[via Badass]

So the three-day weekend kinda threw our schedule out of whack; you may have noticed that we still haven’t finished announcing the line-up for our Magical Mystery Tour, and we didn’t get to finish our list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, either. Both of those blessed events will go down next week, though, when we’re back for a full five days! So get stoked.

In the meantime, let’s review all the fun we managed to pack into this week’s abbreviated set:

• We debuted new music from four bands signed to Black Market Activities — Ed Gein, Engineer, Fit For An Autopsy, and Khann — as well as new music from Bloodlights.
• We spoke to some guy named Devin Townsend.
• Woods of Ypres’ Shane Madden continued his exclusive tour blog for us.
• We checked out the latest release from Autopsy.
• We celebrated the amazing amazingness that is the album art for Opeth’s Heritage.
• We were not surprised to learn that Emmure’s Frankie Palmeri is completely lacking in originality.
• We wondered if metal is a movement of the youth, inapplicable in its rebellion and ferocity to us olds.
• We made the case for the movie Jennifer’s Body as an underrated cinemetal masterpiece.
• We actually had something nice to say about Limp Bizkit (sort of).
• We introduced you to the future of appliancecore.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. You will always be at the forefront of our thoughts, dreams, and prayers.

-AR

As we reported a few weeks back, June is going to be a big, big month for Black Market Activities. The label helmed by The Red Chord frontman Guy Kozowyk begins their new distribution and artist development deal with Good Fight Entertainment with four, count ‘em four, releases in just two weeks — Engineer’s Crooked Voices and Khann’s Erode both come out June 7, and Ed Gein’s Bad Luck and Fit For An Autopsy’s The Process of Human Extermination on June 21.

And guess what? All four releases are fucking fantastic. We dug them all so much, in fact, that we begged Black Market Activities to let us debut four songs at once — one from each album — so we could revel in their awesomeness with you, our beloved readers. You’re welcome, beloved readers!

So check out the tracks below. BMA is a diverse label, and no two of these bands sound even remotely similar, so it’s impossible for us to believe that you won’t dig at least one of these songs. And don’t forget to pick up the full releases when they come out June 7 and June 21!!! You can pre-order them all right here.

ENGINEER, “BRUISED BLUE COLLAR”

KHANN, “THE GATE”

FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY, “THE JUGGERNAUT”

ED GEIN, “WASTED LIFE”

Black Market Activities, the label helmed by The Red Chord frontman Guy Kozowyk, has announced a new distribution and artist development deal with Good Fight Entertainment, bringing to an end their long-standing distribution arrangement with Metal Blade. With that announcement also comes an exciting calendar of new releases set to roll out this summer via BMA:

June 7 – Engineer – Crooked Voices
June 7 – Khann – Erode
June 21 – Fit For An Autopsy – The Process Of Human Extermination
June 21 – Ed Gein - Bad Luck
tba – Today Is The Day – Pain Is A Warning

Click to read more…

Photo by Jeremy Saffer

The latest sign for Guy Kozowyk’s Black Market Activities label is New Jersey’s Fit for an Autopsy. The band is notable for several reasons (besides the fact that they’re good, I mean), namely:

• They are that rarest of breeds — a good deathcore band. After seeing them live last year, our own Sammy O’Hagar said that “the band’s brutal, glowering take on [deathcore] reminded one of the squandered potential of the genre,” noting that “hardcore grooves and swagger, when incorporated correctly, blend quite well with death metal.” Sammy also complimented front man Nate Johnson, asserting that Johnson’s “serrated vocals provided the oomph needed to put the band over the top.” Oceano: take note.

Click to read more…