Tuesday June 8, 2010 New Music

Today is a pretty big day for new releases! Let's get into it:

Against Me! - White Crosses

When I first heard Against Me!'s new album White Crosses a few weeks ago, I have to admit that I was pretty underwhelmed. Upon initial listen it felt like a bland continuation of their last album, New Wave; however, upon further review, White Crosses is actually a pretty catchy, hooky and enjoyable album. It is still a far cry from the glory days of As The Eternal Cowboy and Searching For A Former Clarity, but the band has obviously moved on from their earlier sound and is going for what could be considered something a little more "mainstream" sounding. You're either with them or against them on that move.

Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire - Songs Of Ill Hope And Desperation

Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire have a pretty ridiculous name, but their music is described as "funeral grind" (doom metal + grindcore) which is instantly intriguing to a fan of underground metal like myself. The fact that they are on a respected metal label like Prosthetic further piques my interest in checking out their album Songs Of Ill Hope And Desperation.

Deer Tick - The Black Dirt Sessions

I first discovered Deer Tick early last year and have been a big fan ever since. Their first two albums War Elephant and Born On Flag Day are both stellar and today they release their latest, The Black Dirt Sessions. If you enjoy alt-country rock 'n' roll bands like Lucero, Band Of Horses, Drive-By Truckers, etc., then this band should be right up your alley and well worth checking out. And for today only, it is on sale for $3.99 on Amazon.

The Funeral Pyre - Vultures At Dawn

I mentioned The Funeral Pyre's new album Vultures At Dawn in a post from last week as one of two extreme metal albums that were streaming that I was curious to check out. I never got around to checking it out, but I'm still interested in hearing it as just like the aforementioned Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire, they are on respected metal label Prosthetic.

Nachtymystium – Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II

Nachtmystium's last album Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1 was a definitive black metal masterpiece; mainly because it completely ignored the confines and trappings of black metal and incorporated elements of decidedly non-black metal bands like Pink Floyd and instruments like saxophones into the mix. I've heard the new album Addicts: Black Meddle Part II a bunch of times now. It continues along the path started down on Assassins, but pushes the envelope even further. I'm not even sure you can call this black metal anymore as there are songs that sound like straight up alternative/indie rock (albeit with harsh vocals) and one song with a programmed drum loop that gives it an almost dance music vibe. Either way, I'm on the fence about how I feel about it. I definitely don't like it as much as Assassins, but I don't hate it either. Perhaps they tried too hard to be different and in doing so fell a little short of making something truly magnificent like they did with their previous album. I do keep going back to it to see if it will grow on me though, so at a minimum it is maintaining my interest.

Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy 

I'm a huge Nevermore fan. I had never heard of them until somebody sent me a copy of their album Dead Heart In A Dead World back in 2000. That wound up being one of my favorite albums released that year and I quickly snatched up all their back catalog and have picked up every release since. While Dead Heart In A Dead World is still my favorite (followed closely by 1999's Dreaming Neon Black), the band has put out two quality albums since in Enemies Of Reality and This Godless Endeavor (singer Warrel Dane's solo effort Praises To The War Machine is also quite good). Today they release their latest The Obsidian Conspiracy. I've had this album for a few weeks now and have been listening to it a fair amount. It is definitely their best effort since DHIADW. If you're never heard Nevermore, then the simplest description I can give you is to picture a thrash metal version of Queensryche. Incredible musicianship, great vocals (although Warrel is not nearly as operatic as Geoff Tate) and tons of hard driving rhythms mixed in with great melodies. I've always wondered why they have never gotten bigger and I'm not sure this album will necessarily be the one that breaks them, but as a Nevermore fan, I am more than pleased with this effort.

Pain Of Salvation - Road Salt One

Pain Of Salvation have apparently been around for years, but I was just recently turned on to them and specifically their new album Road Salt One. I like this record a lot, but it is a bit of a schizophrenic listening experience. One minute you are hearing something akin to Seven Mary Three and the next something similar to Queen and then suddenly something like Steppenwolf. Every song isn't a success, but taken as a whole, the album works.

Wormrot - Abuse

I haven't heard a single note of music from Wormrot, but I'm intrigued by the story of how they got signed. Basically, Earache Records' president was turned on to the band by a blog, went on mediafire and "stole" their album Abuse, fell in love with it, signed the band and is now reissuing Abuse with bonus tracks. Earache Records is responsible for releasing many a landmark grindcore album by the bands that gave birth to that scene, but haven't really put out much grindcore in recent history. The guy who runs the label says this is because he hasn't heard much that has excited him recently. So, if the president of the label who was a definitive and essential part of the birth of grindcore thinks this band is pretty exciting, then they are probably worth fans of grindcore checking out. Also, the fact that Wormrot are from Singapore is interesting in and of itself because you don't hear of many extreme metal bands coming from Asia. And they do a cover of one my favorite bands the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the album which is another point of interest.

