Is that it? Am I the last one? Dang. Again. Wait, maybe one more to come… Anyway, I guess I’ll start this off on my soapbox as always, by noting that I truly cannot comprehend where we are as a society. Well, I suppose I can, which is even more frustrating. If 2020 wasn’t a brutal enough year (not in a good way), 2021 seemed to serve as an appropriate encore. Seemingly everything we experience in life has been weaponized for political gain in one way or another, a global pandemic has been widely accepted as an endemic thanks, in part, to widespread misinformation, and, just as bluntly, climate disasters resulting from human activity are on the brink of running rampant for the duration of humanity’s remaining existence… however brief that may be. And those are just my three favorite, non-personal, items to discuss in our corner of the universe. It sucks, and I’m burnt out. Optimism has completely faded at this point, and I’m ready to run screaming into the woods. But hey, cheers to 2020, right?!
Continue readingder weg einer freiheit
CANTO: Soulfly, Der Weg einer Freiheit, Hegeroth, and More
I am VERY tired… probably because of the bourbon.
- Soulfly have announced a 2022 U.S. tour, kicking off on February 7th in Las Vegas and concluding on March 19th in Gallup, New Mexico. They’ll be supported by 200 Stab Wounds on some of those dates, which is awesome. General admission tickets are on sale now.
- Der Weg einer Freiheit is awesome, and so it their latest album, Noktvrn. Check out this ‘making of’ studio documentary about the album here. And if you still haven’t given it a listen yet, that’s a poor choice, so pick it up here through Season of Mist.
- Polish black metal project Hegeroth have released a new lyric video from their upcoming new album, Sacra Doctrina. Check out the clip for “Out Of Habit” here, and be sure to pre-order that album off Bandcamp ahead of its January 24th release.
- We’ll end Monday with a little atmospheric black metal. Check out the new video from Lord Agheros for “The Walls Of Nowhere”. Koinè is out on February 18th through My Kingdom Music.
“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb
CANTO: The Ocean, Der Weg einer Freiheit, Eight Bells, and More
Finally a tour I will, without any doubt, attend in the near future.
- And that, of course, is The Ocean, who are finally returning to the U.S. in March. They have a run of shows with Leprous starting on March 1st and continuing through April 2nd. No idea when tickets go on sale, but either way I will be buying many of them. I’m excited.
- More out of Germany! Der Weg einer Freiheit are streaming Noktvrn in full over at the Season of Mist YouTube channel ahead of its release. I mean, it drops on Friday, only a couple days away. But it’s an incredible album and you should be excited to get it a little early.
- Eight Bells have signed on with Prophecy Productions for the release of their third full-length album. That should be out sometime in 2022, but we can also look forward to a reissue of their existing catalog. Good stuff on the horizon.
- Drowse dropped a cover of Slipknot’s “Wait and Bleed” today, and that feels like a thing worth checking out. So… here you go! That’s from a nu metal covers compilation from The Flenser titled Send the Pain Below, which you can grab on vinyl through their Series Three membership.
- And we’ll close some Roadburn Redux material from last year. Horte shared footage of “Valoa on liikaa” today, and you can watch it below. That track is taken from Maa antaa yön vaientaa, which dropped on August 27th through Pelagic Records.
“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb
Initial Descent: November 14 – 20, 2021
And…we’re back. No idea where the last week has gone, feels like we just did this. To top that off, we’re getting close to another year in the books which is wild. Anyway, this is a year that even the naysayers will have to admit there’s been at least a handful or so every week that’s been in top shelf category. How many will make it to the best of lists out of those…who knows. But, we’ve got more to add to that pile this week starting with the best all around example of doomed heavy metal Khemmis has ever done, a pair of essential black metal albums from Der Weg Einer Freiheit and Stormkeep, an equally essential tech death return from Obscura, and several more in the list that follows. You know what to do, get after it.
Continue readingCANTO: Converge, Der Weg einer Freiheit, Dark Funeral, and More
Last one of the week, before I head out for a long weekend. Also in the mountains, but different mountains. Kind of.
- We’ll lead off with Converge, who unveiled the second single from Bloodmoon: I, titled “Coil”, which is streaming over at Decibel. As a reminder, that collaborative new album is set for a November 19th release through Epitaph Records (with vinyl coming next June through Deathwish).
- Dark Funeral has announced a new album, their first since 2016’s Where Shadows Forever Reign. Slated for a March 18th release, We Are The Apocalypse will be out through Century Media. In addition, they also have a release show lined up on the 19th with Samael and Eleine, which is pretty awesome.
- Prosthetic Records added a new grindcore collective to it’s roster in Elder Devil. To accompany the news, the band shared a full set performed in Chinatown, with the audio available on November 5th for free (NYP, of course).
- Redemptor, the Polish death metal crew featuring current and former members of Decapitated, Vader, Hate, Banisher, etc., are dropping a new album, Agonia, on December 3rd through Selfmadegod Records. Check out a new track, “Potion Of The Skies”, right now.
- We’re going to close today with Der Weg einer Freiheit, because of course we are. If I wasn’t already anticipating Noktvrn enough, this new track featuring The Devil’s Trade, titled “Immortal”, just took things a step further. It’s an absolute masterpiece. As a reminder, that album is out on November 19th through Season of Mist.
“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb