Review: PALMER – ‘Surrounding The Void’ [Album Stream]

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Photo Credit: © 2016 Fabian Unternährer

Formed in 2000 Swiss metal band Palmer are a band that creates massive depth within their sound. Palmer has been forging their sound towards perfection for the last 16 years. This Swiss quartet is no typical four-four time metalcombo straight off the rack. Their strength comes from their ability to work as one cohesive unit. No member is more talented than the other and they shine as one entity. Palmer works intuitively and without restraints and their creations reflect an energy of immediate presence. Somewhere between post-metal and prog-rock the band has truly found their space in the metal world. The band released their debut in 2007 via Czar of Crickets titled ‘This One Goes To Eleven’, they followed that album up with ‘Momentum’ in 2011 this time releasing their work via Subversiv Records. The band of course takes ample time between albums, creating perfection takes time you know. Palmer has released their latest LP ‘Surrounding The Void’ on February 24th, 2017. It marks the bands return to Czar of Crickets as well. Continue reading →

Review: GOD IN A CONE – ‘Obscurist’ [Track Stream]

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Photo Credit – Ioannis Triantafyllou

GOD IN A CONE is based in Athens, Greece and surprisingly formed less than 8 months ago. The band is a one man project by Nikos Marinos. He adds Keyboards, vocals, programming, to the song and creates the percussion with a drum machine. A one man band can at times be incredibly hard with no one to bound ideas off of. However, Nikos doesn’t lack imagination. He has his sights set on something and he puts it in motion. GOD IN A CONE have just released the album ‘Obscurist’ which was produced, mixed and mastered at Studio 222 by Dimitris Delis who also arranged guitars on the record. Putting no genre tag on his music and setting no boundaries GOD IN A CONE can take you places that hasn’t yet been defined in music. Continue reading →

Review: WARBRINGER – ‘Woe to the Vanquished’ [Song Stream]

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This week in metal, highly praised thrash band Warbringer released their fifth full length album, ‘Woe to the Vanquished’. This was the quintet’s first release not on Century Media Records, instead they partnered with Napalm Records. This record debuts two new members (Jessie Sanchez on bass and Chase Becker on guitar) and it is the first Warbringer album without founding member John Laux. The 8 tracks leave no room for filler and kick your ass throughout the duration. You can buy ‘Woe to the Vanquished’ here. Continue reading →

Review: AVERSIONS CROWN – ‘Xenocide’ [Official Video]

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Aversions Crown is a death metal band from Brisbane, Australia. The 4 piece consists of vocalist Mark Poida, bassist Steve, drummer Jayden Mason, guitarists Chris Cougan and Kevin Butler. They first started out really strong with their debut album called ‘Servitude’ back in 2011. 3 years later they released their second album ‘Tyrant’. From this point on their releases come via Nuclear Blast. This has been a really big deal for the band because this is one of the top labels out there. It really stepped up their game big time. Beginning this year they released their third album ‘Xenocide’. This album features a new vocalist and he fits the band perfectly, the album theme is really important for the band so that has to show in the vocal style and I can assure you that he is doing a great job on it.

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DIE SO FLUID Release Debut Single “Bittersweet” [Streaming]

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Los Angeles/London rock band Die So Fluid has released “Bittersweet,” the debut single taken from their long awaited 5th LP, ‘One Bullet From Paradise’. Produced by Drew Richards. After a year of turmoil and tragedy in 2016 – which saw the sudden and unexpected death of their beloved friend & drummer Al Fletcher – the remaining 2 band members Grog & Mr Drew stepped back to contemplate not only the meaning of life; but the meaning of their band, their music and their future. Al had been a huge part of Die So Fluid’s sound. He’d won a Grammy for his drumming and his finesse, thunder, power, enthusiasm & creativity always enhanced the band’s rough, tough, soaring, bittersweet rock songs. At the time of his death Grog and Mr Drew had written a bunch of songs for a new album but nothing had been recorded. After a period of reflection they went back to the drawing board. They had a lot more to say. They wrote new songs. No holds barred. Harder, heavier, faster, punkier. No filler. No fat. No fucking around. Life is short. Why wait for tomorrow. They asked friend Justin Bennett (Skinny Puppy, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult) to play drums on the album. Grog recorded bass & vocals in LA, Mr Drew recorded guitars, synths, loops and noises in London and Justin recorded the drums in Bologna, Italy. ‘One Bullet From Paradise’ is the title of the new album. “Bittersweet” is the first single to be taken from it.
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Review: FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY – ‘The Great Collapse’ [Album Stream]

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If some bloke asked me to portray Fit For An Autopsy’s new album, ‘The Great Collapse’ in a single picture, I’d happily shove Pantera’s, ‘Vulgar Display of Power’ cover art up on their face. Hell yes, this album is undoubtedly a brutal unforgiving punch to your face. Ever since the New Jersey outfit’s emergence nine years ago, they’ve hurdled successfully across every barrier and put out four albums, starting it off with an EP. And they haven’t looked back ever since, the performance curve on their graph has been only rocketing sky high. Although they’re pretty much of a new band, it would be justified to say that they’ve aged like an old fine wine as musicians, as they’ve been always pushing their musical abilities and ending up showing more prowess. And after the 2015 equally hard hitting release of ‘Absolute Hope, Absolute Hell’, they’re back with a bang, bringing along more brute force to invade every orifice in your body. Fit For An Autopsy’s newest installment, ‘The Great Collapse’ got released on 17th March, via eOne/Good Fight Music in America and SPV Records throughout the rest of the globe, and has been produced by the group’s guitarist, Will Putney.

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Review: SPARROWMILK – ‘Articles of Separation’ [Album Stream]

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Clevelanders Sparrowmilk are a three piece atmospheric instrumental doom rock band with ample amounts of sludge a la carte. Founded in 2014 the band features members of Venomin James, Doomstress and Ancient VVisdom. They have quickly gelled and captivated listeners both near and far with their instrumental stylings. Though the band has no vocalist they certainly aren’t speechless. Their music speaks to you in ways that traditional lyrics could never do. Their influences range from fellow instrumentalists Pelican and Karma To Burn, then to Celtic Frost, Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath and even noting The Cure as well. While this seems like a broad range of influences the band’s sound isn’t scattered or all over the place, their music is refined and maintains cohesiveness. Sparrowmilk has recently released ‘Articles of Separation’ on February 15th 2017 via Kultland Recordings. This marks the bands debut, and has previously only released demo material. Their dominance of the instrumental metal genre begins now! Continue reading →

Chicago Open Air Spotlight: Night Verses

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*Every Thursday from now until Chicago Open Air 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 Night Verses.

On Saturday, July 15th, California/New York band Night Verses will be bringing their strange, varied sound to Chicago Open Air at Toyota Park. They formed in 2012 in Los Angeles when vocalist Douglas Robinson (The Sleeping) asked to collaborate with trio The Sound Archives. Later that year, they self-released their debut EP titled ‘Out of the Sky’. The quartet exhibits their wide range of influence extremely well in their releases. They are most prevalent in the post rock, alt metal, mathcore, and experimental categories. Night Verses carries an utterly dark, melodic sound that should make for a high intensity show not to be forgotten. Continue reading →

WOUNDED GIANT Review & Exclusive Stream Of ‘Vae Victis’ [Album Stream]

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Formed in late 2011 as an outlet for the winter blues, Seattle trio WOUNDED GIANT jams on all things heavy, psychedelic and dark. They are unapologetically influenced by icons from Thin Lizzy and Hawkwind to Motorhead and The Stooges. Wounded Giant knocked out an early demo with Tad Doyle (Brothers of the Sonic Cloth), then followed it with debut album ‘Lightning Medicine’ on Black Mess Records. Their third offering, a split LP with Goya, sold out its first pressing on the day of its release. Things were on the up and up for the band. While most bands would ride that wave Wounded Giant turned things up and raised the bar yet again with their new release ‘Vae Victis’. The new album ‘Vae Victis’ arrives April 1st, 2017 with the Billy Anderson production stamp. If you are not familiar with Billy Anderson by name you have surely heard his production work with bands like   Neurosis, Swans, Melvins, Sleep, Brutal Truth, Buzzoven and Cattle Decapitation. The deluxe multi-edition treatment of the album is compliments of STB Records to commemorate its raging majesty. It only adds to the greatness of this album that Russia’s infamous “Mad Monk” Rasputin makes a cameo on the cover art. He also made the cover of Type O Negative’s 2007 album ‘Dead Again’. If you are unfamiliar with Rasputin I suggest you get acquainted with his historic tale. Continue reading →

Review: Palmless – ‘The Nine Exits’ [Select Tracks Streaming]

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Palmless is an experimental metal band from Malmoe, Sweden. The thing that brought them to my attention was Jonas Pedersen’s former band Black Temple; who’s debut album I awarded the best album of 2015. When Jonas departed Black Temple I was first let down, then quickly finding out he had a band in waiting which was Palmless. These two bands differ greatly. Palmless is much more experimental and sometimes fitting more closely in the black metal genre. Jonas trades in his bass for guitar duties with this band. Vocalist Niklas Olsson has a vivid approach as the frontman, voice shines within this band. Ulf Blomberg brings the low end thunder on bass and drummer Daniél rounds out the band with his hard hitting stylings and cymbal crashes. Combined the members give the band an all-around sound that is full of varying elements and groundbreaking techniques. Palmless has relinquished their debut album ‘The Nine Exits’ on January 13, 2017. It was recorded and mixed by Jonas Pedersen at his studio Kryptan IV, in Malmö, Sweden. Continue reading →