*This is part of our monthly State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is Hawaii.*
Ever wonder what the soundtrack of mutilation might sound like? Pretty sure it’s Gorgos. Hailing from a beautiful place like Honolulu, Hawaii, yet they have no shortage of brutality. It’s death metal, it’s slam, a little bit of grind thrown in the mixer. What churns out is blood soaked and meaty riffs. This is carnivorous music. Continue reading
Ho99o9 (pronounced Horror) is one of the up and coming band performing at the inaugural Epicenter Festival in Rockingham, North Carolina. This band is like nothing you have ever seen or heard before. Their sound is a mixture of punk, industrial and rap. The band finished up 2018 on tour with The Prodigy in the U.K.. Their sound is somewhat similar to The Prodigy mixed with Nine Inch Nails, Dead Kennedys and a touch of rap. Ho99o9’s sound changes somewhat drastically from song to song and they can’t really be pigeon holed to one specific sound or style. The New Jersey duo explains that they weren’t exposed to rock, punk or metal growing up and all they really heard was hip hop. Now days you will see the band members repping such bands as the Misfits, Cro-Mags, and even Eye Hate God. Continue reading
*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is West Virginia.*
When you think off West Virginia, the first thing that comes to mind is some good old backwoods bluegrass and country music. What you don’t expect is that deep within the hollers, there’s a band who’s music sounds will take you back to the beginning’s of punk with the fusion of the horror genre into their image. Ghost Road is a punk rock horror band that’s based out of Morgantown, WV and they will take you out of the stereotypes of West Virginia music. Continue reading
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats
Vol 1 (Reissue)
Rise Above Records
Vol 1, the first album to carry the Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats moniker, has acquired a near-mythic status since its original release in February 2010 (not coincidentally, 40 years to the day after Black Sabbath was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world). Written, performed, and recorded entirely by then-unknown mastermind Kevin Starrs, the no-budget album’s entire production run consisted of 30 self-distributed CD-R’s. Starrs used what little profits there were to help fund the recording of the now-classic follow-up effort Blood Lust, and Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (now a full band) were well on their way to becoming one of the darkest stars in the stoner metal universe. As their popularity grew, so did the reputation of Vol 1; it became highly sought by ravenous collectors, and highly exploited by unscrupulous bootleggers. Despite constant overtures from fans and label executives, Starrs refused to allow its reissue until he was able to personally oversee a thorough remixing and remastering; “It was a DIY project from the beginning,” Starrs explains, “so I wasn’t going to give it up and let someone else mess with it.” After six years on the record-tour treadmill, and with Uncle Acid on a well-deserved break, he fortunately found the time to mess with it himself, and Vol 1 will finally be hitting shelves (via Rise Above Records) and streaming services this Friday the 13th.
After it being pushed back for 1 week Cradle Of Filth finally released the music video for ”Heartbreak And Seance” from their upcoming album ‘Cryptoriana’ which will be available on the 22th of September this very year via Nuclear Blast. This song is the first song to be ever released from their long awaited 12th album and it shows which way they might be taking. Really excited about it!
*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state.*
This month’s state is North Carolina!
Hailing from Transylvania County, North Carolina, Bloody Hammers span a variety of genres from gothic rock to psychedelic doom metal. Anders Manga, the band’s founder/singer/producer/instrumentalist, formed the band in 2012 and released the self-titled album, ‘Bloody Hammers’ that same year. Although the band has a revolving lineup of touring members, Manga and his wife, Devallia (also the band’s pianist/organist) are the only permanent touring members. However, this hasn’t stopped them from releasing a string of great albums since their genesis, such as 2013’s ‘Spiritual Relics’, 2014’s ‘Under Satan’s Sun’, 2016’s ‘Lovely Sort of Death’, and the upcoming 2017 release ‘The Horrific Case of Bloody Hammers’, set to hit stores July 14. Continue reading
Recently I was able to hear two of the new songs from the forth coming Long Beach Vagrant album “Death Be Thy Name” that released this week. Immediately I was impressed and was fortunate enough to get in touch with one of the members of the band. Drummer John Aragonez took the time to speak with me about everything going on with the band and what the future may hold for the California based metallers. (There was a technical problem when we were speaking on the phone the call was supposed to be recorded so I could later write the information out, Due to the error I’m not able to quote everything exactly, so the following is in my own words). As some of you may or may not know Long Beach Vagrant (formerly Vagrant) has been around since the 90’s and has opened for some amazing acts in their long tenure. John spent some time in the band about 5-6 years ago. He was living in the high desert and the distance from the other members in the band made it difficult for him to commit to the band. However, now he is fully invested in the band and brings a great amount of experience to the band. He has an amazing drumming style which you can hear on each song. Some drummers that he looks up to are Joey Jordison formerly of Slipknot and All That Remains drummer Jason Costa. The one original member of the band is Mike Pain, who is greatly influenced by horror movies. He also is a renowned artist and because of that the band has a lot of horror related lyrics. They have spent time touring with other horror based bands. We also mentioned that a lot of horror based bands perform at horror conventions around the country as well. It really helps define their audience and fan base since they have horror based lyrics. Instead of trying to garner the attention of a broad audience they can narrow down the field to people that are already passionate about the subject matter. The band also has two new members in Randy Blount on vocals and Rob Gresham on bass. John mentions that these two guys have really brought some new life into the new band, and the fact that they are younger has brought some new influences into the band as well.
