A/V

Get To Know Profound Lore Records (live footage of PALLBEARER, YOB, ATLAS MOTH and more)

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I am absolutely loving these Scion A/V label showcase videos. If you missed it before, they've done profiles on Prosthetic Records, Nuclear Blast and Relapse. Now, Profound Lore gets the label treatment, and for a niche label putting out some of the best ambient/stoner metal out there, it's certainly exciting to see their bands get the spotlight. After the jump, more with label owner Chris Bruni as well as live footage of Yob, Atlas Moth, Loss, Wolvhammer and Pallbearer. (more…)

Reviews

Album Review: Pallbearer Sorrow and Extinction

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Beyond Black Sabbath, traditional doom puts me to sleep. My interest in the bleak arts is only piqued by the extraordinary; Pallbearer are precisely that. Sorrow and Extinction is a phenomenal, unique and irresistible articulation of dysphoria. Enshrouding these mesmerizing riffs and exceptional vocals, however, is an umbra of triumph. Sorrow and Extinction transcends mere morosity; there is victory, even in death.

Pallbearer manage, most remarkably, to hold you rapt throughout this melancholic voyage. Somber harmony is deployed as ineluctable sonic weapon. These are not esoteric convolutions, but direct and piercing melodies. Dual guitars and pleasingly present bass ply an engrossing resonance, interweaving prodigious pulverization with majestic leads. Each and every riff exists in service of the song; not a moment is wasted in pointless plod.  (more…)

Reviews

CD Review: KRALLICE – Diotima

Krallice-Diotima

I've always thought of Krallice's music as a duel, envisioning the guitars feinting, parrying and maneuvering in abstract aural dimensions at ludicrous speed. About a minute into the first brief and unnamed track on Diotima, I realized this mental image would have to change.

Diotima sounds like it was composed for a chamber orchestra. Although performed and recorded with all the accoutrements of metal in this modern age, Diotima unfurls with a symphonic complexity, displaying a concordance and consonance that were largely absent from the band's first two albums. Mick Barr and Colin Marston do not merely match wits and endurance but work together to create songs that ebb and flow in memorable tides of sound. Riffs still rain down in teeming sheets of black metal ardor, but we are able to discern greater shape and movement in the writhing storm. (more…)

Reviews

CD Review: MITOCHONDRION – Parasignosis

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By Atanamar Sunyata

Many metal albums create a feeling of forward movement; lumbering, running, sprinting. Others hold you stationary while buffeting you with gusts of sound. On their sophomore release, Mitochondrion create a sensation of falling. This isn't necessarily a Luciferian fall (although Satan does make an appearance), but more of a trip down Alice's rabbit-hole. Superlative death metal riffs, gurgles, screams and drums assault you from across the stereo field, shifting position constantly and filling the air around you as they rush past. During her own seemingly endless descent, Alice wonders if she will fall through the earth to “come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards”. Mitochondrion are those Antipodean people, who have crafted an inscrutable death metal experience we can hardly fathom but certainly enjoy.

“Plague Evockation” is our introduction to the esoteric journey at hand. Rolling, rapid riffs evoke instant thoughts of Immolation and Incantation. As the song accelerates and we plummet into the heart of this music, you'll get wafts of the Portal's eldritch atmosphere. Initial impressions aside, Mitochondrion's sound is ultimately a step in a tangential and original direction. (more…)

Fuck Yes! Upcoming Releases

GRAYCEON Announce New Release For 2011!

by: Frank Godla

First Agalloch, and now Grayceon!? Profound Lore, undoubtedly a label I've known for releasing a lot of tunes I'm not a fan of, may be working towards regaining my trust after all. You may remember these guys from previous audio or video podcasts I've done last year, but I know it's been a whole year so let me re-jog your memory. THEY FUCKING RULE! Remember now? No? Fine, I'll spell it out for you…

Grayceon is a three piece extremely diverse band from San Francisco led by classically trained Jackie Perez Gratz on Cello and Vox, Max Doyle on Guitar and Vox, and Zack Farwell on Drums. Together these three create some of the best unique slow jam musical compositions I've heard in the last few years. Their 2008 release entitled "The Grand Show" is an LP I couldn't get enough of even after 100 spins in a row, and if you've been paying attention to how I feel about some of these slow jam bands out there, then you know it has to be something really unique.

I'm definitely stoked to see where this band takes themselves in the next year, hopefully to the east coast!

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Revelations of Doom

High on the Stench of Burning Death: COFFINWORM

Hey kids! Grim Kim has returned to darken your shores once again (i.e. I probably would've gotten kicked out if I'd stayed in the UK any longer – who knew the Border Patrol could be such sticklers about a silly little thing like visas?).  To celebrate my inglorious return, I've brought you all a treat: THE BEST BAND (from Indiana) EVER!

As always, Revelations of Doom strives to bring you the best of the worst and shed light on the darkest, nastiest, most subterranean corners of the extreme metal underground. If you like your riffs ugly, your church defiled, and your tempos crawling, welcome home. Tune in, drop out, doom on.

Do you believe in love at first sight? No? Three cheers for pragmatism, then. Personally, I never put much stock in the 'instant adoration' idea either. That is, until I met Coffinworm… (more…)

Interviews Latest News

YOB: The Metal Injection Interview

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As September 18th draws ever closer, the riff-hungry troops of doom are stocking up on earplugs and rolling papers, preparing to follow the sign of the Southern cross down towards their own uber-resinated version of Mecca. Past the Mason-Dixon line and just shy of Hell itself lies their destination -  Asheville, North Carolina, which, thanks to a bevy of bands and some seriously ambitious promoters, is in turn gearing up to bear witness to the heaviest gig of the year. With the Metal Injection-sponsored (you're welcome) Planet Caravan Festival right around the corner and excitement running higher than Bobby Liebling on a day that ends in "y," we here at Metal Injection figured it was high time we gave y'all a peek behind the wall of sleep and unveiled a brand-new interview with those freshly resurrected, impossibly heavy and inescapably vital purveyors of cosmic, mind-altering "doom with a capital D and six extra O's," YOB.

Resident feedback worshipper Grim Kim caught up with YOB's Mike Scheidt for some gnarly Q&A action about stellar new record The Great Cessation, Planet Caravan, and the neverending triumph of DOOM (in all-Caps, of course). (more…)

Revelations of Doom

Ravishing Grimness and "English Heritage Black Metal": Introducing Kim Kelly & WINTERFYLLETH

I'm sure those of you who actually bother to read the itty-bitty tags sprinkled across these pages are wondering,"Who the fuck is Grim Kim, and why is she insulting my place of residence in such a worrisomely profane manner?"

Fear not, I come in peace (well, sort of). I'm going to be helping the MI dudes update the news section and, with my brand-new Revelations of Doom column, will also be doing my damnedest to introduce you guys to some of the best bands you've never heard of – killer underground/overlooked projects, & up 'n' coming acts that aren't getting the sort of attention they so richly deserve.

My tastes run towards the most extreme ends of the metal spectrum, so suffice it to say, it'll be a cold day in Hades before you see me raving about the new Disturbed record on here. I'm more of an Eyehategod/Drudkh/Satanic Warmaster/Hellbastard kinda gal (ten metal points to whoever can spot the Hellhammer reference in this paragraph!).

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Speaking of Drudkh, their influence seems to be reaching far past the borders of their Ukrainian homeland, this time crossing the English Channel to take hold of an ambitious young band who named themselves for the October moon…

WINTERFYLLETH (or "Winter Full Moon" if ye happen to speake Olde English) hail from the dreary Northwest of England, the birthplace of heavy metal and home to more misbehaving royals and shoddy dental work than I care to think about. Unlike the squeaky-clean commercial heights and frighteningly extreme depths to which countrymen CRADLE OF FILTH and AANAL NATHRAKH (never thought you'd see those two mentioned in the same breath, eh?) have taken black metal, WINTERFYLLETH choose to walk a different path.

Marrying the grave-robbing grimness of old ENSLAVED or ULVER with the ethereal woodland ambiance and atmospheric folk touches of DRUDKH and ISENGARD, WINTERFYLLETH have made considerable headway in carving out their own niche within the sparse but rabidly dedicated sub-subgenre of black/folk metal. As a purely English band, they choose to create their music using their ancestral Anglo-Saxon history for lyrical fodder, dubbing themselves "English Heritage Black Metal." Also inspired by the natural beauty of the English countryside, they delve into tales of blood, valor, and battle, telling the stories of those who came before them and died for the glory of England.

One of my favorite labels, Profound Lore, snapped these guys up and will be releasing WINTERFYLLETH's debut album, The Ghost of Heritage, come fall (October 14, to be exact), as well as a split with related project WODENSTHRONE (who also rule!). Check 'em out, and prepare to be conquered!

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