I believe in reading as a creative experience. The Reader comes to the work with their intellect, imagination, expectations, wants and needs, and sets out, consciously or not, to forge their very own “version” of the original text, however sacred. And that “version” will no doubt be different from yours, mine or anyone else’s. As with The Reader, or The Audience Of The Film, Play Or Live Performance, I believe The Listener Of The Album (Or EP) does the same. I also believe in the mighty Fucked Up.
Riot Fest has made the final weekend additions to the 2021 event, kicking off September 19th, 2021, which will be the fest’s first-ever Thursday Preview Party. Patti Smith and Her Band and Alkaline Trio will join Thursday night, with additional sets from Joyce Manor (performing their self-titled 2011 debut), WDRL, and Kristeen Young. As for Sunday, The Flaming Lips will return to Riot Fest on Sunday, bringing the fest-favorites back to Douglass Park on September 19 to replace Pixies. Sunday attendees will also get into the Thursday Preview Party for free, with a host of freshly-announced perks included. Tickets are on sale now at the link below.
“The Original Misfits” reunion of Danzig, Jerry Only, and Doyle has already announced they will perform at Aftershock Festival and now they will perform all of their classic Walk Among Us (Plan 9 Records) at Riot Fest 2022. Misfits will headline along with My Chemical Romance, already announced for 2022. tickets are on sale now for 2022 and this year’s Riot Fest features Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, DEVO, NOFX, Dinosaur Jr., Motion City Soundtrack, Smashing Pumpkins, Run the Jewels, Pixies, Circle Jerks, Coheed & Cambria, K.Flay, Meg Myers, Les Savy Fav, and many others to perform. My Chemical Romance has been announced as the first headliner for 2022 and tickets are on sale for both this year and next years’ fests at the link below. Riot Fest takes place every year at Douglass Park this fall (September 17–19) with a pair of announcements both for this year, and next year. In an unprecedented move, festival organizers are revealing the lineup for 2021, along with tickets for 2022. Three-day passes for both years are now on sale; 2021 single-day passes will go on sale next week, when more bands for 2021 will be announced.
A plethora of bands will descend on Chicago for the return of Riot Fest! Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, DEVO, NOFX, Dinosaur Jr., Motion City Soundtrack, Smashing Pumpkins, Run the Jewels, Pixies, Circle Jerks, Coheed & Cambria, K.Flay, Meg Myers, Les Savy Fav, and many others to perform. My Chemical Romance has been announced as the first headliner for 2022 and tickets are on sale for both this year and next years’ fests at the link below. Riot Fest takes place every year at Douglass Park this fall (September 17–19) with a pair of announcements both for this year, and next year. In an unprecedented move, festival organizers are revealing the lineup for 2021, along with tickets for 2022. Three-day passes for both years are now on sale; 2021 single-day passes will go on sale next week, when more bands for 2021 will be announced.
Canadian punk rockers Fucked Up be release a new 12” EP titled Year Of The Hare on June 16, 2015 via Deathwish Inc. Continuing their Zodiac themed releases, the title track on this release clocks in at 21 minutes in length and Isla Craig guests, and the b-side is an eight and half minute track.
Year Of The Hare track listing:
A Side:
“Year Of The Hare”
B Side:
“California Cold“
In related news, the band has announced these upcoming live dates.
May 09: Ritual Nightclub – Ottawa, ON
May 24: The Marble Factory – Bristol (UK)
May 26: KOKO – London (UK)
May 29: Paloma – Nimes (FR)
May 31: Parc Del Forum – Sant Celoni (ES)
Jul 24: WayHome Music Festival 2015 – Oro Medonte (CA)
Soundwave Festival has announced the daily schedules for each day and newly announced show dates. Day by day positions along with the recently announced 24 additions to the lineup are all mentioned below. The festival hits Australia and New Zealand in late February and early March.
