20 years ago today:



That's a 24 hours I'll never forget. Iron Maiden's Somewhere in Time had arrived in my town that day, which us metal fans had been waiting two years for (an eternity to a 15 year-old), and I was thrilled, but then the next morning, the news about Burton surfaced. Horrible.

Cliff Burton was an amazing bassist and could bang heads with the best of 'em. Much of Metallica's decline can be traced directly to his untimely and tragic death.

They were never the same after he passed. And, he played bass with his fingers, no picks ever, and was one of the very few metal bassists that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the great Steve Harris.

Yeah, nothing against Newsted, he was a tremendous replacement, but as time went on, and as Some Kind of Monster proved, despite the fact that Hetfield and Ulrich wrote the huge majority of music, Burton was definitely the straw that stirred the proverbial drink.

"Orion" is Burton's finest hour.

Yeah. Kill Em All is really James and Lars' baby, I think.....and Dave Mustaine's......and Master was really when Cliff and the rest all gelled at once. I don't hate on Metallica the way many metal fans have for the past.....18+ years. They still come up with some cool stuff, but it's obvious the impact of losing Cliff changed James, Lars, Kirk, and Dave forever, musically, but I think it has really taken all of them a long time to really get over it personally, as well.

Perhaps the collaboration with Rick Rubin and having a finger picker who is phenomenal at bass will give them a new direction. I still would like James, Lars, and Dave to collaborate on something in a Garage Days kind of way, or something like MD 45, but it will probably never happen.

Random replies, I won't even bother to quote:

My favorite years of music are 1991, 1994, and 1972.

All-time favorite is '72. Some of my all-time favorite albums came out in that year. Neil Young's Harvest, Steely Dan's Can't Buy A Thrill, to name two.

I LOVE KYUSS! I found this blog that posted a few Kyuss things, like random sessions, unreleased, rarities, and other shite. Want me to link, Burzum?

Kill 'Em All is my favorite 'Tallica record.. then Master of Puppets, then Ride the Lightning.

Any new metal reccomendations?

Oh ya, my two cents on Cliff Burton:

Great bass player. I agree, he was the straw the "stirred the drink."

Also, I feel bad for Cliff. It wasn't like he died in the traditional choked-on-vomit thing, where it's not extremely painful, he got freakin' run over by a bus!

Got the new album by recent Kemado signees Danava today. They're on the Invaders comp, it's sort of a blend of Hawkwind, Monster Magnet, and Comets on Fire, some cool epic space-rock. I played the album twice today, and though the vocals are a bit on the glammy side, I found it enjoyable. Here's a track:

"Quiet Babies Astray in a Manger"
http://www.kemado.com/site/downloadaudio.p...12_version).mp3

If you like the song, the album's on oink.

Man, MD45 was a fun little thing. Much preferred it to the Megadeth that followed, actually. 'The walls to the motel are THIN! And next door someone's getting beaten!'. Not gonna make my 100 of the era, but an enjoyable diversion nonetheless.

And yeah, as much as I have liked post-Cliff Metallica, he was a beautiful bass player. I am always amazed when I catch video of his playing, no matter how many times I see it.


I certainly bloody do.

Oh, and Sask, I've been slowly (very slowly) working my way through your 2006 list. I'll do it more rapidly when I get the mythical external. Still, downloaded the Agalloch and, after a couple of listens, it's pretty cool. Hoping it opens up further the more I listen.

Also, I finally stuck the Evil disc of Boris's Dronevil -Final- on the Death Deck. Man, I wanna play both discs at once, because that fucker is absolutely GARGANTUAN.

It won't help my SOMBIE underground metal cred at all, but I must confess that this subpar afterthought of a Pantera release has been in heavy rotation chez Darkbloom for the past week. Very uneven, but "my trust is in whiskey, weed and Slayer."



Edit: Terrible cover. You can see the bit mapping in the flames.

Sadly, that album was 100% better than Great Southern Trendkill. I still can't listen to that screeching noise. That's what killed Pantera - they felt like they needed to be more extreme with every album, until they got to the point where they killed the music by trying to make it more extreme. I noticed the cracks beginning to appear on Far Beyond Driven, and then GST confirmed it.

Wowsers.

Great Southern Trendkill is easily my favourite Pantera album ever. Easily. So dynamic and raw, with their best mix ever, Phil's best vocals ever... and it was dark as fuck. I'll cop to not getting the 'killed the music by trying to make it more extreme' thing. That album had more quiet on it than anything else of theirs that decade. '10s', 'Suicide Note Part 1', their best song 'Floods'. I don't get it.

