Following up on the extreme success of their latest studio album release “Death…The Brutal Way” and its “Live Death Doom” DVD/Live-CD successor, Dutch Doom Death Metal legends ASPHYX are currently busy with the final recordings for their newest studio effort, programmatically entitled “Deathhammer”.

The band checked in with the following status report about the new album:

“By now, all the guitars, drums and bass tracks for the upcoming “Deathhammer” album are recorded. Drums were recorded in the classic Harrow Studio, known from the ASPHYX classics as “The Rack” and “Last One On Earth”. The guitars and bass were recorded in The Mörser Studio. In a few weeks the vocals will be recorded in the Harrow Studio as well and then Dan Swanö will do the album’s mixing and mastering, just as on “Death…The Brutal Way” and “Live Death Doom”.

“Deathhammer” promises to be a darkened successor of “Death…The Brutal Way”. Almost every band is praising their newest album to be heavier and more brutal than the previous one, but actually in this case it’s the harsh truth. “Deathhammer” is in every way heavier, doomier and darker. Maybe it’s because of the fact that most of the songs were written in late Autumn/Winter?! We do not know…but it’s easily our heaviest effort so far!”.

“Deathhammer” is scheduled to be released via Century Media Records in early 2012.

For the rest of this year, ASPHYX will be playing a string of quality shows in Europe, including an appearance at this weekend’s underground institution NRW Deathfest on Saturday, September 17th, 2011 at AJZ Bahndamm in Wermelskirchen, Germany. Additionally, ASPHYX have chose to perform two very special “full album setlist” concerts on October 15th at Metropool in Hengelo, The Netherlands (where the band will be playing their complete “Last One On Earth” album) and at this year’s Eindhoven Metal Meeting on December 16th at Effenaar in Eindhoven, The Netherlands (where the band will be playing their complete “The Rack” album for its 20th anniversary of release). Do not miss these truly special events…

Upcoming ASPHYX live shows in 2011:

17.09.2011 NRW Deathfest – Wermelskirchen (Germany)
23.09.2011 Vera – Groningen (The Netherlands)
24.09.2011 Salzmann Factory – Kassel (Germany)
01.10.2011 Skullcrushers – Dresden (Germany)
15.10.2011 Metropool – Hengelo (The Netherlands) * Special “Last One On Earth” show!
12.11.2011 Stromgitarrenfest Vol. 2 / H.O.F. 23 – Berlin (Germany)
10.12.2011 Madrid In The Dark Festival – Madrid (Spain)
16.12.2011 Eindhoven Metal Meeting – Eindhoven (The Netherlands) * Special 20 years “The Rack” show!

www.facebook.com/officialasphyx
www.asphyx.nl

Pasadena Napalm Division – P.N.D.

This solid slab of “modern crossover thrash” tends more toward hardcore than 1980s thrash but shows the quirky influence of the three bands from which it draws members: DRI, Dead Horse and Verbal Abuse. Showing the evolution of metal since the 1980s, it has the tighter rhythms and more encompassing wall of guitars achieved with more precise tremolo.

In a nod to the NOLA music of the last two decades, it uses “riot vocals” where all band members chant and sing at once in infectious trope; from DRI it borrows the fluid rhythms and almost theatrical interruptions of song structure, but like later Dead Horse it tries to merge blues, rock, punk and metal into something more accessible. More like SOD than the original DRI, it features very much punk-influenced riffs that do not vary in shape or intensity as much, which makes for a more continuous listening experience. Vocal rhythms guide these songs which tend to be longer and more sociable in topic than the old thrash songs.

“P.N.D.” improves on the technical precision (or lack thereof) of older thrash, and by mixing in the death metal influences, makes this music hit more like a linebacker than a cynical kid zinging one-liners over the heads of the Responsible Authority Figures (RAFs) nearby. It’s good to hear Kurt Brecht when they let him do the vocal tracks alone, and he has lost none of his vitriol, but has more of a uniform delivery.

In fact, what makes this different from older punk and thrash the most is that it is more uniform in approach. Riffs are all strummed at the same speed and do not break for weirdness like DRI did. It’s hooky, with the melodic chants dominating the listener’s brain. The somewhat funky rock influence may turn off hardliners from the thrash days, but for listeners accustomed to newer hardcore, metal or swamp-groove metal this will be a powerhouse that may open their eyes to a wider world.

I am a nihilist; I believe nothing is inherent, not even nothingness. It all arose as a result of the logical composition of the universe.

I am also fond of many of the people in this universe, and am aware that others hate me. I understand. Nothing I do is without purpose and I do not compromise my principles.

Part of that is the old saw: the best reviewer is a friendless hermit.

You want to help people you like; what if you don’t like their music? Or what if you like their music, and they don’t like you?

The answer is that such things are irrelevant.

Harkonin – Ghanima

This is the first album to get everything right but be all wrong. Harkonin just broke up, probably from the huge amount of hope invested in this CD. After all, they did all of the parts right — riffs, rhythms, production, songs that fit together at the right paces, on top of every development in metal, good vocals, excellent playing — but when they put those together, the result was less than the sum of its parts.

Like a rock record, this album comes across as disorganized, mainly because it attempts to hit us with contrasts between unrelated elements instead of seemingly unrelated elements that resolve to complementary pieces which cooperate like partners in a conversation to tell a story. It’s amazing that this is the case, given how much proficiency is shown. It as if confidence in their own tastes in metal held these guys back. That, the aforementioned “modern metal” style disorganization, and boring melodies that result from trying to keep it short and hookish and playing it too conservative.

Mixed elements of black metal, death metal, speed metal and even power metal comprise this CD. The problem is that they change within songs without any clear roadmap, so what results is the sensation of random pieces thrown together into carnival music, trying to shock us with how radically different each part is and as a result, creating a norm of differentness in which some kind of developing consistency would be the only shocker. The case is not song structures being constructed to fit a song, but archetypes modified to be distinctive from one another and their origins. As a result, form and content are confused. It is as if the band is trying to use form to substitute for content, but the result is not songs that are “about” a certain kind of impression, but a general song theory adapted to fit whatever topic is assigned.

It’s a heartbreaker to hear this one. It is fundamentally not interesting. It’s not boring, in that there are frequent changes. It’s not bad as in incompetent; in fact, it’s so super-competent that had it been interesting, this would have been an A-level album and a new classic. But it’s not about anything. It centers only on the idea of tweaking appearance to create a pattern, but that pattern gestures at nothing else, and descends even if in negative impression from an archetype, which leads to this album not distinguishing itself and so remaining a pile of high-quality parts that never gels into a whole.

Harkonin Facebook

CIANIDE premiere track from new album, their first in six years, set for release tomorrow!

Widely revered Chicago death metal cult CIANIDE are premiering a new track, “Dead and Rotting,” today at Metal-Army.com alongside an interview with the band. “Dead and Rotting” comes from CIANIDE’s brand-new album on HELLS HEADBANGERS, the appropriately titled Gods of Death, set for release tomorrow worldwide. The link to the track premiere can be found here: http://www.metal-army.com/?p=22698.

Already, CIANIDE’s Gods of Death is being hailed by the international metal press, even landing the band a covetted feature in next month’s issue of Decibel. Here are some snippets of the buzz currently circulating around Gods of Death:

• “Will make peers like NUNSLAUGHTER or JUNGLE ROT weep” – Terrorizer [4/5 rating]
• “Death metal at its most primitive, primeval, and downright punishing, ugly as sin and reassuringly predictable. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” – Decibel
• “Exactly what it is intended to be: a well-done homage to early Celtic Frost” – About.com [B+ rating]
• “Comes from the oldest style of death metal…will confirm that the underground isn’t dead; it’s just overshadowed by the drama of the emotional-like-emo people” – Examiner.com
• “Cianide stay the course and leave an even longer trail of corpses” – Blabbermouth.net [8/10 rating]
• “Monstrous” – Popdose [10/11 rating]
• “Death metal as it should be, at its ferocious, bestial zenith” – Metalcurse.com [10/10 rating]
• “Proves that Cianide still has what it takes to be one of the more important driving forces of the underground metal world to date” – Apochs.net [9.5/10 rating]
• “For those who prefer their metal keeping its direct link and inspiration all the way to the glory ’80s, Cianide is one of the most obvious answers” – Dead Void Dreams webzine [9/10 rating]
• “A worthy effort from a band whose return is most welcome” – Metalreviews.com
• “Lots of bands are now jumping on the bandwagon, but these guys have been doing old-school since old-school wasn’t cool” – Wormwoodchronicles.com
• “This is the way death metal was meant to be: thick, groovin’ and brutal” – Brutal Control webzine
• “A superb death metal album that delivers exactly what you want: no-frills deathliness with no fancy trickery on the production or mix” – MetalTeamUK.net
• “Operate in a space between BOLT THROWER’s chugging surety and the more ominous, cavernous resonance of INCANTATION…one of our most devout, unsung US death veterans, and worth experiencing if you want nothing more than to ball your fists up and feast on human misery like a streetfightin’ troglodyte” – From the Dust Returned webzine

About Metal Army: Metal-Army.com is the new number-one online destination for the metal community! Featuring all of metal’s latest news, reviews, etc and guest writers that include Oderus Urungus (GWAR), Rob Dukes (EXODUS) and UFC fighter Dan Hardy (amongst others), Metal-Army.com is home to the best that metal has to offer. Metal-Army.com also hosts monthly bar nights across the country where metalheads can go to hang out with fellow metalheads, have some drinks, and see some of their favorite musicians spin their favorite metal songs during special DJ sets. Past DJs have included members of White Zombie, Exodus, Testament, The Cult, Neurosis and more! The next Metal Army Night is scheduled for August 9th at Idle Hands Bar in New York City at 9PM!

