GUEST POST: Shield of Wings Shares Their Top Albums of 2021


Ghost Cult continues our “2021 End of Year Guest Post Extravaganza” with a slew of posts from bands, industry, PR pros, and more! We’ll be sharing lists, memories, and other shenanigans from our favorite bands, partners, music industry peers, and other folks we respect across the globe. In this edition Shield of Wings shares their Top Albums of 2021 list with us! Their new album Unfinished releases on February 11th, 2022 and you can hear new tracks, a watch a video, and pre-order the album here: https://linktr.ee/shieldofwings

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The Astral Cadence Share Video Teaser, New Album Coming Next Week


New York’s instrumental prog metal masters The Astral Cadence have shared a new visualizer and album teaser. Their new album Paradigm drops on September 24th and is chock full of sweet progressive music jams and well thought-out epics. The band has made a name for itself inside the deep NYC scene for several years, having opened for the likes of Angel Vivaldi, Scale the Summit, The Fine Constant and Felix Martin. They will find a lot of fans among shred nerds, jazz, technical metal styles, and experimental music. Watch the trailer now. Continue reading


EXCLUSIVE: Into The Great Divide Explores The End Of The Heroes Journey


All this week Ghost Cult been sharing EXCLUSIVE content from Into The Great Divide. Led by Zack Zalon, this is a must know project for progressive metalheads everywhere. Their current self-titled album is a concept album that tells a story, and each track is narrated like chapters. Ghost Cult brings you the backstory behind each song, in the form of additional previously-unreleased bonus tracks, fleshing out the narrative of the story. In this final segment, the tracks explore rebounding from the depths of loss to discover new perspectives. Continue reading


EXCLUSIVE: Feel The Call To Adventure With Into The Great Divide


Ghost Cult has partnered with Into The Great Divide to bring you the EXCLUSIVE backstory behind each track of their self-titled new album. In the vein of the best instrumental progressive metal albums, Into The Great is a concept album with a heavy plot, and each track is narrated, like a chapter in a story. Ghost Cult brings you the EXCLUSIVE backstory behind each song, in the form of additional tracks, fleshing out the narrative. Continue reading


Scale The Summit – “Witch House” Video Featuring Angel Vivaldi Released


Scale The Summit, Angel Vivaldi, and Andy James will be kicking off “The 2017 Guitar Collective Tour” tonight at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio. To help get fans more exciting for the remaining dates, Scale The Summit and Angel Vivaldi have premiered their face melting new ‘Witch House’ video online. Continue reading


Marty Friedman Announces “Wall Of Sound” U.S. Tour


Marty Friedman recently confirmed that his new solo album, Wall Of Sound, is coming on August 4th, and today he’s announced the first tour in support of the new material. Continue reading


Exclusive Stream: Chronologist – Pioneer


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Progressive metallers Chrononlogist are preparing their new album Cartographer for a December 2nd release. Ghost Cult is proud to bring you the première of their new song ‘Pioneer’ today, which you can stream below: Continue reading


From The Shadows – Rozamov


Rozamov, by Matt Lambert

Rozamov, by Matt Lambert

Boston’s sludge and doom metal merchants Rozamov are hitting the road next week with Moon Tooth on a tour that will take both bands through some new territories, surely making new fans. We caught up with the power trio recently to discuss the upcoming tour, the progress of their new album, their approach to songwriting, and that time when they saw Slayer warm up with a Journey cover:

 

Rozamov is hitting the road with Moon Tooth in June. What you most looking forward to for the tour?

Tom Corino: I’m most looking forward to getting to see a little bit of Canada and to play outside the country for the first time. I’ve wanted to get the band north of the border for a while, it feels great to be getting on the road again even for a short little run. It’s the first tour with Yianni so it’ll be a good way to see what it’s like to tour together with the new lineup too.

Matt Iacovelli Each tour has its own flavor and rhythm so it will be interesting to see how this group of people interact.

Yianni Tranxidis: For this short run, were most excited to visit Canada for the first time. This will be ours & Moon Tooth’s first Canada shows, so it’ll be an interesting experience to see how the shows will go.

Rozamov, by Matt Lambert

Rozamov, by Matt Lambert

After the tour, are you guys hitting the studio straight away, or are their more songs to write still for the new album? Can we expect the album in 2016, or next year?

Tom: We hit the studio last year and have the finished product ready to go. We recorded with Jon Taft at New Alliance East, which was a great experience. That studio is a great little room and Jon was great to bounce ideas off of. We’re working with a couple labels on different formats for release and we’re getting artwork and such together. It’s looking like an early 2017 release right now, we were hoping to get the record out this year but we didn’t want to rush anything considering how long vinyl turnaround can take these days. This way, everything will be out at the same time and no one will be left waiting around for vinyl to show up.

Matt: We are in the process of getting the artwork together.

