Away Team

Northern CA based crossover veterans CONDEMNED? have made their new album available for streaming in its entirety right here.

CONDEMNED? will release their brand new album entitled Condemned 2 Death on February 11 in Europe and March 8 in North America. The album was recorded at Prairie Sun Recording Studios with producer Billy Anderson (NEUROSIS, MR. BUNGLE, CATTLE DECAPITATION, CATHEDRAL, EYEHATEGOD etc.). As an added bonus, the release will include a second disc of rarities from the band including their long out of print Nuclear Blast release Humanoid or Biomechanoid?.

Condemned 2 Death Track Listing:
(Disc 1)
1. Big Time Game Hunting
2. Aggressive System
3. Thoughts of Equality
4. Practicing for War
5. Crutch
6. Anti-social
7. Cavern in Mind
8. Cleansing Pool
9. Emotional Blurr
10. Crucified
11.Ocean
12. Save Thy Brother
13. D-Day
14. When Worlds Collide

(Disc 2)
California 2 Downunder
1. Intro
Condemned to Death 1983-84
2. Gartland’s Pit
3. Pain of Mind
4. Media Control
5. Dismember Me
6. Blood River (Scotty-VERBAL ABUSE/HOLLYWOOD HATE First vocal appearance)
7. The Assassin (Scotty)
8. Bang Your Maidenhead
9. Wired
Death Sentence 1985
10. Condemned 2 Death Sentence
Humanoid or Biomechanoid?
11. Big Time Game Hunting
12. Emotional Blurr
13. Crutch
14. A Cavern In Time
15. Icy Minds
16. When Worlds Collide
17. Satan’s Sandals
18. Tidal Wave
19. Face Yourself
20. Humanoid or Biomechanoid?
Condemned/Attitude 1987
21. Homeless Crew
22. No Boundaries
23. 3rd World Child
live-Senseless Death comp.
24. No Blind Power
25. D-Day
26. Deadly Euphoria
27. Big Time
SOMETHING SCALEY 1989-93
28. River of Life
29. Movement
30. Fool’s Fable
30. Outro

CONDEMNED? recently re-signed with their former label Nuclear Blast Records. As the second band to ever be released by Nuclear Blast the label is honored to be once again working with one of the groups that helped get them up and running.









For more CONDEMNED? click here.

DOWN — the New Orleans band featuring CORROSION OF CONFORMITY guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan, drummer Jimmy Bower (EYEHATEGOD, SUPERJOINT RITUAL guitarist), bassist Rex Brown (ex-PANTERA), guitarist Kirk Windstein (CROWBAR), and vocalist Philip Anselmo (Superjoint Ritual, ex-Pantera) — has scheduled the following dates:

March
4 – New Orleans, LA – The Hangar
5 – Maxwell, TX – The Cotton Gin
6 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
11 – New Orleans, LA – The Hangar #2
April
28 – New York, NY – Best Buy Theatre
29 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
30 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom

For more DOWN click here.

EDITORS NOTE:
‘Hopefully this trickle-in theory will mean there is a full fledged tour coming soon? How about we just announce ALL The dates already????’

The 2011 Metalliance Tour has just announced the complete line up for their already impressive and highly anticipated tour. The run of dates are now complete and will be supported by metal heavyweights KYLESA, RED FANG, HOWL and ATLAS MOTH. The tour organizers had the honor of having Brian Mercer also provide all of the visuals and artwork for The Metalliance Tour. He is best known for creating artwork for such bands as EYEHATEGOD, ZOROASTER, BLACK TUSK, LAMB of GOD and countless others.

Dates have officially been announced. The tour sponsored by Revolver Magazine, Loudtrax.com, Brooklyn Vegan, Mosh Potatoes Cookbook and Giddy Up! Sauces is proud to announce HELMET, SAINT VITUS and CROWBAR for its inaugural line up. “We are glad to be part of this tour; I think it’s a great bill. The bands I have heard so far each have a strong musical identity as opposed to so much of the generic, lowest common denominator music out there,” says HELMET front man Page Hamilton.

