Earthling: Debut LP Streaming Now

A furious and infectious maelstrom of doom-infused thrash mastery, Dark Path -- the blazing debut LP from Harrisonburg, Virginia-based EARTHLING -- is out now on Forcefield Records.

Through an organic, blackened, thrashing hybrid of metal drawing influences from across the spectrum of extreme music, EARTHLING has finally captured their corrosive sound on record. A diverse, premier debut offering, Dark Path is a coarse display of the band's terrorizing spirit; a ravenous force that has guided the group through countless shows, relentless demo recordings, and over five years of sheer sacrifice. Recorded by Garret Morris (Windhand, Cough, Parasytic, Bastard Sapling) and mastered by Mikey Allred (Inter Arma, Hellbender, Across Tundras), one can rest assured that this album is well versed in sonic mayhem.

As Dark Path is now available on CD, LP and via digital delivery, Terrorizer Magazine is hosting a stream of the album. Have your face removed RIGHT HERE.

Following their recent Northeastern U.S. tour supporting Virginia brethren Inter Arma, EARTHLING is prepared to forge west this week. With shows booked in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee and their home state of Virginia between this week and the end of the month EARTHLING will share stages with a plethora of rad acts including Zuul, Oblong Box, Across Tundras, Inter Arma, Cobalt and Lord Mantis. Additional tour dates are being devised which will take the band out on the road frequently through the remainder of 2013. Order Dark Path direct via Forcefield HERE.

EARTHLING May Tour Dates:
5/15/2013 Al's Sidecar - Lexington, KY
5/16/2013 Casa Demise - Dayton, OH
5/17/2013 Livewire - Chicago, IL w/ Oblong Box
5/18/2013 Cusumano's - Saint Louis, IL w/ Oblong Box
5/19/2013 Lost Cross - Carbondale, IL w/ Zuul
5/20/2013 Owl Farm - Nashville, TN w/ Across Tundras
5/28/2013 Blue Nile - Harrisonburg, VA w/ Cobalt, Lord Mantis, Inter Arma

"Earthling shifts between various speeds of thrash... Those changes in direction and speed allow Earthling to push each part of the song decisively into the red, so that, just when the whole thing starts to wobble, they transition and regain their footing. The instability breeds the same sort of excitement as a mosh pit, where the risk of wiping out only increases the thrill of serving as a standing pinball." - Pitchfork

“...a ripping blend of crust and proto-black metal riffs that boil from a vast melting pot of extremity; their truly diverse extreme sound also brings with it the incessant need to thrash.” - Terrorizer

"...Earthling’s first full length album gallops at break-neck speed through a crusty, blackened, desolate musical landscape. 4/5" - About.com

"Earthling is quite original. They basically play thrash metal but their take on it is completely different compared to the sound of most thrash metal bands you hear these days. The sound is heavier and contains numerous black and heavy metal influences." - Lords of Metal

"...like bong ripping yourself into a black hole where the other side is the embodiment of Mob Rules era Sabbath with the addition of some major Mega Man shred duals." - Mxdwn

"...a potent blend of Southern riffs and black metal atmospheres, casting off much of that genre’s pretentious silliness in favor of an earthier pummel." - The Aquarian Weekly

"The urgent speed that the band goes at for the most part easily reminds one of the early days of Teutonic thrash, and bands such as Kreator and Destruction quickly come to mind with the extremity that is present on the record." - Heavy Metal Tribune

https://www.facebook.com/earthling.virginia

http://www.forcefieldrecords.org

https://www.facebook.com/ForcefieldRecords

Lycus: 20 Buck Spin To Release Funeral Doom Outfit's Debut LP

20 Buck Spin verified the pending release of the debut album from Bay Area doom crew, LYCUS on July 9th 2013.

Having existed since 2008 in some form or another, LYCUS relocated to Oakland from Sacramento and recorded/released their Demo MMXI two years ago. The brooding, quality material of the demo not only saw eventual cassette release by Graceless Recordings (run by Mike Meacham of LOSS) and a vinyl release on San Francisco-based Flenser Records, but it immediately caught the attention of Olympia-based 20 Buck Spin -- the label having originated in the East Bay Area and continually having a soft spot for bands of the region -- who brought them onto the label’s roster for the release of their debut album.

Late in 2012, LYCUS entered hometown Earhammer Studios with Greg Wilkinson (Brainoil, Asunder, Pallbearer, Vastum, Samothrace, High On Fire), who captured and mixed the band’s immense Tempest LP. An incredibly mature, diverse and utterly monumental album, the three massive hymns on Tempest range between nine-and-a-half minutes to over twenty. The canvas of this masterwork is classic funeral doom in the territory of Mournful Congregation, Asunder and My Dying Bride, yet the template is varied as LYCUS' palette includes shades of hysteric black metal, old-school death doom pummeling, and even a bit of pull from noise/drone realms.

