We found an online interview with Bring Me the Horizon which says the band members are all between 21 and 23 years old, but from the pictures on their MySpace we find that hard to believe. Seriously, that smiley dude on the left of the aobve photo has gotta be 12 and the guy next to him can't even be old enough for acne. The other three dudes could maybe pass for 15, but if they weren't carrying instruments and laminates into a reputable club, there's no way they should be able to get in without the doorman laughing his ass off and sending them back to their hotels with a six-pack of Capri Suns.
And yet this metalcore band from Sheffield, England has been around since 2004 and already have released three albums, including their 2008 offering Suicide Season. And, apparently, they've made quite a name for themselves touring with Killswitch Engage, The Haunted, Lostprophets and loads of others. If you're still not convinced, these UK superstars will be back on this year's Taste of Chaos tour playing with Thursday, Cancer Bats, Four Year Strong and Pierce the Veil.
One reason Bring Me the Horizon have created such a buzz is because, onstage, they have the energy 11 year olds with sugar highs and incredibly loud instruments in their hands. We also kinda like 'em because their last album cover of a blood-spattered girl-next-door holding a handful of bright red intestines is one of the coolest pieces of metal art work we saw in 2008. Give 'em five years and they'll be: a) old enough to drink, b) the next Avenged Sevenfold or c) working at Sainsburys cutting deli meat. Chime in with your thoughts and click "more" to watch the band's video for "Chelsea Smile." Read more...
As Washington D.C.-based metalcore/melodic death metal band Darkest Hour prepared for their annual hometown show, D.C. Blog DC-ist were there to capture all the excitement and lack thereof. Don't miss the members talking about how they've played D.C. shows for 13 years and how they painstakingly obsess over their set lists. Witness Mike "Lonestar" Carrigan get a call on his cell phone from his mom, watch the dudes send files back and forth to each other on computer and try to relearn songs they haven't played in ages. Click "more" to watch the footage. Read more...
Before we even heard a note of their music, we were immediately drawn to British metalcore band Bring Me the Horizon. There was something about the cover art of their second full album, Suicide Season, that spoke volumes.
The image -- seen above -- depicts a pretty girl in a black dress holding a huge handful of bloody, dripping intestines. It wasn't entirely the blood and guts that hooked us. We've got piles of gorier album art from bands we wouldn't listen to for a free meal at Nobu. Our attraction had more to do with blank expression on the girl's face, her perfectly formed hair, the blood spatter on her arms. Look at the top half of the pic and it could be an anxious girl at her friend's wedding.
Anyway, the artwork convinced us to check out this British phenomenon, and guess what? They're pretty good -- chaotic, turbulent, enraged and gifted in the art of the breakdown. Some of the riffs are even kinda catchy, though, overall, the band is more memorable for its machine-gun rhythms, piercing guitar squeals, falling-down-the-stairs beats and sociopathic vocal rants, which seem like they're pieced together impulsively by vocalist Oli Sykes before he chews them up and spits them back in our faces.
When we asked someone from the band to send us a guest blog, we had no idea what to expect, but it kinda makes sense that the resulting email from guitarist Curtis Ward is full of stream-of-consciousness penmanship. What surprised us was how close he seems to be to his mommy. Dude, has she even seen your cover art or tour shirts? Click "more" to read Ward's blog and watch a promo clip for the band's current U.S. tour. Read more...
The WTF story of the day goes to mask-wearing metal terrorists Slipknot and Dragonfly-riding prog-rockers Coheed and Cambria, which will tour together in the new year. And if we're interpreting the symbols correctly, this is certainly one of the seven signs of the apocalypse. Trivium will open the show and, perhaps, assume the role of lukewarm water between the fire and ice iconoclasts. Read more...
photo by Jon Wiederhorn
We're down to the final two days of our week-long celebration of the 20th anniversary of "Headbangers Ball," but that means we've still got 48 hours to look back at the past with classic footage and glance into the future with new video premieres. Today, our second premiere is the Between the Buried and Me video for "Informal Gluttony." We'll get to that in a minute, but first some background from singer and keyboardist Tommy Rogers:
The date was August 2, 2008. The place was Nashville, Tennessee at Rocketown, where we filmed our new CD/DVD "Colors_Live." Were we nervous? Yes. We've never filmed a show for a DVD before, and we've never played a set that lasted for almost two hours before. With all the nerves aside, this was one of the most exciting moments in our career. This was a show truly for Between the Buried and Me fans -- two sets which consisted of Colors in its entirety, and six old songs chosen by the fans. (Click more to read the rest of Rogers' commentary and watch the video for "Informal Gluttony"). Read more...
if this Christian metalcore thing doesn't work out, War of Ages are fully qualified to return to ditch digging
Many video directors ignore song titles and even lyrics when putting together treatments for rock videos. Andy Reale didn't just heed the title "Through the Flames" when shooting the new War of Ages video, he took it literally. The track is from the band's latest album, Arise and Conquer, which came out July 22. Click "more" to hear singer Leroy Hamp describe the video, then watch it and see if he got it right. Catch it again on Saturday's "Headbangers Ball," which airs this week from 2 to 3 a.m. (Set your TIVO). Read more...
Cartoon image by Balázs Gróf
The esteemed leader of a popular metal band sent us this amazing animated music video that pays homage to the 1985 Tobe Hooper sci-fi/horror movie "Lifeforce" and features cartoon depictions of Slipknot, Metallica, Ozzy and Michael Jackson. The video is for the Budapest, Hungary metalcore band Blind Myself and was created by 32-year-old Hungarian cartoonist Balázs Gróf. Click more to watch the awesome clip, which took Gróf over a year to complete. Read more...
NOTE: For one week only, "Headbangers Ball" Will air from 2 to 3 a.m. EST. Set your TIVO.
It has been a pretty good week for All That Remains. First, the Massachusetts metalcore band landed its highest charting first week on Billboard's album chart, hitting #16 with Overcome, which sold about 29,000. And now, HeadbangersBlog.com readers have voted the band's video for "Chiron" back for the next show -- over clips by In Flames, The Human Abstract, Unleashed, Hatebreed and others. Read more...
For more than six years now, All That Remains lead singer, Philip Labonte, has been screaming like a man with his fingers caught in an iron door. All the same, he's never claimed he doesn't like melody. In fact, his favorite songwriter is Sammy Hagar. So, maybe it shouldn't be too surprising to hear his voice swooping through the band's new album Overcome (which comes out Tuesday) like a dove circling a demolition site. and there's plenty of screaming as well -- actually, he claims 70 percent of the vocals are screamed -- but it's those towering melodies that stand out most.
Coupled with classical-based guitar harmonies and exultant fist-in-the sky riffs, Overcome is a well-crafted, sonically pristine album that could bring All That Remains out of the underground and into the mainstream.
For old-school fans, this raises a dilemma of sorts. The songs are heavy, sure, and catchy as the flu, but they're no longer rooted in the bipolar, emotionally maladjusted world or metalcore or the brutality-is-king domain of extreme metal. Not that All That Remains were necessarily aiming for major radio airplay. If you believe Labonte, the sound of Overcome just sort of happened without any preconceptions or gameplan. And while it was a bitch to create all those layered vocals, powerhouse rhythms, and delicate arpeggios, the pains of their creation paid off. For those willing to accept a bit more sentimentality with their metal than they may be used to, Overcome is a dynamic slab of granite than carves new paths as it crushes.
In our weekly podcast interview, HeadbangersBlog.com talked to Labonte about the eclectic songwriting on the record, the emphasis on melody and the band's experience working with wingnut producer Jason Suecof. In the process, Labonte addressed the current economic climate, the basic code of morality mankind seems to have forgotten and the misconception that All That Remains is a Christian metal band. Click "more" to stream or download the podcast. Read more...
Call them deathcore and you might just get a guitar headstock to the jaw. But even if you were to call them something ridiculous like emo or hair metal (neither of which remotely apply), Carnifex would still rip just as hard. The music on their second album, The Diseased and the Poisoned, is like a revving chainsaw to the sternum -- a messy, blast of pain that triggers a blinding explosion in the brain. And their video for "Answers is Mourning" just might give you an aneurysm (MTV, nor the band are accountable for any injury sustained during listening to the song or viewing the video). So, if you're up for the challenge, click "more" to listen to what Scott Lewis has to say about the clip, then check out the video. Read more...
