Friday the 29th: Deftones - Prayers/Triangles

     For this Deftones fan, there's some good news and some bad news accompanying the release of the bands latest single this past week. Or, I should say, some really great news and some pretty minor bad news. (Spoiler: it's mostly a win.)

     The good/really great news is simple: new Deftones that, based on the single (hang on just one second for that), sounds like it'll be another solid Deftones outing. The minor bad news is that forthcoming new album Gore still isn't the fabled lost record Eros, the band's last with late bassist Chi Cheng. We may yet get a chance to hear that album, but I figure that each other album released in the meantime lowers that chance a little bit more.

     Lucky for me then that, like I said, Gore is sounding like it'll be pretty good, if lead single "Prayers/Triangles" is anything to judge the rest of the record by. It's nothing especially mind-blowing -- Deftones haven't written a jazz fusion concept album or anything -- but it's solid-sounding Deftones. Synthy-ambienty guitars in the verses, big crunchy choruses, Chino throughout... yeah, it's definitely Deftones. Check it out, and get stoked for Gore's April release.

Deftones - Elite

     You know me, all warm and fuzzy for the past, so let's keep yesterday's nostalgic train going with a Flashback Friday post from an album of roughly similar vintage (give or take) to Killswitch's Alive or Just Breathing.

     I say "give or take" because of the two-year gap between KSE's 2002 record Alive and Deftones' seminal classic 2000 album White Pony. But White Pony might as well have come out yesterday, so awesome do I continue to find it. Deftones have put out a lot of great material over the years, and even a lot of great stuff since 2000, but White Pony remains pretty unmatched in terms of its wall-to-wall goodness.

     If you want an example of said wall-to-wall goodness, look no further than "Elite", four minutes of intensity that to this day remains one of my favourite Deftones cuts period. Between Chino's vocal delivery and Abe's always-muscular drumming, there aren't a ton of Deftones tracks that'll get me going like this one. How about you?

2014 Round-Up: 2015 Top Prospects

      Since we're already almost a sixth of the way through 2015, it's about goddamn time I got part 2 of my 2014 round-up posted, right? Lucky for me, none of the records I anticipate below have come out yet, but there's one or two that are right around the corner, so you'd better get reading!

Tool - ??? (???)
     I thought I'd get this one over and done with right off the bat. Everybody and their mother's dog knows that Tool operates on a much longer album cycle than virtually anybody else on the planet, but since it's been almost nine years now since the release of 10,000 Days even Maynard and company are getting to be about due for some new material. The last year or so has seen a number of rumours and vaguely enticing social media posts that seem to suggest work on a new record is ongoing, perhaps even nearing completion, but just when we might get to hear any of this new material is anybody's guess. I'll believe this one's coming when I'm holding a copy in my hand.

Uneven Structure - La Partition (summer)
     It's been nearly four years since France's Uneven Structure blew me and a lot of other listeners away with their so-much-more-than-just-djent debut LP Februus, but the band is finally putting the finishing touches on the follow-up to this masterwork of dense groove and atmosphere. The internet buzz seems to think that this one will be out by the summer, and I for one hope the internet is right for once. La Partition could well be a monster, so keep your eyes and ears peeled.

Chimp Spanner - ??? (???)
     Regular readers will know that I'm a fan of progressive instrumental music, so the prospect of new material from everybody's favourite one manimal army Chimp Spanner is something I'm 100% onboard with. 2014 saw a new track called "Aurora" unleashed upon the interwebz in demo and playthrough form, but Mr. Ortiz was otherwise largely silent, studio-wise, instead spending the year playing shows and festivals around England and across Europe. That's all well and good, but Chimp Spanner fans elsewhere in the world (read: me) are due for their own dose of Paul Ortiz, and a new record would be the perfect way for us to get it.

Blotted Science - ??? (???)
     Speaking of instrumental prog, tech supertrio Blotted Science also seem to be working on some new jams. Their 2011 EP The Animation of Entomology was an absolute beast, a labyrinthine slice of technicality and compositional virtuosity -- guitarist Ron Jarzombek utilized a "Twelve Tones in Fragmeneted Rows" system of his own design to cook up all the weird and wonderful riffs and chord progressions on the EP  (ask your music-nerd friends to explain it to you). Of course, you don't have to have a graduate degree in music theory to appreciate the madness contained on this EP, or to be excited about the prospect of further experiments from the Blotted Science laboratory.

Dance Gavin Dance - Instant Gratification (April 14th)
     By any standard of modern music you'd care to name, Sacramento post-hardcore act Dance Gavin Dance have had a pretty prolific run so far. Five studio albums, an EP, and a live record in the last eight years or so would be a good track record for any band in any genre, but for band that writes stuff that's a little heavier, a little more technical, it's downright impressive (even if DGD aren't the heaviest or the most technical band in the world...). DGD has undergone several line-up changes over the years, particularly in the vocalist department, so it's always good to get the news that the guys are back at it again with new material.

Coheed and Cambria - ??? (spring/summer 2015)
     Times flies when you're having fun, doesn't it? It seems like Coheed's stellar (pun sorta intended) double album The Afterman came out just yesterday, but second installment Descension is already two years old. Seen in this light, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that Claudio and company are gearing up for another record. Coheed and Cambria's catalogue has its ups and downs, but The Afterman was a bit of a return to form, so the prognosis (pun kind intended yet again) for album number eight looks good.

The Fall of Troy - ??? (???)
     Like Dance Gavin Dance, this is another one of those bands that tr00 metalheads might look down their nose at a little bit, but I've been a Fall of Troy fan a long time. As such, the news that they were getting back together definitely piqued my interest. The subsequent news that they might be working on new material hooked me even more. There's not a whole lot of word on what form new material might take, or when we might hear it, but the fact that singer/guitarist Thomas Erak has left his gig with Chiodos seems to bode well for a return to full-time TFOT recording and touring. The stars fell out of alignment for me a few years back when I had tickets to one of their farewell shows and the couldn't attend, so here's hoping that I'll get another shot to catch them on the road, preferably supporting a new record.

Deftones - ??? (???)
     A new Deftones record is always something to get interested in, if not excited about, and this one should be no exception. The chances of this one being the "lost" album Eros, the last recording the band did with late bassist Chi Cheng, may be slim to none, but the fact remains that Chino and Company have been pretty strong on their last couple of outings. Assuming that the band's next effort is more Koi No Yokan or Diamond Eyes than Saturday Night Wrist -- which might be a pretty big assumption, who knows -- new Deftones material could kick a surprising amount of ass.

Mandroid Echostar - ??? (???)
     As is the case with so many of the entries on this list, there's not much information to go on here -- no title, no release date, no single, nada -- but Facebook tells me that the actual recording process is indeed complete and the band has moved on to the mixing stage. These guys are not only "friends of the blog" (oh how I love being able to say that, even if it's only very loosely true), they're also stupidly good at crafting catchy, shredtastic pop-prog. Keep doing Canada proud, boys.

letlive. - ??? (???)
     I got into The Blackest Beautiful in a big way. Chief among the reasons for this is definitely the fact that, as I've said umpteen bazillion times before, letlive. feels like the successor band to perennial tease Glassjaw, and boy do I loves me some Glassjaw, especially Worship and Tribute. That album's got such a vibe, such an energy, and letlive. manages to tap into that same kind of vibe and energy in spades. I've have no idea what direction the follow-up to The Blackest Beautiful will take, nor do I even know what direction I want it to take, but I can't wait to hear it.

Tesseract - ??? (???)
     A new Tesseract record. With Dan Tompkins back in the mix. Need this Tesseract-loving, Dan Tompkins fanboy say more? No word on when this one's dropping, but in my opinion it can't be soon enough. For now I'll just have to content myself with waiting for the live album/DVD Scala/Odyssesy that's still, at the time of this writing, "coming soon".

The Ocean - ??? (???)
     I may be a bit of a latecomer to the 'The Ocean' party, but I got into the band's last record Pelagial pretty hard. Progressive post-metal with a veritable fuck-tonne of groove, and a high concept to boot? Sign me up. The guys in The Ocean have some pretty deep shoes to fill (see what I did there?) with a follow-up to Pelagial, but if they can pull it off, it would very likely be an Album of the Year contender.

Plini - The End of Everything (March 11)
     Last but most certainly not least is another "friend of the blog", namely Australian guitarist Plini, whose third EP The End of Everything will be coming out in just a couple of weeks' time. Since Plini's previous work is some of the most badass-yet-chill songwriting I've ever heard, the culmination of his trilogy of EP's is definitely something I'm looking forward to -- I've got my preorder in and everything. If guitar-based instrumental jams in which songwriting doesn't take a back seat to technicality but is rather served by it are your thing, The End of Everything should be perfect for scratching your itch. Now all Plini needs to do is stop going to school and traveling around helping people long enough to write an LP already.

     And there you have it: a small selection of upcoming and possibly upcoming albums that I'm looking forward to this year. I'm sure I've probably missed scads of records-in-progress by scads of great bands, but these are some that I've read about, or at least heard rumours about, that have got me stoked up for the next ten months or so.
     Now, you may have noticed a trend in the entries above, namely the profusion of question marks sitting in for actual album titles and release dates. You may also wonder why this profusion is so...well, profuse. In a nutshell, it's because that's the sum total of the information I have about these records. Contrary to what you might think, I have very little insider information about any of the above (read: none).
     But rather than just write about the few albums I do have solid title-and-date information for, I thought it'd be more fun to give you a cross section of some of the stuff I'm looking forward to, or just hoping for, in 2015. If even half of the aforementioned new material ends up coming out this year, 2015 is going to be nice and heavy.

Saturday: Deftones - Change (In the House of Flies)

     Notwithstanding a twenty-four hour delay in getting you a Saturday song, Unplugged week here at Loud Noises is winding down. On Monday we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming, but for now I've still got a couple of acoustic tracks to share with you, starting with this unplugged version of a classic.

     Any long-time Deftones fan will hopefully tell you that the band's 2000 record White Pony is among the best of their career for a whole slew of reasons. The first couple of Deftones records are, of course, still solid, but White Pony was the first to really demonstrate the band's capacity for crafting songs that exist outside of genre limitations, song that are, above all else, Deftones songs.

     Five years later, the band released the B-Sides and Rarities collection, which gathered together a diverse array of covers and, most important for our purposes today, a couple of acoustic versions of now-well-known Deftones numbers. Perhaps the most successful of these is the band's acoustic version of hit White Pony single "Change (In the House of Flies)". The original is heavy, but chock full of moody atmosphere and still relatively simple structure-wise, so it transitions quite nicely to a dialed-back acoustic version. Ask any Deftones fan who's ever sat around a campfire with an acoustic guitar and I'm sure they'd agree.

Friday: Crosses - This is a Trick

     Today I'm once again trying to (admittedly belatedly) set the mood for your Friday evening, this time with a somewhat laid back track that still carries its own heavy flavour.

     For a Friday evening of maxing and relaxing with friends who are perhaps a little metallically inclined, Chino Moreno's latest non-Deftones project Crosses should be a pretty safe bet. It's a very electronic-influenced, darkly poppy project that's a pretty far cry from Deftones stuff. But it's also catchy as hell and replete with cool beats and melodies.

     Even if this kind of music isn't usually your bag, Crosses should hold your attention and garner your approval. Have a listen to "This is a Trick", the opening track from Crosses self-titled 2014 debut LP, and see if these guys will make it into your regular Friday evening rotation.

Deftones - Smile

     If you're at all a fan of the Deftones, you're no doubt at least familiar with the story of their late bassist Chi Cheng and the unfinished album Eros that the band was working on when Cheng was involved in a serious car accident back in 2008.

     Cheng sadly passed away last April, but yesterday the band chose to commemorate the anniversary of his death by releasing one of the the songs from the still-unreleased Eros. Who knows whether we'll ever hear the rest of the record, or in what format we might hear it, so for now let's celebrate the life of a talented musician and key part of one of the defining heavy bands for my generation by listening to "Smile" from the "lost" album Eros.

Friday Triple Shot

     I know you must have missed me desperately over the last couple of days, so as usual you're getting a a triple shot today to make up for it, whether you want it or not.

     First, something a little mellower. I'm not a huge fan of techno/electronica-type music, but there is some bloopy stuff I enjoy. How convenient for me that one of my favourite bands  has at least one cool song in this vein (and virtually every other vein besides). That song is "Digital Sea" from the Water portion of Thrice's 2007 album The Alchemy Index: Vols. 1-2, and it's also your song for yesterday.

     Next up, we're going a little more aggro with one of my favourite Deftones songs. Diamond Eyes and Koi No Yokan were both really good records, but when it comes to the Deftones, White Pony still holds the crown in my book. And if we're talking White Pony, we need to be talking "Knife Party", if only for the spine-tingling vocal cameo by Rodleen Getsic near the end of the song. Her performance gives the song a particularly haunting quality that has stuck with me since I was in high school.

     Finally, for your Friday song, we'll sample something heavier still. Specifically, we're going with "We Are the Nightmare" which is both the title track to Arsis' 2008 album as well as the opening one. This is the first song I ever heard by Arsis, and I was instantly intrigued. Tasty tech-death with a pretty keen sense of melody? Yes please. Their stuff since this album has been equally technically brilliant, but for me has failed to rebottle the lightning of We Are the Nightmare. If you're into this kind of thing, you should definitely give this album a spin.

Song of the Day: Palms - Future Warrior

     If you're a fan of either Deftones or Isis, I'm sure you've no doubt heard about Palms by now. It's a little project featuring Chino from Deftones and three of the dudes from Isis (Jeff, Aaron and Bryant) and it's also conveniently enough the title of their forthcoming debut LP.

Song of the Day, Part 2: Revenge of the Sixth

     Now do you see why I had to fudge the Star Wars theme a little for the first part of today's double header? The second part is a story that simply demands to be told. Eat your heart out, Lucas.

Song of the Day: Deftones - Bloody Cape

     It's only been like a week since the last time I did a Deftones song, but since you've by now no doubt heard of the passing of original bassist Chi Cheng it seems to me that I can't choose a song by any other band tonight. And even though their last couple of records with new bass played Sergio Vega have been great, I've got to go with something Chi played on for today's song.

Song of the Day: Deftones - Passenger

     Spring is actually starting to really get springing here, which means it's finally getting warm enough to drive around town cranking metal with the windows down. In fact, the window next to me as I type this (not in a car, smartass) is open and where even a few days ago it would have registered at "chilly" it's now only "brisk". Summer is just around the corner, so it's driving tune time!

Song of the Day: Dissipate - Mech Fail

     Relatively recent Basick signees Dissipate put out an EP last November called Tectonics that was among my Boxing Week Fire Sale purchases this year, and I've been pleasantly surprised by it. I heard about it back when it was released, listened to a couple of the tracks, and came to the conclusion that it was OK, but nothing spectacular. Interesting enough to buy on sale, but maybe not enough to pay full price.

2012 Round-up, Part 1: Loud Noises Ten Best of 2012

     If you follow any metal blogs at all (or any blogs or websites about anything, really) you know that this time of year is “Best of” season. Everybody and their mother’s dog is sounding off about their favourite albums of 2012, and dammit that bandwagon is looking a little empty without me. I've got opinions about how 2012 went down, and although I get the sense it'll be a bit like pissing into a hurricane, I'm nevertheless going to undertake the valiant effort of making those opinions known to you, dear reader. So having said all of that, it is my pleasure to present to you part one of the Loud Noises 2012 end of the year round up: the Loud Noises Ten Best of 2012!!

