…by Ryan Bird and James Sherry
Welcome back to the pit everybody, but most of all welcome to our brand spanking new site. It’s been a long time coming, but we’ve finally produced something that we’re sure you’ll all enjoy, as well as something we personally feel was worth the time, effort, and best of all partying!
So without further adieu, let’s get back to business with a brief round-up of the biggest and baddest hard rock and metal releases around!
Less than 18 months after the release of the critically acclaimed ‘Gone Forever’, New Jersey five-piece God Forbid return with the intriguing ‘IV: Constitution of Treason’. A series of songs that link together to form the story of a world savaged by war and left in ruins, it’s a chilling yet satisfying slab of modern day metal that looks set to cement the bands’ reputation as one of the genre’s leading lights.
Keeping in with the concept theme is alt-rockers Coheed & Cambria and new release ‘Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV: Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness’. The newest instalment of their Star Wars-esque series provides scrumptious pop-hooks and mind-boggling technicality in equal measures, and is almost certainly their biggest and best effort to date.
Out of the States and into the continent; Danish groove-metal upstarts Hatesphere produce another slab of foot-stomping goodness with the pummelling ‘The Sickness Within’. Armed with more meaty goodness than your local kebab shop, the next step in the Scandinavian quintet’s path to glory provides a stern reminder to groove fans the world over that there is indeed life after Pantera.
Not to be outdone, valley boys Bullet For My Valentine stake their own claim to be one of metal’s future leaders with highly anticipated full-length ‘The Poison’. Bursting with devastating riffs, thundering drums and a host of British reared influences, there can be little doubt that in 12 months time this band will be bigger than your nan’s ass; and twice as enticing.
Of course – when it comes to metal – nobody does it quite like those from the 80’s; a fact backed up furthery bay area thrashers Exodus and NYC crew Anthrax with their respective masterpieces ‘Shovel Headed Kill Machine’ and ‘Alive 2’. While the former is an hour long lesson in thrash metal madness, the latter presents a fist-frenzying look back on the legendary group’s first live performances since the reformation of the classic ‘Among The Living’ line-up earlier this year.
Finally, we come to the granddaddy of them all – Roadrunner United’s ‘The All Star Sessions. Scheduled to co-incide with the 25th anniversary of a label that is undeniably a pillar in the modern day metal community, ‘The All Star Sessions‘ is what can only be described as a metal master class. Featuring 55 artists from 45 Roadrunner bands both past and present, it’s an album with all the undeniable attributes of a genre classic. So there we have it. Another month, another round-up; even another site. I can only hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this column as much as I enjoyed getting drunk at the Crossfire boat party. Oh, who am I kidding, that’s not even possible!
Peace – Ryan
P.S. Congratulations to my good friends David Randall Blythe and Cynthia Cole on their recent marriage, which took place in Wilmington, North Carolina on September 10th. I love you guys. May you have many happy years ahead of you – and may we spend even more glorious afternoons punting our troubles away on the Thames!
James Sherry joins The Pit now with his bi-weekly punk drop.
Where better to start The Pit this month than with a bunch of insane lubed-up spazzy homo-core lunatics called Gay For Johnny Depp. This New York quartet follow their 2004 debut EP on Firefly Records with ‘Blood: The Natural Lubricant (An Apocalyptic Adventure Beyond Sodom and Gomorrah)’, a big throbbing, blue-veined cock of a record to ram down the gagging throat of banality.
