So I created a playlist on Spotify (unfortunately all y’all that don’t have it are going to have to cope, I’ll figure out a way to do an iTunes version, but that means buying a bunch of tracks, that’s pretty lame). You can check it out here: Veckans Spellista v. 34.
If you have a very similar CD collection to me you could re-build this list on your home computer. Unfortunately for Spotify users, certain songs I wanted to use aren’t on the list I created originally. It’s in 90 minute mix-tape format, for those of you who are old enough to have made such things as music infatuated youth.
Side A: At the Gates – “Slaughter of the Soul” The Black Dahlia Murder – “Miasma” Anathema – “One Last Goodbye” (from Hindsight) Enslaved – “As Fire Swept Clean the Earth” Finntroll - “Den Sista Runans Dans” (replaced with “Solsagan” on Spotify) Hypocrisy – “Craving for another Killing” Amon Amarth – “Valhall Awaits Me” Blind Guardian – “Battlefield” Bloodbath – “Eaten” Månegarm – “Eld”
Side B: Shining – “Besvikelsens Dystra Monotoni” Dimmu Borgir – “The Insight and the Catharsis” Opeth – “Serenity Painted Death” Blaze – “Stare at the Sun” (this is from The Night that Would Not Die on the Spotify version) Einherjer – “Wolf-Age” In Mourning – “The Art of a Mourning Kind”
EDIT! BONUS LIST!
So, there’s a thread on the Iron Maiden fanclub website about the top 10 best modern tracks (i.e., from the last 4 albums). So I bit and made this truly fantastic playlist that is built for flow, not by favorite (since they all rank highly for me). This album would be a 5/5 75 minute record..
“Montségur”
“The Alchemist”
“Brighter than a Thousand Suns”
“Coming Home”
“Blood Brothers”
“The Pilgrim”
“Face in the Sand”
“The Longest Day”
“Isle of Avalon”
“The Legacy”
In an attempt to not re-post Blabbermouth’s news like many of the blogs out there (since yes, I, too am unfortunately tied to Blabbermouth for my news), I try to do a bit more analysis and opinion on certain things. Think of me as the pundit to your regular news hour. Anyway, I have often given Iron Maiden shit about their American tours. Now once again they’re skipping the midwest in the US for the most part, and unfortunately they’re not coming to Sweden except for the stupid Sonisphere festival which costs way too much to just see Maiden (RIP Dio.). But one of the things I’ve often complained about is Maiden‘s reluctance to do new tours in the US or to play deep cuts on tours (can’t you play Alexander the Great JUST ONCE!?). Continue reading
Hey there everybody. It has come to my attention that ex-Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor has put out a new demo with his wife doing vocals called How to Destroy Angels. This is free to download here. If you pay $2.00 you can get the files in 44.1khz .wav files (which is CD quality pretty much). Rumor has it that if you like late NIN you’ll like How to Destroy Angels. I am not a fan, personally, of anything that was done in the last few years. But I know a lot of people are, and fuck, I think that Trent Reznor’s dedication to the basically free distribution of his art is totally commendable and he should be encouraged to continue doing so.
I’ll probably toss up a review of it in a few days (once we’re past this influx of releases that we’re fighting through now).
Here at Angry Metal Guy, you may have noticed that refreshingly compared to the majority of other websites on the interwebs this site doesn’t have any ads. It has no targeted ads, it has no irrelevant ads, it has no ads at all. I have never set up a secretive little program with a company where I make money for promoting their products or any of that other bullshit that one regularly sees shady bloggers doing all over the place.
Personally, this Angry Metal Guy hates internet advertising and thinks it’s basically ineffective and wasteful of time and space. But apparently lots of people make lots of money off of it. However, over here at Angry Metal Guy there are other considerations. Because of this, all costs for everything come out of my pockets and that means that the budget is highly (and I mean *HIGHLY*) constrained. So now, in my “bad capitalist” fashion, I’m going to ask you, the reader, to help this Angry Metal Guy out by donating to my beer fund (which may sometimes also include paying for hosting, creating merch, and hookers, er, housing for homeless veterans). If this doesn’t work, I might have to try the advertising route. So hopefully the readership here appreciates what I do enough to donate once in a while.
Just click on the beer link and it’ll take you to PayPal. Hope you don’t think it’s too annoying, but AMG’s gotta stay afloat somehow.
What was happening in your life in 1995? Maybe you weren’t into metal yet, or maybe you weren’t aware that there was something growing in the heart of Sweden that would soon be one of the most successful and influential scenes in the history of heavy metal. Between 1994 and 1996 a myriad of amazing records were released from Scandinavia, Sweden in particular, but also the budding black metal scene in Norway was going on and even Finland was producing Amorphis records. Katatonia released For Funerals to Come that year, as well as it being the year of the mighty Slaughter of the Soul in 1995 as well. Go through your iTunes or on RYM or wherever and check out what was going on.
For one group of Swedes, however, 1995 was a beginning that never really lead anywhere. The band was called Empuse, which was apparently some kind of blood sucking insect, and they won a contest. While they never got signed, they probably should’ve been. I was given their demo recently and I’m surprised at how forward thinking this record is, particularly having talked to the guy who wrote the songs who knew absolutely nothing of the other bands in the scene (and in fact has only recently started listening to Katatonia and Opeth). It’s like when you read about how certain things that are very similar to each other evolved in isolation (like the wolf and the dingo) from each other. It’s fascinating, and it’s a piece of metal history that unfortunately had been lost until now.
Check this demo out and try to put yourself in 1995 and see if you’re as impressed as I am with it. These are the two tracks and that’s the cover (just click and save it). They are definitely worth your time.
As far as I’m concerned, one of Wisconsin and Michigan’s best kept secrets is the solo project of one Rory Heikkila: Shroud of Despondency. I posted earlier about his amazing tracks from the record Objective: Isolation which is soon to be released (hopefully). And now, he’s apparently gotten together with the drummer and vocalist from Owlscry to create 5 new tracks of fucking amazing black metal. This stuff is sans bass and vocals and “slightly unmixed” and still it is fucking better than most of the stuff I’m getting in as promos. It is fucking phenomenal, to say the least. One observer put it like this: “Dude, your music is so good it makes me cry.” Not because it’s so emotionally evocative (though, it’s that too) but because it’s just so fucking good and as a musician you can’t help but be a little jealous.
The Swedish blogger (and ridiculously fucking metal) Demonia has posted some pictures and videos (in Swedish—though, she’s got Google translator embedded for the foreigners) from Blaze Bayley‘s show in Stockholm. I, being Poor Metal Guy, managed to miss this one, but hopefully they’ll be back soon (though, what with shedding their manager and drummer in the last few days I’m not sure when that’ll actually be). Anyway, the turnout seems like it was actually pretty damn good and the band is on. I have to say that their bassist (David Bermudez) is one of the best heavy metal performers I’ve ever seen. I commented on it from the live DVD, the dude is just a fucking beast. Los hermanos Bermúdez are pretty awesome in general, I’d say. I’ll post four here, but she’s got others on her blog and some on YouTube as well.
Here’s one of my favorite songs off of the mighty Tenth Dimension record:
And here’s “Faceless” from 2010′s Promise and Terror:
And of course, “Futureal” from the much maligned Virtual XI record. But once again the band shows that had that record had some production and energy it would’ve been a much better album.
Well fuck. 2010 really blows so far. First, Pete Steele and now Ronnie James Dio who died earlier today, according to Blabbermouth. This time it ain’t a mistake.
Wendy Dio, wife/manager of legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio (DIO, HEAVEN & HELL, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW), has released the following statement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET:
“Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45 a.m. [on Sunday] 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private goodbyes before he peacefully passed away.
“Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all.
“We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us.
“Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss.
“Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever.”
It was only a month ago that Dio, 67, spoke about his battle with cancer with the Artisan News Service on the “black carpet” of the Revolver Golden Gods Awards, which took place on April 8 at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. When asked about how he had been feeling since he was diagnosed with the disease late last year, Dio said, “Well, I feel good and bad at times. It’s a long process. Chemotherapy is a… I never realized what a difficult thing it was to go through. It’s a real cumulative effect — the more you have, the more it piles up on top and it takes longer and longer to get over it. I find it very difficult to eat. I don’t like to eat anyway, so I guess that’s OK. But I know I have to. But this makes it very, very hard. But if you’re determined to beat it, then you have to go with what you believe is going to beat it for you, and in this case it’s that. I go to a great hospital in Houston called M.D. Anderson, which I think is the best hospital in the world, I have the best doctor in the world, Dr. Ajani, who I really trust and I really believe in, so I think I’ve done all the right things. It makes me feel positive about my life and positive that there is a lot more of it to live.”
Earlier this month, HEAVEN & HELL canceled its summer tour plans in Europe due to Dio‘s treatment for stomach cancer. The band said in a statement that Dio wasn’t “well enough to tour this summer. We hope that everyone understands and want to thank fans and industry colleagues for their continuing support at this time.”
Ronnie James Dio had performed with ELF, RAINBOW, BLACK SABBATH, and his own band DIO. Other musical projects included the collective fundraiser “Hear ‘n Aid”. He is widely hailed as one of the most powerful singers in heavy metal, renowned for his consistently powerful voice and for popularizing the “devil’s horns” hand gesture in metal culture. He was most recently involved with HEAVEN & HELL, a project which also included former BLACK SABBATH bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice. Their first and only studio album, “The Devil You Know”, was released on April 28, 2009.
Once again I’m left with the unenviable task of writing a eulogy for a man I never knew. But let me just be clear about this: Ronnie James Dio was a heavy metal institution. He was the best of the best. He was the man who saved Black Sabbath from Ozzy and who made, at the age 66, one of the most widely acclaimed heavy metal records of 2009—not to mention his excellent solo career. He was tiny, but he had a huge voice and personality and he invented the metal horns as we know it (supposedly). There are few out there who I have as much respect for and there will never be anyone quite like the man. I will definitely be listening to some Dio and thinking fondly of learning to play his music and wishing I could sing like him.
I wish his wife and family all the best in this fucking shitty time and all of us here at AMG will definitely raise a toast to his memory while blasting his tunes.
Doc Coyle from God Forbid posted a really interesting blog over at Metal Sucks which I recommend everyone go and read right now. Now sure, Doc isn’t a modern day philosopher, but what he is is about one year older than I am. And he’s also someone that this Angry Metal Guy can really agree with on several points. I, too, have recently gone through this “I’m getting old,” thing, when I realize that I’m meeting people who were born in years I remember—”Oh, 1988, huh? Yeah, well, shit Seventh Son of a Seventh Son came out that year! My brother got it for Christmas!” I get added on MySpace by people who were born the year that I was an angsty teenager who listening to Life of Agony and Type O Negative and pretending I was miserable. Or really being miserable I guess.
One of the points that Doc makes, however, that I would like to rebutt is basically saying that old guys get sorta stuck. I don’t think that’s entirely true. What I think happens is that the novelty starts to wear off after a while. And so every time you hear a new band you can say something like “Well, shit, that’s just an _insert band here_ riff, why not go listen to the original?” I find myself doing that all the time. I think the other thing that happens is that our tastes start to mature in the sense that we start to understand things better. We all know that metal is music for musicians, but when you’re 18 and knockin’ out riffs to whatever it is that you’re knockin’ out, you’re not thinking about the trends or what’s going on before you, etc. More importantly, you know nothing about record production, the trends you’re being subjected to and so forth. You probably haven’t realized that metal is just commercial music, so you’re not thinking about things critically. But as you get older you get more cynical. You see excellent bands who don’t pass in the current trend passed over by labels consistently, while shitty trend bands get picked up. You hear every band replace the fuck out of their drums and you notice that everything sounds fake and lifeless.
But not only that, you’ve seen what’s cool in the underground before.. sometimes in reality! For example: sure, I was a kid, but I got Metallica‘s Kill ‘Em All as a bribe when I was 7 or 8 years old to not tell my parents that my brother had ditched me at home with his weird, antisocial buddy. I listened to Testament and Slayer and non-stop Iron Maiden while kids in my age group wet themselves over flannel-clad suicidal douchebags with bad habits and now that all the kids are in neo-thrash and neo-NWoBHM bands, I have trouble thinking “Hey, this is exciting!” ‘Cause I heard it when I was younger. I loved it then. It influenced my taste in music and my guitar playing, writing, etc. Why would I as the old guy (28) I am get excited about people reliving a scene that’s been super done already once?
One final thought: while lots of metalheads are really metalheads for life, there are a large number of kids who get into metal during those topsy turvey years of 13-19 and then when the hormones die down, they go back to listening to Weezer (or I guess Muse now? I dunno, what’s hip people?). These people have no context when they’re being young, energetic and super into it. They weren’t listening to metal as kids and they’re not going to be listening to metal when they’re older. It’s just not gonna happen. As an old guy you have every right to get cynical and shake your cane at shit that sucks—especially when it’s driven by kids with no critical thinking skills, no context and not a lick of sense. Just like we were when we were moshing crazy at shows, screaming at the top of our lungs and trying our hardest to get the hormones to just calm the fuck down.
Want some shit to shake your new found Old Metal Cane™ at? How about God Forbid getting grouped in with metalcore when you guys are obviously a fucking thrash metal band. Get at it! And welcome to adulthood.
