Upon arrival at Trees in Dallas, it was evident that both the bands and the event staff were excited to welcome the return of live music to their venue. One could feel the excitement build as the empty space came alive with bands loading in gear, sound checks were completed and fans started filtering in.
It has been thirty years since drummer / vocalist Jonas Renske and Anders “Blackheim” Nyström began a musical journey that would see them evolve from a studio-only project exploring their darker musical tastes to becoming one of the most respected purveyors of melancholic and post-Gothic music; always evolving with each album, embracing Gothic and progressive metal, and always distinctively Katatonia.
Not content with sitting on their hands, Brazilian thrashers Sepultura decided early on during the Coronavirus Lockdown to do something constructive with their new found spare time. After touring plans for their current record were cut short by the pandemic, the band contacted seemingly everybody in the world of metal and proceeded to embark upon Sepulquarta (Nuclear Blast), a live album recorded with each member in isolation.
Industrial Post-Metal Duo Wreck and Reference has released a new post-Shoegaze cover of Deftones’ hit song, “Change (In the House of Flies).” The track comes off of the upcoming exclusive vinyl compilation from The Flenser, Send The Pain Below, which is a gang of Nu-Metal and 1990s metal covers by cool bands. The comp is only available on vinyl to subscribers of their Series Three membership club, and you sign up for a membership below, or buy the track from W & R!
Alt-rock legends Local H have shared an awesome cover of 1970s classic Looking Glass’s track “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl” from their forthcoming covers album: Local H’s Awesome Quarantine Mix-Tape #3. The album is releasing October 8th 2021 on Brutal Panda. The album is the third in the series of covers and gives a nod to the mixtapes in Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy! The new album features two different covers of Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” and they’ve also taken on songs from Fountains Of Wayne, Blondie, the Kinks, Mark Lanegan, Eurythmics, and Robert Plant. The band is hitting the road with fellow 1990s icons Soul Asylum, and Juliana Hatfield. Check out “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” right now!
Boston Rock and Metal band Intoxicated Rage have shared a live-in-the-studio cover of Gojira’s “Amazonia” single from their new album Fortitude (Roadrunner Records). The cover is badass and you can see the attention to detail the band put in for this cover song. Their last release was 2019’s Apocalypse, which you can purchase from the link below.
Japan’s Sonic Flower began in the early 2000s as an offshoot of Church of Misery. They released one self-titled album in 2003 and then broke up in 2005 following some aborted recording sessions. Reforming briefly in 2007, only to break up again the same year, Sonic Flower lay dormant for 14 years until they finally reformed again in 2019. A full-length album with a new lineup including a vocalist is scheduled for later in 2021. To whet their fans’ appetite in the meantime, the band are first releasing Rides Again (Heavy Psych Sounds Records), which consists entirely of tracks recorded in 2005 from the aforementioned aborted sessions.
Nightwish singer Floor Jansen has uploaded another cover to her popular YouTube channel. Watch her cover the holiday classic and religious-spiritual “Ave Maria”, written by German composer Franz Schubert.
Cover songs can be tricky. A balancing act that often results in calamity. Lean too far one way and be accused of musical blasphemy; keep things too safe and be reliably informed you shouldn’t have bothered in the first place. So with that in mind, surely an album consisting entirely of cover versions is just asking for trouble, isn’t it?Continue reading
New England’s Melodic Death Metal band My Missing Half have dropped a gnarly cover of Misfits cover of “Halloween”, just in time for the season. The track is killer, but the video is next level hilarious and features their members and shredders Bijan Hennesy and Nick Petrino (Dee Snider) frolicking in a forest ghoul style and fun and terror ensues!