Rockin' Out: Drive-By Truckers @ Tarrytown Music Hall 06/04/10

This past Friday, myself and a couple buddies went on a mini road trip of sorts to see one of my favorite bands, the Drive-By Truckers at Tarrytown Music Hall. Tarrytown is often referred to as upstate NY, but that isn't really an accurate description as it is  only one hour north of Manhattan by train (or a little over 30 minutes if you catch the express train). My friends and I caught the express and once we arrived in Tarrytown, began the 5 minute walk from the train station to the venue. While a 5 minute walk doesn't sound too bad, the directions did not mention the pretty intense hill you spend about 3 minutes of that commute on. San Francisco would be impressed with this incline for sure. Anyway, once we reached the top, we saw the venue just a short block away and much to our delight a nice looking pub about 1/2 way between us and the venue. The name of the pub is escaping me right now [I've always been horrible at remembering the names of bars and restaurants....I can remember their exact locations, but never the name for some bizarre reason], but it had a nice vibe, good beers on tap, baskets filled with delicious Goldfish crackers on the bar, baseball on the flat screens and was packed with Drive-By Truckers fans.

After a little pre-gaming at this nice little pub, we headed over to the venue. It was smaller than I had envisioned it being, but that certainly wasn't a strike against it. We were escorted to our seats on the floor and had a fantastic view of the stage. I knew right away this was going to be a much better show than the last time I saw them. The venue was better and the crowd was full of the friendly rock n roll fans I'd learned to expect over the past few years of attending DBT shows. I took a quick trip to the merch booth to pick up a t-shirt for myself and one for my girlfriend (at $20 a pop, they were a steal by today's merch standards) and got back to my seat just a minute or two before the lights went down to indicate the band was coming out soon.

The Drive-By Truckers have been touring for years and it shows in how amazingly tight their performances always are. Every member is a true talent at their respective instrument, they are all locked into one another and deliver as a unit. No weak links in this chain. And this night was no exception. DBT opened with what is rapidy becoming one of my favorite tracks by them and certainly my favorite off their new album The Big To-Do, "The Fourth Night Of My Drinking". From there it was pretty much a non-stop barrage of amazing songs: "3 Dimes Down", "Drag The Lake Charlie", "Birthday Boy", "Girls Who Smoke", "Daddy Needs A Drink", "Women Without Whiskey", "Feb. 14", "Santa Fe" and "Love Like This" until they took a breather to invite Patterson Hood's father David out to play bass on a rendition of "Respect Yourself". They followed that with a new song I didn't catch the name of, but according to the show archive on respected DBT fan site threedimesdown, it is called "Ray's Automatic Weapon". Definitely good stuff. I'll spare reciting you the entirety of the rest of the set list, but the songs played prior to the encore included gems like "Sink Hole", "After The Scene Dies" and "Shut Up And Get On The Plane". Once the band walked off for a breather before the encore, the crowd on the floor had all wandered towards the stage. The show wasn't sold out, so there was plenty of room for everyone and security was either too intimidated or simply didn't care to make anyone go back to their seats (the venue "security" was mostly older people in Tarrytown Music Hall t-shirts and not your typical bouncer types).  I was able to find myself a nice spot on far stage right with plenty of elbow room. All I have to say is Thank God I had earplugs in because DBT was cranking at full volume. "Let There Be Rock" into a scorching cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" closed out the set and and while the crowd screamed for more, that was to be all for the evening.

I was able to get better pictures with my camera phone than I normally do that evening, but they still aren't particularly great. They are below if you'd care to check them out.

Rockin' Out: Entombed @ Gramercy Theatre 06/02/10

I first heard Entombed back in 1993 when I got a cassette sampler from Earache Records/Columbia Records (an indie and major label pairing that still makes me scratch my head, but some amazing records were released during that joint venture like Cathedral's Ethereal Mirror, Fudge Tunnel's Creep Diets, Godflesh's Selfless, Carcass' Heartwork and Napalm Death's Fear, Emptiness, Despair). The song "Hollowman" was on the sampler and after hearing it, I rushed out and bought the EP by the same name. The EP was just an appetizer to what would prove to be an amazing main course with the landmark death metal album Wolverine Blues.

