Yellow Eyes

Yellow Eyes is a New York City based black metal band formed in 2010. The band's lineup contains JC on drums, SS on guitar, and Will Skarsrad on guitar and vocals. Their first album "Silence Threads The Evening's Cloth" was released in 2011. The album was limited to 100 cassettes, and was released by Chicago based label Sol Y Nieve in January 2012. 

In 2012 They released their second album, a split with band Monvment on cassette. The split album was released in September.

Their Second full length and third album was released on cassette by Sibir Records on July 15th 2013. The album was called "Hammer Of Night". A 12" is now available via Dead Section Records.

This year on January 22nd 2014 they released their fourth album, an EP titled "The Desert Mourns".

Here is some links:

Bandcamp

Last.fm

Metallum (Metal Archives)

Cognizance

Cognizance is a melodic / tech. death metal band from Leeds, UK. A band started in the spring of 2012 by Alex Ballie and Henry Pryce, when they had the belly fire to create a studio based death metal project. They released their debut EP "Inquisiton" in 2013, combining what the band called "a fusion of technical riffs with melodic lines and vocals straight from hell." The album also features some very talented people. Alex Rudinger doing the drum performances, Aaron Matts (Betraying The Martyrs), Reece Fullwood (Eumeria), Scott Carstairs (Fallujah) and Sacha Laskow (Ex Divinty, Walk As Chaos).  There are currently not a live performing band due to the lineup of the band and their busy schedules. This year in 2014 they released an amazing two track album titled "Cognizance". The album was released the first day of the year and featured guest Francesco Filigoi (Abiogenesis), the very talented vocals from JJ Polachek (Ovid's Withereing, 7 Horns 7 Eyes) and Alex Bailey (Sylosis). So I leave you with both their albums and a chance to listen to some amazing death metal. This is Cognizance. Oh and Shiv fans, JJ does vocals on the first track of the new album "Assemblage of Ancient Authority". A lot of great people help make these album a reality, so give it a chance and you can thank me later. Enjoy.

Here are some links to the band:

Bandcamp

Facebook

Shop

Metal Archive (Metallum)

Alaskan "Despair, Erosion, Loss" Review

Alaskan is a truly great band. The first band I talked about when I first created this blog. Well this month they are releasing their 4th full length "Despair, Erosion, Loss". Alaskan released the album early free through bandcamp because they are just one of those amazing bands always giving away their music. I immediately downloaded and listened to this album. Overall I will say this is a very good album, not my favorite Alaskan album but still... great album. That being said the vocals are different from previous work. You could slowly tell this might happen when the Co-Pilot split came out, but I had no idea. So I started the album and could tell something was off. I'm not sure why he changed his vocals, a lot of people are saying they may have went down the path of Baroness or Mastodon... they are wrong. Besides the vocals being different they still are very good. The songs on the album are great also and if you are a fan of Alaskan I say you will enjoy this album. Now it may not be "The Weak and the Wounded" it still is an amazing album with amazing writing. I decided to take a different route with this review and act as if I'm talking shit about the album, then tell everyone how much I enjoyed this great album and then let you decide because hey we are all different. Being a huge fan of this band I didn't let the vocal change effect me. Death did it and they are one of my favorite bands but at the same time Chuck did decide to end the band to change the sound of things. I guess I would rather that then something horrible happen to Alaskan like it becoming "girlfriend metal". I kid... Alaskan has the same sound as all the other amazing albums they have released. I say whatever you are doing, STOP! Sit back light em if you got em (no I don't mean cigarettes) and enjoy another masterpiece from a great band from Canada. This is Alaskan, and this is "Despair, Erosion, Loss".

