Cropsy Maniac releases free EP Evil Holidays

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Evil Holidays is a free online gift for the horror death grind sickos out there. “Christmas Evil” and “New Years Evil” are two tracks based off the same title 80s holiday slasher films. Also featuring death metal legend Kam Lee who wrote the lyrics and did guest vocals on New Years Evil. Current Cropsy Maniac line up is Street Trash Travis (drums), Kevin Reece (vocals & lyrics), Patrick Bruss (bass, mixing & mastering) and Aaron Whitsell (guitars).

Cropsy Maniac started in late 2012 with just Aaron Whitsell and Kevin Herr, both on guitars. Living in a town with little to no metal heads it was slow going at first with us writing demo songs using midi drums. After searching on the web for others who could file share I ended up sparking up a conversation with Street Trash Travis our drummer. He had mentioned he was looking for people to jam with as well. So after we sent him a few demo songs Travis mentioned his buddy who was a vocalist was into it as well. So then Kevin Reece our vocalist was on board. We all worked hard for the rest of 2013 jamming around and wrote the Shear Terror! EP which was released thru Deadbeat Media in April 2014.

Since then we have done a split with Revolting called Nightmare Disorder as well as a yet to be released or titled 4-way split with Grave Wax, Burial Ground, and Severed Limbs. In October 2014 guitarist Kevin Herr left the band to pursue other things, but Cropsy Maniac added new bassist Patrick Bruss from the death metal band Crypticus. Patrick also does mixing and mastering for various other death metal bandsincluding our Shear Terror! EP and the two new tracks we have done today! Plans for a full length for late 2015. — Aaron Whitsell

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Perdition Temple release title track from upcoming The Tempter’s Victorious

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Perdition Temple emerged from the ashes of Angelcorpse when guitarist Gene Palubicki established a new act to make the high-speed, texturally-encoded complex riff frenzy that made Angelcorpse so distinctive among the later death metal bands.

Anticipating its upcoming album The Tempter’s Victorious, Perdition Temple today released a teaser video for the title track “The Tempter’s Victorious.” The band’s first album for new label home Hells Headbangers, The Tempter’s Victorious unleashed eight new tracks and cover art by Adam Burke. You can listen to the audio below.

In addition, Hells Headbangers will release a 7″ EP in anticipation of the album with an original and cover song enclosed. Release date for The Tempter’s Victorious is tentatively set for early 2015. The band has solidified its long-fluctuating lineup as the following:

  • Gene Palubicki – guitars (Apocalypse Command, Blasphemic Cruelty, ex-Angelcorpse)
  • Bill Taylor – guitars (Immolation, ex-Angelcorpse, ex-Feldgrau, ex-Xenomorph)
  • Impurath – vocals (Black Witchery, ex-Irreverent)
  • Ronnie Parmer – drums (Catalysis)
  • Gabriel Gozainy – bass

For more information, view the Perdition Temple faceplant page.

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Alex Hellid creates contest to re-mix Entombed

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Alex Hellid of Entombed is offering a contest which puts a challenge to his listeners: make something of Entombed, and possibly win free stuff.

Here’s his statement:

Here are three instrumental demos. Take them and do something…add your own flavor…lay down the vocals…be the voice…remix…cut it up…add samples…do an animation…shoot a video clip…anything…and let us see it! Then post it on our facebook page.

Go to the contest page to download the three tracks and begin re-mixing. Then, upload them to the Entombed Faceborg page and see what happens.

I won’t share my own plans for this but if you can imagine ABBA covering GBH doing Entombed, you’re on the right track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MwS4ZGCEmQ

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Megadeth – Supercollider

megadeth-super_colliderMegadeth has been a major influence on my journey through metal. I remember that when I first heard the opening riff to “Holy Wars”, I realized that this music was different. In contrast to the verse-chorus structure of the music I was listening to at the time; it was narrative based, similar to classical music.

It took the listener on a journey of apocalyptic visions of a society shot to pieces — where humanity had ceased to think and would rather delude itself into oblivion than deal with its problems. This was something that I could relate to, far easier than any of the forgettable faux-agression bands that the unwise me was enduring at the time. This eventually led me to discover death metal and then black metal, after realizing that both of these genres took this style of writing to new heights and did it more thoroughly and deeply, yet I still retain a soft spot for speed metal.

Over a month ago, this site previewed the first single from the band’s now released album, Supercollider. The track was rather off-putting as essentially a hard rock track, but I held out hope for an overall metal tone to the album…unfortunately, this was not the case. On the whole, Supercollider is a collection of songs that challenge no commercial norms and they are structured for mass radio appeal. Any superficial stylings of speed metal in a rare moment are quickly exposed for what they really are: metal in an aesthetic sense only.

Supercollider features riffs designed to fit into a verse-chorus structure rather than shaping the song around the riffs, as the band used to do. Solos and the drumming are entirely forgettable, in their highest moments their impact is merely of acknowledgment – they achieve their prescribed role in the song, but offer nothing to stick in your memory after they’re over – which is a fitting description of the album as a whole.

Yet, even in this wasteland, there are a few signs of life. In spots, the album has some impactful melodies — moments of brightness — before the waves of drudgery crash back down on the listener. Synths soar about crunchy guitar riffs, which are held together by Dave Mustaine’s unique vocal style, and as a folksy acoustic guitar adds a foreboding element to an otherwise unremarkable track. Astute readers may be noticing a pattern here — the album’s better points arise when the riffs are not the main focus of the song, which seems a bit backwards for a speed metal band. Vocals come in varying quality – some fans will cringe as Mustaine declares “Burn baby, burn!” in a style reminiscent of any ’80s stadium rock band, yet his piercing social criticism still surfaces and is as unabashed as ever.

Comparisons will inevitably be made with Risk, but I don’t think this is very accurate. Rather than a fake attempt at making the band more marketable, I think this is a more honest endeavor; it is the product of a band that has aged. Seemingly, at a certain point in time, the young provocateur grows up and realizes that he has spent decades of his life struggling against society – then wakes up one morning and notices that he has carved a pretty good life out for himself. He may not embrace it fully, but he no longer wishes to agitate either. The allure of riding out into the sunset eventually becomes greater than the misery of dissatisfaction and thus he decides to create a safe work that challenges no boundaries.

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Megadeth – Super Collider preview

megadeth-super_colliderSpeed metal legends Megadeth have released the title track from their upcoming album Super Collider. Sounding similar to the late 90s albums which found Megadeth exploring a more commercial direction, the new work features the standard hard rock structure designed for maximum radio exposure.

Although fans of their older material may not appreciate the return to that style of music, it will almost assuredly increase awareness of the Megadeth brand. Along with Metallica and Slayer, Megadeth was one of the foundational pillars of speed metal.

Mixing a blend of bursts of aggression in among longer songwriting narratives, the bands created an organic presentation of death, war, and other dark subjects; not simply to glorify the carnage but to break free of the politically correct time in which they were conceived and to present an alternative.

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