Ihsahn – Vegard Sverre Tveitan, born in 1975, in the town of Notodden, Norway, began playing piano at seven and guitar at ten and began recording songs shortly thereafter. He began his career at age thirteen as a member of what would become fledgling black metal crew Emperor. As a band, Emperor would both define and refine metal, pushing the boundaries of what was considered possible within the most arcane of art forms and taking some of the most adventurous and extreme music of all time to a huge global audience. With albums like seminal “In The Nightside Eclipse” – recorded when Ihsahn was only seventeen, and “Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk”, Emperor obliterated all-comers and became one of the most revered metal bands in history. After the release of their final masterpiece, “Prometheus: The Discipline Of Fire & Demise” in 2001, Ihsahn announced that the band were to part ways to enable himself and his colleagues to pursue new creative avenues.
He also played in Peccatum with his wife Ihriel (real name Heidi S. Tveitan) until 2006 and has appeared in Thou Shalt Suffer, Zyklon-B and Hardingrock, and now devotes himself to his solo project, Ihsahn. “Eremita” – the latin for hermit – is the anticipated fourth solo album, which was released on June 18 by Candlelight Records.
Recorded and produced at Telemark’s Ivory Shoulder Studios, with additional tracking completed at Notodden’s Juke Joint Studio and Seattle’s Envisage Audio, Eremita was mixed by Jens Bogren (Opeth) at Fascination Street Studios in rebro, Sweden. Alongside Ihsahn, the album features performances from drummer Tobias rnes Andersen (Leprous), saxophonist Jrgen Munkeby (Shining-Norway), guitarist Jeff Loomis (ex-Nevermore), and vocalists Devin Townsend, Einar Solberg (Leprous) and Heidi S. Tveitan (Starofash). The album’s packaging has been created by award-winning Spanish designer Ritxi Ostariz. Read more Ihsahn – Eremita (2012)
Yearly Archives: 2012
Lands of Past – Neverending Story (2012)
Lands Of Past is chemistry like love. Or magnetism. Dark vibes, gloomy depths and sensitive, smooth, whisper-like melodies and intense guitar riffs are merged together to guide us through Heaven and Hell, a journey of lights and shadows, hopes and fears, love and desperation, hate and forgiveness. This is our endless journey and our neverending story. This is our life, and this is love. Sadness and struggle.
After the self produced demo entitled “Call” released in 2005 and the debut album released through Thundering Records in 2008, “Call Of The Depths”, Lands Of Past are back with 10 brand new, dark, melancholic and disturbing tracks on their second full-lenght “Neverending Story”. Read more Lands of Past – Neverending Story (2012)
Manowar – The Lord Of Steel (2012)
The Kings Of Metal are back with the Lord of Steel. The Manowarriors will definitively celebrate once again the loudest and the longest Heavy Metal concert player band in the world. Both performances were included in the Guinness Book of World Records. In 1984 the band delivering the loudest performance, a record which they have since broken on 2 occasions and they also set the record for the longest Heavy Metal concert after playing for 5 hours and 1 minute in Bulgaria in 2008.
Formed in 1980, Manowar maintain a strong cult following and they are probably one of the most loved Heavy Metal band in the world. Back in the 80’s when I had my share of headbanging on their killer album “Sign of the Hammer”, probably I didn’t believed that this band will last over two decades and in 2012 they will release their 12th studio album. Read more Manowar – The Lord Of Steel (2012)
Linkin Park – Living Things (2012)
Yo! I’m gonna be deadly honest: never was a Linkin Park fan, even further, I kind of consider them the (more or less) Rock version of New Kids On The Block, or any other prefabricated boy band. Now, Rick Florino of Artistdirect called it the band’s “best record and a landmark for rock as a whole”, which, we have to admit, set our expectations probably excessively high. And once again, it’s not the case. Don’t have to be a musicologist to figure it out, Linkin Park are not Faith No More, NIN, Ministry, Nirvana or name any other genre founder and envelope pusher, edge cutter band, but a smartly managed and marketed and generally pretty over-produced band. Don’t misunderstand me, the famous Rick Rubin and vocalist Mike Shinoda on their third collaboration of co-producing a Linkin Park album were done – again – an excellent job, but the sharp production and the bombastic sound can not cover the mediocrity and shapelessness beneath the surface. And once again, Linkin Park collected a million different sounds and musical approaches and blended them into their own spiced “thing”, but that still do not actually make it their own. Linkin Park might be the perfect prototype of a fully functional machine without its own soul which each time borrowing one. Imagine Mona Lisa (La Gioconda or La Joconde) without her mouth – and mysterious smile. Read more Linkin Park – Living Things (2012)
Cowards – Shooting Blanks And Pills (2012) Free download!
Gathering current and ex-members of Sickbag, Death Mercedes, Hangman’s Chair, Eibon, Glorior Belli, Dacast, Colossus of Destiny, the Parisian Cowards delivered their 38 minutes of raging fury and filth, merging Hardcore, Sludge/Doom and Black Metal into their debut effort entitled “Shooting Blanks And Pills”. The album will be officially co-released on 30 June 2012 by Throatruinner Records and Hellbound Records. The digital version is already available for free download (name your price) on the official Bandcamp page of the record label, while the 12” LP will be out in late june and limited to 300 copies on black vinyl.
Disturbing, twisted, dark and intense, the 6 tracks of the album are still impressively musical, melodious, Cowards sounds like a mixture of Black Sabbath and Motorhead with Eyehategod and Deathspell Omega, the perfect combination of heaviness and rawness with classic approach, riffing and contorted dark vibe. Read more Cowards – Shooting Blanks And Pills (2012) Free download!
John Zorn (Moonchild Trio) – Templars-In Sacred Blood (2012)
In 2006 John Zorn formed the hardcore voice/bass/drums trio of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, and Joey Baron which became known as the Moonchild Trio. The very same year the trio performed and released two albums of Zorn’s compositions: “Moonchild: Songs Without Words” – an album inspired in part by Aleister Crowley, Antonin Artaud and Edgard Varèse and “Astronome”. A third album with the trio, but also featuring Zorn, Ikue Mori, Jamie Saft and chorus, “Six Litanies for Heliogabalus”, was released in 2007. Their fourth release “The Crucible” appeared in 2008, and “Ipsissimus” – one of the best albums of 2010 and my personal favorite albums of all time – was released in 2010.
Now Joey Baron – Drums, Trevor Dunn – Bass, John Medeski – Organ and Mike Patton – Voice are back with the 6th CD in the Moonchild legacy. All songs was written by Zorn and they spend over one year in the making. Disturbing and tumultuous, sometimes extremely intense or silently subtle, the 8 songs of “Templars-In Sacred Blood” will take the listeners into another mystical journey. Read more John Zorn (Moonchild Trio) – Templars-In Sacred Blood (2012)
Mr. Pan[k]sament – Doomstep Prophecies – The Remixes (2012) FREE DOWNLOAD!
Remixing isn’t a good business and generally speaking remixers are mainly disconsidered. Half way between sound engineers and musicians, remixers are doomed. If you deliver a better track then the original, the artist will definitively hate you. A friend of mine, Bluetrax explains it precisely: “See, the perfect world of music works like this: if you have a weak production, the remix cannot by any means be better than your original. so, for you as a remixer it’s a waste of time trying to get the best out of you. just try to please the world with some more senseless crap. anyway, that’s how it works most of the time. that’s why so many musicians have to fight for their rights and their money 😉 ”
I lost the numbers on the way, don’t know exactly how many remixes I did this year – already. Many. Probably too many. Here we go, 30 new tracks, FREE DOWNLOAD – in return, eventually you can vote for some of the contests I’m still in: Matisyahu, Kimbra, The Temper Trap and Jason Mraz. Thanks – appreciate it! Read more Mr. Pan[k]sament – Doomstep Prophecies – The Remixes (2012) FREE DOWNLOAD!
Backtrack Lane – Black Truths & White Lies (2012)
Do you remember Rock? Did you were there in the 80’s headbanging? Everything were simple, straight and much more honest then it is now. Listen to the French Blacktrack Lane just remembered those days. This is Rock. (Very) Hard Rock with groovy Heavy Metal taste, killer like Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society at the end of the 90’s, or as Skid Row were grinding on their second album in 1991. Not too many bands deliver that kind of powerful, still melodious, heavy, classic Rock/Metal. Although they also mention as influences bands such as Papa Roach, Avenged Sevenfold, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, and Megadeth, this is definitively the best and the strongest kind of Rock and it feels great to listen their songs. And it’s not only nostalgia, but it’s about real, breathing and alive music. It’s kind of shame that a band like this is still looking for a label!!! Read more Backtrack Lane – Black Truths & White Lies (2012)
Rush – Clockwork Angels (2012)
Not a clockwork orange, but clockwork angels. Ladies and gentlemen, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart are back after a five years gap with their 19th studio album, scheduled to be released on June 12. They play in this line-up since July 1974, having 38 years of impressive and spawning career.
Rush’s sales statistics place them third behind The Beatles and The Rolling Stones for the most consecutive gold or platinum studio albums by a rock band, they possesses 24 gold records and 14 platinum from which 3 are multi-platinum records – they sold over 40 million units worldwide.
They have been cited as major influence by various other artists and bands from Metallica to The Smashing Pumpkins and from Primus to Dream Theater and experienced different styles of Rock and Metal from their early Blues-inspired Heavy Metal through Progressive Rock and Electronic spiced, New Wave influenced Rock.
Their previous release, the 2007’s “Snakes & Arrows”, although it was Read more Rush – Clockwork Angels (2012)
Celldweller – Wish Upon a Blackstar (2012)
Klayton, the sole brain behind Celldweller, not only ignores genre boundaries and creates a pioneering vision of the future of electronic music, but he’s also an excellent and subtle songwriter. So, “Wish Upon A Blackstar”, he’s upcoming second full-length studio album, obviously it’s one of the most anticipated Electronic albums of the year. And Celldweller is one of the most reliable artists as well, the new 16 tracks album will satisfy all of his devoted followers – over 120,000 Facebook Fans and still counting – and eventually will bring him a brand new generation of fans. After all, Celldweller is considered “personifying the sound of the iPod generation”, and his hybrid music of digital and organic elements and the smooth, but highly explosive fusion of styles and genres, makes him extremely unique and charming. Read more Celldweller – Wish Upon a Blackstar (2012)
