70000 Tons of Metal Cruise 2015, by MasterPhelps Photography
Estonian folk metallers Metsatoll have been added to the upcoming 70000 Tons Of Metal Cruise, setting sail in less than a months time. As of now 46 of the 60 bands have been announced for the cruise, which is sold out but has a wait list that makes it possible to get a last-minute ticket. Continue reading
Swedish death metal titans Grave have been added to Norway’s Inferno Metal Festival 2018! They will play a special “30th anniversary old school set 1988 – 91” for their set during the fest. Also added to the impressive bill are Icelandic black metallers Naðra and Netherlands avant-garde black metal band Dodecahedron.Continue reading
Hitting the halfway point of Maryland Deathfest is usually a milestone that no one really notices and those who do will actually not speak of it. No one wants to think the weekend is going to end nor that the end is already halfway here. Instead, hangovers are nursed, more questionable food is consumed, and everyone marches back to Rams Head Live and Baltimore Soundstage for another day of partying. Fortunately for myself and my party of friends, we know how to party but dodge the hangovers. So, we made sure to be on time for Soundstage opening up with the first band playing slightly before four in the afternoon. That included polishing off a bottle of vodka left behind by the previous renters of the Air BnB. Thank you to those unnamed heroes! Continue reading
Memorial Day weekend in the United States is a time to remember our veterans who have served in the country’s military and most will commemorate such an occasion with cookouts. In Baltimore, Maryland, the partying starts a few days before the weekend but the celebration is about extreme music. This weekend is known to the fans as simply, MDF, or in full, Maryland Deathfest. Doom metal, black metal, grindcore, punk, and of course, death metal, take over multiple venues in the Inner Harbor area of the city all weekend long as the streets run black with hideous, graphic band t-shirts. For me, this is my sophomore year of the festival and could not be more excited to return.Continue reading
The heaviest metal festival in the history of Scotland is right around the corner as Heavy Scotland is set to kick off April 1st and 2nd at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh. Behemoth is headlining in a UK Exclusive performance, along with Arch Enemy, Finntroll, Blaze Bailey, Destruction, Havok, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Grave, Warbringer and more! Continue reading
Maryland Deathfest 2017, sure to be North America’s metal event of 2017 has already announced its daily lineups. Headlined by Morbid Angel, Candlemass, Autopsy, Tiamat, Cryptopsy and others, according to a post to the MDF Facebook, there are now less than 100 4-day passes available and less than 200 Rams Head 3-day passes available for MDF XV. Once these are gone, they won’t be releasing more. Full details are below.Continue reading
The producers of Maryland Deathfest XV have announced the full daily lineups for 2017. Details below: Continue reading
With a final salvo of bands, 2017’s Maryland Deathfest XV is set at last. Added to the final line-up are legends like Candlemass (Nightfall set), Tiamat (Exclusive U.S. Appearance), Grave (Exclusive U.S. Appearance), Root (Exclusive U.S. Appearance), Oranssi Pazuzu, Acheron, GosT, Samothrace, and more.Continue reading
In a little less than five months, the 7th Editon of the 70000 Tons Of Metal Cruise will set sail from the Port of Miami, to Labadee, Haiti, and back on a cruise made of metal music and fun.
There’s nothing wrong with just picking something you’re good at and sticking with that. Some of Metal’s most influential and respected bands have become so through a lifetime spent mastering one narrow subgenre, but it’s a difficult road to tread – standing out above other bands while deliberately playing generic music is often a lot harder than being weird for its own sake.
Out Of Respect For The Dead (Century Media) is Grave’s eleventh full-length album since 1991, and anyone who comes to it expecting anything other than unrepentant, old-school Swedish Death Metal has made a grievous error, but you might not be expecting a group of veterans to sound quite so savage. From the moment ‘Mass Grave Mass’ bursts out of its fairly innocuous intro into a full-on face-kicking, it’s clear that over two decades of playing this style haven’t wearied them in the slightest, and the savage pace continues across the whole album, relenting only for the purpose of delivering crushing, Doom-tinged slow passages.
Unfortunately, the price they pay for this level of aggression is a loss of character, and it’s a price that may not be worth it. Old-school Death Metal can’t stand alongside some of the newer hybrids for sheer aggression – it’s the ability to juggle violence with sinister melody that keeps the style so appealing, and Out Of Respect… shows rather less of that than it should. Tracks tend to bleed into each other with little to separate them, and though they can catch your attention through sheer Fucking Hell aggression, they find keeping it much harder. At a time when old-school DM is so well represented by both fellow veterans Autopsy and Bloodbath (whose Grand Morbid Funeral stands as a modern classic of the style) and newer colleagues like Disma and Vastum, Grave are very notably lacking the personal touch that would make them stand out.
Out Of Respect For The Dead is, beyond question, a solid and competent album of genuinely savage Death Metal, but in a field already full of similar releases, it’s hard to really recommend it above anything else.
6.0/10
RICHIE HR