The 4th studio album from Black Metallers Artisian is now available. The album is titled “A Plague On All Your Houses” and a track from it, “Orion”, is available to listen to on the band’s MySpace.
Copies are extremely limited and are available for £6.50 (including postage) directly from the band. Payment is accepted through PayPal (please send any payments to iainmiro@hotmail.com). Please see Artisian’s MySpace for further details.
Debauchery have released an exclusive cover version of Alice Cooper’s classic “School’s Out”.
This digital single is only available online and can be purchased in all familiar download shops (Amazon etc.).
Thomas Gurrath has recently revealed quite why Debauchery has a decided to cover this particular track:
Thomas was recently given the ultimatum by his day-job, that of a teacher, to decide between the music of his two bands (Debauchery and Big Ball) and his teaching position. Thankfully, he chose music and “School’s Out” (available through all good, official download suppliers) is his last, departing comment on the subject!
Check out the band’s Myspace at: .myspace.com/debaucheryband
The folks at Damnation Fest are really spoiling us…
GOTHIC metallers PARADISE LOST head up the latest additions to Damnation Festival.
The genre-spanning Halifax quintet will bring their blend of atmospheric doom to the main Jagermeister Stage at Leeds University Union, on Saturday, November 6, 2010.
And they’ll be joined by German progressive metallers THE OCEAN, rising post-rock trio MAYBESHEWILL and the politically inspired industrial overtones of OCTOBER FILE.
With The Dillinger Escape Plan, Earthtone9, Anaal Nathrakh, Lawnmower Deth and Alcest among the names already confirmed for the sixth edition of Damnation Festival, the event is shaping up to be the most vital date on the metal calendar.
Paradise Lost vocalist Nick Holmes last night revealed the band are looking forward to taking the stage in Leeds, if not negotiating the roads network.
He said:
It’s fantastic to be playing at the Damnation Festival, and we hope to see you all there.
I never got my head around the one way system in Leeds, thankfully someone else will be driving so we should arrive on time!
Festival Director Gavin McInally added:
Following the triumphant performances by My Dying Bride and Anathema in recent years, it’s fitting to have Paradise Lost complete the final piece of the Unholy Trinity at Damnation.
We are also delighted to announce The Ocean, Maybeshewill and October File for what will be another vital bill on our Rock Sound Stage this year.
Damnation Festival will take place on Saturday, November 6 at Leeds University Union.
Announced so far: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Paradise Lost, Earthtone9, Anaal Nathrakh, Lawnmower Deth, Rolo Tomassi, Alcest, The Ocean, SSS, Hecate Enthroned, Fen, Maybeshewill, October File and Fukpig.
Tickets are priced £27 and are available from:
See Tickets www.seetickets.com , Ticketline www.ticketline.co.uk and Leeds Tickets: www.leedstickets.com
For more information visit the official Damnation Festival sites
Web – http://www.damnationfestival.co.uk
Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/damnationfestival
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/damnationfestival
Twitter – http://twitter.com/damnationfest
Ok, I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I think I may have just developed a new obsession! This album from Nefertum arrived on my doorstep with a bunch of other stuff for review. Unfortunately, from what I’ve listened to so far, the other stuff hasn’t really grabbed me… “Revered Lames”, however, definitely has! 
Nefertum are a Black / Death Metal band from Italy and cite their major influences as Emperor and Dimmu Borgir. When listening to the album, this influences are very clear, but Nefertum are definitely not a carbon copy of those bands. They’ve managed to pay homage to them, while still retaining their own sound.
The music on this album is insanely good – the songs extremely well written and the use of melody is superb. I was particularly impressed with the drumming. Admittedly, I’m not a drummer, but the sheer power of the drums in some of these tracks makes me want to be one. The vocals are, as you would expect, relatively grim, but the vocalist pronounces each word to great effect, so it’s quite easy to work out what is being said without needing to refer to much to the CD inlay.
The use of keys was a pleasant surprise. Usually I’m a little sceptical about keyboards in metal, but in some bands they do work well. Nefertum is one of those bands.
If you want to see/hear what I’m getting all excited about, head over to myspace.com/nefertum.
Rating: 94%
All I can tell you about Farcry is that they’re a Death/Thrash metal band from Hungary. Sadly I can’t give you a website address at this time… so, if you’re interested in picking up this demo, you may have to do a bit of Googling. If it helps, this 3 track demo CD was released through Alkemist Fanatix.
The music on the CD is pretty good, but there’s nothing to get overly excited about at this stage. “Farcry” is a straight up Death/Thrash track and does the job that it sets out to do – it drops you head first into the world of Farcry, but once you’re there, you’ll find that there’s not a whole lot to do. “Faceless” starts off with a really interesting atmospheric vibe and threatens to build into a beast of a track… However, it never quite reaches it’s full potential. “Black and White” is another pretty decent Death/Thrash track and is my favourite from the CD. I can easily imagine this being played live with very positive results.
All in all, “Carnivorous” is ok. Sadly not much more than that. There’s nothing here that gets me all hot under the collar, nothing that makes me want to scream from the rooftops about how good the band is. Perhaps it’ll grow on me?
With that said, it’s a good starting point for the band and “Black and White” shows great promise.
Rating: 50%
