Category Archives: Artist Showcase

State Of The Art: New York – Long Island’s CALL IT HOME

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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 New York! 

Call It Home are from Long Island, New York and have been local powerhouses ever since they formed in 2012. The band has been playing iconic venues around the area like Revolution Bar, Webster Hall and even Andrew WK’s co-owned venue Santos Party House. The band are hard workers and have quickly built a huge following thanks to their energetic stage presence and unique sound. The once local band is now becoming more known around the county. Call It Home boast a classic pairing of clean and harsh vocals. The group is made up of 5 musicians who have a passion for music, and the chemistry within the band can be easily heard throughout their music. During the formation of the band their goal was to combine the styles of hard-hitting, heavy breakdowns and poppy choruses to create a sound that many listeners can enjoy. The way in which they can cohesively compose music that includes heaviest of heavy and melodic moments is one of the reasons fans flock to their sound.

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State of the Art: Idaho – Wolvserpent

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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 Idaho!

Unfortunately, today closes our State of the Art: Idaho series. Such a diverse and truly spectacular Metal scene has allowed us all a plethora of incredible choices to spotlight. When searching for bands I ran across so many deserving bands and even had one land in my lap after they read an article posted about one of their contemporaries the week before. Good stuff! Really have to admire the apparent friendly rapport and unity among bands. Not to denigrate any of the fine bands covered this month, I saved my de facto favorite for last. This week’s spotlight goes to the first band I picked up this month called Wolvserpent.

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State Of The Art: Idaho – Traitors Gate, With Special, Debut Album Review!

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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 Idaho

Traitors Gate is:

Ken Mansfield – Guitars
Tim Allan – Drums
Colby Dees – Bass
Mister Y– Vocals

Alright my Metalhead friends, I have a special treat for this week’s State of the Art: Idaho series. Not only do I have a killer band that you are sure to dig, but also am including a review of of their new, self-titled debut! I have never done this before but the opportunity presented itself and I sure as hell was going to take advantage of it! New band AND new music?!? Good stuff. Let’s get to it. This week, from Boise, ID, comes Traitors Gate.

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State of the Art: Idaho – Krystos

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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 Idaho

Man! Yet another killer band from Boise! I have been very impressed with the outright talent found in and around the capital city of Idaho and had zero difficulties finding interesting SOTA artists to cover this month. One more Metal scene that appears to be alive and flourishing. This week let me introduce you with Krystos!

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State of the Art: Idaho – Vault7

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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 Idaho!

Week number two with our State of the Art: Idaho series brings us again to the capital city of Boise. This Hard Rock/Metal outfit has graced the stage with bands like Anthrax, Trapt, Zoso, Death Angel, Cover Your Tracks, Righteous Vendetta, Like a Storm and many, many others in their two year history. That’s right, only two years and they already playing with these legendary acts! Sounds like history in the making to me. The band, my friends, is Vault7!

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State of the Art: Idaho – Time 4 Change

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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 Idaho!

We move on to a new month and a new year with a brand new State of the Art series, this time covering Idaho. Bordered by Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Canada, Idaho was the 43rd state to join the Union on July 3rd, 1890. While there is no certainty how the name was derived, it is most likely an adaptation of a word from the Shoshone, Plains Apache or Comanche Indians. With a current population of 1.7 million and covering some 84,000 square miles, “The Gem State” is the 39th most populated state and the 14th largest. Of course, everyone thinks potatoes when thinking about Idaho, and with good reason since the state provides a full one third of the country’s total yield each year. Hailing from Idaho’s state capitol of Boise come my first SOTA highlight of the year: Time 4 Change, who currently sit in the fifth spot on regional, ReverbNation charts for Idaho.

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State Of The Art: Tennessee’s DAWN PATROL

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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 Tennessee!

Memphis, Tennessee’s DAWN PATROL help make crossover relevant again. Their ability to blend thrash and punk influences makes for amazing output from the band. The power trio is comprised of brothers Tommy Gonzales- Guitar/Vocals, Kyle Gonzales- Drums/Backup Vocals, and rounded out with Spencer Martin on Bass/Backup Vocals. The band lists some of their influences as Dead Kennedys, Exodus, Leftover Crack, and Megadeth. The band has released some independent EPs in the past but they consider ‘Democracy Delivered’ their debut as it’s when the band truly started finding their signature sound. The album was released on July 3, 2015.  Continue reading →

State of the Art: War Within

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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 Tennessee!

Last week for our State of the Art: Tennessee. Yet another state that has an extremely active Metal scene that hosts a plethora of talented artists in a countless number of killer bands. Big touring bands like Whitechapel, Skillet, Red, Tora Tora, Straight Line Stitch and Saliva all call Tennessee home as do hundreds, if not thousands bands that are kicking and screaming to promote themselves above the chaff. This is a huge reason that I love this series. Getting a deserving band in the spotlight helps assure that these artists continue playing what we like and continues to set the foundation for the next generation of rockers to pull themselves up with. This week I am proud to introduce you to War Within from Nashville, if you have not already heard of these Tennessee heavies before…

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State of the Art: Tennessee – Noisecult

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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 Tennessee!

Nashville, Tennessee’s Noisecult came to fruition in 2004 by guitarist/vocalist Don Carr and vocalist Bo Heyward who had been working together on many musical projects since 1993. Sharing a love for the 1970’s Hard Rock and underground Metal infused with Punk and “classic dark wall of sound pioneered by Black Sabbath”, Carr and Heyward started their dream project after a two year hiatus from working together. One short year later, their first full length album “End of Days” was released and Noisecult played a relentless number of shows to get their creation to the public.

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State of the Art: Inferi

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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 Tennessee!

inferi-logo2

Week number two for our State of the Art: Tennessee brings something much more harsh than I usually choose. While still melodic, this band definitely falls on the more extreme end of Technical Death Metal in sound, theme and in attitude. Named appropriately after the collective gods of the underworld among ancient Romans, check out Inferi!

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