I mean it's been nearly 12 months free of vitriol and snarky comments about something I profess to love so what has happened?
Well in no particular order of importance:
Lamb of God's Randy Blythe kicked off the year with the threat of 10 years in a Czech prison hanging over his head.
Slayer maestro Jeff Hanneman succumbed to liver failure and died possibly exacerbated by the lay off whilst he recovered from the flesh eating disease contracted by a spider bite two years ago.
More generally shit rhythm section news and former Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr passed away this year.
Burr who played on the first three albums by the band had long been suffering from MS and died peacefully in sleep.
A sad time indeed and his former band who had supported him since his illness over whelmed him with a trust and several benefit gigs were understandably quick to issue their sadness at his passing.
Burr whose hard hitting and energetic style is often referred to as Maiden's greatest drummer, despite Nicko McBrain being the superior stick man technically, for the feel and punky style that he brought to numbers such as Running Free, The Prisoner, Run To The Hills etc.
Having played those first three albums a lot at the time it is a reminder that the East End band would not have sounded the way they did without Clive's incredible contribution.
Tributes poured in from all over the Rock world as musicians and fans influenced by the man's drumming paid homage to a man who in spite of suffering a terrible illness still retained his love of music, humour and irreverence until the end.
R.I.P Clive - your contribution to Iron Maiden can never be forgotten.
Then Adam Duce was fired from Machine Head.
In a heartfelt statement from Robb Flynn on the band's website he explained why Adam had to go and it broke my heart to hear of how the two friends had drifted apart and how Duce had effectively been struggling in Machine Head for years.
To be honest it was no great shock to learn this - Flynn and Duce have made no secret of their relationship difficulties over the last decade and being a road band has clearly taken it's toll.
Much like Maiden's Steve Harris you do feel though with Flynn that you get on board or get off.
He is now the only original member left, although he has always been it's heart and soul.
A shame though for sure as Duce's baselines on I'm Your God Now remains one of my all time favourites. He was replaced by some dude called Jared MacEachern who was in a band called Sanctity (no idea either but they were signed to Roadrunner for five minutes) and got the nod for his ability to hit the vocal harmonies. The jury is out for me.
After a triumphant UK tour drummer Joey LaCaze of Eyehategod passed away from respiratory failure at 42.
Deftones bassist Chi Cheng finally slipped away after a painful (for the fans) few years where he had remained in a state of semi conscious coma.
Legendary Door keyboardist and band leader Ray Manzerick also passed away.
On a non musical front, Tony Soprano, the James Gandolfini died of a heart attack at just 51. In the words of the big man himself:
“It's good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that and I know. But lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over.”
Not a good year for the dead pool.
The as if things weren't looking sucky enough, Slayer Skinbeater Dave Lombardo was fired, asked to sit out, decided to sit out, future endeavoured, whatever, by Kerry King and the cardboard cut out currently standing in for Tom Araya. As it turns out when Lombardo returned to Slayer he was not brought back in as a partner but as a player who received 5% of profits. Having returned from the World Painted Blood, Big Four extended jaunts Dave felt his pocket was a bit light and asked where the money his 5% was coming from was… You know if he was getting 5%, then how much was 100%?
Turns out not to be a question to ask and Dave has headed for the unemployment line whilst former Slayer stand in Paul Bosteph rejoined the band.
All in all, with Kings seeming lack of compassion towards the hole vacated by Hanneman, it has been a massive year of PR black marks for the thrash titans.
On no less a sad note Lou Reed also passed away, cue an outpouring of ignorant shit from vitriolic metal heads still angry over Lulu.
Make no mistake, I'm still angry over Lulu, but it is what it is - Lou Reed was a legend years before he became a ballsack faced rambling old git - there is no need to rag on a man now he is dead. Metallica on the other hand are quite capable of ruining themselves as this years self indulgent, time wasting excuse not to make decent music surfaced in the form of 3D concert movie Through The Never; a nonsensical blend of surrealist movie script and overly produced live footage that the band paid for from their own pocket and is currently tanking in Imax cinemas all over the globe.
Then there is the sad affair of Stone Temple Pilots.
The band fired Welland for being an unpredictable junkie liability.
Welland then alleged that they couldn't fire him and sued them. They sued him for loss of earnings and round and round it went with each side sniping at each other and doing everything but making music.
Until bizarrely STP surfaced with an EP featuring one Chester Bennington of former Nu Metal behemoths and chart bothering soundtrack machine Linkin Park. Clearly bored of waiting to see how windmill armed 'rapper' Mike Shinoda can piss off their remaining fan base he decided to go and actually sing on a record by a rock band. The results aren't spectacular but they are better than the last STP album and every Linkin Park release since Meteroa.
Recently Download popped out the blocks and finally sold it's soul down the river by announcing headlining acts of Avenged Sevenfold, er, Linkin Park and Aerosmith, backed by the talents of Rob Zombie, Fall Out Boy and Alterbridge. As the usual butthurt comments came crashing in one shining light emerged - A massively misjudged comment on social media of 'Why not Dying Foetus?' gathered so much momentum in a slightly ironic way that the undoubtably bemused American Death metal band find themselves on the Download bill.
Potentially vile human filth Ian Watkins has a date set for his baby raping trial - the extended fallout of this has inevitably done for the career of Lost Prophets, who split this year.
And finally in one of the strangest episodes Tim Lambesis of Christian tagged metalcore giants As I Lay Dying was arrested for attempting to hire a hit man to kill his wife.
Yeah… Lambesis apparently turned his back on his invisible friend and took to the gym and began abusing steroids, lifting weights, having affairs and generally pissing her indoors off.
After having had enough of his increasingly douchebagish behaviour she filed for divorce, a settlement which would undoubtedly take a sizeable chunk of his livelihood and the former God Bothering Austrian Death Machine singer was caught giving money to an undercover officer and asking him to kill his wife.
Seriously.
The trial is pending.
So that's why I haven't written much this year.
When the entire genre seems to crumble or turn into a surreal day in TMZ world I felt it was better to step off for my own sanity and yours dear reader. If I was sick of writing it, then you must be sick of reading it.
So why am I back?
Because sometimes you can get weighed down with the shitty things that happen and ignore the good.
Good things happened this year and in what has been dark days it is worth reminding people of them:
First off Randy Blythe is a free man. Acquitted of manslaughter the singer who had taken the brave step to return to the Czech Republic and face trial to clear his name was vindicated when the jury returned a not guilty verdict meaning that Lamb of God were free to resume business. With nearly a years earnings lost and the band and personnel near bankrupted by the process to clear their singers name they have immediately hit the road for the continuation of the Resolution tour; reminding people that at the beginning of last year they did actually release an awesome album.
In several incredibly powerful and mature statements Blythe sky rocketed in respect in the metal community as he asked people to remember the fact a young man tragically lost his life.
Randy's writings can be found on his instagram account and portray a very different person to the one who gets knocked out on their Killadelphia DVD - I urge you check out some of it as it is inspiring and moving stuff.
Kirk Windstein left Down.
I appreciate how that sounds, but for me Down have been growing stale for a while now, the Purple EP was churned out by a band who admittedly they were lazy and with Phil Anselmo much more caught up in his solo work, his record label, his horror house etc all I see Down doing at the moment is holding up great bands like Crowbar, Eyehategod and Corrosion of Conformity.
CoC have of course continued with the pre-Pepper line up and that is one thing, not my favourite era of the band, but you have to sympathise with Mullin and Dean for not just sitting around waiting for their famous guitarist to grow tired of hanging around with his celebrity mates.
Eyehategod having gone through tragedy actually have a new album in the can and from the 3 songs I have heard it will be up there with their best, however with Corrections House (awesome side project involving Mike IX Williams and Scott Kelly of Neurosis) just having release their debut and Jimmy Bower involved in writing the new Down EP you just know it is going to be a while before that surfaces.
Which leaves Crowbar. Now Crowbar is Windstiein. No Kirk, no Crowbar and for me their last album Sever The Wicked Hand was one of the best releases of their career and much better than the last three Down releases.
The opportunity for more Southern Sludge is a very exciting prospect.
British extreme metal legends Carcass returned (okay they returned to the scene a while back) with a new album in the fine shape of Surgical Steel; a stunning precision blow to the skull, back with all their gore soaked glory.
Elsewhere my boy Tristan Shone of Author & Punisher fame released the bold Women & Children album and toured the UK. On the back of this he picked up the opportunity to go out and support none other than Philip H Anselmo as he took his solo project on the road in the states.
And any year you get to see Iron Maiden and Alice In Chains twice can't be bad right?
If you want to know where I have really been hiding then as always I suggest you head on over to The Sleeping Shaman where I have produced over four pages of positive reviews this year which would suggest in a moment of maturity I have figured if you have nothing good to say then don't say it at all.
That said I feel I'll be back before the year is out with a round up of what I thought rocked and what didn't so prepared to be offended.
Peace out.
Or something.
