Long running grind and powerviolence band ACxDC has today announced their forthcoming sophomore album, G.O.A.T., set for release via Prosthetic Records on April 26. The Los Angeles, CA based group has also shared the lead single from G.O.A.T., titled Thot Police, alongside the tracks Goatcore and Vested Interest which are available to listen to below.
Speaking on the Thot Police single release, ACxDC comments: “Thot Police stems from overhearing people, as well as seeing online discourse, in relation to extreme music (hardcore, punk, power violence, metal, etc) STILL discussing female participants and attendees by the value of their body parts.
“Consistent comments on the value of women in bands and whether they’ve received their recognition based on their “hotness”. Attacking the replication of mainstream values and norms in a music scene that for nearly five decades has confronted these attitudes and been comprised of women, femmes, non binary, and trans folks since it’s inception.”
Delving deeper into the depths of depression than its predecessor, 2020’s Satan Is King, G.O.A.T. digs down into a more emotional realm than the usual absurdist concepts previously used as subject matter. Although a glimmer of biting sarcasm, self-deprecating humor, and political rage rounds out the album, a solid majority deals with failure, imposter syndrome, and self doubt. Released four years after their Prosthetic debut, a shift in mental stability and musical aggression produces a much more cohesive, tightly wound, and unnerving side to ACxDC.
In November 2019 ACxDC returned to producer Taylor Young (Nails, Twitching Tongues) – who recorded and mixed Satan Is King – at The Pit Recording Studio, Van Nuys, CA; Brad Boatright later mastered the album at Audiosiege. Dylan Garret Smith provided the G.O.A.T. emblem which symbolises ACxDCs attachment to Satanism and commitment to upsetting religious nerds everywhere.
Embracing grind, hardcore, punk, death metal, and more, ACxDC subverts the traditional “powerviolence” sound standing out sonically on their own- precisely as their Demon-Core name implies. A first in ACxDC history, G.O.A.T. features some of extreme music’s most notable voices with features from Henry Everitt & Roger Rivandeneira (No/Mas), Alex Jones (Undeath), Elliott Morrow (Gulch), and Galax (Greenwitch).
G.O.A.T. Tracklist: 1. Wanna See a Dead Body 2. Boxed In 3. Clout Chaser (ft. Elliott Morrow from Gulch) 4. Greatest of All Time 5. Mortality Salience 6. At Midnight 7. Into the Void 8. Definition of Insanity (ft. Henry Everitt and Roger Rivandeneira from No/Mas) 9. Fairweather 10. Thot Police 11. Flying Pigs 12. Inside Joke (ft. Galax from Greenwitch) 13. Vested Interest 14. Karoshi (ft. Alexander Jones from Undeath) 15. Feed the Blade 16. Goatcore 17. Expired
ACxDC is: Sergio Amalfitano – Vocals Jorge Luis Herrera – Drums Ryan James Corbett – Bass Edward Jason Oropeza – Guitar
Portuguese death metallers CHAPEL OF SAMHAIN are set to release their debut album “Black Onyx Cave” in CD format (300 hand-numbered copies)on March 18th 2024 via Nuclear Winter Records.
Today, Decibel Magazine is hosting the album’s official premiere. Stream “Black Onyx Cave” at THIS LOCATION.
A path has been made for so long that desire gave birth to a new dimension of horror, where the graves awake at night and swallow the breathless.
Black Onyx stared into this abyss and sealed a lefthand pact with Phoros to rot the alchemy upon the philosophical stone. These fumes wrecked the pillars of time and procreated a vicious ensemble of smothering tunes towards ruin baptized under the moniker CHAPEL OF SAMHAIN.
Totally architected in a monolithic vision and crafted in the sulphuric womb of lunacy both musicians accepted this challenge outside their other musical projects (Grog, Velório & Nethermancy) to embrace and celebrate the newborn spirits of the dead.
Wandering through the extreme and obscure catacombs of the old school metal scripts, traces of death, black with eerie symphonies gather for a mass of skull crushing hymns along with a choir of morbid enchantments that turn down the crosses for the CHAPEL OF SAMHAIN hordes as the ambiences grow thicker within the abyssic layers of doom.
Once entering Black Onyx Cave, an altar will rise as you will feel the mark and the creation force behind this unparalleled vortex meant to represent the seasons change within light and shadow as Man grows wither into His Mastery. Transmutation is the Key!
FFO: early Morgoth, Profanatica, Acheron, Imprecation
Feral wilderness prophets Sunnata, (sanskr. noun emptiness, voidness) have announced their fifth full-length album Chasing Shadows will be self-released on 10th May. Ahead of the album, the band have released their beguiling new single ‘Chimera’ with accompanying music visualiser.
