One of Canada’s best-kept secrets will be exploding into the music world once again as Hamilton, Ontario’s own Sumo Cyco drop their second full length album since establishing in 2011. Opus Mar (Self-Released/Pledge) was produced by their very own lead guitarist Matt ‘Md13’ Drake and renowned producer James ‘Lerock’ Loughrey, known for his work with Skindred and Joss Stone.Continue reading
All Them Witches
All Them Witches have released a new music video for their track ‘Bruce Lee’. The song is the first salvo from their upcoming new album Sleeping Through The War, due out on February 24th 2017 via New West Records. You can watch the video below: Continue reading
Stuck Mojo has risen again with new music, a new lyric video, and a new lineup. They released the lyric video to a new song, ‘Verbal Combat’, which you can see at this link or below:
Stuck Mojo leader Rich Ward commented on the Pledge Music campaign launched to support their new album, Here Come The Infidels:
“Pledge Music is a perfect fit for us. This time we’re not just putting out a record like bands have done since the dawn of the record industry, we’re offering it directly to YOU. Pledge Music has become our virtual merch booth, where you can buy a CD, a limited-edition LP in red vinyl and a t-shirt directly from us, just like you would at one of our shows. And unlike traditional retail chain stores, Pledge Music also allows us to offer signed CDs, LPs and posters, in addition to all kinds of one of a kind items, right from our Pledge store.”
Produced by Andy Sneap (Megadeth, Exodus, Testament, Killswitch Engage, Accept), Ward also commented on that relationship:
“Let me get this out of the way: I love Andy Sneap. He is arguably the best metal producer in the world, and his leadership in the making of this record has elevated it to a standard that few albums achieve. Plus, we had a great time seeing how loud we could turn up a guitar amplifier for an extended period of time.”
The band ha been relaunched with another new lineup with Rapper Robby J. and bassist Len Sonnier. On Robby J., Ward opined:
“Robby J is a fucking ninja, the total package vocalist/frontman. Mark my words, this guy is going to set a new standard for what a band with a rapper looks like.”
Stuck Mojo new lineup:
Rich Ward – Guitars/vocals
Robyy J – Vocals
Len Sonnier – Bass
Frank “Bud” Fontsere – Drums
Here Come The Infidels will release on June 24th. Here is a link to the full Pledge campaign, complete with tons of free extras for even lowest levels of support. The band describes the album as “an album for this moment in history, as it escalates Stuck Mojos rich history of desecrating the remains of Che’ Guevara and causing your Prius to emit plumes of black smoke. Its overwhelming lyrical rebuke against leftist, authoritarian, fascist dogma makes ‘Here Come The Infidels’ a 41-minute-and-18-second pushback against the social justice movement.”
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Rob Zombie has released a music video for the first single from his new album. You can see the video for ‘Well Everybody’s Fucking in A UFO’, directed by Danielle Lovett, at this link, or below:
Rob Zombie’s new album, Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser releases on April 29th and was produced by Chris ‘Zeuss’ Harris (Killswitch Engage, Hatebreed, All That Remains) from UMe/T-Boy Records. Pre-orders are live with a corresponding Pledge Music campaign, including limited edition merchandise offers at this link https://robzombie.pmstores.co.
Rob Zombie himself commented on the album:
“This album is the best thing we’ve done to date, and we can’t wait to share it with you. No, we mean it. It’s the most fucked up thing we’ve ever done.
“We spent so much time putting this monster together and it’s been worth it because this thing is about to explode!
“The album is out on April 29th, but there is a lot of shit going on in the lead-up to the release, so check out the pre-sale, get involved in the discussions and check back here for updates regularly! This bitch is moving forward FAST, and it’s a train you don’t want to fucking miss.
“Oh, and if you don’t believe how fucked up this album is, take a look at the track listing below. Shit gets weird.”
The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser track listing:
01. The Last Of The Demons Defeated
02. Satanic Cyanide! The Killer Rocks On!
03. The Life And Times Of A Teenage Rock God
04. Well, Everybody’s Fucking In A U.F.O.
05. A Hearse Overturns With The Coffin Bursting Open
06. The Hideous Exhibitions Of A Dedicated Gore Whore
07. Medication For The Melancholy
08. In The Age Of The Consecrated Vampire We All Get High
09. Super-Doom-Hex-Gloom Part One
10. In The Bone Pile
11. Get Your Boots On! That’s The End Of Rock And Roll
12. Wurdalak
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Acclaimed bassist Tal Wilkenfeld (Jeff Beck, Ryan Adams, Jackson Browne) has launched new single ‘Corner Painter’, from her forthcoming solo singer/songwriter album. The track features Benmont Tench and Blake Mills and you can hear the track at this link. Tal is performing the song on her current run of tour dates as the opening act for The Who. You can see fan filmed video of the track below as well.
