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Veteran Maryland rock quartet CLUTCH is putting the finishing touches on its ninth studio album, titled "Strange Cousins From the West". Produced by CLUTCH and J. Robbins at Magpie Cage Studios in Baltimore, the effort is the first CLUTCH studio LP to be released on the band's own Weathermaker Music, through RED Distribution. It will be available both digitally and through retail on July 7. The first single and video, "50,000 Unstoppable Watts" will be officially released prior to Memorial Day weekend.
"Strange Cousins From the West" includes the POPPO'S BLUES BAND cover song "Algo Ha Cambiado", which CLUTCH vocalist Neil Fallon sings in Spanish. Poppo was a legendary Argentinian hard rock singer/guitarist throughout the '70s and '80s.
The title "Strange Cousins From the West" was taken from a line in the song "Minotaur".
Although CLUTCH has toured the world extensively over the past two years and released multiple CLUTCH-related projects, "Strange Cousins..." is the band's first original studio work since 2007's "From Beale Street to Oblivion" which featured the hit "Electric Worry".
"Strange Cousins From the West" track listing:
01. Motherless Child 02. Struck Down 03. 50,000 Unstoppable Watts 04. Abraham Lincoln 05. Minotaur 06. The Amazing Kreskin 07. Witchdoctor 08. Let a Poor Man Be 09. Freakonomics 10. Algo Ha Cambiado 11. Sleestak Lightning
CLUTCH is planning a seven-month worldwide headlining tour which takes flight in the U.S. on May 6 with support acts WINO and MAYLENE & THE SONS OF DISASTER, followed by a July U.S. tour with BARONESS as main support. Look for the band to appear on some popular music and art festivals, including Austin City Limits later this fall, U.K.'s mammoth Download festival on June 14 and more to be announced.
Maryland rockers CLUTCH have set "Strange Cousins From The West" as the title of their new album, due on July 7 via the group's own label, Weathermaker Music. The CD was recorded at Magpie Cage studio in Baltimore, Maryland with producer J. Robbins (JAWBREAKER) and will feature the following track listing:
01. Motherless Child 02. Struck Down 03. Unstoppable Watts 04. Abraham Lincoln 05. Metroliner Special 06. Minotaur 07. The Amazing Kreskin 08. Witchdoctor 09. Let a Poor Man Be 10. Freakonomics 11. Algo Ha Cambiado 12. Sleestak Lightning
The remastered reissue of the band's "Slow Hole To China" album will arrive in stores on April 28.
A track-by-track review of "The Devil You Know", the debut album from HEAVEN & HELL — the band featuring BLACK SABBATH members Tony Iommi (guitar), Ronnie James Dio (vocals), Geezer Butler (bass) and Vinny Appice (drums) — is available at MetalHammer.co.uk.
"The Devil You Know", featuring 10 soon-to-be-classic tracks from the Dio-fronted version of BLACK SABBATH, arrives in North America on April 28 from Rhino for a suggested list price of $18.98 (physical) and $9.99 (digital). It will also be made available as a limited-edition CD+DVD featuring band interviews and rehearsal footage. More information will be made available soon.
Roadrunner Records last week announced the signing of HEAVEN & HELL for the territories of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South America.
HEAVEN & HELL's new single, "Bible Black", is available for streaming in its entirety below. The track begins with Tony Iommi on acoustic guitar behind Dio's plaintive wail before the rhythm shifts to a menacing stomp for the rest of this dark tale about a book of sinister scriptures. One of the first songs written for the album, Dio says it established a tone for the rest of the LP. "When you start off with a blockbuster like that, it makes the rest of the album so much easier because it gives you a benchmark to measure the other songs against."
"The Devil You Know" track listing:
01. Atom And Evil 02. Fear 03. Bible Black 04. Double The Pain 05. Rock And Roll Angel 06. The Turn Of The Screw 07. Eating The Cannibals 08. Follow The Tears 09. Neverwhere 10. Breaking Into Heaven
AHAB, the German funeral doom metal band featuring MIDNATTSOL guitarist Daniel Droste on guitar/vocals and ex-MIDNATTSOL guitarist Christian Hector, is mixing its sophomore album at Klangschmiede Studio E for a late spring/early summer release via Napalm Records. The follow-up to 2006's "The Call of the Wretched Sea" will contain seven songs and will be based on the wreckage of the Essex.
