Video: "Hide Your Children" by Skulk the Hulking

Well, the first question that needs to be asked....is what precisely is Skulk The the Hulking?

A young man and not yet a beast, Skulk first began to form in college when he was torn apart by Nietzsche and Hume.  God was dead, there was no free will, and actual truth could never be perceived.  Drowning himself in music, he looked to it for answers.  Post Hardcore was thriving in the Midwest and a young ogre engaged the scene learning all he could about time signatures, aggression, and the idea that art is communication.

Well, that about sums it up really, but it really doesn't speak to the music itself. Hide Your Children is an odd little track. It's got as much in common with Parliament and MC Lars as it does Danzig.

None of that is hyperbole. Of the video, The Hulking says:

When you're taking a good hard look at what makes you who you are, it can feel best to bury your demons deep inside.  When those demons define who you are, however, it's just quicker to let them bury you instead.

Check out the rest of the album HERE.

Skulk the Hulking - Hide Your Children from Post Everything Productions on Vimeo.

Beer Thirty with Anthems In Ashes's Micheil Grey

Anthems In Ashes

Anthems In Ashes resides in the world class city of Toronto, Ontario in the Fabled Canadas.

Their debut EP, Burn It Down, was produced by a Juno Award winner: Siegfreid Meier. Neither Meier nor the Junos are household names here in The States, so to give you an idea, it's not that different from Eddie Kramer producing an Indie Band's debut.

You can purchase Burn It Down HERE. 

If you're interested in seeing them in action, their first video is movin' and groovin' on YOUTUBE. In the mean time though, we're talking about the wide and glorious world of beers.

Micheil Grey was kind enough to talk about their favorites.

Check it out!

Video: "FFF (False Flag Flying)" by Aftermath

It's a rare time when one can enjoy both progressive music and thrash metal at the same time. Chicago's Aftermath is able to do that.

In advance of their new album, There Is Something Wrong, the Chicagoans have released this lyric video. Check it out below.

In the mean time FACEBOOK and you can preorder on all major digital outlets.

Hometown Tales with Lords of the Trident

Lords of the Trident

Lords of the Trident refuse to be done with us!

It's getting closer and closer to the inevitable showdown between Glacially Musical and Lords of the Trident.

There's lots to love in their most recent record, Shadows of the Past. Lots to love that is if you're into large, epic power metal that'll crush your soul.

Find them!

1. St. Louis City is my hometown. I've lived here for most of my life in and around the city. Where are you from?

While I’m a wanderer, mostly, I feel like I can call Madison, Wisconsin my current “hometown”. I’ve lived here for quite a few years now.

LP Review: "Chapters of an Evil Transition" by Ravenous Death

Chapters of an Evil Transition

In the world of tomorrow, Death Metal has cleaned up its act.

Long gone are the drums featuring as much distortion as the guitars. The vocals now have changed into something barely recognizable to those weened on Carcass and Master.

In days gone by, the subgenre was rearing its head out of the muck left in the wake of Thrash.

Death Metal is the unholy second division of metal.

Bands like Morbid Angel, Arch Enemy, and latter day Carcass turned it into something clean. Surgical even.

That's all well and good, but horror, classic horror show...you can see the strings. You know the blood is actually Hershey's Chocolate Syrup... That's when it's time to listen to music that sounds like a two by four to the face feels. Today, Ravenous Death is willing to give us the blow that we all need to take from time to time.

Chapters of an Evil Transition is a dirty thing. The tracks are slimy and it'll be like your first time hearing death metal all over again.

RELEASE 1/21/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Hometown Tales with DayGlo Mourning's Joe Mills

DayGlo Mourning

DayGlo Mourning is on the post-release afterglow.

It might even be glowing during the standard diurnal hours when that sort of thing isn't precisely expected. The Mourning crew teamed up with Bludy Gyers for a spectacular sludge split, Rope Enough For Two. Check that out on the BANDCAMP.