Tal has launched a Pledge Music campaign to support the album. Corner Painter is available as a free grat track for those who join, and is also on iTunes too. She already reached 15% of her goal in just a few days. Here is a message from her on the campaign:
Hey Everyone in internet land!
Tal Wilkenfeld here. Some of you may know me as a bassist, but lately, my focus has been singing and songwriting.
I’ve been in the studio for several years, on and off between sessions and touring with other artists, working on my album with some pretty amazing musicians (Benmont Tench, Blake Mills, Sonya Kitchell, Jeremy Stacey, Paul Stacey and Zac Rae.) The tracks are done and I can’t wait for you guys to hear it! Now I’m looking to mix and master it, and hopefully, if all goes according to plan, release it in the summer.
I would love for you guys to support this process and pre-order my album. Along with this new music, you can also grab exclusive opportunities such as a limited amount of skype bass lessons, signed instruments, handwritten lyric sheets… even a concert in your living room!
Thank you for your support, and for pledging for my album!
~ Tal
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Devin Townsend can be a difficult guy to nail down musically. Whether it’s coffee-themed prog-metal concept albums, stadium rock or Strapping Young Lad levels of brutality, there are few styles the man hasn’t touched upon. And now he can add Country music to his repertoire.
The man’s latest album, released under the Casualties of Cool moniker with Ché Aimee Dorval, is the result of a massively successful campaign on Pledge Music. The success of the campaign is testament to the Canadian oddball’s enduring popularity as even in the bio he explicitly states, “It’s not a metal album, nor is it meant to be a statement about my interest in metal…This is something different.”
It’s rarely worth looking at Devin’s solo work in any sort of grand context; previous Devin Townsend Project albums were all radically different from each other, and the bombast of 2012’s uplifting Epicloud was as different to them as it is to this. But there are traces of Ki‘s minimalist songwriting and Ghost’s (all HevyDevy/InsideOut) almost ambient mood music to be found here.
Casualties of Cool opens with ‘Daddy’, a dark country tune, and from there we’re taken on a quiet acoustic journey. Everything is very understated; some parts are quietly uplifting, some more eerily haunting, and the whole thing is full of ambient atmosphere. Dorval (previously heard on the DTP’s Ki) and her deep, smokey voice takes centre stage for most of the album, with Devin providing backup.
With the exception of the epic ‘The Bridge’, it’s hard to pick out any standout songs. They flow into one another quietly without any big fanfare. Whether it’s the jazzy saxophone of to ‘Moon’ or the dark melancholy of ‘The Field’, the quality rarely drops but the quiet, introspective nature means CoC requires multiple listens. What may be little more than ambient whispers on the first or second listen can turn out to be actually a worthwhile bit of music.
It doesn’t have the same kind of highs of previous albums, but Casualties of Cool is an intriguing experiment from a man who excels in making left-field music. Go in expecting massive a prog-metal exercise will only lead to disappointment, but having an open mind will result in a rewarding if largely uneventful experience.
8.0/10.0
DAN SWINHOE
Rob Zombie has announced the details of his new album Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser, releasing on April 29th. Pre-orders are live with a corresponding Pledge Music campaign, including limited edition merchandise offers at this link https://robzombie.pmstores.co. Zombie also released a teaser for the album and a message to fans about the release:
“Hey you fuckers. Just want to welcome you and say thank you for getting on board with The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser!
This album is the best thing we’ve done to date, and we can’t wait to share it with you. No, we mean it. It’s the most fucked up thing we’ve ever done. We spent so much time putting this monster together and it’s been worth it because this thing is about to explode!
The album is out on April 29, but there is a lot of shit going on in the lead up to the release, so check out the presale, get involved in the discussions and check back here for updates regularly! This bitch is moving forward FAST, and it’s a train you don’t want to fucking miss.
Oh, and if you don’t believe how fucked up this album is, take a look at the track listing below. Shit gets weird.
