Curse of Disobedience - S/T

A while back I wrote about the deep south, home-brewed heavy metal of Arise Within.  Kinda spartan, kinda raw, but when they hit their groove, pretty damn effective.  "Black Pearl" made it's way onto the Ripple Effect sampler, and sat well with the other heaviness.

Well, turns out that guitarist Paul Hill has another band, one based in Texas (not his native Mississippi) and rather than being a two piece like Arise, here we got a full-fledged outing.  Their new disc popped into Ripple a while back, and somehow immediately got misplaced under the unslaught brought in by Postman Sal.  But ReverbNation has several tracks that are worth checking out.

Plying a more doomy end of the metal spectrum, Curse of Disobedience is a more fleshed-out venture than Arise.  The sound is fuller, thicker, and more menacing, and benefits from a fuller production.  I've always been a fan of D.I.Y ethic music, and these guys got it going in spades.

"Letting Go" is pure post-Sabbath doom, haunting and mesmerizing.  The vocals of David Hernandez are perfectly Ozzy-ish, while Paul's guitar has more room in the expanded arrangement to distinguish itself.  This is halloween doom, and perfect for scaring the kiddies.

"Tooth and Nail" rides a damn impressive opening riff with a gutsy industrial tone before locking into a steady groove that should appeal to any doomster.  "Fist of Rage," also shows off the gutsier production to good effect, pounding out loud and heavy and full, with some searing guitar licks tossed in.  Overall, each track benefits not just from being heavy, but from having some significant melody as well.  A plus for any metal album.  

The band has 3 albums done now.  There's a 2-CD Curse of Disobedience set out there, and the self-titled and Reflections albums are available on Amazon and iTunes.   Their new album, Reborn should be heading there soon. 

Doomy and metalic.  Thick and heavy.  Worth Checking out.

--Racer


http://www.reverbnation.com/curseofdisobedience

Ghost - Opus Eponymous

iTunes (the computer program) doesn't lie.

Opus Eponymous is my most-played metal album of the last year-- according to its coldly-calculating statistics.

I even bought a ticket to see them play in October 1, 2011-- only for them to drop off the tour.

I even play this fucker when I'm doing dishes-- because I love the tunes that much.

Instrumental "Deus Culpa" opens the proceedings, in clearly-liturgical-fashion, followed closely by "Con Clavi con Dio," which, in its lyrical-literacy (even if it's dying to denounce the Catholic liturgy) is frankly inspiring, and an intellectual antidote to modern pap like Jersey Shore--

I'm obviously an over-intellectual, but still--

what does it say about America when publicly-avowed Devil-worshipers like Ghost are an obvious alternative to the typical American television offerings...?

Track four, "Elizabeth," (Ghost's first single) is also (arguably) the most memorable tune here (while also enunciating the career of Elizabeth Bathory)....

Track six, "Satan Prayer," in all honesty, inspired me and fills me with soul-- because this allegedly-Satantic band went to such literal lengths as to mirror the Catholic/Episcopalian mass-based tune of the Nicene Creed in its lyrical content-- honestly: in an age filled with shit like Nicki Minaj, this attention to detail, Lucifer-espousing as it may be, is truly inspiring to a former English major.

Are Ghost essentially Satanic Blue Öyster Cult worshipers?

Yep.

But they're still definitely worth hearing-- especially to the metal/rock world, who so seldom get acquainted with "hooks."

I, admittedly, hated on Ghost because of their generic-ness-- but I never dreamed that their musical talent (and Satanic message?) would overcome this.

--Horn

Rwake - Rest

Zoinks, man.

When recently concert-going, I saw so many Rwake shirts, both on the bands and in the crowd, I was forced to reconsider my perhaps-hasty dismissal of them up to this point. They seemed boring. (And I love Sunn O))).)

Seriously though, every other damn shirt at this show was some version of a Rwake (pronounced "wake") shirt. Yeah, I know that just because so many people like one thing in particular it's not usually a good sign, but we're not talking about everyone, we're talking about all the people who also came to see a band that I like enough in the first place to see live. Did that make sense? ANYhoo....

I wanted to reeeeeaaaallly give Rest a try and make sure I either still didn't like it, or if I'd missed something.

"Souls of the Sky," the opening intro, is acoustic guitars and a female chant, which segues into:

"It was beautiful, but now it's sour"-- backwards vocals sound like chants in a dead language, like you stumbled onto an Aztec or Etruscan human sacrifice... the vocals, overall, are more "padded-room-type rants" than they are singing.

