Why I Won't Review Super Collider

I have to admit, whenever a band releases an album where the general consensus is that it's "embarrassingly bad" (like Magadeth's latest Super Collider) I usually listen to at least two songs off of it, and if I agree, I avoid it. I'm not saying that I have made up my mind about the entire album based off of two or three songs, all I'm saying is that things aren't looking good at that point and I have absolutely no incentive to listen to the rest of it.

CLASSICS Down-NOLA ALBUM REVIEW

The “supergroup” is a textbook example of something that looks enticing on paper, even drool-worthy to some, but usually fails to deliver when the time comes to release a product with the intent of meeting people’s high hopes for the band. One must remember that a band that features many of one’s favorite musicians doesn’t mean that the musicians in question are accustomed to working together whatsoever. The chemistry oftentimes isn’t there for these kinds of groups, and the tremendous input might unfortunately result in a mediocre output. Heavy metal’s history is spotted with supergroups where many of them have failed to live up to their lofty expectations, and over time this has steadily lessened the expectations for supergroups entirely. Down, a band consisting of five esteemed metal musicians from New Orleans, is absolutely not one of those bands.

Queens of the Stone Age-...Like Clockwork ALBUM REVIEW

Queens of the Stone Age - peddlers of heavy, yet totally catchy rock – fit into the category of bands that have one classic album in their discography that everything they have ever released since is always compared to. Songs for the Deaf, of course, is that one album. While some may argue that Rated R which preceded it is equally as good, Songs for the Deaf gets the edge for it's more successful marriage of thick, stoner metal guitar work with a Beatles-esque pop sensibility. It was an artistic triumph in that it could go from being mainstream and poppy (“Go With the Flow”, “Do It Again”) then all of a sudden morph into something completely unfit for commercial radio (“Six Shooter”, the title track.) It’s a compelling listen from start to finish, and should seriously be owned by everyone who gives even the slightest damn about heavy music.

High on Fire-De Vermis Mysreriis ALBUM REVIEW

As the guitarist for stoner rock legends Sleep and now the frontman for the monstrously heavy High on Fire, is it possible for Matt Pike to do any wrong? Sleep’s Holy Mountain is an undisputed classic, and everything he’s put out with High on Fire so far has been one metallic gut punch after another. All of these albums - which include Surrounded By Thieves and the excellent Death is This Communion - feature heaping amounts of drop-tuned guitar sludge, barbaric drumming, and Matt Pike’s signature gurgled vocal delivery. In our modern metal landscape polluted with so much generic breakdown-abusing deathcore, mindless displays of technicality, and autotuned Attack Attack! copycats which leave many metalheads face-palming, High on Fire is one band that can still get a thumbs up from those who are jaded and tired of the current state of metal. Basically, if you’re hungering for heavy music with no pretense or gimmicks, High on Fire is one of the first bands that should be recommended for you to check out.

Tim Lambesis Out On Bail. May Possibly Be Locked Up Again In A Few Weeks

For As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis - the screamer who finally made me like music with screaming in it many years ago - things are not looking up whatsoever. The circumstances of his arrest (going up to an undercover cop and offering him money to kill his ex-wife, which there is supposed to be audio of) makes him look very, very guilty in my eyes and in the eyes of many in the metal community. Like I mentioned in my last post on the topic, he did, in fact, plead not guilty. This means that he's actually going to present a case which I'm very eager to hear, and his next scheduled court date, according to the San Diego Reader, is June 26th 2013.

Tim was released on bail on May 30, and the thing that shocked me was that the bail was previously set at two million dollars, a very hefty amount, and he managed to make bail which made me wonder how the hell he came up with the money. To no surprise, he did not, nor did anyone else have 2 million dollars to bail him out; he actually worked with a bail bond company to pay the two million for him while he paid a premium of $160,000 which he will certainly not get back, still a hefty amount, but considerably less that two fucking million.

Unfortunately, there's still a big chance that he'll end up right back behind bars in a short time from now, but the fact that he's pleaded not guilty and has paid a large sum of money to get himself out of prison tells me that he believes in himself, that he is right, and that he is innocent. As a person who is hoping that he's innocent as well, I with the best for Tim, but I'm not going to pretend like I know how everything is going to fall into place, because there's still a lot that we don't know for certain.

Stay tuned for more on this case.

Deafheaven-Sunbather ALBUM REVIEW

My interest in USBM (United States Black Metal for the uninformed) has been relatively high ever since I became a fan of Wolves in the Throne Room and Krallice as a high schooler several years ago. These bands, who showed up during the middle of the last decade, gave my generation its own black metal bands to sacrifice cats to, as well as freed us from being limited to just those scary-looking (or silly-looking depending on how you see it) 1990s Nordic fellows for black metal enjoyment. For me, this is fantastic because of how far-removed black metal seemed to me for such a long time. While I indeed enjoyed Emperor and Immortal, there wasn't a lot to relate to other than a distaste for Christianity. With these new trailblazers within our borders, I finally feel like I can take black metal music as my own, rather than just looking at it from behind a glass at a museum.

CLASSICS: Rush-Permanent Waves ALBUM REVIEW

Besides this review of Alex Lifeson's guitar solo, I haven't talked about Rush very much on this blog, and for no good reason. Rush is a very important band for a scrawny little nerd like myself; I own every Rush album up to Exit...Stage Left (minus their self titled debut) and I even have a giant Rush poster hanging over my fucking bed. Hell, just look at this picture of me: