text:
Gorguts re-issues Obscura and From Wisdom to Hate on Century Media
by Brett Stevens on February 11, 2015
Death metal band turned prog-core act Gorguts has re-issued the latter two albums from its classic period, Gorguts and From Wisdom to Hate, on industry powerhouse Century Media Records. The re-issues — on jewelcase CD, 2LP and limited edition 2LP — will be available in pre-order starting March 9, 2015.
Says guitarist/composer Luc Lemay: "I'm proud to announce that our 1998 record Obscura and 2001's From Wisdom To Hate will finally be re-released! …For this re-issue, I decided to include liner notes that tell the story behind each record. How we got together as musicians, what was the composition process that made this sound possible and that made us grow as artists…I decided to change the logo because, with a step back, I realized that I never really like the original one on Obscura and I wanted to give the record a fresh look. I kept the same logo for From Wisdom To Hate, because it was created for this record…Thanks again to all our fans for their unconditional support through all those years."
The re-issues see official release on April 6, 2015 in Europe and April 7, 2015 in North America. Both are dedicated to the memory of former members Steeve Hurdle (R.I.P. 2012) and Steve MacDonald (R.I.P. 2002). While Gorguts has deviated into progressive-themed *core territory with their latest, Colored Sands, this band helped forge the sound of technical death metal back when that term simply referred to death metal which required technical ability to play. While Obscura has often been imitated in style, those who have tried to imitate it have generally done so on the basis of style alone and missed the sublime composition within which made this album a classic independent of style.
Tags: century media, death metal, gorguts, progressive metalcore, Technical Death Metal
Vader to re-issue early demos "Morbid Reich," "Necrolust" and "Live in Decay"
by Brett Stevens on February 9, 2015
Ripping death metal band Vader, who gained stature in the field of Morbid Angel/Slayer-influenced fast tremolo death metal, plan to re-issue three early demos on CD, cassette and LP via Witching Hour Records starting on April 3, 2015.
The three demos — "Live in Decay" (1986), "Necrolust" (1989), adn "Morbid Reich" (1990) — will see separate releases unlike the last collection of Vader demo material, 1996's Reborn in Chaos which remains a sought-after release for its Pavement Records version which contains better sound than other variants. These capture the transition of Vader from aspiring speed metal/death metal hybrid to catching on to the new death metal style and picking a fast but explosive style that graced their first album, The Ultimate Incantation and subsequent albums De Profundis and Sothis EP.
As Vader continue to release material in a fast although simplified and more hookish style, these retrospectives may provide insight into the origins of this band back in the days of the Soviet bloc. It will be interesting to see what bonus tracks, if any, Witching Hour Records adds to pad these releases up to full-length duration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7lnCQMtwHk
Tags: death metal, vader, witching hour records
Desecresy – Arches of Entropy
Unlike many bands, Desecresy — the product of experienced musicians a decade after their first entry into the scene — formed with a full concept that manifests on the first album as a slow form of death metal. Peeling back the layers, influences can be seen at many levels here, but the most prominent are Bolt Thrower for the sense of rhythm, Carnage for riff transitions, Therion for use of synchronized strumming to adjust rhythm, and Paradise Lost for the use of lead-picked melodies evoking harmony in the riff below for a resonant, haunting sound. The result more approximates the moods and sensations to the listener of a funeral doom metal band, but at varieties of middle pace instead of extremes, creating the feeling of a descent into a subterranean world populated by non-verbal creatures.
The important distinction between death metal and doom metal that appears in this work is the tendency of death metal toward wonder, and a Lovecraftian obsession with the workings of the universe, where doom metal focuses on a despairing, passive and self-focused mood that makes no such commentary and in fact symbolizes fatalism. Desecresy keeps that outlook, and shears from it any sense of real-world issues such as the crusade against Christianity or need for social justice, replacing those with a mythological view of existence in which darkness is not self-pity but an outlook reflecting the red in tooth and claw essence of nature, itself a logical response to the need to avoid stagnation and mediocrity. Like Bolt Thrower, Desecresy envisions a world of constant warfare, but in this case the warfare emerges from the clashes of biological and mystical entities rather than modern political forces. All of this emerges from the music itself — the lyrics could as well be ingredients written on soup cans — which uses its riffs in a constant grinding which slowly grows into articulation of dual principles, ending without resolution into a singularity but a fragmentation followed by evolution which more reflects the state of nature in which conflict creates speciation instead of singularity. Riffs start as two chords colliding, then through the slowly equalizing rhythms of downstroked chords reach equilibrium, at which point they mutate into something else. The intense similarity of many of these riffs, built of the same few chords, puts emphasis on their form and its mutation and development from a microbial state to that of full of organism.
Over this flow the type of chanted vocals that adorned the first Therion album, using the death shout not as a rhythm to impart urgency to the guitars, but in a timekeeping role that counterbalances that of the drums which serve more as a texture of rhythm to allow internal motion to have reference points. In the midst of this sonic landscape the reverb heavy lead picking of melody creates a sheet of sound against which the power chorded rhythm guitars can develop, allowing songs to slide forward under this cover and develop what are essentially background riffs into rhythms that pick up additional internal variation and thus command more complex riffs. Desecresy generally keep it simple and grinding in the style of middle-period Bolt Thrower, but at crucial moments intervene with complex riffs and elegant transitions. This completes the cycle of this album, moving from serene but conflicted stability to complex and ambiguous change, a repeating pattern which creates the impression of lawless growth and beauty appearing from nothingness that lingers in the mind of a listener like a nearly-forgotten hope.
Tags: death metal, desecresy
Perdition Temple – The Tempter's Victorious
by William Pilgrim on February 6, 2015
Perdition Temple's sophomore album is one of riffs written and dispersed as discrete packages. These are sewn together into short, explosive bundles extremely dense in content but not always boasting the smoothest of transitions.
Often the tonal shift between adjoining bars is far too drastic to convey any sense of uniform texture, giving the impression of an album constructed from a granular, low-level perspective rather than a more holistic, top-down approach. Meaning that the band came up with a whole bunch of riffs first, before cobbling them together into songs. Performed at near-always breakneck speed, songs pass by in a whirlwind of intense activity that isn't always easy to discern. This is blistering and warring death metal displaying none of the stalling tactics practiced by modern death metal bands, and for that much it deserves credit.
There is interesting micro-play within individual parts but the whole doesn't foster or even attempt to put much store in memorability. The addition of Bill Taylor as guitar foil has given Gene Palubicki free rein to indulge himself as he never had chance to on past efforts in Angelcorpse or even the Perdition Temple debut. The role of rhythm is sometimes completely dispensed with, the two guitars intertwining like Hermes' serpents about a support of hyperactive drumming, sniping and spitting out angular phrases that, in surface aspect, wouldn't be unseemly on a tech-death album. But this act's pedigree being firmly rooted in death metal, the constant barrage of information never loses its essence of violence. A return to themes familiar from older works, primarily through the use of groove as introductory and relaxation device, is in greater evidence during the second half of the album.
As always, incendiary solos faithfully modeled after Trey Azagthoth find space on a Palubicki album. Azagthoth's best work was unparalleled, however, because it was the original extension of its creator's will and personality, much like the eternal consciousness standing outside of time and space, before the birth of time and space, that Eastern monism proposes, willing all creation into existence from within itself. Palubicki's solos are the finest replicas of Trey Azagthoth that death metal has seen but ultimately they fall on, and should be judged by, the sword of rote inspiration that created them in the first place.
Tags: angelcorpse, bill taylor, blasphemic cruelty, death metal, gene palubicki, perdition temple
Codex Obscurum – Issue Six
Underground metal zine Codex Obscurum gained an audience for its focus on music of an underground nature without the associated fetishism of image and product obsession that blights most zines no matter how underground. In that sense, it was a regression to the healthier times of the 1990s, when fanzines were fan-oriented instead of label-oriented, and both old and new audiences have delighted in it for five issues.
Contemplating Issue Six of this magazine shows how far it has come and how it has not lost any of the delight in the music that marks a good fanzine. Over the past several issues the focus of the magazine has shifted to interviews and reviews, and this shows in the much wider coverage that Codex Obscurum achieves with Issue Six. More bands see print in this issue and, through greater experience of interviewers, questions cover a wider range. The issue starts with an interview with War Master, whose albums regularly feature in our best-of lists around here. While this interview is short, it provides the vital news that this band is working on a second album and an EP, and talks about touring and general attitude of the band after switching vocalists. After this follows a thoughtful and probing interview with (the New) Mayhem guitarist Teloch, which contains mostly striking revelations about the black metal scene and its relationship to political correctness. For those of us more inclined to avoid newer versions of once-classic bands, this shows insight into the thought process behind the current "scene." Further interviews with Anatomia, Lantern, Obliteration, Rottrevore, Symptom, Acid Witch, Castle Freak, Impaled Nazarene, Fister, Hecate Enthroned and Ritual Decay. The interviewers in all of these approach the subject with knowledge and tailor their questions to the subject's personality, which brings out more of the people behind the bands.
One of the bigger changes since the last issue appears in the abundance of reviews that Issue Six has to offer. These take two forms: mid-length descriptive and personalitied reviews, and semi-dismissive Haiku form reviews that often tell more than a few pages of labored, assiduous writing. The descriptive reviews offer a practical assessment of how a metal listener might approach an album in a compact package. Witness the review of Cruxiter Cruxiter:
Cruxiter – S/T (2013 – PrismaticO Records)
Wow, what a surprise this album was. Cruxiter are not a well-known band, as this is their first full-length and they've only been around for a couple of years. But it sounds like they've been around since the '80s. In fact, this whole album sounds like it's from the '80s. Cruxiter are traditional heavy metal from the wastelands of Texas and will not disappoint one bit. It's as if early Mercyful Fate had a ménage à trois with Manilla Road and early Iron Maiden, all while listening to '70s guitar-driven rock. The musicianship on this album is fantastic; each song is a classic metal anthem with soaring vocals and impressive guitar riffs. Miggy Ramirez's vocals are high-pitched and remain steady throughout — he certainly pulls off the style perfectly. The highlight of the album is "The Devils of Heavy Metal" and is one of the best songs of this style I've heard in quite some time. The one thing that may dissuade some listeners (and it's a shame, at that) is the production of the album. There are no crystal-clear sounds on this album, everything is produced in a way that makes sounds like it was recorded in 1984. It adds to the retro-feel of this album, and is part of what makes this album a great listen. The album is streaming on their bandcamp page, I'd highly recommend you check it out if traditional heavy metal is your thing. Keep an eye out for this band. — James Doyle
Ten pages of reviews of this type help inform the listener on the cutting edge of underground metal, skipping the numu/indie/post gibberish, and then detour into two pages of Haiku form reviews which cut to the core of each album from a listener's standpoint. While these are more dismissive, oftentimes they utterly nail why an album is irrelevant or why we the audience should look past style and appreciate what makes it great. These offer a counterpoint to the desire for articulation that motivates the descriptive reviews, and give a quick synopsis where that is all that is needed. They are more motivational than merely reporting the facts; this style might be useful in dismissing some of the recent material that labels pump out which requires no more than a few minutes to recognize as an archetype of fail and dismiss.
As has been the trend with the last few issues of Codex Obscurum, the editors struggle to balance a gory old-school art-driven layout with a postmodern format that is easy to read in the age of computers, tablets and whatever "et cetera" will soon encompass. An abundance of great artwork appears throughout Issue Six, with more use of graphics inserted in the text stream or offset to one side. The Acid Witch, Fister and Ritual Decay interviews could fit in either a glossy pro-printed magazine or a contraband underground zine and show an optimization of this layout style. One thing that could improve is the differentiation between interviewer and interviewee, which is currently done with the industry standard of the speaker's initials at the start of the line. An ideal layout of this format has proved elusive, with some zines bolding the comments by the interviewee, but this like most other solutions burns more page real estate. On this site, we put the interviewer's comments in bold because that makes them easy to skip, but also requires more paragraph space which is at a premium in a zine that has to render itself to paper instead of the limitless scrolling of modern society's replacement for daytime television, the internet. An ideal answer may conceal itself on this issue but it is the only area where this zine proved difficult to read at a glance, which is otherwise facilitated by its clean layout with clearly separated art and well-signaled interviews with band logo at the top of each.
Issue Six continues what seems to be becoming a section in Codex Obscurum, which is an unboxing and review of Dungeons & Dragons gaming sets and lines of books. While many in the metal community seek to isolate themselves from the inner nerd inherent to all metal, a more realistic assessment shows that many metalheads are in fact nerds "in the closet" who enjoy many activities which stimulate the imagination and analytical thought process simultaneously much as D&D does. This feature goes beyond the knowledge of the casual attendee at D&D games and could stand on its own in any lifestyle or technical magazine. Among the thoughtful interviews and carefully articulated reviews, the role-playing game material fits hand in glove, and adds to the feeling of this zine as well-rounded in the underground sense, covering music and lifestyle without drifting into the product fetishism that shears mainstream magazines off from the flow of what fulfills people both as metal fans and individuals. Looking forward to seeing this zine continue to grow and develop.
Codex Obscurum Issue 6 $3 + shipping
Tags: acid witch, anatomia, Black Metal, castle freak, codex obscurum, death metal, fister, hecate enthroned, impaled nazarene, journalism, lantern, mayhem, obliteration, ritual decay, rottrevore, symptom, war master, zines
Sadistic Metal Reviews 02-02-15
by Staff on February 2, 2015
We all seek a claim that our lives are worth living. For some, this comes from money; for others, being right or at least being cool. In order to achieve either or both, one must emit product, and far too often this product tries to flatter and pander to its audience rather than grow some balls and make a point. You could write an album about cooking an omelette with more passion than most bands approach topics like war, death, genocide, evil and emptiness. When the surface takes over from the core, the cart has come before the horse and all is lost, which is why we savor the sobbing tears of poseurs, tryhards and scenesters with Sadistic Metal Reviews…
Like a Storm – Awaken the Fire
In a flashback to the bad parts of the 90s, this album opens with a digeridoo before breaking into predictable hard rock riffs with heavier production and more basic rhythms. Then some guy starts singing in his best lounge lizard voice, building up to a pop chorus that could be straight off an Eagles album if they sped it up and did not worry about how truly incongruous the whole package would be. If you like speed metal trudge riffs paired with AOR favorite techniques and Coldplay-style vocals, this album might be for you. But the question remains: why even bother to release this as a metal album? Clearly it would be happier as country, pop, rock or even blues if they truncated the scenery-chewing vocals. It seems the music industry has found an update for nu-metal which is to channel it into this rock/metal hybrid which takes the angry parts of Pantera and pairs them with the smarmiest parts of overproduced, excessively pandering fraternity rock. These guys have a Titty Bingo sticker on their van. The scary thing is that the "inspirational" rock stylings here are a kissing cousin to much of what has infested power metal. But this takes it a step further to the point where what comes out of the speakers resembles the worst of corporate rock from the 90s and 00s to the point that heavier guitars cannot disguise the essential frat party rock tendency of this flaming turd. This goes well with a pukka shell necklace and lots of hair gel, with a NO FEAR sticker on the overly polished 'stang next to the keg of Natty Light.
Abominator – Evil Proclaimed
Angelcorpse invoked a revelation in death metal, but not entirely a good one. The basic idea was to accelerate the rhythmic fill to the level of riff, such that the composer could use one or two chords in a charging rhythm much like war metal or hardcore punk, but then work in elaborate brachiated chord phrases to avoid the riff concluding in the stunningly obvious chord progression that otherwise must result. Add a bunch of these together in constant rhythm and the essence of that style shines forth. Abominator attempts to break up the constant charging and give songs more shape, as well as use actual fills which complement the riffs, but despite this effort and some inventive songwriting, the blockhead forward charging — like Cannibal Corpse working on the longer Bathory riff outtake that opened the first Angelcorpse album — continues and ruins any atmosphere except a constant tension that starts to resemble an eyestrain headache after a few songs. Speaking of songs, these are nearly indistinguishable, written at similar tempos with similar riff forms and while not random pairing of riffs, reliance on phrasal similarity to the point that songs sound like one giant charging riff with some textural flickering within. To Abominator's credit, Evil Proclaims is a lot better than the other Angelcorpse tributes out there. Unfortunately, that's about all that this album remains as and a few moments of power notwithstanding, remains mired in a sea of formless raging metal which never reaches a point.
Venom – "Long Haired Punks" (from From the Very Depths)
Venom are NWOBHM, not black metal; this fact flies in the face of what you will be told in 99% of the metal propaganda out there. The band themselves have never denied it. On this track however, Venom throws us a twist by sounding exactly like Motorhead except with more sudden stops at the end of each phrase where Motorhead would have kept a methamphetamine groove going. "Long Haired Punks" features punkish riffing combined with Venom's archetypal primitive, broad leaps of tone and nearly chromatic fills. A bluesy solo that seems designed to be slightly abusive to key and chaotic accompanies this as do the purely Lemmy-styled vocals in what is essentially a verse-chorus two riff song with a bridge. The sudden pauses grow tedious within the passage of the song to newer listeners but then again, those grew up after metal assimilated Discharge, Amebix and The Exploited. For someone from 1979, this would seem like a slicker version of Venom with more emphasis on carefully picked chords and less onrushing punk energy, which makes the title ironic. It is well-composed within the limited style that Venom has preferred all these years, but attempts to update the NWOBHM stylings plus Motorhead of Venom have failed and should either be rolled back or the original style entirely discarded. This band is halfway between trying to be what it was, but in a post-1983 sound, and what it could be, which probably would resemble nothing like the original except for the raw "gut instinct" energy which unfortunately, attempts to modernize have limited. While I am not the world's biggest Venom fan, it is hard to deny (1) their catchy punk/Motorhead/NWOBHM pop power and (2) their aesthetic influence on much but not all of underground metal, and it would be great to see this band develop into all it can be. From "Long Haired Punks," it seems in doubt that From the Very Depths will be that evolution.
Unrest – Grindcore
The title proclaims this release as grindcore but a better description might be later punk styled as grindcore with a nod toward pop punk. These songs fit together nicely, but rely on two unfortunate things that doom them: repetition of classic punk and grindcore tropes as if they established something in themselves, and use of very much pop rhythmic hooks and song transitions. The vocals are great, the instrumentation fantastic for this genre, the melodies adequate and the rhythms good, but the meaning is not there. The recent Nausea album achieved a great deal more with less by focusing on having each song present an idea and then developing a basic, albeit circular looping context. Grindcore attempts instead the infamous "outward-in" composition of tribute bands everywhere where the need to include the tropes on the surface pushes out the need for internal structure based around a coherent thought, so songs end up being technique only, which is somewhat ironic in such a theoretically anti-technique genre. Most of these result in that "feel" of classic punk and hardcore but add to it the heavy technique of grindcore, which only serves to reveal how disorganized these tracks are. By the time they fall into imitating classic punk open chord picking and stop/start conventions halfway through the album, it has already been long clear that this is a highly competent tribute band but nothing more. To the credit of the label, production is flawless and clear without sounding too slick and the vocals are perfectly mixed. That cannot save Grindcore, nor can its periodically great guitar work, from being reliant on the crutch of imitating the past in lieu of writing songs. Maybe all the great hardcore and grindcore that could be written was long ago.
Archgoat – The Apocalyptic Triumphator
Much like the late days of hardcore, underground metal is standardizing into a war metal/death metal hybrid that emphasizes fast slamming rhythm without the obvious rock, jazz and blues breakdowns that make it clear that music belongs to the peace, love and happiness side of metal. Archgoat, by applying the structure of Scandinavian metal to the raw onslaught of Blasphemy/Sarcofago styled proto-black metal, stands as an innovator to this sub-genre which tends to combine Onward to Golgotha, Fallen Angel of Doom and Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz into a single style that like the bands which combined The Exploited, Black Flag and the Cro-Mags into a single voice, standardizes itself and becomes just about interchangeable. The sad fact of The Apocalyptic Triumphator is that a lot of good songwriting went into this album and some quality riff-writing, but this band remains literally imprisoned by the style in which they choose to create. About half of this album, preying on all of us who wish there were somewhere undiscovered in a vault another four hours of Drawing Down the Moon, borrows rhythms and arrangement patterns from that highly-esteemed work, as well as developing known riff types from the above influences. None of this is bad; however, it does not add up to enough to be compelling, like previous Archgoat works. This album represents the most professional work from this band so far and clearly exceeds any previous efforts, but the genericism of its riffs make songs indistinguishable both from one another and in terms of structure, creating the musical equivalent of listening to a flood sewer. For every good riff, four "standard" ones borrowed from the war metal/Blasphemy-tribute/Incantoclone group crowd them out. Periodic moments of greatness are balanced by a double frequency of moments of staggering obviousness which make it hard to get behind hearing this one on a regular basis. What I want to know is: what do these musicians actually idealize in music, outside of this style? Their work in such an artistically liberated medium might unleash the creativity that this narrow style suppresses.
Heaving Earth – Denouncing the Holy Throne
Disruption metal. In business, the idea of disruption is that some new entrant into the market disturbs it to the point of throwing everything else out. This should simply be thrown out. Trudging riffs, squeals, chortled vocals, mind-numbing rhythms and melodic fills that sound more like video game noises than metal. An album of this would be excruciating, doubly so if you listened to it.
Ancient Wind – The Chosen Slain
Style over substance defines this release: built on a base of melodeath, Ancient Wind regurgitates several different influences but predominantly Sodom and Wintersun. The result is a sampler plate of styles that never comes together but, because it has no topic other than the need to record something for a half hour or so, the lack of style damages nothing nor salvages anything. You are left with the typical experience of hearing something disorganized, then seeing a fat woman eat ice cream, and suddenly being unable to recall if the music had been on earlier. In one ear and out the other, if you're lucky.
Sacrilegium – Wicher
1996, out of Poland. Like Graveland? A more conventional version of Graveland: less scary, more uptempo, more musically predictable. Sounds a lot like there was a Dimmu Borgir influence. While it's tempting to like the style, the lack of substance suggests this album should have stayed in 1996 with the other proto-tryhards.
Battle Beast – Unholy Savior
An album's worth of that one song your junkie ex-girlfriend is really into. For Lady Gaga listeners who like the sound of electric guitars. Halestorm meets fantasy. Daddy-issues metal. I'm out of jokes, just don't listen to this.
Tags: abominator, archgoat, Black Metal, death metal, like a storm, sadistic metal reviews, unrest, venom
Evoked – "Return of the Dead"
by James van Zyl on January 28, 2015
Hailing from North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany, Evoked issues four savage compositions of blistering mid-paced death metal honoring the early days of the genre on their demo "Return of the Dead." This demo came out in 2014 and uses Swedish-style blistering production but actually hails to an earlier era.
In the style of bands such as Possessed, Grotesque and Slaughter Lord, Evoked creates standard format songs stacking three riffs against one another, one each for verse and chorus and a transition, and based them around the kind of fast mid-paced rhythm with very tangible stops that speed metal bands used. This music harkens to the era of transition 1985-1989 when metal was abandoning the speed metal legacy and transitioning into death metal, and so calls to mind early Morgoth, Death, Pestilence Malleus Maleficarum and the like. What makes it stand out is that it holds enough content to pique the interest of old-school metal enthusiasts.
While a four-song demo gives little insight into the future of the band, Evoked show absolutely no inclination to deviate from this classic style, which has the advantage of being highly comprhensible. While the band shows no sign of taking this to a simpler and more mob-pleasurable sellout place, it also clearly panders to the tryhard audience with a demo that would have been amazing in 1989 but in 2015 is just adequate.
Tags: death metal, evoked, Speed Metal
by Staff on January 26, 2015
Sturgeon's law holds that 90% of everything is mediocre. This condition occurs because most people are not thinking at all about what they are doing. When they want to be important, they create a metal band to make them look important, instead of trying to make good music. With brutal cruelty and ecstatic sadism we separate the poseurs and tryhards from the real deal with Sadistic Metal Reviews…
Collision/The Rotted – Split
Three tracks comprise this aggressive split. Collision leads in with two tracks of rigid, violent grindcore which incorporates a few ideas from percussive death metal to give it additional crush. These tracks keep intensity through speed and chaotic blasting but harbor no surprises in chord progression of phrase, which makes them fun to listen to incidentally but perhaps nothing one would seek out. The Rotted on the other hand slashes out a single track of old-school hardcore with a catchy chorus, extremely rudimentary but melodically hookish riff balanced against a sawing (but not grinding) verse riff, and genre conventions from older punk. Both of these bands aim to uphold the genres they are from and do it competently but when a genre is well-established, every band is a local band until it rises above from some distinctive personality or idiosyncratic perception. They do not need to be "unique," since such a thing has never really existed, but they must be their own creation. Both bands here feel like minor variations on known archetypes and, while competent, do not inspire particular allegiance. That being said, they both remain enjoyable for that local grindcore/band experience, and together these tracks enhance each other like memories of the set you saw while drinking craft beer and talking up that sexy Facebook consultant at a bar that has changed hands eleven times in the last quarter. It would be interesting to see what these bands did with a longer recording as that would put more pressure on them to differentiate style or at least expand upon it.
Decline of the I – Rebellion
Someone raised this question the other day: is metalcore a new style, or simply incompetent death metal? After all, we had bands who tried that Pantera-Fugazi-Nasum hybrid stuff in the past and generally it turned out that they were simply terrible songwriters who had no idea how to focus on an idea and bring it to clarity. Similarly, one wonders about "post-metal." Is this just idiots dressing up garbage and incompetence as the avantgarde, because that's what the avantgarde really is? Seriously, I'd love to see one of these artists who makes sculptures of his own feces that interpret the metaphysics of Schopenhauer as quantum physics, for once, just for once, make a classically beautiful art work first so I don't simply think he's a Damien Hirsch style conjob. Decline of the I is really hilarious when you realize that it thrusts this question upon us. It sounds like stoned desperation with a home studio: random bits of metal songs that went nowhere, stitched together with what every 90s con man used in his band, the sampler. It doesn't flow in any direction or express anything other than "moments" of perception, like standing on a street corner while two cars collide and a pigeon defecates on a 24-year-old copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Rebellion amalgamates speed metal, death metal and punk riffs together with a bunch of influences outside of metal. There is no continuity, only a series of exhibits like a subway train going through an art gallery. These clowns use the different styles as wallpaper slides to color otherwise empty music and hide the collection of hackneyed tropes made "new" by hackneyed avantgarde tomfoolery and snake oil salesperson confidence jobs. Even the most incompetent ordinary metal band is preferable because its dishonesty is limited to its music, while Decline of the I brings in every posture, pose, pretense and fabrication necessary to make this hacked-up studio defecation seem like music.
Napalm Death – Apex Predator – Easy Meat
It has often been suspected that bands, when they run out of actual motivation, pick one off the shelf to make themselves seem profound. Their profundity means our guilt if we do not buy the album because we have turned down a great gift to humanity, you dig? But the fact is that they went into the big closet of Hollywood motivations — the poor, the downtrodden, the children, suffering animals, drug addiction and being raped — and pulled out one giant compulsion to make you like their empty music. Napalm Death went down this route when after Fear, Emptiness, Despair guitarist Jesse Pintado embarked on a course of alcoholism so crippling he could not bail out the rest of the band anymore. That is too bad, since Pintado essentially revitalized the band and created three of their best albums with his homegrown grindcore know-how. Ever since then, Napalm Death has been wandering in a wilderness of not giving a damn buuutttt something needs to pay for this condo, so they puke out another album. Apex Predator – Easy Meat takes Napalm Death full cycle from a band that protested pop music to a band that makes the worst of pop. This pretense-pop would be OK if it were good pop, because then we could laugh off the guilt, but instead it is a series of very similar riffs that break into very similar choruses which cycle until the end with a few breaks that are almost visual or high school theater department drama because they are so transparent and obviously manipulative. It was embarrassing to be noticed listening to this because it is not just bad, it is inept; its ineptitude is covered up with rock star glitz and production, but it still sounds hollow and horrifyingly empty. Please, give these guys jobs in media relations because they are done as a band and this embarrassing formalization just removes whatever shreds of self-respect they once had.
The Chasm – Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm
Although Daniel Corchado is obviously one of the most talented composers in underground metal, The Chasm does not present his best work. The appeal can be immediately seen: epic metal band with lengthy songs that play out internal conflicts in a way the audience can identify with. Under the hood, while there are some touches of DBC-style riffing, what greets us here is the cliches of 1980s speed metal with added progressive-ish fills that demonstrate guitar talent and knowledge of harmony. The songs remain basic when you factor these out, excepting the longer instrumental passages, which also rely on riffs from the past dressed up or lots of rhythmic downpicking that adds little other than keeping a place in the harmony. Additionally, occasionally comical vocals and a number of hackneyed metal stalwarts mar this release, but the real crisis here is the lack of interesting riffs, the shamminess of the songs in dressing up the mundane as exotic, and the coup de grace which is the inability of this album or its songs to convey an emotional experience outside of the music itself. They resemble nothing other than constant variations in a style of technical speed metal riffing that bands like Anacrusis made great by putting around evocative songs, but the latter part is missing here. Individual moments shine with the brilliance that can be expected of Corchado, and moments in songwriting show insight. The problem is that there needs to be more of the random or evocative in riffs, which would allow Corchado's song structure ideas to take on significance, and less of the highly talented progressive tinged touches that are impressive on a guitar-playing level but compositionally, serve the role of filler. On the whole, this album resembles the kind of tuned-up musical entropy that all of us ran to death metal to escape around 1989 or so.
Edge of Haze – Illumine
In theory, this should be hated: a hybrid of Gothic music, power metal and djent-inspired percussive speed metal. In reality, Edge of Haze restore balance to these genres by putting them in the right context. Speed metal is the hard rock of the 2010s, thirty years after its release, and updating it with a smary 1980s Gothic pop vocal and power metal "inspirational" choruses gives it the right context as the popular music of the age. It may be cheesy, as one might expect from these populist niche genres, but Edge of Haze seems at least comfortable in its own skin and the removal of the usual death metal vocals gives this album both greater levity and a greater intensity, as well as removing the crowding effect of harsh monotonic vocals. In addition, this re-introduces the voice as a melodic instrument which allows guitars to focus purely on rhythm and rudiments of harmony without losing direction to a song. Edge of Haze executes this hybrid well by capturing the dark pop aspects of Gothic and creating for them a framing of boldly abrasive metal that runs the gamut of styles from the last three decades without creating an oil-on-water effect by having those styles dominant the rhythm and song structure for a segment so that other parts seem like extra organs in a cadaver, puzzling the drunken pathologist at 4 AM as he files the report on the latest Jane Doe. Edge of Haze present something as intense as nu-metal but with a darker aesthetic that carries more gravitas than the dad-hating victimhood affirmation that nu-metal conveyed, also removing the rap/rock beats and making a form of popular metal that can be not only relatively heavy, but have a grace of beauty in darkness, and still write some quality pop songs. Aesthetically, this makes my skin crawl; musically, it is well-done and should be praised for putting this style of music in the context it warrants and deserves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw8qJedbrjA
Tags: collision, death metal, decline of the i, edge of haze, goth metal, Grindcore, Hardcore Punk, napalm death, sadistic metal reviews, Speed Metal, the chasm, the rotted
Abysme – Strange Rites
by Brett Stevens on January 25, 2015
Death metal tends to get described in terms of its influences among the classic bands, and in the case of Abysme it makes sense to mention Entombed, Autopsy and Dismember when describing the style that cloaks the music of this band. Using the brawny Swedish distortion at full intensity, Abysme creating brooding prowl riffs like Autopsy and put their songs together much in that vein by carefully leading up to a moment of unleashing the riff that defines each song, but that riff quickly mutates into a style of melody like Dismember with the boxy but expressive riffing of early Entombed.
This is a Left Hand Path vision of Entombed, not anything later, and most closely corresponds — in its seeking of obscure moods and labyrinthine, backdoor entrances to the major themes of each song — to the songwriting template of Autopsy, but also has its own voice which is more gearing toward a deepening of moods within a dark mantle. The atmosphere of morbid despair generating an impulse to destroy becomes an assumption and within that framework, Abysme create different moods that transition from relatively understandable basic gut-level instincts to submerged existential questioning. Riffs achieve a voice of their own with a protean tendency to twist on themselves and emerge as a new form which evokes but does not echo the old, solving the mathematical symmetry problem that so many death metal bands find themselves becalmed in. Abysme like to vary between doom-heavy slower riffs that use single chords to hold space and the more phrasal riffs of classic death metal, frequently transitioning into single-note picked riffs to shadow and overlay major themes. As a result, from within a familiar style emerges a new voice.
Sometimes the vocals are overdone and sound more like a guy shouting himself hoarse at a biker rally than a musical instrument but for the most part they provide solid rhythmic backing to the change in guitar riff which is only loosely contexted by percussion, which alternates between doom-death quasi-groove to full-on blasting in rapid succession, managing to avoid leading the change within arrangements while still foreshadowing it and following it closely, like a covert sniper tracking a target among the artificial hills and valleys of an abandoned city. While some riffs originate in extremely basic chord progressions, the theme expands over time and develops into an entity of its own. Abysme create music on their own terms in tribute to the past and show an ability to understand death metal as the unusual but articulate beast that it is.
Download Abysme's 2009 demo here.
Tags: abysme, death metal, hellthrasher productions
Torchure re-issues The Essence on Vic Records
German death metal band Torchure has re-issued its second album, The Essence, on Vic Records. The album was produced by S.L. Coe of Scanner and Angel Dust and comes with very special liner notes, rare pictures and two re-mastered unreleased tracks as bonus.
Torchure formed in 1985 and released three demo tapes before unleashing their debut album through German underground metal label 1MF. Their debut, Beyond the Veil (1992), showed a style of death metal with origins in heavy metal that nonetheless managed to be both intense and moody. Torchure toured Europe to support Sepultura and Pestilence. After the tour founding members and brothers Andreas (guitars) and Thorsten (bass) Reissdorf died in a car accident. The band decided to go on and found two new members who were also brothers and with this new lineup recorded their second album, The Essence (1993).
Vic Records re-issued the Torchure debut Beyond the Veil in 2013 as reported previously. The reissue of The Essence seems to have received much the same treatment with bonus tracks, expanded booklet and a jewel case CD instead of digipak. The reissue can be ordered from Vic Records directly.
Tags: 1mf records, death metal, torture, vic records
« 1 … 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 … 118 »


text:
HVAC (171)
Firestop (20)
Tradeshows (1)
RectorSeal Expands to Alabama and Tennessee with Barksdale Sales Group
Houston, TX, April 12, 2022 – RectorSeal, a leading manufacturer of quality HVAC/R and plumbing tools and accessories and a wholly owned subsidiary of CSW Industrials, Inc. [NASDAQ: CSWI], is pleased to announce that Barksdale Sales Group (BSG) has added Alabama and Tennessee to its current coverage area. BSG has represented RectorSeal products in Georgia since 2018.
"We are thrilled with this expansion and reaching new customers in Alabama and Tennessee," said Jeff Underwood, Senior Vice President at RectorSeal. "BSG has been a great partner over the past four years, and we look forward to even greater success."
BSG, which was founded in 2018 with just two employees, has consistently grown because of its dedication to vendors and distributors, and its development of a premium product portfolio that represents the best that the HVAC/R industry has to offer. The company's successful and continuous growth can be attributed to the founding goal coupled with the development of a premium product portfolio representing some of the best the HVAC industry has to offer.
"Everyone at BSG works diligently to strengthen the company's relations with customers to support their evolving needs, as well as the needs of the HVAC contractors they serve," said BSG President Brett Barksdale. "We anticipate a seamless transition and look forward to serving many new customers in Alabama and Tennessee. As always, we are committed to the success of our manufacturers, wholesalers, and HVAC contractors."
