01. Kingmaker
02. Super Collider
03. Burn!
04. Built for War
05. Off the Edge
06. Dance in the Rain
07. Beginning of Sorrow
08. The Blackest Crow
09. Forget to Remember
10. Don’t Turn Your Back…
11. Cold Sweat
[06/04/13]
[Tradecraft/Universal]
Three years ago Dave Mustaine and co. celebrated the 20th anniversary of their seminal work, Rust in Peace. To celebrate this moment, the band decided to tour North America, playing every single track from the album, some of which had never been performed on a live stage before. This sort of sentiment showed a kinder side to Mustaine, one that cared for his fans, and his legacy, as if he wanted to preserve and honor what he and his various band mates over the years had worked towards. Three years later, Dave Mustaine penned the lyrics for the title track from Super Collider, the band’s fourteenth studio release: “This could be all the heaven you see/Life can be wicked, mean and cold/Could this be the end of your living terror/Come with me and I’ll train your soul good.” Goddammit Dave.
You’re probably at least tangentially aware that Megadeth have been working on a new album, whether that be the constant drip feeding of song titles, extensive studio updates or even through the furor that came about due to the fact it contains a guest spot from David Draiman, of all people. Regardless… Sorry. Irregardless, hard details have been few and far between but today marks the first substantial wave of information, including the slightly garish cover art seen above and a fifty second snippet from a new track, ‘Don’t Turn Your Back‘.
The Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival is something I have loved since it started. Each year it brings something for everyone, and I was lucky enough to be there in 2011 for Disturbed‘s last show before their hiatus, Trivium‘s first tour playing stuff from In Waves, Megadeth for obvious reasons, and to even be front row for Machine Head, singing ‘Halo’ in the pouring rain. This year, though, the lineup is sick. Mastodon, Behemoth, Amon Amarth, Machine Head, Job For A Cowboy, Born Of Osiris…it’s so good! Of course there are some bands I have no care for (ahem, Five Finger Death Punch, Motionless In White) but that’s why there’s multiple stages, right? And speaking of, this year there will be not three, but FOUR STAGES. I am revving up my excitebike as we speak. I’m definitely going to find my way to the Tampa date, and hopefully be able to score some sweet interviews while I’m there! You can read the full lineup and dates after the jump.
Hey everybody, it’s Shjon Thomas and Ryan Mattheu from The Deadstation! We’re a dystopian progressive metal band based out of Boston, MA. The awesome guys at Heavy Blog have given us the opportunity to write another article on whatever we wanted… so we put on our thinking caps and tried our hardest to narrow down the infinite possibilities to ONE idea.
We decided to list five bands that are, in our humble opinion, the FIVE MOST IMPORTANT bands in metal right now. These bands are the ones who are shaping metal music of the future, by kicking major ass in the present.
We have to reiterate though that this is just our opinion, and that we are not stating it as fact in any way! Everybody will have their own opinion on this subject, and they are all just as valid as ours.
In fact, why don’t you post YOUR list in the comment section below! We love to hear about what bands people are digging these days.
If you’re interested in checking out The Deadstation, you can download our free EP “Episode 01” here. It was mastered by the one and only Jens Bogren (Devin Townsend, Opeth, Katatonia)!
The Deadstation are good friends of the site. Ever since Gunnar gave them high marks, we’ve invited them to contribute to Heavy Blog and we’ve been running an ad on the site for their debut EP since October. When considering who to ask to contribute to our year end retrospectives, it only made sense to extend a guest countdown to these purveyors of prog. Below, TDS guitarists Shjon Thomas and Ryan Mattheu outline their picks for 2012, offering a touch of contrast from our otherwise collective overlapping selections!
