Spineshank Re-unite

This is probably old news to some of you. I had heard rumours that the mighty Spineshank had re-united, but only discovered their Myspace page, and this press release on there, today.

So this is the press release they posted up on their Myspace page the other week:

"After 5 years of silence, The Grammy nominated Spineshank have reunited. Original Members Jonny Santos, Tommy Decker, Mike Sarkisyan, and Rob Garcia, have been working on a new record. The band has completed 5 songs and plan on writing about 15 more before they start recording their new album. "All the bad blood and differences that led to the break up have all been put behind us" says drummer Tommy Decker. "It feels right again, were not being pressured to write a single or look a certain way, were doing it because we want to". Vocalist Jonny Santos continues, "I think splitting when we did might have been a good decision. We were at a high point in our career, we ended it on our owns terms." Spineshank played its last show to a sold out London Astoria at the end of the Roadrage tour in 2003. The band was nominated for a Grammy for the best metal performance that same year."

I saw them on that tour, in Glasgow, and they were absolutely brilliant live! Was sad to hear they had split, so I'm pretty happy to see they've got back together!!!

Make sure you add them to your friends on Myspace, here's the link: www.myspace.com/spineshank

Psycroptic OB(SERVANT)

Australia's own death metal elite, Psycroptic, are set to release their latest album Ob(servant) today in Europe, and October 14th in the USA, and October 18th in their home country. Shortly after the album's release, the band will embark on an extensive Australian (and New Zealand) tour, covering most of the country for 2 months. The dates are as follows:

30 Oct Branningan’s Gold Coast
31 Oct Rosies Brisbane
1 Nov The Sands Tavern Maroochydoore
6 Nov Sodens Albury
7 Nov The Gaelic Club Sydney
8 Nov Freshly Plucked Festival (All Ages) Orange
13 Nov Al’s Bar Christchurch
14 Nov Valve Wellington
15 Nov Oblivion Auckland
20 Nov The Pub Bendigo
21 Nov The Karova Lounge Ballarat
22 Nov The National Hotel Geelong
28 Nov Fowlers (All Ages) Adelaide
29 Nov The Old Jail (All Ages) Mt Gambier
5 Dec Brisbane Hotel Hobart
6 Dec Saloon Bar Launceston
7 Dec Brisbane Hotel (All Ages) Hobart
11 Dec Players Nightclub Mandurah
12 Dec Amplifier Bar Perth
13 Dec Leederville HQ (All Ages) Perth
18 Dec Home Tavern Wagga Wagga
19 Dec The Basement Canberra
20 Dec Hi Fi Bar Melbourne

Following this tour, Psycroptic well then head over to Europe and do a run of shows with Black Dahlia Murder, Cephalic Carnage and Sylosis. Full details on these shows can be found on the band's Myspace page by clicking www.myspace.com/psycroptic.

Australian Tour Flier
Click to enlarge

CD Review: "Shogun" by Trivium

Trivium have been through a hard time since the release of The Crusade, which was in some peoples view a mish mash of James Hetfield vocals and rehashed Metallica riffs. I could argue the pros and cons of that, but let me get straight to the point here. Shogun is not a Metallica Tribute album. Gone is the overuse of the Hetfield vocals - mostly, ranging from crushing metal growl to Ember to Inferno-esque melodies. I would actually go as fat to say Heafy's vocals have inproved and the musicianship is a hell of a lot tighter.

Although Insurrection has a hint of Metallica to it, it is still Trivium at their best. While the delivery of the line "it is I that sponsers fury, Torches ignite" is classic Hetfield, I'm not gonna hold that against Heafy, it's one of the only places I spotted Hetfield creaping into the vocals again. We see Heafy getting back to what he did on Ascendancy, but with a little more control to his voice.

The solo work and fret massage that takes place on this album is amazing. Standout tracks for this are Insurrection, Of Prometheus And The Crucifix and the title track Shogun. 3 tracks that would have many a metal fan hungry for more. The latter being a little over long at times, but it showcases the bands full use of metal riffs and melody.

He who spawned the furies is another exmaple of classic Trivium. This track would not be out of place on Ascendency. It is such a catchy track that I can see the kids either go mental in the pit or press themsleves against the barrier screaming this one back in Heafy's face.

My main concern is the repetitiveness that appears in places on this album. For example, Throes Of Perdition, Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis & The Calamity have the same sounding intro. A little quick picking fretworked intro. Nice, but no need to overuse it. Still, this does not take away too much from the album as a whole.

Other than that I feel this album may actually win over some Trivium detractors and call some of the wayward old school fans back to the flock. It mixes the best bits from Ascendancy and The Crusade with the end result being a solid album. Almost a full return to form. (8/10)

Shogun is set for release in the UK on September 29th. Check http://www.trivium.org/ for other release dates.

For a limited time you can hear the whole album for free on the bands Myspace.

Defenders Of The Faith 2

If you loved Defenders Of The Faith, then be prepared, because Metal Hammer have announced a second helping! Yes, next year there will be a Defenders Of The Faith 2!

This time around the co-headliners will be Lamb Of God and Dimmu Borgir! They will joined by Five Finger Death Punch and it appears another act, who will be announced shortly.

The dates for this megatour will be as follows:

11 Feb - Bristol Academy
12 Feb - Birmingham Academy
13 Feb - Manchester Academy
14 Feb - Brixton Academy
15 Feb - Glasgow Academy

First Acts for Wacken 09 Announced!

Next years Wacken will be the 20th Anniversary of the festival, which is pretty exciting in itself, but they have already started announcing some of the bands who will be playing in 2009!

The first two bands announced are:

Machine Head
Cathedral

Excited? I am!

CD Review: "Love and other Disasters" by Sonic Syndicate

Being relative new kids on the block, 2 albums in the space of 2 years after so much touring is a good trick to pull off. The question is, has this speedy output damaged the goods? I would say No, but others may disagree.

Love and other disasters is a prime example of a modern take on the "Gothenborg Sound" (also known as Melodic Death Metal). With bands like In Flames getting mellower with age, the sound they helped create was in no doubt going to get a little shake up. Sonic Syndicate may make the genre more accessible to newcomers, but they in no way dilute its key elements.

Songs like Jack of Diamonds and Power shift are stand out tracks that showcase MDMs classic use of harmony and screaming vocals. With chugging guitar riffs played along side melodic synths. Sing-a-long choruses are always a plus and this album has plenty to choose from. One song that sticks out above all others is the ballad-esque My Escape, with its use of strings and melodic vocals, it wouldn't be out of place on an album by the Used. Not that this is a bad thing. They are merely showing their is more to this genre than repeated riffs and growling vocals.

I do think that, although this is a great album, the songs will only be done proper justice when played live. There is a raw energy to most of these tracks that can only truley be unleashed on stage.

They haven't reinvented the wheel here and some will hold that against them. While others will be comforted by the fact that the winning formula from Only Inhuman is being used with a greater deal of skill and musicianship. All in all this is a solid 3rd album. A perfect addition to a quickly growing discography. It will hopefully go to show the detractors that this band isn't a one trick pony and are here for the long haul. (9/10)

Love and other disasters is out now in Europe and will be released in the US on 23rd September.

Catch them on tour with In Flames and Gojira!!


September
27 Glasgow Barrowlands Scotland/UK
28 Birmingham Academy UK
29 Manchester Academy UK

October
01 London Astoria UK
03 Luxembourg Den Atelier LUX
04 Cologne Paladium GER
05 Wiesbaden Schlachthof GER
07 Brussels AB BEL
08 Paris Zenith FRA
09 Tilburg 013 HOL
10 Nancy L’Autre Canal FRA
11 Lyon Tranbordeur FRA
13 Barcelona Razzamatazz 1 ESP
14 Granada La Copera ESP
15 Madrid La Riviera ESP
16 Bilbao Rock Star Live ESP
18 Fribourg Fri-son CHE
19 Munich Zenith GER
20 Vienna Gassometer AT
21 Milano Alcatraz ITA
22 Zurich Volkshaus CHE
24 Dresden Alter Schlacthof GER
25 Berlin Columbiahalle GER
27 Helsinki Cable Factory FIN
29 Stockholm Annexet SWE
30 Stockholm Annexet SWE
31 Oslo Sentrum Scene NOR

November 2008
01 Gothenburg Lisebergshallen SWE
02 Gothenburg Lisebergshallen SWE

Peter Wichers Rejoins Soilwork!