The Barksdale Sales Group has more than 80 years of industry experience representing leading manufacturers such as RectorSeal. Visit www.bsg-hvac.com for more information.
Since 1937, RectorSeal has offered products that have built a steadily growing and loyal following among contractors due to differentiated and proven product performance. Further, RectorSeal is often the first to tackle and solve challenges faced by professional trade contractors.
Please visit www.rectorseal.com for additional details, and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter for the latest product enhancements and news.
Plumbing HVAC HVAC/R
Posted in: News, HVAC, Plumbing
By RectorSeal

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


"Be Different, Be Great, and Never Stop." is the motto that Brandon Frame not only lives by but also embodies. Hailing from Hartford, Connecticut, Brandon has always envisioned achieving his goals. As a graduate of Morehouse College, Brandon unites his passions for business and education as he creates avenues for youth to develop into positive and upstanding men and women. His organization, TheBlackManCan has become a highly revered resource for the Black community and society as a whole. TheBlackManCan media platform is read in all 50 states and over 15 different countries. TheBlackManCan Institute has traveled to cities such as Washington D.C. Atlanta, GA, New York City, Charlotte, NC and more to uplift, educate, motivate, and empower young men of color. He currently serves as the Director of Business Partnerships and Development at High School Inc. in his hometown. At High School, Inc., Brandon has implemented a program he designed around the motto, "Taking students from the classroom to the boardroom." It has been so successful that it is now a nationally recognized and renowned program.


The Maid smart oven has a touch screen and comes with an inbuilt chef. The "Maid Assist" contains thousands of pre-programmed recipes, however owners can upload their own if they wish. The virtual sous chef uses voice commands to guide you through each step of the preparation process, including cooking time and temperature.


text:
Part of the moon's water will come from the Earth's atmosphere
Jillian Castillo
You will also be interested
[EN VIDÉO] MMS mission: 4 satellites to study the Earth's magnetosphere The launch date of the four satellites for the MMS mission is approaching. Objective: to study the magnetosphere of our planet in detail. This video traces the propagation of orbits.
With the emergence of many new lunar projects (including the project Artemis subordinate NASAwith the aim of sending humans to moon Within a decade), the search for water on and under the Moon was gradually becoming a critical issue, both for the development of knowledge and for potential use projects for future missions. Manned, or even installed Moon base.
The terrestrial origin of lunar water?
Most of the water on the moon is attributed to comets Or asteroids that would deposit water during their collision with the moon during a period of time Big late bombardment – About 4 billion years ago, in a youth solar system, it is generally accepted that the planets of the inner solar system, as well as the Moon, were subjected to the effects of large asteroids. Some scientists are also beginning to see the solar wind as a possible source of water on the Moon: according to them, it can contain ions hydrogen andOxygen which can combine into molecules of water on the moon.
If none of these hypotheses is rejected, a team of scientists at New study The third hypothesis: What if the moon's water came directly from the Earth?
In their model, it will be more accuratelyAtmosphere The upper part of our planet which could be a source of water for the Moon. In a natural and continuous way, the atmospheres of the planets are exposed to losses of Gas Atmosphere of outer space: This is calledair exhaust. This escape – which can have multiple causes – helped, among other things, to the emergence of life on Earth thanks to the escape of hydrogen, or also led to the disappearance of most of Mars' atmosphere. Thus, the Earth's atmosphere expels hydrogen and oxygen ions, which, according to scientists, can combine into water molecules on the Moon.
See also Consomac: Apple Watch reservation mode: watchOS 7.3.1 available
Magnetic field as a motor
But, according to the study, the flow of hydrogen and oxygen ions from the Earth's atmosphere to the surface of the Moon is only possible thanks to the effects of Earth's magnetic field : The latter is born magnetosphere, thus protecting the Earth from a large portion of charged solar particles. Scientists actually suggest that these ions are transported to the Moon as they pass through the tail of the magnetosphere – which is also the main source of Northern lights – , for a period of five days during the period of the lunar revolution.
But the process seems rather complicated: as it passes in the tail of the magnetosphere, the Moon causes turbulence there, some of which push the ions emitted from the Earth's atmosphere back there; Thus the Moon is in the flow, and devoid of its protective magnetosphere, it accumulates ions that could once combine on the Moon to form permafrost The moon is at the poles.
The presence of ions capable of forming water molecules during the lunar transit has been confirmed in this region of the magnetosphere
Scientists support more than one argument: thanks to recent measurements made by various space agencies around the world, the presence of ions capable of forming water molecules during lunar transits was confirmed in this region of the magnetosphere.
In parallel, the team of scientists analyzed the gravity data collected by the probe lunar reconnaissance vehicle At the poles of the moon, to confirm the existence ofanomaly In certain places it indicates the presence of water (in the state hard where liquid) found in some porous rocks in the lunar polar regions: the latest estimates indicate that there are more than 3,500 km3 Water in the lunar polar regions of the only origin of terrestrial escape from the atmosphere!
See also Twitch banners again warn of rights issues
Support an editorial team committed to popularizing science on Patreon!
Our mission? restore file Knowledge is within everyone's reach.
We produce our articles, investigations and reports every day, all on a human scale. Support us in this approach and this ambition.
Subscribe to Futura on Patreon!
I support the independence of Futura on Patreon!
Two subscription plans are offered with the following benefits:
" Futura is ad-free »: Get guaranteed ad-free access to the entire site for €3.29 per month (+ VAT).
" Share in the life of Futura »: In addition to ad-free access, participate in our independent media life (votes, new content, polls, etc.) for € 6.29 per month (+ VAT).
Interested in what you just read?
"Proud thinker. Tv fanatic. Communicator. Evil student. Food junkie. Passionate coffee geek. Award-winning alcohol advocate."
2020 Anti-racism protests | Trump suggested 'shooting protesters in the legs'
NHL Playoffs: Game 1 between the Bruins and Hurricanes


If you're looking to explore the Dominican Republic beyond resorts by diving deeper into the country and its culture check out the Fathom Travel cruise to "the forgotten coast," Puerto Plata.
I went on assignment to Punta Cana for Real Simple nearly a decade ago and did NOT like it at all. But perhaps I was just staying at the wrong place?!
All I can say is my experience in Punta Cana was like an adult summer camp! Gorgeous beaches and facilities with fun activities and people.


text:
Antonio Costa | Francisco Leong/AFP via Getty Images
Portugal's PM: The idea of a bailout is nonsensical
António Costa pledges to respect eurozone deficit targets despite economic concerns.
By	Paul Ames
8/31/16, 10:17 PM CET
Updated 9/1/16, 12:19 PM CET
LISBON — Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa insisted Wednesday that his government will bring this year's budget deficit "comfortably" below the target set by eurozone watchdogs, despite a sluggish economy, shaky banks and demands from his far-left partners in parliament for an accelerated austerity rollback.
Costa said there would be no repeat of the recent clash with the European Commission which saw Lisbon narrowly avoid sanctions over its 2015 budget overshoot and dismissed speculation Portugal could be forced into a second international bailout.
"The idea of a bailout is completely nonsensical," Costa said over lunch with Portugal's foreign press association. "Even with the current level of growth, this year we will meet the deficit reduction objective for the first time and have a deficit comfortably below the 2.5 percent (of gross domestic product) fixed by the Commission."
Worried by the political fallout, EU authorities climbed down from a threat to impose sanctions on Portugal and Spain this summer, despite Commission findings that both countries had failed to take effective action to cut excessive deficits. Portugal recorded a 4.4 percent deficit, way above target.
Costa hailed that decision as sign of growing international understanding for the position of his Socialist government which has vowed to "turn the page" on the austerity policies of the center-right administration it replaced after elections last October.
Yet there is concern at home and abroad that the fragile state of the economy could trigger a crisis like that which pushed Lisbon to seek a €78 billion bailout in 2011.
Figures released Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute showed the economy grew just 0.9 percent in the 12 months to June. A major up-pick will be required to meet the government forecast of 1.8 percent growth this year.
Doubts about the banking sector, which is burdened with more than €30 billion in bad loans, are hampering recovery.
Costa last week secured Commission approval for a €5 billion recapitalization plan to bolster the country's biggest lender Caixa Geral de Depósitos, but there are questions about whether private investors will chip in their part.
In December, the government spent €2.2 billion rescuing the Banif bank. It's been struggling for months to find a buyer for Novo Banco, a remnant of the collapse of the second-largest bank, Banco Espírito Santo, in 2014.
Fears persist a downgrade by the last international ratings agency keeping Portuguese bonds above "junk" level could force another bailout.
"We still expect Portugal to escape that fate. But the risk is serious," Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank, said in a recent note. "A major bond selloff upon a downgrade could force Lisbon to apply for help again."
Costa brushed aside bailout fears, blaming them on "enormous disinformation in Germany on the Portuguese situation."
He pointed out that major German companies with a well-established presence in Portugal — such as Volkswagen, Bosch and Continental — were stepping up investments.
Increased internal demand, boosted by tax cuts, the reversal of public-sector wage reductions and other anti-austerity measures taken by his government, will rekindle growth in the second half of this year, Costa said.
