Akron’s Fistula has signed a two-record deal with Swedish label Plague Island. The first release is the sludge-metal band’s long-delayed full-length debut, Burdened by Your Existence. The disc was previously slated for release on Austria’s PsycheDOOMelic.
“The so-called ‘record labels’ that were interested in working with us weren’t nearly as enthused,” says Fistula mainman Corey Bing. “Most labels want to act like record labels, yet they want the band to do all the work, pay for your own recordings, then skimp on the layout and materials.”
The punishing album was recorded at Suma Studios, with James Gang/Pere Ubu producer Paul Hamann. For an upcoming expanded double-vinyl edition, the group’s constantly shifting lineup has recorded extra tracks with Nate Linehan, drummer for Insult and sub-underground legends Anal Cunt.
The label also plans to release Fistula’s 21-minute “Methmouth and the Dead Teeth” on a split with Swedish death-punks Modorra. A 100-copy limited edition of the split will be a one-sided double LP on colored vinyl, with alternate artwork.
Plague Island will press 1,000 copies of the Burdened CD and sell it primarily through its web store. Necrodamus mainman Scott Stearns, who plays guitar on the record, provided the disc’s ominous cover art. The two bands are also planning a split.
“I think most of the bands in the genre are just boring,” says Plague Island owner Ola Lawner, who also runs the grind label Goryfied. “They’re just slow. But Fistula ain’t slow just for the sake of being slow. All riffs on this album feel really thought through, and it has a dark, almost evil feeling over it.”
The prolific Bing has new merchandise available for his all-star stoner-metal project, King Travolta. King T boxer shorts are online exclusives at Café Press (search for “Enablers”).
• Mushroomhead frontman Jeffrey Nothing has posted new tracks from his upcoming solo debut, The New Psychodalia, at www.myspace.com/jeffreynothingband. The singer is shooting for a late-fall release.
“We were going for more of a grand scale with this one,” says Nothing. “Like viewing our world through a bold, new hallucinogenic. We’ve gone about this recording with approaches no one involved has ever tried: tempo changes, strange time signatures, daring performances. If you like ’Shroom and gloom and doom, turned with crazy twists that go boom, enjoy the ride.”
• Throwback hardcore band Hockey Fight has posted the new 666 Songs demo as a free download at www.myspace.com/clevohockeyfight. The tracks include a cover of “Hold It Back” by Confront, the old-school straight-edge band whose various lineups included Integrity guitarist Aaron Melnick and Ringworm axeman Frank “3 Gun” Novinec.
• Metalers Law of Destruction and instrumental guitar-fusion group Travis Larson Band will play free shows in the parking lot of North Olmsted’s Guitar Center (26635 Brookpark Road Extension) on Wednesday, July 30. The bands will perform on the DigiTruck, a mobile stage that showcases gear from guitar-equipment company DigiTech. Larson’s band will go on at 3 p.m.; LOD is scheduled for 6.
Law of Destruction — the backing band of Tim “Ripper” Owens’ Beyond Fear, with Odious Sanction’s Scott Bryant on vocals — is finishing its full-length debut at Bedford’s Galahad Studios. Guitarist John Comprix (ex-13 Faces) says the group will release a small EP of tracks independently to tide fans over while they shop the disc. “It’s a perfect mix between thrash, death metal and hardcore,” he says. Take a listen at www.myspace.com/lawofdestruction.
