New Trivium!

Today, Trivium released a song titled In Waves from their upcoming album, which is as of yet untitled. Here it is, in all its glory.

It definitely goes back to their roots and sounds much more like the album that put them on the map, Ascendancy. It is certainly one of the catchiest songs they have written. The heavy segments are definitely inspired by Soulfly; in fact, the heavy parts where Matt is screaming "In Waves" sounds like it comes directly from a Soulfly song. 

There are more breakdowns in this song than in albums past, which is surely due to their new drummer, Nick Augusto. This is the second song by Trivium I have heard (the other being Shattering the Skies Above) since their original drummer, Travis Smith, left the band in February 2010. I think that Nick is a much better drummer than Travis and is moving Trivium forward. That's not to say that Travis is a bad drummer, I just think his only forte was with metalcore music, and wasn't a very well-rounded drummer. 

Typically, I am against the genre-fication of metal, but unfortunately, it is the only way to describe a band's sound. This song is far more metalcore than the previous two records. Basically, this means that there is more of a shift in the song between heavy parts and cleaner parts. There are distinct rifts between extremely heavy parts and more traditional rock parts. The tempo slows, the riff isn't as crunchy, and the vocals go from screaming to clean singing.

I don't want to infer that this is what the album will sound like, however. Too many people hear one song an assume that is how the entire album will sound. For instance, Shattering the Skies Above is a song that was written with the new lineup, and sounds entirely different from this song.

All in all, I think it is an awesome song. It certainly sounds like a Trivium song. It is both a step forward and backward for them, as I feel that Trivium has been a band that has struggled to find a sound that is uniquely theirs. They took a step forward toward creating their sound by taking a step back toward their roots. It remains to be seen (er, heard) what the rest of the album will sound like, but I am very excited for its August release!

30 Seconds to Mars Concert Review

So on Thursday I went to a 30 Seconds to Mars concert in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom with my girlfriend. She got me tickets for my birthday!

We stopped at my dad's house in Hobart on the way to pick up a few things before heading to the city. I forgot how busy it was! We were going INTO town during rush hour, and it was still busy. We got to the exit for Lake Shore Drive in about 45 minutes. Not a bad time. However, without massive amounts of traffic, we should have been able to get to the Aragon 15 minutes later. More like 45 with all the traffic.

The doors opened at 6:30, but by the time we got the car parked, we weren't in until close to 7. Apparently a band was on stage right at 6:30, as at the end of the show, Jared Leto gave 'em a shout out. I didn't understand him. I have no idea who they were.

The show was supposed to be a theme night, namely, the Bloodball. People are supposed to come dressed up like they escaped their video for The Kill.  Natalie and I stopped at Walmart on the way to get white shirts and black ties and planned to get bloodied up at the show as they had a blood booth. Apparently, nobody got the message. We immediately felt uncomfortable being the only people in costume. We didn't even bother getting bloodied. Natalie only bought the shirt for the night, so she tossed it at the show. I may have some use for it, so I kept it.

Anyway, while we were getting uncostumed, we missed Anberlin's set. We watched the beginning and end of their set. They played a lot of their new material that I am unfamiliar with, but I did enjoy the few songs that I did recognize. (EDIT: I've seen a lot of searches in my stats for the specific songs that Anberlin played. The two I recognized were Stationary Stationery and Never Take Friendship Personal. They played about seven songs. SS was the second, I believe, and I'm pretty sure they closed with NTFP.)

After Anberlin, the set change for 30 Seconds took nearly an hour! I have no idea what took them so long. Shannon's drumkit was up front, so it probably took awhile to put together, but an hour!? I don't think so. The rest of their stage was already set up. Later in the show Jared said that Shannon was ordered by his doctor to stay under supervision at his home in LA, but that there was no way that Shannon was going to miss Chicago. Maybe he needed more time to ready himself. I'm not sure.

I was rather unimpressed with the show. I still enjoyed myself, however. I just will probably not see 30 Seconds live again. The band was much more focused on trying to put on a show rather than actually playing music. Nothing they played was very true to what is presented on their records. The crowd was also NOT into it at all. Most of them seemed to be the club-going crowd rather than actual music fans. On a few occasions, Jared stopped mid-song to point someone out in the crowd to chastise them for not jumping. Or he'd tell the crowd to take three steps forward since they all had too much space. I have always felt that crowd reaction should be natural, and not forced. If your music doesn't naturally get people in the crowd to crunch together or jump, then maybe you're not a good enough musician or you're not playing the right kind of music.