Most death metal purists would probably tell you that the first two Entombed releases, Left Hand Path and Clandestine are the best, but in my opinion, Wolverine Blues is more influential and quite frankly, simply more fun to listen to. The first two albums are definitive death metal releases that are highly influential in the underground metal world, but with Wolverine Blues, Entombed created the "death n' roll" style that would turn out to be even more influential. It would also be their crowning achievement as they have not been able to top it. Death metal with a groove and vocals that allowed the listener to somewhat understand the lyrics was a pretty bold move at the time and I commend Entombed for making it.

Having been a fan of Entombed for 17 years and never having gotten the opportunity to see them live before made this show a real treat. I was very happy to hear the title track to Wolverine Blues as well as my favorite song from the album, "Demon" early on in their set. The hour and 15 minute set included songs from Left Hand Path, later albums like Morning Star (a great post-Wolverine Blues release) and even more Wolverine Blues' tracks. It was a constant barrage of sound, but seemed to breeze by in a matter of mere moments. I was especially impressed that while they are now a four-piece, guitarist Alex Hellid manages to keep that monster guitar sound they got when there was another guitarist in the band. Singer LG Petrov's steady diet of booze and cigarettes apparently keeps his brutal vocals up to snuff because he sounds more intense than most younger vocalists emulating his style. The drummer and bassist are not original members, but they were more than competent players who held down Entombed's trademark rhythm and intense grooves.

Like I did earlier this year when I saw Kreator, the teenager in me took over and I had to push my way to the front and join the fun. My drink got spilled a little (OK, a lot), but otherwise I managed to walk away unscathed except for a little bit of an ache in my jaw from the permagrin I was sporting.

[P.S. My photos from this show are more atrocious that normal, but Brooklyn Vegan has some AMAZING ones up, so head here to see those.]

On A Wicked Night

I am simply amazed (and delighted) about how many of the bands I loved as a teenager/young adult are still putting out exciting and excellent new music as of late. Slayer, Ratt, Metallica, Megadeth, Dinosaur Jr., U2, Alice In Chains, Scorpions, Testament and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers all come to mind off the top of my head and now it appears the legendary Glenn Danzig might be prepared for a comeback under the banner of the band named after him. I love the first four Danzig albums and even think the fifth one, Blackacidevil was pretty decent, but they lost me after that. He is now preparing to release the 9th Danzig studio album and his new label The End has put up the first single on their website. Verdict? This sounds like prime era Danzig (think Lucifuge and How The Gods Kill) and is therefore pretty fantastic sounding. I have it from a reliable source that the rest of the album sticks with the style of his first few albums and is completely killer. Guess we'll find out when Deth Red Sabaoth is released on June 22.

Extreme Streams

Two extreme metal bands that I've never really heard before, but am curious about are currently streaming their respective new albums in their entirety: The Funeral Pyre's new album The Vultures At Dawn is being streamed on Lambgoat and Watain's new album Lawless Darkness is being streamed on MetalSucks.

The Funeral Pyre are an American melodic blackened death metal band and Watain are considered kings of Swedish black metal and are current Decibel Magazine cover boys. If the previous sentence is Greek to you, then you probably don't want nor need to check out the streams of their new albums, but if the previous sentence made perfect sense to you, then you should probably click through and see what these albums sound like.

Tuesday June 1, 2010 New Music

The Futureheads "The Chaos"

I'm a big fan of The Futureheads self-titled debut and sophomore follow up News And Tributes, but I never got around to checking out their third album This Is Not The World. I noticed the band is playing a club about 10 minutes from my house which put them back on my radar and I discovered they are putting out their fourth album, The Chaos. I figure it couldn't hurt to check it out and see if these guys are still fine purveyors of a fun punk/mod rock sound.

How To Destroy Angels "How To Destroy Angels"

How To Destroy Angels is Trent Reznor's first post-Nine Inch Nails project. You can get their self-titled EP for FREE on their website. The price to check it out is certainly right, so why not go ahead and grab it?

Melvins "The Bride Screamed Murder"

The Melvins are an interesting band. It feels like they have been around just about forever and their catalog is an interesting mix of records that are completely catchy metallic fun and ones that are seemingly intentionally trying to alienate the listener. As much as I'd like to be able to, I personally have never have been able to warm up to the latter, but the former really works for me. The last couple of Melvins albums have fallen in the "fun" category, so I'm hoping this one continues that trend. I pre-ordered it from Amazon, so instead of finding out if that is the case today on the actual release date, I should know sometime next week if I'm lucky. Thanks Amazon for the prompt delivery.