Tempe Carnivore

Concert Review: Anthrax, Testament & Death Angel at the Marquee Theatre on 1/24/12

2012-01-25T02:28:00.000-07:00

Anthrax's Scott Ian performing at last year's Big 4 Festival in Indio, Calif.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably already know that I'm a huge mark for classic '80s thrash metal, so it will probably come as no surprise that, in this writer's opinion, last night's show at the Marquee Theatre was a resounding success. Anthrax, Testament and Death Angel -- three of thrash metal's longest-tenured acts, with more than 80 combined years of experience amongst them -- put on a helluva show in front of a capacity crowd that seemed to have no qualms with moshing the night away at a midweek show.

San Francisco's Death Angel took the stage first and ripped through a brief-but-furious set that spanned their 25-year career. From "Mistress of Pain" off of their 1987 debut, The Ultra-Violence, to the set-closing "Thrown to the Wolves" from their 2004 comeback album The Art of Dying, the band whipped the crowd into a frenzy that would last throughout the night.

Co-headliners Testament took the stage next, and they almost made me wonder if they read my review of their 2010 show in Phoenix, considering that they honored my requests for "Practice What You Preach" and "Over the Wall" within the first five songs of their set. The band's setlist was decidedly more old-school than their last visit to the Valley, thanks presumably in part to their longer time slot. Testament catered to longtime fans with such classics as "Into the Pit" and the even more unlikely "Electric Crown" from 1992's The Ritual.

Thrash legends Anthrax closed out the night with a rousing 90-minute set that served to further solidify their status as one of thrash metal's founding fathers. While they might play "fourth fiddle" in popularity to their Big Four brethren in Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth, Anthrax more than held their own as a headlining act. The band reached into the vault for rarities like "Medusa" and "Metal Thrashing Mad," as well as a heaping helping of songs from their 1987 classic Among the Living. Considering Arizona's sizable Native American population and their consistent support of the local and national metal scenes, it probably goes without saying that "Indians" went over extremely well with last night's crowd. The band even teased the audience with the first minute or so of their rap-rock goof "I'm the Man" before breaking into the set-closing "I am the Law."

All in all, it was another great moment in the ongoing thrash metal revival. I think I've seen enough of these shows now to say with some authority that this resurgence of classic thrash is more than just an exercise in nostalgia. There's a bona fide New Wave of American Thrash Metal taking place, and ironically, the guys leading the charge are the same guys who should've been selling out these same venues 25 years ago.

Better late than never, I guess. We should probably enjoy it while it lasts, before the New Wave of American Grunge comes along and sends us all back underground again...

Testament setlist
The Preacher
The New Order
The Persecuted Won't Forget
Practice What You Preach
Over the Wall
Souls of Black
Into the Pit
Electric Crown
Henchmen Ride
More Than Meets the Eye
D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
3 Days in Darkness
Disciples of the Watch

Anthrax setlist
Earth on Hell
Fight 'em 'til You Can't
Caught in a Mosh
Antisocial
I'm Alive
The Devil You Know
Indians
In the End
Got the Time
Medusa
Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)
Among the Living
Metal Thrashing Mad
I'm the Man (one-verse teaser)
I am the Law

Three Questions as Kip (3?aK) - The Complete Series

2012-01-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess I can scratch one New Year's resolution off my list. It might not be as significant an accomplishment as quitting smoking or losing 30 pounds, but I finally got around to doing something I've been meaning to do for quite some time now -- nearly as long as I've been writing this blog, actually.

What is this remarkable achievement, you ask?

I went back through all the "3?aK" posts and added links to tie them all together and make the entire series more navigable. This should make it quite a bit easier to revisit the infamous yearlong experiment I undertook during my tenure as music writer at College Times, in which I asked numerous musicians and celebrities to spontaneously get into character and answer three questions as 1980s hair metal icon Kip Winger.

If you have some time to kill and could use a good chuckle, start off with the 3?aK origin story and then click the link at the bottom of the post to move on to Episode 1 of the series. Each episode now has a link at the bottom that takes you to the subsequent episode in the series.

There are 48 episodes in all. Not every one is a home run, but the majority fall somewhere between mildly amusing and laugh-out-loud hilarious. You'll see a few famous faces along the way, like "Weird Al" Yankovic, Tori Amos, Slash and Lisa Lampanelli, as well as members of the Shins, Slayer, Coheed and Cambria, Lamb of God, Gym Class Heroes, Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold and Gwar. Then again, some of the funniest answers come from artists you might not be as familiar with (Shane Clark of 3 Inches of Blood and Tony Poer of local act Emperors of Japan spring immediately to mind). If you make it all the way to the grand finale, there's even a requisite plot twist/surprise ending.

I'd love to hear which episodes you liked the most (or the least, for that matter). Feel free to leave a comment below and/or share this with your friends if you were entertained. Thanks for supporting independent journalism and have a fantastic 2012.

Kreator - Pleasure to Kill & Flag of Hate: Part 10 in a 10-part series looking back at the best thrash metal albums of 1986

2011-12-28T17:01:00.001-07:00

As if one great album wasn't enough, Kreator furthered their legacy just a month later with the Flag of Hate EP, which features, for my money, one of the best songs they've ever written in "Take Their Lives." The one-two punch of Pleasure and Flag was just the beginning for Kreator, though. Their 1987 follow-up, Terrible Certainty, honed the band's sound to an even sharper edge and earned them a major label deal. Their two Epic Records releases -- 1989's Extreme Aggression and 1990's Coma of Souls -- cemented Kreator's status among the thrash metal elite. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Kreator's four-album run from Pleasure through Coma is arguably the best four-album series in thrash metal history. You could probably make a case for the first four Metallica or Slayer albums, but nobody else has come close to Kreator's late-'80s run of near-perfection. Hell, even the 1988 Out of the Dark... Into the Light EP is a winner, especially if you can round up the rare version that has the cover of Tygers of Pan Tang's "Gangland" on it.

Things took a turn for the worse for Kreator with 1992's Renewal, which saw the band incorporate gothic and industrial elements into their sound. Most disconcerting, however, was the change in vocal style by singer Mille Petrozza, who eschewed the raspy sceeches that had become a signature of the band's formative work for a shout-y monotone. The band continued to flounder throughout the '90s before finally returning to form with 2001's Violent Revolution. Since then, the band has released two more studio albums -- 2005's Enemy of God and 2009's Hordes of Chaos -- that have helped reestablish their image as one of thrash metal's all-time greatest bands.

Ian Christe

To help bring this series to a close, I asked Ian Christe to share his thoughts on Kreator, the early days of thrash metal and my picks for the best thrash albums of 1986. In addition to being an unrepentant thrash geek like myself, Christe is the author of Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, one of the most comprehensive and entertaining books ever written about the greatest music genre of all time. Additionally, Christe hosts the weekly "Bloody Roots of Metal" show on SiriusXM's Liquid Metal station and is the founder of Bazillion Points Books, which has published numerous books about metal, punk and hard rock.

Q&A with Ian Christe

Tempe Carnivore: Since this post is about Kreator, can you share your thoughts on Pleasure to Kill, Flag of Hate and, more generally, the band's influence on the thrash genre?

Christe: Kreator was a band that started out with more frantic energy than technique, so they progressed quickly and very visibly over that first hectic run of albums. In a lot of ways, they sounded like a European Slayer, but sometimes they had more intricate songwriting. I honestly think they were more of an influence on early black metal and death metal than on thrash metal. They are a great thrash band, but the crude and early side of Norwegian black metal owes a big debt to Kreator's Endless Pain and Pleasure to Kill. The evidence of that is all over Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries.

I've long held the belief that 1986 was a banner year not just for thrash metal, but metal as a whole. As you noted in your recent article for Noisecreep, 1986 saw some great non-thrash releases from the likes of King Diamond, Iron Maiden, Queensrÿche and Metal Church, among others. Would you agree that 1986 was the best year ever for metal? Can you think of another year that came close?

Well, 1980 was pretty awesome for its time, with classic releases by Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Saxon, Motörhead, Judas Priest, and the Black Sabbath Paranoid reissue charting. But 1986 was definitely the peak of that original thrash metal wave, and not just because of Reign in Blood, Peace Sells and Master of Puppets. Almost every '80s thrash band released something significant and juicy that year.

What are your thoughts on the albums I chose to feature for this series? It was difficult rounding it down to 10, with Voivod, Hallows Eve and Onslaught narrowly missing the cut. Do you see any glaring omissions?

Hallows Eve would have been nice to see. They're totally forgotten but made some great heavy and catchy records for the time. Voivod over Flotsam and Jetsam any day, anytime, though -- Voivod are totally unique and mindbending and yet just as aggressive or more so than anybody but Slayer at the time.

Music tends to be cyclical, but thrash never fully clawed it's way out of the underground back in the '80s. Are you surprised by the genre's resurgence in popularity? It almost seems like thrash is more popular now than ever.

The thrash metal era was cut short by death metal. So about five years ago some younger headbangers wandered into all this great thrash metal frozen in time, and thawed out the speedy riffs and gonzo attitude. Death metal and black metal had become totally monotonous after 20 years. Meanwhile, this great and fun era of metal was waiting to be reincorporated and enjoyed after a long, premature burial.

What do you think the future holds for metal, heading into 2012 and beyond? Can thrash remain viable? Are there any other sub-genres that are poised for a breakthrough or comeback?

I think more new hybrids of things that oldtimers and traditionalists do not like are on the horizon. For 14-year-olds in 2012, even Municipal Waste are an oldies act. Check out Design the Skyline if you want to be totally terrified about what the future holds.

[Note: For anyone who remembers my brief BrokeNCYDE fixation last year, I think Ian might've found a band that's even worse. Click that link at your own risk...]

Finally, what does the future hold for Ian Christe? Do you have any books or other cool projects in the works?

In the last few weeks, Bazillion Points has just received big shipments of Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside AC/DC by Mark Evans, the band's 1970s bass player, plus the awesome and epic thrash metal time machine, Murder in the Front Row: Shots From the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter, by Harald Oimoen and Brian Lew. I'm working on a summer 2012 photo book called We Got Power, by Jordan Schwartz and Dave Markey, which pretty much does for early 1980s LA hardcore what Murder in the Front Row does for SF thrash metal. Plus, I'm starting to interview ex-members of Death for a biography of the late Chuck Schuldiner.

Thanks for taking the time to do this Q&A. Is there anything you'd like to add that we didn't hit on?

Thanks, and no matter what, remember: The book is always better than the movie!

Read about the other great thrash albums of 1986:
Part 1: Metallica - Master of Puppets
Part 2: Destruction - Eternal Devastation
Part 3: Flotsam and Jetsam - Doomsday for the Deceiver
Part 4: Slayer - Reign in Blood
Part 5: Nuclear Assault - Game Over
Part 6: Possessed - Beyond the Gates
Part 7: Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
Part 8: Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?
Part 9: Sepultura - Morbid Visions

Top 10 albums of 2011

2011-12-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year again. Music critics around the world are revealing their Top 10 (or for the really ambitious, Top 25) albums of the past year, while angry, anonymous internet commenters are ripping them to shreds for being too mainstream, too obscure, too hipster, too hip-hop, too trendy, too nerdy, too old-school, too new-school or some other petty grievance. It never ceases to amaze me how so many people take it as a personal affront every time you pick 10 things and rank them, but hey, that's what we're here for. Some people make lists, and some people bitch about them. I'm happy to be in the former camp.

In my case, you could justifiably label my Top 10 as "too metal." It's no secret that I'm a metalhead first and foremost, but it's hardly the only style of music I listen to. Over the years, I've shown plenty of love to non-metal releases in my year-end Top 10 lists, but this year just seemed to be a really good year for metal (or maybe just a down year for hip-hop, indie rock, etc.). Outside of a pair of country albums, this list is all metal. Hell, even the two country acts on my list have metal albums to their credit.

But you know what? So be it. Maybe I'm just getting old and set in my ways, but these are the 10 albums that moved me the most this year. Throwing in a token nod to Fleet Foxes, White Denim or the Black Keys just didn't seem right in a year that featured so many great heavy releases. So feel free to leave a comment below lambasting my picks. I've developed some thivk skin over the past few years, and it just wouldn't feel like a proper Top 10 list without disgruntled commentary.

10. Hemoptysis - Misanthropic Slaughter

Call this a homer pick if you want, but if anything, I think I sometimes have a tendency to underrate local albums. At the very least, I'm frequently guilty of judging a local band by how they compare to other local acts in their genre, as opposed to sizing them up against the national music scene. That said, Hemoptysis is a different animal. There's something special about this band, and it's baffling that they have yet to land a North American record deal. With Misanthropic Slaughter, Hemoptysis have set the bar for Arizona metal about as high as it's been since Flotsam and Jetsam and Sacred Reich were playing local dives in the mid '80s. But there I go localizing them again. In truth, Hemoptysis are every bit as talented as the majority of bands on the roster of any given indie metal label. The have the right sound -- a seamless hybrid of retro Teutonic thrash and modern melodic death metal -- at the right time, and it's only a matter of time before the rest of the metal world catches on.

9. Gentlemens Pistols - At Her Majesty's Pleasure

As much as I love bands that push the envelope and defy easy classification, I'm also a sucker for a band that takes an existing, well-worn sound and hones it to near-perfection. And when that sound happens to be fuzz-drenched, salacious '70s hard rock, well, consider me firmly on board. This UK foursome combines the bluesy riffing of Deep Purple and Blue Cheer with the glam rock swagger of Slade and T Rex. The result is an infinitely catchy (if not particularly groundbreaking) collection of songs that practically demand to be blasted at full volume, preferably in the cassette deck of a classic muscle car.

8. Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire

After the release of 2008's Cardinology, the normally prolific Ryan Adams took a respite from writing and recording new music, going so far as to announce his retirement in early 2009. In the interim, he married former teen pop sensation Mandy Moore and released a pair of poetry books and three albums' worth of previously recorded material, including a Voivod-inspired, sci-fi metal concept album titled Orion. But Adams' strong suit has always been melancholy alt-country, and Ashes & Fire represents an excellent return to form for the eclectic singer-songwriter. It's an understated, heartfelt album that reaffirms his status as alt-country's standard bearer.

7. Fair to Midland - Arrows & Anchors

Fair to Midland's long-awaited follow-up to their fantastic 2007 debut, Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True, proved to be worth the wait. The Texas quintet tempers their prog metal leanings with a healthy dose of pop sensibility. This sounds like what Tool would be doing if they weren't so in love with themselves. Read my full review here.

6. The Atomic Bitchwax - The Local Fuzz

A single, 42-minute instrumental track that somehow never loses steam. Chock full of riffs, solos and psychedelia, The Local Fuzz is stoner metal's answer to Girl Talk, except the Atomic Bitchwax actually wrote the whole thing. Read my full review here.

5. Hank3 - Ghost to a Ghost / Guttertown

Back in September, Hank3 flooded the market with a doom metal record, a speed metal album featuring samples of cattle auctioneers and this two-disc set of classic country, folk, zydeco and hillbilly weirdness. While the two metal albums left a bit to be desired, Ghost to a Ghost / Guttertown proved to be an ambitious, sprawling work that pushes country music to its limits and beyond. Read my full review here.

4. Mastodon - The Hunter

Mastodon topped my 2009 Top 10 list with their epic concept album Crack the Skye. The follow-up, The Hunter, is the band's first non-concept album since their 2002 debut, Remission, and their first album not based on one of the four classical elements (Fire, Water, Earth and Air). That's not to say that it's lacking in scope or ambition. The songs might be shorter and the hooks might be, well, hookier, but Mastodon still retain their title as the Thinking Man's Metal Band.

3. 40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room

Moody, atmospheric post-rock from former Warning frontman Patrick Walker. Few bands are capable of making heavy music so transcendently beautiful. Read my full review here.

2. Anthrax - Worship Music

After spending most of the past year reminiscing about 25-year-old thrash metal albums, it's hard not to get a little nostalgic. But what makes Worship Music -- Anthrax's first album with vocalist Joey Belladonna in more than 20 years -- so wonderful is that it's completely devoid of nostalgia. This is not a "throwback" record, but a thoroughly modern metal album featuring some of the best music that any of thrash metal's "old guard" have released in decades. Read my full review here.

1. Elder - Dead Roots Stirring

I don't think I could gush about how great this album is any more than I did in my original review a couple months ago, but suffice it to say, this album still blows me away. Dead Roots Stirring is not only the best album of 2011, but one of the best hard rock/metal albums I've had the pleasure of reviewing in my five-plus years of writing about music.

Sepultura - Morbid Visions: Part 9 in a 10-part series looking back at the best thrash metal albums of 1986

2011-12-17T13:28:00.001-07:00

Sorry I'm a little late with this installment. I had hoped to land an interview with former Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera for this post, but with the end of the year fast approaching, I couldn't afford to wait any longer if I plan to finish this series this year.

Ironically, the significance of Morbid Visions lies not in the music contained within, but more in what it represents. The music itself is raw and unrefined, the lyrics are unsophisticated and the production is muddy. But the fact that it was spawned by a group of Brazilian teenagers who would ultimately go on to become one of the most innovative and influential metal bands of the late '80s and early '90s lends it credibility.

Sepultura was formed in 1984 by Max Cavalera and his brother Igor, a drummer. The brothers eventually hooked up with bassist Paulo Jr. and guitarist Jairo Guedes to form the lineup that appears on Morbid Visions. The cheesy, Satanic lyrics were the result of the band's limited English and infatuation with early Venom and Celtic Frost. In the liner notes to a later re-release of the album, Max Cavalera even admitted that the band didn't bother tuning their instruments for the Morbid Visions recording sessions.

Despite such an inauspicious start, Sepultura would go on to become one of the most popular metal bands of their era. After Morbid Visions, the band parted ways with Guedes and hired Andreas Kisser, forming the "classic" Sepultura lineup responsible for such classic albums as Beneath the Remains, Arise, Chaos A.D. and Roots (the latter two of which went Gold). Sepultura's lyrics grew more spiritual and political and their music incorporated elements of traditional Brazilian music.

Max Cavalera left the band in 1996 and formed Soulfly. Igor Cavalera left in 2007 and formed the Cavalera Conspiracy with his brother. Kisser and Paulo Jr. continue to record and perform as Sepultura, alongside guitarist/vocalist Derrick Green and new drummer Eloy Casagrande.

When I interviewed Max Cavalera last year for Phoenix New Times, I asked him about the possibility of a reunion of the classic Sepultura lineup.

"A lot of people ask me that, and sometimes I feel optimistic," Cavalera said at the time. "I convinced Igor to do it, 'cause he didn't want to have anything to do with those guys [bassist Paulo Jr. and guitarist Andreas Kisser] ever again. I convinced him to do it for me, and he said he'd do it for me if that was the case, but the other two guys, it's kinda hard. They're still trapped in an old mindset, so it's just something that's gonna have to wait. I mean, it would have been cool to do it [in 2011]."

Indeed it would have. Unfortunately, Kisser doesn't seem too keen on the idea. Maybe in another five years...

Hate Tim Tebow? Here are 10 sports figures more deserving of your contempt

2011-12-10T21:43:00.001-07:00

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past several weeks, you probably already know that Tim Tebow has become one of the most divisive and controversial athletes since Muhammed Ali. Is it because Tebow is a draft dodger? A radical Muslim? An unrepentant shit-talker? Nope. It's just because he loves Jesus. A lot. Like, a whole lot.

I'll admit, until recently, I was one of those haters. And trust me, if you think this post is going to end with some miraculous conversion where I begin singing the kid's praises, you might as well stop reading now. He still bugs the everloving shit out of me. I've just come to the realization that there are a lot of people in the world of sports who deserve my vitriol more than Tim Tebow.

But before I start naming names, let's examine why Tebow is so hated in the first place. Now some people might try to beat around the bush by saying they just think he's overrated, overexposed, a terrible thrower, etc. All valid criticisms, to be sure, but let's face it: the main reason Tebow's haters -- and they are legion -- harbor such rancor is because he's an outspoken, evangelical Christian. Okay, so that might be a bit of an understatement. He's probably the most outspoken, evangelical Christian athlete ever.

So there, I said it. The reason Tim Tebow is so annoying is because he won't shut up about Jesus. I'm not trying to offend any Christians who might be reading this. I don't have anything against Christianity or the free expression thereof, even in a public forum. Over the years, countless athletes have thanked God and/or Jesus Christ after a big win, or knelt down in prayer after a score or big play. Such actions might elicit some eye rolling, but have never generated the degree of malevolence aimed at Tebow.

So no, it's not simply Tebow's faith that's annoying, nor his public expression of it. It's just that he's so over-the-goddamned-top about it. Seriously, when Kurt Warner is suggesting you dial it down a notch or two, it might be a sign that you've crossed a line.

Just for the sake of argument, let's remove fame from the equation for a moment. If Tim Tebow was just a regular guy at your job who started every meeting by thanking his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and ended every conference call with "God bless," you'd still find it annoying. You'd want to pull him aside and say "Look, Tim, I appreciate your faith and all, but I just don't think Jesus actually had a vested interest in us landing the Kwik-E-Lube account."

Now let's take Christianity out of the equation too. There are lots of people who are just way too into something or other, to the point of being annoying about it. Maybe you know someone who won't shut up about Bruce Springsteen, or Howard Stern, or Harry Potter, or Star Trek, or Ron Paul, or that fucking new Skyrim game. Hell, there are probably people out there who are annoying as fuck simply because they won't shut up about Tim Tebow. How's that for meta?

All that being said, there's a difference between annoyance and hatred. My best friend is the Tim Tebow of Dylan fans, and sometimes his incessant Bob-selytizing can get annoying, but I sure as hell don't hate him for it. He's still my friend. I just zone out and wait for him to finish. Which brings us to the whole point of this post: while Tim Tebow might be annoying, there are plenty other sports figures more deserving of your hatred. So the next time Tebow goes off on one of his postgame sermons, just zone out and focus your hatred on one or more of the following people. Trust me, they've done much more to earn it.

10. Thom Brennaman

If you currently hate Tim Tebow, odds are good that Brennaman is a big part of the reason why. By the time the BCS National Championship Game rolled around on Jan. 8, 2009, Tebowmania was already at an all-time high. As the quarterback for the Florida Gators, Tebow had become the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy following the 2007 season. In 2008, Tebow led the Gators to a 12-1 mark and a spot in the aforementioned championship game. Tim was already a media darling at that point, but FOX play-by-play announcer Brennaman's unabashed Tebow worship took the absurdity to new heights. Just listen to a few highlight's of Brennaman's three-hour, on-air praise-a-thon and try to hold down your lunch:

9. Tiger Woods
Look, if I was one of the most famous people in the world, I'd take advantage of the, ahem, perks of that fame too. What I wouldn't do is get married and have kids first. (I also hope that I'd have a little better taste in skanks.)

8. Barry Bonds
I'm not a huge baseball fan by any stretch, but even as a casual observer, I'm appalled that two of the game's most hallowed records -- the single-season and all-time home run marks -- are held by a known cheater. I can't imagine how livid true fans of the game must be.

7. Lawrence Phillips
An incredible talent on the football field, Phillips proved to be an even more incredible asshole off it. During his time at the University of Nebraska, Phillips was arrested on assault charges after dragging his then-girlfriend down a flight of stairs by her hair. His problems continued through a brief and mostly ineffective NFL career, as arrests piled up much faster than touchdowns. Phillips is currently serving 30-plus years in California State Prison for multiple felony assault convictions. Plus, he played for Nebraska.

6. Roy Kramer
Who the hell is Roy Kramer, you ask? He's the guy who's widely credited as being the inventor of college football's BCS. Anybody who screws up such a fantastic sport to such an unbelievable degree is certainly deserving of hatred. Plus, I had to put someone in between the two former Huskers.

5. Thunder Collins
And now we get to the real scumbags. This former Husker running back is currently serving a life sentence for murdering one man and seriously injuring another in what prosecutors described as a "drug deal gone bad." Plus, he played for Nebraska.

4. Rae Carruth
As the old Jim Rome axiom goes, "you must smack your own." So while I take a certain joy in rehashing the wrongs of former Nebraska Cornhuskers, I have to add a former Colorado Buffalo to this list as well. Carruth is currently serving time for conspiracy to commit 1st degree murder, after paying a friend to murder his then-girlfriend, who also happened to be eight months pregnant with his child. Miraculously, his son was delivered via C-section, but the mother died of her injuries a month later. At least he waited until after he left CU to show his true colors, but he's still a piece of shit.

3. Michael Vick
Is killing dogs really worse than killing the mother of your unborn child? No, but Carruth got nearly 20 years for his crime. Vick was out of prison in less than two years and is now making millions again as the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. It's enough to make you wish that Lawrence Taylor would come out of retirement for one more coke-fueled game just to snap Vick's leg in half, a la Joe Theisman.

2. Orenthal James Simpson
As appalling as it is that Vick only got 21 months for killing dogs, it pales in comparison to Simpson getting off scot-free after killing his ex-wife and a waiter. He's currently serving time on convictions of kidnapping and armed robbery, but let's face it, he should've already gone to the gas chamber by now.

1. Jerry Sandusky
Granted, Sandusky has yet to be convicted of any crimes, but if the multiple allegation of child rape levied against him hold up, he has more than earned his spot at the top of this list. Now you might be wondering if child rape is really worse than premeditated murder. After all, at least the kids are still alive, right? Well, I just keep going back to Chris Rock's take on OJ Simpson: "So you gotta look at OJ's situation. He's paying $25,000 a month in alimony, got another man driving around in his car and fucking his wife in a house he's still paying the mortgage on. Now I'm not saying he should have killed her... but I understand." And therein lies the difference. While what OJ did was reprehensible, it is understandable, at least on some level. The crimes Sandusky has been accused of are so unfathomably sick and wrong that nobody can relate.

[Caveat and full disclosure: I was born in Denver and have been a Broncos fan my whole life. Just as I still love my Dylan-worshipping best friend, I also still want the Broncos -- and, by extension, Tebow -- to do well, despite their respective Dyan and Jesus obsessions. If you happen to be a Raiders, Chiefs or Chargers fan, or already hated the Broncos before Tebow got there, then you have a perfectly valid reason for hating Tebow. By all means, hate on.]

Metal label exec launches cat rescue

2011-11-22T10:08:00.001-07:00

Clover and Stevie at the Clover Cat Rescue in Patrick County, Virginia

I don't normally just copy & paste press releases. I know it's an easy way to provide content and generate traffic, but it just feels cheap to me. I'm going to make an exception for this though. I recently received a press release about an accountant at an indie metal label who recently opened a cat rescue in Virginia. It's a pretty touching story that combines two of my favorite things in life: heavy metal and cats.

Here's the press release, courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records:

Back in their December 2009 issue, Decibel's “Cutest Kitties In Metal” article featured some well-known metal musicians & their beloved cats. Long-time animal lover, metalhead, and current Century Media CFO and Nuclear Blast USA accountant Tanja Schoor took her love one step further: she just launched Clover Cat Rescue in Patrick County, Virginia - a no-kill cat rescue and adoption operation.

“It seems like this is something I was supposed to do,” Schoor shares. “It was something we had room for and there was such a need for it. My dad had sent me a generous amount of money for my last birthday and I used that money to build the shelter. We brought in a building that originally functioned as one of those annexed rooms for schools that need more classroom space. My good friend Mas [bassist] from Samael flew over and converted the interior into an amazing cat play area, with mother/kitten compartments, shelves, climbing ramps, etc. He’s a fantastic carpenter and just a super person. I have never seen anybody work with such passion! Jeff Wagner [Mean Deviation author/former Metal Maniacs editor] along with another volunteer David S. built a beautiful outdoor enclosure for the cats that is accessible through a cat door. Trevor [Peres, guitarist] from Obituary is going to build a proper website for the rescue once he’s back from their east-coast tour. So, yes, it’s been a great experience to see how people pull together for a good cause.”

About four years ago, Schoor joined a local animal rescue organization in Stuart, Virginia. They were looking for volunteers and she became heavily involved, going to adoption events, driving a spay-neuter transport every 3 weeks, donating her experience in accounting to keep their books, and fostering cats. The rescue didn’t have a shelter and all animals were staying in foster homes. At the time there was only one cat foster home with limited space and the local kill-pound filled up with cats on a weekly basis. It didn’t take long for Schoor to realize that cat rescue was something she wanted to do. It became a very important part of her life in addition to her work as a metal-accountant. A few months ago a more dog-oriented shift took place in the organization and she decided to start her own cat rescue that includes an outdoor play area. Of the effort, you can hear the happiness in Schoor’s voice as she says, “It’s been already incredibly rewarding and the support has been great.”

Asked when her love of animals began, Schoor responds:

“I’ve always had a love for animals. It goes back to when I was 6 or 7 years old. My parents let me have any animal as long as I took care of it, so I had hamsters, guinea pigs, parakeets, canaries, finches, mice, rats, a turtle, rabbits, fish, and a dog. My very first pet however was a cat named Felix. I was maybe 5 years old and Felix would sleep in my bed with me. One day he disappeared along with other pets in the neighborhood, and we found out that a strange vehicle was sighted in the area that day. No doubt Felix ended up in a laboratory, and so I had early exposure to the mistreatment of animals, which shaped the rest of my life. Strangely, it was not until almost 25 years later that the next cat came into my life. We found him on the side of a highway with severe upper-respiratory infection, his eyes glued shut with pus, flea-infested and helpless. He was only about 6 weeks old. At the time we had 4 dogs and we didn’t think we could keep the little guy, but he stole our hearts immediately and we decided to make it work, no matter what. We named him ‘Mika,’ after Mika [Luttinen, vocalist] from Impaled Nazarene. Mika had said in an interview once that he cared for animals more than people and so ‘Mika’ seemed to fit as a name for a kitten that was left to die on the side of the road.”

Here, Tanja tells the story of the personality that inspired the naming of Clover Cat Rescue:

“I found Clover at a 4H-camp. She was in such bad shape that the vet didn’t give her much of a chance. She was very shy because people at the camp had constantly chased her off instead of feeding her. I read the book The Kite Runner with her, always pulling her out from under the couch and putting her on my lap as I read. Eventually she turned into the beautiful kitty that she is today. It seemed fitting to name the cat rescue after her since she had undergone this amazing transformation that has always inspired me to not give up.”

How long has this been a dream for Tanja? Jeff Wagner responds:

“I'm not sure it was a dream she went after, necessarily, but more something that evolved over time. Neither one of us thought of ourselves as ‘cat people’ until we found Mika in 2001. We just totally fell in love with that guy. In the next couple years we brought two more cats into the household, and once Tanja made the first step in fostering, it grew into a pursuit that she got more and more involved with. She's responsible for saving the lives of and finding homes for hundreds and hundreds of cats. The logical next step for her was the Clover Cat Rescue.”

For cat lovers outside of Virginia who wish to adopt a Clover Rescue cat, there’s good news:

“We’ve had adoptions as far as Florida, Alabama, Pennsylvania and New York,” states Schoor. “When someone from further away contacts me to adopt I try to find someone who is going in that direction and try to make a transport happen. A lot of times it works out, other times it doesn’t. It would be good to get a network of frequent travelers together that I can call on when I need an animal to go long distance.”

There are several ways animal lovers who don’t wish to adopt can help with Clover Cat Rescue’s efforts:

“By local law I am limited to 30 cats at a time, so it is essential to get them adopted in order to be able to save more. Since I am limited in capacity, I am heavily focusing on the spay/neuter of owned and feral cats in this county. I am located in a rural area where many people either don’t have the money for basic vet care or aren’t aware of animal overpopulation problems. Every spay of a female cat will prevent an unwanted litter I have to take in or turn away if I am full. A spay costs between $50 - $60, and I am calling on everybody with a heart for cats to sponsor the spay of a cat and therefore save numerous lives. The PayPal account for donations and spay sponsorships is clovercatrescue@yahoo.com. If a donation is dedicated to the spay of a cat, that’s where the money will go. Otherwise, it will help to cover the cost of food, litter, medical expenses and upkeep of the cats in foster care.”

Holding down a full-time job, volunteering her time to worthy causes, and running a no-kill cat rescue & adoption operation can be demanding, but inspiration is never lacking. States Schoor:

“The local state-run kill-pound here is so overcrowded on a regular basis that it sometimes feels like a drop in the bucket what I am doing. It can be very discouraging. But I am making a difference for that one animal I am saving and that’s what matters.”

To meet the cats currently up for adoption and to take a virtual visit of the cat compound & outdoor play area, visit the Clover Cat Rescue Facebook page.

Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?: Part 8 in a 10-part series looking back at the best thrash metal albums of 1986

2011-11-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

This installment commemorates Megadeth's sophomore release, Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?. Depending on the source, the album came out in either July (according to Encyclopædia Metallum), October (Megadeth.com) or November (Wikipedia). Being the lazy bastard that I am, I decided to go with the latest of the three.

Peace Sells was a landmark release for Megadeth and thrash metal in general. Along with Metallica's Master of Puppets and Slayer's Reign in Blood, it's part of an "unholy trinity" of seminal thrash albums released in 1986. While all of the albums I've covered in this series have devoted followings to one degree or another, there's little doubt that those three stand above the pack. I spoke with Megadeth bassist and founding member Dave "Junior" Ellefson back in July about the impact of Peace Sells and his memories of the early days of the thrash scene. Check out the interview after the break.

Interview with Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson

Tempe Carnivore: It's been difficult coming up with an accurate release date for Peace Sells. Was it originally released by Combat alone and then re-released by Capitol?

Ellefson: We originally recorded it for Combat. We actually wrote the record [and then] we did a three-week club tour on the East Coast through January of ’86… and it might’ve even been on that tour when the A&R guy for Capitol came to the Irving Plaza show in New York City and saw the band and wanted to sign us. We went home and we recorded the record for Combat during, I believe, March and April, and mixed it and were ready to turn it in, and that’s when the bidding war started between several labels to sign Megadeth. Capitol won out on that, and they basically bought our contract from Combat Records, who was the little indie label that we were signed to. So that’s the transition that happened. Then they hired Paul Lani to remix the record. It was funny, because Dave [Mustaine] and I went to New York to have a discussion with the manager and to meet with some label people. Another label was wooing us at the time and wining and dining us. Dave and I and our booking agent at the time actually ate dinner at Wylie’s Ribs, which is a rib restaurant right across the street from the UN building, and that’s when Dave came up with the idea for the cover, with the UN building being all shot-out during war, and [band mascot] Vic [Rattlehead] out front with a “For Sale” sign for the UN building.

How seriously did Mustaine take the rivalry with Metallica back then? When you went into the studio to record Peace Sells, was there any kind of stated goal or mission to outdo them?

I can’t really speak for Dave on that. For me, Megadeth was my band, and I didn’t have the Metallica history that Dave did. I think to a large degree the press -- and even the fans – the press certainly fueled that fire big-time because, you know, the media loves a good fight, ‘cause it makes for a good story. But I think the fans weren’t so much into the fight, they actually were just really excited that Dave had his own band. They loved Dave when he was in Metallica, so they were excited to hear what he would come up with next, which, you know, was our first record, Killing is My Business. It’s interesting because I think that, to me, Peace Sells was the first record where we really got out from under the shadow of Metallica, from Dave’s past. I think that was a record where we really had our own sound and our own identity, and that’s when we really stood on our own two feet as a band.

Guitarists and singers usually get all the attention, while bassists and drummers are usually relegated to “second fiddle” status. That said, the opening riff for “Peace Sells” is one of the most recognizable bass lines of all time. I know Mustaine wrote most of the music, but did you write that riff?

No, Dave wrote the song, and in fact, that riff, as best I can remember, actually started out… I don’t know if it originally started out as a bass riff or as a guitar riff. But Dave was really big, when we first met, on getting me involved at the forefront of the sound of the band, which was great. As a kid I grew up and studied obviously a ton of metal and hard rock, but I also got into progressive bands and even studied some jazz at one point. The funny thing is, I really don’t even like jazz. It’s not a style of music that I listen to. To me, it was always about the riff and the hook, you know. But I took all that development as a bass player, so by the time I met Dave and we were starting to play progressive riff music, all of a sudden, Dave really championed my abilities and put me up in the front of the band with him as the main “holder of the riff,” so to speak. It was cool that a song like “Peace Sells” all of a sudden gets to open with this bass riff, rather than it being just a guitar riff, ‘cause later on in the song, that’s what the rest of the tune is. You only hear it as a bass riff once in the beginning and then the rest of the time it’s a guitar riff.

There was a time when you couldn’t watch MTV for more than an hour without hearing that riff in the MTV News theme. Did you have any idea how iconic it would become, just those few notes?

It’s interesting because when we did… I guess no, to answer your question, no. That’s the thing. We didn’t set out to prove anything with Peace Sells, other than we were just this young, hungry and homeless thrash metal band. We had no options, we had no backup plan. We weren’t gonna go do something else if this didn’t work. This was what we did, period. I think because of that, you can hear all of the fire and the piss and vinegar and the venomous bite of the record. That comes as a result of basically complete starvation and homelessness.

Can you share your memories of former Megadeth drummer Gar Samuelson? I think he died in ’99, right?

I don’t know exactly the cause of death. I know he was ill for a while. I don’t know if it was liver failure, ultimately, that he died from. I hadn’t been in touch with him in a while. The last time I saw him was at the end of the Rust in Peace tour. We played in Jacksonville, Florida and when we went through he came down to see us. He hadn’t been in the band since about mid- to late ’87, so it had been a few years since I’d seen him, and then I never saw him again after that.

Is it true that he and Chris Poland were kicked out of the band for selling equipment to fund their drug habits?

Yeah, I mean, one of the things about when you’re basically homeless and starving, you also pick up some other bad habits along the way. That was certainly a common thread through Megadeth for a lot of years, and it just got to certain a point… It’s interesting, ‘cause Dave and I were the rock/metal guys, and then Gar and Chris were these rock/fusion guys, and that really gave us a unique sound. That was something really different from what, say, the other members of the Big Four were doing at that time, and any other thrash band, really. I think it allowed us to play really fast and furious, but do it in a much more musical way with Gar and Chris.

It’s no secret that you guys were all partying pretty hard back then. Can you share a crazy story or two from the making of Peace Sells, or is that something you'd rather leave in the past?

Dave and I were definitely the homeless ones. Gar had a job – he worked at BC Rich Guitars. Chris had a wealthy girlfriend, so he didn’t have to work as hard at it. Chris is a phenomenal musician. Gar was a great drummer. But Dave and I were basically full-time Megadeth, all the time. We had dedicated our entire life to this, so I think for us, that began the changeover, once Gar and Chris changed out, throughout all the years, Dave and I were the two constants with two other rotating band members. It wasn’t done that way by design. It just kinda happened that way. But as far as that goes, I mean, when you’re living in Los Angeles, which is a city that’s not a lot of fun if you don’t have any money, it’s a very hard, cold city anyway. So when you’re hangin’ with the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles as a way of survival, you get hooked in with a pretty colorful cast of characters. Quite honestly, at one point, I was living in a rehearsal studio down in Vernon, which is south of downtown, and I remember joining the Holiday Health Spa for 100 bucks a month just so I’d have a place to take a shower.

I’ve read that Mustaine is uncomfortable playing a couple of the songs from Peace Sells that deal with Satanism and the occult. What are your thoughts on those songs? Now that you guys are both practicing Christians, is there any chance we’ll see the album played in its entirety, similar to last year’s Rust in Peace tour?

Well, Dave wrote the lyrics to those couple songs, so for me, I’m not attached to them from the lyrical inception, maybe, in the way that Dave is, but I certainly understand and respect his wish to not play them if he feels uncomfortable with it. We’ve talked about it. Obviously, a lot of people are asking us now if we’re going to play, like, “an evening with the Peace Sells album” kind of thing. We’re open to it, and we’re considering it, but there’s a lot of other things to think about. Plus, it’s a little different right now too, because we’re ramping up a brand new album to come out, and that’s a different trajectory than what we did recently with the Rust in Peace tour, where the last album had already been out for about six months, and then we went and did the 20th anniversary tour. But at the same time, I think at the very least, we’ll continue to play various songs off the Peace Sells album and, depending on the different settings that we may find ourselves in, we may start breaking out a few of the tunes that we haven’t played in a long time just because of the 25th anniversary this year.

From a fan’s point of view, Peace Sells is probably running neck-and-neck with Rust in Peace as Megadeth’s greatest album. Where do you think it ranks in the band’s catalog? How do you feel it stacks up against some of the other great 1986 releases from Metallica, Slayer, Kreator, Nuclear Assault, Possessed, Flotsam and Jetsam and others?

I think it’s definitely one of the forerunners. I think because of the connection between Megadeth and Metallica and both of us being on major labels, I don’t know what the sales stats are, but I know Peace Sells sold very, very well. Those sales are just a result of the gravity that we got off of that, that so many people gravitated toward the record after all these years. Even Metallica didn’t do a video until several years later on their following record, but for us, “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?” was our first video that we did and it was the first single. I remember when “Headbangers Ball” was only 30 minutes at 12 noon during the day. It was this little test show that they were putting on, and then it took off to the point where, a couple years later, it was a two-hour show on Saturday night. It was cool that, in those days, there was only a Twisted Sister, a Quiet Riot and maybe an Iron Maiden and a Van Halen video. That was “Headbangers Ball.” There wasn’t a lot of videos. “Peace Sells” was one of the very first videos that got on there very early on.

I just remember watching “Headbangers Ball” back in the day and wishing they’d put all the thrash metal in one block, like a half-hour block. It would’ve been great to have a DVR back then so you could fast-forward through all the White Lion and shit.

Well, it’s interesting, ‘cause you mentioned all those other records. Certainly our contemporaries in Kreator, Overkill, obviously Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, we were all out working, but we were definitely the underbelly of metal, which was thrash metal. It was a moment in time where thrash… there were a few of us -- namely Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax – who actually had songs that could kinda break into the mainstream a little bit, especially with MTV. That was kinda the first time that thrash metal ever really reared its head into the mainstream, was, for us, with “Peace Sells.” It was cool for us because we realized that we had all this ferocious musical ability within the band. There was this really intriguing songwriting ability within the band, and these very tongue-in-cheek, captivating lyrics and concepts that we had, but we also realized that we could write a really simple, heavy hook, like the song “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?” We realized that we’ve got an ability to take our music into the mainstream by being able to write songs like that. It wasn’t like we had to try to do it. It was something that was inherently natural in how we were as a band.

So where do you think Peace Sells stacks up in your own catalog? Or are they like your children, where you can’t rank them or play favorites?

It’s kinda like that. They are like our children, and it is hard, because every one of them was a different moment in time. There was a different set of band members in certain cases. There were different things going on musically, politically, even just personally in our own lives. Every album kind of hinged on a transition point personally for us, so they all, to me, hold significance. It’s funny with Megadeth, ‘cause we kind of went every other album. Killing is My Business was rough and raw, and then by Peace Sells, that was one where we got to go ring the bell. So Far, So Good… So What was another transition album with a different lineup, but by the time we did Rust in Peace, it was solid again. I think that’s why Peace Sells and Rust in Peace are heralded as these two classic Megadeth albums and two of the staples in the, say, Top 20 or Top 50 thrash records. Those were records that were really stable for Megadeth too.

You’ve lived here in the Valley for several years now and even started a church here, MegaLife Ministries. The website looks like it hasn’t been updated in couple years. Are you still involved with that?

Yeah, in fact there’s a different website for it now. It’s just MegaLifeAZ.org. I helped get that started four, almost five years ago. Obviously, I attend it. I’m still there, but I’m not active with it week-to-week now that I’m back out on tour all the time again. That’s just something that became a passion for me, especially as a parent with little kids and everything. That’s something that’s kind of a different transition of my life, which I guess is kind of funny when you look back at songs like “The Conjuring” and “Bad Omen,” and now I end up being active in ministry work. [laughs]

That’s pretty much all I’ve got for you. Thanks for taking the time to talk. Is there anything else you wanted to add?

Nope. That’s it, man. I appreciate you giving the album the attention. It’s definitely a dark, ominous and scary sounding record, and that’s part of its charm.

Dark Angel - Darkness Descends: Part 7 in a 10-part series looking back at the best thrash metal albums of 1986

2011-11-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Tempe Carnivore: Darkness Descends is considered one of the fastest thrash metal albums of all time. Was that a goal you guys were consciously aiming for?

Hoglan: No, we actually slowed down in the studio big-time – like huge-time – to record it, because we were so fast, and it wasn’t intentional. The speed was never intentional, it was just always like, pushing ourselves to play as fast as we can. When you’re playing songs at a blistering pace, you sometimes don’t know that you’re playing at that blistering pace. You know you’re pushing yourself, but you have no idea, until you watch the videotape or you listen to the board tape the next day, how fast you’re actually going. We did know to slow down a bit when we recorded Darkness, ‘cause we were so fast, like twice as fast as the album. If you ever see any kind of video – usually video from back in those days is pretty bad – but around ’86 is when I started playing super-fast. We recorded the album in April of ’86. April 14, as a matter of fact, was the first day of our recording. I remember that date because that was the day that we invaded Libya, and I was thinking “Oh my god, here we are about ready to record the soundtrack to the apocalypse, but the apocalypse is gonna be here before we get the album done. Damnit!”

But yeah, it was actually a decided effort to play slower when we recorded that. Speed was never our intent, just heaviness was, like “Let’s make everything as heavy as possible.” That’s why, if you notice, there weren’t many rock beats in Dark Angel. There was a little bit of a breakdown in “Merciless Death,” but that had double-bass chugging through it. There weren’t a lot of straight rock beats, because we were kind of leaving that to bands like Anthrax and Metallica. Those guys played the rock beats, so let’s play the backwards, flipped, double-bass [mimics the sound of a fast double-bass drum] shit like that, rather than “Hey, let’s just play a happy rock beat there.” We always tried to make the drums as heavy as possible, the beats as heavy as possible and the riffs as heavy as possible. The speed was always like “Hey, the songs are fast. OK. If they’re heavy, perfect.”

Musically, it seems to have more in common with German thrash like Kreator and Destruction than the Bay Area thrash scene or even the LA scene that you were a part of. What were you guys listening to when you made it? Was the German thrash scene an influence?