Jared also played three or four songs acoustically to give his brother a break for awhile. I don't think their music translates very well into acoustic versions. They should have just let it be.

All in all, I was rather unimpressed. Then again, I am a metalhead. Everyone that goes to a metal show is enthusiastic and passionate about the band(s) playing, and metal naturally produces adrenaline in the crowd. For all I know, that was a great rock show. It was the first non-metal/hard rock show I had ever been to.

I also think that any show I ever go to again will be tainted from the Dillinger Escape Plan show I saw last year, complete with Greg Puciato in your face yelling at you, guitarists stagediving and walking atop the crowd, and lead guitarist Ben Weinman climbing into the rafters and falling onto the crowd.

I need to get to a metal show...

The Most Metal Thing EVER

I already knew The Dillinger Escape Plan were awesome. I saw them live in April at Reggie's Rock House in Chicago, and it was the most insane concert I had ever been to. A small club that held maybe 500 people had their singer Greg in your face screaming, their guitarists stagediving with guitars in hand not missing a note, one of which had it down to such an art he could walk on top of the crowd. Ben, their lead guitarist, capped the set by climbing into the rafters and falling onto the crowd.

At some point in their set, Greg sometimes enjoys spitting fire into the crowd, but he made it the most metal thing ever at a show in New York a couple years ago, as an interview with Ben recently uncovered. Fights in the pit happen, it's unavoidable. Sometimes they spiral out of control, though. Greg's solution? He jumped down into the pit and spat fire at the combatants to split up the fight. He then had to do it AGAIN as it still didn't break up the fight the first time.

This story is so metal, it could sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. I just HAD to share.

Story on Metal Injection

Thrash is NOT Dead

One of my friends recently introduced me to a relatively new band, Bonded by Blood, and my ears nearly exploded! It has been a very long time since a new thrash metal band has come around, and I have never heard such a PURE thrash band! They have the cutting guitar riffs of Exodus, the attitude of Anthrax, and the raw speed of Slayer. I'm really excited to learn more about these guys, and hopefully see them live, it looks like they are touring nonstop until March!

Halo Over Our Demise

As 9/11 approached this year, there seemed to be more prick-waving than usual between Muslims and Christians. This happens every year around 9/11, but everything seemed greatly exacerbated this year. On Sunday night, I had my iTunes on shuffle, and the song Halo by Machine Head came on. The chorus of this song is as follows:


Halo over our demise
Following a god so blind
Sallow in their sickening
Swallow not, the shit they feed


Basically, the message here is that we're driving ourselves into oblivion with a halo above (Halo over our demise). Religious leaders do nothing but entice war by spreading their propaganda, saying their religion is the only true religion, and that all other religions should be destroyed, because that is what the book of their faith says (Following a god so blind). Of course, many other people blindly follow these messages relentlessly, so the hate further spreads (Sallow in their sickening). Generally speaking, the world would probably be a better place if we learned to accept other people's ideals and treat each other with respect, instead of immediately dismissing them based on their religion (Swallow not, the shit they feed).


This song is one of the many great examples where some of the stereotypical metal themes (murder, rape, etc) are thrown aside to convey a great message. It also goes to show that not all metal musicians are stoned alcoholics with guitars!


The song and music video can be found here: Machine Head - Halo

MIKE PORTNOY LEAVES DREAM THEATER?!?

I just read an article that about gave me a heart attack. Mike Portnoy has left Dream Theater. The band he created 25 years ago and has nurtured ever since.

He goes on to say that after participating in all the bands he did this year, he was having more fun with them than with Dream Theater. He also said he asked Dream Theater to take a brief hiatus, as they've been on a never-ending write/record/tour cycle for the better part of the last 20 years, but the band didn't want to do that. Portnoy said his heart wouldn't be in the band, and if he continued with them, he'd just be going through the motions. He didn't want to hold the band back, so he decided to leave.

I am still so shocked this happened. I cannot appropriately put into words how much this shakes the band up. They definitely will be nowhere near the same.

Article here

A Brief History of Metal

(This was originally posted on boilercamp.us on 6/8/10. There's a month gap here, most of my posts in May were about auto racing news past.)

The other day, I was driving around with my good friend and former staff resident Matt Jackson (his blog can be found here), and we were having a discussion about metal as he went through the mix CD I have in my car. He is borrowing my guitar for the summer and making a valiant effort to learn how to play, and is seeing what I see in metal - the musicianship. Eventually the conversation shifted to the history of metal, of which I actually made a Word document and emailed it to him. The following is that same document. Bear with it, it is somewhat long (I struggled keeping it to two pages!), but very informative if you have a genuine interest on the subject.

Many metal fans have the debate as to who was the original metal band: Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. For me, there is no debate, as they both put the first pieces in place to create metal as we know it today (see my blog for my rule of thumb definition of metal)

I start with Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath was responsible for the sound of metal, that gloomy, dark, heavy sound we know. Tony Iommi, guitarist of the band, was once a metal worker. An accident caused him to lose the fingertips of his fret hand, and wore rubber caps on them when he played, which added to the dark sound. In a review for one of their first shows, their sound was described as being "heavy metal-laden." The moniker of heavy metal stuck.

Here is their song Paranoid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZyVZFJGX5g

Led Zeppelin was responsible for bringing the musicianship, flair, and poetic lyrics to metal. Most bands today have a very good mix of the musicianship and poetry Led Zeppelin was famous for, along with the dark, heavy sound Black Sabbath pioneered.

Kashmir - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfR_HWMzgyc

AC/DC kept metal alive and popularized during the late 70s and early 80s

Highway to Hell - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQIxn7s3ym8

Two more classic bands from the 70s and 80s metalheads have great dispute over as to who was better are Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. To me, there is no dispute, as the bands are two completely different bands and are impossible to compare.

Judas Priest: Breaking the Law - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L397TWLwrUU

Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xR4TZsZOPU

Judas Priest were, eccentric, to say the least, and it opened the floodgates to hair metal in the early 80s. I will skip over the hair metal craze, I like to pretend it never happened. A band came around in the early to mid 80s by the name of Metallica to break the hair metal craze, and are the most influential metal band of all time.

One - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzgGTTtR0kc

After the release of their demo No Life 'Til Leather, guitarist Dave Mustaine was kicked out of the band after a fight with frontman James Hetfield. Mustaine went on to form Megadeth, another one of the most influential metal bands of all time. In my opinion, Megadeth is a better band than Metallica is, but they never met the fame Metallica gained.

Hangar 18 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tzWc3Xl4B0

Pantera, Anthrax, and Slayer round out the Big Five of 80s thrash metal. Unfortunately, Pantera is not around anymore. Their guitarist Dimebag Darrel was killed onstage in 2004 while playing for Damageplan, a band he started with his brother and former drummer of Pantera Vinnie Paul. Members of Pantera had serious issues with each other, and were never likely to come together again, anyway. The Big Five is now reduced to the Big Four. While Metallica and Megadeth inspired musicianship, Pantera created the "chainsaw" kind of sound most bands have today (mids scooped out), Anthrax brought a punk attitude to metal, and Slayer brought the brutality and disturbing images, all of which still run rampant in metal today.

Pantera: Cowboys from Hell - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_WZkCgeXWk

Anthrax: Madhouse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGHsxMqpL0c

Slayer: Raining Blood - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgpzLUCY0rU

This rounds out the history of metal and brings us to current bands, of which I will mention some of my favorites (in no particular order):

Trivium is a group from Orlando, a four-piece with members who aren't much older than us. Their front man, Matthew Kiichi Heafy, is half Japanese, and a lot of their newer material is based in Japanese culture and mythology. They also have a lot of material based on Greek mythology.

Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0dD59FYxJ4

Kirisute Gomen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgnJSZQNKJM

Becoming the Dragon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rSfGtLzshc

Shattering the Skies Above - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoUf1bbMTa8 (Newest single!)

Protest the Hero is a group from Canada. Words cannot describe them. I just love them to death. Haha

Blindfolds Aside - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgB1HFZIh3c

Bloodmeat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhMfz4HrcEA

Sequoia Throne - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWig9FwqWpk&feature=channel

The Black Dahlia Murder are a bunch or nerdy dudes from Michigan. Songs ranging from Castlevania themed to necrophilia. Very poetic though.

What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0d2LAgN-Q4

Deathmask Divine - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8sVXo82V3I

This is me keeping it really short, but certainly the highlights!

Spirituality and Religion in Metal

(This was originally posted on boilercamp.us on 4/28/10)

One counterargument I frequently get against metal music is that it is all "devil music." I would hope that by now we had learned to not generalize things into one statement, but alas, here is my rebuttal.

With anything, there are going to be statistical outliers. Are there some metal bands exclusively about Satan or devil worshiping? Yes, there are, I don't deny that. I think you'd also be surprised to find that for every Satanic band out there, you would find a band that worships whichever God they choose to worship. One such band is The Devil Wears Prada. The song linked there is called "Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over" (they are a band whose song titles have nothing to do with the material of the song), and, believe it or not, there are a couple of particular lines in there I'd like to point out:

Don't be ashamed of your faith

And

Dear Lord - deliver me from hypocrisy and surcease

But, both Satanic bands and deity-worshiping bands (I don't want to use the term Christian, because that would exclude other religions) are special cases. They are a very small sliver of metal. I'd say they only make up 5% of the metal scene.

More often, you will find that bands that do address religion and spirituality promote self-thinking, rather than blindly accepting what is written in various books of faith. I am not here to preach religion or anything like that, but I feel the world would be a better place if people thought for themselves rather than accepting what the Bible, Old Testament, Qur'an, or any other religious text has to say without thinking about the message that is being conveyed and making a decision for themselves.

So What Makes Metal, Metal?

(This was originally posted on boilercamp.us on 4/16/10)

Looking at the "big picture," metal is a special case of rock music. I think we all know what rock is. Aggressive vocals, electric guitar(s), electric bass guitar, drums, occasionally a synthesizer, basic minor scales, et cetera. Then of course the next progression is hard rock, where the volume, distortion, and overdrive on all parameters are increased. So where do you go from hard rock to metal?

In my mind, there are four parameters that are added to make the transition. Intensified vocals (near screaming/screaming), instrument solos, music complexity (time signatures, tempo, scales varying throughout the song), and a heavy sound to the guitars.

In my own personal research, a band's guitars must be heavy to be metal. But what is heavy? Easy. As much distortion as possible, with bass EQ high and mids scooped out. Treble on the EQ can vary, but it must be at least mid-range. The more treble the guitar has, the "crunchier" it sounds. If you don't understand what I'm talking about with equalizer stuff, just open iTunes/Zune/whatever and start messing with your equalizer. Put the sliders on the left toward the top, the sliders in the middle toward the bottom, and the sliders on the right at mid-range or higher.

Of the three parameters left, it is also my opinion that a band must exhibit two of those parameters. For example, a band that is heavy cannot just have intensified vocals and be considered metal. But add music complexity to the mix, and now you have a metal band. A great example of this is the band Deftones. They are certainly heavy, and the vocals are intense, but the music is bland (4/4 time signature, tempos of around 150), and there are no solos. Thus, to me, Deftones are a hard rock band, not a metal band.

Unfortunately, classifying a band as metal versus hard rock is generally a personal opinion. These parameters are just a rule of thumb, but they have never deterred me from appropriately labeling a band.

Defying Convention

(This post was originally posted on boilercamp.us on 4/9/10)

Something I've been noticing a lot these days is that a lot of the newer metal bands can't be categorized. In some music circles, it's a big deal to try and categorize bands - death metal, thrash metal, progressive metal, metalcore, grindcore, screamcore, mathcore, et cetera et cetera. I wind up using most of these words to describe most of these newer bands.

One such band that defies convention is one that I saw in April, iwrestledabearonce. Certainly, the first word that comes to me is experimental. Followed by screamcore. But they definitely have some thrash to them. A little grindcore, too. In fact, the more I listen to them, the MORE influences I hear.

I think it's come to the point where the only way to categorize a metal band is simply by its name.

Then another question comes up, what categorizes a band as metal? That is a great question, and is the topic of a future blog. (You like that teaser? :-P)