Bullet In The Head

Okay so when it comes to Bullet For My Valentine, highlighting things that annoy me is like fishing. In a barrel. With Dynamite. I mean, they had so much promise and I can accept the argument for why we need bands like Linkin Park and BFMV as not everyone is going to put on a Meshuggah album for the first time and decide that progressive mathcore death metal is the one true form of music - I know I didn't, but what infuriates me is that I saw this interview on Blabbermouth and the whole lack of passion and intelligence in the answer astounded me.
I think what has struck me is the amount of rockstars who are dying recently - Dio, Paul Gray, Jimmy The Rev' Chamberlain and of course last week Mike Starr - and Matt Tuck once again fails to exhibit any passion despite having a seemingly increasing (and bafflingly) successful career.

Anyway without further ado, the article giving me an ulcer this month:

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE Frontman:
'We're Kind Of An Easy, Accessible-Style Metal Band'

Music-Photocalypse.net recently conducted an interview with vocalist/guitarist Matt Tuck of Welsh metallers Bullet For My Valentine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Music-Photocalypse.net: I've read an interview where you said that you opened the doors to the metal genre, made it more mainstream, and that there would be a bunch of people who wouldn't care if it wasn't for you. Isn't it the essence of metal to go against the stream?

Matt: I don't know, why would you say that?

Music-Photocalypse.net: Well, being a part of this subculture, people are trying to go against the "establishment."

Matt: What's an establishment? Government or something?

Music-Photocalypse.net: In some cases the government, but mostly something that's considered "normal" to the public, let's just say so. Metalheads have a certain dress code and stand out from the crowd. And you're just trying to bring in everyone, which in a way is a good thing, but you know, it's so hard to share your favourite bands with the rest of the world.

Matt: I don't know, I just see it as the more the merrier, why would we limit ourselves to a certain scene. It just seems kind of silly. As a profession to limit our opportunities, it doesn't make sense to me.

Music-Photocalypse.net: So you think that you can stay true to metal and still make it mainstream without going more pop?

Matt: I think we already have. You disagree? If you do, that's fine.

Music-Photocalypse.net: I don't disagree, I'm asking you.

Matt: Yeah, we're in this to make a career out of what we do, we don't want to limit ourselves and close doors and we don't have to. We can be as heavy as fuck, if we wanna be, you know, but as long as we realize what makes people want to listen to our band and we give them that a little bit on an album, then I think it doesn't matter, it's cool.

Music-Photocalypse.net: And you truly believe that you opened the doors to get more people into metal?

Matt: Yeah, we're kind of an easy, accessible-style metal band for people who aren't interested in the genre of hard rock metal music. That we do it a bit more commercial, so then they will listen to us, they'll read our influences affected by bands like METALLICA, MEGADETH or PANTERA. You have a band like METALLICA and a band like PANTERA — it's not the same fucking genre of music. And if we inspire people to go and buy, I don't know, a fucking KILLSWITCH ENGAGE album, who are kind of a melodic metal band as we are, but maybe a notch up on the heaviness, I think, that's a good comparison. And then you go to bands like BLEEDING THROUGH and just experiment and go heavier, it doesn't mean that you can't like BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, because you like BLEEDING THROUGH, it's just silly in my opinion. That's why we opened the doors to help people get into hard rock and metal music.


Jesus Wept.
'we're in this to make a career out of what we do'?
'we don't want to limit ourselves and close doors and we don't have to'?
' as long as we realize what makes people want to listen to our band and we give them that a little bit on an album'?

Ignore the first couple of dull as ditchwater answers if you like, you know the ones where he is being either massively thick or deliberately obtuse, but the lack of passion in the three lines directly above, yet alone,
'As a profession to limit our opportunities, it doesn't make sense to me.'
smacks of a serious problem to me.
There is a worrying lack of passion in just about everything Tuck has said in his last couple of interviews - from claiming that he wasn't even sure if ever they were metal (covered in last years album reviews) to this cold assessment on being accessible.
I know everyone wants a career like Maiden and Metallica's but according to the press BFMV et al are carrying the torch for the new generation of rock music, in ten years time we are unlikely to have Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Motorhead, AC/DC, Testament, any form of Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard even - the list goes on... people who have put themselves on the line for the music I love and have stuck by their guns when times have been hard, suffered physically, mentally and often paid for it with their lives and who will carry their legacy with the same passion and conviction?
Make no mistake, I have no problem with BFMV's existence, just as I had no problem with Linkin Park (Until Minutes To Midnight) but you can hardly support them when they show such lack of passion... I read an interview with the dudes from Amon Amarth (pseudo death metal, Viking influenced nonsense) and whilst I do not like what they do particularly, one of the guys talked about not wanting to write commercial songs for the record sales because then it would be a job and would kill the passion of what he does - THAT is what I want to hear someone say in an interview, have some pride, have some passion!

I turn to the prophet Bill Hicks who had this one thing to say on the mediocre and banal.
“Fuck that! I want my rocks stars dead. I want them to fucking play with one hand and put a gun in their other fucking hand and go 'I hope you enjoyed the show'. BANG.”

Play from the heart man, play from the heart... or at least as Eminem says 'Fake like you know it' for the sake of your plastic audience...

Another One Gone...

For me yesterday began as any other, get to work, yak about the football for 10 minutes, stumble down to the kitchen to make a coffee and checking Facebook on the way.
A life lost in the tragedy of routine you might say...
One simple glance on the news feed put all my worldly woes for the day into perspective; a simple statement read:

Members of Alice in Chains are mourning the loss of their friend and ask that the media respect their privacy - and the privacy of the Starr family - during this difficult time. Their thoughts & prayers are with the Starr family.

