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Set List
Jackal (New Song)
Severed Reality (New Song)
Dread Command
Living in a Whirlwind (New Song)
Pray For Death (New Song)
Combat Shock
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Over the years I have seen many young thrash bands perform around New York City, and it’s rare that these acts can match the particular kind of classic thrash energy of someone like Kreator or Testament. I can say with confidence that after witnessing Warbringer’s set on February 15, at NYC’s Highline Ballroom, this L.A. band has now been added to that list.
For those unfamiliar, Warbringer are a relatively new thrash metal five-piece that, unlike many of their Southern California peers, are definitely not trying to recreate thrash’s golden years. Rather, these guys take the intensity and brutality of the Eighties and mix in some modern thrash metal energy. Their most recent record, 2008’s War Without End (Century Media), is quite extreme, but in the live setting Warbringer go far above and beyond.
The second band of the night, after Swallow the Sun, Warbringer had about a half hour to play before Darkane and headliners Soilwork, and they made the best of it. After two new ripping cuts, “Jackal” and “Severed Reality,” from their forthcoming as-yet-untitled album, they barrelled through “Dread Command” and another new one, “Living in a Whirlwind.”
Even though I’d never heard it before, the latter song turned out to be my favorite song of the night. It seemed like they wrote this song specifically for headbangers, it was that perfect. Of course, they ended their set with their trademark track “Combat Shock,” which opened up a really big circle pit (in fact, the biggest of the night from any band).
For a bunch of young guys, they really know how to play: these songs are fast as fuck, and even faster live. In fact I was surprised that Warbringer were able to play so tightly, despite going completely nuts onstage.
Guitarists Adam Carroll and John Laux could very well be the current generation’s Kerry King/Jeff Hanneman combo. And despite the breakneck speeds, bassist Ben Bennett and drummer Nic Ritter hold down the tempo and low end real well. All the while, singer John Kevill looks like he’s possessed onstage, stomping back and forth with the contorted face of a madman (see photo below). His vocals and speeches in between songs remind me of Obituary’s John Tardy, which is a good thing.
The point is: if these guys ever come thrashing through your town, go fucking see them! My prediction is that Warbringer are here to stay: a band that will carry the metal torch for years to come. —Henry Yuan
TOXIC HOLOCAUST have announced a five-week North American tour alongside NAPALM DEATH. This tour, dubbed the “Campaign For Musical Destruction 2009 Tour”, will also include KATAKLYSM, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS and TRAP THEM as well as a stop at the New England Metal and Hardcore Fest. A complete listing of tour dates and cities can be found below.
TOXIC HOLOCAUST are touring in support of their most recent release and Relapse debut An Overdose Of Death…. The band will also take part in the free Scion Rock Fest to be held this weekend in Atlanta, GA as well as the California Metal Fest next month with CARCASS, EXODUS, SUFFOCATION, and more.
TOXIC HOLOCAUST recently recorded two new tracks for a split release with Montreal’s INEPSY. TOXIC HOLOCAUST will cover the INEPSY tracks “Conspiracy WWIII” and “Bombshell Rock” for the split while INEPSY will cover two TOXIC HOLOCAUST songs. Additional information on this split will be made available via the TOXIC HOLOCAUST MySpace page.
We’ve just received word that TORCHE has planned a new EP for Hydra Head, featuring two tracks off Meanderthal (”Healer” and “Across the Shields”), two new songs(”Mash it Up” and “Sugar Glider”). The release will also contain a DVD of music videos for “Healer” and “Across the Shields.”
In addition, TORCHE has announced US tour dates w/ From Monument to Masses and Dredg.
Tracklist for Healer / Across The Shields EP + DVD:
Side A: Healer / Across The Shields
Side B: Mash It Up / Sugar Glider
DVD: Healer (Music Video) / Across The Shields (Music Video)
Torche Live:
2/28 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade / Scion Rock Fest with Mastodon, Neurosis, Harvey Milk, Boris, Converge, Coalesce, High On Fire, Trash Talk, Pig Destroyer, and many more.
w/ From Monument to Masses and Dredg!