Sunnata commented on the new single: “‘Chimera’, the opening track from Chasing Shadows, manifests the presence of duality across the entire universe. Just like a mythical hybrid creature, the song is a bizarre mix of different genres and ideas, glued together into a compelling passage. From a blast beat and Pattonesque vocals, through a ceremonial trance-inducing build-up to a heavy, rock n rolling riffage, ‘Chimera’ proves to be an amalgamation, binding those pieces together to form a single entity.
“The song’s lyrics bind many paradoxes together, posing them as something inherent to reality. Dreamy recall of hinduistic Maya sets the tone of the piece – an ever-evolving appearance, an ever-changing shape. The cycle of life – the one who comes from the horizon and goes away – is prevalent like an imperative. Those who try to deny it and shape the world to their individual needs are fighting for the cause that is unreachable.
“The evolution binds units together, but also sets them apart. Paradoxes are part of us. Only the one, who is born and dead at the same time, prevails.”
The four piece Warsaw-based doom metal magi have been paving their own way to higher metal skies since their 2014 debut Climbing The Colossus. Their spellbinding sophomore album Zorya (2016) made the band gather even more momentum with regard to the European alternative heavy scene. Third album Outlands (2018) brilliantly brought out even more character, confidently crossing the frontier of progressive doom to land in even more melancholic and mind-expanding alleys. Fourth release Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (2021) was their most transcendent, melding together all the heaviness, intensity and tenderness into a graceful, cross-pollinating form, to create something incredible that grabbed the attention of fans and press worldwide, demanding attention and respect.
Chasing Shadows seesSunnata expanding their sonic spectrum with their most complex record to date. Exploring both the most extreme aspects and subtle incarnations of their essence, Chasing Shadows is a mind-altering doomscape painted with everlasting, captivating stories. Hitting high notes in the eyes of fans and journalists, from here Sunnata are free to roam wherever.
Commenting on the album: “The fifth album for a band like ours is no joke. We are extremely proud on one hand, but also exhausted on the other as the creative process pushed us to the current limits. It’s the most complex and longest Sunnata record to date. Filled with nuances, genre blends and confident expansion of the band’s sound spectrum. Anyone familiar with our discography can easily tell that both change and experimentation are part of our nature, but at the same time – the constant need to push ourselves outside of the comfort zone, go beyond – is what stretches one’s limits. Maybe this is why we liked the title so much – we are chasing the uncatchable – shadows, illusions, visions and try to frame them with our musical language.”
Chasing Shadows Tracklisting
1. Chimera 2. Torn 3. At Dusk (Interlude) 4. Wishbone 5. Saviour’s Raft 6. Adrift (Reprise) 7. The Tide 8. Hunger 9. Through the Abyss (Interlude) 10. The Sleeper 11. Like cogs in a wheel, we’re trapped between waves of distorted time
Known for their expressive and atmospheric live performances, Sunnata have already taken part in various international festivals and been invited to open for Mastodon, Paradise Lost,Entombed AD, Rotting Christ, Sleep, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats and The Sword. To celebrate the album release Sunnata will hit the road this summer on the following dates.
May 10: (PL) Warsaw – Hybrydy – Release Party May 13: (CZ) Brno, Kabinet Muz May 14: (HU) Budapest, Robot May 15: (AT) Salzburg, Rockhouse May 16: (DE) Jena, Klub Kuba May 17: (BE) Liege, La Zone May 18: (UK) London, Desertfest May 20: (FR) Lille, La Bulle Cafe May 21: (BE) Brussels, Le Lac May 22: (NL) Nijmegen, Merelyn May 23: (DE) Dresden, Ostpol May 24: (PL) Poznan, 2Progi May 25: (PL) Cracow, Studio May 31: (DK) Esbjerg, Fuzztival Esbjerg Aug 17: (UK) ArcTanGent
The UK tour takes in shows at The Grace, London (Monday May 13), Komedia, Brighton (Tuesday May 14), The Bodega, Nottingham (Wednesday May 15), and The Louisiana, Bristol (Thursday May 16).
Formed in Gillingham, Kent, in 2021, The Zac Schulze Gang have carved a reputation out as one of the hardest working bands on the live circuit. Built on the playing of electrifying guitarist and vocalist Zac Schulze, the gang channel their love for 20th century artists such as Dr Feelgood and Rory Gallagher to create blisteringly up-beat blues rock music. Regular fixtures on the festival circuits in Great Britain, Ireland, Europe and more recently, they played Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival in LA. After the release of their first EP ‘Made Of Three’, they were recently nominated for five awards in the 2024 UK Blues Awards. The gang are currently in the process of writing their debut album.
The Zac Schulze Gang – Photo by Phil Honley
From Atlanta, Georgia, Eddie 9V has made a name for himself in the blues scene in America’s deep south. Wowing all types of audiences with his searing Freddie King-style approach to guitar and his original retro/soul songs. He is hailed as one of the most dynamic and highly entertaining guitarists and singer songwriters on the music circuit right now. His music has been described by Rock and Blues Muse as “fresh and life-affirming,” while Classic Rock described Eddie’s music as, “the most instinctive blues you’ll hear all year.”
Watch the music video for Eddie 9V’s single “Beg, Borrow and Steal” HERE.
ABOUT EDDIE 9V
As far back as he can remember, Capricorn Studios was calling Eddie 9V. As a kid scanning the sleeves of his favourite vinyl records, this fabled facility in Macon, Georgia, was always the secret ingredient, adding a little grit and honey to every song born on its floor. Capricorn and the bands who blew through it urged the Atlanta guitarist to ditch school at 15, play his fingers bloody throughout the south, and turn apathy into acclaim for early albums Left My Soul in Memphis (2019) and Little Black Flies (2021).
Eddie spent his first quarter-century admiring Capricorn from afar. But in December 2021, the 26-year-old finally put his thumbprint on the studio’s mythology, corralling an eleven-strong group of the American South’s best roots musicians to track his third album. “There was overwhelming excitement at being in such a legendary studio,” he says. “But we hugged and got right to work. Everyone was joyous, loving, and flat-out playing their asses off.”
You don’t come to Capricorn Studios for polish. Frozen in time since its opening day in 1969, the mojo from sessions by giants like the Allman Brothers and Otis Redding still hangs in the air, while the recording philosophy remains gloriously raw. That suited Eddie, whose output has been celebrated for its warts-and-all snapshot of what went down. “In a world where everyone is trying to sound the best, I’m trying to sound like me,” he reasons. “I always want the listener to feel like they’re in the room with us. So I’d leave it in if a drum pedal squeaked or someone laughed during a take on the Capricorn album. It’s our way of putting a stamp on the song.”
Eddie’s old-school ethos goes way back. Born Brooks Mason in June 1996, he acquired his first guitar aged six, “One of those with the speaker in it – the most bang for your buck, y’know?,” ignored the prevailing pop scene at Oak Grove High School in favour of local heroes like Sean Costello and studied “older cats” like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Freddie King, and Rory Gallagher “to see what made them groove and tick.” His shoot-from-the-lip lyrics adds Eddie came from family fish fries, where his Uncle Brian “taught me to make people laugh, how to hold an audience’s attention.”
When Eddie infiltrated his home state’s live circuit – first with covers band The Smokin’ Frogs, then its more adept blues-rock offshoot, The Georgia Flood – he quickly pricked up ears everywhere he played. His artistic vision became full realized when he killed Brooks Mason and adopted the solo moniker that promises an electrifying night out, “Eddie 9 Volt”.
“There are too many Joe Schmo R&B bands,” he reasons. “I was on the road with another band, and we were talking like mobsters. So, we gave each other names – mine was Eddie.”
Already, there has been massive acclaim for his early output, with Left My Soul in Memphis dubbed “fresh and life-affirming” by Rock & Blues Muse and Little Black Flies praised by Classic Rock as “the most instinctive blues you’ll hear all year.” But as the Capricorn sessions ticked closer, Eddie fused the nervous energy into his best songs yet. “Coming off a straight blues record, I wanted to show people we’re more than that,” he reflects. “I was listening to Muscle Shoals and soul, a lot of music recorded at Capricorn in the late-’60s too. So, we spent way more time crafting the new tunes. Each song took a week to write, instead of five in one night like Little Black Flies.”
“Beg, Steal and Borrow” is ballsy soul with Eddie’s spit flecking the mic. “Yella Alligator” is as swampy-sounding as the title, with slide guitars lapping around cardboard-box beats. Bout To “Make Me Leave Home” is a propulsive shuffle, Eddie’s vocal seemingly made up in the moment. The gospel touched “Are We Through” catches a breath before How Long drapes mellow organ over bone-dry riffs. “It’s Goin’ Down” fuses porch blues with psychedelic woodwind, while “Tryin’ To Get By” brings brassy strut while concealing lyrics from the perspective of a man on a downward spiral, surviving on the crumbs of a love affair. “The lyrics and meanings of these new songs are way deeper,” says Eddie. “Take the song “It’s Goin’ Down”. It’s really about my struggle with alcohol, the dangerous nightlife of bars, and the drugs offered to you in the music industry. But then, one of my favourite tunes, “Yella Alligator,” is about a fictional psychedelic party in the bayou…”
Likewise, Capricorn is an album of thrilling musical contrasts. Bob Dylan’s “Down Along the Cove” is a pugnacious blues-rocker, followed by Khristie French’s gossamer lead vocal on the spiritual Mary Don’t You Weep. Mellow Missouri is dusty as a great lost soul session, while brass punches through the glassy chords of “I’m Lonely”. Finally, the album ends with Eddie’s laughter as he realizes he has no more to give: “I gotta come out of this room…!”
