Dysrhythmia at Saint Vitus, Jan 5, 2012 (photo by Caroline Harrison)

Dysrhythmia played Saint Vitus on Jan 5th, 2012, joined by a rare appearance from California crew Wreck & Reference with Soren (of Rosenkopf) and Planning for Burial. Check out a review, videos and a full set of pictures at Invisible Oranges.

AFE; file under brutal promo shots, houseplants

You had better have some big cojones to name your band A Fucking Elephant. The technical/progressive two-piece (bass/drums) are prepping to release their classily-titled Seven Inches of A Fucking Elephant, a two song effort that demonstrates the band's prowess as an instrumental powerhouse. At times AFE sound like they've studied the jaw-dropping skills of their recording engineer Colin Marston (the 7" was laid to tape at his A Thousand Caves studio) while others give glimpses of latter Bastard Noise. Stream that release in full below for the first time, get your copy via Nefarious Industries, and see themon the road at the dates below --  including at Public Assembly on Jan 20 with Hannibal Montana, Noxious Foxes and Multitudes. Advance tickets are on sale.

Speaking of Colin Marston, the multi-instrumentalist will be at Saint Vitus on Saturday (1/5) as part of Dysrhythmia's appearance with Wreck & Reference, Soren and Planning for Burial. Tickets are still available.

Continue reading "stream 'Seven Inches of A Fucking Elephant,' catch them on tour (dates)"

photos by Jonathan McPhail

Dysrhythmia @ Public Assembly

Dysrhythmia finished their round of dates in celebration of Test of Submission in Brooklyn at Public Assembly on Saturday (11/17). They were joined by a rare appearance from Loincloth (who we profiled here) and NYC's STATS and Rivers of Nihil. Though the latter band leans more toward the death metal end of things, the other three made it clear to see that the night was dedicated to math-y technical metal in different variations. Pictures from the show are in this post.

Dysrhythmia will join Wreck & Reference (profiled here and here), Soren (of Rosenkopf, who played his debut show at WIERD) and Planning for Burial on January 5th at Saint Vitus. The show is a rare appearance for Wreck & Reference, who are are visiting from their native Bay Area. Tickets are on sale.

More pictures from Public Assembly, though unfortunately none of Rivers of Nihil (who we missed), below...

Continue reading "Dysrhythmia played Public Assembly w/ Loincloth / STATS, add show w/ Wreck & Reference, Soren & more"

Thisquietarmy

Thisquietarmy have teamed with Year of No Light to produce a new LP out now via Destructure Records. The four-track 12" features songs that fall in the nether between ambient, post rock and post-metal, with two fresh jams from each band and a pair of collaborative songs. Stream the entire Thisquietarmy/Year of No Light collaborative record below and order it at Destructure.

As pointed out previously, Thisquietarmy will play a string of East Coast dates with Aun and Planning for Burial, hitting Acheron on June 7th with Mario Diaz De Leon. All other tour dates are listed below, along with videos from Thisquietarmy and Planning for Burial.

Continue reading "Year of No Light and Thisquietarmy collaborate on a new LP (stream it)"

by BBG

Aun, Thisquietarmy, and Planning For Burial will embark on a trio of dates on the East Coast in early June, including stops in Boston (on 6/6), Philly (6/8 at Eris Temple Arts) and a NYC show at Acheron on June 7th with special guest Mario Diaz de Leon. $8 gets you in the door for this Annihlvs/BrooklynVegan event. For those unfamiliar with the muscular ambient-drone-psychedelia of Aun, you can stream "Return to Jupiter Jazz" from Aun's Full Circle 10" at Denovali where its available for order. Meanwhile, Thisquietarmy recently released a collaborative LP with the great Year of No Light. Flyer and more streams are below.

It's the season for killer shows! Maryland Deathfest and Chaos in Tejas are right around the corner and as such we have MANY upcoming shows to thank for it. If you arent heading to either fest, make sure to check with BV for coverage and listings of bands heading through town on their way to and fro!

In related news, MDF-bound Nashgul have added a second show in addition to their previously discussed appearance with Ghoul. Look for Nashgul to join forces with Marrow, Skleptarsis, Cold Inside at Saint Vitus on May 31. Tickets are on sale. Needful Things & Agents of Abhorrence will also play NYC surrounding MDF, adding a show at Acheron on May 29 with Dissent and Chainsaw to the Face.

Brooklyn thrash favorites Natur have added a show with Occvlta, Syphilitic Lust and Hessian at Acheron on June 15th. Stream a track by Occvlta below... pretty ripping.

All suggested shows are listed below along with some streams. What did I miss?

Continue reading "Evillive (Aun, Thisquietarmy, Natur, Agents of Abhorrence, Nashgul, more)"

by BBG

Kevin Baker of All Pigs Must Die @ Power of The Riff (more by Taylor Keahey)

Here is our third and final installment in a series where we asked our favorite artists about their highlights of 2011. This batach includes contributions from members of All Pigs Must Die, Altar of Plagues, Hull, "Grim" Kim Kelly, J.Bennett, Chris Bruni (Profound Lore) and many others. Part 1 is HERE. Part 2 is HERE. Part 3 is below...