Joining the FAITH NO MORE / SOUNDGARDEN headlined day are
STEEL PANTHER
FALLING IN REVERSE
DRAGONFORCE
ONE OK ROCK
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
LOWER THAN ATLANTIS
BAYSIDE
HE IS LEGEND
KING PARROT
RIVAL SONS
SLEEPWAVE
RAGLANS
Catch these new additions
Adelaide: Saturday February 21
Melbourne: Sunday February 22
Sydney: Saturday February 28
Brisbane: Sunday March 1
Joining the SLIPKNOT headlined day are new headline act
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
along with
MILLENCOLIN
KILLER BE KILLED
EXODUS
THE VANDALS
THE WONDER YEARS
TWIN ATLANTIC
ANIMALS AS LEADERS
FUCKED UP
EVERGREEN TERRACE
NONPOINT
LE BUTCHERETTES
Catch these new additions
Melbourne: Saturday February 21
Adelaide: Sunday February 22
Brisbane: Saturday February 28
Sydney: Sunday March 1
Defunct Canadian hardcore/punk outfit No Warning will play their first North American show in nearly ten years on April 10, 2015 at GameChangerWorld in Howell, NJ. Their last show was in Quebec City, QC in 2005.
Since the band’s split, band frontman Ben Cook has been a third guitarist with Fucked Up, while guitarist Jordan Posner has been playing in Terror.
The band commented on their return:
“On April 10th, No Warning will play our first North American show in 10 years. The state of the world and our system of life is as ugly as ever and it is time to express our disgust in the one way we know how. It’s been a strange journey for our band but we feel very blessed that people still get down with our music. Come April 2015 on the Jersey shore we will share that appreciation. The full line up with some new and old friends will be announced a little later. It will not disappoint. Still ill.”
…And so we continue with our countdown of the Official Ghost Cult Top 50 Metal releases of 2014 by bringing you Albums 20 to 16. As we get closer the top, the sheer unadulterated quality of the albums covered is astounding, and every one of our Top 20 should proudly sit in your collection already. And if they don’t, you should get investigating immediately…
20. VOICES – London (Candlelight)
A truly fucked-up concept album that mirrors the underground and back alleys of a fragmented urban dystopian hell-hole, a dark, horrible atmosphere is conveyed through blackened, deathly, atmospheric riffs and a harsh tale is unveiled and delivered in a deliberately contemporary discordant genius.
“The roots of the majority of this unit may have history together in Akercocke (David Gray, Sam Loynes and Peter Benjamin all previous members) but this is still a new band in some sense of infancy, yet with an already formidable reputation and artistic vision. London is a tremendous feat which not only surpasses expectations, but buries them deep underground, an album that sees Voices as not only one of the UK’s but the world’s most forward thinking and captivating extreme acts, and should be seen as a benchmark release. Huge in scope and style, but pulled off with astonishing effect.”
19. CANNIBAL CORPSE – A Skeletal Domain (Metal Blade)
Thirteen albums in, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Cannibal Corpse’s Death Metal powers should be on the wane. However, summoning the energy and vitality that bands half their age struggle to muster, an extremely high level of musicianship is utilized to produce powerful, slamming riffs without descending into showboat territory, and once again the Corpse show why they reign in gore.
“Bringing more violent, gory goodness that only Cannibal Corpse can create, what makes this album stick out and not sound like “just another Cannibal Corpse album” is the sheer evil and eerie direction that the instrumentals and lyrics take you. A Skeletal Domain from start to end is a roller coaster of terror, aggression, and more blood than a pit of zombies and has shown the world that Cannibal Corpse is still on top of their death metal game and just how evil these guys can be.”
Formerly known as Code Orange Kids, this sophomore effort is one hell of an aural growing up. The grit of Neurosis and the dervish of Converge mixing elements of drone, post-Metal and post-Hardcore, all captured in crushing sonic perfection by the ubiquitous force du jour Kurt Ballou.
