The Norwegian/American aggrotech/EBM project CombiChrist announced dates for an extensive North American tour beginning in mid-January. The month-long tour basically starts out in the Southeast corner of the U.S. in Florida and does a huge clockwise loop, hitting pretty much every major city in the country plus one in Canada. Save your pennies now so you can attend one of the concerts on the tour. This is going to be a good one!

14.01.2009 Ft. Lauderdale, FL (USA), Club Priemer
15.01.2009 St. Petersburg, FL (USA), State Theatre
16.01.2009 Jacksonville, FL (USA), Jack Rabbits
20.01.2009 Austin, TX (USA), Elysium
22.01.2009 Phoenix, AZ (USA), Marquee Theatre
24.01.2009 Los Angeles, CA (USA), The Avalon
25.01.2009 San Francisco, CA (USA), DNA Lounge
26.01.2009 Orangevale, CA (USA), The Boardwalk
27.01.2009 Portland, OR (USA), Hawthorne Theatre
28.01.2009 Seattle, WA (USA), El Corazon
30.01.2009 Salt Lake City, UT (USA), Avalon Theater
31.01.2009 Denver, CO (USA), Marquis Theatre
01.02.2009 Kansas City, MO (USA), The Record Bar
03.02.2009 St. Paul, MN (USA), Station 4
04.02.2009 Chicago, IL (USA), House of Blues
05.02.2009 Detroit, MI (USA), The Majestic Theatre
06.02.2009 Cleaveland, OH (USA), Peabody’s Down Under
08.02.2009 Montreal, QC (CAN), Foufoune Electriques
10.02.2009 Philadelphia, PA (USA), Polaris
11.02.2009 New York, NY USA), The Fillmore NY @ Irving Plaza
12.02.2009 Towson, MD (USA), Recher Theatre
13.02.2009 Norfolk, Virginia (USA), The Norva
14.02.2009 Altanta, GA (USA), The Masquerade

Finnish black metal band Catamenia will be releasing a new album called VIII on September 12th. As you might have guessed, this is the eighth studio album from the band which has been around since 1995. It will be released in 2 different versions, though the details of each are unknown so far, on Massacre Records.

Over the years, Catamenia has endured many lineup changes, the most recent of which was a change in May when their old lead singer Olli-Jukka Mustonen left the band just before a small Canadian tour. I’m not sure how this affected the work on VIII, we will just have to wait and see. You can listen to Catamenia on their MySpace page.

Consorting with the Black

Norwegian symphonic black-metal masters Dimmu Borgir are joining American bands Danzig, Winds of Plague and Skeletonwitch along with Portuguese Moonspell on the North American Blackest of the Black Tour in October and November. Dimmu Borgir’s eighth studio album, In Sorte Diaboli, was released last April and managed to be the first black metal album to hit number one in their native Norway and also made it to number 43 in the US Billboard 200.

(Tour dates listed on the next page.)

Vreid in the studio

Another Norwegian black metal band, Vreid, recently announced on myspace that they have been making good progress on a fourth, as yet unnamed, album continuing their focus on the Norwegian resistance during World War II. They expect work on the album to be finished by October for a January release.

Grim Tales from Sweden

One Man Army and the Undead Quartet, a death/thrash metal band from Sweden, is set to release their third album, Grim Tales in October or November 2008. Samples can be heard at myspace.

Read the rest of this entry »

Paul already told us about Amon Amarth’s new album, Twilight of the Thunder God. Now the tracklist and the cover have been released, along with the information that a limited edition “Deluxe Collector’s” release will be available including an extra live CD and DVD of Amon Amarth’s 2007 appearance at Germany’s Summer Breeze festival. If a 3-disc set is not enough for you, try the even more limited (only 2000 pieces made) “Limited Bubblehead” release including the 2CD+1DVD collector’s edition plus bobble-head dolls of the band members and a 36-page comic. (No, I’m not making this up.)

Twilight of the Thunder God will be released September 17 in Sweden, shortly thereafter in the rest of Europe, and finally Sept 30 in North America.

They also have a North American tour planned for October supported by Ensiferum (FI), Belphegor (AT) and The Absence (US).

Read the rest of this entry »

This was the headline last week on Maj Karma’s website. Previously the band was expecting to release their 9th studio album this August, but drummer Janne Savolainen’s dog Brutus destroyed the hard drive containing the bass and drum tracks. Some of the material was salvageable, but enough was lost that the band chose to delay the release. They are now expecting the album to be ready for March 28, 2009 with a single in January, but they are continuing with their summer tour plans. (Unfortunately for me, all dates are in their native Finland.) Some samples of works-in-progress are available in their “Studio Journal” (see section Studiopäiväkirjaa).

