Burning Human video Banned from MTV Headbangers Ball

Tormented Mind,” the controversial new music video from death metal band BURNING HUMAN has been banned by MTV2’s Headbangers Ball. After BURNING HUMAN refused to edit their new video MTV said the video was “too violent” for airing. Guitarist Mike Stack had this to say:
“The fine folks at MTV banned our video for the song TORMENTED MIND claiming it was “too violent”. As much as we love HEADBANGERS BALL, we think its way more metal to be BANNED BY MTV!!! So click here to watch the video of TORMENTED MIND that MTV didn’t want you to see, and decide for yourself.”

Raised Fist

Sweden is well known for its music. In the 70s Swedish music was represented in the American mainstream by ABBA. By the turn of the century garage rock legends the Hives had sold out arenas and store shelves from their hometown of Fagersta, Sweden to Los Angeles, California. But since the mid-nineties there has been another Swedish rock group clamoring for your attention. They’re not like the Hives, and they’re nothing like ABBA.

Raised Fist is northern Europe’s premiere hardcore punk band, making it onto Burning Heart Records - a giant in European and international music. Though their touring and recording has been limited, Raised Fist has gained notoriety for their insanely raucous shows and searing-hot tracks. Blurring the line between hardcore and metal, Raised Fist is extremely well respected.

Their first major release in three years, “Veil of Ignorance”, will be hitting stores from Burning Heart Records this September.

IN FLAMES announce North America tour

Swedish metal band IN FLAMES has announced a North American headlining tour in support of its new album “A Sense of Purpose”. The U.S. portion of the tour will begin on September 18th in Spokane, WA and continue through October 6th in Charlotte, NC.

This IN FLAMES tour is the band’s first North American headlining tour since their Fall 2008 run. The band was also hand-picked by metal legends Megadeth for last year’s North American “Gigantour” live dates. IN FLAMES will be joined on this tour by Between the Buried and Me, 3 Inches of Blood and The Faceless.

IN FLAMES is one of the pioneers of what has become known as “the Gothenburg sound” (also referred to as “melodic death metal”) and has influenced scores of metal / hard rock acts since its formation in 1990.

IN FLAMES features Anders Fridén (vocals), Björn Gelotte (Guitar), Peter Iwers (Bass), Jesper Strömblad (Guitar) and Daniel Svensson (Drums).

IN FLAMES tour dates:
September 18 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory
September 19 Boise, ID Knitting Factory
September 20 Sparks, NV New Oasis
September 21 San Francisco, CA Regency Center
September 22 Pomona, CA The Fox Theater

September 23 Tucson, AZ Rialto Theater
September 25 Corpus Christi, TX Concrete St. Amphitheater

September 26 San Antonio, TX White Rabbit
September 27 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
September 29 Knoxville, TN Valarium
September 30 Louisville, KY Club Oasis
October 1 Millvale, PA Mr. Small’s Theater
October 2 Sayreville, NJ Starland Ballroom
October 3 Boston, MA House of Blues Boston
October 4 Philadelphia, PA Trocadero
October 5 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
October 6th Charlotte, NC Amos’ Southend

Blunt Force Trauma “HATRED FOR THE STATE”

I’ve been waiting for this release since Febuary when the band commented on working on a new EP. Well the new album is planned for release this month. In fact 5 days from now on May 29th.

This new album can be expected to be as hard and brutal as their past releases so make sure you get this release!

Interview with Bleeding Through

Video interview with the guys from Bleeding through. brought to yo by shockhound.

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Bane show review spring 2008

Bane show review, Knitting Factory, Spring 2008 by Roya Butler.

Ah, Bane in New York City’s Knitting Factory: non-stop straight-edge hardcore at its finest. Boston’s Bane plugged their gear in, and from the first force of front man Aaron Bedard’s strong vocals and heavy and energetic 3-chord and punch-packed drum backing from the band, fans were singing along in unison while moshers threw themselves across the floor. Bane made it clear they were excited to play New York City.

Bane’s merchandise booth was jam packed with fans waiving their money and pointing to shirts. Personally, I fell in love with their black shirt with gold glittered ‘BANE.’ Inevitably, Bedard gifted me with a shirt and a hoodie. I can’t express enough how much this band RULES in every way!

As for their performance, spectacular is an understatement. When Bane came on stage, the crowd did not let up. Non-stop chaos ensured, as everyone cleared the merchandise area and packed in around the stage—the pit turned into a whirlwind of bodies kicking around, while crowd surfers toiled to get on stage with the Band.  Bedard was moving like he had caught fire, despite the kids jumping on stage and grabbing the microphone to scream along with him. If there was a lack of snarling from the band, judging from the smiles on the faces, it was because they’re having too much fun to break their stride.

An interview with Bedard proved him to be engaging, witty, charismatic, and incredibly enigmatic. He spoke much of their travels through Europe and Japan, and articulated his love for other cultures as well as for mother America; he determined, though, that nothing beats American Hardcore. He further expressed his strive for forever one-uping each album they create. The Note, out on Equal Vision, 2006, is explosively fierce and should not be missed. Bedard expressed that with the arrival of the drummer’s new baby, the band was only doing a month long tour, which included Boston, New York, California, and Japan.

Being at the Knitting Factory made me realize how much I missed hardcore shows tremendously, and the best compliment I can give to this tour is that, despite the fact that they only played a few cities, they played my favorite one, New York. The energy and love from the fans and band reminded me why these concerts are still worth paying for.

Bane

Roya Butler sat down with Aaron Bedard upstairs at The Knitting Factory in New York City to get personal about their most recent album, “The Note,” and experiences on the road.

