NEW DATES ADDED TO MESHUGGAH’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

 Metal News  13 Responses »
Apr 012014
 

Yesterday Nuclear Blast announced that Sweden’s hugely popular and hugely influential Meshuggah would be returning to North America this summer for a tour celebrating their “25 Years of Musical Deviance”, with support from Between the Buried and Me. As originally announced, the tour consisted of only 12 dates, two of which were festival appearances. But today the band announced a significantly expanded schedule of tour dates, going well beyond the original 12 cities.

Inconsistent explanations have been offered for the change. In today’s official announcement frontman Jens Kidman is quoted as follows:

“This is our 25th anniversary tour of the North American market, which has been an enormous factor in the success of our band — probably the single biggest factor. Of course, we always planned to make this the biggest tour we’ve ever mounted. To do anything else would have been churlish.

“That miserably tiny run of dates our label announced yesterday was supposed to have been an April Fool’s joke, but as we like to say in Umeå, someone at Nuclear Blast “screwed the pooch” by releasing it a day early. We sincerely apologize to our North American fans for the confusion. The expanded schedule we’re rolling out today will make all the butthurt go away like a big tube of Preparation H.”

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BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME, THE FACELESS, THE CONTORTIONIST, THE SAFETY FIRE: LIVE AT ACE OF SPADES (OCT 1, 2013)

 Concert Reviews  2 Responses »
Oct 092013
 

(DGR took in the live performances of Between the Buried and Me, The Faceless, The Contortionist, and The Safety Fire in Sacramento on Oct. 1, 2013, and here’s his review of the show.)

I consider myself somewhat lucky in that I’ve gotten to see Between The Buried And Me three times, and each time has been during an era of the band that I enjoyed. I first saw them as part of the Ozzfest 2006 tour package, and then would later see them again after Parallax I came out, and they were playing that as a chunk of their set. I have an up and down history with the band and will fully own up to getting a bit tired of them during The Great Misdirect. However, I think the Parallax Hypersleep works have been some of the best material they’ve created by far, so hearing that they were doing the second one all the way through pretty much sold me on the show no matter who would be opening for them. Throwing The Contortionist and The Faceless into the mix made the deal ever so much sweeter, with the added bonus of of exposure to some new music through The Safety Fire – whom I had never heard prior to the show.

So it came to be that I returned to one of my favorite venues in Sacramento, Ace Of Spades, and stood out front on Tuesday, October 1st. The line grew pretty rapidly, and honestly, it was one of the most impressively attended shows I had seen in Sacramento, especially given that it was on a Tuesday. Even a quarter of the way through The Safety Fire’s set the place was starting to get packed. It would prove to be an exciting show too, as every band absolutely smashed their set and the crowd would feed right into it – and that was even prior to Between The Buried And Me’s massive light show and prog explorations, which would turn the whole place into a massive sweatbox.

I was excited when I spotted the folks from Rock Hard Live setting up because that meant that I would get the opportunity to link out to some of their live footage as soon as it was posted, which is something I haven’t gotten to do in a while. So be sure to check them out, as they do some great work for this city and really do show off that we actually have some good venues out here. Continue reading »

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME: THE “ASTRAL BODY” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Sep 262012
 

Unless you’ve been dwelling in a cave you probably know that Parallax II: Future Sequence is the name of the new album by Between the Buried and Me. Metal Blade will release it on October 9 (pre-order here). This morning, the band’s first music video from the album premiered at AltPress.

Provocative still frames from the video have been dribbling out over the last week, but to see the completed product is a real trip. The character in the video makes a real trip, too, in a sequence that links to the narrative concept of the album. The animation is very well done and a shitload of fun to watch, and it syncs perfectly with the music.

And the music? It’s an intricate offering of technical, progressive metal that is nevertheless extremely melodic and engrossing.

The video is worth seeing and hearing. For now, the AltPress video premiere is an exclusive one, so go HERE to see it and then let us know what you think in the Comments.

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME: THE “TELOS” VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Jul 232012
 

Between the Buried and Me have a new album coming. Its title is Parallax II: Future Sequence, it will be released on October 9, and it’s already available for pre-order from Metal Blade HERE and from this site, which is offering some nice bundles (including a spacesuit!). Today we also have a new official video for “Telos”, a song from the album that has made the rounds in a few fan-filmed videos of recent BTBAM shows.

The video is mainly a series of fade-in, fade-out ads for the release with a couple of excellent pieces of album art interspersed. The main benefit of the video is the the song, straight from the album. It’s a neuron-twister of a tech-death workout spliced into an ethereal space-swimming, time-traveling segment, which is part jazz fusion, part prog exploration.

I’m tolerating the clean vocals in the cosmic-drift part of the song, but confess that I’m much higher on the harsh, tech-death mind-fuckery, which is really excellent.

Check out the video after the jump. Continue reading »

AFTERNOON ROUND-UP: JON LORD, KING OF ASGARD, BTBAM, SYBREED, WINDS OF GENOCIDE

 Metal News  5 Responses »
Jul 162012
 

Very sad news to start this round-up: Jon Lord passed away today at the age of 71. He suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism while hospitalized, following a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Though he had a long solo career and played with a variety of bands, he is best known as the keyboardist with Deep Purple and co-writer of many of that band’s most famous songs, including “Smoke On the Water”.

Deep Purple’s music meant a lot to me at a particular point in my life, and I’m sad to see that Jon Lord is no longer in the world. In his memory, here’s “Perfect Strangers”, a song that stands the test of time:

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/02-Perfect-Strangers.mp3|titles=Deep Purple – Perfect Strangers]

In happier news, King of Asgard released a music video for “The Nine Worlds Burn”, a song from their forthcoming album …To North, which is scheduled for release by Metal Blade on July 27 in Europe and July 30 in the U.S. The song should be familiar, since we devoted a post to it when it began streaming as the album’s first single in early June. The song still reminds me of Nalgfar and Immortal, with a dramatic feminine vocal in the interlude. Great song, and the video captures the fire of the song . . . with fire. Watch it next. Continue reading »

STILL MORE TOURISM

 Metal News  1 Response »
Feb 012012
 

Well, just my luck that I put up that last post with updates about new U.S. tours and a half hour later saw the news about SUMMER SLAUGHTER 2012. Here’s the official statement:

“The rumors are true. Summer Slaughter 2012 will be the greatest bill in the history of the tour. Cannibal Corpse is confirmed to headline with special guests Between The Buried and Me. Each Sunday will see another confirmed band on the tour get announced via the SS Facebook page… It starts this weekend.”

So, the line-up will dribble out, drop by drop, like water torture, except it promises to be a good kind of torture, which happens to be the name of the new Cannibal Corpse album (Torture). Just judging from the first two bands announced, this tour is also going to include great musical diversity — a little something for everyone. I suspect that diversity is going to continue as the remainder of the line-up is announced, as has been true in past editions of this tour.

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 3)

 Forthcoming Albums  14 Responses »
Feb 272011
 


We’re jumping the gun on this post, since the month doesn’t end until tomorrow. Why? Uh, because this post is ready to go and we don’t have anything else finished for today yet. Work and other shit interfered with our grand plans for a Sunday post.  We might still get another one up later today, but for now, feast your eyes on the barrage of metal headed our direction.

What we do with these installments of METAL IN THE FORGE is collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last 30 days (or in this case, the last 27 days) about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know them yet. And in this post, we cut and paste the announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

This isn’t a cumulative list, so be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming New Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported in previous installments. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. There’s some awesome shit on the way. Continue reading »

TECH YOURSELF TO DEATH: NEW MUSIC FROM OBSCURA, GORGUTS, AND BTBAM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  15 Responses »
Feb 262011
 

This will be quick, because I hadn’t planned on any posts today besides the earlier THAT’S METAL! nonsense, but what I’ve found this morning is just too much awesomeness not to share with you: brand new songs from Obscura, Gorguts, and Between the Buried and Me.

OBSCURA

This band have a new album called Omnivium due for a March 29 North American release on Relapse Records.  In mid-January, we featured the first song from the album, called “Septuagint”. Now, the band have released a second song, called “Vortex Omnivium”, which you can stream after the jump. As you listen, you can also gaze upon the wonderful album art above, executed by Orion Landau (who has also created art for the likes of Origin, Dying Fetus, and Disfear).

