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‘Cause if I have, I haven’t done so enough and it bears repeating. The new Holy Grail album fucking rips. The new Holy Grail album fucking rips. The new Holy Grail album fucking rips. Seriously folks… this album takes all assholes and leaves them gaping wide open.
There was something of a tornado here in Brooklyn yesterday, and even if you didn’t see the tornado itself you saw some of the craziest fucking weather ever. I know you folks out in Nebraska are thinking “So what?” but for us something like this happens about as often as an earthquake does for you. Shit was positively epic. Thankfully even the monkeys didn’t get all riled up like the dudes in the above video — although I think I saw Sammy hiding in the bathtub — and business carried on as usual as it did all week:
Hopefully no more tornados hit Brooklyn this weekend. Actually, if one could swoop right over Jerry Manuel’s home then hop-scotch over to Omar Minaya’s, I’d be OK with that.
-VN
Despite all the drama we still maintain that White Wizzard (or, really, just Jon Leon since he’s the only constant) are a good band, and that Over the Top was a quality trad-metal album. Now we get to find out what three of Leon’s ex-bandmates have been up to all this time in the form of Holy Grail (ex-Sorcerer), whose first LP Crisis in Utopia drops October 26th via Prosthetic.
We got our first taste of Holy Grail — who I’d describe as similar to WW but a touch faster and a healthy dollop more guitar-driven — on the Improper Burial EP, and we liked it enough to debut a track from their new album sound unheard. Thankfully “My Last Attack” doesn’t disappoint at all; it’s a fiery storm of modern trad-metal with tons o’ scorching guitars, anchored by near-constant double-bass pounding and, most importantly, a knack for what makes a good classic metal melody. It’s pretty much all you could hope for from a band of this cloth. Stream and download it for free below, and pre-order Crisis in Utopia for only 10 Smackers at Prosthetic’s webstore (PLUS for a limited time only enter discount code SUCKS at checkout to receive 10% off!!) Catch Holy Grail on fall with Blind Guardian this fall.
HOLY GRAIL, “MY LAST ATTACK”
Apparently White Wizzard have responded to my humorous post (I made fart jokes fer chrissakes!) about Jon Leon’s public “vocalist wanted” Craigslist ad by putting MS on their shitlist. Which is a perfectly fantastic business decision, seeing as there isn’t a single U.S. metal media outlet (maybe world?) bigger than MetalSucks that’s giving the band as much favorable coverage as we are. Really, I thought Over the Top was quite the solid disc and I said as much many times (including a nod in my mid-year “favorite albums of 2010 so far” list). Sure, I goofed on the details regarding the lineup that recorded that album, but that doesn’t negate everything else I said about the revolving door of musicians to pass through WW’s ranks and what that might imply… I may be “unprofessional” in my journalism, as accused by band mastermind/bassist Jon Leon, but at least I know the difference between “your” and “you’re.”
In any case, shitlist or not, the band members of White Wizzard — both former and current — are doing a great job themselves of keeping us up to date on the band happenings… in our own comments section!
Either Jon Leon’s ass is constantly emitting horrible smelling farts or the guy is really difficult to get along with… because according to this Craigslist ad, sent in to us by multiple sources, California trad metallers White Wizzard are looking for their fourth singer in just two years.
For those unfamiliar, the story goes something like this (and please pardon me if I miss some details — there’s a lot to keep track of). Bassist Jon Leon founded White Wizzard in 2007 with the lineup that would record what would eventually become the High-Speed GTO EP, released as a self-titled EP in 2008 and re-released by Earache in 2009. But by the time Earache put out the EP the lineup was completely different, and as I understand it the dudes whose pictures appeared on the album liner notes weren’t even the dudes who played on the record (except for Leon and possibly one other guy). The dudes who played on the record, however, had since gone on to form their own band, Holy Grail, now signed to Prosthetic Records.
Exodus are hitting the road for a North American headlining tour this August, and that’s all well and good ’cause Exodus are swell and are one of those veteran bands currently enjoying a renaissance of sorts. That being said, I do think the support acts could be stronger -
Still, this tour might very well be worth hitting up just to see Exodus. And at least there won’t be any karate kicking in the pit.
Get dates after the jump.
Nowadays, classic metal seems all the rage — some cool kid told me this while walking to the market — and with MetalSucks doing the whole “Ten Great Bands That Inadvertently Helped Ruin Heavy Metal” thing, I got to thinking: how did metal become metal? We all know the Sabbath/Priest/Zeppelin “who started heavy metal” debate, but what about the in-betweeners that were probably “heavy metal” to my dad’s mom when Pops was just growing that ridiculous mustache and finding out that drinking beer was pretty cool once you got past that taste?
(Okay, full disclosure: I was drinking a beer and cranking UFO while reading the Van Halen story, so there.)
We’ve all known 3 Inches Of Blood for more than a few years at this point, but with the rise of bands like White Wizzard, Holy Grail, the criminally underrated Wolf, Gypsyhawk, RAM, and Cauldron waving the flag for the classic metal sound, I got to thinking about the bands that inspired them. These are groups where you could look back at them and say that they aren’t even definable as “metal” anymore.
YESSSSSSS.
Amon Amarth have announced a North American tour for this spring. If you’ve never seen Amon Amarth,well, get off your ass and go.
It was at a Children of Bodom/Amon Amarth show in 2006 that Vince and I first decided to start MetalSucks. We were, it should go without saying, really, really baked. But it’s worth noting that at that particular moment, Bodom hadn’t taken the stage yet. So I’d like to think that the idea was born not just of weed and anticipation for COB, but, rather, from weed and the mighty creative juices of Amon Amarth. Thanks, dudes!
Eluveitie and Holy Grail are acting as support; I don’t know Holy Grail, but Amon Amarth and Eluveitie should really be enough to get you off your lazy ass.
Dates after the jump.
While White Wizzard take their show on the road all over the world and make bad-ass videos in support of their upcoming trad-metal rocker Over The Top, former members of that band are getting ready to do the same in their new project, Holy Grail. Holy Grail released the four-song Improper Burial EP this past Fall and are currently in the studio hammering out their full-length debut, Crisis in Utopia, with Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle) behind the boards. The record is due out on Prosthetic Records in late Spring.
Three tracks from the Improper Burial EP are currently streaming on the band’s MySpace page. If the full-length songs are anything like these I can’t wait to hear ‘em.
-VN
Photo credit: Alex Solca
There’s a classic metal revival beef a’brewin’. In May we told you about Earache Records signees White Wizzard, and just last week we reported on Holy Grail, a recent Prosthetic signee made up of three former members of White Wizzard. Seems that the recent press attention received by Holy Grail has placed White Wizzard on the defensive, as the band found the need to issue a press release warning of “White Wizzard immitators.” Says the press release:
The lineup featured on WHITE WIZZARD’s September 8th debut mini-album, HIGH SPEED GTO is much different from that of the current lineup whom will be recording a full length album set for release in 2010. Recently, several ex-members from the previous lineup have begun making headlines in a newly signed band who’s former name shared an eerily similar theme with that of WHITE WIZZARD’s. WHITE WIZZARD bassist, Jon Leon has written a statement to clear up any confusion about the band’s lineup changes and to serve notice that there is only one WHITE WIZZARD:
If I were a betting man and I wagered on the chances of any given band signed to any metal label in 2009 actually being good, I’d definitely put my money down on Prosthetic or Sumerian Records. Both labels are completely killing right now. Where Sumerian certainly wins in “scene points” and innovation stylistically speaking, Prosthetic takes a decidedly more varied but no less awesome route; all bands on Prosthetic sound completely different from one another (hello Kylesa, Gojira, Animals as Leaders, Grief of War, etc etc etc ad infinitum) but they’re all superb. Furthermore, their bands have little if anything to do with what’s hot in today’s metal scene — they just are what they are, and they’re damn good at it.
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