Zoroaster’s ‘Matador’ might be one of the most anticipated records this year — and it deserves to be. The sludge-bending trio is not holding back on their third full-length, for what seems to be not some new direction but a refinement of the various paths and experimentations the band has has over the years.

Noisecreep couldn’t be more excited to premiere ‘Ancient Ones,’ a true reverb-soaked hazy offering.

via Zoroaster, ‘Ancient Ones’ — Song Premiere – Noisecreep.

7/7/2010 Philadelphia PA Pilam w/ Child Abuse

7/8/2010 Baltimore MD Golden West Café w/ Child Abuse

7/9/2010 Richmond VA The Triple w/ Child Abuse

7/10/2010 Columbia SC Art Shack w/ Child Abuse

7/11/2010 Asheville NC Static Age Records w/ Child Abuse

7/12/2010 Nashville TN Little Hamilton w/ Child Abuse

7/13/2010 Chicago IL Empty Bottle w/ Child Abuse

7/14/2010 Minneapolis MN 7th Street Entry w/ Child Abuse

7/17/2010 Anacortes WA What The Heck Fest @ Port of Anacortes Warehouse

7/18/2010 Seattle WA The Morgue

7/19/2010 Olympia WA Northern Olympia

7/20/2010 Portland OR Dante’s

7/21/2010 San Francisco CA Hemlock Tavern

7/22/2010 Visalia CA The Cellar Door w/ Sleepy Sun & Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound

7/23/2010 Los Angeles CA Spaceland w/ Sleepy Sun & Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound

7/24/2010 Los Angeles CA Synch

7/25/2010 San Diego CA Casbah w/ Sleepy Sun & Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound

7/27/2010 San Antonio TX Night Rocker: LIVE

7/28/2010 Houston TX Mango’s

7/29/2010 Austin TX Emo’s Inside Room

7/30/2010 Dallas TX The Nightmare

7/31/2010 Oklahoma City OK The Conservatory

8/2/2010 Kansas City MO Riot Room

8/3/2010 St Louis MO Cicero’s

8/4/2010 Cincinnati OH Comet Tavern

8/5/2010 Dayton OH South Park Tavern

8/6/2010 Pittsburgh PA 31st Street Pub

via 20 BUCK SPIN » Liturgy July/August U.S. Tour Dates.

Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, the classic 1986 album from legendary Swedish doomers Candlemass, will be re-released on fat 180-gram blood-red vinyl in numbered gatefold sleeve on June 28 via Peaceville Records. The gatefold sleeve features the original artwork (red text and skull not white as on the CD) on a matt-laminated sleeve with logo and text on front in spot varnish. It will also include new sleeve notes written by the band.

Continue @ Candlemass’s Epicus Doomicus Metallicus To Be Re-Released On 180-Gram Vinyl |.

For the most part, Prodigal Songs stays well within the realm of revivalist ‘70s-style guitar-led rock. Guitarist/vocalist Miguel Moral is a former member of Bilbao crushers Rhino, though if anyone comes into Positiva expecting that same kind of metal destruction, they’re going to be in for a big surprise. The vibes are immediately, well, positive, with opening cuts “Brother Eagle” and “Undying Shore” losing none of their rock edge for the good times they incite. When the band delves into Grand Funkery, they earn a comparison to Blood of the Sun or Firebird, but the double guitars of Moral and guitarist/vocalist Julio Ruiz set them apart from their American and British sonic compatriots. Still, there’s a good amount of rock and roll shuffling going on through “Waiting in Vain,” “Catch the Fire,” and “Groupiedom,” and that’s got to come from somewhere.

Read the rest at The Obelisk.

Enslaved is another band that came out of the second wave of black metal that has gone beyond the standard black metal riffs and add something more to their music.  If you listen to a their older albums, there has been an evolution to a more progressive song structure and sound and lyrical content.  Where the songs on their earlier albums were straight forward telling of the Norse mythology, the later albums are a more inner search and understanding of it’s meaning of the mythology.

