10 years ago every “Real” metal-head was criticizing 7 string guitar players because of the nu-metal movement. Hell, even these days people look down at them for it. In the past year or so musicians have stepped it up, saying; “If you don’t like 7 strings…here’s one more.”.  Let’s look at a few things in the current metal scene with more than 6 strings.

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After re-recording the vocals for Bleed The Fifth with new frontman Travis Neal, Divine Heresy now unveils their second video from their debut album and also the video name, Bleed The Fifth. I think Dino made a great choice with Travis Neal.

Busy, Busy weekend. Had to work on a lot of things around the house yesterday in preparation for my daughter’s birthday. That kind of explains the lack of updates. This will be my last week at my present job, so starting next week there should be a lot more updates throughout the days. I’m really looking forward to this!

I have a really cool prize to give away sometime soon. I had an autographed copy of Machine Head’s The Blackening but I gave that to a friend already so that won’t be going out, however I have something in store and if you’re a guitar player you may be interested in it. I’ll just leave it at that until I announce the contest. With that, lets get to some bits and pieces of news from the last couple days.

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Unlike Velvet Revolver, Divine Heresy can make up their minds on a new singer. Travis Neil, was rumored awhile back to be up for the spot and now it’s final. Divine Heresy was also supposed to do a full tour of South America but it will limited to Mexico because of Visas and shitty promoters.

You can hear how Travis sounds on a new re-recorded version of Bleed The Fiflth at Divine Heresy’s Myspace

Upcoming DIVINE HERESY Tour Dates

*= non healining show. All the rest are headliners for DH

Aug. 21 - Cafe Iguana, Monterrey, Mexico
Aug. 22 - Nebu Bar, Torreon, Mexico
Aug. 23 - Calle 2, Guadalajara, Mexico
Aug. 24 - Hard Rock Café, Mexico DF, Mexico
Sep. 07 - Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, California (w/ ASESINO, DEVOLVED, DARK SUN)
Sep. 11 - Smokin Aces, McAllen, Texas
Sep. 12 - River Side Multiplex, Victoria, Texas
Sep. 13 - Red 7, Austin, Texas
Sep. 14 - Shotzis, Bryan College Station, Texas
Sep. 15 - *[to be announced] Austin, Texas (w/ CARCASS)
Sep. 27 - Indianapolis Metalfest, Indianapolis, Indiana
Oct. 04 - Cheyenne Saloon, Las Vegas, Nevada

Holy sh*t! When was the last time I did this? Last time I was lazy and had a lot of news to cover and wanted do it all at once. That pretty much sums it up when I do the Metal Shavings.

Divine Heresy, despite the drama as of late, have enlisted another temporary singer for their South American Tour. Travis Neal will be covering the vocals for the South American tour and it’s said that Kerry King recommended him. Travis is formerly of The Bereaved and Pushed.

Ex-Bleeding Through and Ex-Martyr A.D. members are joining forces (Wonder twin powers ACTIVATE!), sorry every time I hear “joining forces”, old school Justice League comes to mind. Anyway Scott Danough and Mike Fisketti have got together to for a band called The Crimson Tide. Want to more more? Click here…but beware of the lambgoateers!

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You know whenever a person get’s fired from a band there is always going to be some kind of drama afterwards. Tommy Vext being fired from Divine Heresy is no exception. I honestly don’t know who’s side I would take here if I had to. In the post published by Headbangers Blog, both give pretty good accounts of what happened at the L.A. stop of Mayhem Fest. Although I’m not 100% sure that Tommy Cummings story is legit. Dino Cazares doesn’t seem like a violent person to me, while Tommy is a big intimidating looking dude. Younger and a lot more energy than 41 year old Dino. And I find it hard to believe that they just happened to be in the same place at the same time. Here are a few snippets from Headbangers Blog. You can go to myspace and read about it at Dino’s wife’s myspace blog if you like. You read the full story at the link at the bottom.

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Repost From Century Media Newsletter:

Despite parting ways with their former singer, devoting time to their ‘Master Class’ YouTube series and the occasional concert brawl, DIVINE HERESY is still in the market for a new singer! Could it be you? The first thing you need to do is hop over to DH’s MySpace page by clicking below and download some instrumental tracks.

After you have learned the songs, just record your vocals over the tracks and send them to Divineheresyband@aol.com along with a bio, any possible photos and contact information. Your vocals should be organic – that means NO ProTools, gang! The band will be making a decision soon as they begin to write their sophomore effort and will be playing a handful of Mexican and South American dates in August.

In case anyone hasn’t read or heard it elsewhere, Tommy Cummings (Vexx) is singing for reunited Snot almost 10 years after the death of front-man Lynn Straight, who died in a car accident December 11, 1998. I liked Snot, but I liked a lot of Nu-Metal and I still don’t hate it today. But I really don;t know how they’re going to sound with Tommy Cummings, it just sounds like a weird mix to me..

Tonight ends the contest for the Divine Heresy Bleed The Fifth cd signed by Dino Cazares. So without further delay the winner is “John” with this mosh pit story:

My brother-in-law went to Korn concert about five years ago. We got right in the middle of the mosh pit. We both got slammed hard a few times at and then we started really getting into it. This one dude had a huge ring through his nose and he slams into my brother, next all I see is blood shootig out this guy’s nose. The ring got caught on something and ripped out. It was sick man..lol.

I often thought about getting a septum ring when I was much younger but I never wanted anything like this to happen so I didn’t. “John”, I’ve sent you an e-mail.

Keep an eye out for a new contest coming soon and an even bigger prize for Metal Martyr’s 1 year birthday!

This is just a reminder that I am running a contest to win an autographed copy of Divine Heresy’s Bleed The Fifth cd signed by Dino Cazares. Click the link below to find out how enter.

Win An Autographed Copy Of Divine Heresy’s Bleed The Fifth CD. signed by Dino Cazares

Image Source: Amazon.com

Century Media’s Tyranny and Bloodshred tour was in town yesterday. Minus Arch Enemy, they finished up a few days before. Dark Tranquility was headlining with Divine Heresy, Firewind and Soldiers Of Scrape before them. I took some pictures with my phone because I didn’t feel like carrying my camera around with me so the pics are kind of crappy. Next time they’ll be much better (new camera).

Soldiers of Scrape were awesome, I’ll say more about them more in a bit.

Firewind were phenomenal performers. The guitars solos were shredding, the keyboards sounded cool and Apollo obviously can sing his ass off. I only heard Mercenary Man before this show and I liked it. Now that I have seen them I’m an instant fan and would go see them again in a second. At one point of the show Gus G. (Guitar bad ass) and Bob Katsionis (Guitar and keyboard) were going back and fourth in a kind of guitar dual which was really cool, but what topped it was when Bob was doing a crazy solo on the keyboard with his right hand and doing a finger tapping/pull off solo on his guitar at the same time. It was unbelievable.

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