A Day To Remember Release New Album Common Courtesy (Official Stream)

October 9th, 2013 by Luke

A Day To Remember have released an official stream on YouTube of their new album Common Courtesy. On the back of their big court case with the record company Victory Records, A Day To Remember have released Common Courtesy off their own back as a self released album. Don’t let the fool you though, this album pulls no punch, the band have done it their own way exactly how they wanted to and the result is a fine piece of work. Although I haven’t listen to it enough to give it full disclosure yet, it is still on first listen, a great record from the Florida state boys.

Because Common Courtesy is being Self Released by A Day To Remember, it will only be available for purchase through digital platforms through the bands website ADTR.com from Tuesday 8th of October.

About the court case

Victory Records Lawyer Statement

While Victory is disappointed with the ruling, and disagrees with the court’s conclusions, it comes as no surprise. Courts rarely grant negative injunctions of this nature, but the circumstances of this case presented a unique opportunity for such a ruling. Having said that, in denying Victory’s motion, the court’s reasoning actually contained silver linings that significantly favored Victory.

First, the court held that it supports Victory’s argument about the construction of the recording contract – that ADTR is still obligated to deliver two more albums to Victory — “at last equally, if not more so, than that offered by ADTR.” That is the core issue in this case and the only one that really matters in the end, so Victory is heartened that the court agreed with Victory’s position on that core issue.

Also, the sole basis for the court’s denial of the injunction was that Victory would not suffer “irreparable harm” that could not be compensated by money damages if the album were to be self released, in that it has ample evidence to prove its damages against the band (in the form of lost profits if ADTR does proceed to self release Common Courtesy).

That is, even if the band self releases it, Victory is likely to be awarded any profits the band makes on that album, plus additional lost profits suffered by Victory based on the fact that Victory would undeniably do a far better job at marketing the album had Victory released it, which is what Victory is known for and is the reason why ADTR signed with Victory in the first place.

In sum, it is a “successful” defeat in a way, and one which Victory welcomed because of the manner in which the Court rendered its opinion.

This case will proceed to trial, and Victory is looking forward to the opportunity to vindicate the baseless claims filed by ADTR.

– Robert S. Meloni

 

Aliases Showcase New Vocalist With “Exasperated” Video and Free Download on Bandcamp

April 25th, 2013 by Luke

Aliases (Formed by ex members of SikTh) are giving away a free download of their newly released single, “Exasperated” via Bandcamp. They have also released an awesome new video, with some very creepy twists which can be seen below. Exasperated features the band’s new vocalist Joe Rosser who I must say has an amazing set of lungs, which create some beautiful harmonies on this new 5 minute riffage fest. Speaking about Rosser as the new vocalist and addition to the bands line up guitarist Pin said:

“After things didn’t work out with our last vocalist Leigh [Dale], we put an extremely thorough process in place for selecting a new vocalist for Aliases. We had a massive number of applicants with some awesome talent come through. Joe Rosser stood out from the start returning amazing versions of tracks from our last EP, Safer Than Reality.”

Pin continued “When we met him we were all on the same wavelength as people, he seemed like he had been in the band for a long time. Next was to see how he wrote and so we gave him the track which has become Exasperated, he absolutely ripped it up. The guy is extremely versatile, has amazing pitching and rhythm and is going to bring so much to the band. This is the start of the next exciting phase of Aliases and it’s going to be hectic.”

The new video from Aliases has definitely put the band on the map for me the vocals really kill on every level.

Joe Rosser also commented about his joining the ranks of Aliases:

“It’s been great to bond with a group of musicians with the same sort of outlook on music as me. I think the moment we shared ideas we gelled together really well. Not only that but the fact that they are such great people to be around, we have become good friends. Working on the single has been so much fun.”

Rosser when on to say “From laying down ideas to progressing it to a full length song, it more or less took its course and the rest of the bend felt what I added gave it a better twist than they anticipated. Recording the video was insane. Lack of sleep, lots of energy drinks and a huge office block with a DIY bedroom set… It couldn’t have been more surreal!”

Rosser showed great admiration for the video director Ben Herbert by saying “Ben Herbert who directed it was so sound to work with and brought out the best in the ideas we had for the visual aspect of it all. I’ve admired the band for some time and never thought I could match the standard, but it seems this time I proved myself wrong and I am looking forward to a progressive future with Aliases. It’s gonna be a blast!”

Margaret Thatcher Dies: Welcome To The Afterlife (Zombie Thatcher)

April 8th, 2013 by Luke

Welcome To The Afterlife Mrs. Thatcher

This morning (8th of April 2013) Margaret Thatcher died after suffering from a stroke, or after a strike according to the epic typo from the BBC news website which can be seen below. I don’t really have much of an opinion on Thatcher’s politics because it’s not very easy to sort fact from fiction. A lot of people hated her, a lot of people worshiped the ground she walked upon. Having not lived through the larger part of her time in power an opinion I may have wouldn’t be very valid. But Soul Sanctuary would like to welcome Margaret Thatcher to the Afterlife, being our catchphrase and all. And wanted to share this awesome Zombie picture of Mrs. Thatcher in all her glory, eating flesh and swallowing souls. We would also like to dedicate our video Afterlife to the Iron Lady in her moment of passing.

Funny typo about Margaret Thatcher on the BBC News website:

“Welcome to the Cemetery, you’ll walk with grace amongst the dead. Living in a world that’s completely dead inside. Welcome to the Afterlife!”

What do you think about the death of Mrs. Thatcher, were you one of her supporters, were you one of her haters? Did she do anything good or bad for you while she was in power? Should we dedicate more blogs to famous people that have died? Let us know in the comments below. 🙂

Sempiternal Review: Bring Me The Horizon – Album Review by Luke Jon Gibson

April 3rd, 2013 by Luke

Credits:
Terry Date: Production
David Bendeth: Mixing

Bring Me The Horizon

Bring me the Horizon is a Metalcore/Post Hardcore band from Sheffield UK, currently made up of five members. Oliver Sykes (Vocals), Lee Malia (Lead Guitar), Matt Kean (Bass Guitar), Matt Nicholls (Drums), Jordan Fish (Synth & Keyboard). They have released four studio albums since 2004 when they formed.

Sempiternal: Review

Sempiternal is the New album from Bring Me The Horizon, which was officially released yesterday [2nd of April 2013]. Before now, I’d never paid much attention to BMTH, I heard various bits and pieces from their last three offerings over the years and honestly it just didn’t really grab me. I didn’t think it was bad, but nothing made it stand out for me. With this album that has been flipped on its head. I’ve been listening to this album a lot in the last few days, via their now “self-destructed” preview on www.sempiternal.info. I’m really impressed on many levels. I heard the band starting the move into exploring more melodic ideas in the predecessor of Sempiternal: There Is A Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Lets Keep It A Secret. But this time I think they took it one step further and to a whole new level. I made the decision to purchase it after only hearing the first few tracks, so I visited Amazon and bought it there and then. Sempiternal is probably the first album I’ve ever bought on its release date. Saying that, I actually feel quite ashamed, being such a big music fanatic and that until now I’ve never purchased an album on the day of its release is pretty bad. Oh well, it now seems that BMTH have taken my virginity on that one. I feel 14 again! 😛

CAN YOU FEEL MY HEART

Sempiternal kicks off with CAN YOU FEEL MY HEART which pulls in with a strange melodic “ah” sound cut into a choppy staccato melody via what sounds like excessive autotune. At first it struck me as odd, and didn’t sit with me well, but it quickly grew on me as an essential hook of the track. The first thing you notice about this track is that although Oli Sykes still screams in a hardcore style vocal, it’s been altered from the flat monotone sound that had never really got my attention, into a more melodic and much more exciting style. Even more of a surprise came when I heard him sing in a completely clean tone, I will admit I’m not familiar enough with the previous album to know if Sykes attempted any sort of melodic vocals there, but for me this album is the first time I had heard him stray from the path of standard hardcore vocalists. The track has an almost dubstep feel to it, which I can only imagine was helped along by the addition of BMTH’s new Keyboard man Jordan Fish. With booming synth under Lee Malia distorted guitars, layered with a thick dashing of autotune and halftime drums. Does a sense of Skrillex’s collaboration with Korn comes to mind? It does for me. This track has definitely been added to my list of favourite tracks from 2013 so far.

THE HOUSE OF WOLVES

The second track on Sempiternal is THE HOUSE OF WOLVES which is a much more energized track, with a punchy hardcore punk vibe to the opening riff. Complimentary fast paced drumming from Matt Nicholls soon kicks in and Oli Sykes comes crashing in screaming the words “Show me a sign, show me a reason to give a solitary fuck about your goddamn beliefs. I’m going blind, but one thing’s clear. Death is the only salvation you’ll feel” although I think “Goddamn” is slightly cheesy and might have been better off being worded slightly differently, it fits and shows the angry intention of the track and its anti-theistic theme. It lets you know Oli has got something to be seriously pissed about. The melodic style chorus really adds a great dimension to what could have been a pretty a straight forward hardcore musing. When the song hits the breakdown/middle eight with the awesomely catchy hook “And when you die, the only kingdom you’ll see, is two-foot wide and six foot deep!” You really can’t help, but want to sing/scream along. The track continues to rage until the end blasts out in a blaze of glory.

EMPIRE (LET THEM SING)

Track three is up next, titled EMPIRE (LET THEM SING) which introduces Mr. Sykes screaming almost completely solo with only a small amount of soundscaping to add subtle atmospherics to his tone. As the intro progresses, a distorted guitar is introduced slowly into the left speaker as it fades up to the climax “Let them sing, let them SING!” unleashing some almighty mosh pit inducing riffage layered with dark symphonic overtones that is sure to create chaos and cause injury to a notable percentage of their young and boisterous fan base. Littered with beautiful soundscaping and amazing production values this tune really gets the blood pumping and the heart beating, with a healthy dose of head banging for good measure.

SLEEPWALKING

The opening of SLEEPWALKING wouldn’t raise an eyebrow placed on a Linkin Park albumwith it’s reverb soaked pad sounds and futuristic vibe that is intertwined throughout most of LP’s music. In fact the whole song feels very Linkin Park even the vocal melody and lyrics hints at influences that make me recall fond memories of Hybrid Theory and Meteora from my teens. That certainly doesn’t take away from the sense of euphoria that it induces upon impact, oscillating the membranes of my eardrums. The sound is sweet and full of succulent flavour, I will easily say this is one of the best/catchiest tracks on the album. The hook “It’s like I’m sleepwalking” gets caught in your brain like a genetically engineered bio weapon, designed to be as infectious as the common cold and as deadly as a strain of Ebola. A strain of Ebola that’s having a really fucking bad day. In a word this track is simply “Killer!” if this was released in the age where we still didn’t have the option of buying separate tracks unless released as single, (i.e. the Internet) this track would be worth the purchase of the whole album alone.

GO TO HELL, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE

In my opinion Bring Me The Horizon have always had a clever sense of humour with their song titles and present many wonderful distortions of cultural references, although not strictly humourous, it certainly has a little tongue in cheek twist to the title GO TO HELL, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE. This is another great offering from the Sheffield based 5 piece. Another track with an intro that probably wouldn’t sound out-of-place on a Linkin Park album. Sykes voice comes in with his more usual hardcore style over some very satisfyingly punchy toms and bass pedal work. Then comes a heavy pre-chorus before dropping out for a short moment of silence, where only a gentle bass synth rumbles in the background while a soft spoken vocal leads with the very bizarre lyric “When did the diamonds leave your bones?” which I either don’t know the particular reference or is meant to be purposely cryptic and lends itself to a sort of Deftones-esque void of logic. A beautifully gritty chorus with a melodic scream “I’m burning down every bridge we make, I’ll watch you choke on the hearts you break, I’m bleeding out every word you said, Go to hell for heaven’s sake” is superbly catchy and infection. My only gripe in this song is the use of the word “make” instead of “made” not only would it have sounded better, but it doesn’t quite make sense with the first part of the line sounding like it belongs in a past tense. How can Mr. Sykes be burning down bridges he hasn’t MADE yet? Or am I missing the point, and it’s actually a very clever micro black hole in logical thinking again? Only the boys from BMTH could answer that I guess. Other than my meaningless insignificant gripe, it’s a great track with lots of energy.

