Coming Soon: The Gates of Slumber – The Awakening (Vinyl Re-issue)

Well, how about that. Just a few days ago we talked about the epic doom heroes that are The Gates of Slumber (including a full list of their current tour dates – see that post for more details). And now I’ve just learned that Abyss Records has announced plans to re-issue the band’s 2004 debut album …The Awakening!

The cover art (shown above), is not the same painting that was used on the original release (which was taken from Pieter Bruegel’s “The Triumph of Death”), but from what I understand, this new artwork (which was done by Ken Kelly) is also what had been used for the extremely limited 2xLP edition, which has been long out of print. Just like that original vinyl edition, this re-release includes “The Cloaked Figure” (which originally appeared on the band’s third demo recording, also from 2004) as a bonus track.

The record won’t actually be available until the fall of this year, but keep an eye on the band and label (see links below) for any new updates, including when the pre-order process will begin!

 
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The Gates of Slumber: website, Facebook
Abyss Records: website, Facebook, Myspace, Reverbnation, Youtube

Get ‘em While They’re Hot: The Soda Shop Presents a New Compilation – FREE DOWNLOAD!

 
Well, The Soda Shop has done it again — they keep putting together these incredible compilations (and then giving them away for free), full of the same great stoner/fuzz/psychedelic/doom/blues bands they are constantly writing about on their blog.

The third volume has just been released, featuring songs by: The Dead Exs, The Heavy Eyes, The Grand Astoria, Mothership, Fellwoods, Shock Radar, Orcus Chylde, The Big Wheel Stunt Show, Groan, The Heavy Company, Once-ler and Venomin James.

I’ve heard most of these bands before (most of them after being introduced to them via The Soda Shop!), and I look forward to hearing the rest of them as soon as this finishes downloading. See the Bandcamp widget below to grab your own copy…

Help Dirty Shirt Record Their Next Album!

Do you remember the Romanian metal band Dirty Shirt?

We first met them a few months back when they were the “Signmeto Roadrunner Records Unsigned Band of the Week,” and then checked in with them earlier this week when I reported about some awards they had won.

Anyway, at the time of that original post, I pointed out that their most recent release was the album Same Shi(r)t Different Day, released in 2010. I told you that that album could be downloaded for free by emailing info@dirty-shirt.com (in a lower-quality 128k version), and that it is also available for sale in a higher quality format from their “Dirty Shop” webstore.

Well, considering that it’s now been two years since that album’s release, it seems the band have decided they want to get back in the studio to work on the next one. And that’s where you come in! Recording, engineering, mixing, mastering, etc. — all that stuff isn’t cheap, and so the guys are trying to raise some of the costs in advance; in exchange for donations now, you can be rewarded with copies of the album once it’s completed — and a whole lot more!

 

Get ‘em While They’re Hot: THIRD New Vesperia Song Now Available for FREE!

Hello again, readers.  Once again, we’re checking in with Vesperia, the Toronto-based Celtic/pagan/folk/symphonic/blackened-thrash band who were formerly known as Bolero.

We first discussed the band two weeks ago when I shared the announcement of their new name, as well as the fact that they’d be releasing a new four-track demo called The Swordsman.  We also talked about the fact that each week this month, they’d be releasing another of those four tracks as free downloads.  I think I might have misunderstood something in that initial announcement, because I was under the impression that each song would be given away for one week only.  On the contrary, the first two songs continue to be available for free, in addition to the third one which they have just released.  For the first song (“The Swordsman”), see the link at the beginning of this paragraph; for the second (“Huntress”), click here, and for the third — head on down to the bottom of this post.

Also as a reminder, the band are currently in the midst of a tour of Ontario with Crimson Shadows.  I’ve re-reprinted the remaining tour dates later in this post as well.

