Ladies and gentlemen, Heavy Metal! After a hiatus of over five years, the eponymously-titled eighth studio album by Corrosion Of Conformity will be released on February 28, 2012 by Candlelight Records. It is their longest gap to date between studio albums – seven years, Reed Mullin is back behind the drum kit after 12 years, but also the first to not feature Pepper Keenan on vocals and guitar since 1989. Pepper joined Down in 1991, although it has been disputed whether Keenan has left the band or he is still officially member.
Formed in 1982, in Raleigh, North Carolina COC came a long way from crossover thrash and punk metal, through heavy metal down to Southern metal. And the three knight of metal, Woody Weatherman, Mike Dean and Reed Mullin delivered 11 solid tracks to go on further. Read more Corrosion Of Conformity – Corrosion Of Conformity (2012)
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Air – Le Voyage Dans La Lune (2012)
Based on two popular novels of the time, Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon” and H. G. Wells’ “The First Men in the Moon”, Georges Méliès, assisted by his brother Gaston, wrote and directed in 1902, the black-and-white silent science fiction film “Le Voyage dans la lune” (A Trip to the Moon). It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century by The Village Voice, ranking at #84.
The film runs 14 minutes if projected at 16 frames per second and is the first science fiction film which uses innovative animation and special effects, including the well-known image of the spaceship landing in the Moon’s eye.
“Le Voyage dans la lune” is the seventh studio album by French electronic music duo Air and the album takes its inspiration from the classic film. Read more Air – Le Voyage Dans La Lune (2012)
Napalm Death – Utilitarian (2012)
Slow and grinding, “Circumspect” gonna cut up your veins and left you to bleed out slowly. If you’re not gonna die, the follow up “Errors In The Signals” will definitively tread you to the ground and smash off your head. Still, worth to survive and listen to “Everyday Pox” and its murderous saxophone licks and obviously to everything after up to the closing “A Gag Reflex”.
The 15th studio album by the grindcore veterans formed in Birmingham, England in 1981, will be released on February 27 in Europe and February 28 2012 in North America via Century Media, and once again, Napalm Death delivered an extremely efficient killing machine in 16 pieces. Read more Napalm Death – Utilitarian (2012)
T.R.A.M. – Lingua Franca (2012)
Although “Lingua Franca” is their debut album, it would be a mistake to think this is a new band. True, the project were started last summer when Adrián Terrazas-González was introduced to Tosin Abasi, but a band made of exclusively well knowned and appreciated musicians like this definitively exclude the suspicion of some beginners. Terrazas (Saxophone, Flute, Bass Clarinet, Percussion) might be familiar from bands such as The Mars Volta, Omar Rodríguez-López, Troker, etc. Javier Reyes and Tosin Abasi both are famous by their leading progressive metal band Animals As Leaders, while Eric Moore since 2008 is the drummer both for Suicidal Tendencies and Infectious Grooves. Read more T.R.A.M. – Lingua Franca (2012)
Semargl – Satanic Pop Metal (2012)
Rammstein fans will be definitively delighted, although the story is quite different, this band from Kiev, Ukraine, formed in 1997, grew up from black and death metal roots.
“Satanic Pop Metal” it’s a merging of genres, black’n’roll, death and industrial metal are melted into one and bring back to life, reminds me also of Debauchery’s last album “Germany’s Next Death Metal“, only that Semargl use more intensely, Rammstein likely the synthesizers. Pumping and pounding, heavy, but melodious and catchy, still cutting and intense, Semargl delivered a bloody brutal and modern metal album. Can downlload some of their track for free – including “Tak, Kurwa (Yes Bitch)” – from their MySpace , Facebook and their official web page. Read more Semargl – Satanic Pop Metal (2012)
Venetian Snares – Affectionate (2012)
Four tracks, five bucks, more than fair enough, released on 11 January 2012, on Aaron’s birthday, now 37 years old, Happy Birthday dude, job well done!
More mature, still glitching and delivering noises, but building up intelligent layers and creating moods by melodies and harmonics, Aaron Funk – aka. Venetian Snares – now seems to focusing more on expression then instinct, relaying more on subtle structures then raging noises.
Funk debuted on a record label in 1999 with the 12″ vinyl EP, “Greg Hates Car Culture” and up until 2007, he was very prolific, releasing as many as eight recordings a year. Prefer to call his own style “Surrealism” rather then “eclecticism” – regarding the mixture of different genres, Aaron’s music evolved and the IDM, EBM elements seems to gain lately dominant position while the Drum & Bass, Noise and Breakcore elements are still present and giving life and cutting edge to his creations. Read more Venetian Snares – Affectionate (2012)
Knives Out! – Black Mass Hysteria (2012)
Featuring honorable members of Hellyeah, Nothingface, Dog Fashion Disco and Polkadot Cadaver, five friends, in 2008, in their hometown of Baltimore came together and form Knives Out! As they declare on their MySpace page: “it isn’t pretty and it isn’t safe. In a world of copy cat bands KNIVES OUT! stands up to deliver to the world a breath of fresh air to a stagnant, plagiaristic genre. Go hard or go home…horns up and KNIVES OUT!”
Imagine a deadly collision between Ministry and Tool with addition of some contorted groove metal riffs and 100% bad ass metal attitude, eventually think of Slipknot jamming with Down or settling down in a little more traditional area of metal, but still staying bold as… f*ck. Read more Knives Out! – Black Mass Hysteria (2012)
Robert Glasper Experiment – Black Radio (2012) and remix contest!
“Real music is crash protected,” state the liner notes of “Black Radio”, the newest album by the Robert Glasper Experiment that boldly stakes out new musical territory and transcends any notion of genre, drawing from jazz, hip-hop, R&B and rock, but refusing to be pinned down by any one tag. And pushing further the experiment, “Move Love” featuring the soul trio KING, drummer Chris Dave, bassist Derrick Hodge, multi-instrumentalist Casey Benjamin, was set for remix at Indaba Music.
I bring up my noisy, dubstep flavored synths, some tensioned jazz bass and severe cellos, asked a favor to a brilliant drummer, Thomas O’Brien, and delivered a quite different version of this song working exclusively with Robert Glasper piano track and the vocal track. I’m quite pleased by the result, this is definitively a genre-defying remix. Read more Robert Glasper Experiment – Black Radio (2012) and remix contest!
Geremy Barrios – Binary Harmony (2012)
This gonna set the fire in your living-room! Deep and pounding, Geremy Barrios delivers full-length debut album, merging techno and house, great grooves and good vibes. Both danceable and enjoyable, “Binary Harmony” will definitively leaps into the big league this Spanish artist, performer, producer, remixer.
Born in Montevideo in 1983 and raised in Barcelona, he’s been in contact with electronic music since he was very young, and at the early age of 13 he became interested in production, performing amateur jobs for several years. Always investigating and innovating, his style veered towards deep and techno house, and in 2005 he decided to also make a start in the world of mixing. Read more Geremy Barrios – Binary Harmony (2012)
Edgecrusher – Damagemaker (2012)
12 murderous, good-old fashioned groove metal tracks, Pantera fans will be definitively satisfied by this Russian outfit. They incorporated in their “edgecrusher” sound several modern elements, like using synthesizers and have several Korn-alike nu metal grooves and layers, but generally they staying solid in the traditional, heavy, metal area. Some of their riffs even reminded me of Iron Maiden (“Real Monster” for instance), so, this is more close to the classic metal then to the nowadays post-metal and metalcore products.
And just to be goddamn honest, even to take a closer look to their album art, worth a few minutes. Read more Edgecrusher – Damagemaker (2012)
