To say I’m an Alice In Chains fan would be somewhat of an understatement. This is a band I just totally fucking love.
Seeing them live at Soundwave 2009, with their new singer William DuVall, was nothing short of a religious experience. I had high hopes but low expectations but hearing those songs sung so true to the originals by a man obviously not trying to imitate the late Layne Stayley brought tears to my eyes, as well as to a significant portion of the audience too. What can I say – it was emotional. I thought I’d blogged about it already but I can’t find it so maybe not. Here’s a clip that was uploaded from the show – just listen to the crowd when the vocals start – that’s the sound of every person within cooee singing their heart out:
So here we are, Alice in Chains are releasing a new album. They released a couple of video trailers which didn’t really give much away, but tonight a song was put up on aliceinchains.com for free download (thanks Metal Insider for the heads up). Go on, go get it and have a listen. I’ll wait.
So what do you reckon? I think it’s… plenty heavy, angsty enough, Jerry Cantrell’s riffs sound awesome and the harmonies are just perfect AIC. I call a win.
It’s possibly I’m a hopless fangirl though. What do you think?
I guess that at the present time, Christian Olde Wolbers is the keeper of the Fear Factory “offical” MySpace page because he’s been using it to post occasional items of interest, including a fundraiser for the Victorian bush fires (nice) and today, the new video for his new band with Raymond Herrera, Arkaea. I bet control of the MySpace profile is only one of the areas of current contention.
So I watched the video and listened to the songs they had posted – I did mention the other day that I was very interested in hearing what they came out with – and I have to say I’m in two minds.
Check out the video here:
What I like about it: Raymond was spot on when he said it sounded like Fear Factory with a different singer. Raymond is an amazing drummer and his work really shines. Dino Cazares might be accusing Christian of ripping of all his riffs for Archetype but this shows Mr Wolbers got more than a few of his own up his sleeve.
What I’m not sure about: the singer, Jon Howard. He’s from a metalcore band (Threat Signal, as is bass player Pat Kavanagh) and he has that hardcore vocal sound. His harsh vocals sound orright – pretty standard issue – but when he starts singing it sounds to me like Il Nino or another band like that. Now don’t get me wrong, I actually don’t mind Il Nino (have two of their CDs and saw them live sometime in 2005 or 2006 I think) but it’s not really what I was hoping for from this new offshoot of Fear Factory. I kinda wish they’d found someone who either had a full-on death metal growl OR maybe even a singing-only vocalist. Jon Howard is not a bad vocalist by any stretch but I just don’t think he exactly fits.
So there you go. What do you think? Is it what you were expecting?
I’d drunk half a gallon of vodka before SEPULTURA played, so I was hanging out and being crazy and talking shit — and I couldn’t help it, but a load of vomit just came out of my mouth and went all over him. He was real nice: he didn’t care or nothing, he just got up and cleaned himself up and came back — and the minute he came back, I said to him, ‘I need your autograph for my sister.’ She was a huge PEARL JAM fan. People told me about this later, I don’t remember it. His face was just [makes incredulous look], and he gave me the autograph and left!
Max Cavalera, good on ya mate. Don’t feel bad about it – Eddie has that effect on people.
Why the haterade, you ask? I actually really like Pearl Jam, but it’s in spite of Mr Vedder not because of him. Their first album Ten is pretty cool in my opinion – it came out when I was a nasty teenager and had just the right amount of angst. Their next release, Vs, is ok… but their third, Vitalogy, is just awesome. It’s a bit of a departure, because it’s dark, and reasonably aggressive (for a band who isn’t normally, I mean) and really stays with the listener. I can’t comment on any of their albums after that because I don’t own them and based on what I heard on the radio etc they aren’t albums I would pick up – too poppy and happy and mainstream.
I saw Pearl Jam live in… um… nineteen-fuckedy-something… 1993? 1994? They didn’t play any of their “hits” and Eddie thought he was in Sydney and didn’t talk much anyway. There was like one spotlight on the band (despite being in the Perth Entertainment Centre which was, at the time, our biggest venue) and they played all their songs double speed and they were just really, really not interesting. But it’s the rock star martyr act that makes me dislike him.
So good on ya Max. New Soulfly album sometime soon I hear?
I like Kittie. I see a lot of crap get talked about them on various metal news sites (yeah, you know the ones) but I reckon they are great. I just read that Kittie has signed to E1 Music for a three album deal – and if they are getting good terms, that’s fantastic news. I’m certainly looking forward to hearing the new album In The Black which is due for release in September 2009.
Kittie have always had the unique ability to be feminine without compromising the “metalness”, if making up words can be excused (this is, afterall, a blog). Angela Glossow, for example, is absolutely fucking amazing but listening to any of her recordings with Arch Enemy, most people wouldn’t know it’s not a man singing – there is no feminine element at all. Other metal bands that have female singers like Lacuna Coil, who I do like, In This Moment, who I don’t, are significantly less metal than they would be otherwise because of the feminine influence.
But Kittie are just kickarse. Other bands I like that fall into this category (awesome chick metal) include My Ruin (Tarrie B is a superstar) and Crucified Barbara (who do a great cover of Motorhead’s Killed By Death). I have a whole collection of CDs by now-defunct chick metal bands too, like Drain S.T.H. and the Aussie group Nitocris.
Here’s some early Kittie – these chicks were teenagers when this was written and recorded:
This one is from Oracle:
And now the title track from their last release, Funeral For Yesterday:
I’ll admit that the Funeral For Yesterday album didn’t have as much growling in it as Kittie’s previous releases and while I did miss that, it’s still a very good, very catchy album.
Kittie toured Australia – I think it was 2001 or 2002 – and the Perth date was unfortunately on one of the three days we were in Singapore. So I’m still hoping to see them live one day.
I used to like Karnivool. The last time I saw them live was at the Big Day Out two years ago, and they were great. They started out kinda metal although they moved a bit away from that later – but it was still always cool music. Plus they are from Perth and there’s always something cool about a local band that is successful elsewhere.
I heard they had a new album coming and they were selling out shows like crazy so when they went on sale in Perth I snagged us two tickets. But then the other week I bought the new album, Sound Awake, and listened to it a couple of times and you know what? I don’t like it. At all.
To me, it sounds uninteresting. They’re definitely not metal at all anymore. In fact they’ve become very “post-rock” and it’s just a bit too prog and wanky for me.
Luckily I found someone via Twitter who wants to go – and seeing as both Perth shows are sold out she was pretty happy to grab them.
*sigh*. I will go listen to Persona now and remember what they used to be like.
