Tag Archives: State of The Art

State of the Art: Griffith

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*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*

This month’s State is Alaska!

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So, on we move to our next state for July: Alaska. Our northern most state is home to a remarkable amount of really good Metal. Hidden gems that have yet to make it out of our northern-most and most sparsely populated state. Look up Metal bands on Wikipedia and you get precisely one. Spend about five minutes going a little deeper and this lack of interesting music becomes an instant misconception. One good band after another emerges. Maybe being isolated from the rest of the continental United States limits the ability to get past the borders but these bands are way too good to remain so. One such band that was actually chosen by a couple of our staff this week is Griffith.

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State of the Art: RC.Budaka

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*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*

This month’s State is Maine!

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Since this is the last week of our State of the Art: Maine series, I wanted something special. Something different. Something spectacularly good. I won’t lie. It took me hours upon hours to find what I was looking for. Hell, at more than one point I was about ready to give up and use others that were good, but not what I was looking for. So glad I kept looking because what I found is the best Roots Rock band I have heard in years. Brilliant guitar, soulful and emotive vocals; all done with the true feeling associated with 70’s Rock and Hard Rock that is all too often lost today and so hard to emulate. RC.Budaka is that band and their recently released debut CD “Right Hear Right Now” is way too damned good to be any band’s first album. Continue reading →

State of the Art: RipFence

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 *This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*

This month’s State is Maine!

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Lewiston, Maine. North of Portland, South of Augusta and Bangor. It is the second largest city in Maine with a population just South of 40,000. Only about 92 square miles and sits squarely in the middle of Androscoggin County. A quaint, historic town founded in 1854. Sigh. That is until you start digging around. Back in the corner, where the dust and cobwebs reside (and what is that aweful smell?!?) and it is found that this town is not immune from a brutal form of Melodic Death Metal outfit called RipFence.

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State Of The Art: DEAD SEASON

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This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State.

This month’s State is Maine!

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Formed in 2003 DEAD SEASON was Founded by brothers Matt and Ian Truman. Ian is the lead vocalist for the group while Matt plays guitar and does backing vocals. They were later joined by bassist Steven Church (2007) and drummer Dustin Fitzpatrick (2014). DEAD SEASON has sold over 25,000 cd’s, an amazing feat considering the band has done it all on their own w/out the help of a record label. The group hail from Paris, ME and have held their own with some of the biggest names in hard rock history. In their 13 year history they have managed to score gigs on the “ROCKSTAR MAYHEM FESTIVAL” and DISTURBED’S “MUSIC AS A WEAPON TOUR” to name only a few. They have also played gigs with and shared the bill with rock icons like SLIPKNOT, AVENEGED SEVENFOLD, GODSMACK, KORN, MEGADETH and MOTORHEAD. Trust me, that was the short list. These guys have played with everyone.

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State of the Art: Dead Season

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 *This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*

This month’s State is Maine!

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So June’s State of the Art starts with Maine. Where does the time go? Half way through 2016 already. So many great bands discovered over our great country already. This is why I really love this series. Find interesting music where I would not normally look and share it. What could be more Metal than that? Grass roots head banging at its best. Well, my first band jumped up in about thirty seconds of searching. A real no-brainer to write about. If you are not from the upper, east coast, you may not have ever heard of them. If you are, however, you already know who I am talking about. That’s right. It could only be Dead Season. This is a “holy-shit” good band!

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State of the Art: Iron Iris

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 *This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*

This month’s State is Arkansas!

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I have to say that Arkansas has been one of the easiest states to find good, Metal bands to cover for our State of the Art series. All types of Metal have been represented over the course of the month as well: Traditional, Thrash, Christian, Bluesy, Sludge and Doom. As a matter of fact, it took all but a single search to pick out four of my Arkansas bands. Collectively, none of us can read a calender and were getting ready to move onto our next state this week when BloodRoseRed pointed out that we still had one more week in Arkansas. Boneheads. I humorously felt like a complete idiot. Meh. Shit happens. Moving on… I again, had zero difficulty finding another unique band to cover so his week I give you Iron Iris.

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State of the Art: Mortalus

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 *This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*

This month’s State is Arkansas!

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I have always had the opinion that there is no sense fixing what ain’t broken. As those that know me and readers of my articles know, I am an old guy that has grown up listening to all types of music and have a passion for all things Metal: new stuff, old stuff, super heavy stuff, melodic stuff; I don’t care and I simply love it all. Truth be told though, if I am looking for something guaranteed to please, however, I drop back into music that never seems to get old: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Metal Church, Savatage, Flotsam and Jetsam, Overkill, Slayer; and on and on. These are the bands of my formative years that help keep me in a youthful state-of-mind. Again, if ain’t broken…

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State of the Art: Becoming Saints

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 *This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*

This month’s State is Arkansas!

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Looking for some new, wicked Metal for your ears? Digging Metalcore’s uber-heavy, stuttering, modern rhythms with 808 hits that you feel in your chest and crush your skull when played at the proper, too loud volume? Ready for something driving that reflects frustration of the world around us that drives straight to your soul? How about also offering solutions to said frustration for a change? If this is you, like it is for me; and, well, minus the “wicked” part, you NEED to check out Little Rock’s Becoming Saints! BOOM!

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State of the Art: Undercover Devil

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 *This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*

This month’s State is Arkansas!

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Man, let me tell you: Arkansas is turning out to be a state that is cultivating some seriously great and unique Metal bands. Anyone following our State of the Art series knows that we view it as an opportunity to expose ourselves to music that would normally never cross our radars and take it very seriously because many of these bands need to cross a lot of your radars as well. That being said, this week I would like to share with you a band from Malvern, AR called Undercover Devil.

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