New Converge Album Titled

Two in one day! The PRP has picked up on a tidbit from Decibel magazine saying that Converge have titled their soon to be recorded album All We Love We Leave Behind. Now we've just got to sit back and wait....

Every Time I Die announce "Ex-Lives" and release video for "Underwater Bimbos from Outerspace", I soil myself

Every Time I Die have revealed that their new album will be called Ex-Lives.  They have also released a video for "Underwater Bimbos From Outerspace" which can be viewed below.



You can also view the numerous pre-order packages available for the album by checking out www.ex-lives.com

I'm also happy to announce an interview that I'll be conducting with drummer Ryan "Legs" Leger in the very near future. Leave any questions you would like asked in the comments section below.

Ex-Lives gets released March 6th on Epitaph.

China White III !!!

It's been announced that super badasses He Is Legend will release their new album It Hates You on June 9th...stoked.
It has also been announced that the Wilmington boys have been signed to Tragic Hero records (something tells me they weren't getting much support at SolidState, because they don't love their Jesus).

The tracklisting is:
Track Listing
01) Dicephalous
02) Party Time!
03) Everyone I Know Has Fangs
04) The Primarily Blues
05) Cult of She
06) Stranger Danger
07) Don't Touch That Dial
08) Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
09) Future's Bright Man
10) China White III
11) That's Nasty
12) Mean Shadows

Throwdown Announce "Deathless" As Album Title, Switch Drummers and Record Labels

Throwdown have switched drummer (disappointing, Ben Dussalt was awesome), and signed to KOCH records, press release below:

"Throwdown and KOCH Records have joined forces. The band will begin recording Deathless, their first album under this new deal, in early 2009.

"Signing with KOCH Records is a breath of fresh air for us," said Throwdown frontman Dave Peters. "KOCH looks at their artists in a progressive way and can see that what we've given a decade of our lives to build is still far from completion. It's no mystery that the music industry is caught in upheaval right now. We're confident in the mutual autonomy of KOCH and Throwdown to come together and not only weather the storm, but thrive in it."

"I am thrilled to add Throwdown to the growing KOCH Metal roster and am looking forward to putting out what is surely one of the most anticipated releases of 2009," says KOCH Records VP of Metal Scott Givens. "The band is poised to claim a major stake in the American metal scene and we are thrilled that they have chosen KOCH to be their partners."

The largest independent record label in the United States, KOCH is home to recent releases from Throwdown's friends and touring mates In Flames and Hatebreed, and has recently signed both Satyricon and High On Fire.

"We look forward to the continued development of our relationship with KOCH and the opportunity to be included with the wealth of talent on their roster," added Throwdown bass player Mark Mitchell.

Throwdown recently completed touring behind their last album, Venom & Tears, which was produced by the band with Mudrock (Avenged Sevenfold, Chimaira). The past two years saw them on the road with Korn (Australia), Killswitch Engage (Canada), Cavalera Conspiracy (U.S.), Machine Head/Arch Enemy (U.S.), headlining the Ernie Ball stage on the Vans Warped Tour, hitting major European festivals like Download UK, and headlining a U.S. tour of their own.

Revolver called Throwdown's last album the band's "most metallic," combining "the hateful groove of Sepultura and Pantera." Outburn elaborated further: "This is a much more expansive, daring record, featuring longer songs and a greater diversity of influences while retaining that core pummeling heaviness the band has built its rep upon."

The band is in the writing stages now for Deathless, which promises to be even more dynamic and pulverizing than the last one. Deathless will be the band's fourth album with Peters as frontman and primary songwriter, its second with Choiniere (who joined the band in 2005) and first with Mitchell. Drummer Jarrod Alexander (ex-Death By Stereo), who performed on the band's breakthrough Haymaker album in 2003, will return to work on Deathless.

"Mark Choiniere and I have been writing material on our own time for months now," Peters explained. "We have a great head start on the writing process. It's always hard to say how the songs will ultimately evolve. You think it's going one way and the slightest idea or change turns it into a whole other animal. The mix of riffs and loose song skeletons we have right now is a lot more eclectic at this phase than it was for any of our other records."

