SEND EMAIL TO
NEWS [AT]
METALSUCKS
[DOT] NET
As the season winds down, this column continues to be shorter (and my workload easier). Just a few new things today, as well as the Devin Townsend Project box set. 2012 is going to have to really impress to match the number of awesome things we’ve seen this year…
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday; there are no religious overtones, it’s all about eating lots of good food with good friends and family, there’s no celebrating of hedonistic capitalism with endless gift-gifting, it creates a short work-week… pretty much everything about it rules. I doubt that either the Swedes in Vildhjarta or the Brits in Savage Messiah had this holiday in mind when they decided to give metalheads the gift of free music this week, but hey, as my old pal Bob Ross used to say, consider it a happy little accident.
Vildhjarta are Swedish, so I thought that maybe the title of their newly released song, “Phobon Nika,” meant something in their native langue, and it does — it means “Phobon Nika.” Then I did a Google search for “Phobon Nika,” and all that came up was Vildhjarta. My point being that it is apparently “make up words week” here in the world of metal. No one gave me advance notice, but whatever, I’m into it! And so, to that end, the rest of this post will be written in nonsense:
Vildhjarta have released a music video for the song ”Benblåst,” and as cool as it is sober, I can’t wait to watch it again when I’m stoned. Although it’s kinda freaky, so that may just scare the shit outta me and cause me to go all Helen Hunt on a window. I tell ya what: one of you try it first, then let me know how it goes… okay?
“Benblåst” will appear on Måsstaden, which comes out November 29 via Century Media.
-AR
Djent is djead. The once-interesting subgenre, like so many before it, has been ruined by too many bands that all sound the same, don’t have anything even vaguely original to contribute, and have valued a sound over basic songwriting skills. What everyone forgets about Periphery, Cloudkicker, etc. — y’know, the cool djent bands — is that they don’t just make lotsa djenty noises; they also write shit which is catchy and fun to listen to. Now I hear all these bands that have the same guitar tone as Meshuggah and none of that group’s brilliance.
So where does that leave poor Vildhjarta, the Swedish djenters who I actually really like, and whose Century debut, Måsstaden, is coming out next month?
No longer is the MetalSucks live show slate confined to just North America; in case you missed it when we announced it a few weeks back, MetalSucks has decided to show some love towards our friends across the pond by sponsoring the Euroblast festival in Germany! Mnemic, Textures, TesseracT, Vildhjarta, Sybreed, Monuments and Chimp Spanner are just some of the awesome European bands that will play this 2-day, 2-stage festival in Cologne on the 21st and 22nd of October. If you’re anywhere within reasonable airplane or train distance of Cologne you simply can’t afford to miss out.
Watch the brand new trailer below and get excite:
We featured Swedish djent outfit Vildhjarta in an “Unsigned and Unholy” column just this past January, but guess what? The term don’t apply to them no’ mo’, ’cause they just signed a deal with Century Media. There’s no word on when the label will release an album or anything like that, but here’s an excerpt from the press release that I found pretty amusing:
The band had this to say in regards to the singing:
“THALL”
So I guess we should all start getting ready for at least a year of jokes based around the word “THALL,” ‘ever the fuck that means.
If you’re not familiar with the band you should get familiar with them, ’cause they’re really good. You can check out the above YouTube clip, of course, or just go here and download some shit for free. (Don’t worry, it’s legal.)
-AR
With all our talk about djent, I can’t believe we’ve never written anything about Vildhjarta. A bunch of you have definitely e-mailed us about them before, but we get a lot of fucking e-mails, so, uh, shame on us but we were busy, too, y’know? Anyways, I stumbled across this song, “Don’t Fail Me Now (Lady Luck),” quite by accident last night, and I’m into it. I could live without the clean vocals, but that may just be because I’m a cranky old man who thinks that that clean vocals need to go the way of Jerry Falwell (or otherwise bands should just make like Cloudkicker and cut it the fuck out with the vocals altogether).
Anyway, it seems like the band is unsigned, but that doesn’t really mean much in this day and age, and it’s easy enough to find a copy of their EP, Omnislaught, if you want it. You can also check out the band’s MySpace page. They’re Swedish, so I guess maybe that country is trying to make a comeback or something.
Enjoy another song from Omnislaught, “Shiver,” after the jump.
