BIRDS OF PREY's brand new full-length album The Hellpreacher is currently streaming in its entirety at this location: TheHellpreacher.info. The Hellpreacher saw its North American release yesterday, April 28th on CD and LP and will be followed by an international release on Monday, May 4th.

The Hellpreacher, the follow-up album to last year's Sulfur & Semen, was recorded last fall at Sniper Studio in North Carolina. BIRDS OF PREY, who's members include those of ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY, BEATEN BACK TO PURE, BARONESS, MUNICIPAL WASTE, and more, recently posted the album's opening tracks "Momma" and "Juvie" as preview tracks on the band's MySpace page: MySpace.com/Birdsop.

Updated BIRDS OF PREY news / information will be made available via the Relapse Records website: www.RELAPSE.com, and the BIRDS OF PREY MySpace: www.MySpace.com/Birdsop.

Birds of Prey on iLike - Add iLike to your MySpace

Well, as of today, 8/25/08, all the rythmn tracks are done for album 3 y'all. being as almost all of us in Birds of Prey are in touring bands, we usually have a small pocket or window in which to track these things. Fortunately there was a slight time table involved. By that i mean, Dave was stoked to do another record and said so in may, i called Bo and we set up a weekend to write the record in June. I drove down and we drank and drank and drank some more, then wrote the record in 5 hours. Tapes went to Dave, Summer and Ben. I went on Tour Driving Dave's band Municipal Waste, around the country as they opened for At the Gates (yea, it was bad ass), and we had at least one time where we listened together to the demo and talked ideas. Dave spent most of that tour on a bench in my van listening to the demo between bouts of starbucks induced dream farts. We got home, best friends day erupted here in town and brought Bo and Summer up to Richmond. Last monday, we headed down to sniper Studio and Dave finished his tracks in one day. bad ass mofo. next day, summer finished his tracks in one day, bad ass mofo, next day Bo finished his rythmn tracks, bad ass mofo. and the following day i did mine, i'm just robotic like that. So where we are now is Bo has to come back up to N.C. to track solos and Ben needs to lay down the best thing he will ever do.......the Birds of Prey concept album. not joking, it's a concept album, one solid story. Summer and i will be on tour most of the fall and Dave will be in and out of town as Ben blows minds all over Tidewater, dropping knowledge and Bo enjoys his fancy new soul crushing hvac between sweeping blues-peggios. we figure this thing will be in the can in a month or so. concept records take time y'all, time i say! anyway, Dave played really fuckin fast. so expect this record to be a hell of a ride, as well as a few twists, i told you it was a concept album.

Erik/B.O.P.

Ok, it seems we need to say this shit again. we check everyone out, everyone. so if your page is private, you will not be approved. if you have Rap, hip hop, whatever the fuck you want to call it on your page you will not be approved. Birds of Prey is a Metal band. and Rap music is shit music so just don’t fucking bother, please. And people, do your research. We have never played a show nor will we probably in the near future due to geographical difficulties within the band, but we make Metal records for ours and your enjoyment. this wonderful positive blog was inspired by a tasty gem of a response to being denied friendship due to the stupid fucker not thoroughly looking at our page and requesting friendship. they will not be named here, but know that when we went to check them out, as we do with all of you, there was rap, hip hop, whatever the fuck you want to call it all over their page. no thanks bub. so we felt it necessary to reiterate our simple policies. anyway, here’s the response we got to this persons denial, enjoy:

first of all its HIP HOP and not GANGSTA RAP and that guy is also an alternative rock artist shows me that you’re music isnt any good anyways and to think i actually wanted to go see a concert! so thanks for the warning and have a good life maybe your band might BE SUCCESSFUL!!!!

Sulfur and Semen was officially released today. Go out and get your copy today! Here are some things people are saying about it:

Birds of Prey - Sulfur and Semen
Review by John Pegoraro (StonerRock.com)
Relapse Records
Release date: 2008


Low down supergroup Birds of Prey returns to the bottom feeder with a second album, Sulfur and Semen. If the title makes you cringe, then you probably weren't paying attention in the first place. Weight of the Wound was about as subtle as a kick to the crotch, replete with lyrical content that was basically an 11 year old boy's fascination with poking dead, rotting things with a stick. And then pissing on them.

Sulfur and Semen is basically more of the same, although done better, heavier, and meaner. I'm hesitant to use the word "nuanced" to describe the album, but that's really not too far off the mark. The band – Alabama Thunderpussy's Erik Larson on guitar and drums, The Last Van Zandt's Bo Leslie on guitar, Baroness' Summer Welch on bass, and Beaten Back to Pure's Ben Hogg on vocals (Municipal Waste's Dave Witte is also a member but was unable to drum on Sulfur) - takes the thrash meets death metal howl from Weight of the Wound and fine tunes it. Compare the two "Mongoloid" songs and you'll see. "Mangled by Mongoloids (Ripper Apart by the Retarded)" has plenty of rhythmic crunch to it, but it drags when played against "Mentoring the Mongoloids (Return to the Attic)." The latter has a great frenzied riff that throws you across the room. It's matched (or possibly bested) by "Lice Halo," another speed freak corpse fucker of a song.

The band overall has really come together this time around, with special note going to Larson. As the recent Hail!Hornet album attests, he's really developed as a drummer, holding his own against Witte's work on Weight. Hogg pulls back on the guttural warbling and allows some finesse to creep through, making his voice less an unintelligible bellow. And Vince Burke's production is fantastic, although it has the unfortunate side effect of making Weight seem like a thin sounding demo in hindsight.

While the fast tracks on Sulfur and Semen deliver as promised and then some, it's one of the slower songs that really makes the biggest impression. "Where Black Lungs Don't Breathe" is downright creepy and atmospheric, with Hogg roaring in from some particularly nasty corner of hell. It's one of those numbers that shows there's more to Birds of Prey than initially assumed, and those that dismiss the band based on an obscene song title or two deserve the sort of grisly fate chronicled on Sulfur and Semen.

And Furthermore....

CA Redneck

Take some low down dirty and mean old school death metal, add a pinch of crusty punk and a dash of sludge and what you end up with is Sulfur and Semen, the latest album from Birds of Prey.

They've done a great job at keeping this latest album an interesting listen throughout. Songs like Satisfy the 45, To my Victims Family and Liquor Blisters are filled with killer grooves and riffs throughout giving them a cool Death n Roll feel. Where Black Lungs don't Bleed and Overfucked and Underage bring out a slow paced sludge atmosphere, while Lice Halo gives off an air of Discharge to it. And you can't leave out Mentoring the Mongoloids (Return to the Attic) which is to Mangled by Mongoloids what Godfather II is to the first Godfather. Basically the whole album is beginning to end brutality of one kind or another.

Ben's lyrics are as sick and depraved as the first album, maybe even more so. Erik and Bo lay down riff after riff while Summer's bass playing puts down a kick ass solid foundation. I must also say that Erik does an amazing double duty job filling in for Dave on the drums.

Bottom line, great album!

And still...

Birds Of Prey are a super-super group. They feature current and ex-members of Municipal Waste, Burnt By The Sun, Discordance Axis, Melt Banana, Human Remains, Alabama Thunderpussy, Avail, Kilara, The Last Van Zant, Throttlerod, Baroness, and Beaten Back To Pure. Imagine all those bands bloodily pulped in a giant blender and you will get some idea of Birds Of Prey's punk-death-metal ramblings. They bring together a wealth of experience that traverses the North American extreme music movement.

On their Myspace page they declare, "no keyboards, no breakdowns, no pretense and no bullshit, Birds Of Prey are fans of metal making metal for metal fans." The band do just that on their second record. The band are everything you could want from a metal band. They are seriously committed to heavy music. 'Sulfur And Semen' is a thunderously unrelenting album. When it transcends its generic limitations to create something as majestic as the tortuously grinding 'Where Black Lungs Don't Breathe' Birds Of Prey begin to hint at something potentially majestic.

