The lineup is set for the two-day Days of the Doomed III fest out at The Blue Pig in Cudahy, Wisconsin, and it’s looking to be fairly monstrous again in 2013. June is a ways off, so obviously anything can change at any time, but hell, pretty much pick any five of the bands on this list, put them on a bill together, and it’s a show worth making a trip to see. Dream Death and Orodruin within the span of 24 hours of each other? Penance leading into Iron Man? Well, I guess you’re just gonna have to sign me up for that one.

A new trailer, put together by Kathy Reeves, has surfaced for the fest that gives a glimpse at the lineup and sets the tunes to, what else?, old public domain car crash footage. Awesome. Enjoy and here’s looking forward:

With the release of their second LP today, Jan. 31, Virginia rockers King Giant enter into the lexicon of Southern heavy. The five-piece’s debut, Southern Darkness, was self-released in 2009 and was a ballsy excursion into mostly familiar territory of gruff riffs and heavy grooves, and though Dismal Hollow follows suit, it also finds King Giant a more cohesive, more individualized unit. Fortunately for all of us, they’re still heavy as hell.

And they’re not shy about it, either. Right from the start of “Appomattox,” the guitars of Todd “T.I.” Ingram and David Kowalski embark on a southbound journey of thickened metal. The groove is classic, the breath stank with beer, the stomp formidable in the bass of Floyd Walters III and Brooks‘ drumming, and amid layered acoustics, samples and swaggering leads, vocalist Dave Hammerly injects an early Danzig melodic cadence that only heightens the swampy vibe of the album.

In celebration of Dismal Hollow coming out on the band’s own Graveyard Hill Records in conjunction with The Path Less Traveled, I’m fortunate enough to be able to host not only a high-quality full stream of the record, and not only a few words from Kowalski about what went into making it, but also a giveaway for a vinyl/USB prize-pack that one lucky winner will be able to call their own! It’s like three posts in one. Here’s the stream:

And here’s the giveaway and Kowalski discussing the making of Dismal Hollow:

We made a conscious decision to just let the songwriting take its natural course. Anytime we tried to steer a song in a specific direction, it fell flat, and simply didn’t work.

With Southern Darkness, Todd Ingram came in towards the end to add his parts. So what he played was more reactionary to the music that was already there. With Dismal Hollow, we all wrote as a band, and consequently the lead parts blend more intricately with the rhythms and have more of a cohesive feel.

We spent a lot of time in pre-production, making sure that we all had our parts written before we went into the studio. We also recorded to 2” tape. There are places on the album where you can hear the tape hiss, but overall I feel that we achieved a really good organic sound. In the world of digital audio, it makes it really easy to not have to commit to takes, and to edit out every little sonic “imperfection.” But the imperfections are what gives an album character.

Southern Darkness was recorded over a long period of time with all of us recording our parts separately. Going into a studio this time around forced a time constraint on the band, and allowed all of us to be together while we were tracking, so there was definitely more of a camaraderie to the whole recording process.

PRIZE PACK:

A signed copy of Dismal Hollow in LP format, a King Giant patch for all you heshers out there, and so you can take your King Giant wherever you go, a copy of Southern Darkness AND Dismal Hollow on this badass USB drive from the fine folks at Power Tunes. That’s right you get a real deal Marshall KT66 power tube that has been modified into a USB drive. It even glows when you plug it in.

[NOTE: This giveaway is now over. Thanks to all who entered.]

To win, enter your name, email and address in the form above and click “Send.” One winner will be selected, and as always, your information stays private and is deleted after the contest is over. The winner will be chosen on Feb. 7 and entries will be accepted until then.

For more on King Giant, check out their Thee Facebooks page, the album on iTunes, or their Bandcamp site, where Dismal Hollow will be available shortly. Power Tunes USB drives are made by Will Sprague (The Crimson Electric) and available via Thee Facebooks here.

If it was just two new clips I’d seen in the last 24 hours, they’d probably each get their own post, but three would feel cheap spacing them out that way. Plus, this way you can watch them next to each other and pick a winner. Not a clue what the prize is, but I do know that between the three videos below, all the bases are pretty much covered. Crippled Black Phoenix‘s surprisingly politicized clip for “Laying Traps” has gasmasks, King Giant‘s “Appomattox” has zombies, and Samsara Blues Experiment‘s “Into the Black” has a sad-looking girl doing a kind of stop-motion Curly shuffle. Good fun all around. Here they are, in that order, which also happens to be alphabetical. Go figure.

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Crippled Black Phoenix, “Laying Traps”

The song is taken from the British outfit’s new album, (Mankind) The Crafty Ape, and finds the band — their faces obscured by gasmasks and bandannas — attempting the rare feat of making anthemic post-rock. I’ve never tried it, but it can’t be easy, though it seems their often mournful sound has been given a kick in the ass somewhere along the line. The spirit of protest suits them well, and there’s also a free download of “Laying Traps” here.

Watch for: The banker-looking dude with the screwdriver sticking out of his head.

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King Giant, “Appomattox”

I give much respect to Arlington, Virginia’s King Giant for making a zombie video. As prevalent as zombie’s are in today’s weirdo media culture, it seems like an easy move, but the ubiquitous nature of zombies these days actually makes it that much harder to get right, and I think the band does that here. We start out with tattooed hottie and a bloody baseball bat and a decent The Walking Dead-style chase ensues. “Appomattox” comes from King Giant‘s sophomore album, Dismal Hollow.

Watch for: The zombie in the Red Fang t-shirt.

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Samsara Blues Experiment, “Into the Black”

The German band’s second album, Revelation and Mystery (review here), pushed their sound in a surprisingly straightforward direction, moving away some from the heavy psych jamming of the first record. “Into the Black” was among the songs that most displayed this shift, though as you watch the video below, you can see the psychedelic element is nowhere near gone from Samsara Blues Experiment‘s sound. It’s just blended with a killer boogie riff.

Watch for: Orange amps, the stop-motion Curly shuffle and the big comfy chair.

Virginian heavy hitters King Giant made their debut with Southern Darkness in 2009, and are getting ready to unveil their sophomore outing, Dismal Hollow, come Jan. 31, 2012. Reportedly they’re getting a little more into the Appalachian thing this time around, and though I’m not quite sure what that means (dueling banjos and meth?), it should be interesting to find out either way.

The PR wire reveals itself unto you:

Taking the dark tales of their Appalachian folk forefathers to contemporary Southern doom territory, Northern Virgina-based quintet King Giant have wrapped up the final details on their sophomore full-length release, Dismal Hollow, and are preparing to self-release it just after the kickoff of the new year.

Brooding even darker and more sinister homage to their rock and metal forefathers than their heralded self-released 2009 debut album, Southern Darkness, this new album sets a new par for King Giant, further developing their hard but harmonized style, as always chock full of well-written hooks and deep grooving thunder. Recorded at Inner Ear Studio (Minor Threat, Fugazi, Avail, Jawbox, Dave Grohl), and inherently boasting full-on Americana both musically and conceptually, the eight tracks harnessed on Dismal Hollow are easily King Giant’s most well-written and monstrous anthems captured to date.

Dismal Hollow will be available worldwide on January 31, 2012 — a split release between King Giant’s band-operated imprint Graveyard Hill Records and The Path Less Traveled Records, part of the MRI Group, with distribution by RED, Code 7 and Plastichead — and will be available in CD, LP and digital download formats.

Dismal Hollow Track Listing:
1. Appomattox
2. Tale of Mathias
3. A Steward’s Prayer
4. Pistols and Penance
5. 6 O’Clock Swill
6. The Fog
7. Road to Eleusis
8. O’ Drifter

In Connecticut for the weekend, which is peaceful but for the specter of homework (yes, homework) looming overhead for tomorrow and Sunday. Tradeoff is I’d rather be on the hook for that sort of thing up here, where there’s actually a chance of getting it done in a timely fashion. Ah, hell. You know how it is.

We cap off another insanely busy week — that seems to be how they’re going lately — with dudely Virginian rockers King Giant, who just today premiered this video for the track “13 to 1.” The song comes off their self-released full-length debut, Southern Darkness, which I’ve been meaning to review for going on three months now. Sad, I know. I’ve kind of had a lot going on. You know how that is too.

I wish you a happy and safe weekend. If you are or will be in the area, King Giant are going to be playing Brooklyn at the end of next month. I’m sure I’ll have more on the show (like a review after I’ve seen it) but it’s a killer bill with The Resurrection Sorrow, Moth Eater and Solace. Here’s the flyer: