Stupid people are like a plague, they make you sick and wish they would just be eradicated already. A rock station out of Raleigh, NC has something they do during NCAA March Madness that they call “March Bandness”. They pit two bands against each other and you get to call in and vote for which band gets played, or some shit like that, I’m not sure.

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.

Even though we saw some great shows and amazing albums in 2008, we’ve also seen our share of craziness. I’ve compiled a list of some crazy things that have happened this year that I can think of off the top of my head.

• Byzantine breaks up…3 days after they release Oblivion Beckons.
• Light This City break up before releasing the last record.
• Arsis changes members more than their underwear.
• The Black Dahlia Murder lose a guitarist…steals one from Arsis.
• Phil Demmel of Machine Head passes out twice on stage.
• DJ Sid from Slipknot breaks both of his feet…keeps on trucking.
• Joey Jordison breaks an ankle, cancels UK shows.
• Nachmystium gets booted from the Opeth tour for undisclosed shenanigans.
• Kristen Randal shows her boobs…and they’re only slightly better than Amy Winehouse’s.
• Winds Of Plague drummer Jeff Tenney abruptly leaves the band mid-tour. Says he’s tired of seeing Kristen Randall’s boobs.
• Gwen Stacey singer Bobby Oakley leaves the band…cites that he’s going to sing for Mary Jane Watson.

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Slipknot’s August 26th release, All Hope Is Gone has been certified gold in the United States. ON December 9th the RIAA officially certified it gold after the record has sold almost 600k copies since it’s release.

Does this mean that this is a great record? I think I’ve stated my dislike for this record enough already, considering that I’ve loved every other album they’ve released so far. Some people say that a bands name can sell records as long as they have established themselves in the music business. I can totally agree with this statement even with the recent “flop” of sales of Guns N Roses Chinese Democracy.

I say “Flop” because everyone is saying that it’s been a huge failure…and it has. It has flopped in the sense that they expected to sell a lot more than it has up to date, even though it’s sold over 300k in less than a month. Most metal bands these days are happy if they sell 10k in the first month.

Twice in one week is odd for the report but there are a few things I think are news-worthy but don’t feel like writing extensively about them. Also, I was suppose to go see Mudvayne and Snot tonight and get an interview with Greg Tribbett. Unfortunately some things have come up and I can’t make it. It’s about a three hour drive for me and I would have to leave early and I have something that really needs to get done today. Anyway, here are a few things of interest…

• Statix X have announce the title and release date for their next album. “Cult of Static” will be the title and March 17th will be the date of release.
• Tony Iommi is suing Live Nation for selling merch that they no longer have a valid licence to sell. A license that expired back in 2006 allowed Signatures Network Inc. to sell Black Sabbath merchandise. In ‘07 Signatures was bought by Live Nation and they continued to sell the merchandise. I hope he wins because I hate Live Nation.
• Juan Montoya formerly of Torche talks about altercations leading up to his dismissal from the band. While Torche leans more to a hard rock sound, they have a nostalgic sound that grows on you for some reason. Check out their latest release Meanderthal and the In Return Ep sometime.
• Guns N Roses Chinese Democracy sales are being called a “Total Flop”, but guess what…Axl Rose isn’t losing a dime over it and neither is Interscope records. Best Buy agreed not to return any of the 1.3 million unsold records that they exclusively bought. Expect to see these remaining cd’s either discounted or sold to other stores maybe. I’ll wait until it’s like buy-one-get-one. I’m still curious to hear this.
• Oakland based metal trio, High On Fire have been signed to Koch  Records.

Or as the Roadrunner intern called them “Kock Records”, but that’s a whole other story.

Technorati Tags: The Scrap Metal Report,Static X,Tony Iommi,Live Nation,Juan Montoya,Torche,Guns N Roses,Chinese Democracy,HIgh On Fire,Koch Records

I’ve got a cool Guns N’ Roses book to give away over at The Rock Dose. I was sent this book (Reckless Road: Guns N’ Roses and The Making Of Appetite For Destruction) earlier this year to review. I like the Guns N’ Roses of yester-decade and I really like this book but I made a promise at The Rock Dose awhile back that if Chinese Democracy was released this year that I would give it away. Unlike Dr. Pepper, I didn’t do this as a promotional stunt and I plan on making good on my promise. Unfortunately I only have one copy to give away so head on over to The Rock Dose and find out how you can win it.

