The Black Dahlia Murder release new song - "Goat of Departure"

        

        The Black Dahlia Murder have released their third song off of their upcoming album Everblack. Entitled 'Goat of Departure', the song is a salute to the fame the goat enjoys in metal music, and particularly the 'sign of the horns' people have been throwing up at metal shows since the time of Dio. The song is as brutal as it comes, echoing last month's release of 'Into the Everblack', but still falling short of 'Raped in Hatred by Vines of Thorn', itself a reference to Evil Dead's infamous tree-rape scene.
         You can stream 'Goat of Departure' on Loudwire here. Everblack comes out June 11th on Metal Blade records, and the band is playing Warped Tour this year.

Trivium let slip new album title

       Florida's thrash-tinted metalcore quintet Trivium may have accidentally let slip their new album title today. In an interview with producer David Draiman (known for his work fronting nu-metal band Disturbed), Draiman indicated the title track of the album would be called 'Vengeance Falls'. At this point, it's uncertain if that actually is the title of the new album, but Trivium vocalist Matt Heafy was quick to correct Draiman in the tweet below:

         

 

          Vengeance Falls/Shark Sandwich/the album's actual name has not yet been given a release date, but is scheduled for a 2013 release. The album, Trivium's sixth, will follow 2011's lukewarm reception to In Waves. 

Album of the Week - Sleeping in Gethsemane's 'When the Landscape is Quiet Again'

          Some time ago, I had a feature going on the blog called 'playlist of the week', where I would compile songs I'd gotten into during the week into a playlist and make it accessible for readers. Unfortunately, I didn't have very much time to listen to new music, so the feature eventually stagnated to very few artists and I eventually abandoned it all together, having lost interest.
          To this end, I'm looking to bring back a similar feature in the form of 'Album of the Week' - a new album I've discovered this week that I dig particularly. I'll provide a link to stream the album, and say a few words about why it's awesome. I really think this is going to be a fun addition to the blog, and ensure I update regularly.
           With that being said, let's take a look at our first album of the week - from post-metal pioneers

Sleeping in Gethsemane. Hailing from North Dakota (along with precisely zero other musical acts of note), the band has been consistently putting out material since 2005 with little to no recognition. Last week, they released their swan song record When the Landscape is Quiet Again, after months of attempting to sell equipment to break even for the album's production.
            And let me tell you, it certainly has paid off. The band has shown substantial talent in mixing ambiance with technicality, as the album kicks off with the airy, almost insubstantial harmonics of 'The Brave', biding its time as the bass and drumwork slowly build tension. 'The Brave' is unafraid to abruptly grab you by the ears and drag you along for an audible ride.
        As the album plays out, the band's technical prowess and sheer control over their instruments is what beings to stand out. The instruments layer onto each other, and SIG is unafraid to turn up the bass, giving bassist Brandon Schiwal almost an important role as guitarist Brandon LaPlante.
        There are no underrepresented band members - every instrument is meticulously textured and molded into one soundscape of epic proportions - one could argue that even the silences are heavy. Yet there's almost a sense of sorrow as the record goes on - as though it's aware that this is the last SIG album.
         Even so, there's no room for frilly production - the band has three members and pushes each one to their limit. The band reminds me of North Irish post-rockers And So I Watch You From Afar, but retains more of a down-trodden, bass heavy beat.
         Clocking in at a little over thirty minutes, When the Landscape is Quiet Again is an epic, sweeping, and altogether too short album that manages to pack so much emotion into six or seven songs. The band has split, and will not be releasing any new material, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't support them.
          You can stream the album here, and also buy it (for $7 or more) at the site's bandcamp.

What's on the table for this summer:

Back in January, I compiled a list of albums that were coming out this year. In the spirit of updates, here's a fixed list:

• August Burns Red - Rescue and Restore (6/26) (Metalcore)
• The Devil Wears Prada - TBA (Fall/winter) (Metalcore)
• The Black Dahlia Murder - Everblack  (6/11) (Death Metal)
•  Protest the Hero - TBA (Progressive Metal)
•  A Day to Remember - Common Courtesy (TBA 2013) (Pop Punk)
•  We Came as Romans - Tracing Back Roots (7/23) (Post-hardcore)
• Asking Alexandria - From Death to Destiny (8/6) (Metalcore)
• letlive. - The Blackest Beautiful (7/8) (Post-hardcore)
• Scale the Summit - The Migration (6/11) (Post-metal)
• Set and Setting - Equanimity (6/4) (Post-metal)
• Mouth of the Architect - Dawning (6/25) (Post-metal)
• Sleeping in Gethsemane - When the Landscape is Quiet Again (5/21) (Progressive)
• Orchid - The Mouths of Madness (5/24) (Doom Metal) 
• TesseracT - Altered State (5/27) (Progressive Metal) 
• ASG - Blood Drive (5/28) (Stoner Metal) 
• Black Sabbath - Thirteen (6/10) (Doom Metal/Blues Metal) 
• Hands Like Houses - Unimagine (7/23) (Post-hardcore) 
• Iwrestledabearonce - Late For Nothing (August) (Progressive Metalcore/Noise)

Letlive. announce new album, European Tour

 

        LA post-hardcore legends Letlive. have broken their three year silence today, officially, after teasing us since the winter with hints of a new album. As AP reports, the new record, entitled The Blackest Beautiful, will be released July 9th via Epitaph Records, during the band's stint on Warped Tour. No new material has been released, but the band is already planning a European tour this fall.

       The Blackest Beautiful will ride the universal acclaim of the band's 2010 breakout record Fake History. Catch them on tour this fall and witness a singer who spends more time in the air than Greg Puciato.

Thoughts on the new August Burns Red

              Hey readers!     
              Sorry that Idiot in Remission fell quiet again. After a mixture of finals, the flu (in May, no less), pink-eye, and one hell of a job hunt, I am now back in Massachusetts for the summer. For this reason, I haven't been able to update the blog as often as I'd like. But now that I'm back, and unemployed (for the time being), I'm going to try and stick to a schedule. I'll be debuting a new blog feature tomorrow, I think it'll be a lot of fun.
              Read this blog enough and you'll learn two things about me:

• I don't like Of Mice & Men or Sleeping with Sirens.
• I am what many would call an August  Burns  Red fanboy. 

               The latter is a phase I've fallen out of recently - I've been on an Opeth/Baroness kick for a few weeks now - but one I find myself invariably returning to. Have an off day? Spin Constellations and by 'Meddler' I'm singing along. I'm not ashamed to say the primary reason I want to go to Warped and Heavy MTL this summer is ABR, and upon hearing that they had a new album due out in June I promptly crapped myself (not really).
               The new album is entitled Rescue and Restore, and the band recently revealed the album artwork and a new song ('Fault Line'). The result was a crashed server as thousands of fans converged on Solid State Record's website to hear the news. To say ABR doesn't have a devoted following (the band rivals pop punk giants A Day to Remember in terms of sheer size and notoriety) is a flat out lie.
               I got into August Burns Red in middle school, with the release of their sophomore explosion Messengers. The low rumble of Jake Luhrs is the reason I can now tolerate unclean vocals, and the stacatto, punishing breakdowns are what put me on the path to discovering metalcore in all its shades and hues. The band has continuously evolved with each release - moving away from typical metalcore accoutrements and blazing their own path emblazoned with post-rock and math metal influences. Guitarist JB Brubaker is credited with saying 'metalcore is no longer an interesting genre' a few months ago, slamming the swoopy-haired, breakdown-centric wave of tween music that has oversaturated the genre.
              In 2011, ABR put out their new album Leveler - itself an evolution of 2009's Constellations. The melodic soundscapes and heart-throbbing pace of 'Existence' found themselves improved upon as the band drew upon influences like Explosions in the Sky - resulting in an utterly unique sound that other bands have attempted to duplicate.