Reinventing The Steel was a pain to listen to for me. It's like they missed the sales so decided to dumb themselves down for the beer-drinking frat audience. I listened to it, like, once after getting it on import. That's not to hate on you, Darkbloom - if you're digging it then excellent for you. I couldn't get behind it, sadly.

No offense taken at all. You'll notice that I qualified my post almost in "guilty pleasure" language ("subpar," "uneven"). I've always been a little sheepish about listening to Pantera (they are very Beavis and Butthead), and it's definitely a regressive record for them. But frankly, I think all of their records are pretty sophomoric and silly lyrically, and that even their darker moments on GSTK essentially cater to a meathead Coors Light set already. I just like some of the riffs on this one (the breakdown in "Goddamn Electric," "Revolution is My Name," "We'll grind that axe for a long time.....(and A- FUCKIN'-GAIN!!!")

I like "thinking man's" metal fine, but I also apparently dig some ignorant redneck metal as well. Ah well.

I'm going to have to revisit the latter-day Pantera stuff next time I have the chance.

Meshuggah's Destroy Erase Improve is the Hall of Fame entry in next month's Decibel. What a great choice. Look forward to reading the piece.

Last night a local station was playing Metallica's performance of the entire Master of Puppets from Dublin this past June, and I was struck by how great the band sounded, especially on "Orion" (Trujillo really proves his worth on the track). I found it on slsk, 128 rip, but sounds terrific nonetheless.

Going to see Misery Index and Neuraxis tonight. At long last, a good metal show in my city! All we get here are screamo bands.

If I can remember, I'll upload Nachtmystium while I'm out, and post it late tonight.

Through all the years of seeing Metallica, that is the one thing that has been consistant for me. Regardless of how bad an album or Lars was (both as a person and a drummer) they always put on a great show.

Meshuggah is the pwnage.

What else is in the Decibel hall of fame, out of interest?

Lots of titles, but from memory, Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse, Carcass's Necroticism, Anthrax's Among the Living, Sleep's Jerusalem, Botch's We are the Romans, Eyehategod's Take as Needed for Pain, and last month's was Monster Magnet's Dopes to Infinity.

I'll admit to owning everything in Pantera's catalog, but the only song after Far Beyond Driven that I don't feel silly listening to is "Thirteen Steps to Nowhere." It's partially because Phil seemed like such a misogynistic asshole by that time.

Hoo boy, Misery Index is awesome live. So is Neuraxis, in a proggy death way, but damn, MI bring it. Deafening, even with earplugs. And the drummer is amazing.

Oh, Phil is a pretty scummy human being all right. Misogynist, racist (he has made some horrid comments during the 'war on terror') - I'm not sure from what perspective he's coming on the 'lesbian love is accepted and right' line. In short, he's pretty scummy. Possibly a bit worse than Kerry King and not as bad as Varg Vikernes.

But let's not fool ourselves - he's been a dickhead for ages. Whether it's his arrogance 'you practice in your mirror / to be just like me, but you just can't see / you ain't got the balls, son!', or his Nietzschean/Darwinian thing ('A New Level', 'Strength Beyond Strength'), he's aways been very love/hate. And I don't think anything post-FBD is worse than, say, 'Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills' in terms of 'feeling silly'.

All that said, I think that's part of what made Pantera so good. Aside from the magnificent musicians, they had a frontman who had a shtick that was as compelling as it was disagreeable. I love most of his lyrics, and the way he delivers them. They're not always things I can get behind (but the same can be said of Chris Rock or Bill Hicks), but I love the fact that he has such a keen lyrical ear, and is so individual with it.

People's tastes are obviously their own, but on a scale of 'feeling silly', I'd listen to Pantera over any number of directionless angst (yes, I realise angst is directionless by definition )/self loathing nu-metal bands, or the macho Pantera wannabes who lack their strength of conviction.

And then we have all the straight edge movement, the Black Metal He-Man cartoons, nonsensical Death Metal (Patton said it best when he recommended Obituary's excellent debut, on account of you can't make out what he's singing) -- and that's without even mentioning the toe-curling Power Metal movement. Metal's all about that fine line between feeling silly and completely giving oneself over to it.

The less said about Metal classic 'Angel Of Death' the better - 'Auschwitz, the meaning of pain / The way that I want you to die'... Hmm. I don't want this to feel like a rant; it's just an interesting topic to me.

