I’m kind of catching up on some Prosthetic Records news from the last few days.

First up, Withered will be playing Scion Rock Fest a week from this coming Saturday. They’ll also be playing at the New England HC and Metal Fest this year as well as Blackened Fest. You can find tour dates after the fold.

Skeletonwhich will premiere the first video ever, Sacrifice For The Slaughter God this Friday on Myspace. This is their debut video and the song comes off of Beyond The Permafrost. Look for that tomorrow.

Lastly, Century has changed their line-up a bit. Recently rejoined by original bassist, Ricky Armellino and drummer Grant McFarland, the band has started working on their follow up to Black Ocean.

WITHERED on tour:

• 2/13       Warehouse – Atlanta, GA
• 2/20       Ground Zero – Spartanburg, SC
• 2/27       Criminal Records – Atlanta, GA (free in-store performance)
• 2/28       Masquerade – Atlanta, GA (Scion Rock Fest)
• 4/15       Sonar – Baltimore, MD
• 4/16       Union Pool – Brooklyn, NY
• 4/17       Palladium – Worcester, MA (New England Metalfest)
• 4/18       The M Room – Philadelphia, PA
• 4/19       Volume 11 – Raleigh, NC
• 5/21       The Fillmore at Irving Plaza – New York, NY*
• 5/23       Ground Zero – Spartanburg, SC*
• 5/24       Club Firestone – Orlando, FL*
• 5/26       Numbers – Houston, TX*
• 5/27       White Rabbit – San Antonio, TX*
• 5/29       Sunshine Theater – Albuquerque, NM*
• 5/30       Clubhouse – Tempe, AZ*
• 5/31       House of Blues – San Diego, CA*
• 6/2          House of Blues – Hollywood, CA*
• 6/3          DNA – San Francisco, CA*
• 6/4          Hawthorne Theatre – Portland, OR*
• 6/5          Studio Seven – Seattle, WA*
• 6/6          Knitting Factory – Boise, ID*
• 6/7          Gothic Theater – Denver, CO*
• 6/9          Station 4 – St. Paul, MN*
• 6/11       House of Blues – Chicago, IL*
• 6/12       Peabody’s – Cleveland, OH*
• 6/13       Majestic Theater – Detroit, MI*
• 6/14       Opera House – Toronto, ON*
• 6/15       Foufounes Electriques – Montreal, QC*

* Blackenedfest w/ Mayhem, Marduk, Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation

Post from: Metal Martyr

Some bands have that instant hook right from the get-go and keep that hook all the way through. Songs like Lamb Of God’s Laid To Rest is a song that is relentlessly heavy from beginning to end. With the opening riff, the chorus and the bridge. It’s all there and they keep that same formula throughout most of their music. The title track from Kataklysm’s Prevail starts with a catchy first pumping rhythmic verse and bridges into the chorus “Prevail, the time has come to crush the enemy one by one“. Just about every Megadeth song has a great hook. Dave Mustaine is an amazing song writer and he knows how to write a song that you will remember and play over and over again. Black Sabbath did it with Black Sabbath. The opening chords start it off in an evil, eerie hook that just grasps your attention and start to tell a story like all of their songs.

Metal-core is notorious for having hooks in chorus lines and that’s why it is so successful and mainstream. However, bands like Century, with their release Black Ocean to me was just a wall of noise with thoughtless screaming. Not good rhythmic and/or melodic screaming, but screaming like someone is trying to put a knife in your chest and your trying to fight them off and get someone’s attention to help. It just had no catch to me, it had nothing that made me want to listen to it again. Don’t think I’m just picking on Century, I have the same problem with Job For A Cowboy, however JFAC at least had good vocals but they over-power everything else.

Everyone is always hating  Hatebreed because they find it boring. Hardcore is a genre that always has a hook and usually it’s a catchy chorus line that just makes you want to commit random acts of violence on emo kids. If it’s all blast-beats and constant double thumping of the bass drum all the way through, with vocals that don’t vary, then it gets boring and redundant.

If you want to write a good metal song, or a song of any genre, then you have to think really hard about what you like to hear and what the people around you like to hear. I don’t care if you write a 40 minute song that has every possible note in it, in the most complicated arrangements and structure. You may think it’s brilliant because you wrote it, but if no one else likes it and there really isn’t anything about the song that would make someone want to hear it again, then you have just written a 40 minute piece of garbage that only you will listen to. The fans are ultimately the judge of a musicians work. Everybody knows this. Sometimes it doesn’t happen. Musicians try to self produce songs and they think it sounds great without outside influence on what might make that song better and make it ’sell’. When it bombs and they lose fans they wonder why. “Hook, Line And Sinker”. There’s no other way to put it. A song has to have a good hook, a good line of structure to make it interesting all the way through and a sinker. Something to make the end all worth the rest of the song. Something that makes you say F*ck Yeah! as soon as it’s over. It’s so obvious, yet some people just don’t get it.

Post from: Metal Martyr

Post from: Metal Martyr

CENTURY launches ‘Black Ocean’ interactive website; video debuts on MySpace metal

Pennsylvania’s CENTURY has launched the band’s interactive website to coincide with the release of the band’s Prosthetic Records debut, ‘Black Ocean,’ at http://www.blackoceanalbum.com, featuring downloadable content, band history, news, tour dates, a chance to solve an interactive cipher puzzle for an exclusive, as-yet unreleased track, and behind the scenes footage and videos from both ‘Black Ocean,’ and CENTURY’s previous effort, ‘Faith And Failure.’ Also included is the video clip for the record’s title track, “Black Ocean.”

MySpace Metal has unveiled the MySpace debut of the “Black Ocean” video as well, and it is available here: http://www.myspace.com/metal. The video saw its television debut on MTV2’s Headbangers Ball earlier in April. Recorded and produced by CENTURY frontman Carson Slovak, the debut video from ‘Black Ocean’ was co-written along with the band by J. Sifl, the enigmatic mastermind behind SifBlog (http://blogsif.blogspot.com/). Mastered by Kim Rosen of West Westside Studios, ‘Black Ocean’ is two years in the making, following ‘Faith And Failure,’ which saw a 2006 release through Tribunal Records.

CENTURY on the road

• 5/16 York, PA – Smalls (with Time of Cholera, Pack of Wolves)
• 5/17 Pittsburgh, PA – The School
• 5/18 Delaware – House Show
• 5/19 Lemoyne, PA – The Champ
• 5/20 Baltimore, MD – Talking Head Club
• 5/21 Washington, DC – The Red & The Black
• 5/22 Fredericksburg, VA – KC’s
• 5/23 Richmond, VA – Ramakins
• 5/25 Muncy, PA – The Ritz (with Time of Cholera)
• 5/31 Lancaster, PA – The Chameleon (with August Burns Red)
• 6/27 Lancaster, PA – Siren Records (with Cable Irepress, Gholas)
• 6/28 New York, NY – Ace of Clubs (with Cable, Tombs)
• 8/02 Reading, PA – The Silo (with A Well Thought Tragedy, Your Requiem)

Image Use With Permission From Prosthetic Records

Post from: Metal Martyr

CENTURY launches e-card featuring three songs, tour dates, video trailer

Pennsylvania’s CENTURY has posted an online e-Card here (http://www.blackoceanalbum.com/), featuring three tracks from the band’s forthcoming effort, ‘Black Ocean,’ alongside biographical information, tour dates, and a trailer for the “Black Ocean” music video, which will see a debut on MTV2’s Headbangers Ball later this month. Fans can also spread the word about the e-Card at the above link. In the meantime, ‘Black Ocean’ will see an April 29 release on Prosthetic Records, and is the follow-up to 2006’s critically-acclaimed album ‘Faith and Failure’ which saw a release via Tribunal Records.

Mastered by Kim Rosen at West West Side Music in New York, a completed version of the title track from ‘Black Ocean’ and the album’s cover art are also available on CENTURY’s MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/century). Two years in the making, in conjunction with the release of ‘Black Ocean,’ CENTURY is launching a special album website (http://www.blackoceanalbum.com/) as well, featuring a fully-interactive, full-flash site will feature exclusive content, including hidden features and a bonus track only accessible by solving a code found in the album’s artwork. The website will be officially launched April 29 along with the album’s release.

CENTURY on the road

(with Time of Cholera, Pack of Wolves)

5/17 Pittsburgh, PA – The School

5/18 Delaware – House

5/19 Lemoyne, PA – The Champ

5/20 Baltimore, MD – Talking Head Club

5/21 Washington, DC – The Red & The Black

5/22 Fredricksburg, VA – KC’s

5/23 Richmond, VA – Ramakins

Image Used By Permission Of Prosthetic Records

Post from: Metal Martyr

Prosthetic Records

Century’s Black Ocean arrived in the mail the other day and I was excited to hear it. When the music started playing it was cool. It was very heavy and relentless on the ears. I thought “This is great”…and then the vocals hit. As any metal fan, I’m very picky when it comes to vocals and If I don’t like the vocals it can ruin the entire cd for me. This is one of those cases. I love the music but…

The drums are good, the guitars are great with the exception that there aren’t really any exceptional if any solos, but to me the vocals are a little too…well, screamy. When it comes to screams I like a good screamer but I can not seam to shake my dislike for Carson Slovak’s vocals. I thought this was going to kind of be like the first time I listened to Hail!Hornet. I hated the vocals there but after a second listen I really started to enjoy it.

Some of may like it, some may not. If a cd is garbage you know I will say so. This is just one of those cases where there is only one thing about it that I don’t like. You can check out Century on their Myspace and have a listen and read up on them at Prosthetic Records if your not familiar. The new CD Black Ocean comes out on April 29th.

Image Source: Amazon.com

Coming Soon: Old School Review For Judas Priest Metalworks ‘73-’93, The Sword Gods Of The Earth, Old School Review: Children Of Bodom Are You Dead Yet?

Post from: Metal Martyr