HERE’S A BUNCH OF MUSIC SUGGESTIONS
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 4:30pm by Devin TownsendIn no particular order…
In no particular order…
UPDATE: Testament are definitely doing this tour. There’s no mention of High on Fire in the press release – interpret that as you will.
Well, here it is, kiddies… the tour you’ve been waiting for… there’s not much else you need to know other than this:
Get stoked.
A reader named James (who runs this website) sent us the below video of two dudes doing an acoustic version of Megadeth’s “Lucretia.” And despite the fact that these guys looks like pretty typical frat house d-bags, it’s actually really good. The accompanying description on YouTube reads simply, “Bored and drunken, we decided to record some Megadeth.” Which is probably way cooler than whatever most people do when they’re bored and drunk.
-AR
I always forget that current Megadeth bassist James Lomenzo used to be in White Lion. I guess I can accept that he was in Black Label Society (and David Lee Roth), since Zakk Wylde usta use an awful lotta hairspray, but Megadeth? Doesn’t that seem kinda like if Metallica hired the dude from Dangerous Toys or something?
Anyways, I mention it because the “Oh Don Piano!” moment of the day is Lomenzo saying he’d be open to a White Lion reunion. I’m sure the five White Lion fans left the world are all very excited. But I don’t think anyone should get their hopes up. And I can’t be the only one who’d rather hear Lomenzo play tracks from Endgame or pretend to be Dave Ellefson, can I?
-AR
Thanks to Rob Pasbani from Metal Injection for bringing this interview with Type O Negative’s Peter Steele to our attention. If you skip to roughly the fifteen minute mark, Mr. Steele starts to talk about… God. As in, he is now Saved, or a Believer, or whatever you’d call it.
Now, if Peter Steele wants to believe in God, that’s his right and who the fuck am I to judge him? As long as he doesn’t start preaching at concerts, I really don’t care one way or the other. But I do think it’s funny that (as Rob pointed out) this man is famous, at least in part, for this song:
It’s election day here in the States, and like many election days, I basically wasted a vote on a candidate who has no chance of winning whatsoever because his opponent had more money and therefore was able to buy more television ads. Gotta love democracy.
So. Here are some old “Rock the Vote” spots with Dave Mustaine and Megadeth. (Young ones who don’t recognize anyone in Megadeth besides Mustaine: that the old, definitive line-up of the band. Do not be frightened.) I seem to recall that Mustaine was also a correspondent for MTV at one of the conventions – Democratic or Republican, I can’t recall – but I can’t find any clips of that.
The first press release into the MS Mansion inbox this morning bore a bit of bad news, at least for Canadian Slayer and Megadeth fans; Slayer have pulled out of the “Canadian Carnage Tour” with Megadeth, which was due to begin November 8th. The press release cites health concerns about bassist/vocalist Tom Araya as the reason for cancellation:
Slayer’s Tom Araya is currently under the care of a specialist for a back injury, thought to be related to his on-stage activity, and the physician has ordered an immediate surgical procedure to take place in Texas tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.
The press release doesn’t specifically say whether the tour — which also includes Machine Head and Suicide Silence — will continue on without Slayer, but it’s implied, saying more information regarding rescheduled dates will be release soon.
It’d be awfully easy to make a Dave Mustaine vs. Kerry King jab here, but instead I’ll take the high road and simply offer this: get well, Tom.
-VN
So as if you didn’t know, the new Slayer album, World Painted Blood, comes out this Tuesday (or I guess Monday if you’re in Europe). But as usually happens these days, the record is now streaming in full right here. Go check it out.
I’ll have a full review next week, but allow me to stir shit up right off the bat:
World Painted Blood > Endgame > Death Magnetic
If only Anthrax had actually gotten an album out this year…
-AR
Thanks to the reader known only as “L” for the tip.
There’s a lyric in the song “Hour of Rats” from Fed Through the Teeth Machine, the album by The Red Chord, and this particular lyric has really taken hold in my brain as of late: “WE’VE KNOWN EACH OTHER TOO LONG TO BE FRIENDS.” What a simple, beautiful statement that I can 110% relate to these days. Hm.
Speaking of The Red Chord…
Have a good weekend everyone…
-AR
Not that we had any doubt Baroness’ Blue Record would have a strong debut, but it’s always nice to see the proof. And Skeletonwitch’s ripping new record Breathing the Fire had a great debut too; I’m elated to see the band sell as many records first week as they did. Elsewhere it was the usual radio rock / alt-metal suspects dominating the charts. Click through to see chart positions and sales figures.
While I’ve been defending Roadrunner Records against Dave Mustaine, there’s been drama brewing in the Megadeth camp.
It all started when Mustaine gave a video interview to a Norway’s Lydverket blog. The half-hour long conversation was edited down to about four and half minutes for its final presentation, and a portion of that was devoted to Mustaine talking, for the trillionth time just this year, about being fired from Metallica. (This time he blamed it on the fact that he apparently decked James Hetfield back in the day for kicking his dog, because, y’know, Hetfield is a puppy-hating asshole and Mustaine is a saint and nothing is ever his fault.) And for reasons not entirely clear to me, Mustaine was seriously offended by the final video, and threatened that “as soon as I see that interviewer again, I am going to put him in a hospital.” (The journalist in question was actually a woman, but, hey, it’s hard to remember the little details when you never think about anything but yourself.)
Well, a full, unedited version of the interview has been released now, and as it turns out… Mustaine is the one who brought up Metallica. Mr. “I Don’t Want to Talk About Metallica Anymore.” Yes, the interviewer asks him to elaborate on his point a little, but he basically just starts talking about them, and going on and on and on… and then he brings up the whole Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame thing, which he was never asked about… I mean… Kerry King was right: give this dude some rope and he will hang himself. I’d call the dude an asshole, but really, this is just sad. Because Dave Mustaine is that guy who never got over his girlfriend leaving him, even though it was a million years ago and he’s now married to someone else.
Go to roughly the fifteen minute mark to see Mustaine bring up Metallica.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Dave Mustaine is a brilliant fucking musician, but that doesn’t mean he’s not also a whiney little bitch.
Reader Elvin sent us the below, which Mustaine apparently posted on the Megadeth forums:
Droogies!
I don’t know what to say.
How a record company could be presented with a Worldwide [sic] critically acclaimed record, and that they can let it plummet down the charts in just four weeks into the hundreds, is inexplicable.
I knew I shouldn’t have done this. Why didn’t I trust myself?
I regret a lot of things in my life, but this is the most regretable [sic].
A very disgusted Megaman.
Now let me tell you why I have a serious problem with what Mustaine is saying.
Five heavy hitting heavy hitters — Alice in Chains, Hatebreed, Austrian Death Machine, Steel Panther and Dethklok — all released new records last week. Solid 2nd and 3rd week performances from Three Days Grace, Muse, Megadeth, Five Finger Death Punch and others made it an all-around big week for metal. Let’s see how everyone fared after the jump.

When did you guys start listening to heavy music? How many of you started listening this decade? I’m seriously curious about this. Those of you who started this decade… Are you sick of it yet? Are you starting to get sick of it? Does it excite you the way it did in 2004? For those of you who started earlier… do you remember what things were like 1990-1995? Remember when Megadeth was going multiplatinum, Pantera was flying in private jets, and Morbid Angel and Carcass were on major labels? Remember how that pretty much died off?
“Hey Beavis, this guy talks like you.”
Thanks to MS Maniac / Metal Injection contributor Ben Apatoff for reminding us of the above gem in his comment on yesterday’s Megadeth “Sweating Bullets” video post. The entire music video portion of this clip is pure comedic gold. It’s a shame that most of the music videos weren’t included in the Mike Judge Collection of Beavis & Butthead DVDs released a few years ago because they were often the best part. We got a few gems as bonus features (like the famous “Damnit Pantera, this beer is warm. Get me another one!” clip) but watching the animated shorts without the comedic genius of the music video commentary to break them up just didn’t have the same appeal.
“We were in burrito.”
This show never ceases to be funny.
-VN
We’re pretty late on reporting this, but in case you haven’t heard, Megadeth main man Dave Mustaine has written an autobiography. It’s called Hello Me… Meet the Real Me, is supposed to come out in late 2010, and will actually be written by a dude named Joe Layden (Because rock stars never actually write their own shit. Except for the MetalSucks columnists like Dallas, Eyal, etc. But those dudes aren’t really “rock stars” I guess, so they still have some brains left.).
The clever title – which, in case you’re a total moron, is a lyric from “Sweating Bullets” – immediately made me giggle. Because while I think Mustaine is a brilliant musician, I don’t think he’s a very sincere dude, and I have a hard time believing that the book will actually tell us much about the “real” Dave Mustaine. Or, at least, the actual text won’t – there will probably be all sorts of fun Freudian deductions to made from reading between the lines. Still, there might be some good gossip in there somewhere. I definitely plan to buy a copy.
ANYWAY, here’s the video for “Sweating Bullets.” Side note: it was directed by Wayne Isham, who also directed 99% of all Metallica videos ever made. Hm.
-AR

Luckily for Five Finger Death Punch, being total assholes who completely lack any musical talent isn’t hurting their record sales: their new album, War is the Answer, is apparently going to sell to somewhere between 35,000 – 40,000 copies in its first week of release… and that’s just here in the U.S. That probably sounds like a lot of units moved, and you’re right. It is a lot of fucking units moved. To put it in perspective with the sales of some awesome albums that came out this week…
Last Tuesday was a huuuuge week for new metal releases. Megadeth, Black Dahlia Murder, Shadows Fall, Living Colour, Dying Fetus, Porcupine Tree, Every Time I Die, Thrice and Ace Frehley all released new albums, and all charted in the Top 200! After the jump, let’s look at where they all ended up.
Why, it was just yesterday that Rob Trujillo was saying if the Big Four tour goes down, “there’d be a lot of egos” to deal with, but that all the beef would be between Megadeth and Slayer, not, say, Megadeth and Metallica.
And then this morning we got a link to this clip from MS Maniac Manfred Nuggets:
Not that Hetfield’s voice sounds so good these days, but holy shit, is that fucking funny. And proof that there’s no love lost between Hetfield and Mustaine.
Sorry, Rob.
-AR