NEWLY MINTED: BEFORE THE DAWN, ALLEGAEON, AND THE ODIOUS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Apr 172012
 

In this post, I’m collecting three newly minted pieces that went into circulation yesterday or this morning, like shiny gold coins that dropped into our grimy claws: a new video from Finland’s Before the Dawn; a new song from Colorado’s Allegaeon (pronounced uh-lee-juhn, in case you forgot), and a new lyric video from Portland’s The Odious. Here we go:

BEFORE THE DAWN

Such a coincidence. Earlier today, I posted a review of a new EP from a UK band — Twilight’s Embrace — that reminded me of Before the Dawn’s style of goth/doom-infused melodeath, and lo and behold, it’s not long before I get an e-mail from DGR alerting me to this new video. It’s for a song called “Pitch-Black Universe” from the band’s forthcoming album Rise of the Phoenix (out on April 27 via Nuclear Blast).

The song is what we’ve come to expect from Before the Dawn — jabbing riffs, sweeping/swirling guitars, bearlike vocals, broken glass, fires burning, the drip of blood, pitch blackness. The video is sweet, too. It’s immediately after the jump. Continue reading »

2012 METAL IN THE FORGE (PART 3)

 Forthcoming Albums  10 Responses »
Mar 022012
 

For a change, I actually remembered on the second day of the new month that that the preceding month had ended; usually takes longer than that. My creditors would be happy, except I think their bills need to age a while longer. But yes, February is history — and that means its time to post our usual monthly round-up of news about forthcoming albums. Today’s list is a little more comprehensive than the half-assed job I did at the end of January, which means it’s about three-quarters assed. One of these days it will be fully assed.

Here’s how this round-up usually works: In these METAL IN THE FORGE posts, I collect news blurbs and press releases I’ve seen over the last month about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like at NCS (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, I cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — THIS ISN’T A CUMULATIVE LIST. If I found out about a new forthcoming album earlier than the last 30 days, I probably wrote about it in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier.

Having said all that, please feel free to leave Comments and tell all of us (me and your fellow readers) what I missed when I put this list together, because I’m abso-fucking-lutely certain that I missed all sorts of shit. So let us know about albums on the way that  you’re stoked about, even if you don’t see them here! Continue reading »

MISCELLANEOUS EAR AND EYE WRECKAGE: ALLEGAEON, FESTER, AUTOPSY, DARK TRANQUILLITY, AND HEXEN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Feb 232012
 

With only the briefest of introductions, this is a round-up of new videos, music, and artwork I saw yesterday that I thought were worth sharing. There’s a lot here, and I could have broken this up into multiple posts, but . . . I didn’t. So there. Here’s the herd I rounded up:

New songs from: Allegaeon (Colorado), Fester (Norway), and Autopsy (Florida)

New official video from: Dark Tranquillity (Sweden)

New album cover from: Necrolord and HeXeN (L.A.)

ALLEGAEON

Last time we checked in with Allegaeon, guitarist Greg Burgess was playing some mean tango (bitches). Before that, TheMadIsraeli reviewed their debut album, Fragments of Form and Function, as part of his Melodeath Week series last August. At long last, Metal Blade has scheduled the release of their second album, Formshifter, for May 8, and yesterday we got the song “Tartessos: The Hidden Xenocryst”. It’s smokin’ hot. Continue reading »

LET’S TANGO BITCHES!

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Feb 052012
 

That dude up there is Greg Burgess, guitarist for Colorado metallers Allegaeon (I said “metallers” to make Trollfiend giggle like a little girl). He can play some guitar, and not just metal guitar: He can tango, bitches!

He just posted a video playing a tango composition on acoustic guitar, which is quite beautiful. But he CAN play some metallz, too. And so can Allegaeon’s Ryan Glisan. Fuck, all the Allegaeon dudes can. Don’t believe me bitches? Well, after the jump, watch the official video for “Nex of Terra”, a song from the band’s self-titled 2008 EP. I fuckin’ love the song. A fine example of Rocky Mountain Scandinavi-ish melodic death metal. It will get your blood pumping. Bitches.

Allegaeon is working on their second full-length album. Highly anticipated. Tango and rock after the jump (and let us know if you have any recommendations for tango metal.) Continue reading »

MELODEATH WEEK: ALLEGAEON

 Album Reviews  18 Responses »
Aug 292011
 

(TheMadIsraeli has cooked up a week-long series devoted to modern melodic death metal, featuring one band each day, beginning with Colorado’s Allegaeon.)

If you were alive, and in your early teens, in the 90’s, you more than likely found your entrance into metal via melodeath or melodic death metal.  Like I or Islander did, you probably heard bands like In Flames, At The Gates, or Soilwork, and were absolutely floored by the musicianship on display and the idea that something could be both melodic and a total steamroller at the same time.  This stuff was THE SHIT if you were a 90’s kid, or even an early 2000’s kid. I don’t think there is any disputing this one.

Melodeath, though, is now seen by many as the stagnant and lazy metal genre of choice.  Thousands upon thousands of poor At The Gates and In Flames imitators and the advent of melodic metalcore have given melodeath a bad rap from which, quite frankly, it still doesn’t seem to have recovered.  This is a real shame, because there have been some killer melodeath albums released, particularly in the last 5 years.

So it’s now melodeath week.  I will review a recent/modern melodeath album for every day of the week if Islander can keep up that pace of editing.  The criteria are as follows…

1: Must have been made in the last 10 years

2: I will TRY TO AVOID well known acts, although I am pre-emptively saying The Absence is getting an exception.

So with that said, let’s get started shall we? Continue reading »

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