Windhand announce European tour

Richmond Va. doomsters Windhand have announced details of a European tour. I'm definitely going to check these guys out live, their split with Cough earlier this year was one of my favourite recent releases. You can check out both sides of the split on Bandcamp here: http://windhandva.bandcamp.com/album/cough-windhand-reflection-of-the-negative

Here are the dates -

01/11 - Klinker, Aarschot (Belgium) w/Weedeater
02/11 - Mudfest, Venlo (Netherlands)
05/11 - Star and Garter, Manchester (UK)
06/11 - Our Black Heart, London (UK)
08/11 - Rocksound, Barcelona (Spain)
09/11 - Rock and Pop, Madrid (Spain)
15/11 - Sentinel Rockbar, Bilbao (Spain)
16/11 - Truckstop Alaska, Gothenberg (Sweden)
17/11 - KB18, Copenhagen (Denmark)
18/11 - Rote Flora, Hamburg (Germany)
19/11 - Cassiopeia, Berlin (Germany)
20/11 - Zoro, Leipzig (Germany)
21/11 - Arena, Vienna (Austria)
22/11 - Donaustubel, Gunzburg (Germany)
23 -11 - MTC, Cologne (Germany)
24 -11 - OCCII, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

You can also get a taster of their new album 'Soma' which is due out on Sept. 17 here:

http://windhandva.bandcamp.com/releases

CLASSHOLE - DEMOS

DEMO REVIEW

Classhole are a New Orleans based hardcore band that do real, old school dirty hardcore. This has more in common with Black Flag, Poison Idea and Negative Approach than it does with modern metallic sounding crunchy hardcore. Nihilistic, full of anger and fast and dirty sounding, this reminds me of everything I loved about hardcore in the first place. There are a few live clips of them on Youtube which are well worth checking out, their gig at Creepyfest in New Orleans is definitely worth a watch, bodies go flying and trash cans get thrown about, looks like everyone is having a wild old time. These guys are a great live band, very powerful. The demo is cassette only and can be ordered from the band themselves by dropping them an email. Details are on their Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Classhole/256472867750283

Or on their Bandcamp where you can also listen to a few tracks for yourself:

http://classhole.bandcamp.com/album/demos

The song titles will give you an idea of what to expect, songs such as Frustrated, Full Of Hate, Right Between The Eyes, Worlds Gone Weak. This has a dirty, sludgy vibe as you might expect from a NOLA band so if you are a fan of bands like Eyehategod or Noothgrush this is worth checking out too but make no mistake this is straight up hardcore. I cant wait to hear a full length from this band, this is real hardcore for the people on the fringe of society and I'm personally glad to see a band doing it right. Check these guys out if you like raw and angry hardcore that makes you want to punch your boss and say fuck you to the world.

BL'AST - BLOOD 

ALBUM TRAILER

The brilliant hardcore band Bl'ast are releasing this unearthed and remastered album which is available now on pre-order from Southern Lord records. I can't wait for this its going to be awesome. There's a little taster on Bandcamp here: http://blastsl.bandcamp.com/music

'Mixed by Dave Grohl 2013 -
A miraculous discovery...
Earlier this year BL’AST! guitarist, Mike Neider contacted Southern Lord with news that he had found some mysterious old BL’AST! master tapes in a abandoned storage locker. Southern Lord, fanatical about BL’AST!, wasted no time in sending the tapes to a studio to be baked. Needless to say, after 25 years gathering dust, the quality had deteriorated. Even when the tapes had been baked, nobody could have anticipated what would follow. With the tapes baked and audio digitised, Southern Lord contacted long time BL’AST! fiend, Dave Grohl about mixing this recording, his response was an enthusiastic
“FUCK YEAH!, LETS DO THIS”!
Whilst inside Grohl’s famous 606 Studios a remarkable discovery was made -
a completely unheard, unreleased BL’AST! recording session from the mid-80s.
The lineup of the band at the time of the recording included second guitarist William Duvall
(from Neon Christ & now the vocalist for Alice In Chains). Unfortunately his tenure with BL’AST! was short-lived and no recordings from that lineup were ever released.
All things considered, it is miraculous that this record survived it’s journey and that everyone who was involved in bringing this recording to life, could be.
Everything fell into place, when it could have easily crumbled along the way.
This record is a time capsule that is meant to be heard!

releases 03 September 2013'

Southern Lord Recordings link:

http://www.southernlord.com/

Eyehategod

Sheffield Corporation Aug 2nd 2013

Its a rainy Friday night and by the time I have made my way to The Corporation its almost 9pm, the trains were massively delayed and full to overflowing which made for an uncomfortable journey that takes far longer than it should. Coincidentally someone tells me a few days later the delays were due to somebody having committed suicide by throwing themselves on the track. Anyway, I have missed the missed the support bands which were Iron Swan, a sludgy band from Nottingham who follow the Eyehategod template pretty closely and Iron Witch from Liverpool. Iron Witch are basically pretty much an Eyehategod tribute act, even copying the bands artwork and merchandise. They even have a reworked Black Flag logo with C4 packages instead of Xanax like the Eyehategod tee. Having missed their slot I can't say whether they are any good live but I did wonder what the Eyehategod guys made of it all. So anyhow, I'm waiting by the front of the stage, a sense of anticipation hangs in the air as people know they are soon about to see something special. One by one the various members come out and start setting up which heightens the sense of anticipation further. Eventually Mike IX walks on to the stage wearing his New Orleans Saints top and the crowd knows its about to kick off. The feedback that starts every Eyehategod show suddenly kicks in and Mike says the words "We're Eyehategod" and its off. The audience sway with the band members to the feedback just waiting for the storm to arrive, a bit longer, a bit longer, swaying in rhythm to the squalls of feedback and then BAM! the tsunami of sound engulfs the venue. The riffs come raining down like sledgehammers from the sky, the first song is New Orleans Is The New Vietnam which was the last release by these guys and does a good job of getting the proceedings off to a cracking start. The band rip through one riff laden groove fest after another, doing most of the songs which people have to come to love and expect: $30 bag, Sister Fucker, White Nigger and a few new ones which sound great and go down well such as Medicine Noose.

The band are heavy, heavy like a hundred AC/DCs but they have a groove too, I don't see many people dancing, I guess they didn't come here for that but you could dance to these grooves if you wanted to. Eyehategod are obviously influenced by punk, hardcore and metal but theres a swing and soulfulness to their music which no doubt comes in part from living in the cultural melting pot of New Orleans. You can hear a strong blues and classic southern rock influence in their music which in my opinion is what elevates them above the many bands that have tried to imitate them. This is a definite gumbo of a music form and all the better for it. Things are pretty sedate by the front left of the stage near me, people nodding their heads to the tour de force of riffs but not far to my right a pit opens up thats gets pretty intense at times as people go wilder the faster the song they play. Half 10 and Eyehategod are finishing, Mike says thats it as there is a curfew due to there being a techno event in the club above but by this time I have to leave past the club goers congregating at the entrance and get my train. I grab a shirt from the merch stall and head back into the rainy night my brain full of the sludgy southern heaviness that Eyehategod do so well. This band have to be seen to fully understand the passion and emotion they put in to their music, it drips with the raw heaviness of life to which the audience can relate and which is one of the things that makes them so loved and respected.  Do yourself a favour and do not miss these guys next time they tour, you won't regret it.

Photography credits: Marek Payne Photography II

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marek-Payne-Photography-II/266460610161064

New Black Flag Song 'Wallow In Despair'

Black Flag have released another new song from their album to follow, they have been playing this one live and now its available on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/wallow-in-despair-single/id671244289

or stream it here on spotify:

https://play.spotify.com/album/5jbKcYLXCOkIdL71svYcEq