Mattowarrior's Metal Madness

As previously stated, I will be doing interviews soon..Will be doing some prep work on this in the next several days so by all means- STAY TUNED!

 So, alas, its time again. Time for another Blind Guardian album. Its been awhile (since 2006 in fact) and the greatest Heavy Metal band since Iron Maiden has a new album on the horizon. To precede the late summer release of the upcoming album At the Edge of Time, they have released a three song single, A Voice in the Dark.  As a longtime fan, I will admit to being dissapointed in their last two full length albums. 2002's A Night at the Opera, while excellent in many areas, had something that wasn't common on Blind Guardian albums up to that point- filler. Also, it seemed that a lot of the riff-based style of writing that had propelled their career to heights in the Nineties was gone; replaced instead by a lead/melody oriented style of writing. Its not that this was unwelcomed as Night at the Opera had some excellent tracks like the magnum opus, And Then There Was Silence, but something was apparently amiss in some of the lesser tracks.  This was then compounded by the loss

I have a real problem with a lot of the metalcore bands and fans. It seems that there's this attitude that they can distill a certain element of earlier heavy metal, put a metalcore "sheen" on it, and call it something new. And I'm not really speaking of the more progressive metalcore bands, or the bands that just would rather leave Metalcore behind to some extent. 3 Inches of Blood for example, is mainly accepted in America because of their "semi-ironic" take on traditional metal in which they add in a bit of "metalcore" vocals. At least initially that is why they gained a following in a lot of ways. While true traditional bands such as Slough Feg and others get (relatively) ignored. And the part that bothers me is that many metalcore fans think there is something "new" from these bands, and that the influence "skips" straight from Iron Maiden to bands such as 3IOB. There is, and has always been a HUGE Power and Traditional

What do the Sex Pistols and Mayhem have in common? Well where do I start? In this article I intend to go into depth on this subject. Also, in the process, I will discuss how both their landmark albums have similar histories as well as having many parallels in regards to the way they were made, etc. To begin with, both were very transgressive artists for their time. Well, in some ways, Mayhem's actions were BEYOND transgressive and downright CRIMINAL. Of course, The Sex Pistols were not without their share of criminality as well. The Sex Pistols "anarchy" and general nihilism in many ways reflected a more economic malaise that afflicted Britain at the time. Stay tuned though while I write in future blogs as far as the reasoning behind the Norwegian Black Metal movement of the early nineties, and my theories for their criminal acts (church burnings, etc). I believe there were different reasonings behind this not related to economic conditions (obviously), but the genera

 Taken from http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=141890 While their genre (Doom? Stoner rock? a hybrid of both) has never been my favorite of metal genres, I always had a place in my heart for Sleep. I saw Sleep open for Hawkwind years ago as a kid, and it was one of the best (and Loudest) shows I had ever seen. It is the envy of many of their fans that I got to see them on the "Holy Mountain" tour. So will I be going to the following show? Sep. 09 - Logan Square Auditorium - Chicago, IL (w/ LICHENS) Maybe, I don't know. It was one of the best and most powerful shows I had seen, so it will remain to be seen whether I go or not.

And here we are again, in 2010 (!) with another musical slab of that tattooed munchkin, Danzig. Danzig as you probably know being the former singer of bands The Misfits, Samhain and his eponymously named band, Danzig. After a disappointing series of releases from 1996's Blackacidevil to 2004's Circle of Snakes, Danzig has finally come full circle to an album that recalls (in various ways) what many consider the "classic" lineup (1988-1994). While the recent albums had their moments, there was something missing from them that was obvious. Danzig's vocals in particular were produced in a way that made the listener assume that his voice had degraded over the years. Live shows didn't show this degradation per se, so it was obvious to many that some of the albums seemed rushed or "forced". Of course this is a matter of contention, but luckily it has been remedied by the new album. Danzig's last album was a compilation called "Lost Tracks

In some ways, Iron Maiden represents the ideals of any aspiring musician. They do what they like, with no regard for trends but with total regard for their longtime fans. But in this blog I want to poke a little bit of a hole in the "myth" that is perpetuated with the Iron Maiden fanbase. Don't get me wrong, Iron Maiden has been and is still one of the inspirations for me being into metal in the first place. But often on message boards, in conversations, and so on, Iron Maiden is regarded as the Vanguard of Heavy Metal as far as integrity goes. Fans and peers alike testify to the fact that the band "never sold out", they "never compromised" and with this comes the idea that the band almost is an altruistic band still in touch with their "working class roots" and with no regard for profit...but... While not wanting to bash who is probably my favorite band, have you ever noticed the glut of Iron Maiden merchandise in recent years? Also noti

This is a series of blogs I will be starting on what I think of the "Metalcore" scene. I will start by taking you back about 20 years when I first heard the term "Crossover". "Crossover was the combination of Metal and (Hardcore) Punk, and to my pre-teen mind it definitely represented something fresh. Flash forward about 20 years later and a music known as "Metalcore" is all the rage. They are two different things I must acknowledge. As "Hardcore" dropped a lot of the original "Punk" elements in late Eighties and Early Nineties with bands like Sick of it All, Agnostic Front, etc- it became somewhat indistinguishable from a lot of what else was happening- Groove Metal. Groove Metal included bands such as Exhorder and Pantera, and both bands included Metal, Hardcore and Crossover as influenced. Confused? Well in a way I am- but I am beginning to see where it all fits. The band "Overcast" was formed in the mid nineties, and