Gorguts - Colored Sands is Here!

Gorguts has returned!!!!! After a 12 year absence, the Canadian tech-death maestros have returned to pummel our faces and confound our sense of what death metal is. Luc Lemay has written another masterful batch of head spinning death metal that hundreds of tech-death-core 22 year olds could only wet dream about. His songs have a way of combining technical virtuosity of not just guitar work but every instrument in the band with astounding song writing. Too often bands simply try to write the most complex riff or drum pattern that basement dwelling music elitists try to spend hours emulating while forgetting there is this little thing called a song that the majority of people actually like to listen to. The songs tend to travel from mind bending guitar work to ultra-brutal death metal that is enough to start a pit in the middle of Sunday’s farmers market. Take “Forgotten Arrows” for instance, the song moves from frenetic riffs with hyper speed drums underneath to moody, slowly lumbering pacing that quickly moves back to the brutalness. The album takes the listener on a journey, expands their minds with the technical expertise, yet allows the non-music playing folk out there (cough-me-cough) to truly enjoy the songs themselves. Colored Sands is a fantastic comeback album that will truly stir up mixed emotions from across the underground. But the bottom line is this is damn fine death metal.

Stream the album here or go to http://www.revolvermag.com/news/exclusive-gorguts-premiere-new-album-colored-sands.html to check out this amazing mélange of metal madness!

What Have We Been Up To? (Concert Pic Edition)

Its been a long time since we've last chatted. Many different excuses can be made for the absence but fear not, we have returned! And I have one question for you all, would you like to see what we have been up to in picture form? I'm assuming you all screamed a resounding "Yes! Yes! Oh Lord Yes!" Well your wish is my command! Here you go, I present  to you some of the best photo captions that we here at NW MetalHead Productions have to offer from this Summer's concert season!

                                                                             Absu

YouTube Wandering - Thrash Edition

One of my favorite past times these days is to look up one particular song that I like on the Youtubes and from there click on songs from bands that I have never heard of. This is a great way to discover solid new bands as well as find some crap that you will gladly avoid in the future. Let me take you on one such journey beginning with the technical stylings of Voivod and their classic track “Killing Technology”

May's Metal Playlist

Spring time is here and the sun is finally coming out in the great Pacific Northwest! It is a time for rejuvenation, life renewal, and, more importantly, more METAL!!! I have served up your way some tasty tunes to cure whatever ails you. We have some death, some thrash, some prog/folk, and so much more. So sit back, relax, and bang your fvckin head off!


Orphaned Land - Our Own Messiah

Jeff Hanneman: Riff In Peace

It is not often that I continue to listen to bands that initially started me on this long winding road to metalness that has consumed my life. I started my path similar to other folks around my age and listened to the more mainstream stuff (Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, etc.) before my brain was fully covered in the filth that is underground death, thrash, and black metal. Throughout my years I have listened to countless bands and witnessed more shows than I can even remember (thank you alcohol!). As a result of these adventures my tastes in music have grown and changed many times over giving me so many different experiences that I am forever grateful for. There are, however, a few bands that started me on this journey and continue to guide me along, one of those is the almighty beast Slayer. These legends have been a shining light for metal since 1981 and have been in the spotlight since Show No Mercy shredded the collective assholes of listeners everywhere. And the reason I bring up this band that undoubtedly just about every person is aware of, metalhead or not, is because another legend of music has passed on, guitar great Jeff Hanneman. This mythical guitar hero succumbed to liver failure and the world of music will never be the same because of it. Hanneman was the writer of some of the greatest riffs and songs that the metal world has ever known and it is truly sad news that we will no longer hear any new music from this genius. The man helped put the thrash genre in the world’s collective ears and continued its legacy for new generations year after year. So today we pay tribute to a great musician, and from what I read, away from the stage a truly great man.

Kill With Hate cover Shiny Happy People

I was in the need to hear some ridiculously br00tal music lately because I have been listening too much to the fuzzed out stonery sounds of Orange Goblin, Clutch, and many others. I have nothing against those bands, I absolutely love those bands and their groovy sounds however every metalhead needs some time to sit back and get blasted by some blast beats and guttural growls the likes of which the conservative right wing has never even imagined. Enter Hungarian band Kill With Hate. Judging a book by its cover, which is a terrible thing to do, I figured that this band would satiate by blood lust in a furious form. And to a certain extent they did!

Black Sabbath Returns!!!!!!!

The news of Black Sabbath returning to the scene with the original band mates (sadly without drummer Bill Ward) sent shock waves through the music world when it was first announced. And now, we have the first song! A true doom song, slow paced and heavy, it is only a taste of what is to come.



In addition to this great news, the announcement of a tour has come about with only a select number of dates

Nails - Abandon All Life

When one thinks of brutal music, death metal is probably the first subgenre that would pop into your tar sludged minds. However, at first listen to the latest long player (and I use that term lightly because the entirety of the 10 songs only takes up 17 minutes) by grindy heathens Nails, Abandon All Life is exactly the definition of brutal. This album is savagely violent, harsh, and unrelenting (synonyms stolen from various internet dictionaries). The songs move from the frenetic pace of a cat hopped up on coke being chase by a vacuum cleaner to the mid paced headbangers that will surely cause you to buy stock in Advil the next day. The “slow” movement of "Wide Open Wound” is the soundtrack to you leaving a hooker’s hotel room at 3 in the morning and you can hear footsteps walking behind you. Its just terrifying enough to make you sweat and slowly pick up your pace. However “Cry Wolf” is that intense moment when the crazed meth head that has been slowly following you starts to run with a fecal encrusted screwdriver gripped tightly in his hand. These guys have the ability to expertly combine grind, crust, hardcore, and death metal into something that will completely drain you of all essential fluids. The LP is so damn heavy and hits from all fronts that you would think that the singer’s fist are punching you through the speakers.  It is no wonder that these gents were able to pen such hatred when all you have to do is turn on the TV to understand. However, not just anyone could encapsulate that hatred into something so morbidly beautiful. This is grind done right.

April's Metal Playlist

You know what this world needs more of? It needs more nameless people on the interwebz giving people music advice! And since that is the case, we here at NW MetalHead Productions are going to be posting the latest and greatest of what we have been spinning on our record players. It might be new music, it might be old, it might be a band we discovered or it might be someone very popular. Regardless of all that, it will be guaranteed to be awesome. So check out April's playlist and tell us what you are spinning right now!

Pure Molten Metal: What Makes A Band Metal?

After reading a short article on Metal Undeground about metal and image, then debating people in the comment section, I decided to make my opinions fully known here on my own personal soap box. The author brought up 2 up and coming bands that are flown under the metal flag, Ghost and Ancient VVisdom, whom are not the typical metal band that would fit a bill with Sodom or Autopsy. They have the look, they have the lyrical inspiration, but do they have the sonic capabilities to be considered "metal"? In that line of thinking, what does it actually mean to be metal? Is it being fast and furious? Is it soaring vocals? Is it twin guitar harmonies that shred the living daylights out of mere mortals? Is it corpse paint that brings to mind the living dead? The answer............who the hell knows!?!?!

 

Ancient VVisdom – “The Opposition”