NEWS : BUTCHER BABIES Sign with CENTURY MEDIA RECORDS

November 18, 2012 – Century Media Records is proud to announce the signing of the BUTCHER BABIES to their worldwide family of artists. Hailing from Los Angeles, the BUTCHER BABIES have emerged as one of the biggest draws on the Sunset Strip, their incendiary blend of heavy metal and horror-inspired theatrics inciting crowds worldwide. Fronted by Carla Harvey and Heidi Shepherd – named two of the year’s ‘Hottest Women In Rock’ by Revolver Magazine – the blood-splattered band left their mark on the United Kingdom in June, appearing on the Download festival and supporting Anthrax in Cardiff. They returned to America as direct support for Otep in fall, and are wrapping up their first headlining tour tonight in front of a hometown crowd at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip. The band – vocalists Harvey and Shepherd, guitarist Henry Flury, bassist Jason Klein and drummer Chris Warner – will be performing with labelmates In This Moment tomorrow night in Las Vegas. “Century Media has been a huge supporter of BUTCHER BABIES for a long time, and it feels natural to join their tight knit family,” said the band of their signing. “It’s an honor for us to be on a roster amongst many other bands that have inspired us for so long. We couldn’t be more excited about the future of this union.” The Butcher Babies‘ track “Axe Wound” is currently in rotation on Sirius XM Liquid Metal, and their short movie/video fo the track “Mr. Slowdeath” can be watched here. The band are currently at work on their full-length debut, which is slated for worldwide release in summer 2013 via Century Media Records. Tour Dates: 11/19/12 – Hollywood, CA @ The Roxy 11/20/12 – Las Vegas, NV @ Vinyl (with In This Moment)

For more information on BUTCHER BABIES, please visit:

www.facebook.com/butcherbabiesmusic

www.twitter.com/butcherbabies

www.centurymedia.com

NEWS : Tracklist and Details about new MANDRAGORA SCREAM album “LUCIFERLAND”

The long waited new album by Mandragora Scream will be released Tomorrow Nov 21st. The Italian Band led by singer MORGAN LACROIX is back with their brand new album “LUCIFERLAND”. Luciferland represenst the city where the Gods were born, a kind of Atlantis, the city where everything begun. Luciferland is released three years after “Volturna”. This is a sophisticated album both in in the compositions and in lyrics and concept. Infact Morgan Lacroix has spent a lot of her time studying with experts in quantistic physics and esotherism as well as with archeologists and experts in ancient languages who have driven the author of all lyrics to sing some excerpts in Sumeric, Latin, Babylonese and even geroghliphic. Luciferland represents not only an album with songs, but is the real start of a path for all followers of hermetic science. Some videos are being shot to support the album. These will be released during the next months. The first single will be a song dedicate to the goddess “Medusa”. LUCIFERLAND will not be distributed in the classic points of sale; the purchase will be possible directly on the band’s website and on the music portal Gattimusic.com.  An order dedicated mail service will be provided so that all sellers throughout the world will be in the position to sell LUCIFERLAND directly. Each album will contain a parchment with Morgan’s autograph and with her kiss, each piece being of course customized by Morgan herself. This activity took Morgan’s time during the past weeks as she wanted to prepare a different gift for all follower who will buy the album.  

This is the tracklist of the album:

1. The Chant Of Furies
2. Hekate – En Erebos Phos
3. Persephone
4. Anubis
5. The Illusionist
6. Medusa
7. The veil of Neith
8. Six Grains Of Pomegranate
9. Night’s Master (Azhrarn & Sivesh)
10. Lamia
11. Love For Endymion
12. Lucifer’s Ballade
13. Titan – Extraterrestrial Suicide
14. Lucifer’s Lullaby

Eerie Sounds Reviews : Les Discrets – “Septembre Et Ses Dérnieres Pensée” (2010)

Label : Prophecy Productions

Review by Andrea “Disgraced”

