A LITTLE BIT OF THIS, A LITTLE BIT OF THAT

Just catching up on news here. But I’ll throw in some new music I heard this morning, too. The bands featured in this post: Thy Catafalque (again), Gire, Threat Signal, Solace, RedScream, and Deicide.

THY CATAFALQUE / GIRE

Just a few days ago, we posted a short feature that included this two-person band named Thy Catalfalque as a result of my first serious effort to get into their music — and man, have I gotten into it. I get more out of it the more I listen, like peeling back the proverbial onion, except without the watering eyes. To my good fortune, this led to a few e-mail exchanges with the band’s principle creative force, Tamás Kátai.

To date, Thy Catafalque have produced four albums and a demo, with a new album to be released in the future by Season of Mist. The last two albums (the ones I’ve been listening to) were released by Epidemie Records and have become a bit hard to find, at least if you want physical copies, though Epidemie will be re-releasing Róka Hasa Rádió on November 30, but this time in a jewel-case edition with an 8-page booklet (versus the original, nearly sold-out digipack version).

Thy Catafalque isn’t Tamás Kátai’s only musical project. He also handles keyboards, programming, lyrics, and more for another long-running Hungarian band called Gire, who have six demos to their credit plus a 2007 self-titled debut album (which features that eye-catching album cover above). The Gire debut album is also hard to find, but Tamás helpfully pointed out that it can be downloaded from this location — so, of course, I did that.

I’ve only just started listening, and I have a feeling that, as on the albums from Thy Catafalque, no one song on this album is going to tell you very much about the rest of them. But of the tracks I’ve heard so far,this is a mixture of eviscerating death metal, catastrophic sludge, industrial red-lining, and meteoric, experimental guitar extravaganza. I’m deadly serious. This is a stupendous head-check. (more after the jump . . . .)

Really, I shit you not. Listen to “Az Őzek Futása”, and then get the whole album via that download link up above:

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/05-Az-Őzek-Futása.mp3|titles=Gire – Az Őzek Futása]

UPDATE:  Better yet, watch the official video for the song, and to find more Gire and Thy Catafalque videos, visit this location.

THREAT SIGNAL

I used to like Canada’s Threat Signal quite a bit, though with the evolution of my own musical tastes, I’m not much of a fan any more. On the other hand, I’m still interested enough that I paid attention to this recent piece of news, i.e., that they will be releasing a new album (their third) on October 7 via Nuclear Blast Records. It was recorded at Planet Z studios with producer Chris “Zeuss” Harris, and the eye-catching artwork has already been released:

As for what the music will sound like, the band released this statement: “Basically we said, ‘Let’s write the heaviest fuckin’ record we possibly can.’ We’ve been experimenting with seven-string guitars and drop tunings since the early days, so we have decided to write almost the whole new record that way. We are headed back to the Under Reprisal days but with bigger balls.” That sounds promising, because in my opinion, bigger balls are one of the things the band needed to grow. We’ll see . . .

SOLACE

Speaking of Canadians: Thanks to a tip from our own Israel Flanders (who soon will be known exclusively as TheMadIsraeli, unless he changes his mind after he gets off the Vicodin he’s been pounding as a result of a recent illness), I discovered this one-man project consisting of Karl Schubach of Misery Signals, his 8-string Ibanez RG2228 guitar, and Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 2.0 software. I gather that he’ll be adding vocals eventually, but for now what I’ve heard is this play-through instrumental.

It’s a good example of what you can do with an 8-string guitar, if you know what you’re doing. This track, called “Stockhome Syndrome”, serves up some heavy-as-fuck, Meshuggah-trademark riffs and a satisfying spiral of contrasting prog-metal melodic leads. I’m really digging this. The album as a whole has been a long work in progress, but I’m now quite interested in keeping tabs on its evolution and looking forward to the release, whenever it may come. Watch and listen:

You can find Solace on facebook here.

REDSCREAM

Two things about this multi-national band interested me. First, their membership: Three members of one of my favorite, old-school Swedish death metal bands, Grave (Ola Lindgren, Tobias Christiansson, and Ronnie Bergerstål) plus guitarist Ralph Santolla (Obituary, Deicide).  That line-up leads me to expect something hellish will result from the collaboration. Hellish is good.

But then there’s the other thing, which is also interesting, in an off-balancing kind of way. According to a statement from RedScream, “It’s hard to describe a sound, but every day before practice we listen to hours of IMMORTAL, DEF LEPPARD, DIMMU BORGIR, KATY PERRY, SCORPIONS, KISS, RAINBOW and TRIPTYKON. Strange but true!”

Yes, I agree — strange. What will be even more strange is if the music reflects anything like that kind of musical amalgamation. It could be good. It could be vertigo-inducing, which I suppose could also be good. Either way, color me . . . curious.

To date, the band have finished writing four songs. They need a vocalist. If you sound like Katy Perry, hit them up. I’ll be stalking RedScream on facebook here.

DEICIDE

Speaking of Deicide, they’ve just announced a North American headlining tour to begin next spring. I know next spring seems far, far away, but since it’s Deicide and since I fucked up and missed their last tour earlier this year, it’s not too soon for me to get excited about it. There are some good bands filling out the tour, too: Jungle Rot (who I’ve wanted to see for years), Abigail Williams, and Lecherous Nocturne.

The dates are as follows:

March 01 – West Springfield, VA – Jaxx
March 02 – Reading, PA – Reverb
March 03 – New York, NY – The Gramercy Theatre
March 04 – Montreal, QUE – FouFounes
March 05 – Quebec City, QUE – Imperial de Quebec
March 06 – Toronto, ONT – Opera House
March 07 – Rochester, NY – Montage Music Hall
March 08 – Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s
March 09 – Detroit, MI – Blondie’s
March 10 – Chicago, IL – Reggie’s Rock Club
March 12 – Winnipeg, MB – The Osbourne Village Inn
March 13 – Regina, SK – The Exchange
March 14 – Edmonton, AL – Starlite
March 15 – Calgary, AL – Dickens
March 16 – Kelowna, BC – Rutland Centennial Hall
March 17 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theater
March 18 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon
March 19 – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre
March 20 – San Francisco, CA – The Grand Ballroom
March 21 – West Hollywood, CA – House of Blues
March 22 – Tempe, AZ – Clubhouse
March 23 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
March 24 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater
March 26 – Dallas, TX – Trees
March 27 – Austin, TX – Emo’s Alternative Lounging
March 28 – New Orleans, LA – The Hangar
March 29 – Orlando, FL – The Club at Firestone

So, just to wrap up this mishmash of stuff, how ’bout a little Deicide?  Why yes, don’t mind if I do.  From To Hell With God:

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/07-Hang-In-Agony-Until-Youre-Dead.mp3|titles=Deicide – Hang In Agony Until You’re Dead]