News: Death The Leveller Announces "II" via Cruz Del Sur

Epic, melancholic, and churning doom metal from Ireland! Death The Leveller will release its first full-length album, II, March 13 on Cruz Del Sur Music. A lyric video for the first of four epic tracks, "The Hunt Eternal," is available now at the following location: youtu.be/oSgcfhx1mjg

Death The Leveller's II combines dark, impenetrable doom with the sweeping arrangements of epic metal. There is an air of unassailable melancholy in Irish music. 

Its ballads, poetry, traditional music and folk traditions all carry the weight of loss of the men and women who experienced hardship and fought so vigorously for their country. Passed down through generations, it’s only natural for young musicians to have melancholy embedded in their DNA. What they do with it, however, is entirely up to them. 

For Death the Leveller, music is the outlet and the common bond between its four members. Therefore, it is no surprise their first full-length album, II, is the perfect union between dark, sweeping epic metal and doom.  

LP Review: "Cyber Metal" by Skelator

Cyber Metal

Do not underestimate the power of cover art.

When we as a people all frequented record stores, cover art is what sold the music to us, at least in part.

It's the first chance to catch a listener's eye. Your cover should connect with your possible listener and give me a good idea of what you're all about.

Iron Maiden's entire career can be traced back to a zombie. Eddie was what caught people's eyes, bet it on stage or on the cover.

The cover of Skelator's latest record certainly ticked off a goodly number of boxes for me.

This album cover made me interested in hearing the rest of the album and that's a total win for this guy. Skelator is roots music. At least for me. These guys hearken back to a time when twin gun guitar solos and super high vocals were all over the place in metal.

They're progressive, melodic, and have a damned good imagination when it comes to crafting lyrics. I'm still not precisely sure what a Cyber Samurai is, but I kind of want to watch a TV show about it.

Galloping twin guns, a bassline that'll drive you through a wall, and vocals that'll make your ear drums bleed...all of these things come together to fill that hole in your heart that rests between Def Leppard, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden that you never knew you had.

RELEASE 6/21/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

LP Review: "Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring" by Smoulder

Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring

Respect the process.

That's what Ben Folds told us during his all request paper airplane tour thing and it stuck with me. The all encompassing and all powerful process helps me.

Today the process was kind of a failure. After skimming through over a hundred emails to find the quality, the goal, the diamond in the rough...the process had come up empty.

Then this little script flipper came up.

Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring is the debut album by a set of Torontonians.

In some ways, it's the epitome of 80's Heavy Metal. Look at that cover. It's colorful, cool, and straight out of Conan The Barbarian.

The tracks are riffy and thick. The kind of music that the person who hates heavy metal in 2019 can really sink his teeth into. For me, I love metal in 2019 and this album still kicks major ass.

Smoulder respected the process and came out swinging with this thumper of a debut record. Here's to hoping is all up from here.

RELEASE 4/26/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Split LP Review: "Split" by Hands of Orlac/The Wandering Midget

Split

There have been a goodly number of Split LPs to cross these pages in the past few months.

In a day and age where a band has to basically set themselves on fire in order to get noticed, perhaps this is really good way in order to get on the radar of more fans.

For example, last month we purchased Procession of the Equinox by Twilight Fauna and Evergreen refuge, and yes, I'm interested in Evergreen Refuge now.

The same thing happened while listening to Grim Van Doom and Cult of Occult's split together. The former wasn't part of my world, but now they are.

What makes for a good split really? That's the million dollar question and how well do they sell? The answers to these questions are elusive to me. These are my personal known unknowns.

Video: "The Fallen" by Arduini/Balich

Arduini/Balich have released their latest video for The Fallen. I would think many of my readers would be ready for an epic ten minute slab of metal.

Because I always am! Check out the video below. As always, find them on Facebook and PREORDER their upcoming album, Dawn of Ages coming out on Cruz Del Sur Records.

Double LP Review: "Beyond The Veil" by Dark Forest

Beyond The Veil

This year, there has been much travelling in my life. Chicago, Joliet, Buffalo, San Francisco, Honolulu, Birmingham, and more I'm sure.

What all of this consistently reminds me of is how small I am in comparison to the rest of the world.

Not even the world, but just the United States of America.

When people emigrate here, they're typically astounded by the size. The great expanse of our country is something to truly behold.

But take that one step further.

In terms of geographic size, we are a small part of the planet earth and we only have five percent of the world's population. There is a giant universe that we have not even scratched. The immensity of creation can be something terrifying if looked at in the wrong context.

Album Review: "Deadhead Syndicate" by Septagon

Deadhead Syndicate

If you could go back in time and have dinner with so and so...

How many times have we seen these kinds of things?

On a related note, one of my favorite concepts is time travel. I keep meaning to write a book on it and my personal ideas about what happens if the timeline is changed, but I'm keeping that to myself!

As for the timeline, the multiverse, and all that jazz....

It's on my mind quite a lot. When something goes wrong and my focus is on what I should have done. 

With all of this throwback stuff in music these days, it really can make a person think about what ifs. What if Metallica wasn't the first thrash band to break out of the bay area?

Album Review: "The Cycle Never Ends" by Ravensire

The Cycle Never Ends

Every year, for as long as I can remember, Thanksgiving has meant the following things:

Family, turkey, stuffing, and enough mashed potatoes to fill the lower floor of my house.

This is our tradition and how we celebrate the season. I think that most people have more traditions than they can even name.

Started by family members that we don't even remember and have never known. These kinds of traditions can be very comforting and remind of us our loved ones that we no longer see or who have left the physical realm for the ethereal one.

Traditions are more than just what we do, but they make up parts of who we are. It's just important to remember that "because we've always done it this way" is not an appropriate response when someone asks you if we can change it.

Album Review: "Illusions in Infinite Void" by Sacral Rage

Illusions in Infinite Void

Today's review is by a band from Athens, Greece.

This becomes a bit funnier later on in the review to be perfectly honest.

I'm assuming no one in this band is related to any of our favorites from the peak of Mount Olympus. With all of the years I spent reading those old stories and seeing Athens come up time and time again, yes Theseus and the Minotaur has popped up into my head...of course now if you say Tribute, people would think Hunger Games, but...good lord..sorry.

Today we're listening to the full length debut of Sacral Rage of Athens, Greece. In the past they've released a demo and an EP, but not in that order....

Sacral Rage are one of those bands who take their all of their influences and basically make them into a musical hotdog. Read on, please!