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.

• Catalepsy is a dethcore band that has 3 seven string guitar players. It’s not like they are Iron Maiden with 3 astounding 6-stringers. You really can’t decipher between the three players. Seems like a waste to me, but they put on a good live show. I’m not sure exactly what they sound like on CD as I’ve had little interest in them.
• Dino Cazares plays an 8 string Ibanez in Divine Heresy (and other bands) and has played 7 strings in the past.
• High On Fire’s Matt Pike uses a custom 9 string guitar from first act…which is pretty much just a 12 string without the E, A and D string being strung normally. It’s actually quite interesting. He does this for a chorus type effect being that he is the sole guitar player in the band.
• Scale The Summit’s Chris Letchford uses a custom made 8 string guitar and band mate Travis Levrier uses a 7 string. Also Prosthetic Records newly signed progressive/instrumental band Animals As Leaders uses both 8 and 7 string guitars.

So is it only acceptable for a band to use more than 6 strings as long as they are using them in a non nu-metal way. Progressive metal bands are allowed to use them because they are actually doing more than chugging with them? I honestly don’t care either way as along as it sounds good, but I’m just kind of wondering what everyone’s opinion is on this.

Image: Guitarcenter.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

Post from: Metal Martyr

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.

Wes Borland, you know, the guitar player that used to play for Limp Bizkit. Well it appears that he needs some work so he’s found a new home in Marilyn Manson. Now he can slap the make-up and all that good stuff on and fit right in…

Lamb Of God plan to release their next record in early 2009. They until then they will hit up a bunch of left coast tour dates with Metallica. I’m willing to bet that they are going to steal the show.

Divine Heresy found a new singer in Travis Neil from The Bereaved. Most people said the re-recorded version of Bleed The Fifth doesn’t sound much different from the Tommy Cummings version. Maybe that’s what Dino’s looking for.

In a recent interview Vince Neil said that Generation Swine was “a terrible record”, to that we all said ‘No Shit, Sherlock!’

Wayne Static’s porn star wife has decided it’s time to stop taking in other men and try to live a ‘normal life’. It would be nice if Wayne would try a new approach to music and make a record that doesn’t sound like the last one.

Bruce Dickinson just turned 50, but he doesn’t look a day over 51…and he still hates Sharon Osbourne.

Until next time…piss off!!

Post from: Metal Martyr

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

Post from: Metal Martyr

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!

Are you a Viking? Do you think you;re a Viking? Like to make Viking inspired videos…or do you just dig Amon Amarth? Either way, if you said yes to any of the previous questions than head on over to Metalsucks.net and find out how you can win this:

The winner will receive the entire Amon Amarth Metal Blade catalog on CD, including the three-disc DVD set Wrath of the Norsemen. Last day to enter is Monday, September 1st, and winners will be chosen the following week.

Lastly here are a bunch of releases for tomorrow July 22nd

War Of Ages – Arise And Conquer

Neuraxis -The Thin Line Between (Kicks ass, I love it!)

After The Burial – Rare Form

Mouth Of The Architect – Quietly

Fuck The Facts – Disgorge Mexico

Post from: Metal Martyr

Statement by Dino Cazares:
Obviously, everybody knows that Tommy assaulted me in Poughkeepsie, New York at a show. We’ve known Tommy for a couple years now and he does have a very violent history and I definitely feared he was going to react that way again. So whenever I do public appearances he could possibly be at, I hire security. Well, in San Bernardino everybody was having a great time and we didn’t see him at all, so I assumed he wasn’t there. So, 20 minutes before the incident happened I told security there wasn’t going to be any problem. It was between 11:30 and midnight and Slipknot were on their last couple songs. I said, “Me and my wife are gonna go home. You guys can go home and we’ll walk ourselves out.”

Who steps right behind us? Tommy Vext.

I had about a second to react and all I could think was, “Oh, my f—ing god, I’m done.” The guy’s, like, six-foot-three, weights 250 pounds of muscle, is well known for working out constantly. And he hit me. No words were said, nothing. He hit me, and the one thing I could do was cover myself up to protect myself. I didn’t go down or nothin’, I just put my hands up and he kept swinging at me. And he grabbed my hair and pulled me down. He was giving me uppercuts and I was trying to get away but I couldn’t.

I don’t know why he’s so pissed off at me, but I have gotten a lot more threats since the Tommy video came out on [MetalInjection.net]. That’s when I first hired security. Look, I’m 41 years old. I’m fucking fat. I can’t fight. And he’s 25 years old, he’s in great shape. The guy works out. I don’t want to get killed. I don’t want to get beat up. So I try to protect myself. Ever since the whole Dimebag Darrell thing, it’s really scary because you don’t know what people are gonna do. And people could react to what they read on the Internet or to somebody else’s story. They can react violently. And I know that’s how Tommy reacts, and that’s why I try to protect myself.

Dino and I were both crossing the VIP section at the same time. We hadn’t seen each other since the incident in Poughkeepsie when I left the band. We bumped into each other. We were face to face. A few words were said. It was like:
Cazares: “Get the f— out of my way.”
Cummings: “No, you get the f— out of my way.”
Cazares: “You’re a f—ing p—y.”

Then pushing ensued and a couple punches were thrown. I got hit in the back of the head and then we both rolled down to the ground. Some tables and chairs got pushed down. And then Live Nation security came in and a couple bruises and scrapes were the result of everyone being pulled off.

At this point, this is just shameful and embarrassing and it’s sad that two grown men had to lower themselves to this level. I just want to be through with Dino. I don’t ever want to have anything to do with him again. He’s called and threatened the Snot shows to [Snot guitarist] Mikey Doling and other members of my new band. And, basically, he told me he was going to make sure I would never work in this town again a long time ago and he’s making good on his attempt to preclude my existence. It’s just really a shame. They’re trying to make me out to look like a monster and they want me to be hurt. I know he does. He told me so, and it’s sad.

Dino was thrown out of Fear Factory. He’s been thrown out of every band he’s done. Then he started a new band with a bunch of young kids and he still can’t keep the people in his band. And just so you know, I quit Divine Heresy, I wasn’t fired. Dino is the violent one. He’s assaulted [Divine Heresy drummer] Tim Yeung. The first night I met Tim, Dino got drunk at the Rainbow and beat him up outside of his car on the way back to his house. I thought the band was going to be broken up.

Read the entire report at Headbangers Blog…

Post from: Metal Martyr

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..

Post from: Metal Martyr

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!

Post from: Metal Martyr

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

Image Source: Amazon.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

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.

Divine Heresy were up next and if you have not heard Jake “Nasty” Veredika, he does a great job singing for Divine Heresy right now. I asked Dino Cazares before the show if it was still a temporary fill and he said yes. He also said after they finish the tour they will be heading to Hollywood to do some full blown auditions. I joked about a reality show and he said they were actually thinking about doing something like that on Youtube. I honestly don’t think the crowd was that into Divine Heresy but the band still played awesome and Dino was showing off his 8 string Ibanez at the merch booth. He signed a couple of the Bleed The Fifth CDs for me, one of which I’m giving away here.

Dark Tranquility was pretty cool, however by the time they started playing it was 11:45. I couldn’t really get into them, though I bought the Fiction CD and I really like it. I don’t know if I couldn’t get into it because it was Late and I was tired or what, but I left after about 3 or 4 songs. A friend of mine from work stayed a bit longer than I did so maybe he will comment on how the rest of the show was.

If this tour is coming your way, I would highly recommend it. You won’t be disappointed.

All Images ©Metalmartyr.com and Con not be used without permission

Post from: Metal Martyr