vBoogieman Rock and Metal News

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS drummer Eric Kretz recently spoke to Steve Forstneger of the Illinois Entertainer about the band’s decision to reunite in 2008 after a six-year layoff.

Greetings and welcome to a new year, a new decade and new mode of positivity…

Your continued support during my brief layoff has been inspirational and though I’ve made some key decisions how to operate my writing life this year with my increased obligations, I am pleased to keep The Metal Minute afloat. Truly, it’s due to each and every one of you taking your valuable time to return here as regularly as you do.

2010 is bringing a sense of optimism for many people around the world and I’m no less enthusiastic by the possibilities this year offers me on a personal level. I have a lot of my strategies in place and I’m eager to push everything to the max and make this a successful year.

During the break, I’ve been working as steadily as I can on my second novel and I managed to get a few reviews knocked out for Fangoria.com, i.e. the new Overkill, Ihsahn and Katatonia albums, so check ‘em out if ya please.

Last night I had the sincere pleasure of spending considerable time on the phone with Full Metal Jackie in an interview for Fango. Conversing with this sister was like talking to one of my best buds in the day. Truly the lady knows this genre through every crevice and not only does her book Full Metal Jackie Certified (which you can read a review of here) take me back to the old days, the memories Jackie and I shared was already for me a metal moment to beat this year.

I’m already booked for four more upcoming interviews as 2010 literally launches from beneath my feet and as I await to hear how other potential opportunities pan out, I’ll be pounding away on the novel, pieces for Fangoria and Dee Snider’s House of Hair plus, of course, The Metal Minute.

Though it’s been out a bit, the latest U.D.O. album just hit my mailbox, so let’s consider a review of Dominator the next order of business here at the site, along with some other upcoming goodies.

Let’s make this a mutually exciting and prosperous 2010…as the classic Priest song would invite, let’s put ourselves in the proverbial hands so our voices can be heard, and together we’ll take on all the world…

Katatonia – Night is the New Day
Ihsahn – After
U.D.O. – Dominator
Megadeth – Risk
Death – Human
Halloween III: Season of the Witch expanded soundtrack
ZZ Top – Afterburner
ZZ Top – Deguello
Nick Drake – Bryter Layter
Blue Oyster Cult – Fire of an Unknown Origin
Don Henley – American Pie
Berlin – Pleasure Victim
The Smiths – Strangeways Here We Come
Roberta Flack – The Very Best of Roberta Flack
Tori Amos – Abnormally Attracted to Sin

Rammstein – Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da
2009 Universal Music/Vagrant Records
Ray Van Horn, Jr.

Sixth time around and Berlin exploratory metal pundits Rammstein are back in the saddle with a new studio slab following a four-year layoff. Delivered mostly in German, Rammstein’s latest offering Liebe Ist Fur Alle Dais hell-bent on engaging their audiences with updated schools of thought to their frequently dance-oriented stamp metal. Some have been wondering if Rammstein ever intends to match the full-on chug-strut of their breakout hit “Du Hast,” much less the shake-your-nu-metal-groove-thang of “Engel” or even the steadily-thumped antipop of “Amerika.” Well, not exactly on Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da, but the album is entertaining at times.

Parts of this album deliver energetic, pounding industrial metal, which should satisfy longtime devotees such as the heavily throbbing “Waidmanns Hell” and the stoic march ode, “Ich Tu Dir Weh.” Other parts are commendable left-of-center tryouts such as a two-step tempo and cabaret piano twinkling on the verses of “Haifsch,” a song bellowing with pure bravado once it reaches the choruses. Rammstein even takes a plucky stab at a swirling ballad, “Fruehling in Paris” which might’ve made fans cringe if not for a booming chorus and cacophonous electronics clanging atop Till Lindemann’s petitioning croons. Yes, folks, it works like a charm.

Have fun trying to figure out what “B*****” stands for. Guitarist Richard Kruspe states the intended phrase isn’t what you’re thinking; rather, it’s the Germanic “Buckstabu,” translating as “whatever you want.” One thing’s for sure, it swings with plodding mass and snarling vocals as the heaviest tune on the album, along with the angry-as-fuck “Weiner Blut” and the trigger-happy title cut, the latter of which grows thicker and faster with each bar, ala KMFDM at their meanest.

The opening number “Rammleid” is perhaps Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da’s only real weak moment. It begins stoically with a blaring choral sample along with rousing intro call from Lindemman, yet it plods in so-so fashion with cliche riffs and astray keys. Afterwards, Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da becomes consistently entertaining.

Though nowhere in the same league of issuing dense tonal crushes as their previous albums, Rammstein now appears more interested in expanding beyond the band’s expansive frontiers tapped on Reise Reise and Rosenrot. Then again, don’t expect things to be a full departure from Rammstein’s button-pushing past, most especially from the brainless yet undeniably hooky “Pussy.” Blatant, juvenile shenanigans from a band previously squirting audiences with pretend jizz from Till Lindemann’s waggling dildo; makes you wonder how they’ll encore such groined shock tactics this time. Of course, he might not need a gimmick here, since “Pussy” speaks for itself with its insanely perverse chorus, which will have you repeating it stupidly in your head hours after play.

If you gander at the sprawled nudity and fantastical nihilism of the album’s foldouts, you’ll understand Rammstein is here to push the envelope as far as society will sustain it without getting jailed for common indecency. Alienating a broad audience with their album title alone, Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da is nonetheless a largely fun, thumping record with more than a few changeups to their militant-sounding metal stamps.

Rating: ***1/2

A night where legendary punk legends return to the road after a 15 year layoff, the atmosphere was all hardcore, all punk, intensity growing as each of the five bands took the stage. Naked Raygun were more lean and settled into a set filled with midtempo to fast numbers from their earlier catalog.

Representatives from the time-honored DC punk and hardcore scene were on-hand (it was cool meeting John Stabb of Government Issue on the floor) in a venue-packed Ottabar to pay witness to one of the greats, who gave a pretty solid performance and kept the air of nostalgia swirling about the club. Old meets new on a memorable evening filled with passion and respect.

Paint it Black nearly stole the show as you’ll see by these action-flailed shots, and Naked Raygun’s John Pezzazi even stepped out with them for their closing number, a moment which Paint it Black’s Dan Yemin noted before leaving the stage as being “the greatest moment of my adult life.”

Paint it Black:

with John Pezzati of Naked Raygun:

Naked Raygun:

After an eight-year layoff from the studio, AC/DC storms back this fall with “Black Ice,” a 15-track extravaganza that frequently echoes the down-and-dirty rock’n'roll of its iconic 1980 album “Back in Black.”

Due Oct. 20 exclusively in Wal-Mart and