Never meet your heroes, they say, and many young artists have been overwhelmed by walking the holy ground of their dream studios. At Capricorn, Eddie 9V breathed in the history – but the album he spat out is worthy of sharing the name, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the studio’s greatest hits, and taking music back to the golden age. “We made this record,” he considers, “the way they would have done in 1969…”
I VEGGENTI is a Neapolitan rock band with various influences that releases their new single titled “La Bella e La Bestia” today through Volcano Records & Promotion. The song is available on all online platforms and an enigmatic and cryptic video is on YouTube, and takes the listener into the universe of this unique rock band, blending progressive and psychedelic elements, 60s reminiscences, and singer-songwriter aesthetics.
While the rhythmic section delineates a powerful tonal horizon, the fuzzy guitars evoke stoner moods, framing the highly original voice of the Veggenti’s frontman, drawing heavily from the rich authorial tradition of the 20th century in themes and interpretation.
I Veggenti debut on Volcano Records with an introspective piece that promises intriguing future developments.
But for now, let’s start with “La Bella e La Bestia”, available below.
Manic Eden released one solitary gem of an album in 1994, and today, Music Theories Recordings / Mascot Label Group is proud to announce the reissue of the self-titled album on 12 April. It will be released on CD, and made available digitally and on vinyl for the first time. Watch the visualiser for “Can You Feel It” HERE.
It was 1993, and Whitesnake was on a hiatus. David Coverdale was working on an album with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Adrian Vandenberg (Guitar/Keys), Rudy Sarzo (Bass) and Tommy Aldridge (Drums) decided to put a band together.
Remembering the time, Vandenberg says, “Rudy, Tommy and I just came out of the glamorous ’80s, having surfed the world’s biggest stages on the waves of the multi-million selling Whitesnake albums ‘1987′ and ‘Slip Of The Tongue’. The expensive, polished Whitesnake videos had been all over MTV non stop. Then the Grunge scene hit.”
Vandenberg wanted a more ‘organic’ sound, one that reminded him of the bands he grew up listening to; Cream, Free, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Mountain. “They still sound timeless and exciting and a bit ‘rough around the edges’,” he continues. “Pretty much always recorded in a very short period of time, so the spontaneity, dynamics and emotion in the musicians’ performances are right in your face. Mixed in such a way that the listener feels he or she is right there in the room while the band is playing.”
Monk holds wooden rosary and cross in hands
The moment came for them to return to their roots; bluesy, honest, in-your-face and ‘organic’ music. After a week or two of rehearsing in Palm Springs, they started working in a small, funky, authentic 70’s recording studio in Los Angeles. They had recruited Ron Young, the singer from American hard-rockers Little Caesar, to take on vocals for the recording. Young came off the back of two acclaimed albums with Little Caesar and a cameo appearance in the Hollywood blockbuster movie Terminator 2.
The band had already recorded the instrumental tracks, and Young adapted his vocal lines to the tracks. His instantly recognisable signature style fitted the songs and their approach perfectly. The recordings were done in about two weeks, 70’s style.
Looking back, Vandenberg reflects, “When the album got its worldwide release, it was tough to get radio airplay because of the drastically changed ‘music fashion of the week’. Of course, we were anxious to hit the road and tour all over the place, but in the end, we only did an acoustic tour in France, which was a lot of fun. While in Paris, we recorded an extremely budget-friendly video for the song ‘Do Angels Die’, filmed by two students from the film academy in Amsterdam. Still one of my very favourite videos and songs of my career.”
He finishes by saying, “Personally, this album is a timeless work of honest, organic ‘Blues-Rock With a Twist’ by four musicians who’ve always been in the music business out of passion for music and who play from the heart. I’ve always been very proud of the Manic Eden album that my friends Ron, Rudy, Tommy and I recorded in 1993. After hearing the songs a million times, I still play the album regularly, which says a lot. It’s the real deal.”
Thirty years later, honest, authentic hard-rock is flying high by both the original torchbearers and those inspired by it, so what better time for ‘Manic Eden’ to resurface as a hidden gem from a bygone era.
Track List
Can You Feel It
Gimme A Shot
Fire In My Soul
Do Angels Die
Pushing Me
Dark Shade Of Grey
Keep It Coming
When The Hammer Comes Down
Ride The Storm
Can’t Hold It
Crossin’ The Line (digital only)
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Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
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Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
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