No, because Dark Angel was around before any of those bands. I started seeing Dark Angel live after they had been around for a couple years, and I started seeing them in 1983. There was no thrash scene at the time. There was a time when there was Metallica, Slayer and Dark Angel. I think Dark Angel even predated Slayer, before I was in the band. I remember [Dark Angel guitarist] Jim Durkin explaining to me that Dark Angel and Metallica were formed at Downey [Calif.] High School in ’81. The Metallica guys, James Hetfield and [original Metallica bassist] Ron McGovney, were seniors, and Dark Angel were 10th-graders, and they both formed their bands at the same time in the same place. They both had a similar intent. Both bands were highly influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Dark Angel took a larger influence from Tank than any sort of German thrash. I think probably our largest influence would’ve been Possessed. We were all big Possessed fans in ’84, when I joined, and a lot of the songs that were written in ’84 ended up being on Darkness. I joined in ’84 and I started writing for them immediately, so I guess that’s where my writing came in, but we were all fans of heavy stuff. We loved Exodus, [although] we didn’t sound like Exodus. A lot of people would call us Slayer clones, but hey man, I remember Jim Durkin telling me, “Man, I got a call from Kerry King saying ‘Hey, Jeff [Hanneman] really likes that song “Perish in Flames” by you guys and we’ve got this new song called “Angel of Death” that he based on “Perish in Flames” by you guys.’” At the time, we were like “What? Fuck! Write your own songs! Come on, dudes.” I was on the road with Slayer before I was in Dark Angel and I remember having a conversation with Hanneman where he was yelling at the rest of the Slayer guys like “Dude, we’ve gotta get faster. We’ve gotta get heavier. Dark Angel’s back at home. They’re faster than us. They’re heavier than us. We’ve gotta get heavier than that!” I’m like “Dude, you’re in Slayer! Come on. What are you worried about this band from LA for? They’re cool, but they’re not Slayer.” I remember telling him that, and then I ended up joining Dark Angel a few months later.

It’s kind of rare for a drummer to be as involved in the lyrics and songwriting process as you were. Can you talk about your songwriting process as a drummer? Do you play a little guitar as well?

Well, I’d been playing guitar for only a couple years when I joined Dark Angel. I started playing guitar in about 1983, I would say, and I had been playing drums since 1981. I got my first kit for Christmas of 1980, so I guess you could count the last week of 1980 as I started playing in 1980. I picked up the guitar afterwards, really just because all my friends who were guitarists would say “Hey, come over to the house and watch me play guitar.” I’d be like “Yeah, great. Awesome.” I’d be asking them “Hey, can you play, like, an Egyptian-type scale or something?” They would just keep noodling and doing their thing, and then 10 minutes later, they’d be like “Hey, what was that you were asking me to do?” I was like “Aw, fuck. Maybe I’ll just pick it up myself and play it myself.” That’s how I started playing guitar.

When I joined Dark Angel, I was already writing for my band at the time – a band called Wargod – and I had even written lyric for We Have Arrived before I was in Dark Angel. Six months before I ever joined Dark Angel, I wrote some lyrics for them because I was in the studio with them, just being a buddy, hanging out at the studio while they recorded. They didn’t have the last verse for the song “No Tomorrow.” [Former vocalist] Don Doty was like “Dude, I’m capped. I can’t think of anything” and Jim Durkin was kinda the same way. So I was like “Hey, give me 10 minutes and I’ll get you four lines. It sounds like you need four lines right here. I can write something for you in five minutes.” So that was that. I think I ended up writing the lyrics for Dark Angel because nobody else wanted to. I guess I was in the band for about three months or so, and I asked Don “Hey man, what are the lyrics for ‘The Burning of Sodom’? I can tell the chorus, but I can’t tell what else you’re singing.” He’s like “Uhhh, there are no lyrics. I’m not singing anything. I’m singing a vocal line as fast as I can, but there are no lyrics.” I’m like, “OK, well, I guess we need lyrics for the song.” Doing the whole Obituary thing was completely unheard of at the time. It’s like “Well, we’ve gotta have lyrics for this” so I pretty much got elected. Since I played guitar and I had a very similar approach to Jim Durkin -- I mean, Jim Durkin was a major influence on my guitar playing -- so I watched what Jim was doing and I just tried to emulate what he was doing. So we had Jim, and then you had a Jim-attempting clone. We had kind of a like mind as towards what we wanted the riffs to sound like. I had riffs, so I just kinda tossed them out, and they would get used. So there you go.

My lyrics, I was still in high school when I joined Dark Angel, so in my creative writing class, we had a poetry assignment once every couple weeks, so whatever my poetry assignment would be, I would then turn in to Dark Angel saying “Hey, do you want these lyrics for the latest song?”

How do you think Darkness Descends holds up 25 years later? Where would you rank it among the other albums you’ve played on and the other great thrash albums of 1986?

I think Darkness holds up a little better for a lot of people because it was so focused and so visceral. I’ll tell you that, for the longest time, I don’t think I ever got a better drum sound than on Darkness. I tried for a lot of years to get a better drum sound. We recorded Darkness for, like, $7,500. I think we went a little over budget, and we ended up – after artwork and everything – we recorded Darkness for $11,000, which, at that time, was still not a lot of money. So our guitar tones might not have been as pristine and awesome as Metallica or Anthrax. Both those guys had really cool guitar tones at the time. But I think the weaker the guitar tone, the better the drum sound. I’ve worked with a lot of guitarists since those days that had a really strong tone, therefore my drums weren’t as loud. There was just something about the tone on Darkness, like listening to “Black Prophecies,” you crank that up on a big stereo and those drums still sound massive. They’re very organic, very natural. There was no triggering. There was no Pro Tools back in those days. In that regard, I’m pretty fortunate that I do come from that era of “Hey, you got people to play these songs, man.” You can’t just play half of them and let the computer take over for the fast double-bass parts. I’d like to think they hold up pretty well, but I’m not gonna fool myself and say “Yes, this is still the all-time heaviest record.” I thought at the time “Hey, this ranks with everybody else putting out albums.” Slayer had Reign in Blood coming out, Megadeth had Peace Sells and Metallica had just released Master of Puppets just a few months before. I knew Kreator had a new one coming out, and Possessed had Beyond the Gates that was coming out right around the same time. I listened to everybody’s records as well as ours, and I thought ours kicked ass. But I was 18 years old. What did I know?

Are there any plans to commemorate the album’s 25th anniversary? Is there any chance of a reunion of the Darkness Descends-era lineup?

You can never say never, but I can’t see us getting something together. Wow, this has been 25 years. It’s just gone by so quick. Hey, that means we’re eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! [laughs] No, I would say probably not. It’s just kind of logistically impossible, because Don Doty has pretty much disappeared off the face of the Earth. Through some mutual friends over the years, I’ve heard that Don has pretty much completely turned his back on being the guy that he was back then. He did some time in the joint, and I think he came out of that a changed man. I understand he’s quite Christian now. Ron Rinehart [Doty’s successor on vocals] is a Christian as well, but Ron was cool. He’s like “Dude, I would do some more Dark Angel stuff.” However, since Ron said that, Ron has been kind of forced to retire from the music industry, so we couldn’t even do it with Ron. In about 1999 or 2000, somewhere around then, he broke his neck. He survived it, obviously, but he’s had some issues since then. His doctor told him “Dude, you basically have to give up singing.” He was onstage with his other band – his Christian band called Oil – and he went for a high note. He popped something in his neck and he passed out onstage. They got him to the emergency room and the next morning, his doctor came in and said “Dude, I hate to tell you this, but you have retired. You’re lucky that you can walk now. We don’t know what you did, but it’s not good.” He was bummed. So trying to do something with the Darkness Descends lineup is kind of logistically impossible. I know a couple of the ex-members aren’t on super-friendly terms. We’re all on friendly terms, at least I am with everybody, but I haven’t spoken to Don Doty since 1987. I haven’t seen him since 1987. All the other members, I’m still tight with. We all give shouts to each other every once in a while, give a call to see how everybody’s doing. I have to admit, I don’t mind it that much, not being able to do a Dark Angel reunion, because if it’s attained any sort of legendary status or whatever, I don’t know that we would be able to be that legendary band onstage. I don’t know that people wouldn’t come to the show and just not be disappointed for whatever reason. I figure if it takes people back to an awesome time in their lives, maybe it’s just best that we leave it at that, rather than be the wizard coming out from behind the screen, showing all the shortcomings. I just don’t know how badass it would be.

You recently released an instructional DVD, The Atomic Clock. What’s the one piece of advice you'd give new drummers just getting started behind the skins?

Buy the DVD. [laughs] Buy The Atomic Clock. That’s what I would tell ya. Well, drumming to me was something that I was born with the desire. I’ve been good at two things: one was playing drums and the other was playing baseball, of all things. I was a really good baseball player when I was growing up. I hit that crossroads of “Do you wanna play drums for a living, or do wanna play baseball for a living? ‘Cause you can do either, but you can’t do both.” So I chose drums. I chose metal. I chose being in a band. I knew that it wasn’t gonna be… we were playing underground thrash metal. We knew that it wasn’t Quiet Riot or Mötley Crüe or Ratt or Poison or one of those bands. We knew it was underground, so we kept it underground. Money was always tight. We never made a whole ton of money doing Dark Angel, and that’s OK, but it instilled the desire in me to just keep at it.

I always give young musicians this same advice. I’ve said it a million times: find guys that you get along with to play with. Say with Dark Angel, it ended up becoming my band, because when Jim Durkin left, somebody had to write all the stuff. I was the other songwriter in the band, and Jim left, and there wasn’t a lot of ideas – nobody’s at fault – but there wasn’t a lot of ideas coming from any of the other guys, ideas that were usable anyway. It then became myself and Bret Eriksen, and we did the Time Does Not Heal record together. Then after Bret left, our next guitarist was named Cris McCarthy, and the album that we put together was going to eventually be called Atrocity Exhibition, just like the Exodus album of a couple years ago. We were going to release that in about 1992, but we just couldn’t keep it together as a band. But that’s one piece of advice I would give any young musician -- whether they’re a drummer, a guitarist, a singer, a bassist, whatever – is just find other guys that you get along with, that you enjoy their company, rather than finding the hottest guitarist in town or the baddest vocalist in town who is a nutcase. Find dudes that you get along with. Everybody talks about [how] a band is a family, a band is a marriage, but a band is also a team. So if you’ve got guys that are puling for the same team, then chances are you’re gonna get along pretty good, and you’re all for the team, as opposed to “No, I’m the guitarist, I’m the focal point” or “I’m the singer, I’m the focal point.” You know, singers with their LSD – Lead Singer’s Disease – those guys can get on your nerves. So for any young musician, find guys that you get along with, that you enjoy each other’s company, because you’re gonna be spending a lot of time together as a band. Maybe your bassist isn’t the best bassist, but he’s a great guy and he’s always there and he’s a solid dude, so cool.

Possessed - Beyond the Gates: Part 6 in a 10-part series looking back at the best thrash metal albums of 1986

2011-10-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Throughout the year, I've been looking back at some of the best thrash metal albums of 1986 -- the year thrash hit its zenith in popularity and creativity. When possible, I've tried to interview band members, producers and others associated with the original albums. I've also tried to time the blog posts to coincide with the 25th anniversary of each album's release, although accurate release dates from 25 years ago can be hard to come by.

This installment commemorates Beyond the Gates, the second and final full-length album by Bay Area thrash legends Possessed. Possessed's 1985 debut, Seven Churches, is frequently hailed as a metal milestone and was arguably the first death metal album ever released, but Beyond the Gates has always been overlooked (if not outright dismissed) by critics and fans alike.

Why all the hate for Gates? The production was -- to be kind -- a little on the muddy side, and the album didn't display the same raw aggression that Seven Churches did, but c'mon, nobody shits on Slayer for slowing things down on South of Heaven. When you release an album as fast and heavy as Reign in Blood or Seven Churches, what's the point in trying to replicate that? You're pretty much doomed to fail. Slayer recognized that, and so did Possessed.

Maybe it's because it's the first Possessed album I ever heard/owned, but I've always preferred the slightly more diverse and refined sound of Beyond the Gates to the front-to-back, pedal-to-the-metal aural assault of Seven Churches. It could use a good remaster, but you could say that of a lot of albums from that era. When it comes down to it, I'll take "Tribulation," "March to Die" and "No Will to Live" over anything on Seven Churches.

One thing I never would've expected when I concocted the idea for this project about a year ago was to land an interview with former Possessed and current Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde. If you had asked me back then, I'd have said that there's a better chance of getting one of the guys from Metallica on the phone than getting LaLonde to talk about Possessed. The general perception over the years has been that LaLonde has turned his back on metal and would rather forget that Possessed ever happened. It's a perception that I admit to buying into -- and perpetuating -- myself.

But after a series of solid interviews with numerous members of the early thrash scene, I was feeling confident. [It's also worth noting that I had tried and failed to track down Possessed vocalist Jeff Becerra for an interview back when I started this blog, so I wasn't particularly thrilled about making another run at that.] I looked up Primus's publicist online and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was someone I'd worked with in the past. I shot him an e-mail to see if he could arrange an interview with LaLonde and, much to my amazement, he came through.

Still, I was a little nervous in the days and hours leading up to the phoner. What if they hadn't told him the interview was about Possessed? Primus has a new album out, and there was a chance Larry might think he was doing another interview about Primus, only to be blindsided by some metal nerd with a blog and some stupid Possessed questions.

Then, when I finally got him on the phone, my worst fears were realized. I finished asking the first question and there was dead silence on the other end. He'd hung up on me! The publicist got back on the line and asked if I'd lost Larry. He said he'd get him back on the phone. I was thinking "Yeah, right," but sure enough, my phone rang a couple minutes later. Turns out it really was just a bad connection and the interview went off without a hitch.

So without further ado, I present the most unlikely interview in this entire series. I came away from it with an entirely different perception of LaLonde, and I hope any jaded Possessed fans reading this do the same.

Interview with former Possessed guitarist Larry LaLonde

Tempe Carnivore: According to Wikipedia, Beyond the Gates came out on Halloween, which would be an incredibly appropriate release date, but I’m a little skeptical, since Halloween fell on a Friday in 1986. Can you remember if the album did, in fact, come out on Halloween?

LaLonde: I don’t remember it being anything like that. It sounds like something we probably would’ve tried to do, but like you said, it was a Friday, so you know, probably not. Maybe it came out that week or something.

I seem to be in a pretty small minority of people who actually like Beyond the Gates better than Seven Churches. Why do you think so many critics and fans were disappointed in the album?

The fans – especially back then – metal fans were so critical of everything. It was like everything was under a microscope. I don’t really remember too much of what people thought of it then, but obviously Seven Churches was kinda like any band, [where] the songs had been kicked around and played for a while, so that was the super-crazy one. Then the second album is the one that’s written in, like, a year.

What was your mindset heading into the studio to record the album? Were there any particular albums or bands at the time that inspired you or made you feel like you had to step up your game?

Well, around that time, all that stuff was so new that it was like, I think all the bands around that time were trying to invent that music. I think Motörhead was kind of the heaviest thing most people had heard, and then it was Venom, and then Slayer. I don’t know what album Slayer was on, but it was still pretty new then. So I know that with Seven Churches, it was like, “OK, let’s try to one-up Slayer.” Then I’m sure on Beyond the Gates it was, once again... every metal band was trying to one-up the last metal band, which probably led to where the music kind of just became this, like, roar of noise. But I definitely remember at that time everyone was trying to be heavier, faster, more Satanic, which is the funny thing, ‘cause back then, who was really into Satan? Maybe some of the fans, but the bands were just like “What kind of crazy shit can we say today that will freak people out?”

I think a lot of people didn’t realize that it was kinda tongue-in-cheek. It was shock value, but I think there were some preachers and other people who thought these bands really were sacrificing goats and babies and stuff.

Yeah, that was the funny thing. It was just kinda shock value, especially then. Now it’s kind of hard to imagine it being that shocking, but back then, yeah, it was crazy. You had the PMRC. You had different talk show hosts saying “This is music about the devil, blah blah blah.” I think I was 16 when we made [Seven Churches], and I was like “What?” These crazy preachers on TV that are trying to get you to send money in, they’re getting freaked out by this? It’s like “Awesome!”

Any publicity’s good publicity, right?

Yeah. Well, we didn’t even know about publicity. We just liked the idea that people were scared of it.

The album artwork was pretty elaborate, with a gatefold cover for the vinyl version. Whose idea was that?

I can’t really remember exactly whose idea it was. I remember coming together and this whole thing of “Oh, it’s gonna be this thing that looks totally different from any other album cover and it’s gonna cost a fortune to make, but it’s gonna be cool” and I was like “Alright.” I remember at the time, I was kinda like “Well, I hope that’s cool.” We didn’t really care about much more beyond the music, so the idea of the whole fold-out thing, we were hoping that there was some reason to it. But looking back, it was kind of an interesting idea.

You’re in a pretty elite fraternity along with Kirk Hammett [Metallica], Alex Skolnick [Testament] and Rick Hunolt [Exodus] -- all former Joe Satriani students who went on to make a big impact in the Bay Area thrash scene. Satriani also produced your Eyes of Horror EP. Why do you think he had such a huge impact on the scene despite the fact that his solo work bears very little resemblance to thrash metal?

Well I think back then, I remember as far as all the guitar players around the Bay Area in my age group, we all had our sort of local guitar teachers. But then all of our guitar teachers took lessons from Joe, so he was just like this mythical guitar player guy that we all just heard about, but none of us were old enough to go to a club to see him play. He was in a band called the Squares. So he was kinda known around as this amazing teacher. I had finally saved enough to buy this amp, and I went in to buy the amp, and it turned out to be the store where he taught, so I signed up for lessons. But I think the thing is just that he already had that name as this amazing teacher. Everyone that wanted to progress more just kinda gravitated more towards him. I mean, besides being an amazing guitar player, he’s an amazing teacher too, so I think those guys that you mentioned got a lot out of it and used a lot of that to get where they are now.

Yeah, I’m sure it’s one thing to be able to play all that amazing stuff, but another thing entirely to be able to teach someone else how to do it.

I think for him it was awesome, ‘cause he was going over all this stuff all day long and getting better himself. Another amazing aspect of it was just actually to be sitting in an 8-by-8 room and seeing someone physically play like that. It was just “Whoa!” Otherwise, the only place you’d see something like that was maybe going to see Yngwie [Malmsteen] or Van Halen. To see it right in front of you was like, “Whoa, this can actually be done.”

There’s a perception among some die-hard Possessed fans that you’re embarrassed by your past with the band, or at least try to downplay it. Is there any truth to that at all? Was it just a situation where you wanted to distance yourself from that scene when Primus was first starting out?

Not really. I hear that all the time too, and it’s definitely not the case. I got a call the other day from my friend Harald O. -- who’s a big photographer and he’s putting out a book -- and he was like “Oh yeah, I know you’re not really that into that time.” But honestly, I think that time was awesome. Especially just for me looking back, it was really part of a music movement and trying to invent a new kind of music and pushing the stuff. Back then, trying to get something like that out to people was not easy at all. There was no internet. There was really nothing to go on besides fanzines and word-of-mouth and actually getting out there and playing. I look at that time as an awesome time for me and for music. I thought there was a lot of really cool stuff going on then.

We’ve all done some embarrassing shit in our teenage years, but you could do a lot worse than inventing death metal.

The giant spikes and stuff, it’s not something you necessarily wanna show your wife – “Hey, check me out when I was a kid!” She’s like “Holy shit, who’s that guy?” That was funny stuff. If it was up to me, definitely the whole spikes and things probably wouldn’t have been a part of it, but I wasn’t the leader of that band, so I kinda had to go along with it.

Do you still keep in touch with any of the former members of Possessed? How do you feel about Jeff Becerra continuing to use the Possessed name with a completely different lineup?

I guess it’s cool. It’s cool that he’s out doing it. I wanted to go see it. They were coming through LA and I didn’t get a chance. I hadn’t really heard much from any of those guys lately, then just the other day in Toronto, an old friend of mine who still kinda keeps in touch with everybody in that scene was telling me about running into some of the guys and what they’re up to. I haven’t really talked to any of them. I’d love to go see Possessed with Jeff playing in it. He was a friend of mine since I was 12 years old, so I think it’s cool that he’s doing it. It’d be cool if all the other guys were doing it too, but I don’t really know what they’re doing or how much they’re into it.

Is there any circumstance that’d make you consider doing a Possessed reunion, even if it was just a one-off show? Let’s say Metallica scheduled a Bay Area thrash “supershow” at Candlestick Park and everyone else was on board – Exodus, Testament, Death Angel, even Lääz Rockit. Would you be game?

[Laughs] You’re reachin’ deep. You know, I’ve never thought about it, but yeah, that’d probably be something I’d consider. It’d probably be a bummer to find out how hard the music was to play. I remember the music being very difficult to play.

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview. Do you have any final thoughts on Beyond the Gates or the 1986 thrash explosion in general?

Not really too much. It’s one of those eras that it’s funny that you don’t hear a lot about, as far as just what it was and what it took to sort of get it out there to the world. It’s cool that you’re writing about it and it’s interesting to see, like, Testament out there touring and stuff. Hopefully, that era will kinda get its due as far as what it influenced in metal.

Well I think it means a lot to a lot of people. Maybe not millions of people, but the people that it means a lot to are certainly passionate about it.

Yeah, it’s funny, after all these years. We had the song “Death Metal” and we never really thought much about it. Years and years went by, and just in the last few years, people keep telling me “Oh yeah, Possessed invented death metal.” I’m like “What do you mean we invented death metal?” They’re like “Well, no one ever used the term before you guys had the song ‘Death Metal.’” I was like “God, well I hope that’s true, ‘cause that’s pretty cool then.”

Part 5: Nuclear Assault - Game Over

Elder - Dead Roots Stirring (Album Review)

2011-10-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

Elder - Dead Roots Stirring
Release date: October 25, 2011 (Meteor City Records)

Every once in a great while, an album comes along that almost leaves you lost for words. I say "almost," of course, because here I am, sitting down to write a review of one such album, and sure enough, I've managed to produce a few dozen words already, but I'm still trying to figure out how to effectively communicate how much I fucking love the new Elder record.

It'd be easy to write this Boston-based trio off as just another in a long line of Sabbath worshipping stoner metal bands, and admittedly, that alone is usually enough to impress me. Indeed, Elder's 2008 self-titled debut landed them squarely in that category, earning the band comparisons to stoner rock luminaries Sleep and Kyuss. But on Dead Roots Stirring, Elder not only avoid the dreaded "sophomore slump" that befalls so many bands that put out such a promising debut, they make stoner rock seem as fresh and viable a genre as it's been in decades.

It's been 20 years since bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and the Smashing Pumpkins brought smart, heavy rock to the mainstream. If the world is ready for another wave of intelligent hard rock, I can't think of a better band to lead the charge than Elder. That's not to say that Elder is a particularly radio-friendly band. The shortest of the five tracks on Dead Roots Stirring clocks in at just under nine minutes, which probably wouldn't fly in today's ADD society. But the strange thing is, none of the songs feel that long. Even at a total running time of 51 minutes, the album seems to fly by. Chalk it up to the band's incredible musicianship and ability to write great riffs, catchy hooks and mesmerizing, psychedelic guitar solos. If nothing else, this release should push Elder firmly into that small cadre of metal bands that hipsters and indie kids are allowed to like (Mastodon, Baroness, Isis, Torche, et al.).

The opening track, "Gemini," is stoner rock in its most basic form: fuzzy, blues-based riffs and gritty-yet-melodic vocals, highlighted by guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo ridiculous guitar work. The title track follows, with riffs that are at once epic, thunderous and beautifully melodic. The instrumental "III" and the fourth track "The End" keep the momentum going, but Elder saves the best for last. The closing track, "Knot," is probably the band's most accessible song, with gorgeously textured guitars that build to a climactic finish.

