Travels With Nate

8 Foot Sativa is a 5 piece heavy metal band from New Zealand and when this album hit my inbox, I thought I knew what to expect as I loved this band years ago. I was expecting pure Nu-Metal, but that's not what I received, and it's definitely not a bad thing. You see, what I've heard from 8 Foot Sativa previously has been quite light. Not exactly chart friendly, lyrically but certainly musically. Again, this is no bad thing. The Shadow Masters brings something new to the table. There's a lot of metalcore in the heaviness of Anatomy of Hate  and Never Abide  with massive crushingness and intense lyrics, yet there are fairly light hearted proggy singalong songs like Shadow Master  and Feeding The Weak . This album is taking a completely different angle, and proving that a band doing something different isn't a bad thing. Lyrically, 8 Foot Sativa were always quite strong and intense but musically and production quality was lacking, and The Shadow Masters  proves j...

Because I could never write anything as awesome as Lisa can, so I'm not even going to tell you about Nekrogoblikon  other that they're from L.A ; I'll let the first part of Lisa's press release do the magic: "Once upon a time there lived a lonely Goblin, confined to a life of solitude and banished by his peers for having a hideous visage. What this goblin wanted more than anything in life was bitches, mountains and mountains of steaming, sweating, thrusting bitches. But that was in a time long passed, when language was more raw and colourful and anyone reading this story in 2013 knows that we can’t say that word, so we’ll proceed onwards by saying the goblin wanted ladies, lots of lovely ladies. One thing the goblin knew, was that to secure the attention of bit…sorry women, he had to become a rock star. Women LOOOOVE rock stars. Having seen that men with similar visages to him such as Rod Stewart, Chad Kroeger, Marilyn Manson and Lars Ulrich could pull so...

The album starts out with a heavy yet groovy stoner rock groove, leading into some soothing yet aggressive vocals. Later on in the song, the music turns quite mesmerising. The Augur is how you start an album correctly. Burdened is up next and starts with vocals leading into melodies that kinda fuck with your head a bit when paired with heavy basslines and almost marching band style drumming. Apparitions is chilled out the whole way through but with the heaviness of the guitars just sticking around in the background. The album continues with this fast and heavy yet slow and melodic progressive stoner groovy ting. It’s great. There’s something for everyone in there! It’s instrumentally skilled, vocally skilled and the lyrics are great. I seriously can’t stop listening to it. The whole album is like if Devin Townsend were to have a three-way with Tool & Mastodon. Contender for album of the year? Hell fucking yes! Sleepers Awake – Transcension is out on 17 th of June, b...

God Seed was created by Norwegian black metal legends Gaahl and King Ov Hell when they left Gorgoroth in 2009. Whilst they were with Gorgoroth, they played hundreds of sold out shows culminating in their absolutely fucking massive, legendary performance at Wacken 2008. I am proud to say that I was there and it was absolutely fucking mindblowing. Everything you think of black metal was true. Fire, darkness and pentagrams. Fucking yes. I’ve always been a massive black metal fan. None of my friends were ever really that into it but I’ve loved it. It’s a genre that has always rattled cages, scared people and even made headline news. It’s just so dark and disgusting. I’ve been excited about this album for a while but y’know, I really have to be in the right mood for Black Metal. Today, this is the case.

You’ve seen the title so I really don’t think these artists don’t need any introduction, unless of course you’ve been living in a cave for eternity. I do have a lot of readers who certainly look like they’ve been living in a cave for eternity so I better clear things up... John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John first combined their vocal talents on the biggest movie-musical of all time, Grease and their chart topping single You’re The One That I Want . I have heard this song way too many times because my sisters love it and as much as it isn’t really my kind of music, I completely get why it’s popular. Now, almost 35 years later, they’re reunited on a Christmas album of all things!

Wisdom are a Hungarian Power metal band that formed in 2001. After some promotional records, they released the Wisdom E.P. as an attachment to the Hungarian heavy metal magazine Metal Hammer which put them firmly in the public eye; then, in 2006 they released their first full length album Words of Wisdom . After another E.P. in 2007 entitled At The Gates , some tours and some opening spots for popular bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, Europe & Helloween, this year they have released their second full length album Judas . Each song that Wisdom writes is based around a famous quote which is a brilliant and unique idea because there is no solid theme or story like with most power metal bands. So, what of the album?

Anuryzm are a 5 piece progressive metal band from the sandy deserts of Dubai. Yes, you read that correctly; a metal band from Dubai. Originally self-released in their homelands of the Middle East in October 2011, Anuryzm teamed up with Melodic Revolution Records in order to get their debut album Worm’s Eye View more widely distributed. Worm’s Eye View was re-released in July 2012 and has already had a mushroom cloud of success. So, what of the album?

Foreign Beggars are a critically acclaimed hip-hop group that is comprised of Orifice Vulgartron, Metropolis and DJ Nonames. I want to start off with saying right off the bat that they are my all time favourite hip-hop group. I’m not going to lie. Ever since I first heard Stray Point Agenda a few years ago, I have loved them. What enhanced my love and respect for them is that they’re massive heavy metal fans, especially Napalm Death. Foreign Beggars are a rare example of a hip-hop group that doesn’t do the same thing on every album. They are constantly progressing and trying new things. Is there such a thing as progressive hip-hop? I don’t know but that’s what Foreign Beggars are. Over the years they’ve gone from pure U.K. hip-hop vibes, changing again and again to keep themselves and their fans interested. If you’ve been following them lately, you would’ve seen them do collaborations with some major electronic and dubstep artists such as Skrillex & Flux Pavilion....

To many people, Devin Townsend is regarded as the king of progressive metal music and I can't disagree with them. He has been making progressive metal both as solo projects like this one and with bands like Strapping Young Lad for almost two decades. Whenever Devin's name is credited to an album the immediate thought for fans is "What is this crazy bastard gonna do next?"

Trollfest describe themselves as a True Norwegian Balkan Metal band, which, on listening is folk metal . I think they’re just taking the piss out of the utterly ridiculous sub-genres that bands seem to create these days which is completely cool with me because some of these new-fangled genre names are quite absurd. Hell, I can imagine the first time someone released a folk metal album they got quite a reaction! Anyway, Trollfest are a folk metal band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously. The lyrics of each album are centered around a troll universe and the new album continues this theme by introducing a new character whose name is that of the album title. Brumblebassen is the village beekeeper who gathers honey for the mead.

If you follow me on twitter or read my ramblings on this here blog, you would’ve seen that I did a Beer of the Month post. It was a difficult decision to make. You may also notice if you follow me on twitter that I listen to A LOT of different music; I think I got something like 30 new albums in August alone which is ridiculous. You’d think with that much new music, picking an album of the month would be difficult, right? Wrong. This was a simple choice. So, which band wins the almighty honour of Booze, Beats & Bites’ first ever album of the month? The award goes to…

When I first saw the name Mutiny On The Bounty, I was expecting some kind of Pirate Metal band; naturally, but reading the press release informs me that Mutiny On The Bounty are in fact a progressive metal band so I got quite excited. You all know by now how much I am in love with prog right now. Later on in the press release, however, I am told that it is in fact Technical Rock so i wasn't sure... I don't think I know of any bands that class themselves as technical rock. It intrigued me so I decided to download the attached press pack, after all, it would be rude not to...

Stealing Axion was formed in the winter of 2009 by guitarists Dan Forbrich, Josh DeShazo, and Phil Willmarth. The three friends would get together to hang out and write riffs. Slowly, actual songs started coming together. By early 2010 they self-recorded and released their EP which rapidly spread across the net and garnered them tons of praise from fans and critics alike. With these songs as a solid foundation, the band maintained a steady regiment of writing and developing their sound and soon had enough material to serve as a full length album. Stealing Axion is yet another band whose name I instantly recognised when I was sent Moments and yet again, I can’t for the life of me think where. I just knew I’d heard some of their music previously so I had to check the album out.

Chris Helme is a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist who first rose to prominence as the front man of John Squire’s post-Stone Roses band The Seahorses. His new solo album, The Rookery , was impressively recorded in just 9 days at a place called The Rookery, funnily enough.

Beardfish is a Swedish progressive rock quartet that formed in 2001. They are often compared to bands such as King Crimson, Yes and Genesis & while those are the kinds of bands that influenced them, they really are doing their own thing. The Void is their seventh release to date and the band say that fans will be surprised by the ‘twists and turns’ of this album...

Sanguine are a four-piece female fronted alt-metal rock band from the UK. They were formed by singer & songwriter Tarin Kerrey whilst studying at Exeter University. Since then, they have performed at the Hard Rock Hell Road Trip in Ibiza, Download Festival and have supported Thrash Metal legends Megadeth. I was sure I had heard of Sanguine before I received the press release but I couldn’t work out where. Intrigued by my own confusion, I thought it would only be fair for me to review their self-titled debut album and their live E.P.

Aliases are a metalcore band based in Manchester, England; I say metalcore but their facebook page suggests their genre is ‘brutiful’. I’ll roll with that. Last week, the band announced that sadly, their vocalist Jay Berast has had to leave the band for personal reasons.

Anna MacDonald is a singer and songwriter of folk songs which reflect the stronginfluence that different strands of Scotland ’s traditional musichave had upon her. A multi-instrumentalist, she is able to play the piano,guitar and clarsach which she beautifully intertwines with Scots, English andGaelic songs. As well as performing regularly at folk clubs and festivals, inMay 2011 Anna began work with Fraser Fifield on her second EP, Paper Flowers. The first track is the title track, Paper Flowers which opens with beautiful pianos before Anna Macdonald’s beautiful voice kicks in along with some pipes. It’s a slow and enchantingly sad song. Absolutely beautiful. The next song, Matty Groves is a lot faster, more upbeat and features an acoustic guitar too; this one is more Gaelic in style and her voice definitely sounds Scottish on this one. You’d think that’s not something that needs to be pointed out but hearing the album, it’s definitely worth mentioning. This is more my kind...

When I was asked if I could review this album, I instantly laughed at the name. Alright, I’ve had my rant about terrible band names but this one is actually hilarious which makes it awesome! I have no idea why I laughed so much but I did. Anyway, dropbunny is a seven-piece metal band from Melbourne, Australia that formed in 2009 with members Xero & John Barrymore recording their first album, “Hypothesis” with the aid of session drummer Matt Leiber. After six months, they’d added a permanent guitarist and began performing live. If they’d have distributed their album through more mainstream channels, it would’ve been at #50 in the ARIA charts which is bloody impressive for a first album, especially as they were self-promoting! I’d never heard dropbunny before, so I wasn’t quite knowing what to expect... I really love getting sent an album having not heard the band previously. The first track, Plummet , starts out with static noise and a nice, heavy bassline which isn’...

Dew Scented are a Thrash Metal band who are now in their 20 th year of making people headbang. They’ve played a whole host of festivals all over Europe, including Wacken Open Air, Bang Your Head & Summer Breeze and had also embarked on a 16 country world tour with Nile & Melechesh . Now, they bring you their ninth studio album; Icarus . The album opens with a very nice, atmospheric & acoustic intro on Hubris which flows right into some heavy thrash metal while still conveying the atmosphere of the beginning which flows into the shredding guitars and drum build up of Sworn to Obey . Musically this is classic thrash metal all over. It’s fast and heavy but I was shocked when the vocals came in; however, as they are not what I’d expect from a band who describes themselves as thrash metal. The vocals are skilful and somehow fits but they’re leaning more towards deathcore than thrash. Thrown to the Lions starts off with a wonderfully thrashy guitar groove an...