Greek guitar virtuoso GUS G may be best known for his tenure as Ozzy Osbourne’s lead guitarist, but Gus has now forged his own path with his newest solo venture titled ‘ Fearless’! Available April 20th from AFM Records. ‘Fearless’ is an out of the box, extremely varied album with everything from amazing straight up rockers, to shred-fest instrumentals and everything in between.
Cane Hill formed in 2011 in New Orleans. They took their time finding their sound and released their self titled debut in 2015, then released their first full length in 2016 titled ‘Smile’. This is the album that truly got fans to open their eyes. The band doesn’t just impress in the studio either. We had the opportunity to see Cane Hill at 2017’s Chicago Open Air and their performance was one of the most dominating of the weekend, which is saying a lot considering the lineup was packed with heavy metal icons like Slayer, Behemoth, Lamb Of God and Body Count. The band has announce they were releasing a new album titled ‘Too Far Gone’ in 2018. Everyone was excited for the album, but when it dropped they quickly brought on a fire storm of new bands. ‘Too Far Gone’ has been one of the most talked about albums this year. Elijah Witt stated about the album “A lot of these songs reference a time in our lives when we were really headstrong about what we were doing as far as drugs were concerned and believing we were invincible. It took this shift as we realized we were losing ourselves. I think it’s lucky we recognized that before it became a problem. We definitely went a little bit past our limit, and we’re coming to terms with those mistakes. We went too far gone with everything. The title encapsulates the entire era.” They are the fresh meat in the nu-metal genre and they are proving that newer bands can crank out material that can compete with the elder nu-metal that are still relevant today like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and Papa Roach. ‘Too Far Gone’ will likely be one of the best albums of the year for most people. The genre has only had a handful of bands still keeping the sound of the late 90’s and early 2000’s alive, but that has changed with Cane Hill turning heads and proving they can unleash an album that makes those veteran acts realize there is new competition in their genre. Continue reading
Macedonia? Anyone? Betcha didn’t know any bands from the land of the great Alexander from Macedon! Alright let me do the honours of shedding some light on you in introducing one of the most creative and intriguing bands from Europe. Headbangers! introducing the ever so vibrant, and one of my all time favourites, ethno progressive(yeah, this too!) band CHROMATIC POINT, from the Balkan land of Macedonia(FYROM). “Chromatic” as they sound both musically and visually, the band incorporates every sense of the word and just goes on to show the frantic and seemingly chaotic nature of it’s sonic virtuosity. Just like the rapidly changing “flight of the bumblebee”. See what I did there? Yup, that was your daily dose of classical music puns!
All right let’s stop beating around the bush and get to the point. So, this Balkan progressive powerhouse has just unleashed their brand new music video, “Clockwork” today, which the band says has been taken off their “next studio material“. Let’s get dissecting the new chops!
Florida based alternative metallers Meka Nism have just released the official video to the single “The War Inside”, off their forthcoming The War Inside’ EP.
The debut single is a visual representation of the internal struggles that some of us battle with throughout our lives – from anxiety to depression, addiction to insecurity. In the video, the story is one of self-healing, reflected through the spiritual journey of the shaman. Frontwoman Meka portrays both her own lost soul fragments, and her own hero. She faces her fears by confronting them head on in each of her energy centers, portrayed by six butoh dancers (Root Chakra, Sacral Chakra, Solar Plexus, Heart Chakra, Throat Chakra and Third Eye Chakra).
Meka says “We each have the power and courage to face our struggles and to save ourselves from all that we are desperately fighting. The intention behind “The War Inside” is to help inspire and create the energy to empower others to take their own healing journey and know that everything we need to win our war is already inside of us.” Continue reading
Just before embarking on their mini EU tour including debut shows across Germany and the Netherlands Complexity Festival alongside Carnifex, The Faceless and others, djent pioneers SikTh treated UK fans to two intimate performances with Londons Exist Immortal. Firstly at Sub 89 in Reading, and secondly to my local venue and ‘NME Best Small Venue 2012’ The Forum in Tunbridge Wells. This gig marks one of many celebrating to small 250 capacity venues’ 25th anniversary celebrations, which has a reputation of giving a stage to bands before they made it big. SikTh are locally held in very high regard where they are practically legends and it was a pleasure to have them back here once again. UK alternative hardcore act Cove were announced as openers but unfortunately had to reschedule to the following Sunday – a shame for those attending as Cove perform with such an explosive veracity that they would have put on one hell of an opening performance! Despite this slight alteration to the evening, together SikTh and Exist Immortal both delivered equally passionate and energetic performances, where their two distinctive styles accentuated one another with their mix of djent and melodic verses. Continue reading
*This is a part of our State of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state.*
This month’s state is Georgia!
Georgia is a state that is rich with music history, not specifically metal but music in general. Some big names that changed music emerged from the Peach State like Ray Charles, R.E.M., The Allman Brothers, Mastodon, and various others. A band that I think will become just as iconic as the bands that came prior to them is Atlanta, Georgia’s Toro. The band is still relatively new as they formed in 2015. The band formed with Zackery M. Hembree – vocals, Adam Mitchell – guitars and vocals, Pablo Davila – guitars, Bruno Segovia – bass and Jason Belisha – drums. They have been getting their name out their in the local scene and playing quite a bit within the city of Atlanta. They have opened for some killer metal bands like Mothership, The Obsessed, Lazer/Wulf, and Double Ferrari.
Anatomy Of A Creation is a Kentucky based Deathcore project, and the brainchild of Anthony Leasgang its sole member. Founded in 2012 Anatomy Of A Creation gave the world its first listen in 2013 with a 5 track E.P. ‘Murderer’ and since then has gone on to put out 3 additional E.P.s and two full length albums.
Anatomy Of A Creation actually just released their 2nd full length album on 3-3-2018 titled ‘Contamination’ and what an album it is coming from the mind of just one person. This album in its entirety is filled with some nasty down tuned guitar, heart stopping breakdowns, and perfectly placed fast picking segments, All of which compliment the throaty, seemingly pissed off vocals of Leasgang. Continue reading
Bad Wolves just released their cover on the all time famous track ”Zombie” which is originally done by The Cranberries. They couldn’t have done it any better, I leaves me speechless. What a way to honor such a legend!
After waiting for over 7 years Underoath finally announced their eighth full album called ‘Erase Me’ which will get released April 6th, but that isn’t all. Just 1 day ago they released a new song named ”On My Teeth” via Fearless Records and it definitely marks a new direction for the band. Check it!
*This is part of the “World’s Loudest Month” segment where we branch out and focus on bands that fans can see at the year’s biggest music festivals during the month of May 2018! This week, we’re checking out Toothgrinder, a progressive metal quintet from New Jersey who are geared up for another year at Carolina Rebellion, as well as others!*
Asbury Park, NJ natives, Toothgrinder, have been making waves in the metal scene for a while now, sharing the stage with huge names including Meshuggah, Killswitch Engage, Between The Buried and Me, Polyphia, and The Contortionist. The band consists of Justin Matthews (vocals), Jason Gross (guitar), Matt Arsendorf (bass/backing vocals), Willis Weller (drums) and Johnuel Hasney (guitar/backing vocals). With an extensive live show resume, and two successful albums, ‘Nocturnal Masquerade’ (2016) and ‘Phantom Amour’ (2017) via Spinefarm Records, one thing is predominantly clear – these guys know what they’re doing. Continue reading
