Have you ever felt old for one reason or another? Maybe you’re out running adult-type errands and everywhere you turn, there’s someone living life to the fullest while you wait in line at the post office. Perhaps you go to a show and a band that still has yet to reach high school blows your ass out of the water. If this terrifies you, maybe it’s best that you avoid Baltimore death metal band Noisem. With the age of its members ranging from 15 to 20 years old, Noisem (initially signed to A389 Records under the name Necropsy) comes right out of the gate with the debut LP, Agony Defined.

This record moves with such a sense of urgency that it seems to be on the downside of modern metal. There’s no occasional slow song that chugs along or despair-ridden ballad about being born just to die. Noisem rips through these nine tracks and aims to fuck you up. The first track, “Voices In The Morgue,” sets the siege off right, with circle pit-inducing fast parts that endure the majority of the track, paired with gnarly vocals and wailing solos driven more by the whammy bar than actual notes (a good thing for a metal band, indeed). The song actually slows down after about two minutes of pummeling into submission, but kicks right back in with a blistering solo that would make Kerry King weep. Noisem keeps the album going at full speed with “Birthing The Bestial,” which keeps up the intense tornado of noise-drenched metal. “Desire And Disgust” changes it up a bit, leaning on a heavy Cannibal Corpse influence, especially in the drums. The song goes for quality instead of quantity, ending the track at 77 seconds, the shortest of the album. The fourth song on Agony Defined, “Mortuary,” calls to memory the lyrical content of metal legends Death, spinning a tale of the title’s creepy atmosphere. “Mortuary” also features the first slower passage on the album so far which fits nicely with the lyrical content. Thrash heads take note: it took Noisem four tracks to play one slow part!
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Dallas crossover thrash titans Power Trip has been making a name for themselves since the release of their 2008 demo tape. The band has toured nonstop, recently completing a tour with Expire and Xibalba and making appearances at festivals such as The Rumble and New England Metal and Hardcore Festival. Five years since its debut, the band has unleashed something that the blast doors just couldn’t contain: Mainfest Decimation. Recorded by War Hungry guitarist Arthur Rizk and Daniel Schmuck, and featuring art from Italy’s Paolo “Madman” Girardi, Manifest Decimation barges its way through your speakers and stomps a mud hole in your soul.

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Rage loud and ride the flames of hell! BLACK BREATH fucking wrecked shop at the Knitting Factory in New York a week ago. Our videographer comrade Pit Full of Shit was on had to capture the band’s sonic onslaught! Check out the full 46 minutes of mayhem here at CVLT Nation! BLACK BREATH Rules!

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Alright, let’s the get the introductions out of the way first. This is VHÖL, a “super-group” of sorts originally started by John Cobbett (Hammers of Misfortune, Amber Asylum) and Aesop Dekker (Agalloch, Worm Ouroboros) after the incredible Ludicra called it a day (sigh). Mike Scheidt of YOB was brought on board to lend his discernible vocal skills to the project and Cobbett’s colleague from Hammers of Misfortune and Amber Asylum Sigrid Sheie joined on bass. And lo, VHÖL was born.

The sound of VHÖL is a little harder to pinpoint than their origins and with such a diverse group of musicians there’s always the chance that too much will get thrown into the mix – too many cooks spoil the broth – and whilst with VHÖL there’s the obvious nods to black metal, to thrash, to progressive metal, to hardcore by way of d-beat, at no point does that become overwhelming or overpowering. VHÖL’s strength lies in the abilities of the musicians involved – Scheidt’s voice is powerful and commanding and here he lets loose with a glorious abandon, wailing and rasping and lifting the sound beyond mere heavy metal whilst the guitar of Cobbett soars above the tracks adding depth and nuance whilst a tangible grungy dirtiness flows through the filthy bass lines of Sheie.

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All hail this band – VENOM changed the way we banged our heads in the 80′s. They were also a huge unifying factor that brought punks and metal heads together back in the day. When I think back to how we all use to get along, no matter how long our hair was, it brings a smile to my face. VENOM’s record Black Metal was a must-have when it came out. Then we all went out and bought At War With Satan when it hit the shelves. Their music was more than metal to us it was a massive middle finger to the world! This is why today CVLT Nation salutes VENOM by featuring their killer 1984 London Hammersmith Odeon performance. So after the jump, welcome to hell and this heavy show!

