I’ve been visiting family in Texas, and that’s cut into the time I need to finish reviews of new albums I’ve been working on. Yes, I know — my priorities are screwed up, but there you have it. Anyway, today I’m doing as I did with yesterday’s second post and just throwing together a variety of things that caught my attention as I snooped around the web last night.
The major difference between yesterday and today is that I now have my earbuds again and I’ve actually listened to the music before tossing it your way, so I can vouch for what I’ve got today (for what that’s worth): First, a badass new song from Finland’s Unkind. Second, a remixed and re-mastered version of the song “Suicide Machine” taken from the forthcoming reissue of the Human album by Death. And third, a professionally filmed, multi-camera capturing of Atheist‘s entire set at France’s Hellfest festival on June 19.
UNKIND
This Finnish band is, for me, a relatively recent discovery. They were signed to Relapse Records last September and they have a new album scheduled for release on August 2 in NorthAm and August 15 internationally. Titled Harhakuvat, it will be their fifth studio release. The band have just posted a song from the album called “Laumasielut” on their Facebook and MySpace pages, and I really like it. Though the band is described as a hardcore act, this new song’s prog influences are evident. The song is sweeping, crushing, beautifully played, and I’m really digging it. (more after the jump . . .)
The song displays a sophistication of songcraft and execution that cause it to stand out from the great mass of metalcore (and there’s no clean singing either). I’m now very interested in the rest of this album. Maybe you will be, too. Hear “Laumasielut” (“herd of souls”, according to Google Translate) for yourselves:
UNKIND – Laumasielut by RelapseRecords
Unkind’s new album is available for pre-order at Relapse.com, where you can also see a preview of the album’s artwork. Relapse has also recently re-issued the band’s Ei Mitään, Mieliemme Tuhkasta, and Hangen Syliin albums digitally. Looks like they’ll be on tour in Europe with Destroyed in Seconds later this month and will be touring Finland with the excellent Ghost Brigade in September.
DEATH
This year, Relapse has been re-issuing remastered 20th anniversary editions of seminal albums by Death. In February, it was The Sound of Perseverance, and that prompted these thoughts about that album and the band by NCS contributor BadWolf. Today, Relapse is reissuing the band’s Human album.
The album has been entirely re-mixed by longtime Death producer Jim Morris and mastered by Alan Douches (Mastodon, Converge, The Misfits, and five gajillion other bands). This special edition of the album will include liner notes from Morris as well as former Death (and current Cynic) guitarist Paul Masvidal and over an hour of previously unreleased early demo tracks.
A re-mixed version of the song “Suicide Machine”, taken from the re-issue of Human, has been posted on the official Death Facebook page along with a re-mixed version of “Lack of Comprehension”. I decided to include “Suicide Machine” in this post. This remixed version of the song sounds fucking great. The low end is heavy as fuck, and all the instruments shine through with brilliant clarity. This is a great song, and it has never sounded better.
Suicide Machine (Remastered) by RelapseRecords
Orders for Human are being accepted now at this location along with new Death merch designs, and the album is available digitally via iTunes.
ATHEIST
I just discovered a French web site called ARTE LiveWeb, which is currently featuring professionally filmed and recorded sets by a number of bands who participated in last weekend’s Hellfest festival in Clisson, France. The clip I’m embedding in this post is the set by Florida’s Atheist.
The Arte LiveWeb set also includes footage of the sets by Turisas, Kreator, Orphaned Land, Headcharger, Therion, and Doro, and more are coming. But with Death’s “Suicide Machine” on my mind, I thought this performance by Atheist was a natural follow-up — both are American bands who exerted tremendous influence over the evolution of extreme metal beginning more than two decades ago.
On that subject, you might be interested in these excerpts from a recent interview by Atheist’s singer and co-founding member Kelly Shaefer. In the interview, he holds forth on the roles that some of the other late Eighties and early Nineties bands played in the development of progressive/technical extreme metal, including Cynic, Pestilence, and of course Death.
Now, here’s the video of Atheist’s set at Hellfest: