Tag Archives: Southwest Terror Fest

Southwest Terror Fest V Starts Tonight in Tuscon with Saint Vitus, SUMAC, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Pig Destroyer

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For the fifth year in a row, the best underground metalfest west of Maryland Deathfest is the Southwest Terror Fest. No other festival brings you the quality of bands from across the heavy spectrum, and Tuscon is just a cool town to host this shindig! Starting tonight October 20th through the 23rd, nearly four-dozen artists from across the US and Canada converging on five stages at multiple venues will wreck brains and eardrums. Full details, with shows and daily lineups are below’Continue reading →


Theories – Regression

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You can always tell you’re dealing with a serious band when, just 4 years since their inception, they can already boast slots at Maryland Deathfest, Southwest Terror Fest and tour support for Cattle Decapitation. Couple that with a line-up which contains members of Samothrace, Skarp and Book of Black Earth and you wonder if they can meet a bar already set so high. Enter Theories, a 4-piece rising up from Seattle dragging with them hateful package of unrelentingly bleak death/grind metal with their debut studio album, Regression (Metal Blade).

Opener ‘Burnt Concrete’ quickly sets the tone and it barrages its way through chaotic drum parts while ‘Cycle of Decay’ follows with a huge depth of sound. Perhaps the strongest tracks on the album, ‘Shame’ and ‘Swimming in Mud,’ show off the band’s ability to really pack in some seriously mid-paced riffing, giving a listener a glimpse at their dissonant experimental touches that really help set them apart from others on the scene. Despite the variety within each song however, there remains a flow within the album that really holds it together making this an album that is not only formidable track to track, but holds its own as a complete entity also.

While Regression can boast every tick box on the high-end grind list: technical brilliance, great production, and huge get on or get hurt sound, I spent most of the album waiting for it to really rip me off my feet. Usually an album of this quality would warrant a flawless review, but for this group there’s the constant nagging sense that Regression could have been much more than the final product. For a first album however it still packs the explosive and devastating quality of a nail bomb and I for one can’t wait to see what this band have to offer given more time and experience.

8.5/10

Theories on Facebook

CAITLIN SMITH


Godhunter And Amigo The Devil To Release EP

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Amigo The Devil & Godhunter EP collaboration

 

Doom laden hardcore group Godhunter have collaborated with anthemic folk group Amigo The Devil, the two track Ep features one original track entitled ‘Weeping Willow’ as well as a cover of Nirvana’s ‘Something in the way’. The EP is scheduled for release for the Black Friday event on the 28th November.

 

Press Release:

As Tucson’s Godhunter takes their confrontational auditory demolition back out on the road this week for a twelve-city West Coast run with Sorxe, the band announces yet another new set of recordings destined to see release this Fall.

After the release of their debut album, City Of Dust and the more recent GH/0ST:S split LP with Oakland’s Secrets Of The Sky both released this year, Godhunter now announces a collaborative EP with Miami-based Amigo The Devil . While all of Godhunter’s 2014 releases have shown their generally crushing sludge/crust-influenced hardcore grooves giving way to more ethereal, organic rock influences, expanding the use of keys and acoustic instruments, the newly completed collaboration presents an incredible new sound completely.

The charismatic murderfolk of Amigo The Devil , currently calling Miami, Florida home, features the soulful vocals and Americana-based anthems of one Danny Kiranos, who here unites with Godhunter, who provides virtually all instrumentation on these two incredibly accessible, somber and beautiful yet ominous tracks. The collaboration, The Outer Dark, includes one original tune, “Weeping Willow,” paired with an awesome cover of Nirvana’s “Something In The Way” on the B-side.

As with City Of Dust and GH/0ST:S, The Outer Dark will see release through a union of Godhunter -co-owned Battleground Records and Earsplit’s label The Compound, who will release the album on 7″ vinyl on Black Friday, November 28th. Preorders audio from the release and more will be released in the near future. Nearly all of Godhunter’s prior releases are available via The Compound HERE.

Later this month, both bands will perform at Southwest Terror Fest III: The Western Front — the massive Tucson-based musical gathering co-created by members of Godhunter among others — with Godhunter performing at the Rialto Theatre on Saturday, October 17th with Eagle Twin, Pelican and Goatsnake, and Amigo The Devil performing sporadically and randomly at both The Rialto Theatre and the nearby The District Tavern over the entire four-day event. Leading up to the fest, Godhunter will torch the West Coast alongside Phoenix-based Sorxe, the tour beginning this Thursday, October 2nd. Both bands will perform at the two-day Lucifest II with Demon Lung, Reproacher, Secrets of the Sky and others, and will join the likes of Graves At Sea and more along the way before closing the tour down at SWTF.

Stream all of GH/0ST:S via Revolver HERE, and check out a recent video interview with Godhunter right HERE.

Godhunter Tour Dates:
10/02/2014 The Hive – Flagstaff, AZ w/ Sorxe
10/03-04/2014 Mojo’s Music Venue – Odgen, UT @ Lucifest II w/ Sorxe, Secrets of the Sky, more
10/05/2014 Lion’s Lair – Denver, CO w/ Sorxe
10/06/2014 TBA – Casper, WY w/ Sorxe
10/07/2014 The Shredder – Boise, ID w/ Sorxe
10/08/2014 The Hop – Spokane, WA w/ Sorxe
10/09/2014 The Shakedown – Bellingham, WA w/ Sorxe
10/10/2014 Victory Lounge – Seattle, WA w/ Sorxe
10/11/2014 The Know – Portland, OR w/ Graves At Sea, Sorxe
10/12/2014 Hemlock Tavern – San Francisco, CA w/ Sorxe, Secrets Of The Sky
10/13/2014 Black Flame Collective – San Bernadino, CA w/ Sorxe
10/17/2014 Rialto Theatre – Tucson, AZ @ SWTF III w/ Goatsnake, Pelican, Eagle Twin

Amigo The Devil Live:
10/16-19/2014 Southwest Terror Fest – Tucson, AZ

Godhunter on Facebook

Amigo The Devil on Facebook


Powerviolence Potpourri- An Interview With Swampwolf

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a3645240569_9In the final installment of our coverage of the Southwest Terror Fest 13, Ryan Clark interviews “Dirty Steve” Kaufman of Swampwolf. Swampwolf, if you didn’t know, plays a thrashy blend of slam and hardcorecore that will send you spin kicking into the pit. They played the fest supporting their new single Oh My Goddess and they are working on a new full-length to follow-up to 2012’s The Brilliance of a Feral Mind.

 

 

 

 

What are your thoughts on the heavy music scene in Arizona? If you could change one thing about it for the better, what would that be?

There’s lots of good hardcore and powerviolence going on right now. We need more community, a lot of times people won’t show up for the music if it is not a party. There needs to be more young people getting involved as well.

 

How would you describe your bands sound and what are your future plans?

We started out as powerviolence, but more metal crept in and here we are. We want to make another full length album and tour the Eastern and Southeastern US, at least as far east as Georgia. Right now, we’ve got six new songs out on cassette tape and they will be coming out on a self-titled LP as well.

 

Do you think events like Southwest Terror Fest are great opportunities to expose new people to the underground scene?

Yes, they are good opportunities if people support them and come to show that support. They are excellent networking opportunities for bands as well, we’ve gotten some shows from talking with other bands during the fest last year, so that is a big plus. Also, having more mainstream artists like Red Fang on the bill gets those not as familiar with the more underground part of the scene in the door and they might discover more that they like.

 

What is more important to you as a band, recording or performing live?

Records should sound good and be clean, but it is extremely important to be tight and bringing the show when you go out on tour, as long as people are having a good time you are doing what you need to do.

 

Swampwolf on Facebook

Southwest Terror Fest on Facebook

 

Ryan Clark