Throwdown has spent the last several years touring relentlessly. Ozzfest (2004), Sounds Of The Underground (2005), Vans Warped Tour (2006 & 2007), Black Dahlia Murder (co-headline), and several other headlining and support tours across the globe including packages with Lamb Of God, Fear Factory, As I Lay Dying and more.

In the coming weeks, the band will announce who will be producing and mixing Deathless."

When I dug a little deeper into the Throwdown situation I found a post that Dave Peters made regarding Trustkill Records, also printed below:

Throwdown has always and will always be a band for our fans before anyone else.

So it is with great regret that we find ourselves in a situation where we are left with no alternative but to air out years of dirty laundry with Josh Grabelle of Trustkill Records for our fans to read and become as disappointed by as we are.

Several months ago we were forced to send Trustkill Records a “breach of contract” notice (despite the legal fees involved for us with such action) and our “breach of contract” was not cured within the 30 days legally allotted. Trustkill has been in this current breach with Throwdown (it’s not the first time) since March 31, 2008. By his own accounting, Josh currently owes the band tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties for CDs sold. We have not once in the history of our relationship with the label received a royalty payment on time. And now that our three album contract with him is fulfilled, we are not hopeful that will change.

It should be said that our relationship with Josh Grabelle started very positively. We were friends before entering into a business relationship and there was a sense of camaraderie between us and several of the bands on the Trustkill roster. As years passed, however, we saw that not only was Josh driving the label in a direction that none of us could respect, he was developing habits that diminished any trust we once had in him and often left us in a variety of compromising situations.

For example, we were forced to cancel dates on the Vans Warped Tour in 2006 when the necessary and agreed upon tour support to put gas in our van wasn’t delivered on time as promised. Trustkill’s failure to make payments on time during the making of our newest album, Venom & Tears, left us wondering how we would pay our rent and bills. Our producer nearly stopped the recording process after Josh and Rob Dippold at Trustkill repeatedly promised to pay him and repeatedly failed to deliver on time.

Please know that we are not “rock stars” looking to be pampered. In order to do Ozzfest in 2004, we took out a loan from one of our family members and gave up mechanical royalties for six months in exchange for the opportunity — the rest of the money Trustkill has been able to recoup from our artist royalties. It was a wise investment. Ozzfest was great for us, and one we made on our own as you can see. We just want what is owed and what is fair and when it is due according to the terms of our contract.

These stories are the very tip of the iceberg and emblematic of our experience with Trustkill. Josh Grabelle consistently attempted to patronize and dismiss our concerns by calling us the band that ‘was
never happy with anything [I] do’, a tactic we quickly realized was used with several other bands as well. Bands do talk when they see each other and it is a shame that the same camaraderie we felt with a variety of bands from all over the country on his label is now present for very different and undesirable reasons.

We know that our band is not alone. Whether more bands with records on Trustkill choose to make public statements as Hopesfall, Bleeding Through and now our band has done is of course their prerogative.

In spite of our hard and often ill-funded work on the road, in the rehearsal space and in the studio, we were told by Josh that we needed to be willing to sacrifice now and then. There is not a single word
that better represents what we have been forced to do under the Trustkill umbrella these past few years — sacrifice.

We truly feel that if Josh Grabelle would see the bands on Trustkill as actual groups of people with the same needs as him or anyone else versus a simple account or bill to be pushed to the side of the desk in his beautiful suburban home, then we would not be here today writing this unsightly account and maybe even have remained friends with him.

For the sake of new bands signing with Trustkill records, we sincerely hope that Josh can adopt such a perspective and begin to rebuild his label. And we hope that by making this situation public, Josh will be
motivated to get his business in order and set things right with Throwdown and everyone else who has been burned by the increasingly difficult situation.

With love and respect to all of those who support us and touring musicians around the world,

Throwdown

I'm glad Throwdown has moved on, but it sucks that some really good bands have gotten caught in the tank treads because of Josh Grabelle's irresponsibility.  A band like BEDlight For BLUEeyes, that put out two great records but got virtually no support from Trustkill as a label has now broken up.  Who knows where bands like them or Love Is Red would be had they had more label support. Ohh well.  