Tell us about your newest release.
Well the album actually came out a couple of years ago. It’s called “The Note.” We worked with the same producer that we’ve worked with through all of our recordings and we’re just really-really happy with it. It came out on Equal Vision Records. We toured on it pretty extensively in 2005 and 2006, and now it’s time to start thinking about doing a new one.

Tell us about the fakie tour you’re doin right now.
Yeah it’s just so small that it’s hard to call it a tour. But we’re doing five shows around New England and a couple here in New York starting tonight at the knitting factory. We’ll go to Albany. We’ll play our hometown of Worcester, MA on Saturday and on Sunday we’ll play some new place called Avril. And all of our shows are with bands that we’re really good friends with, so we’re just excited to be around all of our buddies this weekend. Next weekend, we’ll fly to California and do eight shows up the west coast where we haven’t been in over a year. So we’re really excited to get back out there, because obviously the scenes are really hoppin’ up there in Cali and we have a lot of fans. The shows are always good. Then after that we go to Japan.

Tell us about the festivals you’re playing in Japan.
We were invited to play a couple of festivals – one in Osaka and one in Tokyo. So they are kind of paying for us to fly from California to Japan and back. We’re only going to do two shows, so we’re not going to be there for very long. Usually when we go to Japan we do two weeks of shows, but it’s just going to be real short – in and out, bing-bam.

Why haven’t you done a lot of touring this year?
Our Drummer just had a baby this year, so it’s been harder for him to get away. That’s pretty much why we haven’t been doing a lot of touring; this is the first time that he’s been out on the road with us since the kid came, so this is really exciting for him. But he was like, “It’s gotta be two weeks. We gotta do the whole thing in two weeks.” So, two weeks between Cali and Japan and then he’ll be home. I’m actually going to stay in Japan with a friend for four or five extra days and just chill…buy sneakers and stuff.

Yea, I heard they have a lot of cool sneaker shops out there.
Aaron Bedard: They do. They have a lot of cool sneaker shops, and a lot of stuff you can’t find here. They have a lot more exclusive stuff that you won’t find here. There are a lot of trendy little boutiques and a lot of weird underground sneaker shops that just have really old shit. They’re really into hipster U.S. style, in Japan. They have really nice jeans. They have really nice sneakers. They’re just on the next level when it comes to fashion.

Do they implement hip-hop in their fashion, as we do in the US?
Yeah, some of it’s real hip-hop, for sure. They’re just real obsessed with anything that’s American and street.

I’m assuming you got your name from Batman comix.
Aaron Bedard: Yeah, that’s one of the things that inspired the name, for sure, was the dude that broke Batman’s back. I really like comic books. So yeah, that’s how the name came up. The line up now’s different than the line-up that we had in the beginning. But there are four of us that have been in the whole time, and drummers have come and gone as we’ve gone along. But once he left Converge, things just got real serious for us then, and we’ve done a lot of records since then and have done a lot of touring. We’ve been really lucky to just go all over the place and just play music that we really love. We’re really lucky.

What do you think is the difference between the Hardcore scene and the Metal scene?
Aaron Bedard: I guess the main difference that I can see is that Hardcore always seems to be – I don’t know the metal scene very well so I can’t speak for them – the difference for me is that Hardcore always seems to be about just more realistic view points. The songs are of a more personal nature and try to confront issues a little more. Metal just seems to expand. You can sing about anything. You can sing about dragons and warriors, or you can sing about fast cars and fucking chicks. It’s just way more grandiose. And also to play Metal you have to somewhat talented, and to play Hardcore you don’t have to be really that talented of a musician. You just have to learn three chords on a guitar and beat the fuck out of your drums and be a punk band. It’s kind of one the things I’ve always really loved about Hardcore. It’s really created just by kids who are angry and confused and displaced and just want to scream about it. Whereas Metal, is a little more epic with guitar leads and fancy drum solos.

What do you see as the differences between the Hardcore scene in America vs. in Europe and also Japan?
Aaron Bedard: Well in Japan the kids are just so sweet, and they just love the image and music so much. There’s no attitude. They’re just giddy that you’re there. They’re so fucking happy that American dudes came to play there this music that they love. So that’s just the most positive, heart-warming vibe imaginable. In Europe it’s just so wide, and there are just so many types of scenes. The one that stands out the most is Germany, and German kids are just really blunt and confrontational. If something on your t-shirt offends them or they’re not happy with the style that you band is going in they will just straight up tell you in this very point blank way. Like, “I think that your stuff sucks.” Or, “What is wrong with your government?” And they’re just a little more, I guess confrontational would be the word, or they’re just more up front and forward about things.

How does that compare to the attitude of your fans in Japan?
Aaron Bedard: A Japanese kid would never in a million years want to say anything to make you feel uncomfortable or say anything to make you feel anything but just happy that you’re there.

What do you think makes up the differences in attitudes?
Aaron Bedard: German kids are just maybe a little bit more spoiled; they just have more bands coming through, and if they think that you’re full of shit, they’ll just tell you. It’s something to respect on some level, but is just a little awkward.

What’s it like in the UK?
Aaron Bedard: I would say in the U.K. its becoming way more Americanized. There’s a lot of tough-guy bullshit, and a lot of gangs starting out, and this crew mentality that I think is really detrimental to the Hardcore scene. It seems to be taking over more and more in the United Kingdom. You hear about a lot of fights at shows, and a bunch of stupid bullshit like that. They’re a little bit behind the times, it seems.

So I guess America sets the benchmark for the Hardcore scene across the globe?
Aaron Bedard: We kind of set the standard here in America for dancing and stage-diving, and all the best bands tend to come from here. But they’re catching up. They’ve got some good bands out there. There’s a band called Rise and Fall from Holland who are really-really fucking good. There’s a band from Japan called the FC5 who are really great, and who are really good friends with us. So there’s definitely some good international stuff going on.

Interview by Roya Butler.