Exports, which have been affected by slowdowns in major markets like Angola, Brazil and China, are again beginning to pick up. Tourism is booming and the government is expecting an injection of EU aid after unblocking bottlenecks which have held up allocations of structural funding.
"The stabilization of the finance sector will help the economy," Costa said. "We are confident things are picking up ... the economy is recovering growth."
Without an upturn, Costa will have little room for maneuver.
His minority administration survives thanks to support in parliament from the Portuguese Communist Party and the radical Left Bloc. Both have put the government on notice they won't accept a return to austerity to satisfy Brussels' deficit-cutting targets.
"There will be no steps back and no compromise with what needs to be done," Left Bloc leader Catarina Martins told a weekend party rally. "Anyone who thinks the Bloc will settle for what's been done so far or that European blackmail will reduce what we want to achieve is mistaken."
Costa expressed confidence his alliance with the far Left will survive whatever needs to be done to control the deficit.
He defended the decision in November of his traditionally moderate, pro-EU party to strike the unprecedented deal with the radical Left to unseat the previous center-right government.
"Democracy requires governments to alternate between political families. In Portugal we found a new solution which was a PS government with support from the left-wing majority in the Assembleia da República," he said.
Costa stopped short of suggesting such an alliance could be a model for other countries — such as neighboring Spain, where a deal between the Socialists and the radical Podemos party has been muted as a possible solution to months of political deadlock.
"Within the European democratic space it has to be possible to find political alternatives," Costa said. "Anything that widens political solutions strengthens democracy and that is what we did."
Paul Ames
National budgets
António Costa
IMF prospects fade for Dijsselbloem, Carney
Dutchman and Bank of England governor lack support from European governments.
Lagarde quits IMF to focus on ECB bid
The Frenchwoman says her exit clears the way to find a successor.


text:
Michigan's UP is full of closed mines. Technology may give them new life
Historic photo of the Mather iron mine in Negaunee, where Michigan Technological University researchers are working with the city to design an underground hydro pump storage facility — tapping the region's mining heritage in hopes of reducing high energy costs. (Photo courtesy of "The Mather Mine," published by the Marquette County Historical Society)
April 3, 2019 Jim Malewitz Michigan Environment Watch
Upper Peninsula, Rural Michigan
Michigan Technological University is studying whether communities could transform abandoned mines into valuable energy storage.
University researchers are partnering with the Marquette County city of Negaunee, population 4,500, on a pilot project that could help mining communities turn liabilities into assets. The prospect is particularly intriguing in the Upper Peninsula, home to hundreds of abandoned metal mines and cripplingly high electricity rates.
"What really excites me is the possibility of reusing an old industrial site that no longer has any use at all — using that as energy stabilization for the entire Upper Peninsula," Negaunee City Planner David Nelson told Bridge Magazine.
"It would all be contained underground, which makes the surface still reusable for development in the future," added Nelson, who said the city is slowly converting some of its sprawling former mining properties to parks.
A slow-moving 'disaster' is threatening Lake Superior and a way of life
Here's how your ideas could help save Lake Superior's Buffalo Reef
Slideshow: In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, mining waste threatens Buffalo Reef
Mining waste and growing wetlands mean more mercury in fish in Upper Peninsula
Funded by a $50,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a two-year pilot project will focus on the Mather B iron mine, which closed in 1979 and whose former administrative offices are now a high school.
The idea is to novelly use the contours of underground mines to harness time-tested technology: pumped hydro storage. Surplus power would pump groundwater, which tends to flood mines when they are abandoned, up an incline. When energy demands are higher, the water would drop down the mine shafts through turbines that churn out electricity.
Professors and students will investigate whether an underground pumped hydro storage facility is technologically, environmentally and economically feasible. They will design such a facility and will translate their findings for policymakers and developers.
If all goes as planned, the goal is to develop a nationwide map of old mines that might be suitable for storing energy, said Roman Sidortsov, an associate professor of energy policy at Michigan Tech.
An underground conveyor belt at the Mather Mine. (Photo courtesy of Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University Archives, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company collection)
Game changer?
In the mid 1990s, a Michigan Tech team cataloged more than 2,000 shafts from 800 mines in Marquette County and seven other western UP counties.
The amount of potentially viable sites for energy storage likely is somewhere between those numbers, said Timothy Scarlett, an associate professor of archaeology and anthropology at Tech who is involved in the project.
Hundreds of thousands more mines exist across the country. Preliminary research suggests the Negaunee mine alone could store enough electricity to power Negaunee and surrounding cities for several hours.
"If it goes national, given what we know about the size, it could be a game changer," Sidortsov said, adding the caveat that the research is just beginning.
Stored energy for future use is a highly valuable resource for stabilizing the electric grid. Experts see advances in the field as a key piece of goals to slash carbon dioxide emissions in the coming decades by accommodating more intermittent renewable power added to the grid.
Now, some power plants might idle for long periods, particularly when folks turn off their lights at night and need less power. Some plants, including inefficient, higher-polluting plants called "peakers," are used only on the hottest or coldest days when electricity demands are highest. Meanwhile, power generation from wind turbines and solar panels fluctuates day to day.
Energy storage can come in various forms, such as lithium ion batteries or those made of nickel cadmium or sodium sulfur. Renewable energy experts have heralded rapid advances in technology that have made batteries less expensive, but they're still too pricey for wide-scale deployment.
The Michigan Tech researchers are contemplating another type of energy storage in the UP: pumped water. It's been used worldwide and on a far larger scale than other types of batteries.
"Battery storage cannot match pumped hydro yet in terms of scale," Jeremy Twitchell, an energy research analyst at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, said last week at an energy storage conference hosted by Michigan agencies.
The best known example of pumped hydro storage in Michigan is Consumers Energy's Ludington Pumped Storage Plant along Lake Michigan, which can generate up to 1,900 megawatts of power to be quickly dispatched when most needed.
The technology involves pumping water from a low elevation during times of low electricity demand on the grid and storing it in a high-elevation pond, tank or behind a dam. When electricity demand is high, water can flow back down the incline and through turbines.
New use for old technology
Experts have long seen large-scale hydro storage as a tapped-out market in Michigan and beyond, largely because the best locations had already been used, and the projects — which can endanger fish and other wildlife, if not painstakingly addressed — are nearly impossible to permit.
Unlike existing pumped hydro facilities, Michigan Tech researchers envision keeping the system completely underground, inside the former mines. That could minimize environmental impacts, ease permitting and still allow for redevelopment atop former mining sites.
"We do not need to come up with something revolutionary or different, because our confidence is that the existing technology will work," said Sidortsov.
The Mather Mine is in a prime spot because it's split between a flooded lower level and a dry upper level where equipment could sit and water could be stored, said Scarlett, the Tech archeology professor. Many other mines offer similar contours.
Theoretically, compressed air storage even be possible in a completely flooded mine, Scarlett added.
Sidortsov said the storage idea first popped into his head two years ago while he was jogging up the historic Quincy copper mine in Houghton County and noticed water rushing down the slope.
"What's up with this elevation, and what can be done with this elevation?" he recalled thinking.
Sidortsov soon presented that spark of an idea to Scarlett, who enthusiastically teamed on a project that recognizes the cultural importance of mines across the UP.
"We're in this sort of natural laboratory for mining history here in Copper Country," Scarlett said. "The physical remains are really powerful insights into the daily life of these communities."
The Tech researchers said they would hold community meetings throughout the project, to make sure residents could offer input — and understand the work. Learning about the Negaunee's history helped the Tech team narrow its focus to Mather mine, rather than disturbing the remnants of another mine where an accident long ago left miners entombed, Scarlett said.
Working with the community from the get-go could help developers avoid headaches — and costs — that could come from community resistance.
Another perk of using old mines: They're generally already hooked up to power lines. Such power lines could require upgrades once a storage facility would be ready to go online, but that would be far less expensive than building new hookups.
If it works, the researchers hope energy storage could bring more economic development to UP communities besieged by high power prices.
Negaunee, served by regional power provider WPPI energy, doesn't have the highest prices in the peninsula. But the UP's biggest electric company — Upper Peninsula Power Company, which serves 54,000 residents in 10 counties — has some of the highest rates in the country, second only to Hawaii.
"If you are offering inexpensive heating and cooling to businesses and facilities….it kind of changes the landscape there, where it attracts potential employers," all while commemorating the region's mining heritage, Scarlett said.
"That total value package is remarkable to people up here."
More stories about Michigan's Upper Peninsula:
How a typo revived a Michigan fish feud over hungry Yoopers and science
Where have all the babies gone? Michigan births lowest since 1944
Suicides, often linked to opioids, spike in rural Michigan and among young
A $18B debt is coming due, and it's haunting small town Michigan
Pregnant in rural Michigan? Fill up your gas tank for delivery day.
Floods test mettle in Michigan's UP. Waiting for relief tests patience.
