Tag Archives: Metal Blade Records

Chicago Open Air Spotlight: WHITECHAPEL

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*Every Tuesday and 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.*

Today’s artist is Whitechapel.

On Friday, July 14th, yet another massively popular deathcore band hits the Chicago Open Air stage alongside Suicide Silence. Since forming in 2006, Whitechapel has consistently released great, heavy material and evolved slightly throughout each record. Phil Bozeman is considered to be one of the best vocalists in the wide variety of extreme metal with his mind boggling low screams. While being recognized for that, Bozeman also has a pretty solid singing voice. On the new record, ‘Mark of the Blade’, the band incorporates the clean vocals more often on tracks such as “Bring Me Home” and “Decennium”. You can check out the highly emotional video of “Bring Me Home” below. It has been a long time coming for Whitechapel to hit the US festival circuit. I saw them at Rock on the Range and they exceeded expectations. With one of the largest crowds on the third stage that weekend, they delivered a blistering setlist that tightly grasped the crowd for the entirety of the show. If you haven’t seen them already, you’re in for a treat. Continue reading →

Album Review: ENTRAILS ‘World Inferno’ [Offical Videos]

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Entrails are a Swedish death metal band that was formed in 1991. With dreams to follow in the scene around Stockholm they were unsuccessful in recording any satisfactory sessions and in 1994, half the band decided to move onto other things. Jimmy Lundqvist (Guitar) kept writing until 1998 when even he decided to hang it up. Fast forward to 2008, when Entrails was resurrected. Lundqvist dug up some old recordings and decided they needed to be released through modern technology. And with that,  the first ever Entrails demos were finally recorded, ‘Reborn’ and ‘Human Decay’. Jocke Svensson took the helm at vocals in 2009. Following those two demos, they were signed to German label FDA Rekotz. Then Entrails released their debut album ‘Tales From The Morgue’ in 2010. The album featured tracks from both previous demos. Shortly after this release, the band welcomed Adde Mitroulis as their drummer at the time. Their follow up effort was in 2011 with ‘The Tomb Awaits’, which featured the rest of the songs from the demos along with a few older tracks and some new material. That winter they started working on a new deal with several record labels and ended with signing to Metal Blade Records in 2012. They started work in the fall of 2012 on their Metal Blade debut and released ‘Raging Death’ in 2013. This release also marks the departure of  Mathias Nilsson with Pontus Samuelsson replacing him on guitar. A new song was written and released on 7″, in early 2014, called ‘Berzerk‘. The B-side was a cover of Swedish heavy metal legends Heavy Load. Also in 2014, they released their old demos under  ‘Resurrected From The Grave-Demo Collection‘. 2015 saw the release of their 2nd full length under Metal Blade in ‘Obliteration’. After a few shows in 2015, Jocke Svensson (Vocals) and Adde Mitroulis (Drums) both parted ways with the band, on good terms, and were replaced by Tommy Carlsson (Bass/Vocals) and Martin Michaelsson (Drums). In 2016, they began work on their most recent effort ‘World Inferno’ and will be released June 16th, 2017 via Metal Blade Records. Continue reading →

Review: DRAGONFORCE – ‘Reaching Into Infinity’ [Official Videos]

