Crustcake Picks - New Music 6/10

by cruscake gerf (NYC)

So, lemme tell ya what just happened. I was perusing my usual resources to see what new music is coming out tomorrow in an attempt to put together this post. I saw that Disturbed's new album will be out tomorrow, and do you know what happened then? I found myself unconsciously clicking over to iTunes and throwing on Ire Works.

I guess Weinman and Co.'s little PR plan worked, eh?

On the real though, tomorrow sees the release of Nachtmystium's Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1, and it's a must-have. Check out "Assassins" and "Your True Enemy" at the band's MySpace page and then check out the whole fucking record tomorrow. Unclassifiable.

I'm a bit torn on A Storm of Light's debut, And We Wept the Black Ocean Within. It's either a second-rate Neurosis knock-off or a fantastic record, and I can't decide which. I've been listening to it quite a bit lately though, so I'm leaning towards the latter. And even if Mr. Graham and his co-conspirators are drawing an excessive amount of influence from Neurosis, they're doing it exceptionally well. And We Wept excels at creating a dark, dismal nautical mood: creaking, groaning ship sounds and an actual fog horn compliment desolate guitars and anguished vocals in a stew of epic seafaring proportions. It's out tomorrow, but personally I'm holding out hopes for a vinyl release. Just look at this artwork.

Also out tomorrow, Pentemple O))) Presents:

In May of 2007 thee mighty SUNN 0))) embarked on a Pacific Rim tour. The lineup for this tour included the core sunn 0))) duo: Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley plus T.O.S. (Moog), Oren Ambarchi (analog effects and supplemental guitar) and vokillist Attila Csihar. Upon arrival in Melbourne, Australia, sunn 0))) invited one of their favorite black metal artists: Striborg over from Tasmania (!!!) to collaborate with them during their show. This unholy meeting went over very well and the inaugural ritual was a warm up gig at the Toft in Town club one evening before the larger gig at the Hi-Fi Bar (w/ brethren: Boris).

The results of this collaboration was a completely improvisational, vicious audio and visual assault. Striborg really blew all of us way with not only his wicked vocal invocations but also his incredibly skillful drumming! This was among the first time that sunn 0))) had worked with live drums and the outcome was completely unprecedented. The whole event was recorded live to 24-track/multi-track. Afterwards Oren Ambarchi edited, sequenced and overhauled the EQ to make it as brutal as possible. This blackened low-end psychedelic war is not for the faint of heart!

This cd release is strictly limited to 3,000 machine numbered copies. It's available from Southern Lord.

Our picks:


Listen: A Storm of Light [MySpace]
Buy: A Storm of Light - And We Wept the Black Ocean Within (Century Media) [Amazon]


Listen: Keep of Kalessin [MySpace]
Buy: Keep of Kalessin - Kolossus (Nuclear Blast) [Amazon]


Listen: Nachtmystium [MySpace]
Buy: Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1 (Century Media) [Amazon]


Buy: Pentemple - O))) Presents (Southern Lord) [Amazon]


Listen: Verse [MySpace]
Buy: Verse - Aggression (Bridge 9) [Amazon]

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Axl Rosenberg of MetalSucks Tears Dan Donegan of Disturbed a New One

Evidently, Disturbed and Dillinger Escape Plan are in a bit of a feud. We ordinarily wouldn't give two shits, but Axl Rosenberg has written up a hilarious response to the whole ordeal and we just had to share:

In case you’re not caught up on this whole shebang, here’s what’s goin’ down: earlier this month, Beat magazine conducted an interview with DEP guitarist Ben Weinman. One such passage in that article goes a little sumpin’ like this:

“When Dillinger find themselves on dual headlining bills, or festivals, they get to see the sadly rehearsed acts of other bands. Heavy rock cavemen Disturbed were soundchecking before an English show and Weinman was taken aback that they were ‘practicing where they were going to walk and when they were going to put their leg up on the monitor and pose. That was weird for us. There are times where I don’t even know where I am.’”

Okay. Fair enough. But now here comes Disturbed guitarist Dan Donegan, who, Blabbermouth reports, responded in an MTV interview:

“I never even remember meeting these guys, and I think we know anybody that’s even in the room during our soundchecks, so that’s shocking to me, because I would think that we would have met them if they were standing there during our soundcheck,” Donegan said. “That’s funny. When we do a bigger production, there may be certain lighting cues for certain highlights of the show, but I wouldn’t call it ‘posing,’ just a cue for our lighting guy, so he can add more drama to the set. If [DILLINGER] sold some records, and were at the level we’re at, maybe they’d see that, for bands like KISS and METALLICA, there are certain highlight points during a set that you want to focus on. If I’m going to go over to one spot and do a guitar solo, my lighting guy may need to know that, so he can focus in on that.

Head on over to MetalSucks to read Axl's poignant response.

* The above picture has nothing to do with this story.

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