NEW URUK-HAI OUT NOW
Austrian musician Alex Wieser (and boss of the label W.A.R Productions) has just released And All The Magic & Might He Brought, the new album by his ambient black metal band Uruk-Hai. Melbourne’s own Joe Matera plays guitar on four tracks, and there are many other musicians too including Tony Dolan (Venom). There’s a great medley on YouTube which gives you a taste of what to expect. Go check it out.
NEW HEAVEN THE AXE VIDEO
Heaven The Axe have just released the video for Good Things Come To Those Who Hate and it’s a kickass aggressive chunk of metal featuring guests Matt Young (King Parrot), Dan McDougall (Frankenbok) and Richie Poate. Stix from Steel Panther was talking up this awesome band pretty heavily when he was in Australia last week. I hope they land a support slot for Steel Panther and Buckcherry‘s December tour.
METAL AT THE BENDIGO
If you love your metal, you probably should stake out your own permanent spot at the bar, Lemmy-style, at The Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood. This Friday October 4 they’re featuring Malichor, Black Jesus, Mar Mortis and Terra Australis, then on Saturday October 5 it’s The Shoenberg Automaton, A Million Dead Birds Laughing, Aeon Of Horus and The Ophidian Ascension.
DREAM THEATER SCORE NEW CHART HIGH
Congratulations to Dream Theater, whose new self-titled album debuted at #15 on the Aria Charts this week, their highest ever Australian chart position, outselling Metallica’s Through The Never live soundtrack album. If you haven’t got the album yet, I highly recommend the Special Edition, which includes a 5.1 surround sound mix that really adds a whole new dimension – literally and musically – to the material.
DEAD CITY RUINS SCORE SKID ROW/UGLY KID JOE TOUR
Dead City Ruins have just landed a support slot on tour with Skid Row and Ugly Kid Joe through UK, Europe and Scandinavia and they’ll be launching a Pozible crowdfunding campaign to help get over there. In the meantime you can catch their ‘Warm Up For Europe’ farewell show this Saturday October 5 at the Espy supporting Hard-Ons.
NEW MEGADETH DVD OUT NOW
Last year Megadeth celebrated the 20th anniversary of their landmark CountdownTo Extinction album by playing it in full on select dates. And now they’ve released Countdown To Extinction: Live, which chronicles one such date with killer sound quality. It’s probably the nicest looking and sounding Megadeth live concert film to date, and it’s great to hear such rarely-played classics as Architecture Of Aggression and Psychotron performed live. Catch Megadeth at Soundwave 2014.
THE RETURN OF GWAR
Antarctic rock gods GWAR have returned to the realms of man and reclaim their vice-like grip on the throat of hard-rock humanity after spending the last year-and-a-half working on their follow-up to 2011’s critically acclaimed Bloody Pit of Horror. The new recording, Battle Maximus, is GWAR’s first full-length studio effort since the loss of their longtime guitar player, Flattus Maximus, and is out now via Metal Blade/Rocket Distribution. “This album is both a tribute to Flattus and a telling of the next chapter in the story of GWAR,” said warty front-thing Oderus Urungus. “The combo of the brand new album and show should satisfy even the most hardcore Flattus devotee with the fact that GWAR’s slay-skills are as supreme as ever, and the band stands poised to embark on our most earth-shattering world tour yet. We have mourned, we have honored, and now it’s time to fucking DEVASTATE in the name of Flattus and the supreme entity that is GWAR.”
KILL TV HEADLINER
Kill TV play their first headline show at IDGAFF on Saturday 5th October at 11pm with support from Liquor Snatch, The Pension and Only Aliens. $5 entry. It’s an eclectic night of music with something for everyone so do yourselves a favour and head on down.
YOUNG LIONS RELEASE DEBUT
Brisbane five-piece Young Lions release their debut album Burn this Thursday, October 3. The band played their very first show in January and went on to record the album that same month. Produced by Sonny Truelove at STL Studios on NSW’s Central Coast, Burn is ten tracks of blistering rock including singles Grave Digger and The Runner and The Fighter. The band features members of now defunct Brisbane bands The Dream The Chase and Amberain. Newest addition Matt Gibson on drums joins guitarists Kyle Morris and Dan Lechmere, bassist Morgan Castle and vocalist Zachary Britt (who is also in Dream On Dreamer).
KUNVUK HIT THE ROAD
Australian metallers Kunvuk have announced a 17 date national tour in support of their second LP, Consume Rapture. The tour will take in regional and city locations throughout New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and the ACT. The only Victoria date is at Rock Dungeon on December 6. The band will be donating 50% of all profits from the tour to the Save The Tassie Devil Foundation, which works to help the endangered Tasmanian Devils through breeding programs and research into Devil Facial Tumour Disease.
NEW PERIPHERY PICKUPS
Here’s one for my fellow guitar nerds: DiMarzio is releasing a new signature pickup set for Periphery guitarist Jake Bowen, and they’ve just posted a killer video to YouTube of Jake jamming with his uncle, Dream Theater‘s John Petrucci. This comes just days after Periphery founder Misha Mansoor announced his own signature Juggernaut pickup set with Bare Knuckle Pickups. Hopefully the third prong of Periphery’s guitar trident, Mark Holcomb, isn’t far behind!
