vBoogieman Rock and Metal News

Video footage of the short speech METALLICA guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield gave at a special event to celebrate the life of Debbie Abono — a well-respected and much-loved manager and promotional machine behind some of San Francisco Bay Area’s strongest metal bands (POSSESSED, FORBIDDEN, EXODUS, VIO-LENCE, SKINLAB) — can be viewed below.

InsideCostaRica.com reports that Costa Rica’s Catholic church is calling for respect from the Swedish “black metal” band MARDUK, who will be making an appearance in Costa Rica next week.

On May 11, Robert Gray of Ultimate-Guitar.com conducted an interview with SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya.

Chris Kornelis of the Seattle Weekly recently conducted an interview with bassist Duff McKagan (VELVET REVOLVER, DUFF MCKAGAN’S LOADED, JANE’S ADDICTION, GUNS N’ ROSES).

I have a thing for Thrash metal, and am now growing a love for some good Death metal as well, as my brain progresses down the winding road to Metal Dreamworld. It seems that a love for this music is instilled in my blood. I require it on a daily basis to keep my metal loins satisfied! So when a song flows into my ears from a band that says they are Death/Thrash metal, and they don’t really sound like it, I might just get pissed off immediately. Very few bands have done this to me as of late, but it seems that Landmine Marathon has gone and done just that with their latest album, Sovereign Descent.

I can’t say that I was pissed off at everything they did. The drumming and instrumental backups were good. Not revolutionary or exciting, but they sufficed for what most of the song quality was positioning itself to be, which was a mid-level Death sound. In that respect, Landmine Marathon works for sure. But the vocals literally don’t come from either Death or Thrash in the slightest, and it doesn’t take much to tell where they belong… Right in the gigantic pile of Metalcore vocals. Now before anyone goes off the deep end about how “I hate Metalcore” and all of that crap, I feel quite the opposite about the genre. I can enjoy Metalcore when it sounds decent, and have many of the genre’s bands in my playlist on a regular basis. I will say that the vocaals on this album are par-level Metalcore vocals, and therefore have no means to be in any band that call themselves Thrash in the slightest. Even Death bands, and I mean true Death bands hold no place for these vocalists. It’s not that they are necessarily bad, it’s just that they don’t belong. Period.

Even in comparison to some of Landmine Marathon’s previous albums, such as Rusted Eyes Awake (which was previously reviewed here at AMR), Sovereign Descent seems to have taken a different path with their sound. Most of the songs from this album had a ho-hum feel to them, and when you’re expecting a little different from a band, and this is what you hear, you tend to lean more towards disappointment, than anything. So for all of you Sovereign Descent fans, sorry, but it was mediocre.

EH…

Similar Artists: Kataklysm, Demolition Hammer, Carcass

1.    Exist
2.    Shadows Fed To Tyrants
3.    Foul Revolt
4.    Cruel Policy
5.    Justify The Suffering
6.    Steadfast Hate
7.    Chained By The Same Fate
8.    Flood The Earth
9.    Rise With The Tide

Grace Perry – Vocals
Dylan Thomas – Guitars
Ryan Butler – Guitar
Matt Martinez – Bass, Guitar, Vocals
Mike Pohlmeier – Drums

Landmine Marathon Home

http://www.myspace.com/landminemarathon

Prosthetic Records

Review by TONY

Respect to one of our favourite British bands of the past few years getting their break on the latest Lucozade advert. See it inside! (more…)

Long-running German metal band PARADOX has released the following statement:

“Due to numerous inquiries for live lacking presence of PARADOX in Germany, now for this an official statement from the band.

“Blood Into Wine”, the eagerly awaited documentary on TOOL/PUSCIFER frontman Maynard James Keenan and his vineyard partner Eric Glomski’s mission to bring notoriety and respect to Northern Arizona’s burgeoning wine industry, will premiere at the W Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 19, 2010 at 7 p.m.

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:

The November 2009 issue of Guitar World magazine includes an extensive interview with SLAYER guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman.