Boy, was I in for a pleasant surprise.

Patrick Devlin, singer and guitarist of Blaggards, grew up in Dublin, Ireland before moving to Houston in his early 20’s. After meeting bassist and singer Chad Smalley, the roots of a kick ass Irish rock group began to form. Rounded out by an amazing fiddler named Chris Buckley and the incredibly talented drummer Michael McAloon, Blaggards were ready to begin their goal of world domination. Blaggards have an intense show schedule this year, and head off to Ireland in March of 2010. Want to go with ‘em? Me too! We can.

Frequently compared to groups such as Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly and the Pogues, Blaggards are much more than just a Irish rock band. With undertones of Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, even Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley, Blaggards bring a new and very satisfying sound to fans of all genres. There are elements of rock, folk, punk and yes, metal, in their on stage set. Their first CD, titled Standards, is so surprisingly good that I’ve yet to play it for someone that isn’t an instant fan… no matter what their favorite style of music happens to be.

I think that metal fans in general are fans of music that speaks to us, music that makes us sit up and take notice, whether tapping our toes or banging our heads, the music has to make us feel something… which is why I feel more than comfortable suggesting that all of the Metal Martyr readers give Blaggards a listen. I didn’t have my nice HD video camera with me for this show, and attempted to record a couple of their songs at night with a regular digital camera. Needless to say, the videos came out looking like The Blair Witch Project, so I won’t be posting those.

However, you can listen to one of their songs, “Drunken Sailor”, here!

Blaggards and Metal Martyr have teamed up to offer one reader a copy of Standards, their full length first release, and a bad ass Blaggards t-shirt. Entering is simple, just leave a comment below, and at 5pm CST on Monday, August 17, 2009 I will pick a random winner via random.org.

Learn more about Blaggards here:

www.blaggards.com
www.myspace.com/blaggards

Buy their CD here: www.cdbaby.com/artist/blaggards

Contest Rules:

You must be a resident of the US, and leave a valid email address when you make your comment so that I can contact the winner. One comment per person per day, please. Any duplicates will be deleted.

[image: Anna Donlan/Blaggards]

Post from: Metal Martyr

As part of the Progressive Nation Tour, Bigelf is currently touring with Dream Theater, Zappa Plays Zappa and Scale the Summit. Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy says:

Los Angeles’ Bigelf are my personal favorite new band to come along in many years…their latest CD “Cheat The Gallows” is my favorite album of the year and I already had positioned them onto the European run of Progressive Nation in the Fall….with them now joining us on PN09 in North America as well, it looks like world domination is now not that far out of reach for them!

Bigelf has a very refreshing sound, a pleasing mix of the Beatles, Pink Floyd with a hefty dash of Black Sabbath thrown in for awesomeness. Cheat the Gallows is “30 years behind and 5 years ahead of what’s happening in music today.”

Read my review and contest details after the jump!

The album starts with “The Gravest Show on Earth”, and is an absolutely brilliant way to kick off this CD. With a beautifully dark “here comes the carnival” feel to it, I was reminded of classic Sabbath, and for some reason The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” popped into my head at one point. Brilliant.

Bigelf captures a 70’s style that I haven’t heard in a long time, and didn’t know that I was missing until now. Paying homage to some of the best artists in music history, but with a style all their own, Bigelf is set to take the stage and show us what they bring to the rock table on the following dates:

• Fri July 31st – Tower Theater – Philadelphia, PA
• Sat Aug 1st – Merriweather Post – Washington DC *
• Sun Aug 2nd – Bank Of America Pavillion – Boston, MA
• Tues Aug 4th – The Palace Theater – Albany, NY
• Wed Aug 5th – Chevrolet Theater – Wallingford, CT
• Fri Aug 7th – Convention Hall – Asbury Park, NJ
• Sat Aug 8 – Brookhaven Amphitheater – Brookhaven, NY
• Tues Aug 11th – The Agora – Quebec City, QUE
• Wed Aug 12th – Bell Center – Montreal, QUE
• Fri Aug 14th – Molson Amphitheater – Toronto, ONT
• Sun Aug 16th – The Burton Cummings Theater – Winnipeg, MAN
• Tues Aug 18th – MacEwan Hall – Calgary, AB
• Wed Aug 19th – Shaw Conference Center – Edmonton, AB
• Fri Aug 21st – The Orpheum Theater – Minneapolis, MN
• Sat Aug 22nd – Riverside Theater – Milwaukee, WI
• Sun Aug 23rd – Chicago Theater – Chicago, IL
• Tues Aug 25th – Temple Hoyne Buell Theater – Denver, CO
• Thur Aug 27th – San Jose Civic Auditorium – San Jose, CA
• Fri Aug 28th – The Joint – Las Vegas, NV
• Sat Aug 29th – The Greek Theater – Los Angeles, CA

* – Additional Special Guests on the 8/1 Washington DC show will be Queensryche (a special one-off 5 band Progressive Nation bill for 1 night only!)

Contest Entry and Rules:

You only need to leave a comment to enter the contest. One comment per reader, per day. However, to make it a bit more fun, you could watch the video below and leave your own “mini review” of Bigelf’s song “Money, It’s Pure Evil” in the comment section!

The contest will run from today (July 30) until August 6 at 5pm CST. One winner will be chosen at random from the comments section, and will be sent a copy of Bigelf’s Cheat the Gallows CD and a t-shirt (men’s sizes medium and large only). Winner must live in the U.S. or Canada to receive prizes.

(Watch the video here)

Hear the full song here! (To download the MP3, right click and choose “save as”)

[image: Amazon]

Post from: Metal Martyr

The last week has been kind of crazy being back actually working for a living. I’ve tried to update here when I can, but time has been tight. This will be my last Scrap Metal Report and my last post. However, this isn’t the end of my metal blogging. As I’ve said before, blogging has renewed my faith in metal and I want to keep updated on it and have an outlet for that. For that purpose I started my new, personally owned blog called HookInMouth.net. If you would like to continue to read my metal bloggings, you’re more than welcome to come by, add it to your RSS or whatever and enjoy. I’m not trying to take anything away from Metal Martyr or the next writer, but that’s where I’ll be doing my thing.

With that said, let’s get on to the last little bits of news I’ll ever publish here.

• Roadrunner Records allowed you to download a new Killswitch Engage track called Reckoning. If you missed it, fear not because you really aren’t missing out on a great song. It’s kind of weak in my opinion. Hopefully the rest of the record will be better but I’m just not impressed with it. Search around and you may still be able to find it.
• Suffocation is supposedly filming a new video for the song called Cataclysmic Purification, which has been up on myspace for about a week or two and will be on the new album, Blood Oath.
• I really don’t know if this next bit is Ozzy’s or Sharron’s doing, but the “Prince Of Darkness” has filed a lawsuit against Tony Iommi saying that the Black Sabbath trademark should be owned equally between the for original band members. Regardless whether it’s Sharon pushing Ozzy to do this or not, it doesn’t matter. He claims that Tony secretly filed for patent and trademark of the name and is the sole ownership of the name, but yet Tony is still selling merch and such with original band members faces on them. You can read much, much more on this story at Blabbermouth.

Well that’s it for me, folks. It’s been a fun time here but it’s time to move on.

Post from: Metal Martyr

The bands that day were Guns N Roses Vs. Black Sabbath. People were calling in and one dude voted for Sabbath and said; because if it wasn’t for Sabbath there would be no Guns N Roses. That’s a pretty good reason, but I couldn’t say that it’s 100% true, because who really knows? Maybe, maybe not. It would definitely be different.

Another caller that sounded like a girl in her mid to late teens voted for Guns N Roses. The Blade (That’s the name the DJ goes by) says “Why?“, she says “Um, I don’t know…because they’ve been out longer?“. At that point I was scream profanities at the radio. The DJ says “How do you figure? Sabbath been around since 68.“. It was quite obvious that the girl probably never even heard a Black Sabbath tune or even knew who was in the band at any given time. Hell, it would surprise me if she could name more than 3 Guns N Roses’ songs.

What I’m getting at is this: Are people so blatantly retarded (no offense to handicapped people who far exceed the people I’m targeting.) when it comes to having any knowledge of the bands that made history and shaped the genres of today? It’s bad enough that a lot of the new bands have no idea of metal or rock history or the bands that made what they do popular in the underground. How utterly stupid do you have to be to even think Guns N Roses has been around longer than Black Sabbath. At least know the basics before you run your stupid mouth. I seriously think that there should be some laws put in to place to prevent stupid people from breeding.

Post from: Metal Martyr

Now don’t get me wrong here. I still love Black Sabbath and this album was my first Black Sabbath album. When I bought it the only track I really knew was Ironman. After I got it, that song was actually the least played. Sometime over the last 20 years I have lost my original, so I might buy this when it comes out, but most likely I’ll save myself some money and buy the conventional cd again. For a collector of everything Black Sabbath, this is a great idea. For everyone else it’s just a cash-in on the re-issue trend. I don’t need a quadraphonic version of Paranoid to enjoy it, nor do I need instrumental versions of it. The deluxe edition will be released in the UK on April 6th. Below is the tracklist to the new deluxe reissue.

“Paranoid” deluxe expanded edition track listing

Disc 1 (Original Album):

1. War Pigs
2. Paranoid
3. Planet Caravan
4. Iron Man
5. Electric Funeral
6. Hand Of Doom
7. Rat Salad
8. Fairies Wear Boots

Disc 2 (1974 Quadrophonic Mix):

1. War Pigs
2. Paranoid
3. Planet Caravan
4. Iron Man
5. Electric Funeral
6. Hand Of Doom
7. Rat Salad
8. Fairies Wear Boots

Disc 3 (Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks):

1. War Pigs (instrumental)
2. Paranoid (alternative lyrical version)
3. Planet Caravan (alternative lyrical version)
4. Iron Man (instrumental)
5. Electric Funeral (instrumental)
6. Hand Of Doom (instrumental)
7. Rat Salad (instrumental)
8. Fairies Wear Boots (instrumental)

Image: Amazon.com (Not the cover of the NEW reissue.

