Melodic death metal legends At The Gates have released a new video for their track ‘Daggers Of Black Haze’. The track comes from their forthcoming album To Drink From The Night Itself, due out on May 18th, 2018 via Century Media Records. Watch the video now! Continue reading
Chicago melodic-death metal project Death On Fire have partnered with Ghost Cult to premiere their new music video for their track ‘Requiem’. The song comes off of upcoming new album Witch Hunter, releasing on February 2nd. Death On Fire is the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Tim Kenefic, who formally operated under the name LazerWulf. If you are a fan of classic Carcass, top-tier Swedish melo-death or just great heavy music in general, jam this loud right now!Continue reading
Insomnium
09-29-2017
Playstation Theater, New York, NY
All Photos By Julia Sariy PhotographyContinue reading
For how long has The Haunted been around again? No need to look it up on your phone, let’s just say the band is old enough to drink. And in those 21 years, the lads have remained very active with 8 albums in the can and number nine is upon us in Strength in Numbers (Century Media). At this point, headbangers know what they’re getting from this Swedish wrecking crew. Continue reading
Finland’s Wintersun inspires droves of fans and other bands with their progressive folk-metal enmeshed with heavier influences. Watch this duo slay with this acoustic cover of the modern classic ‘Land Of Snow And Sorrow’.Continue reading
Skeletonwitch clawed their way to consciousness over a decade ago from the mid-west of the USA, into the underground. In the already competitive underbelly of American metal, the `Witch won over fans with heavy if straight-ahead blackened thrash metal albums, and countless incendiary live shows. The band worked hard was focused on their goals for years. Then former vocalist Chance Garnette’s issues causes him to exit the band and left many fans wondering what was next. Frontmen are often synonymous with the success of a band, so people were freaking out. Once the band announced Wolvhammer frontman Adam Clemans and released the first single ‘Well of Despair’ several months ago, they really charted a way forward. They toured heavily this spring and summer, and proved they can deliver their existing material to their fans. That first new track had most of the typical touchstones the band was known for, with Clemans’ scathing vocals on top of it. However, the band had something sneaky up their sleeve for the rest of the new EP, that this critic, nor their fans could not have foreseen.
Befitting its epic name, The Apothic Gloom (Prosthetic) is a harbinger of all kinds of horrors in the best kind of way. It’s ominous sounding, but also a mission statement by a band destined for further greatness. Vaulting over their previous output by leaps and bounds, they have injected a fierce new urgency in their songwriting. In the process have melded the best of black metal, melodic death metal, and thrash into a new strain, and re-birthed themselves. The riffs that Nate “N8 Feet Under” Garnette and Scott Hedrick have brought forth here are just un-godly. The title track on the EP is an incredible slab of brutality; as bleak as the best USBM bands, and as technical and memorable as the classic melo-death legends of all time. Clemans himself brings his harsh howls to the fore and does a fine job of further establishing his style at home in `the Witch.
Even though we have listened to ‘Well of Despair’ about 1000 times since our first review when the single dropped last spring, the track is still a great entree to this band. I used to hip friends of mine to Skeletonwitch with ‘Crushed Beyond Dust’, but now I’d use this song. On repeated listens this cut gets better and better. A little more akin to their old sound. Again, very clever to lead with this track before sharing the more complex and compelling tracks on the full EP.
‘Black Waters’ is my favorite track on the album. While it shares the lineage with the straight up style the band cut their teeth on, there is enough development in the riffs and lyrics to sink your teeth into. There is also some phenomenal bass lines by Evan Linger that calls to mind Rex Brown or Steve DiGiorggio. He has long been the secret weapon of the band, and when he locks in tightly with drummer Dustin Boltjes, it’s golden.
The final track ‘Red Death, White Light’ is a magnificent, hard-charging black/melo-death song. So many layers of sick, guitar-army quality licks are found here, I practically lost my shit while nerding out. I even hear a hint of the classical masterpiece Carmina Burana by Carl Orff in there, just leading to the pure evil sonics of the track. The song is unrelenting from start to finish, and really directs listeners to what the future of this band.
You can’t discuss this EP without mentioning the production work of Kevin Bernstein (Noisem, Mutilation Rites). Recording the band in his home base at Developing Nations Studio earlier this year, the band eschewed the rawness of current production trends and really let the power of the writing and their talents communicate this. The band made some bold choices: from the artwork, to the choice of Clemans, to the songcraft, to stepping out of their comfort zone to create something new and bold. By taking this final step, The Apothic Gloom (Prosthetic) sees Skeletonwitch leave many of their peers in the underground in the dirt, and are poised to be one of the leaders of American metal music for years to come.
9.0/10
KEITH CHACHKES
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When a long running musical act hits a typical milestone anniversary, usually there is some commemorative action taken by the band’s label. This often happens coarsely, just to move products and remind fans that the fossil of the band they once loved is still around. However, when it came to honoring 25 years of the band Opeth, the members took it upon themselves to create a several year-long celebration with years of planning for special concert events, album releases and re-issues, most importantly, their own biography. Not a book in the self-serving, “pat on the back”: type affair one often sees, but a personally crafted history of how the band came to be, from the earliest childhood days, right through 2014’s Pale Communion (Roadrunner) record. The story of Opeth as collected in Book Of Opeth (Rocket 88 Books) is wide-ranging, told by the people directly involved, and is a time capsule in the life of these crucial musicians.
Told in the first person by the people who lived the story of the band, the most common voice is that of Mikael Åkerfeldt, and his trademark story-telling style, and humor from his lyrics makes him a naturally narrator for this accounting. Other prominent voices in the story are band co-founder Peter Lindgren, and band manager Andy Farrow, as well as every member of the band presently and many former members and peers helping to flesh out key points and highlights. All of the interviews were done by music journalist Dom Lawson, and as a read it feels very detailed and matter of fact. Stories of every album, every step in their career were mentioned with seemingly no nugget of info left to be unearthed. Of course there is tons of self-effacing humor, many digs and puns for a health dose of self-awareness. This is often lacking with most books like this.
The main version of the book also comes with a 7-inch vinyl with two rare tracks; previously unreleased acoustic versions of ‘Atonement’ and ‘Demon of the Fall’. The real treasure of Book of Opeth is the photography. Thousands of photos, many never seen outside of the band were compiled to tell the visual story. Some of these photos of the formative years of the band in particular will blow your mind if you have followed the band for their career. Incredible concert photos and intimate studio shots by friends of the band dot the pages too. Another really great element of the book is the extensive credits section of the book with a complete discography of every physical and digital release ever made by the band. This is a collectors dream pirate map and I wish this were available for all bands of this magnitude.
Although really geared for the collector and the hardcore fan of the band, Book of Opeth is not just made with the completest in mind. This is a great accounting of one of the more legendary bands of our time. Even if you are in the camp of not loving the more recent move to straight up progressive rock as much as their earlier albums, this window into the first days of the band is more than worth the price of the gorgeous packaging.
9.0/10
KEITH CHACHKES
Today Ghost Cult brings you the début EP release from Indiana’s Into The Divine, Harbinger of Entropy. Though mainly a technical death metal act at heard, the band is not afraid to experiment with instrumental and vocal melodies, impressive guitar work, as well as old-school death and thrash influences. Formed in 2010, when its members were still in high school, the band has already opened for such diverse acts as Battlecross, Suicide Silence, Septic Flesh, Dark Tranquility and The Black Dahlia Murder. Look for the band to hit the road all summer long to support Harbinger of Entropy. Stream the full EP below:
Into the Divine is:
Cole Chavez -Guitar
Michael McGinley-Guitar
Wes Holland-Bass
Jay Burch-Drums
Wilson Sherels-Vocals
With the departure of long-time vocalist and fan favourite Thebon in 2013 as well as the inevitable backlash from the trve kvlt brigade after flirtations with that most Satanic of institutions Eurovision; the future was not looking bright for Keep of Kalessin. The gap was widening since previous album Reptilian in 2010 and many thought the band had blown it, a depressing development after their successful rebirth in 2003. However, founding member Obsidian Claw refused to admit defeat and after assuming vocal duties has released sixth full-length Epistemology (both Indie Recordings) along with seasoned veterans Vyl and Wizziac along for the ride. It’s a decision that looks set to pay off for the trio, for they have recorded one absolute belter of an album.
For those who would rather cut off their own nuts then listen to another turgid Darkthrone rip-off with an artificially engineered ‘raw’ production job or who refuse to accept that only one-man losers who have never got past copy-and-paste Burzum worship have a monopoly on black metal, Keep of Kalessin are the band for you. Firmly rooted in the melodic side of the genre, although crucially leaving the dual-lead guitars to the Dissection fan boys, the band knows how to pen relatively straightforward compositions that deftly merge brutality and bombast. In short, they are the band that Dimmu Borgir should have become after Death Cult Armageddon (Nuclear Blast). Factor in a high quality, widescreen production job that makes the bass-drum sound like a jack hammer and gives the wailing leads a truly grandiose feel, and you have all the ingredients for a stone-cold classic.
With pretty much all tracks, from the soaring clean vocals and brutal guitar lines of nine-minute opener ‘The Spiritual Relief’ to the choppy melo-death workout of the closing title, following the same expertly written path of pomp and bludgeon, Epistemology may appall traditionalists but will delight those who like to look to the stars as well as into the pits of hell. Thanks for sticking around, guys.
8.0/10
JAMES CONWAY