The track listing is as follows:
01. Yet Another Raft of The Medusa (Pollard's Weakness) 02. The Divinity Of Oceans 03. O Father Sea 04. Redemption Lost 05. Tombstone Carousal 06. Gnawing Bones (Coffin's Lot) 07. Nickerson's Theme
According to the band, the guitar parts for AHAB's new album, which were mostly written by Daniel Droste this time, are "a bit more complex, yet in a funeral doom and death doom style." Hector says, "It sounds a bit like a mixture of the 'good ole' AHAB style mixed with very atmospheric tunes. So the description of AHAB as it's posted on Doom-Metal.com as a 'riffing funeral doom band' still is valid. You may say there are riffs, that sound a bit like Devin Townsend going funeral doom, CARCASS in slomo or MORBID ANGEL going beyond the slowness of 'Blessed Are The Sick'. Still to some extent the influence of our colleague of Tyranny can still be heard in some few riffs. So most of the music stays the same as you know it, although there are some hints to postcore and classical doom as well. It also maybe said, the songs are much more epic and vast. I think the new riffs fit perfectly to tell the story of the wreckage of the Essex! So Daniel made it quite easy for me to fit the lyrics to the music!"
AHAB is named after Captain Ahab, a character in the novel "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville. Along with its name, the band also draws thematic and lyrical inspiration from "Moby Dick" — some songs even feature direct quotations from the book.
AHAB is:
Daniel Droste: Guitar, Voices, Synths Christian Hector: Guitar Stephan Wandernoth: Bass Cornelius Althammer: Drums
According to Black-Sabbath.com, the track listing for "The Devil You Know", the forthcoming debut album from HEAVEN AND HELL — the band featuring BLACK SABBATH members Tony Iommi (guitar), Ronnie James Dio (vocals), Geezer Butler (bass) and Vinny Appice (drums) — will be as follows:
01. Atom & Evil 02. Fear 03. Bible Black 04. Double the Pain 05. Rock & Roll Angel 06. The Turn of the Screw 07. Eating the Cannibals 08. Follow the Tears 09. Neverwhere 10. Breaking into Heaven
"The Devil You Know" is scheduled for release on April 28 via Rhino. The LP was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, U.K. where the 1992 SABBATH album "Dehumanizer" was also tracked.
"Everyone had so much fun playing together that we didn't want it to end," says the group. "We started writing together and the songs started flowing like we never stopped. We wound up writing and recording an album that stands up to anything we've ever done. We're really proud of the music and excited for people to hear it."
"Each of us submitted a CD of our ideas, and we narrowed it down from there," Iommi told Classic Rock. "In some ways it was like picking up where we'd left off with 'Dehumanizer'."
In a recent interview with Revolver magazine, Ronnie James Dio described the material on the HEAVEN AND HELL album as "a real cross-section of everything we've done, from 'Heaven and Hell' through 'Mob Rules' and 'Dehumanizer'. I think there's a lot of 'Dehumanizer' in it, but a lot of other things, too, a real good blend of what this band has represented."
HEAVEN AND HELL will premier "The Devil You Know" on the April 29 edition of the nationally syndicated radio show "Rockline" with host Bob Coburn at 8:30 p.m. PT / 11:30 p.m. ET. An encore presentation of the show will air on May 4. Fans are encouraged to speak with HEAVEN AND HELL by calling 1-800-344-ROCK (7625).
Francisco Bay Area progressive extreme metallers CORMORANT have unveiled a new song off their upcoming full-length, Metazoa, which was recorded with and produced by Billy Anderson (NEUROSIS, MELVINS, SLEEP, PRIMORDIAL). The song, entitled “Salt of the Earth,” will be debuted on the band’s Myspace at midnight their time (3am EST). According to bassist/vocalist Arthur von Nagel, the band chose to use “Salt of the Earth” as the first single because, “The song succinctly brings our doom, folk, black metal, prog rock and death metal elements together.”
Mixed by Anderson and mastered by Justin Weis (HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE, LUDICRA, SLOUGH FEG), Metazoa features ten tracks of forward-thinking, multihued black metal that combines the folk-tinged atmospheres of Agalloch with straight-up heavy metal thunder, the expansiveness of post-rock, and the progressive blackness of latter-day Enslaved. Increasingly often mentioned in the same breath as friends and like-minded souls Hammers of Misfortune, Ludicra, Giant Squid, and Asunder, CORMORANT have established themselves as one of the brightest rising stars of the once again burgeoning San Francisco metal scene, and with the release of their debut full-length, Metazoa, promise to continue their graceful rise to the top.
Track listing for Metazoa
01. Scavengers Feast 02. Uneasy Lies the Head 03. Salt of the Earth 04. Blood on the Cornfields 05. Hanging Gardens 06. Hole in the Sea 07. The Crossing 08. The Emigrant's Wake 09. The Sky Burial
American "drone metal" act SUNN O))) will release its seventh studio album, "Monoliths & Dimensions", in late May via Southern Lord Recordings. The CD showcases the core guitar duo — Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson — incorporating influences from a plethora of guest musicians, bringing the SUNN O))) sound to epic new levels. The band also collaborated with composer Eyvind Kang (notable for his work with John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, etc.) on various acoustic ensembles, in addition to the Helios-fueled electric guitars and basses. Key players on the album include Australian guitar genius Oren Ambarchi, enigmatic Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar (MAYHEM, TORMENTOR) and slow music godfather Dylan Carlson (EARTH), as well as Julian Priester (worked with SUN RA in the '50s, John Coltrane's African Brass band, and Herbie Hancock's Sextant band) and new-music horn player Stuart Dempster. There's also an upright bass trio, French and English horns, harp and flute duo, piano, brass, reed and strings ensembles, and a Viennese woman's choir led by Persian vocal savant Jessika Kenney.
The album is not "SUNN O))) with strings" or "metal meets orchestra" material. The band took an approach concentrating on more of allusion toward the timbre of feedback and the instruments involved, so the piece is really illusory, beautiful and not entirely linear, stating that the end product is "the most musical piece we've done, and also the heaviest, powerful and most abstract set of chords we've laid to tape."
The CD was recorded and mixed by Randall Dunn and Mell Dettmer at various points over the last two years, and is practice in density, gravity and momentum.
"Monoliths & Dimensions" track listing:
01. Aghartha (17:34) 02. Big Church [megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért] (09:43) 03. Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia) (10:02) 04. Alice (16:21)
SUNN O))) will make a special, one-off appearance at London's Corsica Studios on February 22, with the core duo Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson performing their 1998 debut "The Grimmrobe Demos".
Psychedelic stoner rock outfit Lethe (who features Dylan Desmond and Joe Noel of Samothrace) have just released the track listing for Mnemosyne, their upcoming debut full-length for Reptile Records. The album will have five songs, clocking in at somewhere around 45 minutes, and the songs will be in this order:
1. Mother Milk Eyes 2. Therefore Let Us Feed The Beast 3. New Queen`s 4. Open Harvest 5. Mnemosyne
The album was recorded at Black Lodge studio and Mixtape Soundlabs in Lawrence, Kansas by Eric Graves from The Esoteric, and is slated for a winter 2009 release by Reptile Records.
To get a taste of Mnemosyne, head over to Lethe`s MySpace page and check out the brand-new song they recently posted - "Therefore Let Us Feed the Beast."
ISIS, the Los Angeles by way of Boston quintet, will release their fifth full-length album, Wavering Radiant, on May 5 via Ipecac Recordings.
The album, recorded over the late Summer and Fall of 2008 in Los Angeles, was produced by Joe Barresi (Queens Of The Stone Age, Melvins) and will also see a vinyl release on Apr. 21.
Aaron Turner recently discussed the new album with Billboard, saying "This is a better sonic representation of what the band actually sounds like. In the past I think some of the recordings were a little too clean in their final form. There was something about the energy that seemed to be lacking. It seems to feel more like us than anything else has."
"I feel a sense of completion with this record that I've never felt before,” Aaron Harris adds. “We spent more time creating this record than we have with any other, and I feel in my heart that this record is in many ways our best."
