Anyone that got to the Metal Alliance Tour early was likely knocked on their ass by Holy Grail. The band’s sophomore album, Ride the Void, stepped up their retro thrash markedly from their first album. Now the band have released a video for the title track. It pretty much lets the music do the talking. It’s a tightly-shot performance video, directed by friend of Metal Insider Will Knapp. No bells, no whistles, and not even that much light. However, it lets the viewer concentrate on the music, which is pretty much what they’re all about.
Have you heard of Leviathan the Fleeing Serpent yet? No? Maybe that’s because they don’t exist. The black metal band, whose video “Crushing the Ritual” can be seen after the jump, is actually Rob Zombie and John 5, who wrote the song for Lords of Salem. The song is on the soundtrack, and the band, which consists of “Butcher Olaf,” “Count Gorgann” and “Halvard the Guardian,” actually do a solid job of hitting all the black metal tropes. We never thought we’d hear Rob Zombie and blast beats involved. The song’s definitely lo-fi enough to pass for black metal, and their logo’s sure illegible enough. In fact, the only hint that it might not be a long-unearthed black metal band is that the video’s produced a little too well. Check the song out below. Read more »
Machine Head have officially ended their online search for a bassist. Now comes the unenviable task of sifting through what are likely hundreds of audition tapes and contacting those that made the cut for in-person auditions. And while the instructions stated that all entrants had to sing, the band stated they were moved to tears by the above cover of “This is the End.” Frank Memolo was born with cerebral palsy in his arm, but is still a pretty damn good bassist. In fact, he’s quite possibly better with one arm than you’ll ever be with two.
Here’s what the band had to say about the submission process, as well as Frank’s performance:
Auditions are officially over, and Machine Head would like to thank each and every person for their YouTube submissions as part of the bass / vocal auditioning process. A lot of hard work and effort went into each and every submission, with many people bravely making them public for the whole world to see and judge both their singing and playing, mostly fairly. It took a lot of brass to do that and we earned an even greater respect for our fans in doing so. There are some incredible musicians out there, fantastic players who unfortunately did not make an attempt to sing, and thus were ineligible, but you should absolutely keep at it! In fact, in the course of these submissions, it looks like many people have earned a lot fans in doing so. Congrats!!
We will now begin the process of having our top picks come down and jam with us in person, and get a feel for each other, both musically and on a personal level.
We have posted this reply on our websites as many submissions came via YouTube with no way for us to reply to them directly, so in order for all people to see it we felt this was the most effective.
On a final note, many of the men and women who sent in YouTube clips performing, did so with the utmost passion and intensity, but of all the submissions, this man deserves a special mention. He learned and played not only the hardest song of the submission “This Is The End”, but played it with only ONE HAND. It moved some of us to tears, it took a lot of heart to do this, cheers Frank Memolo.
Over the weekend, The Dillinger Escape Plan debuted another song from One of us is the Killer at the New England Metal and Hardcore Fest. “When I Lost My Bet” is another awesomely spastic song from the album, and today the band has premiered a video for the song. It’s pretty disturbing, but in a good way.
[Thanks Kevin]
Mike Portnoy has been working with bassist Billy Sheehan and guitarist/vocalist Richie Kotzen on a “power trio” project for a very long time. Over the past few weeks, the trio finally revealed the name of said group: The Winery Dogs. And today, fans got their first taste of music in the form of a video for the song “Elevate.”
The song is definitely on the bluesy-hard rock side of the spectrum (aka, fans looking forward to Portnoy and Sheehan releasing a proggy/instrument gearhead’s wet dream of music will be slightly disappointed). With that said, we were slightly surprised by Kotzen’s (former Mr. Big and Poison guitarist) strong voice, and the guitar riff is solid.