Slideshow | Michigan's Upper Peninsula picks up pieces after epic floods
Hancock nonprofit plays outsized role in Upper Peninsula flood recovery
In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, epic floods reveal stormwater woes
With Line 5 closure, a 'game of chicken' over how to heat Upper Peninsula
December 16, 2020 | Kelly House
Weaning the U.P. of its dependence on Enbridge Line 5 will likely require investments in rail or truck-based propane transport. But one month after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered Enbridge to shutter Line 5 by May, a Plan B for propane has yet to emerge.
Michigan DNR said it killed wolves to protect humans. Then we got its emails.
November 22, 2019 | John Barnes
State wildlife leaders violated the state Freedom of Information Act, concealing details surrounding calf deaths and the 2016 shootings of protected gray wolves. Records suggest a different motive for the kills.
The debate is on: Will wolves move to Michigan's Lower Peninsula?
June 5, 2019 | Eric Freedman
More than 500 wolves live in the Upper Peninsula, but some scientists are split about whether they will return to the Northern Lower Peninsula
How about bringing back the Taylor air compressor technology? That is a proven technology that actually work. I am referring to the one that was used by the Victoria mine in ontonagon co....
Kerry, we talked about that tech! The ideas we are discussing now will be more widely applicable, I think. But like most future energy systems, the key will always be to design for the local situation in order to take advantage of the which each community's resources offers.
This year is a great ideal but remember what killed did Taylor air compressor big interest in cold and electricity there's no way the big utilities are going to let this technology be applied without putting up a big fight and they have the Buck's to back it. It like when we were encouraged to put up solar electricity panels it was promised that we could sell our surplus electricity but two big politicians from downstate bags by natural gas money got the law passed that the utilities only have to buy back a certain percentage of your surplus electricity they will happily take your surplus electricity but if you need it you must buy it back at retail rates that can killed the solar energy in the upper peninsula. I believe this idea who has great potential as a used source of energy but if the government ever gets hold of it or big utilities it will be dead in the water so to speak. There are many alternate energy generating sources but if there's someone further up the food chain that has the money they will suppress it in order to promote their form of energy. As I understand it the Victoria only went to the Taylor air compressor due to the fact that location of the mine topographically speaking would not allow a railroad to be put in due to the grade An the number of bridges that would have to been constructed to cross ontonagon river n two very deep gorge, s, and the fact that the river got very low in the summertime and could not bring coal to fuel the steam boiler year around n ship copper out, it was basically a matter of necessity either they went with the tailor technology or they would have had to add on quite a number of men to cut wood to fuel the steam boilers. It was greatly a matter of economics. Taylor offer his air compressor to the C/ H conglomerate but they turned him down flat. His technology was greatly used in the lumber Mills of Canada. This idea will fly with flying colors if you keep big government out of it and not allow any shares of stock to be bought up by big utilities that will suppress the technology..
Stephen Hamstra
These mines could also serve as huge heat exchangers while functioning as pumped storage. This would create an opportunity for large heat pumps to provide highly efficient heating and cooling without consuming fossil fuels. https://melinkcorp.com/blog/melink-solar-geo-expand-energy-saving-offerings
Kerry.
Most of these copper mines in Michigan's Upper peninsula are not that deep in order to maintain enough heat for the exception of the C/H mines in Calumet, the red jacket shaft comes to mine 4900 feet ,it was around 92.f before it was connected by two other tunnels #4 Calumet n south hecla #12 those two tunnels lowered the temperature down to around 86 degrees year-round not enough for this type of project,
Jerry D
Sun, 12/15/2019 - 6:22pm
I don't understand your rationalization against geothermal use of the tremendous heat sink that must be in mine shafts. Many, many, many houses use extremely efficient heat pumps to heat and cool. Why wouldn't Quincy Mine, say be an excellent source of heating and cooling for Hancock, Houghton, Ripley?
Michigan Tech students and faculty are working with our communities to develop geothermal heating/cooling options. My understanding is that the application of different tech in this area is hamstrung by our high electric rates, since the cost of pumping water ends up roughly equalling the cost of gas heat. But here are some links to studies and publications on the topic:
https://www.mtu.edu/social-sciences/research/publications/reports/cal-mi...
https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etds/922/
https://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2015/march/tapping-into-mine-water-for-...
Gary Lea
As I read this article, I thought it would reference the Rocky Mountain Institute's "Sunshine for Mines" strategies, which includes electricity generation from shaft airflow; falling water also displaces air. Win - win!
Robert Honeyman
This seems like a perfect candidate for DOE funding.
Oh wait. No oil involved.
This seems like kind of a bad idea considering that you're essentially pumping out toxic mine water and storing it on surface.
First of all, not all water in abandoned mines is toxic. Second, my understanding is it wouldn't be stored on the surface, but at a a higher level in the mine (some are thousands of feet deep).
As LH wrote, this study is trying to design an inclosed system, where the pumped water would be stored in underground reservoirs. Ideally, there will be no change to the surface flows of local water. LH was also correct that most mine water in the Upper Peninsula is generally not contaminated like mines in other regions of the country, like coal mines that suffer from acid mine drainage. In the copper and iron regions of Michigan's UP, it is the stamp mill tailings that cause both physical and chemical water contamination. While some iron mines had sulfide ores that produce acid runoff, speaking very generally, only after the rocks have been pounded up to sand or slime do they produce enough chemical reactions to cause problems. Again speaking very generally, most water contamination comes from fields of stamp sand tailings and the mill sites, not the old mine locations themselves. There may be other conditions that cause problems for equipment, like water with lots of sediment, but a community considering a project like this will need to consider the conditions in its particular mine(s). Setting all that aside, if an abandoned mine is draining contaminated water into the local ecosystem, that is already the case. This type of energy storage system would probably not add to the flow of contaminants. So a community could ask itself, do we want to have an abandoned mine draining acid water into our local waterways, or do we want to have an abandoned mine with a power storage system installed and operating, generating revenues that we can then use to install a water treatment system to prevent the ongoing chemical releases. It may be that communities with contaminated mine drainage could instal utility-scale energy storage systems to establish the income stream to clean up contaminated drainages. Who knows where these studies will lead?
Michael Stavy
Energy storage is measured in MWh; while the power pushing the energy into (out of) storage is measured in MW.
Check my energy storage papers at my website, www.michaelstavy.com
Sun, 04/07/2019 - 10:05am
Thanks for news about this potentially beneficial technology.
Detroit has caverns of space left from salt mining. Is there any possible way that space could be used to provide energy storage?
Has anyone Took in consideration as what could happen if the water levels in these mines are Disturbed? Bear in mine most of these mine,s are very unstable due to the fact when they were closed down the tribute miner,s robbed out all the supporting pillows for all the copper they could find, and I feel that many of these mines are very unstable below the established waterline n could be a catastrophe in the making if they are Disturbed. Example the Minesota dam at Rockland, is the results of the tribute miners Robbing the underground pillows for the copper contents which led to the collapse and water from the old national mine flooded it instantly. I would err on the side of immense amount of caution before considering any changes of the water tables in the mines,,
Joel Casler
The idea is technologically possible with tested technology and processes. Although the idea seems to be rather expensive. And I wonder if it would be economically feasible to produce Less energy than it would use to pump the water up from the holding areas within the mines. I wish them well. But I would certainly like to see a report of the finished production figures, including Generation. Conjecture just doesn't seem to have much substance here.


Luxury Office Design is one of the design ideas that you can use to reference your Office. There are a few images that have been published on June 17, 2018, which you can use as a consideration in the article Gallery of Luxury Office Design.
If you are helped by the idea of the article Luxury Office Design, don't forget to share with your friends.
Article Luxury Office Design may be associated with luxury ceo office design, luxury dental office design, luxury designer office chair, luxury executive office design, luxury executive office designs, luxury home office design, luxury medical office design, luxury office building design, luxury office cabin design, luxury office design, luxury office design for small room, luxury office design ideas, luxury office design images, luxury office design with beautiful landscape, luxury office designs photos, luxury office furniture design, luxury office interior design, luxury office interior design london, luxury office table design, may be you are looking for so that more references, not just the article Luxury Office Design.
Luxury Office Design this possible during your search, you are not wrong to come visit the web homegram.co. Luxury Office Design is one of the pictures contained in the category of Office and many more images contained in that category. Published by admin on . for personal use only.


text:
Registry fails to alert local police of trouble drivers, flouts law enacted after 2014 traffic tragedy
Scott Eisen for The Boston Globe/File 2015
Haley Cremer's family, father Marc (second from left), sister Morgan, and mother Ivie after Jeffrey Bickoff's sentencing.
By Laura Crimaldi and Matt Stout Globe Staff July 20, 2019
After a 20-year-old Sharon woman was struck and killed in 2014 by a driver with a suspended license and a history of traffic violations, the state Legislature required the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles to alert local police of troubled drivers in their communities.
But in another administrative failing, the Registry is not regularly sending the notifications of suspensions and revocations as required under the law so that local officers can proactively monitor drivers who were stripped of their licenses for safety reasons, a Globe review of Massachusetts police departments has found.
The spotty compliance by the Registry has created confusion among many police departments and prompted critics to say it is another example of how the agency is failing one of its most basic responsibilities: overseeing the safety of the state's roads.
"It's appalling that we fought so hard to get this legislation only to have it not enacted as intended," said Marc Cremer, the father of the 20-year-old victim, Haley Cremer. "We did this to save lives, and potentially prevent families from going through the tragedy that we live with every day."
Get Metro Headlines in your inbox:
The 10 top local news stories from metro Boston and around New England delivered daily.
The revelations add to the controversies surrounding the Registry, which is reeling after the deaths of seven people in a crash in late June in New Hampshire, allegedly caused by a truck driver from West Springfield who should have been stripped of his Massachusetts commercial driver's license.
That failure cost Registrar Erin Deveney her job, and the Baker administration has since revealed that the Registry ignored tens of thousands of alerts from other states about traffic violations by Massachusetts drivers, and also failed to send out its own such notices to other states.
Under what is sometimes known as Haley's law, the Registry is required to "timely notify" police departments when a resident's license is suspended or revoked for reasons tied to public safety or criminal conduct, including driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, refusing a chemical test, or, for younger drivers, being convicted of a crime in juvenile court.
The goal is to address flaws in how information about habitual traffic offenders is shared between the Registry and police that were exposed by the death of Haley Cremer. Sharon police were never notified by the Registry that the driver of the car, Jeffrey Bickoff, who had a history of at-fault crashes, had his license suspended at the time. Sharon officials said they might have arrested him had they known about the suspension and spotted him driving.
Both the Globe and the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association conducted informal surveys of departments around the state about the Registry's compliance with Haley's law and related requirements. For the most part, both surveys found that instead of consistently alerting individual departments, the Registry entered license suspensions and revocations into a statewide database, and then left it to local departments to find that information on their own.
The police chiefs association found that more than two dozen departments said the Registry is not in full compliance with the law; several reported receiving only a smattering of advanced notices from the Registry, ranging in frequency from sporadic to rare.
Eight departments told the Globe that they receive written notices from the Registry about suspensions only in cases in which a driver is considered an immediate threat to public safety. Those notices are mandated under a separate law, the Registry said.
The Hampden Police Department said it doesn't receive any license suspension or revocations notices from the Registry.
Marc Cremer and the state legislator who authored Haley's law, Representative Louis Kafka, said they told Registry officials in 2016, after the law's enactment, that the agency wasn't following the rules. It appears the agency didn't change its practice.
"They didn't comply with the law," said Kafka, a Democrat from Stoughton. "Hopefully the Registry will now abide by what the letter of the law is and notify all police departments . . . . That would make the roads that much safer."
A spokeswoman for Governor Charlie Baker declined to comment and directed questions to the Registry.
In a statement, the RMV's parent agency insisted that it is complying with the law by making the information available through the Criminal Justice Information System, a statewide database that is updated weekly and accessible to local police.
"This system was chosen by RMV because it is an easy-to-use, online system which can securely provide police departments and officers, wherever and whenever they wish, with information about drivers who had their licenses suspended as well as information about vehicles registered to those suspended drivers," Patrick Marvin, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which oversees the Registry, said in a statement.
MassDOT provided the Globe with a 2015 letter from the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services and two other letters from the Registry in 2016 advising lawmakers and police chiefs of the database system.
However, that process puts the onus on officers to look up suspension and revocation information — causing confusion among some departments.
Some officials who participated in the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association survey said their departments received notifications for a time, but then the alerts stopped. The association declined to identify which individual departments responded to its survey, but expressed concern about the feedback it received.
"When those folks are saying, 'We're not getting those anymore,' then I think there's a problem," said Mark Leahy, executive director of the association and a former police chief in Northborough. "There is something that isn't working the way it was intended."
The Globe received information about the Registry's compliance from 44 local police departments. Of those, 29 said they receive notifications from the Registry, but it wasn't clear whether they got every one required by law. Another 10 said they extract the information on their own from the computer database, while five said either they were unsure if they got all required notices or just a subset of those that they are supposed to hand-deliver to drivers.
In Ipswich, Police Chief Paul Nikas said in an interview that his staff downloads license information from the law enforcement database and then enters it manually into a license plate reader system that officers in the field can access.
"It would be nice if they just sent it electronically," he said of the Registry. "I know they're overwhelmed, but the law's the law. You got to figure a way to make it work for the safety of the public. That should be priority number one."
Avon Deputy Police Chief Denis Linehan said his staff has made pulling suspension and revocations notices from the state database a routine, and they provide that information to officers at roll call.
Cremer said he and Kafka met at the State House with then-registrar Deveney after learning in January 2016 that the Registry was not sending separate warnings to police, but instead uploading the notices to the database. Kafka sent a letter to Deveney expressing his concerns, records show.
"She understood that not pushing it out was not meeting the requirements," Cremer said.
Deveney, who resigned at the end of June, didn't respond to requests for comment.
"The statute is pretty clear," said Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey, whose office prosecuted Bickoff. "It says provide written notice. I don't think what the Registry is doing qualifies."
Bickoff was convicted of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation and of reckless assault and battery in 2015 and sentenced to 2½ years in jail.
The Registry is also required to send suspension notices to police departments when drivers have been deemed an immediate threat or were involved in a fatal crash. In those cases, the Registry said, separate procedures call for uploading that information to the CJIS database and providing police departments with a notice that officers are to deliver to the driver by hand.
On Monday, state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack is scheduled to appear at an oversight hearing by the Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation, which has asked her to provide documents about the Registry's compliance with the law.
"The Commonwealth is supposed to be proactive in alerting the municipalities," said state Representative William Straus, House chairman of the committee. "The municipal police departments for most residents are the front line of traffic enforcement and should know who should and who shouldn't be on the road. It is an additional question mark about the systems that have been set up at the Registry."
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi.
Most Popular in metroRight Arrow


text:
April--Hongqisheng, a subsidiary of Avary, was named a "Top 100 Outstanding Contributing Enterprise in 2017" by Hebei Province.
March-- Took 21st place in the 2017 Shenzhen Industrial Top 100.
March-- In Apple's latest "2018 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report", Avary's environmental protection measures were recognized and we were regarded as "a supplier goes above and beyond for the environment".
February—A Prismark report was published stating that Avary became the world's largest PCB manufacturer in 2017.
February—Avary subsidiary Qingding Precision was named as a Green Factory by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's 2017 list of Green Manufacturing Enterprises.
February-- Hongqisheng was also named as a Green Factory by the same MIIT project.
August—Avary named as a Green Factory by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's 2016 list of Green Manufacturing Enterprises.
June—Successfully completed capital increase by bringing in outside investors.
May—Restructured into a joint-stock company and officially renamed Avary Holding (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
March-- Took 16th place in the 2016 Shenzhen Top 100 Industrial Enterprises.
February—Successfully completed capital increase via the employee stock ownership platform.
In December, the company completed its equity restructuring by merging a number of companies with Avary's predecessor "Fukui Precision", including: Hongqisheng Precision Electronics (Qinhuangdao) Co., Ltd., Hongqunsheng Precision Electronics (Yingkou) Co., Ltd., Qingding Precision Electronics (Huai'an) Co., Ltd., Yuding Precision Electronics (Huai'an) Co., Ltd. Honghengsheng Electronic Technology (Huai'an) Co., Ltd.
May—Awarded the title of "Enterprise Technology Center of Shenzhen Municipality".
April-- Took 21st place in the 2014 Shenzhen Top 100 Industrial Enterprises.
December-- Awarded 3rd place in the 2013 Top 100 Taxpayers of Bao'an District.
December-- Awarded 3rd place in the 2013 Top 100 Industrial Enterprises of Bao'an District.
December-- Awarded 8th place in the 2013 Top 100 Foreign Trade Export Enterprisesof Bao'an District.
June-- Qingding Precision Electronics (Huai'an) Co., Ltd. was established
June-- Yuding Precision Electronics (Huai'an) Co., Ltd. was established
March--Chairman of the Board Shen Changfang signed the Huai'an Second Plant Investment Agreement
March-- Took 22nd place in the 2013 Shenzhen Top 100 Industrial Enterprises.
In this year, we became China's first and the world's second largest PCB manufacturer.
May-- Cooperated with National Taiwan University to provide a CMBA successor course, and the company was recognized as a national high-tech enterprise
February-- Took 27th place in the 2012 Shenzhen Top 100 Industrial Enterprises.
January-- Signed an intermediary film technology development contract with Tsinghua University


text:
Biografia
Proveniva da una piccola famiglia nobile calvinista dalle vicinanze di Minsk. Negli anni 1878-1882 studiò legge a San Pietroburgo, e frequentò l'Accademia di Belle Arti. Durante questo periodo, prese contatto con Narodnaja Wola. Nel 1882 si trasferì a Varsavia, dove si unì a un gruppo di cosiddetti "Krusińszczyków" (giovani socialisti riuniti attorno a Stanisław Krusiński). Pubblicò articoli principalmente su "Przeglqd Tygodniowy" nel 1883-1885. Morì di tubercolosi.

Białobłocki fu uno dei pionieri della critica socialista. Da questo punto, valutò la scrittura, di Maria Konopnicka e Eliza Orzeszkowa, così come i realisti russi.

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia