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”.

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!

King Diamond has issued a statement regarding an article published late last month on a Danish website. The first part of the statment adresses allegations made about King Diamond’s personal life that the Metalblog doesn’t really care about. What King Diamond or any other performer does behind closed doors is their business until they get arrested for it.

King Diamond does go on to claim the rumours about a new Mercyful Fate album are untrue, as the Metalblog speculated yesterday.

King Diamond said:

“The second rumour that’s floating around, which is that MERCYFUL FATE has started writing new material, I really have no idea where it originated from.

“The present status of MERCYFUL FATE remains unchanged, meaning that we have not started writing new material. For that to happen, MERCYFUL FATE’s recording contracts have to be renegotiated first. We certainly would love for this to happen so that we can finally make our long-overdue ‘masterpiece.’ Both Hank [Shermann, MERCYFUL FATE guitarist] and I are ready to go if that scenario presents itself, and who knows, that might happen this year.

“So… for this year, you will see a double DVD of old private KING DIAMOND video recordings and a double DVD of old private MERCYFUL FATE video recordings which I am working on as we speak. Andy [La Rocque, KING DIAMOND guitarist] has finished remastering ‘The Graveyard’, ‘Spider’s Lullabye’, ‘Voodoo’, and ‘House of God’, all of which should also be available this year. And then there is ‘the big surprise’ (not little King babies with horns on their foreheads or MERCYFUL FATE writing new songs, at least not as we speak) but something that could lead to renegotiations of the MERCYFUL FATE recording deals. We’ll see. Be patient…..

“On a personal note, I do feel reasonably confident that the MERCYFUL FATE masterpiece will see the light of day.”

So there you have it. No new Mercyful Fate album, at least for the time being, but King Diamond and Mercyful Fate DVDs look like they are in the pipeline.

I was having a look on blabbermouth.net and there was a story on there stating:

King Diamond has told BT.dk that there is a good chance that a new studio album from his classic heavy metal act MERCYFUL FATE will surface at some point in the not-too-distant future.

“Hank [Shermann, guitar] has written songs [for the proposed MERCYFUL FATE CD]. And he is ready for our new masterpiece,” King Diamond is quoted as saying.

That, of course, is great news. I’ve been a fan of Mercyful Fate and King Diamond since my best friend bought a copy of Don’t Break The Oath back when it first came out.

Mercyful Fate haven’t put out an album since 9 came out in 1999. So if there is a new Mercyful Fate release next year I will party like it’s…uh…1999.

Then the VERY NEXT story says:

DEMONICA, the solo project of MERCYFUL FATE guitarist Hank Shermann, is putting the finishing touches on its debut album for a tentative late spring/early summer release via an as-yet-undisclosed label. The CD will be mixed in February in Denver, Colorado.

Which leaves the Metalblog wondering if somebody somewhere got there wires crossed or if Hank Shermann suddenly turned into a song writing monster cranking out enough tunes for not only a new Mercyful Fate album, but for an album from his side project Demonica as well. 

The Metalblog is loving the story of a construction firm manager returning from New Year’s Eve fancy dress party scaring off a burglar by charging at him dressed as the Norse god Thor.  

The burglar was so scared he jumped out of a first floor (that’s second floor for any Americans reading this) window and left his shoes behind (What a courteous burglar, not wanting to muddy the carpets).

The homeowner was dressed up in aluminium foil and wearing a red cape, just like the real Thor.

We’re guessing the burglar ran because he either thought he was going to be wrestled into the microwave with the homeowner and then electrocuted by the sparks flying off of the foil costume, or because he thought the homeowner would strip off the Thor costume to reveal he was wearing a Manowar costume underneath!

After all, who would be more likely to dress up as Thor than a Manowar fan?

Here’s Manowar performing “Thor (The Power Head)” live in Bulgaria in 2007. He held up his hammer hiiiiiiiiiighhh!

The UK trailer for the film “Anvil! The Story of Anvil!” is now available online. The film will be released in North America, Canada and the U.K. in spring 2009. A distribution deal has also been agreed for Japan, with Australia to follow shortly.

“Anvil! The Story of Anvil” follows Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner who, after a desultory European tour with their band ANVIL, decide to record a 13th album in a final attempt to fulfill their boyhead dreams of stardom.

I hope “Anvil! The Story of Anvil!” gets a wide release in the UK. I can’t remember the last time I went to the movies, but I’d make the trip for this.

I missed “Anvil! The Story of Anvil!” when it played at the London Film Festival in 2008 where it had two showings. I didn’t find out about the first showing until the day after and the second showing was in the middle of the afternoon and I couldn’t get out of work.

I remember seeing Anvil open for Aerosmith back in 1984 at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, NY. They impressed me so much I went out and bought a cassette copy of their Metal On Metal album the following day.

Anvil are one of those bands that were too heavy to fit in with the hair metal crowd and fell into the gap between the NWOBHM and thrash metal. Hopefully “Anvil! The Story of Anvil!” will get the band some much deserved recognition.

It’s now time for the Metalblog to reveal its favorite heavy metal album of 2008. The criteria is simple enough. The album has to have been released in 2008 and has to be metal. Albums are judged on one thing - how often I listened to the album in 2008 and how often I’m likely to listen to it in 2009 and beyond. Originality, artistic merit, or level of brutality count for nothing if I don’t want to listen to the album over and over.