It’s 14 minutes of absolute aural mayhem – each minute an inch of meat in your ass! Created for your pleasure by members of post-hardcore mavericks Garrison, Instruction and Errortype: 11, this release also features appearances from members of Hundred Reasons, Copperpot Journals and Hopewell. It’s like one big gay porno post-hardcore orgy and also happens to be one of the most exciting hardcore records I’ve heard this year, combining the sheer hardcore chaos of Das Oath with the tech-metal of the Dillinger Escape Plan and the punk ferocity of Bad Brains. This will give you a stiffy whether you fancy other men or not. Out now on Captains Of Industry Records. Crack open the lube at www.gayforjohnnydepp.com
While you’re all probably sick to death of hearing old people moaning about how punk rock just isn’t punk rock anymore, for the most part, it’s horribly true. So much of the rage, creativity and anger has been glossed over to help shift units that the rebellion has all but gone. L.A. scenesters Wives, however, are so fucking punk rock it hurts. Originally inspired by the ferocious spurt of creativity that was the early eighties D.C. hardcore scene (Minor Threat, SOA, Government Issue, Void), they have successfully harnessed that vital youthful energy and brought it bang up to date with beweildering jabs of Lightning Bolt and The Locust style abrupt noise shocks. ‘Erect The Youth Problem’ is out now on Sweet Nothing Records. More info at www.cargorecords.co.uk
It’s a good time to be a spliffhead. There’s some killer space rock shit blowing minds the world over at the moment; both Dead Meadow and Black Mountain provided incredible albums this year that stretch the limitations of rock and boldly went where no-one had dared been since the prog-rock seventies. And now here comes Earthless. ‘Sonic Prayer‘ is over forty minutes long and consists of only two songs. These demented spacelord motherfuckers take a riff and blast it into submission, creating a hypnotic swirling void of prog-metal-headfuck noise that drags you into it’s space and sucks you into it’s freak flag waving world. God damn this shit sounds good on drugs. God damn this shit sounds just as good not on drugs. Grade A, class A primo psychedelic noise rock drone. You need this shit in your life. Go to www.gravityrec.com
South Carolina melodic hardcore quintet Stretch Arm Strong have a new album titled ‘Free At Last’ on WPO Records this month. What you get is twelve tracks of crunchy hardcore with a melodic rock suss played by guys who cut their teeth on classic bands like Minor Threat and Gorilla Biscuits but Stretch Arm Strong have brought the sound squarely up to date with massive melodic hooks and a production that is both heavy, yet utterly commercial. Check it out. These guys could be huge. Go to www.stretcharmstrong.net. Yeah, we know all the hip cats already love Lightning Bolt, but their genius manic live shows aside, their recordings so far have failed to really capture the intensity and chaos of them onstage. That is all about to change with the release of their new album ‘Hypermagic Mountain’ on Load Records. 12 tracks of extreme noise terror that sees the duo create a sound with just bass, drums and vocals that truly defies all logic and reason and slams home their noise in a far more song based form that you might actually expect. www.loadrecords.com
What’s this, another duo? Early Man are two metalheads from Columbus that grew up on a diet of classic metal and thrash and have just unleashed their album ‘Closing In’ on Matador Records. Like Lightning Bolt, you wonder how the hell they make the noise they do, but then you also wonder where the rest of the band is, or are these guys such outcasts that they don’t actually have enough friends to form a complete band? Like, surely everyone can find a bassplayer – it’s only got four strings for fuck’s sake, any idiot can play that. Still, that aside, the metallic noise they make is is great. Proper metal, for real men who play on ten. Push it up to 11 at www.earlymanarmy.com
Time to wind up The Pit with some killer new punk rock shit. I’ve never been too impressed by Swedish melodic punks Randy but their new album is just great. Titled ‘Randy The Band’ and out on Burning Heart Records, it’s high-energy old-school punk rock with great hooks, awesome lyrics and a sound that falls somewhere between the contemporary punk rock sound of The Hives and The Damned. Tracks like ‘Punk Rock High’ and, in particular, ‘The World Is Getting Bored’ are infectious beyond belief. ‘The Kids these days are fed up with the music industry, they don’t care about the product, so they download their music on MP3. This is what you get when you get greedy for too long, the kids don’t want the plastic box no more they just want the songs’, they sing on the album’s final track. Great stuff. Download it now at www.burningheart.com
OK, that is all, we will see you soon.
James Sherry