by Fred Pessaro // BBG

Royal Thunder at MHoW, Dec 2012 (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Royal Thunder has released a new video for "Blue" from the band's CVI (one of my favorites of 2012). Check out said video below.

Royal Thunder have been added to all dates of the Enslaved / Pallbearer tour(!) including the NYC stop at Bowery Ballroom on Feb 22. Tickets are still available.

All tour dates are listed below along with the "Blue" video.

Continue reading "Royal Thunder added to Enslaved/Pallbearer tour, release new video (dates, stream)"

by Fred Pessaro // BBG

Enslaved at Gramercy Theater, Sept 2011 (more by Greg Cristman)

Norwegians Enslaved have a single show scheduled in the US for 2012, a free (with RSVP) Scion A/V Roadburn Records showcase in Los Angeles with White Hills, Earthless and Astra this weekend (11/10 at The Roxy). After that undoubtedly epic show goes down, look for the progressive black metal crew to plot their next attack on North American shores in the new year. Enslaved will join the great Pallbearer and Ancient VVisdom for a three-week whirlwind tour of North America that kicks off in late January and terminates on February 22 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets go on sale Friday (11/9) at noon.

Pallbearer is confirmed to play Roadburn 2013 in the months following the tour, where they'll join names like Electric Wizard (who is curating part of the fest), Amenra (who have a new album on the way), Moss, Die Kreuzen, Godflesh, Uncle Acid & The Dead Beats, Royal Thunder (who play Saint Vitus this weekend), Maserati (who play Union Pool TONIGHT), Castle (who recently played Saint Vitus) and many more to come. Roadburn is sold out, but you can drool at the lineup below and try your hand at the secondary market.

All tour dates are listed below, along with the tour flyer and the Roadburn 2013 lineup.

Continue reading "Enslaved touring w/ Pallbearer & Ancient VVisdom (dates)"

BBG is back in Oslo, this time for Inferno. Here's what he's catching at the Norwegian metal festival...

by BBG

One Tail One Head @ Inferno Fest

There's no way to put it nicely. My final day at Inferno Festival was an extremely up and down affair. Thumbs down to the bloated and overthought bands that had polished themselves and dulled their edges. But a big thumbs up goes out to the "true Norwegian Black Metal" hordes that stood out by delivering laser-precise performances at their corpse painted, blood-soaked, and firebreathing best.

Coming onto a stage lit by candelabra, accompanied by a fire-breather and adorned with animal skulls (shocker: they were actually the first and only band to do so at the fest!), Throne of Katarsis played a killer set of blasting old school black metal with some doomy breakdowns. The corpse painted quartet were the first band on the main stage and though the turnout was small, it was positively worth getting to the venue early for.

Svarttjern was next on the John Dee stage, a band cut from a similar cloth as Throne of Katarsis, but with less breaks in between blasts... a relentless full on assault. The band came on stage covered with blood and in full corpse painted glory, complete with both the beastial inhuman growls, and the uniquely black metal "deer in headlights" looks at the audience. Theatrical yet never campy, and totally fun.

Einherjer, a pagan-y viking metal band that helped pave the way for much of the genre (along with names like Enslaved and many others), was next on the main stage. 99% of the time pagan-metal & viking metal gets the gas face, and live I found it even more repellent. As I type this, my laptop keeps wanting to autocorrect their name as Winger... coincidence?

Ancient Wisdom was next up on John Dee, playing their pagan style folk influenced by bands like Death in June. Outside of those clad with the hellion skull, manson's face, or some other holy terror indicator like Vegas, it seemed like a lot of the metal crowd didn't quite "get it", a sentiment I also heard a few times when they toured North America with Ghost. Regardless of the overall temperature of the room, I found the music to be interesting but the vocals didnt seem to fit in.

My losing streak continued with Decapitated, the Polish metal band that rebuilt itself after a horrid accident a few years ago, and Monolith Death Cult, a long-winded death metal band with technical tendencies but very little to offer in the good riffs department. Decapitated has definitely crafted their live show to a fine point and the foursome handled the stage well. I'm just not a fan of the chugga-chugga-squeal-style of tech death. Witchery, the "supergroup" made up of ex-members fo Brujeria, Arch Enemy, Mercyful Fate, Dismember, Opeth, The Haunted and more, were similarly not my cup of tea but knew how to handle the stage and kept it interesting.

Then came One Tail One Head, the headliner at John Dee and a truly indestructible live juggernaut. One Tail One Head was yet another Norwegian band (that made three on Saturday) to reach into their country's storied black metal playbook and knock it out of the park. Musically speaking, these bands aren't breaking any new ground, but their approach with reverence and ferocity is so pure and devastating, it's hard to ignore them. I think bands like Borknagar and Arcturus (I'll... yawn... get into that later) forget that black metal is rooted in punk, and it's punk's "don't give a fuck" attitude that is so important to keeping the music's spirit alive (it's the difference between Discharge and MXPX).

One Tail One Head was one of my favorite performances from the whole fest, and definitely my favorite of the day (Svarttjern & Throne of Katarsis were the day's other highlights). The lead vocalist swings and thrashes like Erik of Watain, with the band keeping that same stage energy and intensity. The guitar/bass/drums trio are impeccably tight, much more so than I would expect for a band with only a couple demos and EPs to their name. Awesome set. This band needs to play in the US and soon.

After that amazing set it was on to the final band of the night, Arcturus at Rockefeller main stage. I don't particularly dig on symphonic black metal and for the most part progessive can be a dirty word for me, so the Arcturus set definitely fell on deaf ears. Their set, peppered with oodles of pyro felt like a Jerry Bruckheimer production; explosions hide the fact that the storyline, dialogue and execution were all weak.

Overall, an excellent weekend and I feel lucky to have been able to catch such great talent on foriegn soil. Inferno 2013, here I come.

Check out pics and review of DAY ONE, DAY TWO, and DAY THREE, and the rest of DAY FOUR, below...

Continue reading "Inferno Festival 2012 -- night 4 pics & review (One Tail One Head, Svarttjern, Throne of Katarsis & more)"

photos by Greg Cristman

Even before the house was opened, the line snaked down the Bowery with eager metal fans clamoring to get a view of Ghost. Many on line were lucky enough to catch the band during a one-off date last year, while many like myself were seeing them for the first time on this night...

The band was extremely tight with both vocals and instrumentation. The live renditions of "Elizabeth," "Death Knell," "Ritual," and a dark cover of The Beatles' classic "Here Comes The Sun" both mesmorized the audience before melting their collective faces. Horns were raised high as the crowd song along knowing each and every word throughout the band's set. This lyrical devotion was overly apparent when they played "Satan Prayer" which was the best song performance of the evening. During the chorus, 'the cardinal' gave the metal hungry crowd several chances to sing the hook, often staring directly at us with his piercing eyes, using his hands to lead us like some type of satanic conductor. -[Local Bozo]

Continue reading "Ghost played Bowery Ballroom w/ Blood Ceremony & Ancient VVisdom (pics, setlists)"

by Andrew Sacher

Ghost at the Studio in June (more by Greg Cristman)

Sweden's Ghost were forced to cancel their last US tour due to visa issues which would have hit Gramercy Theater this past September. Like their fellow Swedes in Graveyard, who faced a similar fate, they've scheduled another US tour for early 2012. They'll kick off the tour, which has been dubbed "13 Dates Of Doom," at NYC's Bowery Ballroom on January 18. Tickets for the NYC show go on sale Friday (11/11) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (11/9) at noon. All dates and the tour flier are below.

Blood Ceremony

If you're off to any of these shows, be sure to catch Toronto band Blood Ceremony, who open for Ghost each night, along with Ancient Wisdom. Earlier this year, they released their sophomore LP, Living With The Ancients, which, like their self titled debut, is filled with doomy Sabbathian riffs and the occasional psych-folk passage. While tons of doom bands have taken similar routes, frontwoman Alia O'Brien gives the formula a twist. While the guys are busy riffing on heavy blues, Alia provides sharp Jethro Tull-esque flute lines, psych/garage organ, and a demonic voice casting spells of witchcraft and the occult. You can stream a couple tracks from Living With The Ancients below.

All dates, song streams, and tour flier below...

Continue reading "Ghost going on tour w/ Ancient Wisdom & Blood Ceremony (whose new LP is out now) --- 2012 dates"

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Ancient VVisdom - "Alter Reality" (MP3)

Ancient VVisdom contains ex-members of Iron Age and Integrity, and it's hard not to hear some of that lineage, but Ancient VVisdom string together apocalyptic and gothic folk passages with some clean vocals; think of Integrity's moments of acoustic darkness instead of the hardcharging hardcore assault. Even though his fingers aren't on this record, fans of Dwid Hellion can't pass this up. Who said you need a distortion pedal and a Hi-Watt to sound evil?

Now that their split with Charles Manson (no shit) is behind them, Ancient VVisdom is currently preparing their latest LP for Shinebox Recordings, A Godlike Inferno. Featuring Alex Hughes (Hatred Surge) and Wade Allison (Iron Age), the new LP features eight tracks, one of which, "Alter Reality", makes its appearance for the first time here. Download it above.

Check out some recent Ancient VVisdom video below, and look for the record on Shinebox on June 7th.

Continue reading "Ancient VVisdom releasing 'A Godlike Inferno' (MP3)"