The PR wire owns your soul with this news about new Darkthrone. They rule and have an influence on underground rock farther reaching than any genre tag you want to saddle on them, so yes, the album will be covered here. If that makes me a hipster poseur loser whatever, I’ll gladly refer you to the banner at the top of the page and hope that clears up the argument.

Here’s the info:

The unrelenting Norwegian duo, Darkthrone, will welcome a new decade with a new album, to be released on Peaceville Records. Circle the Wagons, a creative feast of metal and punk, will initially be released on vinyl on March 8th, through the Peaceville Records webstore, as an exclusive taster for the legions of metal supporters out there who still care about great music delivered the classic way. The vinyl will also include a link to download a digital version of the album, which will be available when the regular and special edition CD versions of the album are released on April 6th.

Circle the Wagons was self-recorded at Necrohell II Studios. Artwork for the album comes once again courtesy of Dennis Dread, notable for his talents on previous Darkthrone albums, F.O.A.D. and 2008’s Dark Thrones and Black Flags.

Drummer/lyricist, Fenriz explains the meaning behind the title…

“The new metal decade starts with our album. It is a message to the invaders of our metal domain to circle their wagons!  With our own brand of heavy metal/speed metal-punk we are a constant ambush on the modern overground metal traitors. Join us in our fight against instant gratification, and let’s see who stands when the smoke clears.”

Track listing:
01. Those Treasures Will Never Befall You
02. Running for Borders
03. I am the Graves of the 80s
04. Stylized Corpse
05. Circle the Wagons
06. Black Mountain Totem
07. I am the Working Class
08. Eyes Burst at Dawn
09. Bränn Inte Slottet

Don’t get me wrong, I think the new Katatonia record, Night is the New Day, is pretty sweet. But this video for “Day and Then the Shade” — well, not so much. It’s just a couple of goth chicks writhing around in the woods with Marilyn Manson-circa-1996 jump cuts, shaky cams and timing changes. I don’t know if director Lasse Hoile — who has previously worked with Opeth and Porcupine Tree — thought of the “concept” on his own or was given orders from the label or band, but man, it’s a long way away from good. Yikes. Because I’m a fan of Katatonia and feel bad for them, here it is.

One can�t help but be reminded of Paradise Lost�s Gothic when looking at the artwork for Finnish progressive death metal supergroup Barren Earth�s debut EP, Our Twilight. Even their logo as it�s presented on the cover has an early �90s Peaceville feel to it, and the script in which the album title as well. The four-song outing fits into the label�s legacy for more reasons than just the superficial, sonically bridging the gap between early Opeth, mid-period Amorphis and Katatonia, but there�s no denying this was meant to look like a Peaceville release, and so it does.

When a record label like Peaceville tells you a band�s sound is �fusing death metal with progressive rock and folk elements,� your mind is justified in immediately flashing to Opeth as a comparison point. Barren Earth do have some Opethian moments, in their structures perhaps even more than their riffs or style, but as noted above, it�s more than just �kerfeldt-style playing and singing going on. With Kreator guitarist Sami Yli-Sirni�, Moonsorrow drummer Marko Tarvonen, Swallow the Sun vocalist Mikko Kotam�ki and former Amorphis bassist Olli-Pekka “Oppu” Laine in the lineup, there is bound to be a number of influences on display.

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Although I was a fan of My Dying Bride�s latest offering, For Lies I Sire, which Peaceville released this past March, I haven�t found myself going back to it for repeat listens. Entirely possible this is because some of the songs seemed samey and the standouts were few and far between, but more likely I think the album as a whole just didn�t stick with me like I�d anticipated it would. That happens sometimes.

All this, of course, isn�t a comment on the band. My Dying Bride are legends whose track record far surpasses whatever judgments I find myself making one way or the other. The UK doomers have been together since 1990, and they�re still going strong, vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe and guitarist Andrew Craighan (and, since 2000, guitarist Hamish Glencross) crafting lineup after lineup and never managing to lose sight of the melancholic mission of the band. On the stopgap release, Bring Me Victory, that mission is reaffirmed through singling out the title track and accompanying it by some tidbits fans will be thrilled to receive.

�Bring Me Victory� was a highlight of For Lies I Sire, and it works well on its own here, but it was more the cover of traditional English ballad �Scarborough Fair� that I was excited to hear, wondering if Stainthorpe would tackle the harmonies Simon and Garfunkel brought to the song on their 1966 interpretation of it. He doesn�t, but the song is perfect for his clean vocals nonetheless, and gives new violinist Shaun MacGowan ample opportunity to show why he was included in the band to replace the short-tenured Katie Stone.

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Though it’s doubtful that when his band put out their first demo 18 years ago he envisioned them becoming one of melancholic European doom’s most influential acts, vocalist Jonas Renkse of Sweden’s Katatonia nonetheless wears his legacy humbly. On the eve of the release of Night is the New Day (Peaceville), the singer is more concerned with picking out which new songs will make it into upcoming gigs than with resting on his laurels or indulging in any, “Gosh, wasn’t Tonight’s Decision badass?” nonsense.

And yes, Tonight’s Decision was badass.

A decade, four full-lengths and a live album later, however, Katatonia are still in the midst of their stylistic development. Capitalizing on 2006’s more aggressive The Great Cold Distance while at once melding gloomy heaviness with the sedate, gently depressive atmospherics for which the band has become known, Night is the New Day offers strength in both aspects at the same time it molds them into something new entirely. Something new and yet still definitively Katatonia.

Such the way of the record and the band as a whole. Continually changing and shifting the expectations of their fans, Katatonia has become an institution of quality songcraft and execution — thanks in no small part to the writing talents of Renkse and guitarist Anders Nystr�m, the two lone remaining original members. Renkse recently took some time out for a phoner to discuss Night is the New Day and the progression of the band, and The Obelisk is honored to feature that interview after the jump. Please enjoy.

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Straight out of the “Yes, Please” file comes the news that My Dying Bride are recording a new EP tentatively due this fall to be dubbed Bring Me Victory for the track of the same name on their latest album, For Lies I Sire (review here). Story’s on Blabbermouth, but here it is through the magic of cut and paste:

UK doom legends My Dying Bride have been busy at Futureworks studio in Manchester recording material for a new EP. Entitled Bring Me Victory, the effort will include two covers — “Scarborough Fair” and The Swans‘ “Failure.” A new video has been completed as well to support the release. The band states, “An October release date has been penciled in, but this may be put back a little depending on how the last days of recording go.”

What you’ve got to appreciate about monumental UK doomers My Dying Bride — who along with Paradise Lost and Anathema constituted the “Peaceville Three” and helped lay the melancholic groundwork for the European doom movement at large — is that 1990 was a very, very long time ago. 19 years, in fact. Children have been born and graduated high school in that time. And as the two remaining founders, vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe and guitarist Andrew Craighan alone represent a great team, yes, but also one of the most important songwriting duos in metal history.

For Lies I Sire (Peaceville Records) is My Dying Bride’s tenth full-length, and though “Echoes from a Hollow Soul” may carry that definitive MDB sadness, it’s hardly business as usual across the board. Rejuvenating Stainthorpe, Craighan and longtime guitarist Hamish Glencross are three new, younger players for whom this is their first studio output with the band; bassist Lena Ab?, drummer Dan “Storm” Mullins and keyboardist Katie Stone, who brings with her a violin that has been much missed since MDB’s earliest days.

That alone would make it easy for this to become a novelty album, but as ever, My Dying Bride play it classy and don’t overdo it, making the instrument more of an accoutrement than a focal point.

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