Maj Karma, formerly known as Maj Karman kauniit kuvat (Maj Karma’s pretty pictures), play punk-, industrial- and metal-infused hard rock with Finnish lyrics. Their 8th album, Ukkonen, was certified gold in Finland.

Hide your rum, lock up your daughters: the trolls are coming!

Finntroll, the Swedish-singing folk/black/humppa metallers from Finland are currently on the road in Europe and will be coming soon to North America. Their 2008 tour will be supported by US thrash/death metal band Warbringer. Fans will also be happy to hear that, on their return to Europe, they are planning to record their Sept 20th concert in Amsterdam for an upcoming DVD.

Opeth: coming soon to a hall near you

Paul recently wrote about Opeth’s latest album, Watershed, so it seems only fitting to mention that they are now on tour, busy throughout July and August with a lot of festival gigs. In mid-September, their North American tour begins, supported by US bands High on Fire (for all dates) along with Nachtmystium (9/16-10/4) and Baroness (10/6-10/26).

Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play continues

After a busy summer festival season, the Finnish gothic metal act Nightwish will also be back in North America at the end of August and throughout September for the third North American leg of their ongoing Dark Passion Play tour. They are supported by Sonata Arctica, a power metal band also out of Finland.

Moonsorrow mini-tour

Also worth mentioning, Moonsorrow have announced some North American dates. A Mexican 2-show mini-tour in September and a primarily Canadian tour (with one US show so far) in November, starting with the St. Paul, MN “Heathen Crusade” festival.

Amorphis bring Silent Waters across the ocean

I was talking to an acquaintance tonight who mentioned she is looking forward to the upcoming Amorphis show, so I thought I ought to add their North American dates. Finnish Amorphis published their eighth album Silent Waters in 2007, combining death metal with progressive, gothic and folk elements. Apart from the ProgPower appearance, they will be supported by the very international combination of Swiss band Samael, German/Norwegian Leaves’ Eyes and Virgin Black from Australia.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last Wednesday I went to the club Semifinal, which is a part of the famous rock venue Tavastia, to catch Black Bile live for the first time.  Black Bile is a metal project by Henri Kuittinen, who writes all the music and plays all the instruments in the studio.  Live, however, he is joined by a live band, so it’s pretty much like what Trent Reznor has been doing with his Nine Inch Nails.  Last December Black Bile was signed for Sakara Records as the label’s first band singing in English. Sakara Records is a record label run by the wildly successful trash metal band Mokoma, and in the last couple of years Sakara Records has been quickly gaining popularity and a wealth of new artists.  At the moment they house Finnish success stories like Stam1na and Diablo and the veterans of progressive rock and punk YUP.

Black Bile’s music is metal combined with a great number of other influences like a little bit of industrial, post-punk, new wave, pop and all kinds of other stuff.  All of this is painted pitch-black by a thick layer of Nordic melancholy and desperation.  Black Bile’s debut album Great Ape Language (released 16th April this year) received mixed reviews in the Finnish music media mainly due to the huge amount of different styles Kuittinen has mixed together, others praising Kuittinen’s flexibility and the overall quality of the music, others criticizing the album for being a way too much of a jumble of elements. As for me, well, I think it’s a really interesting and complex album.  I wasn’t hooked the first time I listened to it, actually I was almost kind of angry that I had bought the album, but I just wasn’t able to resist popping it back into the stereos soon.  There was something there which made me want to listen to it again and again…

Now I can say that Great Ape Language is an very good debut album, however I do have to admit that it’s a real difficult one at first.  Even though there evidently are a ton of influences, Kuittinen has managed to create a very unique sound for his project by making all of the different elements fit each other in a blastedly interesting way.   The sound is characterized by transitions between crunching riffs and somber, sentimental acoustic guitars, minimal electronic touches, careful use of celloes and most prominently, such a level of depression that you could say it’s running rampant.  Really, it seems melancholy is the key element in Black Bile: it more or less penetrates and dominates just about every single song on Great Ape Language.  Hell, even the band’s name itself is a reference to melancholy, the word deriving from the ancient Greek words for “black bile”. This definitely isn’t music for your sunny afternoon in a car, folks.

