Greatness often hides in unexpected places. All too often, bands are overlooked by audiences due to how difficult it is to find new and innovative independent music, and this is definitely true for hard hitting thrash metal band TERRAFORM: a band who are today’s topic in our weekly column State Of The Art.
This month on State Of The Art we decided to feature bands from the frozen northern state of Alaska, and we’re kicking it off this week with a phenomenal Death Metal outfit that brings the fires of hell to the land of the midnight sun. ABDUCTED is a 5 piece death metal project from Fairbanks Alaska that falls short in no aspects of what makes the genre great, they are heavy, groovy, fast paced, in your face, and unapologetic. ABDUCTED consists of Dylan Chioffe – Vocals, Rick Peirce – Guitar, Jake Benoit – Guitar, Zain Mitchell – Bass, and Kris Larson – Drums. Started in 2016 by Dylan and Jake, the band has wasted no time in getting their name out in the metal world. They have released 3 songs, one of which being a sick lyric video for the track ‘Indoctrination’, and an official music video for ‘Remnants’, has garnered the band an impressive 10,588 fans on facebook since their debut in February 2017. Continue reading
Photo Credits: SARA V for SHOWLIGHT.
Today’s Kings Of Strings will be about guitar mastermind Seth Blake from metalcore band Wage War! Talking about the band, they have released 2 albums, their debut album ‘Blueprints’ (which is legendary) and their latest 2017 album ‘Deadweight’. I, and many others, didn’t think they could ever surpass their debut but they managed to make an album that is beyond words. They haven’t been around for that long yet they are quickly becoming one of the best metalcore acts this world has ever known. They aren’t bringing something unique to the table but instead they took all the beautiful and most loved parts of metalcore and stuffed it into 2 mind blowing records. For anyone that has the ability to witness them live, do it! You won’t regret it, they are a must watch. But enough of the band, let’s get talking about why Seth is a one of the guitar kings! Continue reading
*Every Tuesday and Thursday from now until Louder Than Life gets here we will be releasing an article about a band playing the festival to get you familiar with them.*
Today’s Artist is New Year’s Day
This year’s Louder Than Life lineup is already understood to be one of the best rosters the festival has hosted to date. I mean, how can you go wrong with Rob Zombie, Prophets of Rage, Incubus, and the Prince of Darkness himself, Mr. Ozzy Osbourne? You can’t. You can only add to it by throwing in bands that rock just as hard, although they might not be as widely known as our bat-biting leader. There are a ton of bands from this year’s roster that fall into this category and New Year’s Day is one of them. Continue reading
Welcome back to a brand new State Of The Art, we decided to pick Alaska this month due to the crazy scene going on so let’s get started!
Awaken Antagonist is the very first band to be featured this month and it is a blend of the greatest parts of deathcore and metal. They have only released their debut (which is self titled) and recently they have released their first full album which goes by the name of ‘Shepherd Of Plagues’. It got out via bandcamp on the 28th of July and on their official youtube page on the 5th of September. The transition between the 2 music pieces are fenomenal, the debut is one of the best I have heard but their full album blows me away. They matured so much just after their first piece that it is almost unbelievable. Check the album art below (made by Art and Layout by Soul Asphyx Arts), it is violent!
*Every Tuesday and Thursday from now until Louder Than Life gets here we will be releasing an article about a band playing the festival to get you familiar with them.*
Today’s Artist is As Lions
Louisville, get ready for a well-deserved dose of pure hard rock when As Lions take the stage at Louder Than Life! These London, England rockers have a good old fashioned rock sound that is, at times, blended with metal and some alternative, making for a good foundation to deliver a fantastic live performance. If you’ve not gotten a chance to see this quintet live, Louder Than Life will be the perfect chance! Continue reading
*Every Tuesday and Thursday from now until Louder Than Life gets here we will be releasing an article about a band playing the festival to get you familiar with them.*
Today’s Artist is Starset
On January 1st, 2013 a transmission from a star in the Ophiuchus Constellation in the year 2047 was received containing a warning of the fate of the human race. It is said that Dr. Aston Wise of the Starset Society recruited Dustin Bates, Ron DeChant, Brock Richards, and Adam Gilbert, collectively known as Starset, to spread awareness through music and media and will host a “demonstration” at Louder Than Life this year! Continue reading
*Every Tuesday and Thursday from now until Louder Than Life gets here we will be releasing an article about a band playing the festival to get you familiar with them.*
Today’s Artist is Radkey
There are a lot of bands in the hard rock/metal community that consist of siblings – Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, Chris and Willie Adler of Lamb of God, Max and Igor Cavalera of The Cavalera Conspiracy/Sepultura, and Michael and Chris Amott of Arch Enemy, to name a few. The same applies for the Missouri trio, Radkey. The band is comprised of three home-schooled brothers that bring a punk-inspired rock sound that at times, is quite aggressive but contrasts well with the more ‘toned down’ tunes in their arsenal. Continue reading
*Every Thursday from now until Louder Than Life gets here we will be releasing an article about a band playing the festival to get you familiar with them.*
This week’s artist is DED!
If you haven’t yet heard of or jammed out to the band DED, you must have truly been hiding under a rock! DED will be performing at Louder Than Life on Saturday September, 30th along side other great acts like Ozzy Osbourne, Rise Against, Incubus, Mastodon, Gojira and various others. The band formed in Phoenix, AZ two years ago with the goal of putting listeners on edge. They have achieved various other goals in the process as well. The band has been one of the best up and coming bands of the year and has helped revive the nu-metal scene that once was considered endangered. Over the course of the year they have taken the music scene by storm with their two singles. They were collecting fans from all over the world even prior to their album dropping. Their live performances and EP led to a quick amount of success including shows with Beartooth, Atreyu, Every Time I Die, and more. This summer they hit the road with Korn on several different tours, playing alongside acts like Stone Sour, Skillet, and Animals as Leaders. Continue reading
Welcome to this week’s state of the art! I’m proud to introduce you to the Chicago, Illinois instrumental metal band RUSSIAN CIRCLES: a metal outfit that isn’t constrained by the conventional rules many other metal bands religiously adhere to. Where most metal musicians try to pummel the listener with heavy riffs and pure aggression, instrumental trio RUSSIAN CIRCLES (which formed in 2004 and consists of guitarist Mike Sullivan, bassist Brian Cooke, and drummer Dave Turncrantz) opt for the more subtle and nuanced approach of creating music that emphasizes atmospherics over pure brutality, and the result is emotionally stirring heavy metal that ferries the listener on a musical journey through spiritual highs and lows.
