Mike from Strait Jacket Union, a newer metal blog, wrote an article about some of his favorite metal songs that feature keyboard. Strait Jacket Union is just making tracks on the metal blogosphere, but is worth checking out and adding to your RSS. One of the favorites on Mike’s list is Firewind’s Breaking The Silence from Alligiance, featuring Tara Teresa. He doesn’t forget to mention that Tara is a beautiful woman, as you can see from the video below.

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You can check out an update from Gus G. over at BW&BK.

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Metal Martyr Best Live Shows Of 2008

1. Carcass Reunion: This was like a dream come true. I didn’t think I would ever get to see Carcass play live after becoming a fan in 1993. Hopefully we will see more of this in the future in the U.S.
2. Hatebreed: One of the most energetic shows from a crowd I have seen down here. Beside being dry-humped by some over enthusiastic, sweaty dude behind me, I had a great time and it was a very memorable show.
3. Opeth: Sold out show, amazing show. I wish they had played some more acoustic stuff…or I wish I had stuck around for the second hour of their set to catch any acoustic stuff they may have played.
4. Firewind: Powerful live show. Guitars and vocals that just make the show. I wasn’t really a fan of this band before they went on stage but I was eager to see them live for some reason. When they took the stage I immediately though it was kind of cheesy…for about 20 seconds. After that it was total amazement.
5. The Sword: I think they sound just as good, if not better live. Guitar driven metal that is simplistic and catchy enough to keep everything interesting.
6. Early Man: A great, thrashy show.
7. Suffocation: Caught them on the Carcass reunion. The death metal and deathcore bands of today could learn a thing or two from these guys…like writing your song so you can play them live.
8. Machinehead: This is the second time I’ve seen Machinhead, but the first time in over 10 years. They still know how to rock the stage and were really cool during signings.
9. Slipknot: I’ve waited 8 years to see these guys live. A lot of people say they don’t put out the energy like they used to but I think they put on a better show than what they used to from the videos I’ve seen. Jumping around onstage is cool and everything…but I want to hear quality music too.
10. All That Remains: Twice this year I’ve seen ATR and neither time have I been disappointed. Phil knows how to work the stage and Oli’s nimble fingers make for some beautiful solos.

There is my top ten. Here are a few other mentions

Loudest Live Show

• Torche (opened for The Sword)

Strangest Live Act

• The Monotonix – Starts out kind of fun and wacky and then just goes overboard and stupid really quickly.

Pissed That I Missed Shows (Shows that came around and I wanted to see but missed for one reason or another)

• Kataklysm
• In Flames, Gojira

Image ©MetalMartyr.com 2008

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Metal Martyr Top 10 Favorite Albums of 2008

1. Kataklysm: Prevail –
2. Gojira: The Way Of All Flesh
3. Opeth: Watershed
4. Firewind: The Premonition
5. In Flames: A Sense Of Purpose
6. Arsis: We Are The Nightmare
7. Soulfly: Conquer
8. Testament: The Formation Of Damnation
9. Amon Amarth: Twilight Of The Thunder God
10. Bloodbath: The Masterless Fathomry

Metal Martyr Biggest Disappointment

• Slipknot: All Hope Is Gone (Just not as good as I thought it would be)

Biggest Surprise Of 2008

• Metallica: Death Magnetic

(While it has it’s flaws, this turned out a lot better than I anticipated and is a thousand time more listenable than St. Anger)

Acquired Tastes (albums that took more than two listens to really get in to)

• Withered: Folie Circuluire
• The Funeral Pyre: Wounds
• Neuraxis: The Thin Line Between

Here is a list of other album that I thought were great and deserve a big mention in no particular order. I suppose I could have made it a favorite top 20 if I wanted to.

• Unearth: The March
• Cavalera Conspiracy: Inflikted
• All That Remains: Overcome
• Children Of Bodom: Blooddrunk
• Torche: Meanderthal
• Trivium: Shogun
• War Of Ages: Arise & Conquer
• The Sword: Gods Of The Earth
• Byzantine: Oblivion Beckons
• Light This City: Stormchaser

Most Hated of 2008

• Century: Black Ocean

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“Live Premonition” DVD track listing:
I. Main Live Show (approx. 100 min)
01. Allegiance
02. Insanity
03. Into The Fire
04. Head Up High
05. Mercenary Man
06. Angels Forgive Me
07. My Loneliness
08. Circle Of Life
09. The Silent Code
10. Life Foreclosed
11. Destination Forever
12. Keyboard Solo
13. Guitar Solo
14. The Fire And The Fury
15. Drum Solo / Dreamchaser
16. Till The End Of Time
17. Deliverance
18. Brother’s Keeper
19. Between Heaven And Hell
20. I Am The Anger
21. Falling To Pieces
22. Tyranny