Image Source: Amazon.com

Even though everyone was almost sure that it would never happen, Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy will be released on November 23rd on CD and Vinyl (With free electronic download of the songs). You can stream the first single “Chinese Democracy” below. Pre-order is now available at Bestbuy.com. Tracklist after the fold.

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Warrior Soul takes a wild blow at Axl Rose with their upcoming release of the stolen title (Can’t really say it’s stolen since G ‘n’ R’s isn’t out yet) Chinese Democracy. It’s not the first time a band has released an album with the same title though. I always thought that All That Remains should have named their last album "Fozzy", after Chris Jericho’s band Fozzy named their album "All That Remains", but that’s just me.

You can check out a new song from "Chinese Democracy" called "The Fourth Riche" at Warrior Soul’s Myspace and pre-order the CD there as well via PayPal. I can see Axl Rose doing one of two things here. He can throw the classic Axl hissy fit and try to sue them or he can say "Meh, who the hell are these guys anyway?". I think it’s damn funny, myself.

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No doubt that at least some of you have read about the blogger over at Antiquiet.com that was arrested by the FBI for leaking some Chinese Democracy songs on the Internet. Well the L.A. Times interviewed Saul “Slash” Hudson, former Guns N Roses guitar player (as if you didn’t know) and he had this to say:

“I hope he rots in jail,” Slash told the Los Angeles Times.”It’s going to affect the sales of the record, and it’s not fair. The Internet is what it is, and you have to deal with it accordingly, but I think if someone goes and steals something, it’s theft.

This really pissed me off. I’m not saying what the dude (Kevin Cogill, AKA Skwerl) did was right and legal, but how does that bible verse go? “He who is without sin…STFU because your a god damned liar!”. I doubt if Slash ever reads my pages but if he does I hope he sees my comment from The Rock Dose that says the following:

“F*ck you, Saul. Surely you have done worse and got away with it. You know what’s going to effect record sales? The fact that this has been sitting on the shelf for 13 years. Trust me, even though a few songs leaked on the Internet, Chinese Democracy will probably sell well over 100,000 copies in it’s first week, hell maybe even the first few days, just because of all the hype. You holier than thou douche bag! You’ve probably screwed under-age girls, done more drugs than most addicts, even admitted to dealing drugs yourself, asshole! Have you ever served time or have been fined for any of that? By the way…The Snake Pit sucked!”

Seriously, who the hell does this dude think he is? Like he’s never committed a crime? Jerk-off!

MetalMartyr.com (That’s me!) had the privilege of getting exclusive rights to post the very first image of the New Metallica Album Artwork and working title.

Disappointment, which has been hyped up for well over a year, will finally be released in September…maybe. We never really know. Whatever happens we know it will come out long before Guns N Roses’ Chinese Democracy. Hell, even by the time that’s released China may just be a democratic nation, and then Axl would have to change the album title with another oxymoron title like “Sober Weiland”.

You can Pre-Order your copy of Disappointment Here.

(Disclaimer- None of the above is serious…except maybe the Chinese Democracy line…but even then)

Image ©Metalmartyr.com 2008

Just a quick bit to put out there. As if Rock or Metal Artists need advice from a nobody like myself, I’m going to mention this anyway.

If you don’t like the posts and comments about you, your band or your friends on Blabbermouth, don’t mention it on a radio show or in an interview. If you ridicule or badmouth the people that comment on Blabbermouth then your going to get backlash. And if you say that it “Doesn’t effect you” then you look like a fool because it obviously does. Especially when you make comments that they should get a life.

Yes, there are a million idiots on Blabbermouth. But there are a lot of people with good things to say and support you. Sometimes they comment just to comment and get a laugh or a rise out of others and sometimes they are just speaking the truth and saying what other people want to, but don’t.

Blabbermouthhas a lot of good information in real time and sometimes a lot of totally irrelevant info as well. It’s a great resource for fans and artists alike. Sometimes you just have to ignore the fools and not egg them on.

Matt who?