I remember the first time that I heard Megadeth’s “Head Crusher” last July. Within the first twenty seconds, I knew two things were true: Dave wrote the song and Andy Sneap mixed it. The former item is rather inconsequential, as I saw on youtube that it was indeed a Megadeth song. (Had it not been labeled, it still woulda been quite obvious…) But the second is not. In this, the beginning of 2010, the work…
Avenged Sevenfold’s drummer, Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, was found dead at age 28 at his home in Huntington Beach, California, on Monday. He supposedly died of natural causes, though his death was investigated by the coroner’s office and ruled “inconclusive.” Avenged Sevenfold is rather divisive in the metal community, mainly for its early “metalcore” output. Honestly, the band got better as they went on, especially when M. Shadows stopped screaming. It was pretty damned irritating….
Arsis | “Worship Depraved” | 2004 Technical melodeath band Arsis caught the attention of many with its debut record, A Celebration of Guilt. A combination of technical melodic death metal and frontman James Malone’s black metal rasp made them one of few reasons to get excited about American metal – and rightfully so, considering the talent that lies in this record. Its unorthodox (ironic, given the record’s subject matter) nature, both musically and lyrically, gave…
The Clash of the Titans 1991 tour was one of the most epic and spectacular series of metal gigs to ever have graced the planet, basically making various venues in the US and Europe the very center of the scene for a day. Now, Megadeth and Slayer are set to embark on a tour of almost equal proportions in 2010, called the American Carnage Tour. They even brought on Testament as openers to re-create the…
Album name: Blue Record Artist name: Baroness Genre: Sludge Metal Released: October 13, 2009 Label: Relapse ZME Rating: 9/10 Website: myspace.com/yourbaroness Red and blue are interesting colors. They are two of the three “addictive primary colors,” the third being green. Red, generally signifying anger in modern culture, is assuredly addictive in American society: road rage, “You lie!,” talk radio, you get it. It would make sense, then, that Savannah quartet Baroness would name an album…
Metal can something be sooo ridiculous versatile. A few days ago I came across this band called Alestorm, a true Norwegian Black Metal Scottish Pirate Metal band, that’s simply hilarious in everything from lyrics, to music, to props. Not that I’m saying they’re a bunch of clowns or lame, oh, on the contrary, Alestorm is pure awesome! You only need to check out the video bellow for one of their songs, called “Keelhauled”, where band’s…
Album name: Deflorate Artist name: The Black Dahlia Murder Genre: Melodic death metal Released: September 15 2009 Label: Metal Blade ZME Rating: 9/10 Website: myspace.com/blackdahliamurder Deflorate: Past the flowering state; having shed its pollen. It’s important to note that word – important because The Black Dahlia Murder has after only four albums ascended to extreme metal’s throne. But keep in mind one thing: BDM isn’t a band in the band qua bandsense of the…
Yes, this column is months and months late. Get over it. I wasn’t writing for ZME in February and, more importantly, I have a valid point to make. So here we go. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences doesn’t know shit about music. The Grammy Awards used to mean something and were actually worth paying attention to. I don’t know when the award’s value began its downward trend. Perhaps it was when Album…
It was a sweet day when we decided to go in Barcelona to see the Australian living legends. So, along with game master Tibi Puiu, a few friends and a handful of whisky and tequila bottles we head out for Spain’s cultural capital. We tried to visit as much as possible there, so we missed about 15 minutes from the opening band’s show, The Answer. There was also a Spanish band before them, but I…
Just recently Mastodon were invited to play a tune on David Letterman’s Late Show in the usual post-show format. The experience, apparently, left Dave a bit ‘frighten,’ but I’m pretty convinced he’s now gone past it and erased the show out of his memory altogether. Can’t be hard at all, considering Mastodon’s performance was completely pale and unmemorable. All their shows seem this way lately. What’s happening to you, guys? The album itself, Crack The…
Steve Lampiris
Tibi Puiu
Andrei Mihai