Spineshank Announce New Album, "Anger Denial Acceptance", due on June 18th on Century Media

Grammy-nominated alternative-metal act Spineshank have reunited after a six year hiatus and are back full force and completely rejuvenated. The band have inked a worldwide deal with Century Media Records for the release of their new album, Anger Denial Acceptance, that will be released in North America on June 19 and in Europe on June 18.

"We're very excited to be on a great label like Century Media," comments guitarist Mike Sarkysian. "Aside from being the premier label for rock and metal, the seem to really understand our vision and are as excited as we are about taking Spineshank to a whole new level!"

Anger Denial Acceptance will be the band's fourth album and follow up to their 2003 release, Self-Destructive Pattern. "This is by far the proudest I have ever been of any Spineshank record," says Sarkysian. "Anger Denial Acceptance is the darkest and the most honest this band has ever been."



Spineshank - vocalist Jonny Santos, drummer Tommy Decker, guitarist Mike Sarkysian and bassist Rob Garcia - have sold over 300,000 albums with their three previous releases on Roadrunner Records and have played alongside System of a Down, Slipknot and many other notable acts. The band have held chart topping radio hits and even received a Grammy nomination for the single "Smothered". With the release of Anger Denial Acceptance and extensive touring plans around the album, Spineshank will reestablish their place in the world of rock in 2012.

Links:
Spineshank

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All Pigs Must Die Kick Off March Tour @ Knitting Factory, Brooklyn on March 9th

Massachusetts' riff-murderers All Pigs Must Die will embark on their latest cross-country killing spree with Narrows, the bands SXSW-bound for several massive live assaults on the legions swarming through Austin next week.

With the tour kicking off in Brooklyn this Friday they will crush their way south towards the SXSW festivities. All Pigs Must Die will perform next Thursday with CTTTOAFF, The Atlas Moth, Kill The Client, Mutilation Rites, more, on Friday they'll storm at the Southern Lord/The Power of the Riff showcase with Ringworm, Black Breath, Narrows, Enabler, Ken Mode and more, and on Saturday a free Death Comes Ripping day party with Ringworm, Kill The Client, Ancient VVisdom, Primitive Weapons, Mutilation Rites and others. Sunday will see APMD invading Dallas for Brofest, performing with Off!, Balaclava, Coliseum, Full of Hell and tons more before touring their way back home via a few stops throughout the Midwest.

All Pigs Must Die - March Tour Dates:
3/09/2012 Knitting Factory - Brooklyn, NY w/ Narrows (Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 DOS)
3/10/2012 Great Scott - Allston, MA w/ Narrows
3/11/2012 DC9 - Washington, DC w/ Narrows
3/12/2012 Local 506 - Chapel Hill, NC w/ Narrows
3/13/2012 529 - Atlanta, GA w/ Narrows
3/15/2012 Club 1808 - Austin, TX @ SXSW w/ CTTTOAFF, The Atlas Moth, Kill The Client, Mutilation Rites, more
3/16/2012 Scoot Inn - Austin, TX @ SXSW TPOTR/Southern Lord showcase w/ Ringworm, Black Breath, Narrows, Enabler, more
3/17/2012 Longbranch Inn - Austin, TX @ FREE SXSW Death Comes Ripping day party w/ Ringworm, Kill The Client, Ancient VVisdom, Primitive Weapons, Mutilation Rites, more
3/18/2012 Club Dada - Dallas, TX @ Brofest w/ Off!, Balaclava, Coliseum, Full of Hell, tons more [info]
3/19/2012 Dickson Theatre - Fayette, AR w/ Narrows
3/20/2012 Fubar - St. Louis, MO w/ Narrows
3/21/2012 Subterranean - Chicago, IL w/ Narrows
3/22/2012 Now That's Class - Cleveland, OH w/ Masakari



A group committed to uncompromising sonic warfare, All Pigs Must Die explode on God Is War, the album's sound and lyrical content assaulting the listener in a fury of death-filled anthems. Their upbeat flurry is slowed only for the occasional snail-paced buildup of mammoth riff tension, the rush of obvious hatred for humanity relentlessly displayed through it all. Recorded and mixed by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou's God City Studio (Black Breath, Nails, Black Cobra, Disfear) in December, the tone of God Is War is as foreboding as the music itself. All Pigs Must Die contains vocalist Kevin Baker (The Hope Conspiracy), drummer Ben Koller (Converge), guitarist Adam Wentworth (Bloodhorse) and bassist Matt Woods (Bloodhorse).

Links:
All Pigs Must Die

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Fastway - "Eat Dog, Eat" CD Review (out April 10th on MVD Audio)

Wow…I haven’t thought about “Fast” Eddie Clarke in years so it is somewhat of a surprise to see a new Fastway disc drop in 2012. Eat Dog, Eat (MVD Audio), Fastway’s seventh disc, is the band’s first disc of new material since 1990’s Bad Bad Girls. This disc wisely goes back to Clarke’s hard-rock roots (completely skipping the AOR sound of the band’s previous two albums).

