Tuesday, November 24, 2015

What's new

Descending into holiday time... Here's a recap of my newest releases.
• The rawest punk, the murkiest metal... Layers of noise, cryptic riffs, primal stomps, double-bass charges, howls of pure desperation... CGG nods to The Birthday Party, Flipper, Rites of Spring, Eyehategod, and even Voivod!
• One of Brooklyn's exciting young prospects, the very newest in a recent legacy that includes punk/metal creeps like Raspberry Bulbs, Villains, Pollution, and Couch Slut!
• "Discordant, noisy, anti-social... Great shit." –Noisey
• "Punk, ugly and hemorrhaging noise..." –Decibel
• "The band's parade of horrors is seamless... A melting pot of antisocial tendencies." –Stereogum

Dec 4 - Muscle Beach - Muscle Beach - Sailor Records
• Denver trio brings the angst and the hooks in equal doses on debut LP – it's an extremely driving, rockin' brand of post-hardcore, in line with Refused, The Bronx, and Kvelertak... All that, plus lyrics about pirates and aliens!
• Produced by Dave Otero (Cattle Decapitation)
• "Denver's best hardcore band" –Westword
• "Post-Fugazi hardcore... a shambling, jagged basher." –PunkNews
• "First-rate... A wickedly good balance of Fugazi's discipline and Refused's intensity." –PopMatters

• Having spent more than a decade using Hollywood blockbusters as inspiration, LA's Graf Orlock has now taken the next step: third full-length (and tenth overall release) Crime Traveler is an album based entirely on an as-yet-unreleased film the band wrote, directed, and starred in itself!
 Crime Traveler tells the story of a French-Canadian assassin who discovers a wormhole and travels back in time to rewrite history in Canada's favor!
• Upholding Graf Orlock's rep for the coolest packaging on the planet, Crime Traveler is packaged in an actual, full-size, color newspaper, written and designed by the band!
• Slayer-level metallurgy and Black Flag-level rawness meet as Graf Orlock, more than a decade into its career, continues to perfect its sound...
• Ghostlimb is the LA trio fronted by Justin Smith, owner of Vitriol Records and rumored mastermind behind Graf Orlock!
• Ten years since its self-titled debut album, Ghostlimb has chiseled its style down to a supremely effective form on fifth full-length Difficult Loves... 
• Equal parts violence and melancholy, Difficult Loves churns forward like an alliance between Napalm Death and Hot Water Music! Grindcore meets post-hardcore, as blastbeats and chugs cohabitate with bluesy leads and gruff melody...
• By day, Smith is a professor of history, earning him the tag of "The Heavy Metal Professor" in the LA Weekly's 2013 list of "the most interesting people in Los Angeles" – Difficult Loves is filled with references to historical events, from Ancient Greece to modern-day LA...
• Difficult Loves was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Whirr, Beau Navire)
• "Gravel-caked D-beat, hardcore, and grind-lite with an emotional core." -SPIN
• "Melodic and violent." -Exclaim!
• "What Converge would sound like with slightly bluesier guitar riffs..." -MetalSucks

• NY's Moon Tooth mashes together rock, metal, and blues, into a fusion that bursts with color... A fireworks display of melody and rhythm, its progressive, aggressive sound is brimming with soul, riddled with hairpin turns, and delivered with the grace and swing of real virtuosos!
• The soul of Jeff Buckley and the prog-metal chops of BTBAM... the rock of Mastodon and the jams of The Mars Volta...
• "An undeniably strange, totally kick-ass beast" –MetalSucks

• The majesty of '70s Pink Floyd – ethereal vocals, soaring guitars – combines with 19th-century ghostliness and modern-day metal flourishes in a sound that transcends time entirely!
• Recorded and mixed by Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Leviathan) and mastered by Justin Weis (Pallbearer, Agalloch)
• From Portland, OR, consisting of current/former members of SubArachnoid Space, Curezum, Immortal Bird, Thrawsunblat!
• US tour in February w/ Voivod and Vektor!
• "A tour-de-force... out-there progression, ethereal atmosphere, and unexpected harmonies." –Noisey

Early 2016 - Black Black Black - Altered States of Death and Grace - Aqualamb Records
• Hard-rockin' Brooklyn "doom pop" on Aqualamb Records, the Brooklyn label that releases albums in the form of beautifully designed, 100-pg, softbound books!

THANKS
THANKS
THANKS