From the inbox:

British shred-heavy modern-day metal band SAVAGE MESSIAH have released their highly-anticipated new album, Plague of Conscience, as a completely free download, which is available now at earache.com/savagemessiah

Earache Records urges fans to download the album, pass it on to their friends, write a review and enjoy the ten ripping tracks of world-class metal from one of the UK’s top bands to watch for 2012.

(E-mail required. All tracks are delivered as high-quality MP3 audio at 320kbps with no copy protection/DRM)

Plague of Conscience was recorded at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk, UK with producer Scott Atkins. The album is due to be released on CD and vinyl LP in early 2012.

- Sounds like a plan! The band released their last album, Insurrection Rising, in 2009 on Candlelight Records…

From the inbox:

Pure Noise Records has released the “Pure Noise Winter Sampler 2011″ exclusively on iTunes. The compilation hosts 10 tracks by 10 different Pure Noise artists (including brand new unreleased songs from Daybreaker, The American Scene, Troubled Coast, and Stickup Kid) for only $1.99.

Track List:

• 1. The American Scene – “Why I’m Not Where You Are”
• 2. The Story So Far – “Placeholder”
• 3. Troubled Coast – “La Jatée”
• 4. Handguns – ”Smoke And Mirrors”
• 5. Man Overboard – “Basics 101″
• 6. Forever Came Calling – “Knott Sky or Luckie?”
• 7. Daybreaker – “We’re Still Singing”
• 8. Stickup Kid – “Breathing”
• 9. Create Avoid – “Gotham”
• 10. Transit – “Please, Head North”

From the inbox:

American Enemy Records is psyched to announce the signing of Detroit, Michigan’s GREAT REVERSALS. The band spent five days at The Getaway Group in Wakefield, Massachusetts over the summer recording their EP entitled To the Ends of the Earth with Jay Maas (Defeater, Shipwreck, Verse, etc.).

Easily their most progressive and emotionally complicated release (after a self-released demo and split 7″), the 4 songs lyrically center on their drummer’s struggle to raise his deaf, autistic son. These tracks are the personification of angst, grief, hope, and perseverance amidst dismal circumstances.

American Enemy will release the record on CD and 10″ vinyl early next Spring. Check Facebook for a stream of the first song “Open Wounds”, updates and pre-order information (or stream it below via SoundCloud).

- As a father of two young boys, that’s an incredibly intriguing lyrical angle. For a music reference: BANE circa It All Comes Down To This. Really excited for this EP!

Great Reversals- Open Wounds by Toxicbreed

- HEAR THIS are a young hardcore/punk band from Freeport, Illinois. They remind me a bit of bands like REDEMPTION 87, early AFI, and even BOLD. Fast and aggressive songs with a few mosh parts and timely gang vocals – good stuff!

When I saw a tweet that read “An importance announcement from Dustin”, I think my heart sunk a few inches… glad it’s just a move to part-time status and nothing worse…

From Dustin: “Thrice is not breaking up. If nothing has broken us up by now, I doubt anything ever could.

However, we will be taking a break from being a full-time band, and the upcoming tour in the Spring will be the last one for the foreseeable future.

Playing music for the past 13 years with Riley, Ed, and Teppei has been such a gift. We have been able to see the world, share music with thousands and thousands of people, and make records with a variety of talented and inspiring people. The four of us have been through many highs and lows and overcome them together. I value their friendship, and it has been a great priviledge to play alongside them for so long. They are truly an amazingly gifted group of people, and the ways we’ve grown together as people and musicians has been a joy to experience.

More after the jump…

After Jon and I finished this interview, he said “good luck making sense of that.” I thought about it for a long time and realized that maybe it doesn’t need to make sense. Some things don’t. Not everything can be put into a chronological order, stacked in a pile and spit shined. The story of Jon Loudon, Jena Berlin and Restorations is one of those; a great story with no real beginning or end. A whole lot of middle, if you will. Try to get confused.

Jon Loudon was the singer of Philadelphia’s Jena Berlin for many years before transitioning to his “easy, laid-back old dude band,” Restorations alongside other members of Jena Berlin and other Philly area bands. He grew up in Pennsylvania and now makes his home in Center City, Philadelphia, a place where he is deeply involved in the music community. A graduate of Tyler School of Art at Temple University, he is a designer, fine artist and musician making a living doing pretty much that. He also has four walls, a bed and an apartment with working heat, a major leap in quality of life compred to the Jon Loudon five years ago who was living on the floor in a back room in a warehouse owned by Jumpstart Records or the Jon Loudon two years ago who shoved towels under his front door in the winter to keep the cold air out. All in the name of art!

More after the jump…

Parade Rainer by Rats Rats Rats

- I’ll let the band explain itself here: “We don’t know what kind of music we make. I used to call it psychedelic violence… It’s more like post-hardcore/groovy/doomy/noisy/sort-of-psychedelic. It’s loud & weird…”. Yup. I’d recommend dropping the few electronic beeps and bloops, they interfere with the whole noisy doomy thing…

The legendary Revelation Records has made available a free 21 song mp3 sampler on Amazon MP3 that’s chock full of legendary and near-legendary (get the idea?) cuts from the label’s history. If it was up to me, something like this would come pre-loaded on every Amazon Kindle Fire being sold this holiday season (though JUDGE’s “Bringing It Down” might instill tremors in some folks…). You can download the compilation here.