Metalblog

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.

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.

The Metalblog has been quiet for the last few days. I wish I could say it’s because I’ve been too busy partying to post, but the truth is I’ve caught some kind of killer virus. Well, maybe not a killer, but it has knocked me on my ass for the last few days.

I went to see thrash metal band Destruction on Tuesday night at the Underworld in London. The band were great, but I wasn’t. I left the show early and nearly crashed the car on the way home because I was feeling so rough. I’ll post more about what I did catch of the gig in the next couple of days.

Until then I’ll let my favorite crossover thrash metal band Suicidal Tendencies let you know how I feel with “I Feel Like Shit…Deja Vu”

Heavy metal has had it’s share of odd firings over the years.

Guitarist Dave Mustaine was fired by Metallica when the band packed up his things in New York, drove him to the Greyhound bus station, and bought him a ticket back home to Los Angeles. 

Quit Riot singer Kevin DuBrow was fired in Hawaii when the rest of the band changed to an earlier flight and left him behind on the island.

And in Italy, the guitarist from the heavy metal band Soul Cry was stabbed about 50 times, mainly in his head and back, by the band’s singer and bassist after playing poorly at a rehersal.

Fifty times! I think I would have got the message after the first time the knife plunged into my back that I was probably no longer wanted in the band. Certainly by the second or third.

A word of advice for all heavy metal musicians - go watch The Apprentice. Nothing says “You’re Fired” like pointing and saying…”You’re Fired”.

And you don’t get arrested for it either.