Harakiri For The Sky (AT)

In stance of nowadays Harakiri for the Sky have been a steady work in progress from the start. Founded in 2011 in Vienna, Austria, the aim of Harakiri for the Sky has always been to create a unique mixture of melancholy and aggression, madness and meaning, and wrapped in alternately manic/mellow songs that bridged black metal and atmospheric post-rock. The band was initially begun as a studio project by erstwhile Bifröst member M. S. joined by vocalist/lyricist J. J., and has recently been expanded to a live lineup. With that lineup secured, Harakiri for the Sky then embarked upon four successful European tours with the likes of A Forest of Stars, Der Weg Einer Freiheit, and Agrypnie among others, encompassing over 20 countries to date. Now prepared to release the masterwork III: Trauma, Harakiri for the Sky will take this volatile-yet-beautiful new concoction on the road for the remainder of 2016: massive sound-walls and the barest of emotions await!

De Doden Hebben het Goed is Wiegedood’s debut album, but we can hardly call this a debuting band. The band members have already proven their worth in other acts like Amenra, Oathbreaker, Hessian, Rise and Fall… This is surely an interesting gathering of musicians that immediately raises high expectations. And they deliver. Big time. Against all expectations, the result of this collaboration has nothing to do with post metal, sludge or hardcore. In stead, Wiegedood treats us to a relentless onslaught of atmospheric black metal. The music might be categorized in vain of the cascadian black metal wave from the US, but they bring their European twist into the mix. The title De Doden Hebben het Goed covers the album perfectly: it’s a very bleak take on extreme metal music, but never loses touch with the band members’ other projects.

Hailing from NYC, Mutilation Rites is an ever-evolving black metal band, taking influences from thrash, crust, doom, and death metal. The band whose subject matter touches on depression, human suffering, the apocalypse, and despair, was conceived by guitarist Michael Dimmitt and drummer Justin Ennis in 2009 and since then the quartet has put out two singles, two eps, and two full lengths on Gilead Media, Prosthetic Records and Forcefield Records, and is currently working on its third full length to be put out by Gilead Media in the U.S. and Argento Records in Europe in late 2016. Having replaced Justin with the ferocity of Tyler Coburn from Yautja's drumming, the band has reinvented its sound. The new material is faster, less doomy, more death metal-influenced and overall more relentless and brutal, a noticeable deviation from the previous Mutilation Rites sound. Add the dual vocal attack of bassist Ryan Jones's throat graveling death metal vocals and second guitarist George Paul's tortured black metal howls bedded on top black and death metal riffs it will be their most brutal release to date. Mutilation Rites has toured tirelessly around the US with acts such as Full of Hell, Skeletonwitch, Inter Arma, Black Breath and played SXSW, Maryland Death Fest (with Immolation and Diocletian), Berzerker Fest, Burning Light Fest (Portugal), New England Hardcore Metal Fest (with Anthrax and Exodus), Messe de Morts Festival (Montreal), Death on the Vine (with Napalm Death and Cannibal Corpse), two Gilead Media Fests, the 2016 Migration Fest and did one previous European tour with Hierophant.