TITAN Sweet Dreams Review and Interview with Kris D’Agostino
Sweet Dreams is available October 12, 2010 via Relapse Records
By Andy McNeil, Staff Writer

The gods of metal have stepped down from Mount Othrus and stomped their way to Brooklyn. No longer will the masses of stoner rock be forced to remain moored in a bog of droning riffs and mucky tones. TITAN has arrived – and this band is ready to rip – synth-style.

The New York act will be releasing their new album Sweet Dreams on Tuesday, October 12th on Relapse Records. TITAN, who have previously released material on Paradigms and Tee Pee Records, bring a crisp keyboard-laden approach to experimental metal. It’s fast, hard and plays out like the soundtrack to a furious spaceship battle.

Sweet Dreams’ blend of stone-age distortion and futuristic synth lines was engineered by Bredan Tobin of the band Red Sparowes at his studio, Translator Audio, in Brooklyn.

TITAN’s guitarist Josh Anzano described the album on Relapse’s Web site accordingly: “Sweet Dreams has been the culmination of major urges welling up inside all of us to be a bit faster, a bit harder, a bit trippier and generally more aggro in our approach to writing, jamming out, and conceptualizing the songs and record as a whole. It’s a lot tighter, but it’s also a lot looser.”

The album weaves Anzano’s contrasting ideas into a heavy storm of guitar thunder and synthesized lightning. Sweet Dreams possesses a fluidity that comes across as orchestral without being stuffy or over produced. It remains complex in an organic sense – shedding the ho-hum mathematically calculated noise that other experimental acts embrace all too quickly. This has real harmony.

Tracks such as “Wooded Alter Beyond The Wander” and “Maximum Soberdrive” soar as the guitar and keyboard combine forces in a meta-stoner effort that will transport listeners born before the ‘90s back to the era of rocking 8-bit video games while riding a caffeine buzz to victory. Others like “Synthasaurs” are a different beast – building from a slow intro that tips its hat to the John Carpenter horror film influences often cited by bass player Steve Moore.

TITAN has created something synth-fully interesting and different without forcing Sweet Dreams to be synthetically experimental.

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Keyboard player Kris D’Agostino took a New York minute to answer some questions through the miracle of cyberspace to discuss how the band got together, being a synth geek and who he’d turn to score a cannibal zombie film.

Andy McNeil BTS: After digitally roaming the vast plains of the Internet looking for a full bio on TITAN – I’ve come back a defeated man. The underground music blogsphere has been buzzing about the fact that NYC-via-PGH transplant Steve Moore (Zombi) is now playing bass for the band, but that’s it. Who are these other Brooklynites and how was TITAN formed?

Kris D’Agostino: How the four of us [Dave Liebowitz, Josh Anzano, Kris D'Agostino and Steve Moore] came together is a pretty long, circuitous story. I’m not even sure at this point that I remember all the details. I moved to NYC in 2003 and was looking to play keyboard in a hardcore band. I had posted a craigslist ad saying something lame like “keyboard player wants to start art-punk screamo band.”

Looking back on that just makes me laugh – I was like 24 or something at the time. Josh [Anzano] wrote me and said he used to do hardcore but was moving on to do more prog-ed out stuff. I had put bands like Yes and The Boredoms as reference points in the ad and I guess he felt like I might fit in well with what he was looking to do. So, Josh and I started playing music with various other people. We were both in La Otracina when they first formed. Eventually, we started jamming as what would be the first incarnation of TITAN.

The line-up at that point was me on synths, Josh on guitar, Dan Bates on bass and Dave Liebowitz (who I had known from my college days) on drums. Dan left the band maybe three years ago and we were super lucky in getting Steve Moore to step in on bass duties. We worked together in this new combination for 90% of the writing of Sweet Dreams. Steve lives up in Nyack with his wife and baby, so he comes down when he can for practice. But his input and contributions have been invaluable. In my opinion, the guy is a genius. He outputs amazing stuff pretty much constantly.

I don’t know what else I can offer in the way of bios. We all live pretty normal lives in Brooklyn at this point and have our hands in lots of different stuff. Dave is married, has a baby on the way. Josh and I work square jobs to pay rent. Josh does a lot of amazing solo techno-y stuff on the side. I just wrote a novel that’s being published next year. Steve works at a library and does Zombi and Lovelock and lots of other music projects. If I ever make a horror movie about cannibal zombies, I’m going to ask Steve to score it.

Andy BTS: Your former label (Tee Pee Records) described TITAN as “the band that is single-handedly saving the muddy mess of ‘stoner rock’ from itself.” This seems to be predicated on the fact that your sound is heavily keyboard driven – but heavy none-the-less. What made you break from the bomb-string laden traditional stoner sound and experiment with shredding the ivory?

Kris D’Agostino: I guess it’s easiest for me to answer that, since I play keys in the band. I think the major reason, obviously, is that I suck as a guitar player. I literally have no idea how the instrument works. I can play some chords and have a basic knowledge of the thing, but when it comes to shredding or constructing a heavy sound or anything preconceived, I’m lost. On synthesizer, I’m better. Also, I think between me, Josh and Steve, there is a heavy love of synth music in general.

All of us are synth geeks. We love keyboard-driven prog and there is certainly a common interest shared there. And add to that the fact that Josh had a very concrete idea of what sound he was looking for when he and I first started making music together. And that idea was innately reliant on keyboards being a prominent component.

Andy BTS: Do you find that remaining an instrumental-only group allows you to experiment more than if you would enlist a vocalist?

Kris D’Agostino: I don’t know that we ever really thought about vocals in that way. We initially just skewed vocals because we all feel like vocals are really hard to do well. I think people are so hardwired to expect vocals to accompany music that they settle for really boring, mediocre crap. I take vocals very seriously and lyrics, too. One of my favorite things about music is lyrics, actually. Which seems to fly in the face of the fact that I play in a largely vocal-less band. But I think that speaks to this notion of vocals/lyrics being very hard to get right.

We’ve been experimenting more with adding vocals to our music recently. Sweet Dreams has our first ever song with vocals on it. And the new jam we are working on has vocals throughout. I’d like to see us using more vocals in the future and heading in that direction. As long as we keep our aesthetic and don’t start just throwing bullshit down. Josh got a pretty rad new pedal—the Electro-Harmonix Voice Box—which lets him use vocoder effects that get harmonized to whatever he’s playing on the guitar. It’s gnarly.

Andy BTS: Your first show was in 2005 with Zombi. Things seem to have things come full circle now you’ve recruited Moore into the mix. Has this brought any new conceptual or experimental ideas to TITAN’s writing process?

Kris D’Agostino: Yeah, it’s pretty funny that Steve is in the band now. We all couldn’t be more psyched about it. That show we played with Zombi was years ago. I think it was 2005. That was actually the first time I met Steve. I’ve been a fan of Zombi forever. When Steve mentioned to us that he was interested in getting involved, we all basically agreed immediately.

His presence adds a lot to the writing process. Josh, Dave and me will jam out ideas at practice, flesh out some basic song structures and then Steve will come down from Nyack and add the bass parts and the songs will just really start evolving rapidly at that point. He has a built in sense of theory and song structure that borders on scary-good. He was responsible for the haunting mellotron stuff we added to “Maximum Soberdrive,” which, on the record, sounds amazing. Or, I think it sounds amazing.

Andy BTS: TITAN has toured with Saviours and played with the likes of Boris and former labelmates Witch. What are your plans for future excursions on the road?

Kris D’Agostino: We all have weird work schedules that don’t allow us to drop everything and hit the road whenever we feel like it, so we have to work at touring. Dave and I teach and are really only off in the summer. Steve has a family. Dave’s got a baby on the way. Add to that the fact that three out of four of us live in a super expensive city where you need to work all the time just to pay your rent and it makes touring for large chunks of time very difficult.

Usually, we like to hit the road in the summer months. We are all obsessed with California and have had really great experiences playing shows out there. I think right now, the goal is to get back out to the west coast as soon as we can. We want to hit up Europe soon, too. Most of the people who write to us and geek out tend to be from France or Italy. It’s pretty funny.
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TITAN – UPCOMING SHOWS
October 22nd @ Kung Fu Necktie Philadelphia, PA w/ Royal Thunder, Serpent Throne, Snake Sustain
October 24th @ Union Pool Brooklyn, NY w/ Royal Thunder, Dark Vibes

DOWNLOAD: Titan – “Wooded Altar Beyond The Wander” (MP3) – Wooded Altar Beyond The Wander (MP3) by TITAN – click to play

Purchase Sweet Dreams at Relapse Records

More Info: TITAN’s Official Myspace Profile

The post TITAN Interview appeared first on Blow The Scene.

Steve Moore – The VIA Interview
By Andy McNeil, Assistant Editor

Musician Steve Moore is drinking an Iron City beer in a former steel mill in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. The sounds of heavy dance bass lines have replaced of the assembly line racket of union workers forging steel from molten metal. The monstrous building itself has been converted into a massive sound studio used for shooting feature length films – yet despite its modernized function it still carries an old school industrial look, wedged between a bridge and railroad tracks along the banks of the Allegheny River.

“I lived in Pittsburgh for decades and I was never in an old steel mill and now I can say that I have been – crossed one off the bucket list,” says the New York-based musician.

If Moore’s list of life goals is anything like his list of musical projects, then he certainly is set to live out a rich and exciting existence. The mild-mannered, red haired thirty-something has been a creative force in bands such as the instrumental rock duo Zombi and the experimental prog-metal act TITAN (both on Relapse Records) as well as a range of other side projects such as Lovelock, Miracle and last but not least , his horror film soundtrack composing alter ego, Gianni Rossi.

On this night Moore is playing a set as himself – no alias – at 31st Street Studios. This gargantuan sound studio is the size of ten football fields and serves as host to the first annual VIA festival in Pittsburgh (October 1-3, 2010). VIA is billed as a showcase for innovative musicians and DJs who push the bounds of electronic music. The events musical talent performs alongside visual artists to create a breathtakingly fresh audio/visual spectacle.

The festival brought in big name acts such as New York avant-garde popper Matthew Dear, scrappy Indiana wordsmith Freddie Gibbs, Southern-fried beatmakers Craze & Klever and a show stealing bounce rapper from New Orleans named Big Freedia who had the crowd shaking their asses everywhere. The evening’s many performances were an incredible mix of spacious electronica and low-end house beats that rattled the rafters and pumped the crowd into a fevered pitch.

Unlike some of his dancer colleagues, Moore connected with the venue itself on a different level – his bond with filmmaking. He has worked on several indie horror films as a soundtrack composer. Zombi’s early material shows the direct influence of horror soundtracks used by the likes of director/composer John Carpenter, Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci and, of course, the zombie grandfather George A. Romero.

“Zombi did a couple indie horror films. I did one on my own, and then I did the documentary Horror Business,” Moore says. “I’ve also done two total brutal slasher movies under the name Gianni Rossi.”

Moore wrote the soundtracks for low budget Canadian-made splatterfests like Gutterballs and Star Vehicle (both created by Plotdigger Films) under the Gianni Rossi moniker, which he said is meant to sound like a rutty, red bearded 70s filmmaker.

“Gianni Rossi – it just had a ring to it. I thought it sounded authentic,” Moore says.

Rossi isn’t the only side-project that Moore has been busy with. Lovelock, his apartment dance party act that he describes as being “the music for the dance club of my mind,” has been busy creating tracks and remixes. One of Lovelock’s tracks was even picked up and used by funky duo Chromeo on their DJ-Kicks Compilation.

Yet despite the style of music he plays in Lovelock – Moore admits he isn’t into the club scene.

“I’m like the antithesis of ‘club guy.’ I’m making this music totally blind. I don’t know anything about club atmosphere. I don’t know what people want to hear at clubs,” Moore says.

Moore says his distance from club performances has to do with the constraints placed on electronic artists by the pressure to create something to appeal to a mass audience.

“You’re giving them these beats and bass lines that – the whole intent is to make them move and make people enjoy themselves and have a good time,” Moore says. “And I don’t like to do that live. There’s something that sucks the fun out for me trying to cater what I’m doing for an audience. When I play live I’d rather do the more minimal krauty electronic stuff.”

Moore’s passion for music extends beyond the purely electronic scene as he has recently taking up great pleasure in playing bass for Brooklyn’s TITAN. He says that he played bass long before he began fiddling with around on the keys and that merely playing bass affords him the opportunity to over the logistical headache often caused by troubleshooting vintage synthesizers.

“Touring with Zombi there’s always a high element of stress there like what’s not going to work tonight and how are we going to get through this song if it doesn’t work,” he says.

“Because it’s the type of thing that once we start the song – the sequences – it’s set in motion. There’s no bail out.”

He explains that unlike a band with multiple musicians he can’t just stop playing and grab another synthesizer like when a guitar player breaks a string because the only other person in Zombi is the drummer, AE Paterra.

“Whereas just playing bass – that’s just a good time. It’s like ideal situation,” Moore says.

Moore said there isn’t a definite intention for TITAN. They aren’t trying to accomplish a particular goal. They are simply good buddies playing what they want to play.

“It’s just guys in a band making music that they want to make,” Moore says.

Moore says that – with a baby on the way – his touring days are behind him. In Zombi, Moore has done some extensive touring with the likes of Isis, Red Sparowes, Daughters and fellow Pittsburgher’s Don Caballero.

“I don’t think there will ever be a time again where I’m getting in the van for a month,” Moore says. “Those guys may – they’ve done a couple tours without me before with a fill in bassist.”

Moore joined up with TITAN after relocating to Nyack, New York – a suburb of Manhattan. He cites the realization that his touring days were as a catalyst for the move as well as the opportunity to make connections with new people.

“I never made a living off of music,” Moore says. “What brought me to New York was just – because I realized I’m not a touring musician anymore and that had been my sole means of making connections and meeting people. I thought that being in Pittsburgh was excellent for that because the rent was cheap it was like an easy way where you could live off the money that you make on tour. But without that I couldn’t really find work here – I had a tough time with that. I just felt like the opportunities for meeting new people and working with new people would be better in New York.”

Although Moore finds himself in a suburban existence – married, about to become a father and working in a library – his life as a musician is far from over. TITAN released a new record early this month and Zombi is crawling back toward the surface with an upcoming album due out in early 2011.

“We’re probably a week or two away from finishing a new album,” Moore says. “We just have some finishing touches to do on the mixes.”

When asked if the new album has a running theme – like those found in previous releases such as the constellation-oriented Cosmos or the wildness-expanding Spirit Animal – Moore formulates a coy response.

“Not really. Maybe. There might be,” Moore says in a playful tone.

He pauses for a second before explaining his brief replies in further detail. Like a solid film soundtrack – he’s figured out how to draw in suspense.

“Whether it’s a secret or whether it’s not fully formed – it’s hard to say,” he says. “The whole nature of writing instrumental rock is that you can take it different ways. The one thing that we worry about is that we don’t want to come up with song titles or like an album theme that’s too distracting. Ideally, I’d like for the music to take the listener wherever it takes them without any influence of title or cover art or anything like that. But it’s really tough to accomplish that so we tend to just go with sort of neutral sci-fi types of themes.”

Moore continues to describe Zombi’s writing process and comes to the realization that the thematic devices behind Cosmos and Spirit Animal were pretty intentional, which contrasts the point he just made. He shakes his head.

“I guess I don’t know what I’m talking about,” he says, laughing. “Search your feelings and you’ll know. That’s what we want. What does it mean to you?”

Moore stayed true to this self-guided approach and went on to give the crowd at VIA a proper atmospheric dose of his cunning experimental style – electronic music for thinkers.

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More Info on Steve Moore and his many musical endeavors can be found at the following Websites:
Bottom Photo Courtesy James R. Southard

Steve Moore
Zombi
TITAN
Lovelock
Gianni Rossi
VIA

And if you missed it, click to check out the TITAN Interview from earlier this month with Steve Moore’s band-mate Kris D’Agostino.

The post The Steve Moore Interview appeared first on Blow The Scene.

After several months of silence, following bursts of worldwide touring in support of their two-part Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light album series, Earth have confirmed a full US tour this Fall.

The most extensive American tour Earth have planned since their 1990 inception, the Seattle purveyors of the slow-motion riff will traverse the country and back on a twenty-six date run, from the last week of October until just before Thanksgiving. Along the way the quartet will take part in the massive annual Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas alongside literally dozens of international artists of all genres. This will be the first U.S. tour since they hit the road in support of Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I in 2011, the band’s set for the tour confirmed to contain a majority of the material from Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II.

While the band is touring in support of the Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light albums, the Earth lineup for this voyage will be the touring lineup from the band’s lauded 2008 LP The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, comprised of Steve Moore on keys and trombone, Don McGreevy on bass, Adrienne Davies on drums and founder Dylan Carlson on guitar.

Preceding the newly announced US dates, Earth also has also confirmed a full tour of New Zealand, Australia and Japan through most of September! This venture will be performed as a trio; Dylan Carlson, Adrienne Davies and Don McGreevy.

Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II can still be streamed its entirety Via Pitchfork.

Earth September 2012 New Zealand / Australia Tour Dates:

9/07/2012 SF Bathhouse – Wellington, NZ

9/08/2012 King’s Arms – Aukland, NZ

9/09/2012 The Zoo – Brisbane

9/12/2012 The Toff in Town – Melbourne

9/13/2012 The Hi-Fi Bar – Sydney

9/14/2012 Fowlers Live – Adelaide

9/15/2012 Rosemount Hotel – Perth

9/16/2012 Corner Hotel – Melbourne

Earth Japan Tour w/ Mamiffer, special guest Boris:

9/19/2012 Earthdon – Tokyo w/ Mamiffer
9/20/2012 Pangea – Osaka w/ Mamiffer
9/21/2012 Club Upset – Nagoya w/Mamiffer, Eternal Elysium
9/22/2012 Fever – Tokyo w/ Mamiffer, Boris

EARTH US Fall Tour:

10/24/2012 Rotture – Portland, OR w/ Fontanelle, Stebmo

10/26/2012 Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock – Los Angeles, CA w/ Fontanelle, Stebmo

10/28/2012 Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA w/ Fontanelle, Stebmo

10/29/2012 Soda Bar – San Diego, CA w/ Stebmo

10/31/2012 Rhythm Room – Phoenix, AZ w/ Balmorehea, Stebmo

11/02/2012 Auditorium Shores – Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Festival

11/03/2012 Bryan Street Tavern – Dallas, TX w/ Stebmo

11/04/2012 One Eyed Jacks – New Orleans, LA w/ Stebmo

11/06/2012 Will?s Pub – Orlando, FL w/ Stebmo

11/07/2012 The Earl – Atlanta, GA w/ Daughn Gibson, Stebmo

11/08/2012 Grey Eagle – Asheville, NC w/ Stebmo

11/09/2012 Rock and Roll Hotel – Washington, DC w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/10/2012 Littlefield – Brooklyn, NY w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/11/2012 TT the Bears – Cambridge, MA w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/12/2012 Johnny Brenda?s – Philadelphia, PA w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/13/2012 Altar Bar – Pittsburgh, PA w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/14/2012 Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/15/2012 Taft Ballroom – Cincinnati, OH w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/16/2012 Township – Chicago, IL w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/17/2012 Township – Chicago, IL w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/18/2012 Triple Rock Social Club – Mnneapolis, MN w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/19/2012 The Record Bar – Kansas City, MO w/ Eagle Twin, Stebmo

11/21/2012 Marquis Theatre, Denver, CO w/ Stebmo

11/24/2012 The Shakedown – Bellhingham, WA w/ The Body, Low Hums

11/25/2012 The Crocodile – Seattle, WA w/ The Body, Stebmo

The post Earth announce extensive US Tour for Fall months with The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull lineup following current Australian and Japan Tours appeared first on Blow The Scene.

Pittsburgh, PA progressive electronic duo Zombi have announced a two week US tour with the legendary Italian soundtrack kings Goblin! Their first US Tour in almost seven years, the 13 day trek kicks off on November 29th with a solo show in Chicago, IL and wraps up on December 14th in Carrboro, NC. A complete listing of dates is included below.

In celebration of these rare performances, Relapse Records will be reissuing three long out-of-print LPs from Zombi‘s back catalog on vinyl including 2004’s Cosmos, 2006’s Surface to Air and 2009’s Spirit Animal. These titles along with other Zombi releases are available for streaming via the duo’s Bandcamp page (linked below). Additional details on the LP reissues will be announced shortly.

Zombi masterminds Steve Moore and A.E. Paterra have kept busy over the past couple of years, starting their own limited run cassette label VCO Recordings where they have released music by Panabrite, Abul Mogard, Jonas Reinhardt and many others. Additionally, Steve Moore is currently scoring the upcoming film The Guest by directors Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett (You’re Next, VHS/VHS2) and the Belgian horror film Cub by director Jonas Govaerts. His new solo album Pangaea Ultima will be released via Spectrum Spools later this fall on digital/vinyl formats. More information on the release will be available here

ZOMBI US Tour Dates

Nov 29 Chicago, IL/ The Empty Bottle*
Nov 30 Minneapolis, MN/ The Varsity Theater
Dec 1 Milwaukee, WI/ Turner Hall
Dec 3 St. Louis, MO/ 2720 Cherokee
Dec 4 Cincinnati, OH/ Taft Theatre
Dec 5 Cleveland, OH/ Beachland Ballroom
Dec 6 Pittsburgh, PA/ Carnegie Music Hall
Dec 8 Albany, NY/ Upstate Concert Hall
Dec 10 Boston, MA/ Sinclair
Dec 11 New Haven, CT/ Center Church on the Green
Dec 12 Philadelphia, PA/ Trocadero
Dec 13 Washington, DC/ 9:30 Club
Dec 14 Carrboro, NC/ Cats Cradle

*Not with Goblin – openers TBA

The post Zombi join legendary Italian soundtrack kings Goblin for US Tour appeared first on Blow The Scene.

Day 3 of the Housecore Horror Fest 2015 saw highly sought after doom, progressive, and metal acts Goblin, Autopsy, Incantation, Zombi, YOB, Author & Punisher, and Muscle and Marrow hit the stage at San Antonio’s Aztec Theater.

Italy’s progressive soundtrack masters, Goblin set forth a live score of Dawn Of The Dead that was the perfect closer to a stellar weekend of horror movies and live performances. Goblin continue to release new work and perform around the world in three current and different versions of the band.Noisey did a fair job sifting through the different variants for the uninitiated in a recent interview. For those looking to jump down the rabbit hole, be sure to scope the recently released Rebirth album on Relapse Records and the Four Of A Kind CD released by Back To The Fudda in July featuring varying line-ups of original members.

Influential death metal practitioners Autopsy, now 30-years deep in the game have released a new EP this year entitled Skull Grinder via Peaceville Records. This most recent effort was hailed by both critics and fans alike with The Guardian commenting “They are still firmly tethered to their trademark formula of breakneck extremity and harrowing, slow-motion doom, but there is a heightened sense of the viscerally visual to this EP, as if its creators have found new ways to express their obsessions with the gruesome and the horrifying.”

Relapse Records just re-issued Incantation‘s acclaimed 2000 full-length The Infernal Storm with a deluxe vinyl treatment. Though first released at the turn of the century, The Infernal Storm has more than weathered the test of time and still stands as a punishing, top-tier extreme metal release today. Fifteen years since its release and since its first & only vinyl pressing, The Infernal Storm will now be repressed on Relapse 25th anniversary silver vinyl and black vinyl housed in deluxe gatefold packaging. The reissue will also include liner notes by the band’s John McEntee, expanded artwork, and an album art poster.

The prolific instrumental duo of Steve Moore and A.E. Paterra, known as Zombi, recently released a long awaited new album Shape Shift, via longtime label Relapse Records in October. The album marks a return to the group’s prog-inclined rock roots after a detour into electronic textures on previous albums, a path that had been informed by pursuing the group as a long-distance studio project following their withdrawl from live performance in 2007. Energized by their return to the touring circuit in 2013 (supporting Italian horror soundtrack legends Goblin), the band resumed regular rehearsals to compose as a unit. The resulting album is their most cohesive and representative to date, nine songs brimming with head nodding beats and hypnotic keyboard runs. Moore commented on the new material: “It’s a rock record – think of it as a follow-up to Surface To Air. There are no techno jams or symphonic prog fantasies. No solo track interludes. We have officially moved from ‘studio project’ mode back into ‘live band’ mode.”

Ghoul has released a new song for the ongoing soundtrack to Image Comics‘ The Humans graphic novel series. The song is available online from The Humans Soundcloud page. The Humans comic, by Keenan Marshall Keller and Tom Neely, is set in the ’70s and follows a motorcycle gang’s exploits, but with a twist; in this world, the gangs are all apes and actual humans are primitive beasts kept around for sport. Each issue of The Humans is accompanied by two original songs released online from bands such as Goblin Cock and Witches Of God. Ghoul‘s song, “Humans Till Deth,” is an octane-fueled surf-thrash tune attached to the release of issue #8, out now. Ghoul are recording a follow-up to their 2011 LP, Transmission Zero, for Tankcrimes Records this month.

YOB continues to tour in support of their universally-adored Clearing The Path To Ascend full-length, released early last Fall via Neurot Recordings. Recorded at Gung Ho Studio in Eugene alongside longtime YOB comrade/iconic sound wizard, Billy Barnett, and mastered by Brad Boatright (Sleep, Beastmilk, Nails) at Audiosiege, Clearing The Path To Ascend topped Rolling Stone’s 2014 list of the best metal albums and was praised by countless media outlets from Pitchfork to The New York Times. Never before has doom metal been at the forefront of the public consciousness, and it’s easy to see why: though it’s come almost two decades into their existence, YOB have created not just the best album of their career – they’ve manifested what will come to be regarded as one of the defining records in the pantheon of doom metal.

Tristan Shone, the one-man industrial doom strategist responsible for the crushing sounds of Author & Punisher, will drag his iron and steel overseas for a near-three-week live takeover next month. Set to commence on January 16th in Rouen, France, Shone’s latest expedition will make its way through ten countries, coming to a close on February 4th in Milan, Italy. The European tour follows Shone’s successful two-leg North American Fall exhibition with special guests, Muscle And Marrow. Author & Punisher continues to astound ears with the mechanical deviance of latest full-length Melk En Honing, released earlier this year via Housecore Records. Produced by label founder, Philip H. Anselmo (Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual et al), with Melk En Honing, Shone has incorporated various drone machinery, multiple physical rhythm machines, some synth and the new electromechanical masks that began to appear in Author & Punisher performances across the US and Europe in 2014. After a solid year of heavy touring and festival appearances, the goal with Melk En Honing was to capture the live dissonant power of the true, devouring Author & Punisher experience. The record continues to reap critical accolades from fans and critics globally and was recently listed among Decibel Magazine’s Top 40 Albums Of 2015.

Without further ado enjoy an exclusive round of photos by BTS’s Senior Photographer Dante Torrieri (Useless Rebel)

Muscle and Marrow

Author & Punisher

YOB

Ghoul

Zombi

Incantation

Autopsy

Goblin

The post Housecore Horror Film Fest III Day 3 – Goblin, Autopsy, Incantation, Zombi, Ghoul, more appeared first on Blow The Scene.