Strega Nona is a four piece band from New York City, blending shoegaze, black metal, and post-rock into a coalescence of blast beats, distorted guitars, and overwheling melodies. This wall of sound provides the backdrop for ethereal vocals that imbues the music with an atmosphere of despair for the modern world while simulatenously offering an air of hope for a better future.
Recorded and mixed by Scot Moriarty at Backroom Studios, and mastered by Jack Shirley, their debut album Mirrored Pink was self -released October 2, 2020.
A Pretext to Human Suffering (hereafter “APTHS“) are a relatively new force for destruction in the extreme metal scene. They are an international band consisting of Chris Mathis (Defleshed and Gutted), who writes all the music and performs guitars and vocals, Lord Marco (Rings of Saturn, ex-Braindrill) on drums, Wes Van Hook (Sold Soul) on guitar, Beto Vipe (Devour the Unborn) on guitar, and Spencer Atkinson (Cryptic Enslavement) on bass. They’ve just released their RealityFade Records debut EP, "Rotting Sanctum“.
As you’ll discover through this new EP, APTHS occupy an intersection where different traditions of death metal meet. The music could be considered part slam, part brutal death metal, and part technical death metal. It metes out ferocious punishment, the kind that will get your motor running in a damned hurry, but will also give your head a swift and bewildering spin, and as icing on the cake it generates an atmosphere of ghastly horror.
California Geek Metal Squad REPAID IN BLOOD has released the official video for "Molotov Circumcision," a track from forthcoming album Reflective Duality. The song features guest vocalist Michael Alvarez (Flub, ex-Alterbeast) and guest guitarist Cameron Losch (Born Of Osiris). Check out the video at youtu.be/18xK9ELmM_E
REPAID IN BLOOD is gearing up for the release of their second full-length album, Reflective Duality. The finds REPAID IN BLOOD maniacally bulldozing its way through eight tracks of pit-inducing fury. Featuring guest appearances from members of THREAT SIGNAL, ALLEGAEON, BORN OF OSIRIS and FLUB, Reflective Duality is the album metal fans need to kick off 2021 properly.
Reflective Duality will be out on January 21. Pre-order the album at:
The band comments on the album, “We have always been a fun going band, writing about the things we love and care about, metal, comics, movies, all around geek stuff. Well this time around we also wrote about what we care about, this time it’s people! You, and everyone else, are created equal. This isn’t an album about hate, it’s about our love for our country and what it should stand for. This isn’t a political album, it’s about human rights. All humans are created equal, women, children and men. Metal IS Family. We should support each other, as well as everyone that needs help in our communities. If you have a problem with our views, kindly see yourself out of our socials. We thank you for your time.”
REPAID IN BLOOD previously released the official music video for album track “Rebel Scum,” featuring Greg Brugess (ALLEGAEON). Watch it now at youtu.be/cNLwNBkbbSQ.
“Rebel Scum” is also available on Bandcamp. Stream and download the song at this location.
Reflective Duality Track Listing:
1) Intro
2) Wake Up, Time To Die
3) Thots & Purveyors (Feat. Jon Howard)
4) He's No Good To Me Dead
5) Ritualistic Stoning (Feat. Travis Montgomery)
6) Rebel Scum (Feat. Greg Burgess)
7) Dave's Not Here Man
8) Molotov Circumcision (Feat. Michael Alvarez & Cameron Losch)
Reflective Duality was recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Eric Hill at The Blue Room Recording Studio. All drums by Juan Galvez, all rhythm guitar, some leads and bass by Jake Burrmann. Vocals by Darrell Durham. Lead guitar by Patrick Small. Guest vocals on Thots & Purveyors by Jon Howard (Threat Signal). Guest guitars on Ritualistic Stoning by Travis Montgomery (Threat Signal). Guest guitars on Rebel Scum by Greg Burgess (Allegaeon). Guest vocals on Molotov Circumcision by Michael Alvarez (Flub, ex-Alterbeast) and guest guitars by Cameron Losch (Born Of Osiris).
REPAID IN BLOOD mixes the best of Death Metal and Metal-core creating their own unique genre: Geek Metal! Which blends crushing riffs, searing solos, ball shattering breakdowns with a variety of pop culture, movies, games and geekdom samples into their performances that always gets the crowd going and shouting the lines and samples during the show!
REPAID IN BLOOD is a metal band that started in 2006 in Sunnyvale, CA. The name was taken from a lyric off The Black Dahlia Murder’s first full length album, Unhallowed. The name is an expression of violence in its truest form, vengeance. Victor Hernandez and Jake Burrmann formed a band in high school, with different members coming and going along the way, eventually turning into what became REPAID IN BLOOD. Jake Burrmann and Juan Galvez are the last of the founding members, and yet, with the powerful vocals and live performances of Darrell Durham, along with the blistering leads of Patrick Small, REPAID IN BLOOD is a strong cohesive family.
REPAID IN BLOOD has worked the local scene with a strong fan base, played in three showcases at South By Southwest, numerous West Coast and Southwest tours and US tours. REPAID IN BLOOD are serious about the music they create, but always have fun doing so. From the "I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus" Xmas parody to a Lego stop motion, Clerks inspired, Jaws parody video, to a full puppet band video for a parody of Salt N Peppa’s “Push It”, releasing tour and behind the scenes blooper videos, using Archer or Stranger Things for a live opening, kid’s cereal, zombies, pop culture, comic books, Game Of Thrones, to peeing on you, you are guaranteed to take something away from REPAID IN BLOOD musically and live.
REPAID IN BLOOD has one full-length album, Born In A Lazarus Pit, which was released June 2014, with music videos released, national promotion, and press as well. REPAID IN BLOOD also has an earlier EP One Bullet Shy Of A Solution released August 2008 and more recently a second EP Terra Mourning in May 2017.
REPAID IN BLOOD have done full US tours: East Bound And Death Tour with thrashers Apothesary, The Repaid In Death Tour with Australian Death Metalers In Death..., The Split Personality Tour with Death Will Tremble, The Danger Zone Tour with Casket Robbery, and the massive No One Gets Out Alive Tour with In Death..., Casket Robbery and Bury The Rod which was a great success. REPAID IN BLOOD has shared the stage with All Shall Perish, Allegaeon, Betraying The Martyrs, Embryonic Devourment, Forbidden, Incite, Morta Skuld, Voices Of Ruin, Sacrificial Slaughter as well as so many others on the road.
Blighted Eye began as a simple creative outlet for guitarist Christopher Jones in 2018. Over the course of the subsequent year, Christopher further refined the direction and musical focus of the project, recruiting long time friend Kyle Chapman of Aethereus (The Artisan Era) to perform vocals and guitar. In 2020, the lineup was rounded out with the addition of drummer John Devos who plays in Mesmur (Solitude Productions), Comatose Vigil A. K (Non Serviam Records), etc. The group's debut four-song EP, Wretched was recently released on October 30th. Cover art for Wretched was created by Samuel Nelson (Stigma Art) known for his work with Allegaeon, Vale of Pnath, Virvum, First Fragment, and many more.
Hailing from Seattle, Washington, Blighted Eye serves up dense and mercurial progressive death metal driven by all things mournful and bleak. As founding member Christopher Jones states, "I’d say the overall sound is a death metal style that’s drawing from places like Opeth, Morbid Angel and Death while also striving for a dark/melancholy atmosphere."
The group's primary influences include Opeth, Dissection, Enslaved, Death, Megadeth, Katatonia, Slumber, and Agalloch. Slivers of which at a minimum are present throughout Wretched while the bulk of the group's style calls to mind Opeth, Death, and Dissection most of all. With their ambitious EP now released, the group is hard at work crafting what will become their first full-length album sometime in the future.
Blighted Eye - Wretched Band Statement
"The Blighted Eye experience is an introspective one that focuses on the perception of oneself, which in turn affects how one perceives the world. Even the band name is a reference to the mind’s eye so to speak. The lyrical themes on Wretched are very much about the destructive capacities of depression and feelings of isolation, anger, and nihility they create in spite of how much a person tries to fight against it. The music is meant to accompany the lyrical themes. Taking you through a range of emotions, but with a persistently dark undercurrent. So even a faster more upbeat track like Contempt has a certain melancholy to it. There are instances of riffs or motifs in songs that resurface, but shift in how they are played or are in a different context, which is keeping with the theme of perception and how that can change."
Blighted Eye is:
Christopher Jones - Guitars, Bass
Kyle Chapman - Guitars, Vocals (Aethereus)
John Devos - Drums and Percussion (Dalla Nebbia, Mesmur, Comatose Vigil A.K.)
After being silent for nearly a decade, Montreal's Synastry unleashed their new EP “Civilization’s Coma” this past November. The band made a name for themselves on the Quebec and Ontario tour circuits in the early 2000s along with their releases Pallets Of My New World (2006) (EP) and Blind Eyes Bleed (2008) (LP). In 2012, the band went dormant, where they remained until 2020 remerging from the shadows.
Today the band is sharing their lyric video for their new EP's title track, which can be viewed HERE.
The band adds:
"The title track of the EP is a dissonant groove fest that gets into you and doesn’t let go. Everything is super heavy yet infectious. Vocals have the longest continuous scream by James Aniston doing a 22 second inhale scream starting at 2:34. The lyrics are about how civilization is on autopilot, consideration, and compassion is out the window for everyone, yet we all share the suffering for it, but choose to do nothing."
With newfound vigor, “Civilization’s Coma” is filled with heavy groovy modern metal that will be familiar to existing fans of the band while encouraging new listeners to embrace them. This reintroduction will give metalheads a taste of what's to come while being able to stand on its own merit. This EP is just the start for Synastry who hopes they can bring their energetic live shows back to crowds far and wide post Covid times.
Recommended for anyone who enjoys groove and melodic metal, especially those with an existing fondness for Within The Ruins, and Fear Factory.
“Civilization’s Coma” digital download HERE. Spotify playlist adds HERE.
“That is what I fear most, that I become so caught up in the pursuit of the pleasures of life that I am never truly alive.” That is the power of Intoxicating Lethargy, which is also the title of WitchTit’s début album. The crushing five-piece doom metal outfit from Raleigh, North Carolina are releasing the follow-up after testing the waters via a split with Etiolated, but it’s a very different band that walked into the studio this time.
The most marked change in WitchTit is the addition of vocalist Reign, whose delivery hits the wailing tones of Messiah Marcolin crossed with a young Iggy Pop in his Stooges days. Her words cover a myriad of topics, from the alcohol-tinged “Silver Tongue” to the call away from inaction in the title track alluded to in the quote. Each line is delivered with relish, whether belting to the rafters or slinking on the floor, oozing with character.
The music is also a veritable conundrum in itself - how can one group blend together the horror-spun doom of Celtic Frost and Candlemass with the NWOBM elements of Witchfinder General and Manilla Road, and yet have it sound so fresh? The drumming is a major highlight of this, especially on the closer “Home Invasion”. There’s even some thrash in their influences, as the ripping guitar solo at the end of “Intoxicating Lethargy” can attest. The result is a début full-length which simultaneously fits right in with other releases of 2020/2021 and also has the sensation of having tumbled out of the 80s.
In the end, WitchTit prove themselves a force to be reckoned with in North Carolina doom, and Intoxicating Lethargy is a major milestone in this burgeoning band’s career. If their memorable live shows are anything to go by, the troupe will be demanding our attention again very soon.
Intoxicating Lethargy will be released on March 12 2021.
