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Arkaea – Fear Factory ++ ?

•June 30, 2009 • 2 Comments

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:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0NF9DQrV0]

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?

Posted in metal, music
Tags: arkaea, fear factory, threat signal

Really, who hasn’t wanted to puke on Eddie Vedder at some point?

•June 29, 2009 • 3 Comments

Via Blabbermouth: SOULFLY Frontman Recalls ‘Puking’ On EDDIE VEDDER:

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?

Posted in music
Tags: eddie vedder, max cavalera, pearl jam

Chick Metal, or Kittie signed for 3 album deal

•June 28, 2009 • 3 Comments

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:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcPBjT_c_rc&hl=en]

This one is from Oracle:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4rzTFR3X2g]

And now the title track from their last release, Funeral For Yesterday:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGe_eohCA3Q]

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.

Posted in metal, music
Tags: chick metal, Kittie

I sold my Karnivool tickets

•June 27, 2009 • 2 Comments

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.

Posted in music
Tags: karnivool

So the Australian Fear Factory tour has been cancelled

•June 26, 2009 • Leave a Comment

I’m disappointed but not overly surprised, given the circumstances.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to interview Dino Cazares on the phone the other week, you can read the interview over at Metal As Fuck. Dino is an interesting, intelligent and opinionated dude, and my twenty minutes on the phone was a lot of fun. He shied away from saying much about the legal dramas, saying that Burton had asked him to come back and Burton would be making a statement – so that line of enquiry didn’t really get anywhere.

But it seems pretty clear cut to me – Burton C Bell feels responsibility for the entity that is Fear Factory. Trangression was a crappy album that got panned not only by critics but by fans and eventually the band members at the time. Burton thinks back to where it all started to go wrong and concludes that perhaps that telling Dino to piss off wasn’t the smartest move he’d made. Dino has a bit of a beef with Christian Olde Wolbers, who moved from bass to guitar after Dino’s departure, and Christian isn’t going to want to shut up and go back to bass just because Dino and Burton are speaking again, so he no longer fits into this particular scenario. Christian and Raymond Herrera are friends and do a lot of work together, so Raymond is not likely to go back into a Fear Factory lineup that does not include Christian. Plus Byron Stroud has been doing an admirable job on bass for the last six years anyway so there’s no point upsetting that. All that is needed is a drummer – and in a situation like that (legendary heavy metal band requires legendary drummer) you can’t really go past Gene Hoglan.

It’s not great for Christian and Raymond and by the sounds of it they are fully entitled to dispute the use of the Fear Factory name. I agree that Burton and Dino probably should have called themselves something else. But the one big upshot for fans and people who just love the music that Fear Factory put out is that Christian and Raymond have put together a recording that, by Raymond’s own admission, sounds like Fear Factory with a different singer (that singer being Jon Howard of Theat Signal). That album is being released under the name Arkarea next month and hooley dooley, it’s been a long time since there was new music that sounds just like Fear Factory so I’m very, very excited about hearing it. Just as I’m very excited about the prospect of hearing new music that Burton and Dino make together.

At the end of the day, the soap opera dramas are tiresome and it’s always a shame when the reputation of a once-legendary band gets pulled down by legal disputes – but if as a result we get two cool records from some great musicians that’s actually a good thing.

Posted in metal
Tags: dino cazares, fear factory

Fear Factory in Perth, or OMG OMG OMG

•June 21, 2009 • Leave a Comment

South Fremantle Power Station, location of Fear Factory’s video clip for Cyberwaste.

A couple of weeks ago the news come out that Dino Cazares and Burton C. Bell were doing a Blues Brothers and “getting the band back together”, aka Fear Factory. Rather than a full lineup with Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera they are instead teaming up with drum legend Gene Hoglan and Byron Stroud who has admittedly been around ever since the split with Dino when Christian switched from bass to guitar duties (thank you Wikipedia for noting that was in 2002).

Now, whether you call this a true Fear Factory reunion or not is an argument I will leave to the haters, because a true Fear Factory fan will take whatever they can get, and I’m putting myself in that category. Dino + Burton + Stroud is more Fear Factory than we’ve seen in quite a while. I was lucky enough to get to interview Dino Cazares on the phone for Metal As Fuck and he had a little to say on the matter too – that interview will hopefully be published soon so I’m not gonna say anything here.

So the first panic attack came when the band announced dates in Germany in early August – specifically, Hamburg, where we will be in early August. Unfortunately we’re leaving for Switzerland the morning of the 5th which is when they’re playing. Changing our flight would be disastrous to our holiday which is short enough as it is, as it would mean only 3 days in Switzerland and paying a fortune in changing flights and accoms. Rumour had it they would be playing Australia some time later in the year anyway.

