Machine Head Front-man Rob Flynn was interviewed by Shockhound recently. You can review that entire interview here. What I don’t understand and is the statement below where he said:

“30 year-old people don’t listen to fuckin’ metal. They really don’t. They’ve moved on with their lives, they get jobs, they get girlfriends, they listen to what’s on the radio. Kids are what keeps the scene alive;”

Seriously? I like Rob and Machine Head….but that’s the biggest bullshit statement I’ve ever heard. What keeps the scene alive is the people that don’t stop listening to metal beyond 30. Does this dude have any idea how many Machine Head fans are probably over 30 and have been following them since 94? Just because they don’t always make the shows doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I know plenty of people over 30 that still listen to metal. I’m almost 33 and I still listen to metal. Will I be listening to metal 30 years from now? I don’t know. I’d like to think so but who knows what metal music will be like in 30 years. I doubt if I’ll be headbanging and telling my grandkids about the good ole days of metal, but it’s something that will ALWAYS be with me.

Image Source: Newscom.com

In this metal age of “More Brutal Than Brutal”, there seems to be a lost art. There used to be a time when metal/hard rock bands actually wrote power ballads, showing their softer sides. Granted a lot of the bands that did it during the 80’s and early 90’s were Glam metal/rock bands, there used to almost be a standard that would help sell a record…and get some groupie sluts back stage. That standard was a solid power ballad. Some of these songs were about life experiences, suicide, love or whatever. Either way the songs were gripping and heartfelt. I’ve compiled a list of 30 of some of my favorite rock and/or metal power ballads of both yesterday and today. Call me a fag, softy, whatever. Liking a good power ballad doesn’t make you any less “metal”, I don’t give a shit who you are. If that’s the way you think then you are a close minded fool or too “brutal” to admit you like them. I know there are a lot that I have missed and I tried not to repeat any bands, so if you can think of one of your favorites that I missed, add it in the comment area. These are in no particular order.

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Heaven And Hell, pretty much the Ronnie James Dio version of Black Sabbath , have entered the recording studio and the new release is expected out in the early part of 2009. They will also be touring in support of the new album and  tour dates have been scheduled so far for Hellfest and Swedish Rock Festival. Iommi told Billboard.com the reason they are touring under the name Heaven and hell instead of Black Sabbath in this statement:

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Dream Theater have wrapped up the drum tracks on the next Dream Theater album. Metal Underground reports that drummer Mike Portnoy has made the following statement about the new record:

“Imagine a Dream Theater album with ‘A Change Of Seasons,’ ‘Octavarium,’ ‘Learning To Live,’ ‘Pull Me Under’ and ‘The Glass Prison’… all on one album… COULD YOU HANDLE IT?? Excited? I sure am!!!!”

Sound like this could be an interesting album, but we’ll have to wait until next year to find out.

Image Source: Newscom.com

Max Cavalera’s Soulfly will be touring the United Kingdom with 11 dates scheduled so far in February 2009. Soulfly will be touring in support of their latest album, Conquer. Conquer in my opinion is Soulfly’s best album to date, with a more thrash feel to it than previous albums. If you liked the Cavalera Conspiracy but have not like past Soulfly albums you may actually like Conquer as it has a closer sound to Inflikted. Phoenix Arizona’s Incite will tour as support. Incite is fronted by Richie Cavalera, the step-son of Max Cavalera. Tour dates are below.

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So many bands tour the world over and rarely get outside of the tour bus. They drink themselves into an oblivion and rarely get out and see the world around them. Most of the time it’s younger, non-veteran bands that do this. They don’t take the time to get out and explore some of the things often taken for granted when the opportunity arises. I’m sure there are places that you can’t really get out and see what is around you, but the fact is that a lot of bands don’t get opportunities to tour outside of the United States, so if you have the opportunity to get out of the tour bus (whether it’s overseas or not), you should really take advantage of it. I would. Trivium’s Matt Heafy, like him and his band or not, has a good point with his entry at Headbangers Blog. Here is a short excerpt.

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This will be the last update for today. I’ll be posting a few other updates over at Censored Metal and then I’ll be signing off until Friday. I wish everyone a great Thanksgiving. I’ll be stuffing myself rotten with food and wine tomorrow and just kicking back and relaxing.

Enslaved have canceled their American tour, but are rescheduling everything, so if you were looking forward to seeing them you’ll just have to wait until they get everything sorted out. Here is the statement they made:

“It is with great regret that ENSLAVED has to announce the cancellation of the North American ‘Vertebrae’ tour [with SWALLOW THE SUN and KEEP OF KALESSIN] scheduled for May 2009. At the heart of the issue lies a tour that was hard to get together in the first place so we’ve decided to let the whole tour be cancelled and start working on setting up a new North American tour all the way from scratch again. . . Our sincere apologies to all the fans that were ready to come out to these shows; but rest assured — we are working day and night on setting up the new tour that will replace these dates.”

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Here is a cover of Twisted Sister’s Burn In Hell from their Stay Hungry album. The cover is by Black Metal artists Dimmu Borgir. This was actually the first Dimmu Borgir song I ever heard. I saw them in an interview about 4 years ago and ran a search and this song came up. It’s a pretty cool cover/rendition of a classic T.S. tune. Enjoy.

While CD sales are down, digital sales are up for some companies but it still doesn’t hold a match to what they used to make in CD sales before the Napster age. So what do the record companies want? They want to dip their hands deeper in to the pockets of the musicians and take money from ticket sales and merchandise, the only things that the bands can really make money off of.

They say they want a more fair percentage of the money they put in to promoting and launching a band. One of those record companies that is doing well with digital sales is Atlantic, a unit or Warner records and One of the biggest record companies in the business.

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This is a Japanese animated series called Detroit Metal City, that Headbanger’s Blog describes as “Dethklok Meets Lost In Translation“, about a musician that moves to Tokyo to become a pop star and instead becomes the frontman for a death metal group called…Detroit Metal City. Gene Simmons has a roll in it as the voice of Jack II Dark…not to be mistaken with The Insane Clown Posse’s Shaggie 2 Dope. This is the first episode that runs almost 14 minutes.