Here's yet another thing I meant to post about ages ago and was only just reminded of: Tonight I am going to see In Solitude/The Devil's Blood/Watain in Seattle. Guitarist Henrik Palm currently plays with In Solitude and also (used to?) front Sonic Ritual. Sonic Ritual also features guitarist Linnéa Olsson whose new band is Crucifix in a Death Hand, together with Janne Jarvis (ex-Warrior Soul, Hate Gallery). "Do androids play electric guitars?" is the band's debut 3-song EP and it's a great example of heavy, hook-laden rock'n'roll. It's also now available for free download via Bandcamp, so hook it up! And to add an extra layer of spooky coincidence, I also just happened to sell my last distro copy of Sonic Ritual's debut 7" via Discogs as I was doing this writeup. Perhaps I need to talk up my dead stock more often?
reports that, yes, Terra Tenebrosa vinyl is indeed on the way as well the rumoredCraft LP (a 2xLP version of the new album "Void") plus a new 7" from Sonic Ritual.
Live Evil is the underground metal festival happening in London this weekend featuring bands who have all had the honor of being selected as one of Fenriz's bands of the week. Like many folks, I am unable to attend, but lucky for us someone put together a mix with tracks from every act: http://afistinthefaceofgod.blogspot.com/2010/10/fist-in-face-of-god-presents-live-evil.html
Quite a few Scandinavian names worth noting there, including Sonic Ritual, Deathhammer, Obliteration, Hooded Menace, Nekromantheon, Ghost...
Sonic Ritual has announced that Gottfrid Åhman (In Solitude, Invidious) will be filling on bass guitar following the departure of Christoffer Jonsson who will be playing his final show with the band at the Punk Illegal Fest in Göteborg on June 11-12.
Mostly OT, but relevant to my interests (this is my site, after all): I Just Can't Hate Enough gives a proper assessment of the new Black Breath album "Heavy breathing": http://canthateenough.blogspot.com/2010/04/lift-up-her-robessnake-covered.html (in Swedish)
The band is local to me (from Seattle), but they wish they were Swedish and I suspect that most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference if I slipped a track in somewhere. Anyhow, the band was originally intended to do a split with Sonic Ritual on the strength of their 100% killer debut EP "Razor to oblivion", but then they got signed to , decided to pursue a full-length and Sanctuary in Blasphemy took their place. Now as for said full-length, now that it's out, I must agree that it's a bit disappointing, though they do remain a strong live act IMO. Also: bonus points to 138 for the Ink & Dagger reference, something you probably won't understand unless you too are a 30-something punk.
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Brothers of End - Beats for you (Rasmus Hägg remix)
02. TALK 1
03. Haust - A final effort
04. Rasmus Kellerman - Five years from now
05. Echo Is Your Love - Playlist song
06. EL-SD - Walking sideways
07. TALK 2
08. Axe - Harm
09. Khoma - From the hands of sinners
10. Zeigeist - Bunny
11. C.Aarmé - Assuan
12. TALK 3
13. The Fine Arts Showcase - This is the day
14. Sonic Ritual - Early graves
15. Death By Kite - Pills
16. Susanne Sundfør - O master
17. TALK 4
18. Simian Ghost - Star receiver
19. Moloken - Untitled III
20. Darkthrone - I am the graves of the 80s
21. TALK 5
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Gonna continue with another mp3 post of dirtball metal-punk because, well, just because. Metal was my first musical obsession so it's never far from my heart, but we do fall out of favor from time to time. As any fan will tell you, the stereotypes are true too often and they make for a major stumbling block to the uninitiated; factor in a serious predilection towards the worst, most over-compressed, trigger-happy recordings ever and there's plenty not too like. Still though, I stick it out because metal has and always will be very important to me and also, despite all the machismo and misogyny, classic Heavy Metal (in caps, always) is the one kind of music my wife and I see eye-to-eye on. Can't get her into most modern torch-bearers though, but I try and Sonic Ritual are probably one of the better candidates -- unlike Darkthrone (see yesterday), the vocals are always clean, they've got strong choruses and they have a female guitarist. I wish the latter wasn't important, but in a male-dominated world/genre, it most certainly is. Anyhow, whether or not you know that shouldn't affect your appreciation of the music because these dudes rip. "Early graves" is the first taste of what will be their debut LP I believe and, as always, I'm eager to hear more.
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. TALK 1
02. Familjen - När planeterna stannat
03. Elephant9 - Fugi fønix
04. Yosei - The raven
05. TALK 2
06. The Tarantula Waltz - Bacchus
07. Hortlax Cobra - Smoke
08. Sonic Ritual - Early graves
09. Meleeh - Vowbreaker
10. TALK 3
11. Khoma - From the hands of sinners
12. The Ark - Echo chamber
13. Darkthrone - Those treasures will never befall you
14. Fun - Slonko
15. TALK 4
16. Degrees - Can't walk thru this alone
17. jj - Let go
18. Bruket - Polisen lägger pussel
19. Dreamboy - Pay attention
20. TALK 5
21. Moto Boy - IF you your bed could cry
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Agent Side Grinder - The screams
02. TALK 1
03. Susanne Sundfør - The brothel
04. The Skull Defekts - Millions
05. Torpedo - Accelerate
06. TALK 2
07. Donkeyboy - Ambitions
08. Haust - Skate rock
09. Ikons - The hawk
10. Dyno - Deliverance
11. TALK 3
12. Monzano - Waterways and altitude
13. Moto Boy - The heart is a rebel
14. The Graviators - Back to the sabbath
15. Sonic Ritual - (Don't wanna) Feel alright
16. TALK 4
17. Oskar Schönning - Farsan
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Many folks have abandoned myspace, but Fenriz of Darkthrone still uses it to highlight his favorite underground acts with his "Band of the Week" feature and now, after doing it continually for a long while, it's led to some bigger/better things besides just hipping many folks to lots of great music (myself included). First up, there will be a "Live Evil Fest" happening in Camden, UK in late October featuring a number of previous "Band of the Week" recipients including Obliteration and Sonic Ritual, two IAT favorites. Go here for more on that: http://www.myspace.com/liveevilfestival
Secondly, both Nocturno Culto and Fenriz will be co-editing the March issue of Terrorizer where they will be running features and interviews on many other bands they dig. Should be great for anyone into true underground metal + punk, so yeah, keep an eye out!
Swedish metal-punks Sonic Ritual are now up on Bandcamp and streaming two tracks off their new 12" EP "Mother hearse", a reissue of the band's first demo cassette: http://sonicritual.bandcamp.com/
Sonic Ritual's new 12" "Mother Hearse", originally slated for release last March via US label Tankcrimes before they went broke, will now be released by German label High-Roller Records in November, the same people that handled their recent split Sanctuary in Blasphemy. Artwork and more details here: http://canthateenough.blogspot.com/2009/10/sonic-ritual-mother-hearse-12.html