1. The Last Of The Demons Defeated
2. Satanic Cyanide! The Killer Rocks On!
3. The Life And Times Of A Teenage Rock God
4. Well, Everybody’s Fucking In A U.F.O.
5. A Hearse Overturns With The Coffin Bursting Open
6. The Hideous Exhibitions Of A Dedicated Gore Whore
7. Medication For The Melancholy
8. In The Age Of The Consecrated Vampire We All Get High
9. Super-Doom-Hex-Gloom Part One
10. In The Bone Pile
11. Get Your Boots On! That’s The End Of Rock And Roll
12. Wurdalak
Thanks again, you Zombie motherfuckers.
Rob“
Hey man, head over to www.FuckinginaUFO.com for all the latest info on my new album! Find out how you can be part of it all! #FuckinginaUFO
Posted by Rob Zombie on Monday, January 11, 2016
It is hard to be distinctive in the frilly-shirted, leather waist-coated, hair-billowing-majestically-in-the-wind world of Power Metal. Yet, make your mark and you’ll find a dedicated, passionate and devoted audience willing to support you, smile benevolently at any missteps and devour anything approaching a return to form. Over the course of their twenty six year career, Denmark’s top exponent of the art Royal Hunt have witnessed all of the above, and with XIII: Devil’s Dozen (Frontiers) have rewarded once more their loyal subjects.
The return to the fold of DC Cooper in 2012 has ensured that the Royal Hunt continues to ride strong into the latter part of their career like a fine wine, as album thirteen rivals Paradox (Magna Carta) as their crowning moment.
Energized by the powerful pigskin pounding of Narnia’s Andreas Johansson, ‘So Right, So Wrong’ announces the commencement of the album in spectacular fashion, with a dramatic and rousing symphonic introduction that bursts out into rocking, roaring guitars. Cooper’s vocals add to the theatrical, Broadway feel before delivering the first, and biggest, of several big choruses.
While Cooper is an obvious and deserving focal point, once again it is Andre Andersen who is the conductor of majesties from behind the ivories (or whatever the keys of a synth are made of…), his songwriting exuding a joie de vivre that is infectious, with each track larger than life. ‘May You Never (Walk Alone)’ hosts everything that works about Royal Hunt, starting life as a piano ballad before exploding in a thunder of drums, power chords, bass runs and synth stabs, racing down the aortic valves fuelling the body.
A bombastic, ambitious, joyful, layered and uplifting album, Andersen knows how to switch it up; ‘Riches To Rags’ introduces a ridiculously catchy piped motif and a folk jiggery-pokery to proceedings, ‘Until The Day’ is over the top symphonic hard rock semi-balladic majesty while ‘Heart On A Platter’ bounces in with thick bass swagger and jazzy keys embellishments, that builds up to a Kamelot-meets-Whitesnake slip of the tongue.
We’ve all witnessed many an album of this ilk that descends into sterile, flaccid by-numbers staid song-writing. Despite each track touching the six minute mark, XIII never outstays its welcome. With flashes of Dokken and Stratovarius, Royal Hunt show, a quarter of a century into their career, how the marriage of power metal with symphonic and hard rock should be done.
8.0/10
STEVE TOVEY
Huntress, photo by Hillarie Jason
Huntress has announced they are dropping off their current tour with Avatar, Gemini Syndrome and others due to the state of the health of front woman Jill Janus, following her recovery from a recent hysterectomy. Diagnosed with state 1 uterine cancer, Janus and the band have released a statement on the tour:
“Announcement: Huntress will not being touring in Sept due to Jill Janus‘ healing from uterine cancer surgery. She is now cancer-free. Doctors have ordered one more month to properly heal, then Huntress will join Motörhead’s MotörBoat Cruise 9/28-10/2. We apologize to all our fans, Avatar, Gemini Syndrome & First Decree and look forward to more shows in the near future!”
Huntress will release their new album, Static, from Napalm Records on September 25th. The band currently has a Pledge Music campaign for the pre-sale orders of Static you can follow at this link. It is the follow up to their last album, Starbound Beast (also Napalm).
Team Sleep‘s next EP of new material is currently being mixed. The band checked in with the following update online:
“Listening to mixes of songs from our first e.p. of new studio tracks. Our dudes at Applehead are killing it. Sounds great! Lots of new music in progress.”
Team Sleep’s Rick Verret in a recent interview with Ghost Cult for an upcoming feature on the band remarked recently:
“We are working on a lot of new stuff. There will be new (original) music sooner than later. Hopefully we will tour again too, next year.”
Following the recent release of Team Sleep’s live Woodstock Sessions: Vol. 4 EP, the next release of music from the band will be their first significant new music since their debut album, a decade ago.