Interestingly, while Black Bile is decidedly a metal band, it’s the quieter tracks and the numerous ballads that appeal the most to me.  Although the opener Earth Will Rise and the bleak Mute are great metal crushers, songs like the surprisingly Weezerian Light That Failed, the ballads Valerian and Emily and the dark, electronic soundscapes of Monochrome steal the spotlight.  Here the melancholy works for great effect with the mellower atmosphere, and Kuittinen’s voice is also better suited for these kinds of quieter tracks.  For example the one true in-your-face death metal track Divorced with the World is only average at the very best.  In conclusion, I’d say Great Ape Language is an honest, uncompromising album, a misunderstood and underappreciated gem.  It might be difficult to listen to at first, but grows on you rather quickly.  It’s got its fair share of flaws, but I’m sure that if Kuittinen wants to continue with his project, by the second album we’ll have a true masterpiece in our hands.

You can check out Black Bile’s music on their MySpace or the official site where the player seems to have the whole album for preview.  You can buy Great Ape Language at Record Shop X for 15,90 €, and they even ship worldwide.

Tracklisting for Great Ape Language by Black Bile

1. Earth Will Rise
2. Valeriam
3. Light That Failed
4. Infection
5. Divorced With The World
6. Emily
7. Half
8. Mute
9. Monochrome
10. Worst Case Scenario
11. Slumber

Finnish extreme metal giants Children of Bodom released their sixth studio album, entitled Blooddrunk, this past April, to largely positive reviews and excellent sales. Apparently the band were feeling especially aggressive during the writing of the album, and they ended up with something that is quite heavy as a result.

The album was released in both a standard jewel edition, as well as a digipack with several additional bonus tracks. Due to the band’s fame, both should be fairly readily available from any retailers.

For those who enjoy their metal with a touch of power and a healthy dose of thrash, Children of Bodom are worth checking out for sure.

Blooddrunk (April 9, 2008)

1. “Hellhounds On My Trail” – 3:58
2. “Blooddrunk” – 4:05
3. “LoBodomy” – 4:24
4. “One Day You Will Cry” – 4:05
5. “Smile Pretty for the Devil” – 3:55
6. “Tie My Rope” – 4:14
7. “Done with Everything, Die for Nothing” – 3:30
8. “Banned from Heaven” – 5:05
9. “Roadkill Morning” – 3:32

Bonus Tracks:

1. “Ghostriders in the Sky” (Stan Jones cover) – 3:39
2. “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover) – 2:08
3. “Just Dropped In” (Kenny Rogers cover) – 2:38
4. “War Inside My Head” (Suicidal Tendencies cover)

Meshuggah are well known among extreme metal circles for their innovative use of jarring rhythms and atonal chord changes. They are very definitely not a band for everyone, but if you have any appreciation for the experimental jazz influenced style known as technical or math metal, Meshuggah are a definite must have. Meshuggah released their 6th full length studio album a few months back entitled obZen, which has gone on to become fairly succesfull in both their native Sweden and the greater Nordic circle as a whole. It has also been receiving exceptionally good critical reviews. For those familiar with the band’s older work, it might be a bit different from expectations, but overall it is worth checking out.

obZen (released March 07, 2008)

1. “Combustion” – 4:11
2. “Electric Red” – 5:53
3. “Bleed” – 7:22
4. “Lethargica” – 5:49
5. “obZen” – 4:27
6. “This Spiteful Snake” – 4:55
7. “Pineal Gland Optics” – 5:14
8. “Pravus” – 5:13
9. “Dancers to a Discordant System” – 9:36

Norwegian/American aggrotech group Combrichrist are set to release a new EP entitled Frost: Sent to Destroy in just a few weeks time. Currently set for a July 8th release, we know quite a bit about the EP already. It looks to contain 3 songs and a variety of remixes for each, and we can assume it is a teaser EP for the next full length album, which is still officially unannounced (though it is known that the group is working on new material)

For those unfamiliar with Combichrist’s aggressive form of techno, I’d highly recommend last year’s What the Fuck is Wrong with you People? The new EP will likely be widely available, as Combichrist have become fairly well known in North America, but when in doubt Amazon.com is always a good bet, or one of it’s myriad of local sister sites.

Frost EP tracklisting:

1. Sent To Destroy [5:25]
2. The Kill (Instru-Mental Version) [5:22]
3. Prince of E-Ville [4:49]
4. Sent To Destroy (Reworked By Rotersand) [6:06]
5. Sent To Destroy (Northborne Remix) [6:24]
6. Sent To Destroy (Sacrifice Remix By Suicide Commando) [5:57]
7. Prince of E-Ville (Princess Mix By Babyland) [4:15]
8. Prince of E-Ville (Chicago Club Mix By Accessory) [4:05]
9. Prince of E-Ville (Caustic Remix) [4:00]