Well, that announcement came last week, but again caused a mild heart attack – they’re playing in Perth on August 18, and thankfully after hastily checking our tickets we’re in the clear: that’s the day after we come back. Jet lag be damned – it’s going to be great. Except for the fact it’s at Club Capitol which has those headache inducing red-only lights which tend to make for shitty photographs.

I pretty much don’t know anyone who’s not stoked to be going to this show. I’ve seen them live four times – once at Metropolis City, 9th December 2001; then at the filming of the Cyberwaste video, February 8, 2004; playing an all-too-short set supporting Korn at Robinson Pavillion the next day; and then at Metropolis Fremantle, supported by Devildriver on the 18th of September 2006. I absolutely cannot wait to see them once again and I sincerely hope it won’t be the last time.

Posted in metal, music
Tags: fear factory

Accept with Udo: not the real deal

•May 17, 2009 • Leave a Comment

I just read that German power metallers Accept are reforming (again) but this time without their original singer Udo Dirkschneider. I’m sorry, but this is unacceptable. They need to change their name like Black Sabbath/Heaven and Hell did… obviously they think that without the name they won’t be successful. To that I say: grow some balls!

This is the Accept song that I tried to sneak into Gossy’s wedding. I managed to get about half of Judas Priest’s Turbo Lover played but the DJ wasn’t gonna deviate from his parent-appropriate mix any further (sorry mate, I tried). Let’s watch:

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph8kGPXOoUw]
YouTube – Accept – Balls To The Wall

Posted in metal
Tags: accept, udo

Deftones’ Chi Cheng off life support

•May 6, 2009 • Leave a Comment

I just read some great news over at Metal Hammer – Chi Cheng, bassist with the Deftones, is now out of intensive care and off life support.

This is great news – Chi has been in coma since last November after being in a car accident. I posted recently about how glad I was to hear that he was making progress, drifting in and out of consciousness, and about the donation fund that was set up to help pay his medical bills because these days being a famous rock star no longer automatically means that you’re rich. We’re lucky in Australia to have a public health system that is there for you when you really need it. I was in a car accident eight years ago, in intensive care for three weeks and the spinal unit for many more, and even without private health insurance received absolutely top notch care.

So anyway, it’s good to see Chi is picking up and his fans are looking after him.

Posted in music
Tags: chi cheng, deftones

On Collecting

•April 19, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Cosmo Lee, metal writer for Decibel magazine as well as a stack of other publications, was recently burgled. Among the items taken were the hard drives housing his music collection (having last year moved to a completely digital collection). Lee has posted an insightful post on Invisible Oranges about his feelings at losing something that took a considerable chunk of time, money and effort to put together. He seems pretty philosophical about the whole thing and it’s a good reminder that music collections are not irreplaceable.

Being exceptionally geeky, the first thing that pops into my mind, of course, is backups. We have a large CD collection and although it’s all digitized as well, the idea of re-digitizing in the event of a hard drive failure or other loss is pretty daunting – it’s over 140 gig at present. 1 terabyte drives are cheap now, so a backup external hard drive is one option. Blu-Ray drives are also coming right down in price, although dual-layer media is still a bit expensive – but burning our entire collection onto three discs is an appealing option and definitely one that wouldn’t take up much physical space.

I don’t buy digital music because of DRM and the inferior quality of digital media, but this brings up an interesting angle – were your digital collection to be lost or stolen, theoretically you could re-download the files that you legally own. Unfortunately, I don’t trust the system enough to be part of something like that!

Posted in music

Deftones’ Chi Cheng: still fighting

•March 25, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Image via Wikipedia

Being a Deftones fan, I was saddened to hear of bassist Chi Cheng’s car accident in early December last year, which left him in a coma.

As the days and weeks wore on and none of the news items I read indicated that he was improving, I kind of assumed the worst. The Deftones even issued a statement that they would be continuing with a new bass player as “our fallen comrade has not yet made significant progress”.

However, a press release sent out by his mother indicates that things are definitely looking up for Chi (thanks Metal Underground) and that he is going in and out of his coma, sometimes opening his eyes and even speaking a couple of times. That’s definitely great news.

Apparently there’s been issues with his insurance not paying his hospital bills, so the Chi family have set up a site where fans can donate to help pay for his continuing treatment. You can use PayPal which is what I’m gonna do – remember peeps, it’s not real money anyway 🙂

I saw The Deftones at The Big Day Out in 1993, and their set was definitely the highlight of the day for me back then. Here’s a clip from that tour although I’m pretty sure it’s not from Perth:

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNLXyTBlTvk]
YouTube – Deftones – Around The Fur (Live @ Big Day Out 2003)

They also headlined Soundwave in 2007 and while perhaps an odd choice for the festival, they totally kicked arse.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib2hraZS3t0]
YouTube – Deftones at Soundwave Perth 030307 playing Kimdracula

Even if I do wanna tell Chino Moreno to pull his pants up.