 

Out Tomorrow: Embers – Shadows (2xLP Vinyl Release)

Embers – Shadows (Self-released, 29 March 2011 / vinyl by Iconoclast Records, 25 May 2012)

Californian blackened-crust band Embers released their debut LP Shadows to much critical acclaim early last year. At that time, it was made available as a free (or pay what you choose) download, and it’s still available that way (more details later), but the band recently announced that the album is finally being made available in a vinyl format for those fans who had been requesting that…

Tomorrow (Friday, 25 May) Embers will be kicking off a two-week European tour, starting in Bologna (see the end of this post for a list of dates). At the same time, they will be releasing Shadows as a 2xLP vinyl edition via the Bolognese label Iconoclast Records.

 

Out Last Week: Pinkish Black – Self-Titled

Pinkish Black – Pinkish Black (Handmade Birds, 15 May 2012)

Okay, stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

The rest of his bandmates came back from wherever they’d been all day, and walked in to find a hellish nightmare: there lay his lifeless body, extinguished by his own hand while he’d been home alone.

It sounds like a tale from Until the Light Takes Us, I know, but this was the story of Tommy Atkins, bassist for Denton, Texas’s The Great Tyrant. Bandmates Daron Beck and Jon Teague reportedly discovered him in the bathroom. Having found their band reduced from a trio to a duo, they decided to continue on under a new name — in honor of the terrible scene they had come across, in which (they said) “the walls were pinkish black.”

With an origin such as this, it’s not at all surprising that the new musical project would seem inspired by and surrounded by death. Sometimes frightening, sometimes peaceful; sometimes horribly ugly, sometimes angelically beautiful; sometimes all of these at once. And dark. Such an intense darkness that it could almost blind anyone who gazes upon it.

 

Municipal Waste / Toxic Holocaust – Toxic Waste Split – PREORDER NOW!!!

Hello there, readers! I wanted to bring this to your attention as soon as I learned about it: pre-orders are now available for the Toxic Waste Split 12″ (Municipal Waste / Toxic Holocaust)! CLICK HERE!

This record is coming out on 12 June 2012 via Tankcrimes Records, and I’m predicting it’s gonna go fast. If you’re a thrash fan who’s been keeping up with the explosion of retro/revival bands over the past several years, then you already know that these are two of the biggest names in that movement. If you aren’t already familiar with these bands, I’ll give you a brief introduction to them later in this post (including a list of dates for each band’s upcoming world tours!), but first I want to talk about this incredible package — which I’m sure is going to be a HUGE hit with vinyl collectors all over the world…

Tracklisting:

1. Trapped in the Sites (Municipal Waste)
2. Mourning Sex (Municipal Waste)
3. We Bring ‘Em Hell (Toxic Holocaust)
4. Alter-ed States (Toxic Holocaust)

Two of the songs (one from each band) can be streamed if you head over to Decibel Magazine‘s website.

 
For the past several months, Scotty at Tankcrimes has often talked about working with various manufacturers and testing a number of different formulations to come up with just the perfect glow-in-the-dark vinyl to use for this release. That kind of dedication should give you an idea of just how important this collectors’ item is going to be…

The extremely limited “Die Hard” edition of the release is available in either the picture-disc (which, as you can see above, features the album’s cover art) or the special glow-in-the-dark vinyl. Either of those will also include a beer koozie and a poster of that cover art, too. Oh, and by the way, I don’t know if you noticed, but the “Toxic Waste” logo inside the glowing globe in the center of the artwork is made of the “T” from “Toxic Holocaust” and the “W” from “Municipal Waste” — sorry, it doesn’t take much to amuse me…

Anyway, for those fans who might not also be into collectible vinyl (or, more likely, for those who want to save the picture-disc or glow-in-the-dark edition in mint condition, but still want to listen to the record) it’s also available in regular boring black or blue vinyl. With any of these editions, you will be sent a link to download a digital copy on the release date, as well.

**UPDATE – 23 MAY** I told you that glow-in-the-dark vinyl was going to be a hot seller and that it would sell out… but I never predicted that they’d all be gone by the afternoon of the first pre-sale day! But, that’s what happened — as of yesterday, there are no more glowing Toxic Waste records left. If you missed out, sorry, it sucks to be you. Next time you need to listen to me when I tell you to jump on something quickly! I just wish I had some extra cash lying around this week, or else I might have grabbed up a dozen copies!