'Show Him The Ground' is a cover of a song by Sub Pop folkie Iron And Wine. Don't expect any acoustic or a mellow intermission here though, Birds Of Prey have instead turned it into a stunning anthemic punk-metal onslaught. 'Overfucked And Underage' is as dank, dirty and as sleazy as its title suggests, guitars writhing around the loose grooves seductively. 'Bleed, Blister Or Cum' has a gruffly crude charm. It is a free wheeling southern metal odyssey into the depraved minds of Birds Of Prey. 'Lice Halo' begins fast and furiously but ends spooky and doomy like an even more evil Goatwhore. The thrashy 'To My Victim's Families' is just mean and nasty and 'Satisfy The .45' is an off its face malcontent romp.

Birds Of Prey cover a lot of metal bases in their determination not to be pigeonholed. Their groove filled metal assault manages to remain cohesive and coherent through the course of the entire album. 'Sulfur And Semen' might not seem a pleasant concoction but Birds Of Prey transform it into gold dust.

..Jasper: After a pretentiously announced debut album with the word "super group" used not a few times, Birds Of Prey returns with a new attempt, less pretensions, and a similar musical approach; to trash everything in its path and have fun while doing so.

The fact that members of successful contemporary bands like Municipal Waste, Baroness, Alabama Thunderpussy, and Beaten Back To Pure have time for a side-project like this makes for a small miracle. Apparently these Southerners need a band like Birds Of Prey to free themselves from all thought and just play the simple kind of metal they love. There is little room for originality or commercial value on 'Sulfur And Semen'. The fun of the game and the love for brutal death metal is everything. That these filthy bastards had fun writing appears from song titles like 'Liquor Blisters', 'Mentoring The Mongoloids' or 'Blister Of Cum'. The sound is still 'To Ride…' -era Entombed, but singer Ben Hogg sounds angrier and more genuine than before. The music also allows for more diversity, like doom in the mighty 'Where Black Lungs Don't Breathe'. Everything considered 'Sulfur And Semen' has become a much more consistent record than 'Weight Of The Wound', filthier as well. Fans of Entombed-style rockin' death metal know enough.

y'all get the picture, go get the record at any of these fine locations:

National store chains

BEST BUY               

FYE

HASTINGS

VIRGIN

Regional and Independent stores:

AMOEBA MUSIC     

ANGELO's               

BOO BOO'S RECORDS

BULL MOOSE MUSIC 

CATS 

CD CITY    

CRIMINAL   

DARK REALM 

DEARBORN MUSIC

DESTINY    

DIMPLE     

DISC AND DAT           

EAR X-TACY             

EASY STREET RECORDS    

EIDES COMIX      

ELECTRIC FETUS         

GREY WHALE 

There will be a revamped look to this site very soon, to coincide with the new album which has a release date of january 22nd. more news will follow but until then we here at Birds of Prey would like to impart to all potential friend requesters:

YOU WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY REFUSED IF YOUR PAGE IS PRIVATE. DON'T BOTHER.

having said that, until later.........

Well, we finished tracking this beast of a new album this weekend. 11 songs in all, 10 new and 1 cover*. The cover is by Iron and Wine, but we sure as hell made it our own. Any how, we're still trying to figure out the track listing, but here's the tentative one.

Birds of Prey "Sulfur and Semen"

1.Bleed, Blister or Cum

2.Show Him the Ground*

3.Mentoring the Mongaloids (Return to the Attic)

4.Turning Big Rocks into Little Rocks

5.Murder the Homeless/Burn the Upperclass

6.Where Black Lungs Don't Breathe

7.Lice Halo

8.Satisfy the 45

9.To My Victims' Families

10.Overfucked and Underage

11.Liquor Blisters

1 Month to go before we start tracking the 2nd album with Vince Burke at sniper studio in Moyock N.C. the new material is meaner sounding and with more teeth as we say. some prliminary song titles given by Mr. Ben Hogg include: "Bleed, Blister or Cum", "Life ain't for everybody", "Turning big rocks into little Rocks" "Coal minor Canibal". Be certain his lyrical output will surpass any and all expectation. you have been warned.