September and its last thoughts. Fursy Teyssier brings finally to the calm and sweet light of autumn twilight the long awaited and – by its creator – desired debut album. Thank god or whoever in its place he didn’t give up since he created the project in 2003! Now let’s make a brief prologue for those of you out there who aren’t familiar with this particular scene, born some years ago but only now coming to the attention of bigger audiences – relatively speaking, of course. Bigger audiences are always after something not even half close to the art delivered here but… you know, de gustibus. And, just to spam you with another ol’ saying, we could say that “every genre has the hero it deserves”. So, lately France has been a fantastic cauldron for these kind of bands, born in the cold and deadly riffing of extreme black metal, who chose to go beyond usual and old stereotypes still typical of many bands (see above: anyone’s free to do what he/she/they want) and not just add new elements to their music but, directly blending and mixin it in a promiscuous relationship with (dark but not necessarily) ambient, new wave and shoegaze above all. Recognizing certain soundscapes reminiscent of Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, The Cure (mostly “Disintegration” and “Wish”-era), Slowdive, Jesus and Mary Chain is extremely easy and pleasant. Pleasant for lovers of that kind of music of course but also for those open-minded metalheads (or simply good music-lovers, which should be the only important category) who like to sink in a music full of emotion, deeply heart-moving, that didn’t lose any aggressiveness at all but on the opposite just gained in sheer beauty.

Of course we might make a similar speech for other musical genres, even remaining inside of the metal field, that were born in the last 20 years and that bring a big handful of contaminations with them – just think of those dear, I’m sure about that, to the readers of this webzine like gothic metal, symphonic metal, and so on. But here the situation is slightly different: I still have to understand, and leave the matter open to every listener out there, if it’s the inner world of the musician(s) which serves well to the designated musical style or… or is it the music a good servant, the perfect means for the artist(s)’s emotions to come out hre into our so-called real world? Or maybe both? I don’t have an answer right now.

So let’s dive into the music of this album. Here the black metal elements are even more hidden that what did and does his friend Neige in Alcest or Teyssier himself in his other projects; one of the heaviest tracks is the long and epic “Chanson D’Automne” (Autumn Song), always walking on the edge of metal, post-rock and neo-folk. Another heavy song that will make you clap at these musicians for their skills in blending together many styles without losing a clear idea of what they want to do – you know, many would end up just creating a ridiculous mess – is the wonderful “Les Feuilles De L´Olivier” (The Leaves of the Olive). Its central part, let’s say from 2:05 on will bring you on the border of a forest together with the two children of the cover artwork (more on this later), with the darkness behind your shoulders in the shape of a soft pillow ready to take you in and the sun keeping its distance on a wasteland in front of you… but still, there’s hope. I hope most of you won’t be disappointed by the overall lack of female vocals, provided there and then by the good Audrey Hadorn, who anyway contributes with lyrics as well. Teyssier‘s vocals are very good, though he just chants out with lots of emotion and few technique but who cares? His vocals don’t reach the immense poetry of such untouchable masters like Brendan Perry or Peter Murphy but they flow very well with the music, just like they’re expected to do I guess. “Effet De Nuit” (Effect of Night) shows us a very good rythmic section with an increasing tension finding a glimpse of peace only towards the end, where the guitar finally traces space to take a little breath. Final song “Une Matinée D’Hiver” is the tiny but strong, not weak at all, well deserved light but not at the end of the usual gallery, there are no obscure and frightening galleries in this record; that light, granted by the guitars and vocals which climb on each other, is like the smile I imagine the two children of the cover will have in the end, something like, after all we made it to here, we’re alive in front a beauty that can be scary and we’re aware there’s a lot of horror going around. But, we’ll keep on going on. Before I finish my review an important note must be done, that is about the artwork and Teyssier‘s incredible talent in painting and drawing. He actually is a renowned artist also doing cover artworks for other bands but apart from that a great, great painter able to depict sceneries of calmness, innocence and sadness without looking banal or ridiculous but always with that sense of being on the edge of two worlds, and you can’t decide if and which one is better than the other. Teyssier possesses a great technique, maybe even greater than the musical one; from the depth of my ignorance, it reminds me of Renoir’s warm strokes, not to mention Turner’s light and Constable’s love for certain landscapes. At this point, just let me tell you there’s a limited edition of this album (1000 copies) that consists of CD, DVD (with Fursy Teyssier‘s award-winning short film “Tir Nan Og”) and a stunning 56 pages art book. What are you waiting for?!

