Upcoming Nuclear Blast Releases

I was looking back through the latest issue of Decibel earlier and came across an ad from Nuclear Blast announcing upcoming releases this year. It looks to be a pretty busy year:

Dimmu Borgir: We'll see, I wasn't terribly impressed with their last album.

Soilwork: No, Soilwork hasn't been good in years.

Meshuggah: Probably not. I liked their early material but their later material is not terribly listenable.

Testament: Count me in.

Exodus: The sequel to their last album. I'll be checking this out.

Wintersun: The long awaited follow-up. I have been looking forward to this for a couple years now. The release date has been pushed back multiple times already.

Decrepit Birth: I was very impressed with their last album. I might give this a shot.

Arsis: I will definitely be looking for this.

Annotations of an Autopsy: Pass.

Cathedral: I'll have to hear samples before making up my mind.

Mnemic: Fuck no.

Immolation: Fuck yes.

Unleashed: This band made an absolutely amazing album last time. I am eager to hear this.

Agnostic Front: No.

All Shall Perish: Doesn't do it for me. Not bad though. I might sample it and see.

The Crinn: Never heard of them. Don't know what the name means.

Blind Guardian: Finally a new album from the power metal masters.

So yeah, a very busy year coming up. I already have a long list of albums coming out this year that I am looking forward to.

Alice in Chains Release New Song

I remember when Kurt Cobain, legendary singer for Nirvana, committed suicide. I was in middle school and a LOT of my friends were very upset. It did not bother me quite as much. Sure, it's sad whenever someone commits suicide, but I was never as big a fan of Nirvana as some of my friends. They had some decent songs, but I never bought an album by the band and it never even really crossed my mind to do so.

I grew up and started listening to music at the same time the grunge scene was exploding. Nevertheless, I only really liked the harder rock songs. However, two of the bands that were considered big parts of the grunge scene were actually metal bands. Alice in Chains and Soundgarden had major metal influences and actually played a style of music closer to traditional metal and doom metal.

Alice in Chains was one of my favorite bands when I was getting into metal. I was much more broken up when vocalist Layne Staley died of a heroin overdose than when Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Staley had a very distinct, tormented vocal style. When he died, so apparently did the band.

Now, almost 15 years later, Alice in Chains released a new song with William DuVall as their new singer. Honestly, it's pretty good. It features the same doom-laden, sludgy riffs as classic Alice in Chains and even the familiar vocal harmonics, giving the song an uneasy, eerie feeling. It's a decent song, and I will be interested in checking out their album. I never thought I would feel that way.

Amorphis Rules

Amorphis is awesome and I can't wait for Skyforger. Sorry, I'm listening to Silent Waters right now, an album that renewed my faith in this band. Amazing album.

New Heaven and Hell Album Cover Revealed

Heaven and Hell is the band featuring the entire second Black Sabbath lineup of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio, and Vinny Appice. They changed the name in respect for Ozzy. They will release their first album as Heaven and Hell soon and this is the cover. Holy shit.