Metalblog

There are hundreds, probably thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of sites on the internet that will give you advice on job interview techniques. All of them give the same basic job interview tips: Don’t badmouth your past employers, dress nice, take a shower beforehand, etc.

Now the Metalblog is here with an exclusive job interview tip: Listen to Manowar on the way to the interview.

That’s right, not only are Manowar good for helping chase away burglars, they can help get you a job, too.

What qualifies the Metalblog to make such a claim? I’ve had three interviews in the past three years, including one yesterday afternoon - which gives me more recent interview experience than 90% of the jackasses writing these job interview tips websites. On the way to all three interviews I blasted Manowar on the car stereo.

I got all three jobs. Therefore: Manowar = Jobs

The problem with giving job interview advice is people can confuse things when they read the advice. So instead of “dress nice” and “listen to Manowar”, they might read “listen nice” and “dress like Manowar” and crank out Pat Boone on the car stereo on the way to the interview and dress like this:

The Metallbog does NOT recommend dressing like Manowar for job interviews and advises against listening to Pat Boone - ever!

Below is the video for one of the songs played in the Metalblogmobile on the way to yesterday’s interview: Manowar’s “Gloves of Metal”.

Dark Angel, Death Angel, Morbid Angel, Snow Angel

Which one doesn’t fit?

Let’s see: Both Dark Angel and Death Angel were/are thrash metal bands. Morbid Angel is a death metal band. Snow Angel is what you do in your backyard when it snowed all day and you just came home from the pub.

Let’s start with the odd one out: Snow Angel

Here is Mrs Metalblog making a Snow Angel in the backyard after an evening at the pub. Mrs Metalblog walked to work this afternoon because of the snow. Since I ‘m currently between jobs, I met her at the pub before she had a chance to walk past it on her way home. A couple of hours later and this was the result:

After Mrs Metalblog got the Snow Angel started, it was my turn to reinforce the angel into the snow.

For those of you here for your metal, I’ll leave you with videos of the other three angels.

First up is thrash metal band Dark Angel performing “Merciless Death” at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1989.

Next is the video for “Thicker Than Blood” by thrash metal band Death Angel from their 2004 Nuclear Blast release The Art of Dying.

And last is death metal band Morbid Angel performing “Chapel of Ghouls” live at Nottingham Rock City in 1989.

The Metalblog would like to finally bring some GOOD news to any metal heads from  south of the border.Thrash metal band Overkill have rescheduled their previously canceled Mexican tour.

Rumors of pressure being put on the band by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services after officials read the Metalblog post about immigration being set to rise after Overkill cancelled their tour have yet to be proven.

Whatever the reasons, Mexican thrashers can now catch Overkill on the following dates:

May 15 - Arena Chihuahua, Chihuahua
May 16 - Café Iguana, Monterrey
May 17 - Circo Volador, Mexico City

And if that’s not enough to put a smiles on the faces of Mexican headbangers, Iron Maiden have announced the support acts for their Mexico City stop on their Somewhere Back In Time tour.

Along with the ever present opener of Iron Maiden shows and daughter of Maiden bassist Steve Harris - Lauren Harris, the Mexico City crowd gets not uno, but dos death metal legends with Morbid Angel and Carcass also scheduled to appear on the bill.

What the hell is up with that? Here in the UK Maiden usually gives us Lauren Harris and whatever trend band made the front cover of the latest issue of Kerrang. Maybe it’s time to consider moving to Mexico. Si?

What do the Metalblog readers think of new T-shirts from heavy metal bands that are printed to look like they are vintage T-shirts?

I’m sure you’ve seen the type with album covers and tour dates from 20-odd years ago.

Personally, I usually stay away from these types of T-shirts. But this weekend I did buy a hooded sweatshirt (henceforth referred to as a “hoodie”) with a vintage design and tour dates from twenty-three years ago on a continent I don’t even live on.

The hoodie in question was an Iron Maiden “World Piece Tour ‘83″ like the one shown in the picture on the left.

Although the hoodie is being sold in the UK, it has Iron Maiden’s North American tour dates from 1983 on the back.

Like I said, this is the kind of thing I would usually avoid. The difference here is I was living in North America in 1983 and saw Iron Maiden in Poughkeepsie, NY on the World Piece Tour with Fastway and Coney Hatch opening. Poughkeepsie is listed on the back towards the bottom of the middle column of cities played.

I originally saw this hoodie a couple of months ago, but only bought it this weekend whenI saw it in Zavvi, who currently have 50% off all clothing plus 25% off all CDs and 50% off books. Yeah bargains!

It may be dark, cold, and dreary in England as I write this post, but through the wonders of modern technology I will be in 70 to 80 degree sunshine in Phoenix, Arizona (For anybody doing the EntreCard competition, there’s your answer) by the time this post is published.

Phoenix might be hot, but it is usually not considered a hot-bed for heavy metal. But there are exceptions to every rule and a couple of good thrash metal bands came out of the Phoenix area.

One of those bands is Flotsam and Jetsam.  Flotsam and Jetsam are destined to be remembered as the band that Jason Newsted was in before he joined Metallica.

This is a shame because the band only recorded one album with Newsted, 1986’s Doomsday For The Deceiver. Singer Eric A.K. and guitarist Ed Carlson have kept Flotsam and Jetsam going and the band has released a further eight albums, the latest being Dreams of Death in 2005.

The other notable thrash metal band from Phoenix is Sacred Reich. Sacred Reich played politically-themed thrash metal with a social conscious. They broke up in 2000, but reformed in 2007 to play some European shows. Sacred Reich are scheduled to tour Euope again this coming summer.