This time out, Clarke is joined by bassist / vocalist Toby Jepson (Gun, Little Angels, Dio's Disciples) and drummer Matt Eldrige and trio has a sound that is comparable to FM-radio blues-rockers like early 80’s Bad Company or Sykes-era Whitesnake and one can even hear a bit of Jimmy Page’s guitar sound in some of the songs (“Deliver Me”, “Sick as a Dog”). After doing some research as to what “Fast” Eddie has been up to these past twenty year, I found that he reactivated Fastway in 2007 with Jepson joining on vocals shortly thereafter and the pair has been working on the material for the new disc these past few years. Toby said: "We have collaborated closely on all aspects of the recording, specifically wanting to create a performance based, un-apologetically raw album that was song driven and above all made with passion. This we did, eschewing multi layered, heavily edited recording in favour of the simple 'warts and all' dynamics. I think the results are real. We hope you do to."



Picking up on Toby’s comment, the raw production on Eat Dog, Eat’s eleven tracks (48 minutes) highlights both strong song writing and the musical virtuosity of this power trio. Jepson’s melodic, bluesy vocals are reminiscent of David Coverdale’s but (thankfully) don’t include Coverdale’s tendency to hit some disconcerting high notes. Clarke lays down some grinding blues riffs and his guitar leads are clean, memorable and delivered without any of the bombast or unnecessary ‘flash’ that plagued bands in the later part of the 80’s. Eldridge pounds away on the drums in the front of the mix but the focus of this disc is on the guitar and vocals. The full-range of instrumentation and vocals are equally highlighted in the production and ten of the disc’s eleven tracks are based off of a dirty blues-rock core. The last track, “Dead and Gone”, is a pre-‘hair metal’ rock ballad that is close in spirit to Def Leppard’s “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak”.

Fastway fans will welcome the return to the sound of the band’s first two discs and this new disc should also strike a positive chord with fans of the early 80’s British hard-rock genre.

Links:
Fastway

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Abandon Jalopy (Brad Smith / Blind Melon) - "Death and Joy" CD Review

I’m going to start this review by noting my biases so that anyone reading this can decide if they want to keep reading…

I saw Blind Melon on the MTV 120 Minute Tour and absolutely despised them. After the “No Rain” bee-girl video came out, I felt completely justified in my opinion. Having said all that – Blind Melon bassist Brad Smith’s second solo disc (released under the name Abandon Jalopy), Death and Joy, is a strikingly honest, well-crafted disc and his music straddles the line between John Mayer-ish ‘singer / songwriter’ and 90’s “Modern Rock”.

Brad Smith released his first solo disc (as Abandon Jalopy), Mercy, in 2002 and, after a decade of pursuing other projects that included the band Unified Theory along with a short-lived Blind Mellon reunion, Smith’s second Abandon Jalopy disc dropped last month. Brad said “after Blind Melon ended the second time, it left me with a lot of songs on the burner and something to say. So I coaxed myself— ‘Come on, Brad, get the Jalopy out of the garage!’ It seems as if there were always reasons not to pursue AJ, but at this moment, I’m like, ‘I’ve made a record, I’m going to tour’". For this disc, Smith is joined by a stack of guests which include Blind Melon guitarists Rogers Stevens and Christopher Thorn, Unified Theory vocalist Chris Shinn on backing vocals (who sounds remarkable like Shannon Hoon) and Hoon’s daughter Nico Blue Hoon, who sings backing vocals on the song “Love Has A Way”.

Across the eleven tracks on this disc, the lyrics are fairly introspective. Smith said: “I wrote this song called ‘Death and Joy,’ and it’s about family and growing up, and realizing that life is one of those spots right in the middle of death and joy. You’re not always elated, and you’re only dead one time. So life is really like all these little small things that at the time, don’t seem to really mean that much. I just had an epiphany about what life is, and it made me relax and appreciate what is happening right now, with me and my family and upbringing. ‘I Won’t Be the Same’ is definitely about Shannon [Hoon, Blind Melon's original/late singer]. I don’t think there’s any mystery there. I have a feeling that for each of my AJ records, there’s going to be one song on there about Shannon, just because I think about him every day.”



Musically, most of the songs sound like they have their roots in the “modern rock” sound of the 90’s. The disc starts with “Up Til Now” which is an alt-rock number with a shuffling beat and I can’t shake the comparison to Dada’s “I’m Going to Diz Knee Land” when listening to “Black Cloud”. Tracks "All the Way" & "Love Has A Way" are stripped down semi-acoustic affairs that Smith delivers in a style similar to John Maher; “Dragonfly” starts with Smith rapping over a funk beat before heading into the alt-rock body of the song and “Death And Joy” and “Summer Don't Leave” are psychedelic numbers with strong guitar lines, heavy reverb and a pulsing beat.

Smith said “This is my second record in ten years, and I plan on releasing these pretty regularly now. I have enough confidence, I feel like I have enough to say. I like the idea of being completely independent of other band members. This is something I want to leave behind for the world. It might be an overly romantic view, but it’s really the only thing that I have to contribute to the world that’s worth anything. When you get older, you start thinking about, ‘How are you contributing to the world or society?’ Abandon Jalopy is probably my best foot forward, in that regard.”

