It wouldn’t be Slayer cover art if it weren’t gruesome. And the cover for World Painted Blood is pretty gruesome.
Actually, it’s technically four pieces of cover art that all come together to make the big picture you see above. Says a press release:
In case you didn’t hear, Patrick Swayze is dead. And while I’ve never seen Dirty Dancing (or Road House… that seems like it might be a major oversight on my part), I did enjoy the man’s work in Point Break (he really jumps from the plane, man!!!) and, more recently, Donnie Darko.
So. Elise at Reign in Blonde found this video of LOG doing a concert back in ’08, around the time Swayze was initially diagnosed with cancer. Here’s what Randy says right around the 2:10 mark:
“This next song goes out to… our other special guest, who appeared backstage. Believe it or not, Mr. Patrick Swayze is in the house. Un-fucking-believable. Here we go Patrick, this is for you! NOW YOU’VE GOT SOMETHING TO DIE FOR!”
Well, I’m confused. Blythe’s tone sounds pretty sincere, but dedicating a song called “Now You’ve Got Something to Die For” to a dude who just found out he has cancer seems kind of, um, insensitive, for lack of a better word. Was Swayze really in attendance for this show? Is Blythe trying to do something cool, or is he being a dick? If Lamb of God cover “She’s Like the Wind” on their next album, I guess we’ll know the answer.
-AR
For some reason I’ve thinking about Bulletboys this morning. I know “Smooth Up In Ya” is probably like the most obvious Bulletboys song to post… but there’s a reason for that, ’cause it’s the best. Gotta love the stock ’80s fake live performance video… I guess this is the ’80s equivalent of the modern-day metal warehouse video. So yeah, like, this video isn’t even that good, but you know you wanna click and let it play whilst you do other Internetting this morning, right?
-VN
I’m not just speaking in the general sense. I mean, in this video, he announces “I’ve got something for all you,” then lets one rip.
What do you think that smelled like? I’d guess half-digested babies.
-AR
Thanks to Manfred Nuggets for the link.
Oh boy: what an excellent way to end your day. Shadows Fall’s highly anticipated new album, Retribution, is streaming in full right now. Go listen.
The album hits stores tomorrow on Everblack Industries/Ferret. We hope y’all dig it!!!
-AR
Are Living Colour feeling doubtful about their own identity? The band’s first studio album in six years, The Chair in the Doorway, deals largely with questions of self. “Gonna strip it all away,” vocalist Cory Glover repeats over and over again during album opener “Burned Bridges.” “I am the role I play,” he declares on “The Chair,” before wondering “Who am I today?” On “Out of My Mind,” he talks about “losing myself” and “shedding my skin.”
If Glover and his band mates – guitarist Vernon Reid, bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Will Calhoun – really are feeling doubtful about themselves, they’re being neurotic for no reason. The Chair in the Doorway cements the band’s identity as one of the best American rock bands of the past two decades.
This is Blackie Lawless talking about Barack Obama in Classic Rock magazine (via Blabbermouth):
“He’s one of these old-time 60s radicals from way back. He thinks he’s going to change the world and he’s hell-bent on doing that. When he stood there the night of the nomination and he said that he intended on ‘fundamentally changing’ America – a chill ran down my back. Thousands of people were just standing there, wildly applauding, and it reminded me of Hitler standing on the steps of the Reichstag.”
Here’s what went through my mind imediately after I read this:
This just in: rednecks do not actually have red necks. I guess “mudnecks” or “farmer’s tans” isn’t as catchy.
So. Familial obligations kept me away from the Down/Melvins show here in NYC this past Friday night, and apparently I missed quite a party. Which isn’t shocking – I’ve never seen Down play a bad show, and actually having a support act (as opposed to the hour of Kiss and Skynyrd videos they played before going on the last time I saw them), let alone one as awesome as Melvins, probably just made the entire affair that much more rockin’. Plus, members of Skid Row and God Forbid were on hand. FML.
Amongst the apparent highlights: Down covering Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love.” I kinda wish that Phil Anselmo had tried to do a DLR mid-air split or that Kirk Windstein had slid across the stage on his knees or something, but whatevs.
-AR
[via Metal Insider]
When he isn’t busy feuding with Dave Mustaine, Scott Ian or any given member of Metallica, Kerry King sometimes likes to take shots at the younger generation of metal musicians. Because, well, Most recently, while touring with Killswitch Engage as part of the 2009 edition of Mayhem Fest, King claimed that he’s “offended by the silliness” of KSE guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, whom King also alleged “puts his foot in his mouth all the time and says stupid shit.”
Well, it only took two months, but a member of KSE has finally responded.
Thrice are something of an enigma, a band that’s refused to ever stay the same. The Irvine, CA-based foursome started out as a metal-influenced heavy punk band that incorporated more and more progressive elements into their music with each album. 2005′s Vheissu took a complete left turn by adding indie and electronic elements, a path down which the band ventured even further on their 2007/2008 4-part album suite The Alchemy Index. Beggars, their latest offering, incorporates all of their prior influences and stretches their indie wings still wider, still experimenting with new sounds and expanding their fanbase.
A few weeks ago I spoke with drummer Riley Breckenridge about the band’s constantly evolving career arc, public and critical perception of this change, the new album Beggars and its super-early leak, consuming music in the digital age, and what the band hopes to accomplish in the near and distant future. Our chat follows.
So. Atreyu have a new album, Congregation of the Damned, coming out October 27, and the band has made it perfectly clear that they intend for said album to be a return to form after the lackluster results of their sell-out arena rock effort, Lead Sails and a Who Gives a Fuck? Now they’ve debuted a new song, “Stop! Before It’s Too Late and We’ve Destroyed it All,” on their MySpace. Are we convinced that the Atreyu of yore are about to make a return? Can any band that’s not Faith No More get away with having a exclamation point in a song title? Do we even care?
Recording the first album without a previous vocalist is usually a curse on a band’s sound, cred, and whatever dork-speak you want to talk about the guys that spout, “Well, their first X number of records where good at least” (where X equals how awesome you are at liking metal, hardcore, and the heavier side of the musical spectrum), right? With co-vocalist Jamie Hooper sidelined by recurring throat problems and now out of the picture, high-pitcher Cam Pipes is the sole vocalist this time around (aside from guitarist Justin Hagberg’s backup growls). That results in lending 3 Inches of Blood an even more traditional sound on Here Waits Thy Doom, the band’s Century Media debut after a brief few years on Roadrunner. The group no longer has any original members… but their heart (and metal) is still in the right place.
But lucky for us, the track is really fucking good [thanks: SMNnews.com]. It’s called “Forsaker” and comes from Night Is The New Day, the new album from progressive metal masters Katatonia. The record drops on November 10th via Peaceville Records, and I personally can’t wait to hear what’s in store.
Keep up with the latest news from the band at NightIsTheNewDay.com.
-VN
We’ve ranted and raved about Boston progressive death metallers Revocation enough that you should know all about their upcoming Relapse debut Existence is Futile (September 29th) by now. In case you still aren’t hip, we’ve made it super-easy for you; just click that thar little “Play” button below and listen to their brand new, previously unreleased track “Pestilence Reigns.”
Once this track has kicked your ass, go and listen to three more from the new album on Revocation’s MySpace page, then pre-order the record with a killer t-shirt (I did). You will not be sorry.
[this promotion has ended]
As evidenced by their new video, “Day of Mourning,” Despised Icon are the latest deathcore band to start making the move towards more traditionalist death metal (although co-vocalists Steve Marois and Alexandre Erian have retained their distinctly wigger sense of style). I’ve already heard some butt-hurt reactions from fans; like All Shall Perish’s The Price of Existence, DI’s last release, The Ills of Modern Man, was a kick-ass record that actually gave deathcore a good name (read Erik Thomas’ excellent write-up for Metal Review here), so some disappointed cries were bound to happen, I guess. Plus, nine times out of ten metal fans get pissy about the slightest change to a band’s sound anyways, so really any bitching and moaning is not shocking.
Everyone will get to decide what they think of DI’s musical evolution when Day of Mourning is released September 22 on Century. In the meantime, here’s the aforementioned video for the title track.
-AR
“New Noise” seems to be a popular song to cover; Anthrax (with Dan Nelson) covered it a few months back, and apparently The Used rock it from time to time. Far worse, Crazy Town used to butcher it with regularity. When Refused wrote The Shape of Punk to Come, they most certainly did not mean horrible guitar tone, rubber-band bass, and jocks with their shirts off rapping about winged ex-caterpillars. If Refused had known that bands like Crazy Town would go on to cite them as influences, perhaps they would’ve never formed a band and spared us all.
Oh God, oh God.
-VN
[Thanks: Scott Danger]
We’ve covered industry pundit Bob Lefsetz in this space before (most famously his public debate with Ki$$ scumbag Gene Simmons); Lefsetz’s rants against the music industry are sometimes pure genius while his take on modern music is more often than not woefully out-of-touch, but he’s nothing if not endearing in his conviction and passion for the art form of music. His latest notable quotable (as deemed so by Bram Teitelman of Metal Insider) heaps praise upon Nine Inch Nails opening act Dillinger Escape Plan, whose noise/math metal we’ve of course been following for years but who’ve just reached the level where they’re on the radar of walled-up industry higher-ups like Lefsetz:
Encore two was performed with the Dillinger Escape Plan. An act I’d never heard of, but I’ll never forget. A complete band, a NIN doppelganger, who took the stage with such energy that you could feel it blasting in your face. The drummer pounded, then they kicked around his big bass drum, threw it in the air. The guitarist twirled his guitar around his body, again and again. And the lead singer jumped into the audience. Rick Mueller said it was the most exciting act he’d seen all year, Jim said he wanted to see them again. All I’ll say is they got my attention!
As much as I love metal feuds, they usually don’t actually go anywhere. Kerry King and Dave Mustaine can trade barbs in the press all they like, but we all know they’ll never actually get into any kind of altercation; in fact, Slayer and Megadeth just announced another string of Canadian dates together. Metal doesn’t have its own Tupac/Biggie story because rarely do these dudes show any actual desire to hurt one another. And even when they do, it usually goes nowhere (see: Vince Neil versus Axl Rose).
Well, Lambgoat is reporting that The Acacia Strain’s Vincent Bennett and Emmure’s Frankie Palmeri have now crossed that line, apparently beating the shit out of one another at last night’s Emmure gig in Clifton Park.
Did Alice in Chains blow their entire budget on the excellent “A Looking In View” video? Their new clip, “Check My Brain,” finds them standing against a green screen while the director places the most clichéd images available behind them (e.g., The sun burst right when the band sings “So I found myself in the sun.” How imaginative.).
Barely matters. The song is awesome, and the band’s new album, Black Gives Way to Blue, seems pretty much guaranteed to be awesome, too.
The video is an MTV premiere, which means that a) those of you who live outside the States might not be able to watch it and b) those of you who can watch it will get a shit quality stream anyway. Oh well.
Black Gives Way to Blue comes out September 29.
-AR
