Finally: Down, the Lavender EP

Seminal stoner/sludge band that riffs like no other, Down, have finally announced the sequel to their 2012 Purple EP.  As far as I can tell it’s not a color (so yeah..the title is joke) but it’s just called Down  IV Part Two.  Along with the name the track listing and release date have also been released.  It will be released on May 12^th via Roadrunner records and will be the first Down album to not feature Kirk Windstein, who is currently hard at work at making a new heavy as fuck Crowbar record.  For those wondering Bobby Landgraf of Honky will be Kirk’s replacement.  I’m definitely pumped for this and interested to hear if this change in guitarists has affected their sound at all. Here’s hoping it turns out rifftastically heavy.  And without further ado, here’s the track listing:

1. Steeple
2. We Knew Him Well
3.  Hogshead/Dogshead
4. Conjure
5. Sufferer’s Years
6. Bacchanalia

Oh yeah, here’s the cover art:

-LJD

New Whitechapel Song

Calling all Whitechapel fans!  It’s time for you to get pumped and turn where ever you currently are into a giant circle pit.  Whitechapel have released a new song called “The Saw is the Law”.  This the first song to be released off of their upcoming 5^th album titled Our Endless War to be released April 29^th via Metal Blade Records.  Definitely be sure to jam the song bellow.  Personally I’ve never been big on Whitechapel, but I will say that when it comes to live performances these dudes crush all comers and I could easily see this song tearing it up in a live setting. Anyway that was me trying to get excited now for those of you who are actually pumped here’s the jam.

They do need to try harder next time to find an original song title though:

-LJD

The Brutal Album News Round up

So today there was a fair amount of smaller news bits but nothing that really warranted its own post. So to save myself time and maximize your exposure to still awesome metal news I’m going  to combine a coupe of stories into one undeniable brutal post.

Misery Index

The piece of news I’m most excited for involves gritty Maryland death metallers Misery Index and their new album.  They posted the above new band photo to their facebook and also revealed the title and release date for their forthcoming fifth album.  The new album is called The Killing Gods and is slated for a May 23^rd release via Season of Mist records. I personally loved Misery Index’s last two albums, Heirs to Thievery and Traitors respectively, so there grind influenced death metal will always have a place on my most anticipated list.

Fallujah

This next one is a fairly unsurprising piece of news but an exciting tidbit none the less. Atmospheric Technical Death metal (did I genre correctly??) band Fallujah posted the following message to facebook:

“Recording begins tomorrow. Stay posted.” –Fallujah bros

So this means we’ll be getting some more superb atmospheric mind fuckery this year.  This will be the follow up to their debut full length The Harvest Wombs as well as their 2013 EP Nomadic.  Seeing as Nomadic was one of my favorite albums last year makes me indescribably excited for this release.   Will this album continue down the boundary pushing path of ambience in death metal, we’ll see.

Anaal Nathrakh

 

This last bit of news involves one of the most fucked up bands I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing, of course I’m talking about none other than the insanely dark and twisted Anaal Nathrakh who posted the above photo to their facebook yesterday with the message “IT IS DONE”.  If this doesn’t make you excited then that means you’ve probably missed out on one of the best albums of 2012, Anaal’s Vanitas.  If you had heard that excellent album you’d be more than a little excited to see what these blokes from the UK have up their sleeves.

Here’s hoping that all of these albums I’ve mentioned turn out as brutal and insane as they look right now.

-LJD

Devin Townsend is Popular + New Song

As many of you are aware, musical genius Devin Townsend is working on a new project in collaboration with singer Che Aimee, who previously made an appearance on previous Hevy Devy album KI called Causalities of Cool.  Over the weekend Devin launched a crowd funding campaign to fund this new album as well as a possible Ziltoid the Omniscient sequel album.  Not surprisingly the packages available are all awesome and fairly well priced considering that with the actual product purchase you gain the knowledge that you directly helped to support some awesome music directly.  Here is the link to his crowd funding page if you wish to lend Devy a helping hand.  First here’s a warning, in the campaign Devin mentions that the music being produced is not metal. The new song he released today, called Forgive Me (for not being metal?), also confirms this. The only way I can describe this song is as beautiful space country. Needless to say, I don’t think the fact that the music is not entirely metal should stop you from contributing.  Any fan of all around good music should like what Mr. Townsend is doing with Causalities.   Also lets all pause to quickly congratulate Mr. Townsend on reaching 200% crowd funding in only a 24 hour period.  That is pretty impressive to say the least and a definite sign that people want to hear this project. Finally here is the contribution site and new song.

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/casualties-of-cool

-LJD

2014 Keeps on Keepin on: New Autopsy Album

I honestly can’t believe how many awesome death metal albums are coming out in 2014.  Just yesterday when I wrote about the new Bloodbath I summarized around 8 other death metal albums that will annihilate faces and now we have another one to add to that most crushing list.  A new album by California doomy death legends Autopsy and I know what you’re thinking, “Hey bro, didn’t we just get a new superbly gore filled Autopsy album this past year??”  And that would be correct; Autopsy’s last album The Headless Ritual came out less than a year ago.  Thankfully that hasn’t stopped Autopsy from creating another sure to be awesome slab of doom tinged death metal which is called Tourniquets, Hacksaws, and Graves and will be released April 21^st on peaceville records.  Anyway the album cover is that sick yet insanely awesome as fuck piece you see at the top of the page and here’s the full update they left on their Facebook page after the jump:

Behold the Metal: Mid February Brutality Edition

Since this February has been such a great month for releases I’ve decided that I have to break my hopefully monthly Behold the Metal posts into separate parts.  This post right here contains all of the sick albums I’ve found by lesser known bands that I think you should check out.  So because of this, there will be no Behemoths or Cynics on this list because by now I’m sure people have talked about those albums to death.  So here I’ve selected 6 awesome albums from the first half of February.  If you think I’ve missed an album I either am going to post about it later in another edition of Behold the Metal \m/, or I just haven’t heard it yet which in that case you should recommend it to me in the comments bellow.  These awesome albums will be revealed after the jump:

2014 Keeps on Giving 2.0: New Bloodbath Album

So as far as death metal is concerned 2014 is a pretty damn good year to be a fan.  We just got a new Behemoth album, Artificial Brain and Soreption just released some truly face melting albums, Aborted and Cannibal Corpse are releasing albums, and At the Fucking Gates is also gracing us humble mortals with an album this year.  And now, we can add Swedish super group Bloodbath to the list.  See their facebook update and other just as exciting details after the jump.

2014 Keeps on Giving: New Aborted Album

Just when I thought 2014 was all done being generous with awesome up and coming albums, I get one more to add to my “Must Buy List” (my wallet is going to hate me..).  That album being Belgium death metal dealers Aborted’s 8^th Release, which was given the lovely title Necrotic Manifesto.  The even lovelier album cover can be seen above and the track listing bellow.  Necrotic Manifesto will be released in Europe on April 28^th and in North America on the 29^th.  Alright without further ado here is the track listing:

1. Six Feet Of Foreplay
2. The Extirpation Agenda
3. Necrotic Manifesto
4. An Enumeration Of Cadavers
5. Your Entitlement Means Nothing
6. The Davidian Deceit
7. Coffin Upon Coffin
8. Chronicles Of Detruncation
9. Sade & Libertine Lunacy
10. Die Verzweiflung
11. Excremental Veracity
12. Purity Of Perversion
13. Of Dead Skin & Decay
14. Cenobites

I can tell you I’m already excited to here tracks like “Six Feet of Foreplay” and “Cenobites” so in my humble opinion April 29^th can’t come soon enough.

-LJD

New Mayhem Album and Song….And Lyric Video

Here’s even more 2014 release news for you guys. Unlike the last bit of new album news I discussed, This one might receive a wide variety of responses.  For you see, it involves one of the most controversial (admittedly most of the controversy is like 20 years behind us) bands of all time, Mayhem.  These Nords have not only announced a new album, due out in May on Season of Mist, but they have also released a new music video for a brand new song.  The song is titled PSYWAR and surprisingly enough sounds like Mayhem.  Further examined the track while nothing jaw dropping is actually a good and brings the black metal riffs.  Anyway stream the song bellow and prepare for the first Mayhem album to be released since 2007’s Ordo Ad Chao.  

-LJD

2014 gets even better: Cannibal Corpse Enters Studio

Prepare yourself reader, both mentally and physically, cause this next bit of news might just cause your brain to explode if you’re not properly ready.   According to reports, Cannibal Corpse have just entered the studio this past weekend with Mark Lewis ( you might recognize some of the bands he’s helped produce: ARSIS, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER,  WHITECHAPEL,  DEVILDRIVER,  DEICIDE,  SIX FEET UNDER) to begin recording their as of yet untitled 13th album.  Currently it is slated for a summer release via Metal Blade Records.   All I have to say is FUCK YESS!  I don’t know about everyone else but I assume I’m not in the minority when I say that their last album, Torture, was one amazing slab of blood drenched death metal brutality and contained some of the best songs Cannibal’s written in years.  So that, plus the fact that they’re Cannibal Fucking Corpse makes me very excited to hear this release, also this their 13th album which is a pretty big number for a band like Cannibal Corpse.  Needless to say I expect big things.  Keep checking back here for up date information on this and other metal as fuck, breaking developments.

Finally I’ll just leave you with this…Could this be our first glimpse at Cannibal’s new album?

-LJD