New albums from Century Media artists up on Spotify

New albums Century Media artists The Devastated and Caliban have made their way onto online streaming service Spotify. This comes as a huge surprise after Century Media's very public anti-Spotify stance. The label's major complaints are that the service has a very low per-song payout and that it can cannibalize physical album sales. Though the label has talked about the possibility of reintroducing their artists to Spotify in the form of samplers, and they have put up the singles "The Serpent" and "Nothing Left" from one of their new artists Rise to Remain (which boasts Bruce Dickinson's son on vocals), posting up these full albums seems out of character.

Neither album, in my opinion, is very good. Mediocre deathcore that offers nothing new that better bands haven't already done. The Devastated's debut Devils Messenger that came out two weeks ago has seen poor sales (only 470 units week one, we'll see what week two brought them tomorrow). It's possible that Century Media doesn't think that Caliban's new album We Are the Many, which came out today, will fare much better. They don't need to worry about Spotify cannibalizing physical album sales if there are no samples to cannibalize. Low pay-out is better than no pay-out.

The other possibility is that Spotify can help to promote the album a little more. If people listen to the albums on the service, it'll show up on their Facebook feed, which could lead to more people discovering the artist, which could lead to more sales. Putting up the singles from Rise to Remain seems to be on that line. Maybe this is just the label fulfilling their end of promotion for the bands.

I'm of the opinion that they're trying to cut their losses, but then again, I'm cynical.

If you care to listen to either album, you can do so here (The Devastated) and here (Caliban). I however, think that there are much better albums for you to listen to (like Christian Mistress or Eluveitie, both of whom have records out today).

Review: T.R.A.M. - Lingua Franca

One of the great things about working for a music store is that when there's a clerical error, I know them. This time there was a wonderful clerical error in the computer regarding the debut album by Tosin Abasi's (Animals as Leaders) progressive metal/jazz fusion project T.R.A.M., which allowed me to get it about four days early of it's release date.

T.R.A.M. is the acronym of the members of the band; wind instrumentalist Adrian Terrazas (The Mars Volta), guitarist's Javier Reyes and Tosin Abasi (Animals as Leaders) and drummer Eric Moore (Suicidal Tendencies).

I first heard of T.R.A.M. back in July through the release of an unmastered track, "Endeavor" on the Animals as Leaders facebook page. I was blown away from the beginning and the album version (which now features a flute, guitar duet intro) is even better. I've been waiting for this record and when I put it in my CD player, my excitement was well satisfied.

The sound of T.R.A.M. is a little hard to classify. It sounds metal but at the same time, not. If you crank up the distortion and replace Saxophone solos with guitar solos, this could be another Animals as Leaders album. Lingua Franca, however, is something more than that. It is very layered and textured with tasty guitar licks and sensual sax lines. The beginning of album opener "Seven Ways Till Sunday" is undeniably metallic until about 36 seconds in, when the chuggy guitar riff forfeits it's dominance to some beautiful chords which then are replaced by Terrazas' sax.

The biggest surprise for me was Moore's drumming. I've seen Suicidal Tendencies live, with Moore and I don't remember hearing anything that sounded that amazing. In an interview with Metal Sucks, Abasi said that the recording session was probably the first time that Moore had heard the music.

We sent him some demos without any drums, and the arrangements were different. So he might have listened through the ideas maybe once but I’m fairly certain that when he got down there he was hearing the stuff for the first time so it was all new to him.

Abasi went on to say that they would record Moore playing various interpretations of the material. He was only in the studio for a day and a half before having to go out on the road with Suicidal Tendencies, so the band picked the drum takes they liked best then comped the songs to fit.

This band has changed what constitutes progressive instrumental metal music. Though I would classify them more as a Jazz group, it's not an easy classification to make. I think that if the stars align and T.R.A.M. is able to hit the road, they would bring in a whole mess of fans. It can bring jazz fans an appreciation for metal and metal fans an appreciation for jazz.

Lingua Franca comes out Feb. 28th through Sumerian Records.