The lyrics, too, are haunting and yet subtle:

Oblivion is welcoming
Everything and nothing is wrong

It disturbs me, but I can't say why.

...That's good horror.

"An Invisible Thread" is a plodding, funereal riff, very like USX...

"The Culling," is an over-16-minute epic that begins with, again, an strange and intimidating line. Over tolling bells comes:

It... is...later...than...you...think.

Now, it's just a soundbyte from an old radio show, but it's unnerving as hell and sets the stage for the remaining 16 minutes: uncomfortable and eerie, constantly building tension.

It reiterated what I've been coming to suspect about Rwake: they are, essentially, Mournful Congregation if they were an Appalachian folk band whose singer spoke in tongues.

No no wait-- the singer sounds like a  backwoods, Flannery O'Connor-type street preacher who's having a psychotic episode on the sidewalk while standing beside a donations bowl.

You know the type I mean-- he's in any downtown urban area, he's telling you all about Jesus, but like you yourself murdered him in a voice normally reserved for fathers screaming at their sons screwing up at t-ball--and so you cross the street to avoid him.

And, well: it's pretty much as cool as it sounds. Apparently I was being impatient with Rwake.

"Ti Progetto" (project will in Italian) blew my mind hole (just listen and really consider what it says, preferably chemically-aided, gnome sayin?), and album closer "Was only a dream" rocks an intensely-demonic-sounding vocal that does a call-and-response with the singer, like the Bizarro version of Amy Winehouse and Tony Bennett dueting.

Interestingly enough, the most haunting, lasting part of Wake is the lyrics, which would work nearly equally well as a book of poems. How many bands can you say that about? I can't think of one.

Though the shouting sometimes gets old and the drums sometimes go beyond laid back and into clunky, there's some Rucking Rool music here, Shaggy.

--Horn

Cancer Bats - Discography

Few bands in this world combine punk, hardcore and metal…and do it well. Canadian punk rock metalers, Cancer Bats are one of those that do. The Cancer Bats are influenced by  the likes of Black Flag, Refused, and yes even Led Zeppelin.  Based out of Toronto, Canada they have been rocking since 2004 and have released three l.ps and five e.ps in their short seven year span.

Birthing the Giant is the first full length album they released. This record is fucking non stop. I’m pretty sure I broke a sweat just listening to it. The lead off track “Golden Tanks” embodies the ferocity of the band. Singer Liam Cormier’s vocals are in your face though he is not screaming. Another amazing track, “Pneumonia Hawk” is done in similar fashion but with the addition of alexisonfire screamer George Pettit, for some dueling vocal action.

Hail Destroyer is the Cancer Bats second full length album. Much like Birthing the Giant, Hail Destroyer starts and ends in pure unbridled intensity. Keeping the trend alive with “borrowing” a second voice, many of Canada’s top band singers are also present on this album. Namely Tim McIlrath of Rise Against on "Harem of Scorpions”, Wade MacNeil of  alexisonfire on "Deathsmarch" Ben Kowalewicz of Billy Talent on "Smiling Politely". The title track starts off with the a gritty guitar worthy of any southern metal band that leads into Cormier shouting “Tear us down!”, instantly making you want to grab the nearest authority figure and punch him in the mouth. They keep up this pace for the next 11 tracks, without missing a beat. If you are lucky enough to pick up this album with bonus tracks, you are in for a treat. The bonus cd contains three covers, including my personal favorite  cover of The Murder City Devils’ “I want a Lot Now”

Their most recent release Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones was released in 2009. This album is exhausting..in a good way. There is a lot going on in this record. Multi-layered is understatement. Punk, hardcore, sludge: this album does it all. The opening track “Sleep This Away” is a sludgy mix of hardcore metal. The Cancer Bats also do a pretty nifty cover of the Beastie Boys “Sabotage”. The cover holds true the Beastie’s original but Cormier’s gruff vocals and the bands squealing guitars, make it their own.

Bottom line, the Cancer Bats have a bright future in today’s hardcore and metal scenes. They are defiantly one of the bands that is a “must see”. The bands overall stage presents is overwhelming and keeps you entertained.

-Cicatriz

Buy their albums here: www.indiemerchstore.com/cancerbats 

Burzum - Fallen

 Hmmm... how to begin this.

Disclosure:

1: Most of my adult life I've worked in forensic psychology, in prisons and police departments in six states, specifically with sexual offenders and serial homicide offenders.

