The Road: Official Trailer

I am even more stoked than before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQautgFKK50

Albums for 2009

God Forbid – EarthsBlood February 24^th 2009

Lamb Of God – Wrath February 24^th 2009

Deftones – Eros Sping 2009

Impending Doom – The Serpent Servant March 30^th 2009

A Skylit Drive – Glaciers March 2009

Chimaira – The Infection April 21st 2009

Tony Danze Tap Danze Extravaganza – Danza III: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Killswitch Engage 2009

Devildriver 2009

Between the Buried and Me 2009

Darkest Hour 2009

August Burns Red Summer 2009

Zao 2009

Review: Unearth – The March

This is a band I have struggled with since I heard about them in 2004.  There was a lot that I liked but some stuff that I could have done without.  The March is both a triumph and a failure for this band.

I’ll start with the bad this time.  I had really high hopes for this record once I saw that vocalist Trevor was taking vocal lessons from the “Queen of Scream” Melissa Cross, whom I own both of her awesome DVD’s.  He has always been the weakest link in this band.  Very bland and uninspiring vocals on every single record.  I thought maybe this time he would change it up, but no, same old stuff nothing all that different.  Same mid-range understandable screams that verge on muddled yells.  The March is also the band’s first record without Mike Justian, who also played on The Red Chord’s groundbreaking “Fused Together in Revolving Doors”.  Justian’s unconventional drumming gave Unearth a signature sound that was raw and unkempt.  The polish came from guitar players Buz and Ken but now with Derek (Seemless, Shadows Fall) they now have a sound that is much like any other metal-core band and with Mike D. at the helm it’s a little too polished for my liking.

The praise of this album rests solely on the string section.  If any guitarists in the current mainstream metal scene are up and coming guitar gods, they are Buz and Ken.  The March is by far the best written and played Unearth album yet.  It’s faster, tighter, more intricate and more heavy and you have to give it to Slo for keeping up with them.  The riffs are interesting, the hooks are memorable and the breakdowns tastefull and not over-done.  Where All That Remains failed on “Overcome” to push the sound into new territory, Unearth is moving beyond the standard metal-core fad boundaries and are starting to define what modern thrash should sound like.

It’s a good record but Trevor to me continues to hold them back as a band.  It’ll take a few listens before I can really get used to them without Mike too.  Over-all a solid release.

Death Magnetic

 

Hey,

just because it doesn’t totally suck, doesn’t mean it’s good either.  It’s not good and this band is finished and has been for some time.  Testament did better than this with no else noticing. 

Metallica RIP

Downloading Metal

For the love of God guys, please buy your damn music!!!  For any fan of metal music, just buy it.  When you download instead of buy, you are killing the industry, killing the genre and killing bands.

How is it that bands like The Red Chord, Devildriver, A Life Once Lost etc have millions of hits on their myspace pages but can’t break 20,000 copies sold? DOWNLOADING, there are so many amazing bands that  slug it out in vans, not even buses, vans, have to tour for a year straight just to break even on the record they made for YOU!

I’m just tired of seeing bands struggle and break-up because kids can’t part with $15.  So please, these aren’t wealthy people who you’re stealing from, these are guys that barely make a living doing what they love, which is making metal us to enjoy.  So please, go to shows, buy merch and buy the album, you will see the metal seen change in a good way as a result.

Animal is Metal!

He was hairy, he was loud, he was drunk all the time and we never knew it, but he was doing blast beats before Napalm Death.  He was the best musician on the muppets, but he was so far ahead of his time, no one knew.  Animal is metal.

More from The Road

The release of John Hillcoat’s adaptation of “The Road” is looming upon us.  For those of us who love Mr. McCarthy’s work, we cannot get enough.  My original post for “The Road” http://theroan.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/the-road/ is getting a lot of hits so I got these for my friends!!

Enjoy, but don’t hate me for teasing you!  You should also watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9jtH_aa2tU

New Unearth CONFIRMED!!

Unearth has finished recording their new record!  It’s going to be called “The March” and it’s going to be released on October 14th through Metal Blade Records of course.  I’m very stoked.

The Most Metal of Movies, Coming in 2009!

When you’re a child of the 80’s, some dreams never die.  This is what I discovered when I learned that in early 2009 f%$#in G.I. Joe the movie is coming out.  Ya it stars a guy who was in movies about dancing, but that doesn’t matter, he has scars on his face and he has a giant gun to make up for his previous faggetry.  It even looks like he’s wearing the new Batman suit with out a cowl.  The movie will have Duke. Snake Eyes, Hawk, Destro and of course Cobra Commander.  I wish Blow Torch would be there but what are you gonna do.  I look forward to many explosions, gun fights and new military technologies.  If they get the soundtrack right (metal) it’ll be a homerun.

The Problem with the Term “Metal-core”

I had a good question asked of me in my last post and thought it would make a good post. 

I wanna ask you..
What’s the difference between metalcore and hardcore? I just know that metal core have more double pedal in drum n more melody in guitar.. And hardcore have a simple music.. Is that right?

Well, hard-core is harder to define these days. Originally, in the late 70’s and early 80’s hard-core was just a short form of hard-core punk. Teens in California were disappointed about how punk had become mainstream and it didn’t embody their strife anymore.  So they started their own bands that were what they thought punk should sound like. These were bands like Black Flag, Circle Jerks and of course Bad Brains. This music was defined by being fast, simple and aggressive. Bands like Bad Brains still managed to be talented and creative within that limited framework.

Today some bands still sound like that, but some people wanted to do something more with it. Bands like Underoath, Further Seems Forever and A Sky Lit Drive are great examples of what is known as “Post-Hardcore”. Where there is speed and aggression and a definitely punk sound mixed with clean vocals, more intricate melody and in general more creativity that can’t be captured within “Hard-core”.

Metal-core differs from straight Hard-core and Post-hardcore because Metal-core is really just metal, speedy guitars, intricate song structures and riffs. Riffs are very much what metalcore is made of and that is metal. Talent on all instruments and such. Metal core is metal that borrows elements of hard-core or vice versa. For instance Killswitch Engage does some screamed hard-core vocals and punk drum beats, the influence of hard-core is limited. Then again, with a band like say Hatebreed, they are a Hard-core band with elements of metal. Riffs, metal like precision with instrumentation, but thats pretty much where it ends.

The problem is that both bands would be considered metal-core, the term is way too general.