Hatebreed: Divine interventions
We’re debuting the new video from crossover icons Hatebreed! Honor Never Dies is taken from the band’s latest album The Divinity Of Purpose, out now via Nuclear Blast and available to order right here: http://smarturl.it/DivinityOfPurpose.
Jamey and the boys will be back in the UK for the following dates:
“Thrash, Gothic, D-beat” . . . From Hell can spin their sound any number of ways, but, the truth is, they are probably having a bit of mischief with a description of a sound that pulls in as many different directions as there are explodo-throat moments of fierce, faceripping freak-outery on debut album, Heresy.
Released on Jun 25th through Paper + Plastick, Heresy clocks in at a lean 17-minutes, and kicks off with “Nemesis of Neglect”, effectively a portentous intro, a mood-setter with acoustic guitar layered over some noise and a confessional movie sample that soon gives way to the scratchy, metallic über-violence of “Terror”. There is a lot of action on Heresy, but that Gothic influence, as quoted on their Facebook page, comes across to a degree on the downbeat “Crucifix in a Deathhand”.
As far as a bio goes, From Hell keep it vague: they’re from Detroit, M.I. and they mine a dark, unkempt metallic hardcore sound that calls to mind bands like Trap Them and Integrity without the reliance on the physicality of the former or metaphysical hugger-mugger of the latter. “Unholy” is short and sweet but it gives an accurate indication of the bill of fare.
Here is an exclusive preview track, “Unholy”:
Incidentally, you can download their demo from the band’s official BandCamp page here
PIC: JOSH GROUL
It starts with three hairy men and a fourth who looks like he could be a serial killer called Mute Bobby, all rocking out in the middle of a council estate, and it ends at night with them still rocking out, but without instruments. Because they have hurled them at a ten foot burning tower of fire that spells out the word POWER. Along the way there’s a piratical sea-shanty chorus chant and a bluegrass banjo break that sounds like Mumford & Sons being turned inside out. This is the video for Powerboat Disaster, and its creators, Baby Godzilla, will blow you a new arsehole.
Formed in Nottingham in 2009, the quartet combine Refused’s gymnastic intensity with the riffing dexterity of Queens Of The Stone Age, The Bronx and Clutch and the chaotic delivery of The Chariot and Blood Brothers. Their live show is death-defyingly brilliant. Baby Godzilla wreak havoc and wreck venues. They play gigs from the floor, the bar, the street outside. They hang upside down from ceiling pipes. They abuse their worthless instruments. Bruises, blood and broken glass are their currency.
“It is never planned or contrived – but it is all we know,” says singer/guitarist Matt ‘Butch’ Reynolds. “From the opening note of a gig until we collapse at the end, it’s all a blur. A total blank. At Rock City I leapt from a speaker stack twelve feet up across to a bar, then somehow landed on my feet, unscathed. We’ve not maimed ourselves yet. Touch wood.”
Beginning life as a grizzly garage-blues band with flailing drummer Tom Marsh and murderous-looking bassist Paul Shelley (“It’s his eyebrows,” says Reynolds, by way of explanation), Baby Godzilla scored an early sponsorship deal – handy when you smash so many guitars – and toured Poland, before guitarist/vocalist Jonny Hall joined. They became harder, heavier. More unhinged. It’s there to hear in their mini-album Oche, which slipped out largely unnoticed in January 2012 until the aforementioned Powerboat Disaster video blew up at the end of the year. Ginger Wildheart loved it – and so did Enter Shikari, who immediately invited them on tour.
“We’re doing this all ourselves so when other bigger bands show support it’s an incredible feeling,” enthuses Reynolds. “We’re up for it and the younger crowds are always up for it more than the old farts too. I get butterflies just thinking about the lives show we’re going to be playing – and all the people who are going to hear us for the first time.” Be afria-fuck it, be terrified.
Baby Godzilla’s mini-album Oche is out now on I’m Not From London Records
There are times when you need to strip away the blastbeats, the growling, the hyperbolic horror movie cover art, the hyper-aggressive posturing and just rock. Plain and simple rock. Clutch does it. Maybe they jam a bit, but the core is tried and true rock. Same with Zakk Wylde when he isn’t over using pinch harmonics and his trademark vibrato. He rocks, too. So, when ZED came to the blood-soaked and grime-filled Scrum room of the Deciblog and presented new album, Desperation Blues, we all—actually, just one of us—nodded in approval.
Formed in the San Francisco Bay Area, ZED blends the classic rock you’ve heard a zillion times on any “Z” rock radio station with the punch of, say, Clutch, the angularity of Rage Against the Machine, the hey-it’s-cool-man vibe of Queens of the Stone Age. Classic-Contemporary hard rock from the Left Coast, which for a Monday morning is exactly what most of us need to get the day going. Maybe ZED and some Coconut Water.
So, check out ZED’s Desperation Blues. It’s OK to rock with your cock out. Or, if you’re female, J. Bennett would approve of rocking with your tits out.
“We spent over a year writing and fine tuning these songs, finding the right balance between heaviness and aggression, groove, and blues. This album, to us, is the best of all worlds, combining our different influences into one cohesive sounding set of songs that pounds you while making your head bob and ass shake. This is the best work we’ve ever done as a band and as individuals, and we’ve set the bar for ourselves for the next album.”
** Desperation Blues is available for pre-order from ZED’s store HERE. The album can also be ordered on Amazon and iTunes.
Asking Alexandria: The UK’s bright young hopes?
British metalcore heroes Asking Alexandria have finally confirmed the release date for new album From Death To Destiny! Big in the game, ladies and gentlemen. Big in the game.
The long-awaited follow-up to Reckless & Relentless will land on August 5, just under two months after they blow up Download in June. Our prediction: all the hooks. All of them.
