Relapse Records has announced a compilation in memory of Pat Egan.
The compilation called Patlapse features artists such as Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon, Baroness, Pig Destroyer, Death and many more.
Egan, Relapse’s Director of Sales, passed away on February 18 after a struggle with pneumonia and related complications.
The bands on the compilation have agreed to waive royalties for the tracks so all of the proceeds of Patlapse will go to a college fund for Egan’s teenager daughter. The album can be found on Bandcamp for $5, but more can be donated.
The label released this statement: “If you were lucky enough to know Pat, you will remember him as a fun, funny, hardworking, passionate lifelong metalhead who left an impression on EVERYONE he came in contact with. If you never got a chance to meet him, but you’re familiar with Relapse Records or some of the bands on the label, Pat was instrumental in the success of almost all of the bands and records Relapse has released over the past decade. ”
You can check out and purchase Patlapse here.
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Leading up to the end of the year, Revolver has asked some of our favorite artists to pick their Top Albums of 2012 and tell us why each record rules. Here, Richard Christy (pictured left), drummer of Charred Walls of the Damned, selects his faves.
5. Death, Vivus
“This album brings back so many great memories for me. Some of the best times in my life were touring with Chuck and the guys in Death, and I’m soooo proud of our performance on this album!”
4. Lamb of God, Resolution
“I’ve been friends with these guys for many years and even got to jam with them at a soundcheck in Canada in 2004. Great guys and an equally great album.”
3. Testament, Dark Roots of Earth
“I had the pleasure of jamming with Alex Skolnick at the Death to All show in NYC this year and it was truly an honor. I’ve been a fan of Testament since the mid ’80s and their new album is amazing!”
2. Cannibal Corpse, Torture
“I’ve been a Cannibal Corpse fan since I lived in Kansas in the early 90s, and they’re like the AC/DC of heavy metal–they stay true to their sound and their albums always rule.”
1. Coheed and Cambria, The Afterman: Ascension
“Pretty much my favorite band ever. This album is a masterpiece and I’ve listened to it at least once every day since it came out!”
It’s Tuesday–the day that music comes out–and this one sees shit from Aeon, Bad Brains, Kylesa, and more out in stores. Check out the list of releases below and let us know which ones you have already or are planning to pick up.
- AC/DC – Live At The River Plate
- Aeon – Aeons Black
- Bad Brains – Into The Future
- Code Orange Kids – Love Is Love // Return To Dust
- Crown The Empire – The Fallout
Cryptopsy – Cryptopsy- Cryptopsy – The Best Of Us Bleed
- Deafheaven/Bosse-de-Nage – Split
- Death – Spiritual Healing reissue
- Grand Supreme Blood Court – Bow Down Before The Blood Court
- H2O – Thicker Than Water reissue
- Incite – All Out War
- Kylesa – From The Vaults, Vol. 1
- Like Moths To Flames – When We Don’t Exist deluxe edition
Poison The Well – The Opposite Of December/Tear From The Red reissue- Regents – Antietam After Party
- Sacred Reich – Live At Wacken CD/DVD
- Troubled Horse – Step Inside
- Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Blood Lust
- Woe, Is Me – Genesi[futureusgallerys]
Earlier this year, pyromaniacal metal outfit West of Hell released their debut full-length, Spiral Empire. A fiery personality behind the kit, drummer Andrew Hulme offers here his picks for the five drummers who have influenced him the most.
1. Vinnie Paul, Pantera “Cowboys from Hell was the first metal album I bought when I was 12. Vinnie Paul was the first metal drummer that had a big impact on me.”
2. Nick Menza, Megadeth “I pretty much learned how to play drums to Rust in Peace. At that point I had never taken lessons. That album and Nick Menza were my drum teacher.”
3. Gene Hoglan, Death “I was about 19 when I first heard Gene. I couldn’t get over the complexity of Symbolic and Individual Thought Patterns. It was the heaviest thing I’d heard at that point. It took me years to wrap my head around what Gene was doing on those albums.”
4. Lars Ulrich, Metallica “As much as people slag on the guy for his playing, it’s the simplicity of his style that I like. It’s mostly his slow groove beats that’ve rubbed off on me.”
5. Chris Adler, Lamb of God “Ashes of the Wake was another massively inspiring album. But mainly it was the fact that I learned that he was around 20 when he first got real serious about drumming. I was about the same age when I got heavy into playing. It reassured me that I wasn’t too old to start playing at a high level.”
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Since the entire extreme metal sub-genre is typically overlooked, I’ve decided to list five pivotal bands that have shaped the sound, lyrics and aesthetics of extreme metal from the early 80s to present-day. So I humbly present to you my picks for the most important architects of metal’s darkest, most iconoclastic sub-genre:
Bathory: Bathory’s self-titled debut record marked the true birth of the black metal sub-genre, transforming black metal from the tongue-in-cheek occult posturing of Venom into a sober, artistic pursuit. Lo-fi production values, epic Viking lore, eerie atmospheric passages – Bathory’s enigmatic founding member Quorthon (RIP) almost singlehandedly forged a template that would inspire legions of Scandinavian black metal bands.
Possessed: Ratcheting up metal’s evil quotient with ultra-low guttural vocals, songs about ritual sacrifice and images of giant flaming upside-down crosses and blood-splattered human skulls, Possessed made their 80s Bay Area thrash metal counterparts look like half-assed part-timers. Not to mention that the final track on their seminal debut Seven Churches, “Death Metal,” would coin an entire sub-genre to be.
Carcass: Featuring over-the-top song titles like Genital Grinder, Cadaveric Incubator of Endoparasites, Crepitating Bowel Erosion – Liverpool’s Carcass introduced a brand of extreme metal was at once absurd and clinically precise, and sent most 80s extreme metalheads to their local medical libraries to find out exactly what the hell “crepitating” meant. Pioneering so-called “grindcore” along with fellow Brits Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower, Carcass’ sound was brutally raw, impossibly fast and indeed grinding.
Death: Death leader Chuck Shuldiner (RIP) was the Bach of extreme metal. Eschewing the primitive for the progressive, Chuck and Co. took the brutality of Bathory, Posssessed, Autopsy etc. and added complexity, virtuosity and lyrical depth, proving that extreme can also be elegant. And with album titles like Spiritual Healing and Human, death metal was now about more than decapitation and limb dismemberment: it was a social commentary.
Enslaved: Who said extreme metal couldn’t be spiritual? Hailing from the fjords of Norway’s rugged westcoast, Bergen’s Enslaved began their career amidst the pack of Norwegian black metal bands that exploded in the early 90s. But by decade’s end they had matured into an eccentric blend of black-meets-prog-meets-folk metal, with lead growler/bassist Grutle Kjellson recounting Norse mythology in long-extinct dialects. Recent albums Ruun and Axioma Ethica Odini demonstrate that extreme metal can be a vehicle for both savage aggression and oral history, suggesting a brave future for metal’s most transgressive sub-genre.
Want to see a special “lost” episode of the Metal Evolution series dedicated to nothing but extreme metal? Check out www.indiegogo.com/extrememetal to see what killer perks you can get for helping make it a reality!
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Gene Hoglan (pictured left) is certainly one of the busiest drummers in metal. With Death, Dark Angel, Strapping Young Lad, Opeth, and more already on his résumé, he most recently laid tracks for Testament’s Dark Roots of Earth and Dethklok’s Dethalbum III. But amidst all of this, there is a Meldrum record that was never released until earlier this year. Lifer was an album planned by Hoglan and guitarist Michelle Meldrum back in 2008. However, not long after finishing the record, Meldrum fell into a coma and died a few days later from complications of a cystic growth on her brain. We asked him to look back and pick his favorite Meldrum tracks.
1. “A Toast to Romance” “First of all, it starts off with the word ‘cunt’ in the intro, which happens to be one of Michelle Meldrum’s favorite words. Hell, we still refer to ‘Walking Point’ by its working title of ‘Cuntface.’ It then charges right into some pretty aggro metal–especially for those familiar with Meldrum’s earlier material. Michele Madden’s psychotically brutal death growl comes bellowing forth, leaving neophytes scratching their heads in disbelief that that is a woman singing. The chorus is catchy as hell, which leads into an absolute face-melter of a solo by Laura Christine. The haunting wails in the post-lead section are amazing, and then it’s topped off with another destructive solo by Laura Christine, all while sub-bombs are exploding all over the place. A pummeling opener indeed.”
2. “Paid” “Kicks right into a chunky down-picker of a riff with a killer chorus to boot. Great lyrics, too.”
3. “’68 Blonde” “Michelle wrote these killer riffs, and then Madden wrote an incredible paean to our fallen sister. The vocals and lyrics are breathtaking.”
4. “Walking Point” “A real trippy but very metal song. Some crazy bass lines. Then Laura Christine pulls off probably my favorite guitar solo of all time. I seriously can’t get over how amazing this solo is. Everything I’ve ever wanted to hear in a memorable lead is fully present. Then the tune ends in full-chaos, blast beats included.”
5. “Blackened Blue” “Punches you right in the face with a monster riff, then never lets up. Woo hoooo!”
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As part of the ongoing series of Death reissues, Relapse Records will be releasing the two-CD live collection, Vivus!, on February 28. You can now check out “Zero Tolerance,” which comes from the pioneering death metallers’ Live in L.A. disc, recorded at the infamous Whisky A Go-Go 1998. Disc two of the collection, Live in Eindhoven, features a performance by the band on the festival stage of the Dynamo Open Air in the Netherlands, also in 1998. Let us know what you think in the comments. Also, check out the band’s Facebook page here and if you’re interested in preordering the record, click here.
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German progressive metallers Obscura are set to release a collection of demos, Illegimitation, in March. The release will feature 10 never-before-heard tracks, including some of the band’s earliest recordings.
For the time being, the band are giving fans a taste of what’s in store by streaming one of the tracks on the release, a cover of Death’s “The Flesh and the Power iIt Holds,” recorded last year. Let us know what you think in the comments.
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Today marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of Death frontman Chuck Schulinder. Schulinder, who battled with brain cancer, was a pioneer in death metal and continued to work on music with his new band Control Denied right up until his untimely death.
“Music was Chuck’s focus. It was the thing that gave him strength,” Control Denied drummer Richard Christy told Guitar World. “It was inspiring to see somebody going through something so hard and still playing guitar and writing music. Chuck was just so committed. He gave it everything he had.”
Schulinder had first been diagnosed with cancer after a tumor was discovered following initial complaints of neck pain. Despite nearly half the tumor being removed in 2000, his illness returned. However, Schulinder has left a powerful legacy, particularly in the death metal scene.
“With regard to death metal, he contributed a standard of musicianship that people are still aspiring to,” says writer Don Kaye. “He was a pioneer who tried to take the music in an interesting and progressive direction. And in that way, coming along when he did, he crystallized the genre.”
To read the full tribute to Schulinder, head over to our sister mag’s site, GuitarWorld.com, and look for an original article on Death in the January/February issue of Revolver, on stands now.
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Death will be releasing a two-CD live collection, titled Vivus!, on February 28, as part of Relapse’s reissuing campaign. Comprising two performances, both recorded in 1998, Disc One features the band playing Los Angeles’ Whisky A Go-Go, while Disc Two is a performance by the band on the festival stage of the Dynamo Open Air in the Netherlands.
Vivus! track listing:
Disc One – Live In L.A. – 1998
1. “The Philosopher”
2. “Spirit Crusher”
3. “Trapped In A Corner”
4. “Scavenger Of Human Sorrow”
5. “Crystal Mountain”
6. “Flesh And The Power It Holds”
7. “Zero Tolerance”
8. “Zombie Ritual”
9. “Suicide Machine”
10. “Together As One”
11. “Empty Words”
12. “Symbolic”
13. “Pull The Plug”
Disc 2 – Live in Eindhoven – 1998
1. “The Philosopher”
2. “Trapped in a Corner”
3. “Crystal Mountain”
4. “Suicide Machine”
5. “Together As One”
6. “Zero Tolerance”
7. “Lack Of Comprehension”
8. “Flesh and the Power It Holds”
9. “Flattening of Emotions”
10. “Spirit Crusher”
11. “Pull the Plug”
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