NILE Announce two UK shows with special guests Melechesh

The reigning Kings of technical, brutal and historically themed death metal Nile are very pleased to announce two UK dates this April as part of a wider European run entitled the ‘What Should Not Be Unearthed Part II Tour’. Special guests on this tour will be Sumerian black/thrash pioneers and Nuclear Blast label mates Melechesh, with support coming from Italian death metallers Embryo (more support to be announced).

Nile’s vehement front man and guitarist Karl Sanders said of the announcement:

“All of us in Nile are very happy to be returning to the UK. Last year’s shows with Nile and Suffocation were quite memorably killer, and I have no doubt that the awesome metal fans of the UK will make these upcoming shows with Nile and Melechesh another fine example of metal brutality.”

You can see Nile and Melechesh live at the following shows:

7th April – Bristol, Bierkeller
8th April – London, The Dome

Nile were formed in 1993 on a shared on interest of Egyptian history, culture and lore alongside the ferocity of modern death metal. Using a symphonic approach to song writing and arrangement, Nile unleashed an uncompromising attack that fused technical death metal with organic Middle Eastern tones. Their unique lyrical bias was inspired by Karl Sander’s interpretation of ancient Egyptian inscriptions, temple carvings, papyri, hieroglyphics and tomb paintings depicting ancient battles, rituals and religious ceremonies.

The band have created numerous legendary technical death metal classics such as their 1996-debut ‘Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka’, the hugely successful follow-up ‘Black Seeds Of Vengeance’ (‘album of the year’ 2000 in Terrorizer magazine) and the 2002-release ‘In Their Darkened Shrines’. With critically acclaimed albums, EPs and several world tours under their belt, Nile have raised the bar for extreme metal bands musically, lyrically and conceptually.

Nile released their latest album ‘What Should Not Be Unearthed’ to widespread critical acclaim in August 2015.

Special Guests on the road with Nile are the unsurpassable and entirely unique Melechesh. Melechesh were founded in Jerusalem in 1993 by young guitarist Ashmedi, and since then they have proved themselves as visionaries creating an entirely new genre. Experimenting with melting raw black metal with Mediterranean drum patterns and guitar scales resulted in their first phenomenal demo ‘As Jerusalem Burns’ and the 7” EP ‘The Siege Of Lachish’ – earning the band a forcible underground following.

Melechesh released their most recent album ‘Enki’ in early 2015, a deep and personal album filled with metaphor, spiritual, and philosophical references – a further development of their own Mesopotamian metal. ‘Enki’ achieved many critics’ ‘Albums Of 2015’ lists.

LAMB OF GOD Announces U.S. Headline Tour with CLUTCH and CORROSION OF CONFORMITY + Festival Performance Dates

This week, LAMB OF GOD wraps up their winter tour with special guests Anthrax and supporters Deafheaven and Power Trip. If you did not get a chance to catch them on this tour, you will soon - LAMB OF GOD is pleased to announce their next U.S. headline tour, which kicks off Saturday, April 30th and features support from renowned rockers Clutch and heavy metal veterans Corrosion of Conformity. Throughout the tour, LAMB OF GOD will perform at several festivals, including Bonnaroo, Rock On The Range, Carolina Rebellion, Welcome To Rockville, Rock'n Derby, and more.

Pre-sale tickets for LAMB OF GOD's spring headline tour dates go on sale today at 2:00pm local time, and public on-sale begins Friday, February 12th at 10:00am local time. See below for all currently confirmed tour dates and visit www.Lamb-Of-God.com for tickets and more information.

LAMB OF GOD Tour Dates:

Remaining U.S. Headline Tour Dates w/ ANTHRAX, DEAFHEAVEN & POWER TRIP:

Tue/Feb-09 - Oklahoma City, OK @ Diamond Ballroom Thu/Feb-11 - Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl Fri/Feb-12 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium

Future U.S. Headline Tour Dates w/ CLUTCH & CORROSION OF CONFORMITY

+ Spring Festival Performance Dates:

Sat/Apr-30 - Fort Myers, FL @ JetBlue Park - "Fort Rock" Sun/May-01 - Jacksonville, FL @ Metropolitan Park - "Welcome to Rockville" Tue/May-03 - New Orleans, LA @ The Orpheum Wed/May-04 - Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall Sat/May-07 - Concord, NC @ Charlotte Motor Speedway - "Carolina Rebellion" Sun/May-08 - Reading, PA @ Reading Eagle Theatre Mon/May-09 - Portland, ME @ State Theatre Tue/May-10 - Boston, MA @ House of Blues Boston Thu/May-12 - St Louis, MO @ The Pageant Fri/May-13 - Council Bluffs, IA @ Westfair Amphitheater - "89.7 The River's Rockfest (KIWR)" Sat/May-14 - Somerset, WI @ Somerset Amphitheater - "Northern Invasion" Mon/May-16 - Binghamton, NY @ Magic City Music Hall Tue/May-17 - Huntington, NY @ The Paramount Thu/May-19 - Toronto, ON @ TD Echo Beach Fri/May-20 - Schaghticoke, NY @ Schaghticoke Fairgrounds - "Rock'n Derby" Sat/May-21 - Columbus, OH @ MAPFRE Stadium - "Rock on the Range" Mon/May-23 - Wichita, KS @ The Cotillion Tue/May-24 - Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre Wed/May-25 - Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex Fri/May-27 - Phoenix, AZ @ Comerica Theatre Sat/May-28 - Pomona, CA @ Fox Theater Pomona Sun/May-29 - Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater Tue/May-31 - Seattle, WA @ WaMu Theater at CenturyLink Field Events Center Wed/Jun-01 - Vancouver, BC @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre Thu/Jun-02 - Penticton, BC @ South Okanagan Events Centre Sat/Jun-04 - Calgary, AB @ Calgary Stampede Corral Sun/Jun-05 - Edmonton, AB @ Shaw Conference Centre Mon/Jun-06 - Saskatoon, SK @ Saskatoon Prairieland Exhibition Park Hall A Tue/Jun-07 - Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre Sat/Jun-11 - Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival - "Bonnaroo"

LAMB OF GOD is currently nominated for the Best Metal Performance Grammy Award for their track "512"! This marks the band's fifth overall Grammy nomination since their inception. "512" is the second single released from the band's latest full-length album, VII: Sturm Und Drang, which scored a #2 first week debut on the Billboard U.S. Top Current Albums chart, #3 on the Top 200, and #1 on both the Rock Album and Hard Rock Album charts.

Bad Acid Vol 2: The Second Trip

The celebrated compilation series of long-lost vintage 60s-70s proto-stoner-psych singles, Brown Acid announces a second edition to come this spring. Curated in partnership by L.A. retailer Permanent Records and RidingEasy Records, Brown Acid: The Second Trip will be released (fittingly) on April 20th. Hear and share the first track, Ash's "Midnight Witch":



Some of the best thrills of the Internet music revolution is the ability to find extremely rare music with great ease. But even with such vast archives to draw from, quite a lot of great songs have gone undiscovered for nearly half a century -- particularly in genres that lacked hifalutin arty pretense. Previously, only the most extremely dedicated and passionate record collectors had the stamina and prowess to hunt down long forgotten wonders in dusty record bins - often hoarding them in private collections, or selling at ridiculous collector's prices. Legendary compilations like Nuggets, Pebbles, ad nauseum, have exhausted the mines of early garage rock and proto-punk, keeping alive a large cross-section of underground ephemera. However, few have delved into and expertly archived the wealth of proto-metal, pre-stoner rock tracks collected on Brown Acid: The Second Trip.

Lance Barresi, co-owner of L.A./Chicago retailer Permanent Records has shown incredible persistence in tracking down a stellar collection of rare singles from the 60s and 70s for the growing compilation series. Partnered with Daniel Hall of RidingEasy Records, the two have assembled a selection of songs that's hard to believe have remained unheard for so long.

"I essentially go through hell and high water just to find these records," Barresi says. "Once I find a record worthy of tracking, I begin the (sometimes) extremely arduous process of contacting the band members and encouraging them to take part. Daniel and I agree that licensing all the tracks we're using for Brown Acid is best for everyone involved," rather than simply bootlegging the tracks. When all of the bands and labels haven't existed for 30-40 years or more, tracking down the creators gives all of these tunes a real second chance at success.

"There's a long list of songs that we'd love to include," Barresi says. "But we just can't track the bands down. I like the idea that Brown Acid is getting so much attention, so people might reach out to us."

One song on The Second Trip actually never even saw light of day, until now. "Bell Park Loon" by Spiny Norman - sounding like Jethro Tull on more acid and heavier cider - languished in a collector's archives, unreleased for 38 years until Barresi and Hall arranged to license some of the collector's goldmine.

Brown Acid: The Second Trip opens with the squealing guitar harmonies and Sabbath plod of Ash's "Midnight Wish." Sweet Crystal's "Warlords" is a fuzzy and fierce Deep Purple/Arthur Brown inspired organ-led anthem. Raving Maniac's 'Rock and Roll Man" is a tight and brash glam-meets-metal tune proving the true potential of a genre later squandered on Sunset Strip poodleheads. "Silence of the Morning" by Glass Sun serves grungy psych while the Volt Rush Band merges MC5 frantic energy with razor-sharp guitar leads. And, Iron Knowledge's aptly titled "Show Stopper" features a breakbeat and incredibly infectious detuned bass warble motif that DJs would kill for - had anyone been able to find the tune back in the day. Throughout, The Second Trip is yet another wall-to-wall set of blazing tracks that feels like you've uncovered a holy grail. And, in a way, you have.

Brown Acid: The Second Trip will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on April 20th, 2016 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available for digital (with immediate download of first single) at iTunes and Bandcamp, physical pre-orders at RidingEasy Records.

Artist: Various Artists

Album: Brown Acid: The Second Trip
Label: RidingEasy Records

Release Date: April 20th, 2016

01. Ash "Midnight Witch" 02. Sweet Crystal "Warlords" 03. Raving Maniac "Rock and Roll Man" 04. Crossfield "Take It" 05. Spiny Norman "Bell Park Loon" (Unreleased) 06. Glass Sun "Silence of the Morning" 07. Volt Rush Band "Love To You" 08. Buck "Long Hot Highway" 09. Iron Knowledge "Show Stopper" 10. Sonny Hugg "Daybreak"

Drowning & Matt Honeycutt of Kublai Khan Team up for "Dead End" Music Video

Chicago beatdown band Drowning has released a new music video for the song "Dead End", which showcases the group's chaotic live show. "It's a good representation of the aggressive culture surrounding the music we play and really shows a lot of what we're about," says vocalist Bryan Grantz "Being able to escape from the troubles of everyday life through music is something that anyone can relate to. Everyone needs their time and outlet to let it all out. The video premiered today with Revolver Magazine.

Joining them on the new track is Matt Honeycutt of the Artery Recordings band Kublai Khan. "We love our friends and its always a privilege collaborating with them," says Gantz. "Working with Matt on this track was an amazing experience. He is one of metal's most elite and modest individuals, and it was our pleasure to have him on the album."

"Dead End" comes from the band's debut full-length Egotrip, which will be out on 2/26 via Fast Break! Records. The album features additional guest vocalists such as John Hoffman (Weekend Nachos), Rob Watson (Lionheart), MoeCyrus and Baer Coon the Ewokk.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES:

03/12 - Brooklyn, NY - Lucky 13 Saloon 03/13 - Trenton, NJ - Championships 03/14 - Syracuse, NY - The Warehouse 03/15 - Lakewood, OH - The Foundry 03/16 - Indianapolis, IN - The Hoosier Dome 03/17 - Chicago, IL - Livewire Lounge 03/20 - Bremerton, WA - The Charleston 03/21 - Portland, OR - Post 134 03/22 - Reno, NV - Fort Ryland 03/23 - Ceres, CA - The Workshop 03/24 - Cupertino, CA - Xbar 03/26 - Upland, CA - Tough Love Fest

Zardonic Joins Dream Theater, Megadeth, Conquer Divide, and Fleshgod Apocalypse on Tower Records Japan Top 5 Hard & Heavy Chart

According to a tweet by Tower Records Japan, the Top 5 Hard & Heavy Charters include progressive metal veterans Dream Theater, thrash metal legends Megadeth, heavy hitting all-female newcomers Conquer Divide, Venezuelan electronic music juggernaut Zardonic and Italian neoclassical death metallers Fleshgod Apocalypse.

Zardonic's most recent offering and boundary-pushing masterpiece Antihero has seen the most sales in the history of his career, with Japan as the top consumer, which makes a Japanese tour very likely to happen in the near future. Stay tuned.



About Zardonic:

Fists raised in the air. Bodies, heavily perspiring, crush against each other and threaten to burst through steel barricades. Security forces gaze forward with a mix of aggression, tension and fear. Monstrous decibels pound each and every human in the chest, relentless, overpowering, captivating. Is this some club consumed by fiercely “kvlt” dystopian noise? A festival tent, throbbing with oppressively jagged electronic grooves? Are there headbangers hoisting cups of beer, or Millennials enthralled in rapturous joy?

It’s none of it, yet all of it. It’s Skrillex meets Slayer. It’s a singular entity. It’s ZARDONIC.

Zardonic is as much as “band” as it is a concept, an idea, a perfect flashpoint and balance between divergent styles joined together through a prism of aggression, atmosphere and absolute immersion. Zardonic is a symbol, an icon, a mask; increasingly as ubiquitous in the international hard EDM and heavy metal underground as the mask worn by Deadmau5. Zardonic is also a person. Venezuelan born Federico Augusto Ágreda Álvarez is a multi-instrumentalist, DJ, composer and mixer, whose fingerprints dirtied remixes from Australian speedcore merchants The Berzerker, long-running Norwegian black metal titans Gorgoroth and massive standard bearers Nine Inch Nails.

“Zardonic isn’t just about noise; it’s very musical. The notes, melodies, progressions – it’s all very metal. It’s rich in a way that’s hard to achieve with a lot of heavy EDM music,” says Ágreda. “That’s what makes it exciting for me. There’s noise in there, sure, but more in the spirit of the way Trent Reznor is able to build songs from the noise.”

Ágreda’s alter ego is the penultimate Frankenstein monster, built from body parts like the industrialized angst of the legendary Ministry, the savage contrarianism of German “digital hardcore” rabble-rousers Atari Teenage Riot, and the attitude of screamo-singer-turned-cultural-flashpoint, Skrillex. But never before has a marriage of metal, hard EDM and chaos captured the balance of Zardonic’s forthcoming eOne Music debut.

Fans familiar with Zardonic’s work via his appearance on releases issued by DJ Dieselboy’s SubHuman: Human Imprint and Skrillex’s OWSLA label will recognize the signature blueprint within the new material. But Zardonic’s definitive work expands into a heady mind trip through extreme metal inspired electronic music, inclusive of drum n’ bass, with the same signature sound warped through various tempos. Dubstep isn’t in the recipe, but fierce vocals, guitars, break-beats, hardcore and Glitch burn brightly.

Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, Dutch DJ/producer Tiësto and likeminded electronic mavens were doing their thing, but the crossover impact of EDM in recent years is undeniable, particularly with the introduction of more intense noise. “The house DJs, the trance DJs, it felt like a closed niche. Skrillex blasted the doors open for the more underground sound,” Ágreda explains. “Not all of his music is up my alley, but most of it is; I have a lot of respect for him. And dude, if it wasn't for that one track he put on a free OWSLA compilation for me, I'd say at least half of my fans wouldn't know who I am.”

A handful of metal acts have introduced EDM elements into their songs, but nevertheless remain confined to the heavy metal scene and heavy metal fans. A Zardonic performance at an EDM festival, mixed down as club tracks, boasts huge subs go head-to-head with the hardest of electro out there, enhanced by distorted extreme guitars. It’s the perfect balance of the two worlds, fully capable of dominating in each.

“Most of the club DJs and electronic music producers that tried to put some metal elements into their music, it was pretty much just drum and bass tracks or electro tracks with a couple of samples here and there, chopped in. It wasn’t like they were composing actual metal songs,” Ágreda points out. “Ministry were pioneers, but that was still metal, that wasn’t ‘club’ music. It was the same thing with Atari Teenage Riot. I love both of those bands. What I’m trying to do is take Zardonic even further than before.”

The eOne Music debut of Zardonic accomplishes that very goal, with confident force. “We’ve worked hard to keep that exact needlepoint – something that works very well in the clubs, but when you play it at home, it takes on a whole new dynamic.” It’s that brilliant blend behind the burgeoning fervor for Zardonic around the world. Whether performing for 10,000 people in Russia, headlining festivals across South America, dominating Europe and Japan, Zardonic represents an immediate yet timeless musical apex striking a nerve across nationalities and false boundaries of any kind.

Biography by Ryan J. Downey (MTV / Billboard / AltPress)

FOR TODAY Announce UK tour with Novelists in April

Iowa, USA diligent metalcore quartet For Today are very pleased to announce that they will be making their first trip to the UK since the release of latest album ‘Wake’. Special guests on this run will be dexterous Parisian metallers Novelists, and Silent Planet from Los Angeles.

For Today’s ardent front man Mattie Montgomery said of the news:

"We are so excited to finally get back to the UK and Europe again. To all the fans who have been asking us to come over these last couple years: We'll see you soon!"