2: I dig (though by no means am tr00 or kvlt) black metal; of course I still consider Behemoth black(ish) metal, and love Liturgy, so....

3: Burzum, aka Varg Vikernes, served time in Norwegian prison for murder and arson.

This highlights a sticky area for reviewers: how do you review a piece of (at least alleged) art, knowing the potentially toxic background of the artist?

Do you avoid the Ad Hominem fallacy ("He's a bad man, so he can never have anything good to say!") and listen earnestly to what he's done?

Or do we say Fuck that shit, murdering, church burning bastard.

And it's deceptively easy, from the safely of reading the monitor, to say "you go, burn that shit!" or something similar.

Now imagine your mother or grandmother being burned alive in a building she found peaceful, or held onto as a symbol, or source of peace.

Regardless of your opinion toward the church and/or Christianity (and the perhaps-inevitable paradoxes inherent therein), there are serious, life-changing repercussions of what Mr. Vikernes was convicted of doing.

The point is, this area gets emotionally tangled very quickly, especially to me; I'm likely to be particularly irritated by the artist's history and perhaps not enjoy this work as well as someone else might. Be warned, and read on with that in the background of your cerebellum.

So.

If his musical work, despite his background, is good, do we say it's good? Do we endorse it?

Maybe put more directly-- if Hitler gave you the winning lottery numbers, would you play them?

Or would you object to the millions you'd get, despite the millions dead?

[Although I'm phrasing this question somewhat rhetorically, I'm obviously working up to a review of the work in question. But: wouldn't it be hilarious if I just concluded it wasn't something that should be reviewed at all, and just stopped here? Something like, soup Nazi style: "No review for you!"]

Overall, Fallen sounds like it cost $10 to make; does that make it tr00? Or is it like John Cougar Mellancamp or Joel McHale, spending hours on a haircut, trying to make it look like they spent 10 seconds on it?

If the appearance, at least, of low-budget recording appeals to you, well then... there you go.

Track one, "Jeg Faller": sounds like my first guitar, a Harmony, played through its accompanying 1.5 inch speaker, with no gain-- but somehow does not sound bad...? Like all tracks on Fallen, it's a mix of ambient, electro-pop (somehow: maybe it's because of what I'm certain is a drum machine and its stiffness...?), black metal, folk music, acoustic pop... actually, it might be easier to list what musics don't end up somewhere on here.

"Valen," like the previous track, follows the songwriting trope of less-melodic verse followed by "catchy" chorus with cleanish vocals. And it pretty much works.

"Vanvidd" continues both the Norwegian lyrics and musical themes: cold, tremolo-picked chords in standard tuning, with murmured lyrics that become hoarse and raspy, replete with blast beats... managing to sound like black metal and ambient relaxation music (seriously) at the same time.... Bonus: at around 3:45 it manages to invoke both Ministry and Joy Division....

"Enhver till Sitt" starts with that same shrill, high-gain non-wound guitar string, bleating a flatted-fifth (sinister) riff.... The remaining tracks "Budstikken" (black metal Pet Shop Boys? Dance floor KMFDM?) and "Til Hel og Tilbake Igjen" (say what you will about the songs themselves, but Norwegian song titles sound metal as shit, don't they?) are interesting, above average black metal.

So-- the overall verdict here is actually quite anticlimactic: Fallen is pretty good.

It's got good moments, and interesting uses of texture and contrast. It's not great. It's not terrible. It's the germ of something great.

Whether Burzum is past his greatness, or approaching it, is anyone's guess.

 --Horn

Buy here: Fallen

Buy here vinyl: Fallen 

Buy here mp3: Fallen 

Ripple News - Team All About the Music Releases Free Compilation Album!

TEAM ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC releases FREE Compilation, “Setting Trends And Banging Heads Vol 1”, OUT NOW!!

Just in time for the New Year, TEAM ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC is releasing a $FREE DOWNLOAD$ of the company’s first compilation, Setting Trends And Banging Heads Vol 1.  Featuring a host of some of the hottest trend setting bands out there (and all with their own respective sound), Setting Trends And Banging Heads Vol 1 will surely be a good one for your listening pleasure.  Get your free download of Setting Trends And Banging Heads Vol 1, here: http://www.teamallaboutthemusic.bandcamp..com  

Download it, burn it, literally do whatever you want with it.  Track listing for the compilation is below.  For those of you who are keener on more of the creative side of things in music, make sure to listen to this from start to finish.  The beautiful and absolutely stunning album art was created by Salo Sopor – check out more of his work here: http://www.salosopor.com/ .

