Behemoth Album Streaming

Behemoth’s new album, Evangelion, is streaming in its entirety at the band’s MySpace page.

Judge Issues Guilty Directed Verdict In Tenenbaum P2P Trial

The case of Sony v. Tenenbaum is rushing to a swift end (as expected) as Judge Nancy Gertner granted the record labels’ motion for a directed verdict on the issue of copyright infringement last night. Tenenbaum is now liable for infringing all 30 songs at issue. All that will be left to the jury is to determine the size of the damage award and whether the infringement was willful.

Judge Gertner’s change of heart came after she had a chance to review the transcript of Thursday’s testimony by Joel Tenenbaum. During direct examination, Tenenbaum was asked a simple question by the labels’ counsel: “on the stand now, are you admitting liability for downloading and distributing all 30 sound recordings that are at issue and listed on Exhibits 55 and 56 of the exhibits?” His simple “yes” answer was enough to hand the labels a victory on the question of liability.

“Notwithstanding the protestations of Tenenbaum’s counsel, Tenenbaum’s statement plainly admits liability on both downloading and distributing, does so in the very language of the statute (no ‘making available’ ambiguity) and does so with respect to each and every sound recording at issue here,” wrote Judge Gertner.

If the jury concludes that the infringement was willful, he could be forced to pay damages up to $150,000 per song (that’s $4.5 million). The decision was scheduled to be made today, we’ll bring you more as it happens.

Hoboken’s Acting Mayor Looks Like A Prog Rock Fan

Metal Insider is situated in Weehawken, NJ, at the epicenter of the corruption charges that made news last week. Hoboken is the next town over, and their Mayor was one of 44 officials arrested after accepting a bribe at a diner where we sometimes get lunch from. He stepped down earlier today, and his replacement, City Council President Dawn Zimmer, was sworn in as acting Mayor.

What’s this have to do with metal? Not much, until we got a look at Zimmer. We hope she does a great job running the city, but couldn’t help but notice that she looks a lot like a male Prog fan. Seriously, I think I saw her at the Rush concert. Onstage. Playing bass.

Zakk’s Still Going: Tells Ozzy To “Say It To My Face”

Poor, poor Zakk Wylde. This latest rant courtesy of Kansas City radio jock Paul Marshall:

I really have no idea. ‘Cause I call up and go, ‘What’s going on here?’ I was just like, ‘That ain’t cool, dude.’ I go, ‘If you’re gonna can my ass, say it to my face. Don’t be doing this shit behind my back; that ain’t cool.’

I guess we’re supposed to hook up in August and do this goddamn show [at the BlizzCon convention in Anaheim, California].

I have no idea. I’m just like… You could play with anybody you want. Put it this way… It’s like my wife… You can be with any guy you wanna be with. But you know what?! If you’re gonna be banging a guy in our bed, at least let me watch so I can enjoy it. Let me in on the skinny… what’s going on here?

Then he starts threatening to “rip some fuckin heads off”! Full audio from 98.9 The Rock in Kansas City:

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Lamb Of God, Gwar, Job For A Cowboy Dates

Dates for Lamb Of God’s tour with Gwar and Job For A Cowboy have been announced.

Guitar Hero 5 Track List Unveiled

While the initial OMGTHATSAWESOME! reaction has worn off from the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, the games are still fun to play, and every time the track listing from a game is unveiled, it’s always cool to see what metal makes the list. Activision has just posted the list from Guitar Hero 5, which is actually about the 10th game in the series, following Metallica, ’80s, Greatest Hits and about 17 others. Here’s a sampling of the metal goodness to be found within:

• A Perfect Circle “Judith”
• Attack! Attack! UK ”You and Me”
• Bon Jovi “You Give Love a Bad Name”
• Children of Bodom “Done With Everything, Die For Nothing”
• Darkest Hour “Demon(s)”
• Deep Purple “Woman From Tokyo” (’99 Remix)
• Iron Maiden “Two Minutes To Midnight”
• KISS “Shout It Out Loud”
• Megadeth “Sweating Bullets”
• Motley Crue “Looks That Kill”
• Public Enemy featuring Zakk Wylde “Bring the Noise 20xx”
• Queens of the Stone Age “Make It With Chu”
• Rammstein “Du Hast”
• Scars on Broadway “They Say”
• The Bronx “Six Days a Week”
• The Sword “Maiden, Mother and Crone”
• Thrice “Deadbolt”
• Wolfmother “Back Round”

The full list can be found here. A few thoughts:

Attack! Attack! is featured. Yes! Better practice your crab moves! Er, signature crouches.

Ozzy might not be picking up the phone, at least Chuck D is. But how come Anthrax isn’t involved in the collaboration this time out in what’s arguably the song they’re known best for? Did they not find the time?

Playable characters in the game include Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash, and two musicians that aren’t dead: Muse’s Matt Bellamy and Garbage singer and killer urinal Shirley Manson. Also, you’ll be able to play as your own avatar.

Someone at Guitar Hero really loves The Sword. Their career really got kick-started When “Freya” appeared on Guitar Hero 2, and they’re also on Guitar Hero: Metallica.

While any metal fan probably knows most of these songs already, there are a lot of people that will be hearing some of these songs for the first time. These games are great for exposure to bands that GH players might not have otherwise heard, and that’s a win for metal.

Guitar Hero 5 will be released on September 1 .

UPDATE: An alert reader has informed me that Attack! Attack! UK isnt’ the same as Attack Attack!. For one, there’s an extra period. For two, there’s a UK there. So the crabcore band wasn’t original enough to come up their own crappy band name.

Baroness Drops Off Clutch Tour

Baroness has dropped off its tour with Clutch do to family issues.

Swine Flu Threat Spurs Kissing, Alcohol-Sharing Warning At Wacken

As you read this, 75,000 metal fans are descending upon Wacken, Germany for the annual Wacken Open Air metal festival. However, thanks to Schleswig-Holstein’s (the state Wacken is in) higher than average swine flu rate, their health ministry has issued a statement urging caution.

Citing “circumstances of limited hygeine,” the statement urges festival attendees to “resist close greeting rituals,” including hugging, handshakes and kisses on the cheek. They also asked not to let beverages “circulate.” Also, medical rescue personell have stockpiled antiviral medical inventory and isolation rooms to help prevent the spread of swine flu, also known as the A/H1NI virus.

So if you’re at the biggest metal festival in the world, don’t share a beer or hug anyone?  I mean, it’s almost a win-win. There’s probably a ton of people there that you wouldn’t want to share a brew or make out with anyway. A virus outbreak at a multi-day metal festival has all the makings of a pretty amazing horror movie, actually.

[The Local] via [Idolator]

Satyricon, Bleeding Through, Toxic Holocaust, Chthonic Tour

Satyricon will be touring in September with Bleeding Through, Toxic Holocaust and Chthonic.

Throwing The Horns Gets You Thrown In Turkish Jail

To all of Metal Insider’s international readers and world travelers, this is a public service announcement: don’t throw up your metal unless you’re prepared to go to jail for it. The Irish Times reports that five metal fans in town for the Rock N’ Coke Festival (that sounds like a party!) last weekend saluted a convoy passing by on the street, and a man in dark glasses rolled down a tinted window, asking them what the hell they were doing.

“The tinted windows of one of the cars opened and a guy in dark glasses shouted ‘what the hell are you doing’,” says Yusuf Sengul, who was attending the first day of a heavy metal festival with his friends. Five minutes later, the men in black came back with police, bundled Sengul and four others into cars and took them to a police station.

“They said they were acting on the orders of the prime minister,” Sengul remembers. “We were laughing. We thought it was a joke.” But it wasn’t. Accused of “disrespect of a senior official”, the five youngsters spent the rest of the day and night being taken from one police station to another.

Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted the next day as saying “I unfortunately saw the state of some of our young people, and it was depressing. This endless uncontrolled moral erosion is really worrying.”

Sengul and his four friends were released without charge after 21 hours in custody, but only after they were handcuffed, fingerprinted, questioned and forced to listen to classical Turkish music and pop. NOOO! Anything but Turkish pop!

The story took on new legs once the press got ahold of it and spun it politically. According to the article, Erdogan is a former Islamist heading up a “conservative democrat” party. On July 27, Erdogan’s opposition, the Republican People’s Party, held a press conference with two of the fans condemning what happened. It’s pretty interesting that a hand signal invented by Dio (or Gene Simmons) and appropriated by everyone from Avril Lavigne to George W. Bush is at the center of an international conversation about politics. And hey, Sengul even mentions in the Irish Times article that he’s a Kreator fan.