Here is the video for the title track to Sacred Reich’s 1987 album Ignorance.

I’m flying back to America today for a few days and should be back in the UK on Tuesday. The Metalblog will hopefully get back to normal next Wednesday.

While I’m away, I’m running a competition over on the Rockblog for all of the Entrecard droppers that stop by my blogs. There will be a post on this blog tomorrow letting you know where I went so you can get your entries in.

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Since this is a blog about heavy metal, I better give you some metal. The first metal that comes to mind when flying is Iron Maiden.

As we’ve mentioned before, Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson is a working commercial airline pilot. Unfortunately, Bruce doesn’t work for British Airways so there’s no chance he’ll be flying my plane today.

Here’s Iron Maiden’s video for “Flight of Icarus”. Let’s hope my pilot doesn’t do like Icarus and keep flying towards the sun until the plane’s wings melt.

Heavy Metal band Metallica have been elected to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

There was a time around 1986 when Metallica were my favourite metal band and Ride the Lightning was my favourite album. At the time Metallica was at the forefront of the thrash metal movement and that was the music I loved them for.

But times changed and Metallica changed. Here we are twenty-odd years later and Metallica are going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But let’s face it, Metallica were NOT elected because of their first four albums, but in spite of those first four albums.

I’ve already ranted about what a load of crap the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is once today, so I will not bore you with that again. But one look at who is getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and who is not will tell you that Metallica are only going because of their success after the “Black” album.

I remember a video made when Wayne Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The video started with his trade to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988, completely ignoring the only period of his career where he had team success, leading the Edmonton Oilers to four Stanley Cup championships, and the years when he scored the majority of his points.

I’m sure the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will give Metallica the “Gretzky treatment” when they induct them on April 4th, making sure to ignore the period when they made their best albums and wrote the songs that still make up the bulk of their live setlists.

One of London’s premier music venues, the Astoria, is set to close down tomorrow. The Astoria and neighbouring club the Astoria 2 (formerly the Mean Fiddler and LA2) will be demolished to make way for a new east-west cross London rail link called Crossrail.

The Astoria has hosted some of the biggest names in heavy metal over the years. In just the last few years I’ve seen the likes of Anthrax, Megadeth, Ace Frehley, Venom, and Onslaught at the Astoria and/or Astoria 2.

There are talks of a replacement venue possibly being built somewhere in London, but I’ll believe that when I see it.

Crossrail is sure to be just like every other project in London over the past decade. It will go over budget by tens of billions of pounds, take twice as long as scheduled, and not work properly when it does finally open.

Meanwhile, London just lost two more live music venues.

The Metalblog is predicting an increase in illegal immigrants crossing over the US border from Mexico. Will these new illegal immigrants be coming to America for jobs and security? No way, Jose.

They’ll be coming looking for thrash metal.

A posting on Blabbermouth states:

“Veteran New Jersey thrashers OVERKILL have cancelled their previously announced shows in Mexico “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

“The affected dates are as follows:

Jan. 23 - Monterrey, MEX - Rock Amerika
Jan. 24 - Mexico City, MEX - Circo Volador”

It was two months ago when the Metalblog reported Bay Area thrashers Exodus cancelled their planned Mexican tour. That’s two thrash metal pioneers cancelling Mexican tours in two months.

I know if I was in Mexico right now I’d be blowing up my arm bands like the kid pictured on the left and heading for the border. Screw the border patrol, give me THRASH!

But I can understand their predictament being an immigrant myself. Though I prefer the word “pilgrim” to immigrant, having left my American heritage behind to be closer to the heavy metal holy sites of Donnington and Hammersmith.

And how am I repaid for my emmigrating?  By getting not just one Mexican tour cancelling thrash metal legend, but two Mexican tour cancelling thrash metal legends playing on the same night when Overkill and Exodus come to London next month as part of the European Killfest tour. Sometimes you have to go where the metal is instead of sitting around waiting for the metal to come to you.

Bay Area thrash metal legends Testament will perform their first two albums, The Legacy and The New Order, at the Islington Academy in London on March 25th.

According to Metal Hammer magazine’s website:

“This unique “Metal Hammer Presents…” event will showcase the face-melting albums that kick-started the TESTAMENT story and helped create a monumental legacy that now stretches over 25 years. The set is also set to include a neck-cracking encore that will be drawn from the very best of the rest of the band’s back catalog, possibly including cuts from the group’s 2008 Metal Hammer Golden Gods “Album Of The Year”, “The Formation Of Damnation”.

“Founding guitarist Eric Peterson spoke exclusively to Metal Hammer about this one-off event: “If anybody’s gonna get a special show it’s London! They don’t say the term ‘London Rocks’ around the world for nothing!”

“Oi! We will expect all the legions to be present at this show! Heavy futten met-all!”"

This is the fourth Testament headline show announced for the UK in 2009. Testament will also be playing Priest Feast tour dates with Judas Priest and Megadeth, and one date opening for fellow thrashers Megadeth in Newcastle.

Other Testament UK headlining tour dates are:

TESTAMENT O2 Academy Liverpool THU 12/02/2009 19:30
TESTAMENT O2 Academy 2 Oxford THU 19/02/2009 19:30
TESTAMENT Rescue Rooms Nottingham SUN 22/02/2009 19:30

The Metalblog will be at the London show at the Islington Academy on March 25th. Last time I saw Testament was at Koko in Camden in 2005 when the band recorded their Live in London DVD and CD. Buy the DVD if you ever wondered what the back of my head looks like - it makes a number of appearances on the DVD.