The return of Count Raven. 11 tracks, 4 good, 5 bad, 2 in between, a real mixed bag. Read the review  here.

A few weeks back I read a really impressive article on The Inevitable Noise about SEO for bands, now I am a bit of an SEO nerd myself so I read the article with interest and found out it was to be part of a series of posts on the topic.  I thought I would wait until the series was over before passing on the links and adding my own comments to the mix.

Today I read on their site a fantastic article on CRM for bands and I couldn’t contain myself any longer, this site is by far the best I have come across for giving bands good practical advise for getting an online presence.  Obviously you are in uproar about this, and it is really sweet that you think BornInBlood is the best place for that stuff, but it isn’t (I mean for general metal awesomeness, of course BornInBlood is the best site on the planet… )

Getting and online presence is essential for bands, pretty much everyone knows this now so the internet is heaving with bands exactly like yours with the exact same MySpace profiles and the exact same ideas for releasing demos and what have you.  In order to get noticed you need to be following the type of advice given by Alex at The Inevitable Noise.  If nothing else it has certainly helped kick my ass in gear with regards to getting more articles online to attempt to help bands.

Here are some links to posts I think are incredibly relevant to any band;

• SEO for bands 1
• SEO for bands 2
• SEO for bands 3
• CRM for bands

First Harvest is the debut full-length album from Finnish death metallers Fleshkraft and in a frankly unprecedented act of generosity, they’re giving the bastard thing away free. However, they’ve been around for six years and despite seeking label support, they’re still having to do things on their own. Is this free album a final attempt to get the Fleshkraft name known?

Read more here.

Hailing from Croatia, Avicularia released this, their only release to date in 2008 and it really is a lovely slab of death metal…

You can read the actual review here.

Two bits of Rote Mare news here (which unfortunately due to chronic laziness is 5 days late in getting posted up!  My apologies to the Rote Mare guys!)

The first is that there is a new song up for stream on their website (linked above) give it a listen!  It is the Eternal Winter live recording.

The second bit of news concerns the bands lineup, Sean has moved from bass to guitar, meaning they are looking for a bass player.

This is their current lineup:

• Phil-Guitar & Vocals
• Sean- Guitar
• Ben- Drums

Fucking heavy for a three piece eh?