Last week, New York based rockers Eye Ra Haze showed us their softer side by performing a cover of Rihanna‘s ‘Stay.’ This week, the group goes hard with a guitar playthrough of Slayer‘s ‘Disciple,’ which really shows the band’s broad influences. Check out the cover below, performed by guitarist Nicole Papastavrou, as well as vocalist Natasha Nicholson’s weekly vlog update!
It’s been a strange few months to be a Slayer fan. With the unfortunate loss of the legend that was Hanneman and the departure of Lombardo, it’s been a rocky ride. However, the band have announced that drummer Paul Bostaph has returned to the band for their upcoming tour dates, replacing the aforementioned Lombardo, with Araya stating:
Photo credit: Kevin Winter
From the band’s Facebook page:
Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home. Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure. He is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry, and will be sorely missed.
Our Brother Jeff Hanneman, May He Rest In Peace (1964 – 2013)
He was a legend.
-NT
There has been a lot of rumbling as of late concerning Slayer and their drummer Dave Lombardo, who appears to have been replaced for the band’s upcoming Australian tour. We haven’t really touched on this here because… well, no one among us is all that big of a fan of Slayer, to be quite honest. Or at least not to the height that we normally like to be when we post about bands on here. While the story has been covered by pretty much every other site, it’s probably for the best if I do a little re-cap. In short, Dave Lombardo has been ousted from Slayer (once again) following his investigation into the band’s finances. It seems that Mr. Lombardo was not being properly compensated during and after tours, and after suggesting some changes to the way the band has been doing business, he received a notice from the band’s lawyer telling him that he would no longer be taking part in the upcoming Australian tour.
While that seems pretty harsh of the band (cough, Kerry King), it hasn’t be specified whether or not Lombardo will be permanently replaced or if this is just for the current tour. Lombardo stated that he hopes that the situation can be resolved. So there seems to be some small chance that he could return to the band (again) at some point in the future. However, an alternative solution has been proposed by the formidable Lich King.
What a year. Here is a summary of my most pleasurable listening experiences. Quick shout outs to Gaza, Eldrimner, Acrania (Mexico), Disfiguring the Goddess, Gods of Eden, Trash Talk, Xibalba and TesseracT who just barely missed the cut. Sorry guys.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy my list. I didn’t mess around. Just meat and potatoes. Also, I’d love it if you left a comment validating my list or insulting me for terrible taste! Either way, happy doomsday!
Hivesmasher
01. Bye Bye Baby
02. Vomitouch
03. Strangled Beings And Vice Versa
04. Can Of Awesometism
05. Shooting At Apparitions
06. En Route To Meat Land
07. Used Food
08. The Shit Waltz
09. Damaged (p)Inc
10. Dirty Black Cloud
11. No Structure, Total Violence
12. Ugly Cat
13. Lust In Creation’s Wake
14. They Thought We’d Forget
15. Save The Magic For Tomorrow
16. Vulture Assassin
17. Send Me To Satan
Grindcore has been unfortunately distant this year. A lot of the scene’s prominent players released new albums last year and other than Napalm Death and the upcoming album from Pig Destroyer, it’s a little thin on the ground. Thankfully though, these times of drought allow us to scramble in the dirt for the best the underground has to offer, with the most recent contender being Black Market Activities’ newest addition Hivesmasher. View Full Article »
Somerset’s own death metal troop Flayed Disciple have put out a video to go alongside their particularly detailed and graphic tale of bigot butchery and while it may be mostly a performance video with some footage spliced in, it’s the band’s thrashy death metal that’s the center piece here — most notably the searing guitar solo at around two and a half minutes in. ’The Westboro Massacre‘ is taken from their debut Death Hammer, released earlier this year through Grindscene Records, and showcases their visceral Slayer meets Cannibal Corpse style perfectly. If you’re a fan of death metal, you have no reason not to check out what are one of the best underground UK bands around.
I’ll just leave the lyrics right here…
- DL
It’s that wonderful time of the year again — we’re making plenty of headway into the year, releases are pouring in at an unbelievable rate and it’s getting harder and harder to find the time to listen to everything. However, some times you just need to step away from it all and go back to those albums that never let you down (this won’t morph into a RickRoll, I promise).
News has broken that Sonisphere, one of the premiere European heavy metal festivals, has been cancelled this year. Massive bummer.
News first leaked via headliner Queen‘s official website, which although it was taken down later, was later confirmed by the official regional websites.
The multi-national festival, which takes place in the UK, Spain, Poland, Finland, Switzerland and France, draws in some great acts, including the ones on the UK’s poster above, but also was to see Metallica, Slayer and Faith No More.
Citing a ‘challenging year’, which no doubt includes the problems of the current economic climate, the organisers expressed their heartfelt apologies, disappointment, and the assurance that all pre-sold tickets would be refunded in full.
Hopefully some of the acts will be picked up by other festivals, to lessen the blow for music fans, but this is a big blow, and all of us here at Heavy Blog hope they bounce back stronger next year.
- CG
Lamb Of God01. Straight To The Sun
02. Desolation
03. Ghost Walking
04. Guilty
05. The Undertow
06. The Number Six
07. Barbarosa
08. Invictus
09. Cheated
10. Insurrection
11. Terminally Unique
12. To The End
13. Visitation
14. King Me
Longevity in bands is a strange beast — some bands make the best of it and some have some pretty well documented struggles with it. Take for instance prog legends Rush, that are set to release their 19th album later this year to what looks likely to be a rapturous reception after the way their recent single was received, but it’s bands like Metallica that are the most fascinating. Despite having a recent output that ranges solely from the above average (Death Magnetic) to the frankly dreadful (St. Anger), they’re still the biggest metal band around and essentially sustaining their lucrative lifestyle off the back of achievements made at least 20 years ago. You could argue that Metallica fans simply suffer from ‘battered wife syndrome’ or that they made such an impact with early material that it doesn’t matter, either way it’s an interesting insight into the way popularity and quality interlinks.
It would be hard to argue against the idea that Lamb Of God are, by far, one of the most important metal bands of the 21st century, maybe even the Metallica of our generation. Taking as much inspiration from Pantera as they do Slayer, you only have to listen to the quality of an album like Ashes Of The Wake to understand why they were able to put one of the final nails in the coffin of the declining nu-metal trend and become of the main proponents for the ‘New Wave Of American Heavy Metal’ psuedo-genre. But the attention span of us consumers is a fickle one, so after six studio albums that showed a fairly paced and natural progression, you’d be forgiven for asking ‘what are Lamb Of God doing that’s still relevant and why should I care?’
