Pretty New Things

Just a quick update on a few new items that are most impressive:

- Young Widows 7" vinyl series (Temporary Residence)
- Pelican- Ephemeral 12" EP (Southern Lord)
- Coliseum- True Quiet/Last Wave 7" (Deathwish)
- Champions of Sound 2x7"- Unreleased gems from Stove Bredsky, Zozobra, Pelican and Kayo Dot (Hydra Head)
- Pearl Jam- Fan Club X-Mas 7" (Monkeywrench), yes just arrived in July...The Christmas single. Even late for Flag Day this year, dudes.
- Poison The Well- The Tropic Rot (Ferret)
- Killswitch Engage- s/t (Roadrunner)
- Disappearer- The Clearing (Magic Bullet)

Here's to a great week!

Disappearer- Unreleased Demo Track/Video:

Top 20 of 2008

The year 2008 gave us some really great music. No, really. There were great records by great bands and a good number of newer bands that put out extremely good LP's. 36 Crazyfists killed it this year with a flawless album, while Zozobra and Cult of Luna had a serious go at it for the #1 spot. Buy these records. All of them. Now.There's a lot of great stuff in here. Check it out!

TOP 20 of 2008:

1. 36 Crazyfists- The Tide and its Takers (Ferret)
2. Zozobra- Birds of Prey (Hydra Head)
3. Cult of Luna- Eternal Kingdom (Earache)
4. In Flames- A Sense of Purpose (Koch)
5. Amon Amarth- Twilight of the Thunder God (Metal Blade)
6. Meshuggah- obZen (Nuclear Blast)
7. Opeth- Watershed (Roadrunner)
8. Intronaut- Prehistoricisms (Century Media)
9. Clouds- We Are Above You (Hydra Head)
10. King's X- IV (Inside Out)
11. Gojira- The Way of All Flesh (Prosthetic)
12. Jeff Ament- Tone (Monkeywrench)
13. Totimoshi- Milagrosa (Volcom)
14. Young Widows- Old Wounds (Temporary Residence)
15. Protest The Hero- Fortress (Vagrant)
16. Dub Trio- Another Sound Is Dying (Ipecac)
17. Burning Brides- Anhedonia (self-released)
18. Metallica- Death Magnetic (Warner Bros.)
19. Candiria- Kiss The Lie (unmastered) (Type A)
20. Torche- Meanderthal (Hydra Head)

Best EP's:

1. The Company Band- Sign Here, Here and Here (self-released)
2. Jesu- Why Are We Not Perfect? (Hydra Head)
3. Incisor- Trendshitter (Saw Her Ghost)
4. Swallow The Sun- Plague of Butterflies (Spinefarm)
5. Red Sparrowes- Aphorisms (self-released)

Best Live LP:

Matthew Good- Live at Massey Hall (UMusic Canada)

Other Great 2008 Releases:

Testament- The Formation of Damnation (Nuclear Blast)
Mouth of The Architect- Quietly (Translation Loss)
Burst- Lazarus Bird (Relapse)
Shawn Smith- The Diamond Hand (Sound vs. Silence)
Trap Them- Seizures In Barren Praise (Deathwish)
Rotten Sound- Cycles (Spinefarm)
Pro-Pain- No End In Sight (Regain)
Saviours- Into Abaddon (Kemado)
Sevendust- Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow (7Bros/Asylum)
Ours- Mercy...Dancing With Death of an Imaginary Enemy (American)
Warship- Supply and Depend (Vagrant)
Candlebox- Into The Sun (Silent Majority)
Thrice- The Alchemy Index Vol. 3 & 4 (Vagrant)
Cavalera Conspiracy- Inflikted (Roadrunner)
Mudcrutch- Mudcrutch (Warner Bros)
Unearth- The March (Metal Blade)
Brant Bjork- Punk Rock Guilt (Low Desert Punk)
The Sword- Gods of the Earth (Kemado)
Scars on Broadway- Scars on Broadway (Interscope)
Kingdom of Sorrow- Kingdom of Sorrow (Relapse)
Dead To Fall- Are You Serious? (Victory)
The Melvins- Nude With Boots (Ipecac)
The Famine- The Raven and The Reaping (Solid State)
From The North- From The North (Wammybox)
Liam Finn- I'll Be Lightning (Yep Roc)
Ligeia- Bad News (Ferret)
The Bronx- III (White Drugs)
Trivium- Shogun (Roadrunner)

Best Shows of 2008:

Pearl Jam- Hartford, CT
Crudo- San Francisco
Clouds- Berkeley, CA
36 Crazyfists/In Flames/Gojira/All The Remains- San Francisco
Eddie Vedder/Liam Finn- Santa Cruz, CA

Looking Forward To These In 2009...

Pearl Jam, Cave In, Converge, Zao, Earth Crisis, Lamb of God, Wino, ISIS, Mastodon, Dredg, Glassjaw, Deftones, Burnt By The Sun, Coalesce, Killswitch Engage, Poison The Well, Stuck Mojo, Chimaira, Katatonia, Clutch, Helmet, Crudo, Mondo Cane, Dream Theater, Anthrax and Sepultura.

So there it is. 2009 has some serious promise. Of course, Chris Cornell plans to unleash his abomination Scream on the world in February, so who knows.

Testicular Tuesday Is Above You

If you are a fan of all things Cave In, then Adam McGrath's Clouds needs no introduction. They are a fucking brilliant Boston group that combines elements of Black Flag, The Melvins and gritty rock n' roll and makes many an ass shake. Two records in (plus a killer little EP with a Guided By Voices cover) and a pending 12" (in the form of a bonus LP with the vinyl release of Clouds album #2, "We Are Above You")of b-sides coming, Clouds is now more than a mere side-project.

I had the luck and priviledge to see Clouds in front of 12 people a few weeks ago in Berkeley and they blew my fucking mind. It's always the most impressive thing to see a band play their hearts out for a limited few, as if they were playing a sold out Wembley Stadium. Super-nice dudes too.

So do the band, me and yourself a favor and support these guys...We need more balls-out rock bands out there. Also check out Zozobra, Young Widows, Coliseum, The Bronx, Fight Amp. It would be a wise decision.

"Empires In Basements/Guardian's Eyes" (Live at Newbury Comics):

Blog of Prey

So, um...I just got my copy of the sparkling new Zozobra album "Bird of Prey" and, um, I'm blown away. I mean, I expected it to be crushing, expansive, heavy and all that stuff, but I just wasn't prepaired for what Mr. Caleb Scofield (Cave In/Old Man Gloom) and Aaron Turner (Isis) had in store for my ears (and eyes...simply stunning packaging and embossing...Aaron Tuner has done it again). You know it's some good shit when one of the heaviest things you hear all year is packaged in a pretty purple sleeve. That's what I'm talkin' about right there!

A bit less of the electronic and shoegazer moments on this one. A lot of sheer brutality and hard-driving bass lines, put WAY up front in the mix...The way more records should be. And they did this (production and all) in a shitty little practice room somewhere in LA. Gotta love that.

WHEN you buy this, please listen to "In Jet Streams". Consider your face torn off at that point.

Cave In "Juggarnaut" Live 2004:

Steve Brodsky Needs a Manager

Jesus H Christ, Steve Brodsky needs a manager...and fast. The guy is signed to Hydra Head, the label that helped break Cave In and continues to develop Cave In-related projects, such as Clouds and Zozobra. They even put some love into Steve's Octave Museum and his amazing Pet Genius record last year. However, this time he's gone too far. For his fourth LP (even though it says his third, just as the Octave Museum did), Steve decided to name himself "Stove Bredsky". Look dude, selling your records are hard enough under your own name, let alone a bonehead one like Stove.

All that aside, The Black Ribbon Award is a terrific album. Of course they decided to give iTunes and Amazon's digital store three bonus tracks (one which is one of the best on the disc), so I had to buy it digitally. I will get it on CD as soon as I can find it somewhere, as the artwork is amazing, as most Hydra Head releases are. If you liked Steve's previous solo works, this will be a beautiful dream for you. It has lush pop melodies and hooks and his trademark falsetto tone all over this thing. If you're hoping for Cave In, wait for the new Zozobra (July 22nd). That will crush skulls.