There's even a vinyl edition hitting the mailbox around..well actually right now.

Joe Mills was good enough to tell us about Atlanta from his perspective.

Check it out.

1. St. Louis City is my hometown. I've lived here for most of my life in and around the city. Where are you from?

I'm originally from WV, but after a lot of travel I've settled in Atlanta, GA.

LP Review: "Hymns For The Hollow" by Leach

Hymns For The Hollow

It might be well past time to add a slight separation to the Thrash Metallers.

Looking at the Big Four: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax., and see the one who's a little different than the others?

Somehow, Anthrax's vocal style has become more associated with Thrash to me than the others and it's less than pleasing to me.

Leach has thrown their lot in with Slayer and Co. The vocals are shouted, grunted, and forced out with reckless abandon and a complete disregard for melody.

It's significantly refreshing because, well, thrash can be very dry. So how does a band give a new take on one of the eldest heavy metal subgenres?

Instead of vocal melody and musicality, there's a strong focus on the riffs and the interplay therein. Looking back at the works of the elders, there's strong riffing, but little time is spent with the instruments working in concert, at least in the beginning.

In a time when I shy away from any music bearing the word thrash, Leach has made me a believer again.

RELEASE 1/18/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Beer Thirty with Max from Bane

Let's head over to the greatest city in the French world. Sorry, Quebec City.

So, sorry Paris.

Oh wait... St. Louis is...FRENCH...aww crap. Well, those Montreal folks are pretty good people and the province of Quebec is proudly French-Canadian. They were also kind enough to trade Jaroslav Halak to use all those years ago.

Sure, the Blues made mistakes going forward, but that was a great day. Another thing that makes Montreal great is this band called Bane. This Blackened Death Metal Mini-Horde is riding high on the digital, cassette, and CD release of their third album, Esoteric Formulae, but the amazing news is that next month they'll be smelling that sweet new vinyl smell.

Get all your pre-ordering on over BANDCAMP should you be interested in the sweet, sweet nectar of death metal on the grill.

While you're previewing that, let's talk beer.

1. My personal favorite beer style is the might Double India Pale Ale. The best DIPA in the world is STLIPA by Urban Chestnut. Tell me about your favorite style.

LP Review: "Latum Alterum" by The Sabbathian

Latum Alterum

How many times have you listened to oddly juxtaposed music?

In this new, modern era of music that's a large swath of what this reviewer finds particularly enjoyable.

King Diamond has made a very long career on doing such things. His vocal stylings are able to cover more ground than anyone on the planet really, but there's one thing he required help with.

That's kind of where The Sabbathian comes in. Though, the vocalist, Anette Uvaas Guldbrandsen, didn't feature on the King's albums, her style did.

Guldbrandsen has linked up with US black metal musician, Chad Davis. The pair of them have created a sound that's lavish and baroque. Latum Alterum has simple songs that drive forwards. The forward motion is what gives them strength.

Guldrandsens's beautiful vocals intertwine into the keyboards and guitars. It's almost just rock. The grandiosity takes me.

RELEASE 1/25/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Bookin' It with Kurtis Jeffrey of Technical Damage

Technical Damage

Are you familiar with Technical Damage?

Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, they're a melodic death metal band. Back in September, they released their debut full length LP, The Introspect. You should check that out at BANDCAMP.

You'll always feel better checking in with any of friends from The Great White North. Instead of discussing the minutiae of their record, Kurtis Jeffrey was good enough to talk to us about what books he's been reading.

1.  I try to read at least two books per month, and mostly fail, what's your goal and reality?

A goal that I've been facing an upward battle with recently is taking care of my personal health. A demanding job, busy lifestyle and the constant mental gymnastics I use to justify "down time" prevent me from seeing certain specialists who I know would improve my general quality of life. 

