Exclusive: Cloak Part Ways With Season of Mist; New Label Deal Imminent

Posted in Exclusives with tags , , on 12/04/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Cloak, Atlanta’s hottest black-metal band and the quartet responsible of one of the year’s highest quality rock records, Black Flame Eternal, has parted ways with Season of Mist, Cloak confirmed to The Bad Penny on Monday.

The midnight marauders told disclosed in a conversation Monday morning that their deal with Season of Mist recently ended but that they are already ready to ink a new deal. The furious — and, surprisingly, hoodless — quartet said it expects to announce its new label home by year’s end.

Season of Mist signed Cloak in October 2016, and the label released the fiery foursome’s debut, To Venomous Depths, the following year. Season of Mist also released 2019’s The Burning Dawn and, last May, the teeth-gnashing Black Flame Eternal.

[Go here to read Cloak frontman Scott Taysom’s breakdown of Black Flame Eternal with the Bad Penny.]

Cloak continues to tour heavily behind the well-received record, having started the band’s current trek in late August.

Perhaps as a farewell gift, Season of Mist just released Cloak’s covering of “Black Dream” by Samhain on Halloween Day.

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Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’: The Heart-Shaped Album That Married Mainstream and Indie Rock

Posted in Essays with tags , , , on 11/09/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

With Nirvana’s In Utero celebrating its 30-year anniversary, check out my argument — itself three decades in the making — on why the band’s best record changed rock music forever. Read the treatise, accompanied by Anton Corbijn photos, on FLOOD.

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Joe Steinhardt Talks 20 Years of Don Giovanni Records

Posted in Interviews with tags , , on 10/27/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Get to know the history of Don Giovanni Records and its orange-loving owner, Joe Steinhardt, in my recent New Noise interview with the man himself.

Interview: Joe Steinhardt Talks 20 Years of Don Giovanni Records

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Sal Ellington of Rebuilder Talks ‘Local Support’

Posted in Interviews with tags on 10/25/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Check out my New Noise interview with Sal Ellington, vocalist/guitarist for Boston punks Rebuilder, about how his diligence and dedication to the band helped it reach 10 years. Buy the print issue that features the story here.

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The Breeders’ ‘Last Splash’ (30th Anniversary Edition): Two Cent Review

Posted in Interviews with tags , , , , on 09/25/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Read my FLOOD review of the latest reissue of the Breeders’ Last Splash, in which the flood of anniversary reissue albums is also discussed.

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Trauma Kit: Flipside Fest Pick of the Day

Posted in Interviews on 09/23/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

The second annual Flipside Fest, staged just outside Boise, began in magnificent form on Friday, with an afternoon wave of cool air giving way to an evening filled with clear skies and music courtesy of Australian rockers Babe Rainbow and Virginia-based electronic musician George Clanton. Saturday’s forecast — a welcome relief from the muddy start to Treefort Music Fest in late March — calls for even more beautiful weather … with a touch of gnarly experimental-hardcore-rock courtesy of Boise’s own Trauma Kit.

One of the city’s strongest young bands regardless of genre, Trauma Kit are slated for a plum time slot at 8 p.m. at Push & Pour, after which Flipside Fest 2023 headliners the Walkmen will grace the main stage. Trauma Kit’s latest close-up comes mere weeks after they opened for red-hot metal band Portrayal of Guilt and then Seattle punks So Pitted.

“We were like kinds in a candy store,” Trauma Kit bassist Shadrach Tuck recently told The Bad Penny about the shows.

Continue reading →

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Explosions in the Sky’s ‘End’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags on 09/15/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Explosions in the Sky’s lackluster, unimaginative new record finds them re-treading their veritable sound — but eschewing the chance to venture into any new sounds, studio trickery or lyrical territory. Read my review of the Austin-bred post-rock group’s new record, End, on FLOOD.

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Baroness Break Down Their Sludgy New LP ‘Stone’ Track by Track

Posted in Interviews with tags on 09/15/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Now two decades deep into their career, Baroness have the shrapnel to show for it. Anyone with fleeting familiarity of the stoner-metal band knows of the horrific 2012 bus crash that injured four of its members and almost tolled the death knell for the band. But more than 10 years later, the incident appears to be—if not a distant memory—a road bump in the timeline of a band that’s never released a poorly received album. The frequent comparisons to fellow Georgians Mastodon that Baroness drew early in their career fell by the wayside, especially after the crash. The band led by John Baizley cemented its own status as a hard-hitting but redemptive and invigorating group that brought broad strokes of color and flair to a sludgy subgenre.

For my latest FLOOD feature, Baroness members Nick Jost and Sebastian Thomson walk us through the Savannah, Georgia–based metal group’s sixth full-length.

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Converge’s ‘Dusk in Us’ (Deluxe Edition): Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags , on 09/06/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Read my FLOOD review of the just-released deluxe edition of Converge’s The Dusk in Us, and find out why picking it up will save completists some change.

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Hella’s ‘Hold Your Horse Is’ (Deluxe Reissue): Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags , on 09/01/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Is Zach Hill the best rock drummer of all time? See if the case can be made in my FLOOD review of the reissue of Hella’s first record, dropping today.

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