     Now, before we get started, there is one important thing to keep in mind: my tendency towards indecisiveness. You see, I often have trouble making firm and confident decisions. Deciding what to have for dinner can prove quite vexing some days. So as you might be able to imagine, the task of ranking my favourite albums of the year and culminating definitively with a choice that I think stands above all others is one that might very well unburden me of my sanity. In the interest of keeping me from coming completely unhinged, I've decided to just tell you about my ten favourite albums from the past year, in no particular order, just a list, here's ten great records you should check out, bam, done. In fact, just so you can't infer anything unintended from my choice of structure, I'm not even going to number this list of epicness. How do you like them apples?

- Skyharbor - Blinding White Noise: Illusion & Chaos
   Tremendously talented international bands spawned from bedroom and basement recording set-ups seem to be becoming increasingly common in the overlapping worlds of heavy and progressive music, but for my money India's Skyharbor comes out well ahead. Combine complex, melodic, and of course heavy guitar riffs with drums dripping groove and powerful vocals from my boy Dan Tompkins, and you've got an album I've listened to an absolute shit ton of this year, and an album that's so much more than mere djent. It's sometimes easy to forget that Blinding White Noise is Skyharbor's very first release. I for one will be very excited to hear where this group goes next, and I think if you heard them you would be too.

- The Contortionist - Intrinsic
   I could describe The Contortionist's album Intrinsic in one of two ways: I could wax loquaciously about how Intrinsic is a stellar sophomore effort that shows The Contortionist to be a band maturing very nicely. I could talk about how Intrinsic strikes a careful balance between being grand and expansive and being lean and focused. I could talk about how while I maybe don't think it deserved the sheer volume of hype it received online prior to its release, I do think it's a cool and diverse album from a young band that is definitely worthy of your attention. Or I could just use one word to sum up Intrinsic: keyboards! Either way, I was very glad I picked this one up, and very bummed when The Contortionist ended up not playing here on Hallowe'en due to Veil of Maya dropping out of a Canadian mini-tour. Come on back, guys!

- Periphery - Periphery II: This Time It's Personal
   Speaking of hype, we all knew Periphery's second full length was going to be a monster, if only because the interwebs told us so. A bigger, badder record with more of everything fans liked about the first one, and indeed more input from band members whose names aren't Misha Mansoor. My only complaint about this album is that every song is so chock full, so 110%, that it loses a bit of the impact it might have with a bit more ebb and flow, a bit more dynamics. Of course, I can't really fault Periphery too much for crafting an album that is monotonously good, can I? Periphery might need some new tricks when the time comes for Periphery III: Back to the Periphery, but for the time being Periphery has upped their game in every way for Periphery II.

- The Faceless - Autotheism
   The observant reader will by this point have noticed at least one trend in this best of 2012 list, namely that a number of these albums were highly anticipated and greatly hyped before their respective releases. The latest release from tech/death prodigies The Faceless was no exception. OK, maybe it was a bit of an exception, in the sense that it fully warranted both anticipation and hype. I jumped on the The Faceless bandwagon with Planetary Duality, which I really dug, so I was really excited to hear the follow-up, and I was really pleased with the result. Hell, the opening three track "Autotheism" suite alone is worth the price of admission, and there's six other tracks on the record! Some fans might not have been able to get into the proggier direction guitarist/songwriter/singer Michael Keene chose for his band (those who say saxophone has no place in metal, for example), but I for one think the step up from Planetary Duality to Autotheism bodes extremely well for the step from Autotheism to wherever The Faceless ends up next.

- Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage
   I could say a lot of things about Gojira's fantastic 2012 selection of doom and groove, L'Enfant Sauvage, most of which have probably already been said a dozen times on a dozen websites, but I think the most ringing endorsement of this album I can give anyone is to say that it made a Gojira fan out of me. Prior to hearing this album, I was a casual, lukewarm Gojira fan at best, really only knowing a few of their more "mainstream" songs. But L'Enfant Sauvage is all killer, no filler, with every song being solid and not at all skippable, which I find is something to be said for an album of any genre, let alone a genre as potentially pummeling as metal. If L'Enfant Sauvage can make a Gojira convert out of me, it can make a convert out of anyone.

- Trioscapes - Separate Realities
If I could say a lot of things about Gojira's L'Enfant Sauvage, then I can't say enough about the debut album from three-piece jazz fusion act Trioscapes. Among the many glowing statements I might make about Separate Realities: it'll make a jazz fan out of even the most staunch metalhead, especially when you consider that one full third of its membership (bass player Dan Briggs) does double duty in both Trioscapes and prog champs Between the Buried and Me; it'll also make jazz fans out of your friends and associates when played at gatherings and get-togethers (yeah, I've put Trioscapes on at parties, to largely positive reactions); Trioscapes'll even give metal-fan you and your non-metal-fan girlfriend something badass to share. Yes, with its deep, deep grooves and super funky riffs enough for days on end, Trioscapes' Separate Realities is the great jazzy equalizer.

- Deftones - Koi No Yokan
   2010's Diamond Eyes is widely hailed as a return to form for the Deftones, a rebottling of the lightning of the seminal White Pony, and if you accept this logic then 2012's Koi No Yokan is proof positive that Diamond Eyes wasn’t a fluke and Deftones are capable of making lightning strike the same spot again and again and again. It's too bad that original bassist Chi Cheng is still recovering from a very serious car accident more than four years ago, but at least Sergio Vega is continuing his terrific job of holding down the low end of things. As a result, a playthrough of Koi No Yokan doesn't leave one wondering "Aw, where's Chi?" but rather "Wow, Deftones can still write a captivating album, can't they?" They're not reinventing the wheel or their sound, but then why should they? With Deftones it's long been about the quality of their songs rather than doing something radically new with each record; as far back as White Pony, Deftones had found the rough formula for what works for them, and they've been playing around with that formula ever since. Sometimes the resulting collection of songs is more Diamond Eyes and sometimes it's more Saturday Night Wrist (which is a good record, don't get me wrong). Koi No Yokan is a rock solid collection of songs, which is a pretty lofty achievement in my book.

- Baroness - Yellow & Green
   2012 was a tumultuous year for Baroness to say the least: in July they released Yellow & Green, the much anticipated follow-up double album to killer sophomore effort Blue, to widespread acclaim, and then in August they were involved in a pretty serious bus crash while on tour in England. The band is recovering well from their various injuries (which included broken bones and fractured vertebrae) but it's still a major setback in a career, and a terrifying event for anyone to undergo. However, it seems like Baroness will rise again and forge ahead, so Baroness fans can take heart and, in the meantime, take pleasure in a double album that's as dark and melancholy as it is plaintive and beautiful. Listeners expecting a straight up increase in "heaviness" might be disappointed, but listeners looking for a deep and interesting listen will find it here in spades.

- Between the Buried and Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence
   As we've already seen, 2012 was a year with some pretty big, pretty highly anticipated releases, and the latest prog-metal opus from Between the Buried and Me was no exception. The band's track record of producing works of technically magnificent madness dovetailed nicely with the introductory EP Hypersleep Dialogues they released in 2011 as a teaser for Future Sequence to create an atmosphere of rabid expectation. And then they delivered, blowing us all away with an audio roller coaster ride through the stars. I think I'm personally still a bigger fan of The Great Misdirect, because I just really like how that collection of songs hangs together as a piece of music, but there's no denying that Future Sequence is a slice of Between the Buried and Me at the top of their game. If you're at all a fan of technically progressive metal or Between the Buried and Me, and have somehow not heard this record yet, stop what you're doing and go get a copy right now. Then come back, put it on, and finish reading this. Or just finish this first. Either way, don't run away for good just yet, because we're not quite done yet...