Andols Herrick to be working with UAE band Benevolent

Progressive Metallers Benevolent from The United Arab Emerates have announced that former Chimaira drummer Andols Herrick will be featured on their upcoming album.

Herrick, who left Chimaira back in April 2011, will be featured on an as-yet unrevealed track on Benevolent's upcoming debut full-length through Spellbind Records. Band co-founder and lead guitarist Hadi Sarieddine is still in awe over Herrick appearing on the record.

"It is pretty crazy thinking that Andols Herrick is going to be drumming on one of our songs; if I go back in time and tell past-me that this was happening I'd probably get a pretty sarcastic reaction."

Sarieddine added,

"The last couple of years since we started the band have been absolutely insanely great for us; getting such great reviews for the debut record, getting signed to Spellbind Records, and now this? I can't think that things could be any better for the band, I'm really proud of how things are coming together"

Herrick commented on his work with Benevolent saying,

"I was approached by Hadi Sarieddine awhile back about the possibility of tracking drums for Benevolent. I was quite impressed with the quality of the music and vocals. I love having the opportunity to work with a great band, who happens to represent the Middle East metal scene very well. I do know it is very vibrant having had the pleasure of performing with Chimaira at the Desert Rock Festival in Dubai back in 2009."

Benevolent burst out on the Middle East scene with their debut EP Divided in 2010, which the band released for free through the music site Bandcamp. The EP garnered them fans across the globe, leading to the band signing to Spellbind Records in September of 2011.

The band has said the new record will be a technical, dark and progressive album. It will pick up where Divided left off musically while expanding on the band's sound identity.

Sarieddine further commented on the album, stating,

"It's definitely a lot more technical than Divided; the songs have a lot going on and while it preserves that sound that we've created in our debut EP this is a step forward on many levels and it tells a story about lots of dark themes with the lyrical and instrumental direction on the album."

Herrick commented on his specific track, saying,

"This song presented numerous rhythmic challenges as I was learning it. If you were a drummer with limited music theory experience, I'd just say 'Good luck trying to learn it!' The song is loaded with 'over the bar line' guitar riffs, and I found myself, on occasion, discovering some of my transcriptions would be a sixteenth note off here or there!"

Frontman and co-founder Fadi Sarieddine stated of the new album,

"We all can't wait to share this album with the world; I believe we have a very strong set of new songs and it's going to be great to share the new stuff with the world. Once the album is done, it will be the begin of the next phase of this observation's life cycle, and that is to get it all out there to as many listeners as possible worldwide; we're excited and we absolutely cannot wait!"

Benevolent is slated to release their debut full length in the spring of 2012 through Spellbind and will then tour throughout the Middle East to promote the release.

Check out the band through their Facebook page and listen to and download the EP Divided below for free.

Chrome Waves, black metal for your rainy day

One of the things that I love about metal music is that there are so many sub-genres that allow bands to sound so different from each other (with some obvious exceptions). When new bands surface, it's awesome to see the new innovations that groups are coming up with, but it's also fun to hear when a band takes something that's been around for awhile and makes it there own.

Enter Chrome Waves. Vocals/Synth: Stavros Giannopoulos (Atlas Moth), Guitar/Synth: Jeff Wilson (ex-Nachtmystium), Drums/Bass: Bob Fouts (Gates of Slumber). Their new track "That Cursed Armored Train" is a great doomy black metal tune. Perfect for being out in the rain or trudging up a snowy mountain.

Check out the track, then check out the group's Facebook page (thanks to metalsucks for posting the track)

Iron Maiden's gonna get you, no matter how far

I know I'm a little behind on posting this, but dammit it needs to be said again because it's that big a deal to me. IRON MAIDEN RETURNS TO THE US THIS SUMMER!!!

That first time I heard Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" on 99.9 KISW in Seattle was a magical moment for me. It was when alternative music and classic rock became less prominent for me and I became a fan of heavy metal (though those two rock genres still have a place in my heart and on my Zune). Now, I can finally see them live.

The tour, titled Maiden England, will utilize the majority of the set list from the live album/video of the same name (which is supposed to be coming out on DVD sometime in the near future). That was recorded during the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son touring cycle, so it will be some earlier tunes.

