Reviews

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Album Reviews
April 2013

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Korn - Recording New Album With Brian "Head" Welch  

 Returning guitarist and original band member Brian "Head" Welch, James "Munky" Shaffer, Jonathan Davis, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier will not only be together again on-stage for shows beginning May 15th, but Korn is also in the studio recording a new album, as the band announced today. Korn's yet untitled album and first with Welch since 2003's Take A Look In The Mirror is planned to be released late summer.

Brian "Head" Welch tells Rolling Stone: "We knew we would have a blast playing together, because we love each other so much, but we really wanted to make sure the music felt right before we committed to making a whole album together. But since we got in the studio, everything just started pouring out, now I can't wait until our fans hear this stuff!"

You can watch the album trailer with the band at Buck Owens Studios in Bakersfield, California over here.

Album Review: ANCIIENTS Heart of Oak

Like it or not, the two-thousand-teens are the decade of Prog. Those inclinations needn't be manifested by way of King Crimson clones – the split second time signature changes of tech death and the freeform deconstructionism of post-metal all owe a tip of the hat to the genre – but make no mistake: the 70's loom large as an influence base in today's metal, and Vancouver noobs Anciients follow in the path of recent efforts by Opeth, Mastodon and Cynic in creating intricately structured arrangements peppered with fuss-free riffs and clean, airy vocals.
Chris Dyck and Kenneth Paul Cook trade vocal duties, alternating between death-sludge howling and soaring, plain-spoken singing. The effect is hardly forced, with the guitar riffs subtly downshifting to leaden power chords for the howling and kicking back into ascending single note patterns for the more subdued passages.
"Giants" nails this dynamic with effortless endeavor, the vocalists trading off equally before coming together on the chorus, then dueling on restrained guitar solos which resolve into tandem harmony. The song also boasts one of the band's more fetching riffs, proving these British Columbians have studied up on the cross-continent stylings of Mastodon and Baroness.
Further proving the depth of their bench, album closer "For Lisa" is an instrumental evocative of Abraxas-era Santana, with a plangent rhythm section underscoring a winsome, bluesy lead that leaves behind any traces of metal or prog altogether. Heady stuff.
This is a band that is so proficient technically that they run the risk of being slighted for being too easily pigeonholed, which would be a shame. Anciients are arch-synthesists, cleverly appropriating a number of familiar, inter-related genres to fuse into a seamless ethos. That they do so while penning material that sounds like it's existed for decades is a testament to their credit, not their detriment.

MERCENARY Announce New Record Titled Through Our Darkest Days

As of April 27, melodic death metal titans Mercenary are all done with their newest record Through Our Darkest Days and are shooting for a release date of July 27!
Mercenary are a pretty ever-present band in the metal world. Everyone knows who they are, how much they rule, and nobody has a bad thing to say about their timeless jams. Now with their seventh record on it's way, it's about time we fired up the ol' Mercenary-hype machine. In a statement by the band about the record cover by Mnemic guitarist Mircea Eftemie and music-

“Last year when we were busy with preproductions, we considered reaching out to Mircea Eftemie to ask if he'd like to give our new cover a shot, because we liked his recent stuff and wanted to try someone with a fresh approach. Against all odds, however, he actually beat us to it and contacted us first with the exact same offer, so it very much seemed as a collaboration that was meant to be.
After a few sketches, we quickly locked on to the main motive of the cover below, which we felt was both iconic, mysterious and not least, oddly disturbing. Most importantly perhaps, we also felt that Mircea's artwork had managed in a natural way to combine something fresh with the style of our older album covers and their dark and atmospheric vibes.
As our new album is very much a combination our latest material with a lot of the more traditional melodic and melancholic elements of previous Mercenary albums, we felt that this was a perfect visual expression of Mercenary's sound and identity in 2013.
The cover symbolizes a darkness that we have gone through as a band, which we feel that we have finally been able to put behind us. The title of the album is meant very positively and thematizes both the journey through existential darkness as a general theme and the ability to break through it. The lyrical universe is very much about making the most of life and not getting caught up in negativity.”

All of my yes. If this is nearly s good as their 2011 effort Metamorphosis, we're in for an amazing record. Hell, if they can just take half of the melodic aspect of that record we're in for it- that record rules.

DREAM THEATER Are Shooting For Late Summer To Release New Album

Hell yes! Dream Theater say they're aiming for a late summer release of their as of yet untitled new record. They also give away some juicy bits of information on it.
Hate on new Dream Theater's material in recent years all you want- their back catalogue is nothing to shake a stick at, and it certainly seems like they've been harkening back to it. Their last record, A Dramatic Turn of Events, was the closest thing to Images and Words we've heard in ages, and it gives me some serious hope. According to once thought mute bassist John Myung about the new record-

If all goes according to plan, there’s talk of it coming out towards the end of the summer. That would probably be the earliest that would happen.

Badass! In the meantime, the band are releasing their Live at Luna Park CD/DVD combo, which will be a good time because it touches on a lot of Images and Words material (SEE?!). What's also interesting is the writing process about the new album-

Many things have changed. The dynamics in the album for this writing process is phenomenal. I think Mike Mangini, coming from where he is as a musician and how musical he is, can’t help but bring a new element into the band throughout the writing process… It is going to prove itself to have taken Mike as a player and us a band to another level. I think the fans are in for a great treat.

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PULP SUMMER SLAM 13 REVIEW

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Official Poster

The much awaited concert in the philiippines

PULP Summer Slam 13 is a success,the concert

was attended by thousand of metal fans around the Philippines, the concert was organized by PULP Live World the best known organizer of the Summer Slam since 2001.

 

The doors open at exactly 12nn at the Amoranto Stadium, Quezon City.

The Place Where PULP SS13 is held

The Venue was packed with metalheads who are excited to see their favorite bands play through the concert.

 adrenalines' keep pumpin as the bands continues to play through the concert.

the crowd during the performance of as i lay dying

 some of them had the chance to meet and greet their idols

the admins of C&C PH Fan Page and the band Coheed and Cambria itself

A Skylit Drive on PULP SS13

Dragonforce on PULP SS13

Coheed and Cambria on PULP SS13

after the concert the bands who play in the concert like Coheed and Cambria, As I Lay Dying, A Skylit Drive, Cannibal Corpse, and the others are  very grateful and happy because of the warm welcome of the their Filipino fans

The whole concert was a complete success, others are not satisfied, others do, some are looking forward for the next slam next year. but not it. after the PULP SS 13, PULP will be held a concert of Killswitch Engage live here in manila. so see you all guys there! \m/ :)