Want some irresistibly amazing free music? Here's the best news you'll hear in a while. Our favourite UK label Basick Records has been named “label of the month” by no less than Amazon.co.uk. That means for the entire month of November, you can get a ton of Basick releases at a specially discounted price - just £4.49 for albums and £1.99 for EPs.
But the best is yet to come (or this shouldn't be under Free Music Monday). The label is giving a 12 track sampler absolutely free! That includes Misery Signals, Circles, Skyharbor, No Consequence, Glass Cloud, Bear, The Algorithm, Uneven Structure, Aliases, Damned Spring Fragrantia, Dissipate and Chimp Spanner! That's a shit load of amazing free music! You still there? Click on that link!
So our Italian team member MATTIA and his videographer have approximately 10 hours of footage to sort through from the 5 days of madness that were this year's UK Tech-Metal Fest. They're working hard to bring you a 1 hour documentary of what went down. Just to keep you on your toes, he put together a rough teaser. Watch and read Mattia's statement for more info below.
And if your Tech Fest cravings aren't satisfied know that our official video and final report are coming soon! In the meantime, read up on Report 1 HERE, Report 2 HERE, Report 3 HERE, and Report 4 HERE. Booyah!
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We recently crashed UK Tech-Metal Fest in Peterborough and filmed
some amazing footage there including HD live performances, interviews
with great bands, some hilarious and even psychedelic stuff happening
around during the weekend. We filmed a load of material and we're
working hard to bring you a finished live experience as soon as possible.
It
will end up being a one-hour documentary showing you how amazing that
weekend has been for us and everyone who attended. We filmed so much material that if you were there, you will probably appear in some frames
of the final video. In the meantime, we've decided to show you a small,
low-quality teaser of what's coming because we just can't wait for you
to see what we're working on. The definition of the final video should
be way higher but this should give you an idea of what we have here. We hope it can bring you even just a small glimpse of what was the
amazing vibe you could feel at Tech-Fest.
The ambient track in the
beginning of the video is called “Genghis” produced by
an artist called Interlaken. The track is featured on an amazing
downtempo/glitch compilation called “Fragm'nts”. It has been released
under a Creative Commons License so it can easily be downloaded for
free on the psychedelic music portal Ektoplazm.com or at the label's Bandcamp.
You need to check that compilation out if you're a fan of this type of
music too.
The heavy djenty song is from our old, good French friends in
Cycles and it's called “From Fear To Fascination”. This track is
available for a "name-your-price" download on Bandcamp as well. Keep your eyes on this band too, since their new EP shall be hitting
your eardrums soon. Check out the teaser below and be patient...the full
video's coming very soon!
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Video and additional reports coming soon! Read up on Report 1 HERE and Report 2 HERE.
We woke up aware that this was going to be one of our busiest days. Considering the amount of bands we wanted to see and the intense interview schedule we had we woke up early and started our work under a sunny and hot day. It all was made even harder by the time-changing that unfortunately confused everyone that day. It was announced and notified on the UKTMF facebook page, but since we had no internet access, we were hardly able to understand what was going on with the timing. But luckily we managed to see all the bands we wanted and do all our interviews despite some delays and difficulties.
The audience was brutally waken up by the virulent performance of the Glasgow-based mathcore band Colours To Shame. I honestly wasn't familiar with this band, which defines itself as “the sound of Ronald McDonald hardcore dancing through a jazz band”. But this set struck me with impressive energy and madness. Definitely a band to check out.
After their set, we moved to the main stage to assist to Above The Earth's exhibition. This was one of the bands I was looking forward to most that morning. It's the new project from the former Destiny Potato vocalist Aleksandra Radosavljevic and Karikeya's Arsafes side-project (who also played with his band, Kartikeya shortly after on the same stage). This cross country musical project was premiered at UKTMF with their first official appearance and it was largely appreciated by the audience. They brought a sound which is actually similar to Destiny Potato's approach on music: atmospheric progressive metal with pop-oriented vocals but refined and groovy riffage. Aleksandra's vocals were amazing as well, so you should definitely watch out for this band in the near future. They've got something really good going on.