But anyway, all is not lost because that picture-disc edition is still available (although that one surely won’t be around too much longer, either!), as well as the black or blue versions. **

Once again, the link to pre-order the split is here.

 

The “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week: The “Where Are They Now?” Edition

Hey there, loyal and devoted Valley of Steel Readers!  For the past four months I’ve been doing these little profiles every Monday about bands that I’ve discovered on the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website.  Mostly they’ve been bands that have sent me messages seeking reviews of their music, but occasionally I’ll just randomly stumble across something good and then I end up writing about that.  Either way, I’ve found some really cool stuff that I might not have known about otherwise!  I hope the same has been true for you, readers — have you seen any bands profiled here that really resonated with you?  Let me know in the comments section below; hearing that I’ve introduced a reader to some awesome new music (and also that I’ve given a band some much-deserved exposure to new fans) validates my existence and gives me a reason to get out of bed each morning.

Over the course of the past several weeks, I’ve tried to keep up with some of these exciting new discoveries — either by following their Facebook pages, or signing up for an email list, or possibly by watching for smoke signals.  In any case, I’ve been hearing some things lately about some of these bands — in terms of new songs, new videos, or upcoming new releases — and so I decided to use this week’s post to reflect back on some of those previous posts and see what the bands have been up to since I wrote about them…

Get ‘em While They’re Hot: Download a FREE Compilation of Australian Metal from Art as Catharsis

Drone from the Underside of the Earth is a FREE digital compilation featuring Australia’s best stoner, sludge, doom and drone bands.

It’s supposed to be released 21 May 2012 through Art As Catharsis, and I know that’s tomorrow, but it turns out that in addition to having winter when we have summer, and water going backwards down their drains, Australian people also live inside some crazy time warp thing where there it’s already tomorrow while here it’s still today. I’ll never understand all this complicated science stuff, but the good thing means, the compilation is available right now!

It features 26 songs by Adrift for Days, Arrowhead, Atolah, Battle Pope, Clagg, DEAD, Drowning Horse, Futility, Houdini, Hydromedusa, In Trenches, Law of the Tongue, Lint, Log, Looking Glass, Moth, Mother Eel, Mother Mars, No Anchor, Noûs, Shellfin, Sore, Space Bong, Summonus, Sons of the Ionian Sea, and The Slow Death. The compilation also includes that incredible artwork shown above, which was done by promoter/label head Lachlan R. Dale.

Lachlan also had the following message to share:

I’ve spent a lot of hours on this project this year. I really wanted to draw attention to some our country’s awesome fuzzy, droney, drug-addled groups, that perhaps don’t get the attention they deserve – especially outside of Australia – because the reality is we can boast some of the most unique and varied slow music of any country.

So I set off with intent to pull together some of my favourite artists in Australia’s stoner, sludge, doom and drone scenes in order to get more people to discover great Australian underground music. But I was a little naive of quite how long it would take me!

The hard work paid off in the end. Drone form the Underside of the Earth features a selection of 26 tracks. This is a rare, eye-opening peek into Australia’s rich underground music scene. At 3-and-a-half hours in length it’s quite a ride, but I sincerely hope that you at least discover a few new bands as a result of this work.

 
Listen to or download the compilation through Bandcamp…

 
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Art as Catharsis: website, Facebook, Bandcamp

Get ‘em While They’re Hot: Second New Vesperia Song Now Available for FREE!

Good morning, readers. Remember last week when we were discussing Vesperia? The Toronto-based Celtic/pagan/folk/symphonic/blackened-thrash band who were formerly known as Bolero?

Well, you can check out that post to learn a little bit more about the band and their past. But now it’s the present, and Vesperia are celebrating their new identity by giving all of us a present. See what I did there?

They have released a four-track demo called The Swordsman, as well as heading out on an Ontarian tour with Crimson Shadows.  I’ve reprinted the tour dates later in this post for you Canadian readers — the first show is tomorrow night (Friday the 18th) in Barrie.

But just as a reminder, there’s great news for the rest of us as well.  Each week this month, the band are supposed to be releasing another of the demo tracks as free downloads! See the bottom of this post to get your hands on this week’s free song.