Despite the very positive reception that had greeted their bold first album, Atheist almost didn't last long enough to finish their second. Taking a break from recording to embark on a short tour, the band suffered a terrible blow when founding bassist Roger Patterson was killed in a horrifying Louisiana highway van crash. Shattered, but determined to finish their friend's last project at all costs, the remaining members drafted session bassist Tony Choy in order to get the job done, emerging with a landmark recording in the process. Indeed, whereas 1989's Piece of Time had been a shock, 1991's Unquestionable Presence was a revelation. With their sparing but highly effective use of melody (mostly nuances and accents during solos and choruses), challenging songs like "Unquestionable Presence," "Your Life's Retribution," and "Enthralled in Essence" advanced Atheist's uncompromisingly dense "death-jazz" to previously unscaled heights. Throughout the album, dissonant, lightning-speed guitar riffs, slap bass, and screwy time signatures collide to create a recipe at once more intricate and more approachable than its predecessor -- all the while keeping song lengths to manageable three to four minutes for maximum, concentrated impact. Matching the band's evident musical growth, vocalist Kelly Shaefer also stepped it up on the lyrical front, issuing inscrutably enigmatic, eyebrow-raising lines on par with the album's nearly impenetrable sonics. A daunting album to decipher, Unquestionable Presence is just as rewarding once decoded, and is still considered by experts to be one of the Floridian death metal scene's ultimate statements in progressive metal.

As for KSE-- do we need any more proof as to how much of a commercial enterprise metalcore has become?

American metalcore is spiraling out of control. It's just insane. I think the real problem is how the young metalcore kids are starting bands without proper knowledge of the background of the sound. They're recycling Morbid Angel and At the Gates riffs without knowing who the hell those bands are. Thank goodness for bands like Between the Buried and Me, The Red Chord, and Darkest Hour, who do know where they're coming from, and are creative enough to take the sound to new places.

I'm currently listening to an insanely good black metal cd by Wolves in the Throne Room, a band from Olympia. A massive, sprawling album, really lo-fi (can you say "kvlt"?), with some gorgeously dark melodies surfacing every now and then. This is by far the best USBM album I've heard in the last couple years, and like I've said before, I'm very picky about black metal.

Hear hear. They're getting into metal younger and younger for all the wrong reasons. I hope it becomes unpopular soon, actually, because of this insane influx. Maybe there will be less posturing, then, and more honesty.

You know, I've read all sorts of good things about WITTR, but the samples I've heard really dont' impress me. What should I be listening to?

So Vivian, were you at the infamous War at the Warfield show, then?

In 22 years of being a fan, I've never seen Slayer live. But their Still Reigning DVD is incredible.

They’re so devoted to you, they refuse to believe any-thing that is told to them about Slayer. Do you guys like yogurt at all?
Jeff: I don’t.
Tom: I do. (laughs)

You like yogurt!
Tom: With fruit! (laughs)

There is this guy, Tom, in Tacoma, his name is The Mosher. Now, this guy in Tacoma, his name is The Mosher. He was told, I think he was told that Slayer eat yogurt! And he was like, "Slayer eats yogurt?! No way!!! No, that’s not what I believe! Slayer, Slayer eat... pussy, man!"
Tom: Yeah, I do that too! (laughs)

What, what do you think about... I mean, is it, da da... they just couldn’t change this guy’s opinion like they have the stuff, you know, that’s stuck in your mind, like, you don’t eat yogurt.
Jeff: I do not eat yogurt, no.

***

Because you guys had some neat fashion. Like, you mention about discovering "hot knifing" in Toronto­
Jeff: What is "hot knifing"?
Tom: You roll up a ball of hash and you put it between two hot knives. It smells good.
Jeff: Oh. Ah!
Tom: Edit that out, will you?! (laughs)

***

Hessian Obsession is the name of the zine, and he was... they went down to try and track your new drummer because he was from punk bands and stuff, he hangs out with. Your new drummer, Paul, right, or, well, he’s, he likes punk, doesn’t he? Well, you guys do all the punk too­
Tom: Well, actually he’s not our new drummer. He’s just rejoined our band again.

Coming back and forth. And on this... what they do in this zine actually is, their listeners and readers of the zine Hessian Obsession, they use Slayer lyrics in everyday life.
Tom: Oh yeah? Like what? Give an example!

Well you know, like, I was down there at the mall, uh, "severing flesh and gouging eyes" with fish!
Tom: Okay!

You know, and, like, they’d want people to use those lyrics like, "How long can you last in this frozen water burial?"
Tom and Jeff: (laugh)

And then they talk about, "Hey kid, better get out of the pool!"
Tom and Jeff: (laugh)

I mean, these people are totally devoted to you guys, Tom and Jeff. This Hessian Obsession zine, they even had a Slayer crossword puzzle.
Tom: Wow. (laughs)

Even better news: Slayer's currently in the studio!

I just got the new Sepultura...very curious about that one. I kind of liked Roorback.

Is Rick Rubin at the knobs again? I have high hopes.

OZZY OSBOURNE (select shows only)
SYSTEM OF A DOWN
DISTURBED
HATEBREED
LACUNA COIL
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY

Second Stage:

ATREYU
BLEEDING THROUGH
UNEARTH
NORMA JEAN
STRAPPING YOUNG LAD
THE RED CHORD
WALLS OF JERICHO
A LIFE ONCE LOST
ALL THAT REMAINS

Fuck, that lineup blows. I ain't paying $60 just to see SOAD and Lacuna Coil.

Rubin's executive producing, which probably means he'll be sitting in a corner doing bong hits and meditating. Josh Abraham is quoteunquote "turning the knobs". Not a promising prospect, seeing that Abraham has produced Staind, Korn, Velvet Revolver, and the extremely suck-ass new album by Atreyu.

On a much funnier note, this is rumoured to be the Ozzfest 2006 lineup:
The confirmed lineup will be announced officially tonight, and if it's anything like this...yikes.

I'm currently listening to an insanely good black metal cd by Wolves in the Throne Room, a band from Olympia. A massive, sprawling album, really lo-fi (can you say "kvlt"?), with some gorgeously dark melodies surfacing every now and then. This is by far the best USBM album I've heard in the last couple years, and like I've said before, I'm very picky about black metal.

With high praise from the metal press, local and national newspapers, and highbrow publications alike, Chicago's Yakuza has succeeded in garnering attention of all kinds, all the while not compromising the band's free-flowing and spontaneous musical integrity. Yakuza stays deeply rooted in a genre all its own: a metal base with progressive flair, while incorporating elements of jazz, world beat, and post-rock ambience. Picture (if you can) a mixture of King Crimson, all periods of John Coltrane's career, Tortoise, and Napalm Death. The end result is captivating, a sound that Rolling Stone, Revolver, Alternative Press, the Chicago Sun Times, the Chicago Tribune, All That Jazz and countless others all agree is refreshingly original, technically proficient, all the while still staying very metal.

Yakuza has always fundamentally been about bending the rules of preconceived musical limitations without ever having to utter a word about it, the Yakuza sound speaks for itself. Samsara, the new record and ensuing journey, is full of peaks and valleys, overtly harsh and aggressive at points, yet mind-trippingly mellow at others. The contrasting soundscapes collide together in an effective symbiosis, creating one of the most all-inclusive albums since Pink Floyd's The Wall. Skillfully weaving saxophone melodies and eerie musical landscapes alongside scathing metal riffs and screams alongside an intensely musical rhythm section, Yakuza cannot be considered an acquired taste - it is taste.

Samsara, the band's Prosthetic Records debut, sees these seasoned sound pioneers successfully follow up the positive media blitz from the band's last record, 2002's Way Of The Dead. After forming in 1999, and quickly releasing two albums in the next few years, Yakuza swiftly went on to gain crossover success live, playing alongside Opeth, ISIS, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Lacuna Coil, and Mastodon as well as Sonic Youth, Melt Banana, and jazz master Ken Vandermark.

Recording with Matt Bayles (Isis, Botch, Pearl Jam) at Volume Studios in Chicago, Yakuza enlisted a wide variety of musical guests on Samsara, including pianist Jim Baker, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, Sanford Parker, and Mastodon's Troy Sanders, further building on the sound the band has already established. Now with the record complete, Yakuza sets forth to continue combining unlikely genres into what can only be called a highly-original foray into previously uncharted musical waters.

This is really good. What other USBM do you like Sask (if any)? Have you heard Weakling or Leviathan?

I'm always slow to catch onto USBM, that's why the Wolves in the Throne Room really threw me. Haven't heard Weakling, and I keep missing out on Leviathan, who have a new cd coming soon...

I saw the Yakuza on indietorrents earlier...I should give it a shot. Thanks for the reminder.

So Vivian, were you at the infamous War at the Warfield show, then?

In 22 years of being a fan, I've never seen Slayer live. But their Still Reigning DVD is incredible.

i back pretty much everything etiam has said for the last couple of pages.

Speaking of black metal, I just got a nasty little disc by a Norwegian band called Mord. The usual pics of burned churches, desecrated graves, upside-down crucifixes, the usual anti-Christian rhetoric, but really tightly paced, with some solid guitar work. Image is always a big thing with these bands, and I have to say the band photos are some of the creepiest BM pics I've seen in quite some time.

In the April issue of Germany's Rock Hard magazine (#227 - Christina Scabbia cover shot), editor-in-chief and admitted die-hard MANOWAR fan Götz Kühnemund interviews bassist/founder Joey DeMaio, taking him to task for the band's controversial "performance" at last year's Earthshaker Festival. Kühnemund confronts DeMaio on a number of issues, including Manowar's mid-set soundcheck and using a playback orchestra for part of the show. Following are a series of excerpts from the interview, translated from German:

Götz: After the Earthshaker Festival we received a lot of mail from fans saying they don't believe a word you guys say anymore. The thing with the orchestra...

Joey. "What about the orchestra? I don't understand."

Götz: The fans feel betrayed.

Joey: "Really? That's the biggest production we've ever done!"

Götz: With a playback orchestra. Everybody knows it.

Joey: "Really? I brought in 200 musicians from the Czech Republic for a playback show? Are people really dumb enough to believe that?"

Götz: That's what people believe.

Joey: 'Then I'm sorry, I find that silly. Ask my mother: I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I'm not so stupid as to bring in 200 orchestra musicians from another country to sit on their asses and pretend to play. That's ridiculous."

Götz: There are technicians that worked at the Earthshaker Festival that say it was all fake.

Joey: "I don't care what people say. The important thing is that the orchestra played. That's the truth. It makes no difference if people believe something else."

Götz: It's silly when you do a ten minute drum soudcheck in the middle of your set, like at the Earthshaker.

Joey: "I know, but when our fans pay good money..."

Götz: ...to hear songs, not a soundcheck!

Joey: "...and I can't hear what I'm playing on stage and give the fans the best possible performance, I owe it to them to fix the problem. I'm a professional."

Götz: But the sound wasn't any better afterwards! You wasted valuable time.

Joey: "No, I didn't. I did my best to solve the problem. Okay?"

Götz: I believe you wanted to show that you had absolute control over everything.

Joey: "No, I wanted to show the fans that they're more important to me than my own life. And if I have to do a soundcheck to prove it, that's what I'll do. I don't play with instruments that are out of tune, I don't play with bad equipment and I don't play with bad sound. I did soundcheck on stage for two hours just so we could play one song perfectly. If people don't like it that's not my fucking problem."

"I believe in the fans, I believe in metal more than anybody you've ever met. And you've known me a long time. I've never pissed on you even though you constantly do it to me. And I don't stab the fan in the back. And another thing, Götz: I'm prepared to die for metal. Are you?"

Götz: Well...

Joey: "Are you prepared to die for metal? Have you ever thought about that? Are you prepared to die for metal?"

Götz: No. I prefer living.

Joey: "But I'm ready! I'm ready to die!"

Götz: Great.

Joey: "Do you want me to prove it?"

Götz: And how would you do that?

Joey: "Do you want to come on stage in Dortmund and shoot me?"

Götz: I wouldn't go that far.

Joey: "Why not?"

Götz: Because I'd prefer it of you'd just play good music.

Joey. "I make good music. I write the best music that I can write and I play the best music I can play. Okay?"

Götz: Okay.

Joey: "I'm preprared to die, remember that. And when you're ready let me know. Write that! Write that I'm ready to die for metal and you're not!"

Joey. "I make good music. I write the best music that I can write and I play the best music I can play. Okay?"

Götz: Okay.

Joey: "I'm preprared to die, remember that. And when you're ready let me know. Write that! Write that I'm ready to die for metal and you're not!"

In the meantime here's the new Yakuza for those who haven't heard it. RIYL: Neurosis, Isis, Mastodon, Opeth.

Well described. I'd not purchase it, but I heard it at Metal Haven, and cranked up loud, it is quite entertaining. Solid.

Back to Leviathan for a second. I grabbed the new Leviathan/Sapthuran split off Indietorrents the other day and while the Sapthuran half is horrible, the Leviathan half is absolutlely brilliant. This is some of the best black metal I've ever heard. I don't have time to YSI the whole thing now but here's a track called "Odious Convulsions".

This is probably the best Leviathan track I've heard yet. That loud-ass part that comes in around the 4:40 mark is just

I had to pop in and remind everybody that tickets for Dragonforce's first ever Chicago date are on sale at Ticketmaster and Metro.

DEF LEPPARD (UK)
WHITESNAKE (UK)
DEEP PURPLE (UK)
ALICE COOPER (US)
JOURNEY (US)
VENOM (UK)
TED NUGENT(US)
QUEENSRYCHE(US)
CELTIC FROST (CH)
W.A.S.P. (US)
SYMPHONY X(US)
EDGUY(D)
GAMMA RAY (D)
ASIA(US)
KROKUS (CH)
JEFF HEALEY BAND (CAN)
PORCUPINE TREE(UK)
DRAGONFORCE(UK)
CACTUS (US)
GEORGE THOROGOOD & The Destroyers (US)
THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND(UK)
ANVIL(CAN)
CATHEDRAL (UK)
MOLLY HATCHET (US)
OBITUARY(US)
DORO (D)
THE SWEET (UK)
EASY ACTION (S)
NEVERMORE (US)
ARCH ENEMY(S)
METAL CHURCH (US)
EVERGREY (S)
VICTORY(D)
ONSLAUGHT(UK)
FROM BEHIND (S/UK/US)
BONFIRE(D)
NEIL TURBIN'S DEATHRIDERS(US)
BLITZKRIEG(UK)
VANDEN PLAS(D)
LORD BELIAL (S)
TIGERTAILZ(UK)
NASTY IDOLS(S)
FIREWIND (GR/S)
JADED HEART (D)
RAISE HELL (S)
HOUSE OF SHAKIRA(S)
THE STORYTELLER (S)

Shit, the closest they're getting to me is the fucking Whiskey-au-Go-Go, and it's sold out.

Maybe I'll have to go to the Sweden Rock Festival, even if Hawkwind ain't appearing this year: