Preview of Neurotech's next EP

Neurotech is a one-man, 'cyber-metal' outfit from Slovenia. Triumph is the first single off the third, and final  instalment in the Decipher EP series. The first two parts of the series, as well as Neurotech's other releases are all available for free download via Bandcamp.

Minnaar - Volcano (Yesterday's Pupil remix)

A couple of months back, brother and sister duo Minnaar released their début EP Volcano as a free download. Minnaar have just 're-released' the Volcano EP, with an additional remix by Yesterday's Pupil. 

At the moment it seems that the remix is not available as a separate download, meaning that if you had previously downloaded the Volcano EP,  and just wanted to download the remix, you can't. You'll have to download the entire EP again just to get the Yesterday's Pupil remix.

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Foolishly I've left my earphones at home, so I won't be able to listen to this in my office. Nor will I be able to download the new Ladyscraper album that I've been waiting to listen to all weekend.

Huoratron remixes Crystal Castles

Another free remix of Crystal Castles' Sad eyes, this time by Huoratron.

The clichéd adjective to describe this remix would be 'massive!' From the second the bass dropped in, all I could think of how epic this would sound at full volume on a massive set of speakers in a club. From the comments on Soundcloud and Facebook there are some mixed feelings from the fans over this track. Regardless of what others are saying, this is what I'm going to be playing before heading out on a session with mates.

Second free Ladyscraper album for the year

Ladyscraper has released his second album for the year, entitled The Wizard, only a few weeks after we saw the release of The Witch. I haven't had a chance to listen/ download it yet, but I'll get round to it early next week. In the meantime you can get a free download of it below, and give it a listen. 

Let me know which tracks off The Wizard are your favourite in the comments section below.

--Update 24 April 2013--

So I've just finished listening to The Wizard, and it is one brutal album, picking up exactly where The Witch left off. Black Coffee sounds reminiscent of some of the work released by Sol Invicto, while tracks like Lock in killer and Integrity are pure chaos on the ears, with crazy driving beats being smashed out by drum machines. The stand out tracks for me are however Ted and Turricane, which are quite a deviation in sound from the rest of the album. Actually so is Electric blizzard, which establishes a good base for the dreamy grooves of Turricane to build upon. The Wizard Definitely worth a listen.

Crystal Castles - Sad eyes (Invisibles remix)

The next free remix released by Crystal Castles is Alex Invisibles' reinterpretation of Sad eyes off (III). You can listen, and download it from the widget below.

Expanding my PS3 games library

I've acquired several games for my PlayStation 3 over the last two weeks. None of these are titles I'd mentioned in a previous post as being interested in getting, but after reading many lists titled things like, "Best-reviewed PS 3 games of all time," I decided that Grand Theft Auto IV would be a good buy.

I spent one Saturday night last weekend playing GTA IV. I quite enjoyed it, playing up until, and completing the "First Date" mission. I got the feeling it was going to take a while more before I got anywhere in the story line, i.e. received my first firearm. I also found it annoying that while trying to drive around Liberty City, other characters insisted on sharing their insights as to what is happening in the city, as well as the game giving prompts for various game actions, such as setting GPS waypoints. As a result I found myself wanting to replay parts so I could listen to the dialogue more carefully. I had enjoyed the narrative of GTA: Vice City, the only other game in the GTA series I've played to date. Regardless of this I'm looking forward to getting further in the story, and even considered getting the expansion Episodes from Liberty City, in the mean time, as I saw it on for sale at a reduced price. I've also pre-ordered a copy of GTA V. 

The same day I bought GTA IV, Em bought the God of War Collection for me as a belated birthday present. I figured this would be a great gift, as I already had God of War III, but had decided not to play it until completing the first two games. My brother has God of War and God of War II for the PlayStation 2, but since that was in another city, it would take some time to finish them. I hadn't really played either of them much, I think the furthest I got in GoW was just after the first or second encounter with one of the Hydra heads.

I spent much of the last weekend playing GoW, reaching the "Challenge of Hades." I must say that I shouldn't have waited this long to play GoW, but I'm glad I did, as playing the remastered edition is amazing. I'm hoping to finish the first game this weekend, and then either begin slaying some new beasties in GoW II, or try to beat the first game again on the next difficulty setting.

Alternatively, I could start playing the game I bought earlier this week, Tomb Raider. Local gaming merchants, BT Games featured Tomb Raider as their "deal of the week." This meant that the price of the game had been cut by 28%, and a steel case was included as an added incentive. The reduced price was good enough for me, although the steel case does look pretty snazzy. I haven't even removed the cellophane wrapping yet, but I'll probably do so this weekend if in need a break from Greek mythology.

I'm already starting to look forward to weekends more than ever, although having only one TV means that Em and I have to split the time between her soapie addiction, and my gaming needs. Perhaps my next major technological investment will be an HD TV.

New Disney/ Star Wars princess

I just came across this picture of a tattooed Princess Leia on a friend's Facebook page. After a quick Google search, and following four or five links, I eventually found the original source of the drawing over at Deviant Art.

Disney Princess by ~paulorocker on deviantART

In somewhat related news, Disney's Alan Horn has announced that there will be new Star Wars movies released in 2015, 2017, and 2019. Episodes VII-IX certainly can't be worse than the prequel trilogy, or can they?

I'm going to Optimius Alive, Lisbon

I'm in the process of planning a work trip to Portugal, and it turns out that the Optimus Alive 2013 music festival is taking place in Lisbon the weekend I arrive. I'm pretty stoked about this, but at the same time I'm not sure whether I went to spend two days at a festival on my own. That said I'm sure to meet fellow festival goers at my hostel, etc., but I'm still a little hesitant.

Friday is out entirely as I'll still be making my way to Lisbon. That said, I am almost certainly going to attend Saturday. I arrive nice and early in the morning, so depending on the schedule I should be able to catch the entire day's line-up. If not, I'm really hoping to at least catch Crystal Castles, Editors and Jurassic5. I'm fairly certain Depeche Mode will perform towards the end of the day as they are Saturday's headliners.

Sunday looks like a good line-up too, with The Bloody Beetroots, Phoenix, Alt-J, and Kings of Leon. Both The Bloody Beetroots and Kings of Leon have previously toured South Africa, although I didn't attend either. From what I've heard from friends, or friends-of-friends, The Bloody Beetroots put on an incredible show, while Kings of Leon left many feeling quite disappointed. It was recently announced that Alt-J (∆) would be the international act at this years In the City (Johannesburg), and Rocking the Daisies (Cape Town). I'd never heard of them before that, so I wont feel to bad if I don't see them in either Portugal or South Africa.

So I've settled on only attending Saturday for now. I also have lectures to attend all day Monday, so attending the festival is probably ill advised, but it'd be very rock 'n roll to arrive at 9:00 AM Monday morning, to meet a bunch of strangers smelling like the burning ruins of a brewery.

I'll still keep an eye as additional artists are announced, but it'll take a massive act like Queens of the Stone Age or How to Destroy Angels to irreversibly convince me to attend Sunday too.

Introducing 'Mum & Dad'

You might have thought I was introducing you to my mum and dad, but I'm not. Mum & Dad is a collaborative project between electro/ grindcore musicians DJ Skull Vomit and Ladyscraper. the project has released two tracks via Soundcloud, both of which have been labelled as demos.

Traces of flight chugs along slowly as it unleashes doom/ drone metal guitar progressions, sporadic outbursts of frantic drum rolls, and hoarsely screamed vocals.

The guitar at the beginning of Icarus gives the listener the impression that it's heading in the same direction as the previous track. But as each instrument adds to the beat established by the bass and drums, Icarus begins to sound more and more as though it was written in Seattle during the early 90s. At times it even sounds like an out-take from a Nirvana jam session recorded on Kurt Cobain's tape deck.

These are two of the best sounding 'demo' versions of songs I've heard in recent times. It would be a pity if the final recorded versions of these tracks lose too much of the raw sound captured in these recordings. The Mum & Dad collaboration has a huge potential to release some powerful tunes.

Studio version of 'My god is the sun' premiers tonight

The official premier of Queens of the Stone Age's first single off ...Like Clockwork is taking place tonight at 20:40 SAST (11:40 PDT, otherwise click here for your local time). My god is the sun was played live for the first time a little over a week ago, but now, in less than an hour, we'll get to hear the album version. That's if you're on the guest list.

"Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor" pre-order

Rob Zombie's fifth studio album, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor is now available for pre-order through iTunes. The video for the first single, Dead city radio and the new gods of supertown will premier on Monday 8 April. Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor has the planned release date of 23 April, just four days after the release of Zombie's next movie, The Lords of Salem.

In the meantime, here's another still from the Dead city radio music video, as well as the lyric video to further whet your appetite.

There are no flags visible in this scene

15 year old Deftones video surfaces

Be quiet and drive (far away) was released in 1998 as the second single off the Deftones' second album. An acoustic version of the track was released on the various pressings of the single, and also appeared on the soundtrack to Little Nicky, and later on the Deftones' compilation album, B-Sides & Rarities.

Now, after 15 years the music video shot for the acoustic version has surfaced:

Deftones - Be Quiet and Drive remix from Frank Ockenfels on Vimeo.

This version appears to have been filmed in the same locality as the official video for the version of the song that originally appeared on Around the fur. You can watch that video here.

Chino Moreno's change of wardrobe for the acoustic version fits the overall sound and visuals of this version of Be quiet and drive (far away) extremely well. This is one of those tracks that literally gives me the chills when I hear it, and it is definitely one of my all-time-favourite Deftones songs.

New Ladyscraper album - Free download

Ladyscraper's new full album The Witch is available for free download via Grindcore Karaoke. The album is the first half of a two album release, with The Wizard set for a mid-April release on the Peace Off record label.

I've had the album on repeat for a number of days now, but haven't had the chance to sit and write a proper synopsis of the album. As it is, this post has remained in 'draft form' for quite a few days. My favourite tracks  at the moment are Lightbike, Interfection and Shaven haven. That said, the entire is pretty awesome, especially  if you're into 'noise' as my partner calls it.

Chevelle live in South Africa

After cancelling their 2011 tour of South Africa, Chevelle have announced that they will be coming to South Africa later this year. Two performance dates have been announced; 31 May in Cape Town, and 02 June in Johannesburg. The chosen venues are on the smaller side, which could mean that the event organisers are worried that Chevelle may not pull a crowd big enough to fill some of the larger concert venues these cities have to offer. Sadly, this means that the event may sell-out quicker than many fans may anticipate, leaving some disappointed at not being able to see Chevelle perform live. However, if tickets do sell, there is always the possibility of additional shows being added to the calendar. Tickets haven't gone on sale just yet.

If I have sufficient funds, and I plan my next visit home carefully, I may just be able to catch both shows...