2001′s Monumension in my opinion is one of Enslaved’s finest albums to date.  I feel that this one was the first of there albums that is straight ahead prog metal.  The mellotron is one of the highpoints to this album.  The sound on this album could have easily come from a Led Zeppelin/King Crimson era band.  The first song, Convoys to Nothingness starts with a rockin’ and ends with a 4 minute meditation in time and space.  I have had to pleasure of hearing track 2, The Voices, live and I would have to say it is one of my favorite songs of all time.  Three major highlights of this album are Hollow Inside and the bonus track Sigmundskvadet.  Hollow inside is just a spaced out truely unique song that takes you on a trip across the cosmos.  Hollow Inside along with Sigmundskvadet feature vocals by Norwegian punk rock pioneer Trygve Mathisesen.  Sigmundskvadet is an actually old Norse chant that Trygve learned word for word from a Norse tribe that live on an island off the cost of Norway.   What a way to start of a decade of metal for Enslaved.

Vertebrae is a perfect way to close out a decade worth of music.  The production alone is incredible!  Cato Bekkevold’s drumming is superb.  It adds so much dimension to each track.  Vertebrae has a great balance between Herbrand Larsen’s clean vocals and Grutle Kjellson’s growl.  Herbrand has a Eric Woolfson (Alan Parsons Project) feel to it.  Vertebrae also takes the listener on a journey.  But this journey is more of an adventure.  From the start the listener travels on fast pasted romp through the elements. My favorite song on the album is New Dawn.  Cato’s ride on that is spastic and unique.

What a way to begin a decade and end it.  Thank you Enslaved!

From avant jazz to avant metal, if you do not have Trinacria‘s Travel Now Journey Infinitely, then you are missing out on something unique and spectacular. Trinacria was originally a composition by Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved and Maja S. K. Ratkje and Hils Sofie Tafjord, commissioned by Rikskonsertene for a concert series. It is a pleasant cacophony of metal, doom, and industry.

I personally think it is stands out in the because it has quite a mix of music on it. Part I: Turn-Away is colossally doom. Iver Sandøy’s blast beats and the sound effects add volume and weight to Part II: The Silence. Grutle’s vocals on are perfectly grim as always. I think the highlight of the album for me is Part IV: Endless Roads. A 10:00 minute doom masterpiece!

Great album all around. Hail to Trinacria.

Lucker of Chalice is the shit. Period! Wrest (Jef Whitehead) is one of the best all around musicians in extreme metal. He is one of the best drummer out there. His blast beats are fucking insane! His guitar work is chaotic and beautiful. As for vocals, creepy as fuck!

This self titled album is one of my favorite albums of all time. It so melancholy and creepy I can listen to it every day and not get tired of it. The album starts off with the funeral march I, and quickly moves into hypnotic drone of Piercing Where They Might, but my favorite song on the album has got to be the 10 minute epic This Blood Falls As Mortal Part III. The samples add so much dimension that I could meditate with this song on repeat for hours.

This album and the Leviathan album A Silhouette in Splinters go hand in hand even though the Lurker of Chalice album is a little more metal.

If you are looking for another The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide this is not it. But if you are in the mood for some misanthropic meditation, then Lucker of Chalice is your album.

Two members of the Witchcraft performing at Roadburn this year.  Roadburn sez…

We are very pleased to announce that Witchcraft vocalist Magnus Pelander will be part of the Roadburn festival lineup on Thursday, 15 April 2010.

Magnus will perform some very personal songs on acoustic guitar that will be recorded sometime next year for a full-length record. According to Magnus, “the record will include a lot of different instrumentation but the whole idea is that the songs can be perfomed solo as well as with 4 or even more people.”

Also look for Witchcraft members John Hoyles and Ola Henriksson at  Roadburn 2010, as they are teaming up with Örebro legend and rocker Martin Heppich to play in his band Troubled Horse. The band sports a distinctive, sinister, 60’s sounding garage rock vibe, combined with a taste of 70’s psych-doom, creating music that evokes The Kinks, Pentagram and Roky Erickson.

via Witchcraft’s Magnus Pelander to perform acoustic set at Roadburn 2010. |.

We’ve been eager to book the mighty hard hitters Cathedral for quite some time and this time we finally made the schedule work.

Cathedral have been pioneers within the legendary British doom scene for almost 20 years now, never afraid to explore new territories and always coming across as fresh and revitalizing.

Tickets goes on sale today, Friday, the 4th of December, 2009.This includes a limited number of 4-day passes only available until the 24th of December, 2009.

via Hole In The Sky – Bergen Metal Festival XI – Impending Doom.