Skeletonwitch:
The drought is over. After years in the wilderness, homegrown heavy metal has finally returned. No longer the domain solely of our European forefathers, metal pure in both delivery and creativity is gaining momentum at breakneck speed in the Western Hemisphere. Leading the charge domestically are Ohio’s sons of Midwestern darkness SKELETONWITCH, who have emerged as forerunners of this new American sound. The ‘WITCH’s mighty sonic fortress is an amalgamation of classic Bay Area thrash, Scandinavian death/black metal and NWOBHM. Upping the ante from their Prosthetic debut, Beyond the Permafrost, these five gnarly longhairs show no mercy and take no prisoners on their new long-player, Breathing the Fire. Prosthetic Records
Withered, formed in 2003, exists to explore the darker aspects of human existence and deliver it to the masses while exemplifying unbridled truths about human nature. From the exploration of coping with tragedy to theoretical philosophical approaches, WITHERED continues to push their boundaries of perception into a realm of solitude and raw introspective discovery. They have released two full length albums, Memento Mori (2005 - Lifeforce) and Folie Circulaire (2008 - Prosthetic), which have both been critically acclaimed and topped numerous year end and decade end lists. WITHERED mixes a blackened atmosphere with the weight of doom metal & old school Scandinavian death metal to culminate a unique blend of extreme styles and expression. Their third full length is due late 2010 for another testament to their ever growing edification of what truly lies within the human animal and how culture & society have greatly compromised humanity’s potential to an extent of irreversible demise. Prosthetic Records
Landmine Marathon was founded in 2004 by bassist Matt Martinez, drummer Mike Pohlmeier and vocalist Grace Perry, the latter of whom periodically blogs for the website of Revolver magazine. Butler joined in 2006, soon after the release of the band’s debut album Wounded. The following year, the group released a praised split CD/LP with Scarecrow; in its review, All Music Guide wrote that “LANDMINE MARATHON’s three tracks have more good ideas than most bands’ albums.” In 2008, the group welcomed guitarist Dylan Thomas and returned to the studio to record Rusted Eyes Awake.Revolver called the album “a gnarling and gnashing blood-caked throwback to 1990, when Napalm Death couldn’t decide if they were going to be grindcore or death metal,” while Lambgoat praises the band’s “pure urgency and grit,” calling the release a blend of “the ferociously thick riffs of Bolt Thrower’s death metal (and) Napalm Death’s blistering grind mentality.” Prosthetic Records
Ipsissimus was founded when His Emissary (guitars) and Haimatokharmes (drums) met by providence on 6/6/06 in New Haven, CT, and found in one another worthy vessels of channeling the occult philosophies into ritual Black Metal.
In November of that year, Tichondrius (bass/vocals) completed the trinity. Within a month they were playing concerts and released the demo “Trampling the Host,” a potent exercise in raw, blasting Black Metal. Over the following years, they established a reputation across New England for technical yet raw live performances, sharing the stage with both local and established Black Metal groups, such as Nachtmystium, Enslaved, Dark Funeral, Krallice, and Watain. In February 2008, Ipsissimus independently released the “Three Secrets of Fatima” EP, Matching their music to orations of black piety that draw from esoteric traditions antique and modern, often composed in the dead tongues of the ancients themselves, Ipsissimus initiates the listener to a Left-Hand Gnosis with a unique and irrefutable statement of American Black Metal. Metal Blade Records
Volume Merchants / Unsafe At Any Age from Ultrabunny:
Volume Merchants sets this LP in motion. Four songs starting with Small War, a gurgle-drone of brooding robot frog talk with eerie alien sounds of flying saucers scanning for life. I swear I hear a sooty factory toiling way down in there, like the kind Henry walked home from in Eraserhead. It's too low to be sure. I might've imagined it. Medium War moves away into Confusion Is Sex tribalism. Which is fine, even though I could have melted into Small War for hours. Large War and My War finish off the last half, sometimes getting a tad tedious from some pedestrian rock patterns, but still wailing and pounding at a destructive pace. Once My War dives into a finale of feedback and wide flange, the mood comes close to returning to the shadowy Small War beginnings. The side is for sure at its best when building up to what's about to get torn down.
When I put this LP on for the first time, I started backwards with Unsafe At Any Age. I was folding laundry while thinking about the consumerist crank of black Friday. But I snapped out of this mundane bullshit pretty quick thanks to this record. This is my third listen now, and it's this side that I dig the most. The demented furor of the second song, Fight War, introduces helium high bellows which carry over into the manic march of Not Wars, with vocals at an equally perverse octave. All the guitar and bass no-wave clangor is a lovely boiling of urgent ideas and immediate impulses. But the absolute brilliance of Hot War takes the cake. It is almost five minutes of laughter on the brink of tears, the maddening cackle of people that have lost their minds. The loop carrying this bedlam is like the inner groove of a shattered 45 spun in slo-mo. A ghost of a siren signals, but is unheard, engulfed by endless cracking-up. Not War pulls you out of this with tones modulated into what feels like an exit sign blinking into being in the middle of a black hole.
A great record all around. The moodier parts reminded me of Religious Knives, but I admit I wanted something a little more from a few sections of Volume Merchants. Nothing as savage as say Sword Heaven, even though the thought crossed my mind. All of the LP was recorded live on location by Malcolm Tent on various dates throughout January of 2010 at a slew of spots, from NY, NJ, to here at home. This is all improv that was then "stitched" together at Salon TPOS, and based on the dates of the performances listed, I think the assemblage is completely anachronistic. "Each side of this LP is a suite, meant to be enjoyed as a whole" reads the back, along with a recommendation to take a break between sides. Because these guys are on the older side, they have way more living and listening under their collective belts. So the experience this LP offers is focused and intense but with plenty of room for your own twisted sense of what they're getting at.
