[Videos] From Exile @ Drunken Unicorn (10/23/10)
View more videos from this show at Rock & Egg Production’s Youtube channel
- Posted by Davy Minor on November 22, 2010 at 3:41 am
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[Video] From Exile: “Everyone Wants To Seem Evil” (Acoustic Demo)
From Exile have launched an acoustic series, where they will be releasing stripped down material to show off their less brutal side. For this first installment, they even put together a video, so check it out, and then go snatch up the song below.
Download “Everyone Wants To Seem Evil” Acoustic Demo
- Posted by Davy Minor on November 9, 2010 at 4:11 pm
- 3 Comments
[Photos] This Piano Plays Itself, From Exile @ The Goat Farm (10/15/10)
From Exile:
Click here to read the entire post…
- Posted by Kevin Griggs on October 29, 2010 at 4:30 am
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[Mp3] From Exile: “Arrival”
After crafting one of the most epic records to come out of Atlanta in recent years and carefully building a band talented enough to perform their incredible music live, From Exile return for their first concert in nearly three years on Friday, October 15th. They will be playing at The Goat Farm with This Piano Plays Itself in a show aptly titled “Louder Than God.” If for some reason you have not yet listened to Monolith, you should correct your ignorance right away because you have been sorely missing out. Here’s the opening track from it, and then you can listen to the rest at their bandcamp.
- Posted by Davy Minor on October 7, 2010 at 3:49 pm
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[Stream] Daath: “Indestructible Overdose”
I got a sneak preview of the new, self-titled Daath record coming out next month, and while I usually don’t enjoy metal this brutal, I was thoroughly impressed with it. Around this town, so much of the what gets praised in this genre is sludgy, droney, and down right boring, so it’s refreshing to hear something with such precise and imaginative song writing that also still intensely kicks ass. Here’s an audio sample of one the tracks:
This Daath record features keyboard work by Eric Guenther of From Exile, who will be returning with a brand new lineup next month to play their first show in almost three years, so stay tuned for further details. Here’s a Daath studio video highlighting Guenther’s contributions:
- Posted by Davy Minor on September 20, 2010 at 5:45 pm
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[Mp3] Levi/Werstler: “Noxious Vermin, My Friend”
Guitarists Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler took a break from their primary project, Atlanta-based death metal outfit Daath, to drop a shred record called Avalanche Of Worms earlier this year. One of the things I dislike most about metal music is how rigidly metal bands adhere to certain concepts of the genre, and Daath is no exception. Which is why I love Avalanche Of Worms so much, because Levi/Werstler completely break free of the genre limitations that have previously confined them and just let loose. Listening to the record, it’s obvious they needed an outlet like this to showcase the wide range of musical prowess they command, because Avalanche Of Worms contains a bit of magic that sets it apart from most cold, mechanical shred records I’ve heard before. The album is bolstered by a complimenting supporting cast around the duo that includes Sean Reinart (Cynic) and Eric Guenther (From Exile). Here’s the opening track of the sprawling sonic journey:
Levi/Werstler: “Noxious Vermin, My Friend”
Buy Avalanche Of Worms
Levi/Werstler website
- Posted by Davy Minor on June 30, 2010 at 5:36 am
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Ohmpark’s Top 20 Atlanta Albums Of 2009
Most of the time in this city, bands rise and fall based on who they know and how exciting they are live. But for this list, I’ve considered only what is contained on their recordings. Over the course of the year I’ve given roughly 75 records from inside the perimeter a spin, and these are the essential twenty that I recommend listening to most. There are actually many records that I really liked that just missed the cut, so this was very tough to piece together, especially the final spots.
Looking at this list and comparing it back to my favourite local stuff over the two years before, it’s apparent that music in this city just keeps getting better. Atlanta’s independent music scene is running deeper than ever both in terms of quality and quantity of music being produced. Outside of Brooklyn, you’d need quite a compelling argument to convince me anywhere else in America has a better scene right now. Promising young bands keep popping up out of nowhere, and the veterans keep delivering the goods. It sure makes my job here a lot easier to have so much great music to blog about.
On a technical note, anything that has been released over the holidays I’m grouping in with my 2010 lists, and so a couple of albums on this list were released over the holidays last year. Take a gander:
20. Noot d’ Noot: Cash For Gold
19. Harken The Hands Askew: Thou
18. Slushco: Sometime Tonight
17. Sound On Film: The Eloquent Reginald
16. Thy Mighty Contract: Thy Mighty Contract
15. Club Awesome: Dynamos
14. Jungol: Places
13. Lee Harvey Oswald: Lee Harvey Oswald
12. The Selmanaires: Tempo Temporal
11. Tealights: Take Us By Sea
10. Deerhunter: Rainwater Cassette Exchange
9. Slushco: The Silver Surface Demos
8. The Orphins: Wish You Well
7. Mastodon: Crack The Skye
6. Lotus Plaza: Floodlight Collective
5. From Exile: Monolith
4. Nomen Novum: Paradises
3. Untied States: Instant Everything, Constant Nothing
2. Atlas Sound: Logos
1. Nomen Novum: November
In the Atlanta music scene, 2009 was the year of Nomen Novum. While most musicians take a whole year to scrap together enough decent songs to fill a good EP, the prolific Nomen Novum were able to drop two virtually perfect full-lengths, plus a great live EP, and they’re already posting new stuff to their myspace.
Although, all five records at the top of my list were legitimate contenders for Atlanta album of the year, and I would have probably been content with any ordering between them. The other 3 records to round out my top 5 each happened to be crafted over about 2 years, and the extra time and care in putting them together just right payed off. A big mistake I notice younger bands make is trying to push out a record too quickly on some arbitrary time scale and in the end get stuck with something that is less than what they are capable of producing. Atlas Sound, Untied States, and From Exile all spent more time than they probably wanted to on their respective albums, but the extra effort was well worth it in the end.
Looking back over this list after I finished it, I noticed that it is almost entirely dominated by veterans of the scene, and mostly by artists I was already familiar with before starting this blog. There is only one true first recording from its respective musicians to make the list. If I were to make a “Best Atlanta Artists of the Decade” shortlist, most of those artists would have an album included on this list, so I feel like it is a good snapshot of not just where the scene is at today, but where it has been heading for the latter part of the ’00s. There is so much diversity in sound and so much talent in this city, and if you have any interest at all in Atlanta’s music scene, don’t let anything on this list slip by you, because all twenty are well worth giving a listen.
- Posted by Davy Minor on December 13, 2009 at 10:20 pm
- 3 Comments
Best New Atlanta Music: From Exile – “Monolith” LP
After playing their last show in 2007, From Exile headed into the studio to begin working on their second record. During the arduous two year process, the 5-piece act that had once been drawing hundreds of people to house shows on the west side disintegrated, leaving only the core duo of Eric Guenther and Ben Wetzelberger behind to pick up the pieces. Rather than becoming frustrated and falling apart, the two remaining members used the situation as an opportunity to reinvent themselves into something far greater. They were able to fully focus on pursuing their personal vision and created a phenomenal album that delivers on all of the vast potential many of us had seen for a long time.
While I enjoy a lot of music in the general spheres of metal and prog, I find the rigid nature of those genres stylistically often constrains the elements of music I value most. The primary attention to technical prowess and excessively complex compositions dominates those scenes and their almost athletic, competitive nature leaves very little room for good songwriting or taking artistic chances. It’s ironic that a genre called “progressive” seems so relatively conservative in today’s musical landscape.
But lately there seem to be more and more innovators in the general umbrella of metal that are pushing things forward, and that especially appears to be true locally. Bands like Mastodon and Baroness have been able to break down some sonic barriers of the genre, and From Exile are pushing those boundaries even further. If there is one thing that Monolith excels at more than any other, it is how perfectly it manages to extract everything great about prog and metal without retaining any of the bullshit.
That’s not to say that this record doesn’t shred and showcase some very impressive chops, but there is a tastefulness and a restraint to the way they utilize the enormous talent at their disposal that I’ve rarely heard in such epic music. In lieu of having a band around them, the From Exile duo turned to fellow Atlanta metalists Daath, and in addition to Monolith being co-produced by Eyal Levi, both he and Emil Werstler have guest solos and the drums throughout are done by Kevin Talley. Even Tealights‘ Mary Knight dropped some cello on the recording. The extremely able supporting cast around the band is implemented in a way that enhances and compliments their strengths, and in the end this record is a success on just about every facet you can measure.
From Exile are streaming the entire album at their website, so go check it out for yourself.
Here are a couple of studio videos of the making of Monolith:
- Posted by Davy Minor on December 1, 2009 at 4:33 am
- 1 Comment
Photos: Daath @ From Exile House, Gary Eddy @ Train Tunnel (10/16/09)
Daath @ From Exile‘s House Party:
Gary Eddy @ Secret Train Tunnel Folk Show:
- Posted by Kevin Griggs on October 22, 2009 at 2:43 pm
- 1 Comment
Ohmpark 2 Year Anniversary Party
This little blog has been trucking along for 2 years now, so we are going to celebrate next weekend with some really great music. The show is completely free and is going down at our favourite DIY venue in Atlanta, the WonderRoot Community Art Center. The lineup:
This Piano Plays Itself
Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun
Kebert Xela
Onset
So let us thank you for reading by having a great time at our party. Things get started around 9pm next Saturday, January 24th. See you there!
- Posted by Davy Minor on January 17, 2009 at 7:14 pm
- 1 Comment
Atlanta Album Preview: From Exile
Atlanta’s progressive metal outfit From Exile is currently in the studio working on their follow up to 2006′s Crushing Reality. If you have yet to listen to that epic record, go download it for free from their website. For this newest album, they are working with Eyal Levi of Daath in Hairy Breakfast Studios. The release doesn’t have a title or release date yet, but it will be a 30 plus minutes cohesive piece due out in the fall. They have been releasing videos of them working on the album, so get a preview and check it out:
From Exile Website/Studio Blog
- Posted by Davy Minor on July 8, 2008 at 6:24 am
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