FESTIVAL REVIEW: Ozzfest Meets Knotfest Live At Glen Helen Amphitheater, San Bernadino, CA


Fans from all over the world converged in the mountains of San Bernadino, California for Ozzfest Meets Knotfest 2017. Taking place at the Glen Helen Amphitheater & Festival Grounds, the scenic vista of mostly blue skies and mountains all around us was the perfect setting for a weekend of some of the most entertaining, heaviest bands on Earth. After arriving in California a night early, but missing the pre-party show, the Ghost Cult crew got settled in at our hotel, had a great meal and beers at BJ’s Brewhouse, and rested up for the big weekend ahead. Continue reading


Ozzfest Meets Knotfest Takes Over Southern California This Weekend


 

Ozzfest Meets Knotfest returns again to San Bernadino California today in a weekend jam-packed with incredible metal headliners, and some of the best up and coming bands in the world. The 2017 Ozzfest Meets Knotfest takes place Glen Helen Amphitheater & Festival Grounds in California today, November 4th and tomorrow, November 5th, and we get you ready to go! Continue reading


2018 Decibel Metal & Beer Fest Lineup Announced


Holy shit. The second annual Decibel Metal & Beer Fest is going to be amazing. Continue reading


Ghost Announce Opening Acts For United States Tour


As we all know by now, Ghost will be direct support for Iron Maiden’s upcoming headlining tour in the Summer, but those aren’t the only shows they’ll be performing here in the States. The band recently announced a headlining run of their own, and now they’ve announced the opening acts for each of those dates. Continue reading


Netherlands Deathfest Is Less Than Six Months Away!


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With California Deathfest in the rearview, the team behind Maryland Deathfest turns its attention to already completed Netherlands Deathfest event next March, less than six months away. Details below: Continue reading


Gorphanage – May Cause Birth Defects


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Death Metal has found itself in a pretty serious place. Whether it’s the artily-lit tentacles and elaborate hats of Portal and their imitators, Vastum’s multi-syllabic tales of incest and malevolent sodomy or even the maelstrom of black-and-white drawings of goats and skeletons unleashed by the Nuclear War Now! set, any laughter that’s being had by modern DM bands is taking place behind the scenes – but it hasn’t always been that way. Gorphanage’s self-released debut aims very much takes its cues from the days of Impetigo and Repulsion, when being disgusting and being silly were pretty much the same thing.

Musically, this is exactly what you’d expect from those references – thick, dirty riffs and crude, bludgeoning rhythms topped with growled vocals that are comparatively audible by modern standards. The occasional use of sinister melodies adds a touch of variety, and comedy film samples (another old legacy of a simpler time) break things up a little, but this is not music that revels in a range of tones and emotions.

It’s hard to criticise Gorphanage too seriously when their limitations are so clearly the result of deliberate choices. It’s crude, unsophisticated and frequently childish, but it’s hard to imagine that a band who’ve written a song called ‘Choke On Beelzebub’s Fuck Muscle’ would be too upset at having that pointed out. The band are clearly at their most comfortable at slow- or mid-pace, with the faster passages collapsing into a sloppy mess more often than not – but, again, “sloppy mess” is not a major problem given where the band have set their sights. What they do well is to churn out filthy, primitive Death Metal riffs, and they’ve made that the core of their sound.

May Cause Birth Defects is not going to reinvent Death Metal – it’s not trying to – but it achieves precisely what it sets out to. A silly, childish mash of zombies, mass smurf-murder and mindless pummelling that refuses to make any apologies for what it is, and pays sincere, effective tribute to a time when Death Metal was more famed for its sick humour and dirty riffs than its avant-garde headwear.

7.0/10

RICHIE HR


Slaves Beyond Metal – Jamie Byrum and Neil McAdams of Black Breath


Black Breath, photo credit- Invisible Hour

Black Breath, photo credit- Invisible Hour

We did pass up a truck in Utah carrying a load of uranium hexafluoride, which is physical radioactive material. Pretty sure when we passed him he was playing on his phone while driving. So that was inspiring. Other than that, everything else has been normal,” said vocalist Neil McAdams, sharing an interesting story about his band Black Breath’s recent tour supporting Goatwhore this past summer.

Since this tour, the band has dropped their latest album Slaves Beyond Death and have been touring in support of this. While the band is no stranger to touring, they have found themselves sharing stages with a wide variety of bands and ready to take on any challenge. Their next venture will take them on a support slot with Decapitated across the US.

decapitated black breath theories us tour 2016

Drummer Jamie Byrum shared his thoughts on their touring history:

[We are] all over the map. In Europe we feel we’ve played with more metal bands. Over here we’ve played with more bands that come from a DIY background. We’ll play with anybody,” he said.

We like to keep things within a community of people that we know,” said McAdams.

We’re not exclusive to playing with metal or hardcore bands. We’d prefer to play with bands with diverse lineups, especially on tour when you have to listen to it every day,” concluded Byrum.

He shared some of their early shows where they were paired up with some unlikely bands.

