody 1944 Warsaw uprising). A “massive” cover of the TWISTED SISTER classic Destroyer and three tracks from the Hail Of Bullets‘ earth-shattering performance at last year’s Party.San Open Air festival are also included

Warsaw Rising track listing:

01. Liberators
02. Warsaw Rising
03. Destroyer (Twisted Sister cover)
04. Red Wolves Of Stalin (live)
05. Nachthexen (live)
06. The Crucial Offensive (live)

If you haven’t heard Hail Of Bullets, you should head over to their MySpace page and give them a listen. The material is solid old school Celtic Frost, Massacre, Autopsy, Bolt Thrower and Asphyx-flavored death metal. I’m not much into EPs with only a couple of new songs and a bunch of live tracks, but it may be worthwhile regardless. Below is a video clip of a gig in Holland in January, check it out!

Story Tools: Subscribe To RSS | Link

View & Post Comments (0) |

Fear Factory members squabble over who has ownership of the Fear Factory name

It was recently announced that Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell and former Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares have mended their strained friendship and decided to reform Fear Factory with Strapping Young Lad bassist Byron Stroud and drummer Gene Hoglan, while Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera went on to form Arkaea with Jon Howard and Pat Kavanagh of Threat Signal.  It seems Christian and Raymond aren’t too happy about being “kicked out” of Fear Factory according to a recent post on Blabbermouth;

ARKAEA/FEAR FACTORY members Christian Olde Wolbers (guitar) and Raymond Herrera (drums) were the featured guests on the June 14, 2009 edition of the nationally syndicated radio program “Speed Freaks”.

When asked if FEAR FACTORY was “done,” Raymond replied, “We’re [Christian and I] actually still in FEAR FACTORY. There’s a big legal battle going on right now. Essentially, what’s happened is Dino [Cazares, former FEAR FACTORY guitarist] and Burt [C. Bell, FEAR FACTORY singer] have become friends again and they decided to start a new band, and furthermore, they decided to call it FEAR FACTORY. They never communicated with us about it, and they’re acting like there was never any contract, but there’s four members that are Fear Factory Incorporated — which is the four of us — so it’s almost like them two against us two, so it’s kind of a stalemate. Moving forward, I don’t know what’s gonna happen with the trademark, so to speak. It’s kind of a weird situation, but it’s not a situation that we created that was weird.”

On the subject of how ARKAEA came together, Raymond said, “What ultimately ended up happening was Christian and I had written, like, eight songs for the next FEAR FACTORY record, which is essentially what the ARKAEA record ended up being, and there was kind of a personal disagreement there with Burt not wanting to continue. And we’re like, ‘Well, we’re sitting on all these songs. What are we gonna do with them?’ kind of a thing, and Christian was like, ‘Well, why don’t we do something else with it?’ So Christian was… It was actually kind of his brainchild to put this whole thing together. He was like, ‘Hey, let’s get Jon [Howard, vocals; THREAT SIGNAL] in here, let’s do this and let’s do that. We’ll do a different band.’ And I was like, ‘OK, cool. Let’s do that.’”

Needless to say, the entire situation is hilariously ridiculous.  There’s the Strapping Young Lad / Fear Factory project on one side and the Fear Factory / Threat Signal project on the other.  Dino hasn’t written a decent song, let alone a decent album, since parting ways with Fear Factory in 2002.  Fear Factory sucked horribly without him.  The Arkaea project is so laughably bad there’s no doubting why Burton didn’t want to have that crap associated with the Fear Factory name.

Both projects are doomed to fail horribly, although, honestly, the Strapping Young Lad project has the most chance of succeeding at sucking the least.  Hopefully both of these projects will be short lived and we won’t have to hear much about either of them because I doubt any of them can compile a full new album worth of material that’s anywhere near as worthwhile as the band’s first two albums.  Gotta love pointless band drama, this is even dumber than gay Gorgoroth vs gay-but-not-quite-as-gay Gorgoroth.  What a bunch of fucking tards.

Story Tools: Subscribe To RSS | Link

View & Post Comments (14) |

Blackenedfest reduced to one band after Denver gig

The much-hyped Blackenedfest, headlined by Mayhem, and originally slated to feature Marduk, as well as Cephalic Carnage, Withered and Cattle Decapitation has come to an abrupt, and awkward, conclusion.  Here’s the full story on the giant clusterfuck courtesy of Metal Injection;

I had my only Almost Famous moment of this tour in Denver, Colorado. We were not exactly in a descending plane but it definitely felt like we were. I watched Blackened Fest collapse within a matter of several hours. It wasn’t a short run of a tour but it’s demise was very short notice to the people involved.

Just after Withered left the bus to start their set, Cartel (tour manager) came onto the Cephalic Carnage/Withered shared mobile home to announce, “Guys, tonight might be the last night of the tour.” He started inquiring about who were the unnecessary people on the tour so he could free up bunk space. This included Sid, Leonard’s (Cephalic Carnage vocalist) son, and Chuck, Nick’s (Cephalic Carnage‘s bassist) brother. Because we were in Denver, Cephalic Carnage‘s home, the question at hand was easy to seal away: two free bunks. But, two free bunks doesn’t solve the extra 6 people still on Marduk‘s money-swallowing bus. At that point in the night I knew one bus would be sent home and maybe some crew (most likely me too). But, I didn’t expect the actual outcome: a Mayhem only tour.

