Recently, Nordic dark folk collective, Heilung, premiered a new song to a star-studded audience at The Game Awards in downtown Los Angeles. This song, including the soundtrack, was written in collaboration with Ninja Theory for the video game Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, due out next year. Watch the live performance video from the event below.
Avenged Sevenfold have released a new song, their song, ‘Jade Helm’, from the soundtrack of the new Call of Duty Black Ops III video game. You can hear the track at this link or below.
The band released a statement about making the track:
“We are proud to announce our involvement in ‘Black Ops 3.’ Treyarch asked us if we would like to create a score to accompany a portion of the multiplayer soundtrack and we gladly accepted. On November 6th you can pick up a copy of the game and check out our instrumental score entitled ‘Jade Helm’ while you play Multiplayer or in your personal bunk inside the Safe House of the Campaign.”
Call of Duty: Black Ops III was released on November 6 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
in an interview with Chris Jericho for his podcast the band recently announced Brooks Wackerman (Bad Religion/Suicidal Tendencies) as their new drummer. Singer M. Shadows commented about the addition of Wackerman replacing Arin Iljay who was dismissed this fall.
“To be honest, Brooks’ name has always been in the mix. It was one of the names we were throwing around when Jimmy (Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan) passed away in terms of who was going to step up for ‘Nightmare.’ We felt Mike [Portnoy, ex-Dream Theater drummer] was the right choice and we still feel that way. Mike just destroyed on the record. He was perfect. But at the time, our tour manager brought up Brooks’ name as well. But at the time he was also busy with Bad Religion and it was also… people were going to look at it differently because he was a punk drummer at this point.”
Avenged Sevenfold is currently working on a new album for 2016, their seventh which will be the follow up to 2013s Hail To the King (Warner Brothers).
One of America’s best kept secrets, Fallujah have made quite the impression in their home nation during their relative infancy. The well-received full length The Harvest Wombs and last year’s Nomadic EP were fine slices of the band’s impressive mix of melodic progressive metal and blistering, ferocious death metal, whilst the UK saw a brief but well taken support slot on Suffocation’s European tour. Now finally the band are about to get some well-deserved attention European attention with latest release The Flesh Prevails (all via Unique Leader).
The initial brace of songs are archetype of what this band can do when at top gear. Opener ‘Starlit Path’ begins in a manner of ambience before slowly creeping forward with blast-beats, chugging guitars and then a guttural bark from Alex Hofmann. This slow build encapsulates this bands formidable streak and perfect marriage between the two contrasting styles in one cohesive mesh. Following tracks ‘Carved From Stone’ and ‘The Night Reveals’ have less of a growth, but still are prime examples of their prowess as masters of the time old cliché of melodic yet heavy.
Things begin to lose momentum in the latter half of the album, which takes its foot off the gas and feels less straight for the throat. Much of these latter tracks, such as ‘Allure’ and ‘Alone With You’, shed vocals almost completely and have less of a death metal focus, with hints of a video game soundtrack. These tracks feel all the more improvised and jammed out and prove good showcases for their talent, but lack in necessity.
What started off so promisingly with an initial barrage of force, sadly becomes fragmented and surplus, if not dull. Shed some of this and The Flesh Prevails would have made a great EP release, but instead brings with it a lot of baggage.
7.0/10.0
CHRIS TIPPELL