Obscura, if you don’t know, is a German progressive death metal band from Germany composed of guitarist/vocalist Steffen Kummerer (Thulcandra), guitarist Christian Müenzner (ex-Necrophagist), fretless bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling (Pestilence), and drummer Hannes Grossmann (Blotted Science, ex-Necrophagist). All of these dudes are exceptional musicians — very fast, hyper-technical, jaw-droppingly good. As their last album (2009’s Cosmogenesis) abundantly demonstrated, they can also write songs that are as catchy as they are technically challenging.

For purposes of this post, it’s also fitting to note that the band took their name from a 1998 Gorguts album called Obscura. Listen to the new song right after the jump. Continue reading »

IS THERE AN EXORCIST IN THE HOUSE?

 Metal News  8 Responses »
Feb 212011
 

The reason we ask that question is because Between the Buried and Me has possessed this poor dog. You’ll see what we mean in a minute.

But first, the breaking news that caused us to add this post today. And yes, the news would be hot enough to warrant a post even if we hadn’t seen what happened to this poor dog.

The news is that Between the Buried and Me has signed a worldwide recording contract with Metal Blade Records, and Metal Blade will be releasing the band’s next album on April 12 of this year. It will be called The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, and it will be the band’s first album since 2009’s The Great Misdirect. Like everything else this ground-breaking band has done, it surely will be talked about far and wide. We will certainly have something to say about it.

And now, back to that poor dog. The image is a frame-shot from a little video teaser for that new album which was released a bit earlier today. It includes a little burst of new BTBAM music — just enough to get us panting for the album (though to be fair, we pant a lot most of the time anyway). Wonder if the album will cause this kind of possessed behavior in listeners?  2011 could be a big year for exorcists.

Now, go watch the video after the jump. You’ll be glad you did. There is no clean singing on it (that’s an understatement).

UPDATE: Dates and places for BTBAM’s headlining tour in support of the album are now out — and available after the jump.
Continue reading »

2011: MORE SICKNESS AHEAD

 Forthcoming Albums, Listmania  7 Responses »
Jan 012011
 


HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Did you see what we did?  We had to change the logo for this edition of SICKNESS.  Because 2010 is behind us, and the new year lies ahead.

We spent the last 30 days, as we’ve been doing for the last year, collecting news blurbs and press releases about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like, or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know them yet. And in this post, we’ve cut and pasted the announcements and compiled them in alphabetical order.

All of our previous monthly updates can be found via the “Forthcoming Albums” category link on the right side of our pages, and because we’re not keeping a cumulative list, you might want to check the last couple months of these posts if you want to get a full picture of what’s coming. The list that follows, in alphabetical order, are albums we didn’t know about at the time of our last installment when November ended, or updated info about albums we’d previously heard were on the way. And be forewarned: This is a really long list. There’s a massive slag of new metal coming our way, and man, does it look hot.

So, without further ado, let’s get started. See if there’s anything on the list that makes you moist, or tumescent, or just generally slobbery.

ABORTED: “Good news is that we are starting pre-productions for our upcoming record on January 4th. This means we will demo all the songs for the record, make sure everything sounds good and make the necessary adjustments to make sure they are all more lethal than a chainsaw in Mr. Leatherface’s hands. We’re all very excited about the material thus far and can’t wait to get this over with and proceed to the actual recordings later this year. Expect a fall 2011 release through our culprates in mayhem Century Media.”

AGNOSTIC FRONT: “The Godfathers of New York Hardcore, Agnostic Front, have just finished recording their highly anticipated follow up to their 2007 release, Warriors. The yet to be titled album features 13 new powerful and anthemic songs laid down by Erik Rutan (Madball, Goatwhore, Cannibal Corpse) at his Mana Recording Studio in Tampa, FL under the watchful guide of producer Freddy Cricien of Madball. The record was mastered by Alan Douches (Nile, Mastodon) and will be released in Europe of March 4, 2011 and in North America on March 22, 2011.”

(the list continues after the jump . . .)

Continue reading »

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