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DragonForce, yes the one and only fast riffing powermetal band from London, England released their new forceful album called ‘Reaching Into Infinity’, released by Metal Blade Records, and it’s all their older album combined with better production! They again made an album that is as fast as the speed of sound with vocals that are out of this world. For those of you that don’t know the band, which I really doubt, they formed in 1999 and were known as ‘DragonHeart’ till the year 2002. From 2003 till the present they are known as ‘DragonForce’. Their best album might be their debut ‘Valley Of The Damned’, it reached insane amount of views and has been very populair since. Album ‘Sonic Rampage” proved to be even more succesful, it featured their new bassist Adrian lambert and drummer Dave Mackintosh in the widely known song ”Fury Of The Storm”. This album was really the biggest game changer for the band because this brought double bass rhythms and blast beats to the band. With song  ‘Through The Fire And Flames” from the album ‘Inhuman Rampage’ the band went oficially mainstream. This song has reached far over 85.000.000 viewsand over 360.000 likes! Not on  a pop song but a freaking metal one! DragonForce has toured with Slipknot and Disturbed right before they were releasing their album ‘Ultra Beatdown’, if you get to tour with the big guys you know you made it! Next to these insane releases they made 3 albums. ‘Twilight Dementia’, ‘The Power Within’ and my favorite ‘Maximum Overload’. You would think that the band didn’t make any more music for a while after so much intense and speedy albums but no, they created a best of album named ‘Killer Elite’ which ofcourse featured the song ”Through The Fire And Flames”. Fans have been asking about full live performances on DVDs for a while now but finally DragonForce heard our calls and made ‘In The Line Of Fire…Larger Than Live’ that was recorded on the 2014’s Load Park Festival. For sure one album you need for your collection!

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Review: GOD DETHRONED – ‘The World Ablaze’ [Official Videos]

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God Dethroned is a blackened deathmetal band that got formed in 1990 by vocalist and guitarist Henri Sattler, the band is the most populair band from Holland and that really gets to show in their new album ‘The World Ablaze’ that got released on the 5th of May this year. Their debut album ‘The Christhunt’ got out with help of a small label from Gemany, besides that they have released all their albums on one of the best labels that are currently out there Metal Blade Records. They have changed their line-up multiple times but their singer Henri Sattler always stuck with the band. Till this date they have made 9 albums besides their latest one ‘The World Ablaze’, If you are new to this band I would highly recomment you to give those albums a listen. ‘Passiondale’ from 2009 for example is full of melodies and agression where ‘The Toxic Touch’ is more focused on the lyrical aspect of the songs, such as depression, religion and hatred. They may have changed things up from time to time but they always remained a band with a lot of talent lyrically and instrumentally. The agressive vibes from the songs gives you the feeling of power, of being more than just human. The feeling of reigning an entire universe. Wonder who made those raw vibes? It got created by drummer Michiel van der Plicht, bassist Jeroen Pomper and guitarist Mike Ferguson. Not a band you would just walk past without noticing, they truly are the definition of Dutch blackened deathmetal!

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Chicago Open Air Spotlight: DRAGONFORCE [New Song Streams]

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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 DragonForce.

On Saturday, July 15th, these power/speed metal legends will be taking the Chicago Open Air stage for their first Danny Wimmer Presents festival. Like many from the States, I became familiar with DragonForce sitting at home as a kid playing their songs on Guitar Hero like “Through the Fire and the Flames” and “Fury of the Storm”. They’ve produced epic material consistently with symphonic elements while Herman Li is shredding at the speed of the light. There is also something in their sound that makes you think of old school video games tunes (some have even referred to them as “Nintendo Metal”). The band has went through several lineup changes since forming in 1999 but original guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman still remain a part of the group. DragonForce is releasing a new album titled ‘Reaching Into Infinity’ this year and details can be found about it here. You can stream two tracks off of it below right now! Continue reading →

Review: HARLOTT – ‘Extinction’ [Song Stream]

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Sounding like something straight out of the 80s thrash era, Melbourne band Harlott have produced yet another incredible record. There are not many thrash bands in any era of the genre that match up with the ferocity that these guys bring. There is no mixing in different genres, it’s just straight in-your-face, kick ass speed/thrash metal! The band formed in 2006 and has released 2 EPs and 2 full length albums aside from this new album. Harlott began writing for ‘Extinction’ last year in 2016 after coming off a tour with Annihilation in Europe. The end result is yet another contender for album of the year as the superfluous amount of shredding fills your ears. Prepare for 51 minutes of intrepid, ravishing heavy pleasure. ‘Extinction’ is Harlott‘s third studio album and was recorded at Monolith Studios and mastered by the legendary Jens Bogren (Opeth, Paradise Lost, Sepultura). The record drops this week on April 7th via Metal Blade Records and you can pre-order it here. Continue reading →

Nova Collective Stun With Their Debut, “The Further Side”

