UPDATES: BLODSGARD AND OBLIVION

The last few days I’ve fallen down on the job of watching for, and writing about, new music and news, because the old fucking day job has had me in one of those armlocks the cops use (used to use?) to choke out unruly citizens. But I’m at least going to make time to report on exciting new developments from two “old friends”.

BLODSGARD

Thanks to sharp-eyed NCS supporter Austin S-K, I found out that Blodsgard have posted to YouTube a “teaser reel” of song excerpts from their forthcoming album, Monument.

Back in mid-June I provided some updates about that forthcoming full-length debut (including the killer album cover by Mark Cooper of Mindrape Art), and that post is a good place to go if you want to find out more about the band and their previous demo releases. At that time, the band had posted on their website separate excerpts from each of the tracks on Monument, but as of today they’ve now packed them into a single “medley” clip that you can hear straight through.

I’m still tremendously eager to hear all the songs in their entirety. Last I heard, the album was due for release by an Italian label named The Oath, though I still haven’t seen a precise release date. Here’s the teaser reel:

https://www.facebook.com/BlodsgardOfficial
http://www.blodsgard.com/erectingthemonument.cfm

 

OBLIVION

We’ve been big fans of this Bay Area band for a while and written about them frequently (writings collected here), and yesterday brought the exciting news that they have now signed with the Unique Leader label. The first thing Unique Leader plans to do is re-issue the band’s self-released debut album, Called To Rise, which is a good thing for new fans because the self-released version has been sold out for a while (check our review of it here).

If for some reason you’ve forgotten about the band, here’s a nice summary of its line-up from the Unique Leader press release:

The band features an all-star cast of metal musicians.: bassist Ben Orum was the founder and primary songwriter in All Shall Perish, lead singer Dr. Nick Vasallo is a professor of Music and internationally acclaimed modernist composer, guitarist Victor Dods is completing his PhD in Math, guitarist Ted O’Neill is a 25 year veteran from the scene, and drummer Luis Martinez is a young musical phenom trained by Ndugu Chancler.

The re-issue will happen on October 15. As a reminder about why this band is worth getting to know, here’s their official music video for “Reclamation”, which appears on Call To Rise. There will be a new video debuting on July 29, for the song “Multiverse”, and you can see a nice trailer for it right after “Reclamation”.

https://www.facebook.com/OBLlVlON