New Clipse!

The real is back...

VA natives Clipse have a new track that you can hear right myah.  Given the context clues, I'm guessing they have a new album called "The Casket" that's coming out next year...stoked.

God Forbid Album Teaser

God Forbid has a teaser of sorts for their new album Earthsblood:  

Though this band is definitely capable of putting together some badass music, I think that this will be the album that either makes them or breaks them.  Constitution Of Treason was good, but kind of lacked flow.  Hopefully this album will pace itself better.

New Thursday Album Title

Thursday have announced a title and release date for their new album.  Common Existence will be released on February 17th.  Hopefully this CD won't sound like garbled stegosaurus balls like A City By The Light Divided did.  Their music is amazing, it's just the production I have gripes with.   

New Found Glory Album Title and Release Date

New Found Glory has announced that the name of their upcoming return-to-form and Mark Hoppus produced album will be called Not Without A Fight and it will be released March 10th.  Boo-yah.

I realize as I was ascribing tags to this post that I didn't actually write a show review for Easy-Core Tour (New Found Glory, A Day To Remember, Four Year Strong, ISHC, Crime In Stereo), but lets just say that especially after hearing the Tip of the Iceburg EP, I'm super stoked for this album.

Say Anything Self Titled Album Announcement

Though it's not really a surprise that Max Bemis is pretty much always writing new music, an update from Bemis has come that changes some of what everyone thought they knew about Say Anything's upcoming release originally called This Is Forever. Message below:

say anything WILL be putting out a new album next year. we'll be recording it in l.a this winter and the record will be called "Say Anything." yes, self titled. the nature of the record has changed since we intended on calling it "this is forever", also these two dj guys put out a record called that and would probably sue us.(EDIT: He's talking about these guys.)

if any person has followed our band, they understand our albums tell the story of a simple dude (me) and his evolution in life. this is the part where, having gone through his "idealistic--yet-furious-virgin" phase (baseball), young "drunk-angry-pukey-sex" phase (is a real boy), his "reaping - the - benefits - of - years - of - self - abuse - by - being - stuck - in - a - terrible -relationship" phase (in defense of the genre), he is finally confronted with the question of what the point of all of it was. what is the moral of the story? why be in a band? why try to "get" the girl? you spend years bitching or hurting yourself and others until you realize there is really something to fight for and something to fight against and being a man means drawing the line. that, my friends, is where the real adventure begins.

this album is self titled for a reason; it will take all the musical and lyrical themes of every say anything song, and attempt to resolve them and infuse them with something pure and direct. i am not going to " brandon flowers it" and say this is going to be the record that saves rock n' roll, or makes pitchfork.com finally admit we had it all along. those things are not only pre-packaged indie rock nay nay but are also pointless and fleeting. i don't know how far our album will get us commercially or even if all of you amazing ap.net friends will show up the day it comes out, say it blows, and change your " fatty max bemis with a cigarette" icon to a "hot picture of first-button-undone anthony green" icon. however, if my opinion matters to you, i promise that i love these songs to death. I REALLY hope you do too and that's all i can pray for. For those who thought in defense, while cool, was too long and serious; i see this next outing as more darkly humorous and concise. for those of you who dug is a real boy but appreciate our later maturity, such as the addition of real singing to the drunken sailor routine; this record looks like it will be even more of a step forward, without giving away too much.

We are so thankful for your love. I am constantly humbled before your appreciation and I never thought we'd get this far, so we NEED to pay you back with a cool album or we'll be doing carnival-cruise-line-emo-nostaglia tours with jefree starr by the time you guys are forty. We will work it to the bone to not let you down. Recording begins ths winter in Los Angeles, California.

Thank you.

Max

Though I'm a fan of the Killers first album, I can say with comfort that their two albums since haven't done dick to "save" rock and roll. I also appreciate the shot at pitchfork, who seem to be so busy catering to shitty indie bands that they really miss out many good bands.
So after churning out roughly 120 songs in the song shop Say Anything and Capt. Bemis rest easy until they begin recording this winter. Rock on Bemis, rock on.