It's extremely rare to find a band that weaves heaviness and beauty so flawlessly. The Smashing Pumpkins and Jesu come to mind, but Elder is more than worthy of a spot on that short list. As a lifelong music fan whose preferences have only rarely aligned with mainstream tastes, I'm hardly qualified to declare any band "the next big thing," but if there's any justice in this world, Elder will earn themselves some admirers outside the narrow scope of stoner rock and metal fans. Dead Roots Stirring is not only the best album to come out this year, but might be the best hard rock/metal album I've reviewed in my five-plus years as a music journalist. Highly recommended.

Nuclear Assault - Game Over: Part 5 in a 10-part series looking back at the best thrash metal albums of 1986

2011-10-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Interview with Nuclear Assault bassist Dan Lilker

Tempe Carnivore: Game Over is considered one of the earliest and best crossover thrash albums. Considering the general disdain that punk fans and metal fans had for each other at the time, what made you think it would work?

Lilker: Well, the thing is, there had been bands from the punk side that had been crossing over before that, but they didn’t get as much press as metal bands did, ‘cause they didn’t have some dude at a label or something like that. I was pretty sure it would be taken well, because bands like C.O.C., Suicidal, Dr. Know, D.R.I., a lot of bands were crossing over to the metal side from that, and those are bands that we had enjoyed. Quite honestly, my favorite D.R.I. album is the first one. It’s just raw as fuck. The point being, there was certainly a precedent for that, it’s just that it had mostly been coming from the hardcore side, where, like I said, it wasn’t going to get as much attention as, like, the dude who was in S.O.D. and used to be in Anthrax putting out a record. That shit was already out there. It’s just that we might’ve had a higher profile.

Would you consider yourself a punk fan who got into metal or a metalhead who got into punk?

I was actually into the Ramones in junior high school before I was into Judas Priest, but I didn’t continue with punk then. From rock I went into metal, and from metal I went into thrash metal and intense metal. Then I got into hardcore, so kind of back into punk, but a more intense version of it. So I’m pretty much a metalhead who got into hardcore, but ironically enough, I was listening to Rocket to Russia before I even heard Motörhead. Who the fuck knows?

What were your audiences like when you first started? Did they skew more punk or metal?

It was a mix. It also depended on where you played. We would play at L’amour with metal bands and it would be mostly metal and then some of the punks that knew us would come down and see us. Or if we played CBGB, then it’s gonna be the polar opposite. It’s gonna be 90 percent hardcore kids who are also coming to see the other bands that are playing, and then some metalheads. Once we got established, it didn’t really matter where we played. We got a pretty even mix. We could play a place like the Ritz in the city, which was like neutral ground. They had metal shows and they had hardcore shows. When I say “neutral ground” I don’t mean there were wars whenever people played in other territories, I just meant that it wasn’t known as a place primarily for metal or punk, so you’d get everybody.

When you were recording Game Over, did you have any idea that thrash was going to hit as hard as it did? Had you heard Master of Puppets or any other albums from 1986 yet? Did they motivate or inspire you in any way?

Well, we were inspired by the whole genre, and a lot of hardcore and stuff, so yeah. Thrash was pretty well going by then. [Anthrax's debut album] Fistful of Metal had come out in January ’84, so this was a whole two years and a few months later. And the whole Bay Area stuff, it was going pretty good by then. I don’t know when we recorded the album what expectations we had either way, but we were pretty sure we weren’t just doing something where people would go “What the fuck is this?” Compared to other metal bands, we had a lot more of a hardcore influence, and yeah, there was S.O.D., but that was more contrived. With Nuclear Assault, it was more evolved that way, so besides the fact that we did have a lot more hardcore shit than a lot of other thrash metal bands, we were pretty sure we’d go down good.

How do you think Game Over stacks up to the rest of the Nuclear Assault catalog?

When I get asked in interviews “What’s your favorite Nuclear Assault album?” I can’t give them just one. I tell them Game Over and Handle With Care, for different reasons. Since we’re talking about Game Over, I’ll tell you why it’s not my absolute favorite record. I really like that record, because you always like your first record. It’s really exciting to finally get that fuckin’ record out, because you’ve had shit that you’ve written for years. As any musician will tell you, you’ve got your whole life to write your first record and then about a year and a half to write the next one. In general, I think we sound really raw and hungry. The only thing I’m not really crazy about on that record is I think the guitar sound is a little bit tinny-sounding. It’s not really overdriven enough. That’s the only drawback from it. Just to give you the other half of the answer, even though it’s not about this record, but with Handle With Care, I like that record a lot ‘cause it’s got really big production and it shows a band that had a good chemistry after touring together for years. But I guess that’s neither here nor there, since we’re talking about Game Over.

Like your old band Anthrax, Nuclear Assault seemed to have a goofy, humorous side. What's the story behind songs like "Hang the Pope" and "Lesbians"?

We never bought the whole thing where metal bands had to have a serious image and were tough guys or anything like that. We were who we were as people, and we didn’t feel any need to mask that, whether we were doing anything else, doing interviews or playing music or anything like that. When it came to doing stuff – especially those songs that you mentioned – that was also an excuse to play really fast. I mean, we were influenced by hardcore and so were a lot of other bands, like Slayer, but they weren’t doing blasts and everything, so we figured that would be interesting, to throw in some really high-speed shit. As far as the non-seriousness of that compared to other songs, well, “Hang the Pope” is presented in a very humorous context, but it’s still a stance on anti-Catholicism, just presented humorously. “Lesbians,” on the other hand, is just completely stupid. Just nonsense. I probably wouldn’t write that song today, but that’s 25 years later, you know.

What happened with your early split with Anthrax? Obviously, you stayed friends with the guys and formed S.O.D. with Scott Ian and Charlie Benante shortly thereafter, but was there a rivalry there as well? Was Nuclear Assault an attempt to prove yourself to your former band, sort of like your own personal Megadeth?

Well, I don’t have a chip on my shoulder like Dave Mustaine has. I was asked to leave Anthrax, but that was mostly because I wasn’t getting along with the original singer. Even though I’d written like 75 percent of the first album and formed the band with Scott, when Neil [Turbin] said “I can’t deal with Danny anymore. It’s him or me,” they decided to hold onto him since the album was about to come out and they thought it made more sense to have a frontman. They didn’t want to have a big change in the front of the band, so I was asked to leave. But 10 months later, they threw Neil out. So sure, I was bummed for a while, but I could sit around and feel sorry for myself or I could form another band. I was getting a lot into hardcore then and I wanted to play something that was a little more intense. Anthrax is a great band, but there’s pretty much two dudes in that band who control the music and the lyrics, and the other people really just play it. If I’d stayed in that band, I probably wouldn’t have felt as satisfied creatively. I didn’t really feel the need to prove myself with Nuclear Assault. It was just making the most out of a situation, saying “OK, well now I can go back to square one and start a band and have a little more creative control."

Does the band have any plans to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Game Over this year, like playing it in its entirety at a few shows or something?

The thing with Nuclear Assault is, we do most of the stuff we can do in the summer, except for shit on weekends, due to peoples’ jobs. We just did a whole bunch of crap. We just went to Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Holland, Germany, all since the last week of July, and that’s because we can do a lot more stuff in the summer. It would’ve been cool. Twenty-five years is a nice fuckin’ milestone, for sure. I suppose the cool thing would’ve been to re-release it somehow with some kind of special packaging, but then we would’ve had to find some other shit to put on it. That would’ve been something that would’ve had to have been planned out a while back, as opposed to now. Unfortunately, there’s nothing really to commemorate it, except possibly what you’re doing. I suppose that counts, since you’re talking with me, but nothing that the band’s had planned or anything.

What is the current status of the band? Any news on a new album or tour?

Well, we have one more show this year – San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 12. That’s the kind of thing where [vocalist] John [Connelly] -- who has a strict Monday through Friday job, except for the summer – he’s gonna get down there Saturday morning, play the show Saturday night and go back Sunday and not miss any shit at work. As far as creating new material, I personally ain’t feelin’ it. I mean, we did a comeback record in 2005, and to be perfectly honest, I thought it was a bit of a dud. I don’t think it stood up to the Nuclear Assault stuff, you know, the kinda shit people expected from us. It taught me a lesson that, you know, don’t do a record unless you’re really sure you’re feeling it creatively and everything. I suppose we could try. Me and [Erik] Burke were talking – he plays in Brutal Truth too – and we’re like, maybe we should do a few bong hits, put on Bonded by Blood, have a few beers, then try to write some shit... So it’s one of those things, dude. I mean, it’s almost like we could just be lazy and play the old shit people wanna hear anyway. It’s schizophrenic with me, ‘cause me and Burke also play in Brutal Truth, and we have a new album coming out in, like, four fuckin’ days or something like that [note: Brutal Truth's End Time was released on Sept. 27 on Relapse Records, shortly after this interview], but we’ve also been a band that’s always been about exploring the next envelope of grindcore insanity, you know, where Nuclear Assault’s a band that was more just good, consistent thrash metal with some hardcore thrown in, but once we reached our kind of comfortable point, around The Plague and Survive, we just had our style, where with BT, we just do whatever the fuck we want and just change it up. So it’s kinda cool that I get to do one thing in one band with Nuclear, where you kinda just play stuff you know people wanna hear, but I’m not really feelin’ it right now to write a thrash record. But with Brutal Truth, we just keep on flying ahead and fucking with people.

Concert Review: Kyuss Lives!, the Sword and MonstrO at Marquee Theatre 10/6/2011

2011-10-07T15:37:00.001-07:00

John Garcia of Kyuss Lives! performing at the Marquee Theatre on 10/6/2011

Last night's Kyuss Lives! show in Tempe might not have been a sellout, but those who showed up were treated to a smorgasbord of stoner rock that showcased the resilient genre's past, present and future. The Marquee Theatre was only about half-full, but the relatively sparse crowd was enthusiastic and receptive. These folks were stoner rock die-hards. Case in point: about halfway through Kyuss's set, I leaned over to a chick standing near me and asked her what she thought so far. "My son's middle name is 'Kyuss,'" she shouted back, which simultaneously relayed both her enthusiasm for the show and her desire to not get hit on in the middle of it. Touché.

After a forgettable performance by some local band whose name escapes me, Atlanta's MonstrO kicked off the evening with a 30-minute set of Southern rock-tinged metal. I hadn't heard the band prior to their set last night, but they certainly fit in well on this bill. It might be a stretch to call them the future of stoner rock, but they showed great potential last night and seem like a band with a bright future.

J.D. Cronise of the Sword

The present was well represented by the Sword. It seems like only yesterday that the stoner rock community was divided over this Austin quartet's 2006 debut album, Age of Winters. Purists denounced them as hipsters cashing in on a trendy sound (because we all know how lucrative a genre like stoner metal is, right?), while others simply appreciated their retro riffs and Sabbath-y grooves at face value. Five years and two more albums later, the Sword could arguably be called the reigning kings of stoner rock. Not too many folks are questioning their legitimacy these days, and their performance last night should've erased any lingering doubt. The band's 45-minute set included early songs ("Freya") and tracks from their latest sci-fi opus Warp Riders ("Night City").

Kyuss Lives!

As good as the Sword was, last night ultimately belonged to Kyuss, who took the stage shortly after 10 p.m. and reminded everyone who started this whole stoner rock movement in the first place. OK, well technically, Black Sabbath started it, but Kyuss brought it back to life in the early '90s. Vocalist John Garcia's voice sounds as good as it did nearly 20 years ago on Blues for the Red Sun, and the rhythm section of bassist Nick Oliveri and drummer Brant Bjork is still as formidable as ever. The only original member missing on this reunion tour is guitarist Josh Homme (presumably too busy writing the next mediocre Queens of the Stone Age album), but Bruno Fevery has stepped in and the band sounds no worse for it.

Kyuss's 90-minute set featured tracks from throughout their career, including "Gardenia," "Hurricane," "One Inch Man," "Thumb," Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop," "100°" and "Green Machine," among others. It's a shame so many people missed the opportunity to see such an influential band make their triumphant return, but the ones who did were rewarded for it. If rumors of a new album ultimately prove to be true, last night's show was a good indicator that it should be badass. Of course, it'd be fantastic if they could get Homme back on board as well, but the current lineup is already more than capable. Welcome back, fellas. You've been missed.

Slayer - Reign in Blood: Part 4 in a 10-part series looking back at the best thrash metal albums of 1986

2011-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Reign in Blood completely undermines the church and smears the world with Satanic upheaval. Pounding drums, big hair, grinding bass, high-pitched vocals, thrash or die. Reign in Blood makes me want to crush beer cans off my head. When I first heard Reign in Blood, it made me want to throw a midget down a wishing well... and wish for hell on earth. I don't think there is an extreme metal band in existence that hasn't drawn some influence from this truly classic record. 1986 'til death, Hanneman lives!"
-- T. (Dragged Into Sunlight)

"I was just a kid when that record came out, and I didn't discover it until I was in my early teens. Seasons in the Abyss was my gateway release into the world of Slayer, and thrash metal as a genre. I remember that I thought that the Reign in Blood record was too extreme for me, or too hard to get into in the beginning, but I loved the songs 'Angel of Death,' 'Postmortem' and 'Raining Blood.' It didn't take long for me to get into the full record, and today it's up there with the most classic releases in the history of metal. Everything is damn-near perfect: the bombastic and thunderous drumwork by Dave Lombardo, Hanneman and King's guitar shreddery and Araya's rapid-fire vocals. It might very well be the perfect thrash record. Had it been a tad longer, it might not have been the classic that it is today. There is not one minute of filler on it - each track is fantastic and they blend together extremely well. Hail Slayer for giving us this crown jewel!"
-- Björn Larsson (Mordbrand)

"I grew up listening to punk, not metal. When I was in high school I was listening to stuff like Discharge, Conflict and Nausea. Being into punk, it was rather 'uncool' to like metal. I didn't listen to Metallica or Pantera, however it was OK for punks to like Slayer. I remember a friend of mine who was into metal letting me borrow Reign and I was hooked. It was my first look into the metal world that I had previously scoffed at. That record made me a metalhead. Slayer was a turning point for me and I've never looked back."
-- Evan Linger (Skeletonwitch)

"Reign in Blood was a great record. It was very inspiring too, because it came out in ’86, so S.O.D. had already done our thing, but with Nuclear Assault, that was the year we went in to record Game Over, and when that record came out, it just gave us a little kick in the ass. We were like ‘Oh shit, man. We’d better up our game. Listen to these motherfuckers.’ Besides just enjoying the record as a great metal record, it served a purpose. I don’t know if we did that consciously, like sat down and had a meeting like ‘Do you hear this record? We’ve gotta play fast.’ You had different types of thrash metal, even back then. By then, Anthrax had Joey [Belladonna], you had stuff like Overkill, and then you had the harder stuff that was more influenced by hardcore… Anyway, I really liked Reign in Blood and I want to thank them for putting it out and giving us a kick in the ass."
-- Dan Lilker (Nuclear Assault, S.O.D., Brutal Truth)

“It changed my fucking stupid life. All poser thrash bands need not make music anymore. Hail Slayer.”
-- John Strachan (Early Graves, The Funeral Pyre)

"I was ten years old when this record came out and had only yet to discover three of the Big Four. It was mostly Priest, Dio, Maiden, Metallica and the more mainstream stuff for me before this point. I'd heard Slayer, but it was hard to get into -- much less even hear -- anything back then unless you could save up your $1 a week allowance and buy the tape, and then you had to ride your BMX bike all the way to the mall to get it. It wasn't 'til about '88, around when South of Heaven came out, that I started to delve even deeper into the depths of darker, scarier metal and hardcore. But needless to say, I was at Tower Records or the Wherehouse on release day right after school for every Slayer album from then on. I can honestly say that getting South of Heaven, Reign in Blood, Show No Mercy, Hell Awaits etc. scared me almost as much as it excited me. Growing up being forced to go to church, I often felt as if I was committing a crime listening to this, the most Satanic thing I'd ever come across. This was no Shout At The Devil. This was pure evil, and I loved it."
-- Ryan Butler (Landmine Marathon)

"Show No Mercy is the only album that could ever live up to the hype of Reign in Blood."
-- Chris Black (Superchrist)

"You know an album is good when it gives you chills down your spine and takes you to another place. Slayer's 1986 album, Reign in Blood, goes beyond that. It doesn't just give you these feelings, it consumes you. Listening to Reign in Blood is the closest thing to possession that I can imagine. There should be a warning [or] disclaimer on the front of the CD that says "Don't listen to this album while driving" because you might get arrested for multiple counts of speeding, road rage, assault with a deadly weapon, and/or second degree murder. I remember being at a stop light while listening to this album for the thousandth time. At that moment in time, I was a different person, just like everyone is every time they listen to that album. A woman and her two kids were crossing the street right in front of me. All of a sudden, running those people down with my vehicle seemed good and right. That is how I feel while I listen to that album and it's a good feeling. Reign In Blood is the greatest metal album of all time!!!"
-- Travis Thune (Hemoptysis)

"It's always hard for me to pick my favorite Slayer release. Some times it's Hell Awaits with that evil as fuck sound. Sometimes it's Show No Mercy with that old school attack. And yet, sometimes it's Reign In Blood with the sheer relentless intensity that the album brings to the table. When those opening punches of 'Angel Of Death' come, you know you are in trouble. It might just be the most recognizable thrash/death beginning to a song in the history of heavy metal. And the album never lets the fuck up. It slams you down with total violence and steps on your throat. It pummels you into submission and doesn't let up until the end of 'Raining Blood,' when the break ends and the really fast part comes with the wailing solos, that is the sound of your death. The blood storm that comes at the end of the album is the sound of your soul going to hell. You can call it 'the trendy pick' as far as a favorite Slayer album. And some have said that it is 'overrated.' But look and listen deep. Will there ever be anything like it? In 29 minutes, Slayer kick more ass and shred more metal than most bands do in their whole careers. This is the album that we listen to in traffic. This is the album that we listen to as we plot revenge. This is the album that no one will ever forget. All albums are judged to this standard in extreme metal, and no one will ever come close!"
-- Mike Abominator (Gravehill)

"I first heard Reign in Blood pretty soon after discovering Slayer for the first time, and thrash metal in general, in about 1990 when Seasons in the Abyss came out. Slayer stood apart from the crowd because they are probably the first band I ever heard that managed to capture a truly menacing nature in musical form. Reign in Blood embodies everything about Slayer and is the perfect thrash capsule: 29 minutes of compact, heavy, unimprovable metal with fantastic production. There is no doubt that the attitude of fast, short, riff-laden songs has influenced me on a personal level, and Monsterworks even performed the intro section of 'Angel of Death' at our first ever gig (the one and only cover we have ever played). It all fell apart after the scream but it was worth it."
-- Jon Higgs (Monsterworks, The Living Fields)

"I can actually remember when this album came out. This was before the death metal era and, at the time, was the heaviest, fastest and most evil album in the world. My friends all thought it was pure noise and crazy sounding. For me, it just pushed the envelope for more extreme things to come. We incorporated a bunch of Slayer-type riffs in Oppressor and even when we went for the heavy rock style that was SOiL, we always closed the show for much of the "Scars" era tour by playing part of 'Raining Blood.' The crowd always went nuts! Slayer is truly a universal language for metal fans."
-- Tim King (SOiL, Oppressor)

"Reign in Blood was one of the first fast records I ever owned. Kill 'Em All has it's fast parts and so does Peace Sells, but Reign in Blood set a new bar to me as far as breakneck speed. The riffing on top of that is absurd. The fact that this album was written and recorded while I was stuck on Def Leppard's Hysteria but became a way more drastic influence on me is always funny and awesome in retrospect. The fact that the album still sounds fresh musically, vocally and sonically is a testament to not just Slayer, but thrash overall. I think the lyrics on this album are the most underrated part. I absolutely love themes being hidden under metaphor, especially in metal where the laymen may only see death and blood. 1986 was a completely ridiculous year in thrash and metal overall, but Reign in Blood STILL holds a top spot in not just that year (notably against Master of fucking Puppets) but in metal history.
-- Rick Jimenez (This Is Hell)

"My introduction to Slayer was Hell Awaits, which I had to get after seeing the live version of the title track from Sky Channel's 'Monsters Of Rock' show, hosted by Mick Wall. After the raw and violent Hell Awaits, which scared the shit out of me and my pals, Reign In Blood sounded rather "commercial," but yet intense and tight. RIB has one of the most memorable band photos of all time: scary looking lads conventionally carrying beer cans while grinning to the camera. Is that a considerable role model for a 13-year-old kid from a broken family? Anyway, Dave Lombardo's drowsy smile made the shot even more wicked.

"Where Slayer lost its rawness by choosing Rick Rubin to produce the album, they certainly paved their way to the more cultivated style, which they perfected on their next efforts, South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss.

"To most people, Reign in Blood seems to be 'the album' in Slayer's discography. Even though I think it's an awesome record, I see it just as a necessary link between 'the creepy Slayer,' and more mature Slayer, which was a huge musical influence to myself with the heavier and more melodic style."
-- Olli-Pekka Laine (Barren Earth)

"'86 was the year that I really discovered metal. A pretty good fucking year for it! I got caught up as quickly as I could. Reign in Blood was not only terrifying, but so much more violent than anything else I had ever heard. Lyrically it was obvious: "benefit the Aryan race," "flesh starts to burn, twist and deform" and the classic "on my wall your head!" snippets would slip past on the first few listens. What the fuck?!? Araya's delivery was so brilliant too. Super pissed, quick, and deadly serious. No 'thrash is fun' vibe back in those days, kids. But the music was what really fucked everything up for everybody. So fucking powerful. Like they were all whacked on angel dust, possessed by Satan or, more likely, both. Those drums and guitars set the bar at a level so high that I don't think anyone has come close to achieving yet. It sounds like it was recorded in an abandoned chapel. They somehow found the perfect combination of musicality and tempo that it still makes the heart pound a little harder than before you started listening. Even all these years later it's still the album that everything else is compared to. Other bands have taken the Slayer influence and gone on to do great things, but there is only one Reign in Blood."
-- Jon Necromancer (Bones)

"There's no doubt that Reign in Blood is a momentous album for me. That's the album that got me into extreme metal and I still think that it is one of the best albums ever made. Beginning with the mighty 'Angel of Death' and ending with the sinister 'Raining Blood,' every single track on the album is pure genious."
-- Johan Gustafsson (Volturyon)

"Slayer is awesome. Mike is also awesome."
-- Marshall "Fucking" Beck (Reign of Vengeance, Rebirth)

[Thanks, Marshall. Your check's in the mail.]

