The Wedding's video for "In The End" is a lot of fun and full of high energy. Headbanging, stage-diving, cymbals on fire, and the guys taking a motorcycle ride in the desert. Here is the link: http://www.vevo.com/watch/the-wedding/in-the-end/USUV71301347?source=instantsearch The song has been through some heavy-duty Blasting. It is in heavy rotation on The Blast.
Stryper has a big lead in a poll over on Noisecreep.com about the most anticipated album of November 2013. Nothin' to see here, kids: they just happen to be way out in front of releases from Scott Stapp, Dream Theater, David Lee Roth, Black Sabbath, Rush, Deicide, Daughtry, and Five Finger Death Punch in the poll. Almost 145,000 likes on Facebook, and over 15,000 are talking about them on their page. Stryper's new album, "No More Hell To Pay" comes out on November 5th. The title track is in heavy rotation on The Blast.
Tuesday night at the Dove Awards, Skillet and Red were winners in the categories Blasters care most about: Rock song of the year and Rock album of the year, respectively. Red's album “Release The Panic” won the Dove Award for best Rock album last night, beating out Thousand Foot Krutch's "The End Is Where We Begin", Flyleaf's "New Horizons", Fireflight's "Now" , and House of Heroes' "Cold Hard Want". Meanwhile, Skillet's song "Sick Of It" beat out: Red's “Who We Are” We As Human “Strike Back”, Switchfoot “Afterlife”, and Remedy Drive “Resuscitate”.
Nine Lashes is the band in the new Christian movie called "Grace Unplugged", which is about an 18 year old Christian girl who gets the musical break of a lifetime and has her faith tested in the "real world." The movie is playing in theaters all over the USA now. The Blast did a world premiere of the new Nine Lashes song "Break The World" on September 20th, thirty minutes after it was released to radio. "Break The World" is the lead single from their as of yet unnamed early 2014 album on Tooth and Nail.
Update: The Blast is interviewing Righteous Vendetta lead singer Ryan Hayes, just after 3 pm Eastern/Noon Pacific, Tuesday, release day of this new album "The Fire Inside."
Album reivew written by Colin Cruz, The Blast Program Director:
From the first moments of the opening track “Defiance”, I sensed I was about to hear a really good album. Hard driving, pounding drums, fast rhythms.
This album is a relentless 14-song assault of hard rock-riffage, pounding drums, and fast rhythms, and there are no filler songs.
“The Fire Inside” should be a serious contender for the Dove Award for “Rock Album of the Year.”
It's that good.
Some of these songs gave me the distinct impression these guys are really mad at the devil, and all of them show me these guys are in love with Jesus Christ.
The tamest song on the album, “With Love” is a song, that if it had the guts to do it, CHR radio could play. Nice melodic rock ballad that showcases the incredible vocal flexibility of singer Ryan Hayes.
Songs like “Fight Back” will definitely have you fist-pumping and singing along to the chorus “Fight back…fight back!” The vocal stylings alternate between light growls (if that is not an oxymoron); shouts, and melodic singing in this song.
The tune “So Long” starts off with some metal riffage and some growling vocals, and it takes the fight right to the devil's face!
I love how God-centered the lyrics are in this album. “So Long” is an encouraging song of resolve to follow Christ. “We won't bend, we won't break…until the end, we will fight on.”
Reverence and awe are shown to The Almighty in the lyrics of “Inside My Eyes”: “Your Word is like a flood ready to silence the Earth.”
“Back To Life” talks about seeing things through God's eyes…and getting the rebirth in Jesus.
On the last 3 songs of the album (“For The Skeptic”, “John The Revelator” and “Reason”) the band really shows off their metal/hardcore roots, as it is no-holds barred screaming, growling metal, with a little melody thrown in.
“For The Skeptic” has an amazing industrial-like intro. This is so heavy, we're totally stoked to Blast it on the Blastmetal show, starting this weekend.
“For The Skeptic” also has some awesome lyrics: “I lay my life down at the foot of the cross….take this life and make a new creation out of me.” And they scream “God I need you now!!! You are mine!!!”
This is something we could use more of in the Christian Rock genre: more in your face lyrics that take ideas right from the Bible.
“What You've Done” may very well be the best track on the album. Great message about Christ's work on the cross for us. Musically and vocally, it is 3 minutes 22 seconds of epic awesome-sauce that is sure to please any metalhead that loves melody, fast beats, guitar shredding.
“The Fire Inside” is a song that was released to radio in April and just finished its cycle of current hits airplay on The Blast. A very solid song. This was probably one of the best 10 songs of the year played on Christian Rock radio.
I only have 2 complaints about this album. And they are as follows:
“This Pain”: The Blast has been playing this song, or a version of it, since the song was released to radio in June 2012. When I saw this track listing, I wondered if the song would be different than the original. As I suspected, some of the vocal and musical stylings were changed a bit, without improving on the original, in my opinion. Probably because it is difficult to improve on what they had originally with that song.
The same thing happened to Since October's song “Beautiful” from their demo days to their Tooth and Nail days; and with Son's song “Doubt”…which was originally released on The Genesis Prologue EP (when they were known as Sons Of God and signed to Come And Live Records) in 2010, then modified and re-released for their later album with Slo Speak.
In each of these 3 cases, I don't think any improvement was made to the songs. In fact, I think the original is better in each case. Why not just leave good enough alone?
Also, the band is planning on re-releasing this song as the next single from the new album. That's another decision that leaves me a bit puzzled. If radio programmers couldn't figure out “This Pain” was a hit the first time around, I don't know that a more polished sound on the new version of the song is going to convince them otherwise. Besides, it's not different enough from the original to justify adding it again for those who added it the first time.
I think “What You've Done” would be a better choice.
But, otherwise, a fabulous work from this purposely independent band, Righteous Vendetta. If these 14 songs are this good, I can only wonder what the other 30 or songs they surely wrote… but had to throw out… would have sounded like.
These super cool dudes from Cody prove that Christian rock and metal are alive and well in Wyoming. And they are taking that message all over America, right now.
For Today just announced that their song "Flesh And Blood" is now featured in the video game "Pinball Rocks," which is available on iOS and Android. The Blast has been playing that song full format (any hour of any day, not just on the Blastmetal show, in other words) for a few weeks now (good timing)! It is now in medium rotation on The Blast. In the metadata, we were displaying it as "Flesh Of Blood", as that is what the album jacket calls it. But…after further review…the name of the song is overturned. As an instant replay look at the CD itself shows the song title is actually "Flesh And Blood," which makes more sense, of course. So, the Philadelphia Eagles will not be charged a timeout for Kansas City Chiefs Coach Andy Reid's challenge. We figured it was artistic license. Nope, it looks like it was a good old fashioned typo. C'mon, man!
Impending Doom has signed with eOne Music and they will release a new full length album called "Death Will Reign" on November 5, 2013. The band and the label say this will be the band's most ferocious material to date.
"We wanted this album to sound very natural and unpolished," explains longtime bassist David Sittig, a part of the lineup since before the first album's release. "There's no crazy digital stuff. There are no fake drums. We wanted it to have the feel of our first album with the songwriting from the last one. We've gotten better at song structures and so forth over the years, but we wanted to recapture that old-school vibe, too."
The Blast plays their song "My Light Unseen" full format and several other cuts from their most recent albums on our weekend Blastmetal show.
Pillar is going to have a song on what will eseentially be a soundtrack for a major theatrical release called "Day Of War". This song will also be on the new CD from Pillar, which has been delayed until 2014, partly because of their commitment to write and record this song for the movie.
At this time, the song's tentative title is "Lions Lead The Way". Pillar bass player Kalel assures us the song will be very heavy and says it is Noah riffage at its finest. (Referring to Noah Henson, guitarist of Pillar).
Reading between the lines, it sounds like the fact that the guys in the band have, collectively,13 kids now, is probably slowing them down, too. Kalel says as soon as they get done recording this soundtrack song, they will start writing the rest of the new Pillar album.
Update: We got some more specifics from Kalel (bass player Michael Wittig), who tells The Blast's Colin Cruz:
"I will tell you this new Pillar album is going to be freaking heavy. A lot of the music and riffs are written and they are "next level" for us. I am sure Rob has some screams planned in choice spots. We are still going to keep it all catchy and melodic, but the riffs and Lester's drumming is heavy as crud."
The Blast also asked Kalel if Pillar will be purposely independent or if they are pursuing a label deal, to which Kalel said:
"We are open to whatever makes sense. A few labels are waiting to hear from us but we want to get the album done first."
One way Christian rock bands have of helping them achieve longevity (and making a living) is finding some success at Christian "CHR" (Pop/Top 40) radio, so Cruz asked Kalel if they plan on having some ballads CHR radio could play on the album. Kalel says:
"Yeah there will be a few songs for CHR as well."
Tooth And Nail Records is going to re-issue Love And Death's album "Between Here And Lost" as an expanded edition on September 17th. The new version of the album will have 3 additional tracks, in addition to the original 11 songs on the record. The 3 new tracks will include Jason Rauch remixes of the songs "The Abandoning" and "Meltdown", plus the song "Empty."
Love and Death is also on tour this fall in these cities:
Since October had been quiet for a long time. Months ago, they shared that they were contemplating whether to record another album. Well, they have decided to do it! Songs are written and they are hitting the studio soon! The Blast was one of the first radio stations to play Since October, starting with the original demo version of "Beautiful", which we played off one of their DIY projects, pre-Tooth and Nail days, and that is the version we still play, in addition to several other hits of theirs.
