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...