Stream: "Nanoångström" by Bast

Today I have a very special kind of stream for you. Blackened Doom Metallers, Bast, have released the follow up record, Nanoångström, on CD, LP, and Digital via Black Bow Records.

The gents from London are quite proud of having a record out on wax. Because of that, they've asked us to show you the spinning disc whilst you get a feel for the songs.

Check it out below!

ORDER FACEBOOK

Bookin' It with Static Tension's Brian

Static Tension

How long has it been since Glacially Musical checked in on our good friends, Static Tension?

They're an indie band in the eastern part of the American Midwest. Hey, I'm sorry, but if you don't live west of the Mississippi River, you're somewhere else that's not precisely the Midwest. Due to that fact, it'll be deemed necessary by Glacially Musical management, namely me, to add qualifiers to your midwestern bonafides.

Well, instead of my blah blah blahing about flyover country, what have they been up to in the meantime?

Oh, well lookee lookee Senator, you can pre-order their latest album, Ashes To Animation, via the greatest site in the world, BANDCAMP.

While you're there, check out some of their earlier releases too.

1. I try to read at least two books per month, and mostly fail, what's your goal and reality?

LP Review: "Vol. 6" by Seer

Vol. 6

It should be so easy to pontificate why this album is such an amazing piece of art that how I can't go on about that fact for 500 words is really beginning to bother me.

My process for review isn't that different (if different at all) from others. First spend time listening to the music.

Second after the music makes sense, write about it.

Seer though, and this isn't my first write up on their spectacular music, is somewhat hard to tell you about.

The vocals are big, ambient, and perhaps a bit tortured.

Vol. 6 is somewhat different from its predecessors that I'm familiar with, namely volumes 1-4. There's an uncomfortablness to the guitars, a tremor, that gives them extra feeling.

Seer is the band that we all wished Baroness would've  had grown into. That's the best way to really explain it. I can say without fear of contradiction that Vol. 6 is the best musical output of their career.

The great news about that? It's being released on vinyl next month.

RELEASE 2/18/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Beer Thirty with Skulk, The Hulking

It's time to check your personal privilege. You'll never once hear me talk about how it's so hard for me in this world. My family has achieved the American Dream...well the Glacially Musical dream.

We have a two living room lifestyle that allows me to listen to records at loud volumes while my family is safely downstairs ensconced in the warm, iridescent glow of the plasma television. 

As the colors emerge from the screen...my daughter is comforted by smallish horses living in a town that's always fair and ruled by a congress of princesses who've never been corrupted by the sheer power granted to absolute monarchs.

Skulk, The Hulking isn't as luck as myself or Rainbow Dash. 

He's an oppressed ogre living somewhere in the world and he drinks beer to deal with said ogre oppression.

Check out the screams on Afterbirth of a Nation while you sit back, pop open a Natty Light and read on.

LP Review: "Theater of Despair" by Violblast

Theater of Despair

If January is any indication, 2019 is going to be chock full of some truly amazing thrash.

This isn't one of those subgenres I dig into too much, because well, it's all been done before.

Enter Violblast. (Let's be honest, that's a difficult name to pronounce.)

These Spaniards have returned to restore my faith in the eldest of the sub-genres. They've recently signed to Hostile Media and we're now on the cusp of their first album for their new imprint.

Theater of Despair has a classic looking album cover with a slight modern update. It features classic imagery and coloration.

We've seen the undead on covers before and the woodcut style of of artwork. Even their logo is heavily influenced by their forebears. But instead of just black and grey, there's the infusion of red. The red makes the dead king's visage more horrible, more conspicuous, and more ghastly.

It's the perfect allegory for the music contained herein. Their guitars sound almost exactly like Slayer's Seasons In The Abyss. It's the thrash metal sound of perfection, but the riffing has death metal complexity and dexterity.

Violblast has hit us with a classic album but they've attached their vessel to modernity and it's bliss.

RELEASE 1/11/19 PREORDER FACEBOOK