Video: "Don't Be A Cyberbully" by MC Lars

Nerdcore Hip-Hop artist, MC Lars, is back with his latest album, the Jeff Sessions. It was released worldwide via Bandcamp last week.

MC Lars routinely writes songs about literature, nerd culture, and funny things like how not to write Slayer songs.

Don't say anything mean to him (or anyone else for that matter) on Facebook.

LP Review: "Mother Gray" by Eshtadur

Mother Gray

The thing that makes metal one of the greatest genres in the world is that it has the ability to anger the bourgeousie while simultaneously rivaling the musical ability of a symphony.

It could be said that metal has always been the music of the proletariat and that's part of why it angers the uppers so much, but that's always been the place of art in our world.

In the years since the debuts of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and many others, the complexity and melody has often times been left out of metal records.

Certainly there is a time and a place for extreme metal bordering on noise. There's a great many records that fit that precise description in my vinyl library, but the heavy metal arms race can get tiresome.

It's always interesting to hear extreme metal bands add something to the mix rather than the four standard ingredients.

LP Review: "Lucifer's Dream" by Mindkult

Lucifer's Dream

In my formative years, those outside of the metal circle would often times talk of how it was only screaming.

At the time, there was very little screaming in mainstream metal. Of course unbeknownst to the most of us, thrash, death, and other extreme forms of metal were congealing into scenes that would grow what they are today.

But that's not where this all started. Metal began, in earnest, with Black Sabbath, as we all know. There was no screaming involved.

There was a broken guitar, a treble booster (read: Overdrive) pedal, and an amplifier pushed to well past its limits. There was also of course, Geezer Butler.

In this mix, there wasn't a single scream. The guitars were tuned down on later albums to match the range of Ozzy Osbourne. Metal wasn't even angry at this point. It was scary, but not angry.

Rock Out With Space Witch's Playlist

Space Witch is one of those bands that the only way to describe them...is to call them Dr. Who Metal.

Regardless of what I may or may not have said about Dr. Who at SoHa Bar &  Grill after a few IPAs on Saturday, that's not a bad thing at all!

Check out how they get down...

Video: "The Reverend" by Kabbalah

One of the best vintage rock bands to come out in awhile, Kabbalah, has released a video for The Reverend from their album Spectral Ascent.

You should check out that video below and preorder the record HERE.

Did you know that you can interact with bands on this thing called Facebox?

LP Review: "Roll For Initiative" by Highrider

Roll For Initiative

During my formative years, cartoons and professional wrestling really ate up large swaths of my free time.

When it wasn't time for homework, perhaps the USA Cartoon Cavalcade was on and on Mondays it light straight into The WWF's Monday Night Main Event featuring Bobby The Brain Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon.

There was a genre of cartoons where strangely clad or equipped characters solved crimes without really knowing what they were doing. There was the (culturally insensitively named) Hong Kong Phooey and the master of the genre....

Inspector Gadget.

The ill-fated Mathew Broderick movie aside, this man perfectly exemplified what we're talking about. He "solved" crime after crime and foiled plot after plot. Most of the time, if he did anything useful, it was on accident.

Video: "Roses'N'Gin" by The Fabulous Minx

Here's the latest video from Tulsa, Oklahoma's The Fabulous Minx. Their music harkens back to an earlier time when rock'n'rollers were common with their danceable music and their long hair.

Check out this jump, jivin' track, Roses'N'Gin and ask them to put you on their dance card on Facebook.

Album Review: "The Navarat" by Monobrow

Personally, I am not interested in mind altering drugs, but when I see an album cover with psychedelic mushrooms on it, it immediately goes into my 'to listen' pile.  I assume it will be full of down-tuned, riff orientated heaviness, which will create the sonic equivalent of a drug induced trip without any of the legal or health ramifications.  It is possible to love stoner metal without actually being a stoner.

The new release from Canadian stoner metal band Monobrow delivers exactly as the album art advertises.

Top Five: Tim Kenefic of Death on Fire

As a writer, it's always interesting to see how songs, albums, and careers are built. Seemingly, I lack whimsy because it's easy to get jaded.

Seeing how the sausage is made though, is extremely interesting.

In that vein, we have another top five playlist from Tim Kenefic of Death on Fire.  Perhaps you recall the track we streamed awhile back? If not, refresh yourself HERE.

LP Review: Self Titled by Hell

Hell

In these current days, my family is attempting to be healthier.

The wife is dragging me along into movement.

Ever since giving up hockey, the life led by me has been rather sedentary. Yes, clearly this is not an optimal lifestyle for one who's been living in an existential crisis since swearing off organized religion.

The climate inside my noggin has gotten even stranger than normal now.

Before, it was only the icy breath of Death that harangued my consciousness repeatedly. Death is no longer solitary in the this mess. The cheery, vice-like grip of life is now squeezing into the very small space that Death has chosen to un-occupy.

As time moves, they move. When one leaves a square inch available, the other moves into it. This is a difficult situation as the crushening is now coming from more than one place.

Video: "Nocturne": by Susprians

Here's the latest single from Suspirians's Ti Bon Ange. Like the rest of their record, it's colorful, vibrant, and a little bit crazy.

Check out the track and see if you can catch them on one of the following tour dates:

07/23 New Orleans, LA @ Saturn Bar
07/25 Nashville, TN @ Betty’s
07/27-29 Indian Meadow, WV @ Voice of the Valley Fest
07/31 Cincinnati, OH @ Rakes End
08/01 Indianapolis, IN @ State Street Pub
08/02 Cleveland, OH @ Now That’s Class
08/03 Akron, OH @ Hive Mind
08/04 Columbia, MO @ Cafe Berlin
08/05 Kansas City, MO @ Blind Tiger

If you can't make any of the shows you can at least show them some love by ordering Ti Bon Ange or checking out their Facebook.

LP Review: "The Desert Winter" by Canyon of the Skull

The Desert Winter

Before we get started, it's necessary to immortalize my internal debate at present.

Perception, does not determine your reality. Perception only can determine your delusion. When presented with fact, one will either accept said facts, or scream fake news.

Acceptance or denial of facts will then determine if you're living in reality or delusion.

This philosophy has been debated for millennia and it's doubtful that we've settled it just now, but what if what you're perceiving is neither factual nor delusional?

What if it's something rarely seen? Perhaps you've noticed my reviews are now entitled with LP, EP, MLP, DLP, TLP, etc? The hope is that you'll understand what you're reading about in terms of length.

Well, this is not an EP and it's not a single, so it's definitely an LP.

Video: "Goodluck Sandy" by Märvel

It's been a few minutes since Märvel took hold of our world and exploited our need for masked superheroes by releasing all of their records over here in the USA via The Sign Records.

But they're not just about reliving the past, because this fall they've got a new album coming out. Until At The Sunshine Factory drops later on this year, check out their latest single and video below.

Don't forget to ask them who they really are on Facebook.

Five Minute Interview: Lor

Normally, this would be the spot were we talk about the artist a little bit, but as this is our first attempt at this, these will be short and sweet.

Lots of times you'll see the same questions, as we're getting to know some folks out there.

Glacially Musical: Thanks for taking a few minutes so our readers can get to know you a little bit. 

Tyler of Lor: Absolutely!

GM: What made you want to become a musician?

Stream: "What's On Your Mind" by Swimming Tapes

It's interesting how the city of London in the United Kingdom has influenced so much of our music an pop culture here in these United States.

Yeah, I know, we're not that united right now, but whatevers. We'll fix it. So let's move on to how London is getting on with it now...

Presumed London socialites, Swimming Tapes, are on the cusp of releasing an EP called Soft Sea Blue on B3SCI Records in the USA and Hand In Hive Records over there in the European Union where they have those Euro dollars.