Revocation sound killer in the teaser for Teratogenesis, not that that’s a huge surprise. The band has three full-lengths in circulation, all of which come jam-packed with technically proficient speed metal that gets stuck in your head. While the breakneck speeds are always welcome, Teratogenesis’ teaser sounds a little more laid back and groovy, if not completely old-school. Check out that riff at 2:11. It sounds like it could’ve escaped a never-before-heard Megadeth b-side from the 80′s and time-traveled directly to Dave’s brain. Speaking of that riff, the mere thought of Revocation wielding an extra string makes my neck hate me in advance just a little more. Plus, who knows what new bassist Brett Ramberger has contributed to the band in terms of writing for Teratogenesis. Maybe he’s a mad genius. He certainly has the bitchin’ facial hair for it.
Teratogenesis is being released digitally via Scion A/V Metal on September 25th for free.
After cutting out huge sections of their workforce in an effort to cut costs, many people were predictably unnerved at the way they seemed to so easily cut the jobs of so many hardworking people. However, in making the best out of a bad situations, Michelle Kerr and Kirsten Sprinks of the UK branch have soldiered on in the form of Cosa Nostra PR and will represent a large chunk of Roadrunner artist press in the UK including Slipknot, KoRn, Gojira, Opeth and even media-dandies Megadeth. Details are few and far between, but it’s obvious that a lot insiders know they do a good job if they are willing to continue being represented by the duo, giving them a huge repetoir for a brand new firm and, while my knowledge of the PR game is minute at best, maybe Digby Pearson and Brian Slagel were right — stay indie.
This year in metal has started out with a bang. With new releases from Alcest, Every Time I Die, Meshuggah, and many more on the way. It looks like it is going to be a hell of a good year. Or so it would seem. Though, I’ll be honest, I’ve been less than happy with the majority of releases from the first quarter of 2012. Maybe I was just so spoiled by 2011 and 2010, but it just feels like this years releases have been either really tame and bland, or just plain bad. This sort of revelation has caused me to stray away from the majority of metal with a dismissive wave of my hand. I’ve been finding myself seeking musical pleasure in other avenues, or for some periods of time eschewing the art-form entirely. I don’t like this trend in myself, and in actuality it disgusts me. I want to love the music that’s coming out, and I want to be able to enjoy the albums that I was initially excited to hear when they were being announced. However, that does not seem to be the case so far.
Now, this isn’t the first time this has happened, there were periods from the past two or three years that I experienced a similar sensation. In order to fix these moments of lull I turn to older albums and songs; music that created that original spark for the metal aesthetic so long ago. It seems I visit these songs less and less when I’m actually enjoying new releases, but when new music just doesn’t do the trick I dust these songs off and let the memories and emotions flood back into myself, and rediscover my “roots”. Here are the five songs that I always turn to when my metal tastes are in need of some defibrillator. Beware, these may shock you (is that a pun?). Or not. Whatever.
5. Amorphis – ‘Skyforger’
Skyforger is a fairly modern album, being less than three years old and all, but the songs on it hold a very significant sway for me. This was the first album by Amorphis that I was introduced to, and it took me about 50 seconds to realized that I loved the band. The entire album is top-notch progressive-power metal, but the title track is the keystone to it all. It just stands above the crowd with the best melodies and power from any song on that album, and indeed the band’s entire career. You may disagree with me, but this is Amorphis’ opus as a band.
01. Dots
02. Order 66
03. Catharsis
04. Night
05. Aurora
06. Celestial
07. Maeva
Chaos
08. Trayus
09. Aphasia
10. Insurrection
[04/24/12]
[Basick Records]
Metal is and always has been a global community. No other genre of music is as encompassing as it is, and no other type of music has such a devoted following. Festivals like Download, Rock In Rio, and Sonisphere highlight this ideal by bringing metal acts from all over the world to perform on their stages in front of crowds that can exceed 100,000 people. There is just one problem; there appears to be less of a concentration of metal as far east as China, Japan, Indonesia, etc. You have Acrassicauda from Iraq, a fairly healthy scene in Australia, and even Ulcerate from New Zealand, but in between those places there has always been a large gap not filled by many bands.
Megadeth
Skyharbor