TEAM AATM owner Alex Gilbert comments on the artwork, "I’ve always loved that city / nightlife feel, and our friend Salo pretty much accommodated perfectly, plus more than I could even imagine." 

TEAM ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC – Setting Trends And Banging Heads Vol 1
1. HYPNO5E - Tutuguri
2. MARGIN OF ERROR – Your Life In Playback
3. A BAND OF ORCS – I, Gogog
4. TRUTH CORRODED - Decimate
5. MY OWN PRIVATE ALASKA – After You
6. IDOLS ARE DEAD – The Name Of My Rage
7. A BACKWARD GLANCE ON A TRAVEL ROAD – Regular Barbary
8. JOURNAL – Velvet Ribbon

TEAM ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC is on the web.  Check us out here!
http://www.teamallaboutthemusic.com
http://www.teamallaboutthemusic.bandcamp.com

Black Sleep Of Kali – Our Slow Decay

Life is too short for intros. I like how the first song “There Is Nothing” just comes crashing in. Full band with vocals and totally pissed off sounding. Perfect when you need to annoy the neighbors RIGHT NOW! Black Sleep Of Kali is a loud 4 piece from Denver that play in a vein similar to Torche or Baroness but with a bit more aggro. The riffs are intense but very catchy and there are some vocal parts for everyone to scream along to.

For a band that’s only been around for about 2 years these guys are very tight. The songs are mainly mid tempo-ish but contain plenty of left hand turns to keep your interest. Killer drum fills abound and the guitar/bass tones are massive. Lyrically they keep it pretty lean and mean. With sonnets like “we will all be forgotten in the end” (from “The Great Destroyer”) you don’t need to say much more than that. Faster ones like “The Crow and The Snake” really pummel the senses and would sound great blasting in the car as you drive off a cliff. Once they dig up your body they can play “Eulogy” at your funeral.

If you like it loud, negative and heavy then Our Slow Decay is right up your alley. And with a cool sleeve from everyone’s favorite tall Australian artist Seldon Hunt you can’t go wrong.

--Woody

www.myspace.com/blacksleepofkali

Buy here: Our Slow Decay
Buy here mp3: Our Slow Decay

Buy here: Small Stone

CircleDown – Mobius EP

It’s a subtle thing, really, but it’s those subtle things that separate the pretenders from the contenders.  What I’m talking about here, oh waverider, is texture.  Having the confidence in the music and the playing to mix things up a bit.  Bring in contrast.  Nuance. 

You can pummel me all you want with screamo growls, chugging guitars, piledriver drums and anger.  It won’t impress me.  The louder you scream the wider my mouth will gape in a bored yawn.  But drop out the guitar, ride a bass riff, allow the noise to settle into an ambient dream, bring back the scream, counter it with a real melody, I mean a real, honest-to-goodness, sing-along melody, and suddenly you have my ear.

And to that regard, this 4 song EP captured my ear, tied it up, and is still holding it for ransom.

Following in a post-Linkin Park world of nu-metal riffs, synth textures, clean and angry vocals, CircleDown look primed to capture that throne that Linkin Park vacated long ago.  And they do it their own way.  While the Linkin Park reference is the best place to start with these guys, it’s in no way where they end.  Heavier than LP ever was, CircleDown toss some serious metal into the fray, along with their tight-as-nails songwriting.

“Halfstep,” brings the contrasting edges of CircleDown to the front right off the bat.  Gentle acoustic guitars, ambient textures lead us, guiding us gently, or rather misguiding us to the huge frenetic burst of crashing guitars and assailing beats.  Vocals interplay clean and harsh, the occasional rap, with a solid gold melody keeping the whole thing hanging together.   And when I say these guys rock harder than LP, I mean HARDER.  Mid song breakdown is pure metallic frenzy, which works deliciously with the contrast of the return to the sweet melody.  Contrast baby.  Texture.  It works.

As good as that first track is, “Ashes Falling,” is even better.  This baby launches off with a metallic riff just stolen from the glory days of the NWOBHM.  A real neckbreaking headbanger, revved up and amped up.  The dirty vocals wails off in some personal hellish torment while the clean vocals keep that always present melody anchoring the song.  “Crash,” begins with an almost Floyd-ish electro-passage, keys percolating in the foreground while the metal rises underneath.  Nice touch, as is the dropout of the riff and the rise of the bass line carrying the verse.  The drummer adopts an extra arm or two during this song, finding those extra limbs necessary to fill out some of those beats.   “ReConstitute,” launches off all industrial-fury, grinding into a riff that could weld steel together.  By this time, the band’s surrises aren’t surprising.  I’m expecting a melody about as infectious as metal will allow, some serious chops, a big, soaring chorus, and a nifty instrumental breakdown.  The boys never fail to deliver.

