New Hampshire prog and alternative metal bands Dust Prophet and Conduit have released a new split EP via Sleeping Village Records, the brainchild of the famous underground blog Sleeping Village Reviews. Each band contributes a single to the split. Stream and download the split here!
Tag Archives: Splits
Bacon Bloody Bacon: Matt Bacon on How To Not Lose Money As a Band
One of the biggest problems that underground bands face is the grim reality that sometimes you are going to get services that are too big for your britches and it is going to screw you over. This can apply for anyone from PR to management by way of record labels. While it may be cool to have an awesome opportunity dangled in front of you it’s important to take context into consideration and to figure out what other components of your band you want to keep in mind before splurging for something. This is a constant money drain and source of stress for bands who don’t do the proper research before diving into a new venture and it leaves them all the worse for wear. It’s the sort of thing that would be combated if we spent time actually talking to each other about our experiences and not all constantly trying to get a leg up on each other. The biggest rule I want you to remember when going into this article that will hopefully save you literally thousands of dollars is to always ask your scene elders if something is a good idea, or at worst, me. Continue reading
Bacon Bloody Bacon: Matt Bacon on Reaching Video Content Supremacy
Hard to believe that I haven’t covered this here – it’s one of the most important things in the music industry after all. Video content is the key to hacking visibility and getting more people to check out what you have to do. Obviously, I’m someone who has made a lot of money over the years with his video content, but I want to assure you – I am not the only one whom can be productive with his use of video content. All bands can get more traction by creating video content and I am going to delve into a bunch of it, figuring out how to help you generate value and to dig deeper into the world of the heavy underground. Having video is probably the single most important thing that your band can do in 2019 and watching the bands who get this grow is going to be really exciting. Watching the ones who can’t hang fall apart is going to be a telling turn of events or those of us searching for some sort of answer to this grim spectacle. Continue reading
Bacon Bloody Bacon: The Importance of Split Releases
Splits are these days one of the most important things that you can do in order to grow your band. I think for a long time a lot of people have felt that splits were really just the place of hardcore bands trying to cross-promote with their friends or simply just do a record with another band that they like in order to save costs. Yet as with most of the ideas in the hardcore scene we are starting to see the culture of splits starting to infect the rest of the underground music world and it’s a really good thing in my eyes. Splits are a great way to diversify markets, to reach out and try new ideas without committing yourself to a full record and even get a chance to work with new people. Look around at major bands in the heavy underground and you are starting to see splits left and right. There’s a reason for that. And while the profits aren’t as significant that’s okay in my eyes because there are a ton of other benefits, benefits that we are going to get into, as well as strategies for best marketing and creating your side of a split. Continue reading
Gnaw Their Tongues – Collected Atrocities (2005-2008)
These days, blending Black Metal with Noise/Ambient electronics is so common it’s become a cliché but that wasn’t always the case. During the late 90’s and early 2000’s using Noise for intros or segues was standard, but actually letting it into your SONGS was still largely frowned upon. Along with his peers in Axis Of Perdition, Mories (the man solely responsible for Gnaw Their Tongues) was among the first to really explore the potential of these two often contradictory styles, and still among the very best.
Collected Atrocities (Crucial Blast) is a compilation of EPs and splits recorded between 2005 and 2008, and though it represents the tiniest portion of their truly intimidating back catalogue, it’s a relatively accessible place for new listeners to start… not that “accessible” is a word normally associated with Gnaw Their Tongues. With over two hours of music spread across two CDs, the tracks here cover the full range of sounds which GNT inhabit – from full-on Black Metal with Noise as a background to sparse electronic soundscapes with nothing as familiar as a riff in sight – but mostly occupy the middle ground where Mories is at his strongest. Guitars processed to such a gruelling extent that they become Noise themselves form the backbone of abstract, punishing arrangements, fleshed out with unsettling sounds and broken rhythms, while Mories’ pained shriek fights for space with the disturbing spoken-word passages so popular in Harsh Noise.
Gnaw Their Tongues’ music works best when it occupies that space that I wish I had a better term for than “Background Foreground” – not “songs” in any recognisable sense, the tracks here seem to fall naturally to the back of the listener’s consciousness, but once there they begin mercilessly transforming everything else, changing even the most mundane experience into one pregnant with indescribable horror and discomfort. Do NOT go to a high-street fast-food shop on a Saturday night while listening to Gnaw Their Tongues – you will be plunged into an eldritch world of decay and horror from which your sanity will never escape.
The perfect proof that even Gnaw Their Tongues’ odds-and-sods are more genuinely unsettling than anything that 95% of Black Metal or Noise bands can put out on their best days, Collected Atrocities is not only essential listening for people already convinced by this combination of styles, but also an ideal first listen for the uninitiated, and – given its nature as a compilation – a surprisingly coherent one.
8.5/10
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RICHIE HR