So when can we expect to hear more and see The Winery Dogs onstage? Well, so far the trio has only announced a Japanese release date for the self-titled debut (May 15), as well as plans for a Japanese mini-tour. In other words, we have no clue as to when they plan to do anything U.S. related (or even Europe for that matter). Knowing Portnoy, though, that will likely change soon enough. Until then, check out the video for The Winery Dogs’ song “Elevate” below. Read more »
This week, Black Sabbath offered fans their first taste of 13 (their first album in 35 years with Ozzy) in the form of the single “God Is Dead?” And earlier today (April 20), during the kick off show of their world tour in Auckland, New Zealand, Black Sabbath performed the single AND another new song off the album.
In addition to “God Is Dead?,” Sabbath performed “End Of The Beginning,” the song which fans can expect to hear in a future CSI episode. Unsurprisingly, fan filmed footage of the performance has made its way online. And while it’s hard to judge a song on a live video clip, we certainly like what we hear. Iommi’s riffs sound killer, and the song as a whole definitely has an old-school Sabbath vibe to it.
On a side note, the show essentially confirms that Tommy Clufetos will indeed be drumming on Sabbath’s tour. While Geezer Butler certainly didn’t rule out that Brad Wilk (who appears on the album) could be on the road with them, Clufetos did appear in pictures promoting Sabbath’s CSI appearance. Plus, as we discussed previously, it’s not all that surprising that Clufetos (Ozzy’s solo drummer and who filled in for Bill Ward on stage last summer) is touring with Sabbath.
Check out fan filmed footage of Black Sabbath performing “End Of The Beginning” for yourself above. In case you’re interested, the set list from Sabbath’s Auckland show and fan filmed footage of them performing “Paranoid” can be seen below. Read more »
If there’s one organization that’s more ridiculous than than the Grammys, it’s got to be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There’s nothing less rock and roll than board members deciding who should be inducted into the hall of fame, and iconic bands like Deep Purple and KISS are routinely ignored because they’re not as beloved by critics. However, after years of eligibility, Rush was finally nominated and inducted at last night’s ceremony. The Canadian trio joined Heart, Randy Newman, Public Enemy, Albert King, Lou Adler, Quincy Jones, and Donna Summer as inductees, because nothing says rock and roll like a disco queen.
After Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins inducted Rush into the Hall and Neil Peart and Geddy Lee spoke, guitarist Alex Lifeson punctured the self-importance of the evening with his acceptance speech. It’s the most Canadian moment of the evening, and hysterical. And yes, that’s Alex jamming with Dave Grohl and Chuck D of Public Enemy. Check out Rush’s acceptance speech after the jump, and go to 4:52 for Lifeson’s amazingly heartfelt portion.
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Well, that’s kind of literal. One of the first things you see in the video is a guy pushing a stone up a hill (Sisyphus?). The band is playing on a mountaintop surrounded by rocks. There’s also a guy that’s got a stone on a cart. And hey, some people turn to stone. All of it’s almost enough to overlook Jerry Cantrell’s newly-shorn locks. We’d be very surprised if we didn’t hear about their touring plans on Monday.
Sure, Fall Out Boy are about as far away from metal as possible, even though Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley are in The Damned Things. However, when they played their new single, “My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark” on Conan yesterday, they paid tribute to one of the best movies ever, This is Spinal Tap. In fact, Derek Smalls (who some might recognize as Harry Shearer), even shows up. Even if you hate the band, just mute the volume and watch. And if for some reason, you haven’t seen Spinal Tap, you’re doing yourself a disservice, but you can check out “Rock and Roll Creation” from the film after the jump. Read more »
A few months ago, we were psyched to hear that Tool drummer Danny Carey contributed to the score of Man of Steel, the Superman reboot from director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen). Carey told a New Zealand radio station that he and “12 really great drummers,” including Jason Bonham, had performed for the score, which is being composed by Hans Zimmer. A three-minute trailer for the film, which comes out on June 14, has been released, and you can hear some pretty epic percussion happening. Give it a listen, as it’s about as close to new Tool music as you’re going to hear any time soon.
[via Metal Sucks]
Posted by Bram Teitelman on Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 12:20 pm
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