First the runners up for the Metalblog 2008 Album of the Year…

Testament - The Formation of Damnation

It was a long wait between albums from Testament, who reformed with its classic 80s lineup in 2005. This past year they finally released an album with returned guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist Greg Christian joining ever presents Chuck Billy and Eric Peterson, with former Forbidden, Slayer, and Exodus drummer Paul Bostaph  rounding out the current Testament lineup. It may not be the best Testament album ever, but it sure beats some of the latest releases from other classic bay area thrash bands.

Gama Bomb - Citizen Brain

Part of the so-called new breed of thrash metal, Gama Bomb thrash like the 90s never happened. Citizen Brain is a fun, catchy thrash metal album filled with songs about zombies, drinking, zombies drinking, thrashing, and all other sorts of general mayhem. Gama Bomb will be touring Europe with fellow thrashers Overkill and Exodus in early 2009 and the Metalblog can’t wait.

And the winner of Best Album for 2008 is…

Ross the Boss - New Metal Leader

I have to admit, I loved Ross the Boss when he was in Manowar and I love him even more in the Dictators. Now I can say I love him in his own band.

New Metal Leader has been called “The best ‘Manowar’ album since Kings of Metal“. I’d have to disagree with that statement.

Sure, there are some Manowar leanings on the album, but you don’t have to be a Manowar fan to like this record.Anybody who remembers heavy metal in the days before every release had to be one dimensional to make sure it fit comfortably into some sub- or sub-sub-genre of metal should enjoy New Metal Leader.

“God of Dying” sounds like it could have come straight from the Manowar song book, but the very next song on the album, “May the Gods Be With You”, sounds like it owes just as much to Ross’ days in the Dictators as it does to Manowar. There’s even a song with a flamenco guitar section (”Matador”).

Even with these stylistic excursions, New Metal Leader never forgets what it is - a well rounded kick ass heavy metal album and the Metalblog’s favorite of 2008.

It’s time to start the Metalblog’s 2008 end of year awards. The first award goes to the Metalblog’s favorite unsigned band of 2008. The unsigned band award is open to any bands that are unsigned, but due to geography, this will most likely always go to a metal band from the UK since these are the unsigned bands I get a chance to see live.

First, the runners up for Best Unsigned Band 2008:

Seregon

I caught this Bristal based band a couple of times in 2008 and they never failed to deliver the goods with their Sepultera-styled thrash metal. If I see that Seregon is opening a show, it’s worth the effort to make sure I get there early enough to catch their set. Check out Seregon at www.myspace.com/seregonuk.

Mutant

Mutant started the year by appearing on Earache record’s Thrashing Like A Maniac compilation.  Mutant write great thrash metal songs and if they played more gigs or ever got around to recording their much delayed EP could have walked away with this award. Mutant can be heard at www.myspace.com/mutantmetal.

And the Winner of the Metalblog 2008 Unsigned Band of the Year is…

H.O.D. (Hospital of Death)

H.O.D. (Hospital of Death) formed in 1994 and played one gig. In 2006 they got back together and the heavy metal world is a better place for it.

H.O.D. released Beer, Bitches, Blood in January 2008 as a zip file to pass around to friends. Since then they’ve “play(ed) festivals, play(ed) with a ton of UK and international thrash and true metal bands, distributed hundreds of T-shirts around the globe and as we stand for this year, Beer Bitches Blood has currenlty totted up as a distribution of 30,000!”

Beer, Bitches, Blood is available as a free download or for a miniscule sum, that probably doesn’t even cover the cost of a blank CD and postage, the band will send you a real physical CD copy.

And unlike most everything else available for free, H.O.D.’s Beer, Bitches, Blood doesn’t suck. Full of great riffs and great humor, the £1 I spent for a CD copy of Beer, Bitches, Blood is the best quid I spent in all of 2008.

Recording of the follow up album starts on January 19th and the Metalblog looks forward to hearing more from H.O.D. in 2009. Stay up to date with H.O.D. and find out how to get a copy of Beer, Bitches, Blood at www.myspace.com/hospitalofdeath.

There appears to be a serious lack of good original heavy metal Christmas songs. There are plenty of good rock Christmas songs, and the last couple of years has seen good heavy metal Christmas releases from Twisted Sister and this year’s various artists recording We Wish You A Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year.

But both of those releases relied on heavy metal reworkings of already established Christmas songs. When it comes to original heavy metal Christmas songs there is only one song that comes to mind - King Diamond’s “No Presents For Christmas”.

“No Presents For Christmas” was the first release from singer King Diamond and his band, also named King Diamond, after the singer left pioneering black metal band Mercyful Fate. While “No Presents For Christmas” is not exactly the jolliest of Christmas songs, it was still a big departure from the satanic themes King Diamond sang about in Mercyful Fate. But even though the themes may not have been as dark as in Mercyful Fate, King Diamond’s music was still as heavy as ever.

Unfortunately King Diamond did not make a video for the “No Presents For Christmas” single. There are some live versions on YouTube, but the sound quality is not that great. I’m not a fan of static videos, but the song is the important thing and the sound quality is good. Enjoy and have a Merry Christmas!