Metalblog

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?

It was an OK year for the Metalblog and gigs. Family problems over the summer meant I wasn’t able to get to as many as hoped for, but the Metalblog still was able to catch some good concerts in 2008 (including Metallica’s Death Magnetic release party at the O2 Arena for only £5) and these were my favorites.

The runners up for Metalblog 2008 Concert of the Year…

Obituary/Holy Moses -  ULU, London 03/02/08

The all too rare UK appearance of Holy Moses as opening act for Obituary is what brings this gig into my top 3 for 2008. Sure, Obituary are legends of Florida death metal, but Holy Moses are also legends - of German thrash metal.I was on the barrier for the whole of Holy Moses’ set and it was one of the best sets I saw from any band in 2008. Obituary weren’t too shabby either.

Helloween/Gamma Ray - Shepherds Bush Empire, London 08/01/08

More German metal legends, but this time in the power metal genre. Gamma Ray started after guitarist, and original singer, Kai Hansen left Helloween. Nearly twenty years later he was sharing a stage with them once again. At the end of Helloween’s set Hansen and Gamma Ray joined Helloween for some classic Helloween numbers that sent everybody home in power metal heaven.

And the winner of Metalblog’s Best Concert for 2008 is….

Municipal Waste/Toxic Holocaust/Mutant/Seregon - Islington Academy, London 06/02/08

While no single band from this show could have made this list on their own, this was the most solid lineup of any show I saw in 2008. Four good young thrash metal bands taking no prisoners.

Things kicked off with two of the Metalblog’s favorite unsigned bands, Seregon and Mutant getting the crowd warmed up in style and getting the mosh pit readied for the American acts to follow.

Mutant was followed by Toxic Holocaust, who played a great set of blackened thrash and then Municipal Waste playing their party crossover thrash. Municipal Waste’s set was short for a headlining act, but with the allround great thrash show just witnesedthere were few complaints - not to mention most of the audience was probablly too drunk to notice or care.

Somali pirates have been making the headlines with the capture of a Saudi oil tanker this week. The problem has been going on for ages, but has worsened as of late with 9 vessels seized in the Gulf of Aden by pirates over the last twelve days.

You would think it would be easy enough to stop. Send out the navies and look for the ships flying the Jolly Roger.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I’ve seen photos of some of these Somali pirates in the newspapers. They don’t look like any pirates I know. No eye patches, no bottles of rum, no red beards, and no parrots on their shoulders. I bet none of them even say “Argh”.

And what does the modern day pirate listen to? If it’s not traditional sea shanties, it damn well better be some pirate metal. If they’re not listening to Running Wild , Alestorm , Verbal Deception , Swashbuckle , Scuurvy, or Murdered at Sea, they deserve to go down in a hail of cannonballs.

So Somali pirates, if you’re reading this, could you please comment to this post and let me know that even though you may not look the part, you’re keeping up traditional pirate values by listening to pirate metal. I need my faith in piratehood restored.

Until then, I’ll sit back and watch the original pirate metal band, Running Wild, performing Under Jolly Roger and reminisce of a bygone era when pirates were cool.

Iraqi capital Baghdad is more used to being rocked by suicide bombers than being rocked by death metal bands. Baghdad death metallers Dog Faced Corpse are trying to change that by performing at the Pharmacist’s Club, a private dinner venue on the banks of the Tigris.

But change will not come easy in Iraq. The Sunday Times reports Latif Ahmed, 22, the drummer, who abandoned his engineering studies at Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University after a stream of death threats, found almost no support from friends or family for his “hare-brained” scheme to restore heavy metal to Iraq’s cultural scene.

“It’s very, very loud and our rehearsals made my neighbours very angry. We’ve had a lot of opposition,” he admitted last week. “But on the night it was great. About 250 headbangers showed up. Seven tables were broken. It was a full metal night — the day I’ve always dreamed about.”

The concert was a calculated act of defiance by Ahmed, whose jeans, long hair, goatee beard and taste for Black Sabbath and Metallica had marked him out for attacks at college by religious fundamentalists. Students loyal to Moqtada Al-Sadr, the Shi’ite clergyman, dragged him out of the university and threatened him.

This is what metal music is all about. Rebellion and fighting against the system for what you believe in; not corporate sponsorhip and shifting units.

Here is a video of Dog Faced Corpse performing their song Consanguinity live in Baghdad.

We wish the band all the luck in the world. Keep it real and stay safe. Dog Faced Corpse, the Metalblog salutes you. Two horns up! \m/ \m/