I think early on shit was weirder. We’d play at hardcore festivals and we’d play with straight up hardcore bills with youth crew bands or positive clean-cut hardcore bands, and we’re trouble dirtbags getting drunk in the parking lot. We definitely weirded out people at those kinds of shows, but we don’t really do those kinds of shows any more. All of those kids who were creeped out by it are alcoholics now.

black breath neil mcadams

Coming out of the Seattle area, the members cut their teeth musically surrounding themselves around a wide array of bands of all genres. They described their upbringing and how an open minded scene helped bring together their peers to create a unique group of people.

We grew up in communities where there’s a real diverse music scene. When the whole huge grunge movement died in the mid 90s, we were in high school and there were all of these bands. There were all of these metal bands playing. We grew up with all of these old school thrash metal dudes and they would be playing. We would be hanging out with them. We would go to these hippie jam concerts. Indie got huge so you would see a lot of that shit,” explained McAdams.

Everyone garage and punk and indie band was playing in basements. Everyone was getting drunk. It’s very DIY,” said Byrum.

It’s a whole shit mix of stuff. To me it’s never been a huge division between hardcore and punk and metal and all of that shit. You’re all pissed off about god and fuck the police and the state and shit…I don’t know why you can’t all get on the same team,” added McAdams.

The band is signed to Southern Lord, a label better known for its eclectic roster but more for its extensive doom and stoner rock acts. While they are one of the few death metal oriented acts on their roster, Byrum found that it worked to their advantage to push their name out even more and did not feel like an oddity within a roster like theirs.

There are a lot of bands on there that doesn’t sound like anything [like what’s usually on Southern Lord]. I don’t think it’s that weird. I just like the idea of being on a label run by somebody with a similar background as a friend. We are friends with bands he chooses to sign so that helps,” Byrum said.

Photo Credit: Eric Wallace

Photo Credit: Eric Wallace

In recent times, the Northwest area has become a hotbed for musical acts once again and a string of new bands have been making noise throughout the scene. While many of those bands fall upon the rock side of the heavy music genre, bands like Black Breath have helped to revitalize a scene that has quietly produced some good bands over the years.

Seattle is an area better known for the grunge scene in the late 80s into the early 90s, producing iconic names such as Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains, along with heavier names such as Queensryche and Sanctuary. So how much has changed since that era?

It’s not very big. There’s a lot of people that are into metal but there aren’t that many good bands. I don’t know if there’s ever been that many good metal bands from Seattle, compared to Los Angeles or San Francisco. There’s Metal Church and The Accused and the classic bands. I guess there are a lot of metal bands,” said drummer Jamie Byrum, about their current Seattle metal scene.

There’s a good core community of people there who are dedicated to doing it but it’s still a small thing,” said vocalist Neil McAdams.

There are good metal bands but there’s not a shitload of them. There’s never been a shitload of them,” added Byrum.

 

Being a band that incorporated healthy parts of metal, hardcore and punk, Black Breath came up playing a wide variety of shows locally, including the Rain Fest, and eventually expanded into touring across the country. Their time spent on the road helped them spread their name and their music to newer fans along the way.

Since their start in 2005, Black Breath have crafted their sound around a variety of extreme sounds such as thrash, black and death metal with punk and hardcore influences rubbing off on them as well.

When we started out, we were playing hardcore so that’s where I came from. As we got better on our instruments, we started playing more metal,” explained Byrum.

One of the aspects of their sound that often comes up is the comparisons to the early 1990s Swedish death thrash sounds that Black Breath employed into their music through their first couple of albums (2010’s Heavy Breathing and 2012’s Sentenced to Life). While he admits to liking some of those bands over the years, he also says there was more to that than just modeling themselves around that specific sound.

We’d think anybody who’d like those bands – I mean we like those bands so I don’t think it’s so weird for someone to compare it to it, or it’s not a bad thing. I don’t necessarily think we sound like those bands particularly, but there are some similarities and we’re definitely influenced by them by those bands.

Another obvious element in Black Breath’s sound is the downtuned guitars that play a big role in shaping the way they create their music. They said that their interests in punk/metal crossover sound played a key role in bringing that into their music, and they continue to build upon that onto their newer songs.

At first it was more hardcore hard rock. We were heavily influenced by Poison Idea and bands like that. But then, I guess from the get go we were always like how can we be more intense for every writing session, so naturally it rose to that. That’s when we became a crossover band,” said Byrum.

Just keep pushing the envelope and trying new things. I don’t think it’s that interesting to keep putting out the same record over and over again,” added McAdams.

Black Breath Slaves Beyond death abum cover

Leading into the writing and recording of Slaves Beyond Death, they talked about their sound has grown since the first two albums and bringing in new ideas has helped mold their sound.

The vocals are different. They’re not hardcore vocals. That’s a big one,” said Byrum.

It’s just a different kind of record so we needed a different kind of approach,” said McAdams.

There’s way more guitar. The guitar playing is way more rooted in old school heavy metal and hard rock than in death metal, whereas early on it was just fast power chords [versus] now it’s most just riffs all the time. That’s a noticeable difference,” added McAdams.

Lastly while the band name was taken from a Repulsion song and also a reference from JRR Tolkien’s works, they shared a story from their earlier years where they attempted to work in satire into their music. While this was a one time show in the beginning of the band’s history, McAdams clarified that Tolkien’s stories has no influence within Black Breath’s music or lyrics.

This was a long time ago when we were still doing our hardcore demo stuff that we had put out. We did a show at the bar where I worked at. It’s a real tiny place and I retooled the titles for the songs. I didn’t change the lyrics but when I was introducing the songs I changed them as much as I possibly could to be some sort of Lords of the Rings reference. But that was one time eight years ago. So I would say no. As much as I appreciate Tolkien that’s not a direction I’d want to go.

By Rei Nishimoto

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Testament, Dragged Into Sunlight, Nuclear Assault, And More Added To Maryland Deathfest


maryland death fest 7 17 update admat

 

Maryland Deathfest today added 45 more bands to the line-up for next years’ festival, their 14th. New to the bill bands include Testament, Paradise Lost, Dragged Into Sunlight, Ringworm, Nuclear Assault, Buzzov*ven, Centinex, Duischarge, DOOM, Hirax, Novembers Doom, Rottensound, Repulsion, Satan, Weedeater, Skullshitter, and Waco Jesus among others. Last month MDF 2016 announced Venom, Exciter, The Haunted, and Samael with 20 other bands for next years festival.

New Bands Added to MDF 2016:

The Afternoon Gentlemen (UK)
Buzzov*en
Centinex (Sweden)
Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin (Italy)
Crypt Sermon
Dehumanized
Demonical (Sweden)
Demonic Christ
Deranged (Sweden)
Discharge (UK)
DOOM (UK)
Dopethrone (Canada)
Dragged into Sunlight (UK)
Gets Worse (UK)
Ground
Hellbringer (Australia)
Hirax
Horrendous
Infest
Interment (Sweden)
Magrudergrind
Novembers Doom
Nuclear Assault
Paradise Lost (UK)
Priapus
Putrescence (Canada)
Repulsion
Ringworm
Rotten Sound (Finland)
Satan (UK)
Secrets of the Moon (Germany)
Severed Head of State
Sick Fix
Sick of Stupidity (Netherlands)
Six Brew Bantha (Canada)
Skullshitter
Tempest
Test (Brazil)
Testament
Tragedy
Waco Jesus
Weedeater
Whoresnation (France)
Wombbath (Sweden)
World Burns to Death

45 more bands confirmed for MDF XIV!!!The Afternoon Gentlemen (UK)Buzzov*enCentinex (Sweden)Claudio Simonetti’s…

Posted by Maryland Deathfest on Friday, July 17, 2015


Dew-Scented – Intermination


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Having been in the game since the early 90s, right about when thrash burned itself out and bands attempted to diversify, with predictably awful results (no-one needs an Exodus cover of Elvis Costello in their lives), Dew-Scented have steadfastly refused to sacrifice their intensity and heaviness. However, leaving aside the rather weak gimmick of every album title beginning with the letter ‘I’, they have never done anything to make them stand out from a densely populated crowd. Tenth full-length release Intermination (Metal Blade/Prosthetic) does little to change that.

After a brief melodic intro, the quartet launch into a fifteen song, fifty-three minute blitzkrieg of jacked-up thrash riffs that chug and shred with the best of them, thunderous drum beats that keep things tighter than a sealed tin can, and harsh, bellowed vocals that tell of their frustration in a violent world. It’s technically flawless; chock full of massive grooves and ripping guitar lines that just scream “Wacken Circle Piiiiit” and the band don’t miss a beat throughout. Standout tracks include the majestic solo and furious blastbeats of ‘Affect Gravity’, the razor-sharp thrash assault of ‘Means to an End’ and the primal neck-snapping brutality of ‘Power Surge.’ The Repulsion cover at the end (‘Radiation Sickness’) is a suitably feral way to close proceedings.

Unfortunately, there is simply too little variation between songs to justify there being so many of them. Dew-Scented are so far in their comfort zone that they’re on autopilot and have been for some time now. Intermination is one hell of a powerful and aggressive record, but it has little staying power and nothing to make you revisit it a few months down the line. German efficiency may get the job done, but in a totally soulless fashion.

 

7.0/10

Dew-Scented on Facebook

JAMES CONWAY


Audio: Dew Scented – On A Collison Course, New Album Intermination Out June 30th


dew scented intermination

Dew-Scented will be releasing their new album Intermination on June 30, 2015 via Prosthetic Records, with covers of Repulsion’s “Radiation Sickness” on the album and a bonus cover of Solstice’s “Survival Reaction” appearing on the digital and vinyl editions. Stream “On A Collison Course” below.

01: Declaration Of Intent
02: On A Collision Course
03: Scars Of Creation
04: Affect Gravity
05: Means To An End
06: Ode To Extinction
07: Demon Seed
08: Power Surge
09: Ruptured Perpetually
10: Living Lies
11: Atavistic
12: Reborn
13: Radiation Sickness (Repulsion cover)
14: Those Who Will Not See (digital/vinyl bonus track)
15: Survival Reaction (Solstice cover) (digital/vinyl bonus track)