Oh yes, some excellent news (in my opinion) on the Soilwork front, with former guitar genius Peter Wichers rejoining the band. (Ok, that sounds very biased doesn't it?)

For full information, head to the Soilwork Myspace page:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=11970182&blogID=434118592&indicate=1

As you may have guessed, I am pretty excited about this news. Peter is a fantastic song writer, and after leaving Soilwork, he wrote the Out Of The Dark album as part of Nuclear Blast's 20th anniversary, which starred a number of guest musicians from the label. It's a fantastic album, and highlighted how good a writer he is (and perhaps indicated the reason why Soilwork's latest album lacked compaired to previous releases). I'm glad to see the return of such a fantastic musician to the band!

Sonic Syndicate Stream New Album

Swedish metallers, Sonic Syndicate, have been streaming their latest album through their Myspace page. Love And Other Disasters will be released on Monday (in the UK) through Nuclear Blast. Today might be the last day to hear the full album on their Myspace, as it was posted up last Saturday, so make sure you head on over and check it out!!!

http://www.myspace.com/sonicsyndicate

Interview With Warpath

Last month, I headed for a weekend of metal madness at the Bloodstock Open Air Festival. I was only really there to see a few bands, but was open to checking out what else was going on. Little did I know I was about to stumble upon a new gem in British metal!

Heading back to the campsite, to avoid the rain, we were stopped in our tracks and told to check out this new band playing on the Lava Stage… By the drummer’s mum… Un-cool? Nah, her words of persuasion made us check out one of the best acts of the weekend, and that band were Warpath!

The musicianship of this band just totally blew me away, and I knew I just had to ask the lovely lady who persuaded us to watch the band, about doing an interview with the guys, so you lot got to know a bit more about a band that I think have the potential to become HUGE! (And don’t you forget who told you!)

MI: I saw you guys playing at Bloodstock last month, I really enjoyed it from the front of the stage, how was it for you on the stage?

Rich: Thank you! Bloodstock was an awesome experience. We had a great time playing there. The crowd were wicked, I saw three or four pits going which was really fun. Getting there was a lot of hard work but we’re used to that.

Pete: Yeah thank you for the compliment! Getting to Bloodstock felt like the journey that would never end, getting thrown around the back of a smelly old transit van in the dark, but it was worth it. It was a bit rushed on the stage without a sound check and with everything else going on right next to you just off the stage, but the crowd were brilliant and it was a fantastic feeling / experience playing there.

MI: For young guys, you all seem very talented. Tell us a bit more about how and when you started playing and writing music.

Rich: I’ve been trained in classical music since I was five years old, studying sight-reading, theory, performance etc up to Grade Eight. I started playing guitar at the age of fifteen, and began writing music at the age of sixteen, which is actually when I wrote "Life Unworthy of Life", "Face To Face" and "W.M.D" from the "Damnation" album. Pete and I both teach guitar too so there’s a lot of musical experience.

Pete: That’s right, I have been playing since I was 11 and taught private guitar lessons for the past two or so years. Upon joining Warpath, the album was already written so my only contributions were the guitar solos (not including “Hostile Takeover”) and the additional harmonies. But you come up with cool little riffs your whole life when you play guitar. Some are better than others and you will only hear the best from us!

James: I have always been writing music ever since I can remember. I started playing drums and keyboard at 11 years and been hard at it since. I’ve studied music for 7 years and will be continuing onwards with that in good time. I’ve written a lot of stuff during the years. If anyone is interested please check out my side project, Vertex. I also teach drums in my spare time.

MI: When did the band first get together, and how did you all meet?

Rich: I formed Warpath in 2003 in my hometown. Soon after, we started gigging across the UK and building the band’s name and reputation. We recorded our first EP in December 2005 at Bridgerow Studios in Wales, and gigged solidly for a year and a half. Our bassist at the time Gareth Allen decided to leave to pursue his education in university. He’s still quite active with the band though, managing our Website and MySpace and helping to promote us. During this time, James Davenport contacted me about drumming for us, as he’d seen us live a few times and enjoyed the music. We met up and within a few minutes I knew I wanted him to drum for us permanently. I’ve never seen a thrash drummer in the UK so precise and fast with kick drumming, so it was in instant match. We began writing and recording the tracks for the "Damnation" album during the summer of 2007. In August ‘07 we met Pete, and invited him to record on the album and then to join the band as a full-time member. His solos were exactly what we needed to complete the album as I feel they add a lot of harmony to the songs. Soon after, Joel Jordan auditioned, and the line-up was complete. We filmed the "Damnation" music video in London less than a week after Joel joined.

MI: What or who inspired you to get a band together?

Rich: Just watching Megadeth, Metallica, Guns N Roses, bands like that when I was younger inspired me to form a band. I despised school and knew that I wouldn’t be able to stick college or university, plus I’d been playing & performing music since such a young age it was instinctive to want to play music with other like-minded people.

MI: On your debut, Damnation, you worked with some pretty decent names who have worked with some really big bands, did you find that intimidating?

Rich: I didn’t really find it intimidating, as they’re such cool guys to talk to. It was awesome working with them on the album. I’m a massive fan of James Murphy’s (Testament, Death, Obituary) guitar work so it was a real honour for us when he agreed to master the album. I was talking to James Murphy a while ago actually about him mixing and mastering the next album. Orlando Villasenor is great; he did a fantastic job mixing and was very patient with everything we requested. Pete had a message from Kevin Talley (Daath, Chimaira, Hate Eternal) too saying about the killer mix of the album, which is really cool of him.

Pete: I personally didn’t find it intimidating either, the fact that like you said they have worked with the best of the best in the world of metal and they actually wanted to work on our material means they must think it’s pretty awesome stuff!

MI: You’ve been getting a lot of positive press from various media sources, how do you handle this and manage to keep your feet on the ground?

Rich: It’s great to read that these top magazines and reviewers love the album and are comparing us with our heroes (Megadeth, Testament, etc) but we try not to let it get to our heads too much. I don’t really read anything on forums on the net any more.

Pete: To be honest we are so busy working on the band, once we read a great review or comment someone leaves us, it’s like “Oh cool, that’s fantastic! Right, back to work” ha hah!

MI: You seem to have a huge fan base on Myspace. Have you found Myspace a good source in promoting Warpath and finding new genuine fans, or do you feel there’s a lot of “friend collecting” and that your music is falling on deaf ears?

Rich: I think Myspace is a great tool for exposing music to new fans. A lot of our fans are people that have heard us through the Internet and bought the album afterwards.

James: Myspace is truly one of the best ways for promoting. It takes time and hard work but it definitely pays off.

MI: Like I said earlier, I really enjoyed watching your performance at Bloodstock, are their any plans of a tour in the near future to back the album?

Rich: We’re working on a tour with a booking agency to support the album, with European shows included. When everything’s officially confirmed, we’ll announce the dates.

Pete: We all really enjoyed playing at Bloodstock, I have been going to it since 2004 and the fact we got to play there is amazing!! I’m really glad you enjoyed our set and like Rich said, we are busy arranging bigger gigs to come.

MI: So what is next for Warpath?

Rich: The album’s just gone on sale in all the major UK stores; HMV, Zavvi (the new name for Virgin Megastores), Tesco, Asda, Play.com, Amazon and others so we’re working hard to promote it. We’re planning a second music video as well as getting the ‘Damnation’ video played on the other channels. It’s just been added to Scuzz TV’s play list, which is a big step for us. We’re the first of the new UK Thrash bands to have gotten a music video played on a major TV station so we’re very proud of that and are now working to get it played on Kerrang! and MTV2. Also, we’ll continue gigging across the UK! Thanks for the interview and support!

A HUGE thanks to the guys from Warpath for agreeing to the interview! Now you know a bit more about them, please do check them out! And if you get a chance to see them live, get yourselves along! Thrash isn't normally the kind of metal I listen to, but these guys are just superb musicians and very entertaining! This isn't a*s kissing, this is my geniune enthusiasm for an extremely talented young British metal band!

Myspace: www.myspace.com/warpathuk
Website: www.warpath-online.com

Vertex Myspace: www.myspace.com/vertexproject

All pictures in the interview are used with kind permission from the band.

Review: "Prevail" by Anadies

Artist: Anadies

Title: Prevail

Release Date: 9/19/2008

Playing in a female-fronted metal band has to be tough. It seems like it would be a constant uphill battle against the machismo of the genre at large, and a struggle to retain the female identity while simultaneously maintaining credibility with listeners who crave extremity.

And really, the mix is about half and half. Vocalists like Morgan Lander (Kittie) and Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy) growl away like possessed beasts, but often come across as if they are just trying to keep up with the boys. Conversely, there are singers like Simone Simons (Epica) and Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation) whose voices simply soar through the air (and often times out of sync with what the rest of their respective bands are playing) in a hyper-feminine, operatic style which can turn off listeners who don't read historical romance. Lacey Mosley (Flyleaf) sounds like a baby choking on a cat. Amy Lee (Evanescence) sounds like a cat choking on a baby. Is there any hope?

Yes. Yes there is. Enter Colorado's Anadies, a five-piece metal act fronted by Christy Lumberg whose sophomore album "Prevail" is a startlingly good middle-ground for listeners who crave the vocal harmonics of Lacuna Coil but who also want the aggressive and catchy melody lines of Killswitch Engage. Recorded and mixed at Flatline Audio by Dave Otero (Cephalic Carnage, Cobalt, Martriden), "Prevail" is a wonderfully-executed, richly diverse album with something for everybody.

There are influences abound throughout the proceedings, ranging from metal and goth to industrial and classical. The musicianship of the album is superb; the guitars are crunchy as hell with some killer leads, the rhythm section goes off like a machine gun, and the string arrangements and keyboards are subtle and haunting. However, the real treat of the album is Lumberg's vocals; her voice is perfectly suited to the way the songs are structured. She clearly has a wide range, but she displays discipline in that range. She doesn't seem compelled to go off into left field (or come in from out of it as the case may be) in the same self-aggrandizing way others within this genre tend to, which is very refreshing.

The album is rife with gems that stand up well to repeated listenings. The opening track, "Trials" starts out sweet enough but soon the time signature shifts and the claws come out on the chorus with Lumberg's voice soaring amidst a gut-wrenching (in a good way) onslaught of harsh guitars and dry-lung backing vocal roars. "F.T." recalls Pat Benetar and The Cranberries to some extent while "Nothing" is a smooth, bass-driven, Tool-esque prog-metal progression that segues into a truly anthemic piece by the end. And while one might fully expect the album to close with a quiet piano-driven dirge, Anadies surprises yet again with "Remorse," an up-tempo head bobber that ends with a full-speed cacophony of guitars and roars that seek to remind us of the aural beating we've just received.

The overall excellence of the album notwithstanding, the strongest track has to be "Visions." The song begins slow enough, but after an electronics-tinged bridge, the tempo kicks up and gets the head banging in a frenzy. Near the end of the song, the throttle comes back off with Lumberg really putting her voice on display and hitting some of the most hypnotic note progressions ever recorded.

All in all, "Prevail" is an extremely strong release and sure to put Anadies on the collective radar. Anyone who thinks they've heard it all in the world of female-fronted metal must hear Anadies to believe them.

Country: United States

Label: None
URL: http://www.myspace.com/anadies

http://www.anadies.com/