We caught up with Thomas Hazelmeyer, owner of the legendary Amphetamine Reptile Records, and as an artist himself under Haze XXL. AmRep not only put out records by Thomas’ band Halo of Flies, but also Helmet, Cows, Helios Creed, Chokebore, Servotron, and brand new album from Melvins, “Bad Mood Rising!” Check out this essential chat!
System Of A Down, Incubus, Korn, Evanescence and Deftones will headline Sick New World Festival, a new music festival in 2023 featuring some of the biggest names in nu-metal. Among the dozens of bands on the bill, it will mark the reunions of both Flyleaf with lacey Sturm and Coal Chamber. The event will be held on Saturday, May 13, 2023 at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the site of the recent When We Were Young Festival, that was forced to cancel one day of the fest due to high winds.
Purveyors of great underground Metal bands, Black Donut Records, has released A Future of Bad Men: a Melvins Tribute, to one of America’s greatest Sludge and Doom bands, Melvins. With a 250 copy, limited edition release, the album features stalwart bands of the stoner/doom/psychedelic scene such as Night Goat, Grizzlor, Doctor Monster, Olde, Trigger Cut, Frack, Bovine Nightmare, Work Party, and Bondbreakr. Stream the release at Bandcamp and pre-order the vinyl at the link below. Continue reading
Melvins previously announced their new full-length album, the Sludge/Doom rock Bad Moon Rising, released by Amphetamine Reptile Records last month. Until now, the album was only available on vinyl at their live shows, on their current Five-Legged Tour. Now the album has hits DSPs. Melvins typically release albums on Ipecac Recordings, but also dispatch special relelases on AMRep, such as their covers EP earlier in the year, featuring Soundgarden’s “Spoonman”, with guest vocals by Soundgarden/Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron.
With a band name so obscure it’s like they don’t want to be found, a mocking album title and featuring a musical parody of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Mr. Phylzzz (pronounced “Mr Flies”) demonstrate on their latest album Cancel Culture Club (Amphetamine Reptile Records), that they aren’t taking anything too seriously.
Like a deadly, grizzled beast that lurks in the shadows, KEN Mode emerges every few years with a new record, tearing off limbs as it goes, before skulking back into its pit. With September 23rd seeing the release of Null, on Artoffact Records — the band’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2018’s Loved — founder and singer/guitarist Jesse Matthewson talks about the new record and what keeps the KEN Mode fires burning. Continue reading
Tireless road dogs of the underground, The Melvins will kick off their third tour of 2022 on tonight, on Sept. 5th, and have added Taipei Houston to the line-up on all six of the upcoming California performances. Special guests of the tour are We Are The Asteroid The band is still supporting their career-spanning boxed-set release – Five Legged Dog (Ipecac Recordings). Continue reading
The Wellmont Theater in Montclair NJ was burning inside when Ministry, Melvins and Corrosion Of Conformity took the stage on Saturday night.
The theater itself seats about 2000 people with general admission on the floor which is perfect for a swirling mosh pit. Built in 1922 as an old vaudeville house, it was enovated and reopened in 2008. Now under the Live Nation umbrella, it hosts some major acts and The Montclair Film Festival. It should be noted that if you are going to a show there, plan to arrive early as parking can be a challenge of Herculean proportions.
Ministry has shared a new music video for the song “Sabotage is Sex” from last years’ album Moral Hygene. The track and video features Jello Biafra, in his first music video appearance ever. Jello and Al Jorgenson had an industrial/punk side project in the late 1980s, LARD. Created by director Joel Smith of Mad Minute Productions (previous work includes Activision, Audi, Black Eyed Peas, U2, The X Games), you can watch the video now!
Melvins recently released a new covers EP – Lord of the Flies EP from Amphetamine Reptile Records. You can buy the CD (vinyl TBD) from AmRep’s website. Check out the band covering fellow Seattle brothers Soundgarden’s classic 1990s hit “Spoonman” featuring drummer Matt Cameron of Soundgarden/Pearl Jam. Cameron plays “double drums” along with Dale Crover, Steven McDonald on bass, and King Buzzo on guitars and vocals. The track was recorded by Toshi Kasai at Sound of Sirens studios and the video was directed / edited by Jesse Nieminen. Watch it now! Continue reading