Cover art was once again created by Turner.
The track listing for Wavering Radiant is:
01. Hall Of The Dead 02. Ghost Key 03. Hand Of The Host 04. Wavering Radiant 05. Stone To Wake A Serpent 06. 20 Minutes / 40 Years 07. Threshold of Transformation
ISIS is currently planning extensive worldwide touring behind Wavering Radiant with more details to be announced shortly.
Swedish doom legends CANDLEMASS have set "Death Magic Doom" as the title of their new album, due on March 27 via Nuclear Blast Records.
The track listing is as follows:
01. If I Ever Die 02. Hammer Of Doom 03. The Bleeding Baroness 04. Demon Of The Deep 05. House Of 1000 Voices 06. Dead Angel 07. Clouds Of Dementia 08. My Funeral Dreams
Four audio snippets from the CD — "Hammer Of Doom", "If I Ever Die", "Demon Of The Deep" and "Funeral Dreams" — have been posted on the MySpace page of the European branch of Nuclear Blast Records. They will be available online until January 10.
John Doran of The Quietus has posted a track-by-track review of the forthcoming MASTODON album, "Crack The Skye". Read it at this location.
Patrizia Mazzuoccolo of the "Tinitus" radio show, which airs every Wednesday on Norway's NRK P3, spoke to MASTODON drummer Brann Dailor in late November prior the band's concert in Oslo as part of the "Unholy Alliance: Chapter III" tour with SLAYER, TRIVIUM and AMON AMARTH.
Although MASTODON's new album, "Crack The Skye", is a conceptual piece in the same vein as the band's previous releases, it is not about air but "ether." "The whole story has little to do with what the album emotionally is really about," clarifies Dailor. "But everything in the lyrics and the story is metaphors. We wanted to stick with elements and we wanted to do the 'ether' record. Ether is what the soul is made out of and it took a few months to connect all the dots."
Dailor goes on to explain the "Crack The Skye" concept: "There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin's body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin's body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it's too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down…there are some obstacles along the way."
The title track, "Crack The Skye", features vocals by Scott Kelly of NEUROSIS. "We heard Scott's voice all over that track," Dailor says. "It's really NEUROSIS-sounding and then when it became the title track, in particular vocally and lyrically it had a lot to do with Skye so it made it even more perfect that Scott would be doing the verses on it just because he is very familiar with that tremendous loss, suicide, stuff like that…"
The album, due out for release in March 2009, is a dark conglomeration of musical as well as conceptual layers. "'Crack The Skye' means a number of different things," Dailor offers. "You'd probably get a different answer from the other members of the band as to what the meaning of it is and I can also come up with three different ones. The main one for me would be (that) Skye was my sister’s name and she died when I was 15. She was 14, she killed herself and it changed my life. When we started working on the material, I knew that Brent [MASTODON singer/guitarist Brent Hinds] was coming from a deeper place musically. He was shaken up from his accident in Las Vegas, was traumatized by that and I think that has a lot to do with the sound of the record. He is pretty emotive with the guitar and from that depression he was in came a lot of that material — kind of slow and spaced out, real psychedelic. I could see that there was something a lot deeper going on so it was the perfect opportunity lyrically to dig a little deeper myself into some demons in the past and I'd never really gone there before; you know, it's a touchy subject. But I felt that with the songs being the way they were that it was the perfect opportunity to get rid of some stuff myself… the 'Crack in the Skye' is the moment you realize that that person is gone."
Exclusive excerpts from the interview were originally aired on the November 26, 2008 edition of "Tinitus". The show is now available on podcast at this location.
"Crack the Skye" was recorded at Southern Tracks Studios in Atlanta and was produced and mixed by Brendan O'Brien, who has previously worked with VELVET REVOLVER, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, PEARL JAM, AC/DC and STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, among others.
"Crack the Skye" track listing:
01. Oblivion 02. Divinations 03. Quintessence 04. The Czar I. Usurper II. Escape III. Martyr IV. Spiral 05. Ghost of Karelia 06. Crack The Skye 07. The Last Baron
Footage of MASTODON performing as a three-piece on November 30, 2008 at Tivoli in Utrecht, Holland can be viewed below (guitarist Bill Kelliher was unable to complete the tour as he was hospitalized in London on November 3):
A teaser clip of the new MASTODON track "Oblivion" is available for streaming on the band's official web site. The song will appear on MASTODON's new album, "Crack The Skye", which is tentatively due late March.
The track listing for Velcro Lewis`s The Bronze Age has been revealed. This CD will be available on Jan 14 for the band`s eighth anniversary/CD release show at Double Door. It`s a retrospective with unreleased studio material, early recordings, live radio and concert performances, out-takes, and a lot of new material. The album features songs with past members, Bill Roe, Capt. Booze, and Mark Zambo.
The Bronze Age 1. Disability Check (1999) 2. Snakebite (1996) 3. Shout Bama-Lama (2002) 4. What You Want?! (2005) 5. Miami Beach Money Sucker (Live) (2003) 6. Interlude (Live) (2001) 7. Shakin` Fit (Live) (2005) 8. Hunger Strike (Tape Collage) (2002-2008) 9. Don`t You Pity me (2008) 10. Ridin`High (Instrumental) (2008) 11. Poem Number 4 (by Thax Douglas) (2007) 12. Steam Powered Man (2007) 13. Broke & Sober (2008) 14. You Don`t Yurn Me No More (2007) 15. Brain Fever: MV. II (2008) 16. Dog Catchin`Woman (Vocal only Mix) (2008) 17. `Splainin` It (2008) 18. Night Cap (Club Mix) (2005) 19. Electrical Belugas (Theremin V. Washboard) (2006) 20. I Can`t Tell You What I Saw (Live) (2007)
The CD features a silk screened sleeve by Paul Wear with photo by Andrew Natale. The first run of this disc will be limited.
January 14 at The Double Door – Chicago, IL Free Show/CD Release Party The Velcro Lewis Group Arriver Plasma Drive DJ Eagle Mamma 9 pm, 21+ FREE
Legendary NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal ) band WITCHFINDER GENERAL will release its new album, "Resurrected", on August 30 in the USA and September 2 in the UK via Buried In Time And Dust Records.
The Stourbridge, UK doom legends' first recording in over 25 years features the original lineup from the "Live '83" LP — Phil Cope (guitar), Rod Hawkes (bass) and Dermot Redmond (drums) — and adds new vocalist Gary Martin in place of original singer Zeeb Parkes.
"Resurrected" track listing:
01. The Living Hell 02. The Gift Of Life 03. Final Justice 04. Bryn-Y-Môr 05. Brutal Existence 06. Euthanasia 07. A Night to Remember 08. The Funeral / Beyond The Grave
Los Angeles rockers NEBULA have completed work on a new five-song EP titled "Heavy Psych". The track listing for the effort is as follows:
01. Pulse 02. Aphrodite 03. The Dagger 04. In The Depths 05. The Other Side
Check out audio samples on the group's MySpace page.
NEBULA will play at Safari Sam's in Los Angeles on July 24 with the BURNING BRIDES. The band will also hit the road again in the U.S. this August/September with TOTIMOSHI as support.
NEBULA recently released a digital-only "bootleg" entitled "Nine Live" via Snocap.
Recorded live at Spaceland, Los Angeles by Chris Swanson (a.k.a. Laughing Boy), "Nine Live" features the following nine songs:
01. Full Throttle/Do It Now 02. Sonic Titan 03. Giant/Clearlight 04. Let It Burn 05. Freedom 06. Rocket 07. Long Day 08. Fall Of Icarus 09. All The Way
Says the band, "Alongside 'Nine Live', we have also made available two rare songs, 'Humbucker' (the B-side from the 'Clearlight' seven-inch single) and a cover of JOHN LENNON's 'Cold Turkey'."
NEBULA last year announced the addition of drummer Rob Oswald (KARMA TO BURN, MONDO GENERATOR) to the group's ranks.
NEBULA's latest album, "Apollo", was released in 2006 via Liquor and Poker. The CD was produced by Daniel Rey (RAMONES, MISFITS, L7) and mastered by Howie Weinberg (THE MARS VOLTA, SONIC YOUTH, FRANZ FERDINAND).
