Happy Saturday to one and all. I am awake and adequately caffeinated now, only moderately hung over from Friday night’s revels, and therefore able to type. My thinking capacity is only on a par with that of the lower primates, but this is not unusual, so I am forging ahead with our first post of this first weekend in June. And really, this post doesn’t require much thought, because it involves free music.
The first offering comes from Century Media. They have compiled a free sampler of songs from bands who are scheduled to perform at the SUMMER BREEZE festival in Germany on August 16 – 18. It’s a hell of a compilation, too, with songs from the likes of Insomnium, Napalm Death, Darkest Hour, Crowbar, Deicide, Asphyx, and Vallenfyre. Though it’s unlikely that every band is going to appeal to every metalhead, I’d be surprised if you don’t find some tunes to like, even from bands whose music you don’t already own.
To get the download, you do have to surrender an e-mail address and expose yourself to email marketing campaigns from Century Media and its affiliates, so there is that hitch. But otherwise, this is free, and you can get it via this link.
But that’s not all. I found another just-released free compilation worth mentioning, and it’s maybe even more delicious.
The creator of this comp is Thrash Head, a webzine dedicated to metal and hardcore punk. They’ve packaged together 34 tracks from bands that include Hellbastard, Helm, Amebix, Cormorant, Ramming Speed, Resistant Culture, Conan, and Hot Graves — just to mention the names I know and like.
For me, there’s more pot luck involved in this download than in the first one, because most of the bands are unknown to me, and there’s obviously more hard drive space required in order to explore what’s here. But based on the bands I do know, this looks very promising.
And it’s free, and it’s on Bandcamp (here), which means everything can be streamed, though you can’t pick and choose what to download — it’s all or nothing. Check it out: