Entries were closed as of Friday, and just a few minutes ago, I printed up the names and addresses, cut them out individually, crumpled them up and stuck them in the plastic cup as you can see above. Then I went around my office and had five winners chosen by my coworkers. Thanks again to everyone who entered (50 people on the dot), and congrats to the following:

Luca in Italy
Dan in California
Mikko in Finland
Erik in Colorado
Eric in Michigan

There you have it. I need to pick up some bigger envelopes and do it up with bubble-wrap and whatnot (can’t take any chances with vinyl, quality pressing though it is), and I should be able to get these out in the next day or two, so if you see your name above — there were a couple Californian Dans, but I don’t want to give out anyone’s last name, so I’ll drop an email — keep an eye out. They should be there shortly.

Thanks again to Play the Assassin Records (Facebook here, Bandcamp here) for donating the picture discs to the cause, and to Moth Eater and Black Thai for putting together a killer split. Congratulations again to the winners and hopefully we’ll be able to do more of this kind of thing in the future, so stay tuned.

Play the Assassin Records was kind enough a while back to give me five copies of the Lowering the Doom split between Long Island metallers Moth Eater and Boston‘s Black Thai. All you have to do to win one is enter with your name, email and address below. That’s it. You send that over, I email to let you know you’ve won and send you a killer, free, limited edition 10″ vinyl with demo tracks from two awesome bands, and everyone goes home happy. Pretty simple stuff. Enter here:

[NOTE: This contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered.]

Contest runs until the end of this week. All are welcome to enter. Please note that I have neither interest in sharing your personal information with anyone, nor anyone to share it with if I did, nor the know-how to go about actually doing so. If you trust in nothing else, trust in my utter incompetence and suckdom-at-life. Either way, your privacy is your privacy. Special thanks to Play the Assassin (‘Like’ them on Thee Facebooks here) for the support. The original release info goes a little like this:

Finally, Boston and New York can agree on something.

Black Thai, from Massachusetts, released a split with New York’s doomly rockers Moth Eater on April 26, 2011, via Play the Assassin Records. Moth Eater, which features members of Dirty Rig (Escapi Music) and Scar Culture (Century Media), included two tracks from their devastatingly heavy Thunder God of Monster Island EP, and Black Thai, whose lineup boasts members of Roadsaw, Cortez and We’re all Gonna Die, answered back with two cuts from their Blood From on High EP, released late last year.

The split is limited to 250 copies and pressed onto a 10” picture disc vinyl with a free download card included. Six additional bonus tracks not on the record will appear in the download. Full songs are available for streaming and download now at playtheassassin.bandcamp.com. The vinyl can be ordered at playtheassassin.com.

Lowering the Doom vinyl track list:
1. Moth Eater, “Aftermath”
2. Moth Eater, “Our Time”
3. Black Thai, “Blood Dust”
4. Black Thai, “Satan’s Toolshed”
(digital only bonus tracks 5-10)
5. Moth Eater, “When Bruises Leave Scars”
6. Moth Eater, “Rocking is my Business”
7. Moth Eater, “Smashing Saturns”
8. Moth Eater, “Moths @ the Round Table”
9. Black Thai, “The Ladder”
10. Black Thai, “333”

As a fan of both these bands and both the releases from which these tracks were culled, I’m all the more excited to be posting the news about this vinyl split between Moth Eater and Black Thai. It’s a limited vinyl picture disc and it looks fantastic and is a great way for people to get introduced to either act, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s definitely worth a look. I’m hoping to have a giveaway for a couple copies up shortly, but in the meantime, it’s available for listening and purchasing through Play the Assassin Records.

This came in on the PR wire:

Finally, Boston and New York can agree on something.

Black Thai, from Massachusetts, released a split with New York’s doomly rockers Moth Eater on April 26, 2011, via Play the Assassin Records. Moth Eater, which features members of Dirty Rig (Escapi Music) and Scar Culture (Century Media), included two tracks from their devastatingly heavy Thunder God of Monster Island EP, and Black Thai, whose lineup boasts members of Roadsaw, Cortez and We’re all Gonna Die, answered back with two cuts from their Blood From on High EP, released late last year.

The split is limited to 250 copies and pressed onto a 10” picture disc vinyl with a free download card included. Six additional bonus tracks not on the record will appear in the download. Full songs are available for streaming and download now at playtheassassin.bandcamp.com. The vinyl can be ordered at playtheassassin.com.

Lowering the Doom vinyl track list:
1.Moth Eater, “Aftermath”
2. Moth Eater, “Our Time”
3. Black Thai, “Blood Dust”
4. Black Thai, “Satan’s Toolshed”
(digital only bonus tracks 5-10)
5. Moth Eater, “When Bruises Leave Scars”
6. Moth Eater, “Rocking is my Business”
7. Moth Eater, “Smashing Saturns”
8. Moth Eater, “Moths @ the Round Table”
9. Black Thai, “The Ladder”
10. Black Thai, “333”

Play the Assassin is giving away a bonus CD with every order at playtheassassin.com/store.html.

Today is the day Moth Eater‘s new EP, The Thunder God of Monster Island (Giddy Up! Records) goes live for sale on something called… iTunes(?). I’m not sure what that is, but I hear tell it’s all the rage amongst the children, and if there’s one thing that’s good for the children, it’s killer doomed sludge of the kind Moth Eater play. Mothers will be shocked, fathers will disapprove, rock and roll shall reign.

To celebrate the iTune-ification of The Thunder God of Monster Island, Moth Eater have generously granted me permission to host the track “The Aftermath,” which you can stream below. Enjoy.

The Aftermath

Purchase The Thunder God of Monster Island on iTunes

Long Island heavy metallers Moth Eater would like it to be known they’ve signed to Giddy Up! Records, which just happens to be the label helmed by bassist/all-around-good-dude Steve “Buckshot” Seabury. But here’s the thing. It’s not like Giddy Up! is just some dick-around label name made so the band could release their own stuff. He’s got real bands and very real distribution, so I’m sure the decision to add Moth Eater to the roster was not made lightly.

Here’s the news off PR wire:

Moth Eater, the Beers Village, New York-based doom/metal band featuring guitarist John Conley of Scar Culture, Dave Ardolina and Steve “Buckshot” Seabury of Dirty Rig, and vocalist John Alaia, have just signed a deal with start-up metal label Giddy Up! Records. Giddy Up! Records will release the band’s debut mini-record, The Thunder God of Monster Island on July 27. The band’s music was produced, recorded and mixed at Gain Studios in New York City.

Moth Eater have posted the new track “Aftermath” on their MySpace page. The track features world renowned Hurdy Gurdy player and composer Geoff Kooris who adds to the band’s already intense sound. “When I listen to our music, I get the sudden urge to smash someone’s face in with a shovel. Then I become grief stricken and sob uncontrollably for a few hours, drink a beer, then I repeat the process.” states John Alaia about the band’s music and upcoming release.

The band will perform and host The Thunder God of Monster Island release party in New York City starting at 9PM on August 6th at Ace of Clubs.

As someone who enjoys watching bands grow, it’s been a pleasure to follow the progression of Long Island destroyers Moth Eater. I’m sure their first EP, due out this summer, is going to be a powerful showcase of metallic punishment, and in the meantime, they’ve posted a new track and announced that bassist Steve “Buckshot” Seabury has landed a book deal with Simon and Schuster, which, if you didn’t know, is a damn good book deal to land. Here’s the latest:

Moth Eater, the Beers Village, New York-based metal/doom band featuring guitarist John Conley of Scar Culture, Dave Ardolina and Steve ‘Buckshot’ Seabury of Dirty Rig, and vocalist John Alaia, have just posted a new track titled “Aftermath” on their MySpace page. The track features world renowned Hurdy Gurdy player Geoff Kooris who adds to the bands already intense sound. The band will be releasing an EP this coming summer titled Thunder Gods of Monster Island.

Click here for the band’s MySpace page.

The song “Aftermath” will also be featured on a new video game titled Shredmaster which will be released later this year.

While the band have been working in the studio, Buckshot just finalized a book deal with Simon & Schuster. “I have been working on this book for almost five years now and I am super excited to finally be putting it out on such a great publishing company,” states Buckshot. His first book will be released on November 30, 2010.

Upcoming Shows:

April 16th – Mr. Beery’s – Bethpage, Long Island, NY

For those who’ve never been to Clifton, New Jersey‘s Dingbatz venue, it’s probably safe to say you have someplace like it near where you are. It is North Jersey‘s metal bar. Not to be confused with the sundry rock bars, sports bars or nudie bars. There are certainly plenty of those around, and there’s even a punk bar, but there’s only one metal bar, and that’s Dingbatz.

Their regular roster of bands generally includes a host of locals, C-level touring acts and bands who’ve been around long enough to know better but keep playing shows anyway. The clientele are cliquey but harmless leather jacket types who like to drink and rock out. Like the bands and even the Dingbatz staff, they’re not hurting anyone. Since the last time I was there, they started crafting the ‘Batz Brew, which wasn’t terrible.

Also on the bill were Piston Driven, Black Water Rising and Brand New Sin, but I was there for Moth Eater and true to my northeast dickery, I stayed while they played and was splitsville shortly thereafter. Not that I wasn’t interested in learning about the other bands — I knew the deal — but had an early morning Saturday to consider. In-law birthdays trump recycled Black Label Society riffs. It’s a fact of life.

But Moth Eater, whom I’ve not seen since a show with Negative Reaction on their native Long Island, NY, did not disappoint. Their singer, John Alaia, who was playing his first gig with the band last time, was far more integrated and far more comfortable in the lineup, to the point of clowning around on stage with bassist Steve “Buckshot” Seabury while guitarist John Conley kicked out a heavily wah’ed solo.

Conley cut his teeth in New York mayhem-makers Scar Culture, and some of the technicality required to play that style of heavy/grinding metal comes out in his solo work, but Moth Eater is more about the overall feel of the songs than the wizardry that may or may not go into making them. The work of drummer/backing vocalist Dave Ardolina (who, like Seabury, comes formerly of rockers Dirty Rig) helps greatly to ground the riffs and keep the material accessible to the crowd, which at Dingbatz, grew steadily as the set progressed.

Other than “Motha Chunga” and “The Aftermath,” the former which I remembered because of its name and the latter because it’s the first demo with vocals Moth Eater have put on their MySpace (and because it’s quite catchy), I don’t know song titles, but suffice it to say each didn’t sound precisely like the one before it, and it’s probably safe to assume that between their experience in bands and in the industry, when these guys decide to do some recording in earnest — either for an EP, full-length or whathaveyou — they’ll be working from a solid foundation established at these shows. Dingbatz isn’t The Ritz by any means, but it is a great place for a band to figure out who they want to be on stage. The more I see them, the more it seems Moth Eater have the issue worked out.

The children love Baroness, and though I don’t get it, I wouldn’t want that to stop anyone from checking out this combined listening party/show tomorrow night, Oct. 1, in Manhattan. They’re going to be playing the new Baroness record and there will be sets by Fight Amp, Moth Eater and Voyager, as you can see from the nifty poster below. You know you’ve been looking for an excuse to get wasted on Thursday…