Blood From the Soul is the vision of legendary musician Shane Embury, longtime member of extreme pioneers Napalm Death. In the early 90's Embury partnered with Lou Koller (Sick Of It All) to create the Blood From The Soul debut "To Spite the Gland That Breeds" (Earache, 1993). The album was an experimental fusion of industrial, metal, hardcore, and punk. And along with Godflesh, Pitch Shifter, Meathook Seed, and Scorn, they helped spawn a new wave of industrial-metal. Fast forward to 2020 and Blood From the Soul has awakened from hyper-sleep. Joining Embury on this new creative journey are now Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, Cadaver, Bent Sea, Soilwork, Tronos, Brave The Cold, etc), Jacob Bannon (Converge, Umbra Vitae, Wear Your Wounds), and Jesper Liveröd (Nasum, Burst). "DSM-5" is a twelve song conceptual album from Blood From the Soul. Lyrically the album is written from the perspectives of human beings as well as sentient machines.
Resonance Records goes out of its way again to unearth yet another significant chapter in jazz history, and once again, it's one that relatively few fans have ever heard. This performance of Jaco Pastorius' Word of Mouth Big Band was captured during George Wein's Kool Jazz Festival at Avery Fisher Hall. It was broadcast on NPR's Jazz Alive program, but this double disc contains the entire performance, with more than 40 minutes of additional music.
Durban, South Africa might not exactly be synonymous with psychedelic folk-rock, but, perhaps crucially, it is a port town (Liverpool, anyone?) where all manner of influences could have come drifting into the air, in the form of records imported from America and England. It's likely that this was the way Abstract Truth developed their sensibilities as heard on their 1970 debut album, Totum. Until its 2009 reissue, this was the kind of record that would make hardcore collectors salivate freely and empty their bank accounts, but at last the rest of us can come to know its subtle pleasures. Totum is made up almost entirely of cover tunes, but the band's distinctive if understated style is clearly stamped on each one.