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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.
When Sigh mainman Mirai Kawashima offered to do a series of blogs from the studio where the band is recording their new album, Scenes from Hell, it was an opportunity too cool for us to pass up. Below find Mirai’s latest report; here are links to his previous entries:
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5
PART 6
Enjoy!
Hello everybody. This is not a studio report actually.
Finally, here we reveal the cover artwork for our eighth studio album, Scenes from Hell. It was designed by Eliran Kantor (Testament, Mekong Delta, Gwar, etc). We’re truly proud of the artwork. This is the perfect descrition of what the album is about – namely War, Hell and Death!
The End Records has set January 19, 2010 release date for this album.
Dan Nelson is already a legend, and not necessarily in a good way. Like Gary Cherone or Blaze Bailey, he’s going to go down in history as a dude who was hired to be the new singer for a well-known band, only to get the boot fairly quickly; unlike Cherone of Bailey, the work he did with this particular well-known band will either never see the light of day, or slip out only as a bootleg. A fairly limited number of ‘Thrax fans ever got to see him perform live with the band, so really there’s only a small part of the population that has any sense of what his contributions may have been, positive or negative.
But Nelson is from Strong Island, and ain’t gonna let no Scott Ian or Charlie Bananas get him down. According to Metal Underground, Nelson has started a new project with drummer Paul Bostaph.
While Anthrax, Testament, Heaven and Hell and motherfucking Motorhead are among the most anticipated bands that metal pilgrims are converging on western Germany to see, it would appear that my favored people, those crafty Norwegians, also have a few things planned for the mayhem. While Enslaved will be appearing (and hopefully represented on a good stage, because you know they fucking deserve it) some others are teaming up with foreigners in combinations that are hard to ignore.
Oftentimes, writers tend to fall in love with their own words and florid descriptions. I try to avoid this in my true crime books as I believe the stories themselves propel the tale along.
In music criticism, it’s even worse.
Who can come up with the most br00tal analogies or the wittiest put-downs or the sickest comparisons usually takes precedence over simply writing a straight-forward review of what the writer has just listened to or witnessed? Sometimes it’s not necessary to go into an overly detailed historical analysis of metal or an attempt to make a sociological connection between the music and its fans. I’m sure I’ve fallen prey to pedantic verboseness at times. But, hey, sometimes, it’s just better to tell the readers that “shit sucks” or “shit’s great.”
That being said, Testament and Lazarus A.D. fall into the “shit’s great” category, while Unearth falls into the “shit sucks” category.
If the world were fair, the guys in Testament would be on Regis & Kelly gabbing about the triumphant success of their latest project and then on The View to humbly deflect compliments regarding peak popularity after a brush with death. But no, that job went to Mickey Rourke and his pro-Ratt propaganda film, The Wrestler. Though awesome, Testament suffered similar media invisibility even when thrash was peaking; they didn’t attract attention with novelty songs (Anthrax) nor an outrageous personality (Megadeth) or a massive cop-out (Metallica), so by contrast, the Bay Area quintet might’ve been seen as workmanlike and hit-proof. Of course, Slayer’s feel-good summer songs didn’t exactly scorch the charts, but that was counteracted with heaps of mystique. Testament’s hook is not even that modestly sexy; just a thunderous singer, a kick-ass lead guitarist (three months short of 19 in ‘87 for Eindhoven), one of history’s superior riffists, and a criminally underrated bassist. And five classic albums.
The big frickin’ deal week before last was Metallica’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland. Last week, the focus of the Metal community’s honor is Metallica’s Lucifer, Dave Mustaine, at The Epiphone Honda Fury Revolver Magazine Golden Gods Awards. Anti-Metallica sentiment was aired freely and to shouts of encore! The name of Mustaine’s band was chanted pretty much all night (poor Atreyu guy). The event went down at Club Nokia in downtown L.A. on Tuesday night hosted by Rodrigo from Mr. Show (Brian Posehn). Honestly? It was pretty awkward and not very Metal. A ton of Metal people were there, mostly ticket buyers. The vibe started a bit chilly outside the venue, then spiked at Killswitch Engage and Maynard James Keenan (not together) before a nosedive from which even Megadeth could not recover. I had a GREAT TIME! Photos by Adam Haussman.
A full 4 days before the March 3rd release of their Metal Blade Records debut The Onslaught, MetalSucks is pleased to offer the entire record of Wisconsin thrash upstarts Lazarus A.D. for free, streaming right here. The Onslaught was mixed by the infamous James Murphy (Death, Testament, Obituary) and contains 10 tracks of vicious thrash that pay due respect to their ’80s forefathers without simply ripping them off; there’s a slew of modern influences here too. The Onslaught will be streaming here until release day, so listen while you can and then be sure to buy the record when it comes out. Enjoy! Click the “read more…” link to listen.
This song has been stuck in my head for a week – I’m not sure why. Maybe they were vamping it at Meshuggah?
Doesn’t matter. Here’s Testament playing “Disciples of the Watch” in Italy in ‘92. I’m sure someone will call me a pussy for saying this, but the intro to this song is so incredibly bad assed that not to play it as part of the live song is fucking criminal. At least play a fuckin’ recording of it like Metallica would, fellas.
-AR
Shortly after the band finished their mind-bending set opening for The Black Dahlia Murder, Testament and Children of Bodom at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom, I had the chance to talk with Between the Buried and Me singer Tommy Rogers and bassist Dan Briggs. The guys spoke about the band’s new DVD Colors Live, their rigorous touring schedule in support of Colors, sharing the stage with their heroes in Dream Theater on the summer’s Prog Nation tour, and what the next Between the Buried and Me record is going to sound like. The full interview transcript, after the jump.
Things are heating up in the U.S. presidential race, and everyone from Vince to Axl to Dallas to the Blogronaut expressed their opinions; naturally you all got fired up too. But even politics as usual couldn’t stop the flow of happenings this week in the world of metal:
We out. See you Monday.
Our pals over at Metal Injection captured this footage of Dave Hill, the King of Metal, as he “schools a bunch of pussies” outside a NYC Testament concert. Personally, I take this as evidence that McCain’s “People with Cats on their Heads MUST Know Who Testament Are” policy to be 110% correct. Johnny, ya got my vote.
For more info on Dave Hill, go here. For more cool videos from Metal Injection, go here. And if you don’t know who Testament are, go here.
-AR
[MetalSucks contributor, resident old fart and best-selling author Corey Mitchell recently attended the San Antonio stop of this summer's Metal Masters tour featuring Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, Motorhead and Testament. Before the show he caught up with Testament wunkerkind guitarist Alex Skolnick and asked him questions about the band's formation, the steps leading to their reunion, his work with his own jazz trio and his experience being in New York when the twin towers fell on September 11th. Read Corey's review of the show and of course check out his interview with Skolnick after the jump.]
There has been a veritable smorgasbord of Old Fart-approved albums over the last twelve months. New full-lengthers from the likes of such metal greats as Exodus, Death Angel, Overkill, and the mighty Testament (review here) have made this one of the most memorable and satisfying years to be an Old Fart metal fan (Metallica’s newest excluded purposefully).
Joining the aforementioned second-tier thrash titans from the 80’s with a new release is none other than Aberdeen, Washington’s Metal Church. The always under-appreciated progenitors of melodic thrash have returned with a brilliant work of art worthy of repeated headbanging sessions in the form of their newest release, This Present Wasteland.
The biggest metal tour of 2008 rolled through San Antonio at the Verizon Wireless this past Sunday with Testament, Motorhead, Heaven and Hell, and Judas Priest in tow. It was Heavy Metal Parking Lot come to life, only with several more “special” parking spaces for the decidedly older crowd.
In 2004, the Painkiller-era Judas Priest line-up reunited and blew Black Sabbath off the stage at Ozzfest, so I supposed it’s only fair that in 2008, Sabbath should return the favor on the Metal Masters tour.
Of course, swapping out Ozzy Osbourne for Ronnie James Dio didn’t hurt.
There’s lots of talk about thrash these days. Amidst killer “comeback” records by the likes of old-schoolers Testament, Exodus, and Death Angel, there’s been a spate of signings of young up and comers who hawk the thrash sound. Muncipal Waste, Warbringer, Bonded By Blood, Evile, etc are all young bands that ape the classic thrash sound to some degree. Not to take anything away from these bands, because they’re certainly talented — but the mass signing of old-school sounding thrash bands begs the question: is this a true revival, or a passing trend?
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Old Fart CD Reviews:
Testament – The Formation of Damnation
So I got an e-mail from Vince asking me if I wanted to review the new Testament CD, The Formation of Damnation. Great, I figured. Let the old fart listen to music by other old farts and rail on about how “metal kicked more ass in my day.” Well, in this case, it’s true.
Testament’s first full-length original CD since 1999’s The Gathering brings back 4/5 of the classic line-up of Chuck Billy (vox), Eric Peterson (guitar), Alex Skolnick (guitar), Greg Christian (bass), and new recruit, drummer Paul Bostaph (ex-Forbidden, ex-Slayer). The rejuvenated quintet brings the best of 80’s Bay Area thrash back to the forefront and teaches the new kids on the block — i.e. Evile, Warbringer, Hatchet, Trivium, Merciless Death – hell, even Lamb of God — exactly how it’s done.
The title track from the new Judas Priet album, Nostradamas, is available for free download from the widget below. You can also pre-order the album in a variety of super-deluxe packages.
Now, personally, I was left feeling a little cold by Angel of Retibution. Maybe that’s just ’cause my expectations were too high, I dunno. But this song kicks some serious ass, if you ask me. I got chills the second that intro started, and I am now seriously stoked to hear the whole album.
Download the song and debate amongst yourselves. As you’ve probably heard by now, Priest will spend their summer touring with Heaven and Hell, Motorhead and Testament, which has to be one of the hottest tickets of the year.
-AR
FUCK SCOTT WEILAND. I’m glad you’ve been able to get this far based on your limited vocal range and ability to mimic the same style of on-stage dancing that Bowie and Iggy Pop were doing thirty years ago, but seriously, stop trying to compete with Axl Rose for the “Biggest Asshole” award – Axl will beat your ass every time. Calling Slash by his real name in a press release does not make you clever. Claiming the name “Velvet Revolver” was your idea does not make you cool. You’ve always had to suck off the musical talent teat of others, and every time I think about the fact that Layne Staley couldn’t get it together while you go on and on and on I die a little inside. I hope the DeLeo brothers stab you in the eyes with your fucking needles. And fuck your wife Mary, too.
FUCK ROBB FLYNN. I’m a huge Machine Head fan, but telling people that you “once punched some kid in the face for saying that Gary Holt sucked” is moronic. Metal is supposed to be about blowing off steam in a healthy way so as to avoid actual neanderthal behavior. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to fight in this world, but someone insulting the fucking guitar player from Exodus is not one of them. Put more simply: You either a) actually did punch some dude for talking shit about Holt and are therefore a bona fide moron or b) are lying about punching some dude for talking shit about Holt and are therefore a bona fide moron. Also, every Machine Head album in-between Burn My Eyes and Through the Ashes of Empires was a cock sucking trend chasing waste of time. Deal with it.
FUCK MARIA BRINK. Someone told me that if you see her up close she’s not actually hot, but after looking closely at some candid photos (like this one), I realized you don’t really have to be very close to her all to see that she looks like a fucking rodent. Has this bitch had too much plastic surgery (excuse me, “work done”), or does she really just look like my morning crap? Also, did you know that she sells hand drawn pictures and poems on her MySpace page (I won’t link to it, go find it if you’re so fucking interested)? I haven’t read the poems but the pictures look like they were drawn by a retarded five year old. Stop wearing that stupid blue dress and trying to exploit your non-existent looks to cover up for your lack of talent. I hope Christina Scabbia kicks you in the twat.
Fuck me for writing this, and fuck you for reading it. I’m gonna go kill a fucking bunny that made fun of Alex Skolnick.
-AR
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-AR