Tuesday's Metal Releases

The Abominable Iron Sloth - The ID Will Overcome (Blackmarket Activities)
Arma Gathas - Dead To This World (Metal Blade)
At The Soundawn - Shifting (Lifeforce)
Bullet For My Valentine - Fever (Jive)
Cleric - Regressions (Web Of Mimicry)
Coffinworm - When All Become None (Profound Lore)
Daniel Lioneye - Volume II (The End)
The Howling Wind - Into The Cryosphere (Profound Lore)
Laethora - The Light In Which We All Burn (The End)
Mantric - The Descent (Prosthetic)
Oomph! - Truth Or Dare (The End)
Overmaster - Madness Of War (Cruz Del Sur)
Brian Posehn - Fart And Weiner Jokes (Relapse)
1349 - Demonoir (Prosthetic)
Twilight - Monument To Time End (Southern Lord)
Warbeast - Krush The Enemy (Housecore)
Wuthering Heights - Salt (Sensory)
Year Of No Light - Ausserwelt (Conspiracy)

THOUGHTS: Wow, lots of releases today.  My Pick of the Week goes to 1349.  Something great must have happened when they switched labels over to Prosthetic, because Demonoir crushes their last release.  It's dark with solid riffs and moments of experimentation with bizarro synth sounds.  Tom Gabriel 'Warrior' Fischer of Celtic Frost fame co-produced the album, so I am sure some of the 'artsyness' of the album can be contributed to him.

Twilight consists of Aaron Turner (Isis), Blake Judd (Nachtmystium) and a few over notable metalers  who have come together to function solely as a recording band.  If you like this album and are hoping to catch them live, you'll be shit out of luck.  Good solid slow black metal.

Brian Posehn is a comedian.  But, he is on Relapse and is a huge metalhead, so thus he qualifies as a metal release.  He's pretty funny but comedy is not my thing.

Bullet For My Valentine released their third full studio album- Fever.  I haven't gotten to listen to this much, but so far it seems to begin right where their prior album left off.  For fans of Killswitch Engage and shitty modern metal bands like Trapt.  ...And yes, they still do that 'slow-dramatic-intro-leading-into-MASSIVE-drums-and-wailing-guitars-thing.'   You can hear the album streaming in full here.

Pick of the Weak goes to Overmaster.  Sorry, but this style of power metal is even too nerdy for me.  (and I like Stratovarius and Edguy).  Ouch!

Frost speaks out

What do Satyricon, 1349 and Ov Hell all have in common?  Their drummer - Frost.  Just like most Scando black metal musicians Frost is in multiple bands to pay rent fully explore his artistic visions.  Here's a new interview with him.  Note his hot homeless man beard.  I like!

Inferno Festival - Oslo, Norway

First, some Inferno ’08 slang to know…

• Inferno Festival: Oslo’s annual metal festival featuring three days of primarily Scandinavian Black Metal bands, with a few Death, Thrash and Doom foreigners scattered in. This year, there is an added Club day- featuring acts at numerous venues throughout the city.
• BM: For the sake of my review, BM will stand for Black Metal (not bowel movements).
  
• Niklas Kvarforth: BM’s new ‘it’ boy, and member of half the bands at Inferno, most notably the extreme Shining.
  
• Gaahl: The singer of one of Inferno’s headlining acts this year, Gorgoroth, as well as key member in Trelldom, and Gaahlskagg. He’s intimidating, and kind of a big deal. (sidenote: I almost crapped myself when I first met him.)
  

The festival began within hours of stepping off of my plane to Oslo. Half the shops were closed for Easter (which is apparently a weeklong event in Norway), it’s cold as hell, and a cheap beer costs 10 bucks. I hurried over to one of the metal pubs, where I met up with some friends and bought expensive drinks. I noticed Gaahl and King of Gorgoroth, sipping drinks at the other end of the bar. This was the moment when I realized Inferno Festival was about to begin.

Wednesday, March 19:

The Club day is the festival's kickoff and included 14 bands, at 6 different venues, essentially all playing at the same time. Basically, Oslo was sprinkled with crazies dressed in all black, running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to see different bands all playing at the same time. Because of this, I had to choose carefully. The first band up was Cor Scorpii, who, like Vreid, formed from the remains of seminal folk BM band, Windir. Having only released a demo (that kicked ass), Cor Scorpiiis was highly anticipated, and the crowd didn’t seem to know exactly what to expect. The show was packed, and although frontman Thomas S. Øvstedal seemed to have some stumbling moments, the band was tight, and seemed highly reminiscent of Windir.