I have a pretty deep connection with hippies. Both of my parents were hippies from 60’s and although neither one of them went to Woodstock, they were in the thick of it in their own right. I really enjoy listening to their old stories of smoking weed, having sex, and sweet bands. I was in a rock band cover Cream before Cannibal Corpse had ever touched my ears. I have watched countless documentaries on Woodstock and Altamont. It seemed like the life. Everyday I wonder why I wasn’t born there. Instead I am stuck in a world corrupted with greed, war, and depression. It seems that everything that is this world is everything that was against the world “corrupted” by hippies. So, the first question I want to address is, “What happened?”

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Hello. My name is Jimmy Rowe. I’m the owner and proprietor of HeavyBlogIsHeavy.com. I needed help running the site, so I enlisted my brother-in-heavy Mitch to be a co-admin. Since the birth of Heavy Blog Is Heavy in the summer of 2009, we have enlisted two more contributors and are always accepting submissions from any of you who wish to contribute. All it takes is an email with a sample writing. If it’s good, we’ll let you post here. If it isn’t, we’ll probably just ignore you. If you’re confident that you don’t suck as a writer, shoot an email at heavyblognews(at)gmail(dot)com.

Anyway, I write to you today to explain a few things, as it may not be overtly obvious to some.

1. We are not professional writers. Well, friend and contributor Chris (Disinformasiya) is on his way to become a professional writer, but we don’t get paid for any writing. Sure, we run ads, but that’s out of my hope that it’ll help pay some of the cost of web hosting. But other than that, we’re just some guys who love music and just want a venue to talk about it.
2. We have our biases. Of course we’re biased. We’re bloggers. This goes in with us not being professional. We’re just a few opinionated dudes who happen to have a redundant domain name. The whole point of this blog is to give some opinions on things going on in metal and other heavy music, and if I’m not mistaken, that’s pretty much the definition of being biased.
3. One writer’s opinion doesn’t necessarily reflect the  opinions of the rest of the writers. The point of having multiple writers is having a little diversity. If we all had the exact same taste, the site would be boring as shit. Mitch has a tendency to listen to heavier death metal, Chris listens to hardcore and post rock, and I fit somewhere in between. Tyler hasn’t posted enough for me to tell yet, but I digress. The point is, we like different music. There’s some overlap, but we have different opinions. Don’t get us confused and lump us up together needlessly.

So that takes care of that. If you thought all this was obvious, I’m sorry. But certain events (which I like to call “ppgate”) have made it apparent that it might not be so obvious to some. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.

I’ve got a lab report due soonish, so you’ll be seeing a bit less of me for a little bit. Try not to burn the place down, okay?

Yours Truly,

- JR

I’ve been listening to a lot of Protest the Hero lately. The band doesn’t sacrifice songwriting for technicality and find a great middle ground. They certainly stand out in the crowd of metalcore that they’re lumped in with.

When listening to their full length debut Kezia, I remembered how great the song “Turn Soonest To The Sea” is.

The sheer melodic beauty from 3:45 to the end makes for a song that I can’t resist listening to on repeat. This may be the greatest singalong part in a metal song that I’ve ever heard. Truly epic, and very memorable

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This can’t be a coincidence. It’s like dumping your girlfriend, but then getting jealous when she starts dating someone more attractive and popular than you are, so you start hitting the gym and dressing like him. Come on, man. That’s not good looking out.

If you haven’t heard of The Empire Shall Fall, they are a metalcore band fronted by Jesse Leach. And well, that’s pretty much it. They’ve got a slight progressive tendency with the song structure. They certainly don’t follow the formula that KsE follows of Verse-chorus-verse, etc. No new ground being broken here though, but the music is pretty okay.

And while I’m on the subject, the Alive or Just Breathing-era KsE fans came out of the woodwork recently when current vocalist Howard Jones has been absent from tour, throwing around wild speculations and hopes of Jesse’s return to KsE, and it’s annoying as shit. Am I the only one that thinks Jesse is an overrated vocalist? He’s okay, but I don’t see why everyone’s swinging from his pubes. His screams come across as weak at times and his singing is spotty, but that’s just me I guess.

God damn. He left nearly eight years ago and people still aren’t over it. If you want to listen to Jesse Leach, listen to The Empire Shall Fall. It’s technically better than new KSE anyway.

- JR

In an interview, found at this link, a member of the Finnish folk metal band Finntroll called Trollhorn (ugh, really? that’s how you know he’s a tool) said “Eurovision song contest is to music what Kentucky Fried Chicken is to food. Black Metal = no compromise. If KoK wants to penetrate some unexplored areas in the homosexual community, I feel no harm done, yet we leave our crowd raped by other means than participating in vain and futile contests on something we consider a blasphemy of an Art anyway.” when asked about Keep of Kalessin entering the Eurovision song contest and if they would ever do something similar.

What a trite piece of shit; seriously. What in the name of god would you guys know about black metal or art, and “no compromise” in it? The contest might be really dumb but Keep of Kalessin are still making more worth while music (and trver blakk metal than thou) than you ever will even if they are “trying to penetrate the homosexual community” you jackasses. What a piss poor attitude from a piss poor musician. I did get a good laugh out of Finntroll bashing other people though, at least.

-MW

Who the hell do they think are they kidding? Honestly, most of the people on the Limewire website are only there to get the program so they can download music for free. I the people at Limewire expect people to actually buy music from them, then they’re clearly not the smartest people around. If the users of Limewire actually wanted a song, it’s not like they’re going to the same place they’d normally get it for free and pay for it.

I only bring this nonsense up because Limewire has an interview up with Meshuggah guitarist Marten Hagström and are offering a free download of “Combustion” off of their new live CD/DVD Alive.

Because, you know, you might as well give your music away for free if you’re giving an interview with Limewire.

- JR

Mastodon. Pretty happy with themselves.

Mastodon just don’t stop. They played close to a hundred shows across numerous countries last year in support of Crack the Skye. They’re just about to kick off the UK leg of the tour, and beyond that they’re booked for dates in every month until June. They must be knackered.

But, in this maelstrom of live shows, they’ve somehow managed to find the time to write the soundtrack to Jonah Hex, the upcoming DC/Warner Bros film adaptation of the comic book of the same name, about an ex confederate soldier and bounty hunter with a gnarly tomahawk-burned face.

Thomas Jane wanted the title role pretty badly, but luckily he was pipped to it by Josh Brolin of No Country For Old Men fame. That was a good film. Punisher was not. But Megan Fox is also in it, so considering her usual role as plot-hole-masking eye candy, I’m dubious as to how good it’ll be. Obviously Christopher Nolan and to a lesser degree Frank Miller and Zack Snyder have set a high bar as far as the genre goes, but people need to learn that not everything should be adapted just so the generally illiterate public, with their miniscule attention spans (waah, books r teh long, crycry), can digest the often brilliant stories to be found in literature. So if it’s shit, it probably isn’t Mastodon’s fault.

</rant>

The story is that listening to Blood Mountain inspired director Jimmy Hayward to finish the script. One fanboy-phonecall later and guitarist Brent Hinds was on the next plane* to New Orleans to visit the set. Apparently Hinds is now even in the film as the first of a reported one hundred and seventy-two souls to be slaughtered onscreen. Noice.

As for the music itself, no excerpts yet, but Troy Sanders says:

“Some of it was heavy, some of it was very moody,” Sanders said. “A lot of it was spacey, Melvins B-sides, Pink Floyd-like, surreal outer space, like Neil Young’s Dead Man. Swirling, nausea music.”

I’ve got to say, whatever the film is like, it’s basically a new Mastodon album fifteen months after the last one was released, so I’m pretty excited.

Jonah Hex hits cinemas on June 18th, and the internet sometime before or after that.

- CG

* artistic license

As you may or may not know or figured out by looking around, I am a college student from Pikeville, Kentucky. I go to Pikeville College, which is a private liberal arts college. Because of this arty liberalness, I’m required to take courses that have absolutely nothing to do with my major of choice, which is Social Work.

Future social worker running a blog about metal? What can I say, I’m a bleeding heart hippie liberal. Death to Fox News.

Anyway, I’m taking Music Appreciation: History of Rock and Roll. I’m not complaining because that’s a cool class to have, especially if I’m gonna be opinionated and shit all over this place. At least I’ll get a better understanding of where we are and how far we’ve come to reach this style of music.

So, first day of class rolls around and I’m fairly confident in my ability to succeed in the class. My professor tries to play that “LETS INTRODUCE OURSELVES” game and has everyone in the class say their name, where we’re from, major, and favorite genre of music.

