letlive. premier new track - 'Banshee (Ghost Fame)'

         After announcing last week that their third album The Blackest Beautiful was slated for a July release, letlive. have graced us with their first new single - 'Banshee (Ghost Fame)'. To say this track showcases an utterly unexpected turn of events is an understatement. Compared to Fake History's introductory tack 'The Sick, Sick 6.8 Billion', an energetic, unclean ballad featuring the band's signature agnostic lyrics, 'Banshee' takes a notably more nu-metal influence.
         Whether it's frontman Jason Butler's rap-screaming - an at-first arresting new development, or the harsher cleans, which sound nothing like the clean breaks on the band's previous work. This is a dirty, punishing song that instantly conjures up memories of Static-X and early Linkin Park - at times Butler's vocals sound startlingly similar to Chester Bennington's - but retains letlive's signature staccato attack.
           Lyrically, this is typical punk 'screw the establishment' fare, featuring a winceworthy 'where's your faith at?' one-liner. This song definitely requires a few listens, but it is promising. The band will be playing Warped this summer, and you can stream the video below!

 

August Burns Red release new song - 'Spirit Breaker'

      

          With the release of ABR's fifth album Rescue and Restore only four weeks away, the band has seen fit to bless us with some new material from the album. May's debut of 'Fault Line' polarized fans, and I found myself doubting the band's new direction for the first few listens. Eventually, however, I found myself missing the rhythm and the chorus, and while it's still radically different from ABR's previous work, that doesn't mean it's not going to be fun.
       So, how about the new song? Entitled 'Spirit Breaker', the song tackles a common ABR theme - hope in the pits of despair. Think 'Composure' with more melody. 'Spirit Breaker' does a stellar job of conveying a sense of listlessness and anguish with a combination of mournful orchestral elements and the signature plaintive call of J.B Brubaker's guitar.
        The song opens quietly, with a cello, violin and clean guitar riff, before exploding into an emotional, melodic metalcore ballad punctuated by rapid drumwork and a vast soundscape. There's even a spoken word break in the middle, and clean passages abound. Through a mix of sadness and triumph, 'Spirit Breaker' 's mystifyingly beautiful instrumentals hold the listener enthralled through all four minutes. Stream it below:

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.