(Un)Official Metal Thread

[DFF]

On ‎07‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 09:22, DFF said:

Bloodstock announced their first batch of bands for 2017:

Friday headliner: Amon Amarth
Friday sub-headliner: Blind Guardian
Also Friday main stage: Testament

Also announced: Hatebreed, Hell, Whitechapel, Possessed.

 A few more bands added:

Decapitated, Obituary and Brujeria.

[DFF]

On ‎23‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 10:22, DFF said:

 A few more bands added:

Decapitated, Obituary and Brujeria.

Skindred, Annihilator and Municipal Waste have just been announced.

 

I don't care much for MW, but Skindred are always ace live and Annihilator have been heavily requested by bloodstockers for years (and were great when I saw them at Hellfest a couple of years back).

[MalaCloudy Black]

"Phil Anselmo slams SJWs, Anthrax's Scott Ian, Machinehead's Robb Flynn"

Don't even have to click that headline to know it's Phil Anselmo being a dickhead.  I'm not at all surprised that the guy who does nazi salutes on stage and has been documented being a racist asshole plenty of times now would have hot takes~! about things like social justice.

[DFF]

He's such an insfufferable arsehole. 

[Hellraiser]

For the fans of old school Helloween or old school Euro Power Metal in general:
We're not going to get new albums by Unisonic, Helloween or Gamma Ray any time soon and we don't know when Masterplan will get around to record an album with new material since Roland Grapow seems to be quite busy producing other bands in his studio. So here is a little something to tide you over until then.
Nuclear Blast recently signed the band Lancer and they will release their third album "Mastery" on January 13th. For those of you unfamiliar with Lancer: They are a small Power Metal band from Sweden, play Helloween-inspired Power Metal and are probably mostly known for having cyborg-ostriches on the covers of their first two album. Here are some songs their new album:

Iscariot

 

Mastery musicvideo:

 

Future Millennia

 

And some of their older stuff:

"Masters And Crowns" musicvideo (2015)

 

Purple Sky musivcideo (2013)

 

 

[DFF]

On ‎06‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 12:22, DFF said:

Skindred, Annihilator and Municipal Waste have just been announced.

 

I don't care much for MW, but Skindred are always ace live and Annihilator have been heavily requested by bloodstockers for years (and were great when I saw them at Hellfest a couple of years back).

Megadeth were added as the Sunday headliner.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I was just thinking, Ghost are good and all, but whoever marketed them is great. They've effectively captured every disaffected kid and adult in America, and probably elsewhere too. The whole anti-pope/ghouls gimmick, the mystery behind their identities, and more than anything, the Satanism and the constant claims that they're not "mainstream". They sell like a kajillion records in the US, they get interviewed by major outlets, they go on TV, but "oh America's afraid of us". That is some fucking brilliant marketing. They play to the mystery and to their strengths. They're doing the theme for a WWE PPV and they still have fans who are convinced of the whole "we're not mainstream, we're evil" gimmick.

I wish I had come up with it.

[Hellraiser]

Another band/project for all Helloween/Gamma Ray/Unisonic fans to hold you over while all those bands are put on-hold as Helloween prepares for their big reunion tour:

The Unity is a band by long-time Gamma Ray guitarist Henjo Richter and his fellow Gamma Ray bandmate drummer Michael Ehre. They are joined by members of Ehre's old band Love.Might.Kill. It's basically Love.Might.Kill + Henjo Richter. They've signed a record deal with SPV/Steamhammer and will release their yet as-yet-unnamed debut album on May 5th. Here is the lyric video of their upcoming single "Rise And Fall":

Source: Unity-Rocks.com

 

Wintersun, the band of former Ensiferum vocalist/guitarist Jari Mäenpää, have finished recording their third album. But if you're hoping to finally get the sequel to their 2012 album "Time I" you'll be disappointed. The title of the album is "The Forest Seasons" and it will be entirely self-contained. But according to the band "Time II" will still happen at some point. The new album will be released later this year via Nuclear Blast records.

Source: Blabbermouth.com

 

Greek Power Metal band Firewind will release their new album "Immortals" this friday via Century Media Records. Firewind is the band of guitarist Gus G. who became known to a wider audience by replacing guitarist Zakk Wylde in Ozzy Osbourne's solo band in 2009. Firewind started out in 1998 as a studio project to showcase Gus G's abillities as a guitar player to potential labels. However after the release of the first 2 records decided to make the band the main focus of his career. He got rid of the studio musicians he worked with before, hired musicians that were willing to go on tour and quit the three other bands he had joined since establishing Firewind (those were DreamEvil, Nightrage and Mystic Prophecy). In 2013 long-time vocalist Apollo Papathanasio quit the band due to his unabillity to commit to the band's heavy touring schedule. Later that year Gus G announced that he would put Firewind on hold so that he could focus on his solo career. He went on to release two solo albums, "I am The Fire" in 2014 and "Brand New Revolution" in 2015. He reactivated Firewind in late 2015 and presented German singer Henning Basse (ex-Metalium, ex-Sons Of Seasons) as the new vocalist of the band. They spent most of 2016 on working on the new album. Gus G. produced the album together with Dennis Ward (Unisonic, Pink Cream 69) who also co-wrote the 10 songs of this album. About half of them are based on ideas they both collected for a side-project they worked on in the past that never went past the songwriting stage.

Tracklist:

01. Hands Of Time
02. We Defy
03. Ode To Leonidas
04. Back On The Throne
05. Live And Die By The Sword
06. Wars Of Ages
07. Lady Of 1000 Sorrows
08. Immortals
09. Warriors And Saints
10. Rise From The Ashes

Firewind Line-Up:

Gus G – guitars,
Henning Basse – vocals
Bob Katsionis – keyboards
Petros Christoldoulidis – bass
Johan Nunez – drums

Hands Of Time:

 

Back On The Throne:

Source: Blabbermouth.net

Edited January 20, 2017 by Hellraiser

[DFF]

On ‎04‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 11:32, DFF said:

Megadeth were added as the Sunday headliner.

Soilwork, Macabre, Scarab and Wintersun confirmed for BOA.

[Lint]

Lady Gaga and Metallica to team up at the Grammys

 

Ok, that I want to see

[Hellraiser]

As I Lay Dying singer Tim Lambesis is out of prison. If you don't know the story:

Tim Lambesis was caught trying to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife (now ex-wife) in May 2013. He asked someone at the gym he goes to if he knew someone who would kill his wife. The guy reported Lambesis to the police. Lambesis was arrasted in a sting operation when he handed an undercover cop an envelope containing 1000$ for expenses, a picture of his wife, her adress, a security code to get through the gate and a date on which to kill his wife and told him that he wanted his wife gone. He was willing to pay 20.000 $ for the hit. He was sentenced to six years in prison in spring of 2014.

Now he is out. In fact he has been out for a while. He was released on parole on December 17 2016. His release came to light when former Dokken and current Lynch Mob guitarist George Lynch (whose daughter was engaged to one of AILD's guitarists) gave an interview during the Monsters Of Rock Cruise and mentioned it. According to Lynch Lambesis already has a new record deal and a book deal. Alternative Press then reached out to the California Department Of Corrections And Rehabilitation who confirmed that Lambesis was indeed released on parole back in December. Now Metal Injection found out that he is set to marry his long-time girlfriend on April.

Edited March 13, 2017 by Hellraiser

[MalaCloudy Black]

That honestly sounds like it could be the plot of a dark comedy film. Like some "Pain & Gain" type bullshit.

Max & Igor Cavalera's "Return to Roots" tour is coming here this Thursday. Full Of Hell, Immolation and Deadbird are the supports, with Deadbird being local and Full of Hell and Immolation being on every show, iirc. Still kind of torn on whether I wanna go or not - on the one hand, it's seeing Max (& Igor!) Cavalera live, but on the other, they're playing one of my least favorite Sepultura albums in its entirety. I wish it was the "Return to Chaos AD" tour.

[DFF]

Bloodstock added more bands the other week. Line-up now stands at:

Friday

Main Stage

Amon Amarth
Blind Guardian
Testament
Decapitated
Soilwork
Whitechapel
Chelsea Grin

2nd Stage
Inquisition
King Parrot

Saturday

Main Stage

--headliner still TBC--
Kreator
Hatebreed
Municipal Waste
Annihilator
King 810
Possessed

2nd Stage

Macabre
Scarab
ONI

Sunday

Main Stage

Megadeth
Arch Enemy
Skindred
Hell
Brujeria
Obituary

2nd Stage

Wintersun
 

[Hellraiser]

So former In Flames guitarist Jasper Strömblad and former In Flames Bassist Peter Iwers formed a new band along with current Dreamland and former Amaranthe vocalist Joacim "Jake E" Lundberg and Luca Turilli's Rhapsody drummer Alex Landenburg. The band is called "Cyhra" and their debut record will be out in fall this year via Spinefarm Records. Their band describes their sound as "Modern Metal" with Jesper's style from old melodic In Flames and Lundberg's vocal melodies. Judging by the band's description of their sound and Lundberg's involvement this is probably going to be melodic. Maybe even Power Metal. Which could be fun. Strömblad co-wrote almost all of the songs on the first 3 HammerFall records and when his involvement with HammerFall ended there was a noticable drop in quality. I'm looking forward to this.

Source: Blabbermouth.net

[DFF]

In case peeps missed it, Bloodstock announced Ghost as their Saturday headliner. Cracking band, and nice to see a BOA debut top the bill.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Tye Trujillo - Robert Trujillo's 12 year old son - is going to be filling in on bass for Korn during the South American tour.

[Hellraiser]

Veteran German metal band Accept will release their new album "The Rise Of Chaos" on August 8th via Nuclear Blast Records. It is the first album fir new guitar player Uwe Lilis (ex-Grave Digger, ex-Rebellion) and drummer Christopher Williams (War Within).

Source: Blabbermouth.net

Also Edguy will release a Best-Of set called "Monuments" on July 14th to celebrate their 25th anniversary. The Album will consist of 20 of their classic tracks from their back catalogue (old and fast stuff too), 5 new songs and one unreleased song from the "Savage Poetry" seasons of 1995 that has been re-recorded. The set also comes with a DVD that includes a show recorded during their "Hellfore Club" Tour in 2004 and all their videoclips. Vocalist and bandleader Tobias Sammet says that if you enjoyed Edguy's last record you'll enjoy the 5 new songs as well.

Source: Edguy Facebook

And here is the music video for the song "No More Lies" from the band "The Unity" which is the band of Gamma Ray members guitarist Henjo Richter and drummer Michael Ehre along with members of Ehre's old band Love.Might.Kill.:

DragonForce will releasr their new album "Reaching Into Infinity" May 19th via earMUSIC.
Tracklist:

01. Reaching Into Infinity
02. Ashes Of The Dawn
03. Judgement Day
04. Astral Empire
05. Curse Of Darkness
06. Silence
07. Midnight Madness
08. WAR!
09. Land Of Shattered Dreams
10. The Edge Of The World
11. Our Final Stand
12. Hatred And Revenge (Special Edition Bonus)
13. Evil Dead (Special Edition Bonus)

New Songs

Judgement Day

Curse Of Darkness

Source: Blabbermouth.net

[Hellraiser]

Here are two new songs from Iced Earth's upcoming album "Incorruptible" which will be released on June 16th via Century Media records. They sound good. Their last album war pretty boring but if the rest of the songs are of the same caliber as these two it might be good:

 

 

Rage will release their new album "The Seasons Of Black" on July 28th via Nuclear Blast. It will be released just 14 months after the last album "The Devil Strikes Again". The album will consist of 11 tracks. In a Facebook video the band mentioned that they recorded 18 tracks all together and that the rest of the tracks will be re-arranged and re-recorded songs from their Avenger phase (Avenger was the band's name from 1983 to 1985 before they were known as Rage). The album was produced by the band itself and mixing & mastering was handled by Dan Swanö. I'm very much looking forward to that one.

Source: Nuclear Blast Records

 

Swedish Power Metal band Dream Evil will release their new album "Six" on May 26th via Century Media Records. They released a music video for the song "Dream Evil" and I wasn't impressed. Now they released a 2nd music video for the song "Antidote" and I have to say they won me over. It is as cheesy as you would expect from these guys.

 

 

In a recent interview Judas Priest singer Rob Halford revealed that the band was almost done recording the follow-up to 2014's "Redeemer Of Souls". The Album is being produced by Tom Allom, Andy Sneap (who also produced all Accept album ever since their return and the latest Saxon record as well) and Mike Exeter. So we have that to look forward to this year as well.

Source: Blabbermouth.net

 

And now for something that isn't Metal but Metal-related: The Night Flight Orchestra is the side-project of Soilwork singer Björn Strid. They will release their third album "Amber Galactic" on May 19th via Nuclear Blast Records. Their sound can be described as 70s/80s AOR with slight Disco influences á la late Dynasty-era Kiss. It is really good. If you are into classic rock at all I recommend you to check it out.

 

 

And finally Swedish retro Hair Metal band Crazy Lixx have just released their new album "Ruff Justice" via Frontiers Music. Outside of the USA were such bands still seem to have an audience Scandinavia seems to be the only place where this kind of music still prospers. It is really good stuff. 

 

[lari]

CDs I've bought in the past two months:

Voivod - Nothingface (original 1989 print)

Metal Church - Blessed in Disguise (original print)

Rage - Seasons of the Black (2CD version)

Raven - All for One (the 2017 re-print w/bonus)

Rage - From the Cradle to the Stage (2DVD+2CD)

Therion - Secret of the Runes (original print)

Blue Öyster Cult (the 1986 first CD pressing)

Rage - Full Moon in St.Petersburg (CD+2DVD steelcase)

Metal Church - The Dark (original 1986 CD print)

Rage - The Early Years 6CD box (2017)

Iced Earth - Incorruptible (digibook w/poster)

Skyclad - Forward into the Past (jewelcase, and I suppose it's the only version)

 

That's also essentially what I've been listening to lately. And some Wuthering Heights and Slough Feg etc.

[Skummy]

I picked up the new Motorhead covers compilation - very excitedly, because it had their cover of "Rockaway Beach" on it, which I've been after for years. Unfortunately, it's shit. Both that particular song and the majority of the album.

The only genuinely good covers on there are their versions of Cat Scratch Fever and Breaking The Law - the latter I probably actually prefer to the original. Most of them, though, just suffer from them not doing enough to change the song - I don't want to hear Motorhead play "Rockaway Beach" sounding like a pub rock Ramones tribute band with Lemmy on vocals, I want to hear them play it as if it were a Motorhead song.

I'd never really thought about it with any of their covers before, but they never really took any risks and tried to change things up, they just played straight cover versions, and that kinda sucks. They do a version of Bowie's "Heroes", which has the tiniest glimmer of promise, but is let down by them trying to play it too close to the original, rather than having more of their own take on it. It's a damn shame.