Bay Area Metal Scene » Archive for December 2009
The Best Metal Album of 2009
There stands one album from 2009 that unites metal-heads everywhere. Young and old, rich and poor, famous and infamous, men and women, cats and dogs, Jesus and Satan can all agree that this album supremely ruled. No, it’s not Mastodon. It’s… … Read entire article »
Filed under: Loudest 2009
Another Reason to Like Opeth
Michael Akerfeldt is hilarious. “Hello? Yes, my daughter wants to know when we’re going to start recording a new album. Oops, she just pooped. I’ll call you back.” … Read entire article »
Filed under: Friday Funnies
Contest: Who Wants to See Behemoth?
Well, it’s the New Year and that means it’s time to start making resolutions. Mine just happens to be to listen to more metal, which is going to be challenging since I already listen to metal about 10 hours a day already, but hey – there’s always room for improvement in one’s life. Keeping with the tradition, we’ve got a shiny new ticket for the person that wants to see Behemoth, Septic Flesh and Lightning Swords … Read entire article »
Filed under: Contests
Poll: Pirate Metal is Everywherrrrgh!
Pirate Metal used to be an outlier in today’s infinite partitioning of metal genres. Now, it seems to be everywhere. I’m a little mixed in my opinions: one on hand, pirates are awesome. On the other hand, there are a ton of bands today calling themselves Pirate Metal. Some people are beginning to say that it’s getting a little of out of hand, I mean, there have already been several “Pirate” themed metal tours over … Read entire article »
Filed under: Polls
All Hail the White Wizzard
If you ever thought to yourself, “I wish there was a band that sounded like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden AND Dio all rolled into one!” then you’re in luck. Los Angeles metal band White Wizzard is rolling through San Francisco in January and they’re bringing their fire-laden guitar-harmonies and metal falsetto with them. The band has gone through a major line-up change over the past year or two, but it hasn’t stopped them from tearing … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
Weirdest Song Debut, Ever.
So, Exodus have been doing live chats all week while they record their new album, The Atrocity Exhibition – Exhibit B, and this weekend they decided to debut a new song via this ustream website. The song is pretty rocking, but it’s funny because it’s basically just Rob Dukes sitting in front of his web cam staring at you and like, wondering what to say. He finally decides to rock out at the end of the video, but otherwise he’s just sitting there drinking from a coffee mug, looking all bored. On another note, nice Murderface t-shirt. … Read entire article »
Filed under: New Music
KILLFEST
This tour is going to rule. I’m not the biggest Overkill fan, but the line-up is friggin’ rad as hell! … Read entire article »
Filed under: Tours
If this Video Doesn’t Pump You Up For MegaSlayTest, Nothing Will.
You gotta love Chuck Billy, “METAL FOREVER!” Get tickets here. … Read entire article »
The 5 Loudest Bay Area Albums of 2009: #1
#1 – Black Cobra – Chronomega Our vote for the loudest album of the year, and one that probably needs little introduction, goes to an album made by two friggin’ dudes. It’s hard to believe one guitar player and one drummer make this much noise, but believe it, because Chronomega is fast, fuzzy and loud! Chrono is 9 tracks of in your face, down-tuned rock and metal. Drawing inspiration perhaps from bands like Motorhead, High on Fire and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Loudest 2009
Finally, a Band Name Drawing Inspiration From a Stallone Movie.
A ton of bands use Arnold Swarzeneggnenerger movies for their song inspiration, but you don’t see too many bands use material from Stallone movies, Sly Stallone, that is. Although, obviously most metal bands already get a ton of inspiration from Frank Stallone. Murder Death Kill. Remember that from Demolition Man? If not, don’t worry, it probably means you’re not a virgin. I haven’t really listened to the band, I think they’re like a hardcore band or something. Now, … Read entire article »
Filed under: News
Kirk Hammet Has Some, Umm, Interesting Tastes In Music
Rolling Stone magazine recently polled a bunch of musicians, asking them which albums they thought were the most important of the decade. Take a look at who Metallica guitar player Kirk Hammet picked: You don’t see many lists with Lamb of God and Sinead O’Connor on them! … Read entire article »
Filed under: News
The 5 Loudest Bay Area Albums of 2009: #2
#2 – Cormorant – Metazoa One might describe Cormorant as the Bay Area’s “foggy” Opeth. Like their Swedish counterparts, their song writing is epic and varied in acoustic and electric melodies. Their sound is a blend of prog metal, black metal and folk metal, which is melancholy at times and galloping at other times. Metazoa has caught the attention of quite a few places around the web, including some of you out there who have been … Read entire article »
Filed under: Loudest 2009
Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth Announcing New Solo “Project” on Alex Jones Radio. Nobama-Core? Power-To-The-People-Metal?
Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth announced today that he has been working on a solo album for the past several months called “Sons of Liberty”. He’ll be promoting the album this Friday on the Alex Jones radio show. If you’ve never heard of Alex Jones, he’s a Glenn Beck type conservative radio host that drums up a lot of fear and controversy against the President. His latest video on youtube is a slam against global … Read entire article »
Filed under: News
The 5 Loudest Bay Area Albums of 2009: #3
#3 - Kowloon Walled City – Gambling on the Richter Scale Something about KWC struck a chord around various metal and rock outlets on the internet this year. Call them rock, call them metal (they will deny being a metal band, despite head-banger attendance at their shows), call them noisy or call them heavy, they are what they are. Kowloon have a great sound that they’ve carved out for themselves with their brand of sludgy “noise-rock”, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Loudest 2009
Thrash is Huge. Time to Get the Old Band Back Together!
Dust off your patches you old long-hairs, because HellHound are getting back together and recording some new shit! From guitar player Robert Kolowitz: 80’s Underground Thrash Legends HELLHOUND Reunite, Record New Material Legendary thrash metallers HELLHOUND have reformed and are currently recording their first new material in over 20 years. Both the new and classic will be showcased at the Venuez in Santa Clara, CA on January 9, 2010. Formed in the early 80’s and based … Read entire article »
Filed under: News
My Favorite Album from 2009 That Won’t Be on Any Top 10 Lists.
Click here for an explanation. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
The Berzerker: Industrial Times Ten
There hasn’t been too much going on in the industrial world these days, at least from what I could tell. Of course, Fear Factory is about as industrial as I get, and they’re not really industrial. With all of the gothiness and samples and sound effects and anything-but-instruments-played-as-instruments attitude, I typically don’t pay much attention to it. However, it was kind of hard to ignore Aussie Industrial Death Metal band, The Berzerker. This is some … Read entire article »
Filed under: Check These Guys Out
The 5 Loudest Bay Area Albums of 2009: #4
#4 – One Hundred Suns – Beneath the Hooves of Time Another unsigned band has made it to our list. Don’t let that fool you though – the production and mixing on this album holds up, without sacrificing any brutality. Amidst the sea of retro-rock out there, it’s nice to see some death and black metal punching through the mix. Foregoing the white corpse paint, One Hundred Suns blasts, grinds and growls over melodic guitars and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Loudest 2009
Poll: Big 4 Tour Really IS Happening!
What Does it Mean to You?
It’s finally fucking happening. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax are playing at the same show together! Fuck yeah! Metal is back! I can finally die a free person! What’s that? They’re only playing in Poland and the Czech Republic? What the hell is the Czech Republic? Where’s Czechoslovakia? I’m American, I don’t have time to keep up with all these things. My first reaction to this news is one of excitement, followed obviously by sheer disappointment. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Polls
Faceless – Fetus Bootlegs
The Faceless, Dying Fetus, Beneath the Massacre, Suffokate and Enfold Darkness played at the DNA Lounge last night in what amounted to a weird amalgamation of Death Core, Death Metal and Progressive Metal. Despite all the venue’s seemingly amateur approach to sound (like playing house music while a band is performing) and light (leaving the lights off during the band’s performance), each band managed to pull-off a pretty solid-sounding set. The Faceless closed out the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Live Music
The 5 Loudest Bay Area Albums of 2009: #5
After much deliberation, quantification, perspiration and anticipation, it is our pleasure to announce to you our top 5 albums from the year 2009. Helping us out with this list is the undisputed queen of live music reviews, Jamie Harvey a.k.a. the Hard Rock Chick. Each day this week we’ll be presenting a new album that we felt deserved some recognition as being one of the best from the Bay Area in ‘09. This past year, without … Read entire article »
Filed under: Loudest 2009
Dimebag Tribute CD – First of Many?
Metal Hammer U.K. has put together a Dimebag Darrell tribute CD for the release of their issue next week. I can only speculate that this will be the first of many “Dime Tribute CDs” that come out in the not-so-distant future. I could praise and/or bitch about the selection below, but whatever. None of these tribute CDs ever sound as good as you think they would, they just gain a lot of attention. The song selection … Read entire article »
Filed under: News
Ludicra Releasing New Album in 2010
The 2/5 female fronted San Francisco black/melodic metal band Ludicra just announced that their new album, The Tenant, will be available sometime early in 2010. Hear the track, “A Larger Silence”, and check out the album cover here. … Read entire article »
Filed under: News
2010 Jimi Hendrix Experience – Yawn
For those of you that can’t get enough Jimi Hendrix, here’s your show. I have to admit, the whole thing seems kind of cliche. I mean, how many damn bands cover Jimi Hendrix? I’m going to take a stab at how this show goes: Musician takes the stage, plays a Hendrix cover. Musician doesn’t play the song “note for note”, but rather plays the song according to their own “interpretation”. After a song or two, proceeds to … Read entire article »
Filed under: News
New High on Fire Album In The Works
High on Fire is on a roll these days. Having just completed their epic journey with Mastodon, Dethklok and Converge, they’re hitting the road in Australia to support Lamb of God throughout December. On top of all the touring, they’re releasing a new album next month. From the band’s website: HIGH ON FIRE’s long-awaited, fifth studio album and follow-up to 2007’s Death is This Communion is currently nearing completion. The award-winning band worked with producer Greg … Read entire article »
Filed under: News
Behind the Scenes Shenanigans with Exodus
Exodus posted some footage of them recording their sequel to last year’s album, The Atrocity Exhibition: Exhibit A. This album is appropriately titled Exhibit B. They have the mighty Andy Sneap (the guy is famous for producing awesome metal albums) helping out with recording. There aren’t a whole lot of new riffs heard in the video, but you’ll hear Gary Holt say that their goal with this album was to “crush everything and make everything else obsolete”, so it’s pretty much guaranteed that Exodus fans won’t be disappointed with The Atrocity Exhibition: Exhibit B. … Read entire article »
Filed under: News
New Arsis Song….
….and it’s GOOD. When Arsis released “We are the Nightmare”, I stopped liking them. In all reality, the album was great, but it was just way too technical for me. Every time I listened to it, I had to mellow out and smoke a bowl, because otherwise I’d have a friggin’ seizure. I’m all for virtuosity, but Darren Cesca was completely overboard on the album. Every single song featured a ridiculous amount of polyrhythmic, assymetrical, incongruent, ass-backwards, blast-beat infected drumming; so much so, that it made it unlistenable for me. Anyways, Darren’s gone now, and original drummer Mike VanDyne is back. Anyways, check out “Beyond Forlorn” from the new album: www.myspace.com/arsis … Read entire article »
Filed under: News
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