More Songs Like "Black Sails" and "Art of Drowning" plz

AFI have finished writing their new album. A message from their myspace page can be found below:

Hello dear, it's time. We've officially finished writing the 8th AFI album, and now we enter the studio to put it on tape. We have a fabulous producer we'll be working with, David Bottrill, who has worked on some fantastic and legendary albums by Peter Gabriel, Muse, Silverchair, Placebo, and Tool. We've spent this whole year crafting these songs and we're impatient to share them, so let's get busy. Love, Davey, Adam, Hunter, and Me


Given the news about the producer, it is unlikely that the band will have a return to the glory days of Black Sails in the Sunset and Art of Drowning. I have pretty non commital feelings about DECEMBERUNDERGROUND, but like Sing The Sorrow. Who knows what to expect. I suppose we shal know around early to mid-summer.

New Emery Album Title

With the release of their EP While Broken Hearts Prevail only a few weeks behind us, Emery has announced that their new full length will be titled In Shallow Seas We Sail.
The While Broken Hearts Prevail EP has a man drowning on the cover. Nautical theme?

New Taking Back Sunday Album Title

Taking Back Sunday have decided to name their new and upcoming album New Again. After remaining relatively low key for a number of years, it's good to have some TBS news. I'm assuming that the title relates to having lost Fred and having to re-invent or re-think the way the band operates. I have high hopes.

This Will Be Legendary

Official Press Release:
November 6, 2008 – TWO TONGUES, the new band featuring Max Bemis and Coby Linder of Say Anything along with Chris Conley and David Soloway of Saves The Day, announce a February 3, 2009 release for their self-titled debut. The thirteen-track self-produced disc was recorded late last year at Electric Ladybug studios in Northern California.

Max Bemis comments on the genesis of the project:
“Chris has been my favorite songwriter since I was 15. Ten years later he is now is one of my closest friends. The Two Tongues record is really an expression of the yin and yang; how two "opposite" souls stimulate and battle each other in any truly loving relationship. Chris inspired me as a mentor, hero and friend, and I inspired him as someone who truly cherishes his work that he can respect in his own right. Chris sometimes looks down on himself but is inside a very strong, almost Buddha-like centered soul; I have that whole Steven Tyler/Jerry Lewis extrovert personality onstage but I'm a totally neurotic, restless soul inside. We as two people, therefore, express two sides of a coin. Making the record, and it being the first band either of us has ever been in outside of Say Anything or Saves the Day, was sort of like falling in love for the second time; you have to look outside of yourself and learn to communicate with and trust someone who operates in a totally different manner. Ironically, while making this record I met the girl I am now in love with, so I was experiencing the same thing in the form of friendship with Chris as I was in getting to know this female person. So whether you want to look at the record as songs about two people starting a romantic relationship or this dynamic of how inspiration operates between two people, that's your choice. We hope it functions on both levels. Either way, it's a dream come true for me, and a true labor of love.”

Chris Conley says of the collaboration:
“Working with Max was a dream come true for me. I have never met another musician as inspiring and talented. During a dark period in my life, Max's music lifted my heart, and for that I am forever in his debt. When he approached me about doing this side project together, my immediate thought was, "I would do it with no one else." So my heart was in it from the moment of inception. The process of songwriting and recording was exciting and fluid. As it turns out, we work together quite well! I look forward to our next project together so our learning and growing can continue.”


The band put up their first demo this summer on their myspace page. I've been wanting more info about this for a while, and with this announcement become even more excited for February '09.

New Lamb of God

From SMN:
LAMB OF GOD will release their fifth studio album Wrath, on February 24, 2009. The record will be released in North America by Epic and will be the first release with their new label Roadrunner outside of North America . Wrath is produced by Josh Wilbur and was recorded in studios in New York , Virginia , and New Hampshire .
LAMB OF GOD finished the touring cycle on the Grammy nominated album Sacrament at the end of 2007. The two-year trek was documented in the now certified Gold DVD Walk with Me in Hell and culminated with the band headlining arenas across the US last December.
The band has taken the entirety of 2008 off the road to focus on the writing process for Wrath.
“This album is going to surprise a lot of people,” comments drummer Chris Adler. “Typically bands that get to where we are in our career begin to slack off, smell the roses and regurgitate. We chose a different path. No one wants to hear another band member hyping a new record. Wrath needs no hype. We have topped ourselves and on February 24 you will feel it.”
As always, LAMB OF GOD will embark on an extensive tour that will cover the globe. As previously announced, the band will be supporting METALLICA on the December leg of their tour. The first leg of the Wrath world tour will start in Finland on February 6 and will encompass dates in the UK , Australia , and Japan .

