Lamb Of God, Omens (Epic 2022)

October 7, 2022 Wayne EdwardsEpic Records, Groove Metal, Heavy Metal, Lamb of God, Metalcore, Omens, Richmond, Virginia

Omens is the ninth album from Lamb Of God and one of their strongest to date.

Starting out in Richmond, Virginia under the name Burn The Priest, Lamb Of God has a history nearly thirty years long. From New American Gospel in 2000 to the newest record, Omens, they have laid down the grooves and the metalcore like no other. Each new album is a massive occasion for fans, and the latest one is destined to be a stand-out set in their impressive history. The band is Randy Blythe (vocals), Mark Morton (guitar), Willie Adler (guitar), John Campbell (bass), and Art Cruz (drums).

It all starts out on a jarring note with “Nevermore” – a wailing, battering beginning that fills you with trepidation. A little dissonance is in there too to permanently unbalance you. Blythe’s voice grinds you up as you listen, then reassuring, melodic singing offers a soothing repast, but you know what is coming next. Great opener. “Vanishing” is next and it is rougher, if anything – a straight-up pummeling. The adrenaline continues to flow and spew, and the guitars line you up and shake you down. “To The Grave” wraps up the first triplet and the ligatures are tight by the end of that one.

“Ditch” is one of my favorite tracks on the record. It is a bloody raking of your senses, an aural calamity. This leads to the title track and the end of side one. “Omens” is a linear assault that shows you straight up what the deal is and leaves it with you. It is a heavy weight for you to decide what it means.

The second half of the album has all the grain of the first, and to me it seems even darker in tone. “Gomorrah” flat out tells you how bad things are, and on songs like “Grayscale” you feel as if the clock is ticking and the final bits of sand are about to filter through the narrow neck of the hourglass. The set ends with “September Song,” the longest track and perhaps the most somber. Mysterious desert vibes reach out and surround you at the front, entrancing and then hypnotizing. One minute in the terror starts and it never really lets up, even with the spacey interlude and the off ramp. This album is a monster. Highly recommended.

Omens is out now in a variety of forms through Epic Records. Check out the options at the links below.

Photo by Wayne Edwards.

Links.

Lamb Of God website, https://www.lamb-of-god.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/lambofgod/

Epic Records, https://epicrecords.shop.musictoday.com/dept/lamb-of-god

Municipal Waste, Electrified Brain (Nuclear Blast 2022)

June 30, 2022June 21, 2022 Wayne EdwardsElectrified Brain, Heavy Metal, Municipal Waste, Nuclear Blast Records, Richmond, Thrash Metal, Virginia

The seventh album from Richmond, Virginia’s Municipal Waste is Electrified Brain.

Municipal Waste just passed the twenty-year mark in their career, and they are just as irreverent and rowdy as they were at the beginning. Tony Foresta (vocals), Ryan Waste (guitar), Philip “Landphil” Hall (bass), Dave Witte (drums), and Nick Poulos (guitar) return now for the seventh long-player amongst the long list of splits and EPs they’ve sown over the years. I always geta kick out of listening to a Municipal Waste record and seeing them live is a party every time. Looking over a few photos of the last show of theirs I attended, I could tell where it was by the brand of beer can flying through the air in half the pics. Carling’s Black Label – name that festival!

There are fourteen short and tight tracks on the new album. Every one of them packs a punch. You just never know from which direction it’ll be coming. The title track is the first song, and the punk and thrash are strong in it. Ripping pace and blistering lead guitar complement perfectly Tony Foresta’s urgent singing. The pace shifts to a groove hook toward the end and lays down an homage. Great start. “Demoralizer” continues without missing a beat on a different thrash trajectory, and “Last Crawl” feels like a high-speed chase. We are rolling now.

Every song is a new crack and always a good ride. Look out for “Ten Cent Beer Night,” “Putting On Errors,” “High Speed Steel,” and “Restless And Wicked.” These are the ones that stood out for me, but you might find you have other favorites instead. We can debate it at the next show.

**Municipal Waste at Pure Filth Festival 2022**

This new album is one of their best – a great Municipal Waste set. Highly recommended.

Electrified Brain is out on Friday, July 1^st through Nuclear Blast Records.

Band photo by Corey Davenport. Live band photos by Wayne Edwards.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://municipal-waste.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Municipalwaste

Municipal Waste website, https://www.municipalwaste.net/

Nuclear Blast Records, https://www.nuclearblast.com/eu/band/municipal-waste

**Municipal Waste at Heavy Montreal 2019**

The Eating Cave, Ingurgitate (2022)

June 16, 2022June 8, 2022 Wayne EdwardsBlack Metal, Death Metal, Heavy Metal, Ingurgitate, Technical Death Metal, The Eating Cave, Virginia, Virginia Beach

Newly minted death metal band The Eating Cave rumbles the underground with Ingurgitate.

