Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genre: Hard Rock
Label: Stomp Records

Byron Stroud, best known for his work in Strapping Young Lad and Fear Factory, started this band from the reunion of Caustic Thought, and brought Burton C. Bell in when the original singer decided not to take part. So what ended up happening is a strange little bastard child was created with City of Fire – its a beast with a very diverse set of teeth.
Opening with the particularly catchy/nut punching “Carve Your Name”, a mood is definitely set for the album, and it’s obvious it’s not a cheery one. The music seems to be taking cues from death metal, with maybe a bit of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest influence (a nod to trad metal song structure/tone) or even Canadian hard rock from the 90′s (hm… strange that…).
There’s even some touches of Type O here.
Overall, there’s tons of stuff going on with various tempos, moods – usually angry or melancholic moods – and textures in the general sound of the album. A great thing about this is it’s catchiness. It wouldn’t surprise me if you checked it out and was singing choruses the next day.
At first listen, however, I hated this. I even wrote a different review that ripped this album all new sets of assholes. Then I listened to it again, and realized it’s pretty damn good. And that I shouldn’t listen to review material when I’m in a bad mood.
Favorite tracks: “Carve Your Name” and “Rising”. The latter s a great hard rock tune while the former is an angry metal song that will definitely get stuck in your head.
7 out of 10.

City of Fire on Facebook.

Record Marks Band’s First Full-length With Original Lineup In Over 25 Years

With a reputation forged in fire, brimstone and magic, Killing Joke have long been one of rock’s most iconic and influential outfits. Now, 30 years since first bonding in blood, the original lineup of Jaz Coleman (vocals), Geordie (guitar), Youth (bass) and Paul Ferguson (drums) are set to release their 13th studio album – the first fruits of a new worldwide deal with Spinefarm Records.

Set for release on November 16, 2010, Absolute Dissent found the aforementioned musicians sharing studio space for the first time in 27 years. The 12-track offering was engineered and mixed by Clive Goddard, and produced by the band. It will be released on various formats including CD, two-colored vinyl and a two-CD deluxe edition entitled Absolute Respect featuring a bonus disc with Killing Joke songs covered by Metallica, Amen, Helmet, Econoline Crush, Dead by April, Nine Inch Nails, The Mad Capsule Markets, Nouvelle Vague, Fear Factory, Foo Fighters and Kotiteollisuus.

Formed in London, England, in October 1978, Killing Joke was the brainchild of classically trained musician and vocalist Jeremy “Jaz” Coleman and drummer “Big” Paul Ferguson, who eagerly recruited two like-minded comrades in the form of guitarist Kevin “Geordie” Walker and bassist Martin “Youth” Glover and set about establishing a brand new and highly idiosyncratic manifesto for reinventing the rock ‘n’ roll wheel. Coming to life during what would become known as the “post-punk” era, Killing Joke were never willing to conform to the artistic restrictions of any particular scene or genre. Instead, they took a vast and bewildering array of influences and experience, and combined them to create something entirely unique and utterly timely that still stands up today.

Over the years, the band members have chosen to develop their talents in a variety of ways: Triple Grammy winner Jaz Coleman, for instance, has established an international reputation working with some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras, while Martin “Youth” Glover has become one of the UK’s most celebrated producers, supervising albums from The Verve and Primal Scream among many others, as well as achieving major success as one half of highly-regarded duo, The Orb.

Covered by Metallica, Foo Fighters and so many others, Killing Joke’s apocalyptic post punk/industrial vision continues to draw praise from such high-profile supporters as Jimmy Page and Billy Corgan, and the band’s considerable musical legacy can be heard in the works of Nirvana, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and the like – artists whose rise to fame never saw them cutting ties with the underground/alternative scene.

Once described by Paul Ferguson as “the sound of the earth vomiting,” Killing Joke are now poised to take their music of resistance to a whole new level, both in the studio and on the road. Stay tuned…

Track Listing:
1. Absolute Dissent
2. The Great Cull
3. Fresh Fever From The Skies
4. In Excelsis
5. European Super State
6. This World Hell
7. Endgame
8. The Raven King
9. Honour The Fire
10. Depthcharge
11. Here Comes The Singularity
12. Ghosts Of Ladbroke Grove

When: Friday September 10, 2010
Where: New City Suburbs, Edmonton, Alberta

The day that it was announced that Front Line Assembly were coming to Edmonton I started to salivate. Their first show in North America in like three years or something like that? Shit yeah I’ll be there. Wait, what? They hand-picked local industrial heroes iVardensphere to open for them? SWEET! And with the nice price of $22 per ticket, it was going to be a golden night. Too bad we had to wait for more than a month with our tickets in hand before the show.

Doors were at nine, with DJ Kaine Delay kicking the night off with a sweet set of punk and industrial, warming up the crowd for the asskicking that was to come.

At ten or so (I forgot my camera, which is also my clock) iVardensphere took the stage with some extra help from Booming Tree, a local pair of Taiko drummers, and a conga and djembe drummer as well. Instead of the usual hard industrial feast that we’ve all come to know and love from Scott and Chris, tonight was going to be extra special. A night of tribal, tribal, and a little more tribal was on tap, featuring a setlist that according to Scott was very much indicative of the new album. The classic Scatterface song “Bonedance” was still played, but with having more live percussion added to it, it was even more intense. A ten or fifteen minute jam was also included, which I think is becoming a permanent fixture in the iVardensphere show, at least here on home soil.
Oh, and just cuz I can tell you, I got a shirt.

After iVardensphere left the stage, it was quickly set up for the headliner of the night, Front Line Assembly, who came and quickly went for the throat. At the end of it, I wished there was more, and yet it was everything I expected and beyond. The band, for those that don’t somehow know, are legends in the industrial field, and were the birthing ground of several careers, including Rhys Fulber (Fear Factory producer/keyboards) and Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad). Right now they have members of Vancouver’s cyberpunks Left Spine Down (whom Kaine Delay fronts) rocking out on keys and guitar. And on top of all this, Justin Hagberg from 3 Inches of Blood joined the on-stage insanity to play three (ish) songs from the new FLA album, which he is also featured on!
It was like watching “How To Properly Play Industrial With Metal Overtones And Become Huge Fucking Legends Doing It 101″!
And again, just cuz I can tell you, I got a hoodie and a drum head that’s autographed by FLA, including J Hag.

In all: I went to bed at 2:30 am and was supposed to work at 6. I slept in and was 45 minutes late for work. It was so beyond worth it.

Genre: Progressive Metal
Labels: Armoury Records, Mystic Productions

The third CD in that package I got forever ago, Proghma-C sat, unreviewed (but listened to) for a long time. The reason why I haven’t said anything about it yet is simple: laziness. BUT ALAS!
Proghma-C are another Polish package of progressive perfection that will piss off your parents. Think Tool, with some Meshuggah, Portrait of an American Family-era Marilyn Manson, Fear Factory, and a fair amount of drugs. In other words, it’s out of this world. Throw in a Bjork cover, “Army of Me”, and wow.
8 out of 10.

Proghma-C on MySpace.

Northamptonshire, England: Fear Factory in the early morning hours narrowly escaped fire that quickly engulfed their tour bus while in route to London. The fire reportedly stemmed from a back wheel tire before spreading throughout the double-decker coach. BBC News confirms the fire closed down two lanes of the southbound M1 as Northamptonshire fire officials battled the blaze.

Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares released the following comment moments ago: “We had just finished playing a sold out show in Sheffield and we were on our way to London. Everyone was asleep except for two of our crew. At about 3:30am the bus driver noticed smoke coming from the back right wheel. He stopped, jumped out and noticed a flame underneath the wheel well. He tried to extinguish it but the flames were too much. Everyone on the bus was woken up by one of our crew yelling ‘Get everyone up and out of the bus.’ Everyone grabbed their bags and ran off the bus. We stood on the side of the freeway going ‘thank god we all made it out’ until someone noticed our merchandise guy was still asleep on the bus. A good friend of ours ran back on the smoked-filled bus and got him out just minutes before the bus was completely in flames.”

Fear Factory are currently on tour in the UK continuing performances in support of their latest album, Mechanize. The band completed their most recent American tour on July 27th to a captivated audience in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The following evening the band departed from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport for an additional three weeks of dates in the UK and other various European festivals.

Cazares adds, “our eyes are burning and we were all coughing from the smoke. Some of us lost wallets, money, computers but that’s not important compared to our lives. It only took about 20 to 30 minutes for the bus to be completely covered in flames. The fire trucks and the police finally arrived but it was too late to save anything on the bus. A coach bus picked us up and brought us safely to a nearby hotel. We found out only a short while ago that the trailer was saved where all our gear was. But the bus is just a metal frame on the side of the road.”