You can see For Today and Novelists at the following UK dates:

11th April – Birmingham, Rainbow 12th April – Glasgow, Cathouse 13th April – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach 14th April - London, Borderline

For Today signed to Nuclear Blast in July 2015, releasing their sixth studio album ‘Wake’ in the October of that year.

For Today were founded in 2005, releasing their first studio album ‘Ekklesia’ in 2008, and have now released six studio albums to date. Their success has come down to the quartet’s constant perseverance and doing things in a D.I.Y fashion – playing music for the sake of playing music and pursuing their dreams in spite of all challenges. For Today have built up an overwhelmingly supportive following around the world with skills honed on the Vans Warped Tour and on countless tours across five continents alongside contemporaries such as Asking Alexandria, Devil Wears Prada, Texas In July and Throwdown.

Nov

elists released their debut album ‘Souvenirs’ to widespread critical commendation in November 2015 via Nuclear Blast’s imprint label Arising Empire. ‘jam-packed with the immense scope and captivating complexity that has since heralded them as the new kings of the progressive metal scene’ Rock Sound

‘Novelists take on Dream Theater at their own game… sublime, but complex’ Kerrang

Novelists were founded in Paris in early 2013 by the Durand brothers, Florestan and Amael. They swiftly joined forces with former A Call To Sincerity members Matt, Charly and Nicolas and went on to release their first single ‘Twenty Years’ in the April of that year. Their fresh and distinguished sound was something the metal world certainly did not expect - and that was only the beginning. Within the next ten months leading up to the release of their first EP, the band released five more singles and numerous videos. Since then Novelists’’ name and music had spread around the globe like wildfire, catching both the fans’ and the industry’s interest.

FILTER ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, ‘CRAZY EYES’

FILTER ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, ‘CRAZY EYES’
DUE FOR RELEASE ON APRIL 8TH VIA SPINEFARM RECORDS

"‘Crazy Eyes’ is hardly bereft of guitars, but there’s a substantial amount of electronics and effects in use. The result features heavy industrial crunch and solemn, ambient songs that reach back to Patrick’s time in Nine Inch Nails and the first Filter album, 1995’s ‘Short Bus’" – Billboard

Reconstruction requires deconstruction. The institutions must be razed in order to clear space for the future to flourish. You tear down the old and build up the new. Filter founder, singer, guitarist and producer Richard Patrick knows this dance well. It’s what established the group as a multi-platinum industrial alternative luminary, and it’s here within their seventh full-length album, ‘Crazy Eyes’ [Spinefarm Records].

“Filter is the mind,” exclaims Richard. “It’s your interpretation or my interpretation. Our thing is to look at people’s unexplainable behaviour and assess it, using sound. It’s a way to approximate the insanity of the human condition. The reason this record is so fucking heavy and strange is it’s exactly the opposite of what’s popular. It’s not pretty. It’s not cute. It’s real.”

Rather than partner with a producer, Richard took up the reins and oversaw the production side himself…

“You recognise it’s us from my aggression and singing, but the instrumentation had to change,” he admits. “It wasn’t about just stacking guitars like we might’ve done on the last couple of records. There are way more electronics and sound design used.”

He collaborated with old friends such as the man behind 1999’s seminal platinum-certified ‘Title of Record’, producer Ben Grosse [Thirty Seconds To Mars, Marilyn Manson], and Michael “Blumpy” Tuller [Nine Inch Nails]. He also worked closely with new band mates Oumi Kapila [guitar, programming], Ashley Dzerigian [bass], Chris Reeve [drums] and Bobby Miller [keyboards], plus former Filter bandmates, Johnny Radke and Danny Lohner.

Mixing, meanwhile, was taken care of by Brian Virtue (Jane’s Addiction, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Deftones), with the mastering being handled by the colourful Howie Weinberg (Van Halen, Mars Volta, The White Stripes).

The first single, ‘Take Me To Heaven’, rides a pulse-pounding gallop into an entrancing and ponderous refrain.

“I was looking into the eyes of my father when he was passing away, and I held his hand,” Richard recalls. “He glanced at me really quickly, focused on me, had this look of gratitude, and then he slipped away. I was almost like, ‘I hope you’re going to heaven’. Scientifically, the idea doesn’t make any sense to me, but if there is a heaven, take me there. That’s what happened.”

Ultimately, it all comes back to the fact that Richard remains honest.

“I’m completely into this for the music,” he concludes. “Being yourself is the most important thing. I authentically went to places I’d never gone before. That was from my heart. I’m trying to be as genuine as possible to what Filter is. It’s about sounding fucking different, forward and original.”