Throughout the rest of the night, people’s suspicions were high and many theories were developed. Cattle Decapitation was ready to hit the road home since they have been out on the road for over two months now. Cephalic Carnage was willing to hop in their van since they were ten minutes from their practice space. Withered knew that renting a U-Haul would put them in the red, since that was their only option without a bus. But in the end, all the bands knew that the integrity of the tour would not work without all the support bands still on the bill

The Second Wave
Jonas, Mayhem‘s stage manager (and backstage “Mayhem Only” sign assigner), announced there would be a meeting at 1:30 am among all the bands. It was only about an hour later when Cattle Decapitation‘s Travis bluntly asked what is going on. Cartel shot back, “I need to pay the… No buses are leaving unless the drivers get paid.” Why the drivers didn’t get paid more than half way into the tour wasn’t uncovered and completely clear to me until after the damage was done. The 1:30 am meeting, which only included one member of each support band, Atilla and Necrobutcher, was a knotted bunch of assumptions and possible ways the rest of the tour could work out.

The Story Behind The Clusterfuck
When a band drops a tour, it instantly voids the contract made between the booker and the promoter for each venue. In other words, what ever money that each band was originally supposed to get at the end of each show was changed when Marduk didn’t show up. Because Mayhem was the headliner, they believed that they deserved their full guaranteed money still. They didn’t realize that Cartel had to renegotiate contracts with the promoter every night. With an extra bus to pay for and Mayhem still requesting the majority of the earned cash to match their original guarantee, the tour manager was left with no money to work with. The drivers didn’t get paid and they weren’t driving until they did. The support bands weren’t making much money some nights, but were willing to hold out a couple days for cash. Unlike Mayhem, who wanted their full cash up front, every night.

The End Result
The sun rose and the arguing continued. Robin, Mayhem‘s bus driver, was prepared to ditch Mayhem and their crew at a truck stop in Denver without any of their gear or belongings. He, within a couple hours, had already changed the trailer lock. I was waiting for that moment, when the Cephalic Carnage/Withered bus drove off and Attila and Hellhammer still in their 4 inch soled boots were flipping birds at us because they were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no tour. Instead, Mayhem and Robin came to an agreement. Mayhem gave some money to the other two buses, paid off Robin and agreed to paying bus expenses one day in advance for the remaining 6 shows.

For the rest of the day, the booker, and bus company owner tried to work out deals to get at least one other band on the tour. Cattle Decapitation declined. Cephalic Carnage declined. So when the only band left was Withered, they tried to bargain deals with them. But, the damage was done. Even though one of the bus drivers were willing to dramatically cut their pay, there is no way one band could afford fuel and bus maintenance without going into the red.

It was a brutal (not in a good way) end to the tour. For the most part, no one got to say goodbye to anyone. It was abrupt and unexpected (that’s what she said). Most of all, it painted the final picture of the kind of people Mayhem are. Yes, being in a band means you are running a business. But even in business there are ethics and responsibility. Neglecting to pay your way from show to show and abandoning your tourmates is not good business. And its not the kind of metal I support.

Cephalic Carnage later commented on the fiasco;

So, unfortunately, we were reluctantly forced to stay in Denver as the Blackenedfest Tour was unable to continue. We sincerely apologize to the friends and fans who’ve been waiting a while to see us and this tour. We want to thank Thunderdome for having us out, as we had an absolutely amazing time with Withered, Cattle Decapitation, all the crew and of course Mayhem. We promise to make up the dates we didn’t get to play…we ALMOST had the $70 dollar-a-shirt-cool-guy-tight-shirt company Affliction ready to pay for us to be helicoptered to the each of the rest of the tour dates, but they pulled the deal after they found out we stopped shaving our legs which was the part of the contract we decided we couldn’t go through with, (except John). Anyways we’ve got some serious time off now, and we’re going to commence with getting our long awaited reality-tv DVD completed, getting on with writing the next full length, and writing the 2nd installment of H.O.A., as well as finishing construction of our late night poutine stand, where we will serve country-fried giraffe eggs and your favorite French-Canadian specialty.
Cheers
CC

hahahaha… wow… only in metal can shit this stupid actually happen.

Story Tools: Subscribe To RSS | Link

View & Post Comments (12) |

Spawn Of Possession vocalist Jonas Renvaktar quits the band

Spawn Of Possession vocalist Jonas Renvaktar announced earlier this week that he’s quitting the band;

I have been forced to leave my duties in SPAWN OF POSSESSION to fully concentrate on the ongoing war against the sun-worshippers and to intensify my fight for eternal winter together with my brothers in ISTAPP. The war is expanding and I’m needed for the battle same as you. Our horde grows stronger by the minute and you all have to choose side. You are with us or you are not at all.

Seems like everyone is abandoning ship.  Since their last album, Noctambulant was released in 2006,  founding members Jonas Karlsson (guitars) quit and Dennis Röndum (drums) was replaced by Richard Schill, bassist Niklas Dewerud was replaced by Erlend Caspersen and now vocalist Jonas Renvaktar has abandoned ship.  How much of a dick is Jonas Bryssling if everyone keeps quitting?  Yeesh!

Story Tools: Subscribe To RSS | Link

View & Post Comments (5) |