Big 4 show in a cinema? I dunno…

•June 26, 2010 • 2 Comments

big4

Photo from http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/51,95190,8022776.html?i=0

We’re not anywhere cool enough (or in the right time zone) to get it live, but in a couple of weeks a local cinema is playing a recording of thrash metal’s “big 4” – Anthrax, Megadeth,Slayer and Metallica – playing together for the first time.

Given that I can’t be at any of the actual shows, I can’t decide whether it would be unbelievably cool or unbelievably lame to be at the cinema to see the recording.

First I asked Charp. His guess was leaning towards ‘really lame’ but he said he might be interested in going anyway.

Dave also thought ‘really lame’ was the probable outcome. He also suggested that three and three quarter hours sitting in an uncomfortable cinema watching an event that should by rights be watched on your feet would be a fairly unpleasant experience, especially when it will probably be released on DVD before too long. And sure enough a DVD release has already been announced. 

Reading an account of the event on MadMan’s Metal Harmony has me still kind of undecided.

But at the end of the day, I think it’s an event that almost definitely needs the accompaniment of beer, and as that’s not an option at an Australian cinema, I guess I’ll wait for the Blu-Ray.

In the meantime here’s the whole goddamn lot of them doing Diamond Head’s Am I Evil (after a big ole hugfest, that is):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SVeurDVc4E]

Say what you will about the whole thing, that’s pretty cool.

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Zombie workout

•June 4, 2010 • 1 Comment

the zombie apocalypse... it's coming

For the last year, I’ve been working out at the gym twice a week with a personal trainer, in an effort to regain the muscle mass that I lost in a car accident a few years and ago and never properly regained. My trainer is a southern hemisphere champion body builder and while it’s not been without a great deal of pain, I’ve got some little guns now and it’s certainly been a worthwhile endeavour.

But.

According to Wired, there’s a fitness class in Illinois that prepares participants for the zombie apocalypse. Now that’s something worth doing. Fitness for the sake of it? Pretty boring. Fitness for your continued survival? Combine that with target practise (always aim for the head!) and that’s something worth doing.

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Joey Belladonna is the man on the silver mountain

•June 2, 2010 • 2 Comments

Ronnie James Dio’s memorial service was held on Sunday in Los Angeles, with 1200 fans in attendance along with performances by Geoff Tate, Glenn Hughes, Oni Logan and others. Members of the WBC were there to picket, as they had previously threatened, but from all accounts their presence was small and they were outnumbered by counter-protesters.

Blabbermouth has posted a heap of photos and videos from the event.

Previously I have talked trash, mostly on Twitter, about Joey Belladonna. Mostly because I think John Bush is a better Anthrax frontman. However, the video below of Joey Belladonna doing an acoustic version of my favourite Dio song, Man on the Silver Mountain, has made me swap my position. Sorry for saying bad stuff, Joey. Your version of that song was beautiful, it made me tear up.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsYJkYLCT-E]

If you’re also feeling teary after that, here’s something to make you smile: WBC counter-protesters. Love it:

Photo credit: David Regone

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What I’ve been listening to this week: Nile and Hate Eternal, great black n’ death, pirate metal

•May 29, 2010 • 1 Comment

Just in case you’re curious! Tuesday night was the Nile supported by Hate Eternal show in Perth, so early in the week I was giving myself a solid dose of both of the those band’s latest efforts in preparation.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Jb2Bkm8jI]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln5jRhlySA0]

Dave and I saw Nile last time they were here with Decapitated in support. Decapitated kicked all kinds of arse – our first and last time seeing Witold "Vitek" Kiełtyka and Adrian "Covan" Kowanek before the tragic bus accident which killed the drummer and incapacitated the frontman – and Nile just seemed wanky and boring in comparison. We did not enjoy it at all.

In light of that fact we weren’t going to go see them at all – but at the last minute the reviewer for FasterLouder wasn’t able to make it, so I said I’d take the spot, mostly because I was interested in seeing Hate Eternal. The evening itself turned out quite different to what I was expecting – you can read my full review here if you’re interested – but to summarise, I wasn’t impressed by Hate Eternal, but Nile surprised the hell out of me. I can appreciate Eric Rutan’s mad guitar skillz but the band didn’t put on a great show and the tippety-tappity weak-as-piss drum sound was fucking horrible. On the other hand, Karl Sanders’ Egyptofreaks’ latest album is awesome and they played a lot off it. Dallas Toler-Wade has shaved his skullet off, which means that I could look at him without pissing myself laughing. There was less electronic piss-farting around and more great shred. And their bassist is hot. Win all round. Although Nile’s drum sound wasn’t a hell of a lot better than Hate Eternal’s.

In the car this week, I listened to a bit of Arsis‘ We Are The Nightmare – great album and I love the band, although I haven’t picked up their latest effort yet – and revisited Swashbuckle’s debut, Crewed By The Damned, which I heard, loved and wrote about freaking ages before everyone else got on board with pirate metal. (I’m still hoping for more from Verbal Deception, by the way.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKOy2yyVlSA]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdZCp5rclJ4]

I like to listen to music before I go to sleep (we have a sweet Logitech Squeezebox setup to stream media files to the bedroom) and this week I’ve been drifting off to Triptykon’s Eparistera Daimones (an album I swear I will NEVER remember the name of, or be able to pronounce), Rotting Christ’s Aealo (I can remember this one although I’m not sure the correct way to say it) and Immolation’s Majesty And Decay. Not that I’m saying these albums are sleep-inducing – far from it: probably my three favourite releases of this year so far.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN9ux9zQUiA]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hOfNukY6Og]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNd3lqoNp5I]

Finally, the DioCast. The Obelisk, my source for stoner metal awesomeness, has posted a compilation of Dio tracks spanning his entire career. My only complaint is no Man On A Silver Mountain. But I’ve listened to that a fair few times in the past few weeks already.

What have you been listening to this week?

Posted in metal

RIP Slipknot’s Paul Gray, 1972-2010

•May 28, 2010 • 1 Comment

Paul Gray

This year has been just awful so far for the metal world, losing so many of its heroes in the past months. Peter Steele, Ronnie James Dio, and now Slipknot bassist Paul Gray, dead of unknown causes at the age of 38.

This latest news brought out a lot of haters – for example on Metal As Fuck’s Facebook page. Personally, I’m an immense fan of Slipknot’s early work and while their latest couple of albums don’t really grab me, it cannot be denied that they had a massive influence on the metal scene in the 2000s, and as such some respect is definitely warranted.

The press conference held by the band members below is really heart-breaking to watch – you can see that this was truly a horrible and unexpected shock. The autopsy performed was inconclusive, so of course all sorts of rumours about an overdose are circulating – but that’s really neither here nor there. The band haven’t said whether they will be continuing without Paul, but my guess is that they won’t. (That’s one of those predictions that will probably come back to haunt me.)

Like the bands or hate them, you have to feel bad for the fans of these musicians, not to mention their families and fellow band members – Paul had a wife and unborn child.

Let’s hope the disturbing trend stops now – I don’t want to hear about any more premature deaths for a while.

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How many beers? One miiiiiilllllion!

•May 26, 2010 • 1 Comment

beer and metalheads

A few weeks ago, a few of the Metal As Fuck contributors were having a bit of a late night discussion on Twitter, during which at least one member of the party (not me, for once) was mildly intoxicated. Beer and metal were the topics of conversation, as they often are, and somehow less than 24 hours later MADman, Biodagar and I had registered onemillionbeersformetal.com and set up a blog and flickr group to collate evidence of no fewer than one million beers being consumed in the name of metal.

It’s a big ask, but we’re not in any hurry. There was a bit of a rush to start with which has since slowed, but we know that wherever there’s a metalhead, a beer is not far away, and one day we’ll reach our goal! Not sure what we’ll do with our spare time then… but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Check it out: One Million Beers for Metal

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Metal travel for 2010

•May 25, 2010 • 1 Comment

A grey afternoon at Wacken 2008

In 2008 and 2009, my metalbeast and I made the trek to Germany for Wacken Open Air, the world’s largest open air heavy metal festival, making a stop in Dave’s hometown of Krakow.

This year, we’re doing it again. After Wacken, we’ll be hiring a vehicle of some description and trekking down to Bad Berka for Party.San Open Air one week later, followed by Summer Breeze in Dinkelsbühl the week after that. Then it’s off to Krakow for a week to relax and drink vodka. We’re calling it Blitzkrieg 2010.

As in previous years, we’ll be documenting the journey on the Hell Bent For Metal blog, and I’ll also be submitting regular tour diaries to Metal As Fuck. We’ll be gathering lots of photos for the One Million Beers for Metal project and I might even post here every now and then if I’m not too busy drinking and rocking out to over 100 bands. Ahem.

Just to gloat, highlights of the tour will include:

  • Gojira – at Wacken and also in a club gig with Lost Soul in Krakow
  • Cannibal Corpse, not once not twice but three frickin’ times (they’re playing all three festivals)
  • My beloved Fear Factory at 2am, Wacken’s “awesome hour”
  • Canadian deathcore-only-good band Despised Icon twice, including their last ever show at Summer Breeze
  • The awe-inspiring Tom G Warrior in his Triptykon incarnation at Party.San, an intimate festival of around 10,000 people, tiny compared to the metal city that 75,000 Wacken attendees create
  • Obituary and Behemoth, mine and Dave’s favourite bands, respectively

Anyone else doing some Euro festivals this year?

Posted in europe2008, metal festivals
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What’s wrong with the freaking world today?

•May 21, 2010 • 3 Comments

tonsillitis sucks

I have laryngitis and tonsillitis, which means my throat is swollen up to twice its normal size and I can’t talk. Which is no doubt why the world chose today to throw all these outrage-inspiring stories at me. I’ve been engaging in furiously angry typing all day.

First the mouth-breathing religious freaks. The Westboro Baptists – the “god hates fags” idiots, more a collection of extremist political bigots than a church, or in the words of my mate Heisty, “a tight-knit family of wilfully delusional, hateful, abusive lunatics” – are planning to picket the public memorial service being held for Ronnie James Dio. Mrs J summed it up quite nicely on Facebook:

Personally, I welcome the dumb fucks to try it. A handful of delusional god botherers in the midst of a bunch of metal heads trying to farewell an idol? Yeah, good luck!

This kind of thing makes me so mad that I’m having trouble putting it into words. Meanwhile the tributes to Dio continue to roll in. Metal As Fuck has put together a number of tributes that the MAF community posted on Twitter and Facebook, as well as some that were emailed in, and they truly go to show what a universally loved individual he was.

Then, it’s been revealed that Australia has fallen even further into a nanny state by adding an “are you carrying porn” question to customs arrivals cards. If you say “yes” they can then search your laptop, camera, and drives to confiscate anything considered “illegal” and issue fines or worse.

What disturbs me most about this is that it’s already been shown that the guidelines for what the Australian Classification Board thinks is “ok” and “not ok” seems a bit fickle. For example, there was a big outcry a couple of months ago when women with small breasts were deemed “out”, and the government’s stance on female ejaculation is that it’s urine and therefore under a blanket ban, no matter what medical research has to say on the matter.

More to the point, I don’t intend to hand my laptop over for rifling through by customs officials. TrueCrypt to the rescue!

Posted in chatter
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Like a rainbow in the dark: RIP Ronnie James Dio, 1942-2010

•May 18, 2010 • 1 Comment

Ronnie James Dio

The last 24 hours have been an emotional rollercoaster for us poor metal fans! First, rumours circulated on Twitter and web sites that Ronnie James Dio, godfather of metal and inventor of the devil horns, had succumbed to stomach cancer after a six month battle. The shock and grief that circulated soon turned to anger as the rumours were shown to be false – Wendy Dio, Ronnie’s wife, informing Blabbermouth that while he was not doing great, the great man was still holding on.

A few hours later, it was confirmed that the rumour had been merely premature. Metalheads the world over who had mistaken “he’s not dead” to mean “he won’t die” were more cautious about accepting the news this time around but cancer is a fucker and sadly, this time it was for real.

Outpourings of grief and love have been in the metal media ever since. Ritchie Blackmore, Lemmy, Lars Ulrich, Rob Flynn, members of Black Sabbath, bands from Testament and Anthrax to Judas Prest, Motley Crue, Queensryche, KISS, Trouble and hundred of others issued statements commemorating a truly amazing voice, a talented musician and a heavy metal legend.

Not to mention inventor of the metal horns:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQk5ao4a3AI]

i first heard Dio when I was around 12, probably in 1989. My friend Anne and I were being introduced to metal by her older brother. I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but metal really appealed to me – and the rest is history.

We made copies of tapes we were given and, in the nature of 12 year olds, copies of copies of copies – including one outstanding four volume compilation series entitled Masters of Metal. Sadly I’ve not been able to find any information about this series on the interwebs but it included all the classics from the ‘70s and ‘80s, from (ozzy-era) Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, and Rush to Dokken, Accept, Judas Priest, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue and of course, Dio: both Holy Diver and Stand Up and Shout were on there, as well as Rainbow’s Man on the Silver Mountain and Long Live Rock n’ Roll.

Pre-internet, we knew nothing about the bands other than the name of the artist and the name of the tracks, but that amazing voice made sure Dio was never forgotten.

Much has been written about Dio and his amazing contributions to music over the past few days. There was also one rather disrespectful and lazily-written obituary by Reuters News, and this post was originally going to be an angry rant about that, but in retrospect, it’s really irrelevant and not worth wasting further time on. Those who matter know better.

Ronnie James Dio, you were taken from us far too soon and you will be sorely missed. Your contributions to metal will not be forgotten, however.

Long Live Rock n’ Roll!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDT_uqM1iqI]

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Kick arse comics: The Landscaper

•May 17, 2010 • 2 Comments

The Landscaper

I had the good fortune to work for a couple of years with a really talented artist, Chris Messina. He combats a banal day job by applying his immense creativity to amazing side-projects in theatre, music and art. One such project is The Landscaper, a dark comic series about an average guy-turned-vigilante and the complicated world he finds himself thrown into. 

He’s been going with it for a while now, but I find it hard to read them a page at a time so this morning I revisited the series from the beginning. It’s just so visually rich and gorgeous, I would LOVE to read it on real paper – hopefully one day I’ll get the chance.

Check out The Landscaper

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