II. Extras:
a) Documentary / Tales Of The Greek Road Warriors (19:49)
b) Promotional Videos:
Mercenary Man (3:27)
Head Up High (3:46)
Falling To Pieces (3:19)
Breaking The Silence (4:01)
c) Unplugged – MAD TV Sessions:
My Loneliness (4:05)
Where Do We Go From Here? (3:22)
d) Live In Montreal 2008:
Head Up High (4:41)
The Fire And The Fury (4:43)
Till The End Of Time (5:36)

The two-CD version of “Live Premonition” consists of the audio part of the main Thessaloniki show on two separate CDs, available for the price of one. The deluxe edition of “Live Premonition” contains both the DVD as well as the two-CD set in special additional dicgipack artwork and an O-card.

DVD Details via Bravewords.com

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Century Media

CD 1

1. ARCH ENEMY covering DREAM EVIL’s "The Book Of Heavy Metal"
2. DARK TRANQUILLITY covering SENTENCED’s "Broken"
3. HEAVEN SHALL BURN covering TIAMAT’s "Whatever That Hurts"
4. SHADOWS FALL covering ONLY LIVING WITNESS’s "December"
5. BRAND NEW SIN covering ICED EARTH’s "Watching Over Me"
6. WOLF covering MOONSPELL’s "Alma Mater"
7. MERCENARY covering ARCH ENEMY’s "Burning Angel"
8. GOD FORBID covering MERAUDER’s "Master Killer"
9. WARBRINGER covering UNLEASHED’s "Execute Them All"
10. GRAVE covering ASPHYX’s "Vermin"
11. ARCHITECTS covering STAMPIN’ GROUND’s "Officer Down"
12. NAPALM DEATH covering DESPAIR’s "Outconditioned"
13. KRISIUN covering DEMOLITION HAMMER’s "Human Dissection"
14. CRYPTOPSY covering STRAPPING YOUNG LAD’s "Oh My Fucking God"
15. MAROON covering SAMAEL’s "Baphomet’s Throne"
16. WATCH THEM DIE covering BLOODBATH’s "Breeding Death"

CD 2

1. FIREWIND covering NEVERMORE’s "Believe In Nothing"
2. DREAM EVIL covering ARCH ENEMY’s "Let The Killing Begin"
3. FEAR MY THOUGHTS cover HEAVEN SHALL BURN’s "The Weapon They Fear"
4. THE AGONIST covering DARK TRANQUILLITY’s "Monochromatic Stains"
5. THE FORSAKEN covering GRAVE’s "You’ll Never See"
6. DEVIAN covering MORGOTH’s "Isolated"
7. HEAVEN SHALL BURN covering MERAUDER’s "Downfall Of Christ"
8. ABORTED covering TURMOIL’s "Playing Dead"
9. TERROR covering SUBZERO’s "Boxed In"
10. NAPALM DEATH covering HELLHAMMER’s "Messiah"
11. ASPHYX covering CELTIC FROST’s "Os Abysmi Vel Daath"
12. ZIMMERS HOLE covering OLD MAN’S CHILD’s "Doommaker"
13. FU MANCHU covering PENANCE’s "Words To Live By"
14. MANNTIS (feat. IN THIS MOMENT) covering LACUNA COIL’s "Heaven’s A Lie"
15. KIVIMETSÄN DRUIDI covering THE GATHERING’s "Leaves"
16. INTRONAUT covering EYEHATEGOD’s "Dixie Whiskey"

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First up is Firewind’s The Premonition. I wasn’t sure what to make of this band when I first saw the Mercenary Man video on Headbanger’s ball. I’m not usually one for Power Metal, but when I saw these guys at on the Tyranny And Bloodshred tour this summer they blew me away. Gus is an amazing shredder and Apollo is an amazing singer. I like the Allegiance album a bit more than The Premonition but if I had to pick one song from this album it would be Head Up High.

Kataklysm’s Prevail is just a brutal album from beginning to end. Before this I had only heard Manipulator Of Souls on the Nuclear Blast 20th Anniversary set. I thought it was pretty good but wasn’t sure if it was a band that I could get in to. When I bought Prevail it became an instant favorite. The first single Taking The World By Storm is a great metal anthem style tune, with a great rhythm, but I have to pick the title song Prevail as my favorite.

This Is Exile from Whitechapel is a dark and ridiculously heavy album that I’m really into this summer. While it’s not anything really different from most of the extreme metal genre stuff out there right now, it’s still a great album and I can’t wait to see these guys play next month.To All That Are Dead is my pick off of this album.