“Overall, Code Orange have proven on this release that they are no longer kids, as I Am King shows the makings of a band not content to just sit in the realms of safety and complacency. But a band ready to expand their sound and not afraid of experimentation to broaden their horizons. At times heavy, trippy and crushing all at the same time, I Am King is what all follow up albums should strive to be”.
Sprinkling more accessible moments such as twin guitar breaks and the occasional cleaner bellow and working intelligent dynamics into their aggressive, technical (without being techy) melodic Death Metal, Boston’s beasts of the underground and unknown have made their mark with another critically acclaimed album that should place them well and truly in the ranks of more modern Death Metal bands who make a difference.
“This four-piece death metal outfit has been dismantling dictators through their onslaught of epic death metal for years now and they continue to get better and better. Revocation’s newest release, Deathless has certainly pushed Dave Davidson and the gang up another notch on the death metal ladder. Ten tracks coming in at around the 48 minute mark will still leave you itching for more, even if all of that shredding has melted your face. Just when I thought this band might have been getting close to their ceiling with the previous self-titled release, Deathless has come around and shot right through this proverbial ceiling and into my ears, and boy does it feel good.”
16. WINTERFYLLETH – The Divination of Antiquity (Candlelight)
The best bands have their own distinctive, defined sound, a series of identifiers that mark who they are while expanding and progressing their style. On their fourth album, Winterfylleth achieve that elusive mix of laying down a career defining opus that intrinsically delivers every aspect of the core Winterfylleth melodic, epic Black Metal sound, while pushing past the boundaries of everything they’ve produced to date.
“Winterfylleth, whose odes to Blighty’s ancient past have struck a chord with those searching for a bit more meaning in their homegrown talent, are a joy to behold. After three albums of high quality “English Heritage Black Metal”, Winterfylleth are sitting pretty and new album The Divination of Antiquity looks set to continue their ever-so glorious reign. In a scene renowned for gimmicks and plagiarism, their brand of sweeping, epic black metal just keeps revealing more with each release.”
Born from the ashes of much missed extremists Akercoke, Voices have proven a near ever present on the UK live scene in the last couple of years, yet upholding a sense of enigma and intrigue. Musically they prove all the more abrasive than most, through sheer venom, their unpredictable nature and their uncompromising boldness; a boldness that sees them take on a concept album on their second outing, and a sprawling metropolis of one at that.
London (Candlelight) follows an anti-hero like figure through the dark underground of this nation’s capital, a cold and grim tale within the dissonant and complex City, exploring his mental state, his sexual craving and his ultimate isolation. Far from being a story based on pure fantasy and whimsy, the overall setting and feel to proceedings is so organic and could easily have been a true account. Various spoken word interludes increase the almost cinematic experience as they interchange from male narrator and the news reader delivery of the female, one that paints a vivid picture of London’s dark side as often seen in the media.
Conceptually this is a mammoth prospect and it is perfectly matched sonically in both mood and diversity. Beginning with pure melancholy with the acoustic opener ‘Suicide Note’ is a surprising start which lulls you in before ‘Music For The Recently Bereaved’ quite simply erupts in a white, fist flying, rage. Like the urban jungle of its namesake, each turn proves capricious as dynamics quickly change, paces slow and quicken again in a breath as it simultaneously terrifies and hypnotizes. Vocally this shows a huge plethora of styles beyond most of their black/death metal peers, veering from both guttural and shrill growls and screeches, to an eerie, Scott Walker like croon.
The roots of the majority of this unit may have history together in Akercocke (David Gray, Sam Loynes and Peter Benjamin all previous members) but this is still a new band in some sense of infancy yet with an already formidable reputation and artistic vision. London is a tremendous feat which not only surpasses expectations, but buries them deep underground, and album that sees Voices as not only one of the UK’s but the world’s most forward thinking and captivating extreme acts, and should be seen as a benchmark release.
Huge in scope and style, but pulled off with astonishing effect.
