"Dreams Were Made for Mortals III"

This Sunday, the third installment of Karlynn Holland's series at St Vitus, featuring artwork by my friends Matt Kepler, Sam Marble, Justina Villanueva, and more. I'm playing tunes at 11.

SEAS WILL RISE debut album

Seas Will Rise, featuring Landmine Marathon founder Eric Saylor on guitar, has completed its debut full-length, Disease Is Our Refrain. The Tempe, Arizona band plays heavy, brooding hardcore punk, inspired by the likes of Discharge and His Hero Is Gone.

Disease Is Our Refrain was recorded and mixed by Landmine Marathon guitarist Ryan Butler at Arcane Digital Recording (Phobia, Misery Index), and mastered by From Ashes Rise frontman Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Tragedy, OFF!). The album is the follow-up to the 2010 Cagematch EP.

The tracklist is as follows:

1) A Sleeper’s Cell

2) In Dust and Blood

3) Wash Out and Rust

4) This Teardown Town

5) To Scratch Out a Life

6) A Wish for the Earth

7) Waves and Waves

8) Eviction Notice

9) Disease Is Our Refrain

10) Razed

11) Population Zero

12) In Warmer Graves

Disease Is Our Refrain sees a March 6 release via Man In Decline Records and Anxiety Machine Records - a limited pressing of 500 LPs, including three different colors of vinyl. Look for Seas Will Rise, performing live throughout 2012.

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Out now: BIRDS IN ROW

Birds In Row's Collected - a complete collection of the French band's recordings - is out now on Vitriol Records. Here's what some writers have to say:

"Furious, tarnished melodies..."

-Decibel

"A record full of ferocity that throws itself at the listener's face in angry, melodic bursts."

-Exclaim

5/5. "Anthemic blasts of sound with guttural vocals and an uplifting, riveting sound that hits you deep."

-About

"Not unlike the approach of the great Converge - hardcore ferocity and metal robustness combining to create something completely unique."

-MSN Headbang

"Hardcore jams that are often anthemic and always sonically satisfying."

-NoiseCreep

"Birds In Row play at the dirtier end of the hardcore pool, with a sludgy, noisy sound that is full of hooks."

-Verbicide

"Abrasive French hardcore - dirty and grimy!"

-Stereokiller

"This band will fit in very well alongside Deathwish bands like Touche Amore, Rise and Fall, and New Lows."

-AmericanAftermath

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GRAF ORLOCK completes "Los Angeles"

Graf Orlock has completed work on its new EP, Los Angeles.

In keeping with its tradition of using Hollywood blockbusters as inspiration, Graf Orlock has based Los Angeles entirely on Michael Mann’s 1995 film, Heat, starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

Los Angeles is the follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Doombox EP, which Decibel Magazine called, “a churning, eclectic barnburner evoking unrestrained masterpieces of yore such as Converge’s Petitioning the Empty Sky or even Deadguy’s Fixation on a Coworker.”

Doombox turned heads for its artwork as well as its music - the EP came packaged in an actual-size, card stock “boom box". Previous Graf Orlock releases have boasted equally outrageous art -- a gatefold LP with a pop-up “chestburster”, inspired by the movie, Alien, for example. The artwork for Los Angeles ups the ante once more: Graf Orlock guitarist Jason Schmidt reports that Los Angeles will sport three different collectible covers, each a “shooting range target” depicting a scene from Heat and riddled with actual bullet holes.

Los Angeles was recorded by Ronald Uruk at Backlot Studios in Graf Orlock’s hometown of LA. The EP will see a Spring 2012 release on the band’s own label, Vitriol Records (also home to releases by Ghostlimb, Birds In Row, and more).

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PRECIOUS METAL tonight

Precious Metal kicks off 2012 tonight at Lit with Tiger Flowers, Enabler (Fall Out Boy, Today Is The Day, Trap Them, Shai Hulud), and Brickeater!

Happy holidays

So much good noise in store for 2012. On my roster: new releases by Birds In Row, Graf Orlock, Enabler (Fall Out Boy, ex-Trap Them, Misery Signals), Early Man, Sodomia, Eye (ex-Teeth of the Hydra), Wild Hunt, Gaza, Stomach Earth, and more.

The Precious Metal series trucks onward as well, Mondays at Lit. Booked for the new year: Enabler, Lazyblood (from Iceland), Tiger Flowers, Mutant Supremacy, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire, and more. 

Another year-end list of mine, here on BrooklynVegan.

Happy holidays, all! Safe travels.

FLOURISHING on NPR

Congrats to Flourishing for being named one of NPR Music's Favorite New Artists of 2011. Flourishing is the one and only metal band on this diverse list of eleven artists. 

"Flourishing embraces an era of undefinable music while acknowledging a rich history of extreme sound. Songs can swing from industrial grind to abstract death metal in a moment's notice, but never lose sight of their pummeling yet melodic heft. There is a lot to unpack at any one moment, but Flourishing is on the cusp of collapsing and reshaping metal simultaneously."

-Lars Gotrich, NPR