Sep 242012
 

This is another daily collection of things I saw and heard this morning that I thought were worth sharing. It’s heavy on the death metal, because the death metal is heavy on me.

GOATWHORE

This is a big Goatwhore day. First, I saw the news that Goatwhore will be touring the U.S. and Canada with High On Fire and Lo-Pan. The tour begins on Nov. 15 in Austin and concludes on Dec. 22 in San Francisco. On selected stops, Primate (featuring Brutal Truth vocalist Kevin Sharp) and Corrosion of Conformity will also be performing.

This should be an ass-mauling, face-lacerating show. I’m happy that it’s stopping in Seattle, because it’s important to be happy for yourself in order to be happy for other people, or so I tell myself whenever I see stupendous tours that stop in Seattle but may not stop where you live. The full schedule is after the jump.

I also saw that Goatwhore have today premiered a new official lyric video for “Death To the Architects of Heaven”, a killer song from their 2012 album, Blood For the Master. You can watch that after the jump, too. Continue reading »

Feb 232012
 

With only the briefest of introductions, this is a round-up of new videos, music, and artwork I saw yesterday that I thought were worth sharing. There’s a lot here, and I could have broken this up into multiple posts, but . . . I didn’t. So there. Here’s the herd I rounded up:

New songs from: Allegaeon (Colorado), Fester (Norway), and Autopsy (Florida)

New official video from: Dark Tranquillity (Sweden)

New album cover from: Necrolord and HeXeN (L.A.)

ALLEGAEON

Last time we checked in with Allegaeon, guitarist Greg Burgess was playing some mean tango (bitches). Before that, TheMadIsraeli reviewed their debut album, Fragments of Form and Function, as part of his Melodeath Week series last August. At long last, Metal Blade has scheduled the release of their second album, Formshifter, for May 8, and yesterday we got the song “Tartessos: The Hidden Xenocryst”. It’s smokin’ hot. Continue reading »

Jun 242010
 

C.S. Lewis was a British scholar and author. He was born in Belfast and died on the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination at the age of 64. He was a prolific essayist whose most profound works dealt with his Christian faith, though he is probably known most widely as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia.

He was an immensely thoughtful, extremely compassionate, constantly questioning man, and a writer of beautiful prose — and pretty decent fiction, too. If I were still a Christian, he would be one of my role models. But that’s probably because I think the world would be a gentler place if there were more doubt and less certitude in matters of religious faith. That way, we could get more of our fill of brutality from metal and less from the daily news. But what the fuck do I know? I’m just a part-time metal blogger and full-time half-wit.

In addition to The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis also wrote a sci-fi/fantasy trilogy consisting of books called Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. In part, they tell the story of human encounters with a race of immortal extraterrestrials called the eldila.

One of those aliens rebelled and was imprisoned on Earth (sound familiar?), which cut it off from the eldila on the other planets in our system. And for that reason, in the language of the eldila, Earth was called Thulcandra — the Silent Planet.

There’ s a point to this laborious background story, and the point concerns a German metal band also called Thulcandra, whose members are also involved with Obscura, Helfahrt, and Dark Fortress. Despite the C.S. Lewis connection,Thulcandra is not a Christian band — in fact, they play the kind of melodic black- and death-metal that calls forth the ghost of Dissection. Their story is an unusual one, and their debut album — Fallen Angel’s Dominion — is fucking awesome.  (more after the jump, including a track from that album . . .) Continue reading »