Reissue of Vulcano’s Bloody Vengeance coming on May 18

vulcano

Greyhaze Records is set to unearth Bloody Vengeance, the 1986 full-length debut from Brazilian death metal pioneers Vulcano. Formed in 1980, Vulcano is thought to be the first band from Brazil, and possibly South America, to play extreme metal. An early influence for the likes of Sepultura and Sarcófago, Vulcano’s primal blend of black, thrash and death metal sparked a flame that quickly spread across the mid-80s underground metal community.

Bloody Vengeance is being reintroduced to a new generation of metalheads. Fully remastered and restored, the album is accompanied by a DVD that features a live performance from the 1986 Festival Da Morte. Greyhaze Records will reissue this cult classic as a six-panel digipak CD/DVD on May 18.

Vulcano will celebrate the reissue at this year’s Maryland Deathfest. The MDF set will be the band’s first-ever live performance on American soil. With no other U.S. dates in the works, MDF XIII looks to be the only chance to experience the madness that is Vulcano north of the equator.

Bloody Vengeance is available at store.greyhazerecords.com.
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Defect Designer Posts Artwork for Upcoming Album

defect

Progressive death metal band Defect Designer announce their signing with Sleazy Rider record label.The band has posted artwork for upcoming album Ageing Accelerator. Artwork is done by Seth Siro Anthon, famous for his work with Soilwork, Paradise Lost, Moonspell, Sybreed and other acts.

Ageing Accelerator recording lineup includes:
– Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy) – drums
– Stelios Mavromitis (SepticFlesh live guitarist) – guitars
– Martin Storm-Olsen (Trollfest) – guitars and clean vocals
– Christos Antoniou (SepticFlesh) – sampling and orchestration
– Dmitry Sukhinin (Diskord) – vocals, bass and guitars
The band was originally started in Siberian Russian city Novosibirsk, and reestablbished after mainman’s relocation to Oslo, Norway. Defect Designer has a full-length album, Wax released worldwide viva My Kingdom Music.

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A Comment on Bardic Tradition in metal

leypold-wandererinthestorm

The terms bardic or minstrel metal have often been used to describe bands that usually sing in a clear voice and with anthemic overtones, often imitate medievalesque motifs and write lyrics in the manner of romanticized ancient legends. Generally, the metal subgenre most readily associated with bardic expression is power metal because they advertise themselves as modern-day minstrels and theirs is the kind of catchy and upbeat music most people can latch on to most easily. The bardic spirit along with the culture it transmits, however, requires a sturdier medium that is able to etch its runes indelibly without detracting from the importance of their message.
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Psycroptic To Headline “Bloodletting North America’ Tour

BLOODLETTING NORTH AMERICATOUR

Australian tech-death act to return to the U.S. this summer in support of new self-titled album. During their first North American tour since supporting Nile in 2010, Psycroptic will blast tunes from their brand new self-titled album — which reached #59 on the Australian pop charts and is one of the best-reviewed metal records of the year to date — along with favorites from their five previous releases over the past 10 years. The new album was produced, engineered and mixed by guitarist Joe Haley while being mastered by Alan Douches (Converge, Baroness).

Prior to their venture to the States, Psycroptic will travel to Japan for two headlining gigs before returning to Australia to join The Black Dahlia Murder on tour throughout June. Dates can be found below, and for tickets or further event details, please visit www.facebook.com/psycroptic.
6/7 Osaka, JP – Nanba Rockets
6/8 Tokyo, JP – Duo Music Exchange
6/19 Adelaide, AU – Fowlers #
6/20 Melbourne, AU – Northcote Social Club #
6/21 Melbourne, AU  – Northcote Social Club # (All Ages, Afternoon Show)
6/21 Melbourne, AU  – Northcote Social Club # (18+ Only, Evening Show)
6/25 Newcastle, AU – The Cambridge #
6/26 Canberra, AU – The Basement #
6/27 Sydney, AU – The Factory #
# with The Black Dahlia Murder & Colossvs
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Destruktor set Release Date for Long-Awaited Comeback Album

destruktor

Hells Headbangers sets July 24th as the international release date for Destruktor‘s highly anticipated second album, Opprobrium. The band’s first full-length in six years, Opprobrium follows the warring black/death path laid out on their critically acclaim debut album, Nailed. Since 1997, these Aussie tyrants have been patiently honing a sound that seethes with the war-metalled fire their homeland’s world renowned for, yet over the years finessed with an acute attention to propulsive, immediately memorable songcraft. Nowhere is this more pronounced than on Opprobrium. Across seven swift songs in a lean ‘n’ mean 34 minutes, Destruktor quickly whip up a fury that walks the fine line between chaos and control – neither too blackened, nor too deathly – maintaining the teeth-gnashing gnarliness of their early work whilst exhibiting a startling sense of clarity. That clear-yet crushing production amplifies Destruktor‘s scabrous assault tenfold here, every track a heat-seeking missile until the penultimate closer, “Forever the Blood Shall Flow.” Indeed it shall, as you prepare for the force of Opprobrium

A statement from founding vocalist/guitarist Glenn Destruktor reads: “We believe we have shown once again why Rome wasn’t built in a day. Opprobrium stems from many years of dedication, and was recorded with our longest-standing and strongest lineup to date. The small circle that has been subjected to our Opprobrium believe it a step up from anything we have done before, and it would be very hard for us to disagree. Clearly a Destruktor release, Opprobrium sticks to the formula of the past with total aggression, darkness, heaviness, and riff after riff of extreme metal that clearly sticks to the traditions of those long before. Opprobrium is finally ready for release, and we are looking forward to smashing cunts live, and on your stereo with our new hymns of desecration!”

Tracklisting for Destruktor’s Opprobrium
1. Priestality
2. Besieged
3. Tyrants Condemnation
4. Immaculate Deception
5. Blood Poison
6. Eradication
7. Forever the Blood Shall Flow
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Vod – Tuurngait

tuurngait

Vod is the one-man project of bassist Dave Trembley. Announced as an indescribable anomaly, a blend of interesting ideas in astounding ways, this is a actually a fairly clear mixture of influences that never coalesces into an original voice. Dancing and jumping between general ambient, post rock, and the break-down metal of Meshuggah (mostly in derivative and simplified Djentish manner, for groove more than for percussion wankery). The whole album is nonetheless covered by a recognizable blanket, although it is not a distinct expression but only a consistency in the use of the same collection of styles.
Rather than establish a mood and submerge the listener in it, or take us into a spiraling well of moments to build atmosphere, Vod simply gives us cool-vibe-inducing moments gathered from the aforementioned genres. Heavily relying on the most primal effects of both ambient and Djent, Tuurngait will often fall into a simple ambient drone or into the simplest and easiest to catch syncopated modern groove. Careful and smooth in taking the songs from a whisper to a full-on groove-party, this music is good conversation material as it is easy to digest.

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Sydney Slayer Day 2015

BOBS

Any metal fan should hang their head in shame for missing out on Promotorheads ”Slayer Day”. Pissing down rain, a two hour train ride, followed by a 20 minute bus trip, set the afternoon in motion (no pun intended).

Arriving at the Bald Faced stag for my first time, I must say it wasn’t as pretty as I’d imagined it to be, BUT Damn, what an AWESOME $10 lunch. 3.30pm usually my time to be getting washing off the line, feed our mini zoo, and hear all about the days events in the primary school yard .

First to grace the stage was Billabong of Blood. Their mixture of soft/hard vocals had some boots stomping.

Next was War of Attrition, and holy shit did they have my camera shaking. Vocals to make your ears bleed, and have any good Christian running for their crucifix. I must admit my favourite of the night, and still have me rambling on .

What was to follow, could not be described by mere words. My pen surely is not mightier than the sword. I still can’t believe it myself, the sheer talent, out of this world sound and the stage presence. You’d be thinking “why the hell aren’t we in some big arena worthy of such a musical encounter?” However, looking at the crowd, seeing patch work denim, black leather jackets and more hair than all of Dolly Parton’s wigs put together, made me proud to be a metal head from the 80’s.

Strangers lined the front of the stage, arms over shoulders of strangers banging heads, timing to perfection. As the line moved, knocking an older head banger to the ground, everyone stopped & offered assistance, picked him up and then returned to their original position. Proving yet again, never Judge a book by their tattoos ,long hair or the strange clothes they wear.

Of course no Slayer Day would ever be complete without some actual Slayer being played. That my friends, was where Murder-World would have left Gordon Ramsey speechless. You’d be hard pressed to find any more “”metal horns”” raised by a whole room full of people. Two fingers have never meant so much, nor held so high, as they were during one of the most outstanding kick in the guts covers of Slayer, I’ve ever seen, let alone heard .

Now, no review would ever be complete without a word or two about the Promoter, Promotorhead Bookings . Firstly, Trudy, your knowledge of metal, your way with words, passion, hard work and dedication, holds you at the top of your field. Slayer Day has set the bar so high, others will need a javelin stick just to see what you did. Forget inviting bands to play at your next gig I’m sure they are already calling you.

 

A short clip of Murder World at the show can be watched here.

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Good Taste, not Gimmick

Many different artists have sought to bring instrumentation that is unconventional to the genres they work in, be it metal, the folk music of a certain region, rap or   European classical music of a certain period. Oftentimes, these unusual choices in instrumentation are made with the intention of bringing in an element of novelty to the music. In other cases, it has been done because the picture, concept or sound in the artist’s mind can only, to him, be portrayed by making use of an imported medium.
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Khors – Cold

KhorsColdFrontCover

Khors is a Ukrainian black metal band formed in 2004. Coming from the same general scene as Drudkh and Nokturnal Mortum, Khors’ brand of black metal is made by mostly simple riffs and long, simple and slow melodies.  These are all very typical of the Slavic black metal sound. Accessible to the novice listener of black metal, Khors offers an experience that lies closer to what purists would consider closer to black metal than most mainstream acts rising the flag of the genre despite the real nature of their music

Cold consists mostly of simple guitar strumming outlining singable melodies with constant rock-like drums that use the double bass intermittently. The music relies on heavy repetition with very little changes. This is compensated by the tightening and releasing the drums provide through the simple effect of using and not using double bass drums. Particularly understated keyboards provide the spacious backdrop in which ghastly vocals carefully make sparing apparitions.

Production in this reissue of the album is stellar, outshining that of releases by countrymen Nokturnal Mortum. The rock-oriented sensibilities of this Ukranian black metal could tick off purist fans of the more extreme expressions of black metal, but Cold remains a black metal album at its center. Content-wise representing little more than a mouthful for the experienced listener, this is a perfect release for those starting out with the genre. Strongly recommended as an authentic gateway album.

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