4/3 Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
4/4 Bellingham, WA @ Nightlight
4/5 Seattle WA @ Neumo’s
4/7 Salt Lake City, UT @ Avalon Theater
4/8 Denver, CO @ The Marquis Theater
4/10 Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
4/11 Des Moines, IA @ Vaudville Mews
4/12 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
4/13 Pontiac, MI @ Eagle Theater
4/15 Boston, MA @ Middle East Downstairs
4/16 Philadelphia, PA @ Theater of Living Arts
4/17 Lancaster, PA @ Chameleon Club
4/18 Baltimore, MD @ Sonar
4/19 New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom
4/21 Raleigh, NC @ The Brewery
We’ve just received the following update from the camp of NY death metal legends SUFFOCATION:
“2009 is shaping up to be SUFFOCATION’s most exciting and successful year to date! Not only are they celebrating the 20th anniversary of their first release, ‘Reincremation’, but we all are excited to announce that in the spring of 2009, SUFFOCATION is expected to release the much-anticipated DVD, which has been 20 years in the making. In addition, SUFFOCATION’s ‘Blood Apocalypse’ tour begins March 14. They are looking forward to hitting the road with such brutal supporting acts as WHITECHAPEL, DECREPIT BIRTH, VEIL OF MAYA and PSYCROPTIC.
After months of writing and working in the studio, their newest CD, Blood Oath, is being recorded and expected to have a release date of May/June 2009 [via Nuclear Blast Records]. SUFFOCATION is psyched to be co-headlining the Summer Slaughter fest in both the U.S. and Europe. Afterwards, they are off to Japan, Australia and all of the other overseas countries they have not hit in a while. A list of extensive tour dates will be announced.
Keep an eye out for SUFFOCATION’s upcoming video game which will include unreleased tracks from SUFFOCATION along with a comic book and many other amazing surprises. In between writing and touring, SUFFOCATION has also been busy designing new merchandise for their upcoming tours.”
America’s first-ever hard rock and heavy metal music award show–the first annual Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards, presented by the Honda Fury–will take place Tuesday, April 7, at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles and be broadcast on MTV2 as a one-hour special debuting Saturday, May 2. Rock legend Ozzy Osbourne will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the event, presented by MetalKult sister outlet, and America’s leading heavy music magazine Revolver.
Hosted by actor/comic Brian Posehn (“The Sarah Silverman Program”), the Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards will be highlighted by performances from Killswitch Engage, Hatebreed, All That Remains, Suicide Silence and a special guest to be announced soon. The evening–a celebration of the music of one of rock’s most enduring and fan-supported genres–will also feature special appearances by Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, Glenn Danzig, Maynard James Keenan of Tool and Puscifer, Chuck Billy and Eric Peterson of Testament, Protest the Hero, Marta Peterson from Bleeding Through, Isis, Brendon Small from Dethklok, WWE wrestler CM Punk and many more.
A limited number of tickets go on sale to the public beginning Friday, February 20 at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com, select Macy’s and all Ritmo Latino stores. Charge by phone at 800.745.3000. Tickets for Club Nokia events are also available from 9am – 5pm, Mon – Fri, at the Staples Center Box Office. General admission tickets are $35.00 and VIP tickets are $75.00.
Look for additional information about the Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards to be announced in the coming weeks and go to GoldenGodsAwards.com for updates.
Let me start this review by asking a question that’s been bugging me lately: “What the hell is this ‘thrash revival’ thing that’s happening?” For all of you who believe that thrash is dead and needs to be revived, you’re either a flaming poser or you haven’t been in the scene recently. For proof, look to the German kings of thrash metal, Kreator, who have returned once again to show us how thrash is done right with their latest offering Hordes of Chaos (SPV).
This album takes the “comeback” sound of Kreator, but strips it down to the bare minimum. To give you some context of where this album sits in the Kreator catalog, imagine the brutality of Coma of Souls mixed with the speed of Pleasure to Kill and topped with the melodies of Violent Revolution and Enemy of God.
Clocking in at about 38 minutes, Hordes of Chaos is no joke. It actually feels like you’re traveling through Coma’s “Terror Zone.” To capture the raw energy of their live shows, and achieve a more natural feel—something most bands these days lack due to over-processed recording procedures—the band recorded all of its backing tracks live and with no overdubs. And the result, in part thanks to producer Moses, is amazing.
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Check out part one of the Making of Hordes of Chaos below:
Mainman and guitarist Mille Petrozza and co-guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö deliver their most tight and crushing sound yet, while bassist Christian Giesler and drummer Jürgen “Ventor” Reil do an impressive job keeping everything steady with a succession of stellar lines. Mille’s vocals are also as vicious as ever: I haven’t heard anything quite like this from him since 1987’s Terrible Certainty. Since I’m not going to sit here and write how Kreator are “finally back” with this album, I’ll just say that this is the next step for them, and a good one at that.
The songs themselves on Hordes of Chaos are nothing short of amazing. If you’re into old-school Kreator, you will without a doubt love this album. The opener, “Hordes of Chaos (A Necrologue for the Elite)”, begins very similarly to Pleasure to Kill’s intro, “Choir of the Damned.” It rips right into the next riff and it’s a full-on thrash assault from there on out. There’s a lot of old-school style riffing that is perfect for front-row headbanging thrashers, as well as tons of classic German-style thrash riffs for the dudes who love to tear up the pit.
“Warcurse” and “Escalation” follow suit and then we have the ballad-type intro to “Amok Run,” which is a standard for every Kreator album since 2001’s Violent Revolution. I personally love these little breaks because the rest of the song is always great and never craps out. “Radical Resistance” is a great call-to-arms song against Nazis and fascists and shows that Mille has really mastered the art of writing great guitar melodies. Other highlights are burners like “Absolute Misanthropy” and “To the Afterborn,” and the epic album closer “Demon Prince.”
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Check out part two of the Making of Hordes of Chaos below:
While I personally loved Enemy of God and Violent Revolution, I thought they were a bit too long and, in parts, confused by incoherent ideas. At times it was like, “Well, this is really fucking good, but is this thrash or melo-death?” With Hordes of Chaos, we get Kreator in its true, refined form. The songs flow way better, Mille took all of his most crushing riffs and made them even more crushing, while perfectly mixing in the melodies. I purchased the deluxe digipack version and it came with a bonus DVD with a documentary on the making of the album. It was shot by Berlin-based filmmaker Stephanie Beauvoir and was done in Super 8 film, which gave it a really nice effect. This is a definite must-have for all Kreator die-hards.
Over the years, most of Kreator’s peers have tried to redefine themselves while staying true to their roots, but they’ve failed. Kreator, on the other hand, continue to fly the flag high and go where no thrash bands have ever gone before. So listen to Hordes of Chaos, and hear the thrash metal of the future. —Henry Yuan
We’ve just been informed of the new details surrounding Clutch’s upcoming full-length, and first album of new material for Weathermaker. The Clutch camp reports the following:
“Management at Weathermaker Music has announced that Clutch will enter Magpie Cage recording studios in Baltimore with producer J. Robbins on March 20th, to work on their first studio record in over 2 years. The yet to be titled release is set for a June 30th worldwide release through Weathermaker. Robbins produced both The Bakerton Group’s “El Rojo” and Clutch’s critically acclaimed 2005 release “Robot Hive/Exodus” and we are very excited to be working with him on yet another Clutch release.”
With an unfuckwithable pedigree that includes time spent playing in St. Vitus, the Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, the Hidden Hand and Shrinebuilder, guitarist Scott “Wino” Weinrich has helped define the modern stoner doom metal sound.
To celebrate Wino’s first ever solo record, Punctuated Equilibrium (Southern Lord Recordings), we brought the underground legend into our NY headquarters for an in-depth Q&A. Check out the following clips where Wino talks about the high points of his 25-year-and-counting career: (more…)
Progressive instrumental trio DYSRHYTHMIA have begun work on their fifth full-length album, Psychic Maps. Psychic Maps is being recorded at the band’s own Menegroth studio in Queens, NY. DYSRHYTHMIA bassist Colin Marston (Krallice, Behold…the Arctopus) will be engineering the album which is expected to be six songs in length and clock in around 40-45 minutes. Psychic Maps is set for an early summer 2009 release date via Relapse.
DYSRHYTHMIA has most recently returned home from a week-long east coast tour with labelmates TOMBS. The band is currently planning for additional touring in the spring and summer in support of Psychic Maps release.
Swedish Viking metallers AMON AMARTH will undertake the second part of the North American Twilight Of The Thunder God Tour in April/May, with support coming from GOATWHORE (above), SKELETONWITCH and LAZARUS A.D.