Cruel Hand is a hardcore band from Portland, Maine drawing influences from the Cro-Mags, early Metallica and Madball. Their debut album, Without a Pulse, was released in 2007 on 6131 Records. They played shows around the U.S. with Trash Talk, The Mongoloids and more, hitting the United States three times and undertaking a full European tour. Next they signed to Bridge 9 Records and in 2008 released the Prying Eyes CD/LP, described on the Bridge 9 web site as “one of the hardest records of 2008, just as full of catchy metallic riffage as it is mosh parts.” Bridge 9
Hate Your Guts:
Reigning from New Haven, Connecticut, HATE YOUR GUTS do as promised. No warning, pure relentless good old fashion hardcore nihilism. Mass energy building-pissed off all-out attack. TOTAL WAR. Put on The Cro-Mags “Age Of Quarrel” record, a little Ringworm and some vintage Hatebreed in a trash bag alongside two baby wolf cubs, shake it up and there you have it. Pure East Coast HATE.
Eulogy Recordings
Linfinity are a New York City based group of musicians who helped form a band around enigmatic front man Dylan Von Wagner, tackling everything from Southern Gothic tropes and rockabilly to beautiful, string-laden Moorish stomps and bombastic chamber pop. For fans of The Builders and Butchers, Murder By Death, Langhorne Slim, etc.
The End of America is a 3 piece folk band from New York City feat. James Downes of Call It Arson and Brendon Thomas of Foreverinmotion. In the past James Downes, Brendon Thomas, and Trevor Leonard discussed recording music in remote locations, where they could separate themselves from the buzz of computers and modern life. From these discussions came the concept of The End of America: to travel to the ends of the continent in search of musical inspiration and to write and record their songs there.
Eurisko is a 5-piece rock band from the greater New Haven/Waterbury area that recently formed in early 2010. Since their inception they have developed a sound soaked in whiskey, multi-layered guitar riffs, and creatively grim lyrics. Influenced primarily by folk and indie rock, Eurisko’s music spans from quickly paced melodic ballads to deep, creeping songs carrying shipments of woe; and has drawn comparisons to the music of Tom Waits, The Decemberists, Murder By Death, and Bright Eyes. The combination of three guitars, bass, and drums gives Eurisko the flexibility to take a wide-ranging and detailed approach to their song-writing, which are then given more dimension through the use of poetic lyrics and storytelling.
Linfinity dates:
Nov 27 The Monkey House Winooski, Vermont
Nov 28 Club Hell Providence, Rhode Isla
Nov 30 Maxwell’s Hoboken, New Jersey
Dec 1 BogiesAlbany, NY
Dec 2 Iron Horse Northampton, MA
Dec 3 The Chance Complex Poughkeepsie, New York
Dec 4 KUNG FU NECKTIE PHILADELPHIA, PA
Dec 5 The Main Event/main street cafe Toledo, Ohio
Dec 6 The Intersection Grand Rapids, MI
Dec 7 Beachland Ballroom Cleveland, Ohio
Dec 8 Schubas Chicago, Illinois
Dec 9 Brillobox Pittsburgh, PA
Dec 10 Empty Glass Charleston, West Virginia
Dec 11 Golden West Cafe Baltimore, MD
Dec 12 Red Palace Washington DC, Washington
Dec 13 Mercury Lounge New York, NY
Bios from Manic's page Sgt. Scagnetti:
For the first time in a decade these former CT Ska-core giants reunite for 2 shows. Combining the quirky ska-core of bands like the Blue Meanies, with the frantic metal/circus rock of Mr. Bungle, Sgt Scag dominated the CT Ska scene of the late 90’s. Originally started as a pop ska band, the addition of front man Steve Lonergan led to the incarnation of the band that most were familiar with. With Steve at the helm the band’s music took a harder, more frantic turn employing lyrics filled with dysfunctional families, drug use and revenge fantasies, and with it the band rose to be one of the most popular underground bands in the state. The reunion will feature the “Just another Trick/DE:TO:NA:TE era lineup of the band, along with special appearances of some of the founding members of the band as well.
Slackjaw:
In an era of the CT music scene where every band seemed to be clamoring to ape Blink 182, or the Drive Thru band of the moment, Slackjaw seemed to be the lone Epitaph/FAT Wreck style band to garner any attention. Taking cues from bands such as Operation Ivy, Anti-Flag and NOFX, Slackjaw rose to arguably be one of the biggest pop punk bands ever in the state. As the bands influences broadened, the musical stylings eventually morphed the band into what eventually become the post hardcore band Kennesaw, after Slackjaw’s demise. This will be their first show in over 5 years.
from their myspace: The Step Kids:
We crash landed on this planet in the middle of a shit storm in the year 2009 AD. It is an island that has more buildings than beaches. Our ship had been badly damaged by an unforeseen meteor shower, typical in a galaxy of this size. We lost a nitromat-synth accelerator in the crash, a true advent in the conversion of dark matter into molecular combinations of airborne chemicals. Luckily our secondary proton transformer was untouched by the collision and we managed to land without further injuring the ship or ourselves. Since that day, we assimilated into human form in an effort to acquire the precious metals we need to repair our ship.
M.T. Bearington:
Check out two tracks off Love Buttons:
Pictures
Here's Your Mood Ring, Honey