SHADOW MOSES

SHADOW MOSES was the first track I heard from Sempiternal, I had no idea that BMTH was about to release a new album, but while scrolling through the limited choices on Xbox live’s music channel, I decided to give it a try. I was instantly taken back by the new melodic style that Bring Me The Horizon had brought to the table. A sound that I hadn’t heard from them before, and when the killer heavy riff kicked in I was totally hooked. I probably raped the replay button at least 6 times before my other half decided she was getting pissed off at me for being a hog with the Xbox controller. So I went downstairs to find the video on YouTube and listen some more. I must admit I did laugh at all the comments on the video’s YouTube page about Oli Sykes sounding like he’s screaming “This is Sandpit Turtle” instead of “This is Sempiternal” during the middle eight of the song. But if I’m honest even if that’s what he was singing it wouldn’t affect the quality of the track. Although nothing to really do with the album in terms of how it sounds, the strange effect used in the music video for this song did become quite nauseating after a while. Overall though it was a wise choice to represent the album before it’s release, simply because it kicks a lot of ass!

AND THE SNAKES START TO SING

This track took a little longer to grow on me than the others before it, not because it’s any less of an awesome tune, but after 6 seriously pounding tracks, it felt like the low to the high I was only came a little too quickly. But after a few runs through the album, it’s certainly found it’s place, and it’s exactly where it belongs. Bring Me The Horizons new reverb drenched ballad is by far the most mellow track on the album and is very rich with Deftones influences from the album White Pony. Surprisingly it’s mostly what sounds like Sykes impersonating the Deftones frontman Chino Moreno with his overly breathy melodic whispers. It all works very nicely, the only real bad point of this track is the some of the snare rolls sound very unnatural against the background. Probably not Matt Nicholls (Drummer) or the bands fault, most likely whoever did the drum replacements, was being lazy with recreating any of the subtle dynamics that Nicholls probably intended. That’s just my opinion though, as a producer myself I felt it made the drums sound programmed and very over-produced. Still I wouldn’t say it takes away from the song in any major way.

SEEN IT ALL BEFORE

Up next we have SEEN IT ALL BEFORE, Sempiternal’s eighth track. The band push off with a very mellow lead in, which lends itself nicely to the previous track, but quickly changes direction into a fast paced riff that has an almost 80’s pop rock vibe to it. Although I can’t quite put my finger on what. On this track Oli brings back some more of his Deftones overtones in his vocals. This song has a nice use of dynamics throughout the duration of its short and sharp 4 minute lifespan. The chorus has a sweet catchy screamed melody that compliments all aspects of the sound spectrum flowing through the listeners speakers. At the end of the song it drifts out on a soft passage which slips into the night and disappears into a faint echo, before flatlining completely.

ANTIVIST

By the very high standards of Sempiternal as an album, thus far. In terms of lyrical merit I don’t feel ANTIVIST delivers its message as thoughtfully as the rest of the album. Although it isn’t a bad thing to come down from your pedestal to say what you mean without remorse, or beating around the bush. The style of the lyrics sounds like they were only used for their apparent shock value. Obviously not shocking to anyone who is intelligent enough to understand words are only as offensive as you let them be. But to me it sounded somewhat forced, it felt like the sole intention of this track was designed to make the overprotective parents of teenage girls want to write angry letters, and post them to worthless newspaper columns. It lets the track down a bit, but that being said the somewhat cheesy, but still insanely catchy hook “Middle fingers up, if you don’t give a fuck! Think you’re changing anything? Question everything!” is a lot of fun to sing to. It still contains some great hooks, and the the carnage of djent style guitars after screaming the word’s “I think you’re a CUNT!” does have a certain appeal to my own inner rebellious child that likes to come out when I’ve had too much to drink. TMI?

CROOKED YOUNG

CROOKED YOUNG is another track based on an anti-theistic theme. This time it’s probably more obvious, with the line “Fuck your faith!” being a much more direct way of sticking a middle finger up at organised religion and the god fearing folk of planet Earth. The track comes belting in with a mix of Matt’s fast paced drumming and low mixed guitar work from Lee Malia and Matt Kean’s bass, which gives way to a classical sounding piece of string music complementing the instrumentation in a very satisfying way. After the intro section, the sound drops into a more classical sounding Bring Me The Horizon sound that many fans with be familiar with. The song slows its pace with sections of more reverb soaked symphonic compositions that add a lot of atmospherics to the songs. The lyrical content of this track, although still containing some elements of the shock value from the previous song, feel much more polished and well thought out. Eventually the song builds to a climax and then burns out like a candle on crack!

HOSPITAL FOR SOULS

The eleventh hour is upon us and also the eleventh and final track of the album. HOSPITAL FOR SOULS begins with a soft ambience that rings out under Oli Speaking about how hard it is to change, and learning valuable life lessons. The musical style of this number goes back round full circle with a dubstep style intro of slow thumping drums and bass overloaded synth that could kill a small rodent at fifty feet. Sykes showcases a fairly long scream (for him) of the lyrics “Watch me BURN!” repeated several times throughout. Although not more than about 5 seconds long, from the live performances I have seen of Oli, I’m interested to see if he’s able to pull it off. His screams sound great on record but live his technique rags his throat very quickly. The vocal has obviously been majorly tampered with in places, but it’s hard to tell if it’s just an artistic choice or not, the effect is littered on many accented screams throughout the entire album, so it’s more than likely it’s simply for artistic reasons. The track then goes on to settle down into a prolonged mellow buildup before the album chimes in with the final hook laced with gritty guitars and more orchestral overtones playing in the background, which add a lot of character to the soundscaping. Soon after, the track wraps up the curtain drops, the band takes its bow and as quickly as it had started, it was all over again. At least for now!

Final Thoughts on Sempiternal

I would personally put this album on par with albums like Hybrid Theory and White Pony, the latter of which is probably helped by the fact Sempiternal was produced by Terry Date who did many of Deftones albums. Although it’s hard to see Sempiternal as being the same kind of game changer as Hybrid Theory in terms of impact on the music industry. I do believe the quality of the songs is of the same calibre and mass appeal without pandering. If you don’t like LP that probably sounds like an insult, I could imagine many BMTH fans disliking the comparison, but Hybrid Theory was and still is a great album which brings back many fond memories, as I’m sure Sempiternal will for many, in successive generations. I think this album will stand the test of time far better than their previous works, but ironically only time will tell if I’m right. So we’ll have to wait and see. Overall I would give this album a solid 9/10.

What’s your favourite track on the album? Are you already a Bring Me The Horizon Fan? Or are you like me and feel this latest album is enough to make you change your mind about them? Have you bought their album? If so how do you feel about it? Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading guys, I know it was long, but I had a lot to say about the album.

Stay Awesome
Stay Metal \m/

You can purchase Sempiternal here
. Also go check out the official video for Shadow Moses below.

Randy Blythe Goes Free… All Hail Lamb of God! Acquitted of all charges.

March 5th, 2013 by Luke

According to the website novinky.cz Lamb of God front man Randy Blythe is now free to go home to the USA after the Czech court acquitted him on all charges. We here at Soul Sanctuary are very happy to hear the news.

Randy Blythe was originally facing up to ten years in prison on Manslaughter charges. Prosecutors had asked for a five-year prison sentence later in the trial. The family of the victim was seeking 10 million Czech Koruna in damages. The charges were based on an incident where Blythe allegedly threw the fan (Daniel Nosek) from the stage, who later died from his injuries several days later after being admitted to hospital, claiming he felt unwell and later becoming unconscious. But video evidence of the concert in question, clearly showed that he was innocent of the accusations against him.

It seems that according to the article, the Court ruled (and rightly so, I might add) that Randy was innocent of the charges against his name. In the final argument before the decision was made, Randy expressed to the court: “I would like to thank the family of Daniel Nosek for not attacking me in the press and for their kind words to me in this court. I am very sorry for their loss. Daniel was a fan of my band. I had no wish to harm him. He was just a boy and I wish he was still here. If, ultimately the Czech legal system sentences me to prison, I will do my sentence like a man. If I am to remain free, I will do my best to insure that conditions at this concert will not occur again with my band and other bands so that the fans will remain safe. I have searched for an answer to this situation. The only one I can find is that it was a tragic, horrible accident.”

Although the death of the fan is certainly a tragic incident, two wrongs do not make a right. Putting an innocent man in prison for a crime he did not commit, will not bring Daniel Nosek back and only serve to spread more hate in the world.

All hail Lamb of God! It’s great to have you back Randy!

Dude covers Necrophagist on a clarinet! Amazing

February 1st, 2013 by Luke

This dude is simply amazing, Every time I think I’ve seen it all, some crazy bastard pulls something like this off. Absolutely incredible. This is a full length cover of Necrophagist’s Fermented Offal Discharge. Which include the full guitar solo section too. BUT PLAYED ON A FUCKING CLARINET! A must watch for any metal fan. If you don’t like this you can suck my dick!

Stay Awesome!

Soul Sanctuary Biography

December 20th, 2012 by Luke

Who Are Soul Sanctuary?

Soul Sanctuary are a hard-hitting six piece Heavy Metal, Hard Rock hybrid from southern UK. British Heavy Metal FTW!

What’s their story?

A long Time ago, in a galaxy far far away… Sorry, wrong story. **Cough, cough** Excuse me.

About Soul Sanctuary

Soul Sanctuary formed in 2006. The band’s début album “Afterlife” was a completely self-produced/self-published record, released on the bands own label, Forsaken Memory Records on Halloween 2009. Afterlife has thus far received some very positive feedback from independent media some even calling the album a “Masterpiece” while others have quoted the bands front man Luke Gibson as having “A scream to match any of the Metal Legends”. They have also shared the stage with the likes of Sonic Syndicate, Guthrie Govan, Blowsight, Esoterica & Dave McPherson of the band InMe. The band and it’s individual members have also enjoyed praise from the music press with features in online publications such as Total Guitar, Bizarre, Devolution, Metal Hammer, Metalsucks.net, Bloody Disgusting, Metal Injection, Comicbook.com, Blabbermouth and many more.

In 2011 Soul Sanctuary released the Single “Lest We Forget” in an effort to raise funds to the victims of the horrific Earthquake that struck Japan in March of the same year. The band’s fund raising efforts received widespread appreciation from the metal community and was published in several news outlets, including The Observer. They even received a special thank you letter from the House of Commons. Soul Sanctuary is a big supporter of charitable work and consistently looks for ways to support causes they believe in.

Because of Soul Sanctuary’s relentless online promotion, vocalist Michael Burrough was head-hunted and hired by the band The Raven Age who were very impressed by his vocal ability from the single “Lest We Forget”. The Raven Age have gone on to play the legendary Sonisphere Festival and a two week tour with Steve Harris’s (Iron Maiden Bassist) British Lion. Many more big tours are set for the very near future too. During this time Soul Sanctuary have decided to take an indefinite hiatus from touring and live shows while Michael works on The Raven Age. But plans to release material online in the mean time are in the works and should commence soon.

Quotes from Music Critics:

“Afterlife is a delicious slice of modern metal, with verses meatier than a turducken, and a chorus more melodic than a canary on LSD.” – Bizarre
“This is amazing!” – Alex Herron (Scuzz TV)
“kick-ass… Br00tal!” – Metal Hammer
“Excellent. Driving, aggressive rock ‘n roll. I love it. Great vocals… Kick Ass Live Band!” – Wayne Thompson (TV Producer)
“WOW, I certainly wasn’t expecting this…Killer arrangements…you have a brand new fan!” – Beau Hill (Alice Cooper/Ratt/Winger/Twisted Sister)
“Ferociously felt and brilliantly played heavy metal 8/10” – East Magazine
“Musical Masterpiece 10/10” – Headbang Today
“A scream to match any of the metal legends 8/10” – Rock Sins
“Soul Sanctuary are less a band and more an invading army of metal!” – Total Guitar Magazine
“Afterlife is an exclusive piece of an amazing quality 17/20” – Spirit of Metal
“I Like Them” – Stuart Epps (Producer – Led Zeppelin/Oasis)
“The kind of metal that gets crowds jumping and heads banging” – SQ magazine
“Excellent musicianship” – Brighton Hotels

Okay, sounds interesting. What else have they done?

Where can I get more information?

If you are interested in purchasing any of Soul Sanctuary‘s music or merchandise, please visit the bands online store. You can get the latest updates from the band by visiting the bands News Feed or you can stay social with the band by liking and following them on their social networking pages on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & Reverbnation.