One of Germany's most beloved post-rock bands, Kokomo, is back with a new album and hopefully a lot of live performances.  Today, they revealed a new track from the upcoming album 'Monochrome Love Noise', which was very, very, very well received at our headquarters (read review).

'Monochrome Noise Love' is a very dark and intense metal/rock album with ice-cold soundscapes. Folks who are into bands like Caspian, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mono or Mogwai should definitely check this out.

The preorders for the album as well as for merch are already available from http://www.icorruptrecords.com

The Tracklist und further hard facts:
1. Pills And Pillows
2. Kill The Captain
3. Monochrome Noise Love
4. Licht/Staub
5. Juengling Mit Apfel
6. Beware Of Pity
7. I Am Bill Murray
8. I Am Not Dead
9. Me vs. Myself
10. Deathmaster Danger Dance

Date of release: 12.02.2016
Length: 01:02:37
Labels: I.Corrupt.Records (Germany/World), Dunk!Records (Belgium), AloudMusic (Spain)

German blackgaze duo Trautonist have revealed a video for the song 'Distance'. This is the first single from the self-titled debut record by Trautonist which will be released via Wolves & Vibrancy Records on vinyl (April/May) and on Pest Productions on CD. The visuals are taken from 'Meshes of the afternoon' by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid (USA, 1943)

Three years following the release of their critically acclaimed third album "Világvége", Swiss blackened doom five-piece group RORCAL is back with a brand new full-length album entitled “Creon”.

A concept work based on the death of four well-known figures from the Greek mythology all linked to Creon, this new effort was recorded by Stéphane Kroug at Blend Studio and mixed by Daniel Bergstrand at Dugout Productions and is set for release on CD/LP on March 25th through Bleak Recordings in partnership with Halo Of Flies, GPS Prod, Division Records, Lost Pilgrims Records and Wolves And Vibrancy Records.

tracklist:
​1.Πολυνείκης
2.Ἀντιγόνη
3.Αἵμων
4.Εὐρυδίκη

Belgian post-metal act Hemelbestormer have released a new video for the track 'After Us, The Flood'.  The track comes from the upcoming album Aether' , which wwill be released by Debemur Morti Productions

Well, good news and bad news I guess.  Europe's finest post-rock event Dunk! festival has announce the final three names for their 2016 edition.

• Russian Circles from USA
• This Will Destroy You from USA
• Collapse Under The Empire from Germany

Of course, the first two acts are widely known, both for their music and their live reputation.  Collapse Under The Empire will play their very first show EVER at dunk!festival2016.

The festival also posted a statement on their current financial problems

We are really sad to tell you this but our financial plan drastically changed since last week when we received message that we will not be granted the government fundings we could count on and helped us evolve for the last 7 years. The festival set-up will be a little bit bigger but that will cost us €0 extra, thanks to our amazing technical team. We increased the line-up budget with 10% which would have been covered with the slightly higher ticket prices (and the usual government fundings). So for now we are facing a financial deficit that is just too big to ignore.

It's a shame that financial setbacks like these affect such an awesome festival and many propositions have been made to help the organisation.  Recently, they added a donate button on their homepage: http://www.dunkfestival.be/donate/  Support will obviously be highly appreciated.

22 studio albums and 4 ep's, that should be about 265 different Motorhead songs.  In some strange tribute to recently deceased frontman Lemmy, a Soundcloud user named 'Motörphonics' has turned all 265 songs into one six minutes lasting piece of harsh, hypnotic noise by playing all the tracks at the same time.  Listen to this bizarre piece of work below

Russian avant-garde metal band Second To Sun have released a new track, named 'Ladoga Master'.  The song is about a shooting incident at ​Karelian lake. 

"The incident took place on Saturday 15, 2015. At approximately 8:00 PM a man in the boat started shooting at people on the beach while also cursing in foul language and shouting “Ladoga is mine!” 

At that time there were many women and kids on the beach whom the man scared to death. Tourists from St. Petersburg managed to get close to the armed man who reacted by pressing the armed gun against the stomach of one of the tourists. 

Fortunately no one was hurt and the tragedy was avoided, as was stated in social media public page “Lahdenpohja navsegda” (Lahdenpohja forever). The man was disarmed of his rifle; he himself was securely tied and delivered to the recreation facility from where the police was called. The arrested “rifleman” appeared to be a citizen of Sortavala, born in 1954 and completely drunk." 

The music of Second To Sun can be described as avant-garde metal, combining metal, hardcore, black metal and Finno-Ugric cultural music.  Since 2012, there have been several line-up changes but the now mainly one-man act is still going strong and continues to evolve.  

In October 2015, they released the album 'The First Chapter', which gained excellent comments everywhere, including on Merchants Of Air (read review)

The band’s logo has an octagram (Auseklis), the 8-pointed star that represents Venus and is used in Finno-Ugric symbolic. This is also what the band’s name means. The band’s motto is “music for the sake of music”, the visual component of the band’s activity has always been minimal.

We at Merchants Of Air are looking to expand our staff because we're still running behind on the loads of releases coming in each day.  Do you think you have what it takes to become one of us?

What we're looking for

-Decent English writing skills
You don't have to be Shakespeare but we'd like someone who doesn't make too many typos and definitely someone who knows the difference between 'their, they're, there' and 'your, you're'...

-Knowledge about the music scene
Again, you don't have to know every band ever but a good history as a music fan is recommended.  After all, you will be comparing new stuff to old stuff.  

-Positive and open mind
It is completely and utterly useless to destroy releases.  Even if you don't like a certain album, you should try to compare it in a way that fans of that genre would be interested.  

-Genres
We are not a genre restricted webzine, although we prefer to keep things underground.  Fans of sludge/post- metal, indie rock, noise, jazz, punk and extreme metal are welcome but we're open to more genres than you can possibly name   .

What we offer

-Merchants Of Air have no income, except a few euros from the THISISNOTABANDSHIRT design store; which we use to pay our provider.  So there is no cash in this. Yet.

-Physical copies
We often receive CD's, tapes or even vinyl.  Whoever reviews that, gets to keep the thing.  That seems quite logical, no?  When you don't live anywhere near Antwerp, we will probably send you digi!tal files and once in awhile a package of albums you reviewed (one by one would be too expensive for us).

-Tickets
Once again, a pretty logical one, how would you even start reviewing a gig if you didn't go, right? Now, don't expect to receive them every day, week or month.  We don't either and usually still pay for the festivals we go to and write about.  Why? Well, support the scene, no? Besides, we're not a huge magazine :-)

-A stress free work environment
We are nice people, a bit too nice perhaps.  For us, this is a hobby and hobbies are supposed to relieve stress, not cause it.  We don't push deadlines(*), especially not for digital files.  You can write on your own tempo.  All we expect is a bit of quality.

-Infernal hails from bands all over the world.
To be honest, this really is the most beautiful aspect of writing for a site like this.  The appreciation of young bands is immense.  A huge number of debuting bands will never forget what Merchants Of Air did for them (and vice versa).  That is the greatest reward of working for us.


So, are you interested?  Send an email to info(at)merchantsofair(dot)com.  We'll talk...



(*) there might be some exceptions.  Those won't happen often and will be clearly communicated if they appear.

Bay Area psychedelic rockers Golden Void have released a video for the track 'Dervishing'.  You can watch it below.

The band is also touring Europe and the US this winter.

01. 25. 2016 Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL
01. 28. 2016 Sojo - Leuven, Belgium
01. 29. 2016 The Black Heart - London, UK
01. 30. 2016 The Rainbow - Birmingham, UK
01. 31. 2016 Brudenell Social Club - Leeds, UK
02. 02. 2016 Batofar - Paris, France
02. 03. 2016 Le Romandie - Lausanne, Switzerland
02. 04. 2016 KAFF - Frauenfeld, Switzerland
02. 05. 2016 Kapu - Linz, Austria
02. 06. 2016 Blah Blah - Torino, Italy
02. 07. 2016 Bronson - Ravenna, Italy
02. 09. 2016 Arena - Vienna, Austria
02. 10. 2016 Klub 007 - Prague, Czech Republic
02. 11. 2016 Musik & Frieden - Berlin, Germany
02. 12. 2016 Vortex Surfer Musikclub - Siegen, Germany
02. 13. 2016 La Zone - Liege, Belgium
04. 09. 2016 Pappy and Harriet's - Desert Generator - Pioneertown, CA
07. 24-26. 2016 Psycho Las Vegas - Las Vegas, NV

This year marks the thirtieth birthday of the legendary Aerosmith & Run D.M.C. song 'Walk This Way'.  To celebrate that, one of Belgium's finest venues, Trix (Antwerp) have asked local thrashers Toxic Shock to find some metal and hip hop acts for a tribute compilation.  

The result of this search will be presented at Trix tomorrow but you can already listen to the playlist below. The whole reminds me very much of another compilation as well, namely the 'Judgement Night' soundtrack which was a massive success back in the days.  

Some of the acts involved are: Your Highness, Halve Neuro, Toxic Shock, Straathonden, Incinerate and NoMobs.  

French psychedelic rockers Mars Red Sky have just released a new video for the track 'Shot In Providence'.  The song comes from their upcoming album 'APEX III (Praise For The Burning Soul)" which will be out February 29th on Listenable records.

Before the album is released, the 'Providence Ep' will be out on 22 January  
Pre Order EP here : http://www.marsredsky.bigcartel.com
or there : http://www.shop-listenable.net/fr/52_mars-red-sky

Check here for Up In Smoke Tourdates with Mars Red Sky, Stoned Jesus and Belzebong

Belgian post metal band Atmospheres have just revealed the video for their track 'Satellite'.  The track comes from the highly acclaimed album 'The Departure' (read our review here).    

Calgary (Canada) based Melodic death metal horde Divinity released a new video for the track 'Manhunt'.  The song comes from their new ep 'The Immortalist Part 2. Momentum'.  The album is the second part in the trilogy series of 4-song EPs that will develop a full length concept album they are calling 'The Immortalist'. This surely is something for fans of Fear Factory, Soilwork and Textures.

​Tracklist:
1. Manhunt (4:24)
2. PsyWar (6:34)
3. DMT (7:33)
4. Momentum (5:26)
EP Length: 24:00

Slovakian melodic metal acts Signum Regis have released a new video for the track 'Quitters Never Win',  from our latest album "Chapter IV: The Reckoning".  The video is a collection of live performances and just plain fun the band had while touring.

Black metal horde Antartandes just released a music video for "Spiritual Descent" from their latest album "Rising Okkult Spiritus".  The band is also working on new material for an upcoming album which will be recorded somewhere in 2016