by BBG

Brian Gibson and Jason Kendall of Megasus at Acheron (more)

After releasing their punishing self-titled LP with 20 Buck Spin (and playing an equally punitive live show at Acheron), Megasus is back to release a new 5" mini-EP with Brutal Panda Records. The Menace of The Universe 5" features a pair of new tracks from the Providence beatdown artists including "Damned Hammer" and the title track, which is streaming below. Guitarist Ryan Lesser is responsible for the (impressive) artwork duties on the release, which will include die-cut six-panel packaging. You can see the art and pre-order the EP at Brutal Panda's site.

Megasus, the only band that has the distinction of having a record on Brutal Panda and 20 Buck Spin all while having a song in Rock Band 2, currently have no dates on their calendar. Neither does Lightning Bolt who share drummer/bassist Brian Gibson.

In between working on his fretwork and art for the upcoming release, Ryan Lesser also found time to tell us what his favorite things were in 2010. Check out that list while you listen to the song stream for "Menace Of The Universe" below.

Continue reading "Megasus releasing an EP (listen to a track), Ryan Lesser told us his 20 Favorite Music Things of the year (check it out)"

by BBG

Megasus rages

Acheron was beatdown by four killer bands on Friday (8/13), including the first ever NYC dates for Megasus, Judas and The Love Below who played along with the fantastic noisy hardcore trio Pollution. Pollution headlined the evening and totally impressed along with the incredible Megasus (featuring Brian Gibson of Lightning Bolt on drums), who exceeded all of my expectations. Both Pollution and Megasus are must-see, and luckily you will get a chance to see Pollution in the coming weeks; they play 538 Johnson on August 25th and Acheron with Shitstorm on 9/1.

Judas and The Love Below were playing dates on the way to their appearances in Philly at This is Hardcore the following day. Ryan of Pollution would play a show the next day as well, this time as part of his doom-y alter ego Unearthly Trance at The Charleston with Coffinworm.

Reminder: The Acheron will host KEN Mode , and Castevet TONIGHT (Tuesday 8/17) as part of a BV/1000 Knives show. Festivities start at 8PM. Unfortunately, I have just been informed that East of The Wall has been forced to cancel their appearance due to a medical emergency, but the rest of the show will go on. The band WILL make it up by playing another BV event in the near future. Details forthcoming!

Pics and video from Friday, below...

Continue reading "Megasus, Judas, Love Below & Pollution played the Acheron (pics & video) + KEN Mode, but not East of the Wall tonight"

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Blind To Faith - "R.J." (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Blind To Faith - The Seven Fat Years Are Over (Zipped MP3s)
DOWNLOAD: Judas - Dictator 7" (Zipped MP3s)
DOWNLOAD: Megasus - "Paladin Vs. Berserker" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Love Below - "Some Of Us Have Real Problems" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Pollution - "smut sts" (MP3)

Blind To Faith

Nihilism and destruction is king for Belgium's Blind To Faith (members of Rise & Fall, Reproach, and Amenra), and the band made quite the impression with their Holy Terror stunner The Seven Fat Years Are Over. The LP, which is now available for FREE download (above), may lie somewhere in the grey area between crusty d-beat, Celtic Frost, and modern hardcore, but more importantly it's a killer record. Now the crew will take their fury and downtuned riffs to a split with the mighty Gehenna for a new release on A389 Records. Pre-order that 7", and dig on the Blind To Faith contraction "R.J." available above.

Blind To Faith currently have only one tour date to speak of. That's at the Incubate Festival in Tilburg, NL in September:

Incubate is the annual celebration of independent culture. Expect a diverse view on indie culture as a whole, including music, contemporary dance, film and visual arts. We bring more than 200 cutting edge artists in an intimate context to an international audience. Black metal next to free jazz. Street art next to academic dance.

And all over the map it is, with a diverse selection of bands including Dan Deacon (seriously), Liturgy, Zola Jesus, Final (aka Justin Broadrick), The Bomb Squad, Black Mountain, The Fresh & Onlys, and tons more. For more on the fest, including the full lineup, head to the Incubate site.

Meanwhile, Blind To Faith's labelmates and California hardcore monsters The Love Below are hitting the road for a string of US shows with the great Judas. Those shows include a date at Acheron on August 13th with the kick ass Pollution and the similarly brutal Megasus (mem of Lightning Bolt, who we profiled last year), part of a BrooklynVegan/1000Knives production!

Judas's last release was the Dictator 7", out now on RSR. Download that above, highly recommended. The Love Below has a recent release as well, the Reproductive Rights 7", available now at A389 or one of your favorite distros. Pollution's new ®SMUT 12" is a ripper, and it's out now. Ryan of Pollution will play the day before at The Charleston with his band Unearthly Trance when they team up with the great Coffinworm as well as Archon and Syphilitic Lust.

Full tour dates for The Love Below / Judas trek, along with some videos, are below.

Continue reading "new Blind to Faith MP3 (and free older album), the Love Below touring w/ Judas (playing Brooklyn w/ Pollution & Megasus)"

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Megasus - "Paladin Vs. Berserker" (MP3)

Although he plays (an oddly outfitted) bass in Lightning Bolt, Brian Gibson is the DRUMMER for Megasus.

While Lightning Bolt toils in the outer reaches of spazzy noise, Megasus is an entirely different animal (pun!), resembling something closer to High On Fire than Boredoms. The Providence band self-released their self-titled debut earlier this year in a limited-to-200 LP pressing, selling out and eventually moving on to a second helping. An official CD release had never formulated until recently, when 20 Buck Spin has agreed to release the new Megasus on 11/24.

4 dudes all working for Harmonix - the video game developer who brought the world's most popular video games, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, ...decided to get together to create a metal band of wild power. Featuring long-time Providence musicians, ...the band set out to simply have fun and write killer, memorable heavy metal songs. After having two songs, "Megasus" and "Red Lottery", both featured on this debut, placed into Rock Band and Guitar Hero 2 long before this album's release the band has already created a large awareness of their music to lovers of these video games.

Dig on a track from the new Megasus LP, "Paladin Vs. Berserker", available for download above.

Lightning Bolt will be in NYC on Friday (10/30) at Above The Auto Parts Store along with Black Dice, Mick Barr, & TV Ghost. The show is one of only TWO dates in the US before the band hits Japan, Australia, and eventually the UK to play two sold out ATP shows over two weekends. The first, Nightmare Before Xmas, takes place over the first weekend in Dec and features appearances from My Bloody Valentine (who are curating), Sonic Youth, De La Soul, Fucked Up, Dirty Three, among others. "Ten Years of ATP", which is scheduled for the following weekend, features apperances from Explosions In The Sky, Tortoise, Shellac, Melvins, sunn O))) (who will be playing both The Grimrobe Demos and Monoliths & Dimensions), and many many others.

Speaking of High On Fire, the Oakland trio hits Hammerstein over two nights with Mastdon, Converge, and Dethklok. Tickets are still available for the 10/29 show (here) but 10/30 is sold out. Must. Go.

All Lightning Bolt tour dates and a Megasus video from Rock Band (!) are below...

Continue reading "a new MP3 by Megasus +++ Lightning Bolt tour dates "