*shels is a band we haven’t written much about here at MetalSucks, mostly because… I honestly don’t have a good explanation. We’re just dopes I guess.

But Heavy Blog is Heavy has alerted me to the fact that the band has a new album coming out this summer called Plains of the Purple Buffalo (see how the above cover art makes sense now?). They’ve already released the first single, “Vision Quest,” which you can stream below.

Like the headline says, it ain’t metal — but it’s still extreme. HBiH compares it to “Clint Mansell’s epic film scores” (Requiem for a Dream, Moon, etc.), but it actually reminds me more of This Will Destroy You and Sleepmakeswaves, two other extreme-if-not-metal bands we love. Seriously, if you need a little chill time, you’re not gonna do much better than this.

Plains of the Purple Buffalo comes out June 27 via shelsmusic.

-AR

I haven’t done a blog in a while because the last blog I did really got me thinking about the mentality of people in the metal scene. Most particularly, the mentality of shit talking. We’re all guilty of it. I admitted to shit talking Bring Me The Horizon in magazines over in Europe when I was in God Forbid. I never heard them at that point. But now, I dig them and I feel pretty stupid for slagging them.

In my last blog I mentioned my excitement for the band Eryn Non Dae and how I was going to “borrow” some of their ideas for my new project. First of all, my last blog was PACKED with information about band business, touring and juicy tidbits of amazing knowledge :) But, the funny thing about the last blog was this guy ‘Jamie.’ Out of a five hundred word blog, he took the phrase “borrow ideas” and accused me and God Forbid of riding the coat tails of other popular bands. Killswitch was his biggest gripe. Then it was Opeth.

He claimed Gone Forever (2004) was a Killswitch rip and Earthsblood (2009) was an Opeth rip. This type of thing usually doesn’t bother me. In this instance I was fucking bothered. Jamie and I entered into a written brawl about the history of God Forbid and the intentions of our song writing for the last ten fucking years. Why would I waste my time to defend myself from this sort of claim?

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