The Good, The Bad & The Ugly 2011

When all is said and done this is a time of year when people get demotivated.

You have a million and one things to do, apparently a need to catch up with a million and one people for no other reason than Coke-a-Cola adverts on TV, the need to boost the economy by spending all your money on other people and gorge yourself on fattening foods and liver threatening beverages and all of these in turn for the sake of the mythical birthday of a guy who would be nailed to a tree at 33 years old for saying what a good idea it would be to be nice to everyone (thank you Douglas Adams - gone but not forgotten).

That's right Christmas is upon us, the house is full of tinfoil, fake German trees, the little lady is telling me to stop being a grumpy cunt (well that's just normal to be fair) and across the land magazine staff do that thing where they fill their product with lists to distract from the fact they can't be arsed to do any work.

Here at History Towers we are no different really... I look back on the year and think 'Man, only one thing pissed me off in November?' well of course it didn't, loads did, but that's another story... anyway, back to the plot. Now that the door has slammed shut on metal releases worth talking about I'm going to tell you about the albums that have made an impact here this year. I have tried to narrow my list down to the top, er under ten, best, worst and not necessarily either of 2011.

Anyway before we get down to final lists there are a few worth mentioning that edge outside of the final er, inconsistent number.

British Metal had a reasonable year, Architects disappeared off to America and continued adding melodies to their Baby Johnny Truant sound with January's The Here & Now. Son of The Air Raid Siren, baby Dickinson's band Rise To Remain released the metalcore City Of Vultures which won them fans aplenty (although in my house he is not a patch on his father); Technical Djent merchants Tesseract released the dizzying One and ragga-metal favourites Skindred released the entertaining but not ground breaking Union Black... still it is a lot of fun.

Elsewhere Morbid Angel alienated their fan base with a bizarrely industrial flavoured effort, Chimaira returned with Age Of Hell - their best effort in years, Opeth released Heritage but the thought of listening to it bores me, Alice Cooper got round to releasing Welcome 2 My Nightmare which is actually a great classic rock album and nowhere near as bad as it sounds. Former Skid Row squealer Seb Bach released Kicking & Screaming which serves as a reminder that, before he was using his mouth as Axl Rose's bidet, the guy could, on his day, kick the fat Ginger fuck up and down the stage vocally, Jane's Addiction returned with the above average 'Great Escape Artist', Al Jourgensen decided he couldn't live without Ministry and started to record 'Relapse' whilst finally releasing the crazy Buck Satan project (which has arrived after the cut off date) and lastly my chance to rip into MegaDave some more was denied when the 'Deth boys turned in Th1rt3en and it was actually alright...

So to the nitty gritty of my year.

The Ugly

6. In at six is the mighty Mastodon. A confusing band who one moment have this brutal punk vibe going for them, the next they are all clever and prog with too many notes and time signatures going on.


Having released the challenging and in part incredible Crack The Skye album in 2009 they stripped their sound back down and went balls out for The Hunter. Somewhat of an enigma that to me their more accessible release was harder to listen to. Less refined and a return to the uncompromising sounds of their earlier releases this is an album I will file under 'needs more time'.

5. As I have previously indicated I placed a great deal of expectation on the shoulders of Unearth this time out as I felt that since the Oncoming Storm they have been dependable, but not kicked on. III: In The Eyes Of Fire and The March were good, but more of the same, perhaps not as good.


Armed with Killswitch jackass Adam D behind the studio desk once more and Killswitch drummer Foley I felt this time could be something special for the Massachusetts metalcore crew. Sadly I am left feeling a little short changed and this is in part due to the introduction of clean vocals which smacks of an attempt to widen their audience. There is no shame in this, and it's not bad, just not the world beater I hoped for.

4. Another metalcore forerunner As I Lay Dying followed up their acclaimed 2009 album The Powerless Rise with a 'ten year celebratory special EP' Decas, which smacked of fulfilling contractual obligations.


Consisting of 3 new songs, a handful of covers - including heavy weights Judas Priest and Slayer as well as several remixes of their own earlier material, it is as hit and miss as it sounds. The new songs are strong and follow on where they previously left off, the covers are entertaining if not fairly pointless and redundant and the dance remixes are well, just fairly pointless and redundant.

Don't get me wrong I love AILD, I have listened to this a fair bit considering the sum of it's parts... But I just can't see the point in it.

3. I wrote about Emmure's Speaker Of The Dead earlier this year so I won't labour the point... it is lumpen and as musically dumb as the proverbial bag of hammers.


And hammers are a good analogy really; harking back to Douglas Adams - he described the drink The Pangalatic Gargle Blaster as being hit in the head by a gold brick wrapped in a slice of lemon... Well, substitute the lemon for a blunt paper, exchange the gold brick for a sack of Go-Bots, broken Transformers, Brass knuckles, a couple of Nintendo cartridge games and some bling and you'll probably still be nowhere near the effect.

The very essence of ugly, yet I have found myself compelled to listen to it.

2. This year also saw the return of Five Finger Death Punch. Promising harder, heavier, more melodic, more cowbell and more kitchen sink than ever before, the 'Death Punk' crew rolled over the airwaves with American Capitalist and you know what? They were right. Like a huge big, dumb, awful, brain melting cartoon with a massive side helping of cheese, they are fast food, low brow, quick fix and most of all fun.


I fucking love them, yes they are AWFUL, seriously bad at times but Evan Moody has a great voice and Zoltan Bathory is a great guitar player - they are the perfect 3.30pm festival band and this is their latest instalment, it's probably the weakest of the three so far, but it's not not even important at this point.

1. What is the ugliest record I heard all year?

Actually to phrase that better what is the ugliest record I have heard this year that doesn't fall into the worst album category?


Earlier in the year I wrote a lengthy rant about the ridiculousness of Limp Bizkit's 'Golden Cobra' even going as far as to dub it 'Golden Shower' but on reflection as the year draws to a close there are a couple of reasons I can't place it in the 'worst album' category.

i) As retarded as they are, they are great live entertainment. Durst is a shit lyricist, but a great frontman.

ii) They are self aware - they know how shit they are, but every now and then Borland and Otto let rip with these musical interludes that say, we only write this cos you people buy it.

iii) They are crap, they always have been crap. If you listen to it expecting genius, then you are a bigger idiot than Bizkit's frontman.

I hate them, yet I can't honestly sit here and tell you it deserves to be in the worst album category, because it never stood a chance of being in the best one.

Make of this what you want, but Golden Cobra is definitely the ugliest thing I have heard all year...

The Bad

5. I'll put my hands up on this one. It's a 2010 release, not 2011.

Sure there are some awful records that have assaulted my ears this year, but I thought it was incredibly mean spirited to sling Golden Cobra into the top 5 worst albums I have heard this year as in truth it would be like pointing out the defects in Li-Lo's Photoshopped Playboy shoot.


However I heard earlier this year Bring Me The Horizon's 2010 'There Is A Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It, If There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret'. Not only does this win the most retarded title award, but is in actual fact, 100% ear cancer. Devoid of anything remotely endearing the band, who also are strong candidates for shittest name to come out of the Random Emo Name Generator, have had a busy year fighting with their own audiences and being universally booed across Europe supporting Machine Head.

