You readers already know how much I love sharing the cool musical freebies that the folks at Scion A/V keep dishing out and with that being the case I wanted to take a moment to showcase the full lineup and poster from their annual Rock Fest. The information was just released that the mighty Testament will co-headline the show with The Melvins and if that is not an interesting pairing I don’t know what is.

As you can see by the poster there are a LOT of interesting and amazing bands playing together at this thing, and just in case your eyes are getting like my own here is the full on rundown of the performers: Testament. Melvins. Municipal Waste, Whitechapel, The Obsessed, Corrosion Of Conformity, The Casualties, Negative Approach, Pallbearer, Six Feet Under, Impaled, Vision Of Disorder, Royal Thunder, Vektor, Arsis, A Life Once Lost, Touche Amore, Code Orange Kids, The Gates Of Slumber, Hot Lunch, Rotting Out, The Shrine, Ice Dragon, Call Of The Void, Subrosa, Gigan, ANCIIENTS, Dirty Streets, Inter Arma, Complete Failure, Indian Handcrafts and Noisem…..whew. A little of everything that is for sure.

The other thing our readers know about my postings and I is that we love hitting the Metal shows. It’s almost an addiction at this point in some sense but this particular event will be taking place in Memphis, TN so I don’t really think that I will be there. It surely sounds like fun, but its a little tricky to figure out personally at this time. Maybe something will change my mind and I will head down South for some good old Metal and definitely some regional tourism because I have a lot of time to decide with this affair being in June . If we go, you can count on some review stuff, and if not, I am sure there will be tons across the web for everyone to enjoy.

Official Website: http://www.scionav.com/event/566/Scion-Rock-Fest-2013

I’ve been trying to keep on top of when Scion A/V dishes out some free downloadable Metal for the masses and so far I’ve directed readers to these offerings with about a handful of postings right here on the PiercingMetal Blog. It’s been great to find them calling our attention to free music by Immolation, Enslaved, The Melvins, Arsis and Wormrot. Let’s face it, the economy sucks and prices are still going up so why not indulge in something free whenever it is possible. That being said the next free EP from Scion A/V gives the mighty Meshuggah a go round by giving fans two unreleased tracks by the band. Okay so perhaps two tracks seems kind of a bummer, but its still free and its still Meshuggah and most of that bands fans will take anything that they can get from them. The first track is a studio cut called, of all things, “Pitch Black” (hence the name of the EP) and its pretty solid and representative of what we expect from the group. The second cut is “Dancers To A Discordant System” which is recorded live. This track originally hails from the bands 2008 release “Obzen”. Clicking the album cover below will take you over to Scion A/V where you can download these tunes legally. How cool is that.

Click The Cover To Download “Pitch Black”

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The current state of the economy finds me always loving when the fine folks at Scion A/V offer up The Metal Republic some free, and really cool Metal to help enhance not only their collections but their overall appreciation and curiosity about a bands body of work. The newest free EP delivers you six tracks from the incredibly blazing Arsis. You know the band I am speaking about, the ferocious Technical Death Metal group from Yorktown, VA that is the brainchild of James Malone. I’ve enjoyed their stuff on recording and in the live sense for a few years now so I was very happy to find them being featured on one of these free EP’s. If this is your first go at the band then you are in for a treat (especially if you someone who goes crazy for technical guitar and drum wizardry). Arsis does it right and that is the best way I can describe it to you. The EP is entitled “Lepers Caress” and you can download all five songs into your collection by clicking the album art just below. Go, go, go…

Click Album To Access The Freeness

This free EP download could not have come at a better time because we are hours away from the band heading out as direct support for the mighty Sonata Arctica. Talk about a double dose punch of musical power. Do yourself a favor Metal fans and be sure to attend one of these shows. I know that I will be there at the NYC appearance in Gramercy Theatre for sure and a review will make it to these pages as soon as is humanly possible. Stay tuned for that.

Official Website: http://us.myspace.com/arsis
Official Website: http://scionav.com/

In the event that you are missing some of the other Arsis releases in your music library you can just use these handy dandy Amazon.com links to help you complete your collection. How cool is that?

Click Cover To Download EP

Thought I have to admit that I have seen them only once in action, and very early in their still growing career, I’ve heard the music from Revocation a few times and really think that they are one of the bands that I need to dig a little deeper into. They are a favorite of some of my fellow Metal website providers and once you hear what they do and how its done in their hands you will easily see why. The band has been around since 2006 with this name and are currently signed to Relapse Records where they last released “Chaos Of Forms” back in 2011. Since this has been a long time between new music for the fans makes this new EP from the folks at Scion A/V something really cool.

The EP is entitled “Teratogenesis” and it features five songs that will surely impress their legacy and new fans alike. You can click the cover art above to download it but do it quick in the event it does not remain on the server forever. I still don’t know how long the Scion A/V folks keep things up there but I am glad that they let us get at them in the Metal Community. Enjoy and feel free to let us know what you think in the comments section.

Official Website: http://www.myspace.com/revocation
Official Website: http://www.scionav.com

Here’s some links to the other releases from the band in case you wanted to add them to your collection.

Even though I was never really a follower of their music at the time of their inception, The Melvins were surely a band that influenced many with their blend of Punk and Metal. Formed in 1983 by Buzz Osborne the band has had a number of lineup changes over the years and currently finds Buzz along with Dale Crover, Jared Warren and Coady Willis bringing their material to new generations of fans and influencing them as well. Thanks to the folks at Scion A/V, the bands latest EP can be enjoyed for free by clicking the download link that I have posted. There are five songs to this “The Bulls And The Bees” EP and I am sure that you will like it even if you are just a casual fan like myself. I view all legally obtained free music as something that is very, very cool. Don’t you agree?

To download the free EP all you need to do is click HERE.

Official Melvins Website: HERE

PS: There is a TON of stuff to download over on the Scion A/V site so please do yourself a favor and surf around their page to see what else you can add to the collection. I am pretty sure you can still find the Enslaved, Immolation and Wormrot EP’s and if you cannnot I suggest emailing them to ask how you can get them. Have fun.

Even though I lean towards a more traditional style of Metal when it comes to how I feel about Grindcore stuff, there is no question about its overall intensity and the impact that it has had on that scenes fan base. Simply put, those who love it love it with the same force that it delivers to their senses. The band Wormrot hails from Singapore and they have been together since 2007. They were apparently discovered two years later by the founder of Earache Records (Digby Pearson) and signed immediately to his label. This was a perfect match for the band since so many Grindcore greats have been featured on this label such as the mighty Carcass and Napalm Death over the years. Recently the folks over at Scion A/V have provided fans the chance to download a free EP of Wormrot and this is a great way to give the band a sampling whether you are thrilled with the Grindcore sound or not. Who knows, perhaps you will find it making absolute sense to your musical palette. If you don’t enjoy it you can always delete the tunes or copy them to your friends computer or smart phone. Scion A/V has done this before with the mighty Immolation and also Enslaved. Just click their names to find links to those free EP’s. It’s time well spent.

Once again we have to thank the folks over at Scion A/V for giving it to the people and for free. There are other downloads to enjoy and as we have stressed in the brief postings about the others, share at will. Let’s get these bands the support that they are playing their asses out for. Until next time.

Official Websites:
http://www.myspace.com/wormrotgrind
http://www.earache.com/
http://scionav.com/

The command center for PiercingMetal’s journalistic happenings is stationed in the Big Apple NYC but when it all comes down to it, we maintain a large sense of pride when it relates to any Metal band that manages to do some proper good for the genre from the state on the whole. Such is the case with the devastating might of the Yonkers based Immolation who have been crushing skulls with their powerful brand of Death Metal for the past 25 years. The band’s latest full album is entitled Majesty & Decay and comes care of their label Nuclear Blast Records. If you’ve followed the band at all in the recent times I don’t have to tell you that this is some monstrous stuff and should be played at maximum volume for best effect. If you can count on Immolation for anything after this quarter century, it is the fact that they still choose to deliver some intensely powerful Metal for the loyal followers and have never taken the easy path to cut corners. Kudos to Ross, Bob, Steve and Bill for truly keeping it real.

Recently the fine folks at Scion A/V have offered fans the chance to download five more songs from the band on an EP entitled “Providence”. The whopping price of this group of recordings is absolutely free. In this current economy this is something awesome to find happening as it does not do any harm to the band and instead puts their music into more Metal fans hands via a legal means and sends more bodies to the shows to purchase merchandise. The band will have this free EP available at their merchandise tables at the shows but you don’t have to wait for them to rumble through town to own this music. Just click the album cover below and you can download it straight away.

Thanks to Scion A/V for doing this for the band and further thanks to Nuclear Blast Records for being the proper home for a force of Metal nature like the mighty Immolation. I was compelled to do a quick blog posting for this and use the Musings as more of an editorial soapbox for our Metal good. It’s here to serve a myriad of purposes after all and I shall totally do this again sometime.

Relevant Links:
Official Immolation: http://www.myspace.com/immolation
Scion A/V: http://www.scionav.com/
Nuclear Blast Records: http://www.nuclearblastusa.com/

This was just too cool to leave alone and not make a mention of in some fashion. It was also the perfect chance to continue to use the official blog for PiercingMetal.com in an engaging way and let it adventure bravely into new and exciting Metal territory a little more than I allow it. So here is the scoop. A couple of months ago those fine folks at Scion A/V offered up a free EP by the legendary Enslaved called “The Sleeping Gods” and this five song opus is a perfect continuation of their latest full length release Axioma Ethica Odini which can be found on their label Nuclear Blast Records. These two albums when listened to in sequence will prove how the group has transcended the role of being just a Black Metal band into something that delves into both the Progressive and the Psychedelic as well. The interesting thing about this is how they do not lose an ounce of their power by doing so and can now bring in a new legion of fans and believers around the world. Nice work.

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