Shortly after I sadly understood that Neosis (which I would really have loved to meet) and Joconfy were not going to perform today and that Destiny Potato's set had been moved to 4.15 pm. We quickly changed the time of two of our interviews so that we could watch and film at least a good part of it but in any case we were not able to watch Red Seas Fire, Disperse and most sadly Uneven Structure. But this is good for you because we interviewed Brandon from Veil Of Maya, Kashiv from Skyharbor, Sean from Shattered Skies and David & Aleksandra from Destiny Potato.
At 2 PM it was the time for Shattered Skies live set on the second stage. I honestly must say that I enjoyed their live performance even more than their studio material. They played their recent singles “Saviours” and “15 Minutes” along with some of their older tunes and also an amazing cover of Pendulum's “Propane Nightmare” which I personally loved. These Irish guys are currently looking for a label to release their debut full length album “The World We Used To Know” so keep listening to their stuff and support them.
Around 3.30 pm we attended Dresif Stalin's performance on the main stage which can only be described as one of the heaviest sets of the whole weekend. A big crowd attended this show and got literally trampled by the heaviness unleashed by Drewsif Stalin and his band. It was a memorable set. And he was a really nice guy, always happy to have fun with the people he randomly met around the field during the weekend.
Shortly after it was the long awaited (and delayed) time for Destiny Potato! I was personally really stoked to see them, but unfortunately we had some interviews scheduled and were only able to witness the first three songs of their set. The first one was a new track, followed by “Love Song” and “Dark Side Of You”. I wish I could hear more of their new material, but their live performance was truly solid even though they looked a bit stressed for the load of problems they had with the travel and technical troubles. Anyway, we filmed that part of their set and did an interview with them so stay tuned to check them out.
From the garden of the press area we could hear Uneven Structure playing anyway and it sounded unbelievable. The people I talked with told me that it was one of the sickest performances of the weekend. At the end of their set we heard a thunder (probably provoked by Uneven Structure's booming set itself) and a few minutes later we had the only 5-10 minutes of rain of the whole weekend (which is huge and improbable luck considering we are in the UK... I thought that a 4 day open-air festival in the UK would yield at least 3 days of rain, but the weather was beautiful and hot as hell for the whole weekend).
Once we finished all the interviews we recharged our camera's battery and I was finally able to relax and enjoy two of the best bands around. I considered this a present for my birthday, while my friend filmed both of their sets. I'm talking about tonight's headliners Skyharbor and Veil Of Maya. Skyharbor's very first appearance in the UK with their vocalist Daniel Tompkins was a huge success. This was also officially one of the audiences favourite performances, and I've seen a lot of people enthusiastic for it. Their performance was actually flawless. Especially Daniel's amazing vocals were just too perfect. But the rest of the band played a clean and memorable set, proving this is one great live band. But there's one more thing to tell about this performance: the band's official drummer (that great artist named Anup Sastry) was currently on tour in the USA with Intervals, supporting the Misery Signals release tour. Guess who took his place... hell yes! Once again the amazing Mike Malyan (Monuments & The Algorithm) joined the band and nailed it on stage. This was Mike's third set after the unforgettable one with Monuments and the performance with The Algorithm during the after party. And the most amazing thing is what Kashiv from Skyharbor told us during our interview with him... Mike only started to learn those songs on Wednesday! Mike actually learned a 45 minute set of complex Skyharbor greatness in 4 days! And he even brought his own brilliant interpretation to deliver an amazing and unforgettable live performance. Oh-my-god. I was fucking speechless.
Veil Of Maya's set was delayed for a considerable time because it seems like their bassist got stuck somewhere in Belgium and had a lot of problems reaching the venue. He finally made it and the show began a bit later than expected, but also a bit louder than expected! Veil Of Maya brought some ruthless madness on the UKTMF main stage with a crazy, fast, and killer performance. They played a balanced setlist with songs from their latest albums “Eclipse” and “[id]” but also the biggest successes off “The Common Man Collapse”. I never saw them live before and I was extremely happy to enjoy them on my birthday. Their performance and the “Happy Birthday” sung by the audience before Skyharbor's performance were the best presents possible. This weekend keeps getting better by the day.