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Sweden’s Sonic Ritual have been toeing the line between heavy metal and punk for the better part of six years now. Their up coming EP, Last Exodus from the Land of the Dead, due out this summer via Electric Assault Records, promises to be the band’s best yet. For those unfamiliar with Sonic Ritual, now’s the time to familiarize yourself. Up beat punk surges, heyday heavy metal riffing and arena sized vocals kiss off Sonic Ritual’s catchy brand of heavy metal punk.

I spoke recently with singer and guitarist Henke Palm about Last Exodus… and what’s going on with Sonic Ritual, follow the jump to see what he had to say…check out Sonic Ritual’s version of THE OBSESSED classic “Iron & Stone below!…Pre-order SONIC RITUAL — The Last Exodus From the Land of the Dead HERE!

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Full interview after the jump!
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Interview via Death Metal Underground

Academic acceptance of metal accelerates through conferences dedicated to studying metal, professors teaching about heavy metal, investigations of links between heavy metal and religion, and the launch of an international journal for studying metal.

While the metal community may not have found a position on this change as of yet, the very fact of its existence is startling to those of us who experienced metal in the 1980s or 1990s, when society viewed us as outcasts of a likely deranged, intoxicated, criminal and Satanic nature. From the censorship battles of the 1980s, when the Parent’s Music Resource Center (PMRC) attempted to prevent younger people from acquiring metal in record stores and tried to legislate a requirement for lyrical content warning stickers on metal records, to the 1990s bourgeois bohemians wrinkling upper lips at the impolitic and feral nature of metal, society hasn’t liked us.

Luckily, academics don’t see it that way and have forged ahead with metal study, coinciding with a massive “hipness” of metal in the mainstream press and hipster underground. Metalheads might find this interesting because academic study can balance out what social pressures amplify.

We are fortunate to have Dr. Karl Spracklen, Professor of Leisure Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University, here to tell us more about his projects, the International Society for Metal Music Studies, its conference, and its journal.

Why study heavy metal?

Heavy metal is an important part of modern culture and everyday life, so studying heavy metal enables us to understand both of those things. For me, the interesting thing about heavy metal is the tension between metal’s strong sense of being part of a non-mainstream subculture, and metal’s place in the industry of modern pop and rock music. That’s because I’m essentially a sociologist. Other heavy metal scholars might be interested in the way the music is constructed, or the meaning behind song lyrics, or the history of the scene, or the use of heavy metal as a philosophy or ideology of life. Heavy metal is just a subject field, a lens, through which we can think about problems in other academic diciplines.

Speedwolf is the shit and their new video of the same name is a raging visual party! When I heard their 2011 debut Ride With Death, I was hooked on their intocating riffs. When I watched the “Speedwolf” video, something came over me and I wanted to blast some metal then drink a cold one. Anyway, this sick fucking band is about to hit the road again, but in the meantime check out their visual for “Speedwolf” after the jump!

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MOTÖRHEAD will always be one of my favorite motherfucking bands. I will never forget how they influenced me and my homies to party hard! Lemmy and crew had this FTW attitude that made us not only want to listen to them, but also be them. The original line-up was perfect in my book and seeing them live sealed the deal. Plus MOTÖRHEAD might have the sickest logo in heavy music. This why today FuckYeahMotorhead is our favorite tumblr of the moment. After the jump, get your head bang on and peep a huge gallery of photos…No Sleep til MOTÖRHEAD!

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Death Metal and Grind mixed with Surf Rock???? Yes, you heard right. Here we have a group of five foul mouthed surf zombies hailing from the decrepit sands of Wormwood Beach, CA.. (Fresno, CA to be exact) entitled GORESHACK and here is their brand new full length album entitled “Surf.Mosh.Kill” that is an extremely well executed mix of Death Metal, Thrash, Grind and Surf Rock wrapped up in an awesomely wacky, kooky surf-zombie filled package full of great sound bits, song themes and punishing tracks that’s just all about having a fucking blast doing it while hammering your face in all at once. GORESHACK pays homage to the gore-soaked likes of GHOUL, EXHUMED, CARCASS, IMPALED, SPLATTERHOUSE and IMPETIGO along with some Surf Rock masters like DICK DALE and THE BEACH BOYS.

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