Featuring an incredible oil painting by the Italian madman Paolo Girardi as cover art and a regal layout by Kevin Gan Yuen of Sutekh Hexen (who also contributes musically to the album’s closing moments), Tempest is the most promising debut of 2013 in the doom genre, and establishes LYCUS, from the beginning, as a band to watch in the months and years ahead. The album will see CD/LP and digital release on July 9th.

LYCUS is planning U.S. Summer tour dates which will continue sporadically throughout the rest of 2013, with several hometown gigs confirmed for this month.

LYCUS Live:

5/03/2013 First Church of The Buzzard - West Oakland, CA w/ Druden, Chronaexus, Gloam, Caffa

5/25/2013 Oakland Metro - Oakland, CA w/ Badr Vogu, Usnea, Black Fucking Cancer, Augers

Tempest Track Listing:

1. Coma Burn

2. Engravings

3. Tempest

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lycus/156095311142662

http://lycus.bandcamp.com

http://www.20buckspin.com

http://www.facebook.com/20buckspin

http://twitter.com/20buckspinlabel

Demon Lung: Exclusive Song Premiere

Cvlt Nation has premiered “Eyes of Zamiel,” the first new song from Las Vegas-based doomsters DEMON LUNG. The track is taken from the band’s forthcoming full-length debut, titled The Hundredth Name. Recorded with Adam Myatt and Billy Anderson (Neurosis, The Melvins, Sleep) with artwork by English illustrator Tom Bates (Vision of Disorder, Amorphis), the conceptual album will be released via Candlelight Records on June 4th.

Click HERE to listen to “Eyes of Zamiel.”

Discussing the song, drummer Jeremy Brenton reveals, “‘Eyes of Zamiel’ is the third song in the album’s storyline and sets up the plot lyrically. As a song, it represents a little of everything that we did on the album with groove in the verses, slower epic parts, and vocal harmonies.” “Eyes of Zamiel” has inspired a limited t-shirt which features an illustration from Juha Voorma (Edge of Sanity, Autopsy, In the Woods).  The shirt is available now via the band’s official webstore.

Formed in 2011, DEMON LUNG self-released the Pareidolia EP (Bandcamp exclusive) in early 2012.  “Earthy-yet-horror-themed doom metal,” said Metal Hammer of the release. “One of the best new bands out there,” proclaimed PureGrainAudio. Signing with Candlelight last autumn, the band entered Oakland-based Sharkbite Studios in December. Emerging a few weeks later, the album was turned over to Anderson to work his regarded magic. Songstress Shanda Fredrick comments, “Working with Billy was a dream come true for us. He is a fifth member of the band, a mentor, and all-around awesome friend.  He helped us craft something that we are very proud of.”

DEMON LUNG continues to perform live, building up momentum as the days draw closer to album release. Confirmed upcoming performances are included below. Comments Fredrick, "I am looking forward to playing the new material live. We’ve had some of these songs for a while so it's great to finally play them in front of an audience. We’re also really excited to play more shows with Castle, a band that we really admire. They are all-around good people so its awesome to hit the road with them even for a few days."

DEMON LUNG Live:

5/09/2013 Cheyenne Saloon - Las Vegas, NV w/ Cauldron

5/30/2013 Hemlock Tavern - San Francisco, CA w/ Castle

5/31/2013 Whisky Dicks - S. Lake Tahoe, CA w/ Castle

6/01/2013 Doom in June Festival/Cheyenne Saloon - Las Vegas, NV

6/02/2013 Pubrock – Scottsdale, AZ w/ Castle

10/10/2013 Southwest Terror Fest – Tucson, AZ w/ Ancestors

DEMON LUNG is vocalist Shanda Fredrick, guitarist Phil Burns, bassist Patrick Warren, and drummer Jeremy Brenton.

http://www.facebook.com/demonlungband
http://www.demonlungband.com
http://www.candlelightrecordsusa.com

Doom Band Vin De Mia Trix Signs With Hypnotic Dirge

The first co-release between Hypnotic Dirge Records (Canada) and Solitude Productions (Russia) will see the light of day in September 2013 and it will be doom band Vin de Mia Trix's debut full-length album "Once Hidden in Sight" which the band has been preparing and perfecting for quite some time.

Vin de Mia Trix is a band from Kyiv, Ukraine. Its music is a blend of different doom metal subgenres, also including various elements of other styles. Lengthy mid-tempo opuses with crushing funeral riffs morphing into melancholic acoustic passages create mysterious and dark atmosphere.

Rooted between Funeral and Death/Doom Metal, initially the band’s songs leaned towards Dark Metal and mid-90’s Scandinavian scene. However, the idea of creating intelligent and touching, yet uncompromisingly heavy and dark music fueled further progress. As a result, VdMT’s sound is still evolving, incorporating bits of Black Metal, Post-Rock, Progressive Metal, Blues and some other genres.

Slowly overcoming various obstacles, the band finished their debut album in 2013. ‘Once Hidden From Sight’ summarizes first five years of Vin de Mia Trix’s existence, documenting what was said and done during the band's formative years.

The full album will of course be released for free streaming as usual for Hypnotic Dirge and Solitude Productions releases upon its release date but in the meantime, the final nine minute track from the "Once Hidden in Sight" album entitled "मातृ" (mātṛ) has been made available for streaming and free download on the links below and you can also find a recent live video of "मातृ" (mātṛ) filmed earlier in April in good quality.


Links:
Vin de Mia Trix website: www.vindemiatrixband.com
Vin de Mia Trix Profile: http://www.hypnoticdirgerecords.com/vindemiatrix.php
Vin de Mia Trix Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vindemiatrixdoom?fref=ts

Forlorn Path: Melodic Blackened Doom Ensemble Unveil New Offering

Unsung New Jersey melodic blackened doom ensemble FORLORN PATH recently unveiled their debut full-length, Man’s Last Portrait. A majestic work of morose wisdom, sonic sanctity and deviant beauty, the self-released Man’s Last Portrait was recorded by guitarist/sound engineer Ivan Chernikov mixed by Rob Torres and Frightbox Studios, and mastered by Jens Bogren and Fascination Street Studios.

“A simply fascinating blackened doom metal band who fuse black metal riffs with doom metals crushing forward motion,” notes French web portal, TwoGuysMetalReviews, in an early review of the offering, adding that, “The destructive might of this band as well as their mystical sound come together to form something that is both memorable and strangely beautiful. The melancholy magic of songs like ‘Empire of Decadence’ is hard to match. Meanwhile, the lyrics are also profound and beautiful.” Agrees MetalAsReligion.com, “The majesty of this miraculous band from New Jersey will capture your heart gently in the night. They remind us of the luxurious harmonic tranquillity of bands like Swallow the Sun, but retain an altogether more complex and subtle aura.”

Sample “Empire of Decadence” at THIS LOCATION.

Man’s Last Portrait Track Listing:

1. The Coming of Winter

2. Empire of Decadence

3. Words Only Wind Can Speak

4. Masquerade

5. A Moment of Silence

6. As Hope Fades

7. Ghosts

8. Man’s Last Portrait

9. What Lies Beyond

10. Relics

The FORLORN PATH story begins in the fall of 2008 in an inconspicuous college house in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Through a mutual desire to create beautifully brutal music, the original lineup — Yuriy Garnaev, Ray Dib, Alex Fiore, and Dave Imbriaco — culled a diverse blend of influences, including death metal, folk, jazz, noise, and black metal. Two years later, the band emerged with their first EP, Being Towards Death. Flaunting a deliberately low-fi production, the EP merged the prime tenets of death metal with dissonant melodies to create an unsettling treatise on the ignorance of man. Fan favorite, “These Walls Stand No More,” was the album’s magnum opus, nearly 10 minutes of heavy, evocative passages and a jazzy conclusion that set FORLORN PATH apart from their strictly metal contemporaries.

2012 saw the release of their second EP, Intifada, which centers itself around a journey through a man’s horrific coma dream. FORLORN PATH fine-tuned their sound to depict the crushing battle against oppression and inner strife, and began to experiment with denouements that were at once both brutal and melodic. These elements and structures hinted at their progression as a band, which would thrust them back into recording just months after their sophomore release.

By the time recording began again in Spring 2012, the band had seen a great deal of change. It now consisted of only two founding members, Garnaev and Imbriaco, who were now joined by guitarist/sound engineer Ivan Chernikov. With Imbriaco taking over lead vocals and Garnaev taking full creative control of the music, a new sound began to take shape.

Clocking in at just over an hour long, the debut full-length Man’s Last Portrait is the culmination of the band’s efforts to date. The album features material new material alongside tunes written over the course of many years, telling stories of loss, longing, and the gradual decay of an ignorant world. Some songs hearken back to the strength of the band’s earlier aggression; others feature strains of darkness and melancholy, ambient keyboards, and acoustic interludes. All told, the latest release combines the best of the old with previously uncharted waters, inviting listeners on a journey that is at once despondent and hopeful, treacherous and alluring…

http://www.forlornpath.com
https://www.facebook.com/forlornpath
http://myspace.com/forlornpath
http://www.last.fm/music/Forlorn+Path
http://forlornpath.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/forlornpath
https://twitter.com/ForlornPath
http://www.youtube.com/user/ygarnaev