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June is going to be a huge month for metal releases and it starts with a bang today, the month’s first Tuesday. New releases by Morbid Angel, Arch Enemy, Job For A Cowboy and Amorphis are the biggest hitters, while new ones from Origin, Engineer, Gigan, Khann and Tombs are sure to put some hair on your chest. And that’s just a small sampling of all that comes out today. Vic Vaughn on each and every one of ‘em after the jump.
[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:
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’s Andrew LaCour tells Noisecreep that he wrote “Downward” — a new track from the band’s forthcoming album, Erode — “on bass initially, just to have a different perspective on the composition.” So I guess it’s just a doin’-wacky-things-on-the-bass-filled kinda day.
But I honestly don’t care if he wrote the damn thing on a kazoo, ’cause it rocks, and the end result is really all that matters. And if you don’t believe me that the song rocks, you should check it out here, and if you do believe me, you should still check it out here. It’s chaotic hardcore that isn’t afraid to get dreamy and weird, and dreamy and weird and chaotic are fine, fine things to be in my opinion. I mean I just grabbed a MetalSucks Mansion Monkey by the tail and flung him head-first into a different MetalSucks Mansion Monkey, so Khann are doing something right.
Also: the cover art to Erode strongly suggests the band wants you to be high when you listen to this, and who am I to argue with them? Just something you might wanna keep in mind moving forward.
Black Market Activities will release Erode on June 7.
-AR
As we revealed yesterday, the answer to last week’s logo was Iwrestledabearonce, or IWABO (both answers were considered acceptable). A surprising amount of you got the wrong answer, but a lot of you got it right, too. Alas, there can be only two randomly-selected winners, and in this case, those winners are Andrew Hamblin and Jillian McClure. They each get a special prize pack from Century Media. Three cheers for Andy and Jill! (You guys don’t mind if I call you “Andy” and “Jill,” do ya?)
This week we have another awesome prize to give away: a package from Black Market Activities, featuring vinyl test presses (pic here) of three of the label’s most highly anticipated forthcoming releases — Engineer’s Crooked Voices (out June 7), Khann’s Erode (also out June 7), and Ed Gein’s Bad Luck (out June 21). If you already know these bands that you already know that these albums are worth getting excited about, and if you don’t, well… you should educate yourself. These albums are going to rule, and these are vinyl test presses, so they’re definitely gonna be collector’s items!
All you gots to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select a winner and announce his or her name a week from today.
This week’s logo was suggested by reader Jason Apoch Weiss. Thanks, brother!
-AR
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
Yep, I’m doing regional reader’s choices again. I didn’t last week ’cause I was sick and I didn’t want said sickness to add to my hatred of all things terrible, but now that I’m back to a fairly regular level of health/curmudgeonliness, I think we can resume these again.
Today we travel to beautiful, sunny, Orlando, Florida. I used to have an great aunt in Orlando and I’d go down there to visit her once a year. Then she died, and I haven’t been since. Still… Orlando! A nice place to visit.
Okay, here we go. The reader who suggested these didn’t give a name. Hopefully that’s not a reflection on the quality of the music.
