STAR WAS GOES METAL FOR MAY 4th

May 4th has been official Star Wars day for about 4 years now, combining nerds two favourite things, Star Wars and bad puns.

The one thing that's missing from that is Metal, nerds love Metal. What they (we) love even more is Metal covers of things that never needed them.

To that end I present you this from YouTuber FinTom91.

May the Fourth be with you all....


...who am I kidding, I can't let that be the extent of content I post today, that'd be awful. So I present this short animated film entitled TIE Fighter, it's more Metal than most Metal Music videos. Animator Paul "OtaKing" Johnson has done something incredible here. No excuse me while I go play the TIE Fighter MS Dos Game.

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SIKTH ANNOUNCE CROWD FUNDED COMEBACK

UK Tech Metal Godfathers SiKth are considered by many to be the true blueprint to modern Progressive Metal... or Djent if you're so inclined. Yes, the Guitar Tone in Djent is pure Meshuggah, but bands like Periphery and similar owe their riffing styles almost entirely to this Southern England outfit. Don't believe me? Just listen:

Anyway, history lesson aside SiKth last released new music back in 2006 with the stellar Death Of a Dead Day and following a live return at Download Festival last year the group have announced their first new release in almost 10 years... and you can be part of it.

Ladies and gentleman we have two huge pieces of news for you today.For the first time since 2006's Death Of The Dead...
Posted by SikTh (official) on Monday, 27 April 2015

As with all Pledge Campaigns, there is a plethora of goodies that you can get your mitts on should you so desire (and you should, you should desire so hard) and even a UK tour coming up later in the year! Does this mean SiKth are back for good? Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

You can  throw money at the band at their Pledge Page found here

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BETWEEN THE QUEEN AND I: BTBAM COVER ROCK ROYALTY

Between the Buried and Me played New England Hardcore Fest last Friday. Not only did they play their wonderful proggy goodness for all to enjoy, but they also played a very special cover. Now cover songs aren't all that surprising when it comes to Between the Buried and Me, I mean they did a whole album of covers. But this was different...

They covered Bohemian Rhapsody. Bohemian. Fucking. Rhapsody. By Queen.

This is the song from Waynes World dammit. The movie that introduced me to the concept of headbanging.

Metal Blade uploaded this "Live Bootleg" to Youtube today, which makes it an "Official Bootleg" if those are still something that exists.  Though you'd hope that an "Official Bootleg" would be something more than some jerk standing in the crowd with a camera, this is what we've got to work with.

Being an asshole aside, this is a great cover that has enough of Between the Buried and Me mixed in with Queen's stellar original to be something really special.

Between the Buried and Me are releasing a new album, Coma Ecliptic, in July of this year.

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JAMEY JASTA BREEDS HATE FOR DEATH METAL FANS... kinda...

Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta wants to know why the Metal Community isn't buying more albums.

It's hard to blame Jasta. Metal scientifically has the most loyal fan-base on the planet and so why can big names like Cannibal Corpse only shift 8,800 of A Skeletal Domain in their first week? Are you telling me that the teen girls that dig the polished pop styling of All Time Low are more into the music they like than your average Metal fan? I mean sure, more than 800 people probably listened to that Gorguts album in the first week through piracy, streaming, etc. but I bet more than 75,000 people listened to Future Hearts in its first week too; legally or otherwise.

Sure Metal isn't big in the mainstream, you're not gonna see Gorguts or any other Metal band on the front cover of teen lifestyle magazines to breed hype, but the point still stands. If Metal Heads talk the talk they do... then why don't they walk the walk into a record store and buy albums? There's easily enough Metal Heads in most countries to sell 75,000 copies of an album, surely?

I dunno, maybe all the Metal Fans are saving money for that tour whose organisation is likely based around album sales in the first place.

Buy Metal people.

It's fun.

More fun than listening to the new All Time Low.

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SLAYER RELEASE NEW TRACK...

...and it blows.



Repetitive. Check.

Structureless. Check.

Bland. Check.

It appears that Slayer, the one band of the Big 4 that people thought still "had it" after Megadeth went Radio Rock, Metallica stopped releasing music and Anthrax Joey Belladonna'd, have gone and fucked it.

I have never claimed to be a huge Slayer fan, but could always appreciate the rather "boiled to pure concentrate" approach they took to Metal, but this just doesn't go anywhere. On my first listen it took me over a minute to realise the song had ended, I'd already stopped listening.

When The Stillness Comes will be available as part of Record Store Day on April 18 if you want to buy it. I guess there's nothing more Metal than Pseudo-Masochism. Not to appear racist and hateful towards any one particular country it will be released at participating independent record stores across the globe as a limited-edition (only 5000 copies worldwide), seven-inch vinyl picture disc.

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NEW SINGLE FROM LEPROUS INVITES MONEY PUNS FROM METAL SITES

Leprous are one of those perfect bands. One of those bands that never seems to falter, from putting out some of the best Progressive Rock and Metal to performing as the backing band for Ihsahn, these guys are impeccable.  

And so I was plenty excited when, earlier this year, the Norwegian Progsters announced their follow up to 2013's Coal. The Congregation is due to be released May 25th, 2015 in Europe and June 2nd in the Americas after finishing recording in February.

Vocalist and keyboard player Einar Solberg has this to say about the album:

This has without doubt been the most challenging album to write so far, if you count the amount of hours, blood, sweat and tears behind it. Which makes me extra proud to just have delivered the master of what I consider to be the most daring, technical, fresh and mature album we've ever done. The music of "The Congregation" is mostly written by me on my computer, so that I this time around could use my ears instead of my knowledge as the main writing tool. If you use your knowledge and your usual methods to write every album, you will eventually find yourself stuck in a quagmire of old habits. Lyrically "The Congregation" covers the dangers and consequences of blindly following the flow, thus the album title will speak for itself.

Luckily however, we don't have to wait until then. The Price is our first taste of what is to come and also a great excuse for the entire internet to write articles with price related puns.

So pay The Price...

*shudder*

...and check out The Price. 

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SOUTHERN METAL BANDS INVOLVED IN FATAL ACCIDENT

Atlanta's AJC news paper today has reported that three have died in a fatal crash in Northeast
Georgia. Members of Alabama Black Metal band Wormreich and Georgia Melodic Occult Metal band Khaotika were travelling in a passenger van on the I-5 when the driver allegedly fell asleep causing the accident at around 7 am. Three of the passengers died and eight others were taken to Hospital, with three of those in critical edition. Both bands were finishing up a brief tour together.

Metal has a long and sad history with traffic accidents and deaths and it never get's any less sad, even if it's a small local band. These were still people who were connected to the rest of us through a mutual love of the alternative and counter cultural movements. If we can learn anything from this it is that it's not worth driving tired. Have at least two designated drivers and if all else fails, just stop for the night. You can miss one show or well... miss all of them.

Our thoughts go out to Family, Friends and Fans alike.

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