This track is soft, a bit melancholy, but hopeful. Ask them all your questions on Facebook.

LP Review: "Deceases" by Morbid Evils

Deceases

Under extreme duress, the human mind can slow down time.

When that happens to me, it's like Phillip J Fry on 100 cups of coffee. It's frankly one of my most endearing and useful psychological abnormalities.

Overly stressful situations do not tax me like they do others.

In my mind, I question where this particular ability came from. Was it from years of disassociation, a defense mechanism?

However, the most plausible explanation would be the teachings of Surak and The Time of Awakening on the planet Vulcan, as told by Star Trek.

We all know that Vulcans are logical beings rather than emotional, but it's not that they have no emotions, but they are able to master them. In times of crisis, my emotions are buried deep down so we can live to dissect them....

Video: "X" by Counterfeit Culture

Anytime you're thinking of Melodic Metal, it's only natural to think of the place that has inspired more touring musicians than any other locale in the entire world.

A state that has spawned countless acts to strike out on the road to make their fortune. This is somewhere that's created movie after movie that makes us all want to stay away from there.

Naturally, we're talking about New Jersey.

Kevin Smith, Bon Jovi, and Springsteen jokes aside, Counterfeit Culture is about to release their debut EP, Deathwish, on August 1st.  In the meantime, get a look at their single, X, and decide if they'll mean as much to you as the aforementioned Garden Staters.

Ask them about the Tri-Town Area on Facebook and preorder Death Wish.

Guest Post: Tour Playlist From Death of Kings

This is what Amos chose.

Hey, everybody! Amos here from Death of Kings, fresh off the road from a killer east coast run supporting our new album, KNEEL BEFORE NONE.

A proper soundtrack for tour is an absolute must, and we thought it might be interesting if we kept a log of all the albums we jammed while we cruised across the country, so here it is!

The band van is my daily vehicle, so with me being the most comfortable behind the wheel I wind up doing most of the driving, and often find myself controlling the tunes, as well.

Lots of old rock, punk and heavy metal stuff this time around, often being influenced by the places we were driving through - jamming King Diamond while we drove through Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Dio/Cro-Mags/Anthrax driving across NY and GWAR into Richmond.

We were also fortunate enough to have a working tape deck, so we dedicated an entire day to jamming all the cassettes we brought and picked up on the road.

There's plenty of curve-balls in there (though not as many as I would've liked!) as well as a ton of live albums... so enjoy the tunes - we definitely did!

Stream: "Pink Clouds" by Dead Stars

Dead Stars have released the lead single from their upcoming record, Perfect Patterns, due on 9/21 via Bandcamp.  Preorder it HERE.

In case you didn't know, they're available to aggravate 24/7 on Facebook.

LP Review: "Drying the Eyes Of the Goddess Of Gloom Underneat the Stars And the Moon.." by Gloom Balloon

Drying the Eyes Of the Goddess Of Gloom Underneat the Stars And the Moon..

I'm just going to say it.

The entire title is underneath the cover art because it's funny.

In the past few weeks, sleep has been eluding me.

Part of it is my ignorance on how to reset the stupid automatic thermostat to stop kicking back up and down.

It's fine in the winter because it heats up quickly, and when the AC changes, my house heats up quickly. Because of that, my late night music spins no longer contain such things like Coffin Dust or Morbid Slaughter. When sleep is elusive, every single possible care must be taken to capture it. 

One of those things is mellower tunes whilst winding down.

Video: "The World Is Yours" by Arch Enemy

It's interesting how long Arch Enemy has been around. It's been a very long time since first seeing the We Will Rise video, on VH1 of all places.

Arch Enemy has been around the world, lost two vocalists, a guitarist, but gained a French Canadian, though all of this is old news.

Here's the latest single from their upcoming record, Will To Power.

Stream: "Sink (The Abyss of Dwelling)" by Atonement Theory

Atonement Theory is releasing an expanded digital version of Illumination on 7/28 via I Defy Records. Do you need a sample?

Check out a track below.

Ask them if they're capable of personal flotation on Facebook. You'll get a funny answer, promise.

Split LP Review: "Unto Heretic Flames" by AK-11 and Aasgard

Unto Heretic Flames

Remember all that beef stew I couldn't shut up about last year?

Crockpot Stew, when miso or gravy are added to the broth, is one of the best meals on the planet.

One of the things that makes it so great is that, unless you're eating out of a can or plastic container, beef stew can't just be had at will.

It has to be planned out. The hours upon hours of cooking it make it difficult, and slightly rare.

Music that takes time to gel is always interesting. Unto Heretic Flames was not something that could be listened to once and then be reviewed. This music required rumination.

Aside from the standard black metal things, what were they trying to say? What are they trying to accomplish here? Why did these two bands team up to release a split LP?

Interview: MaidaVale

MaidaVale

For the last little while,we've been lucky enough to digest some new music from The Sign Records.

One of the latest and greatest bands these days is MaidaVale.

Hailing from Sweden, see below, they dazzled us with their debut record, Tales of the Wicked West. It's a psychedelic blues freakout from wayback that was just recorded.

Check it out if you haven't, and take some time to get to know them.

GM: Tell me about that capitalized V. What's its significance?

MV: The capitalized V is just because some other band had occupied the internet with "Maida Vale" when we started, and then we got used to it even though some of us are real perfectionists when it comes to spelling.

LP Review: "Temple" by Olde

Temple

Over the Fourth of July holiday, my cousin and her family were in town from Chicago.

It's been almost two years since we've seen each other and just as long for the kids too. When we have time, our daughters have Facetime Tea Parties.

Yes, it's every so metal.

Keeping up with people is something I have never been good at to be perfectly honest about the situation, and that does include family.

Thankfully, she was willing to make the overture and a great time was had by all. There was an 11th Hour decision not to take our children to the park where we spent large portions of our youth...bleeding in the sand...because that place is dangerous.

Video: "Never Wanted" by Avelion

Check out the latest video from Avelion.

This single comes from their latest record, Illusion of Transparency on Revalve Records. Find more information HERE.

In the meantime, get a bowl of popcorn and see where they take you this time.

Video: "Depravity's Lock" by Soul Remnants

Soul Remnants has a new video off their up coming album, Ouroboros. It's a concept album about a dystopic future.

Ouroboros will be released digitally on July 21st. Preorder it HERE. Make sure you ask them questions Facebook.

Stream: "Baptized In Vibe" by Joey Sweeney & The Neon Grease

Let's pull a Joe Perry and let the music do the talking...right after I'm done flapping my yapper.

Almost there, but we're not. Seriously, if the title Baptized In Vibe doesn't have you clicking play play play on this one...there's probably nothing that will.

Tell Joey and the boys what you think on Facebook.

LP Review: "Herodias" by The Lunar Year

Herodias

Thank you for reading this.

Over the years, my personal style for writing reviews has grown and changed. In the beginning, professional sounding reviews was the goal.

Later each review became an attempt to write to you how the music sounds, so that you'd be able to hear the music in your head.

It's important to have your own personal style and live the life you want to create for yourself. Mike D (and Willie Shakespeare) put it best, be true to yourself and you will never fall.

 So, hopefully you're coming to this little corner of the world wide webiverse using Hyperglobalcompumeganet to speed up your Captain Janeway experience knowing that what you'll see here, you won't see anywhere else. In our little bubble of positivity, we do it the way that makes the most sense to us.

LP Review: "Salt and Rot" by God Root

Salt and Rot

One of the best gifts that nature has ever bestowed upon humanity is friendship.

The ship of friends that takes us places. It's definitely a very special part of the human condition that Lt. Cmdr. Data is currently working on...wait...he was blown up.

Then there's the best friend. The person in your life that even if you haven't spoken in years, that you can sit down with and pick up where you left off.

Being lucky, my best friend returned to St. Louis, but we had that relationship for the eight years he was out of town.

It's hard to even conceive of life with out my friends, both real and internet...possibly imaginary. The love and comfort received has kept this little guy going all these years.

Stream: "Thunder On The Fields" by Demon Head

Who's itching to hear some new music?

Check out down below for some thunder from Demon Head.

Fight with them about politics on Facebook and make sure you check out this new album.

Stream: "Clean Evil" by Susprians

A couple weeks ago, we were surprised by a vinyl copy of Ti Bon Ange by Suspirians.

What else is there to say about that great record?

Well, cassette tape fans, you can also get in on the analog love fest. Pomogite Community has it for you.

LP Review: "Speak Volumes" by Old James

Speak Volumes

It's surprising, that being a big Star Trek: The Next Generation fan that I am, not many of their episodes have really stuck with me. The books have always been more interesting, as there's no terrible acting to screw it up.

(There's also not plasticware that's in my kitchen being used by Ferengi and Klingons to distract me....)

One of the memory stickers though, is A Matter of Time. This particular episode deals with time travel, but not in the typical way.

A man steals a time machine from a future time traveler and uses it to go forward in time to find out what would be especially valuable. In the end, Berlinghoff Rasmussen admits to being a poor inventory.

He then posits that having a time machine will making him a brilliant one who'll be able to make ten fortunes with the future artifacts he's pilfered from the Enterprise.

Concert Review: Tengger Cavalry and Felix Martin

Felix Martin (left) Scott Fermandez (right)

It was about 6:05pm and this blogger was eating Panda Express's orange chicken in a food court.

Inertia was setting in.

It was a family dinner. We were all going to some sort of show that night.

My wife and daughter were seeing Cars 3, and well, look up to see what this guy saw that night.

It was another concert where there would be no one by my side. There would be no friends to spend the evening with me.

In the end though, I was really questioning my choice to review this concert.

That's not really a strange thing. It happens to me all of the time, especially if there's no one meeting me there. So, there I sat at home, waiting to head down to Fubar on Locust while questioning myself about this.

LP Review: "There Is Nothing Left For Me Here" by Ether

There Is Nothing Left For Me Here

Since my earliest childhood days anime has been a large part of my life. From Voltron to Speed Racer as a very small child to Inuyasha, Rurouni Kenshin, Trigun, Happy Lesson, et al.

Let's just stop there because it would take a month of Sundays to tell you all about my favorite titles and pontificate about them.

(Yes, those are the more common ones, but there are some more obscure as well and I didn't just get them all off of Adult Swim or Toonami thank you very much. We can have a nerd fight if need be.)

Watching anime is hard because it's culturally Japanese. That certainly sounds like a ridiculous statement, but how many Americans know what it means to hear the cicadas in Ghost In The Shell during a scene that takes place in February?

Vinyl Review: Split LP by Cloud Rat and Disrotted

Split LP

Like many other times during the past five years and now 1,000+ articles we have posted on Glacially Musical, this is a split.

Splits are nothing new and have been around for decades Typically though these releases are EPs and not LPs.

You get one or two songs by each band, half a side, and that's it. Perhaps it's simply my personal ignorance, having had an absence from the underground metal scene, but split LPs still seem a little bit on the strange side to me.

It's funny to say that because there are now several of them in my vinyl library. (Note: I don't use the term collection, because it creates a different connotation from listening to and enjoying the music contained on the discs.)

Looking at the tracklisting after finding out this record was on its way, it's only two tracks. That made me think that we were doing another 7". My first dance with Cloud Rat featured a side of "short" tracks. You may recall the Cloud Rat/Moloch split I reviewed a couple months back.