About five months ago, Pittsburgh thrash band Meltdown changed their name to Mantic Ritual, which seems more suitable considering their early Metallica, Slayer, Exodus and German thrash metal influences. In early March Mantic Ritual will head out with Destruction and hopefully they'll be able to employ some of the road survival skills they learned during their recent tour with Rotting Christ. Here, guitarist Jeff Potts writes about sleep strategies for penniless musicians, which should continue to pay off at least until the March 10 release of Mantic Ritual's debut Executioner. Read more...
The current singer of Exodus, Rob Dukes is a pretty big, burly guy and after a night performing under the hot lights, he's positively dripping with sweat. His scalp glistens, his shirt's soaked and you can bet everything he's got on underneath is as wet as garments dropped in a lake. So there's no way in hell we'd even touch his worn socks without wearing two sets of rubber gloves, let alone put them in our mouths. We may be Exodus fans, but we're not insane, rabid and delusional like some of the diehards. Dukes explains in his guest blog:
When on tour, you have to either recycle clothes or you run out or you buy new ones. There are no laundromats in Europe that are easily available, so we have a thing called “gig clothes” or “the rock suit,” which is something you have two sets of so, as you’re letting one dry, you're wearing the other. They're the clothes you wear on stage every night. I personally have three of the same thing because when I come off stage, I look like I jumped in a pool.
So, 30 shows equals a lot of socks, and I wear the same pair of socks for four or five shows. I wear them onstage, then I let them dry and do this over and over for a few shows (let me remind you they are only worn onstage). They usually smell after two shows but f--k it, I'm on tour! Read more...
Before we go making generalizations about the Irish or something else that might be perceived as offensive, we'll just say that Philly Byrne, frontman for retro-thrash Dublin band Gamma Bomb, is as bold and uncompromising as his music.
We've heard musicians admit that there's nothing that can be done about filesharing and that ticket sales and merch that are keeping them off wellfare, but this guest blog from Byrne marks the first time an artist has written us to support what many regard as illegal downloading. Read Byrne's blog and then leave your comments whether you agree with him or not:
Here's a confession: I download music.
I copy albums from my friends. I mess with my iPod's software to use it as an external hard drive. I use torrents. I scan blogs for rips of records. I cram my USB port with illicit musical booty and run cackling into the night. I, ladies and gentlemen, am the music fan of the 21st century.
Not only that, but I'm also a struggling musician, a fledgling recording artist on an indie label with only two albums to my name. I know as well as my friends at the label that record sales (both mine and those of other artists) keep the music industry show on the road, but still, I'm a filthy, swindling downloader. I'm fine with it though, because I believe that downloading music for free isn't thieving. And like it or not, I'm in step with most modern music fans when I say that. Read more...
The unholy German triumvirate of Kreator, Destruction and Sodom helped bridge thrash metal between the U.S. and the rest of the world in the mid '80s and also injected the music with a new level of savagery. Obviously Slayer, Exodus and (early) Metallica were extremely heavy, but their German counterparts were even more raw and unhinged -- less musically accomplished, but decidedly more evil sounding.
While all three bands have been through various lineup shifts since their inception, they continue to tour and record. In fact, Destruction released a new album, D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. on August 22 and Kreator's new disc, Hordes of Chaos, drops on January 13. But where's Sodom? Read more...
The excellent thrash metal documentary/sociology study, "Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal," comes out on DVD on Tuesday, September 16. For our final promotional clip for the movie, director Rick Ernst has supplied us with a batch of outtakes of bands from various subgenres of metal talking about how they discovered thrash and the importance of the genre. We'll get to the video soon, but first here's Ernst talking about this week's clip.
With over 100 hours of footage filmed for "Get Thrashed," we couldn't possibly squeeze it all on one DVD - although we tried! Thankfullyk, we have the Internet and HeadbangersBlog.com, which allow us to share clips that are not on the DVD. That's right, you can only see this footage right here and this exclusive clip covers a lot of ground.
For starters, Slipknot's Corey Taylor talks about being a thrash fan in Des Moines, Iowa where apparently you really had to work to find thrash albums in the '80s. Contrast that with my experience growing up in New York at the time, and I could almost always find the thrash classics.
Several artists talk about the initial run of "Headbangers Ball." While the show didn't feature a ton of thrash videos, the ones they did play forever changed the lives of many artists watching back in the day. Personally, when I was growing up I didn't have cable, so each and every thrash video I saw on "Headbangers Ball" at a friend's house was a treasure. It was pre-Internet and a music video was as close to going to a show as you could get without physically being there. Yes, thrash fans would begrudgingly sit through non-thrash videos just to see Exodus' "Toxic Waltz" or my personal favorite, Vio-lence's "World in a World." We bitched about it then, but it is a badge of honor now.
Thankfully, today's new breed of thrash influenced bands and fans don't have to work as hard or wait as long to get their thrash metal fix. It's at the tip of their fingers -- on call 24/7 -- and they don't have to wait. It's instant gratification and its awesome -- for the most part. As Lemmy so eloquently sang, "Sometimes the chase is better than the catch".
Now click "more" to watch our final "Get Thrashed" clip: Read more...
I hate politicians -- all of them. The very nature of their job is to serve the few who spend the most. But the hypocrisy hit an all time high during Sarah Palin's speech at the Republican convention and the subsequent defense of her ongoing problems at home.
The "Family Values" party attacks the media for coverage of her and her family, yet they have no problem parading her knocked-up daughter out there for millions to see as some warped example of "Family Values." Am I to believe a pregnant 17 year old girl forced into a sham shotgun wedding to a self proclaimed "f---ing redneck" is some shining example of "family values?" Get real, and while you're at it, get some condoms. Read more...
Testament drink to continued success
The Bay Area thrashers of Testament will remain on the Metal Masters tour with Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell and Motorhead through August 31 in Mountain View, California. But if you missed 'em on the tour because you couldn't get to the venue by 8:30 a.m. (or whatever the hell time they took the stage) don't worry. Testament will be back in the States in early October (according to Pollstar, the October 9 show in New York City is with Children of Bodom).
MetalInjection.net recently hooked up with guitarists Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick about touring, the band's new album The Formation of Damnation and the time the band met the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda. Click "more" to see it all. Read more...
On August 21, Metallica posted their new single "The Day that Never Comes" on their MySpace and submitted the song to radio. The next day, the band played the song during their headline set at the Leeds Festival in England. Click "more" to watch a pro-shot video of the performance, hear streaming audio of the studio recording, check out a Death Magnetic widget and watch outtakes from MTV's exclusive Metallica interview. Read more...
After three studio albums that were rhythmically straightforward, artistically experimental and, about 80 miles-per-hour short of thrash masterpieces, Metallica have (at least partially) returned to their roots. The band's upcoming album, Death Magnetic, features acrobatic time signatures, fierce thrash beats, downtuned guitars and enough cool crunchy guitar parts to fill Trivium's entire catalog. Click "more" to see exclusive video interview footage about the album and its first video "The Day That Never Comes." Read more...
Pantera in their prime
About a year ago, we posted a few riotous metal video parodies by a British dude who went by the name Cheeky Dave. The guy wrote down alternate interpretations of hard to decipher song lines by Slayer, Machine Head and Pantera and created computer-enhanced video to illustrate the line-by-line spoofs. Sadly, the guy seemed to tire of his craft and his work seems to have disappeared. For those who missed it the first time or just want a second look, click more for a look at one of his classics, a hysterical video for Pantera's "Five Minutes Alone." Read more...
