David Vincent announced late last year that he would be teaming up with Tim Yeung, Bill Hudson and Ira Black for a new project entitled I Am Morbid. As he stated in our recent interview, the group will only be performing tracks from Morbid Angel‘s Altars Of Madness, Blessed Are The Sick, Covenant and Domination albums, and their first tour has finally been announced. Continue reading
As concept album’s go, Russian Astro-Doom quintet Below The Sun’s debut album Envoy (Temple of Torturous) tackles quite a big one: the enormity of space itself. But the band manage to tackle the big black with a big bleak album.
The anonymous group – who all go by names like Void, Vacuum, Quasar and Lightspeed – deal in a space-themed combo of doom, post and black metal. Apparently the album concept revolves around a personified narrative of Voyager-1 – the first man-made object to leave our solar system – or as the band describe it “humankind’s first step in fulfilling our destiny – transcending the Solar System and paving our way to the stars.”
From the opening chords of ‘Outward the Sky’ to dark melody of final track ‘Earth’, Envoy is a slow, sparse and atmospheric listen. It’s hard to pick standout moments mostly because everything blends into one black mass and doesn’t really lend itself to individual observation. The music on offer is often understated, but hauntingly melodic at the same time.
The 10-minute “Alone” is probably the album’s centre-piece, building from light atmospherics to a swirling mass of chords, blastbeats and screams of the title over and over. If the band is trying to recreate the desolate, isolated nature of outer-space, they do a pretty good job. Feedback, reverb and whispers feature throughout, and it’s a surprisingly eerie listen at times, but isn’t afraid to smack you with a crushing riff and guttural screams to shock your system.
With its six songs – averaging around ten minutes each and half of which is purely instrumental – Envoy is a bleak soundscape epic in scope. It won’t appeal to everyone, but it really captures the mood of how it might feel to float alone in space for eternity.
7.5/10
DAN SWINHOE
Death metal legends Cannibal Corpse have addressed the controversial situation that emerged at their show in Russia last week. The band were forced to cancel several concerts in Moscow and St Petersburg after Russian authorities claimed the five piece did not have the correct paper work and also searched one of the bands gigbags for drugs. The band have played in Russia before without such problems and praised fans who did manage to see the band on their disrupted tour.
Press Release:
CANNIBAL CORPSE addresses Russian tour issues!
CANNIBAL CORPSE recently completed their tour of Russia, a place they have played previously played many times with no issues. Unfortunately, as many Russian fans are already aware, this tour did not go as planned. CANNIBAL CORPSE has released a statement, which can be read below.
A message to our Russian fans:
“As you all are certainly aware by now, our concerts in Ufa, Moscow, and St. Petersburg were cancelled. We were present in these cities and ready to perform each of these shows but were not permitted to. In Ufa the power was turned off shortly before the show (we were told because the venue was late on rent), and in Moscow and St. Petersburg we were told that we did not have the correct visas and that if we attempted to perform the concert would be stopped by police and we would be detained and deported (prior to the tour we had been told that we did have the correct visas and that all of our paperwork was in order).
Our show in Nizhny Novgorod also had problems. In that city we performed half of our set before being stopped by police. We were told the police needed to search the venue for drugs and that the show had to be terminated.
These are the reasons for the cancellations as far as we have been told.
On the brighter side, we had a fantastic time performing in Krasnodar, Samara, Chelyabinsk, and Yekaterinburg. We were able to play our full set in all four of those cities.
We came to Russia excited and prepared to play all of the scheduled concerts, and we apologize that we were not able to do so. It was beyond our control. We are extremely disappointed. We have played in Russia many times and we love our Russian fans. Hopefully someday the situation for us in Russia will be different and we will be able to return.”
Photos: police raid photo from Nizhny Novgorod, paddy wagon in St. Petersburg
CANNIBAL CORPSE’s European tour with Revocation and Aeon continues tomorrow in Sweden. The dates are below, as well as on the newly re-launched cannibalcorpse.net.
CANNIBAL CORPSE
+ REVOCATION
+ AEON
17/10/14 SE – Stockholm – Debaser Strand
18/10/14 NO – Oslo – Vulkan Arena
19/10/14 SE – Gothenburg – Sticky Fingers
21/10/14 NL – Zwolle – Hedon
22/10/14 DE – Saarbrücken – Garage
23/10/14 FR – Lyon – Ninksi Kao
24/10/14 ES – Barcelona – Razzmatazz 2
25/10/14 ES – Madrid – Arena
27/10/14 FR – Toulouse – Le Bikini
28/10/14 FR – Paris – Trabendo
29/10/14 FR – Strasbourg – La Laiterie
30/10/14 BE – Antwerp – Trix
31/10/14 UK – London – Forum
01/11/14 UK – Leeds – Damnation Festival (only CANNIBAL CORPSE)
02/11/14 FR – Lille – Splendid
04/11/14 DE – Frankfurt – Batschkapp
05/11/14 DE – Ludwigsburg – Rockfabrik
06/11/14 DE – Osnabrück – Rosenhof
07/11/14 DE – Hamburg – Klubsen
08/11/14 DK – Aalborg – Metal Festival
09/11/14 DK – Copenhagen – Amager Bio
11/11/14 DE – Berlin – C-Club
12/11/14 CZ – Prague – Club Roxy
13/11/14 DE – München – Backstage
14/11/14 DE – Glauchau – Alte Spinnerei
15/11/14 CZ – Brno – Fleda
16/11/14 PL – Cracow – Fabryka
17/11/14 PL – Warsaw – Progresja
19/11/14 AT – Graz – Explosiv
20/11/14 HU – Budapest – Club 202
21/11/14 SK – Banska Bystrica – Urban Spot
22/11/14 AT – Wien – Szene
23/11/14 SI – Nova Gorica – Mostovna Club
25/11/14 IT – Treviso – New Age
26/11/14 IT – Milan – Alcatrazz
27/11/14 CH – Lausanne – Les Docks
28/11/14 CH – Pratteln – Z7
29/11/14 DE – Bochum- Matrix
30/11/14 NL – Dordrecht – Bibelot
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