RIP Michael Christopher "Mike" Starr April 4, 1966 – March 8, 2011.

The tragic, but somehow inevitable death of the former Alice In Chains bassist came 8 years and 11 months after the much publicised death of their lead singer Layne Stayley and will naturally generate less column inches, but is no less of a loss to the rock world, another huge talent first lost then snuffed out by addiction.

Mike Starr, the subject of the book Unchained : The Story of Mike Starr and His Rise and Fall in Alice In Chains was an original member of Diamond Lie and integral in their morph into Alice In Chains. He played on their Facelift, Dirt and Sap releases, contributing his rumbling basslines to some of the bands most definitive music.

Starr is probably best known for being the 'dude on bass with curly hair' such is the media focus on Cantrell and Stayley and it is something of a shame that his replacement in Mike Inez shares a similar image and yesterday I had to correct a guy who thought Starr played on the Unplugged album...

Like the rest of the band Starr had a fondness for heroin and struggled to maintain a working relationship in the band. Let's face it, to be asked to leave before Stayley due to your ability to function on drugs is a pretty hardcore thing to have happen.

After leaving AIC Starr played in Sun Red Sun with Ray Gillen and Bobby Rondinelli who were both hired guns who spent time standing behind Tony Iommi in whatever version of Sabbath was pretending it was still relevant at the time, however bad luck was not far away and the project was cut short when Gillen died.

Since then Starr battled with his demons and recently resurfaced on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew in 2010 and spent time living in the spin off Sober House.
Cantrell and Kinney both spoke out about their former bandmate and aired their views on the show:

"I totally back Mike and I back his efforts to get clean and remain somebody that I and the band really care about — he’s a friend of ours, you know, and we wish him the best." Jerry Cantrell

"So I don't support that show at all and I think it's pretty disgusting. But Mike getting his life together or anybody doing that, I'll support that." Sean Kinney

Sadly his six month clean stint would be cut short in the November of 2010 when he was arrested for possession and all reports of his recent passing indicate an overdose.
He will be eulogised in the press for being a addict who is a loser in the Charlie Sheen sense that he died, but I for one will always remember that incredible sound that he brought to Alice In Chains and the impact those first two albums had.

If you've got five minutes look up Would? on YouTube, dig out Dirt from your record collection and celebrate the good of the man's life.

Thank you Mike, you were genuinely part of something that changed my life as a teenager and speaking to friends over the course of the last twenty four hours I know I am not alone in this.
You are free now and I hope you find peace.

The Nineties Part One - Turning of the Decade and the Impact of Grunge

I find it sadly ironic that having had to delay this post for a few weeks due to several interruptions, house buying and general lethargy, when I come to post this reflection on Grunge that today is the day I learn of the demise of Mike Starr, former bassist for Alice In Chains...
I will pen a more fitting tribute to you than this dude, but for now say thank you and RIP - Would? has been my favourite song since I heard it and Dirt remains in my top albums of all time.


I started to think about the Nineties and began to write about it as threatened, but started to realise what a can of worms this was opening up... there is so much scope to focus on as the genre of metal diversified that this is going to either be a war and peace style tome or barely scratch the surface in one article.
As a result I thought I'd break it down into bite sized chunks dealing with whatever bits take my fancy at the time, this way we can revisit and make a background theme of decade as I lived it.

So to kick this off I thought I'd deal with one of the biggest movements that had a profound cultural impact and changed the way Metal moved forward in this decade, Grunge.

Metal began with everyone looking like bad trip hippies back in the late 60's - Sabbath had flares and long hair and a bad attitude born from their industrial upbringing, Zepplin had a swagger that bemoaned the 'bow down and kiss the flowers, man' of the love generation... by the time AC/DC and Judas Priest came on the scene all snarls and leather and Alice Cooper and Kiss were corrupting the youth on the other side of the pond it was common for dirty looking dudes with long hair to be caught rocking out.
In the Eighties styles got more and more outrageous, Bruce Dickinson fronting Iron Maiden seemed on a mission to constantly out do himself by sporting some of the most revolting and frankly embarrassing spandex trousers to ever been conceived - like some sort of colour blind, fruity harlequin who had been victim of an explosion in a child's dressing up box.
Over in LA, Sunset Strip to be more exact, Glam Metal was in it's ascendancy. Approaching image with the attitude that Alice, Marc Bolan of T Rex, Bowie et al had only given gender bending a half hearted stab, bands like Motley Crue, Poison and even Ratt (despite Steven Pearcy having a face like a welder's bench) pushed the chick with a dick look as far as they could go. So far in fact that Hanoi Rocks Drummer killing, DUI loving, Heroin guzzling, lyposuction fan Vince Neil of the Crue inspired Aerosmith (not exactly the most manly looking bunch on the block) to pen the anthem 'Dude Looks Like A Lady' - Steven Tyler, this saucer of milk is yours.
By the mid eighties concerts must have been a nightmare, trying to see over teased barnets and chocking on hair spray, and trying to smoke? Forgetaboutit...
Thank God that Thrash became an outlet for guys who couldn't squeeze into their girlfriend's leopard print clothing and totter about on heels pretending to be LA Trash.

If thrash was too hard for you or your girlfriend didn't like it and yet you couldn't stand the current scene, then the death nail in looking like an ugly hooker was brewing in a far flung corner of the US... Seattle of all places - previously known for guitar burning legend Jimi Hendrix and thinking man's Metal band with a shit name Queensryche.
Now I have never been, but I have watched Sleepless In Seattle and can only opine this; It rains all the time apparently, Tom Hanks was pushing the boundaries of nauseating, Meg Ryan was way past her When Harry Met Sally best and how anyone can suffer from insomnia there is beyond me - it's no wonder that in order to be in a band there you had to have a smack habit.
Given the proclivity for opiates that was rife on the scene it is not hard to see why back combing hair, applying make up, walking around on stack heels became less and less of a priority to pasty and thin young men nodding off in the corner and drooling - the rise of the flannel shirt in popularity should come as no surprise.

