Oh Boy, There's a New Gojira Track......Let the Headbanging Commence

So let's first rejoice in the fact that we now have a brand new Gojira track to viciously headbang to.  Secondly, let's rejoice even more that Devin Townsend and Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah guitarist) are guests on it.  This track will be featured on Gojira's upcoming ep, Sea Sheperd, which still has yet to receive an official release date.  The benefits of that ep will go entirely towards an anti-whaling organization named Sea Sheperd.

-Mick

And the New Opeth Album Will Be Called......

Didn't I just tell ya this year had plenty more in store for us?!  Opeth has officially announced, via their facebook page, that their new album will be entitled Heritage.  The album is also set to be released this September, apparently.  Good news indeed.  I'll post more news about this as it is released.

5/26/11

I figured I would just update the next wave of info here rather than on another post.  But yes there is plenty of new info on Opeth's new album including the full track-lisitng!

Check out all of this info after the break.

New Devin Townsend Tracks? Yes, Please.

With Devin Townsend's albums Deconstruction and Ghost dropping on June 21st (June 20th in Europe) there's still plenty of reason to be excited for what this year still has in store for us.  On a somewhat related sidenote, can you remember a year where so much good material has come out in such a short amount of time (and there's still a crap load left)?  I certainly can't.  But back to the task at hand.  Hevy Devy has released two tracks for free download here.  One track, "Feather," comes from the extremely chill Ghost record while the other, "Juular (featuring Ihsahn),"  comes from the extremely heavy Deconstruction.  It should go without saying that both tracks are ridiculously awesome.  Check them both out after the break.

New Trivium Track!

So here it is, at long last, our first taste of some brand spankin new Trivium.  I've only given the track a couple of listens so far but it definitely evoked some positive responses to my ears initially.  It should be no surprise to anyone that Trivium is a band I have a very positive bias towards, especially if my profile pic on the sidebar is any indication, so I won't try to sugar coat it too much.  This song is not something that is going to blow you away.  It certainly is not reinventing the wheel.  However, it is a very solid track.  While the  "epicness" that was created with tracks on Shogun is not in full force here, this track still gives plenty of reason to be excited about their new record which should be coming out sometime over the summer.  Get excited people.  

-Mick

New In Flames Music Video? Ok, I'll Bite.

As shown above, In Flames has released a music video for their first single off of their new upcoming album, Sounds Of A Playground Fading.  This track, entitled "Deliver Us," is actually pretty enjoyable.  The music video is nothing special, unless you have an affinity for ferris wheels and fireworks, but at least it's a solid song.  It was, and still is, hard to tell what kind of direction In Flames is going to take after their sub-par performance on A Sense Of Purpose.  But if this track is a good indication of the direction they will take, definitely count me as interested. 

-Mick

Review: Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues

What a time it is for progressive metal fans. When Between the Buried and Me released Colors back in 2007, they immediately joined the front lines of forward thinking, prog-metal juggernauts alongside the likes Dream Theater and Opeth. A subsequent spot on the Progressive Nation tour with the aforementioned groups seems to have only sped up the evolution and innovation of BTBAM. After completing their run on Victory Records with 2009’s The Great Misdirect, the group signed with Metal Blade Records. In April they released their newest aural journey: The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, a 30-minute, three-track EP that finds the band continuing to discover, develop, and explore their unique metal sound.

Read the rest of the review after the break.

Concert Review: Rammstein (Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena - May 10, 2011)

It's been a while since I can say I've been so excited for a concert that I'm actually nervous beforehand.  But again, we are talking about a band that is acclaimed as being the best live band in the world right now.  I'm referring to, of course, none other than Germany's premiere industrial metal band, Rammstein. 

The atmosphere of the concert, though, began way before my friend and I made it to the Allstate Arena just outside Chicago.  Drunken grunts of "Rammstein" being yelled just about every other sentence, people acting like they know how to speak German, and just more drunken jibberish were mere samples of my experience on the train and bus rides there.  Don't even get me started on how crazy it got when we actually got into the arena.  Surprisingly, there was an unusual abundance of people in costumes.  This isn't to say I wasn't expecting this, but I was thinking more leather type outfits.  The outfits that I did see there were more along the lines of something you'd see at a Slipknot concert (hell, I even saw a girl dressed up as Rainbow Brite).

Read the rest of the review after the break.     

New Avenged Sevenfold Track

Here ya go folks, a brand spankin' new track from Avenged Sevenfold.  It's grown on me after a few listens so definitely lend this track your ears.

-Mick 

Exclusive Interview - The Dillinger Escape Plan

It was with great pleasure that I was able to interview The Dillinger Escape Plan's lead singer, Greg Puciato, as they came through Chicago on their current tour with Deftones. Greg was a blast to talk to and is a really great guy. Be sure to check out this band live if you never have before. They have an energy in the live setting that is unparalleled to anything I've ever seen. After their performance was over at the Deftones show, they played another show in the same night here in Chicago. They took the stage around 12:45am and tore the place apart. I've never seen a concert with such raw energy and emotion. Between the guitarists leaping off of the amps mid-song, Greg climbing up the poles on the ceiling, and the whole front row of the crowd getting up on stage with the band and moshing with them, I think it's safe to say no one quite brings it like Dillinger does.

Be sure to check out the clips I got of their Deftones performance and their headlining show that took place later that night after the break.  That later show, by the way, was tweeted by Greg the next day as being one of his "top 10 favorite DEP shows of all time."