- Sylosis - Monolith
   The latest slab of thrash from the purveyors of shredding from Reading may not have been a record widely anticipated by the metal world at large, but I've been a fan of Sylosis since their first EP so I was definitely looking forward to it. And if 2012 is any indication of what 2013 might be like for Sylosis, by the time they get around to recording the follow-up to Monolith I won't be the only one who's excited. For now we all have to be satisfied with Monolith, the third full length album from modern British thrash titans Sylosis, and it's a doozy. I fee like it might lack a little of the fire, a little of the magical spark, that connected me so well with some of their earlier work, but that's not to say Monolith isn't...well, monolithic. From one end to the other it's tasty metal goodness. Sure, there's some quieter bits, and some slower bits, but the sheer riffage-per-minute numbers on this one are off the charts. I always try to talk Sylosis up to my friends who like metal, so let this be (another) lesson to you: if you somehow don't know Sylosis by now, get to know them. Like I said, after releasing Monolith in 2012 and then snagging a tour spot opening for Lamb of God, Sylosis are poised for a 2013 that you'll want to be a part of.

Well, there you have it, ten records that I listened to a lot of in 2012 and that I think I liked more than anything else I heard released last year. No doubt you're already familiar with at least some of these, but hopefully there's at least one you don't know and can check out, because you know how I like turning you on to new stuff. Aww yeah you do. Anyways, until part 2 of the 2012 year end report is ready for your collective eye- and ear-holes, why don't you crank some of the above? You won't be sorry you did. Schuss!

Song of the Day: Deftones - Swerve City

     I've posted about Deftones new album a couple of times now, showcasing the first couple of songs they released from it, but since it was actually released on Tuesday, I figure what better time to do another Deftones tune.

Song of the Day: Deftones - Tempest

     Just a super quick one today, since I'm exhausted and need to get to bed ASAP. In honour of the new Deftones album coming out in a couple of weeks (November 13th, to be exact) and the good reviews that are starting to pop up online, you song today is "Tempest", the second song released from the forthcoming Koi No Yokan. I'm starting to get pretty excited about this one, and after hearing the first couple of songs off of it (today's "Tempest" and "Leathers" from about a month back) I hope you are too.

Song of the Day: Deftones - Leathers

     There are times when it's worth it to fight the current, and there are times when it's not, when you should just go with the flow. Today I know it's time to go with the Internet's flow. Rather than try and come up with something you don't know, or aren't listening to right at this very second, I'm just going to recommend what everyone else on the Internet is recommending today, what you're probably already digging, because I'm digging it too.

Heavy TO Pit Report - Part 2: The Rest

     I told you I'd be back with more thoughts about my trip to day 2 of Heavy TO, and you know I wouldn't lie to you, so here I am! In no particular order, here are my ramblings about everything I didn't cover last time around:

Heavy TO Pit Report - Part 1: The Bands

     I told you I'd have some thoughts from Heavy TO, and here they are, even if it did take me a week to write them down. And I have so many thoughts that I think I'm going to make this a two-parter. In this first installment, I'm going to go through each of the bands we actually payed attention to (ie: the ones we went to see) and give little baby reviews of their sets. I'm not going to try and remember set lists or anything like that (mostly because it's 2012 and the Internet does that shit for me), I'm just going to give you my impressions of each band's performance. So let's go!

Song of the Day: Deftones - Rocket Skates

     It's almost here people. Heavy TO (and Heavy MTL, of course) is this weekend, and so my Song of the Day prep work is coming to a close as well. But we're not quite there yet. You may or may not have noticed that I've just been going through line-up, starting with Saturday, and showcasing songs by the band's I'd want to to see. Luckily, as it happens, there's a couple more days I have to cover, and a couple more bands left to do. Today's band is the subheadliner on Sunday, the second to last act to go on.