 Rating – 85/100

Tracklist

1. L’Envol des Corbeaux
2. L’Echappée
3. Les Feuilles de l’Olivier
4. Song for Mountains
5. Sur le Quais
6. Effet de Nuit
7. Septembre Et Ses Derniéres Pensées
8. Chanson d’Automne
9. Svipdagr & Freyja
10. Une Matinée d’Hiver 

Line Up 

• Fursy Teyssier – Vocals, Guitar, Bass
• Audrey Hadorn – Vocals
• Winterhalter – Drums

Links

Facebook * Twitter * Site

NEWS : ACELSIA Release “The Mender” Single

Oslo, Norway-based act ACELSIA release their new single today, ahead of their new, yet-to-be-titled album. The single, for the track “The Mender”, is available via Spotify here.

Guitarist Odd Henning comments: ““The Mender” is very much the quintessential Acelsia song. With it’s soaring vocal melodies, airy and heavy guitars and throbbing drum patterns, it is basically a catchy song with hints of hard rock and shoegazer – and even some metal in its double bass drum driven, goose bump inducing finale. The song is about compassion; how you unconditionally always do your best to make someone who’s hurting feel better, regardless of your own inadequacies and shortcomings to do so”. Acelsia are known for their original melodic hard rock that is full of emotion and contrast, and fans shouldn’t have long to wait for the full album.

Updates to follow. More on Acelsia at this location.

Crystal Viper – “Metal Nation” RE-ISSUE (2012)

Label : AFM Records

Review by Tony Cannella

Originally released in 2009, “Metal Nation” is the second full-length album from Poland’s Crystal Viper. In my opinion, this is also the album where the band began hit their stride and establishes themselves as one of the lead bands in the traditional metal movement. Like their debut, “Metal Nation” has been re-released by the bands current label AFM with a ton of bonus material. Let’s face it, throughout their history Crystal Viper has not strayed too far from what they do best and that is one of the things we love about them, it doesn’t mean however that they don’t add a new twist or two along the way. “Metal Nation” opens with the intro “Breaking the Curse” and the band dives straight in with the ferocious title track. Yes indeed, classic metal is alive and well and played at a high quality by this band. “Bringer of the Light” is next and is one of my favorite songs the band has ever recorded. “1428″, “Zombie Lust” and “Legions of Truth” are more highlights. The bonus material includes: a cover of the Agent Steel song “Agents of Steel” and a cover of the Running Wild song “Libertalia” – Crystal Viper has always chosen interesting songs to cover and these are no different. Some alternate versions of Crystal Viper songs are also included here. Crystal Viper is one of those bands that have such a strong catalogue of music that everyone who is a fan of the band has a favorite. “Metal Nation” is my favorite, but in the grand scheme of things, how do you choose a favorite from a band whose body of work is this strong? AFM put a lot of care into these re-releases and fans of the band should be pleased with them.

 Rating – 88/100

Tracklist

1. Breaking the Curse
2. Metal Nation
3. Bringer of the Light
4. 1428
5. The Anvil of Hate
6. Zombie Lust (Flesh Eaters)
7. Her Crimson Tears
8. Legions of Truth
9. Gladiator: Die By the Blade (I-III)
10. Agents of Steel (Agent Steel Cover)
11. Axeman’s Revenge (Live intro 2008-2011)
12. Metal Nation (Karaoke Version)
13. The Banshee (2011 Version)
14. The Anvil of Hate (Demo Version 2007)
15. Bringer of the Light (Karaoke Version)
16. Libertalia (Running Wild Cover)

Line Up

• Marta Gabriel – Vocals, Keyboards and Piano
• Andy Wave – Guitars
• Tom Woryna – Bass
• Golem – Drums

Links

MySpace * Facebook * Twitter * Site