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Nova Collective is:


Richard Henshall – Guitar
Dan Briggs – Bass
Pete Jones – Keyboards
Matt Lynch – Drums

So. What happens when you take the talents of ranking members of three, very heavy hitting Progressive Metal bands, like say, Between the Buried and Me, Haken and Cynic and throw them in the blender with the Modern Jazz sounds of a band like, oh I don’t know, Trioscapes? To sweeten the deal even more, add the engineering wizardry of Jamie King (for readers that follow my musings, I seem to end up covering just about everything this man produces and needs no introduction from me) and have everything mixed by Rich Mouser (Neal Morse, Transatlantic). Guesses? Honestly, I would have guessed something very technical and heavy in a minor key that drive on 7ths instead of strictly 5ths, done on extended range guitars and maybe a fretless bass. Nope. Not even close! What you get is a supergroup that call themselves Nova Collective and they are about to release their debut album entitled The Further Side on the Metal Blade record label March 10th, 2017. Upon receiving this pre-release, I was on this thing like white on rice! Oh man, what an absolute treat these guys have for everyone!

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DRAGONFORCE Announces New Album Details

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British power metal band DragonForce has just announced details for their upcoming release on Metal Blade Record. ‘Reaching into Infinity’ will be released in the USA on May 19th; it is the new band’s 7th studio album. The band feels very confident about this album, as it does a great job showing the ferociousness and speed with melody and fun. The record was made across several locations including Fascination Street Studios, Sweden, Lamerluser Studios, (London, UK), Dark Lane Studios (Witney, UK),  and the band’s own studio in Evil1 Studios in Charleville-Mezieres, France and Shredforce One Studios (CA, USA). The record was produced by Jens Bogren. Bass player, Frederic Leclercq has this to say about the album: Continue reading →

EVOCATION Reveals Album Details; Launches Single, “Children Of Stone” [Streaming]

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On March 10th, Evocation will celebrate their return to death metal with the stunning new album, The Shadow Archetype! While honoring their Swedish death metal roots, The Shadow Archetype also adds thrash metal elements to their addictive, heavy sound. Evocation guitarist Marko Palmen comments: “In my opinion, the new album is a step towards the roots of the band, although it also has a footing in the future. I think the sound of the new album in many ways reflect the dynamic of me and Simon, who wrote the music for the album. I’m more of an old-school death metal kind of guy and Simon comes from the younger generation of death metal freaks who enjoy technicality and brutality. Somehow, we just merged those two sides of death metal into the creation that will be known as ‘The Shadow Archetype’. But I also have to point out that the album is a creation made by all the members of Evocation and I think we all pushed ourselves to the very limit of what is achievable. I’m certain that we all can stand proud of the album in the future.” Pre-order the new album at www.metalblade.com/evocation  Continue reading →

Oni’s “Ironshore” Sets A New Standard For Technical Metal!

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Oni is:

Jake Oni – vocals

Martin Andres – guitars

Brandon White – guitars

Chase Bryant – bass

Joe Greulich – drums

Johnny D – Xylo-synth

oni-ironshore

Oni is one of those rare bands that pulls you in with an iron grip and refuses to let go as you get more acquainted with the music that they offer. So heavy, so complex and so unbelievably well played by musicians that not only play, but are masters of their chosen instruments. Hearing only a couple songs off of their upcoming release of Ironshore on Metal Blade Records due out appropriately on Black Friday, November 25th, I was not even a little prepared for the musical spectacle awaiting me when Oni opened for Max and Igor Cavalera’s “Return to Roots Tour” a couple of months ago. Talk about being floored! There is simply no weakness in this band. As over-the-top complicated as their songwriting skills demand, these guys play unbelievably well together, sitting just outside the void of potential chaos lesser bands would yield to while remaining accessible to mere mortals like myself. Thus began my almost obsessive quest to take in all that Oni brings to bear. Now that I have had a pre-release copy of Ironshore for some time, I remain in absolute awe every single time I listen to it. Already hitting my list of best albums this year, here are my thoughts…

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