Continue reading "The Year in Heavy 2011 according to artists & friends (part 3)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield, words by BBG & Andrew Sacher

Chelsea Wolfe @ St Vitus

Cult of Youth (who headlined), Chelsea Wolfe, and one-man show Planning for Burial (who opened) played Saint Vitus in Brooklyn on Wednesday (8/17). The packed out BrooklynVegan-presented show also featured opening and between set DJing from Robin of Tri Angle Records.

Though unfortunately without her band, who she prefers to play live with, Chelsea Wolfe still made a strong NYC debut. Conjuring up images of the demons she sings about, Chelsea stood veiled in a sea of fog before a backdrop of blood red visuals, as Ben Chisolm casted beats and atmospheres into the mix. Her set was way too short, but I enjoyed every second of it. She played some standouts off the upcoming Apokalypsis, which comes out this Tuesday, and some reworked material off the self-recorded The Grime and the Glow. Chelsea removed her veil for the last song, revealing a hypnotizing stare that never wavered for the entire song.

Cult of Youth started no later than 10 minutes after Chelsea's Set came to a close, with the band blazing through a heavy folk set indebted to gothic greats like Death in June, Angels of Light, Current 93, and others. Violinist Christiana Keys punctuated vocalist/guitarist Sean Ragon's fire-and-brimstone delivery (sidenote, how does he not break a string every song?) with similarly passionate string touches and texture, while the galloping rhythm section moved things along with a healthy thump. Despite the lack of a distortion pedal and even a guitar amp, it is clear that Cult of Youth is definitely a punk band.

More pictures and videos from the show, below...

Continue reading "Chelsea Wolfe, Cult of Youth & Planning for Burial played Saint Vitus (pics & video)"

photos by Philip Cosores, words by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Chelsea Wolfe - "Movie Screen" (MP3)

Chelsea Wolfe at recent LA show

Chelsea Wolfe is preparing to release her debut LP Apokalypsis via Pendu Sound on August 23rd, the follow-up to her impressive The Grime & The Glow which dropped last year. Stream "Mer" from said release below.

After a string of dates overseas, Chelsea Wolfe will make her NYC debut on August 17th at Saint Vitus (1120 Manhattan Ave in Brooklyn). Brooklynvegan is proud to present this rare East Coast show, with Cult of Youth and Planning for Burial also on the bill. Robin C of Tri Angle Records will DJ. $8 will get you in the door. Tickets are on sale.

Cult of Youth is also scheduled to play Bowery Ballroom this weekend (August 6th) with Cold Cave and Austra as part of Cold Cave's larger US tour. Tickets are still available.

Planning for Burial will hit the West Coast in September, bringing along with them a demo cassette entitled Late Twenties Blues. Pick up a copy at Saint Vitus, and look for a full-length in the months ahead.

Chelsea recently played some West Coast dates with Liturgy. A few pictures from her LA show at The Echo are in this post. More of those, all tour dates and a teaser video for Apokalypsis , below...

Continue reading "Chelsea Wolfe making NYC debut @ Saint Vitus w/ Cult of Youth & Planning for Burial (BV Presents)"

by BBG

Deafheaven @ Cake Shop

Sans KEN Mode (who was originally scheduled to play the show but changed their tour to go to Europe), Deafheaven ripped the basement of Cake Shop on Friday night (6/17) with the help of the one-man-black-metal-meets-Jesu of Planning for Burial (who I enjoyed thoroughly), as well as the impressive doomy post-hardcore boom of Gholas who also played with the band in Philadelphia and Connecticut (the shows surrounding NYC). The Cake Shop appearance is part of an ongoing tour for Deafheaven, who will link back up with KEN Mode in the coming days after KEN Mode returns from an appearance at Hellfest in France.

All three bands were impressive on Friday night. Planning for Burial combined black metal, shoegaze, clean vocals, and looping to create ethereal soundscapes before Gholas brought the shock and awe with their Isis-influenced hardcore nuggets featured on their current LP Загадка. Get that for FREE via via mediafire. Though Deafheaven is clearly derived from strains of black metal, the band's roots in hardcore show live as vocalist George gets into the crowds faces and provokes singalongs, shoving the microphone into members of the crowd's face. After the show, I was talking to George outside of Cake Shop when a fan approached him:

"Your lyrics are so inspiring to me. You are an English major right? So am I, I can definitely tell in your writing".

I've been to enough bullet-belted and nail-cuffed shows to know that this sort of interaction is a rarity amongst the corpse-painted set, but then again Deafheaven doesn't neatly fit into that or any category.

After the show, I headed to Public Assembly to catch Iceage and Prurient. More about that later.

More pictures from Cake Shop, all tour dates and a video of all of Planning for Burial's set, below...

Continue reading "Deafheaven played Cake Shop w/ Planning for Burial & Gholas who are giving away their new LP (download, pics, video)"