Tonight - REFLECTIONS Album Release Show and Tour Kick-Off in Burnsville, NIK TURNER'S HAWKWIND in St. Paul

I recently had a post with updates on the activities of Reflections, the Twin Cities-based technical metalcore band that is set to explore with the release of their new album Exi(s)t, which is being released through eOne/Good Fight this Tuesday, October 22. The start of their co-headling tour with Erra happens right here in Burnsville tonight, October 19 at The Garage with local support from Don't Worry I'm A Doctor. This is the official album release show, so copies of Exi(s)t should be available tonight for purchase. It's an early (5:00 doors) all ages show, and tickets are $12 at the door.

Also tonight, Nik Turner of Hawkwind and Space Ritual fame, will be playing at the Turf Club in St. Paul. There's a strong argument to be made that Nik is one of the most influential pioneers of psychedelic space rock. Now over 70 years old, Nik is out promoting a new solo album called Space Gypsy. I've seen this show billed as Nik Turner's Hawkwind and Nik Turner's Space Ritual, but regardless of what it's called, I'm sure you can expect to hear a mix of material from those two bands alongside other selections from Nik's vast recorded catalog. This is a 21+ show that starts at 9:00 with support from Thunderbolt Pagoda and Hedersleben; tickets are $12 at the door. Interesting trivia: cult doom/stoner band Sleep supported Nik Turner's Hawkwind way back on the Holy Mountain tour!

Lastly, Soul Asylum plays First Avenue in Minneapolis tonight with Fountains Of Wayne and Evan Dando. This is an 18+ show that starts at 8:00; tickets are $30 at the door. Yeah, Soul Asylum is a far cry from metal, but they were instrumental in the early 80s hardcore scene in the Twin Cities and deserve respect for that.

Concert Calendar Fixed, Now at Bottom of Screen

Apparently there were some changes in Google Calendar that had broken the code for the proper display of the Twin Cities Metal Concert Calendar that had long been on the right hand side of the screen as a list. After exploring some alternative configurations, I decided to change the format and layout of the calendar.

The Concert Calendar is now located at the bottom of the page, rather than the side. I've changed it to a monthly calendar view. Clicking on any of the events will give you a little pop-up balloon that will show all of the pertinent details about the show: the full list of bands, venue name and address, any age restriction, show time, and ticket information.

While its location at the bottom of the page isn't ideal from my point of view, I think the monthly calendar view is a big improvement, especially with the ability to quickly view individual show details.

New Band - ASTRAL BLOOD

Wednesday night I witnessed the performance of a great new local band called Astral Blood to whom I wanted to draw some attention. The band describes their sound as "esoteric black metal", which is a succinct description as any. Consisting as a trio of Alexander (guitar/vocals), Justin (keyboards), and Andrew (drums), Astral Blood delivers cold, atmospheric black metal as long songs that leave room for plenty of experimentation and variation between dark, ambient passages and ripping, buzzsaw fury. Their lack of a bassist is certainly odd, but it works, and it allows Astral Blood to achieve a sound that isn't so dense as to drown out the music's subtleties.

Wednesday's show supporting Tesseract, Scale The Summit, and Anciients was only their second show as a full band! I spoke with Justin for a few minutes after the show, and Astral Blood expects to release some music soon while getting more live shows under their belts. Go learn more about Astral Blood at their Facebook and Bandcamp pages. If you're curious about their music, here's the audio and video of their last song from Wednesday's show (October 16) available to download. Although the sound is excellent, the quality of the video is, unfortunately, low - that's what happens when you forget to check the recording settings (oops). Anyways, these give you an idea of how this great new band sounds. A list of their upcoming shows follows.

Astral Blood - Audio and video downloads
2013-10-16, Minneapolis, MN, Skyway Theater Studio B
Last song (8:55): mp3@192 kbps (12.25 MB) or mov (346.3 MB)

October 28 - Minneapolis, MN, Memory Lanes, w/Deretla, Invidiosus, We Are Legion
October 31 - Minneapolis, MN, The Terminal Bar, w/Pestifere, Invidiosus, Plagued Insanity
November 3 - Minneapolis, MN, Blue Nile, w/Masshu, LocKGnar, Plagued Insanity, The Progenitors
November 9 - St. Paul, MN, Big V's Saloon, w/Under Eden, Invidiosus, Dissident Clone

STEEL PANTHER Announces Select U.S. Dates, Minneapolis December 17, Presale Ticket Password

Joke glam band Steel Panther has announced a few U.S. tour dates for the month of December, starting with a concert right here in Minneapolis on Tuesday, December 17 at First Avenue. These shows come in advance of the release of the band's fourth album (if you count Hole Patrol), All You Can Eat, set for release in the first quarter of 2014. The last two Steel Panther shows here sold out quick, so get tickets right away when they go on sale tomorrow, Friday, October 18 at 12:00 noon. You can buy presale tickets for the Minneapolis show right now through etix - the password is "ali".

Here's the current list of Steel Panther dates in December:

December 17 - Minneapolis, MN, First Avenue
December 20 - Chicago, IL, House Of Blues
December 21 - Royal Oak, MI, Royal Oak Music Theatre
December 22 - Cincinnati, OH, Bogart's
December 31 - Vancouver, BC, Commodore Ballroom

Concert Review - KILLER DWARFS

Killer Dwarfs/Modern Superstar/Electric Eye

Sunday, September 14, 2013

Pov’s 65, Spring Lake Park, MN

This being my first time at Pov’s 65 I got to the club early to check it out. Fortunately I caught local Judas Priest tribute band Electric Eye, who hands down is the best tribute band I’ve seen since the Ralph Saenz-fronted Atomic Punks. These guys have got it all down – twin guitars laying down all the riffs and solos with machine-line precision, a rock-solid rhythm section, and yes, a leather-clad vocalist that can pull off Rob Halford’s vocal gymnastics seemingly without effort. Their sound was punishingly loud, and it only added to the impressive hour-long assault of older Priest tunes like “Metal Gods”, “Rock Hard Ride Free”, “Beyond The Realms Of Death”, and a re-worked version of “Turbo Lover” without the guitar synthesizers. Definitely catch Electric Eye playing around town when you can!

Florida-based Modern Superstar was up next and did little to excite the crowd that remained dispersed around the vast bar area of the club. These guys are trying hard to create a modern hard rock sound, but most of their songs simply lack the hooks and catchy riffs. They only played two songs from their 2011 debut album Under My Skin (“Blue” and “Devil’s Playground”), instead relying heavily on new material from the yet-to-be released second album, such as “Two Months”, “Love Is Crazy”, and “Burning Pages”. New singer Chris Nichols seems to be a good fit for the band, and he carries himself with good stage presence. I admire Modern Superstar’s strong DIY efforts and whatever-it-takes attitude, and despite my negativity they do show some potential.

Everyone was here for Killer Dwarfs, and the stage area filled up in anticipation of this underappreciated Canadian band. Proving this wasn’t some half-baked reunion tour, the band stormed the stage with an explosive version of “Stand Tall” that led right into “Hard Luck Town”. Vocalist Russ Dwarf then began to take his time chatting with the crowd in introducing “Believe In Me” and “Last Laugh” before things slowed down with “Driftin’ Back”, which included acoustic guitarwork from Russ. “Union Of Pride” was the only song played from Big Deal, and the second half of the set focused on selections from the Dirty Weapons album (“Doesn’t Matter”, “Nothin’ Gets Nothin’”, and “Comin’ Through”). Russ expressed his disdain for bands playing new material that the audience doesn’t know, so the title track was sole track aired from the new Start @ One album. Rock anthem “Keep The Spirit Alive” closed out the set, but of course the crowd was clamoring for “Dirty Weapons”, for which the band returned to play as the encore.

Although the crowd was small, this is one of the most enthusiastic reactions I’ve seen in a while from the audience. Despite their long absence, Killer Dwarfs have clearly maintained a strong connection with their fan base. A large part of the crowd stuck around and waited for the band to drag their merchandise into the venue, and used to opportunity to chat with the band and take pictures with them for nearly an hour. The entire band’s performance was stellar, but Russ really stole the show as he ran around the stage, collapsed, and did somersaults like a kid on an arena stage for the first time. Hopefully this won’t be the last time we see Killer Dwarfs in the States! Their amazing show once again left me pondering how it could be that Killer Dwarfs never achieved any mainstream recognition.

Check back soon for a post-show interview with vocalist Russ Dwarf!

Album Review - TESSERACT

Tesseract – Altered State

Century Media, 2013

9/10

Altered State follows the release of one previous album and two EPs from this English progressive metal band, and despite new singer Ashe O’Hara being the third vocalist across this output Tesseract has delivered an outstanding album that should earn them a place among the prog elite. More thoughtful and introspective than technical and flashy, Altered State occupies a musical space somewhere between the melodic beauty of the 90s output of Fates Warning and the rhythmic, modern vibe of Karnivool. The album is divided into four multi-song movements that seem to have more a lyrical than musical thread between them. Songwriting is the major strength of Altered State, rather than the performance of any individual band member. Strong from start to finish, Altered State is the type of album that commands attention through out its entirety. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact reasons why the album doesn’t score a 10, but it would have to be distilled down to the fact that there is not a single song that demands inspiring passion which creates a bond with the listener. For example, “All I Know” and “Goliath” draw me to Karnivool’s Sound Awake, and I can’t listen to the album without hearing those songs. While there’s not a bad song to be found on Altered State, I’ve yet to be so enraptured by one to the point that my listening experience feels incomplete without it. That said, the last 2–3 years have been incredible for the growth of progressive rock and metal, and Tesseract deserve a place alongside the burgeoning list of young bands that are poised to lead the field into the future. Tesseract has released an album or EP in each of the last four years, and I hope they keep up this pace of output for I’m eager to hear further developments to their sound.

Tesseract performs tonight, Wednesday, October 16 at Skyway Theater Studio B in Minneapolis with support from Scale The Summit and Anciients.

IKEA or Death

Links to this site have been making the rounds on various forums, so I thought I'd encourage you to check this out. IKEA or Death is a satirical online quiz that was spawned by the astute observation that "the names of the furniture in IKEA sound a lot like the names of black metal bands." Yes, you are given a name that is either an item from the IKEA catalog or a death or black metal band. I was a little disappointed that I only got 16 of 20 questions correct, and I was hoping that I'd get bonus points for knowing the sound clip that's used when a band is the correct answer (it's "Lost Wisdom" from Burzum).

VULGAARI to Play Darkness Day 2013

Vulgaari, courtesy of the band's Facebook page

I've been trying for weeks to find out what bands are going to be playing Darkness Day at Surly Brewing in Brooklyn Park on Saturday, October 26, and so far the only confirmed information I've been able to gather is that Vulgaari will be playing. Surly's Head Brewer and Powermad guitarist Todd Haug is now playing guitar in Vulgaari. I'll post more details about bands playing Darkness Day as soon it's confirmed.

Todd Haug, Head Brewer of Surly and guitarist of Powermad and Vulgaari.

Darkness Day, for the unaware, is the annual festival held at Surly to celebrate the release of their widely lauded and limited-issue Russian imperial stout lager, Darkness. If you live in the Twin Cities this is the best (and most fun) place to get your hands on this highly sought-after beer. This year's label design for the bottles is below.

All Media Reviews Blog

I've added a newly discovered Twin Cities-based music blog called All Media Reviews to the Blogroll that I wanted to briefly mention. All Media Reviews features news, concert information, opinions, and some reviews about a wide range of music, not just metal. Go take a look and bookmark the site (and this one if you haven't already!).

I met the publisher last night at the Between The Buried And Me concert at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis (a review of the show will be forthcoming!). As I was walking back to the bar after The Contortionist finished their set, he stopped me to compliment my Karnivool shirt. He had an Anathema shirt from their show in Minneapolis last month, so we struck up a good conversation about progressive metal until The Faceless drowned out further talk. It was immediately obvious that he is extremely passionate, knowledgeable, and opinionated about music. Readers here would probably appreciate what he's doing at All Media Reviews so head on over there and check out the blog.

REFLECTIONS Update: New Tour Dates (Including Burnsville), New Album Released October 22

Reflections performing April 9, 2013 at Station 4 in St. Paul. A review of this show is here, and you can download the audio from the entire show here, where they played another new song, "Delirium".

It's been a while since my last update on the Twin Cities' own progressive metalcore giants-to-be Reflections, so here's a summary of their current activities. Their second album, and debut for eOne/Good Fight, Exi(s)t, was finished August 1 and will be released October 22. Exi(s)t is available for pre-order now through various digital and physical media outlets. The first single, "My Cancer", is available now through iTunes and it has already reached the #5 position on the iTunes Metal Chart; the official lyric video for "My Cancer" can be viewed below (it has gotten over 300,000 views in 1 month!). You can also listen to a second song from from Exi(s)t, "Bridges", through Soundcloud and watch guitarists Patrick Comoulay and Charles Caswell do a play-through in the video posted at GuitarWorld (both below).

Eyal Levi, producer of Exi(s)t and partner of Audio Hammer Studios, participated in an AMA on reddit last month and had the following to say about recording the album; he had special praise for Reflections drummer Cam Murray:

Reflections drummer Cam Murray (originally posted on the band's Facebook page)

"..the whole 'holy sh*t' feeling started when we were tracking drums because their drummer Cam is a human computer. That holds the record for being my fastest drum session ever for a real album. And not because we were cutting corners. It's because he was playing great!"

"...he was 17 when we tracked. He actually had to leave the studio to go finish high school."

"...he is the fastest drummer I've ever worked with in terms of speed of tracking. I don't mean bpm. He's pretty quick there too though. I'm very curious to see where he takes it in the next five years. If he sticks to it I think he could be one of the top drummers in not only brutal metal, but in any style that requires intense and dynamic drumming."

Lastly, Reflections has added a third mini-tour of the U.S. with co-headliner Erra to coincide with the release of Exi(s)t. Following this, they have three shows supporting Born Of Osiris before heading out with Within The Ruins, Sworn In, and Legion. One of the newly added shows is the kickoff of the tour with Erra which happens right here in Burnsville at The Garage on Saturday, October 19 (all ages). Locals Don't Worry I'm A Doctor open the Burnsville show; advance tickets are $10, and you can also order a ticket combo package for only $16 that will also get you a copy of Exi(s)t at the show three days before it's released! The current list of complete Reflections tour dates are below.

With Erra:

October 19 – Burnsville, MN, The Garage, w/Don’t Worry I’m A Doctor

October 20 – Lawrence, KS, The Bottleneck

October 22 – Austin, TX, Dirty Dog Bar, w/The Browning

October 23 – Tyler, TX, Crossroads

October 24 – Tupelo, MS, Goodtime Charlies

October 25 – Birmingham, AL, The Forge

October 26 – Douglasville, GA, BBQ Fest, w/We Came As Romans, Silverstein, others

October 27 – Cleveland, TX, The Warehouse

October 29 – Indianapolis, IN, Emerson Theatre

October 30 – Columbus, OH, Kobo Live

With Born Of Osiris, Sylar:

November 11 – Detroit, MI, The Shelter

November 13 – Buffalo, NY, The Waiting Room

November 15 – Albany, NY, Bogies

With Within The Ruins, Sworn In, Legion:

November 30 – Albany, NY, Bogies

December 1 – Nashua, NH, Bernies

December 3 – Providence, RI, Simon’s 677

December 4 – Trenton, NJ, Championship

December 5 – Amityville, NY, Revolution

December 6 – Newark, DE, Mojo Main

December 7 – Hartford, CT, Webster Underground