Singer Bruce Dickinson appears to be psyched for this tour. He had this to say through the band's website

“We have great fun playing the History of Maiden Tours because it gives us an opportunity between new albums to go out and play songs from our earlier catalog. It’s always fantastic seeing the crowd reaction from a new generation of fans who have never experienced some of these tracks performed live before, and of course we know our longstanding fans will enjoy seeing the original Seventh Son Tour re-visited – with many other surprises!”

The North American leg of the tour will kick off June 21st and run through August 18th. Alice Cooper will open the shows until July 21st, after which Coheed and Cambria will take the opening slot. Tour Dates are as follows (via Ironmaiden.com)

Thur 21st June Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

Sat 23rd June Atlanta, GA Aarons Amphitheatre

Tue 26th June Boston, MA Comcast Center

Wed 27th June Wantagh, NY Jones Beach

Fri 29th June Philadelphia, PI Susquehanna Bank Center

Sat 30th June Washington, DC Jiffy Lube Live

Mon 2nd July Newark, NJ Prudential Center

Thur 5th July Chicago, IL First Midwest Bank

Sun 8th July Quebec, QC Colisee Pepsi Arena

Wed 11th July Montreal, QC Bell Center

Fri 13th July Toronto, ON Molson Amphitheatre

Sat 14th July Sarnia, ON Bayfest

Mon 16th July Buffalo, NY Darien Lake Performing Arts Center

Wed 18th July Detroit, MI DTE Music Theatre

Thur 19th July Indianapolis, IN Klipsch Music Centre

Tues 24th July Winnipeg, MB MTS Center

Thur 26th July Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome

Fri 27th July Edmonton, AB Rexall Place

Sun 29th July Vancouver, BC Pacific Coliseum

Mon 30th July Auburn, WA White River Amphitheatre

Wed 1st August Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheatre

Fri 3rd August San Francisco, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre

Mon 6th August Phoenix, AZ Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion

Thur 9th August Irvine, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

Sun 12th August Albuquerque. NM Hard Rock Pavilion

Mon 13th August Denver, CO Comfort Dental Amphitheatre

Wed 15th August San Antonio, TX AT&T Center

Fri 17th August Dallas, TX Gexa Energy Pavilion

Sat 18th August Houston, TX The Woodlands

The Nominees for this year's Revolver Golden Gods awards have been announced.

The GRAMMY's happened this past weekend and the Oscars are just around the corner, so it's about that time for the US's only Hard Rock/Metal Award show, Revolver Magazine's Golden Gods, to release the nominees.

Held in it's usual spot of Club Nokia in downtown L.A. on April 11th, there's a brand new feature to the award show that I'm particularly excited about. The event will be broadcast live for the first time via X-Box Live, as well as on the X-Box and Revolver Facebook pages.

The GRAMMY Museum, right next door to Club Nokia, will debut a new exhibit on April 11th as well titled Golden Gods: The History of Heavy Metal

The event will be hosted by WWE Superstar and Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho (his third consecutive year hosting), along with a slew of current stars, up-and-comers, and living legends on hand to present the awards.

Voting on the 11 categories is open now, you can vote by going to www.goldengodsawards.com.

The show's namesake, The Golden God Award, is given to "one special honoree a year who embodies the spirit of rock and metal" according to the award website. This year, the recipient will be Kiss Demon Gene Simmons (previous winners have been Alice Cooper, Rob Halford of Judas Priest, and Dave Mustaine of Megadeth)

Simmons commented on his win

"It's an honor and privilage to accept the Golden God Award. A God is only as powerful as the faithful who worship him." (signed God of Thunder)

Kiss is slated to release their 20th studio album "Monsters" later this year.

The show will feature performances by Marilyn Manson (his first U.S. performance in approximately three years), Slash feat. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, Evanescence, Sixx:A.M., and 2011 Best New Band winners Black Veil Brides. More performances will be announced in the coming weeks.