I guess just chalk it up to two completely different tastes. I don't really like extreme metal. I was into bands like Mesuggah for about 12 seconds and then got tired of the screaming over noisy guitars. I enjoy the technical proficiency of a band like that, but when they layer all of the crap on top of it, I can't stand to listen to it. That's one of the reasons I can stand to listen to Opeth but not 90% of other death metal bands. They have a measured, restrained approach that I can appreciate.

And GST was awful IMO. Pantera peaked at Vulgar Display of Power and slowly slid into the gutter after that. The quiet parts on GST were painfully boring and the loud parts were shrill and unpleasant, and lacking in something.....oh yeah, cool riffs. Give me Cowboys From Hell any day. I rather liked Phil's bark/Rob Halford impersonation on that album.

But as they say - to each his own.

Plz to explain "pwnage" (sic). You have used other variants elsewhere upthread ("So and so pwned"). Typo for "own" (see rule, dominate, possess)?

As much as I love Slayer (and especially "Angel of Death"), I'm always glad to see other metal fans who recognize that Kerry King is a pretty unsavory guy. I actually think that "Angel of Death" is more generally misanthropic than specifically anti-Semitic / pro-Nazi, even though the lyrics are from Mengele's point of view. On the other hand, I'm sure that subtlety is lost on many listeners (not that it's necessarily better to hate everyone equally in any case ), and I'm even more sure that Kerry King wouldn't give a damn either way.

Didn't realize Phil was a such a scumbag, but then I'm not much of a Pantera fan. Doesn't exactly make you feel bad for him repeatedly having to go under the knife.

IIRC, Jeff Hanneman wrote 'Angel of Death'.

Yeah, that's right--he's the one who had the fascination with Nazi relics & stuff until he decided it was too expensive. My (admittedly fairly obvious) point was more that Kerry King is not especially concerned with what sort of message the band sends, anti-Semitic or otherwise.

Yeah, very few metal dudes are model citizens or anything.

But with crunchy metal guitar riffage and thrash, for me, it's kind of a Marshall McLuhan thing: "The medium IS the message"

Yeah, the song isn't meant to be anti-Semitic at all. It just does what Slayer does best, vividly describing a horrifying scenario.

King's misanthropy is a bit unsettling, but he sure puts his ideas across bluntly enough to grab you attention, that's for sure. I think he does a very good job of balancing that sentiment with the anti-religion/anti-war themes on Christ Illusion.

Christ Illusion is a pretty good album.

I think Slayer is milking their controversy a bit too much, though.

And Vivian, isn't that Songs About Fucking by Big Black that Paris Hilton is holding in your avatar. I just noticed that..

Guns n Roses - Chinese Democracy



All the demos, extended demos, and fully mastered tracks circulating around the Internet in one RAR..

Here's a great story about Slayer's Still Reigning DVD that producer Kevin Shirley posted on his blog:

Holy crap. Now that's attention to detail. And then the story gets even better. . .

Some Black Sabbath stuff you might not've heard:

First Album:



Parisian Bitch (Ian Gillan Sabbath Paris Bootleg)

Ha, I'm doing that right now. Pretty awesome...I think it works better than the Rosetta album did. When the proverbial dam burst midway through "Evil Wave Form", with the drone disc adding a cool bottom end, my poor napping pup was terrified and scurried under the bed.

I would never play the drone disc on its own, it's too ambient for my liking. As a companion CD, though, brilliant stuff.

Speaking of Boris, for those of you who are interested, Vein just went on sale a few minutes ago at the Important Records site.

For those not in the know:

Man, Boris are a vinyl collectors' dream, aren't they?

Their full discography is one of the most confusing I have ever come across.

There's a preview MP3 for the new Converge album up at their Epitaph site. It sounds pretty fucking amazing. Comes out October 24th. Can't wait.

*Nightmare.

And let's see if I can hold out on the Converge til the 24th...

*starts sweating*

The new Decibel has a rave review of the Converge.

Cannot wait.

Ah, sweet disc space.

I've been hitting up my filesharing program for hardcore sounds in the last couple of days. maybe it's some subconscious Converge Preparedness Strategy:

Between The Buried And Me - The Silent Circus (2003)
Cursed - One (2003)
Give Up The Ghost - We're Down 'til We're Underground (2003)
Fear Before the March of Flames - Art Damage (2004)
Coliseum & Doomriders - Not of This World (2005)
Doomriders - Black Thunder (2005)
The Hope Conspiracy - Death Knows Your Name (2006)

It's been a fun (and noisy!) 24 hours, all right. And fuck me - that Hope Conspiracy album is amazing. Like, proper fucking good. Because the name didn't mean much to me til recently, I might have mised out on discourse about them. Have people heard this? I'm raring to zip something now I have a million gigs free.

Converge now has something to beat this year.

I'm game for the Hope Conspiracy if you can up it.

Great to see someone else knows about Cursed! One of Canada's best metal bands. I wonder if they have a new one in the works...

First Maiden show is tonight. I'm not seeing them (), but it's always fun finding out what the setlist is going to be. Expect a lot of new tunes...I hope they crank out a couple rarities, too. Though a Paschendale/Longest Day combo would be cool to see.

Yesterday I got Live at Donington and A Real Dead One in a 2 for $25 deal. Both regular priced at 36.99. Sweet!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1K238VKK

Two weeks until the Chicago gig. Really curious about the set list ... most of A Matter of Life and Death would really lend itself well to a live setting. I have a feeling the U.S. dates might have more older material, though, which of course wouldn't be a bad thing, but I don't see Maiden as strictly a nostalgia/greatest hits act at all, and I know THEY certainly don't see themselves that way, but I'm sure a ton of tickets got sold to people expecting "Run To The Hills" and "The Trooper." Anyway, I'm hoping for "The Longest Day," "These Colours Don't Run" and "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns" (in addition to "Reincarnation...," which will obviously be played, as its the single!) myself.

If there's one thing we all know about Harris, it's that he is steadfast in his emphasis on the new material, every time out. I'd expect six new songs. Add the staples (Number, Hills), numerous selections from their bevy of anthems (Trooper, Wrathchild, Hallowed, etc), and you've got room for two or three surprises. If I was going to see this tour, I'd be hoping for stuff like Aces High, Wasted Years, Phantom of the Opera, Children of the Damned. They should really retire Wrathchild for a tour, it's been done to death.

I'm not seeing them, but when I do (and I will, eventually) I hope they play some more old stuff.. Like Murders in the Rue..

Definately, every time I see them I'm amazed at how well they squeeze in new songs.

Maiden's setlist is, uh...wow.

I found out two hours ago, but have been holding out, thinking it was a hoax. Apparently it's not.

Normally I'd say to those going to the show to click at your own risk, but in this case, maybe it's a good thing to find out now.

Edit: This post says that when Bruce said what they were going to do, people headed for the exits. Wow.

^^^^^^^^

Morning bump for my Maiden buds.

Uh...I don't know what to think about that. I love the new album, but the whole thing? Have they EVER done that on a tour? I can definitely see people walking out on this. Not me, though. And while I like the five older songs, I can do without "Iron Maiden." And no "Run To The Hills" or "The Trooper?" Fucking ballsy. I know Bruce was unhappy with the American audiences' insistence on old material, but this might be going too far.

Hmm. I certainly wouldn't have been happy if I was there, but that's mainly due to not having heard the album. That said, there's no way I'd leave. I mean, it's Maiden!

And 'Fear of the Dark' and '2 Minutes to Midnight' would have more than compensated - I reckon they're my favourite Maiden songs of each decade.

Wow, that's pretty ballsy. Kudos for refusing to become a nostalgia act, but I'd have been disappointed had I been there. Haven't they mentioned being disappointed in US audiences in the past regarding the "hits set" expectations? Valid concern, but this doesn't seem to be the way to turn things around.

But man, whats up with people walking out? I can't imagine paying to see a show like that and walking out before the set even got started.

They need to retire "Iron Maiden", the song.. And do The Trooper more because it's a million times better live. The first Maiden song I heard was the Live After Death version of it, and I was let down by the studio..

But regarding the setlist, I think it's a bad move. You guys have really said it all. But once again, I wouldn't have fucking walked out! I never understand people who leave really early in a concert. Especially like, a $100 concert.

And also, is it just me, or was Brighter Than a Thousand Suns the best choice for second single? Not Different Day.

Wow. I wouldn't blame some fans for being mad about not hearing "Run to the Hills" and other old favorites, but I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. Metallica has gone to the absolute opposite extreme (i.e., coming very close to actually apologizing for playing new material on stage), which has completely killed them as a live band. (Granted, some of their newer material may, um, let's say, not be quite as good as Maiden's new album--I wouldn't know, having only heard "Benjamin Breeg," which I like a lot.) But this is a bold move.