Here's somewhat of an assuming story. The singing machine Daniel Tompkins (Skyharbor, In Colour, ex-Tesseract) was recently scouted by American TV talent show The Voice. He turned them down.
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"Was recently scouted by The Voice to audition for the next series...I've had a bizarre few days! Unfortunately I don't feel it's for me right now but great to have been asked nonetheless!" - Daniel Tompkins
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I must say American TV "talent shows" are a joke. But I do have some respect for The Voice over say... the gag-worthy American Idol or X-Factor. From my recollection, they have a generally talented panel (No Nick Minaj) and seek out at least some real talent. Whoda thunk?
The thing that sucks about living in States is that Europe gets all the great shows. And the problem with living in Europe is that the US gets all the great shows. If you catch my drift... You can't win either way.
For this reason I did not personally attend Euroblast 8 but there's no denying the line-up was insanely good. There was also an incredible tour alongside the main event with Scar Symmetry among others. So today we're gonna be taking a look back at some of the incredible sets that were played at the main festival itself along with prepping you for this year's Euroblast 9.
Euroblast 8 was stacked with names like After The Burial, Tesseract, Jeff Loomis, War From A Harlots Mouth, Vildhjarta, Skyharbor, Chimp Spanner, Monuments, Circle of Contempt, The Algorithm, Agent Fresco, Destiny Potato, and the list goes on... Check out footage from the bands down below! Also included possibly one of the coolest festival trailers ever made, featuring music from the incredible Akeldama.
Currently the line-up for this years festival is being announced bit by bit. There have already been several awesome bands announced including Benea Reach, Mnemic, Twelve Foot Ninja, The Omega Experiment, Cyclamen, Tardive Dyskinesia, etc. You can check the rest of the bands / get all kinds of info here. This years festival will be huge!
Skyharbor are officially in the process of writing new music for a second album. They've been releasing a series of videos including beastly guitarists Keshav Dhar and Devesh Dayal (who looks a lot like Elliot Coleman) along with bassist Nikhil Rufus Raj hard at work. So far, three videos have been released giving you a multitude of sounds to expect from the new record. I definitely recommend you check out all of the above, below.
Expect plenty more ethereal goodness from Skyharbor. Also expect a return from super talents Daniel Tompkins (ex-Tesseract, In Colour) and Anup Sastry (Jeff Loomis, Intervals). This album should be incredible.
The Room Colored Charlatan dropped their new single "Nexus Point" late last week. Getting new music from this band is awesome enough in itself. But what makes it even better is that the legend Daniel Tompkins (ex-Tesseract, Skyharbor, In Colour) makes a cameo on the track. This makes for a talented crossover of epic proportions. Amazing material.
Go ahead and give it a listen below along with a studio documentary and a full stream of the The Room Colored Charlatan debut, "Between Mirrors: The Quantum Immortality". If you enjoy the music, you can go ahead and buy all of the above from the official TRCC Bandcamp!
It's finally here. These are our top 10 albums of 2012. It's been one helluva year for the heavy music community and now it's time to celebrate the cream of the crop. Here are the top 10 albums of
2012, no shits given about whiny elitist opinions. Also check out our
top 10 of 2009, 2010, and 2011.
1 PERIPHERY - PERIPHERY II: THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL
This wasn't just an album, it was an event. The anticipation was so high for this record you could have cut it with a chainsaw. And when it hit, it hit hard. There's division amongst the metal community, but it's hard to deny the musical excellence without being an elitist (refer to the intro of the segment). "Periphery II: This Time It's Personal" was damn near perfect. Every virtuosic member of this band progressed significantly, making serious contributions to form a masterpiece. Intelligently crafted and executed, every track offers something unique and awe-inspiring. "Periphery II" deserves album of the year. Easy.
From the very first time Sumerian Records announced The HAARP Machine, it was evident they would become a metal juggernaut. But at the time, there was no way of telling just how amazing they would be. "Disclosure" is everything you could hope for and some. Providing a cutting edge Progressive sound and a serious, shred heavy Technical approach along with Mike Semesky's amazing vocal work, Abdullah Al Mu'min and crew created one of the best albums to come out in 2012. This is a masterpiece through and through. This is evinced by tracks like "Pleiadian Keys", "The Escapist Notion", "Disclosure", and "Esoteric Agenda".
3 SKYHARBOR - BLINDING WHITE NOISE: ILLUSION & CHAOS
Coming out of India, Skyharbor made a huge debut. Featuring the flawless voice of Daniel Tompkins (ex-Tesseract) and boasting massive guest spots from Marty Friedmen (ex-Megadeth) among others, they formed a masterpiece. Actually it wouldn't be a stretch to call Skyharbor's debut, "Blinding White Noise", music of the gods with it's ethereal beauty and unique approach of songwriting. Split into two parts, "Illusion" for beauty and "Chaos" for heaviness, this album is so unlike what you've heard before. It's encouraged you give it a listen or seven. You'll thank us after hearing songs like "Dots", "Maeva", "Aurora" and "Celestial".
There's so much to say about this album. The Safety Fire made one of the strongest debuts all year with their full-length, "Grind The Ocean". Years in the making, they have managed to create a stand out masterpiece. Bringing next level creativity and writing some of the best riffs known to man, this UK musical unit is easily one of the most promising bands out there. "Grind The Ocean" covered so much ground both musically and thematically, making for an abundance of classics on this record. "Huge Hammers", "Circassian Beauties", "Floods of Colour", and the rehashed versions of "Sections" and "DMP (FDP)" are just a few greats among many.
Aliens, man.... aliens. Rings of Saturn write some of the sharpest, most technically proficient Death Metal that will ever bless your ears (...or shred them). "Dingir" is absolute brutal chaos from start to finish. This band shreds like no other \m/ Plain and simple. Actually they do it so well we're convinced they aren't human beings. Thus aliencore. Songs like "Objective To Harvest", "Faces Imploding", "Peeling Arteries", and "Hyperforms" should be locked up in Area 51. You can actually stream the ENTIRE album below and see why. This is definitely recommended if you have forty minutes to kill (bad Death Metal pun intended).
6 BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME - THE PARALLAX II: FUTURE SEQUENCE
Between The Buried And Me always seem to expand and improve with every release. Which is saying a lot considering they're practically gods of Progressive Metal already. This is true as ever with their epic full-length "The Parallax II: Future Sequence". The band's sixth studio album is also the second part of the band's interstellar space saga. And it's safe to say it expands upon the concept of the original EP brilliantly. The release is teeming with master level classics. "Astral Body", "Telos", "Goodbye To Everything", and "Extremophile Elite" are just a few examples of the absolute greatness on "The Parallax II". Welcome to hyperspace.
The Contortionist are certainly standing out as one of the premiere bands of the metal underground. They have expanded and grown much since their debut, moving away from their Deathcore roots in favor of a Progressive approach and pure creativity. Not to say there isn't extreme heaviness to be found on "Intrinsic", just twice as much genius. This album is mind-blowing on so many levels (more puns). "Intrinsic" is a high-octane adventure through the inner workings of the human consciousness, providing captivating soundscapes for brains to explore. "A secret dimension of noise" - That lyric pretty much sums it up.
The masters of Math Metal never seem to disappoint. We're actually fairly convinced Meshuggah are robots, void of humanity, designed by the Swedish government to decimate the eardrums of metal listeners worldwide. Listening to Meshuggah is like receiving a heavy brain massage. Listening to "Koloss" is like having your brain massaged by a robotic titan. Expect massive grooves, mechanical technicality, and unparalleled polyrhythms. This is a prime example of Meshuggah doing what they do best. They crank out goods like "Do Not Look Down", "Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion", and "Demiurge" for this colossal experience.
The Faceless came back as strong and creative as ever with their third full-length "Autotheism". This album seemingly took forever to be released, but was well worth the wait when it hit. There were serious line up changes, but The Keene Machine raised the bar with Evan Brewer and Wes Hauch in the mix. In many ways, this is really a side step for the band. "Autotheism" is an unexpected treat to listen to with an increased focus on melody and a theatrical approach. It opens up with singing for christ sake. Who honestly expected that? When all the factors are added up, it makes for a phenomenal listening experience.
Deftones has been in the business of making awesome music for over two decades and they haven't even come close to losing their spark. Their tenth studio album, "Koi No Yokan", is perfect evidence of that. This record delivers in all the ways that matter. It is the complete package from flying through the air with "Swerve City" to the genius, floaty closer "What Happened To You?". All the songs in between are outstanding as well. "Leathers", "Tempest", and "Entombed" just to name a few. This album is just plain amazing. It's recommended you give it a good listen but watch out... you may end up falling in love after listening (get it?).
It's not a metal band, but we like to support friends of metal regardless. Daniel is by far one of my personal favorite vocalists with his incredible work in Tesseract and Skyharbor. Dan Weller was the amazing guitarist from SikTh whose work has inspired many. Truely amazing work from both individuals. So for those of you who are interested in the careers of these men, I'd like to announce that they have officially joined forces in the band In Colour full time! The band has a very ethereal, quality sound. Check out some new music below. We wish In Colour the best of luck! Incredible talent, incredible music. And I gotta say, Daniel drives really damn well with his eyes closed.
It's official, Daniel Tompkins will be preforming live with Skyharbor at Euroblast 8. This should be welcome news for any European fans going. Skyharbor announced this in an awesome play through video for their song "Aurora" which I highly recommend. Music of the gods! And we have more of it under the play through. Also check out The Circle Pit's recent feature on Skyharbor right here.
What originally started as Keshav Dhar's bedroom project in India (known as Hydrodjent) has turned into something much bigger than anyone would have imagined. Now known as Skyharbor, it is a collaboration of top notch musicians including the likes of Daniel Tompkins (ex-Tesseract) at the helm and Anup Sastry behind the drum kit. Not to mention a huge guest spot with Marty Friedman (ex-Megadeth) providing solos on multiple songs. Also, fellow countryman Sunneith Revankar from the stand out Indian metal band Bhayanak Maut covers the vocals on some tracks.
The debut Skyharbor album "Blinding White Noise: Chaos & Illusion" is easily one of the best records to come out this year. With Keshav Dhar's larger than life, incredibly original and mature songwriting, huge soundscapes, Daniel Tompkin's soaring vocals, and the album's overall indescribable beauty, "Blinding White Noise" sounds like music of the gods. I might honestly give this album a perfect 10 out of 10. And I don't give 10's lightly.
No metal band from India has ever earned such a level of prestige. Skyharbor is reffered to as "India's Brightest Hope" by some and it's easy to hear why if you've ever given "Blinding White Noise" a listen. But it hasn't been easy for Skyharbor. Being an Indian metal band trying to gain international attention is a rocky endeavor. However, they were picked up the European record label Basick Records (amazing label) for the release of "Blinding White Noise" internationally, and have since shared stages with bands like Lamb of God. They will also be playing the progressive metal festival of dreams, Euroblast 8 next month.
Skyharbor has a cool video which gives insight into how the band was formed. Apparently it's only the first of a series documenting this awesome musical unit. We have that and some great music for you to enjoy. Hope you all have a good one!
To anyone going to this festival, you're a lucky bastard. Euroblast is the kind of event that would make me consider moving to another continent for good if I had the money. It is the prog-metal festival of dreams. Euroblast 8's line up is beyond ridiculous. Featuring acts like Animals as Leaders, Scar Symmetry, Tesseract, Jeff Loomis, Vildhjarta, Monuments, Sybreed, Skyharbor, Chimp Spanner, Scale the Summit, Uneven Structure, Long Distance Calling, The Algorithm, Red Seas Fire, Stealing Axion, and Akeldama among many others. And with the recent addition of After the Burial and Circle of Contempt this show is looking better than ever. If you live nearby, it should be considered a crime not to attend. If you don't live in Europe and don't have money to travel, you should be jealous... like me. The 3 day festival kicks off October 19th, 2012 in Cologne, Germany. Watch the awesome trailer featuring an exclusive Akeldama clip below.
Want some irresistibly amazing free music? Here's the best news you'll hear in a while. Our favourite UK label Basick Records has been named “label of the month” by no less than Amazon.co.uk. That means for the entire month of November, you can get a ton of Basick releases at a specially discounted price - just £4.49 for albums and £1.99 for EPs.
