Via Metal Blade:
As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis and California frontman Ahhnold are back for round two with the release of AUSTRIAN DEATH MACHINE’s Double Brutal, the follow up to 2008’s highly successful (and, well, brutal) release, Total Brutal. With an appetite for all things barbarous, AUSTRIAN DEATH MACHINE ups the ante with Double Brutal. This two-disc goliath features one disc of all new heavy tracks in the tradition of all of Ahhnold’s greatest cinematic moments and a second disc of cover songs including songs originally performed by METALLICA, MEGADETH, MISFITS, JUDAS PRIEST and more, with cover art once …read more

Today (August 20) marks what would have been Dimebag Darrell’s 43rd birthday. In tribute to Dimebag, I wanted to write a post honoring his life and his contributions to not only metal, but to his friends, family and all of us fans.

Wow, almost an entire Monday without an update. Well, I assure you I have a very good excuse. The fact is that I started a new/old job today. I went back to work for my old employer in a new position. First day on the job “The Man” had me bustin’ my ass for 10 hours.

With that said, there is also this to say: May 31st will be my last day with Metal Martyr. It’s been a fun [almost] two years of bitching, ranting, misspellings, grammar butchering, hatred, (sometimes senseless) negativity and most important of all interacting with readers …read more

I have to admit, in the past there have been bands that made me want to shoot myself in the face with a shotgun. It was probably for the fact that they annoyed me to a great extent and not because I was a fan and they told me to do it in some secret message.
As we all know, many metal bands get blamed for kids doing ridiculously stupid things, like killing others and themselves. So let’s look at probably one of the dumbest survivors of a metal-induced suicide. How do you try to commit suicide with a shotgun and …read more

Let’s be honest. No matter how much you try to be open minded, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear that Rob Halford is launching a clothing line, you might think of Gay Biker clothes. It’s hard not to because no matter how much you like the guy and Judas Priest, there is always that thought looming in the back of your mind after he came out of the closet. I don’t think of Rob Halford as “That gay dude that sings for Judas Priest”, but that’s always going to be an issue when his name is …read more

As you may know, Judas Priest are coming for a North America tour…with Whitesnake. While they tour they will be playing the British Steel album in it entirety to celebrate it’s 30th anniversary. British Steel actually didn’t come out until April of 1980, but it seems a few bands are celebrating certain anniversaries a bit early. Mayeb it came out earlier in the UK, I really couldn’t tell you. The confirmed tour dates seem to hug the west coat while the south east gets reamed out of seeing Priest. Unless more dates are announced.

Painkiller is one of my favorite Judas Priest songs and Death’s last album, The Sound Of Perseverance is an under-rated album by the band. No one can sing a Judas Priest song like Rob Halford but Ripper Owens did a fair job during his time. The late Chuck Schuldiner did his best to wail and scream like Halford in this cover of Judas Priest’s Painkiller. Enjoy.
 

Classic Rock Magazine recently interviewed Glen Tipton of Judas Priest. The subject of some of the questions were Rob’s voice, criticism of Nostradamus and the decision of touring with Megadeth And Testament on Priest Feast. You can read the entire interview HERE, but here is my take on these three questions:

It’s that time of the year again and the Grammy Nominees for Hard Rock/Metal categories are out and I hope you weren’t expecting anything great. The usual “Big Names” get thrown in the mix just because of their names and history. Nothing groundbreaking here in my opinion.
Best Hard Rock Performance

Inside the fire: Disturbed
Visions: Judas Priest
Wax Simulacra: The Mars Voltra
Saints Of Los Angeles: Motley Crue
Lords Of Salem: Rob Zombie

My pick for this category would be Judas Priest simply for the reason that this is a great song and everything else on this list is bovine excrement.

Rob Halford has had a couple of other post-Priest ventures in metal to include Fight, a band he formed shortly after his departure from Judas Priest and Halford. While I used to dig Fight back in the day, Halford never quite settled well with me. It just didn’t have the same thing that Judas Priest and Fight had.
You can download the “Christmas Ride” mp3 from Halfordmusic.com. Follow that link and click on “Add to cart”. When you get to the next page click “Proceed to checkout”. After that you may have to sign up for a new customer account …read more