Worms

Hey sorry for being absent again, I'd really like to do more issues but it's been difficult to find the time. Usually it slows down next month at work so hopefully I'll get to it then. A lot of great new stuff has been coming out and I'd love to be able to promote it.
Additionally, the sweet ad below is for my band Worms of the Earth; I'm running a sale. If you want to support me for the work I've done running this zine, or if you want to hear me put my money where my mouth is, or if you just want to hear some cool ritual ambient in the vein of classic cold meat with some loki found and projekt influence than check out this sale at my bandcamp and have a listen.

Worms of the Earth @ Bandcamp

"Best Of" 2013

Of course I have not listened to every album that was released in 2013 (I actually feel like I've missed a ton of potentially great releases) and make no claim to this being any kind of definitive or complete collection. So basically, here are some awesome albums I heard in 2013:


Tzolk'in - The Sixth Sun
[Ant Zen]
Brilliant tribal ambient/industrial album which manages to surpass their previous efforts, of which I was a huge fan. Easily one of the best Ant Zen releases ever.

Diaphane - Lifeforms
[Ant Zen]
A genre bending release which contains hints of his previous IDM work in Ab Ovo and the first Diaphane release, but more diverse and developed. Extremely well written and produced.

Caul - The Long Dust
[Malignant Records]
Absolutely beautiful dark cinematic landscapes. Great composition and use of melody. I find it so easy to put on and get lost in for its entire duration.

Phelios - Gates of Atlantis
[Malignant Records]
I find Phelios to be one of the more underrated dark ambient musicians. He consistently puts out top quality work and his newest album is no exception. Fantastically deep cosmic ambient.

Circular - Radiating Perpetual Light
[Loki Foundation]
I like Circular because his work really doesn't sound like any one else. His work is distinctly ambient, though he uses many sounds which aren't typical of the genre. His compositions are quite layered and evoke visions of things beyond the waking world. This one is more melancholic than previous efforts, which always scores points with me.

Lamia Vox - Sigillum Diaboli
[Cyclic Law]
Quite probably the best "new" ambient producer. This album encapsulates everything I love about dark ambient: occult themes, ethereal vocals, dark melodies, complex songs, and deep atmospheres. So glad that she was picked up by Cyclic Law.

Raison d'etre - various re-issues
[various]
Raison is one of my personal favorite dark ambient producers, and is one of the most skilled and notable ambient musicians in general. This year he continued re-releasing his older albums with bonus material. I got Within The Depths of Silence and Phormations which was remastered very skillfully, and he also put out reduxes of Prospectus I, Enthralled By The Winds of Loneliness, and In Sadness, Silence, and Solitude (my personal fav, though I already got the re-issue from a few years back). If you don't own these, than make sure to pick them up. They are all hallmarks in the genre.

Comaduster - Hollow Worlds
[Tympanik Audio]
Amalgam of lots of different styles (industrial, idm, dubstep, post rock) with incredible skill, precision and absolutely grandiose production. Not for everyone, but there is absolutely no denying this mans incredible talent.

Parhelion - Temples In Ice [EP]
[Kalpamantra]
Though unfortunately short, this EP is absolutely phenomenal. I am a big fan of arctic ambient and Parhelion is a master of this domain. I love this work because it's not simply minimal drone, it's very dense and active with tons of depth and darkness.

Displacer - Masterless EP
[Crime League]
Another ambient EP that I was highly impressed by. Great sound design and melodies lead to very hypnotic songs that I can play on repeat for quite a while and get lost in. I can only hope he makes more ambient in the future.

Wounds of the Earth Issue 3

Issue 3! Interviews with Component Recordings, Crime League, and Treha Sektori. Reviews of stuff from Ant Zen, Hymen, Malignant Records, Tympanik, Cryo Chamber, N5MD, and many more. Artwork from shift. , Danny Prusseit, and Justin Larwick. Cover by Keldrick Brown


Read Online: HERE

Download: HERE
*in order to view, unzip the .zip file to a folder. open the "index3.html". It will open a new browser window with the magazine. All the files in the .zip are required for this to work*

Download PDF: HERE
*for this issue I turned off compression for images so the file is larger than previous issues. It may take some time to load.

Wounds of the Earth Issue 2

Download: HERE

*in order to view, unzip the .zip file to a folder. open the "woundsissue2.html". It will open a new browser window with the magazine. All the files in the .zip are required for this to work*

Download PDF: HERE

Wounds Compilation V - submissions open!

We have officially begun working on our fifth compilation. This one will again be focused on IDM with an industrial/ambient slant. Below are the guidelines:

- the compilation will again be free and digital.
- tracks must be predominately IDM in style. no straight up ambient, ebm, dubstep, etc.
- The overall theme is Water / Snow. Your track doesn't have to fit this theme but it would be cool if it did.
- submit 1-2 unmastered track(s) in wav format (if you prefer to master it on your own that's fine)
- Exclusive tracks are preferred. Remixes are fine. Previously released tracks will be given a low priority but may be included.
- contact either woundsoftheearth@gmail.com with a link (do NOT attach a file) to a song, or send it to our dropbox on soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/wounds-of-the-earth

***Please include all artist/song information when submitting. If you do not include the artist or song name the submission will NOT be accepted.


deadline: September 1

Wounds of the Earth Compilation IV taking submissions now!!