Grunge actually began back in the mid eighties as a fledgeling part of the alternative rock scene incorporating punk, metal, alternative, even pop music played through fuzzy distorted amps. Mark Arm of Mudhoney and the Puget Sound based record label SubPop were at the epicentre of a movement that rippled out across the globe although many of the originators of the genre were uncomfortable with the popularity that it eventually gained.
The ethos of grunge was diametrically opposed to the hair metal scene, songs about personal and dark subject matter, filtered through obscure references, coupled with often downbeat sounding music as opposed to getting high and wasted, shagging chicks (presumably if you could figure out the difference) and a desire to be famous was the order of the day.

These days you say Grunge and most people think of Nirvana.
The fact is that the genre was much more diverse and blessed with greater song writing abilities and talents than it's popular image would suggest and the notion that any scruffy looking berk with a drug habit and a guitar could bash out three chords and be famous belies the beauty found in the primal howl of Mudhoney or the stately introspection of Screaming Trees and the million and one other bedroom dwelling bands that never got a major label deal.


The fact is that the album that essentially 'broke' the genre was Alice In Chains' 'Facelift'.
Formed in 1987 by Jerry Cantrell and vocalist Layne Stayley; the band had a brief stab at the hair thing, calling themselves the none more shit Diamond Lie, writing songs that looking back are hilarious considering what they would become such as (the) 'I Can't Have You Blues'. Fortunately, trainee junkies as they were, they discovered that their true talents lay in writing harrowing songs about getting drugs, doing drugs and feeling shit about doing drugs - focused through a prism of incredible vocal interplay between the two.
Man In The Box and We Die Young became hits on MTV and Alice's slightly metallic blend of alternative rock earned them an opening spot on the Thrash tour Clash Of The Titans which earned them a place in the hearts of metal fans. Released on Sony the album sold well, just as another bunch of flannel wearing miserables were preparing to unleash their rock changing debut...


Pearl Jam released the epic 'Ten' to a rapturous reception. Not as heavy or as overtly dark as 'Facelift' this album was brimming with hits such as 'Even Flow', classroom murder tale 'Jeremy' and the played so much you'd punch it in the face 'Alive'.
Coupled with strong albums from Soundgarden, Screaming Trees and, yes Nirvana, the grunge scene was developing momentum at an alarming rate. Real life characters like the Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder - all soulful voice and surfer dude cliche was a stark contract to the (now frankly) ropey looking drag queens with high voices clogging up the charts.
The seriously epic deluge occurred when every major label rushed to sign a grunge act to cash in on the next big thing. Geffen picked up the relatively popular and momentum building Nirvana whose 'Bleach' debut was a downtuned slice of primal fuzz rock. To be fair if you hadn't heard the track 'Silver' off odds and sods record 'Incesticide' you would have probably never seen what came next.


Recruiting uber producer Butch Vig, Nirvana attempted to marry, in Cobain's words, Black Sabbath and The Pixies... whether this is an accurate description of the music on 'Nevermind' is a sidebar in the debate. What is a matter of fact is that within three chords the rock world changed. Throwing a lavish budget at the band, Geffen went all out to ensure that Nevermind was a success and it seemed for a while like the whole album would be released as a single as hit followed hit, In Bloom, Lithium, Come As You Are, On A Plain and of course Smells Like Teen Spirit.
It would be easy to get bogged down with talking about Nirvana at this point - Cobain became the unwilling spokesman for Generation X, there is the much written about marriage to Courtney Love, the acerbic follow up In Utero, Cobain's alleged suicide/murder depending on who you want to believe... but I'm talking about Metal here.

Grunge dramatically changed the landscape, you can argue all day the merits of Grunge being classed as metal but bands like Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and Faith No More all owed an obvious debt to the genre and gave it back in sound, no matter how much Mike Patton (FNM's mad-as-a-box-of-frogs, fond of shitting in hotel hairdryers vocalist) tried to deny it.
Other bands may have tried to distance themselves but it was a new brand of heavy rock that was embraced by the masses and made reluctant stars out of many of the scenes leading lights and inspired acts across the world to jump on the band wagon to great effect - Detroit's Stone Temple Plagiarist's - I mean Pilots, or to no effect at all - Bristol's Send No Flowers.
By 1994 when Cobain decided to inspect the end of his mates shotgun, the backlash against the misanthropic angst of Grunge had started with a Clash rip off band intoning, 'Do you have the time, to listen to me whine, about nothing and everything at all'.
Green Day's 'Dookie' and The Offspring's 'Smash' countered pop cultures obsession with the Seattle sound with a bright, cheerful pop-punk sound, the perfect antidote... by 1995 the effect on metal was quite palpable.
Sales were down and previously popular bands were suffering - long haired rockers found themselves without a gravy train to ride; Iron Maiden lost Bruce Dickinson and suffered their first set of bad reviews with 1995's lacklustre X Factor being as well received as Ozzy Osbourne at the Alamo and before Metallica's set at that years Donington festival they joked that their appearance had been canceled due to metal being dead.
Easy to laugh on the back of the 'Black Album' but the new material previewed that night was blues heavy rock and roll and in the following months all the band members would get their hair cut short, much like the recent image change undergone by Bon Jovi, Def Leppard main man Joe Elliot and the miserable looking dude who stands at the front of Paradise Lost...
As much as Grunge helped reinvigorate the guitar music scene, it crippled the careers of some (admittedly bad) very poplar bands and from an outside perspective the scene was in an unfortunate state of decline...

'Sever The Wicked Hand' (an expanded review)

Crowbar 'Sever The Wicked Hand' (an expanded review)
Out now on Century Media

It's been a while folks, the weight of January, house hunting, work colleagues indulging in fuckwittery and coupled with the malise that kicks in after Jesus' Birthday and I have been somewhat remiss in continuing the journey through Metal & Time...

I though I'd try and be a bit clever and give a historical perspective on Crowbar before reviewing their excellent new slab of Southern Sludge 'Sever The Wicked Hand'.

My personal journey brought me to Crowbar in 1998 - late to the party I appreciate, but I was already aware who founder Kirk Windstein was from his work with New Orleans supergroup Down.
Kirk formed Crowbar somewhere around the late eighties with best friend Jimmy Bower who is known as "the Godfather of Southern Metal" due to his frankly impressive involvement in Eyehategod, Superjoint Ritual, co-founding Down and playing significant parts in the histories of Corrosion Of Conformity and of course Crowbar (Windstein affectionately refers to him as 'the fat drummer from Down').
The pair decided to take the hardcore sound of the time and break it up by playing slower and heavier - going in direct opposition to bands trying to achieve the speed of light on the back of the thrash explosion of a few years earlier. The lead heavy dirge became known as Sludge and through Crowbar a genre was born.

The first album came in 1991, by this time the band had collapsed and then reformed. Bower had returned to Eyehategod and Kirk had nearly joined thrashers Exhorder before deciding to press on as the mainstay of the band.
Obedience Thru Suffering fell in the woods and frankly no one heard it; well that's a little harsh, but it would be fair to say that if at that point Kirk got involved in a Battle Rap his opponent would be taunting him with the standard 'You couldn't sell two copies if you pressed a double album' line such was the limited exposure outside of the NOLA bar scene.
It is not a bad release, having the trademark hardcore speed and the slow grind that would define the band in later years.
However by 1993 the band found themselves blessed with the patronage of personal friend and rising MTV favourite Philip 'Is that my foot in my mouth or did I say something cuntish?' Anselmo. Anyone reading this should know, that when not making a massive twat of himself, Phil has been one of the finest metal vocalists of the last twenty years fronting Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual, numerous side projects, running the House Of Shock in New Orleans, founding Housecore Records and still taking time out to cultivate and kick a debilitating heroin addiction which cost him more than his band and public respect... but that is undoubtedly a tale for another day.
Producing the self titled release, childhood friend Anselmo oversaw a band coming on in leaps and bounds with songs like 'All I Had, I Gave', 'Self-Inflicted' still finding their way into the live set today and an astounding cover of Led Zep's 'No Quarter'. Having the frontman for the darlings of the metal press wearing your shirts in their videos doesn't hurt either, nor does getting played on zeitgeist show Beavis & Butthead.
Over the next 5 years as well as contributing to Down's incredible debut album Windstein turned in two more solid Crowbar releases in Time Heals Nothing and the superior Broken Glass which saw Bower back into the fold and with Anselmo and contributing backing vocals.

Fast forward to 1998 and this is about where I come in, being as big a Pantera fan as most angry teenaged boys in the '90's it was only natural I had heard of Down. I had already fallen in love with the smokey, heavy, riffs of Keenan and Windstein topped off with the raging and crooning of my favourite vocalist of the time (Dickinson languishing in solo purgatory turning in patchy sub par albums - Balls To Picasso - or grungy space rock that I wouldn't appreciate until I grew up a bit - Skunkworks) and Crowbar promised exciting new avenues of heavosity (I know it's not a word, sue me).
This, coupled with the fact a dude from the local rock scene who went everywhere with a long sleeved Crowbar t-shirt (baring the legend NONE FUCKING HEAVIER - sadly discontinued before I could get one, but now will only buy their shirts in long sleeve as a result) tied round his waist, made me want to check out this band.

Right on cue Crowbar hit a rich vein of form that continues to this day releasing the astounding Odd Fellows Rest which features Kirk's own favourite song in the immense 'Planets Collide'. This was followed by the powerful Equilibrium and the possibly career best Sonic Excess In It's Purest Form, albums that defined and cemented the band as masters of a genre of one.

It wouldn't be until 2005 before the follow up surfaced, Kirk occupied with Down II, the death of friend Dimebag Darrell and all members of Down working on serious addictions of their own personal nature.
Lifesblood For The Downtrodden saw the band more introspective (although no less heavy) and expanded on the rich melodies that they had been cultivating since Odd Fellows...

Following this the band was effectively shelved whilst Kirk took the metal world by storm with the reactivation of Down for Over The Under, reuniting after Hurricane Katriona ravaged their home town, destroying Pepper Keenan's bar, wiping out Michael William's (Eyehategod singer) home and stranding Anselmo in the swamp with no one to talk to for like, hours man.
Under the circumstances relentlessly touring the world for four years might be enough for some, but also during this time Windstein has worked with wet dream for throat lozenge adverts and Hatebreed frontman Jamie Jasta on the increasingly cool Kingdom Of Sorrow project producing two brilliant albums, dedicated time to getting sober and somehow managed to squeeze in writing and recording a new Crowbar album.

Which brings us to Sever The Wicked Hand...



A clear reference to sobriety runs through out Crowbar's 9th studio album but unlike the harrowing tales of abuse in the past this one roars from the speakers with the confidence of a man who has faced his demons and won.
Sever... sounds like a band revitalised and focused; the hardcore edge of their 1991 debut is honed to razor sharpness, married with the more mature melodic leanings of later years and this release is more crushing than being sat on by a lead elephant.
At times lyrics have been Crowbar's Achilles Heel, heartfelt and rending, but occasionally seemingly tacked on as an after thought. Here every word is considered and hits home like a smart bomb detonating. On 'The Cemetery Angels' the influence on Kirk of sobriety is plain to see as he rages against the pull of alcoholism with lines like 'You gave me wings, and took the sky away' and 'Sooner or later we all give in and drown'.
Of the twelve songs on offer there is absolutely no fat on display, all are taught and crafted with the expertise of a man who has spent 20 years developing his skills and is now able to deliver with the best of his abilities.
The songs fly by in a blur at first there are that many highlights, 'Protector Of The Shrine', 'As I Become One' and 'Isolation (Desperation)' all bludgeoning and belligerent; 'Let Me Mourn' and the sombre 'Liquid Sky & Cold Black Earth' mature and almost stately, making this feel like a well rounded and complete album.
For those of us fearing the popularity of Down meant the death of bands that I hold dear from these individuals - Corrosion of Conformity album next please Pepper! - has been greatly exaggerated. Having reunited with the same line up that has graced the last few albums and publicly stating that it is the most satisfying period of the groups history this settled and, dare I say, happier Crowbar have matured with age and lost none of their fire.

I live by my mistakes
And learned all the hurt it takes
To overcome and grow
These things you need to know
- Isolation (Desperation)

Snippets from the New Year News

As you can see I jammed a RSS feed on here for Blabbermouth to compliment the general scatter gun approach I have taken to this project and a couple of headlines caught my eye this week which I have added my own interpretation to in order to avoid replicating Bori's appalling standards.

'Black' album still crapping on the competition 20 years on



Since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking album sales in May 1991 Metallica have sold enough records to actually create a clone of Lars that can play the drums and not shoot off at the mouth every five minutes, but it turns out they spent it on hair plugs and dye.
The band who took on Napster and won everything bar the PR battle is still shifting an incredible amount of it's 1991 album and as of 2009 has surpassed even bandy legged transvestite Shania Twain to become the best selling LP of the Sound Scan era. To date, the black album has sold 15,620,000 copies, eclipsing Twain's 'Come On Over' total of 15,499,000.

The Nielsen SoundScan system began compiling sales electronically more than 18 years ago on a weekly basis, providing more accurate sales figures that form the basis for the Billboard music charts.

Top Ten Selling Artists Of SoundScan Era
(based on album sales from 1991 to January 2, 2011)

01. GARTH BROOKS (68,513,000)
02. THE BEATLES (62,066,000)
03. MARIAH CAREY (53,185,000)
04. METALLICA (52,672,000)
05. CELINE DION (51,162,000)
06. GEORGE STRAIT (42,396,000)
07. EMINEM (39,643,000)
08. TIM MCGRAW (39,396,000)
09. ALAN JACKSON (38,275,000)
10. PINK FLOYD (36,429,000)

Top Ten Selling Albums Of SoundScan Era
(1991 - January 2, 2011):

01. "Metallica" - METALLICA (15,620,000)
02. "Come On Over" - SHANIA TWAIN (15,499,000)
03. "Jagged Little Pill" - ALANIS MORISSETTE (14,673,000)
04. "Millennium" - BACKSTREET BOYS (12,115,000)
05. "Bodyguard" soundtrack - Various Artists (11,823,000)
06. "Supernatural" - SANTANA (11,709,000)
07. "Beatles 1" - THE BEATLES (11,703,000)
08. "Human Clay" - CREED (11,563,000)
09. "No Strings Attached" - 'N SYNC (11,117,000)
10." Falling Into You" - CELINE DION (10,785,000)

All in all not a bad bit of work for the band. This won't shut their detractors up who will tell you that is was all downhill after 'And Justice For All...' in fact it probably highlights the exact point and accusations of selling out that have been thrown at them ever since they roped in Bob 'Let's Clean It Up A Bit' Rock and had an unequivocal amount of success.
Still to have moved up the chart in the past couple of years shows that someone out there is still buying albums and for all the haters you can laugh harder when you have nearly 16 million US sales in your back pocket.

Not Even A Redneck Would Vote For Sarah Palin



Ted f**king Nugent...
If you don't have the faintest idea who fret wanking, redneck, bigot Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent is, then you are probably slightly lucky.
Despite being born with mad skills on the guitar Theodore was also clearly born with a screw loose as he has become a sort of guitar wielding Bear Grills - only, in Ted's mind, the TV survivalist is probably a pussy because he doesn't use guns.
He has endured a lengthy and pretty fucking successful solo career considering, notching up 30m album sales and touring non stop since 1958. He was also in The Armboy Dukes, as well as forming supergroup The Damn Yankees and even appearing on Supergroup with Sebastian Bach and Scott 'Not' Ian.
He is well known for his love of hunting and once took to the stage on the back of a buffalo, no doubt shortly before killing it and serving it as the bands rider.
Recently the draft dodging, statutory rapist took time out from gay bashing to appear on Wednesday, January 5th's edition of the "Anderson Cooper 360°" show, to give his opinion of Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor who was the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008.



In Nugent's bizarrely non-drug addled mind he gushed,
"[Palin's] coming from the street, she's coming from the we-the-people rank-and-file, she makes sense when she talks, she says all the right things, she's sincere, she's knowledgeable, she's articulate, she's damn good-looking, plus she kills moose. How can you go wrong?!"
Maybe he's confusing the real thing with 'Who's Nailin' Paylin?' as the GILF's stock has fallen pretty low since 2008 through a series of outlandishly bizarre statements, although maybe the idea of a woman who would piss off those liberal, animal loving, commie fags as much as he does is appealing no matter how low her breast hang when she takes her bra off.

However, even the 6 times married father of seven (all from different women) had to come back to reality when Cooper pressed the rocker on whether Palin would make a good president,
"It's too early to tell," Ted replied. "Right now, if we had a vote, I couldn't vote for Sarah Palin. And I love her. I love her madly, and I respect her."

If I was Palin I'd hung up my political shoes now. Christ if a guy who has been had up on concealed weapons charges, adopted a 17 year old as his daughter until she was old to marry and believes fags should burn won't vote for you, despite 'respecting' you, what chance have you got with the less ultra conservative people of America?

Anyway rant over - I have received feedback that the comments section didn't work properly and this should now been taken care of...
I shall be returning more historical/less gossip magaziney type business next time I promise!

Where Are They Now? Part 1: Skid Row

There's that time honoured cliche that if you remember the '60's you weren't there, well the one for the '90's could no doubt be 'If you remember the '90's you probably don't want to'.
It was a patchy decade at best and one I promise that I will explore in detail at some point, but it was a time of change, not only for metal but for me.
Exciting new musical avenues were beginning to open up, with the early '90's seeing alternative rock challenging metal, and exciting bands such as Tool, Deftones and Pantera began to emerge into public consciousness. Established acts such as Sepultura and Judas Priest turned in some of their career best music in 'Chaos AD' and 'Painkiller,' and a cartoon band called White Zombie flattened MTV with an album called 'Astrocreep 2000.'
Smack bang in the middle of the decade I went to my first festival, the (by then) long running Monsters of Rock festival at Donington. This year was arrogantly re-branded by none more cocky Metallica as 'Escape From The Studio '95' as they skipped out on finishing the fan base splitting, and overall average, Load/Reload set, to top a bill that featured Corrosion of Conformity, Warrior Soul, Slash, Machine Head, White Zombie, Slash, Slayer, Therapy? and Skid Row.
It was here I first set foot on the hallowed soil of my spiritual home. Here I first felt that primal sense of unity, my people, gathered together for a common cause; the charge and energy of the crowd, the expectation... thinking back, it was a disturbingly erotic moment.
Until the moshpit for CoC's 'Dance of the Dead' kicked off around me.

For me the first half of the decade very much belonged to two bands - Iron Maiden and Skid Row.
The former you'll probably hear more than enough about over the course of this, being without doubt the finest metal band ever (FACT), but fewer bands captured the excitement of my youth quite like Skid Row.

Inception

Waaaaay back in the late '70's/early '80's over in New Jeresy there was a fresh faced kid, probably without the expensive dental work and teased designer hair, called Jon Boingoingoingovi who was all Italian American, no doubt said dude a lot and grew up the hard way what with his Dad making him sleep on the floor apparently.
Now Jon was probably the kind of kid who enjoyed such japes as stealing warm apple pie from window sills and skipping stones across the New Jersey turnpike with his chums, one of whom was a kid named Dave 'The Snake' Sabo. With a nickname like 'The Snake' you'd imagine that whilst Jon was working on the docks or out helping old ladies across the road, Dave was getting his older sister to buy him fags and beer so he could moodily kick back in the garage and listen to the Ramones.

Anyway the pair became friends and played together making the vow that if either one became famous they would come back and help the other one out.
As history shows the young Jon changed his name to the more redneck American friendly and easier to fit on PR material Bon Jovi, smiled an awful lot and won the hearts, minds and loins of America with a series of bubblegum rock anthems.
Meanwhile back in Jersey, Dave had put together a band that featured the ridiculously nose to ear chained Rachel 'Probably not my real name' Bolan on bass who despite looking like a girl and naming himself after one was essentially a dirty punk rocker who liked the Sex Pistols as much as Aerosmith (a cut price Duff McKagen if you will), Rob Affuso on drums, Scotty Hill on guitar and hyperactive, gangly Canadian coke hoover Sebastian Bach on vocals.
Bach had spent a few years enduring a miserable time fronting a bar band called Madam X in Toronto whose guitarist would pleasantly beat the shit out of him, pull his hair and spit on him during their show, because despite being the '80's where every dude looked like a chick and hair wasn't hair unless it was long and teased, he did look like a girl with massive cheekbones. It is little wonder he jumped at the chance to drag his 6'1" frame to Jersey although the years of hazing would come back to haunt the band in later times.

Debut album




With the line up complete and it was time to call up Jon.
Good to his word the man signed the band to Underground where he was talent spotting, recommended them to his management, helped produce Skid Row's eponymous 1989 debut and in what would prove to be costly to the friendship, retained a large percentage of the band's publishing rights (along with, for some reason, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora), not to mention taking them out on the road as support on Bon Jovi's chart crushing 'New Jersey' album tour.
Behind the scenes is where it began to get messy. Allegedly when the finished album was submitted to Bon Jovi he took issue with the vocals (clearly jealous that Bach could kick his Jersey Tunnel when it came to singing) and demanded that they be re-recorded. Funnily enough Bach refused and in an increasingly escalating war of words Bon Jovi parted with the cheap shot 'I hope you can jam a Gold Record up my ass' although this may not be related to the vocals.

Skid Row was a huge hit... double platinum in fact (now certified 5 x platinum), spawning the singles 'Youth Gone Wild', '18 and Life', 'I Remember You' (along with two other releases). As a 'fuck you' it is a spectacular piece of success. Featuring the polished, clean, glam metal sounds and chart bothering appeal but with a swagger and danger of the punk era, Skid Row took to success like the proverbial duck...
However several issues tainted this success.
That pesky publishing deal was naturally unfair, Sambora shame-faced returned his share (Bon Jovi had few qualms though) and the two parties went to war ending in a court injunction to stop Bach running his mouth and tarnishing Jon's fresh faced image. No doubt Sabo pulled the world's best Ostrich impression during all this back and forth.
Eventually the good guys triumphed and Skid Row won back their publishing rights by and large, but were vilified in the press when Bach was struck by a bottle thrown from the crowd opening for Aerosmith in Massachusetts. Clearly riled he threw a bottle back and dived into the crowd to beat up the culprit, but the missile he threw struck a girl instead and cut her face up.
The result was an out of court settlement and several years where he was not allowed home to Canada, clearly on a roll he also came under fire for wearing a t-shirt given to him by a fan that said 'Aids kill faggots' about the same time.
Tension grew between the band towards the end of the three year touring cycle, but never the less their debut album is an absolute corker and was jammed on my stereo for years and if ever I need a pick me up today it is on a small, select list that can bring a smile to my face.

Slave To The Grind



Despite the problems surrounding the band off stage, expectation for their second album was huge and they were riding high on a very successful album.
Having finally wriggled free from under Bon Jovi's sequined wing the band were free to explore their chosen musical directions and no doubt it came as a shock to all the Bon Jovi fans who bought the first album when Slave To The Grind dropped in 1991.
Whilst retaining their trademark sound 'Slave...' was anvil heavy in comparison, with song material dealing in drug abuse, child molestation, third world exploitation and psychotic sex.
The album went straight to Number 1 and the band toured with the recently out of the closet Rob Halford, dragged Pantera into the public eye by making them main support and were special guests to Iron Maiden at the 1992 Donington Monsters Of Rock festival where Bach opened the show by falling on his ass during 'Slave To The Grind' after stacking it on the wet stage.
Despite these slip ups, the album was a massive success despite not reaching the dizzy sales of the first and has still been certified double platinum. It is packed with anthems and utterly addictive.
The tour cycle was again lengthy and under the surface issues bubbled about Bach's hyperactive nature verses the rest of the close knit band.
As an interim the band released the B-Side Ourselves EP, a stop gap featuring covers of Kiss, Hendrix, Judas Priest and The Ramones.

Subhuman Race



By the time I saw Skid Row tear the ass out of Doinington in 1995 Metal music had taken a hit. Grunge, post-Grunge pop punk and the rise of RnB had stricken the musical wasteland, it was no longer cool to look like a chick, even Megadeth were wearing plaid lumberjack shirts for crying out loud, Metallica were cutting their hair, Bruce Dickinson had jumped ship from Iron Maiden and the whole thing was (on the surface) beginning to whiff a little.
Skid Row had, prior to this, recruited Motley Crue and Metallica producer Bob 'Mile deep sheen' Rock to man the desk for the follow up to 'Slave...'
'Subhuman Race' saw the band head into darker territory and to this day remains a forgotten gem. Songs like 'Eileen' were heavier, the title track was almost speed metal - time on the road with Pantera clearly having rubbed off on them.
However faced with a changing public who still thought of them as a glam band and a record label who clearly didn't know what to do with them it was promoted with an awful sounding, ham fisted advert along the lines of, 'Loud Guitars, Loud Behaviour, Rock and roll bands used to stand for something... one of them still does!'
Despite this the album was a reasonable success going Gold and cracking the top 40 but by now Bach was consigned to a separate tour bus and things came to a head when Bolan allegedly turned down the opportunity for the Skid's to support Kiss, opting in favour of pursuing his punk side project and the subsequent fallout saw Bach fired.

The remnants

The remaining members surfaced briefly in 1998 with the terribly named Ozone Monday before sinking without trace and causing drummer Rob Affuso to depart in favour of doing anything else.
In 1999 the rest of the band reformed Skid Row and recruited some bar singer by the name of johnny Solinger and new drummer Charlie Mills who stayed for five minutes before leaving again.
Since then they have recorded two extremely subpar albums in Thickskin (2003) and the even worse RPM (2006) and got Dave Gera in on drums who would stay a whole three years. They have plied their trade eeking out an almost bar scene existence since with Dave 'The Snake' not even touring with them anymore, instead concentrating on managing New Orleans sluggers Down when they are on tour.
The almost daily clamours for Bach to return would probably sell more records.

And the man himself?
Well it is a mixed bag of embarrassments for Baz, resorting to several years on Broadway doing Jesus Christ Superstar and Joesph. He eventually left amidst rumours of 'Prima Donna behaviour', played the last ever gig at Torquay town hall (closed after someone threw a bottle at him funnily enough), released the fabulous 'Angel Down' album, spent time on wank US TV show The Gilmore Girls, the talent spotting vehicle 'Supergroup' and more recently Celebrity Fit Club US. He was last seen on tour with BFF William Bailey opening for The Axl Rose Project, having to endure the indignity of taking to the stage at least a week before the fat ginger cunt decides to show up.
Reports that Bach has put together a new band to record a follow up to 'Angel Down' are growing in frequency, presumably the problem being is that he has to uncork his head from Axl's arse to sing into the mike.

In many ways, like GnR, the actions of the band following the mid '90's cannot ever tarnish their early works - I urge you to check them out.

Killswitch Drummer to play in Metal Band and other stories

Scott Stapp

Happy fucking New Year all.
The beer was swilled, the wine was quaffed and the whiskey (two fingers worth) eyed suspiciously as it sat in the glass over ice and plotted to give me the usual migraine level headache.

I can honestly say that music wasn't a heavy feature of the festive season for me this year...
I drove around Wiltshire listening to my legal CD copy of Monster Magnet's 'Mastermind' feeling smug to be fueling Dave's pie addiction and drove back to a thawing Devon whilst the misses cranked Slash's originally titled 'Slash' album and wondering how much better Miles Kennedy would sound if anything other than dogs could hear him.
All of which led me to try ABIII again, or Alter Bridge III for those of you not quite down with it.
Now this album's mere existence is a puzzle to me.

The timeline for Alter Bridge's existence runs like thus:
Moody Jesus botherer and professional Eddie Vedder impersonator Scott Stapp who fronted million billion selling State side bores Creed decided he was better than everyone else and was going to duet with the Lord so disbands the second generation Grunge plagiarists to go solo (I call this the reverse Welch).
The talented members of Creed are suitably unimpressed by this and, in the Christian tradition of helping those who help themselves, roped in squeaky voiced pretty boy Miles Kennedy and embarked on a succession of increasing successful girlfriend friendly stadium rock albums. Not ground breaking, but better than Creed anyway and condemned males everywhere to stand bored at festivals hugging their girlfriends and agreeing through gritted teeth that of course this is 'our song'.
In short the new Incubus (credit to The Voice Of Doom for this observation).

Somewhere into this run Stapp came crawling (no doubt over water for added effect) back and maybe it's because Creed loving Christians buy their albums as opposed to those demonic downloading Alter Bridge fans, but God's personal whipping boys went running with open arms to welcome him back.
No doubt there was hugging, turning of cheeks and forgiveness all round.

All of this left infinitely superior vocalist Kennedy out in the cold. Rumours abounded of him joining singerless GnR rhythm section Velvet Revolver, but instead he opted to guest on 'Slash',and toured with the Top Hatted one promoting the album and promising he would handle all the vocals for the next album.
He clearly didn't fancy slipping into Scott 'Increasingly erratic not a junkie, Honest Guv' Weiland's snake skin trousers and making himself a bigger rent-a-vocalist than Tim 'Ripper' Owens.
Either that or Duff and Co figured their show would become even more boring if they tried to jam any Alter Bridge songs into their encore.
Salvation was found though. As quickly as it came Creed's reunion was done, bank balances topped up Stapp went back to make his second solo album (really, yes really!?!) and Alter Bridge came out with ABIII.
Back in the real world this album topped various polls for 2010, had people I actually know in fits on Facebook extolling how 'heavy' and 'dark' and 'amazing' it was and my good lady was under orders from friends of hers to listen to it.

All I can say is 'What's the big fucking deal?'
They are boring and samey, Kennedy has this trademark quick, quick, sooooooooar! thing going on with the vocal melodies on every song. It appears no heavier than 'Blackbird' which had at least one good song on it and is just run of the mill.
I'd usually take my word for it, but I confess it's nearly kept me awake at nights (the question, not the album) but fortunately even my girlfriend was bored by it.
Ha!


Justin Foley

Anyway I've rambled enough already and not got to the point, although it does at least give a bit of history...

My focus today is on the future.
As the title suggests Justin Foley, skin beater for used to be great Killswitch Engage and people have only heard of us because our singer joined Killswitch Blood Has Been Shed, has stepped in to help Boston metalcore behemoths Unearth record their new album in light of Derek Kerswill's departure.
Unearth has suffered from a Spinal Tap-esque drummer issue in recent years with this being the third album in a row to feature a different drummer since they fired Mike Justian during the Eyes Of Fire tour cycle who in turn had only come in on The Oncoming Storm cycle replacing temporary drummer Tim Mycek.
This has no doubt had an impact on the band, whilst III: In The Eyes Of Fire (2006) was a strong release as was The March (2008), purists (well me and about 5 other guys on the internet) will tell you that they effectively trodden water since their 2004 Metal Blade released breakthrough album.
Hopefully this membership problem arrested temporarily the band can concentrate on writing material knowing they have (in theory) a technically astute drummer. Although given that Killswitch have released two straight up lame ducks in a row (As Daylight Dies and self title 2009), not to mention they stopped playing straight forward bludgeoning metalcore in favour of slightly whiffy emo metal, you'd hope that part of the new tub thumpers initiation is to be beaten with his 'End Of Heartache' Grammy.
Hard.
Still other wise it is business as usual for Unearth as they return to the studio with cape wearing, show ruining, man child, producer extraordinaire and Killswitch guitar player Adam Dutkiewicz.
As much as I love Unearth it is now time to step up and deliver a mammoth album that sees them restore their place at the top of the pile as the whole metalcore genre seems to be suffering from fatigue. Shadows Fall are stagnating, All That Remains and As I Lay Dying are not setting the world alight, Diecast have all but gone and plenty of other bands are feeling the pinch of over saturation.

2011 is a watershed year in terms of expectation for Metal, the past couple of years have thrown up some great music but you feel there needs to be some fresh challenge; bands have gotten faster, heavier, more technical, blurred more lines, but just with many of the giants of metal retiring or resorting to nostalgia the whole genre needs an overhaul - adapt and survive - for the future of the music I love.

As an aside:
In my run down of worst albums for 2010 I dubbed Dave Grohl 'The Nicest horse In Rock' and feel the need to elaborate on this.
I know that anatomically he looks more like a donkey, but I felt at the time that was a derogatory term I would usually reserve for West Ham's number 10 so promoted Grohl to a horse as he plays with the silky skills of a thorough-bred stallion.
It's just a shame it wasn't on display on that album.
Zing!

How does it go?
'First you giveth, then you taketh awaaaaaay...'
Sorry Dave...

Stay tuned, next time I'll actually talk about something I like.