Daily Archives: March 6, 2021

Reviews, Various

(review) NOFX – Single Album

Leave a comment

cover

Long time has passed between two Nofx full length albums, almost five years since First Ditch Effort and this new one. That was longest line(pun intended) between two Nofx albums. But, the band released bunch of singles in these last years, also that split with Frank Turner covering each others songs and that awesome Decline version with orchestra. This one was planned to be double album, but due to corona and shit came out as single album, hence the title of the record. Many fans out there wage war with claims that this new Nofx era is not so good as old school stuff. To me, quite the contrary, I mean, I love old school albums, but these new songs are so melancholic, dark, as in lyrics, also musically. With Karina Denike handling keyboards and backing vocals the band gained even more fantastic harmonies and I daresay darkened melodies. There are ten songs on this one, besides epic songs that I heard as singles and seven inches series in last years being I Love You More Than I Hate Me(that epic suicide video), Doors And Fours(my personal favorite, gives me goosebumps every time), Fish In A Gun Barrel being dark reggae song with dual nice vocals fitting perfectly to the lyrics about murder and death and nice saxophone solo, My Bro Cancervive Cancer, there are couple of anthems that I love so much as instant hits, The Big Drag being heavy and somber song and I would love to hear it live how it would sound. The band sarcastically covered Linoleum in Linewleum, making awesome video to pay thankful tribute to all of the bands that covered the band´s most known song throughout the years, so Nofx covered themselves and did it fantastic. Fuck Euphemism is another autobiographic song, which deals with themes of sexuality, freedom and expression of yourself, of course done in one and only Nofx way. Birmingham is the song most similar to old school stuff, simple and effective skatepunk melodic anthem just made for singing along to despite having dark autobiography lyrics about hitting bottom from drugs. Grieve Soto is a beautiful tribute to late legend Steve Soto of Adolescents and it brought a tear to my hardened punk rock eye while listening to this one over and over again Your Last Resort is another personal favorite of mine, sounding more like Cokie The Clown song than Nofx, with piano and Mike´s singing about loss of love and separation. I love the lyrics, I love the songs and vibe that they produce, this fantastic album which battles with darkness, personal demons and brings some kind of catharsis when you went through it and calls you for more.

News, Various

Aussie metallers LORD announce Undercovers Vol. 1 with Savage Garden cover.

Leave a comment

80903a64-7c53-4709-8d1b-8b40aac236da

Pre-orders available now through Bandcamp.


Long-running metallers LORD have announced their new covers album, “Undercovers Vol. 1” due out 2 April 2021 on Dominus Records. Featuring first single “To the Moon and Back” by Australian Pop Group Savage Garden.
 
Bassist Andy explains, “Covers have been a big love of ours since the early days of Dungeon right up to and including now. Over the years in LORD these tracks have ended up on limited edition releases, bonus tracks in isolated parts of the world and other weird and wonderful places. These songs have been scattered over so many different places that even we struggle ourselves to remember where on earth all of these songs can be found.
 
While bands around the world continue to navigate these uncertain times, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to release this collection of cover songs, as well as new recordings, to keep the LORD machine moving while we continue to write new music.”
 
Andy continues, “UNDERCOVERS VOL. 1 is the first instalment of amassing this ever growing collection of cover tracks that LORD have recorded over the years whether it be in the studio or on the stage. There will be many you’re familiar with and there will also be a few surprises. Of course, we couldn’t help ourselves and decided to record two new cover songs for this release, SAVAGE GARDEN’s “To the Moon and Back” and JUDAS PREIEST’s “Reckless” and we even threw in two covers from LT’s Blackened Angel project. Artwork has been once again created by the talented TRISTAN TAIT and a hand numbered limited edition CD release will celebrate the highlights from Volume 1 of our Undercover journey.”
 
Listen to LORD’s single “To the Moon and Back” from the upcoming album, available now on Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music.
 
UNDERCOVERS VOL. 1 will be an exclusive 23 track release available on Bandcamp as both a digital release and as various bundle packs that includes a T-shirt, and a CD that is hand-numbered and limited to 500 hand numbered copies only, worldwide.
 
Both the CD and streaming platforms will have a limited track listing, with Bandcamp being the exclusive destination to own all 23 tracks, which includes two covers by Lord Tim’s Blackened Angel project, as well as over 2 hours of Andy and LT talking about the stories behind the songs. The entire release clocks in at over 3 hours and 40 minutes. Pre-orders are now open.
 

PRE-ORDER HERE 

bb6c7f0a-14f9-4b25-b77b-99ec452432ca

To the Moon and Back (Savage Garden cover) – Now available via Bandcamp, Apple Music and Spotify

 
Complete Bandcamp release track list:
 
1. To the Moon and Back (Savage Garden cover)
2. Judas be my Guide (Iron Maiden cover)
3. Send Me an Angel (Real Life cover)
4. Of Sins and Shadows (Symphony X cover)
5. Message in a Bottle (The Police cover)
6. Shattered (Pantera cover)
7. Playing to Win (Little River Band, John Farnham cover)
8. Someone’s Crying (Helloween cover)
9. Hard to Live (Harem Scarem cover)
10. Creeping Death (LIVE) (Metallica cover)
11. (I Just) Died in Your Arms (Cutting Crew cover)
12. Reckless (Judas Priest cover)
13. Silent Jealousy (X Japan cover)
14. I Want Out (LIVE) (Helloween cover)
15. The Sun Always Shines on TV (A-ha cover)
16. The Whisper (Queensryche cover)
17. Touch the Fire (Icehouse cover)
18. Wild Child (LIVE) (W.A.S.P. cover)
19. Break the Ice (John Farnham cover)
20. Runaway (Bon Jovi cover)
21. On a Night Like This (Kylie Minogue cover)
22. Madhouse by Blackened Angel (Anthrax cover)
23. Night People by Blackened Angel (Dio cover)
 
LORD is essentially a continuation of DUNGEON, one of Australia’s longest-running heavy metal bands, with over a dozen releases so far. Their last full length 2019 album “Fallen Idols” was LORD’s best selling and best reviewed album to date, reaching #20 in the Australian ARIA charts and #2 on the Australian Independent Labels chart.

 

 WWW: [www.lord.net.au]www.lord.net.au
Facebook: [www.facebook.com/lordofficial]www.facebook.com/lordofficial
Instagram: [www.instagram.com/lordofficial]www.instagram.com/lordofficial
Twitter: [www.twitter.com/lordofficial]www.twitter.com/lordofficial
YouTube: [www.youtube.com/lordofficial]www.youtube.com/lordofficial
Spotify: [www.bit.ly/lordofficial]www.bit.ly/lordofficial
Store: [www.dominusrecords.com]www.dominusrecords.com

 

News, Various

Dens re-imagines Tamed Tongues with Facedown Records!

Leave a comment

bd8908d6f1887d702d7c495d2d79ef97ea628524

Dens have announced a re-worked version of their 2020 release re-titled “Tamed Tongues.” Read the band’s statement about the motivation behind the new project below.

When we planned for “Taming Tongues” to be released in 2020, we had no idea what the year would bring. On the one hand, we were amazed at how timely an album about being slow to speak and quick to listen would end up being. This year has further solidified our conviction that it is absolutely imperative to handle words responsibly, empathetically, and with a firm conviction on truth. On the other hand, an album release in the middle of a global pandemic was far from ideal. Touring? Nope. Festivals? Nope. Live music in any venue? Nope.

Since we really wanted the message of the album to be heard by others, we did the only thing we could think of in order to make that happen in a year without live music – We decided to write it again… this time with an altogether different vibe. In the spirit of social distancing, we left crowded parking lots behind and hopped in a van headed for backroads and a cabin in West Virginia, the place where “Taming Tongues” was originally born. It felt strange because we didn’t pack down the van with multiple guitar heads and distortion pedals, but we instead filled it with acoustic guitars, a bass and bow, banjos, a mandolin, a harmonica, drum brushes, shakers, and, yes, even a jaw harp. We retreated from civilization to combat the Covid blues by arming ourselves with folk instruments and a more tranquil mindset.

The product became “Tamed Tongues.” Going into 2020, we felt compelled to bring a message about godly discernment in our communication through intense melodic post-rock. Now, reflecting back on 2020, we felt compelled to voice the same message through reflective Americana. It is true that even foolish men are wise when they learn to keep quiet (the old track titles). It is also true, looking back on this year, that even foolish men were wise when they learned to keep quiet (the new track titles). Each song from “Taming Tongues” was recast with an acoustic bent. We tried to faithfully represent the meaning of the originals while also giving the listener the chance to experience the lyrics in a completely new way.

For those of you who are wondering – No this does not mean that we are no longer playing heavy music. We will be back to our usual post-rock musings on the next record. But “Tamed Tongues” seemed to be a fitting bookend to our lyrical declaration after a year of back and forth keeping tension on us. Perhaps “Tamed Tongues” will find the ears of someone who would have never listened to Dens noise otherwise.