             'Internal Cannon', the second song on Leveler, presented fans with a dilemma as they came down from the anthemic, triumphant sound of 'Empire'. ABR mainstays are present - a brutal breakdown blisters through not even thirty seconds in, but around the 1:00 mark we find our first stutter - a salsa break. Never to be deterred, the band not only has a sustained flamenco solo later in the song, but molds the rhythm and sound of the acoustic guitar into the melody of the song. This innovation, heightened by the blistering emotion with which Luhrs conveys his message and the precise, percussive wall-of-sound out of drummer Matt Greiner, makes the entire song a thrill ride. There are no choruses, no bridges, no signs of traditional song structure.

            On Constellations, 'Marianas Trench' opens with a mournful, clean guitar passage, devoid of backing by both drums, bass, and vocals. Slowly but surely, the song builds tension as first a second guitar kicks in, then drums, then the bass, and finally vocals as the song begins its mammoth attack. The band does the same with the eerie introduction of 'White Washed' on the same album.
            Perhaps the band's most striking ability is, thus, the presence their sound has. The instruments meld together into a sonic mass that assaults the listener, forming an intangible cocoon as we are helplessly dragged along through a myriad of different guitar passages, desperately trying to count the beats as Greiner destroys his drumset. ABR are undeniably as metalcore as bands come, but its this ability to give their sound a presence that puts them ahead of most other bands in the genre - by contrast, bands like Memphis May Fire or Motionless in White feel confined, as though their sound is straining against invisible walls that ABR long ago broke down.
             So, then, now that we've established that I'm an absolute ABR fanboy, what about the new song? 'Fault Line' came out about a week and a half ago and, as I said before, crashed Solid State's website as fans flooded the servers. And, to be honest...it's going to need to grow on me.

           I myself was confused about how I felt about the song - on the surface, it bears all the standard ABR fixtures - melodic guitar, gnarly hooks, a rhythm you'll find yourself bobbing your head to despite the math influences the band so loves - and yet it seems to fall a little flat. Yes, there is a clean break I, admittedly, wasn't expecting, but it invariably acts as simply a way to hype up a breakdown. The band found clever ways to 'hide' breakdowns in Leveler - or simply completely eschewed them, opting for a guitar solo or something else to redirect your ear from the chug (on title song 'Leveler' Luhrs growls 'Leveler, make level the road for the righteous!' in what is probably the most badass mosh call I've ever heard).
          And yet, something about 'Fault Line' sounds almost too familiar. The song itself wouldn't be too out of place on an earlier ABR album, but the post-rock influences aren't as tangible and atmospheric as they were on previous releases. On the other hand, Jake Luhrs' vocals have improved in quality astronomically - he rivals Phil Bozeman in terms of how easy it is to understand his uncleans. But the lyrics to 'Fault Line' are, in a word, quite religious. 'Without you, I'm worthless, yes!', 'proclaim your love'!
           ABR have made no secret of the fact that they're quite observant Christians, but in the past they've usually indulged that side only a few times per album, and only for a single line. 'Fault Line' basically talks about turning to God as an escape from pain, which is a noble concept indeed, but the lyrics are quite a bit more preachy than what I'm used to from the band.
           That being said, the band has certainly not lost its ability to create a presence with sound. 'Fault Line' fills the room with its melody, rhythm, and the masterful layering we're used to at this point. It's a massive song, but in my opinion a step down from Leveler or Constellations-era fare. Is it comparable to their earlier material? Yes, and no. On the one hand, the guitar passages are far too complex and noodly for 'Fault Line' to be on Messengers or Thrill Seeker, but on the other hand, if you killed the atmospheric effects, it would sound a bit like 'The Balance'.
           To recapitulate, I'm not the biggest fan of 'Fault Line' so far. What Rescue and Restore does in its remaining ten or so songs is exciting to say the least, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the release.
            Rescue and  Restore comes out June 26th on Solid State Records.