Upcoming Releases

I usually don't do many of these posts, but I realized just now how many albums I'm REALLY looking forward to this year. So here is a short-ish list of some upcoming album releases that I am extremely thrilled about.

Amon Amarth - Deceiver of the Gods (melodic death)
Watain - All that May Bleed (black metal)
Behemoth - The Satanist (black death)
Autopsy - The Headless Ritual (death metal)
August Burns Red - Rescue and Restore (metalcore)
Havok - Unnatural Selection (thrash metal)
Locrian - Return to Annihilation (drone)
Shaded Enmity - Forsaken and Forgotten (melodic death)
Sirenia - Perils of the Deep Blue (gothic metal)
Tarja - Victim of Ritual (symphonic metal)
Tarja - Colours in the Dark (symphonic metal)
ReVamp - Wild Card (symphonic metal)
blessthefall - Hollow Bodies (screamo)
Sick Puppies - Connect (hard rock)
Revocation - Revocation (thrash death)
DevilDriver - Winter Kills (thrash death)

Where am I?

Where have I been for the past month?? I have been getting all of my school shit done so that I can graduate high school next week on June 7th!! Rest assured, I have still been very active on listening to music, jamming new shit by Ghost, Suffocation, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Napalm Death, Queens of the Stone Age, Dark Tranquillity, Boris, and many others. I've been to a ton of shows lately including Boris (the Japanese drone/progressive rock trio with the chick guitarist), The Decibel Magazine Tour which is probably the most brutal and insane tour of 2013 (sorry Summer Slaughter, you failed on the brutality factor this time) with Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, Immolation, and Cretin...Kvelertak with Cancer Bats, Black Tusk, and Crop, and maybe one or two other shows. This summer, I have already got my tickets for The Summer Slaughter Tour and, yes, Black Sabbath!

Once graduation is over and I've found a job, I will be reviewing like mad. Yes, some of the "new" albums I will be reviewing will not be as new as they were before (duh), so you can just suck it if that bothers you. Other than that, I'm excited to be getting back into writing and will be posting a review of my favorite search engine which has majorly revamped their site and given it a complete makeover. In other words, it's a lot better and I will be discussing that and providing super-awesome screenshots.

Awesome Scott Conner Interview

One of my favorite "bands" ever is Xasthur. There haven't been very many official and good interviews of Scott Conner (aka Malefic), the guy behind Xasthur, but this is by far one of the best and most detailed ones I've ever seen. For those of you that aren't aware, Scott has just released the first album of his post-Xasthur project, Nocturnal Poisoning. It's all instrumental stuff that's pretty much just acoustic guitars, tambourine, and some drums here and there. I bought the CD from him (which you can purchase through the Nocturnal Poisoning Facebook page) a day after it was released and just received it in the mail a couple of days ago. Since then, that and the new Enslaved album have been the only things I've been listening to.

I'm not ready to state an official pos/neg opinion on it because even though I listen to A LOT of non-metal stuff, this is like nothing I've ever heard before in my life. To be honest, it was pretty weird at first listen, but it's one of those things where it eventually starts to grow on you in the exact same way that Xasthur does. I guess Scott unintentionally writes music that takes a little getting used to before one can fully take it in, understand it, and enjoy it. In fact, I highly doubt that I will ever even review it because I don't know what the hell I'd say in the review. In other words, I didn't know what to think at first, but so far, I've come to quickly love it and have become addicted to it. I HIGHLY recommend that if you have $13 to spare that you should give it to him so that he'll send you a copy of it.

Anyway, because I'm a diehard Xasthur fan, I want to know about the background story behind the demented project that lasted over a decade. This is the interview where you get an EXTREMELY in-depth and raw explanation of Xasthur, the history behind it, the reasoning behind the lyrical themes, and a lot about hating people and the struggles that Scott went through during the Xasthur era. As well as that, Scott gives you an early in-depth look into Nocturnal Poisoning, which is actually quite interesting! Follow the link below to read the interview.

CLICK HERE!

Click here for the official Nocturnal Poisoning/Disharmonic Variations website/blog

New Tankard album? Yes please!!

Tankard just got a spot on the roster of my favorite record label, Nuclear Blast (much well deserved for the alcoholic thrashers). Make sure to pick up their new album on the 31st of this month. Click the cover below for the full-size image:

New Pathology! New Pathology!!!!!!

The amazing cover of the new Pathology record has been released, along with the album's release date (late september). Being done by the same artist (Par Olofsson), it looks like the thing the guy is standing on is the tail of the worm thing on the cover of Spawn of Possession's Incurso. Considering the fact that I've already reviewed all of Pathology's other albums, it should be obvious that I will in fact be eagerly reviewing this album. On another note, I apologize for the late postings of some of the new album reviews (Nile, Periphery, Relics of Humanity, etc.) because I STILL haven't received my copies in the mail yet (hopefully that will happen today along with that shirt I got last month). BUT, of course, since I have no patience whatsoever when it comes to Nile, I downloaded a high-quality torrent of their new album. But, I don't feel guilty about it because I already pre-ordered the damn thing. So I will most likely be posting a review on the new Nile album today. Click the image for the full size: