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You know its is a good day to be a metalhead when a new Slayer CD comes out. World Painted Blood is the latest offering from the “troo” kings of metal.  Slayer is a band that has managed to stay true to what they have done since day one. A point that is more impressive considering that day one was over two decades ago. There are no Load’s or Turbo’s or Risk’s in this bands’ discography.

It starts off with the title track and guitarist Jeff Hanneman’s riffing that lets you know right off the bat that this is a Slayer album. Hanneman is key to this album since he took  a much greater songwriting effort than in the past. Plus his playing style has always come from a more punk or hardcore style than Kerry King’s and at times the sound does harkens back to Hell Awaits or Haunting the Chapel. DO NOT be mistaken in thinking that Slayer is just on the neo-thrash bandwagon. Which would be ironic since the helped invent the genre but nonetheless.

Naturally with all Slayer albums this one is filled with songs of love, politics, and the Dahli Lama living in exile. I’m just kidding, it is filled with songs on the self-destruction of mankind, murder, and other fair that could only come out of the demented mind of Kerry King. You have “Snuff” a lovely ditty about a snuff filmmaker that features some of the trademark back and forth soloing. “Beauty Through Order” is a song about the incredibly insane Countess Bathory. The band channels its’ inner U2 with “Americon” and its’ opinion n the war in the middle east. When you hear the lines “it’s all about the mother fucking oil” you figure out where the band is coming from. Now it would not be a Slayer album without a shot at religion and “Not of this God” is a hell of a shot.

There are some drawbacks though. World Painted Blood is produced by Greg Fidelman with an executive producer credit to Rick Rubin. Rubin has been producing the band for a longtime and is the reason that Dave Lombardo’s drums have always sounded so much better than anyone in their genre. Plus, I doubt that Rick spent much time in the studio, his credit is more of a result of him owning the label Mr. Fidelman was the one behind the knobs so all praise/fault fall on his shoulders. The drums sound great as does Tom Araya’s vocals. You could nitpick about the guitars a tad but whatever. The big problem is that this sounds remarkably like Death Magnetic the album that Fidelman worked on before this. It’s not that it is sounds bad it’s just not as good as it should be.

World Painted Blood is a shot across the bough to all those that thought Slayer has gone the way of AC/DC and just recorded a typical album. Slayer has made an album that while not as good as South of Heaven or Reign on Blood, is still better than 90% of what is out there. This is a band that is reclaiming their throne from all of the up and comers that have laid siege to it.

I think I’m gonna be sick.
That was the first thought that went through my mind upon hearing that TNA had signed both Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff.  TNA has made nice strides over the past couple of years and seemed to be on the verge of pushing most of its’ young talent; Matt Morgan., Hernandez, newly acquired Desmond Wolfe (ex-ROH Champion Nigel McGuiness) and the Motor City Machine Guns.
    So why in the blue hell would a company spend a big bag of cash on two guys who were the antithesis of pushing new talent? Bischoff built up WCW on the backs of the then over the hill Hogan, and Scott Hall and Kevin Nash two guys that left WWF and were starting to make the downhill slide, and that was over 10 years ago. During his tenure, Bischoff only created two new stars, the Giant aka the Big Show, and Goldberg. However, future starts like Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Booker T, and Chris Benoit were all stuck under the glass ceiling.
    Now Hogan’s lack of working with new talent is legendary. Especially if they are deemed “too small” in his eyes. This was the reason at Wrestlemania IX when the great Bald One would only face Yokozuina and not Bret Hart. There are plenty of other examples out there, but most disturbing is when he uses his influence to perpetuate this. Back in the WCW days he convinced a young and exceedingly popular Goldberg to not do a program with another young wrestler that Hogan deemed too small. That of course was Chris Jericho and now his is one of the best of all-time and Goldberg is hosting third rate car shows on an obscure cable channels. Even in his last run with WWE Hogan could not put his ego aside enough to do the job to Shawn Michaels.
    What the actual roles each person will have on TNA is still vague, but Bischoff is rumored to be there only for his TV expertise and to try and get TNA another show. When TNA resigned with Spike last year there was a clause that allowed them to put a show on another network if Spike passed on it. TNA has been trying to get a show for their Knockouts division, the X-Division and a televised version of the very entertaining Spin Cycle web show. In that regard Bischoff and his partner Jason Hervey do have the expertise but if you look at what they have done, people may want to ease off the praise. The big claims to fame for them are reality shows starring Ted Nugent, Scott Baio, and Billy Ray Cyrus. The biggest network that these shows were on is VH-1 and while that shows has big name recognition there ratings are not that impressive. If the can get a new TNA show on the air it better be on a bigger channel. Putting a wrestling show on a channel that runs marathons of 100 greatest countdowns or which skank will sleep with which left over star from the 80’s is not a good thing. 
    Now Hogan’s role is still a mystery. Part of this is to hype his new book, I will not, and another is that he just had a HUGE divorce and could use the cash. The curious part is that Hogan and Bischoff have put together a tour of Australia, Hulkamania, ironically in competition with TNA’s upcoming tour of the land down under. If Hogan comes in as an ambassador type role similar to what Ric Flair did in ROH, then that would be great. His name recognition would be a huge asset and having him at certain PPV’s to greet fans and sign autographs  would be phenomenal as would having Hogan putting over TNA’s new talent over as the next big things. Pro Wrestling Torch’s Wade Keller came up with the idea of Hogan being a babyface commissioner. That sounds perfect as it gets him on the air but keeps him away from the ring. Now if he comes in and legdrops Morgan, Samoa Joe , and Desmond Wolfe, then Dixie Carter needs to bend over and kiss her ass goodbye. TNA has set themselves up as the alternative to WWE and while they have brought in the occasional ex-WWE superstar, most of their talent is  homegrown. Letting a washed up 55-year old who can barely walk come in and bury your talent will end the company faster than getting kicked off of Spike.
    TNA fans have spent countless hours defending the company and some of their curious decisions. For all of TNA’s bad decisions, the shining lights of  Joe, Knockouts, X-Division, MCMG, AJ Styles and others have kept that bad hidden in the shadows.
    Of course it may have blinded us from reality.