From Virginia Beach, The Eating Cave has been releasing singles for a couple years leading up to their first long-player. Their music is a solid reign of death metal terror. The style is on the technical (and tech) side of the field and the sonic images tend toward the disturbing. The band is Thiago Campanhol (vocals), Evan Hope (guitars), Chris Basham (engineering), and Tyler Boylan (guitars).

Ingurgitate gathers four songs previously released as singles and adds four new ones to the bunch. The opening track, “An Aura of Terror,” is upsetting. If you are going to listen to this album you should be ready for more of that. Mad percussion, hissing black metal vocals tag-teaming with devouring death metal vocals, and raking guitar riffs that take you down and kick you on the ground. Don’t worry, though, because the next song, “Sadistic Entanglement,” is even harsher with entirely disorienting lead guitar work.

If you have been following along with the singles as they came out, then you already heard “Aggregate Vanity I – Heretical Hypotheses.” With the new album you get to hear the finish, “Aggregate Vanity II – Periodic Absolution,” in case the initial battering of the first part was not enough for you. My favorite track on the album is “Inherited Extinction” for both its ideas and the execution of them. The guitar work caused my brain to lock up.

This music takes a lot out of you, and it is not the sort of thing I listen to all day every day – I don’t have the stamina. When I need to burn off some excess energy or anger or anxiety, this is exactly what I want to hear, and The Eating Cave may be setting a new standard in this lane. Recommended.

Ingurgitate is out now. Look in on it at Bandcamp or your favorite other portal for music.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://theeatingcave.bandcamp.com/

The Eating Cave website, https://the-eating-cave.creator-spring.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/theeatingcave

Gwar, The New Dark Ages (Pit Records 2022)

June 8, 2022June 5, 2022 Wayne EdwardsGwar, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Pit Records, Richmond, The New Dark Ages, Virginia

The mighty Gwar has returned to scorch the earth once again with their 15^th album, The New Dark Ages.

Richmond, Virginia monstrosities of metal, Gwar, entered the universe in 1984. Prophetic year, wouldn’t you say? These costumed warriors have been entertaining fans with punk, hard rock, and metal music, and especially their stage performances, all these years. There have been changes along the way, including the devastating loss of founding member Dave Brockie in 2014. Through it all they have never faltered, and they continue now as strong as ever on the Black Death Rager World Tour.

What’s this band all about, you might wonder, if somehow you’ve never come across them before. Here is a snip of the bio from their Metal Blade Records page that will catch you up. “The story of GWAR is carved across the history of this barren and hopeless planet, but GWAR themselves are not of this world … their story begins in the deepest reaches of outer space. Long ago, the beings who would become the rock band GWAR were part of an elite fighting force, the Scumdogs of the Universe. For eons, they served as thralls to a supreme being known only as the Master. But one by one, each future member of the band earned a glaring reputation for being an intergalactic fuck-up. And so, they were banished, sent away on a fool’s errand to conquer an insignificant shitball floating in a dark corner of the universe: the planet Earth. Once here, GWAR shaped the face of the globe, destroying and rebuilding the natural world, and giving rise to all of human history. Aliens to some, gods and demons to others, our erstwhile Scumdogs fucked apes to create the human race, and this fateful unplanned pregnancy would prove to be truly disastrous!”

OK, but there is more. Each album is a new story with more adventures. The narrative thread to The New Dark Ages is even detailed in an illustrated missive. “The album concept is tied to a companion graphic novel, GWAR In the Duoverse of Absurdity, which will also be released by Z2 Comics on June 3^rd. In the graphic novel the band are sucked off into an alternate universe to do battle with their evil twins and the specter of rogue technology.”

Besides the long arc of the album, each song has a story. “Berserker Mode,” for example. This is what the lead singer himself has to say about the song. “This is my origin story, about transforming into a drug-jacked unpredictable liability on the battlefield. But like me, it has a softer side, a tale of the struggle of becoming my authentic self…a sexy, multi-donged, vajazzzled, Viking cow beast known as…The Berserker Blóthar!!”

Never at a loss for words, Blóthar has this to say about “Motherfucking Liar,” one of my favorite tracks on the album. “This song is for anybody who’s sick of all the pieces of shit talking out of both sides of their mouth. Motherfuck a motherfucking liar.” Were truer words ever spoken? You decide.

There are thirteen songs on the album altogether, including the final epic “Death Whistle Suite.” It is rousing metal that can be used to get your adrenaline flowing, or can be a model for the way you live your life. Heh heh, maybe that live-your-life approach is not such a great idea. Either way, the music is filled with satire and loaded with great riffs and hooks. It is definitely engaging and entertaining.

You can listen to Gwar and take the middle ground. Some people could, anyway. When you see them live, however, you are either in or out because you cannot escape their overwhelming presence on the stage. Neither can you elude the lavishly shared fluids. For my part, count me in. Recommended.

The New Dark Ages is out now through Pit Records. You can get it just about anywhere, and hear it through the usual services. Put it in the queue on your way to their show, because live is the best way to experience Gwar.