The worst thing was I only found out they were British the other week. They achieve the less than glowing compliment of making Parkway fucking Drive sound good.

Fuck this band and their douchebag front man, I boycotted Machine Head thanks to you and fucking Devildriver; if your music was a living entity I would shoot it in the genitals to stop it spreading. Just about the worst thing I have heard this year.

4. Annnnnd back to to the present....

It is sad to say that I have to finally give in and admit defeat with In Flames. Once proud pioneers of The Gothenburg Sound (Melodic Death Metal to you and I) who seemed to be clawing back a little bit of credibility, this years awfully titled 'Sounds Of A Playground Fading' managed the dubious achievement of making everything they have released since 2000's fan dividing 'Re-route To Remain' sound interesting and cutting edge.


Essentially there is little wrong with what is on the disc - trademark In Flames riffs, moany lyrics, fast solos... all check but the fact is it is so incredibly stock and fucking boring that I would rather they just hadn't bothered.

Honestly no matter how many spins I have given it I don't think I could pick a song out if it set itself on fire and ran around my living room.

No one expects this band to rewrite Jester Race, but when this isn't even as good as Come Clarity you have to wonder if this once great band have over stayed their welcome.

3. Once upon a time there was a band called Anthrax... stop me if you've heard this one before... oh you have? 3 Singers and the fact they settled on the one most likely to earn them the quick cash on the back of The Big Four tours rather than the one that would have them make the best music?

That's right.


In essence a lot of people are/will be very happy with Worship Music, that's the truth of the matter. It sounds like a very eighties 'Thrax album, albeit in an extremely contrived way. Skeletor sounds the same as ever (by which I mean he sounds like he did on Among The Living, but I would rather he sounded like John Bush), the music is, well it's like a nostalgia trip back to the golden age of youth... although imagine when you got up close to the Delorian you lovingly remembered without the rose tinted specs on you saw it was a bit plasticy, a bit naff looking and cheap... and it handles like a cow.

That is the Anthrax album I heard.

Horrendous lyrics like Judas Priest (not about the band), Fight Em Til You Die etc, music that sounds overdone and a bit forced, but the worst thing for me is that Anthrax progressed during the Bush era, pushed themselves - like they did back in the real eighties probably to their career detriment - and here they sound like they have gone backwards and produced someones idea of a classic era Anthrax album...

Of course they have, they made my mate The Boy Tuesday's idea of a classic Anthrax album - he loves it, but then he thinks music died with The Black album.

Mind you this is the same guy who is now excited by Metallica playing Download... and he hates that album, go figure.

However if I wanted to listen to yesteryear Anthrax I'd have gotten in my time machine and revved it up to 88mph.

2. From the dated to the contemporary there is one thing consistent, some people make dreadful music in the name of progress. Now I am probably going to be labelled small minded or a hater for this but crashing into the top five for the second year running is the latest Korn coaster, this time entitled 'The Path Of Totality'.


Here the Bakersfield crew have updated their dated nineties sound to a more modern Dubstep influenced sound. Yes that's right folks, coming straight outta South London in 1998 the latest dance trend has taken until recently to break through into the mainstream. Despite a favourable reception to III: Remember Who You Are apparently Fat Mexican Pimp-a-like Jon Davies has been DJing a lot recently and has gotten into Dubstep and so off they go again in another attempt to stay relevant, collaborating with all manner of bad dance music producing nerks to make this shambles of an album.

Now I know I should in reality commend them for actually taking a risk and trying to evolve, but fuck me, Dubstep is bad enough on it's own and Korn are bad enough on their own, together it's like a bunch of children let lose on Garage Band or something... I like dance, I like industrial, Prodigy's cover of L7's Fuel My Fire s awesome, this sounds like an annoying console game soundtrack with a millionaire still bleating and whinging over the top.

Call me close minded, but I tell you I still listen to Fear Factory's Remanufacture and even now it's great, this however is just bollocks.

1. So have you guessed it yet?

Honestly if you have needed a hand guessing what has to be the most execrable thing heard all year you must have being living in the same universe where they convinced Korn to write Dubstep. Without a shadow of a doubt by far the biggest piece of shit to be released this year under the banner of music is Lou & Metallica's dismal, dismal collaboration Lulu.


Sure someone is going to tell me it's art, someone is going to tell me it's brave, someone is going to tell me they have always gone against the grain, it's not a proper Metallica album, I don't get it... well you know what?

They can fuck off off as well.

It's rubbish, it's just utter garbage in fact and I fear it is the straw that broke the camel's back for me. When The Boy moans about Metallica selling out with the Black album and he can't listen to them, it makes me laugh - St fucking Anger, Death fucking Cliptastic and now this!

Fuck you Metallica - 20,000 copies sold in a month tells you how bad it is!

I notice now in an attempt to divert attention from this monstrous suckfest you have release the Beyond Magnetic Ep this week - four tracks from the Death Cliptastic sessions, OOOOO thanks guys, four songs you and Rick decided weren't good enough to go on the album, four songs you deemed worse than Redemption & Suicide? My Apocalypse? End Of The Line? The Judas Kiss?

Well fuckin' cheers guys, not only is it bad enough you couldn't be bothered to record and master the last two albums properly, this time it seems you couldn't be bother to write it either, or sing in tune, or play music properly on this one.

And as for Lou Reed... oh fuck it, even Lou Reed fans seem to hate him these days so let's leave him out of it as he clear doesn't know any better, the money making machine that is Metallica's management should have shot everyone involved with this project the moment the demos came in.

Aaaannnnnnyyyyywwwwaaaaayyy!

There has been some good to come out of the year apart from being pushed over the edge by one of my favourite bands and the fact that the longest list on this article is good means that the disappointment has been outweighed by the good (get me all positive!). So without further ado...

The Good

7. In at seven is Jamie Jasta's solo album, the imaginatively titled 'Jasta'.

Again I loved this album so much I was moved to write about it earlier this year, rather than labour the point here in I'll skim briefly so if you want a lengthier dissection have shufty at the article 'Caught Jasta'.


In short this album offered far more depth, melody and song writing nouse than I expected. Sure I was confident it could do aggressive yet uplifting songs and at no point does it disappoint, but the sheer scope of the album was far beyond Hatebreed and had more in common with Kingdom Of Sorrow. The guest slots from Phil Labonte, Randy Blythe, Mark Morton, Tim whatisface from As I Lay Dying, Zakk Myilde may be to boost confidence, and are great but in truth they are not needed as tracks like Set You Adrift and Anthems Of A Freedom Fighter prove. This is an extremely listenable and accomplished album.

6. Named after an Latin oath to tell the truth Sacramento screamers Will Haven dragged themselves Lazarus like back from the brink of whatever happens to cult bands when they falter and fade with this years Voir Dire. Having endured the last, disappointing album with new vocalist/long time friend Jeff Jaworski 'The Heirophant' and it's subsequent tour where frankly I out sung him on classic 'I've Seen My Fate' and no one knew any of the band members they seemingly sunk without a trace.


Following a One Love For Chi benefit gig (being long standing mates of the deftones) it was announced that original vocalist and maths teacher look-a-like Grady Avenell had returned.

In a triumphant celebration of everything great about Will Haven 'Voir Dire' positively smashes it's way out of the speakers, grinding and clawing with revived fury. Not only are the original band members mostly back (although Slipknot's Chris Fehn handles bass duties) but they have rediscovered their fire and drive with Avenell sounding like a bug eyed madman on tracks like 'When The Walls Close In' whilst Jeff Irwin's guitar pummels the senses.

Sonically this sounds like a follow up to their classic 'El Diablo' album but they have enhanced it with a depth and a light and shade that makes it almost melancholy at times, but with Avenell back there is something special about it.

I love this band, and it's great to have them back.

5. Wine making, enigmatic baldy Maynard James Keenan wondered into view, blew effortlessly on his finger nails, look up and said 'What?' as Tool fans everywhere cried out for a new album, but found themselves curious about 'Conditions Of My Parole' the sophomore album from dark, ambient, electro-pop, as easy to describe as it to nail jelly to the wall, bit on the side Puscifer.


Picking up where the previous EPs and album left off this is an exercise in effortless cool from start to finish.

I mean who the hell else can get pouty, rake thin, Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich to sing backing vocals and look at him all googly eyed, professing to be a huge fan whilst he stands there and blows it off like it's nothing? Honestly if the man wasn't a living stone cold genius you'd punch him in the dick for being such a wanker.

Fortunately 'Conditions...' is another hedonistic blend of dark, throbbing sexual undertones, subtle guitars, tripped out electronica and clever lyrical turns; less direct and and amped as the first album, this feels more like the work of a band than a one off side project.

Relaxing and unsettling at the same time, but only criticism here Mr Keenan is that Tool's '10,000 Days' was released in May 2006 which means it will now be at least six years between that and any new releases. This year has seen Justin Chandler playing the National Anthem at a WWE Pay Per View Event, Daney Carey appearing in music magazines hawking his own line of drums, a failed A Perfect Circle reunion, Puscifer live dates and now this. In short thank you for an extremely enjoyable album, but get your fucking ass back where you belong please.

4. Nepotism rules, ask the Redknapps and the Lampards.

As such, here is my full review of the eponymous Grifter album for The Sleeping Shaman.

Grifter

Let me be clear, they aren't here because they are my mates, this isn't to boost their egos because gawd knows they are bad enough already (sorry Ollie couldn't resist), they are here because genuinely I feel they have released one of the best albums I have heard all year and the plethora of great reviews (including 8/10 in Metal Hammer UK) echoes this.


I am so proud knowing how hard the guys work at something they absolutely love that they are finally getting the exposure and credit they deserve.

Catch em on tour with the mighty Orange Goblin next year.

3. Again I seem to be repeating myself a lot this time out, but despite the fact that (as great as they are) Down seem to inhibit great music as much as they make it. By this I mean that Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar and Eyehategod all suffer from stuttering output due to the demands of the NOLA supergroup, but finally this year Kirk Windstein came home to Crowbar, got off the drugs and cut waaaaaayyyyy back on the booze and made one of his best albums in years in 'Sever The Wicked Hand'.


But as I kicked the ass out of that back in February I invite you to refresh your memory on that entry.

And cos I'm lazy.

2. Getting to the business end now and one of the most welcome and surprsing records of the year has to be The Hymn Of A Broken Man by Times Of Grace.

Yes, who? Quite.


Times Of Grace was the first collaboration between Killswitch Engage's Adam D and former Killswitch singer Jessie Leech since 'Alive Or Just Breathing' - the last time Killswitch were a great band.

The whole album, whether full on raging Metalcore or tender acoustic numbers shows the fantastic chemistry and interplay between the two that is so missed in the sleepwalking by numbers emo dross churned out by Killswitch these days. Written when Adam was laid up in agony awaiting back surgery these tunes plumb dark depths of the human psyche in an elegant and article way that I thought Dutkiewicz had long since forgotten. The emotion weight of this darkness and uplifting parts of The Hymn Of A Broken Man make this a breathless journey from the title track, through Strength In Numbers and The Forgotten One.

This rejuvenation is thanks in large part to Leech, a far superior vocalist compared to his replacement he quite simply shines on this record, clearly relishing the reunion with his old sparring partner. Lavishly accompanied by a DVD of arty videos that compliment the music this is as much a work of art as it is a side project.

Bottom line is that this was released at the start of the year and it has never been far from my ears all year, my biggest regret being that I could not make it to Download to see the band make their UK debut as, unless I am extremely lucky, it is highly unlikely we'll see an album this good from the Killswitch axeman for some time, if ever.

1. So when it comes down to it, what was the best thing I heard all year?

Simply put and without any fucking around, it was Unto The Locust.

I started with doubt and I was blown away.

I didn't think they could innovate, I was wrong.

I have to say I can't stop listening to it, it's fantastic.

I've reviewed it already in October (as I seem to have done with anything worth waxing on about this year) but I stand as much by that opinion now as I did then.

Machine Head are home, go buy this album, make them headliners, give them the chance to continue metal's legacy, a band who are proud to be what they are, who care about their fans, who can make an album sound awesome and above all who want to push the genre to dizzying heights.

In short this album made me excited by music this year and it is a joyous celebration from start to finish.


So barring Buck Satan, that's it for this year unless something happens between now and New Year so I will bid you a Happy New Year and hope 2012 is kinder on all.

Peace and Goodwill to most men....

End Of Days

Well the heating is on, the street looks like an epileptic's nightmare and the neighbour has been singing Christmas Carols since October so it can only mean one thing really, it's the end of the fucking year already.
So I invite you to pull up a glass of mulled wine, help yourself to a mince pie and shout 'Bah fucking Humbug' to all as we look back on a year that can only be described as a mixed bag of nuts here at History Towers.

Before I get into what I thought was hot or not, I'd give an overview of the year from my perspective.
I began the year looking at the New Year news and Metallica had topped the Neilsen Soundscan charts with The Black album 20 years after it's release.
Well we end the year with news that 21 years after it's release they are going to play all of that album at festivals around Europe. At the behest of Download festivals organisers. Yes folks, that desperate attempt to win back fans and credibility was actually not even their own idea and now seem to be pimping themselves out to whoever feels they can pay 'Tallica enough to dictate their setlist.
Given that the only song I want to hear by them is 'Dyers Eve' these days I might find myself down the front at Donington on June 9th next year waving a stack of cash around like a pervert trying to stuff dollars in the waistband of a poledancer.
Let's face it, it's pretty much the same thing now and with only 20,000 units of Lulu sold to date they could probably do with the cash. Honest.

I also briefly appeared to have mislaid my copy of Monster Magnet's Mastermind that was so cherished last Xmas for a week and found it in the place I was looking proving that age is doing me no favours... Alter Bridge released Alter Bridge 3.5, although God knows what that is as 3 was boring enough.

I  talked about Killswitch drummer Justin Foley standing/sitting in the vacant Unearth drumstool before opining that they need to really deliver this time out...
Well they did okay; 'Darkness In The Light' is a solid album that is not good enough to grace my top of anything, but neither is it bad. If I extended the category to a top fifteen it would probably be in there, but for a year to produce over a good album a month (or slightly above on average) is highly unlikely these days and this year was no exception.

 Elsewhere in the year the following also happened:

Original Iron Maiden singer and gun toting, wife beating, drug addled nutjob Paul Dianno  has been charged with 8 counts of benefits fraud of £45,000. He claimed to have nerve damage in his back and the Department for Work and Pensions got a tip from an anonymous tipper who said he was jumping around on stage. The Department for Work and Pensions gave him four and a half months in jail and took his property. He was released in March.

British metal legends and aging fossils Judas Priest embarked on their final world tour this summer, entitled Epitaph World Tour. Despite this, the band insist that they are not going to break up.However, founding member K. K. Downing later retires from the band allegedly to concentrate on running his 18 hole Golf club. Judas Priest also stated "Having thought long and hard about how to proceed, Rob, Glenn, Ian and Scott unanimously agreed that they should go ahead with the tour and not let the fans down around the world". 31 year old British guitar player Richie Faulkner was announced as the replacement, but the press release did not state if it is on a permanent basis and by all accounts it now seems likely they will record again.
Having seen Halford on the tour before last I would say he should have been retired as well...

The Voice Of Doom endorsed and not at all homoerotic Manowar caused a blackout in Cleveland, Ohio while performing a sound-check on March 11. A whole city block lost electricity and was not back in service for another 24 hours. Manowar had backup generators so the show was able to continue which was lucky for any fans of oiled men in loin cloths playing chest beating macho shit.


Lead vocalist Keith Caputo of alternative metal band Life of Agony changed his name to Keith Mina Caputo, and his gender from male to female. Seriously...
Now I am not ragging on transvestites, transgender people, but the fact is that Keith was one of my childhood heroes and I am actually friends with him on Facebook.
If you ever get the chance to do this for one of your heroes, don't.
Fragile flower and renaissance (wo)man Keith is an eye opener on the net... frankly I couldn't care less that he looks like an ugly Ozzy Osbourne in drag I struggle daily with the fact that when I cull my virtual friends the man whose moving words helped get me through my late teens/early twenties is second on my list.


Been a shit year for rockers shuffling lose the mortal coil as well:

• January 7 – Phil Kennemore, 57, bassist of hard rock outfit Y&T died of lung cancer.
• February 6 – Gary Moore, 58, guitarist died of heart attack while on holiday in Spain.
• February 23 – Phil Vane, 46, former vocalist for the crust punk/grindcore band Extreme Noise Terror, was found dead in his home.
• March 8 – Mike Starr, 44, original Alice in Chains bassist was found dead in his home.
• March 22 – Frankie Sparcello, bassist of Exhorder.
• April 4 – Scott Columbus, 54, former Manowar drummer died due to unknown causes.
• June 11 – Seth Putnam, 43, vocalist for Anal Cunt died from a heart attack.
• July 9 – Michael "Würzel" Burston, 61, former Motörhead guitarist.
• August 3 - Andrew McDermott, 45, former vocalist of Threshold died from kidney failure after being in a four day coma. 
• August 11 – Jani Lane, 47, former lead vocalist of Warrant.
• September 9 – Jonas Bergqvist, also known as "B", guitarist and vocalist of the Swedish band Lifelover died of unknown causes.
• November 2nd – Cory Smoot, also known as "Flattus Maximus", guitarist of the American band Gwar died of unknown causes.
Obviously some hold more gravitas than others in terms of musical influences but never-the-less a loss is a loss and no less tragic so RIP to all.


Elsewhere Rex 'Rocker' Brown got kicked out of Down for his extra-curricular activities; foot in mouth merchant Anselmo made up with Dimebag Darrell's girlfriend Rita Haney who in turn fell out with Vinnie Paul as the two of them bicker as to who loved him more.

Bored of waiting for Pepper Keenan to stop having a more successful career in Down, disgruntled Corrosion Of Conformity members reunited the Animosity line up and toured with promise of an album.

Bruce Dickinson's day job as Astreus airline pilot was axed as the company went into administration. Not exactly leading the queue in rushing down the job centre, the Air Raid Siren was last quoted as going to resurrect the airline amongst other plans for aviation, world domination and maybe even going back in the studio with bit on the side, Iron Maiden.



Finally this month we said a fond good bye to British Doom stalwarts Cathedral who played their last live show on the 3rd December. I must confess to never having listened to as much of their music as I should have and it was an excellent night curtsey of my darling girlfriend and my companions, even if it has left me with a tinge of sadness that Cathedral will release just one more album and then shuffle off into the annals of history.
Lee Dorrian's contribution to music both with Napalm Death, Cathedral and Rise Above Records is undisputed.

As for the rest of the year it can fuck off with it's riots, recession, tsunamis, tornados, Lulus, relegation, broken houses and general bullshit. There has been some great music released this year amongst a lot of shite, but I'll get to that next time, because let's face it, it's more fun.

The Dope Show

Monster Magnet 'Dopes To Infinity' a sort of live review.

I tend to look with scorn on free music samplers these days, I know I shouldn't but it probably says more about my opinion of the state of music at the moment.
Given the rise of the internet it is easier to read a review, download the album for free and then decide whether to bin or buy than it is to sit through an hours worth of music that will no doubt contain bollocks like Black Veil Brides, Ammon Amarth or even the latest exclusive track from MegaDave and Co.

But 'back in the day' when there were these clunky things that contained an album on a bizarre reel type device that usually required a pencil to help wind forward and backward to preserve batteries and they would be viciously sellotaped to the front of the magazine of your choice ensuring the cover would look like it had been mauled by a rhino, or later when they invented that horrible glue, it would invariably be missing.

Still as a precursor to new music these tapes held the key to hearing new tracks by your favourite bands and a mish mash of other before the album came out.
It was one such sample tape, probably containing a Slayer exclusive, that caught my attention back in 1995. Amongst the thrash, Brit Rock, Grunge and Industrial was an odd, psychedelic light weight track called 'Dead Christmas' by a band I had never heard of before, Monster Magnet.
Not only is a name like that cool to a sixteen year old boy, but the music was almost like something I didn't listen to at the time and was almost a nod to the likes of The Doors that I had recently become a fan of.
Plus it said 'fuck' in it, which is always a bonus.

Anyway... I liked this little spacey number, the guitar tone, the tippy tappy drums and the slightly crazy jilted lover lyrics clicked with me - I can't recall specifically if I had been recently jilted or whether the thought of having loved and lost was better than never having done anything at all... who knows, but from the moment those opening chords rang out I was in love with Monster Magnet.
As such I ran out and bought the album 'Dopes To Infinity'.
It remains to this day a bona fide stoner classic.

Having built a fairly solid, if not spectacular career since 1989 Dave Wyndorf and friends had been knocking around the edge of various scenes releasing a couple of EPs like Murder/Tractor before signing to Caroline Records in 1991 and releasing the Stoner Rock classic Spine Of God and being voted into Number 28 on Heavy Planet's top 50 records of all time.
Caught up in the early nineties alt. rock explosion the Magnet released one more record for Caroline, the crazy long Tab 25 Ep which is actually longer than Slayers Reign In Blood album before getting all major label with A&M Records to release Superjudge in 1993, which, despite the hype of their previous record, fared poorly in the sales stakes.

Still this was a time when record companies actually supported their artists (at least a little) and A&M held their nerve for Monster Magnet to release the 1995 follow up 'Dopes To Infinity'. In no small way hurt by a lead single as catchy as a guy with large hands and a tub of glue, nor the burgeoning MTV picking up it's accompanying video helped thrust Dave and his ever rotating line up up towards the limelight, although falling short of what the band had hoped for.


With most great bands you could probably pin point the album before they become a break through artist as their most prolific (although a whole raft of examples to prove the rule have sprung to mind... moving on!), 'Dope's...' saw a consolidation of their previous works - the psychedelic influence was writ large but paired down with accessible and powerful tracks like 'King Of Mars' and the title track as well as the more far out like 'The Theme To Masterburner' and 'Blow Em Off'.

Of course the next album Powertrip saw Monster Magnet become fully fledged Rock Gods and straddle the globe in leather clad strides before Dave decided he was actually too quirky to play the game and the band retired into the obscure with the frankly difficult 'God Says No'.
Since then they have stumbled in and out of the spotlight as Wyndorf battled addiction and the musical apathy that has frequently over come the metal/rock scene releasing the solid Monolithic Baby, the under-rated 4 Way Diablo and 'come back' album Mastermind.
Sadly the years have taken their toll on the man - once he resembled an acid fried Vietnam Veteran who had just been beamed back from Mars still thinking it is the 1970's and now he looks like a jowly fat dude in an ill fitting leather jacket.
However musically the Magnet are as good if not better than they were 'back in the day' and in the setting of one of the nicest venues I have been to (The Koko in London) the band played all of Dopes this year.


Rather than slavishly following the track listing they mixed it up creating a whole new soundscape and backed it all with a seventies inspired psychedelic light show.
In truth, being the designated driver, I thought this was either going to be great or fucking awful unless you were mashed off your tits. Fortunately I can attest that it was great - the band were on great form, the songs as vibrant as they were 16 years ago and even the light show which looked a bit cheesy to start captured the whole experience in a collascope of colour and trippy images and accompanied the show perfectly.
With an encore of Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Mastermind, Powertrip and Space Lord this crowd was theirs to lose and by the end you were left just wanting them to play all night.

Come back soon Dave, the Gods and Punks will be here waiting.

You Make Me Wanna Shout

Note: This article was assembled in segments over time, without the help of Pro-Tools and has not been tailored for the radio.

So last time out I was talking about tolerance, yeah well the time before that I promised this article.

So I lied.

Actually - the last article was in order to gather my thoughts before the (successful) marathon radio show. This article has been festering in my heart since the moment I heard The View.

Back earlier this year the swelling forehead of Kirk Hammett was seen reflecting the light of a thousand press conference blubs as he announced that rather than practising solos, drumming, not singing country or learning when to call time on the end of a song he and the rest of the Tallica crew were embarking on a special and exciting project.

I have to say that when the band spout off in the press like that it sets alarm bells ringing and reminds me of a time when Lars was shovelling half of Columbia's national export up his nose, raving about Oasis, how they were not a Metal Band and accusing people of stealing his art.

You know that bit in Some Kind Of Monster when Jamyez and Larz are bickering like two little bitches and Kirk removes yet more of his hair by slapping his forehead?

Not only is that moment telling as you can see where Hammett's brain cells and hair line have gone, but it now seems my default reaction for a member of the band opening their mouth.

So anyway with this trepidation in mind it was announced that this special project was to be a full length album with the legendary sack of scrotum leather that is avante garde weirdo Lou Reed. Known for hanging out with freak magnet Andy Warhol as well as being principle song writing for heroin quality inspectors The Velvet Underground, where his frank lyrics on sexual deviance and drug use won him both acclaim and revulsion; not to mention a long and illustrious solo career as a photographer, the man has a long history of fucking with people.



Viewing with an open mind (clinging on by it's finger tips) I thought it could be interesting.

The more details were revealed and it seemed the whole premise was Metallica jammed as some sort of backing band and Lou did his thing over the top. I have to say that in the year Metallica Monopoly was released this began to sound like a load (or even a reload, natch) of shit, especially when the lavish and expensive packaging began to appear and they too looked a bit naff, a bit pretentious and ill conceived.



Well I held off this long for a number of reasons...

1. It's so long I feel like it has been on the stereo for weeks when the truth is that I have listened approximately one and a half times to it. So merely 135 minutes of my life you owe me fuckers.

2. I have been fucking busy at work.

3. I have been fucking busy at home.


I got so tired and emotional the other day I laid awake thinking maybe I had 'lost the music' as I was feeling nothing and mentally resigned myself to wade through life passionless about something that has defined my existence for all these years.

In the cold light of day I knew I was being a tart as even As I Lay Dying failing to cover Slayer successfully brought a smile to my face, but this issue refuses to die and today the sales figures were announced.


My experience of Lulu ran something like this:

So I heard The View 30 second preview and thought 'Oh my god...'

Then I heard the full thing including Hetfield professing to be a table. Yes a table... and a root and some other shit.



Then tellingly they stopped releasing the music and started releasing the lyrics on their own.

The the album leaked onto the net, I downloaded it in seconds and put it on my Ipod.

I listened. I was both amused and devastated...

Still I could fill a web page full of expletives and (in my mind) funny insults about the sonic abortion that is Lulu, but I wanted to see how the world received it.


Firstly I was inundated by Facebook messages about their appearance on squeaky voiced, ivory tickler Jools Holland's show along with with the ballsack playing Iced Honey (like I could pick it out from the rest of the rambling shit on there...) which was something like the soundtrack of hopes and dreams dying and a million embarrassed rockers trying to assure their emo offspring that Metallica were really, once upon a time, cool and not a fucking joke of a band.

Then the album hit and the ripple across social media was like the JoHoes who came to my door a few months back recoiling at the sight of my Iron Maiden t-shirt... having beaten people to the punch by a fortnight I could only tut and say Cassandra like that I fucking told you so...

Yes, it is THAT bad.

My good lady practically threw herself out of the car when I put it on to go shopping as she thought it was a joke until I told her who it was.

No dear, it's not William Shatner, he's funny... and sometimes in tune.



So it's been what two weeks since this piece of shit hit the shops and what?

Well it has dropped out of the Billboard 200 this week.

Yep: 13,000 albums sold in the first week... 3000 sold in the second.

Total: 16,000


Now I know how no one buys albums, blah, blah, blah but compare this to 'comeback' album Death Magnetic which sold 490,000 in three days, THREE DAYS(!) and you'll see that finally, for once people have voted Metallica off the island with their wallets.

As for me, I don't even have the mp3's on my Ipod anymore.


I'm not going to review it blow by blow because all you need to know is it blows.

Blows likes a sore kneed, toothless crack whore with a face like a plasterers radio.


So they clawed back some respect by releasing their last album and fooled the world into thinking they are a heavy band, but after this it seems their is no hiding from the fact that Metallica have totally fucking lost it.

I have grown up in a post Black album world for pretty much all my fandom (bar an initial two years) and it is fair to say that Metallica have treated their fans (by and large) with utter contempt and this is the lowest blow yet and why more people aren't clamouring for them to just stop is beyond me, other than the fact that there is no one decent to fill that void, even Korn have cashed in their chips from gaining good reviews by writing a dub step album...

No one...


The message it does send out is that 'Tallica's credibility is shot, no one can really take them seriously as a Metal band anymore surely?

Right on cue last weekend came the announcement that they are headlining Download Festival and are going to play The Black album in it's entirety and all of a sudden people are excited again?



I have been waiting all Goddamn year for the announcement that Machine Head will finally be recognised for the great band they are and get to watch them tear the main stage a new asshole, but noooo!

We get this.

And Black Sabbath.

How safe, how credibility reaffirming for both the festival and for Metallica.

Honestly if I wasn't going to go with my mates partly out of tradition I'd vote again with my wallet and stay away... I mean sure it will be interesting to see them play their second least interesting album (or is that now third?) all the way through, but in actual fact I am Jack's complete sense of apathy towards this and if truth be told, the only thing worse is hearing that Sabbath are actually going into the studio to record a new album with Rick Rubin at some point..


And you know what?

I'm going to stop here.

No finesse, no well crafted summary or coda.

And if you you thought the last part of this was rambling and clueless, you've missed the subtle homage to Death Magnetic.


Fin.

Fuck Your Scene

Now I appreciate that I am not known for tolerance, particularly of things I don't like. The older I get (and just having celebrated a birthday I am another year more cantankerous and single minded I guess) the less time I have for things that fall outside of my sphere of interest.
Maybe this is because the world gets smaller with more and more commitments from real life - work, home, partners, needy pets, what have you and as such I find myself digging in my heels and resisting things more and more.
As the good lady frequently says, I'm stubborn and if I don't want to do something, I wouldn't.
So anyway tonight I find myself back on the radio with Mr Glew.
The Midweek Alternative is covering for another show and as such we have a mammoth four hours to cover so this week I get 8 tracks as well as battling words with Grifter who are guesting.
After my initial foray into co-hosting/hanging around the studio and it's follow up were incredibly metal for an alternative show I wanted to go back on and just prove to the airwaves of Exeter that I am more than 'The Metal Guy'.
Why?
Well, despite it being my primary source of earache for 23 years and counting I have wider tastes - I was at school when the rave scene was well under way in the early nineties and whilst I can't say that I ever stood in a warehouse with a glowstick some of this rubbed off and personally I think that The Prodigy's early works like Experience and Music For The Jilted Generation stand head and shoulders above their transformation into Dance/Rock hybrid; I listen to Tom Waits and Johnny Cash; I have an album of Industrial Gabba, I love the early works of The Pet Shop Boys, I think one of the best bands I have seen at a festival has been Chemical Brothers... there are skeletons in my metal closet for sure.



The reason I feel for this is because the world was a more open minded place when I was discovering music and I feel that the decline of this largely lies with the popular media/press.
Over the past decade and a bit everything has been pigeonholed into genres - I mean let's stick with what the blog is about: Metal/Rock.
Today we have:
Metal
Thrash
Death
Black
Metalcore
Hardcore
Post Hardcore
Progressive (Prog)
Industrial
Nu Metal
Mathcore
Djent
Stoner
Doom
Sludge
Punk
Post Punk
New Wave
Indie
Shoegaze
Drone
Ambient
Goth
Nu Goth
Rap Metal
Grunge
Post Grunge
Ska

Fuck it there are probably a lot more, but after a while it ceases to be of interest and in reality, despite how much bile I spit into the ether there is no such thing as good or bad music, it comes down to personal taste. Yes, I think some of my friends have dreadful tastes in music, but as long as they can tell me why they like it you have to respect that.

However music journalists seem so desperate to succinctly sum everything up in a soundbite you can Tweet or whatever that it has become lazy and full of bullshit classifications that encapsulate a 'genre'. This is crap.
Machine Head, deftones, Fear Factory, Korn and Slipknot are all bands that sound very, very different yet foudn themselves lumped as 'Nu Metal' in the late nineties, despite two of those bands existing before the genre was invented.
Christ I remember Kerrap! Magazine trying to call deftones 'Power Metal' back in 96/97 - this didn't catch on and now that tag is given to widdly eurotrash bands whose singers can only be heard by dogs.

What does is it artificially creates a scene where people associate and identify with a look and an attitude first and the music second. My friends growing up were a mix of Goths, Punks, Chavs, Public School kids, Townies what have you. We had our connecting points, we had our drop off point.
We all went to Reading Festival (back when it was good) and you had a great and eclectic mix of music. One year we saw deftones, Monster Magnet, The Prodigy, The Beastie Boys, The Dwarves etc some people went and saw The Specials, it was great.
Nowadays we have specialist tours like Defending The Faith, Share The Welt and so on and it's full of individual clones, everyone rebelling by wearing Hot Topic clothing, sporting bad tattoos and a face full of shit.
Of course I sound old and 'it's my thing' but I couldn't care less if the music was any good - Bring Me The Horizon, Bleeding Through, Avenged Sevenfold for example, all these bands have huge followings but I fail to find any redeeming features - identikit bands, identikit looks and promoters fill a tour of four bands with nothing different. I was bemoaning last time I went to a gig that I rarely bother with support bands these days as they have such shit support. I am actively missing Machine Head this December because two of the above bands are in support along with the execrable Devildriver.
And all of these kids don't like stuff that's not Metalz...
It's sad and it permeates through society - bands getting booed off or being pelted with stuff because they 'don't belong a bill'. Sure some of them deserve it.
Festivals have also started mimicking the same stance.
The moaning about bands not belonging on Download - even about Linkin Park for fucks sake, yes they aren't good but they fit the classification - I will tell you hands down now that one of the best bands I have seen at the Hallowed Ground of Donington has been Pendulum.


A prime example of this negativity produced by Genrification is well timed as Grifter are coming in tonight. For years they laboured under the Stoner rock tag and as such they were constantly compared to the masters of the genres Kyuss. Well newsflash Grifter sound nothing like Kyuss, don't really listen or like them particularly and their connection lies with Black Sabbath so for years reviewers got it wrong and passed on the wrong impression to potential fans.

My point tonight is that the world was a much more fun place when it was less narrowly defined and I shall be using the pioneering touring festival founded by Jane's Addiction frontman Perry 'Drug Dustbin' Farrell back in the early nineties where the idea was peace and open mindedness an as such show cased some of the finest and most vibrant alternative acts I have heard in my life time.
And as such I shall be playing:

1. Jane's Addiction 'Just Because'
2. L7 'Pretend We're Dead'
3. Beastie Boys 'Intergalatic'
4. Stone Temple Pilots 'Interstate Love Song'
5. Moby 'Comon Baby'
6. Living Colour 'Cult Of Personality'
7. Nine Inch Nails 'Head Like A Hole'
8. Cypress Hill '(Rock) Superstar '

All very different bands and still falling under the Alt. Rock tag, I could have pushed it further to make my point but the likelihood I would either be preaching to the converted or the attention span of those I'm targeting would have gone.
In a world of instant gratification it is easy to flick to the section that says Metal (Or Wiggaslam, Cuntrock, Whatever) but sometimes in order to appreciate what you have you have to take a look around at other things too.

So what am I saying?
If you love The Metal let it go?
Maybe...
Or maybe my own narrow mindedness is saying my way is better, or that it's just that the metal scene has failed to throw up anything new that appeals in the last few years, but I don't want to go to a gig and see four clone bands and have to care about the fact that I'm not wearing the right shirt or name checking some douchebag band who are the in thing.
I'm sorry but I'm too old and too stuck in my ways to give a shit about what is troo or kvelt, whether it's Britney Spears or Bathory, if I like it, I like it and there's not a thing you can do to convince me otherwise.

Gods Among Insects

Well, it's probably taken me this long to get through/get over my humble pie experience so with the dust settled and everyone a bit more calm about the whole thing I thought I would offer my thoughts on the new Machine Head album in a blow by blow review.

So most people have viewed the juggernaut that was 2007 album The Blackening as a benchmark in modern metal or 'the sound of modern metal' as claimed by one pock marked, future Lou Reed collaborator at the time and no matter how much hyperbole surrounds that release, it remains one of , if not, the best album Machine Head have made, not least for the incredible 'Halo'.

In the four years since it's release the band have toured it into the ground through necessity; there came a time when they should have gone home but the opportunities could not have been turned down for a band on the comeback trail as they were. To be honest by the end I heard less than stellar reports of their usually impeccable live show and was only mildly disappointed that traffic in London made us miss their support slot to Metallica at the O2 because let's face it I've seen them so fucking many times (and three previous shows on that tour alone) that without fresh material it felt like groundhog day.

Earlier in the year I ran my mouth about the new single, the early release, rough mix... and how it was a bit 'Meh', for all the bold statements of experimentation, the talk of surprises and the unveiling of this track was a little flat for me.

Why in truth because it was a familiar touchstone - too straight forward and nothing particularly ground breaking, still like the proverbial child at Christmas I was all over the album like a cheap suit when it leaked onto the web (fear not my expensive Metal Hammer fan pack was already ordered, just waiting to turn up late not early and minus the special things I should have had for ordering before the deadline), and this is what I found...

Machine Head 'Unto The Locust'

I Am Hell (Sonata in C)

The album starts with a chorus of Flynn's singing a chanting acapella in Latin which is almost sanguine if not a little unsettling. As this draws to a close it gives birth to a monstrous down tuned chug as Flynn crashes back in, gone are the soothing vocals, now he is growling 'I am death...' in your ear.

As an intro it is block levellingly heavy, but by no means the end of Machine Head cranking the tension as about three and a half minutes in it changes to a furious thrash assault with a soaring chorus.

The musicianship has kicked on vastly from it's predecessor; no slouch on the drums in previous outings, here Dave McClain puts in the second best performance of his life...

It's easy to wax lyrical about music - I do it all the time for The Sleeping Shaman - but I did sit and listen to this track unfold in utter disbelief at how fucking nutty, how good and how downright life affirming it felt to be proved a paranoid Doubting Thomas as the tender classical strings usher this song to it's false ending.

Maybe not a Sonata in the strictest sense, clocking in at nearly nine minutes it is easy to see how Machine Head racked up 50 minutes with only seven songs...

Be Still & Know

Picking up from the fading notes of the opener the second track kicks off with some Maiden/Priest esque lead work that folds into one of those rolling, mid paced groove riffs that the band have done so well in the past, but instead of going head first for the bludgeon Machine Head open this up into a huge chorus that, having headlined Wacken (and will, if rumours prove true, do Download) and have booked an arena tour of the UK, has one eye on getting large crowds of drunken metalheads to raise their horns and bellow along like pirates belting out a rum soaked shanty whilst Flynn and Demmel engage in some of their finest fret pyrotechnics yet and Adam Duce keeps it contained with his predictably tight basslines.

One thing that is noticeable over the first two tracks is how much improved Flynn's clean vocals are as well - Never far from his trademark growl he also has increased his singing range and delivery.

Locust

And so to THAT song...

Having endured a complete sonic kicking and had style and expectations exceeded over the course of the first two tracks Locust makes sense now. Better production and sat where it is, the sinister guitar tone of the intro is perfect, the song itself fine. It fits, it doesn't sound out of place and suddenly it clicks.

It is a little Machine Head by numbers and will never be a favour of mine, but it is catchy as hell and as it says 'These hooks sink in...'.

This Is The End

Apparently the first song written for the album and one of the craziest pieces of drumming on a Machine Head record. The classical intro does little to prepare you for Flynn's 'Fuck You' song as it is heads down and charge from start to finish.

I have to say I love this song.

It shouldn't really work... the drumming is a lightning blur of shuffling beats - sychopated and blast - the chorus has a melodic, almost falsetto part that should make you wonder what drugs they were on, but the whole is simply fantastic, especially the biting sting of 'This is the end of our respect denied, Stand with us or stand aside'

Darkness Within

And so to the major talking point of the album. In the press build up the band were hesitant to spoil the surprise or try and explain this song and it was truly with deep curiosity that I listened to it.

It starts off starkly with an acoustic guitar and Flynn mournfully croaking like a man old beyond his years as he sings some of the finest lyrics he has ever written:

I see the damage that I've done,
And search for redemption.
But I am just a broken man,
Whose soul cries out to understand,
How the madness shatters me,
Upon the stage on bended knee,
I scream aloud at skies above,
That answer mute bereft in love,
I struggle not to fall from grace,
I sing the hyms of my disgrace.

The personal depth that is thrust up in the six plus minutes the track runs for is incredible; thinking back to those mid nineties interviews where it was all hard man talk about drugs, gang violence, now he honestly quite unashamedly sings this pean to music setting him free and it sends shivers up and down my spine.

Mysteries forgotten chords,
I strum in vain to please the lord,
But he has never answered me,
And faith has waned eternaly.
In empty men who pass along,
The woes of all religions wrong,
Now the shadowed veil it falls,
Heed the Clarion call.
So pray to music,
Build a shrine,
Worship in these desperate times
Fill your heart with every note,
Cherish it and cast afloat.
Cause God is in these clef and tone,
Salvation is found alone,
Haunted by it's melody,
Music, it will set you free.

Musically it is almost a power ballad, it is another song that clearly has one eye on audience participation in big venues, but fuck it. You do not hear that kind of honesty often enough in music, sure we get the 'poor woe is me' white middle class shit still - Christ listen to Limp Bizkit or Staind's new albums, but this is from the heart. And it's excellent.

Pearls Before Swine

The penultimate track is the closest thing to a straight forward Machine Head track of old. Compared with Locust et al. it is short and furious in the old school The More Things Change Way. It is another above par track in an album full of potentially great ones, but strangely because of it's straight forward nature falls short in the description... if you liked Spine, Frontlines etc then this is a track for you.

This Is Who We Are

And so to the final epic...

Starting disconcertingly weird with a choir of the bands kids singing the chorus to be before McClain launches the last march-like tempo... I have said this all throughout about headlining, but I can see this being the set closer before the encore type track.

It is mammoth; Flynn commanding his orchestra proclaiming 'This is who we are, this is what I am, we have no where else to go, divided we shall stand!'. This track is full of bombast, a statement of 'Fuck you, we are home' that brings a tear to even the most cynical (Hello!) and we can even forgive the slightly cheesy 'Into Glory We Shall Ride' part.

Why? Simply because it is the most joyful fucking celebration of acceptance, that's why.
This band has taken an absolute kicking in their time and if the North American reviews are to be taken on face value are still getting kicked by their home country, despite releasing Burn My Eyes, The More Things Change, Through The Ashes Of Empires and The Blackening, but are here they are strong and on top of their game defiantly telling you if you don't like it, then shove it up your ass, and I for one love them for that.

I'm not going to make the judgement over whether it is better than The Blackening here, I loved that album, the band loved that album and it is certainly special. They were keen not to make Part 2 and that they have achieved. To my ears they have made a fucking great piece of music that should help establish them at the top of the current metal bands pushing for the future of metal. After 20 years (yesterday) of paying their dues Machine Head are special, are brilliant at what they do and this album deserves to sell by the truckload.

It is different; it is not as furious; however it is sublime.

Next time I will be exhaling the vile though I am afraid as I take on Lou and The Reeders 'interesting project' Lulu.

Hey Joel/Caught Jasta?

I have been thinking of writing a positive article for a while now (shock horror) and as I am sitting on 'Unto The Locust' until I have lived with it for just a little more, it seemed the apt time to sing the praises of something else, but then I read the last issue of Metal Hammer and BANG! it gave me the perfect excuse to write my positive article with an angry slant.
As I was recently told that a blog is for ranting on the internet then I figured why fight the bile?

What got my goat was Joel McIver's interview in last months Metal Hammer (UK) with Hatebreed/Kingdom Of Sorrow frontman Jamie Jasta, but I'll get to that in due course.

At the tail end of the nineties I spent a fair bit of time with a guy who was into his hardcore music.
An awful lot.
Now don't get me wrong the hardcore scene has thrown up some great bands, but somehow it's never quite been for me; maybe it's because I am not that relentlessly angry - I don't go to the gym and work out until my neck is thicker than my head, I don't have enough tattoos or wifebeater vests and would fair prefer smoking a relaxing rock and roll cigarette and watching a band with a beer than axe kicking someone in the face in the pit or maybe it's simply that I just prefer metal music.
Still at some point in our friendship my shouty music loving friend handed me a copy of Hatebreed's Victory Records debut 'Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire' (great title by the way). Now this solid album and kick started a career that is still going strong some 6 albums later and has survived a swap to the home of North American Metal trends, Roadrunner.
I quite liked it then and still spin it now.
It's about forty-five minutes of 3 minute anthems about being angry, yet with a message of positive empowerment running through. Again maybe this is another reason I can only have a passing interest as I like to, ahem 'cherish the darkness within' (thank you Machine Head) and sometimes I don't want to put on music and have self help therapy.
Still it sums up Hatebreed to me even now.
They have the same fairly one note path which they admittedly tread very well, but when they split up then I'll buy The Best Of... so I can get the stand out tracks like 'I Will Be Heard', 'Live Through This' and 'Before Dishonour' without having to sit through that albums batch of sound-a-likes.


As for Jasta himself well the narrow confines of his musical day job means that he is to me just the potato headed guy who shouts a lot. He has also been a VJ on MTV's Headbangers Ball, runs his own label (Stillborn records) and has his own clothing range (couldn't be bothered to look up the name).
To be fair he was one of thse people I universally thought nothing of until he teamed up with Kirk Windstein of Crowbar for the excellent Kingdom Of Sorrow debut.
That album really made me sit up and take notice - this was an excellent collaboration full of light and shade, Jasta's hardcore roar trading off against Kirk's more melodic whiskey soaked rasp.
On reading the liner notes I realised that this is actually more Jasta's baby than it is Windstein's and he actually contributes more to the writing and the melodies than my slanted view of him would recognise and this was something that increased on the second album, which is in my opinion the stronger of the two.
So this year I read that Jasta was releasing a solo album, now given my interest in the last Hatebreed album lasted approximately one and a half spins I thought I'd download it and see what the fuss was about.


In truth it is both surprising and great.
It sounds like neither KOS or Hatebreed - Jasta displays a deft song writing skill, a decent melodic voice and it isn't hindered by having two of my favourite contemporary metal vocalists - Rhandy Blythe of Lamb Of God and Phil LaBonte of All That Remains, - guesting as well as Wack Myldde (You know former Ozzy guitarist, Shuaron worshipping, Egg throwing, fake biker mong), Mark Morton (vocalist punching drummer for Lamb Of God) and Phil Vallely – Skateboarder, solo artist, and one time singer of Black Flag.
I liked it so much I ordered it after a week of listening to it non-stop, sent back the first one that arrived because the postman had mangled it and got another, I was that determined to have it as a nice looking piece of shelf furniture and I have to say it's one of the releases this year I have been most satisfied by thus far.
It got good reviews, fuck knows how much it will sell being on Century Media and the fact that people's opinion of it will very much be coloured by their views on Jasta's day job.

And here's the rub.
McIver's interview with him, to me, seemed obsessed by the concept that this was a solo album, why was it a solo?
Well as the man behind it clearly explains; the music on the disc doesn't sit well with either his day job or his side project. It would seem that for someone who I didn't have pegged as a song writer particularly Jasta produces tons of music - at home, on tour - he lives and breathes the life he has chossen and 'Jasta' the album is made up of songs that were on his hard drive begging for release but would never find the light of day in his two most famous incarnations.
He joked that by releasing it as a solo album he would lose less money in the long run.
This seemed to offend Mr McIver's principles somewhat and he branded Jasta a business man, whose very actions were lessening the spirit and purity of the music he was producing.
I have to say the tone of the interview got my goat frankly..
Jasta, in my opinion, has got this right.
Hatebreed aren't exactly the most forward pushing bands and their fans appear to want more of the same - they have their path and they tread it regularly. It's exactly the reason that puts me off them that keeps their fans loyal, because they give them want they want. Besides Hatebreed are a BAND, it is a collective decision and if the songs don't fit, they don't fit - their are five guys with families who make a living from this, why mess with it?
Artistically just because you or I or Joel McIver don't find it challenging enough does it matter?


Having heard the songs I would hands down say that they don't belong on Kingdom Of Sorrow either - that band does push themselves, but rather than melodic hardcore sludge are they suddenly expected to jam in 'Something You Should Know' a hard rock stadium type anthem?
Are they fuck. Kirk Windstien would have probably walked out at that point laughing.
And anyway, Jasta wrote these songs on his own to please himself, recorded them and helped mix them so why should he turn them over and potentially damage two bands with a decent legacy?
I'm sure in Joel's world the idea that a musician trying to earn a living seems a little soulless, but honestly for someone who writes for a magazine who are owned by the Future Publishing group it's a little churlish to berate or question the integrity of someone who the dedication and passion for music that Jasta shows - whether you like him or not.
Having witnessed the backlash against Morbid Angel messing with their sound, I think Jasta was well within his rights to release this collection without the scrutiny of the music press destroying Hatebreed's reputation.
The universal comment on the reviews?
Not as good as Hatebreed or Kingdom of Sorrow.
Case closed - There is a difference between selling out (like Hatebreed suddenly releasing a pop album) and trying to make a living...
It's hard to make any money from album sales in this business this day and age; for the man to fund it out of his own pocket and front up to the industry machine without the armour, prebuilt fanbase and backing of his previous incarnations is actually profoundly brave and remarkably unbusiness-like and maybe Joel should stick to writing about Avenged fucking Sevefold, or The Black Veil Brides or whatever current, trendy, major label, guy liner wearing, Hot Topic sporting, flash in the pan fuckwits are all over Scuzz or Kerrang! TV in between the endless repeats of Green day and Blink 182 that the editorial slant of Metal Hammer feels required to push this week.