Post from: Metal Martyr

Tony Iommi recently issued an update concerning progress on the recording of the new Heaven And Hell Album:

“I have been so busy working on the new (Heaven And Hell) album!!! It’s all going very well I’m pleased to say! We are hoping for the album to be released some time in March/April.”

Ronnie James Dio said that the songs they recently wrote sound like a “Real Cross-section” of The Mob Rules, Dehumanizer and Heaven And Hell. It should be interesting to hear new studio music from Heaven And Hell. More metal to look forward to in 2009.

On a side note, one thing that kills me about Dio is that he makes sure that he puts the horns up multiple times through a performance. I know he claims to have started it in metal…but I don’t feel he has to prove it 40 times in one song.

Source: BW&BK

IMage: Newscom

Post from: Metal Martyr

The Rock Of Love Charm School

Metal Hammer is reporting that according to TMZ that Sharon allegedly attacked one of the Rock Of Love: Charm School cast members during a taping of the shows Reunion special Saturday night. Apparently Megan Hauserman said to Sharon Osbourne that the only reason that she is only famous for managing a brain-dead rock star. I guess this set Sharon off and she ran across the stage and grabbed Hauserman by the hair and wouldn’t let go. L.A.P.D. came and it’s said that Megan had to take a trip to the hospital. Hopefully we will see the video of this incident some time soon.

We all know that Ozzy’s not brain-dead and at times you can’t understand a damn word he’s saying…but he’s still Ozzy! While Megan’s Statement might hold some truth, the only reason that Ozzy is perhaps still alive and became successful in his solo career after Black Sabbath is because Sharon whipped him back in to shape and out of his slump after Black Sabbath ousted him.

Good for Sharon. I have caught a few episodes of the show late at night and I honestly don’t know how she put up with these girls as long as she did. I think Miss Megan needs to realize that the only reason that she’s famous (If that’s what you want to call it) is because she got on a VH1 reality show with a bunch of other strippers/whores/skanks/sluts/floozies (I could go on) to try to win the heart of Bret Michaels and/or get your ticket off of the brass poll. Way to go, you’re a star!!!

On another note: you may be thinking “This girl is hot”, but I had to download the high-res image for this post with an extreme close-up of her face…she looks a little, um,…slow if you know what I mean.

Image: Newscom.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

Holy crap!!! Ozzy Osbourne has lived long enough to turn 60 today. Although most of us hate Sharon, we can thank her for Ozzy actually living this long. If she hadn’t turned him around after the Sabbath fallout he would probably be dead by now. So wish the Prince Of Darkness a Birthday-Bloody-Birthday!

Image Source: Newscom.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

“It really is BLACK SABBATH, whatever we do. We just choose to go out as HEAVEN AND HELL so everyone knows what they’re getting [and] so people won’t expect to hear ‘Iron Man’ and all those songs. We’ve done them for so many years, it’s nice to do just all the stuff with did with Ronnie again.”

I still have not grabbed a copy of the live album from Heaven And Hell, but I’ve heard great things about it. I still prefer the Ozzy era Black Sabbath but I’m eager to hear how this is going to turn out though.

• June 3-6 – Sölvesborg, Sweden – Sweden Rock Festival
• June 19-21 – Clisson, France – Hellfest

Image Source: Newscom.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

Black Sabbath, whether it’s with Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio have made a permanent imprint on the history of heavy metal and will forever be remembered as one of the founding bands that birthed the genre as we know it. What better way to pay tribute to a classic band than with classic footwear.

Converse’s 100th Anniversary edition Black Sabbath World Tour 1978 All Stars are a great tribute to The Masters Of Reality. With the winged demon on the outer ankle of the shoe and “World Tour 1978” running up the rear ankle support of the shoe, this edition of the Black Sabbath All Stars is a simple enough design to not go overboard and look tacky as a lot of tributes do.

They fit like any other All Star does, comfortable and cool. However if you have high arches you’ll need an arch support because they do not offer a good cushioned arch like most running or basketball shoes do. If you’re flat footed then you’ll probably find yourself much more comfortable than those with huge arches.

Other styles of the Black Sabbath All Stars are available as well like the “We Sold Out Soul For Rock N Roll” and “Black Sabbath Vol. 4“. The ‘Sold Our Soul’ are available at Journey’s online store but the World Tour 1978 and Vol. 4 are only available “in store” at Journey’s.

We Sold Our Soul For Rock N’ Roll Available at Journey’s Online

Image Source: MetalMartyr.com and Converse

Post from: Metal Martyr