"I'm not sure exactly where I was when I first heard Reign in Blood -- probably in high school, like everybody else. What I do recall was my reaction as my virgin ears were sodomized by 'Angel Of Death' for the first time: 'Christ on a penis, what the fuck is wrong with these guys?' Many years later, I still wonder. And then there's that scream. You know the one. Years ago, I always thought of it as 'Well, it's a metal song, so yeah, he does a scream.' As time went on, I realized there's more to it than that. That particular scream is the sound of somebody who actually takes pleasure in offending your senses, and your dignity. It's the sound of someone who's excited because he knows that he's about to sing something that will fuck with you severely. It comes from a mindset of pure subversion. And that is what makes Slayer great."
-- Mark Sugar (Trials)

“I had heard Slayer's Hell Awaits, but it didn't really affect me at the time. But when I heard Reign in Blood when it was released, I was totally blown away! I mean, I wanted to blow things up, and burn things down! I had heard a lot of speed metal acts and early thrash acts, but this was extreme in a way that captured my soul and mind on a whole other level. I remember thinking that the only flaw the album had was that it was too short.”
-- Bjørn "Tiger" Mathisen (Fester, Sincera)

"Slayer is the ultimate thrash band and Reign in Blood is the greatest thrash record of all time! I was 15 when that record came out and it blew my fucking mind! I still emulate Jeff Hanneman's evil riffing to this day in almost every song I write. No thrash, death or black metal band since has come close to topping the intensity of that album (Slayer included)! It's Slayer's masterpiece and one of the greatest metal albums ever made! You can't fuck with Reign In Blood!!!"
--Matt Sorg (Ringworm, Charred Walls of the Damned)

"I remember the day I bought the record (the day it came out) and took it home to listen to it. As soon as 'Angel of Death' came on, I went 'WTF!?!' The motherfucker skipped! You'd expect that from a New Renaissance record but not a major label like Columbia!?! I still have the record and to this day 'Postmortem' is still the baddest fuckin' Slayer song out there..."
-- Tim Matthews (The Horde)

As for myself, I was 13 when Reign in Blood came out. I was living in Beatrice, Nebraska (pop. ~12,000) at the time, which wasn't exactly a hotbed for metal. A good friend used to visit family in Kansas City fairly frequently, and one time in 1986 he came back with Reign in Blood on cassette. I had already begun to make the leap from cheesy hair metal to harder stuff like Metallica and Megadeth, but Reign in Blood sounded like nothing I'd heard before. I wasn't even sure if I liked it at first, but it was so ridiculously loud, fast, heavy, angry and Satanic that I was fascinated by it. I used to listen to it on my Walkman (actually, it was probably a knockoff) while doing my paper route every day after school. The entire album was on both sides of the cassette, so as soon as "Raining Blood" ended, it would switch to the other side and start all over again with "Angel of Death."

Twenty-five years later, the album is permanently burned onto my brain. Plenty of albums have been released in the meantime that are louder, faster, heavier, angrier and/or more Satanic, but none of them have had the lasting impact of Reign in Blood. The album represented an unprecedented leap forward for heavy metal. The genre was barely 16 years old at the time, but the evolution from Black Sabbath in 1970 to Reign in Blood in 1986 was monumental. The difference between today's most extreme metal albums and Reign in Blood doesn't seem nearly as pronounced, despite the passage of 25 more years. Nowadays, you can turn on the local "active rock" station and occasionally catch "Master of Puppets" or "Peace Sells," but the next time I hear "Altar of Sacrifice" or "Criminally Insane" on commercial radio will be the first. Even at the ripe old age of 25, Reign in Blood is still way too heavy for mass consumption, and Slayer fans wouldn't have it any other way.

Read about the other great thrash albums of 1986:
Part 1: Metallica - Master of Puppets
Part 2: Destruction - Eternal Devastation
Part 3: Flotsam and Jetsam - Doomsday for the Deceiver

Concert Review: Hank3 at the Marquee Theatre, 9/19/2011

2011-09-20T02:28:00.000-07:00

Hank3 performs live at Marquee Theatre on 9/19/2011

Seeing Hank3 live these days is like a test of endurance. At his show last night at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, Hank3 took the stage at 8:30 p.m. to a near-capacity crowd and didn't finish up until nearly three and a half hours later, after roughly two-thirds of the audience had called it a night.

It's hard to fault anyone for leaving. It was a Monday night after all, with another long work week barely underway. But those who stuck around were treated to the full spectrum of what Hank3 has to offer -- from classic country to auctioneer-laced speed metal and everything in between.

Hank3 opened his set with "Nighttime Ramblin' Man" from the Lovesick, Broke & Driftin' album and proceeded to play a solid 90-minute set of country songs spanning his 16-year career. A Hank3 show is probably the only place you'll ever see a full-on circle pit break out during an old-school country song like "Smoke & Wine," but that's just another part of what makes Hank3 so unique in this day and age of polished and packaged pop music.

Hank3 brings a ridiculously diverse mix of people together -- from middle-aged cowboys in Wranglers and Stetsons to teenage heshers in Slayer T-shirts -- all of whom share a common love for music outside the scope of mainstream radio. Granted, there aren't as many cowboy types at Hank3 shows as there were 10-15 years ago, but even the metalheads eat up Hank3's brand of no-frills classic country.

At the end of his country set, Hank3 traded his acoustic guitar for an electric and played a brief, three-song "hellbilly" set that combined country twang with bluesy riffs and hard rock swagger. A short break followed, after which Hank3 returned to the stage with just an electric guitar and a drummer and played a roughly 45-minute set of Sabbath/Sleep-inspired doom metal. The set showcased a handful of songs from Attention Deficit Domination, one of the four albums Hank3 released earlier this month.

Hank3 @ Marquee

Of course, no Hank3 set would be complete without some hardcore speed/thrash metal, so Hank3 donned a strange, Gwar-like mask/shoulder pad combo and tore into a set of songs from his Cattle Callin album. The album features samples of cattle auctioneers set to a speed metal backdrop, and Hank3 even brought a real, live auctioneer onstage for one of the songs. After more than three hours, the crowd was diminished, but still rowdy as hell and chanting for more, so Hank3 obliged with an encore of "Black Cow."

After the set ended, Hank3 immediately jumped down from the stage and began signing autographs for a large group of fans straining to get close to their country hero. With the country still reeling from one recession and possibly heading into another, it's great to see artists give fans their money's worth. Hank3 did that and then some. The country set alone would've been worth the price of admission, but when he throws in two sets of metal for a three hour-plus concert experience, you almost feel like you're taking advantage of the poor guy. Hell, he probably would've played longer, but the staff at the Marquee seemed anxious to call it a night, hoarding people off the smoking patio and closing the doors before the show had even ended.

Say what you will about the logic of fusing traditional country and hardcore metal, but Hank3 is clearly passionate about both, and his epic multi-set performance last night proved that he's passionate about pleasing his loyal fans as well. It's hard to find fault in someone so dedicated to his fans. Now if only more artists would take his cue...

I managed to compile a fairly accurate setlist for the country portion of the show, save for one song I didn't recognize a little more than halfway through. You're on your own for the metal stuff.

Country setlist:
Nighttime Ramblin' Man
Thrown Out of the Bar
Smoke & Wine
Crazed Country Rebel
Pills I Took
Long Hauls and Close Calls
3 Shades of Black
Rebel Within
Low Down
Gutterstomp
Troopers Hollar
Day by Day
Ghost to a Ghost
Dyin' Day
[Didn't recognize this one. Any help?]
Six Pack of Beer
D. Ray White
[Banjo solo/lap steel solo/fiddle solo]
Straight to Hell
Mississippi Mud
P.F.F.
Country Heroes
Not Everybody Likes Us
Dick in Dixie

Hellbilly setlist:
Hillbilly Joker
Life of Sin
Hellbilly

Flotsam and Jetsam - Doomsday for the Deceiver: Part 3 in a 10-part series looking back at the best thrash metal albums of 1986

2011-09-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

My original plan for this series was to chronicle the 10 best thrash metal albums of 1986. Each post was going to coincide with the 25th anniversary of each album's original release date and feature interviews with band members or people involved with the making of the album. Well, as the old saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

As it turns out, finding accurate release dates for 25-year-old albums is a little trickier than it sounds, even in this age of information overload. For example, depending on the source, Megadeth's Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? came out in either July, October or November of 1986. Then there's the difficulty of actually tracking down interviews. Some of the bands featured in this series don't have readily available contact information on their websites, aren't currently on a label and/or don't even exist anymore. But hey, I promised you guys a 10-part series, and I plan on following through with that, even if a few of the posts don't have interviews or accurate release dates.

That said, for Part 3, I'll take a look back at Flotsam and Jetsam's landmark debut album, Doomsday for the Deceiver, which was allegedly released sometime in July of 1986. I actually managed to hunt down F&J vocalist Eric A.K. on Facebook and he agreed to an e-mail interview. I e-mailed him some questions, but he never wrote back or responded to follow-up e-mails or Facebook messages. I also thought it would've been cool to interview original bassist Jason Newsted, but I was unable to find contact info for him. So in lieu of interviews, this post will simply feature me waxing poetic about the album.

While the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Germany were the main breeding grounds for thrash metal in the genre's infancy, by the time 1986 rolled around, thrash bands were popping up all over the U.S. and the rest of the world. Here in the Valley of the Sun, the thrash scene was spearheaded by two bands - Sacred Reich and Flotsam and Jetsam. The latter's 1986 debut album, Doomsday for the Deceiver, was significant for several reasons. It was the only F&J album to feature founding bassist Jason Newsted before his departure to Metallica. In true Spinal Tap "these go to 11" fashion, it was the first album to ever receive a 6K rating from respected UK hard rock/metal magazine Kerrang! (although curiously, it didn't even make the magazine's year-end Top 20 album list, according to this link). Also, it kicks fucking ass.

From the opening track, "Hammerhead," through the album-closing "Flotzilla," Doomsday for the Deceiver was an all-out thrash assault and certainly qualifies as one of the genre's most polished debut albums. Eric A.K.'s operatic vocals were a change of pace from the typically gruff delivery of his thrash metal peers, but they worked perfectly as a nod to NWOBHM bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden that served as early influences on the genre. The riffs come fast and furious courtesy of guitarists Ed Carlson and Michael Gilbert, with most songs proceeding at breakneck speed and nary a power ballad in sight.

Based on the strength of Doomsday -- and, presumably, the exposure gained from Newsted joining Metallica -- the band was signed by Elektra Records, becoming labelmates with the band that had poached their bassist. They released the equally excellent No Place for Disgrace in 1988, but after the less impressive When the Storm Comes Down in 1990 and the subsequent rise of grunge, interest in the band waned.

Still, Flotsam and Jetsam soldiered on throughout the '90s and the aughts, consistently putting out new material as many of their '80s thrash brethren fell by the wayside. Their 10th and latest album, The Cold, was released in September 2010.

Read about the other great thrash albums of 1986:
Part 1: Metallica - Master of Puppets
Part 2: Destruction - Eternal Devastation

Anthrax - Worship Music (Album Review)

2011-09-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

Anthrax - Worship Music
Release date: September 13, 2011 (Megaforce Records)

If anyone had any questions about the pecking order among the Big Four thrash metal bands, the lineup at the Big 4 Festival this past April in Indio, Calif. should've cleared up any doubts. Anthrax was relegated to a 4 p.m. time slot, hitting the stage in the late afternoon sun as fans were still filing into the massive Empire Polo Grounds for the historic festival. They also played the shortest set of the day.

Not that there's anything wrong with being the fourth most popular band in the greatest genre of music ever created. I'm sure Testament, Overkill, Death Angel, Flotsam and Jetsam or Nuclear Assault would've killed for that gig. Anthrax have certainly earned their spot in the Big Four, but they've always played the role of comedic foil to their much more serious brethren in Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica. While the latter bands wore denim and spiked leather and wrote songs about war, plagues, death and the occult, Anthrax sported board shorts and Adidas and took their lyrical inspiration from comic books and Stephen King novels. Let's face it, the Not Man wasn't exactly Vic Rattlehead, and you'd never catch Slayer rapping about Pop-Tarts® and stickball.

Thus, it comes as a bit of a surprise that Anthrax's new album, Worship Music, takes a much more serious tone. Granted, they were pretty serious throughout the whole post-grunge John Bush era, but with the return of vocalist Joey Belladonna -- whose last album with the band was 1990's Persistence of Time -- a return to the band's fun-loving heyday of the late '80s seemed like a logical progression. Instead, on Worship Music, Anthrax sound like a pissed off band with something to prove. The result is one of the best metal albums of the year and the best release by any member of the Big Four in more than two decades.

What makes Worship Music so fantastic is that it's nothing like what you'd expect from such a reunion. There's nothing "retro" or "vintage" about it, nothing to indicate a desperate attempt at recapturing 25-year-old mojo. Worship Music stands on its own as a thoroughly modern, forward-thinking metal album, and a pretty kick-ass one at that.

It's not even really a thrash album in the strictest sense of the term. There are thrash-y moments, to be certain, such as the album-opening "Earth on Hell" and the zombie-inspired "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't." But there are also nods to mid-'90s groove metal, classic NWOBHM-era power metal and even prog rock. The album's first single, 'The Devil You Know," has the kind of catchy chorus that sticks in your head long after the album ends. Belladonna's vocals on "I'm Alive" occasionally recall Queensrÿche's Geoff Tate, and the song features an incredible hook that stands out even on an album with virtually no filler. In fact, as great as Scott Ian's riffs and Charlie Benante's drumming are on this album, it's Belladonna's vocals that make the album so memorable. He might not be able to hit the ridiculous high notes that he did in the '80s, but his singing style is much more diverse than it used to be and carries a lot more emotional heft. I'd bet a lot of money that "Crawl" was a song that was originally written for Bush, but Belladonna absolutely makes it his own.

Perhaps the best thing that I can say about this album is that I'm actually looking forward to hearing these songs live. Too often, when a band with a back catalog as good as Anthrax's puts out a new album, you almost dread seeing them live because they're gonna play way too much new shit and not enough of "the classics" (see Pumpkins, Smashing). But virtually every song on Worship Music is good enough to stand alongside "Madhouse," "Caught in a Mosh" or "Keep It in the Family." Hell, I'd be stoked if they played this album in its entirety on their upcoming tour with Testament and Death Angel (please guys, for the love of all that's unholy, add a Phoenix date to that tour).

On Worship Music, Anthrax didn't recapture any old magic, nor did they attempt to. They simply put out an amazingly modern and ridiculously catchy metal album that stands up to repeated listens and firmly establishes them as more than just a leader among the "old guard" of metal, but a viable player in the modern metal landscape. Here's hoping this infamously combustible lineup stays intact long enough for a follow-up or two.

Hank3 - Attention Deficit Domination, Cattle Callin and Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown (Album Reviews)

2011-08-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hank3 performing live (photo by Cindy Knoener)

Hank3 - Attention Deficit Domination, Cattle Callin and Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown
Release date: September 6, 2011 (Hank3 Records/Megaforce Records)

What prompts an artist to release four albums' worth of material on the same day? Workaholism? Devotion? Ambition? Greed? Batshit lunacy?

Whatever the motivation, Shelton Hank Williams -- aka Hank Williams III, aka Hank3 -- apparently has a lot to get off his chest after a tumultuous 15-year stint with Curb Records. In a press release preceding this multi-album, multi-genre release, Hank3 explains his motivation thusly:

"I wanted to flood the market and do everything different. I wanted to come out of the gate strong. I'm opening up the mind a little bit and bringing some different styles together."

While it's certainly understandable that Hank3 is eager to make the most of his newfound artistic freedom, he's asking an awful lot of both his fans and music critics by dumping nearly four and a half hours of music on us at once. It's a lot to absorb, but as a member of both of the aforementioned groups, I'm happy to take on the challenge.

First up (at least alphabetically) is Attention Deficit Domination, a nine-song, 50-minute slab of doom metal. This album might come as a surprise to fans who've grown accustomed to Hank3's previous metal output. ADD is a far cry from the twangy thrash/groove metal sound of Hank3's Assjack project. This is pure sludge metal, along the lines of classic Melvins and Eyehategod. Unfortunately, it lacks the hooks that those bands skillfully buried beneath walls of distortion.

An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Hank3 wrote and performed all the music on ADD himself. The album starts strong, with the psych-doom leanings of "In the Camouflage" and the Sabbathy groove of "I Feel Sacrificed," but the album eventual starts to sound repetitive, even by doom metal standards. Hank3's distorted, nasal vocals are also hit or miss in this context. Sometimes it works, other times, you find yourself pining for Buzz Osbourne's throaty shouts or Mike Williams' agonized screams. Ultimately, ADD seems like a no-win proposition for Hank3. It's unlikely to make any new doom metal fans out of his country followers, and doom purists will probably consider it a pedestrian effort at best.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, "pedestrian" is hardly a word that could be used to describe Cattle Callin -- surely one of the strangest music projects to be released this year. On Cattle Callin, Hank3 takes recordings of cattle auctioneers and sets them to a thrash metal backdrop. It's a clever premise, and the rapid-fire delivery of the auctioneers actually meshes quite well with the hyperspeed riffs and double-bass blastbeats. Song titles like "Heavy Cattle" and "Angus of Death" add to the tongue-in-cheek fun, but eventually, over the course of 23 songs and 75 minutes, the gimmick wears a little thin. The monotony is briefly broken up on "Cattle Callin Lonesome Blues," which kicks off with Daniel Mason's incredible banjo picking before segueing into a chaotic metal meltdown. On many of the songs, Hank3 adds his own distorted, screaming vocals, which raises the question: Why bother with the auctioneer samples in the first place if they're going to be buried in the mix?

Cattle Callin might have worked better as a straightforward thrash/speed metal album. If the auctioneer samples had been thrown in on just a handful of songs, it might've seemed more creative and unique. As it stands, it comes off as one of those ideas that seems brilliant after a few bong rips, but probably should've been relegated to a couple bonus tracks or an EP once everyone sobered up.

Rounding out this quartet of Hank3 releases is the double album Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown. While ADD and Cattle Callin might serve as hit-or-miss testaments to Hank3's diverse musical interests, this release proves that Hank3 is still at his best when he's playing the traditional outlaw country music that made his father a rich man and his grandfather an icon.

The first disc, Ghost to a Ghost, mostly sticks to the tried-and-true formula that Hank3 has perfected over the past decade and a half. Tracks like "Guttertown," "Day by Day" and "Outlaw Convention" are standard classic country fare, while "Don't Ya Wanna" is the requisite party anthem. Local country fans should enjoy hearing Phoenix-based singer/songwriter Ray Lawrence Jr. take over lead vocal duties on the aptly titled "Ray Lawrence Jr.," which features Hank3 singing backup on two of Lawrence's original songs -- "When You Lose All You Had" and "Back in the Day." Other guests include Les Claypool of Primus and Hellstomper's Alan King. The inimitable Tom Waits even drops in to do his best Lemmy Kilmister impression on the title track.

That's not to say that there's no experimentation going on on this double album. Hank3's dog, Trooper, adds his unique vocal stylings to the foot-stomping "Trooper's Hollar" and the dark, moody "Trooper's Chaos" from the second disc, Guttertown. Indeed, much of the second disc veers away from traditional country sounds in favor of what might be described as avant-garde neo-folk. The disc features eerie, atmospheric sound collages interspersed with accordion-laced, backwoods, hillbilly sing-alongs. Waits makes another appearance on the Celtic-tinged "Fadin Moon," while the album-closing "With the Ship" sounds like a pirate song performed by Munchkins.

Overall, Hank3's quadruple-album experiment may not be the windfall of amazing music that diehard fans had hoped for, but it's hard to fault him for the effort. ADD might not be remembered as a seminal doom metal release, and Cattle Callin rarely rises above the level of gimmickry, but Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown proves that Hank3 still has a great deal to offer in the realm of country music. And frankly, right now, country music needs Hank3 a lot more than doom metal does.

Forbidden cancels European tour

2011-08-16T15:39:00.002-07:00

Bay Area thrash veterans Forbidden have cancelled all but one of their European tour dates following the departure of drummer Matt Hernandez. The band will still play the Alcatraz Festival in Belgium on Aug. 27 with the legendary Gene Hoglan (Dark Angel, Death, Testament, Fear Factory) filling in.

Forbidden's label, Nuclear Blast, issued a press release with the following statement from founding guitarist Craig Locicero:

This is the most painful update I have ever had to write...

Due to family obligations on the part of our longtime drummer, Mark Hernandez, FORBIDDEN is forced to cancel it's tour of Europe and will start to search for an adequate permanent replacement right away. Compounding things is the fact that Mark and I also play in Demonica, who were to open the tour. Unfortunately, at this late date, there is no time nor budget to find a replacement who can handle both bands and our only option right now is to cancel the entire tour.

FORBIDDEN would like to apologize to all of the different promoters, Continental Concerts, the bands Communic and Demonica, our label Nuclear Blast, and most importantly our fans who have been waiting for us to finally make it overseas for our first proper European tour in support of Omega Wave. You all deserve better. This is a collective kick to everyone’s stomach and it is very difficult for us to swallow.

If there were any way to find one drummer to do both jobs and learn over 22 songs of material in only a couple of days, we would do it. But there is no way to teach somebody all of that material from the ground up and give the fans our very best. Our first choice was longtime Brother, Gene Hoglan, and since Gene is very familiar with our current set list, this makes the most sense. However, he only has a very small window to work with and no time to commit to an entire tour. But he did agree to fly out to Belgium with us so that FORBIDDEN can play the Alcatraz Festival on August 27th! That works out to be the only days that work within Gene's busy schedule and it also allows us to get in front of as many fans as possible for one show.

In no way does this make up for all of the other gigs we will miss. They MUST be rescheduled for the future!

Unfortunately, that future will have to be without Mark Hernandez. He has played for the last time with FORBIDDEN and we will be looking for the right replacement as soon as the dust settles. Obviously it takes a great player to play drums in FORBIDDEN. We will only accept the best!

We all love Mark and hope he finds peace and serenity in his future with his family.

In the meantime we will continue and take the momentum we have gained from Omega Wave and use it as fuel for the next record and beyond!

Looking forward, not back....

40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room (Album Review)

2011-07-16T19:58:00.001-07:00

40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room
Release date: July 19, 2011 (Metal Blade Records / Cyclone Empire)

I feel obliged to admit right out of the gate that, prior to reading the press materials for British trio 40 Watt Sun's debut album, The Inside Room, I'd never even heard of singer/guitarist Patrick Walker's former band, Warning. After listening to what Walker has accomplished with 40 Watt Sun, it's safe to say that Warning is a band I will be checking out in the very near future.

On The Inside Room, 40 Watt Sun prove that heavy music can be just as haunting, melancholy and heart-wrenching as folk, shoegaze, indie rock or any other genre those adjectives are more frequently applied to. Actually, the only thing keeping this from being a straightforward folk album is the presence of distorted electric guitars.

Don't believe me? Check out this acoustic version of the opening track, "Restless." It's essentially the same song that appears on the album -- same chords, sung the same way -- minus a thick haze of distortion.

But oh, how glorious that distortion is on the album proper. Much like Jesu, Isis, Failure and even the Smashing Pumpkins before them, 40 Watt Sun employ layered, distorted guitars riffs that don't so much knock you on your ass with their power, speed and ferocity, but cascade over you and sweep you up in their majestic beauty. A little grandiose? Perhaps, but 40 Watt Sun are clearly aiming for an epic sound, and on The Inside Room they absolutely nail it.

With five songs spread across nearly 48 minutes, 40 Watt Sun aren't in any particular hurry to get where they're going, but as the old saying goes, the joy lies in the journey itself. Not that the songs themselves are particularly joyous. It's called doom metal for a reason, after all. But this isn't doom metal in the tradition of Candlemass or Saint Vitus. In fact, I'm hesitant to call it "metal" at all. They might be on Metal Blade Records (here in the U.S., at least), but musically, 40 Watt Sun is more in line with the atmospheric post-rock found on labels like Hydra Head Records and The Mylene Sheath.

However it's classified, the simple fact is that 40 Watt Sun's music is amazing. Transcendent, even. It's sad but hopeful, emotional without ever devolving into melodrama. It's also one of 2011's best releases so far. And it'll definitely make you want to hunt down some Warning...

Fair to Midland - Arrows & Anchors (Album Review)

2011-07-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

Fair to Midland - Arrows & Anchors
Release date: July 12, 2011 (E1 Music)

Fair to Midland are an anomaly in the world of progressive rock. They make smart, complex and compelling music while somehow managing to avoid the inherent pretension that runs rampant throughout the prog rock genre. They're musically gifted, but they're not above letting their hair down and just rocking out when the urge strikes.

On their fourth album and E1 Music debut, Arrows & Anchors, the Texas-based quintet prove that bands need not abandon all pop sensibility in the pursuit of prog perfection. After a brief intro featuring church organ and a distorted mini-sermon delivered in a Southern drawl, Fair to Midland get right down to business with the hard rocking "Whiskey & Ritalin." What could easily have been a generic nü metal song in the hands of a lesser band gets a boost from Matt Langley's keyboard expertise and a melodic chorus that offsets the sludginess of the song's main riff.

Throughout Arrows & Anchors, Fair to Midland never shy away from experimentation, but still deliver plenty of good, old-fashioned, hook-laden rock 'n' roll. "Amarillo Sleeps on My Pillow" prominently features banjo -- yes, banjo -- without ever devolving into country rock cliché, while "Golden Parachutes" provides straightforward arena rock bliss with its layered vocal harmonies and air guitar-worthy riffs.

The entire album is a showcase for singer Darroh Sudderth's formidable pipes. Sudderth's range and passionate delivery -- at times reminiscent of Maynard James Keenan -- have quickly earned him a spot among modern prog's best frontmen. On songs like the lead single "Musical Chairs" and, most prominently, "Rikki Tikki Tavi," Sudderth effortlessly veers from soaring falsettos to guttural growls.

Sudderth's vocals are so transcendent that it'd be easy to overlook subpar songwriting, but fortunately, that's not necessary. Fair to Midland's sound is unique enough that it doesn't invite easy comparisons, although fans of Tool or Between the Buried and Me would probably find a lot to like. But one need not be a hardcore art rock geek to appreciate Fair to Midland. There are elements of Muse's arena prog in the band's sound, and it's not unfathomable that the increasingly important hipster demographic could latch onto the band.

In an era when Kings of Leon play sold-out amphitheaters with truly great acts like Built to Spill or Band of Horses as their openers, it's becoming increasingly difficult to predict a band's success. That said, Fair to Midland certainly have all the ingredients necessary to make the jump from niche status to bona fide rock stardom, and Arrows & Anchors could very well be the album that facilitates that transition.

Destruction - Eternal Devastation: Part 2 in a 10-part series looking back at the best thrash metal albums of 1986

2011-07-01T06:00:00.005-07:00

Throughout 2011 I'll be looking back a quarter century at 10 iconic thrash metal albums of 1986. For my money, 1986 was the best year in the history of thrash -- and probably the metal genre as a whole -- giving us seminal releases by many of thrash metal's best acts. Each entry will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the album's release date and will feature interviews with band members and/or people who were part of the album's creation.

For Part 2, I'll take a look back at Destruction's classic sophomore release, Eternal Devastation, which was released on July 1, 1986. I e-mailed some questions to Destruction bassist/vocalist Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer (via ridiculously helpful Nuclear Blast publicist Loana Valencia), which resulted in an entertaining and informative Q&A.

The first half of 1986 was overshadowed by the March release of Metallica's landmark album Master of Puppets, but other strong offerings from the likes of Canada's Voivod, the UK's Onslaught and Germany's Sodom proved that thrash metal was truly a global phenomenon. The second half of the year started off with a bang, thanks to another German thrash outfit, Destruction. Along with Kreator and Sodom, Destruction would eventually come to be known as one of the "Three Kings" of Teutonic thrash metal, mirroring the rise of the "Big Four" American thrash bands.

Originally formed in 1982 in Well am Rhein, Destruction was one of the earliest German bands to adopt the thrash metal sound. The trio's 1985 debut, Infernal Overkill, was one of the more polished thrash debuts of the era and served as the precursor their epic 1986 follow-up, Eternal Devastation.

From the ominous intro to "Curse the Gods" through the closing track, "Confused Mind," Eternal Devastation not only raised the bar for German thrash metal, but for the genre worldwide. The album's combination of technicality and brutality foreshadowed the rise of death metal several years later. Bassist/vocalist Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer's gravelly delivery was punctuated by impossibly high-pitched shrieks, while guitarist Mike Sifringer churned out pummeling riffs and blistering solos over drummer Tommy Sandmann's pounding beats.

The album marked the end of an era for Destruction, as Sandmann would depart soon after its release and the band would add a second guitarist for 1988's Release From Agony. Schmier departed the band in 1989, but Sifringer would carry on the Destruction name -- for better or worse -- throughout the '90s as the band self-released three albums that are frequently referred to as Neo-Destruction and are not included in the band's official discography.

Schmier returned to the band in 1999, just in time for thrash metal's unlikely resurgence in the early 2000s. The band has remained prolific ever since, releasing six studio albums, two live albums and a collection of re-recorded classics. Their latest album, Day of Reckoning, was released in February by Nuclear Blast Records. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Eternal Devastation, I e-mailed some questions about the album and the band's early days to Schmier. Here are the results:

Q&A with Destruction bassist/vocalist Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer

Tempe Carnivore: What was your mindset heading into the studio to record Eternal Devastation? With thrash metal on the verge of really taking off in popularity, did you feel a sense of urgency to "step up your game" or anything like that?

Schmier: Mike Sifringer had all those crazy riffs. They sounded better than ever. I was blown away, so we were aware that this album would hold some real great stuff. We wanted the guitar to be like a chainsaw - in the end the guitar sound was maybe a bit too much. The producer worked with Mike on the leads. You can tell; the leads improved. Tommy Sandmann just kind of lost it. He told us during the recording that he’ll leave the band, he could not compete anymore. He wanted to have a secure life...

How do you think the album holds up 25 years later? Where would you rank it among your favorite Destruction albums?

Oh, it’s still a total classic. “Curse The Gods,” “Life Without Sense” and “Eternal Ban” are among the best Destruction songs EVER. It’s sure one of our Top 5 records. The Antichrist and Infernal Overkill I would rate higher...

The opening track "Curse the Gods" is a pretty harsh condemnation of religion (not to mention one of Destruction's all-time greatest songs). What specifically inspired that song? Were you raised in a religious household?

We are all from the countryside. So yes, we have had a conservative and very Catholic household. We wanted to break out of that. I guess we found out pretty fast that the "pretending to be this-and-that" lifestyle wasn’t our cup of tea. Mike wrote the lyrics and all we wanted to say is "ALL RELIGIONS SUCK - PEOPLE GET A LIFE!" After my whole family died within three years, I could scream out the song with pride and conviction. It never changed again!

Did you experience backlash from any religious groups at the time because of that song?

Really crazy -- I was an altar server [boy] when I was a kid. Raised with the bible. But afterwards, I found out that bibles are just empty words, and I took my life in my own hands. As I said, everybody from my family died within a short amount of time, just my Mum was left, so I totally gave up on religion. "GOD, WHERE ARE YOU NOW?" was my thought for many years. Then METAL became my religion!!!

Do you have any plans to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the album, such as a deluxe reissue or playing it live in its entirety at upcoming shows?

Ask our old label SPV. They still hold the rights. Things are complicated. I wish we could do what we wanted to do. Hopefully we’ll find a way to finally do those re-issues with good value and quality. We’ve been talking about it for years. It’s tiring, but we’ll do shows here in Europe this winter with a classic set. THIS will be fun!

Can you share any funny or crazy stories from recording the album or from the subsequent tour?

We were drinking a LOT at that time. The studio was in the middle of nowhere in Bavaria, so there was nothing to do! Just drinking and recording! At one point, some friends picked us up to go to the next big city. When they arrived, they were all drunk already, including the driver. I was a little worried, but hey, we wanted to go out to party. I think we drove about half a mile until we hit a tree. No one got injured really bad, but the car was scrapped. It made us believe in the band stronger and brought us closer together, I believe, ‘cause we did survive this accident!

Fans in Europe -- and Germany in particular -- have always seemed to be more supportive of thrash metal and heavy metal in general than U.S. fans. Why do you think that is? What is it about Germany that not only produces great metal bands, but some of the most dedicated metal fans as well?

I have no idea. Metal does not get supported very well by the mainstream media or the public in general. I guess it’s the fight for independent music that keeps us fighting hard. Germans have always been good, working-class people. Same goes for the metal; it comes out of that scene. Hard work - heavy music. The more rich people there are in a country, the less they will listen to heavy music. At one point, we are all stubborn, I guess. America has much more background and acceptance for hard rock and rock 'n' roll. I wish we would have had the chance to get accepted by the public as a music group. Ha ha!

Here in the U.S., the competition among the "Big Four" American thrash bands seemed pretty intense. Was there a similar sense of competition among the "Three Kings" of German thrash (Destruction, Kreator and Sodom) back in the '80s?

I never felt it that way. I was proud other kids were doing the same shit as we were doing. We got close friends pretty fast back in the day. Sure, there was a competition, but somehow I never felt it that way. I loved the guys and their music and we were young freaks that did not care about commercial success. The labels later on started to care about that, then the quality wasn’t the same anymore...

In light of the success of the Big Four concert in California, is there any chance we'll see Destruction, Kreator and Sodom tour together or maybe do a one-off show here in the States?

We did this tour in Europe in 2001. It was amazing. But we never made it to America. We all know the fans deserve such a historic event, so it HAS to happen. I will do my best to get this going. It would be the tour of a lifetime, after a long career of ups and downs and crazy shit - A TOTAL HIGHLIGHT!

Thanks for taking the time to do this Q&A. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

“Curse The Gods” is my all-time fave Destruction song, so it's killer and a big honor that after all these years, people still remember a harsh thrash record called Eternal Devastation done by some crazy German hillbilly kids!!!

Read about the other great thrash albums of 1986:
Part 1: Metallica - Master of Puppets

The Atomic Bitchwax - The Local Fuzz (Album Review)

2011-06-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

The Atomic Bitchwax - The Local Fuzz
Release date: June 28, 2011 (Tee Pee Records)

Sometimes, the mark of great music isn't so much that it demands your undivided attention, but that it simply makes whatever else you happen to be doing that much more enjoyable (or, in some cases, slightly more tolerable). By those standards, the Atomic Bitchwax might have a legitimate "Album of the Year" candidate in The Local Fuzz.

The New Jersey-based instrumental trio aren't necessarily aspiring to be anything more than great background music, be it the soundtrack to a Fourth of July pool party or simply another Wednesday in a cubicle. The thing is, the Atomic Bitchwax are so good at what they do, you can't help but occasionally stop what you're doing and nod your head to the groove with a big, dopey grin your face. In fact, the Atomic Bitchwax might be stoner rock's answer to Girl Talk. Instead of patching together bits and pieces of existing songs on a laptop a la Gregg Gillis, the Atomic Bitchwax have seemingly taken the best parts of a bunch of songs you've never heard and condensed them into one epic, 42-minute paean to the almighty riff. Oh yeah, and they actually wrote all those riffs and played them themselves.

Besides Girl Talk, the other comparison that comes to mind while listening to The Local Fuzz is the Smashing Pumpkins' "Pastichio Medley," a 23-minute B-side from the band's "Zero" single. But while "Pastichio Medley" offered a rapid-fire succession of frustratingly brief snippets of riffs that, for whatever reason, were never developed into complete songs, The Local Fuzz is a fully realized work. The Atomic Bitchwax actually took the time and effort to create segues and transitions that tie the sometimes disparate parts of the album together into one satisfying whole.

If ever an album was worthy of the "all killer, no filler" label, this is it. Chock full of booty-shaking grooves, funky handclaps, monstrous riffs and the occasional psychedelic interlude, The Local Fuzz proves that instrumental rock need not be laden with self-indulgent guitar wankery to make up for the lack of vocals. On The Local Fuzz, the Atomic Bitchwax simply let the riffs do the talking.

Helms Alee - Weatherhead (Album Review)

2011-06-17T08:30:00.002-07:00

Helms Alee - Weatherhead
Release date: June 21, 2011 (Hydra Head Records)

After four or five spins of Helms Alee's sophomore album, Weatherhead, I found myself thinking "Man, it's too bad Kurt Cobain isn't around to hear this." After all, Cobain was never shy about name-dropping the Pixies and the Melvins as two of his biggest musical influences, and those two bands' legacies are alive and well on Helms Alee's latest release. Hell, if Kim Deal and Buzz Osbourne had a torrid, drug-fueled love affair and spawned three illegitimate children, odds are good they would grow up to sound quite a bit like Helms Alee.

Weatherhead picks up where the Seattle trio's 2008 debut, Night Terror, left off. Helms Alee superimpose the classic soft/loud dynamic of '90s alt-rock onto a modern post-rock backdrop, creating a sound that is simultaneously familiar and unique. The band doesn't really rely on catchy hooks or standard verse/chorus/verse song structures to draw listeners in, but that's not to say that there's nothing catchy or melodic about the music. In fact, Helms Alee might be one of the most accesible bands in heavy music right now.

Songs like "Music Box" and "Epic Adventure Through the Woods" showcase the vocal harmonies of the band's female rhythm section of bassist Dana James and drummer Hozoji Matheson-Margullis, while guitarist Ben Verellen takes center stage on heavier tracks like "8/16" and "Ripper No Lube." The band is at its best, however, on midtempo songs like "Pretty as Pie," where all three members' unique vocal abilities come into play.

At the risk of sounding like a pompous music snob (which, of course, I am), this is smart music made by smart people for smart people, but it's done so well, even the mouth-breathing masses might latch onto it eventually. In other words, enjoy Helms Alee while you can, because it's gonna suck to have to pretend to hate them in a few months when some kid in a Tapout T-shirt is blasting them from his lifted F-150 while you're stopped at a traffic light.

Top 20 Slayer songs for your International Day of Slayer playlist

2011-06-06T00:45:00.000-07:00

Slayer in 1986.

To commemorate the sixth annual International Day of Slayer - which, if your math skills aren't so great, originated on the incredibly appropriate date of 6/6/06 - I have decided to assemble a playlist of 20 of Slayer's greatest songs.

I should note right off the bat that this isn't a "true" Top 20 list of Slayer's absolute best songs. My goal was simply to create a career-spanning playlist to celebrate the International Day of Slayer. In so doing, I established the following two rules for myself:

1. I had to choose at least one song from each of Slayer's full-length studio albums (I didn't include live albums or EPs, but I did pick a song from their album of punk covers, Undisputed Attitude).

2. The total running time of the playlist could not exceed 80 minutes - the duration of a standard CD-R.

With those two simple criteria in mind, I set about putting together a collection of Slayer songs suitable for burning onto a CD and blasting at full-volume, over and over again, on this most unholy of holidays. That it turned out to be an even 20 songs was just a happy coincidence. These songs aren't ranked from best to worst, but I did order them in an effort to create the best "flow" for this unofficial greatest hits CD.

Obviously, Slayer has such an extensive catalog of awesome songs that some true gems inevitably had to be cut. I'm sure some of you might disagree with a few of my selections, and I encourage you to leave a comment below on how you would change or improve the list. Just keep in mind the criteria I set for myself. If I was putting together a true "best of Slayer" collection, it could easily span two discs and would have to include Reign in Blood in its entirety. But I think this playlist provides a pretty solid overview of Slayer's three-decade career. So without further ado, here's my ultimate IDoS playlist:

1. "Angel of Death"
There really isn't any other song you could choose to kick off a playlist like this than the best song from the best album in the history of recorded music, Slayer's 1986 masterpiece Reign in Blood.

2. "Die by the Sword"
For the next song, we go back to where it all began with one of the standout tracks from Slayer's 1983 debut, Show No Mercy.

3. "Payback"
The lone track from God Hates Us All (released on Sept. 11, 2001), this one narrowly edged out "Disciple" for a spot on the playlist.

4. "Hell Awaits"
The opening track from the 1985 album of the same name, this song has been a frequent set opener at many a Slayer live show.

5. "Bitter Peace"
1998's Diabolus In Musica is widely considered to be Slayer's ~~worst~~ least awesome album, but rules are rules. Since I had to include a track, I chose the opener.

6. "War Ensemble"
The first track from 1990's Seasons in the Abyss, this song sets the tone for what is arguably Slayer's second-most popular album.

7. "Dittohead"
Slayer's 1994 album, Divine Intervention, was the band's first without founding drummer Dave Lombardo. Some fans were underwhelmed by the album as a whole, but this song is classic Slayer. Plus, I love how they name-drop the year like a rap song. Maybe all those years of sharing a label with Public Enemy and Run-DMC rubbed off...

8. "The Antichrist"
The second track from Show No Mercy pretty much weeded out the weak at heart right out of the gate.

9. "Mandatory Suicide"
If there's one topic Slayer writes mores songs about than religion, it's war. This track from 1988's South of Heaven details the horrors of the grunts fighting on the front lines.

10. "Snuff"
This track from 2009's World Painted Blood details our simultaneous revulsion and morbid fascination with internet snuff films.

11. "Altar of Sacrifice"
12. "Jesus Saves"
These back-to-back songs from Reign in Blood flow together seamlessly on the album, so there's no sense in breaking them up here.

13. "Guilty of Being White"
As if Slayer covering Minor Threat for their 1996 album of punk covers, Undisputed Attitude, wasn't an awesome enough proposition, this track earns bonus points for pissing off Ian MacKaye because of a slight change to the final lyric.

14. "At Dawn They Sleep"
Slayer's take on classic vampire mythology from Hell Awaits delivers more scares in six minutes that the entire Twilight series combined.

15. "Black Magic"
Another stellar track from Show No Mercy custom-made to horrify Bible-thumpers.

16. "Cult"
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but this track from 2006's Christ Illusion gives me the impression that Slayer just isn't very fond of Christianity.

17. "Skeletons of Society"
I'm probably gonna catch some flack for only including two songs from Seasons in the Abyss, but this one seemed like a no-brainer.

18. "South of Heaven"
Rather than try to outdo themselves on the follow-up to Reign in Blood, Slayer slowed things down a notch or two and somehow managed to sound heavier and darker than ever.

19. "Postmortem"
20. "Raining Blood"
And so we come full-circle with the final two tracks from Reign in Blood. Much like "Altar of Sacrifice" and "Jesus Saves," these two songs flow together too well to separate them.

So there you have it. Now it's time to burn the CD and go out and spread the gospel of Slayer. If, for some ridiculous reason, you don't already own every album Slayer has released, don't despair - all of these songs are available on iTunes. Better yet, stop by your local independent record store and pick up the full albums. If you can't afford it, all you have to do is beat up an emo kid, steal his money and go buy a Slayer album or two. Then repeat the process until you've beaten up enough emo kids and stolen enough money to buy Slayer's entire catalog. Have a happy International Day of Slayer and may Satan be with you!

Random and Mr. Miranda (aka Mirandom) release "Wednesday" music video; Rebecca Black mulls legal action

2011-05-18T01:25:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on ye olde weblog all year, but after five and a half months, something finally landed in my inbox that inspired me to write for free - a new video from Valley MCs Random and Mr. Miranda for the song "Wednesday" from their upcoming release The Memorandum. The song is all about slogging through a typical workweek and the sense of relief that comes with making it through "hump day."

I've written features on both of these guys for New Times, and they're two of the hardest working and most talented artists in the local hip-hop scene. I've felt for a while now that either one of these guys could be the rapper who finally puts Phoenix on the hip-hop map. Who knows? Maybe they'll accomplish that goal together. Wednesday might not be as sexy of a day as - oh, I don't know - Friday, but in the hands of Mr. Miranda and Random, it's not looking too bad at all.

Check out the video for "Wednesday" after the break. The song was co-produced by Random and EOM and the video was directed by Spicy Fud.

To hear another song from The Memorandum, check out this stream of "Maintain" over at Okayplayer.

Concert Review: BrokeNCYDE at Nile Theater

2010-12-03T02:08:00.003-07:00

Shitty iPhone photo of BrokeNCYDE performing on 12/1/11 at the Nile Theater in Mesa.

Alright, the jig is up. For the past month, much to the concern and dismay of close friends and family, I've been singing the praises of BrokeNCYDE, both here on Tempe Carnivore and for the publication that actually pays me to write stuff. Unfortunately, after Wednesday night's show at the Nile Theater in Mesa, I just don't think my heart is in it anymore.

It all started innocently enough on Nov. 5, when BrokeNCYDE's publicist sent me a link to stream the band's new album, Will Never Die. Before that, my exposure to BrokeNCYDE was limited to a couple YouTube videos that had pretty much convinced me that they were not only the worst thing that had ever happened to music, but quite possibly a sign of the apocalypse. Of course, being the masochist that I am, I immediately clicked on the link and started typing a sarcastic review before I'd even finished that first listen.

Then, something funny happened.

The stream ended and I started it over. As I was writing, I began to realize that, even though BrokeNCYDE is in many ways the embodiment of everything I hate about popular music, their shit is just fucking catchy. Somehow, BrokeNCYDE has managed to combine two of my least favorite forms of music - screamo and ringtone rap - into a whole that far exceeds the sum of its questionable parts. That, combined with the fact that nearly all of my friends and colleagues utterly despise them, made me want to give them a second chance. Thus began my brief love affair with BrokeNCYDE.

Coincidentally, just a few hours before Wednesday night's show, my editor at New Times sent me an e-mail asking me to put together a list of my Top 25 albums of 2010. I had already been thinking about such a list and how my newfound status as a faux BrokeNCYDE fanboy would factor into it. I've pretty much painted myself into a corner. I suppose I could put them at No. 1, but then people might think the entire list is a goof. If I put them anywhere else, people might think I actually like them. It's a no-win situation. So there's my first reason for putting this charade to rest.

The second reason is that I've come to the realization that I don't hate BrokeNCYDE as much as I thought I did. The first time I saw the video for "Freaxxx," I genuinely believed that these crazy kids from Albuquerque had reached some sub-Nickelbackian level of awfulness that scientists had previously only speculated might exist, but upon closer examination, BrokeNCYDE are actually quite a bit better than such standard-bearers of suckiness as Daughtry, Creed, Hinder and, of course, Nickelback. Even more than their trite lyrics and unoriginal sound, what makes those bands so unbearable is their ridiculous popularity. Creed and Nickelback sell out fucking amphitheaters. BrokeNCYDE, despite a seemingly rabid online following, barely drew more that 100 people to Wednesday night's show. Also, BrokeNCYDE don't take themselves nearly as seriously as those groups. The title of their debut album, I'm Not a Fan, But the Kids Like It, displays more self-awareness than Chad Kroeger or Scott Stapp could ever hope to muster.

And really, that's what it comes down to. As a music journalist, I try to keep an open mind, but as I get older, I don't expect to like or understand everything that "kids these days" are listening to. Nickelback represents a much greater threat to "my generation" than BrokeNCYDE does. Most people my age have never heard of BrokeNCYDE, and the ones who have spend way too much time obsessing over how awful they are. Like I said, that was my initial reaction too, but in reality, BrokeNCYDE is relatively harmless. It's simply the new sound of teenage rebellion, and don't tell the kids this or anything, but it's actually a lot tamer than those 2 Live Crew cassettes collecting dust in your closet.

The third and final reason why I'm giving up on my BrokeNCYDE crusade is that, as I discovered last night, it's already way too trendy to ironically like BrokeNCYDE. I try to stay ahead of the hipster curve, so I was dismayed to find several other people who were at Wednesday's show with tongues planted firmly in cheeks (interestingly, the handful of other sarcastic concertgoers seemed more fascinated by opening act Millionaires than BrokeNCYDE).

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, rest easy people. I don't really like BrokeNCYDE, but then again, I don't really hate them either. What can I say? I'm not a fan, but the kids like it.

Oh yeah, and about the show:

Caught the last couple songs of Kill Paradise's set. Sounded like super glossy, Auto-Tuned pop. I've gotta admit, they had some decent hooks. Millionaires came out and did that song about their tight pussies. Then they did a few more songs. They looked chunkier than in that video where they're snorting coke. Then BrokeNCYDE came out and played a few songs. None of the three acts featured guitar or bass, although Kill Paradise and BrokeNCYDE appeared to share a drummer.

Here's my stab at the BrokNCYDE set list. I might've missed a song or two:

Get Crunk!

Freaxxx

Tell Me What You Want

Booty Call

Bree Bree

Teach Me How to Scream

High Timez

Concert Review: Clutch (and Black Label Society) at Comerica Theatre

2010-11-19T16:02:00.001-07:00

Okay, so maybe that headline is a little deceiving. Black Label Society were the headliners at Comerica Theatre last night, but the main reason I was there was to see veteran Maryland rockers Clutch. Surprisingly, based on the crowd reaction and a few conversations I had with other concertgoers, I was not alone in that regard.

Attendance was noticeably sparse at this show, probably due to tickets that topped $50 after service charges. Hell, I'll admit that I probably wouldn't have dropped that much on a ticket, especially when you can see Clutch play twice as long for half the price on one of their frequent headlining tours. Still, the fans who did show up were treated to another excellent, if abbreviated, performance by Clutch.

The band opened with a pair of songs from last year's Strange Cousins From the West before breaking into the title track from their 2001 album Pure Rock Fury. At this point, the crowd was chanting for "Spacegrass," and perhaps by complete coincidence, the band complied. The unexpected highlight for me was the inclusion of three songs from my favorite Clutch album, 2004's Blast Tyrant. The band actually played songs from seven different albums (assuming you count "One Eye Dollar" as a Jam Room song), which is pretty impressive for a 10-song set. It would've been fantastic to see them play longer, but Clutch did about as much as they could with the time they were allotted.

After such a strong showing by Clutch, it seemed inevitable that Black Label Society would be a letdown, and unfortunately, they were. There's no denying Zakk Wylde's skills as a guitar virtuoso, but his songwriting leaves a little to be desired. BLS was far from offensive, but after seeing a band as great as Clutch, BLS just seemed a little too obvious, for lack of a better term. The band's grimy take on arena rock seems to be aimed squarely at the lowest common denominator, epitomized by the douche nozzle in the Slipknot T-shirt one row in front of us who alternated between making out with his undeservedly hot girlfriend and flailing his arms around in some sort of weird attempt at dancing.

By the time Wylde sat down at a piano for a cringe-inducing, quasi-hair metal finalé, we were making our way towards the exits. Maybe Neil Fallon and company can sit down with him for a few Songwriting 101 sessions on this tour.

Clutch set list
50,000 Unstoppable Watts
Struck Down
Pure Rock Fury
Spacegrass
Profits of Doom
The Mob Goes Wild
The Soapmakers
The Regulator
Electric Worry
One Eye Dollar

Jesu - Heart Ache & Dethroned (Album Review)

2010-11-17T01:07:00.001-07:00

Jesu - Heart Ache & Dethroned
Release date: November 16, 2010 (Hydra Head Records)

Justin K. Broadrick is more than capable of releasing a masterpiece. Godflesh's Streetcleaner and Jesu's Conqueror spring to mind immediately, to say nothing of the former band's criminally underrated swan song, Hymns, a near-perfect transitional album that closed the Godflesh chapter of Broadrick's career and set the tone for the future with the aptly named closing track, "Jesu." Despite these lofty achievements, what really makes Broadrick such an amazing artist is that, even when he makes an album that is not up to his usual standards of excellence (like, say, Us and Them), there are still those moments of brilliance (like, say, "Witchhunt") that keep you coming back for more.

Such is the case with Jesu's latest release, Heart Ache & Dethroned. That's not to say that it's a bad album. It's actually very, very good, but Broadrick has set the bar so high for himself over the years that, for longtime fans of his work, "very good" means "mildly disappointing." As an added caveat, it's not even the music itself that makes this a ho-hum release; it's just the fact that most of it is six years old and a big chunk of it has been previously released.

True, Jesu's 2004 debut EP, Heart Ache, has been out of print for a while now, so it's nice to see Hydra Head give it a proper re-release. Then again, in this day and age of torrents and file sharing sites, "out of print" just means the artist isn't making any money off of it anymore. It's probably safe to assume that most-die hard Jesu fans have already come across a copy of the EP, either by paying a ridiculous markup on a used import copy or simply downloading it. Thus, the real selling point for this release is the inclusion of the Dethroned EP, four songs that Broadrick started working on in 2004 and just recently put the finishing touches on.

If HA&D is ultimately going to be judged just by the final four songs, then it's a bit of a mixed bag. The first two unreleased songs, "Dethroned" and "Annul," sound the most dated. Neither is particularly bad. They're just standard-issue Jesu, circa 2004. Things get significantly more interesting with "Aureated Skin," which is the standout track of the entire release, the two 20-minute halves of Heart Ache included. The shimmering keyboards and soaring, multi-layered guitar riffs on "Aureated Skin" are most reminiscent of Jesu's recent, more melodic work. The sparse, stripped-down closing track, "I Can Only Disappoint You," sees Broadrick doing his best Trent Reznor impression, and he does it pretty well, even if it starts to drag a little at seven minutes long.

For Broadrick completists or Jesu fans who don't already have Heart Ache in some form, this release is a no-brainer. Hell, even if you already have Heart Ache, it's worth a purchase just for "Aureated Skin." The only problem is, that song is so good, you'll wish there were more like it. Maybe on the next batch of new songs...

BrokeNCYDE - Will Never Die (Album Review)

2010-11-05T21:51:00.003-07:00

BrokeNCYDE - Will Never Die
Release date: November 9, 2010 (BreakSilence Recordings/Suburban Noize Records)

Every once in a great while, a work of art is produced that is so unique, so forward-thinking, so ahead of its time and so groundbreaking that it forces you to reevaluate everything you thought you knew about a particular medium. In the world of film, for example, that game-changing work of art is Tommy Wiseau's cinematic masterpiece, The Room. When it comes to music, it might very well be the latest album from BrokeNCYDE, Will Never Die.

Let's say I asked you to make a list of the best things about music. Also, let's say you're a 15-year-old girl. Your list would probably look something like this:

cute boys with teased, highlighted and disheveled hairdos
techno beats
a cute boy who sings cleanly
naughty words
a cute boy who screams
Auto-Tune
cute white boys rapping
a slow jam
hilarious between-song skits
cute white boys playing reggae
references to weed, alcohol and promiscuous sex

Now what if I told you that every single one of those things is present on BrokeNCYDE's new album? You'd probably say "That sounds like a complete clusterfuck." But you'd be wrong. So, so wrong. This album is the culmination of everything that such diverse artists as Lil Wayne, Underoath, T-Pain, Avenged Sevenfold, Akon and Bullet For My Valentine have been working towards for the past decade.

This is, quite simply, a landmark release. I have little doubt that, 50 or 60 years from now, when music historians are looking back on the music that defined the early 21st century, Will Never Die will emerge as a generational touchstone, in much the same way that Nevermind defines early '90s Gen Xers and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band defines late '60s Baby Boomers. When the teenagers of today are old and gray, looking back wistfully on the "good old days" of deep-cut V-necks, skinny jeans and Scion xB's, BrokeNCYDE will most certainly be playing in the background.

This is the soundtrack to a generation. If you buy only one album this century, make it Will Never Die.

Concert Review: Ryan Montbleau Band at Martini Ranch

2010-10-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

It's become a bit of a music journalism cliché to say that a particular act "defies categorization," but when it comes to the Ryan Montbleau Band, it's an apt description. Unless you're the type of person who likes to employ five or six hyphens to string together a handful of disparate genres in an attempt to nail down someone's sound, you'd have a hard time pigeonholing Montbleau into any specific category of music. At their show last night at Martini Ranch in Scottsdale, Montbleau and his five bandmates veered seamlessly from folk to funk, from reggae to alt-country, from straightforward rock to jazz and even hints of zydeco.

It's this all-over-the-map approach that makes RMB's live show - not to mention their latest album, Heavy on the Vine - so entertaining. It's just kinda difficult to describe what it sounds like. Imagine if Maroon 5's Adam Levine joined a band that didn't suck, and you'd at least be in the ballpark. Montbleau can certainly pull off the white-boy soul sound that Levine has built a career on, and on occasion, he does, but he's not content to stop there. Thanks to a backing band that includes a drummer, keyboardist, fiddle player, bass player (who alternated between stand-up and electric) and an additional percussionist (bongos, mostly), singer/guitarist Montbleau is able to genre-hop like few others can.

The band opened with "Slippery Road," a bouncy, funky, mid-tempo number that immediately filled the dance floor despite (or perhaps because of?) verses that feature a melody and cadence nearly identical to "Here Comes Santa Claus." The crowd - a sizable contingent for a Sunday evening show - appeared to be familiar with Montbleau's catalog, singing along and dancing throughout the set. Highlights included the reggae-tinged "Songbird" and the revival-tent-worthy gospel energy of "I Can't Wait."

In a time when so many artists aim for the lowest common denominator, it's refreshing to see a band that's willing to take chances. RMB isn't afraid to challenge their audience, and perhaps even more surprisingly, their audience seems to appreciate them all the more for it. It might not be a formula for fleeting, multi-platinum success, but it's a long-term strategy that cultivates an extremely loyal fan base that will buy every album, come to every show and spend money at the merch booth. Maybe some of those cookie-cutter bands should take note...

3?aK Episode 48: The Grand Finale

2010-10-18T08:00:00.004-07:00

Well, we've finally come to the last episode of 3?aK. I'm sure this is a monumental moment for a lot of you. I imagine it must be similar to the bittersweet feeling of watching the final episode of M*A*S*H or Lost. But all good things must come to an end. Sometimes even the greatest ideas run their course. I had a lot of fun asking people these questions over the course of a year, but once you see who the final interviewee is, you'll see why I decided to put 3?aK to rest. Anyway, on to the background info...

Back in 2007, when I was the music writer for College Times, Kip Winger blew me off for an interview because he was on “vocal lockdown.” I didn’t want to see the questions I’d prepared go to waste, so for the next year, I asked everyone I interviewed if they’d be willing to get into character and answer the following “Three Questions as Kip.”

If you're new to 3?aK and want a more detailed history of how this project came to be, click here.

OK, now that you're up to speed, let's get on with the show. Playing the role of Kip Winger for this installment of 3?aK will be none other than the man himself, Kip Winger.

3?aK Episode 48: Kip Winger (Winger)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

It already came and went.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Ha! Don’t shave. Go buy a beard trimmer.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

I’ve made five albums in the last 15 years. You just haven’t been watching or caring.

So there you have it. Almost a year to the day after Kip blew me off for that fateful interview, I finally got the chance to speak to him after all. It was March 2008 and Winger was still on tour promoting Winger IV and their then-new live album. They had another show at Martini Ranch in Scottsdale and when the opportunity arose to finally interview Kip, I, of course, jumped at the chance. I'm not gonna lie: I was kinda nervous explaining the whole premise and asking him these questions, but he was a good sport and took it in stride. Hell, the guy has made more money and banged more hot chicks than I could ever hope for, so I don't think he was too concerned about some idiot at a college newspaper in Tempe having a few laughs at his expense.

For the record, I went to the Winger show and I was thoroughly impressed. It's not really my style of music, but the guy can still sing, and he's a lot better bass player than people give him credit for. I even spoke to him briefly after the show and he was quite cordial.

So thanks, Kip. It was a fun and enlightening year. Now if only this damn 3?aK thing would go viral...

Go back to the origin.

3?aK Episode 47: Marshall "Fucking" Beck (Rebirth, Reign of Vengeance)

2010-10-14T08:00:00.002-07:00

Back in 2007, when I was the music writer for College Times, Kip Winger blew me off for an interview because he was on “vocal lockdown.” I didn’t want to see the questions I’d prepared go to waste, so for the next year, I asked everyone I interviewed if they’d be willing to get into character and answer the following “Three Questions as Kip.”

If you're new to 3?aK and want a more detailed history of how this project came to be, click here.

OK, now that you're up to speed, let's get on with the show. Playing the role of Kip Winger for this installment of 3?aK will be Phoenix heavy metal singer and concert promoter Marshall "Fucking" Beck.

3?aK Episode 47: Marshall "Fucking" Beck (Rebirth, Reign of Vengeance)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Well you know, there’s a lot of, uh, you know, gay stuff going around these days, especially “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” stuff like that. So I believe, you know, we can make a comeback.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Keep as many little boys around as possible so that you can touch them and they can help you maintain it.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

I’ve been spending a lot of time in rainbow bars and, uh, drinking, you know, pink martinis and just been very busy with that kind of stuff, you know? Dancing disco by myself in my room while masturbating in front of the mirror.

Go to Episode 48 - The Grand Finale.

3?aK Episode 46: Andy Williams (Every Time I Die)

2010-10-11T08:00:00.001-07:00

3?aK Episode 45: Andy Williams (Every Time I Die)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Fuck no. Hopefully not. Oh wait, I’m supposed to be Kip Winger, right? Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, I hope so, so I can do another Playgirl spread.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Yeah, my grandmother told me to put chicken shit on my face when I was younger, so I actually put chicken shit on my face through the whole ‘80s.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Gay porn.

Go to Episode 47.

3?aK Episode 45: Lisa Lampanelli

2010-10-07T08:00:00.001-07:00

3?aK Episode 45: Lisa Lampanelli

After explaining the premise to Lisa, she prefaced the interview thusly:
"I’m going to adopt a British accent because as most pretentious artists, at this point, he’s 20 years a loser like Madonna, so he would’ve adopted a British accent."

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Oh, like, I don’t think it’s a question, you know, mate? I mean, like, it’s just a matter of time, because, you know, we’ve got Bret Michaels doin’ “Rock of Love.” I personally am going to pitch a show to VH1 called “Kip Winger: Wings of Love.” I think it’s different enough. I’ll be picking from 18 skanky whores instead of 20. It’s my idea. I patented it already.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Well, I tell you what, I suck enough of my bandmates’ dicks in order for me to keep this 5 o’clock shadow going. When it starts to scrape too much and the ball sack gets sore, that’s when I know it’s time to lighten up and shave.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Absolutely fuckin’ nothing. You didn’t hear about me? Suddenly my accent’s turned into Ted Kennedy. Er-ah, er-ah, er-ah. So nothing. What do you think? You never heard of me, did ya? You heard of me once – “Seventeen” – that’s it.

Go to Episode 46.

3?aK Episode 44: Blaze Ya Dead Homie

2010-10-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

3?aK Episode 44: Blaze Ya Dead Homie

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Oh, it’s definitely gonna happen. Me and Poison and all the fellas, Ratt, we’re gonna be out there rockin’ and rollin’ real tough, throwin’ our hair around.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Oh, it’s just, uh, staying in contact with Jon Bon Jovi often. That’s it, that’s it. I just need to talk to JBJ.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Suckin’ on this rock, crack pipe. It’s like, fuck it, man. It’s my new woman. Been in love with her for a little while. I don’t know. It’s crazy. I’m sorry, I mean, if I had an extra hit, I would let you hit it. No, come again, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t even let you hit it, man. I love my crack too much.

Go to Episode 45.

Arson Anthem - Insecurity Notoriety (Album Review)

2010-10-01T08:00:00.031-07:00

Arson Anthem - Insecurity Notoriety
Release date: October 12, 2010 (Housecore Records)

The first thing that came to mind while listening to Arson Anthem's debut full-length album is that all these so-called "metalcore" bands out there right now should be forced to sit down and listen to this album on a continuous loop for about a week. Calling Arson Anthem a metalcore band might seem like a misnomer, but only because the term has been bastardized by a bunch of 20-something emo kids in eyeliner and white belts. If metalcore, as the name implies, is supposed to be a hybrid of heavy metal and hardcore punk, then Arson Anthem do it better than pretty much any band out there right now.

This punk/metal "supergroup" came together in New Orleans in 2006. The band features Mike Williams (Eyehategod, Outlaw Order) on vocals, Phil Anselmo (Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual) on guitar, Hank Williams III on drums and Colin Yeo on bass and is signed to Anselmo's Housecore Records imprint. Surprisingly, the band sounds virtually nothing like any of the members' other projects. Mike Williams' vocal delivery, while still plenty abrasive, is a little more discernible than his guttural screeching in EHG. Anselmo has grown quite a bit as a guitarist since bootleg videos of the band's live shows started appearing on YouTube a few years ago. Hank III is actually returning to his roots on this album, having played drums in a number of punk bands in the '80s and '90s before embarking on his current country/metal career path. Yeo is the relative unknown of the group, but his driving bass lines mesh nicely with III's drumming to form a solid rhythm section.

Despite the band members' metal pedigrees, Insecurity Notoriety is, first and foremost, a hardcore punk record. There are nods to metal here and there, most noticeably on the occasions when the band slows things down a little, but those moments are rare. Arson Anthem specialize in short bursts of nihilistic rage, with only one of 17 songs - the album-closing "Teach the Gun (To Love the Bullet)" - exceeding the three-minute mark. For the most part, the band sticks to the classic hardcore template developed in the early- to mid-80s by bands like Minor Threat, Circle Jerks, Cryptic Slaughter and Dr. Know. If any of those names ring a bell, then you already know that this album is hard, fast, loud, aggressive, angry and chaotic. In other words, it's pretty much exactly what you would expect a "metalcore" album to sound like. Now if only the douchebags in girl jeans would catch on...

3?aK Episode 43: Will Fiore (Zoroaster)

2010-09-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Back in 2007, when I was the music writer for College Times, Kip Winger blew me off for an interview because he was on “vocal lockdown.” I didn’t want to see the questions I’d prepared go to waste, so for the next year, I asked everyone I interviewed if they’d be willing to get into character and answer the following “Three Questions as Kip.”

If you're new to 3?aK and want a more detailed history of how this project came to be, click here.

OK, now that you're up to speed, let's get on with the show. Playing the role of Kip Winger for this installment of 3?aK will be singer/guitarist of Atlanta psych/doom trio Zoroaster.

3?aK Episode 43: Will Fiore (Zoroaster)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Um, well, I don’t see, um, how there could be a renaissance if it’s never gone away. I mean, you know, we’ve been sellin’ out, uh, clubs ever since ’82. I don’t know if that’s when they came out.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Oh man, that’s kinda funny. I used to do that. You know, you just gotta get two pairs of clippers with a number 2 guard and have some Hooters girls shave you every day. That’s about it.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Well you know, workin’ on keepin’ the beard in check and, uh, you know, doin’ a lot of sit-ups and push-ups, and, uh, hangin’ out at Hooters.

Go to Episode 44.

Concert Review: Torche, Hellas Mounds and The Silence Within at Martini Ranch on 9/26/10

2010-09-27T19:21:00.001-07:00

Much like their studio albums, Torche's concert last night at Martini Ranch in Scottsdale was energetic, rollicking, blissful... and frustratingly brief. In their penultimate headlining show before joining up with the High on Fire/Kylesa tour that kicks off this Wednesday, Sept. 29 in San Francisco, Torche played a roughly 30-minute set to a small but appreciative audience. Vocalist/guitarist Steve Brooks was clearly having a blast, grinning from ear to ear and even striking the occasional cock rock pose as the band steamrolled through a set of material old and new. Despite the show's brevity, Torche managed to pack a lot of music into the half-hour set, keeping the stage banter to a minimum and sticking mostly to their trademark two-minute "doom pop" staples.

Brooks' vocals were spot-on, and the band's sound was crisp and full as a three-piece, rarely missing the additional guitar work of departed guitarist Juan Montoya. The short set is probably due to their status as openers on the aforementioned HoF tour - this headlining run was only a five-date trek that took them across the southern half of the country, starting in New Orleans and wrapping up with tonight's show in Los Angeles. If Torche have any kinks to work out, they certainly weren't evident last night, whether the band was performing tracks from their latest EP, Songs for Singles, or closing the set with older tunes featuring the infamous "bomb string" that figured prominently in their early work.

Locals Hellas Mounds preceded Torche, playing a 20-minute set of ethereal, instrumental post-rock. With three guitarists, a keyboardist, bassist and drummer, Hellas Mounds created an impressive wall of sound that would sound right at home on Torche's label, Hydra Head Records (hell, perhaps moreso than Torche themselves, even).

Another local act, The Silence Within, kicked off the show with an energetic set of mainstream metal. Despite not sharing much in common with the two bands that followed, TSW overcame some early technical difficulties and played a strong 20-minute set that seemed to draw the biggest response from the under-21 section of the venue.

Overall, this was an excellent show, even if it ended too soon. As much as I'd have loved to see Brooks and company rock out for an hour or more, a half-hour of Torche is still better than a 90-minute show from damn near anyone else.

Click here for the full High on Fire/Kylesa/Torche itinerary and an interview with Brooks.

3?aK Episode 42: Joe Buck (Hank III, Assjack)

2010-09-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

3?aK Episode 42: Joe Buck (Hank III, Assjack)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Well you know, it was such a viable form of music that of course, it’s like every great form of music, like blues.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Now that’s a tricky one. Okay, now I know this sounds stupid. I’m lettin’ out some of my secrets. You gotta get upside down. I do it by bending over – I use a chair – I bend over the back of the chair, ‘kay? Then I have my girlfriend come in. (laughs) Go on to the next one, I’ll come back to it.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

(laughs) I got my house gig down at the Roxy from three to five. On Mondays. It’s a great time. Come on down. Cocktails are half price.

Go to Episode 43.

Torche interview and tour dates

2010-09-24T15:43:00.003-07:00

Torche

If you haven't read my interview with Torche's Steve Brooks in this week's issue of Phoenix New Times, check it out here. This was a really great interview and I ended up with a lot of leftover quotes that I didn't have room for in the print feature, so I figured I'd share them here at Tempe Carnivore. (Full disclosure: I also paid my roommate to transcribe the interview for me because I'm a slow-ass typist, so I figured I might as well get my money's worth. Haha.) So here's Steve Brooks discussing SB 1070, Torche's recent tour with Coheed & Cambria, putting together the Floor boxed set, and his plans for the future. Consider this the journalistic equivalent of bonus tracks...

On touring with Coheed & Cambria:

"Hmmm, that one was an experiment. We had a great time with Coheed and Circa Survive, but their fans hated us. There might have been a crossover appeal to a couple of people, but that’s one of those things where if you’re not familiar with the crowd or the bands themselves, and you just hop on the tour because other people have been telling you this is gonna be really good for you, it’s like, well alright let’s try it, you never know what you’re gonna get. It’s kind of an experiment, and that one was… it could have been good, or it was good, in some ways, and in other ways it was not for us. We learned our lesson from that one. I’d rather do what we’re familiar with, than to play to thousands of people a night that just aren’t getting it. I do it to have a good time, and when it feels like you’re going out there and everybody’s just bored to hell, you just end up turning around and looking at your band not even paying attention to the crowd."

On putting the Floor boxed set together:

"All the other labels went under. Sometimes there were some things where, like, Rhetoric Records and these labels that don’t exist anymore had the original DATs. So we were taking whatever recordings we had. Some of our DAT’s got destroyed. There was a lot of digging up. I think there was one or two songs we had to actually take straight off the vinyl from an old seven-inch because we didn’t have anything, any of the originals, anymore. It was a struggle. It took years to do that boxed set. I’m just glad it’s out. I’m glad people are able to hear the whole thing, and I just hope everybody enjoys it too."

On the possibility of Floor doing a full reunion tour:

"No I don’t think so, but then again, I said I would never do anything with Floor again, and here we did a bunch of shows, so never say never. Who knows? If people want to see us, and there’s some kind of demand there, then yeah, we’ll do it. To me personally, it’s great to be reunited with your old friends that you haven’t done this in a while with, and to play these old songs. I mean, to me they’re kinda dated, but they’re really... they’re a part of me, a part of my life and a part of my history. I’d love to do it again, but I don’t know about real touring. I think I’m done with that band with doing long tours - maybe one-offs here and there, but that’s about it."

On SB 1070 (Arizona's controversial immigration law) and whether he ever considered joining the SoundStrike boycott:

"I’m just not involved with any of that stuff. To be honest with you, I don’t even know what’s going on in the world. If it’s affecting me at some point, which everything does, all of it, but I’m kind of busy. I don’t really get involved with politics or anything like that. I’m just living a regular life. If there’s anything that I can do, I would do it, but it hasn’t come up. All that shit that’s happening in Arizona is a shame. It’s fucked up, but all I’m doing right now is just talking about it while we’re driving through it. I live on the other side [of the country]. I’m like ‘Dude, you better watch out, you’re looking kinda dark,’ but that’s cause half the band is Hispanic."

"Those [SoundStrike] guys are high profile people. They can actually get involved and make a difference, where I’m not in any way at a level where I can be influential to that many people. There really isn’t much I can do, other than, if I were to live in the state, make changes with who you vote for. It’s not happening here, or it hasn’t happened here in Georgia. I really don’t know what else to do."

On Torche's future plans:

"We took a lot of time in between this EP (Songs for Singles) and Meanderthal. I’d like to be a little more consistent in the future. It’d be great to be able to put out a record every year like they did in the '70s."

"You’ve gotta stay consistent. This is our job now. It’s not a part-time thing anymore, so we have to stay consistent or it’s gonna end. That’s one of the reasons why it took us so long to put out another EP, ‘cause we were doing so much touring that we didn’t end up spending as much time writing new material. I think we need to slow down with the touring, especially after this EP, and start writing."

Catch Torche live on the following tour dates:

9/26 Scottsdale, AZ @ Martini Ranch
9/27 Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater w/ Mountains of Blow
9/28 Los Angeles, CA @ Vacation Vinyl (In-Store)

w/ High on Fire and Kylesa
9/29 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
9/30 Pomona, CA @ Glasshouse
10/1 Flagstaff, AZ @ Orpheum Theatre
10/2 Albuquerque, NM @ The Launchpad
10/3 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
10/5 Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
10/6 Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom
10/8 Rock Island, IL @ Rock Island Brewing Company
10/9 Urbana, IL @ Canopy Club
10/10 Chicago, IL @ Metro (Riot Festival)
10/11 Bloomington, IN @ Bluebird
10/12 Columbus, OH @ The Summit *
10/13 Newport, KY @ Historic Southgate House
10/14 Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
10/15 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
10/16 Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall
10/17 Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street
10/19 Halifax, NS @ The Paragon Theatre (Halifax Pop Explosion)
10/21 Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall
10/22 Providence, RI @ Club Hell
10/23 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
10/24 New York, NY @ Webster Hall
10/26 Philadelphia, PA @ Starlight Ballroom
10/27 Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle
10/29 Gainesville, FL @ Common Grounds (FEST 9)

* = Torche headlining show

3?aK Episode 41: Slash (Guns 'n' Roses, Velvet Revolver)

2010-09-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Back in 2007, when I was the music writer for College Times, Kip Winger blew me off for an interview because he was on “vocal lockdown.” I didn’t want to see the questions I’d prepared go to waste, so for the next year, I asked everyone I interviewed if they’d be willing to get into character and answer the following “Three Questions as Kip.”

If you're new to 3?aK and want a more detailed history of how this project came to be, click here.

OK, now that you're up to speed, let's get on with the show. Playing the role of Kip Winger for this installment of 3?aK will be legendary guitarist Slash of Guns 'n' Roses and Velvet Revolver fame.

3?aK Episode 41: Slash (Guns 'n' Roses, Velvet Revolver)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

As Kip Winger? (laughs) You know what, who knows? It could. There’s a lot of people that have a special place in their heart for that whole period and there’s a lot of bands that are still out there doing it like it’s still happening. So you never know. There could be that key song by that key group that turns around and brings it all back.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

I couldn’t even answer that. I only grow a goatee. But I would imagine meticulous fucking grooming habits, I would imagine, and a lot of patience.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Um, uh, Kip Winger, doesn’t he play bass? I don’t know. Tryin’ to keep up with the bass drum pattern, I suppose.

Go to Episode 42.

The Showdown - Blood in the Gears (Album Review)

2010-09-21T08:00:00.006-07:00

The Showdown - Blood in the Gears
Release date: August 24, 2010 (Solid State Records)

My biggest beef with mainstream Christian music - be it rock, pop, rap or metal - is that all too often, it just feels like a blatant cash-in attempt. Pick a flavor-of-the-day style of music that's popular with "kids these days," write some vaguely uplifting lyrics (you don't want to come off as too Christian, lest you lose that coveted crossover appeal with the heathens), and voila, the shit flies off the shelves at Christian bookstores and Wal-Marts across the country. South Park creators (and fellow CU alums) Trey Parker and Matt Stone already skewered this phenomenon better than I ever could, so I'll keep it succinct. The majority of Christian musicians just seem fake to me. It's not so much that I doubt the sincerity of their faith as much as their passion for the music they play.

Thank God, then, that none of this applies to the Showdown. On their fourth album, Blood in the Gears, the Nashville-based Christian metal band proves to be the exception to the rule, cranking out 10 metal anthems that vary wildly in style but share a common sincerity that only a true, lifelong love of heavy metal could produce.

The Showdown are clearly well versed in numerous heavy metal sub-genres, but their greatest strength might lie in the style of music that they don't play - namely the overwrought screamo/metalcore schlock served up by such Hot Topic-y Christian bands as Underoath and As I Lay Dying. Blood in the Gears sees the Showdown veer from classic thrash metal ('The Crooked Path") to songs that border on death metal ("Dogma Enthroned"), but the band seems most comfortable in the melodic groove metal niche pioneered by Pantera in the early '90s. Hell, a song like "Bring it Down," with vocalist David Bunton's Anselmo-esque growl and a breakneck pace reminiscent of "Fucking Hostile," could almost pass for an unreleased rarity from the Vulgar Display of Power sessions.

The Showdown are such kick-ass musicians that it's tempting to say that their lyrics don't even matter, but that's not entirely true. When Bunton belts out "Take me home/Southland's calling my name/Neither love nor man nor law could keep me away" on the album's Southern rock-tinged standout track, "Take Me Home," I get an almost uncontrollable urge to thrust a Bic lighter in the air without a shred of irony (and I mean a real goddamn lighter, not a cellphone, you poser).

Lyrically, the Showdown aren't trying to shove their faith down your throat; the word "God" only appears twice on the album and there's nary a "Jesus" to be found. Instead, the band takes a "soft sell" approach, focusing more on overarching themes of good vs. evil ("Man Named Hell"), greed and corruption ("The Crooked Path") and strength of convictions ("Bring it Down"). The band's lyrics might even be deemed "not Christian enough" by holier-than-thou types, but such a criticism would be irrelevant. The Showdown could be singing the praises of God, Satan, Allah or Cthulu and it wouldn't change the fact that they're fantastic musicians and gifted songwriters. Even if the Showdown don't inspire you to give your life to Christ, they almost certainly will restore your faith in heavy metal.

3?aK Episode 40: John Falls (Egypt Central)

2010-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

3?aK Episode 40: John Falls (Egypt Central)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

I think we’re already in the middle of a hair metal renaissance. I think that all they did was that they took the mullet from the ‘80s and the girls’ pants, and they just spun the mullet around backwards and made it long in the front and short in the back. Broke back out the same studded belts. Emo is the hair metal renaissance.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

I don’t know, man. Me and Michael Jackson went together and got our implants done at the same time, so it stays this way. But if you had to shave it every day, I don’t really know. You should probably ask your hairdresser.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Eatin' nachos and watchin' Oprah.

Go to Episode 41.

3?aK Episode 39: Danny Stevens (The Audition)

2010-09-16T08:00:00.001-07:00

3?aK Episode 39: Danny Stevens (The Audition)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

(laughs) Talk to “Metal Skool about that one. I don’t think so. I don’t see it happening. Halifax kinda tried and it didn’t work. I think that was just such an outrageous thing that, for whatever reason, people loved, but I don’t think it’ll happen again.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Cocoa butter.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Uh, lots of drugs, actually. I had a kid, started him on some drugs. It’s been great.

Go to Episode 40.

3?aK Episode 38: Eric Gorfain (The Section Quartet)

2010-09-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

3?aK Episode 38: Eric Gorfain (The Section Quartet)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Absolutely, dude. It’s right around the corner, but it’s gonna be played on violins instead of Stratocasters. That was half him and half me. Sorry.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Uh, um, uh, Hollywood makeup artists.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Oh man. Well, I kind of got buried in the Spandex fallout of ’89. So I kind of lost my shirt there, so to speak. But I’ve been tryin’ to claw my way back up and still makin’ music and still makin’ records and practicin’ my ballet steps.

Go to Episode 39.

3?aK Episode 37: Justin Foley (Killswitch Engage)

2010-09-09T08:00:00.001-07:00

3?aK Episode 37: Justin Foley (Killswitch Engage)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Yeah, absolutely, because that will never die. There will always be people who swear by hair metal.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Um, let’s see. There’s gotta be some kind of makeup that can simulate that – some kind of ash scattered across your face or something.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Dodging interviews, apparently.

Go to Episode 38.

3?aK Episode 36: Bubba the Love Sponge

2010-09-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

3?aK Episode 36: Bubba the Love Sponge

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Uh, hi, this is Kip Winger, and I think maybe that could possibly happen, but probably not with my no-talent ass. So I’m probably gonna have to ask someone else in the ‘80s rock regime to pull that one off, ‘cause I don’t think I’d be able to do it.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Hormone replacement, um, maybe towards the estrogen deal.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Just tryin’ to get a job and tryin’ to stay at the forefront of livin’ in the ‘80s and, uh, washed-up hair band type deal. Tryin’ to book various carnivals and various meet-and-greets at the mall. I’m actually hookin’ up with Tiffany and Debbie Gibson to do a reunion on the mall tour.

Go to Episode 37.

3?aK Episode 35: Micheal Larsen (Eyedea & Abilities)

2010-09-02T08:00:00.002-07:00

3?aK Episode 35: Micheal Larsen (Eyedea & Abilities)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

It never died.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

(laughs) I’d say lots of whiskey.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Workin’ at Guitar Center.

Go to Episode 36.

Torche - Songs for Singles (Album Review)

2010-09-01T12:43:00.003-07:00

Torche - Songs for Singles
Release date: September 21, 2010 (Hydra Head Records)

When the biggest complaint you can come up with about a particular album is that it's over way too quickly, that's usually a sign that it's a really good fucking album. Such is the case with Songs for Singles, the latest release from Florida "doom pop" trio Torche. It's the band's first release (outside of one song on a 2009 split single with Boris) without founding guitarist Juan Montoya, but the band hasn't lost any of their signature heft.

At eight songs and barely more than 20 minutes, this EP is a maddeningly brief followup to Torche's exceptional 2008 full-length Meanderthal, which itself was barely more than 35 minutes long. Despite its brevity, however, Songs still offers memorable moments aplenty. It's very much in the same vein as Meanderthal, featuring short, fuzzy bursts of metallic pop rock. Anyone hoping for a return to the sludgier sound of the band's earlier work should probably move on, or just stick to the recent eight-disc Floor box set.

Coming as it does on the heels of said box set, it's hard not to compare the two, but despite Floor's legendary status (at least among stoner rock/doom/drone fans), this new Torche EP compares favorably, primarily in regards to Steve Brooks's singing. Outside of Clutch's Neil Fallon, I can't think of another singer in hard rock whose voice has actually improved with age. Listening to the shouts and growls present on early Floor recordings, it's hard to believe that it's the same guy whose vocal melodies propel Torche past the majority of their peers.

Songs for Singles kicks of with lead single "U.F.O," a driving, catchy little nugget of pop goodness, which, at one minute, 53 seconds, serves as microcosm of the EP as a whole. Torche cranks out ridiculously catchy riffs complemented by Brooks's melodic vocals, but before you have a chance to wrap your head around it, they're already on to the next song. To wit, the first six songs on the EP last a combined 11 minutes, less time than it takes many doom and stoner rock bands - with whom Torche is frequently lumped in - to get through one song.

The last two songs are where things get interesting, as Brooks and company take their collective foot off the gas and follow their more psychedelic leanings. "Face the Wall" is a melancholy, Failure-esque lament with soaring guitar passages, while the six-plus minute closer, "Out Again," has a more upbeat, poppy vibe. Both songs sound as if they could've just as easily wound up as two-minute stoner pop songs, but for whatever reason, Torche decided to flesh them out.

Ultimately, this EP perfectly encapsulates the paradox of Torche. Plenty of bands are critiqued (and often rightfully so) for their grandiosity and self-importance. Tool and Isis are both great bands, but sometimes, in the middle of yet another 10-plus minute epic, it's hard not to roll your eyes at the sheer excess and pomposity of it all. But is it possible to err too far in the other direction? Would Torche be better served by expanding more of their two-minute pop ditties into four- or five-minute songs? It's hard to say with any certainty, so maybe it's better to just appreciate them for what they are: purveyors of frustratingly short yet remarkably memorable hard rock songs, and one of the best bands in underground music today.

3?aK Episode 34: Neil Primrose (Travis)

2010-08-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

3?aK Episode 34: Neil Primrose (Travis)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

I think it is right around the corner. Here in South America there’s some crazy haircuts and wrestling masks, so there’s no reason why, um, permed, flammable hair can’t make a comeback

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Um, hmm. Two bottles of Jack Daniel’s a day, 15 packets of Twinkies and as much sex, drugs and rock-n-roll as I can get.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Umm, drinking my way around the world.

Go to Episode 35.

3?aK Episode 33: Tori Amos

2010-08-26T08:00:00.001-07:00

3?aK Episode 33: Tori Amos

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Well, I think something with hair is around the corner. And the reason for this is because guys on my crew have… you know there’s less balding going on. And I’m noticing all kinds of, hmm - what would you say? – infusions that are getting taken or used to grow hair. So I would say something with hair is definitely on the horizon. But the music? No.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

What’s a 5 o’clock shadow? [I explain 5 o’clock shadow to Tori.] Oh, is it a perfect growth of beard? But don’t you wanna see the chicks the next morning that he sees at 11 that night and what their face looks like? Because I had boyfriends that had a bit of that and you know, there was always a little bit of, um, you know you’re gonna pay for it the next day. And you have to sit and think “Well, was it worth it?” And sometimes, if I’m honest with you, yeah it was, and sometimes it wasn’t. But then, of course, you gotta kind of sort your face out until you get the next guy with the 5 o’clock shadow.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Oh. Now am I Kip Winger or am I me? [I remind Tori of the 3?aK premise.] Okay. I’ve been shagging my way around the planet and with every shag that I’ve had, I have grown to respect women in ways that I never had before. I’ve begun to worship women and honor them. And I’ve chosen to stay in contact with every woman I’ve shagged and I send all of them presents on their birthday and Christmas.

Go to Episode 34.

3?aK Episode 32: Pepper Keenan (Down, Corrosion of Conformity)

2010-08-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Back in 2007, when I was the music writer for College Times, Kip Winger blew me off for an interview because he was on “vocal lockdown.” I didn’t want to see the questions I’d prepared go to waste, so for the next year, I asked everyone I interviewed if they’d be willing to get into character and answer the following “Three Questions as Kip.”

If you're new to 3?aK and want a more detailed history of how this project came to be, click here.

OK, now that you're up to speed, let's get on with the show. Playing the role of Kip Winger for this installment of 3?aK will be guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity and metal supergroup Down.

3?aK Episode 32: Pepper Keenan (Down, Corrosion of Conformity)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

I didn’t know it ever left.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Uh, that’s funny. The secret to… It’s not a real beard. It’s a stubble makeup.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Vocal lockdown.

Go to Episode 33.

3?aK Episode 31: Michael Todd (Coheed & Cambria)

2010-08-19T08:00:00.004-07:00

Back in 2007, when I was the music writer for College Times, Kip Winger blew me off for an interview because he was on “vocal lockdown.” I didn’t want to see the questions I’d prepared go to waste, so for the next year, I asked everyone I interviewed if they’d be willing to get into character and answer the following “Three Questions as Kip.”

If you're new to 3?aK and want a more detailed history of how this project came to be, click here.

OK, now that you're up to speed, let's get on with the show. Playing the role of Kip Winger for this installment of 3?aK will be bassist Michael Todd of prog rockers Coheed & Cambria.

3?aK Episode 31: Michael Todd (Coheed & Cambria)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

I think it’s inevitable. I think people are gonna understand the genius of what I’ve done 20, 37 years ago. I’ve still got the tights in the closet, ready to throw ‘em back on.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Um, yes, it’s actually, I’ve got all the hair lasered off my face and I just roll around in dirt all day long, but it photographs very well.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Um, watching myself in old videos and crying.

Go to Episode 32.

3?aK Episode 30: Buzz Osborne (Melvins)

2010-08-16T08:00:00.002-07:00

3?aK Episode 30: Buzz Osborne (Melvins)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

It better be, because I’ve got a huge mortgage. And I just got divorced. I don’t know how the hell I’m gonna make these child support payments without a resurgence. Hair metal’s comin’ back, man. I guarantee it.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Just never shave. Actually, mine’s fake. I had them installed. I had all of them removed and then little tiny fake ones installed so it looks like I never shave. Plus, it seems relatively obvious that I am gay, and so I’m trying to make it where the 5 o’clock shadow makes it look like I’m at least a little masculine.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

I’ve been doing huge stacks of blow for 15 years and then wondering why my career fell apart.

Go to Episode 31.

3?aK Episode 29: James Mercer (The Shins)

2010-08-12T08:00:00.001-07:00

3?aK Episode 29: James Mercer (The Shins)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

I think he’d probably say something like “Hair metal never went away, man. That shit’s here to stay. And, uh, you need to fuckin’ get some new records. You need to stop shoppin’ in the fag section.”

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Oh yeah. You go on eBay and you find that “Miami Vice” brand of shaver that lets you adjust the blades.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Oh god. Probably been drinking too much and reminiscing too much. Just sort of bellyachin’ and livin’ in the past. (laughs) This guy’s probably gonna kick my ass or something.

Go to Episode 30.

3?aK Episode 28: Chris Wood (Medeski Martin & Wood)

2010-08-09T08:00:00.003-07:00

Back in 2007, when I was the music writer for College Times, Kip Winger blew me off for an interview because he was on “vocal lockdown.” I didn’t want to see the questions I’d prepared go to waste, so for the next year, I asked everyone I interviewed if they’d be willing to get into character and answer the following “Three Questions as Kip.”

If you're new to 3?aK and want a more detailed history of how this project came to be, click here.

OK, now that you're up to speed, let's get on with the show. Playing the role of Kip Winger for this installment of 3?aK will be bassist Chris Wood of jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood.

3?aK Episode 28: Chris Wood (Medeski Martin & Wood)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Definitely. Definitely think so. Everything becomes retro soon enough.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Uh, I think just electric razors are the best way. Gotta have an electric shaver.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Just tryin’ to stay high, man.

Go to Episode 29.

3?aK Episode 27: "Weird Al" Yankovic

2010-08-05T08:00:00.002-07:00

3?aK Episode 27: "Weird Al" Yankovic

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Well, you know, I’ve been just waiting, shivering and naked in my closet, waiting for that renaissance and when it comes, hopefully my beeper will go off.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Uh, I shave every 32 hours to the minute. It’s very specific and precise.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

I’ve been working at Orange Julius. Uhh, it’s only a part-time job. Really I’m waiting for that beeper to go off.

Go to Episode 28.

3?aK Episode 26: Nick Oliveri (Mondo Generator, Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss)

2010-08-02T08:00:00.002-07:00

Back in 2007, when I was the music writer for College Times, Kip Winger blew me off for an interview because he was on “vocal lockdown.” I didn’t want to see the questions I’d prepared go to waste, so for the next year, I asked everyone I interviewed if they’d be willing to get into character and answer the following “Three Questions as Kip.”

If you're new to 3?aK and want a more detailed history of how this project came to be, click here.

OK, now that you're up to speed, let's get on with the show. Playing the role of Kip Winger for this installment of 3?aK will be bassist/vocalist Nick Oliveri of Mondo Generator and formerly of QOTSA and Kyuss.

3?aK Episode 26: Nick Oliveri (Mondo Generator, Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Umm, wow. What would Kip say? No. No it’s not. (laughs) I think that, uh, yeah, I don’t think so. I think it’s been trying though. I think it’s been trying really hard.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

(laughs) Oh shit. Holy hell. Um, I don’t know what that means. She’s only 17, or what does that mean? Dude, she’s only 17, but he’s already, like... dude, how old is that guy?

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Underage women and drinking a lot. I think he’d say that, I mean, maybe he wouldn’t, I don’t know. That seems like a hair band guy thing to say, doesn’t it? Underage women and drinking ‘til I puke.

Go to Episode 27.

3?aK Episode 25: Chris Dudley (Underoath)

2010-07-29T08:00:00.004-07:00

3?aK Episode 25: Chris Dudley (Underoath)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Um, I think that it is. I think that we were the innovators in everything hair metal and if anyone were to ever think that it’s not making a comeback, they just need to listen to our new record that just came out. Um, I don’t know who’s heard it and who hasn’t, but it just came out, and yeah, it’s the greatest record, I think, ever. But, I mean, there’s people who are all hung up on the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and all these crappy bands, but I mean, we’re freaking Winger, so we can do whatever we want.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

Constant shaving. Constant. And dye. Hair Club for Men-type dye. And charcoal. Charcoal works as well, if you’re in a pinch.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Have you not been in current events? We’ve been freaking rocking everywhere. Well, I’ve been rocking solo. I’ve been playing acoustic shows, but the other guys are gonna come around and it’s gonna be a humungous tour. You just wait and see.

Go to Episode 26.

3?aK Episode 24: Johnny Christ (Avenged Sevenfold)

2010-07-26T08:00:00.010-07:00

3?aK Episode 24: Johnny Christ (Avenged Sevenfold)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

I think there’s definitely people out there in LA that still love that music and still have a lot of fun with it. I don’t know if it can make a complete comeback. It’s not something I need to see, but definitely a possibility.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

(laughs) Maintaining it. That’s actually a really tough one because you have to get out the trimmer and then the shoe polish. It’s a little tough. I can’t really unleash that secret.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

I don’t know. (laughs) I’ve just been doing my thing.

Go to Episode 25.

3?aK Episode 23: Joe Principe (Rise Against)

2010-07-22T08:00:00.002-07:00

3?aK Episode 23: Joe Principe (Rise Against)

1. We've already seen disco and '80s synth pop make comebacks. Do you think a hair metal renaissance is right around the corner?

Um, I’m not sure. I thought it was making a comeback a couple years ago but it never really got off the ground. There were bands popping up in Chicago that were kinda doing that, but um, I guess everything kinda comes back around eventually, so we’ll see. It’s probably inevitable.

2. Can you let our readers in on your secret to maintaining the perfect 5 o'clock shadow?

I think the key to that is to use an electric shaver with no guard.

3. What have you been up to for the last 15 years?

Just playin’ music.

Go to Episode 24.