Kevin Stewart-Panko

KEN mode’s Shane and Jesse Matthewson have decided to take a step back from being full-time road dogs and focus on their new venture, MKM Management services, which combines their desk job skill set with their rock and roll lifestyle experiences.

Recently, I stumbled across a graffiti mural that read, “Every winner was once a beginner.” This got the gears turning, thinking about how long it’s been since Mastodon was considered an unknown, underground entity.

Hickory, NC’s Rapheumets Well is a band heavily steeped in science fiction and fantasy. They slam dunk their lushly orchestral and luxurious symphonic melodic blackened death metal into a fantastical and fantastically creative and complex world that I don’t even want to embarrass myself trying to explain.

When you take a step back and consider that yellow-and-blue flag waving Swedish death metal as pumped through the (real or imagined) Boss HM-2 pedal is almost a genre onto itself, it’s perplexed me since 2011, when they released their self-titled debut, that Gothenburg’s Miasmal hasn’t been a name on more lips and tongues.

By the time 1983 rolled around, those bands participating within the loose construct known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal had become well aware that there was more to their scene and sound than playing time-tested and amped-up blues-based riffs in the back rooms of pubs or moldy rehearsal rooms.

Sweden’s Livet Som Insats second full-length, Check Your Grind features a take on the iconic Beastie Boys cover. We’d say the similarities end there, but listen and see if you can pick up on the similarities between the bands while we introduce you to them via a getting-to-know you interview.

Orlando’s The Glorious Rebellion is the sort of band that, were they alive and kicking back in the late 80s/early-to-mid 90s, would have been about as seriously tailor-made for a life signed to AmRep as one could imagine.

Normally, this is the spot where time would be taken to give an introduction to the band, but guitarist Jeremy Perkins took the baton and ran with it like a motherfucker when we sent Montreal’s Éohum a few questions about having a full time French horn player augmenting their doomy black metal.

“German – Greek friendship at its finest! A grindcore/crust/death/black metal sonic attack is provided with this split release! 

If the name Divinity is an unfamilar one, you’d be forgiven for your ignorance. Have you tried to familiarize yourself with every band out there? It’s a bit of a tough task, even when the band in question has spent time on both the rosters of Nuclear Blast and Candlelight. 

“Arise was the seed that exploded on Roots,” Sepultura guitarist Andreas Kisser thoughtfully notes. Those of you keeping score will note that this is Sepultura’s third dance with our Hall of Fame, a dB first.

“Spain’s superb hardcore punk misfits clash with Finland’s finest grindcore deviants on this unforgivingly brutal split 7” that’s going to pummel you into submission from the very first notes.”

We’re pretty sure you want to spend your time today hanging with family and friends, stocking up on all sorts of imbibables or preparing for a raging night out on the town, so in the interest of all that, we’ll keep today’s introduction to Kelowna, British Columbia’s Gomorrah short and sweet.

In the grand tradition of Karma to Burn, QotSA and taking the re-bar solidness of the Swiss rock/metal scene as irreverent artistic influence comes instrumental/power/stoner trio, Dog Days. 

Metal has a vast expanse of space that it calls its popularity continuum, and I, admittedly, have no idea where Finland’s Re-Armed would be located along this stretch of real estate. However, the band  recently returned from a three-week tour of China. We quiz vocalist Jouni Matilainen and bassist Juhana ‘Bobo’ Heinonen about their latest adventure.

The story of the emergent popularity of Sacrifice’s second album, Forward to Termination, is a shining example of how media used to work and things “went viral” in the days before the internet gave power to trending tweets and twats.

We spoke to Vinny Appice about life and those times for our latest special issue, the 100 Greatest Old-School Albums of All Time). The legendary sticksman was more than happy to regale us with stories about the good old days. What he gave us was not only gold, but more than what would have fit on the page allotted in the magazine. Thusly, we present the full interview.

Washington, D.C.’s Free Children of Earth singer/guitarist/lyricist Jason Yawn has a lot on his mind and we wanted to not only stream his band’s new album, Terminal Stasis this week on the blog, but also give Yawn a forum to deliver a track-by-track explanation and analysis which, despite your opinion and position on the matters at hand, make for some excellent and thoughtful reading.

Abrasive and prickly purveyors of violently noisy hardcore, Great Falls have a new album out entitled The Fever Shed. Hit the big orange arrow somewhere below and you can have it peel the paint off the walls of whatever asylum you’re presently rotting in.

I’ve always been interested in the dynamic of bands with siblings in the line-up. How those who shared so much of their entire lives come together creatively, the bond they have, how they work together, how things are managed when non-relatives are brought into the picture and so on and so forth. KEN Mode, Valkyrie, Gojira, Skeletonwitch, Obituary, Sepultura, Oasis, Heart…the list goes on and on. Now, you can add Colorado black metal entity, Helleborus to the list.

Sit back and enjoy a gorgeous, noisy hardcore pummelling from two bands.

Where do old mathematicians go when they die? Fucked if I know, but according to brand spanking new British band, InTechnicolour, dudes who once (and in some cases, still do) ply their wares as part of that nation’s math/tech metal scene, will at some point find themselves taking a complete 180 degree creative turn when the fancy strikes.

A year or two ago, I did a ‘Black Label Debutante Ball’ profile on Poland’s EveryDayHate Records.  A couple weeks ago, a massive package of vinyl and CDs showed up at the house and I’ve decided to focus this week’s blog post on all the goodies emerging from EveryDayHate’s Krakow offices.

This morning, the Deciblog shines the unsigned band spotlight on Edmonton’s long-standing denizens of death metal, Display of Decay. 

Here you are kids: the full, slightly abridged, version of the Publicist UK interview that appears in the Upfront section of the latest issue.

For the majority of you, the name Adolyne may not ring a bell, but in Western Canada, the Saskatoon noise-niks are on the tips of more than a few tongues

Since 1999, Miroslav “Curby” Urbanec has been putting on the Obscene Extreme Festival in Czech. Billed as a “freak friendly extreme music festival,” OE has faithfully and respectfully catered to the grind, crust, punk, hardcore and death metal hordes. We caught up with Curby to ask about trying to book obscenity and extremity for one part of the world from the other.

Peroria’s atmosph-sludge-tribal-psych-rock heroes and denizens of long form song structures, Minsk returned to active duty this last April with their fourth full-length, The Crash and the Draw. Christopher Bennett and Timothy Mead cover all bases thoroughly and definitively in the interview that follows. 

Slaughter’s Strappado hits closer to home for this particular hack than any of our previous entries. That’s because Slaughter hailed from the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, home to a ridiculously disproportionate number of metalheads in the ’80s.

If you’re ever in Canada, say the name ‘Golers’ at any downtrodden watering hole and watch dudes fired up on discount cases of Old Vienna hold their brewski aloft in celebratory salute (after which you can guarantee you’ve just made a sketchy, greasy friend for life). On the other hand…