What I’ve discussed are just the barebones of this impressive EP.  I’ve said nothing of the frankly beautiful, freak-jazz breakdown in “Ashes Falling,” or the muted, ambient stutter stop in “HalfStep.”  But then sometimes it’s best to leave something for you waveriders to discover on your own. 

If you’ve been wondering what is pop metal will be like in the post LP years.  Here it is.  Violent and aggressive with the heart of a metal beast and the brain of a tunesmith.   Jump in without fear. 

--Racer

http://www.circledown.com/

A Sunday Conversation with Darklight Corporation

Dark, heavy, and with a killer groove!  That's the brand-spanking new album from New Zealand's Darklight Corporation.  Equal parts industrial and thrash, Darklight blew the Ripple office into a frenzy of ugly white boy metal dancing!  Could wait to share a beer with them on the Ripple couch.

When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkel, the first time I ever heard Kiss's "Detroit Rock City," it was a moment of musical epiphany. It was just so vicious, aggressive and mean. It changed the way I listened to music. I've had a few minor epiphany's since then, when you come across a band that just brings something new and revolutionary to your ears.


What have been your musical epiphany moments?

Well I grew up in a very musical house, we had a lot of classical mixed with the top40 music of the time like, Abba, Bay City rollers, Neil diamond etc. But when I had enough money to go and buy my own records I bought this compilation album called Heavy and I dropped it on the turntable and the first track was Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden, and the hair just stood up on the back of my neck and I couldn’t stop playing it over and over, drove my parents crazy, but that was the pivotal moment in my life that I knew I wanted to devote my life to this music I was hearing. Like you say, there were other minor epiphany’s but that was The Moment and I will never forget it.


Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?

The guitar is my primary instrument so I pretty much come up with the riff first then throw down some drums so I can get a real feel for the song, if at that stage it doesn’t get me excited I will pass on it and try some thing else, I know pretty quick if I am onto something or its just dead in the water hahahaha. But I will pretty much get a full demo together of the song without vocals and take it to the rest of the band to get their input, then we record the music for real and Fabio takes it away and writes the lyrics and melody over the top of the finished music.

Seems kind of strange from a songwriters point of view but it definitely works for us. I think because I am more musically inclined I like the music to be able to stand on its own so if you heard the track without vocals you would still think, hey that’s pretty cool.

Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?

Inspiration is a bit of a mysterious thing. Most of the time when I sit down to write music its just crap, and I’m going, man what are we gonna do, I think I have lost it. And you can go or weeks like that then one day you sit down and just pick up the guitar and this magic comes out without even thinking about it. It’s defiantly the joy of music, you can’t force it, it just happens.

As for motivation, I think once you tap into that magic there’s no going back, you are always looking for That Moment when it all comes together and you write something purely from your soul. And it’s all about the mood your in to what comes out, that’s why music is such a personal thing. I’m just after that moment where I go, Fuck yeah that’s cranking hahahaha.


Genre's are so misleading and such a way to pigeonhole bands. Without resorting to labels, how would you describe your music?

Yeah I don’t really mind when people try to pigeonhole us into some sort of genre, we are what we are and people only do it so they can see if they can identify with you or not. If we say we are a metal band some people go, I don’t like metal, but if they hear us they go, that’s pretty good for a metal band, hahaha.
I think we will go with the Euphoric Metal tag for this question hahaha


What is your musical intention? What are you trying to express or get your audience to feel?

I think we would like our music to give the listener a real sense of excitement and escape and make them feel stoked at that moment in time. Like we do when we are playing it. We want our music to be explosive and exciting.

 In songwriting, how do you bring the song together? What do you look for in terms of complexity? Simplicity? Time changes?

We try to keep it simple really, I think the more simple the idea is the more people get it. Too many ideas in one song are definitely a vibe killer. We really work on getting different parts of a song to mesh together organically and to keep it flowing.


The business of music is a brutal place. Changes in technology have made it easier than ever for bands to get their music out, but harder than ever to make a living? What are your plans to move the band forward? How do you stay motivated in this brutal business?

The changes in technology have been awesome for us as we self produce our music and we can do this to a very high level and compete with “studio” releases. If we had to spend $50000 on recording each album it would cripple us.