Wounds of the Earth Compilation IV: Eridanus Supervoid
coming: December 2012

featuring mainly new and exclusive tracks from:

Nordvargr [Old Europa Cafe / Cold Spring]
Visions [Cyclic Law]
New Risen Throne [Cold Meat Industry / Cyclic Law]
Dahlia's Tear [Cold Meat Industry]
Parhelion [Cyclic Law]
Triangular Ascension [Cyclic Law]
Psychomanteum [Cyclic Law]
Phaenon [Malignant]
Emme Ya [Cold Spring]
Coph'antae Tryr [HORUS CyclicDaemon]
Roto Visage [Autumn Wind Productions]
Nors'klh [First Fallen Star]
Mystified [First Fallen Star]
c.db.sn [Tympanik]
Access to Arasaka [Tympanik]
Famine [Tympanik]
Millipede [Hymen]

+ more!!

This will be available in FLAC & MP3 formats!

news

Assuming that all goes well, Compilation III will be out on March 9. Just about everything is in order to complete the scheduled release date. Will be uploading some promotional items for it in the next day or two.

We're now on facebook!

Check it out, maybe keep up to date with us on ye old social networking. We'll post more scene news and stuff there, and more in depth news about the process of building the compilations and future plans and all that. It will be more exciting that figuring out if a piece of rotten meat can get more fans than hippie organization xyz. We need people to like it so we can get a fancy easy to remember URL

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wounds-of-the-Earth-blogzine/105632926184015

and now...


http://www.facebook.com/woundsoftheearthblog

Compilation III news

The third compilation is coming along well. We have maybe half of the total submissions in so far. There is a good range of stuff, from more traditional IDM to industrial IDM to dark ambient and drone. There will probably be two "discs" or, perhaps more accurately, "parts"; the first being idm/industrial and the second being ambient. Still waiting on quite a few highly talented producers to finish up compositions for this, so the tracklist is looking to be quite robust. We are very much looking forward to the end result. If you liked compilation II, this one will be even better.

If you have not submitted yet, there is still time. Please submit when you can :) Deadline has been moved to Feb 14.

To submit, send us a track via email (using yousendit or sendspace.com) to woundsoftheearth AT gmail DOT com
or put it in our soundcloud dropbox. All original guidelines and links available here: http://woundsoftheearth.blogspot.com/2010/11/wounds-of-earth-compilation-iii-now.html

Wounds of the Earth Compilation III now accepting submissions!

Wounds of the Earth Compilation III

After the success and positive reception that Compilation II received, Wounds of the Earth is excited to put together it’s third compilation. Again, the main goal is to promote the vastly underrated style of industrial influenced IDM (see: Gridlock). However, we are expanding the comp a bit and now looking for dark ambient (see: Cold Meat Industry, Loki, Malignant, etc.). Again, this compilation will be a free digital release, available from a variety of sources in a variety of formats (FLAC, MP3, etc). The following are the submission guidelines:

--
- Tracks MUST be IDM and/or Ambient in style. Industrial influence is preferred.
--
- Tracks must be in wav format, 24bit 44.1hz is preferred. Mastering is optional; just let us know if the track is previously mastered. We will have an engineer level/master the tracks if necessary
--
- All users are allowed a maximum of two (2) submissions
--
- Tracks must be no longer than 10 minutes in length. Although this is a digital release, we are sticking to the parameters of a physical CD; the compilation will be one “disk” which will be no longer than 70 minutes; if there is enough good material we will release two “disks”. We are interested in promoting quality not quantity.
--
- Exclusive tracks are preferred. Remixes are acceptable. Previously released tracks will have the lowest priority, but may still be considered.
--
SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED AT THIS TIME

Again, we are only interested in releasing the best submissions. If you are interested in submitting a track, please email a link to the track (use yousendit, sendspace, etc.) to woundsoftheearth@gmail.com or send it to our soundclouddropbox @ http://soundcloud.com/wounds-of-the-earth

*Please include information about artist/song name, contact info, website, track credits etc. If you don’t include the artist/track name in the message it will be deleted.*

compilation update 07-09-10

Tracklist has been finalized. Songs going to mastering this weekend. Artwork is almost finished. Tentative release date is July 21

Compilation Update

The deadline for the compilation is almost up. The tracklist is nearly full, so if you are planning to submit anything please do so ASAP! I am very pleased with the response to this comp and it will be quite difficult to narrow the field down to the best 13-15.

A finalized track list will be posted in another week or so, and the compilation should be released around mid july, following mastering and finalized artwork. Once everything for the compilation is completed, I will post a few backlogged reviews that people have been waiting for.

If you would like to help promote the compilation please contact me: wormsofthee4rth AT yahoo DOT com

11-17-09

Sorry, haven't really had the time to update this for a while. Been too busy with real life stuff, and no motivation to write reviews. I would rather not ever write reviews for this again, but I have a whole stack of shit that's been sitting on my desk, and I'm obligated to do right by these people and give them reviews. So I'll do my best to review some of this stuff; it may not be the long-winded, "comprehensive", rambling reviews that you're used to, but it will be something.