A Steady Eye To The Future

I'm excited. Let me tell you why.

New stuff, yo! There's been a bit of a dry spell recently in the way of new metal/hardcore coming out and finally there's land on the horizon!

Darkest Hour is back in the studio with their new guitar player (replacing Kris Norris). They've put up a couple pictures on their myspace site of the recording process which, to gear junkies and all around nutjobs like myself, is very exciting. From what I can garner from what few pictures they've got up, they're still holed up in a practice studio somewhere writing. I'll be interested to know who they wind up having produce the record, I can only hope it'll be Devin Townshend again, but I've got a feeling they're gonna want to try someone else. More on that as it comes...

August Burns Red is also in the studio recording with Jason Suecoff turning the knobs. Nooooot too sure how I feel about this. As excited as I am for new ABR, Jason Suecoff (Trivium, All That Remains) seems to be pushing the whole radio-friendly thing too hard...which is one of the things about this band that appealed most to me. If the band lets Suecoff push them, I'm guessing this record will sonically sound great, but will be heavy on straight forward rhythms (less of the awesome August Burns Red mathiness), more singing, and more guitar solo passages. In my opinion, the LACK of all three of those things was what I thought put the wind in that bands' sails. Either way, I'll hold judgement till I hear it. After all, I have been wrong before...sparingly...

Protest the Hero and As I Lay Dying have live DVDs in the works...both are AWESOME live bands and I hope to all hell the energy and cohesiveness of their performances are appropriately captured! Oh man...ya...these bands play concerts in my head all the time and I'm definitely stoked for you all to see/hear what I see/hear while spacing out...at work...

Every Time I Die just got signed to Epitaph too! That's a HUUUUGE move for those guys, the music they play, and the scene they represent. Epitaph is still an indie label I guess, but they're definitely one of the bigger ones. It's owned/operated by one of the guys from Bad Religion and is REALLY heavy on the idea of leaving music making in the hands of those making it. By all accounts they treat their bands well, and have the budget to do huge things with their bands. Also, maybe an ETID/Parkway Drive label-mate tour could be on the horizon? God I hope that happens... Anyway, under this label, ETID is going back into the studio with Steve Evetts in April. So I'm thinking new music in Fall '09? Sweetnuts!

Poison the Well are also in the studio...ironically enough with Steve Evetts... I expect nothing but good things from this...although I really liked their work with those two Swedish dudes (don't feel like looking up their names, but I think one of them is Pelle something or other and the other's last name starts with H?) I've got trust that Poison the Well won't disappoint. Plus I've got the third installment of their limited edition records that I can't listen to to look forward to!

So all this is good and nice...but in all honesty, what's really got me all antsy in my pantsy is...new Alexisonfire! Yowza! Boom! Yes! Probably the undisputed champs of fun-time-Canadian-indie-hardcore, Alexisonfire is back in the studio (I think they're at about day 4 of tracking) with the same dude who did their last record, Crisis. I can all but guarantee that this new disk is gonna sound freakin' sweeeeeeeeet. Vintage in tone, progressive in arrangement. Wrap your noodle around THAT tasty gem! I highly recommend any one who doesn't own Crisis to run out and pick it up. It's genre hopping, energetic, melodic, caustic, it's everything! It's probably what a Canadian version of Versions by Poison the Well would sound like...but a little bit more silly. Do this: go to their myspace every day. www.myspace.com/alexisonfire They're posting blogs/videos/pictures every day they record. You can witness the slow onset of the insanity that never fails to permeate a control room. Back in my glory days with the Awakend, I damn near lost my mind after 4 days of tracking/mixing...Imagine what fun will develop over several weeks?! In Canada!? In a studio down the road from a brewery no less... Let the hilarity, and fantastic tunage, ensue. View this video and understand why I can't wait: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=52921041

Get excited yo! I am!