MIGRATION FEST: PRE-FEST SHOW AND DAY ONE

 Concert Reviews  10 Responses »
Aug 132016
 

Migration Fest poster

 

Here I am on a gorgeous Saturday morning in Olympia, Washington, still pinching myself to make sure what I’ve been experiencing isn’t some kind of fantasy (or more likely, incipient dementia). Yesterday was the first day of Migration Fest, and the night before that was the unofficial start of the party with a three-band pre-fest show. In a nutshell, it’s been an absolute blast so far. More words (and amateurish photos) to follow.

This is, of course, the first edition of what by all rights should become a never-ending tradition, a labor of love jointly organized by Adam at Gilead Media and Dave at 20 Buck Spin, with support from a whole bunch of their tireless friends and family members. They assembled a stellar line-up of bands, and based on what I’ve seen so far (at least from a fan perspective), they’ve been executing on the plan like a well-oiled machine. Continue reading »

ESSENTIAL ENTRIES: JUNE 2015

 Listmania, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  13 Responses »
Jul 202015
 

Abyssal-Antikatastaseis

 

(In this post Dan Barkasi continues his monthly series recommending music from the previous month.)

June is long gone, but alas, there’s music that needs some light shed upon it!

Apologies for the delay on this one. Life finds a way – to get in the way of my getting this done faster. Thanks, Dr. Malcolm, for the line!

How good was June? It was loaded like a politician’s rhetoric, but not vomit-inducing. In other words, lots of audible goodies! A lot of styles represented, too, possibly being the month with the most diversity thus far.

Let it begin!

Abyssal – Antikatastaseis

Chaotic as they are potent, Abyssal’s third album displays a band who continue to hone their craft to devastating effect. This sublime combination of black, death, and doom metal is so crushing that it gives a dinosaur a run for its money. There’s also a little bit more melody than the previous two discs, which is used to great effect. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SOULFLY, PISSGRAVE, LVXCAELIS, FALSE, PALE CHALICE, YETI ON HORSEBACK, BLOODBEAST

 Metal News  6 Responses »
Jun 062015
 

 

Happy goddamned Saturday to one and all. The old fucking day job is sending me out of town again today. I’ll be buried in a whole lot of Texas for the next two weeks, putting my figurative nose to the figurative grindstone both day and night until I’ll just have a hole in the face I don’t have when I return. Sigh.

What this means, as it has meant during past trips like this one, is that the content at our putrid site will probably fall off until I get back to the Pacific Northwest. Before I drag my glum ass to the airport this morning, however, I thought I would leave you with a collection of new musical and visual discoveries I made yesterday.

SOULFLY

To be honest, I’m not champing at the bit over the prospect of a new Soulfly album. However, I am a champion of Eliran Kantor’s artwork, and I love the shit out of the art he created for Soulfly’s new album Archangel, which was revealed yesterday (right up at the top of this post). Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: FALSE, PALE CHALICE, BOTANIST, DEMONICAL

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  9 Responses »
Apr 102015
 

 

Yesterday brought a wealth of new music, and I’ve collected a few of the riches in this post. The first three songs are black metal, and the fourth isn’t — but it’s still obsidian and it still rips.

FALSE

With only an untitled EP in 2011 and a split with Barghest in 2012 — collectively totaling three songs — the Minneapolis black metal band False have established the kind of underground credibility that makes their debut album one of the year’s most highly anticipated releases. For me, “highly anticipated” became an understatement after I saw them perform at last summer’s Gilead Fest in Wisconsin. In a word, the performance was stunning (reviewed here).

Yesterday, Gilead Media announced pre-orders for the album — which is also untitled — and put up the first advance track for streaming on Bandcamp. Continue reading »