“As both the original vocalist for Testament and Paul Baloff’s (R.I.P.) replacement in Exodus, Steve “Zetro” Souza was certainly a big player in the original Bay Area thrash explosion. After leaving and rejoining Exodus several times and churning out a few Dublin Death Patrol albums with Chuck Billy, Zetro is finally in a band of his own and back to rethrash us like it’s 1986 all over again.” Want a bonus Exodus album? What about a really good Exodus album? Here it is. You’re welcome.
Testament
What Means Expendable: The Strange Case of Jon Dette
So it looks like Dave Lombardo is out of Slayer. Again. It seems he was dismissed from the band after investigating their finances and wondering why he was not getting paid. Interestingly, Slayer frontman Tom Araya was also part of this fact-finding mission, yet he was allowed to keep his job. While there are many layers to this, to me it reeks of a double standard for drummers, who are increasingly treated as an easily replaced commodity among heavy bands. Which leads me to the dark and mysterious past of Lombardo’s current replacement, Mr. Jon Dette.
Paradox – Tales of the Weird Review
Paradox has been knocking around for ages, with few albums resulting. Steel Druhm is here to fill you in on the latest from these Germanic mavens of melo-thrash. Can one of metal’s least prolific bands sway the nostalgic metal heart of the Steel One?
Fisting Andrew Golota’s Top 10(ish) of 2012
Next up on the Top Ten(ish) carousel is the ever amusing Mr. Fisting. With a palate as diverse as his, you know you can expect some interesting selections here. Did I hear an ABBA shout-out???
90s Metal Weirdness: Testament – Low
Cast your minds back to a time when metal music was not cool. Nay, indeed, a time when metal was anathema to all that was considered to be “chic” and “in.” A time when your favorite bands were actually encouraged by the music industry to play slower, cut their hair, and write sensitive lyrics about their childhoods. Yes, this unfortunately really happened.
Our new semi-irregular feature “90s Metal Weirdness” focuses on albums released between 1992 and 2001 and which we all probably would rather forget. But in the service of publicly shaming the musicians involved, we have pushed forward.
Record(s) o’ the Month – July 2012
July has actually been a bit of a strange month. While every other month of the year has had some really amazing releases and it’s been difficult to choose, the competition was a little weirder this month. There wasn’t really anything that destroyed anything else—instead, the highest score that we gave out during July was a 4.0. It was also weird, because we reviewed up-and-coming vest metal rockstars Castle who, at least Steel Druhm and I, agreed deserved recognition. But since the record was not released in July, it was not eligible.
Testament – Dark Roots of Earth Review
Testament is back with a big thrash album that may or may not be based on Gears of War. Only the most high-end skull tanks will do for this event!
The Agonist – Prisoners Review
When an album lands in my inbox accompanied by an apology from Angry Metal Guy himself, you know it’s gonna be a rough listen.
Cattle Decapitation – Monolith of Inhumanity Review
If four dudes who hated me decided to start a band that embodied as many things I dislike about death metal as possible, that band would probably bear a strong resemblance to Cattle Decapitation. Breakdowns? Check. Pig squeal vocals? Yup. Masturbatory “technical” guitar parts? Those too. And don’t even get me started on the pushy, militant veganism.
Exumer – Fire & Damnation Review
Here’s a reunion album I did NOT expect to see in my promo bin.