Revolver Editor in Chief Brandon Geist had this to say

“Every year, the Revolver Golden Gods grows bigger and more badass. The 2012 edition is without question the most epic one yet, from the performers and presenters to the nominees and honorees. And this year, with the GRAMMY Museum launching its tie-in ‘Golden Gods: The History of Heavy Metal’ exhibit, and Xbox LIVE broadcasting the show around the world as it goes down in its entirety, the event will truly encompass the full timeline of heavy music and span the globe. Epic, indeed.”

You can read the whole press release here, as well as the complete list of categories and nominees. Also, don't forget to vote.

-IH

Into Eternity’s “Fukushima” is out and DAMN IT’S GOOD!

Canadian GODS Into Eternity have finally released “Fukushima”, which they’ve been teasing for about a month. Stu Block has become one of my favorite singers recently. I’ve been a fan of Into Eternity in a minor sense, didn’t own any of their stuff, but liked every track I heard from them. I didn’t start checking out more of their stuff until I heard the new Iced Earth singe “Anthem” and was blown away. Dystopia was a phenomenal record that showcases Stu’s voice well. And now, we have new Into Eternity that shows his voice off even more, including those lovely growls that he so lovingly exudes during the track. I could sit here and praise the gospel according to Block all day, but dammit, just listen to the song.

Into Eternity will be out on the road hopefully soon, but not with Stu Block, which is a bummer, but hell, you can’t always get what you want.

Also, God Forbid have a new record coming out

So, I have no idea how I’ve missed this, but God Forbid is finishing up a new record called Equilibrium due out March 27th through Victory Records. I don’t know if they’ve kept it quiet or if I just dropped the ball completely, but Metalsucks put up both the album artwork and a demo released LAST FRIGGIN YEAR for the song “Where We Come From”.

Here’s the artwork

And here's the Demo

This’ll be God Forbid’s first record to feature guitarist Matt Wicklund (formerly of disbanded, but still awesome Seattle Metalcore band Himsa), who became the permanent replacement for Dallas Coyle, who left the band in 2009 (former Darkest Hour guitarist Kris Norris was the temp for their tour that year with Lamb of God)

Matt DeVries now in Fear Factory, did you see that one coming?

Well, looks like Matt DeVries has found himself in the middle of a wonderful little heavy metal shell game. In November, he announced that he would no longer be Chimaira’s rhythm guitarist after their annual Christmas show, this following news a few months earlier that he and fellow Chimaira guitarist Rob Arnold would become members of Six Feet Under (on bass and guitar respectively). Then last week, DeVries announced that he’d quit Six Feet Under. Well, now what’s he going to do. The man’s a great guitarist and bassist, it seems like all of this coming about seems like maybe his heart isn’t into touring anymore, especially since he’s got a 2-3 year old kid at home. Well, it seems that’s not the case, because the man has announced that he’s the new bassist for Fear Factory.

Yes, that’s right boys and girls, DeVries is to be replacing Byron Stroud in Fear Factory, shortly after the announcement that Stroud would be joining 3 Inches of Blood as their new bass player (though, I don’t think they announced that he was quitting). Here’s a statement from DeVries via Metalsucks about his new job.

“I have been asked by Dino [Cazares, guitarist, duh] and Burton [C. Bell, vocalist, double-duh] to join one of my favorite bands. I have been a fan of Fear Factory since 1992 and I could not be more excited to be part of this incredible band. We have shared the stage many times together and now I’m beyond stoked to be on the same stage playing together. Thank you to all my fans worldwide for sticking by me and I will be seeing you all on the road very soon.”

The band also released a statement on their Facebook page saying that specific details with regards to Fear Factory’s new album are expected to be released in the coming week. I’m curious to see how DeVries preforms in Fear Factory. I think it’ll be freaking awesome. DeVries was a phenomenal player in Chimaira, great to watch on stage, I think this will be a good spot for him. Hopefully we aren’t hearing about him quitting Fear Factory in a month to join up with someone else.

Chimaira released The Age of Hell back in August, Fear Factory and Six Feet Under both have new records to be released sometime this year.

-IH

Minotaur Project, the best email I received today.

I want to preface this with, my email account get’s ridiculously cluttered. With all of the sites that my email is connected to (Facebook, Youtube, Record Label Newsletters, etc) as well as the sites I can’t seem to remove myself from since I’ve forgotten the password (still get birthday emails from a pop station in Seattle from when I was 12).

Most of my Youtube emails I delete without reading. Either someone is trolling my comment or it’s my weekly suggestions from the site or whatever. But today, I got a video suggestion from someone called theMinotaurZebraBAR.

Appearently, this guy named Matt Gabnai wanted to share his new solo project called Minotaur Project with me. I’ve gotten these before, usually good for a laugh, but this guy blew me away. Check out the song he sent me titled 77345_018.

Pretty awesome Prog-Metal. I can hear elements of In Flames, Lacuna Coil and even more. Honestly, this song is great and looking through the other videos that he has up, continue the sonic landscape. It’s one guy with a few guest musicians sprinkled through, but everything just sounds HUGE.

Check this guy out if you love prog, get him out there to new ears. Like his Facebook page and subscribe to his Youtube channel.

-IH

The wait is over, Metallica’s big announcement teased over the weekend is…

Their own 2-day festival.

This is what was sent out on friday and at 11 am today, the Tallica boys announced that they are going to be hosting their own Orion Music+More festival in Atlantic City, NJ. The band will headline both nights and there are 22 bands slated to appear. The lineup so far is as follows.

Arctic Monkeys, Avenged Sevenfold, Modest Mouse, The Gaslight Anthem, Cage the Elephant, Fucked Up, Best Coast, Hot Snakes, Titus Andronicus, Gary Clark Jr., Lucero, Roky Erickson, The Black Angels, The Sword, A Place to Bury Strangers, Liturgy.

Honestly, as weird as the lineup is (and trust me, it’s weird), I think it’s great. I only know a few of these bands and there’s another few that I don’t like, but what I like about this lineup is that it takes a crap ton of different bands from different genres and brings them together. Also cool, Metallica is going to play The Black Album in it’s entirety on one of the nights (other reports show that they’ll play Ride the Lightening in it’s entirety the other night).

For $125 for 2 days, it seems kind of worth it for the Metallica sets alone. You get to hear 2 great albums in their entirety. Plus, there are some good bands already on the lineup with 6 more bands to be announced (which could make the lineup even better).

For more info, check out the site here.

Jesse Leach seems to be the new singer for KsE…again

So, it would appear that I’ve been neglecting this blog a little bit (by which I mean a great deal), so I thought I’d try to come back to it with some pretty big news. Jesse Leach appears to be re-joining Killswitch Engage as their new vocalist.Howard Jones, Jesse’s replacement in 2002 (after Leach quit the band via email no less), departed from the group Wed. January 4th. The news was announced on the band’s Facebook page.

After about a month of speculation over who would take up the reigns for Killswitch (Phil Labonte of All That Remains was a big choice, but he immediately denied that thought), the band’s website made the announcement that Leach would be rejoining the band in a very unofficial way, but one that speaks volumes more than a press release.

There’s the band, super happy, in the snow, with Leach and his magnificent beard heading up the center.

Now, I’m not what you would call a legitimate member of the metal press, so I don’t get press releases. I also don’t spend all my time combing every bands page, so I learned this lovely bit of info from Metalsucks.

I’m personally really excited that Jesse is coming back to Killswitch, especially after reading just a week ago that he had no idea what the band was doing. Even though I was first introduced to Killswitch after Howard joined the band, Alive or Just Breathing is one of my favorite records. The Times of Grace record The Hymn of a Broken Man is also phenomenal. With the band about to work on a new record, I’m even more excited to see how the band sounds with Jesse back at the mic.

-IH

Because Tumblr just wasn't working out for me

Welcome to the new home of Alderaan Places, the nowhere near premier place for metal news and such. I started this blog on Tumblr to have an avenue to work on my writing in a heavy metal journalism fashion. However, I don't like how Tumblr is basically just like Facebook and Myspace, which I'm obviously not using for a blog. I'm going to move all of my stuff over from Tumblr, so be advised, the next few posts will be a bit old, but I'd like everything to be in one place.

-IH