Amon Amarth is a band that I just got into this weekend. Although this has came out two years ago, With Oden On Our Side is amazing from beginning to end. Heavy riffs, cool vocals and a story being told in between. If you were to close your eyes and listen along you can almost imagine the songs in a visual way…and everyone likes a good Viking story. Ruins To My Memory is my favorite from With Oden On Our Side.

The Black Dahlia Murder is yet another band that I’ve only come to like here recently. For a long time I couldn’t get into the vocals of Trevor Strnad, but same was the case for a lot of bands that I have come to like in the last year. A quick pick from Nocturnal would have to be Of Darkness Spawned.

Seeing Carcass have graced us with a full blown reunion tour, I figured this was a good throw in. Call them grindcore, deathcore, whatever. Carcass is bad ass all the way around. Heartwork, the album and song have always been and probably always will be my favorite. A lot of Carcass fans will say the same thing. Heartwork is an amazing song with great breakdowns, solos etc. Just the way it starts with that tornado sounding introduction that just build up into that pinch harmonic and then a flurry of guitar. Embodiment is another cool song from the Heartwork album. Seeing them live for the first time next month is going to be exhilarating.

Love them or hate them, Slipknot put on a great show and with a new record coming in a little over a week we can expect a lot of buzz about favorites from All Hope Is Gone. From the two that I’ve heard (No I didn’t make the listening party at Hot Topic), being All Hope Is Gone and Psychosocial, I like Psychosocial. I like the chorus and if it’s any sign that more of the album is going to have that side of Corey Taylor to it, then I will probably love it and a bunch of Slipknot fans are going to hate it and say that it sounds too much like Stone Sour. I don’t care either way because I like both bands.

Soulfly’s Conquer still amazes me. I mean, I can’t believe that it’s a Soulfly album. Max is shooting 2 for 2 this year, with Conquer and The Cavalera Conspiracy. My pick from Conquer is Touching The Void. It’s not the fastest song on the album, but it’s one of my favorites on this album.  While I’m mentioning The Cavalera Conspiracy, I might as well pick one from that as well. Black Ark is just one of many cool songs from Inflikted as is the first single Sanctuary.

Lastly, to keep the number a nice round 10, I have picked Children Of Bodom’s One Day You Will Cry from Blooddrunk. The first couple of times I listened to this album I really didn’t think it was all that great. While it’s not my favorite COB album, it’s still good. With all the songs on this album, picking one that stands out to me was tough. See, with Blooddrunk all the songs are good, but besides the cover of Ghostriders In The Sky, they all just sound like typical Children Of Bodom songs. So I had to pick one that I liked the most and it was One Day You Will Cry.

There are so many others that deserve a mention but I would be here all day. So what would your list look like?

All IMages from AMazon.com with the exception of the top picture which is ©MetalMartyr.Com 08

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You have Dave Ellefson on Bass (ex-Megadeth) Jimmy DeGrasso on Drums (ex-Megadeth, Suicidal Tendancies), Steve Conley and John Davis on guitars and Dale Steele on vocals. They released A Drug For All Seasons in 2005 and they have a progressive/thrash sound to them.

The latest release due out August 19th is called The Reckoning. There are 11 tracks on this cd and honestly they are all good. I’m not going to break it down song-by-song, but this is what I will tell you. The tracks are heavy and they don’t get boring. It’s got a cool metal feel to every track and everything is mixed well. The guitars sound kind of like Youthanasia era Megadeth and keep it complex yet simple. The solos are well constructed and sound great throughout the cd. Jimmy DeGrasso proves that he was a good choice for drums and Dave Ellefson is Dave Ellefson, which is a great bass player. Now the vocals…This is the only problem I have with this cd. The vocals are good but they remind me of a bit of of a mix of David Draimen and Apollo from Firewind, except not as good as Apollo. Almost sounds like Tommy Prong, with that stuffy nose sounding vocals. Lyrically it’s not over-creative or under written. The songs are heavy and kind of catchy in a metal way.

If I had to choose a few choice tracks they would be The Reckoning, Wake Up and No Excuses.

You can check out more on F5 at

http://f5theband.com or http://myspace.com/f5thebandaz

F5’s The Reckoning is due out August 19th, 2008 on Oarfin Distribution (Koch)

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When I saw them perform on the Tyranny and Bloodshred tour earlier this month I wasn’t sure what to expect because I had only heard Mercenary Man when they played it on Headbangers Ball. If you dig good clean metal or Power Metal, than this is a band worth checking out. The band is simply amazing and great live performers and they were really cool after the show too. That’s when I picked up The Premonition and I’ve been looking for Allegiance and their other earlier cd’s with no luck. I guess have to order online. If you haven’t checked out Firewind yet, do so! I can’t believe I never heard of them before now.

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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.

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