Oh shit.

I look around the room in panic. Just what I feared… I’m the only person in the class the even looks like they would listen to metal. Dammit. This is going to be awkward. If you’re wondering to yourselves why I’d bother worrying, put yourself in my shoes: I’m sitting in the middle of the room, long hair and The Faceless shirt making it completely obvious. I’m also from a small town in Kentucky. It’s apparent that I’m going to be the odd man out here. Maybe I’m making this out to be bigger than it really is? I dunno. I was just hoping someone would say “metal” before I did.

Me

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Ever since I went to see Between the Buried and Me open for In Flames last year and bought the limited vinyl edition of Alaska on clear vinyl, I’ve been almost obsessively searching for albums I love around the net in vinyl format. There’s just something more satisfying with owning the vinyl edition, and despite the aged format, it’s still going strong.

Vinyl pressings are usually limited, especially in this genre, so you feel a certain level of exclusivity when you have something that only about 3000 people (or even less) around the  world own. The artwork is bigger. The medium is completely physical and tangible; CDs can easily be scratched and lost and mp3s can be erased. Hard drives can crap out, then where’s your music? Gone. With vinyl, it’s there, practically permanently. And let’s face it: colored vinyl looks fucking cool.

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Not the same Sebastian Bach, but definitely more metal.

Earlier this month, some old woman named Sebastian Bach gave an interview to some radio show called “The Paulie Z Show”. The audio to which can be heard here, (but why would you want to, m i rite?). I don’t know where to begin with this, so I’m just going to add my commentary in the transcript [just like this, as if you couldn't figure it out on your own].

“I have my own label, Get Off My Bach, [I literally groaned when I read this. Ugh.] which is distributed through EMI, and we sold about 200,000 [copies] worldwide of [Bach's latest solo album] ‘Angel Down’ so far, which is recouped from this little record company that I work with. I’d like to be on a way bigger label and all that, but I can’t control things like that.

“Just to paint a picture for everybody, Jason Flom [former A&R rep at Atlantic Records] signed Skid Row and a million other bands. He’s the guy who signed us. He also got me on Broadway. He’s always been there for me [apparently not]. He has this thing in his contract where he gets this thing called the first right of refusal on anything that I do [smart move], and that’s for the rest of my life. So whenever I make a CD, he gets it first. He got ‘Angel Down’ first and he passed on it [again... smart move]. He gave it to Jack Ponti at MRV [Merovingian Music, Ltd.], who signed it. Now that was a very cool thing for him to do. But the fans should know that Jason Flom passed on me, Sebastian Bach ["DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO I AM?! EIGHTEEN AND LIFE?!?! VH1?!?!"], with Axl Rose [you act like this would make it sound good] on a record and then he put out Steel Panther. (Laughs) I just want people to realize that — this same guy who says no to Sebastian Bach and Axl Rose together on record — ‘No. No, thanks.’ — he says yes to a bunch of fucking goofs, clowns, comedy guys. He says yes to them. [That's because Steel Panther is tongue in cheek. That's like wondering why so many people watch The Colbert Report when they could watch The O'Reilly Factor. Their music is cheesy on purpose. Yours just happens to be that way. There's a difference. Besides, their music is better than the same old shit you've been putting out anyway.]

I know I’m just a youngin’. I wasn’t alive when Skid Row got big, so I’m definitely no primary source about how big they were or how things worked back then. However, I do know that things change; People stop caring about past musical trends. This is nothing new. The industry is floundering in this era. This seems to be a classic case of a washed up rock star wanting the limelight back and being generally butthurt about how things work these days. I mean, the only Sebastian Bach fans I know of are generally older and in it for nostalgia and/or irony. I can’t imagine there being a big demand for him to put out more music, so I don’t blame Mr. Flome for skipping over Sebastian’s solo effort.

Baz, drop the industry and do it independently. You’ll be much happier doing it your own way. Get with the times. You don’t need a label. GET OUT WHEN YOU CAN.

- JR

2009 was such a good year for metal. So good, the whole online community can’t seem to settle on which albums were the best. Just looking around at all the “best of” lists around the internets, one can see that every list is different from the last. Sure, there are some albums here and there that seem to consistently land on these lists. If it were a shitty year, then the lists would definitely look like carbon copies of each other.

So, here I am today with a new list. I have to say, however, that the list is pretty much arbitrary. Depending on my mood and overall level of excitement, this list could be all over the place, save for the top two or three, which were the only ones with a position set in stone.

Without further bullshitting, here we go.

10. Converge – Axe To Fall

Before Axe To Fall, I think it’s safe to say I didn’t care about Converge in the least. But there was so much hype surrounding this record that I couldn’t ignore it. Axe To Fall is a beastly album. The drums are unrelenting and the guitar work is dazzling. The vocal performances are intense as well, although I’m still not too fond of Jacob Bannon’s barking vocals. With Axe To Fall, Converge take a step into progressive metal territory here and there, and take chances, particularly on the last two tracks, Cruel Bloom (sounds like Converge wrote a song with the ghost of Johnny Cash) and Wretched World, featuring Genghis Tron. The album still has some downfalls, in that the middle tracks seem to blend together seemlessly, and tend to run together. Once when I was listening, I had gone through three or four tracks without noticing I had been listening to different songs. Luckily, Axe To Fall is a grower.

9. Enfold Darkness – Our Cursed Rapture

Newcomers Enfold Darkness attempt to make their name known with their Sumerian debut, Our Cursed Rapture.  Technical, brutal, and melodic at the same time. Blackened Death Metal has never sounded so good. One might have a hard time getting past the high screeching vocal performance, but it is easy to get used to with repeated listens. Turns out, this album was produced by Jamie King, who also produced all of Between The Buried And Me’s albums. You can’t really tell either. Jamie does a good job as far as having the band sound like themselves.

8. Devin Townsend Project – Ki

Okay, technically Ki isn’t metal for a majority of the album. But it’s Devin Townsend, so fuck it. It’s going here anyway. This was a great start to the Devin Townsend Project. Devin takes easy listening and ambient music and throws his own twist on it, creating something relatively fresh to the metal scene. Ki is a calming listen, evidently serving as therapy for Devin himself. Devin also takes a brief stroll through rockabilly territory on “Trainfire”. Ki is the musical embodiment of restraint (with minimal indulgence, of course).

7. Architects – Hollow Crown

There’s actually not much I can say about Hollow Crown. It sounds like Dillinger Escape Plan meets 30 Seconds To Mars; Both technical and catchy as hell, Architects combine mathcore with soaring vocal choruses. One could say that Architects are a more straightforward and less-spastic SikTh. This album’s beautiful and heartfelt choruses will definitely stick with you. This is also the best use of gang vocals I’ve heard in some time. Hollow Crown may be off-putting to people on either side of the metal spectrum, but it finds a middle ground and sits there comfortably.

6. Agoraphobic Nosebleed -  Agorapocalypse

I never cared much for Agoraphobic Nosebleed before this record. Grindcore typically isn’t my thing, as the norm includes super-short songs and muddy production. However, Agorapocalypse features a sleek production and the songs have decent length. The music is violent, but in a very satisfying way. I can’t seem to put my finger on it, but the album just seems full. With three vocalists (with vocalist Richard Johnson pulling crunchy bass duty), a guitarist, and a drum machine, there’s just a lot going on. Agorapocalypse is the type of record you should play when you get pissed, and just let it go. The instrumentation is fantastic, with a brilliantly programmed drum solo on “Question of Integrity”.

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So Killswitch Engage are going on a headlining tour. Guess who their direct support is?

The Devil Wears Prada.

This isn’t actually surprising in any way. Anyone could have seen this coming. But someone decided to lob a hand grenade into this stagnant pond and now Dark Tranquility are on board.

They left the skinny jeans at home

So, to express my outrage simply, I’ll sum it up it in one sentence:

Melodic Death Metal pioneers Dark Tranquility are opening for Killswitch Engage and The Devil Wears Prada.

Dear God, the booking agency must know absolutely nothing about metal. If this were In Flames, I could see it. But Dark Tranquility? I’m actually surprised they agreed to play before TDWP. Being that they’ve actually stuck to their roots for the most part (Unlike In Flames and Soilwork), Dark Tranquility are still playing Melodic Death Metal. And they’re stuck supporting their directly influenced Killswitch Engage and crap like TDWP.

At the risk of sounding elitist, this makes me rage.

Tour dates for this mixmatch can be found here.

- JR