MetalSucks

I’m in my bunk. Everyone else is asleep. We’re riding through some windy dark mountain roads somewhere in Germany on the way to the next show. I’ve got “Ghost of Perdition” by Opeth blasting on my headphones. Figured that I would give that a spin. I haven’t really listened to them very much lately. I kinda burned out on them for a while. I never stopped loving their music, but I think I just had more than my brain could handle. When I got into after the release of Blackwater Park, all the way through the release of Ghost Reveries, I’d say that Opeth were on my iTunes at least once a day. They are a band that I’ve listened to, and listened to again, and again, and again. There’s always something new to find in their music. Not only did I listen my ass off but I went to their shows whenever possible. I saw them at least six times before I even met them. I ended up dating a member of their crew for a little while, so that meant more and more Opeth shows. Basically, I know my Opeth, and from the musicianship to the composition I think that they are one of the greatest bands of all time.

That said, I haven’t decided to listen to them in about a year before tonight. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Albums that I just absolutely love, I would consider and just be like, naaah. Maybe it’s the mental equivalent of a water-soluble vitamin like C. Once you have your dosage, the rest just gets released with your urine. Maybe your brain can only handle so much of one type of stimulus for so long before it shuts off to it. I mean that’s happened to me with other bands.

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He would have been 69 years old today.

I did an informal poll on Twitter to find good metal covers of Beatles songs, and while a number of people made creative suggestions and a lot of people were all into Beatallica n’ shit, the general consensus seemed to be that Motley Crue’s version of “Helter Skelter” still reigns supreme. So without further adieu…

Feel free to discuss your own favorite metal versions of songs originally by The Beatles below.

-AR

I don’t know how I missed this, but Bruce Springsteen turned sixty yesterday. SIXTY!!! And while The Boss obviously isn’t metal, he is really awesome. And far be it from me to miss an opportunity to post a video from my youth.

So here’s Springsteen doing The Beatles’ “Come Together” with a certain Hero Long Since Dead for the 1994 Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame Induction of Elton John. For those of you who don’t remember, this really did seem cool fifteen years ago.

-AR

I haven’t done a blog in a while because the last blog I did really got me thinking about the mentality of people in the metal scene. Most particularly, the mentality of shit talking. We’re all guilty of it. I admitted to shit talking Bring Me The Horizon in magazines over in Europe when I was in God Forbid. I never heard them at that point. But now, I dig them and I feel pretty stupid for slagging them.

In my last blog I mentioned my excitement for the band Eryn Non Dae and how I was going to “borrow” some of their ideas for my new project. First of all, my last blog was PACKED with information about band business, touring and juicy tidbits of amazing knowledge :) But, the funny thing about the last blog was this guy ‘Jamie.’ Out of a five hundred word blog, he took the phrase “borrow ideas” and accused me and God Forbid of riding the coat tails of other popular bands. Killswitch was his biggest gripe. Then it was Opeth.

He claimed Gone Forever (2004) was a Killswitch rip and Earthsblood (2009) was an Opeth rip. This type of thing usually doesn’t bother me. In this instance I was fucking bothered. Jamie and I entered into a written brawl about the history of God Forbid and the intentions of our song writing for the last ten fucking years. Why would I waste my time to defend myself from this sort of claim?

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He looks a tad bit bored at first… but around the :30 mark his face lights up and he gets really into it, and by the end he’s having a smashing good time. It’s funny to see a drum legend playing a dumbed-down version of music that already has a really simple drum beat, and it’s hilarious when he fucks up at the end. I’d love to see him tear up some shit on the Expert level.

-VN

[Thanks: Brandon Marvin]

I’m not actually anti-Guitar Hero/rhythm games the way some people are, and this is only sorta kinda related to metal, but this satirical look into the making of Guitar Hero: The Beatles (not a real game, obviously) is too funny not to share.

-AR

[via CHUD]

Though recently convicted of murder, Phil Spector is regarded as one of the greatest music impresarios of the 20th century. His “Wall Of Sound” production style made him stand out from the pack, though the final results were not always met with appreciation by the artists with which he worked–perhaps the most noteworthy of these dissatisfied parties being The Beatles. Paul McCartney in particular loathed Spector’s approach on Let It Be, and a very different version of the album appeared in 2003. Whether or not such a revision will occur with Chris Cornell’s Timbaland-produced Scream remains to be seen, but an undeniably rock-centric version of his latest single certainly raises the question.

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Many of you have no doubt heard of Beatallica already, but this is too excellent not to post. If you’re hesitant to waste your precious finger-moving energy by clicking that “play” button, consider this: the band lists their members as Jamyz Lennfield, Grg Hammeston, Kliff Mcburtney and Ringo Larz.

-VN

Despite being the universally-heralded godfathers of the dreaded nu-metal movement, The Deftones have always been kind of left-of-center and have somehow manages to remain kind of cool. Throughout their now 15+ year career, the Deftones have evolved into some kind of quirky, alternative (in the true sense of the word) metal band that has somehow managed to straddle the line between art and commercial viability quite well.

That said, the band’s last two albums — 2003’s self-titled and 2006’s Saturday Night Wrist — have been solid but ultimately lacking in that intangible element that made the band’s earlier output special. The band has kind of drifted down an experimental path that they’ve dabbled in but not fully embraced, but these dabblings have hinted at something that I feel the band has yet to explore.

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