New Jersey’s Toothgrinder have announced their third album ‘I Am.’ The album, produced by Matt Squire (Ariana Grande, Panic! At the Disco, Underoath), drops October 11 via Spinefarm Records. It’s available for pre-order HERE. Continue reading
Heavy on the arpeggios, heavy on the footwork and heavy on the “bree’s,” FLUB is about to take you on an extraordinary adventure. A modern take on tech-death by members of such prestigious bands as RIVERS OF NIHIL, ALTERBEAST alongside former members of VALE OF PNATH and THE USER LIVES. FLUB is set to release their self-titled record via The Artisan Era on June 7th.
*This is part of the Rock USA Spotlight segment where we help you get to know some of the non-headlining bands performing at the festival. Let us introduce you to Royal Tusk.
Royal Tusk was formed in Edmonton, Alberta in 2011. The band consists of Daniel Carriere (vocals, rhythm guitar), Quinn Cyrankiewicz (lead guitar, backing vocals), Sandy MacKinnon (bass, backing vocals), and Calen Stuckel (drums). The band fuses a classic and progressive rock approach with punk energy and a stoner groove to create something unique that is Royal Tusk. Continue reading
Words By: Masen Smith
For nearly a decade, DC prog metallers and forerunners of Djent; Periphery have been churning out album after album of tasty riffs and inventive songwriting. Few bands in the genre have been able to continuously and fluidly evolve for this long, constantly leaving fans guessing on which direction they’ll take next. No sentiment could be truer regarding their latest record, ‘IV: Hail Stan.’ After shockingly departing from Sumerian Records and subsequently launching their own label 3Dot Recordings, their creativity as a band was allowed to take centre stage. On their revamped writing process, guitarist Jake Bowen explained that this record was unique in that it took an entire year to write- something that the rushed schedule of major labels simply didn’t allow. The result is a polished, purposeful, textured and masterfully crafted album, one that was certainly worth the wait. 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 Kansas.*
Originally forming in May of 2010, Existem have emerged as a progressive force in the Kansas City music scene, combining bursts of technicality, subtle progressions, ambient instrumental passages and jazz phrasing to express their unique sound. Existem was formed by Brad Trinkl on guitar, Chris Gochis on guitar/vocals, Ben Chipman on bass/vocals, and Matthew Chipman behind the drum kit. The band released their self titled debut EP on April 21, 2011 that consisted of 4 tracks. The band went on to release their first full length ‘Years Of Winter’ on September 14, 2012. They would follow that up with another EP in February of 2014 titled ‘Phoenix’ and also a single “Closed Eyes” in November the same year. Continue reading
Louisiana band, R O G U E are brand new and not something to overlook. They are a four-piece consisting of Jansen Nunez on vocals, Jeffrey Fisher of The Arbitrary on guitars, bass is Taylor Law and Nick Guidry on drums. This month the band will be releasing their debut EP, “Anomaly.” Continue reading
Unhold has been an active band for over 25 years beginning in 1992, fusing together a unique mix of sludge, doom, and post metal and in the process cementing themselves as a staple in the scene. Unhold is like a heavy metal experimental astronaut constantly in search of things out of this world and blazing new paths. After many years as a quartet, in 2012 Unhold united three rough edged and enticing voices, guitars, keys / synth, bass and drums following their mission to merge beauty and beast into one hybrid creature – fierce, intimidating, beautiful and compelling. The band is comprised of Reto Wittwer on bass, Miriam Wolf adding piano as well as vocals, Philipp Thöni shredding on guitar and providing clean vocals, Daniel Fischer behind the drums and Thomas Tschuor on guitar and belts out the harsh vocals. Unhold are routinely playing stages all over the world and have played alongside bands such as Shrinebuilder, A Storm of Light, Zeal & Ardor, Zatokrev, Minsk, Crowbar, and Torche. As you can see those bands they have played alongside vary by genre drastically. Unhold has a unique enough sound that they can almost fit any bill alongside any band regardless of their genre or sub-genre in the rock or metal world. The bands latest release is ‘Here Is The Blood’ which released November 9, 2018 via Czar Of Bullets. The album was mixed and mastered by Andrew Schneider in New York whilst in daily contact with the band. It was recorded by Christoph Noth at Studio La Fonderie in Fribourg, Switzerland. The results are for all to hear. Andrew Schneider and his experience and sonic mastery shines throughout their songs, as it has with other bands he has mixed such as Unsane, Cave In, Ken Mode, Big Business, and Shrinebuilder. ‘Here Is The Blood’ is the follow up to 2015’s ‘Towering’ and the band yet again expands on their journey in exploration of sound.
Florida based alternative metallers Meka Nism have just released the official video to the single “The War Inside”, off their forthcoming The War Inside’ EP.
The debut single is a visual representation of the internal struggles that some of us battle with throughout our lives – from anxiety to depression, addiction to insecurity. In the video, the story is one of self-healing, reflected through the spiritual journey of the shaman. Frontwoman Meka portrays both her own lost soul fragments, and her own hero. She faces her fears by confronting them head on in each of her energy centers, portrayed by six butoh dancers (Root Chakra, Sacral Chakra, Solar Plexus, Heart Chakra, Throat Chakra and Third Eye Chakra).
Meka says “We each have the power and courage to face our struggles and to save ourselves from all that we are desperately fighting. The intention behind “The War Inside” is to help inspire and create the energy to empower others to take their own healing journey and know that everything we need to win our war is already inside of us.” Continue reading
Just before embarking on their mini EU tour including debut shows across Germany and the Netherlands Complexity Festival alongside Carnifex, The Faceless and others, djent pioneers SikTh treated UK fans to two intimate performances with Londons Exist Immortal. Firstly at Sub 89 in Reading, and secondly to my local venue and ‘NME Best Small Venue 2012’ The Forum in Tunbridge Wells. This gig marks one of many celebrating to small 250 capacity venues’ 25th anniversary celebrations, which has a reputation of giving a stage to bands before they made it big. SikTh are locally held in very high regard where they are practically legends and it was a pleasure to have them back here once again. UK alternative hardcore act Cove were announced as openers but unfortunately had to reschedule to the following Sunday – a shame for those attending as Cove perform with such an explosive veracity that they would have put on one hell of an opening performance! Despite this slight alteration to the evening, together SikTh and Exist Immortal both delivered equally passionate and energetic performances, where their two distinctive styles accentuated one another with their mix of djent and melodic verses. Continue reading
Switzerland based power trio Echolot was founded in 2014. The band consists of Lukas Fürer (Guitar), Jonathan Schmidli (Drums) and Renato Matteucci (Bass). The band combines prog, stoner rock, doom and psychedelic rock all into one unique and complex sound. In April of 2016 Echolot released their first full length album titled ‘I’. They kicked things off with an album release party alongside the amazing Swedish stoner rockers Goatess. The bands fresh jams have these psychedelic eruptions that drive you from the depths of doom into a Pink-Floyd type lightness. On October 6th 2017 the band released ‘Volva’ their debut on their new label Czar Of Revelations. ‘Volva’ is a 4 track full length album that comes in with a run time of over 55 minutes. The band says of the album “it will contain moments of fragility, heavy riffing, epic solos and some truly unique jams!”