The Killing Toke "Ask Not The Innkeeper, For Destiny Is Thy Name" Review

The Killing Toke released their first demo "Ask Not The Innkeeper, For Destiny Is Thy Name" on December 3rd 2013. The album had 8 tracks and a 9th bonus track if you download the album through bandcamp. My review is of the entire album including the bonus track "From Beyond The Silence" from the cancelled split. The first song of the demo is a tracked entitled "Myths Untold". This track is an instrumental track acting as a intro into the album. The track only contains keyboard, bass and drums (oh and audio samples from the movie "The Brain That Wouldn't Die"). A great folk sounding intro into this great album. After under 3 minutes the track ends with the killing of  Kurt from the film. Then the second track starts. The second song is called "It Will Never Leave". This is the first song that The Killing Toke ever released. A track that the bassist of Jess Than Jake called "Brutal". And this song is indeed brutal. This is the first song on the album with Allen V. playing guitar and singing vocals (he put down the keyboard). This is a great track and the progress of the song is just great. About halfway of being a blackened death metal song a woman screams and the song turns cold. And the heavy Hooded Menace influence comes out. This had to be one of my favorite tracks of the album. (This and Transformational Space) The third track is part one of the two part song "A Story of Vengeance". A Story of Vengeance I is over 10 minutes long ending with keyboard. (He picked it back up) Its a great song with a Maiden influenced riff and a great story. That is one great thing about this band, the lyrics are always a in depth story with great detail that only Allen truly knows. He has said that he is a horror film maker that makes music instead. A great viking black metal song with many riffs and a solid story of what I seem to understand anyway. The fifth track is a short catchy song called "A Story of Vengeance II". This seems to be a lot of peoples favorite and I understand that. It is a very catchy song for coming from this album. The fifth track is called "...hush" which is the second instrumental song. I love this song. It has a great vibe and starts off with a nice riff and then transforms into a very spacey and eerie riff. Ah.. yes we finally get to my favorite track, the track that had a video released for it. "Transformational Space". This is a song almost 9 minutes long that represents all styles of The Killing Toke. I really can't say much about this song besides a beautifully scary song with eerie riffs. And the song that follows is a song influenced by the reavers from the tv series "Firefly", the song is called "Reavers in the Sky". This is a very old Killing Toke Song. A great death doom metal song that ends with a great black metal melody followed by some trippy sounds. This was a great album and the oldest Killing Toke song. The last track officially on the album is titled "The Vile, The Suffering". This is another instrumental song and another favorite of mine. A very catchy riff into more catchy riffs. This was a fantastic way to end the album. Wrapping up the album as a whole. Over all in my humble opinion this is a great album. I see nothing wrong with this album and can't wait for the split and ep. Now for the bonus track. This is a track that was on a unreleased split that was cancelled. This track is 4 minutes and 20 seconds. It is a atmospheric black metal song yet keeps that same Killing Toke sound. This is a very powerful song and I recommend that the band try to re release it on another split. This song is too good to only have it as a bonus track but this is a band that loves to give its fans music. If you normally listen to me when it comes to music, well listen now... I highly recommend this album and I think any death doom metal fan should listen to this album in its entirety. This is a solid album. So future tokers why listen to me when you could listen to the demo. Here it is the first demo album from the band "The Killing Toke"...

Coming Soon

Sorry I haven't been posting, I have had a lot... and I mean a lot of shit going on but coming up this up coming week we have reviews for Behemoth's The Satanist, The Killing Toke's Demo, The New Coffinworm album, and a review of the new Alaskan album. Also we have a few bands to talk about like Gaped, Cognizance, The Zenith Passage, Face of Oblivion, and Yellow Eyes. I plan and hope to have all of this released within the next couple of weeks. I have started on several of these already. The Alaskan and Killing Toke review is almost finished as well as me talking about bands Gaped and Cognizance. I will hope to have more people working with me on this blog and try to have more interviews. Juggling work, my band, my kid, my wife, and other personal things I'd rather not talk about makes me working on this blog hard but I will try to make more time. I also do not plan on doing a best of 2013. That is done almost everywhere and I have no plans on doing so. I do plan on having more of these, not necessarily talking about the upcoming post but just my thoughts in general. Just a chance to talk to other metal heads about other things besides metal. For instance have you guys seen any good horror movies lately. I would love to have discussions on the comments and I will always go out of my way to reply. Things are looking up for Valdesmo as well as SludgeWorld the blog that talks more about death metal and black metal than sludge... 

Talk to you fuckers soon...

Write to me about anything. You can comment on this or any other post. Thanks

-Valdesmo