New album(s) from Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails released the next installments of their instrumental series Ghosts V:Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts as free downloads.

Heroes of the Storm: Recruit a Friend

I've been playing Heroes of the Storm for just short of a month now. I'm a big fan of Blizzard Entertainment's various gaming worlds, and a 'world' where those dimensions crash into one to form an awesome multiplayer battle arena is well worth checking out for any one who is a fan of Diablo, StarCraft, WarCraft, League of Legends, and even DotA.

If you're new to Heroes, then click on the following link, and you'll unlock a hero for free (Raynor), as well as a 5 day stimpack to help you gain experience. As an added bonus, ranking up to level 10 will earn you a second free hero, Sylvanas.

If you're playing on the European servers please consider using my recruitment link so that I may unlock the awesome vulture hover bike mount for my StarCraft heroes.

Sol Invicto - French toast (Free download)

Last week Sol Invicto released a track off their upcoming release Initium III. The new trach, French toast, is a collaborative effort between Richie Londres, Stephen Carpenter (Deftones), and Mark Caro (Tech Itch).

French toast sounds like a mash-up between something by Fear Factory and a b-side from the Deftones 'Saturday Night Wrist' sessions. I really dig the vocal elements, which made me think of Annie Hardy's (Giant Drag) contributions to Pink cellphone.

Caro also worked on Sol Invicto's previous release Diaz brothers, which I forgot to post about when it was released.

There are rumoured to be three more tracks to be released from Initium III, the next track being titled Pancake, while another may or may not be called 'Black pudding.' There are plans to release physical copies of the Initium series in the near future.

Bacon God's free hip hop mixtape

Tony Welter (Eustachian, Skull Vomit, Singaya) has collected more than an hour's worth of his hip hop influenced tunes, and mixed them together to create the Frozen Chains Mixtape. The mix has been released under a new persona Bacon God, and is available as a free download in either mp3 or wav format. 

Sol Invicto - Alma (Free download)

Richie Londres has released a new track under the Sol Invicto moniker to close the year with. Alma contains driving synth lines, and the characteristic groove we have come to expect from the Sol Invicto.

If you like what you hear, check out the rest of the rest of the Tapes series, as well as the Initium EPs.

There's a new masked band on the block

Terror Universal are a new four-piece, describing themselves as 'metal cannibals.' This is likely due to the band being made up of present and former members of Machine Head, Ill Niño, and Soulfly.

The band's first single, Welcome to hell sounds promising, and is available as a free download.

Sell music on Amazon at ReverbNation.com

Given that there are thirty-odd past and present members of Machine Head, Ill Niño, and Soulfly, I wonder how long it will take for the identities of Terror Universal to be leaked/ revealed?

New side-project from Foo Fighters member

Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters, Sunny Day Real Estate) has a new solo project called Lieutenant. The first single, Rattled, was announced just a few hours before Mendel took to the stage with the Foo Fighters last night for their first ever performance in Johannesburg.

Rattled is available as a free download in exchange for signing up to the mailing list. 

A second track, Belle epoque can be heard via the Winter Sampler 2014, by Dine Alone Records.

Lieutenant's début album is due out in March 2015.

#TBT_01: Designed Deficiency

I've never done a "Throwback Thursday" post on a social media outlet, but after backing up some of my recent music downloads, and subsequently trawling through my older downloads, I came across an old gem of an album. As a result here is the first in a possible series of #TBT posts:

Surachai's Designed Deficiency is a little different from the type of music I usually share (with one possible exception), but I guess it's because my taste in music is quite diverse.

Any way, if you're into some heavy, noisy, electronica/ metal, synth-laden ear porn you can download Designed Deficiency here.  Just remember to play it loud enough so the neighbours can enjoy it too.

Drumcell - Go to Sleep V2.0

Blank Code have released Drumcell's Go to Sleep V.2 mixtape as a free download. If you like techno, you should like Drumcell.

I've been listening to this mix (as well as part one) on repeat pretty much since I downloaded it two days ago.

If you missed the first mixtape, Go to Sleep V.1, you can download it over at Drumcell's Soundcloud page. I think I prefer V.1 more, but that's probably because I've had more time to listen, and appreciate all the sounds sampled.

I really need to get hold of a copy of Drumcell's début album Sleep Complex.

Okujira - King whale

Okujira, the collaborative project between Richie Londrez (Sol Invicto) and Amy Yanick (Thekeenone), is back with another ripper. King whale continues the collaboration between Thekeenone (Amy Yanick) established with the first track, Black gold.

I'm really enjoying this series of collaborations, and am looking forward to hearing the material the duo will come up with when Yanick begins recording her new solo album "very soon," which is to be produced by Londrez.

As per usual, if you like what you hear, download links are provided in the widget.

Free download from Marilyn Manson

While you may be thinking the logo above looks like a new iteration of the classic Nine Inch Nails logo, it is in fact for one of Trent Reznor's protégés.

Marilyn Manson is back with the new single Third day of a seven day binge, which can be downloaded by signing up at marilynmanson.com.

Sonoio - Thanks for calling

Sonoio (Alessandro Cortini) is back with a new single, Thanks for calling.

Certain parts of Thanks for calling, especially Cortini's vocals at times, sound as though this could be an Arcade Fire b-side, and that's a good thing! If you like what you hear, you can download an mp3 of Thanks for calling by follwing the link below.

New Track from Okujira

Okujira's second track, Sick of syncronicities* is even harder hitting than their first. Hopefully this will be made available for download in the future. Check below for the link to download Sick of syncronicities.

-- Updated 30 December 2014 --

* The track was originally spelt "Sick of syncranicitys" at the time of release. The track name has been edited on Soundcloud, but the downloaded file name still contains the original spelling.

Even more ††† remixes

††† were back to share a few more remixes on Monday afternoon. The Waxhole shared Eest Coast's remix of The epilogue, and Sh?m's reinterpretation of Bitches brew.

Yesterday, Antiquiet continued the sharing mood, with a version of Bitches brew by Sidewalks and Skeletons. This has replaced Computer Club and Dan Sena's version of The epilogue as my favourite ††† remix.

Check out parts one and two for all the previous remixes shared by †††.

More remixes from †††

Shortly after Thursday's post, the third ††† remix was shared through Death and Taxes This time around the track Ninteen ninety four was given the remix treatment by Dream Koala. 

On Friday a drum 'n bass remix of The epilogue by Computer Club and Dan Sena was premièred by Brooklyn Vegan. This might be my favourite ††† remix so far.

Lastly, a surprise third remix of Telepathy was shared via the ††† website. This track was reworked buy Metome. I like this track the least of the five remixes shared this past week, and probably wont be giving it too many more listens.

Once again, the three remixes are available as free downloads, and together with the two previous Telepathy remixes, make for a nice little remix EP.

††† "Telepathy" remixes

Last week ††† teased us with a picture of their Soundcloud page showing a playlist that read ††† - Remixes. This was followed with another picture pointing to the possible future release of the stems for the track The years (previously featured on the Batman: Arkham City - The Album), and the caption, "I† is happening again..."

After a few days of silence, a remix of Telepathy by Blaqk Audio premièred at Pure Volume. This was followed today by a second remix of Telepathy, this time by Dwntwn being released via Spin.

Both tracks can be downloaded for free, either by clicking on the links above, or heading to ††† Soundcloud page. According to both sites, we can look forward to more remixes tonight, and tomorrow, to be released through Death and Taxes and Brooklyn Vegan. 

Kahn live: An anti-review

Last night I got roped into attending the début solo performance of local musician, Kahn Morbee (The Parlotones). Following Kahn's advice of, 'not writing about what I don't like,' I'll simply tell you about my favourite part of the evening, and that I like the project's logo.

After playing a few new songs, Kahn asked if the audience wanted to hear a Parlotones song, which was met with several people in the audience cheering. Kahn asked for suggestions, at which point someone shouted "Shallow waters."

The irony is probably lost on foreign readers here, so I'll explain; Shallow waters is a song written and performed by another local band, Just Jinjer.

If you wish to hear what Kahn's solo effort sounds like, The candle is available on his website as a free download. It's not my cup of tea, but I'm sharing it anyway.

Free EP from Rodrigo y Gabriela

It's been a quite while since I've downloaded anything from Noisetrade, but today's newsletter featured an EP from Rodrigo y Gabriela, which I couldn't resist. 

The Soundmaker EP features five tracks as follows;

The soundmaker (originally from 9 Dead Alive)

The Russian messenger (originally from 9 Dead Alive)

Hanuman (originally from Live in France)

Santo Domingo (originally from 11:11)

Diablo roja (originally from Rodrigo y Gabriela)

If you have not heard Rodrigo y Gabriela before, then this is a great introduction to their particular brand of music. 

Also The Soundmaker EP is available as a free download, so there is no reason as to why you shouldn't give it a listen.

DRK & LVLY Records - Beauty and the Beats Volume 1

If you've enjoyed the compilations from the Gravy Crew I've shared in the past, then you'll probably want to give the DRK & LVLY Records compilation, Beauty and the Beats Volume 1 a listen too.

DRK & LVLY Records is a Cape Town based, multi-genre record label established by artist, DJ, producer, and member of the Gravy Crew, Slabofmisuse. A lot of other Crew members, such as The Watermark High, and Card on Spokes also feature on the Beauty and the Beats Volume 1 compilation, which is available as a free download.

Listen/ download below...

Dead Space for free from Origin

Yes you read that correctly, EA is offering the sci-fi, survival-horror, Dead Space as a free download for PC via their Origin platform. This deal is available until 8 May 2014, so there is plenty of time for you to download the 7.5GB file.

I don't know too much about the game, and it hadn't really been on my radar of games to play, but after reading the Wikipedia article, and a few Metacritic reviews, not the most reliable sources I know, but it looks like a worthwhile game to add to any collection. Especially since it's free!

It'll still be some time before I get round to downloading it for myself, but in the meantime some of you might be able to give it a bash, and let me know what you think of it.