03/17/11 Dallas, TX @ Southside Music Hall
03/18/11 Austin, TX @ Dirty Dog / SXSW
03/19/11 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
03/20/11 St Petersburg, FL @ State Theater
03/21/11 Orlando, FL @ Firestone Live
03/22/11 Greensboro, NC @ Greene Street
03/23/11 Springfield, VA @ Jaxx
03/24/11 Worcester, MA @ Palladium
03/25/11 New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
03/26/11 Cleveland, OH @ Peabody’s
03/27/11 Joliet, IL @ Mojoe’s
03/29/11 Denver, CO @ The Summit
03/31/11 Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
04/01/11 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
04/03/11 San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine
04/05/11 Hollywood, CA @ House Of Blues

Legendary alternative metal band HELMET will perform their 1992 platinum-selling release of Meantime in its entirety. The Interscope Records release gave the band mainstream attention with songs like “Unsung” and “In The Meantime”. With the band’s renewed success after getting back together in 2004, this tour will be one of the most anticipated of 2011.

One of the most highly influential Doom Metal bands in America, SAINT VITUS are regarded as one of the first bands of the genre starting out as early as the 1970’s. The band featuring Scott “Wino” Weinrich, bassist Mark Adams, guitarist Dave Chandler and drummer Henry Vasquez have influenced so many bands in Doom and Metal . “Saint Vitus is more than ready to infect The Metalliance Tour! We’ve been wanting to do something like this for some time now…so prepare for destruction!!” says lead guitarist Dave Chandler. The band has done a handful of shows and some European Festivals but this will be their first full US tour in over a decade.

CROWBAR front man Kirk Windstein concludes, “Wow! This tour is gonna rule! I’ve loved Helmet since the beginning and loved St. Vitus even longer. With the new Crowbar record having hit the streets by then, look out! This bill will bring just what we need to crush each city with an avalanche of stylistic thunder!”

For more METALLIANCE TOUR click here.

ARSON ANTHEM — the project featuring Philip Anselmo (DOWN, PANTERA, SUPERJOINT RITUAL) on guitar, Mike IX Williams (EYEHATEGOD) on vocals, Hank Williams III (SUPERJOINT RITUAL, ASSJACK) on drums and Collin Yeo (PONYKILLER) on bass — will embark on a short headlining tour of the Southern U.S. at the end of January 2011. Joining ARSON ANTHEM on the trek will be fellow Housecore Records artists HAARP and WARBEAST.

ARSON ANTHEM dates:
Jan. 25 – Spartanburg, SC @ Ground Zero
Jan. 26 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
Jan. 27 – New Orleans, LA @ The Hangar
Jan. 28 – Forth Worth, TX @ Rail Club
Jan. 29 – Fayetteville, AR @ Drifters

ARSON ANTHEM‘s full-length debut, “Insecurity Notoriety“, was released on October 12 via Anselmo‘s Housecore Records.

“Insecurity Notoriety” tracklisting:
Naught
Foul Pride
Isolation Militia
More Than One War
Insecurity Notoriety
Pretty Like That
Initial Prick
Crippled Life
Polite Society Blacklist
If You Heard This You Would Hit Me
Hands Off Approach
Has Been/Has Been
Primate Envy
Death of An Idiot
Codependent and Busted
Kleptomania
Teach the Gun To Love the Bullet

For more ARSON ANTHEM click here.

HOUSECORE RECORDS hardcore punk act ARSON ANTHEM and MySpace Music are currently streaming the band’s entire upcoming October 12th release, Insecurity Notoriety, right now! Head over to the MySpace Music main page to be directed to the stream.

ARSON ANTHEM is comprised of metal greats Philip H. Anselmo (Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual), Hank Williams III (Superjoint Ritual, Assjack), Mike IX Williams (Outlaw Order, Eyehategod), and Collin Yeo (Ponykiller). The band was brought together in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with Mike Williams moving into Anselmo’s spare apartment after his home and possessions were destroyed. Through this connection, Williams and Anselmo spent time listening to Anselmo’s irreplaceable hardcore music collection. The members relived the days of early 80’s hardcore bands, such as Discharge, Negative Approach, Sheer Terror, and many others. It didn’t take long for the music to squash their cabin fever, and inspire them to create a new venture that is now ARSON ANTHEM. Anselmo knew of the underrated, yet unbridled percussion skills that he and William’s mutual friend Hank Williams III possessed, causing the contact to be made and the band to come together. Finally, bassist Collin Yeo was recruited, and the sound was born. “All we had to do was meet and jam,” states Anselmo. “Fucking perfect, fucking real, fuck all.”

For more ARSON ANTHEM click here.

As it turns out, the levees broke long before Katrina. In the ’80s and ’90s, New Orleans birthed musical lineages that would haunt the underground and rule the world. Detuned and devastating, they rose from the swamps and from the amplifiers of men who knelt at the altar of The Almighty Riff. Who toiled in their Iommic studies and learned those lessons as if their lives depended upon them. They populated and propagated the pedigrees that brought you the dope-sick sludge of Eyehategod, the cinder-block doom of Crowbar, the brash Southern crossover of Corrosion of Conformity (via North Carolina) and the platinum power-grooves of Pantera (via Dallas, Texas). That’d be Jimmy Bower, Kirk Windstein, Pepper Keenan, Rex Brown and Philip Anselmo, more or less. But mostly more.

For the members of DOWN, it’s home. Sweet home. It’s ground zero. For a state of mind beset on all sides by too much tepid water, too many pills, barely enough weed and never enough Black Sabbath. Yeah, it might seem like the only way you could draw a straight line between the industrial wasteland of Birmingham, England—birthplace of Sabbath (and Judas Priest) to the festering cultural bouillabaisse of the Big Easy would be with a pencil and a ruler, but that ain’t necessarily the case. At least not since DOWN have been around, which by all accounts dates back to 1991, when then-Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo and Corrosion of Conformity frontman Pepper Keenan would trade tapes and listen to the doom-ridden prophecies of certified Sabbath heads like Saint Vitus and Trouble as well as Pentagram. Therein lies the genesis of DOWN, the eternal brotherhood into which Bower, Windstein and (eventually) Brown were later initiated.

Which is to say Sabbath is pretty much the key here, the origin of the bloodline, as it were. As loud and heavy and stoned and powerful as you can handle it. The coda to the film in this very package tells the tale: “Bust Up, Tune Down, Sabb Off.” And as DOWN’s 2004 Ozzfest appearance indicated, the Drab Four smile upon DOWN like DOWN smiles upon their own many and misbegotten spawn: the fans getting their faces ruled at the shows on this DVD, the kids who started bands after being inspired by what they heard; the kids who aren’t kids anymore but grown-ass men with highly respected (and respectable) musical outfits of their own. The names are many—too many to mention here, perhaps—but they wear their DOWN t-shirts (and DOWN tattoos) with pride.

But we were talking about New Orleans, where the wards teem with secrets and crawl with ghosts. You can see ’em in the Clarence John Laughlin photographs that grace the inner sleeve of DOWN’s unstoppable 1995 debut, NOLA. The product of floods, sweat and beers, it was an album of wall-to-wall motherfuckers without a filler cut in the bunch. From the towering Vitus-inspired doom of “Temptation’s Wings” and thundering power-grooves of “Lifer” and “Underneath Everything” to the haunting thickly muscled swamp-swing of “Stone the Crow” and the ultimate reefer death-dirge that is “Bury Me In Smoke,” the album chiseled a template in granite like a headstone in a potter’s field.

DOWN played roughly 25 shows between ’91 and ’02, with Crowbar bassist Todd Strange holding down the low end with all 400 or so pounds of his substantial girth. But soon Anselmo, Keenan, Windstein, and Bower were crisscrossing the globe in their other bands, and Down was necessarily placed on the proverbial back burner, a “side project” that looked increasingly like a one-off as the years passed and the individual members soldiered through the hard-won triumphs and squalid tribulations of the lifer experience. And yet in 2002, DOWN emerged from their self-enforced slumber with DOWN II: A Bustle In Your Hedgerow—and with Anselmo’s Pantera bandmate Rex Brown now on bass. Not unlike its predecessor, the album unleashed gargantuan bolts of detuned lightning like “Lysergick Funeral Procession,” “Ghosts Along The Mississippi” and “New Orleans Is A Dying Whore.” DOWN, it would seem, were back, edging ever closer to something like full-time status. But it was not to be. Not yet, anyway.

The day of reckoning came in 2005, when DOWN reunited in the wake of Pantera’s permanent and untimely demise. The following year—that’s The Year Of VI in Down-speak—the band stomped all over Europe for six straight weeks while a crack camera crew shot the concert film you currently hold in your sweaty paws with a certain sense of anticipation that can only be satisfied by pressing PLAY. Performing sold-out shows across the Old World with no promotion, no record label and no opening band, DOWN tore new ones from Hamburg to Stockholm and back again, culminating in an unannounced set in front of untold tens of thousands on the main stage at the Download Festival in Leicestershire, England. What you’ll witness on the enclosed audio-visual extravaganza is the unvarnished (“sour notes and screw-ups included,” Anselmo tells us) deliverance of the fucking goods from that six-week excursion, the merciless reaming of an entire continent, and the true grit of five lifers in the Brotherhood Of Eternal Sleep.

In Cologne, Germany, Anselmo sends “Lifer” out to fallen Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, who was gunned down onstage in Ohio in 2004, “and all our other brothers we lost along the goddamn way.” There’s Keenan, a close-up of his grizzled mug. And that fucking riff. The one from “Lifer” gets us every goddamn time.

Nottingham’s Rock City gets a face-full of “New Orleans Is A Dying Whore.” Keenan and Windstein churn out the opening salvo like it owes them money, on twin SGs, no less. In Copenhagen, the lighters come out for “Jail.” Backstage, the living legends of Europe’s metal underground turn out in force. There’s Cronos from Venom in Manchester, England. The dudes from Witchcraft in Stockholm. The black metal trifecta of Fenriz (Darkthrone), Satyr (Satyricon) and Frost (Satyricon, Gorgoroth, 1349) in Oslo.

At Download, Bower’s drums sound like fucking cannons and Rex’s bass, bulldozing. It’s “Bury Me In Smoke,” the grand finale to end all grand finales—and a sea of thousands to match a riff a thousand years wide. It’s before noon and the sun is blazing, cooking all that tender British flesh to an angry pink crisp. There’s a pit … make that several pits. There’s a false start, followed by threats and allegations. But the riff rides out, steamrolling everything, transcending all. And then the band’s performance and purpose is cemented as Anselmo tells the swirling masses, “Live long, live legendary.”
These are the precise words DOWN lives by.
Good advice.

J. Bennett
Los Angeles, 2010

Diary of a Mad Band hits stores on October 5th, and features a 2 CD full concert, live in London! The DVD highlights documented footage marking the 2006 return of DOWN from the practice room through their first European tour, and a bonus behind-the-scenes featurette entitled ‘Tyrades and Shananigans’. The DVD closes in at a blistering 130 minutes!

DVD: Diary of a Mad Band
w/ BONUS DVD FEATURETTE ‘Tyrades and Shananigans’
1. Lysergic Funeral Procession
2. Lifer
3. Losing All
4. Rehab
5. New Orleans Is A Dying Whore
6. Ghosts Along The Mississippi
7. Learn From This Mistake
8. Underneath Everything
9. Temptation’s Wings
10. There’s Something On My Side
11. Hail The Leaf
12. Lies
13. The Seed
14. Eyes Of The South
15. Jail
16. Stone The Crows
17. Bury Me In Smoke

2 CD: LIVE IN EUROPE
1. Losing All
2. Lifer
3. Lysergic Funeral Procession
4. Rehab
5. Temptations Wings
6. Ghosts Along The Mississippi
7. Learn From This Mistake
8. Hail The Leaf
9. New Orleans Is A Dying Whore
10. Lies, I Don’t Know What They Say But…
11. Underneath Everything
12. The Seed
13. Eyes Of The South
14. Jail
15. Stone The Crows
16. Bury Me In Smoke

To pre-order Diary Of A Mad Band click here.
For more DOWN click here.

New Orleans, LA’s DOWN is pleased to announce three killer pre-order bundles, available for purchase now in preparation for their upcoming 3 disc (2 CD/1 DVD) release, Diary of a Mad Band, hitting stores on October 5th, 2010. All pre-orders include an instant MP3 download of ‘Stone the Crow’ live in Dublin! These packages are a must have for every DOWN fan!

• Pre-Order Bundle #1 - Diary of a Mad Band 3 disc (2 CD/1 DVD) set – $18
• Pre-Order Bundle #2 – Diary of a Mad Band 3 disc (2 CD/1 DVD) set with limited edition pre-order only T-SHIRT – $30
• Pre-Order Bundle #3 – Diary of a Mad Band 3 disc (2 CD/1 DVD), limited edition DOWN 3’x 5’ FLAG, limited edition pre-order only T-SHIRT – $45

Guitarist Pepper Keenan affirms, “The DVD is an in-depth look at what five boys from the wrong side of the tracks can achieve when motivated by the will to escape hard times, fueled by an unexplainable quest to destroy live and be embraced by the love of fans whom we had not had the pleasure of meeting yet. This is how it’s supposed to be: rock solid.”

Vocalist Philip Anselmo adds, “This is a semi-ugly glimpse into what would end up the perfect building blocks to a much more prosperous future! Raw, distorted, unpredictable, and with a freshly mended spine in tow, these shows were desperately important to us as a cohesive unit. Take this trip through the old days with us at your own risk, and don’t forget to bring some aspirin!”

Diary of a Mad Band features a 2 CD full concert, live in London! The DVD highlights documented footage marking the 2006 return of DOWN from the practice room through their first European tour, and a bonus behind-the-scenes featurette entitled ‘Tyrades and Shananigans’. The DVD closes in at a blistering 130 minutes! See below for a complete tracklisting of the set:

DVD: Diary of a Mad Band
w/ BONUS DVD FEATURETTE ‘Tyrades and Shananigans’
1. Lysergic Funeral Procession
2. Lifer
3. Losing All
4. Rehab
5. New Orleans Is A Dying Whore
6. Ghosts Along The Mississippi
7. Learn From This Mistake
8. Underneath Everything
9. Temptation’s Wings
10. There’s Something On My Side
11. Hail The Leaf
12. Lies
13. The Seed
14. Eyes Of The South
15. Jail
16. Stone The Crows
17. Bury Me In Smoke

2 CD: LIVE IN EUROPE
1. Losing All
2. Lifer
3. Lysergic Funeral Procession
4. Rehab
5. Temptations Wings
6. Ghosts Along The Mississippi
7. Learn From This Mistake
8. Hail The Leaf
9. New Orleans Is A Dying Whore
10. Lies, I Don’t Know What They Say But…
11. Underneath Everything
12. The Seed
13. Eyes Of The South
14. Jail
15. Stone The Crows
16. Bury Me In Smoke

If that isn’t enough for a rabid fan, a 180 Gram triple vinyl version with a bonus DVD will be available on October 26th! DOWN features the all-star line-up of vocalist Philip Anselmo (Pantera, Arson Anthem), guitarist Pepper Keenan (Corrosion of Conformity), guitarist Kirk Windstein (Crowbar, Kingdom of Sorrow), bassist Rex Brown (Pantera), and drummer Jimmy Bower (Eyehategod, Crowbar). Based in New Orleans, LA, DOWN boasts an intense domestic and international fan base. Their last album, III: Over and Under has scanned over 113,000 copies, and internationally, DOWN has seen staggering sales of over 1 million. Regarded as one of the most explosive live acts of our generation, DOWN is constantly touring the globe. Stay tuned for tour dates in the future!

To pre-order Diary of a Mad Band click here.
For more DOWN click here.

Amazon.com has set a an October 5th release date for DOWN‘s forthcoming double-DVD/CD, The Diary Of A Mad Band, via Down/Ada.

Down feature in their ranks guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan (CORROSION OF CONFORMITY), drummer Jimmy Bower (EYEHATEGOD, SUPERJOINT RITUAL guitarist), guitarist Kirk Windstein (CROWBAR), and vocalist Philip Anselmo (SUPERJOINT RITUAL, ex-PANTERA).

The Diary Of A Mad Band captures Down in all its sludged out intensity. This special DVD/CD collection features over 130 minutes of live video footage + a full never-before-released concert. The CD is different from the DVD.

About The Diary Of A Mad Band being caught up in legal issues, Anselmo commented to BraveWords.com recently: “You know something, man, I really haven’t the foggiest notion what all that crap’s about, man. They’ve been back and forth with this damn company so many times and if I said anything right now I’d be a liar ‘cause I don’t know. I’m letting the bigwigs deal with that. I really wish I could tell people. An honest answer, but I just can’t do it, man, so I’m gonna keep that lip zipped, so I don’t know.”

In a July 2010 interview with Altsounds.com Windstein said, “The way we look at it now is that we’re not downing it, no pun intended, but we’re so much better than that now, because when we got back together, Phil had only just gotten over back surgery, but it’s a very good representation of where we were at then and it’s a good rock and roll movie regardless.”

To pre-order Diary Of A Mad Band click here.
For more DOWN click here.

Legendary North Carolina-based metal band BUZZOV*EN has announced US headlining tour dates. The newly reunited unit will tour this fall for the first time in 12 years and is set to prove why it is seen as one of the most influential underground bands of the last two decades.

Many bands come and go, but few manage to leave their mark, let alone influence an entire genre of music. Buzzov*en formed in 1990 and made an immediate impact in the heavy metal world, quickly developing a huge cult following based largely around its dark and devastatingly down-tuned sludge-like sound that pooled elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk with lyrical themes of hatred, pain, anger, violence, addiction and depression. The powerhouse band is widely regarded for being one of the founders of the “sludge” metal genre (alongside EYEHATEGOD and SLEEP). Founding member Kirk Fisher – long the sole driving force behind Buzzov*en – has reassembled the band’s classic …At A Loss–era lineup with bassist “Dixie” Dave Collins (also of WEEDEATER) and drummer Ramzi for these special fall shows.

Over the course of its initial run, Buzzov*en released a string of highly praised albums including 1994’s Sore (Roadrunner Records) and 1998’s …At A Loss (just reissued via Emetic Records). The unit has also released a number of compilation albums on noted labels such as Alternative Tentacles (2005’s Welcome To Violence) and Relapse (Violence From The Vault, 2010) and its never-before-released album Revelation: Sick Again will see a 2011 release via Hydra Head Records. Buzzov*en’s volatile, out-of-control live performances are a thing of legend, with the band consistently walking a tightrope between precision and pure mayhem. Ultimately, the very explosiveness that made Buzzov*en so crucial was what ultimately caused the band’s instability, and the group split up in 2001. But the ghost of Buzzov*en has always remained, with long-time fans clamoring for the band to reform and younger enthusiasts remaining hopeful for a chance to witness the legendary band in its true glory.

In the time since the band’s initial hiatus, Kirk Fisher put together the “acoustic southern blues” band K. LLOYD & THE DISCIPLES (also featuring DOWN / EHG drummer Jimmy Bower and EHG / SOILENT GREEN guitarist Brian Patton) and has battled against formidable personal demons. His return to the stage after working to get his life back together after years of addiction and other problems is viewed as a red-letter victory by his peers and longtime fans. Now, Buzzov*en officially announces its return and will kick off its new life with a string of east coast live performances set to launch on September 25th in Charlotte, NC. These fall tour dates are but a precursor to band’s upcoming plans as a new studio album will be recorded and released in 2011, followed by larger-scale tour plans. Stay tuned.

Buzzov*en US tour dates:
September
25 – Charlotte, NC – Tremont Music Hall (with BLACK TUSK)
29 – Chicago, IL – Reggie’s Rock Club
30 – New York, NY – Rocks Off Concert Cruise Aboard the Temptress (with Black Tusk)
October
1 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar (with Black Tusk)
2 – Austin, TX – Emo’s

For more BUZZOV*EN click here.