Out today: CHAIN GANG GRAVE - Cement Mind

Cement Mind, the debut album by Chain Gang Grave, is out today.

Stream the album and buy it, here:

https://chainganggrave.bandcamp.com/album/cement-mind

More info:

https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2021/02/chain-gang-grave-cement-mind.html

"There's an unstable balance of lurching heaviness here, but far from typical or cliched... The band delivers dissonant rock structures with a jagged melody built underneath the smell of burning hair and thrift store perfume."
–Mike IX Williams, Eyehategod

“The new album combines the harsh, venomous sounds of black metal with the attitude and energy of hardcore punk, and one of the band’s fans is a legend in the world of metal/punk crossover, Eyehategod frontman Mike IX Williams...”
–BrooklynVegan

“It’s like someone got Black Flag all types of messed up and then explained death metal to them.”
–Metal Injection

"If you’ve ever wondered how would Eyehategod sound if they switched their downers to uppers, Chain Gang Grave are here to show you... Some real blood-spitting music."

–The Pit

“The New York City outfit leans closest to hardcore but that doesn’t mean they also don’t dish out Melvins-like noise rock, filthy death metal, and dissonant yet melodic parts into the mix...”
–No Echo

"This duo blends Hardcore Punk, Death Rock, and Death Metal to manifest a sound that’s really 1 of 1. Chain Gang Grave is depraved AF."
–CVLT Nation

"Chain Gang Grave infuse punk rock’s DIY ethics with noise, sludge, and plenty of riffs on new release 'Cement Mind.' If I must attempt, I’d say the group sound like Acid Bath‘s Yankee cousins, Gorefest with the exact opposite production sensibilities, or perhaps Lightning Bolt if they dropped out of RISD, moved to Brooklyn, and excised the math from their systems."

–Everything Is Noise

"Death rock, death metal, sludge, noise, punk, and hardcore are the genres covered across these nine tracks which, on paper, sounds ludicrous but the way this two piece approaches this amalgamation is nothing short of astounding and electric. The production trudges through the sewers and that’s just part of this album’s glory; it’s nasty yet holds a ton of fuck you punk energy, its fangs are sharp yet wildly off kilter."
–Nine Circles

"Inspired by bands like Black Flag, Rites of Spring, and Immolation... Unleashing aggressive, yet complex tunes in all their raw intensity and unrest."
–Rebel Noise

"Chain Gang Grave are dressed in the grit and grime of their home: Brooklyn. 'Cement Mind' is an unhinged creature that fires out a thumping hybrid of death metal and punk."
–Angry Metal Guy

"Energizing sonics that are driven by a raw lyricism... Chain Gang Grave simply abide by their own rules."
–Heaviest of Art

"For most people, 'Cement Mind' will be their first introduction to Chain Gang Grave, and it will be one that will result in fascination, revulsion, or amazement; and potentially all three at once."
–Heavy Music HQ

SATANIC PLANET - "Exorcism"

 

"This extremely creepy and excruciatingly heavy track called 'Exorcism' from Salem, MA’s SATANIC PLANET really captures the unique brand of spiritual terrorism the Church lovingly doles out on its followers."

- CVLT Nation

Stream the "Spine-Chilling Industrial" of SATANIC PLANET latest track, “Exorcism,” which features Cattle Decapitation vocalist Travis Ryan, via CVLT Nation, here.

SATANIC PLANET is the creation of Lucien Greaves (The Satanic Temple co-founder and spokesperson), Luke Henshaw (Planet B, Sonido de la Frontera), Dave Lombardo (Slayer, The Misfits, Mr. Bungle, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Cross), and Justin Pearson (The Locust, Dead Cross, Swing Kids, Deaf Club). With the birth of Satanic Planet, hip-hop producer Henshaw and punk provocateur Pearson joined co-founder and spokesperson of The Satanic Temple, Lucien Greaves-- the most prominent and outspoken contemporary Satanist in the world. Greaves has gained international attention as an advocate for religious liberty and the voice of the Satanic Reformation, delivering lectures nationwide and featured in national media outlets including  MSNBC, NPR, Huffington Post Live, CNN, Harper’s Monthly, Newsweek, Fox News, Vice, Salon, Rolling Stone, and many more. As the trio were diligently working, and nearly completed with, the music for their debut album, the worldwide pandemic hit, seemingly bringing things to a halt. However, with the onset of this new way of living, the newly-formed band was in a unique position to enlist the legendary Dave Lombardo, who found himself not touring for the first time in years, and suddenly having more time to work in his home studio on projects that interested him. With the addition of this iconic drummer, Satanic Planet was complete. Along the way, an eclectic range of guest appearances arise, including Cattle Decapitation’s Travis Ryan, Nomi Abadi, Silent’s Jung Sing, Shiva Honey, Eric Livingston (also known as his artist moniker, First Church of the Void), and Hexa’s Carrie Feller. This collaboration embraces the avant garde to create sci-fi sermons that range from doom and industrial to evil exotica.

Satanic Planet was recorded and produced by Luke Henshaw and Dave Lombardo. Mixed and mastered by Brent Asbury. It will be released by Three One G Records digitally, as well as on CD and vinyl, with four limited edition vinyl variants on May 28th. Preorder, here.

SILENT + Cvlt Nation

"SILENT’s new album Modern Hate is an extremely rich sonic journey that will empower you and make you think. I love the way that this band has Post Punk that speaks to the human condition we are all dealing with right now. Their songs soar while they take you into this sphere of dirgy rhythm that you won’t want to end. SILENT’s vocalist is an instrument unto themselves, fucking grand and full of feral passion. This band knows what they’re doing and how they want to be heard.” — Cvlt Nation

Listen to "Empty Spaces," a track off of SILENT's upcoming LP, Modern Hate, via Cvlt Nation, here:

https://cvltnation.com/silent-creates-post-punk-that-takes-a-stand-against-all-the-racist-supremacist-bullshit/

Silent was founded in Mexicali, Baja California in 2015 by Jung Sing and Alex Lara. The band released their first LP, “A Century of Abuse”, on Three One G Records the following year.  Since, they have only released a cover of The Cure’s “Prayers for Rain”, making this long-awaited upcoming sophomore LP their first full-length in five years. Silent has toured both the USA and Mexico, alongside bands like Dead Cross, Retox, Algiers, He Whose Ox is Gored, Author & Punisher, and The Locust. Silent’s music takes on various aural approaches, flowing between hypnotic, gothic and darkwave influence, as well as more fast-paced punk and post-punk, at times even crossing into the realm of catchy, surf-like riffs. Though Rocio chevez’s drumming, Rodo Ibarra’s (Maniqui Lazer) bass, and Alex Lara’s guitar lines vary depending on the track, Jung Sing’s (Maniqui Lazer, All Leather) vocals are a common thread throughout, consistently emitting honeyed grief: soothing but woeful, desperate and yet in no rush, perhaps calling to mind something in the spirit of a Mexicali-reincarnated Nick Cave.

 

Modern Hate will be released April 23rd through Three One G Records. Preorder, here.

Out today: KAUAN - Ice Fleet

Kauan's new album Ice Fleet is out today on Artoffact Records.

Stream the album and buy it, here:
https://kauan.bandcamp.com/album/ice-fleet

More info:

https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2021/02/kauan-ice-fleet.html

“As serene guitars give way to crashing devastation and back again, you’ll get more than a taste of the frigid allure of unnaturally still arctic waters and the building dread and horror found within... Kauan seems to exist just out of reach on the edge of a dream, where equal parts hope, wonder, and despair are all possible.”
–Stereogum

"On Ice Fleet, Kauan mastermind Anton Belov, lays down layer upon layer of guitars drenched in tape echo, reverb, and delay, meshed with a lysergic spectrum of synthesizers and Finnish folk melodies sung in Belov's trademark, cavernously deep bass vocals.  These parts are offset with unexpected passages of crushing doom metal punctuated by occasional black metal rasping... These songs evoke powerful feelings of solitude, cold, and resignation to fate. Ice Fleet is a stunning accomplishment and Kauan's most complete record to date."
–Metal Injection

"From sparse Max Richter-style aural depression to louder-but-no-less melancholic This Will Destroy You-esque post-metal to Supermodified-era Amon Tobin-ish jazzy electronica to black metal as desolate and frost-bitten as any you will ever hear."
–MetalSucks

"Vast, windswept post-rock that tells a story of frostbitten perseverance. Subtle folk influence and eclectic instrumentation help sell the epic journey."

–Invisible Oranges

"This is one moving, somber album... It’s as if they’re scoring the soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist."

–New Noise

"Even here in southern California, it’s hard not to feel a chill while listening to music this evocative of icy seas and frozen tundras. While those moments of climactic heaviness certainly arrive, it’s the haunting beauty that surrounds them that’s most striking about this album."

–Treble

"The transitions are textured and purposeful, and the atmosphere — cold enough to represent a record called Ice Fleet — also has breadth and malleability."
–The Obelisk

"A post-rock masterpiece. This is a kind of musical vision that distinguishes itself through its utter lack of compromise... A clear, focused, and unrelenting vision. In short, Ice Fleet is just fucking triumphant."
–Everything Is Noise

"The album’s not only gorgeous, but every choice the band’s made on it makes perfect sense in the context of its concept... It’s so rich and rewarding an album that, even after more than a month with it, I’m still making new discoveries with each listen."

–Nine Circles

"Above all else, Ice Fleet is an evocative release. It’s the sound of the distant wilderness, an icy landscape untroubled by humanity’s touch. Its freezing synths, melancholic post rock, powerful atmosphere and triumphant metal edge forge a unique and uniquely affecting album."
–Angry Metal Guy

"Ice Fleet, with its strong composition and performance, is a magnificent theatrical work in praise of nature and its never-ending mysteries."
–Heavy Music HQ

CHAIN GANG GRAVE + No Echo

CHAIN GANG GRAVE: No Echo premieres animated video for title track off "Cement Mind" album

No Echo has premiered new Chain Gang Grave's "Cement Mind," the title track off the Brooklyn duo's debut full-length album.

The premiere comes by way of an animated slab of eye-candy created by Brandon Gallagher (Trace Amount), using drawings made by Chain Gang Grave frontman Andrew Lanza.

Stream the "Cement Mind" visualizer, here:
https://www.noecho.net/features/chain-gang-grave-cement-mind

Pre-order the album, here, ahead of its April 16th release date:
https://chainganggrave.bandcamp.com/album/cement-mind

Gloriously raw and creepy, never predictable, Chain Gang Grave draws from a wide range of influences – its metallic noise-punk nods to Black Flag, Immolation, and many deep cuts in between. The band has been kicking around NYC for much of the past decade, releasing EPs and making a fan out of Mike IX Williams of Eyehategod, among others.

No Echo states: "The New York City outfit leans closest to hardcore, but that doesn't mean they also don't dish out Melvins-like noise rock, filthy death metal, and dissonant yet melodic parts into the mix at a moment's notice."

More info: 

https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2021/02/chain-gang-grave-cement-mind.html

KAUAN + Metal Injection

KAUAN: Metal Injection streams Russian post-metal visionaries' "Ice Fleet" masterpiece in full

One day ahead of the release of new Kauan album Ice Fleet on Artoffact Records, Metal Injection has launched a stream of the entire album.

Metal Injection's review of the album states: "Equal parts introspective journeys and psychedelic soundscapes... 'Ice Fleet' is a stunning accomplishment and Kauan's most complete record to date."

Stream Ice Fleet, here:
https://metalinjection.net/av/full-album-stream/stream-of-kauans-epic-mix-of-post-rock-and-doom-metal-ice-fleet

Ice Fleet is the Russian post-metal visionaries' eight album – an epic seven-song concept album built upon frigid atmospheres, post-rock melancholy, synth-laden rapture and metallic triumph. Ice Fleet is based on the true story of a mysterious fleet of ships discovered in 1930 in northernmost Russia, completely frozen in ice, crew and passengers' bodies grotesquely preserved.

Kauan founder Anton Belov invites the listener with these words: "Listen to the 'Ice Fleet' album and immerse yourself into a 40-minute long story of loss, discovery and the unknown. Hear the roar of century-old masts and the moans of those who were lost at sea."

To accompany the music and enhance the experience, the band has created a 40-page tabletop role-playing game.

Buy the album, RPG, and merch, here:
https://kauan.bandcamp.com/album/ice-fleet

Founded by Anton Belov in Chelyabinsk, Russia in the mid '00s (and since relocated to Tallinn, Estonia), Kauan have carved a special path through the underground, creating art that evokes the landscapes of its homeland and, in some cases, specific events from Russian history. By all accounts, Ice Fleet is Belov's most ambitious endeavor to date.

More info:
https://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2021/02/kauan-ice-fleet.html

Photo by Alina Belova

URWELT - Distant Galaxies Collide

URWELT: UK noise veterans (Ramleh, JFK) unite in new project; Sleeping Giant Glossolalia to release debut album "Distant Galaxies Collide"

Brooklyn-based label Sleeping Giant Glossolalia presents the June 4th release of Distant Galaxies Collide, the debut album by Urwelt. 

Pre-order the album and stream new track "Ancestral Gaze," here:

https://sleepinggiantglossolalia.bandcamp.com/album/urwelt-distant-galaxies-collide

Urwelt is the newest project of UK musicians Anthony Di Franco and Kevin Laska. Di Franco is a member of legendary psych-noise squad Ramleh, founded in the early '80s amidst the UK's early industrial and power electronics scene; he is also a solo artist with releases under the names AX and JFK. (Of JFK's brand new 2021 album, Avalanche Zone, NYC band Uniform tweeted: "An early contender for record of the year... A heavy electronics masterpiece by one of the genre’s most enduring artists.")

Laska is known to many as Godflesh's principal live sound engineer. He makes music via his own project, Transitional, with albums released on Justin Broadrick's Avalanche Recordings label, and teamed up on a split with Broadrick's JK Flesh project in 2019.

Di Franco and Laska first teamed up in the late '90s; their collab, Novatron, melded noise and drone and yielded one album, New Rising Sun, in 2000. Two decades later, the two are at it again: new project Urwelt picks up where Novatron left off and ups the intensity by powers of ten.

On debut album Distant Galaxies Collide, opener "Pure Celestial Eyes" sets the tone: demonic distortion, hypnotic loops, and a slowly intensifying synth-swell combine to create a vivid experience that absolutely dominates the listener for the track's entire 14-minute running time. Urwelt's combination of squelching noise and rapturous drone could be likened to a mix of Merzbow and Sunn 0))). The tones underlying the chaos transform the pieces into structured compositions that evoke terror, euphoria, and shades in between. As the album title suggests, Distant Galaxies Collide's soundscapes can easily bring to mind the incomprehensible expanse of outer space and although the sound is modern it is perhaps rooted in some interstellar landmarks of the late 1960s: Pink Floyd's psychedelic star-hopping and the sound design of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, to name two.

Di Franco states: "Our work has always been rooted in speculative imaginings of the universe's origins and the primordial forces that formed us. Primitive, tectonic, colossal and impersonal forces that continuously mould the universe around us. Atavistic traces of the primordial roots of the universe that lie within us. We conjure up imaginary visions of this and then try to create soundtracks for the visions."

In describing the visions behind Distant Galaxies Collide, he offers this: "The individual and universe become one. There is a union with the void. The hallucinatory sight of the inexorably slow inter-dismantling of colossal galactic superstructures, intertwining, destroying and then re-birthing within one another becomes an ecstatic projection by the individual."

Tracklist:

1) Pure Celestial Eyes

2) Zephyria Thorus

3) Ancestral Gaze

4) Distant Galaxies Collide

Lineup:

Anthony Di Franco - bass, synths, electronics

Kevin Laska - guitar, synths, electronics