by BBG

Black Witchery at Rites of Darkness (more by BBG)

Hooded black metal miscreants Black Witchery will team with Burial Ritual, Agrath, and Winter Nights for a show at Saint Vitus on June 29th, the day before the inaugural Martyrdoom Festival hits NYC on June 30th. Tickets are on sale.

Cobalt's Gin is currently on preorder on 2LP!

Gilead Media Festival is going on this weekend. Bummed you can't make it? Pick up some of their great new releases, like the new Thou split with Hell at Gilead Media (order yours) or Barghest on vinyl! Stream all of that Barghest below.

Ruins Alone (aka Yoshida Tatsuya of Ruins, solo) will headline a show with Child Abuse, PAK and Behold... the Arctopus on Sunday at Death by Audio. Should be a good one! Colin's other band Dysrhythmia plays the same space on the night before.

Did you catch our pics of Young Widows & Pygmy Lush at Saint Vitus?

More suggested shows, that Barghest stream, a Grand Magus track, a remastered Coffinworm track from their forthcoming demo release on LP, TWO new Horseback songs, and a trailer for a new Slang 7" (!), below. What did I miss?

Continue reading "Evillive (Black Witchery, Slang, Horseback, Cobalt, Coffinworm & more)"

by BBG

Saint Vitus @ Irving Plaza in 2011 (more by BBG)

Chaos in Tejas (May 31-June 3 in Austin) have announced ANOTHER batch of bands to add to their ridiculous lineup including Saint Vitus, Church of Misery, No Statik, Toys That Kill, Pegasus, Martial Canterel, Anasazi, Bloodwing (mems of The Spits, who are on tour soon), Harm's Way, Hatred Surge, the Hex Dispensers, John Wesley Coleman, Joyce Manor, and many many others. The current full lineup and flyer is below and tickets are FINALLY going on sale TODAY (1/31).

Doom legends Saint Vitus are currently preparing their new LP Lillie: F-65 for Season of Mist. The record, their eighth and first in seventeen years (!), is tentatively set for release at the end of March. More details are forthcoming.

In related news, members of Mind Eraser also serve as personnel in Magic Circle, another Chaos in Tejas band. Look for Magic Circle to team with Pilgrim (who we recently interviewed), Windhand, and Natur at Public Assembly on March 1st.

The updated Chaos in Tejas lineup is below along with the flyer.

Continue reading "Chaos in Tejas 2012 expands again; tickets on sale today"

words by Kim Kelly, photos by BBG

Antaeus @ Rites of Darkness

Rites of Darkness hit the halfway point Saturday with no more major disasters (comparatively speaking, anyway) and a sicker than sick lineup. Doors opened at 3pm but the show didn't actually start 'til after 5, when Texan grind 'heads P.L.F. hit the stage followed by death metallers Blaspherian and Grave Ritual. Hooded menace Midnight were a crowd favorite; framed by stagedivers' flailing limbs, Ohio's finest tore through a half hours' worth of black thrashing, neck-snapping, punk as fuck anthems like "Black Rock'n'Roll" and "Endless Slut" and left us all wanting more.

Adversarial's head-down Canadian war metal assault brutalized those who remained, then Black Witchery stalked onstage and tore the joint to shreds with an onslaught of Satanic might (as seen at Europa this past summer with Proclamation). Total death!

Chicago death metal legends Cianide were nothing short of fantastic; their guitar tone alone was worth the trip down. Grecian horde Zemial played a solid ninety minutes of old-school black metal (Quorthon would've been proud), which felt a little longer than necessary but still slayed. Antaeus's first-ever North American performance was the indisputable highlight of the evening, if not the entire fest so far. Spewing forth violently intense and utterly focused, savage black metal, littered with razor-sharp shreds of melody and drenched in evil, these corpsepainted wraiths stood and fucking delivered. Cut your flesh and worship Satan.

Day 1 pictures HERE. More pictures from Rites of Darkness day 2 are below

Continue reading "Rites of Darkness 2011 -- Day 2 pics & review"

by BBG

Volume 8 of the incredible Chaos in Tejas will go down on May 31st through June 3rd in Austin, Texas, and this year and much like last, its chock full of incredible rare appearances from across the punk, crust, indie, and metal world. Among the announced are crust legends Antisect, The Mob (UK), the reformed and final lineup of Nasum, Best Coast (who recently got a new drummer), Tear it Up (who recently reunited in NYC), Varukers, Winter, Iceage, Forward, Ghoul, Double Negative (who play NYC next week), and so much more. The announcement is just the first batch of bands, with an additional 100+ still to come. Check out the Chaos in Tejas flyer above. Full list of bands below...

Continue reading "Chaos in Tejas 2012 (initial lineup)"

by BBG

Inquisition at MDF (more by BBG)

"This is Danny, the promoter for Rites of Darkness. I understand people have been getting frustrated with lack of news so I personally apologize for that. We have gone through a rash of cancellations which were beyond our control.. Paypal froze the Festival's account which caused delayed flights for months. By the time Paypal decided to release our account flights escalated beyond our set budget. So the show is NOT cancelled by any means but the following bands will not be performing: Root, Akitsa, Interment, Demonical, Valkyrja, Dead Congregation, Hour of 13, and Strid"

The festival has remained silent about the situation for close to two weeks, but finally updated festival-goers today. Their message, excerpted above and available in full below, explains the situation, but neglects to mention that Pagan Altar also cancelled (they were slated for a two hour set) and that Zemial cancelled too. Another band that is currently in flux, Stargazer, is reportedly without flights (the band is from Australia) at the moment. The listing is missing General Surgery, and no announcement has been made about the pre-fest which includes France's Hell Militia. Previously announced cancellations include Ondskapt, Urfaust, Behexen, and Sargeist. RoD has added new Profound Lore signees Pallbearer.

Reminder: two RoD bands, Inquisition and Disma, are scheduled to play The Studio at Webster Hall on 12/2 with Agrath. Tickets are still available.

UPDATE: Both Zemial and Pagan Altar are reconsidering their appearances. Statements from both are below.

UPDATED AGAIN: Disma, Funebrarum, Evoken, and Oak have all cancelled their appearances.

The most recent Rites of Darkness statement and the current lineup is below.

Continue reading "Rites of Darkness 2011 still on despite heavy cancellations UPDATED"

by BBG

Rorschach at The Charleston (more by Ryan Muir)

While we wait for the Maryland Deathfest lineup to expand, one of those bands have slipped past the goalie! Rorschach will play Maryland Deathfest and will presumably be announced with their final batch of artists in the coming weeks. Final bands announced! and they are: AGALLOCH, ARCHGOAT (Finland), BRUJERIA (Mexico), YOB, BLACK WITCHERY, DYING FETUS, UNANIMATED (Sweden), MORGION, RORSCHACH, NEEDFUL THINGS (Czech Republic), DIE PIGEON DIE (Australia), and EXTERMINATION ANGEL.

Show No Mercy returns with an interview and a new song from Leviathan. The interview is short and Whitehead doesn't exactly delve deep, but it and the song are both definitely worth a listen.

Cannabis Corpse will support The Black Dahlia Murder and All Shall Perish at Knitting Factory on 10/11 as part of a larger tour together. Tickets are on sale, and their full tour schedule is below.

Vanishing Leper is Justin Detore (Mind Eraser/Rival Mob/Righteous Jams etc) and Jordan Darby (Dry-Rot), and the band is currently streaming a new EP and are preparing it for a limited release on Cold Vomit. Listen below.

The always fun Skeletonwitch are on the road with Arch Enemy, Devildriver, and Cthonic for a show at Best Buy Theater on 9/9. Tickets are still available

Kvelertak is coming.

Absu added more dates since we first posted. Original post updated.

Rise And Fall have a new 7" on the way entitled "Deceiver", alongside a reissue of Hellmouth. Look for both on Deathwish.

Portal are currently tracking their new LP.

Mastodon's Remission has been repressed on 2xLP.

We recently debuted new songs by Falloch, Rosetta, Battlefields, Bosse-de-Nage, and The Atlas Moth.

Have a fun weekend. More NYC shows listed below. What did I miss?

Continue reading "Evillive (Rorschach, Cannabis Corpse, Skeletonwitch, more)"

by BBG

Black Witchery

As the clock ticked towards 2AM on Monday night (8/8), a five band bill of raw and dissonant black metal was entering its seventh hour. Plagued by equipment issues and over-long sets, the blackened school night in Greenpoint featured an early-Tuesday morning appearance from Spain's Proclamation, along with support from Black Witchery, a reunited Abazagorath, Deceiveron, and Villains.

Early support was a mixed bag, ranging from tongue-in-cheek and fun, to horrid, and not in an "ugly black metal" sort of way. Brooklyn's Villains match over-the-top and revolting in on-stage banter, with seriously great blackened street-punk. Deceiveron followed Villains, and were probably the low point of the evening. Besides being out of tune for the duration of their stage time, their set was long and uninteresting. Due to equipment issues, Abazagorath (who was next) took close to 45 minutes to set up and were relegated to a 13 minute set. Despite that considerable setback, the reunited New Jersey band's thrashy black metal was engaging. Make sure you catch them on an upcoming go-around.

Black Witchery had the largest crowd of the evening, possibly due to the hour that the band hit the stage (around 12:30). The trio's blackened blasts of war metal incited pits while the band kept it interesting with an animated and costumed live show. Black Witchery's theatrical and anti-melodic black metal was my favorite performance of the evening.

The audience had thinned considerably for Spain's Proclamation, and though they they delivered an excellent set of Blasphemy-style war metal, their late set-time and much-more-energetic direct support of similar-influence made it hard to stay enthralled.

More pictures and video from Europa are below.

Continue reading "a late & long night of black metal @ Europa in pics, video & review (Black Witchery, Proclamation, Abazagorath & more)"

by BBG

The previously discussed Proclamation show just went from awesome to bonkers with the addition of Black Witchery to the lineup. The pair will team with Abazagorath (mem Funebrarum, Evoken), Deceiveron, and Villains for the August 8th show at Europa. Tickets are still available.

Black Witchery released Inferno of Sacred Destruction in 2010 on CD via Hells Headbangers, and have released it on vinyl via Nuclear War Now. Villains new LP, Road to Ruin, is also out now via Nuclear War Now. Order them both at the NWN webstore.

Show flyer and some video is below.

Continue reading "Black Witchery added to Proclamation & Villains show"