Tag Archives: metal

Imperial Triumphant – Goldstar (Century Media)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: Goldstar takes perennial New Yorkers, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT’s exploration of the extreme and arcane and delivers the band’s most focused, authentic and accessible work to date. Featuring guest appearances by Meshuggah drummer Thomas Haake and legendary drummer, Dave Lombardo, both of whose presence makes it clear that musically, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT are in a class by themselves. In their vision of urban disorder, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT’s monolithic cityscapes are dark as any of their extreme or black metal brethren.

Nails – Every Bridge Burning (Nuclear Blast)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

For the first time in over 8 years, the blistering assault on our nervous system that can only be described as the sound of NAILS, has reemerged. With Carlos Cruz on drums, Andrew Solis on Bass, Shelby Lermo on Guitars, and Todd Jones on guitar & vocals, the upcoming studio album, EVERY BRIDGE BURNING, will be revealed August 30th, 2024 via Nuclear Blast Records.
For this 4th full length album, NAILS have channeled raw emotion into tracks like “Imposing Will”, a seismic event in the realm of sonic aggression; igniting the pulse, and fueling a fire of hostility. “[This track is] special to the record in that I knew we wanted it to be the opener,” explains founder Todd Jones. “We wanted it to have the effect of an urgency; an immediacy in the music itself. When you push play, you get smacked in the face.”
Similarly, “Give Me the Painkiller” hints at an intricate groove while simultaneously causing the urge to peel your skin off. There exists a wild energy that according to Jones is the band’s “most expressive guitar playing” in their history. Plunge into “Punishment Map”, and confront the decades of misery brought about by Golden State serial killer Joe D’Angelo—a relentless descent into the abyss of human suffering. The guitar work on EVERY BRIDGE BURNING is an expansive force in its own right, epitomized in tracks like, No More Rivers to Cross. Here, NAILS masterfully navigates
a spectrum of moods, showcasing fluidity and intensity that is quintessentially NAILS yet profoundly evolved.
The album artwork, a creation by Jeff Whitehead, serves as a visual prelude to the auditory chaos—a stark representation of the aural brutality that NAILS delivers. “I really wanted to work with Whitehead again,” explains Jones. “I wanted the artwork to represent the sound of NAILS visually, and to reference the same figure from our last
album cover.”
The writing process for this album was no different than in record cycles of the past. The foundations of songs are born from riffs, and it is around these riffs that entire tracks are eventually composed. “Our writing process is about building songs,”
explains Jones, “not just sitting down and writing them straight through all at once.”
Recording for the album commenced in Massachusetts at God City Studio with Kurt Ballou (of CONVERGE), whose contribution is integral to the NAILS sound, as elucidated by Jones: “we’ve recorded every album with Kurt. He’s such an important ingredient as to how we present our music. When our fans want to hear NAILS, they
want to hear something that is through the filter of Kurt’s engineering.”
Most importantly, EVERY BRIDGE BURNING was born out of unwavering dedication to NAILS fans and the underground music scene. It echoes their commitment to authenticity and raw power. NAILS remains a beacon of rebellion and resilience in a
world hungry for genuine expression. With no shortage of effort or meticulous song
arrangement, the time has arrived to become engulfed in the ferocity of NAILS once again as EVERY BRIDGE BURNING unveils a new, but familiar chapter in extreme music.
“This band was modeled after some of my favorite bands; the type of bands where, when they put out an album, you know what it’s going to sound like,” describes Jones, “it’s the delivery of the expectation.” The sensory destroying musical onslaught that we’ve all been missing is back. NAILS is Todd Jones, Carlos Cruz, Andrew Solis, and
Shelby Lermo.

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – of the Last Human Being (Avant Night)

Posted by John Lithium on

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Label Description:

After thirteen years of hibernation, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the most gloriously uncategorizable American band in existence, has emerged from stasis to proudly announce the imminent release of their fourth studio album, of the Last Human Being. The album marks the first release of AVANT NIGHT – a new imprint headed by Nick Ohler and facilitated by Joyful Noise Recordings.

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, comprised of multi-instrumentalists and rotating vocalists Nils Frykdahl, Carla Kihlstedt, Michael “Iago” Mellender, Matthias Bossi, and Dan Rathbun, plays an arsenal of instruments ranging from the somewhat standard (drums, electric guitars, bass, electric violin) to the rare (bass harmonica, nyckelharpa, marxophone) to the homemade (Slide-Piano Log, Electric Pancreas, Pedal-Action Wiggler). The group has consistently evaded easy categorization, garnering accolades from across the aisles of contemporary classical music, prog rock, industrial music, metal, avant-garde improv, and more. Their music, inturns bashing and bucolic, enveloping and unsettling, tends towards long-form epics interspersed with mysterious field recordings.

“As this slow-rolling planetwide Anthropocene Extinction event deepens, Sleepy- time’s work has only grown more…  more

credits

released February 23, 2024

Most of these recordings were started at Polymorph in Oakland, CA in 2010-11. Additional overdubs in the intervening years were done at Polymorph and in home studios across the land. S.P.Q.R. was entirely recorded and mixed at Polymorph in 2004 and previously released as a 7” on Dephine Knormal Musik. (Hi, Moe!) “Hush, Hush” and “El Evil” were recorded at Polymorph and home studios in 2023.

All songs: Sleepy Time Gorilla Press Music, BMI, except Hush, Hush and Silverfish (Broca’s Fold, ASCAP) and S.P.Q.R. (Rough Trade Music)

Mixed by Dan 2023 ~ Produced by SGM ~ Mastered by Todd Rittmann

Art by Per “Ward C. Picnic” Frykdahl
Design by Jenya Chernoff and Nils
Logos and lettering by Nils
Photos and film stills from the film “The Last Human Being: A Critical Assessment,” directed by Max Baloian, featuring Shinichi Iova Koga

~ Ministry of Revivification ~

Meredith Yayanos – Special Ambassador, Ordained Symposiarch Of The John Kane Society
Mallory McAvoy – Diplomatic Liaison, Bailiff Of The Guild Of Bards
Erik Carter (an uncle) – Futurist Coordinator
John Karr – Audial Conveyist And Evidence Hoarder
Scott Crowley – Moving Picture Husbandry and Conservation
Jenya Chernoff – Head Of Propaganda and Graphic Design
Gregory Scharpen – Imagist, Disinformationist
Nicholas Ohler – Patron Saint of Fucked-Up Music
Karl Hofstetter – Locked Groove Stasis Enabler
Robert S. Meitus – Disentanglementalist

Boundless gratitude to our families, our friends, and our vast community of independent artists, musicians, and makers of all sorts. Thank you to Penelope Allman, Max Baloian, the Bossihlstedts, Steven Clark, Merlin Coleman, Sean Crawford, Dawn & the Faunettes, Thor Harris, Gooby Herms, the Kihlbossis, Shinichi Iova Koga & inkBoat, Claire Mack, Michael McCamish, Simon Miller, Lara Miranda, Dominique Persi, Nieves Rathbun & Jasper, Greg Scharpen, Janice & Gordie Shaw, Free Salamander Exhibit, Kitka, Rabbit Rabbit Radio, and Dr. Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators. Nick & Anya from AVANT NIGHT would like to thank the Joyful Noise Recordings team and Kramer & Valerie from Shimmy-Disc for their friendship, mentorship, and assistance with making this album a reality.

Endless props to the one-thousand-one-hundred-and-twenty-two generous people who helped us “SAVE THE LAST HUMAN BEING!” on Kickstarter. Boundless gratitude to all who volunteered time and energy to those buck-wild LHB film shoots oh so many years ago. Bottomless cheer to each and every member of the John Kane Society whether living, dead, or liminal.

Truly, it is all of you who have made this complex revivification possible. Rock against rock, and rejoice!