As for staying motivated, we do this cause we really love what we are doing and even if we are not successful we would still do it, it’s in our blood. We are self managed and self produced but we use professional companies when it comes down to business, In the US companies like Twisted Hillbilly Records, Blastzone Distribution and Rainmaker PR are all doing what they do best for our album release and this is the way of the future for indie bands I think. Do what you do best and make the music then delegate the other jobs to industry professionals who know how to get your music into the right places.

And I think it’s really important to connect with the people who like your band and really work on the fan/band relationship, do not take them for granted and treat them with the greatest respect.



Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and roll moments?

Live our drummer triggers samples from a laptop with a drumpad unit, and this had not been set properly and the vibrations from the PA were setting off samples in wrong places etc pretty bloody embarrassing at your first gig, but we sorted that problem out pretty quick hahahaha

Other than that the usual, pissing your pants onstage, dropping Fabio’s pants mid chorus and generally getting feral hahahahahaha

What makes a great song?

When you listen to a great song, nothing else matters and you get lost in that moment. It’s the ultimate escape and it can’t really be explained in words, it’s the emotional response that tells you.


Tell us about the first song you ever wrote?

Man I thought it was the best song ever hahahaha turns out it sucked, but it planted the seed and hopefully the songs have got better since then.


What piece of your music are particularly proud of?

I am really proud of some of the new songs we are doing, I think I am really developing as a guitarist and producer and I love the results we are getting.

As far as one song, I think it would be "One Man Revolution" off the debut album cause it really nails down what we are about and the Darklight sound.


Who today, writes great songs? Why?

There are a lot of great artists writing great songs and it’s easier to discover them now. Deftones, Beyonce, Muse, Disturbed, Massive Attack, Rammstien, Slipknot to me, all write great songs. A great song can’t be measured, or forgotten easily. There are so many great songs that never reach the mainstream, that’s the excitement of music you never know where you will discover a great song that resonates with you.


Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?

Vinyl is definitely the sexiest format for music, it just looks and feels fucking cool. But I don’t think it really works with most of the modern music made today, in our genre I don’t think it would have the same sonic impact that it does in digital. Cd is still the king when it comes to audio quality in the digital age. Mp3 is just shit really, but people still put up with it for some reason. We need to have a more audiophile format as the standard. Standard wav file or cd is my choice.

We, at the Ripple Effect, are constantly looking for new music. When we come to your town, what's the best record store to lose ourselves in?

In Wellington there are a few great record stores, Real Groovy would have to be the best. Big store with everything you would want and if they don’t have it they will get it. Loads of secondhand music too. Its real music lover’s paradise and you can spend hours in there listening to vinyl and cds.



Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?

Well a great big “good on ya” for actively discovering new music instead of just being feed it from the media. That’s the great thing about the internet, you can get out and explore and discover so much great music that you didn’t really have access to before.

 

Ripple News - EAST OF THE WALL Album Nears Release; Seek Help Booking Summer Tour

EAST OF THE WALL are devising their next cross-country live attack for all of July. The New Jersey crew will be touring in support of their upcoming Translation Loss full-length Ressentiment, to see release while the band is on the road. Ressentiment is a concept record in which the band focus on a slightly different sound, integrating the use of vocals and an increased emphasis on sonic dissonance, and was engineered and co-produced by Will Putney at The Machine Shop (Clutch, King Crimson, Lamb Of God). The final release date and more details will be announced shortly.

On this upcoming tour, EAST OF THE WALL will be joined by Lifeforce Records artists Name for the duration of the month-long excursion, as well as Black Sheep Wall on the west coast leg of the tour. Several dates throughout the tour are still in the booking stage, so the band is reaching out to anybody that can offer a possible show on any of the dates still marked as TBA. Anyone looking to help out can email band(at)eastofthewall(dot)com.


EAST OF THE WALL 2010 Summer Tour w/ Name:

7/03/2010 Charm City Art Space - Baltimore, MD w/ Questioner, Old Crow
7/04/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - Richmond/DC/Virginia Beach, etc.
7/05/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - Charlotte, Raleigh, Wilmington, etc., NC
7/06/2010 The Muse - Nashville, TN

7/07/2010 Drunken Unicorn - Atlanta, GA w/ Let The Night Roar
7/08/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, etc, TN/MS
7/09/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - Metairie, LA
7/10/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - Dallas, Austin, Amarillo, San Antonio, etc, TX
7/11/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Albuquerque, etc, NM
7/12/2010 Revolver Records - Phoenix, AZ w/ Black Sheep Wall, Hellas Mounds
7/13/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - San Diego, CA
7/14/2010 The BLVD - Los Angeles, CA w/ Black Sheep Wall   
7/16/2010 The Red House - Walnut Creek, CA w/ Black Sheep Wall
7/17/2010 The Fire Escape - Sacramento, CA w/ Black Sheep Wall
7/18/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - Reno, NV
7/19/2010 The Outer Rim - Salt Lake City, UT w/ Black Sheep Wall, God's Revolver
7/20/2010 The Old Curtis Street Bar - Denver, CO
7/21/2010 The Slowdown - Omaha, NE w/ Masses
7/22/2010 RME Hall - Davenport, IA w/ Spanish Harlem
7/23/2010 The Aquarium - Fargo, ND
7/24/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - Minneapolis, St. Paul, Madison, Wausau, Milwaukee, etc, MN/WI
7/25/2010 Metal Shaker - Chicago, IL w/ Arbogast
7/26/2010 Level 2 - Lansing, MI w/ Ganon, Endless Aisle

7/27/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - Cleveland, Akron, Columbus, Buffalo, Rochester, Pittsburgh, etc, OH/NY/PA
7/28/2010 The Shop - Ithaca, NY
7/29/2010 The Downtown Quarterback - Endicott, NY w/ This City Needs A Hero, And Then There Was Darkness
7/30/2010 Webster Hall - New York, NY w/ Black Cobra, Howl, Struck By Lightning

7/31/2010 Keyport VFW  - Keyport, NJ w/ Abacinate, The Ghost In Black And White, An Aborted Memory, Sydbarret

8/01/2010 *TBA/HELP NEEDED - Philadelphia, PA

8/02/2010 The Charleston - Brooklyn, NY



http://www.myspace.com/eastofthewall
http://www.eastofthewall.com
http://www.translationloss.com
http://www.myspace.com/translationlossrecords

Ripple News - French Ambient Metallers Abysse added to Hellfest

French Ambient Metal Band Abysse (http://www.myspace.com/abyssegroupe) has just been confirmed at Hellfest Festival (Kiss, Alice Cooper, Deftones), the most important extreme Festival in Western Europe.

Thie message comes to us straight from the the guys at France's  most popular metal webzine, Metalorgie

"Abysse has just been confirmed at.. Hellfest Festival. Young guys from west we love here at Metalorgie will play at Metal Corner at Midnight, the best way to come back to earth at end of festival. They will hit stages at Motocultor Fest (Loudblast, Ultra Vomit..) in August too."

Spotlight on Japan’s H.G. Fact

Writing for The Ripple Effect has given all of us here some insight on a bunch of labels that are cruising along just under the radar. We’re found a ton of Indie labels over the last two plus years and we’re constantly being surprised by the passion and quality of the material being released under the various banners. Some labels are approaching their releases from a place of reverence towards the music and musicians that they’ve loved for a time by releasing re-issues or unreleased material, while others concentrate on putting out music that they may enjoy, but are looking to make a few bucks in the process. No matter where these labels are coming from, the product coming out of the Indie trenches still seems superior than the majority of the stuff coming out of the major labels. Case in point, H.G. Fact is a small label based in Japan that has been putting out some quality metal, hardcore, and emotionally intense music. What seems to get me most excited about this label, though, is the honest approach to the music. The products that I have in front of me have that D.I.Y. feel to the artwork, the packaging, and to some extent, the music. But it all feels like it’s been produced with loving hands and it reminds me of the how things used to be in the various regional music scenes across the U.S. But enough about all that, here are a few words about a couple of the H.G. Fact’s latest releases. www.interq.or.jp/japan/hgfact

Age – The Scar of Lead

Holy crap! The minute I heard the first strains of chaos blast of my speakers, I knew that I was gonna’ dig on this record. There was just something about the tones of the instruments, the aggressive vibe that didn’t sound like it was image driven, the intensity of the music felt like it was for real. And then, almost instantly, my imagination went wild. I imagined a village tucked along a hillside and into a valley, filled with your average hard working peasant folk . . . farmers, bakers, ranchers . . . good, innocent people of the earth. None of them have a clue about the war machine poised precariously at the top of the ridge of their valley. A war machine constructed of solid iron, 30 feet in diameter, its tarnished surface covered with rivets, spikes, and jagged chunks of twisted metal, blue clouds of smoke burp from exhaust vents in various locations of its form. A war machine fueled by hatred for humanity and overlooking its next victim. Age’s The Scar of Lead is the soundtrack of this war machines journey down the tranquil hillside.

Sounding a little bit like early Voivod, Age’s assault on the senses is magnificent and full of techno-violence. The title track is packed with gritty guitar riffs and supersonic drums, propelling the song on its chaotic way, riding shotgun with the war machine as it makes its way down the hillside, splintering age old trees into kindling, aiming its full destructive power in the center of the tiny village. Great breakdowns in the song give it a thrash metal feel, and the overall attitude of the music is filled with an anarchic emotion. “Outside the Window” starts off with the same burst of musical violence as “The Scar of Lead” did, but the tune downshifts a little more with a piston pumping chug of palm muted strings. The mosh part to this piece is exceptional, and by now, the war machine has made contact with some of the outlying huts of the village, and those who were able to assess the terrible rumbling in the earth earlier enough have been frozen with terror. Then, there were those who never had a chance and are now impaled on the various projections on the surface of the metallic orb of destruction.

”A Ghost in the Insanity” is straight up hardcore aggression. Up tempo and blistering, the song reminds me of those great pits of the 80’s, limbs flailing about and shirtless punks throwing their weight into one another. I love the guitar work in this one because it’s just a subtle solo, nothing noodle-y or pretentious . . . just a nice texture to add a point of interest in the song. At this point, the war machine has reached it core of the village and the destruction wide spread, fire erupts in the pile of debris being strewn about by the chaos, and the body count continues to climb, and the orbs descent has cut a rut in the countryside . . . a rut quickly filling with the blood of countless innocents. “The Night Kills You” is a thrashing good time, powered by a great groove and accented by excellent vocal work. This song is a killer and the perfect way to wrap up the bands original contributions to the album. The Scar of Lead closes with a high octane rendition of Twisted Sister's “Stay Hungry” that sticks pretty close to the original version, just a little more edge-y and violent. The Scar of Lead is a quick explosion of ultra-violent attitude, clocking in at just a hair past twenty minutes . . . and guaranteed to leave you homeless, if not impaled on a spike. http://www.interq.or.jp/japan/hgfact/untitled2.html

Hellshock – Singles

This disc, from what I can gather, is a collection of songs culled from a ton of releases that these guys have put out over the years, and after listening to this compilation . . . I think I’m gonna’ do some hunting for the original releases! Hellshock are a band that’s been categorized as crust, hardcore, punk, and metal. I simply think they’re bad ass. They incorporate enough musicality in the music to make them beyond any ordinary hardcore band, working in nice bits of ambient sound and quieter interludes to break up the sheer brutality that makes up the rest of the record. They’re more hardcore moments remind me of bands like Toxic Bonkers, they’re straight up punk-y moments remind me of Discharge, and they’re metal moments remind me of the first DBC album. It all works well together and I find Singles to be the perfect mix of aggression and melody that will keep me interested in Hellshock for many years to come.

“Passage” opens this disc with a quieter and more melodic piece than I had originally expected. The second guitar wailing away in the background adds a somber tone to the music while the rest of the band builds a wall of distortion as a foundation. The intro builds and builds with tension, layer after layer of guitar creating a massive sound, and then the guttural vocals enter the mix, adding further elements of tension. Then the whole thing explodes in fury as the guitars open up into a riff and tempo that would get a floor full of mosh happy Hessians in a tizzy! I love this song from a couple of different places. First, the musical dynamics are intense and Hellshock are always doing something to make me jump up and thrash about. Secondly, these guys don’t sound forced or contrived. This song comes across as immediate and straight from the heart. Just listen to the intensity of the vocals in the latter portion of the track. My God! That’s awesome!

“Beauty” fucking kills! Opening with big bursts of crunch, the song rolls into a mid to up tempo groove that gets me headbanging, bucking around in my desk chair, causing me to overuse my spell check function. This has that hardcore feel that I grew up with and can remember feeling the urge to fucking break things as the tempo shifts to high speed and then downshifting again to provide a little extra power. Fucking brilliant! Then there’s “Wax Statues.” Two and a half minutes of wall to wall brutality, high speed destructive intensity, and musical brilliance. The mosh part towards the end of the song is as good as they get, full of power and explosive force. Though some of these songs sound somewhat under produced, I think it works for these guys. If these songs were too polished, the intensity would certainly get lost and running on pure emotion seems to be what makes Hellshock sound so vital. www.myspace.com/pdxstenchcore

 -  Pope JTE