I thought I’d provide a quick update of things I noticed while web-surfing and reading e-mails this afternoon. As always, I’m sharing mainly what interests me, while hoping it interests you as well.
PAGANFEST IV
We first reported about this tour on December 2 when its existence became public but before any schedule had been announced. Today, all the dates and places were finally announced. And as a reminder about why this matters, the tour features Finland’s Ensiferum as the headliner, as well as Tyr (Faroe Islands), Heidevolk (The Netherlands), Trollfest (Norway), and Helsott (Los Angeles). Plenty of ass should be kicked by these pagan brethren.
The schedule consists of 21 shows, launching in Denver on March 30 and concluding in New York City on April 21, and it includes Canadian dates, too. Here’s the complete schedule:
3/30 – Denver, CO @ The Summit
4/01 – Tempe, AZ @ 910 Live
4/02 – Los Angeles/West Hollywood, CA @ TBA
4/03 – San Francisco, CA @ DNA Lounge
4/04 – Reno, NV @ The Alley
4/05 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne
4/06 – Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven
4/07 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
4/09 – Edmonton, AB @ Starlite Room
4/10 – Regina, SK @ The Exchange
4/11 – Winnipeg, MB @ Zoo Cabaret
4/12 – Saint Paul, MN @ Station 4
4/13 – Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s
4/14 – Columbus, OH @ Al Rosa Villa
4/15 – Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage
4/16 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Note
4/17 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House
4/18 – Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
4/19 – Poughkeepsie, NY @ The Chance Theatre
4/20 – Worcester, MA @ Palladium (NE Metalfest)
4/21 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
AMORPHIS
I knew that Finland’s Amorphis would be releasing a new album this year (they’re included on our list of 2013 albums to anticipate), but didn’t have many other details until today. And today I saw an announcement disclosing the name of the album (Circles), the release date (April 14), and the album cover (by Tom Bates). It was produced and mixed by Peter Tägtgren.
The announcement included info about the concept behind the album, but this quote from the band’s guitarist and founding member Esa Holopainen especially caught my eye: “The songs are extremely strong, bombastic and skull-pummelling.”
More info can be found here and pre-order opportunities are available at this location.
BLOODSHEDD
Fuck, time really does fly. It was February 2010 when I reviewed the latest album (2009’s Spare No One) by a long-running band from the Phillipines named Bloodshedd, calling it “an honest-to-god, no-bullshit, jaw-dropper.” Later that same year I featured a Bloodshedd music video, and since then I’ve lost track of them.
Until last night, when I discovered that the Tower of Doom Studios has started streaming a new Bloodshedd single by the name of “Dawn Kingdom”.
This new song is a hellblazer, a scalding, turbocharged rampage. You get paint-stripping vocals; off-the-hook, face-clawing solos; and swarming, swirling riffs galore. Headbang hard to this shit — and go here to download it for free.
8 Responses to “OBSERVATIONS: PAGANFEST 2013 DATES, DETAILS ABOUT THE NEW AMORPHIS ALBUM, AND A FRESH NEW BLOODSHEDD SONG”
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Decibel interviewed someone from Amorphis a couple of days ago. That’s where I found the album title, as well as lengthy descriptions as to the album’s ideas and probably other things that I don’t remember.
Paganfest Toronto, see you honkeys there.
Cool. Now I know what people in Toronto are called. Not Torontoists or Torontulists or Torontoites, but Honkeys.
Torontulas.
That sounds right to me. Hairy and leggy. But Ben says they’re called Honkeys, and he ought to know.
Whatever happened to the Amorphis Deathmatch series?
It seems that Trollfiend ran out of gas. Maybe the prospect of a new Amorphis album will inspire him to resume the struggle.
The prospect of something “bombastic and skull-pummeling” at the end of that long, dark road is indeed somewhat inspiring. I have a lot of other catching up to do as well, and a few-states-over move in my immediate future (Paganfest Baltimore, see you wankstains there!). But I hope that this new year will give me a lot of new opportunities to get back to writing about the music that I love. And some of those Amorphis albums too.