Given that Smith was one of the principal songwriter for Blind Melon, I may have to go back and give them another listen.

Links:
Abandon Jalopy

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The Nico Blues Release "Die Happy" EP As A Pay-What-You-Will Download

The Nico Blues are a last wave rock band from New Jersey. Their new EP "Die Happy" was released on February 29th, 2012 and was recorded, produced, and mixed in the band's basement. In reviewing the new disc, JerseyBeat.com said "This is a band that segues seamlessly from starry-eyed psychedelic shoegaze (“Dementia In Three Dimensions”) to rootsy Americana with a twangy, toothsome crunch (“Melodic Death Jam”) to earwig melodic pop (the Minneapolitan “I Could Be Your Pet,” equal parts Soul Asylum and Replacements.)"

The first full-length album titled Blame the Boredom, Blame the Basements was released on their own Tiny Giant Records imprint in June 2010. In true DIY spirit, The Nico Blues book all of their own shows and have organized bands in the community through the Tiny Giant Artist Collective, which they co-founded. As a result, they have gained a devoted regional following.

Upcoming Shows:
March 11 - Sunrise Festival - A Benefit for Japan, Public Assembly, Brooklyn
* Show is all ages and runs from 2PM - 11PM; Cover is $5 before 5PM and $10 after

March 18 - Webster Hall, NYC (call before heading out - show isn't listed on Webster Hall's site)

Links:
The Nico Blues

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No Bragging Rights - SoCal Hardcore band Plays The Morgan in Brooklyn in April with Lionheart and Naysayer

SoCal melodic hardcore band No Bragging Rights are playing a month long coast-to-coast tour which wraps up next month with a run down the East Coast (with a stop in Brooklyn on April 12th). This is a run-up to the band playing the New England Metal & Hardcore Festive in Worcester, MA on April 22nd.

No Bragging Rights released their last disc, Illuminator, about year ago on BLKHeart Group and the disc was recorded in San Marcos, CA with Daniel Castleman of Lambesis Studio . According to guitarist Christian Lee, the top three fan favorites from this most recent disc are: “Blind Faith”, “And They Threatened Us With Fire”, and “Empire: Disarray.”



No Bragging Rights are playing The Morgan in Bushwick on April 12th along with Naysayer, Lionheart and Meruader. The show is all ages and tickets are $12. The Morgan is located at 25 Bogart St, Brooklyn, NY 11206-3805.

Links:
No Bragging Rights

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Lost Horizon - "Awakening The World" CD Review (The End Records / Music for Nations)

Pulling another disc off the stack of recent reissues of Music for Nations’ back catalog, Lost Horizon’s debut album, Awakening the World (originally released in 2001) is a ten song blast of bombastic Swedish power metal. With the shirtless, sword-and-sorcery cover shot, it is hard not to make immediate comparisons to Manowar, which is a valid reference point, but Lost Horizon also incorporate elements of the American power metal scene into their music.

Where the band breaks from the power metal stereotype of dragons and wizards is that they cite the disc as “breed[ing] a spiritual aspiration, which leads to the great gathering…we want the people to start thinking about the world and themselves”. The band members are credited as Transcendental Protagonist (guitars and synths), Cosmic Antagonist (bass), Preternatural Transmogrifyer (drums) and Ethereal Magnanimus (vocals); “spiritual titles that reflect characteristics in the band member’s personalities”.

While Lost Horizon doesn’t break any new ground on this disc – it is surprisingly strong for being the band’s debut. The reason for this is that the members of Lost Horizon had played together as Highlander (the same band spawned HammerFall) and, accordingly to drummer Christian Nyqvist , “the first album songs were composed a very long time ago, they were written between 1991 and 1994, I think. They (the old songs) even have new lyrics, arrangements… so there are almost ten years between the composition of the album and the release of it.”

This is the sort of disc that would have been huge in the US given the right promotion as the band’s brand of proggy power metal along with vocalist Daniel Heiman’s controlled but soaring vocals will be immediately recognizable to fans of bands that range from Dream Theater to Iron Maiden without them ever having to have heard this album prior. There are seven songs on the disc (along with three brief instrumentals) and all of them feature an Iron Maiden style galloping bass and guitar riffs, breakneck drumming and clean, soaring guitar leads. Principal songwriter / guitarist Wojtek Lisicki adds restrained keyboards to some of the tracks which gives additional depth to the band’s sound, without overpowering it. Given the depth of musicianship, songs like “Denial of Fate” and “Sworn of the Metal Wind“ could easily have become power metal anthems. Most of the songs "burn hot" and run just over five minutes but the album closer (ignoring the instrumental outro “The Redintegration”) “The Kingdom of My Will” drags in parts as it runs 9+ minutes.



In an interview with Metal Reviews, Lost Horizon said “You've probably noticed that the songs [on Awakening the World] are in a specific order, there's no coincidence, we've thought about the way we'll place them, because we have a defined pattern in our minds, so that people listen to our album from the beginning to the end as opposite of some records when people play the tracks randomly. We really wanted to be more like an experience, like a theater experience, you sit down on a comfortable chair and get great impulses from the record. “

Links:
Lost Horizon

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