As the drummer for post-thrash band Shadows Fall and neo-death metal outfit Burning Human, Jason Bittner plays a gamut of styles from skittering prog fills to powerhouse blast beats. So, we're hardly surprised to find that his iPod is filled with music from all ends of the hard rock/metal spectrum. He's got a little Soundgarden on there, some Meshuggah and of course Pantera. Plus, the dude likes a little variety from beyond the metal vortex. We applaud his choice of XTC, Green Day and Red Hot Chili Peppers. But Madonna and Crowded House might be even a little beyond our eclectic tastes. Still, the dude earns bonus points for his inclusion of The Jerky Boys, which made us chuckle even without hearing the track. On a scale of 100, we give Bittner's Random Shuffle a solid 84. Click "more" to see his list, watch a video from one of the band's that popped up and hear a brand new Burning Human track. Read more...
Like, Evile, Toxic Holocaust and Early Man, Warbringer is one of those neo-thrash bands that still believes it's 1988, Anthrax has just released Among the Living, Metallica are writing ...And Justice For All and grunge and nu-metal never happened.
Now, let's take a look inside Warbringer guitarist John Laux's iPod and see if he's really living in the past.... Well, yes and no. Some of the artists on his Random Shuffle -- including Angel Witch, Coroner and Rigor Mortis -- exist solely in another place on the space/time continuum, but Laux also seems to enjoy newer acts like Circa Survive and Ensiferum, and there's a lot of stuff here that's not even loud, such as Jeff Buckley, Slowdive and Cocteau Twins. We can hardly argue with his inclusion of Thin Lizzy and he earns an extra star for having Sigh on here, but the omission of anything by Exodus, let along the big thrash four makes us wonder if he has lapsed on this year's dues to the Metal Militia. On a scale of 100 we give Laux's iPod list an 80 for listenability. Click "more" to see the full list and watch a video by one of the bands. Read more...
To celebrate yesterday's release of Mantic Ritual's debut album, Executioner, we're happy to present frontman Dan Wetmore's Random Shuffle list and the band's video for "One By One." For a band so heavily influenced by late '80s thrash, we were really surprised to find only one thrash song on is iPod Roulette list, Slayer's "Hallowed Point." On the metal tip, there are also songs by Mercyful Fate, Macabre and Judas Priest, but there's an unsettling amount of totally non-metal stuff. We're okay with The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Ramones, MC5 and even Genesis and Nat King Cole. But David Grisman, Glen Miller Orchestra and New Order? We only hope the dude's sharing his iPod with his girlfriend. On a scale of 100, we give Wetmore's Random Shuffle a 65. Good thing Executioner is way better. Click "more" to read the full list and check out Mantic Ritual's video. Read more...
photo by Jon Wiederhorn
We knew a random iPod list from Between the Buried and Me vocalist Tommy Rogers would be wildly eclectic, and we were looking forward to seeing which avant-garde, electronic, hardcore and freakazoid artists would pop up on his Shuffle. We were hardly disappointed by selections from acts like Matmos, Jon Zorn, Thievery Corporation and Hardingrock, but we were kinda surprised by some of the other titles that surfaced for all to see. For example, we never expected Billy Joel's mainstream '70s pop hit "Big Shot" and who would have anticipated the power metal of Rhapsody? There was also a surprising amount of ripping thrash, death and doom metal from Entombed, Corrosion of Conformity and Down. On a scale of 100, we give Tommy Rogers Random Shuffle a 90 for open-minded listeners and an 80 for anyone stuck in their prog/hardcore/metalcore cave. Click more for the complete list and to watch a video from one of the bands. Read more...
For every underground track on Obituary bassist Frank Watkins' Random Shuffle list there's a guilty pleasure -- a track he probably wouldn't put on the stereo if he were trying to fire up a room full of hot cannibalistic metal chicks. Songs by Watain, Mercyful Fate, Righteous Pigs and Black Flag are plenty good for stoking the fires of hell, and you can't go wrong with a little AC/DC, Sex Pistols and The Clash. We're also okay with The Who, Johnny Cash and ZZ Top, but we never expected the guardian of booming death metal basslines to program Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face" or Ice-T's "Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous," let alone Frank Sinatra's "The Girl from Ipanema." On a scale of 100 we rate Watkins' random shuffle a "75." Click "more" to see the complete list and watch a video from one of the bands that's on there. Read more...
When we got Trivium guitarist Corey Beaulieu's Random Shuffle we expected to see at least one or two Pantera songs on there. After all, this is a dude who learned to play by jamming along with records like Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display of Power. Then it dawned on us. Beaulieu probably knows those so cold he can listen to them note for note in his head and never needs to place the actual discs in a player again -- kind of the way a lot of people are with Led Zeppelin. Does anyone really need to hear "Stairway to Heaven" again before they die? We've yet to see it on anyone's Random Shuffle and it certainly isn't on Beaulieu's list. Read more...
Man, Mnemic guitarist Mircea Eftemie really, really likes Nine Inch Nails. Three out of 20 tracks on his Random Shuffle list are by Trent Reznor. Of course it could just be a fluke of the shuffle, but it actually makes sense. Mnemic's music is fast and heavy, rooted largely in death metal and thrash, but there's an obvious industrial influence that shines through the crashing rhythms and crunching guitars. It's the same element Fear Factory tapped into so effectively before the departure of guitarist Dino Cazares -- which is why we're kind of surprised there's no FF on Eftemie's list.
As for his other Random picks, we dig most of the metal stuff -- which ranges from Monster Magnet to Morbid Angel -- and the industrial and electronic selections are pretty sweet -- NIN, Aphex Twin, Front Line Assembly. We're even okay with Muse, but we're not sure how Norah Jones and The Gypsy Kings got on there, but hey, at least he had the guts to be honest about what popped up -- even when it happened to be his own music -- which we're dyin' to hear. On a scale of 100, we give Eftemie's Random Shuffle an 88 for listenability -- mostly 'cuz we really like Nine Inch Nails and Aphex Twin, too. Click "more" to see the full list and to watch a video from one of the artists. Read more...
If a man's character can be judged by what he's got on his iPod then Protest the Hero bassist Arif Mirabdolbaghi is a card-carrying member of the counterculture, a self-avowed fan of things no one else has heard of and but a dabbler in the domain of heavy metal. Of the 20 tracks on his Random Shuffle list, only Black Sabbath is metal. Rush are kinda metal and we haven't got a clue what two-thirds of the rest of the songs are. Okay, we've heard of about half the artists, but we couldn't point them out in a police lineup. On a scale of 100, we give this Random Shuffle a 60 for sheer curiosity value, and a probable 40 for listenability -- unless you're an elitist, indie, artsy Spin reader with an ivy league education, in which case you've probably heard all this stuff on NPR and you'd give the list a strong 90. But if that's the case, what are you doing here? Click "more" to see the full list and watch a video from one of the artists: Read more...
