How many times do we have to tell you people?? Bang of the Week has got nothing to do with Tera Patrick!! It's just our way of letting artists spread the love by plugging other band's videos. This week we've got Arizona extreme metal buzz band Job For a Cowboy guitarist Ravi Bhadriraju giving props to French experimental death metal outfit Gojira's video for "To Sirius."
"I like the Gojira video because houmies love houmies," Bhadriraju said in a pretty unhelpful manner. Then the sly guitarist took the opportunity for some free self -promotion:
"Just checking in to say what's up!?," he began. "We're back on tour and ready for the road. We've spent the last month at home gearing up for the fun-filled summer! At home, I finally got to hit up the Xbox 360 and rage with some 'Gears of War!' I don't really do much on my down time besides hang out and rage and hang out some more.
"I recently -- well not so recently, more so like several months ago -- saw the Deftones in my time off. Their emotional, powerful show stunned the audience. I enjoy catching some good shows during my time off. I never get a chance to chillax and enjoy an awesome concert.
"Anyone into Gojira or Mastodon?," he asked, finally getting back to the point of this whole thing. "They've been getting good airtime on my iPod recently. I still have yet to see either of them live but am anticipating it! Those two are the bands that I'd love to tour with right now. All their records are killer! Another band that I am hopefully going tour with is the Used -- psych!!! Actually, I want to tour with the Darkest Hour guys. We played a few shows with them and they're awesome! Everybody stay chillaxed and come hang out with us on Sounds of The Underground this summer."
It looks like the chillaxed guitarist will get one of his wishes, anyway. This fall, Job For a Cowboy are scheduled to hit the road with Behemoth and Gojira.
Now, here's Gojira's "To Sirius":
He's one of death metal's pioneers and has penned songs with titles like "Feasting on the Blood of the Insane," "Impulse to Disembowel" and "Bled to Death." So, we figured that when we approached Six Feet Under frontman Chris Barnes for a "Bang of the Week" entry he'd either go with something by Aborted, Pig Destroyer or Cattle Decapitation or simply grunt, impale us on a stake and remove our organs while we begged to die.
Surprisingly, neither happened. Barnes chose the latest video by Swedish Viking death metal band Amon Amarth, who are plenty into bloodletting, but only in the cause of Oden, Valhalla and all the stuff Manowar introduced us to many frosty winters ago.
The video of choice for Barnes was "Cry of the Black Birds," the title of which sounds more like a Mother Goose rhyme than a death metal ditty. But the song and video both rock balls. The clip was directed by William C . Schacht.
Amon Amarth's last album, With Oden on Our Side, came out in October 2006. The band will tour this summer with the Sounds of the Underground tour, which launches July 6 in Dallas and runs through August 11 in Louisville, Kentucky. Six Feet Under's new one, Commandment, came out April 17.
Now that we've wasted 30 more seconds of your time than we should have, here's "Cry of the Black Birds":
This week, we introduce a new segment called, as you can plainly see in the headline, 'Bang of the Week." So, what is 'Bang of the Week?' No, it has nothing to do with nasty bedroom video tapes. 'Bang of the Week' is a way for you to get a glimpse at what music videos some of your favorite rockers are digging.
For the debut of 'Bang of the Week' we asked the guys in Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio) to give some love to a new metal video and they chose a clip by their recent touring partners Megadeth, "A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)."
The song is a heavier, lusher remake of a track from Megadeth's 1994 album Youthanasia and it features guest vocals by Lacuna Coil's frontwoman Cristina Scabbia. The video was directed by Aggressive and shot March 8 and 9 in Los Angeles. Megadeth recently played Download and are currently in the middle of the European summer festival season.
Heaven and Hell are also in the middle of a European tour. The band will remain on the road through July 7 at the Montreux Jazz Festival, then they'll head back out on tour November 4 for a tour of the UK that runs through November 18 in Bournemouth, England.
Now, here's what Heaven and Hell have are singing high praise about -- Megadeth's video for "A Tour Le Monde (Set Me Free)":
