Technical death metal band Allegaeon does a killer cover of a Rush track? Check. Black Label Society slows things down a bit and really grooves on a stoner vibe? Check. Iron Reagan and Gatecreeper have an incredible split coming up? Hell yeah they do. Plus, The Crown is back with an album that’s not anything like Death Is Not Dead, and that’s a good thing!
It’s time to Satan up your Friday.
Black Label Society – “Trampled Down Below”
Black Label Society‘s new single “Trampled Down Below” might be the best song off their new record Grimmest Hits and it’s not really a mystery as to why I think that. The song sounds like the riff lovechild of Sleep and Electric Wizard sped up and with a deeper-voiced Ozzy on vocals… not that that last bit should be surprising, considering we’ve all heard Zakk Wylde’s voice before.
Grimmest Hits is out on January 19.
https://soundcloud.com/eone-music/black-label-society-trampled-down-below
Allegaeon – “Animate (Rush Cover)”
Allegaeon‘s 2016 album Proponent For Sentience contained a cover of Rush‘s “Subdivisions” as one of the last tracks, though the cover was planned to be a bonus track for some editions of the album. Alongside the “Subdivisions” cover, Allegaeon also covered Rush‘s “Animate” as another bonus track, though this one never made it anywhere.
You can now hear the cover below, which is just as good as the “Subdivisions” cover, and grab a copy of the Proponent For Sentience here and a digital copy of “Animate” here.
The Crown – “Iron Crown”
Everything The Crown released between 1999 and 2010 has been varying degrees of awesome, but the band’s 2015 album Death Is Not Dead really didn’t do much for me at all. The drums were programmed and sounded unnatural and the album just seemed to fall flat o its face across the board. Which is fine in retrospect, because The Crown‘s upcoming album Cobra Speed Venom seems like it’ll be everything Death Is Not Dead wasn’t. At least that’s what I gather from the band’s thrashy, crushing new single “Iron Crown.”
Cobra Speed Venom is out March 16. Get it digitally here and on CD here.
Satan’s Satyrs – “Succubus”
Satan’s Satyrs is releasing a split with Windhand on February 16, and it just might be one of the smokiest offerings 2018 will have. Windhand’s brand of burgeoningly distorted doom is one thing but counterbalanced with Satan’s Satyrs more classic approach to the genre, it’s just perfect.
Get your pre-order of the split here.
Iron Reagan – “Paper Shredder” & Gatecreeper – “War Has Begun”
Two for one! Relapse Records seems to be on a roll with announcing great splits like the one above, and this one here. Iron Reagan and Gatecreeper are releasing a split on March 2 and the pairing seems pretty unlikely. Gatecreeper is a crusty death metal band that throws it back to the likes of Entombed and Dismember, while Iron Reagan is more of an old-school crossover band… though again, I’m not complaining. Both songs released below rule, and props to Iron Reagan for getting heavier and heavier as the years go on.
Pre-order the split here.
Tribulation – “Down Below”
Tribulation is four albums deep into its career by now, and even though the first one was nothing like the rest, the band has cemented its sound in the minds of listeners. Before you even hit play, you just know that whatever you’re about to hear is going to be some combination of psychedelic, black metal, black n’ roll, and maybe a touch of goth. So go ahead and love “Lady Death” like you already knew you did before you got to the end of this paragraph.
Down Below is out January 26.
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