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Well, you have to hand it to the Red Rocker, he refuses to let Father Time slow him down. He headlined last summer’s festival circuit and got together with former Van Halen bandmate Michael Anthony, guitar whiz Joe Satriani, and Red Hot drummer Chad Smith and released the excellent Chickenfoot CD. While many contemporaries at his age would be gasping after such a heavy workload, Sammy Hagar decides to release a new solo album.

Cosmic Universal Fashion is a bewildering piece of work that is one part admirable, one part lazy and one part smells of contract fulfillment.  The album kicks off in a very different direction that will shock diehard fans. Several years ago on VH-1’s 100 Greatest Hard Rock Bands, Hagar fawned over his love and admiration of Tool and how they were influenced what he was doing. Back then that statement was laughable but the first 3 tracks reflect that sentiment.

Almost.

Each of these songs reflect a much darker feeling and sound that you have to admire the attempt even though you are thinking that Sammy must be singing for his son’s band. Musically they are fine where they hit a snag is lyrically as Sammy is just not adept at writing these types of songs. “Peephole” is a tremendous song on both fronts but gets bogged down by some clunky wording and phrasing. It deals with kidnapping and child sex abuse and could be compared to Aerosmith’s “Janie’s Got a Gun” in how it combined a great song with a not very pop friendly subject.

Unfortunately it all goes haywire after that. Up comes “Loud” a below average party song that sounds like it was written the night before the recording session. It’s tepidness is soon tested by the equally bland “24365” and “Switch on the Light”. Maybe they all sound better after sampling some of his Cabo Wabo Tequilla. You will need shots of said alcohol when you hear his version of “Fight For Your Right to Party”. Let’s put it this way, as bad as it sounds in you head right now, multiply that by 10 and you may be close.

It mercifully ends with a live acoustic version of “Dreams” a hit from his days in Van Halen.

After listening you can’t help but think that either Hagar should have saved the first couple of songs in the vault until he had an album’s worth or just put them out as an EP. By mixing the two drastically different styles together it ruins that impact of the first half which serves as a downer for the second part.

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The Black Crowes has just released Before the Frost/Until the Freeze, a double album sort of. This innovative release is the hard copy of Before the Frost…, with an online code for …Until the Freeze. The band did this as a thank you to their fans for a 20 year career, so far.

Both albums were recorded live in studio in front of a small crowd. This really gives the songs a great natural sound augmented by the smattering sounds of an appreciative audience What is interesting is when I added both albums to iTunes Before the Frost was labeled “blues” while Until the Freeze was “rock”. However there is no split personality on these albums, just the same high quality, pun intended, blues based rock with an ever increasing acoustic sound. That is not to say that their jam band appeal is gone, that is evident on “Been a Long Time”. Now the 7-minutes jam are sharing space with a more acoustic/country sound on “Appaloosa” and “Houston Don’t Dream About Me’. The later a beautiful ballad very reminiscent of the driving country songs of the 70’s.

The most curious, surprising, and arguably the best track is “I Ain’t Hiding”, a disco song.

Yes I said a disco song.

While the chorus does have a rock feel to it, this is a disco song and it is fucking awesome. I dare anyone to not start dancing in the cubicle, car seat, couch, or whatever, when they hear this track.  I don’t know where the inspiration for this came from or why it took the band this long to record it, I am just glad that they did.

Another interesting track is “Aimless Peacock”, a 7-minute instrumental that is a cross between Appalachian folk and ”Norwegian Wood”.

There will be many griping that this is a good two-disc set with only one disc worth of great music that may be true. Since the second disc is free and a good Black Crowes CD is better than most all is well.

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Judas Priest

A Touch of Evil Live

Epic

.. ..

Judas Priest’s new live CD, A Touch of Evil Live, is a nice little payoff for diehard fans. The 11 tracks that make up the release are all songs that have not been previously recorded live. This is saying something considering that the band has something like 30 live albums in their career. Not really, they only have five but three of those have come out in the last decade.

All kidding aside the content is a little uneven. The listing has two songs from 2008’s Nostradamus, an ambitious yet uneven release. One could argue that the two selected, “Death” and “Prophecy”, where the wrong ones. Those mistakes are quickly offset with renditions of “Beyond the Realms of Death” and “Eat Me Alive”. One of the supposed highlights is “Painkiller”. The original is a massive Teutonic slab of metal greatness that showed the band incorporating the heavier styles of bands from the early 90’s that were influenced by them. However, singer Ron Halford’s voice sounds horrible on this version.  His attempts of recreating the graveling vocal style sound woefully inadequate and if anyone else would have done this they would be getting mocked. However, in the same song and throughout the whole album his voice still sounds amazing when he sings. A lesson to all the kids out there, if you take care of your voice your voice will take care of you.

Also noteworthy is the drumming of Scott Travis. It was his debut on the Painkiller album that helped to boost their sound and bombast. It is refreshing to see him still having the same effect 15 years later.

While A Touch of Evil Live is a nice attempt of filling in holes for diehard fans. The set is too specific that it comes off like a cash grab than a sincere release.

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Such Hawks Such Hounds

DVD Review

.. ..

In the overflowing racks of DVD’s at your local record store, the subject of Stoner rock has been neglected. The void has been filled with the release of Such Hawks Such Hounds. The film is the culmination of three years work by John Srebalus. The first time director seeks to expose one hard rock’s many subgenres. While any documentary on stoner is very welcomed Srebalus delivered a very disjointed and confusing result.

It starts off with a timeline from Sabbath and a nice piece on Pentagram. The American band is one of those underground influences that get sadly overlooked. Then the timeline becomes almost inconsequential as there is a piece on Earthless, a band who was not born when Pentagram was formed. This is nothing against that band as their live piece is outstanding. Not to mention bassist Mario Rubalcaba’s explanation of the “cosmic nod”.

The film continues the same format with a look back and then a piece on a modern band. While that maybe acceptable, what is not is some of the bands. There is Fatso Jetson, a blues band complete with a harmonica playing front man. The fact that they refer to themselves as a blues band should have been clue number one for the director. However, when guitarist Mario Lalli says “a clean tremolo can sound so evil that it makes Black Sabbath sound like Peggy Lee” should have been the proverbial final straw. They seem to be included because they were signed to SST Records. Srebalus seems to play up the alt-rock and punk influence more than it really is. Case in point is the inclusion of uber-producer Jack Endino and Mudhoney’s Mark Arn.

Their inclusion would not have been so bad but it comes at the expense of Wino. Wino is generally regarded as the grandfather of stoner rock and after watching this film you would not get that impression. It is sickening that the director was able to land him and then to not fully expand on his influence. Then the director chooses to spend more time of Arik Roper and others on “the art of stoner rock”.

Maddening.

That being said there are several good parts to Such Hawks. The classic album ....Jerusalem.... by Sleep is given its’ just due. The 58-minute one song album is covered in detail from the long and tiring recording to its mishandling by the record label, London Records. The label was so confused on what to do; the band had broken up by the time it was released. The groups that rose from its’ ashes, ..OM.. and High on Fire, were both featured extensively.

One of the more interesting things Srebalus did is touch on the pot influence of stoner rock. What is curious are how many bands did not like the tag because they thought it gave them an unfair stigma. Also mentioned is how all the bands know they will never “make it” and the sacrifices that they make to keep playing.

Subject’s aside the film is not well produced. It feels disjointed for the most part and the timeline graphic used never seemed to matter. There were many points brought up, like how important Man’s Ruin records were, that were never followed up on or further explained.  The biggest complaint is that they never did a job on explaining what “stoner rock” is. There are some cursorily attempts at the beginning but never developed. I have read Wino’s explanation that stoner rock is the type of music that makes you feel like you are stoned. To me that is the perfect genre definition.  Of course if Wino was given more time we may have heard that in the film.

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On ..Thursday June 25, 2009.., the King of Pop did his last crotch grab and moonwalked into the Great Unknown. While his abrupt demise was rather shocking, the outpouring of flowery prose for him in his wake is mind boggling. This is a man after all who had been dealing with child sex abuse charges for the better part of two decades. When was the last time that he had a positive story written about him? Don’t forget that before his pedophilia circus started he was labeled as an anti-Semitic for his idiotic lyrics on the HIStory album.

What are most disturbing are the constant comparisons to Elvis. You cannot compare these two in any way. Undoubtedly Elvis has his problems, but you cannot compare pills, peanut butter banana sandwiches, and sequined jumpsuits to giving cancer patients “tickle juice” and sleeping with them.  That is not to say that MJ was not a huge pop star but the chasm between the two is almost as big as E was in his final days. Elvis changed the world, Michael mad a bunch of suburban kids wear zippered jackets. 

You could in fact argue that MJ was the first media creation of MTV. The upstart video channel had slowly crept its’ way in suburbia and become the new source of pop culture for American teens. Then in 1983 along comes “Beat It” a mini-movie in which, now laughably, a young Michael Jackson gets involved with a gang fight. Add in the much underrated guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen and you have gold. After that every one of his videos became an event. Of course that was in the day when MTV played music videos so many of you have no idea what I am talking about.

As great as Thriller was, the circus that became his life afterwards clearly over shadows it. Yes, “Billie Jean” was great but hanging your kid out of a 3^rd story window not so much. Of course that kid was born from a crazy French nurse that he paid to conceive him.

Who didn’t like the duet “Say, Say, Say’ with Paul McCartney? Of course that fact that MJ’s love interest in said video was his own whack-a-do sister LaToya should have been the first sign that someone was not right with the gloved one. Of course Mikey was nice enough to buy the rights to the Beatles copyrights out from under McCartney helped to show what a great friend he was.

He had quickly gone from being a lauded to celebrity to a joke, a popular joke nonetheless, in a short span. Then in 1987 came the release of Bad, a musical attempt to prove his “manliness”. First, the video for the title track with a young Wesley Snipes, again shows MJ get tough with some street hoodlums.

Seriously.

Then came the 159 crotch grabs in the “Way You Make Me Feel” and his overall cred was gone. While many still bought his albums his trip from lauded musician to late 80’s version of Lindsay Lohan was complete in only 4 short years.

That wing of celebrity is where he resided until his death. He was a freakshow with a circus n his backyard.  He is a bridge of underage sex abusers between Roman Polanski and R. Kelly. To ignore that last two decades of his life because some have fond memories of unwrapping the Thriller LP at Christmas 25 years ago is wrong and ignorant. Is there going to be the same outpour when O.J. dies? He was one of the greatest running backs of all time. So what if he was charged in the murders of his wife that he had beaten previously and Ron Goldman. He was found innocent by a jury just like MJ. Just ignore the fact that anyone with half a brain thinks they are both guilty, except for a small group of disillusioned fans.

With all this good publicity Michael Jackson should have died years ago. You know, that would have bee fine with me.

It sure does smell in here.

That was my prevailing thought standing in a packed Verizon Wireless Theater, waiting for Lamb of God to take the stage. The legions of metal heads had packed the venue for the No Fear Energy Tour. The odor of two thousand metallic fans sweating out a sugar coma inducing energy drink was WAY too prevalent. Apparently, the scumbags that run the Verizon stuck the $5 “service fee” in their pocket and could not be bothered to turn the AC on.

 In these tough economic times, getting to see a package bill that also included As I Lay Dying, Children of Bodom, Municipal Waste, and God Forbd, was a choice easily made.

However enjoyable the openers were, everyone was there to see Lamb of God. In support if their blistering 2009 release, Wrath, the Richmond, Virginia quintet were the Horsemen of the ensuing Apocalypse. They came out swinging with the first two tracks from Wrath, “In Your Words” and “Set to Fail”. The amped up crowd was in a moshing mood all night and stepped it up a notch for the headliners. However the crowd on the floor was so overcrowded that it looked more like a plate if vibrating balls than a pit. Local underground legend Mike Haaga of Dead Horse got a shoutout and if you didn’t like LoG before that, the fact that they listen to Dead Horse should make you a fan.

Prevalent all throughout the show was the impressive and imposing presence of lead singer Randy Blythe. He walks the stage like a lion, pacing back and forth trying to find a way out of the cage. On stage he is tethered by the longest mic cable since the 1970’s. No wireless mic for him. He has an intimidating yet engaging aura around him that makes it impossible to turn away. 

The 60-minute set came to a close, without the now played out fake encore, with “Redneck” and “Black Label”. The former is an angry piece of inter-band feuding, and the latter a now classic that features the Wall of Death.

What is the Wall of Death, you may ask? Well, it is the evolution of the mosh pit where the traditional circular pattern is now two clearly divided sides that charge at one another, en mass.  The amazing aspect is that this incredibly violent and injury causing spectacle is met with cheers and high fives by all the participants.

As the satisfied crowd filed out of their seats, spontaneous chants of Lamb of God, Lamb of God rang out. Fellow concert goers joined in with their sometimes shirtless cohorts. We had all just experienced a triumphant metal moment and not even the monsoon that was waiting outside could damper our spirits.

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The prospects of another concept album from Queensryche will
most assuredly cause many a headbanger to roll their eyes. However, American Soldier is a truly unique album
in its’ subject matter and in its’ execution. On this album, lead
singer/lyricist Geoff Tate conducted several interviews with veterans to get
their perspective and stories. He then took these tales and molded them into American Soldier. What comes out is an
emotional yet, flawed tribute to the members of the United States of American
armed forces. The album’s tracks run the gambit of a soldier’s life. It opens
with “Sliver” and the feeling of basic training complete with a drill
sergeant’s barking. It then segue’s into battle hardened words on “Unafraid”
and “Hundred Mile Stare”. The former is unique in that the main lyrics are the
spoken experience of a vet.

The album tackles the very complicated emotions of what
happens to a soldier when one of his troops goes down. The gauntlet of emotions
running from guilt to sadness to regret to hopelessness are tackled on “If I
Were King”, “Man Down”, and “Remember Me”

Geoff Tate’s daughter Emily makes an appearance on “Home
Again” where she sings the role of a daughter whose father is at war. .The
emotional extra of the father-daughter duet is underscored with the lyrical
content of a family making sacrifices.

You cannot make one complaint about how the subject matter
is treated. I was a little skeptical at first but the band does a tremendous
job of showing the broad spectrum that is the life of a soldier. While the
words are top notch the music is lacking. At times it seems to work
harmoniously with the words but for the most part it comes off as cliché. It is
a shame because this had the ear markings of becoming another landmark album.
The other drawback to this album is that with the heavy emotional weight, this
will not be something you pop in with regularity.

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It is a daunting task following up a classic breakthrough
album. Many bands take the course of making a copy of what got them where they
are. Or worse make an album that they think people will like. Atlanta’s
Mastodon have decided to make an album that they like and what comes out is a
7-track, 45 minute monument of heavy prog rock greatness.

With the help of producer Brendan O’Brien, Crack the Sky is
an album that will slowly unfolds, revealing things with every listen.

The story is a bizarre tour de force about a quadriplegic that
travels through the astral plains and is returned to his body with the help of
crazed Russian monk Rasputin.

I know, not that same old story again.

Musically, all four members of Mastodon are on their game.
The rhythm section has always been solid with the drumming of Brann Dailor,
whose drum fills are burgeoning of legendary, and vocalist/bassist Troy Sanders.
Sanders has really elevated his performance this time out. These two work as
not just a foundation but as partners with the guitar histrionics of Brent
Hinds and Bill Kellihor. The pairs ability to play intricate yet engaging riffs
that make the most advanced of MIT shredders green with envy.

 Crack the Sky does not have a “single” like its’ predecessors but
every track is engrossing. From opener “Oblivion” with its’ hypnotic vocal
lines all the way to closer “The Last Baron”, the band does not sit still. “Last
Baron” is an 11-minute epic that flows seamlessly changing emotion, power, and
feel several times throughout.

The songs are not overly busy or pretentious like Dream
Theater, but quicksand-like. They slowly pull you in until there is nothing you
can do to resist.

Crack the Sky is
not an album that will grab you from the start. With each listening, you more
and more involved with it, picking up new things along the way. Most albums are
not worth the effort. This one definitely is.