The bottom line is that I fully support all Cave In alumni and if Steve wants to call himself Stove, I'm down. Just saying he needs a manager to rope that shit in. Just saying...

Pet Genius "Doomsday"

I'm Re-Learning Science

You can too, thanks to The Ocean and their latest installment, the 2-disc ass-rumbling behemoth they call Precambrian. Disc one is 22 minutes of traditional sick metal and hardcore, while the second disc is a lot of new ground to cover, bringing in elements of classical, atmospheric shoegazer rock, piano interludes and a lot more. Not the usual fare for a hc/metal band from Germany. Of course, The Ocean is not a usual band. It's made up of 1,245 dudes (seriously, about 20) at any given time. They have many guest vocalists, including Caleb (Cave In, Zozobra, Old Man Gloom), Nate (Converge, Doomriders) and Sean (Coalesce)...Right there I was sold.

Precambrian is a complex concept record, following their sophomore release ad Metal Blade debut, Aeolian. These dudes are like, smart and stuff.

I actually have to go listen to this now, as typing about it doesn't do it justice. Heavy where you want it to be, mellow where you'd never expect it. Simple chords strung together, woven with odd-time breaks and quite impressive chops. This is progressive metal at its finest. I don't mean Prog, I mean true metal music transcending all genres, yet still kicking you square in your nuts.

Buy this record and support THE OCEAN and go check 'em out: The Ocean Collective

2006 live clip:

Biggest. Riff. Ever.

Come back, Cave In. You are missed.

While I love the amount of Cave In-related projects that have surfaced in the past year and a-half (Octave Museum, Clouds, New Idea Society, the upcoming Pet Genius and the sonically brutal Zozobra), it's just not Cave In. Zozobra comes pretty damn close though. Thank you very much Mr. Scofield.

Basically, Cave In invented (or helped to move forward) the genre that is now metalcore. Just as emo used to be a desription of emotional hardcore-type bands like Far and Fireside, metalcore was once a good term, used to name drop bands that killed it, like Zao, Earth Crisis, All Out War and Cave In.

Then 1999 happened. All of a sudden it was as if the dudes in Cave In discovered Failure, covered "Magnified" dead on and rewrote the book on how to transform into a new band altogether. Jupiter is the ultimate shoegazer record (think the best parts of Failure, Hum and Shiner) and was such a huge statement at the time. It brought a ton of attention to young upstart label, HydraHead. It also weeded out the meatheads at shows. It's an inteligent record that catapulted the band to Indie crown status and gained the attention of RCA records, who signed the band for their 2003 release, Antenna.

The dudes caught a ton of slack for the mainstream appeal of this LP, but I just don't see it that way. Selling 35K records isn't selling out at all. They got to tour the world with Muse and the Foo Fighters and put out a gret album. With Jupiter being such a defining snapshot of the band and Tides of Tomorrow (2002 EP) being such a great transitional piece between records, Antenna had much to live up to.

Fast-forward to 2005. Band makes batch of new demos. Label hates demos. Band hates label. Label lets band keep demos and all monies used to record them. Coolness ensues. Perfect Pitch Black is a fucking wrecking ball of an album and the best possible way to put Cave In on indefinite hiatus. Think Zeppelin meets Failure meets The Beatles meets old Cave In meets new Cave In. Every sound they ever treaded ground over is covered here. "Off To Ruin" and "Trepanning" are simply some of their best works. Stephen steps up his soaring vocals and Caleb lets out the bowel-shaking growls that he's become synonomous with for his work in Old Man Gloom. This record was basically a set of leaked internet demos and some b-sides which just happened to crush as a solid full-length.

With a huge tour to follow with the Doomriders, Cave In released a tour-only Cassingle (hey dudes, it's your $$$) of two new tracks with Ben Kohller (Converge) on drums, "Dead Already" and "Shapeshifter". Some of their heaviest stuff, recorded live in one take each.

So while I'm looking forward to the new Pet Genius (Stephen Brodsky) and another slab of awesome from Zozobra (Caleb Scofield), what I really want/need is some Cave In.

I'll enjoy this for now. "Big Riff", live 2004. HUGE...