CIANIDE – “Dead and Rotting” by MetalArmyUSA

For more info, consult www.hellsheadbangers.com and www.myspace.com/cianidekills.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, this was a regular metal magazine that you could get for free at record stores in Houston.

Every concert and new record release was in it. Not only that, but it covered ANUSian topics — much like the Metal AE — such as the history of metal, music theory, what defined metal, genrology, the spirit of metal and the clash between metal and the counter-culture as well as the pop-culture above it.

[[image:rivethead-houston_metal_magazine.jpg]]

The website has a comprehensive archive of their late 1980s and early 1990s issues, which focus on a mixture of heavy metal, speed metal and the birthing of death metal. The approach is professional even if the methods are homebrew:

• Rivethead Magazine Homepage
• Rivethead Magazine on Twitter
• Rivethead Magazine on Facebook
• Rivethead Magazine on last.fm

Also see our article on Examiner.com.

From a notoriously fractious and insightful source, a rant that nails it — on Facebook, of all places:

It’s from “formula” in metal music that has either been the downfall or the up rise in the genre and among many of the bands. When bands set a distinct genre – and a set “formula” is established, once those bands begin the mix or change that formula, is when they take a risk of failing.

Sure some newer fans may take to the new formula – but those already established fans in the formula have a certain “taste” for what they prefer. Change the ‘taste’ – take the risk of having the already established fan base spitting it out after the first bite. Sure, some will attempt to stick around and nibble at the edges… attempting to find a similair taste and familiar feeling…

They will even attempt to make excuses, attempt to rationalize it, and even go as far as to use controversial behaviors or feelings in an attempt to explain in a rational or logical manner their intrepid points. They wish to avoid any true explanation of the utter disgust and disappointment they are truly feeling, and thus hide behind pitiful excuses and whitewashed ideals and values.

However, in my opinion – when a band decides to forsake the formula that works, and forsakes integrity in exchange to gain “a piece of bread” (make $money) – I personally do not feel my loyalty is any longer of importance to the band. They have already decided that my personal opinion is no longer valid, and that other fans too that may share the same or similair opinions are also no longer important as well.

Integrity and pride more so than often get’s washed away in favor of the notoriety and tempting promise of “fame and glory”.

[…]

As well… with “formula” when a new genre is attempted to be made – by changing an already established genre, and trying to “mix” in something new to that genre. It is NOT likely to be accepted by those fans who already – as I said above – have an established taste for what the genre already has been dishing out.

Perfect example: DEATH-CORE is NOT DEATH METAL!

And as I said above –
some newer fans may take to the new formula – they will even attempt to make excuses, attempt to rationalize it…

even go as far as to pretend to accept is as inevitable change.

Translating into cause->effect logic:

Formula means repeating what others did.

However, that “what others did” is an effect, not a cause.

The cause of what they did was the need to translate an idea/mood into music.

The effect was how they did it.

You can’t get the same effect by imitating their effect; instead, you must rediscover their cause.

But if your motive is fame/notoriety/kvltstatus/$$$ instead of “making art” (to translate that idea/mood into music), you will not understand that cause.

Metal is the spawn of early punk, progressive rock and horror film soundtracks — it’s more Anton Bruckner than Chuck Berry, more King Crimson than Blue Cheer, more Jethro Tull and Procul Harum than Led Zeppelin, and more Iggy Pop than The Beatles.

As a result, it takes integrity/authenticity seriously — it is music of the Idea, and by that I do not mean dogma or the reality-detached idea, but an enmeshment with reality.

Like Romantic literature, it is born of a time in crisis… it is mixed-blood, with some blood being the feel-good prole average (rock) and some being the rising above (ambitious music->art).

Romantic literature had both Shelley and Blake, after all. Wordsworth and Keats; Coleridge and Bram Stoker (later Romantic literature sort of diverged into Gothic lit).

What does it mean?

When metal loses its honest intent to create art, and to translate an idea/mood into music, it becomes window-dressing: pandering to the crowd for popularity points.

And then, it becomes the same callow manipulation we’re running away from, and that running away got us into metal.

Beware the rock-n-roll formula.

[b]Timeghoul[/b]

Progressive death metal band that offers a mixed bag of doom, avantgarde, death and grind.

Yosuke Konishi (NWN) returned to KFJC radio to do another six hours of radio madness. If you like old school and new-underground metal mixed in about equal proportions, this show is filthy loud and fast, and evil.

• Playlist
• Audio (380mb)

KDVS has its long-running “Raise the Dead” show which played the same night, and can be found at the archive page:

• Playlist
• Audio