SEEN AND HEARD (Part 2): ACCEPT, THE ACACIA STRAIN, BLACK CROWN INITIATE

 

Here’s Part 2 of today’s effort to catch up on news and new music I think are worth your attention. I had planned a third part, but that will have to wait until tomorrow (fucking day job).

ACCEPT

I’ve made no bones about my lukewarm reaction to much of what passes for “traditional” thrash — perhaps primarily because of the genre’s vocal style. But the new song (“Final Journey”) that NPR premiered today from Accept’s 14th album Blind Rage has knocked my socks off, not least because it includes a guitar melody lifted from Edvard Grieg’s “Morning Mood” as an unexpected accent near the song’s end.

But that’s only part of the attraction. The riffs and the solo are absolutely galvanizing, the melody is heart-pumping, and I actually like the vocals by Mark Tornillo as well. Check out the new lyric video next. The album can be ordered here from Nuclear Blast.

https://www.facebook.com/accepttheband

 

 

 

 

 

THE ACACIA STRAIN

Sometimes I just want music that will bludgeon me into a pulpy mass of goo, and it’s even better if I can bob my head to and fro while the music is jackhammering me into a sticky mess. The Acacia Strain’s new song and video for “Cauterizer” does that quite nicely.

The song comes from the band’s new LP Coma Witch, which is due on October 14 via Rise Records. It was produced by Will Putney (Body Count, Suicide Silence) and it sports an attractive album cover by Justin Kamerer (Angryblue). Interestingly, Coma Witch will be released digitally and physically as a two-disc set, with the second disc consisting of a 28-minute track titled “Observer”. I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around a 28-minute Acacia Strain song, but I’m certainly curious.

Here’s “Cauterizer” (though the video is something like the reverse of being cauterized):

https://www.facebook.com/Theacaciastrain

 

 

 

 

 

BLACK CROWN INITIATE

Black Crown Initiate from Reading, PA, turned a lot of heads with their debut EP, Song of the Crippled Bull, and they’ve followed that release with an amazing string of tours alongside the likes of Behemoth, Septicflesh, Goatwhore, and Fleshgod Apocalypse. “Meteoric” would be an appropriate word for their rise.

Now their debut album, The Wreckage of Stars, is scheduled for release by eOne Music on September 30, 2014 (pre-orders are now being accepted here). Yesterday the first advance track appeared. Its name is “The Great Mistake”, and it more than proves that Song of the Crippled Bull was no fluke. It balances huge groaning/stomping riffs reminiscent of the afore-mentioned Behemoth with bursts of machine-gun percussion and a soaring chorus — and a back half that takes a smooth left turn into progressive metal territory.

https://www.facebook.com/BlackCrownInitiate

 

 

 

 

 

AGHAST!

You might be able to tell I’m in a fun-loving mood at the moment, as opposed to my increasingly prevalent grymm, kvlt frame of mind. As proof of that, I give you “All the Rage”. It’s the title track from the debut album by a London band named Aghast!, and the lyrics include this stanza: “Don’t waste time deciding / Whether this sound is cool / All we want to do / Is play some Heavy Metal!”

And that’s kind of what I’m enjoying about this — it’s just raucous, bludgeoning, fun-loving music, part groove, part thrash, part death, part artillery barrage, and not taking itself too seriously. And damned if I don’t have still it running through my head as I type these words.

https://www.facebook.com/AGHASTKVLT