J. Thorn Accepting Submissions for Featured Bands on Dark Arts Theater

Author, musician and HeavyPlanet contributor, J. Thorn, seeks bands to be featured in a new online program. Dark Arts Theater launches in the spring of this year, promoting horror and dark fantasy books, movies, shows and music. Thorn has sold over 130,000 novels since 2011 and he expects to reach a similar audience with this show. The program will be free to watch (YouTube) or listen (iTunes) with a new episode monthly. Submissions for season one of Dark Arts Theater are now open. Please read ALL of the requirements below before submitting:  

Bands MUST:

• Fill out the submission form located here: http://bit.ly/dabands
• Submit three different songs. Songs must be in the .wav format (NO mp3 files) and submitted via a link to a DropBox folder or Google Drive folder. Attachments sent via email will be deleted.
• Digitally sign the copyright permissions form (via free service, Docracy.org) which gives Dark Arts Theater the permission to play your music on the show. Bands MUST be the copyright holder/owner of the intellectual property submitted. Any copyright disputes over submitted material are SOLEY the responsibility of the band so do NOT submit if you do not own the rights to the song. For that reason, only original music will be considered (no covers).
• To be featured on the first season of Dark Arts Theater, bands must submit prior to March 1^st, 2015. Submissions will not be accepted after the deadline, no exceptions. There will be 12 shows in the first season and one band featured each show so submission is NOT a guarantee your band will be featured. Bands chosen will be contacted prior to air date. Submissions accepted on a rolling basis so early submissions stand the best chance at acceptance.

Recommendations:

• Try to pick three different types of songs to submit, varying in style or tempo, if possible. Preference will be given to bands whose music can be used in different segments of the show.
• Tracks should be professionally recorded, mixed and mastered. Dark Arts Theater strongly discourages live recordings and practice recordings.
• Dark Arts Theater will use approximately 1:00 minute of each track submitted (3:00 minutes total). You may crop your song to the one minute section you’d like to feature or Dark Arts Theater will make the decision if a full song is submitted. The goal is to provide the audience a sample of your music and then direct them to your website.

*Dark Arts Theater is NOT associated with HeavyPlanet. Being featured on one does NOT guarantee a feature on the other.

Questions? Contact J. Thorn here -> http://jthorn.net/contact-me/

Sunday Sludge: Primitive Man - "Home Is Where The Hatred Is"

Much of the so-labeled doom we chew on is swollen with the promise of pain, an ominous descent into... well, something. Bands can reach the pit and the wolf at the door, as promised, busts through. Others present a threat and rely solely on those shadowy unknowns. I guess those sounds have their place. But sometimes, I just want a band to get to the fucking point.

By now we know Denver's Primitive Man to fall into neither camp. Since the trio's 2013 introduction of the brutal, excellent Scorn, they've set their own standard of blatant bludgeoning. Through various splits over the past two years, Primitive Man have all-at-once announced their presence, delivered their rust-fisted blows, and asserted their dominance by keeping a heel to our throats. Here, with the four tracks of Home Is Where The Hatred Is, they show no sign of relent.

The EP's half-hour of screeches and hovering spite begins with Loathe, tormenting behind sustained malevolence. Ethan McCarthy still gives zero fucks who may be in his way, and Spy's encircling drum work may as well be a hostile Korowai tribe for all the anxiety it catalyzes. This blackened sludge buries us so low that it's near-impossible to sense even a sliver of hope. The cavernous, all-encompassing infliction is parted by an icy wind that carries answers further out of our reach. And as doom timbers collapse in slow-motion, the jagged squalls only augment our misery.

Downfall finds a quick groove and laughs at restraints, later shifting blackened pitches but never escaping the mire. As McCarthy chokes out brutal truths, the supporting tapestry remains wholly caustic. Tone and mood are exceedingly bleak here, but isn't that consistent with PM's catalog? Over and over, we're dragged into a horrifying meld of loose dirt, hot tar, and spiking licks piercing the sludge glaze. It's a filthy, anguished roll in the hay. If hay were fucking razor wire.

In keeping with themes of doling calculated evil, the EP's closing tandem fails to let down. Double kicks head a charge on Bag Man, rolling into itself amid a cloud of soot. The steady escalation of ire is staggering, even for these guys. And when the tracks shift to introduce the closing A Marriage with Nothingness, we're simply ill-prepared. Pain and discord are reflected in a swirling, scraping, trippy mindfuck. As static gradually hazes, everything about this release grows more terrifying.

Buzzing throughout with equal parts callous disregard and deafening feedback, Home Is Where The Hatred Is marks another triumphant blow to our perceptions of the human condition. Ugly truths are never easy to swallow, and here there's no safe alternative. Primitive Man have snatched the torch and thrust it into our gleaming smiles. So what's it really sound like? I'd imagine slowly dying alone would look, feel, and sound something like this.

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