Live photos by Wayne Edwards, Piere’s Entertainment Center, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 2022.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://gwar.bandcamp.com/

Website, https://gwar.net/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gwar

Beldam, Live At The Golden Pony (HPGD 2021)

December 27, 2021December 22, 2021 Wayne EdwardsBeldam, Charlottesville, Doom, Doom Metal, Heavy Metal, Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, HPGD, Live At The Golden Pony, Sludge, Sludge Metal, Virginia

The live album from sludge masters Beldam is an historical artifact of doom and despair.

This is one from the archives, recorded live at The Golden Pony in Harrisonburg, Virginia on January 8, 2017. Beldam is a band that started out in Charlottesville, Virginia and has moved around since then. In a mere three years they released two impressive albums, Still the Wretched Linger (2016) and Pasung (2018). The new one was captured in between these releases and completes a menacing triptych.

There are five looming tracks on the album. The first three are from Still the Wretched Linger, “The Foundling,” “From Grave To Cradle,” and “Needles.” From the opening bars that rise over the cheering crowd you get an intimate feeling of being in the room surrounded by the dark energy. The weight of the guitar and impenetrable bass is immense. The warbling, wandering lead guitar and searing vocals press the air from your lungs in the opener, and the music only gets heavier from there. The pace ranges from dead slow and absolutely crushing to pounding and assertive — the latter is particularly notable on “Needles.”

The two final pieces originally appeared on Pasung, so they are being performed here to promote that album. “Vial of Silence” sounds like it was recorded in a torture chamber that never closes.

“That Which Consumes You” identifies the burdens of life that wear on us and tells the story in an eerie, dank kaleidoscope of torment. It is an experience.

I would like to hear more music from this band but if the internet is to be believed, the future is uncertain. We do have the two studio albums and now this live musical artifact. Recommended.

Live At The Golden Pony is out now from Horror Pain Gore Death productions on CD and digital.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-the-golden-pony

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/BeldamOfficial/

Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, https://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/

I Prevail ~ Frame 42 ~ Inner Image Photo Gallery

December 18, 2021April 14, 2022 Wayne EdwardsBlue Ridge Rock Festival, Burlington, Danville, Frame 42, Hard Rock, Higher Ground, I Prevail, Inner Image, Modern Rock, Rock, Vermont, Virginia

Here is another cache of three bands I took a few photos of grouped together for an eclectic rock gallery. I Prevail at Blue Ridge Rock Festival (Danville, Virginia), Frame 42 at Higher Ground (Burlington, Vermont), and Inner Image, also from Blue Ridge Rock Festival.

Here we go. The musical styles of these bands range far and wide, and they all gave us fantastic music to listen to in 2021.

All photos by Wayne Edwards

Links.

I Prevail, https://iprevailband.com/

Frame 42, https://www.frame42.com/

Inner Image, https://www.innerimagemusic.com/

Blue Ridge Rock Festival coverage at Ryze-Up magazine, https://www.ryze-up.com/music-2/blue-ridge-rock-festival-2021/

Cursor, Blue Ridge Rock Festival, Danville, Virginia, September 12, 2021

December 14, 2021April 14, 2022 Wayne EdwardsAlt Metal, Blue Ridge Rock Festival, Cursor, Danville, Grunge, Live Music, Music Festivals, Music Photography, Post Rock, Rock Photography, Virginia

Cursor is an alternative metal band with a strong post-rock attitude that is front and center during their performances. Add a little grunge in there as well and you have a dominating combination.

All photos by Wayne Edwards.

Links.

Website, https://www.cursorofficial.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/CursorBand/

Blue Ridge Rock Festival coverage at Ryze-Up magazine, https://www.ryze-up.com/music-2/blue-ridge-rock-festival-2021/

The Impurity, Blue Ridge Rock Festival, Danville, Virginia, September 11, 2021

December 12, 2021April 14, 2022 Wayne EdwardsBlue Ridge Rock Festival, Danville, Heavy Metal, Live Music, Music Festivals, The Impurity, Virginia

The Impurity gave the crowd a healthy dose of straight-up heavy metal on late Saturday afternoon at the festival. They are another band I hadn’t seen before and was glad to catch. Great show.

All photos by Wayne Edwards.

Links.

Website, https://www.theimpurityofficial.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/TheImpurityOfficial/

YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSWfkrYKLDZ6naVjcEkVx8w

Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/artist/0dkISN8OvhzddJlOHdjgxN

Blue Ridge Rock Festival coverage at Ryze-Up magazine, Blue Ridge Rock Festival 2021 – (ryze-up.com)

Hatebreed, Blue Ridge Rock Festival, Danville, Virginia, September 11, 2021

December 8, 2021April 14, 2022 Wayne EdwardsBlue Ridge Rock Festival, Danville, Hatebreed, Heavy Metal, Live Music, Metal Photography, Music Festivals, Music Photography, Nuclear Blast Records, Rock Photography, Virginia

I have been listening to Hatebreed closely for a few years now. Their most recent album, The Weight of the False Self, had a big impact on me and so they were one of the bands I was most looking forward to seeing at the festival.

All photos by Wayne Edwards.