Jul 102015
 

 

Acoustic

 

(Grant Skelton compiled this unusual collection of music — a rare focus on acoustic music for our site.)

I love live acoustic performances and acoustic renditions of “heavy” songs. Maybe it’s because I’m a child of the ’90s. I remember MTV’s Unplugged show. Alice In Chains’ Unplugged is my absolute favorite of their discography. Days Of The New may never again release new material, but their first self-titled album is a timeless musical triumph.

There’s something almost fragile about acoustic performances. You hear the vocalist inhale before he utters a note. The squeal of the guitar strings. The hum of the bass and the click of the drumsticks as the drummer counts into the next song. While some bands may not perform acoustic sets of their studio material, they may record an occasional acoustic interlude or ballad. How many thrash and death metal albums have you heard that have an acoustic introduction on the first track? Continue reading »

Jan 282015
 

 

(Comrade Aleks interviews Markus Stock of the German band The Vision Bleak, among others.)

If you like really dark and mystic metal, then you should certainly know the German project The Vision Bleak, a duo of Markus Stock and Allen B. Konstantz. They boldly explore a world of myths and horrors, writing album after album; the fifth full-length record Witching Hour was released in 2013, and I felt a need to know if the band had plans for something new for us.

Markus is also a mastermind of the forest-influenced band Empyrium, and an honorable member of post-black-metal project Eudaimony; it was obvious that he had a lot of things he could tell us about. Continue reading »