Lamb of God is absolutely one of my favorite bands. Watching Chris track drums for this album and hearing how fast and rad the drums were, I'm A.) Not surprised that the album is called Wrath. B.) pretty sure I'm going to like this album much more than Sacrament.

Victory Announces A Ton of Albums

According to Victory via AP,Within the Ruins, The Autumn Offering, Arise and Ruin, Corpus Christi, A Day to Remember and The Sleeping will all be releasing new albums on February 17th.
Of all of these bands I've only heard The Autumn Offering, A Day To Remember, and The Sleeping, and I'm only excited about one of those releases (ADTR).
I used to like The Autumn Offering; their first release on Stillborn was totally badass. I'm going to make the possibly ignorant, yet more probably correct assumption that all the other bands are shitty recycled metal core bands.

New Mastodon Album Title Revealed

Mastodon has named unveiled the name and the track listing for their up coming album. "Crack the Skye" will be the forth album in an elemental series that the band have been following since their full length debut Remission (fire) in 2002.  2004's Leviathan (water) and 2006's Blood Mountain (earth) have both been met with great praise.  More below from Blabbermouth:

  

"Crack the Skye" track listing:

01. Oblivion
02. Divinations
03. Quintessence
04. The Czar
I. Usurper
II. Escape
III. Martyr
IV. Spiral
05. Ghost of Karelia
06. Crack The Skye
07. The Last Baron

In a recent interview with MetalSucks, MASTODON bassist/singer Troy Sanders stated about the group's forthcoming album, "I think most of our new material is going to be more under the rock category, but it's pretty epic and involved, extremely layered, broad, melodic, dark, and creepy. When we met up with [producere] Brendan [O'Brien], he had heard some of our demos and he liked some of the rock elements that we had with our stuff. We told him that we were interested in recording, quote, 'a classic rock record that will hopefully have a long shelf life and have solid songs from start to finish, and that will live a lot longer than just listening to it a few times and shelving it.' Our favorite records of all time that we always constantly revisit in our own collection are by bands like JOURNEY, YES, KING CRIMSON, FRANK ZAPPA, KANSAS, and all the shit that we grew up with and were inspired by and continue to revisit. We kind of wanted to attempt to capture a record like that, [at least] in our eyes and ears. The stars had aligned perfectly because Brendan's a perfect match, a funny dude and a great musician who has an amazing ear. He can pick out little things that we can try to do that we hadn't even thought of before, whether it be vocally or sonically with the guitars or something. So it is going to be more of a rock kind of Count Chocula-meets-DEEP PURPLE thing. That's kind of what we're saying."

Scale The Summit Album Completion

prog metal underdogs Scale The Summit have posted a myspace blog about the completion of their new album.  You can find the blog myah.

New Eminem

Though I may have already posted news about T.I., you won't see me post too much about rap music on this blog.   It's not that I dislike the genre, simply that I don't think that enough of the "artists" today that are putting out music are in fact artists.  It takes something special to be a good rap artists, and there a few exceptions in my book, Eminem being one of them.  Read about his new release here.

New Reel Big Fish

Though I haven't really kept up with them past "Turn The Radio Off", one of my favorite bands Reel Big Fish have announced via Myspace bulletin that they have a new album coming out in January.
If you have never given Reel Big Fish a listen, I suggest that you stop castigating yourself and listen to their righteous ska jams.

Front man Aaron Barret has been one of my favorite musicians ever since I saw them on Warped Tour in like 9th grade.  His ability to shred and sing harmonies all on his own (and his fan devotion) really impressed me.  

Do yourself a favor and check them out, and if you don't like ska, you're beyond my help.