Yianni: After this tour, we’re going to be writing more material, as well as finishing up the details for our upcoming album with Rozamov’s former drummer.

Matt: Hopefully it will see release early next year. We have some interested parties involved so things are looking good in that dept. I can’t give you any super specific details just yet.

 

Rozamov - Matt Lambert 2016-3

 

The ‘Ghost Divine’ track from the split 7-inch with Deathkings was great, and seemed to mark a new direction for the band. Will hear more of that style?

Tom: ‘Ghost Divine’ is a lot faster than the material on the new record but the vibe from that song will certainly be present on the record. The new album is by far the heaviest collection of songs we’ve done to date, reflecting the 2014-2015 winter when a good chunk of the record was written. I know I certainly was not in a good place at that time, being buried under 110 inches of snow will do that, so it’s a pretty dark record.

Matt: Not as far as speed or delivery but maybe in feel and over all tone..Ghost Divine was a step apart from really anything we’ve done. In truth we were building a record around that very song, it got picked up by Ryan from Midnite Collective and the rest is history..but the new material is slower and more deliberate its a little more bleak, a little more doom that before.

Yianni: “Ghost Divine” was definitely a huge shift in sound for the band, as it incorporates a mixture of heavy, complex, and driving riffs, while still keeping the core of our Doom sound. A lot of dynamics, and rhythmic changes, which definitely pushed us to write something we haven’t written before. I believe that we’re a band that will always have something different to offer, so I wouldn’t be surprised if our future material will sound a lot like this, and pushing the boundaries even more.

 

Rozamov - Matt Lambert 2016-9

 

What is the writing process like for the band? Is it a constant group effort, or do the individual members bring in their own material?

Tom: We usually write together in the practice space, it’s just the way Matt and I do best. Matt comes up with a good chunk of the original ideas for a riff and we’ll hash it out together in the space. Sometimes we bring in ideas that we’ve written on our own but a lot of those ideas either don’t fly or get dramatically changed in the room. Matt and I push each other to write stuff that’s interesting to the both of us and we can get pretty brutal on each other’s ideas. I think we both work best when we have someone to bounce ideas off of and to push someone in the right direction when they are onto something and struggling.

Matt: I think we just went for it and wrote 3 songs, as yet to be played live, they won’t see Canada this time. Every person has a personality so it will always change the vibe.

Yianni: In terms of the writing process, we all collaborate together. We’ll usually have one or two riffs that one of us have had, and bring them into the practice space, however we do a really good job at making fresh new riffs when we’re together. After that, we work on each segment, and figure out how we want to piece it all together. Being a new member, it’s always going to be interesting seeing how that will influence a band’s writing process, however when we work on riffs, we all talk about it together, and welcome ideas from all sides, so I’ve felt very welcome to bring my ideas to the tables.

 

You’ve had some turnover in the band the last few years, and now have a new drummer. With two longtime writing partners, how hard is it to incorporate a new person into the mix?

Tom: We try to always be writing. We were writing new material almost immediately after the recording sessions for the new record were over, before we had made the change behind the kit. Each change in the lineup has molded us and changed us as a band, and hopefully the same goes for those band mates. Yianni brings his own flavor to the band and allows us to try out ideas we’ve wanted to attempt but couldn’t before. We’re still getting used to him in a writing capacity so we’ll see where it ends up in the long run, but we’re just excited to bring a new outlook to the band.

Matt: It’s a constant group effort. I write a lot of the riffs but its a definite group deal. We are very serious about the sound and so we are brutal as fuck and… not every riff i write is good, honestly we kill more riffs than we keep.

The band has already shared the stage with some major acts and played a few large festivals. What is your favorite gig so far and the one gig to play or band in the world that is your dream to play with someday?

Tom: I’d say that my favorite show we’ve played so far was the Rubber Tracks gig with Slayer and Doomriders. I’ve been a fan of Slayer since I was in high school so to see those guys for the first time in a 500 cap room as the opening act was a dream come true. Playing with Doomriders was also absolutely great. Any day Nate Newton says your band was rad after your set is a good day in my book, and we’ve become friendly with those guys since.

Matt: Well Slayer and Pyscho (California) Fest were highlights for sure. Slayer had its own thing going, its own style and vibe. It was cool to see them sound check with some Journey….What?!

Yianni: Ever since I joined the band, we only played a couple of shows, however my favorite one was our show with Intronaut, Scale the Summit, and North, which was on March 30th at the Downstairs Middle East. That was a really fun time. I think the whole band would agree that sharing the stage with Mastodon would be a dream come true. We’re all very big fans of them, and highly influenced by their groundbreaking sound.

Rozamov, by Matt Lambert

Rozamov, by Matt Lambert

 

INTERVIEW BY KEITH CHACHKES

PHOTOS BY MATT LAMBERT