\m/ MEGADETH \m/

This isn't really a live review; it's really just a block of text about how awesome the Megadeth show I saw was. I'm not actually a big Megadeth fan, but my friend is and it was cool.

Right, so, it was at the Hampton Beach Casino place in New Hampshire. To get you in, they drew "x"s on the backs of your hand like the cover of that Teen Idles album that Ian MacKaye did before he was in Minor Threat. Anyway, we got in and milled around to the right of the stage. The first band that came up was pretty emo (although, even though the thing I hate most about emo are the vocals, this guy had a good live voice. For an emo singer. Damn, I hang out with too many emo kids!), and that was unpleasant. They were called "The Confession". They played for maybe half an hour and then left. Then there was "In This Moment" (or something to that effect), a screamo band with a female singer who looked like a plastic doll in her huge pink dress and her blonde hair tied back. As is characteristic of the genre, she alternated constantly between high-pitched wailing and low belching. They sucked. The bassist was cool, though. He looked incredibly Greek, somehow. Then there was silence for a while. Every once and a while, a chant would emanate from some area of the crowd (which I was in the middle of now, having worked my way in during the second band) like "Megadeth!", "Dave Mustaine!" or "Fuck Lars!".

Then they arrived. There was some erratic drum-testing as Dave, his bassist and his new guitarist walked out front with their stuff. Everyone was cheering for a while, and the band did their thing, up on stage acting like no one was watching them. Then they launched right into like Sleepwalker or something (I don't actually remember what song was first). Almost immediately, the moshing started. Some guy behind me wasn't ready and got pushed forward. Basically, his beer got spilled all over my entire back. For about five minutes there, it was pretty tense as the crowd was so densely packed but an official mosh pit had not been formally established. There was really just massive swaying happening, where you were sandwiched on all sides and you would be pushed so that your feet were on the floor but your body was at a 50 degree angle to the ground. Then you would go just as far the other way. Eventually I (at this point separated form my friends) was forced behind the rectangular mosh pit. We didn't stay there for long, and soon we found ourselves in front of the moshing, and about 15 feet from the bar between us and the stage. It was at this point that through eye contact only, my friend convinced my to try my hand at crowd surfing for the first time. Well, I grabbed the shoulders of the massive man in front of me and my friend pushed me up. I more or less hurtled upwards and then was on my back, gliding in in the direction of the stage. It took me about ten or fifteen seconds to get there, and I think I kicked a few people in the head on the way. To them that were aggrieved, I apologize profusely. But your discomfort was worth my euphoria. So I got up to the front, not seven feet from Dave, and then bouncer reached out and pulled me down, lowering me slowly to the ground like one would a baby. Another bouncer directed me off to the left of the stage and a third pushed me along, as an old guy behind the barrier hi-fived me. I got out to the side and realized that I was now far from the middle. I saw a guy with a Jethro Tull shirt and yelled "nice shirt!". It took me a while to get back in. I took some good pictures with my cell phone around this point, but I can't get them onto my computer for some reason. Anyway, I eventually forced my way back to the middle and stayed there. The three songs that everyone sang were "Peace Sells", "Symphony Of Destruction", and the new "À Tout Le Monde". It was awesome when everyone sang. Then I surfed again and ended up on the right this time. I really stayed there until the end of the show, which was only about a half hour more. When it ended, I bought a water and we got out. It was about midnight, so naturally we stopped for a donut and iced tea on the way home. I got home at 1:00. I had an email from a friend asking if I was going to be attending an event at 8:00 the previous night. I wrote back "NO MAN, IT'S 1 AM AND I JUST GOT HOME FROM MEGADETH". Yeah. That's all. Cool.

It was epic, like The Lord of The Rings.

Priestess

The Canadian band Priestess is awesome. They are not the most obscure of NWOARM bands, clearly evidenced by their slightly more produced (dare I say "poppier"? No, I daren't.) sound, full of catchy melodies and memorable hooks. That's not to say they don't rock the hell out. They embody that crucial fusion of the elements of awesomeness and the potential to be popular, leaving you with an excellent band. The singer is good (that is to say, better than the average NWOARM singer), although I don't know how talented he is live (one of the most fundamental elements of the NWOARM is to sound as good or better than they do in the studio). The guitarists pull good riffs and the occasional shredding solo, like in the Britishly-spelled "I Am The Night, Colour Me Black" (do they spell it like that in Canada?). My favorite song is "Two Kids". It's sweet.


"Lay Down" - Really catchy song by Priestess

Another band I will see in coming months, Priestess is playing with the immortal Clutch at Toad's Place in New Haven Connecticut. That is a show I cannot miss.

RIP John Bonham

On this day, 27 years ago, 32-year old John Henry Bonham, the greatest rock drummer the world has yet and may ever see, succumbed to death. Wherever you are, take a moment of silence.


Every year on the 25th of September, I try to get as many kids as possible at my school to wear Zeppelin shirts in his honor. This year, only like four (including me) remembered. It was pitiful. NO respect for the dead. I am disappointed today. A bunch claimed that theirs was in the wash. Bullshit.

HE LIVES ON IN 20 MINUTE DRUM SOLOS!!!!!

The Sword/Witchcraft split 12'' (post 2)

Yeah, so I got more info even though it was announced a while ago. I now have a picture of the album cover and the track listing. The cover is two ravens back to back. Pretty sweet.

The Sword
1. "Sea Of Spears"
2. "Immigrant Song"

Witchcraft
1. "You Bury Your Head"
2. "Queen Of Bees"
3. "Sorrow Evoker"

I really wish The Sword had chosen to cover "No Quarter" instead of "Immigrant Song". The riff is cooler. They could have mimicked the organ or keyboard thing with a guitar and the song would have ruled. But they had to go and choose the obvious one. Well, I guess I shouldn't complain. I mean, ZEPPELIN, YEAHHHH!!!!

There we go.


All of the Witchcraft songs are previously released. The first from their first album and the others from "Firewood". They are all good, but "Queen Of Bees" is by far the best. This split will be amazing. I only hope that " 12" " means "full album" and not just "12" vinyl LP". That might suck, but I'd buy it anyway. I wonder how it would fit with my collection of classic rock? Pretty well, I suppose.

Witchcraft Videos

I didn't feel like posting these on the old Witchcraft post, so here they are:

Chylde Of Fire



No Angel Or Demon (Live)



Witchcraft (Live)

Witch

Finally, from the lush, misty, forested depths of the unexplored New World's northeast comes another band of hardened souls to join the ever-swelling host of the righteous. They are led by the world-renowned drummer J Mascis (Massachusetts, USA) , who gained fame over four score seasons ago fighting under the banner of Dinosaur Jr., where he wielded the guitar. Now he mans the kit as the rear guard. They are collectively known as WITCH, and Mascis' brothers of the band hail from Vermont.

Witch's eponymous self-titled album is eponymously self-titled "Witch", as you may have guessed. It is actually exceptional. My favorite song as of now is "Rip Van Winkle", but really all of the other songs are good. It ends with "Isadora", which is pretty slow (not unusual) but also quiet (unusual). All in all, every song does a good job of conveying emotion and atmosphere and rocks hard. Buy the album.

"Seer" by Witch

Actually, I will be fortunate enough to see them with Witchcraft at a small stone church in Vermont this coming November. If you live nearby, the venue is in Brattleboro and is called "The Church". However, their website does not list Witch or Witchcraft on their list of upcoming artists. I e-mailed the person that own The Church with the question about a week ago, but still I have received no response. The website is here, if you are also curious. I would be very disappointed if the gig were canceled, but the only proof I have that it is going to happen is the phrase 'A stone church with no name' on both the Witchcraft website and their MySpace.

The Sword/Witchcraft split 12''

The Sword and Witchcraft, possibly the two best bands in the genre, have decided to release an album together, each with two songs on it. That is the coolest fusion (haha they are an infinite energy source, get it? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more, a nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat, eh? I'm done.) possible. It may not seem so important, but it seems pretty amazing to me.

And then I heard more news. I was totally in awe of The Sword and believed that they not be any more awesome. Then I read on the Kemado Records MySpace that one of The Sword's songs would be Led Zeppelin cover.

AHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRGHHHGHGHGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

That is the coolest fucking thing I could have imagined and would never have believed it to be true! Seriously, JD Cronise is my hero (vocals/lead 'tar). Or whoever suggested it. My best guess is that it will be either "Immigrant Song" (Led Zeppelin III, 1970) or "No Quarter" (Houses of the Holy, 1973), because both of those are about vikings and the Sword has a thing for vikings without being power metal (and yes, power metal is Robert Plant's fault with his Lord of the Rings songs).

Think of a band. Got one? Led Zeppelin is better than it.

Clutch

I know that Clutch isn't a new band; they came out as early as Nirvana or Pearl Jam, but they are such a prime example of a NWOARM band that they must be included. For those who haven't heard Clutch (and therefore must be assumed to have little or no gray matter, as ignorance is no excuse), they are like Zeppelin on steroids. A lot of steroids. And not only that they are a heavier band or play metal-ier riffs, but also they exhibit many well-known results of actual steroids, such as great deepening of the voice and and a dramatic increase in facial hair.

They are virtuosic musicians, playing perfect complicated riffs in odd time signatures, as well as intellectuals, with every line of lyrics containing innumerable metaphors that are so confusing that you don't even try to decipher them and instead just take them literally and chortle (yes, I just used that word) at their absurdity ("Ribonucleic acid freakout", "Tipping cows in fields Elysian", "Robot lords of Tokyo: smile, taste kittens!"). They are probably my favorite lyricists.

Neil Fallon kicking ass

Witchcraft

Witchcraft is a powerful band hailing from Sweden. However, unlike many of their Swedish kin, Witchcraft choose not to express their music in death or even more repetitive black metal, but rather a frenzied, medieval/acid-metal freak-out. Like if Cream was crossed with early Sabbath. Claptonesque solos over fast, hard fuzzbox riffs and an 11th century/1970 Ozzy wailing over it all. Sometimes it is delivered in Swedish. They are highly fond of covering Pentagram, specifically their early, hard-to-get demo material that is just like Sabbath but not famous.

Visit their MySpace and listen to Wooden Cross and If Crimson Was Your Colour. There is also an exceedingly low-fidelity .mp3 of Not Angel Or Demon on their official website. But it's worth the static.

I hope to see them live soon. The closest show to me is the one in Brattleboro, Vermont at (and I quote from the Witchcraft website) 'A stone church with no name'. Like, how fuckin' badass can you be? If anything on this green earth is metal, that is. That will kick ass, considering also that they are supported by Witch, another good NWOARM band that is added to the "List Of Bands With Painfully Obvious Metal Names", along with The Sword and Witchcraft.

Wolfmother

As the most popularly accepted NWOARM band in the world, Wolfmother holds the most responsibility in spreading the word of the revolution. Unlike The Sword, their roots seem more to be in Led Zeppelin than Black Sabbath, so they can hardly be characterized as a metal band, but they kick insurmountable ass and they rock hard in a day devoid of hard rock.

They already have one sweet album out and then took a killer tour around the world. Now they have a live DVD out and are recording a new album. I bet it's due to contract crap, but I can't believe that they don't have a live cover of Communication Breakdown on the DVD. They better have one on their next album (not even coming out until 2008, goddamnit). They already have a good preview song on their MySpace, though.

Andrew Stockdale has a sweet 'fro. He's not a shredder, but he lays down some good guitar. But I gotta confess, he doesn't warm up his voice at all before live shows. He sounds like a lemming being strangled on the way down at the beginning of the show. He sounds good by the end (or maybe the pain just numbs you) at least. But don't let this throw you off. Go see them next tour.

The Sword

The band that, to me, carries the brightest and highest torch in the re-revolution that is NWOARM is THE SWORD. The Sword is the ultimate expression of all that is good about heavy metal. From their own pages of lore:

Before forging the blade, the swordsmiths underwent fasting and ritual purification. They then worked at their anvils in white clothes, like the robes of the priests. Their efforts were well rewarded. The final result was a blade of unparalleled craftsmanship. Its edge is made of metal so hard that it holds a razor sharpness even after repeated use in battle.

Little more may be said. All of their prose expresses the most noble and manly learnings, without stooping to the level of Power Metal, which, while at times enjoyable, is so clichéd that it often parodies itself to the point of making you revisit recent meals. And, as an added plus (haha, redundancy to the max), they produce the most violent, hard-rocking riffage since at least the NWOBHM.

Here is a Rolling Stone-style mathematical breakdown of The Sword:

Black Sabbath x (Manowar - bullshit) = THE SWORD

The New Wave Of Alternative Retro-Metal

First there was light. In long years past, the gods created music, one of the most powerful weapons of expression. The human nobility leapt upon this music and monopolized on it as well. But, indeed, great artifacts resulted, and the greatest of these symphonies are the stuff of legend. In nearer history, there were innumerable intelligent peoples to whom this great manipulation of music was never available. These people were ripped from the land that was their heart, and in their new world they were forced to endure things almost unspeakable. But during that time, they plotted a revolution. In the underground, they developed their own form of music, the most human form, which sang of the manipulated and their plight.

These two forms of music existed for several years, each relatively unaware of the other, until the human music revealed itself. It took years, but eventually the power of the first and the humanity of the second met in fusion to create that which we call Rock. The heroic bands of this genre that today carry on the torch of the truest, purest rock in this age are paid their homage due on this blog that is dedicated unto them.