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After you finish making out your grocery list, head on over to Thrash Hits TV and win a couple tickets to Bloodstock Open Air!

Post from: Metal Martyr

Post from: Metal Martyr

Toxic Holocaust

• 03/27/09 San Francisco, CA United States Rasputins FREE 7 pm in-store show
• 03/27/09 Richmond, CA United States Burnt Ramen evening show
• 03/28/09 Anaheim, CA United States The Grove w/ Carcass as part of the California Metalfest
• 04/03/09 Salt Lake City, UT United States Club Vegas
• 04/04/09 Colorado Springs, CO United States Black Sheep
• 04/09/09 Columbus, OH United States Ravari Room

Toxic Holocaust With Napalm Death, Kataklysm, Coliseum and Trap Them

• 04/10/09 Allentown, PA United States Crocodile Rock
• 04/11/09 New York, NY United States Blender Theatre @ Gramercy
• 04/12/09 Springfield, VA United States Jaxx
• 04/13/09 Cincinnati, OH United States The Madhatter
• 04/14/09 Detroit, MI United States Majestic Theater
• 04/15/09 Sudbury, ON Canada Serbian Hall
• 04/17/09 Worcester, MA United States Palladium (part of New England Metal & Hardcore Fest)
• 04/18/09 Syracuse, NY United States Lost Horizon
• 04/19/09 Sayreville, NJ United States Starland Ballroom
• 04/20/09 Virginia Beach, VA United States Peppermint Beach Club
• 04/21/09 Wilmington, NC United States Soapbox Laundrolounge
• 04/22/09 Spartanburg, SC United States Ground Zero
• 04/23/09 Atlanta, GA United States Masquerade
• 04/24/09 Raleigh, NC United States Volume 11 Tavern
• 04/26/09 Austin, TX United States Emo’s
• 04/27/09 Houston, TX United States Meridian
• 04/28/09 San Antonio, TX United States White Rabbit 
• 04/29/09 Fort Worth, TX United States Ridglea Theater
• 04/30/09 Albuquerque, NM United States Sunshine Theater
• 05/01/09 Tempe, AZ United States The Clubhouse
• 05/02/09 San Diego, CA United States Soma
• 05/03/09 Los Angeles, CA United States Key Club
• 05/04/09 San Francisco, CA United States Grand Ballroom
• 05/05/09 Portland, OR United States Hawthorne Theatre
• 05/06/09 Seattle, WA United States Studio Seven
• 05/08/09 Colorado Springs, CO United States Black Sheep
• 05/09/09 Denver, CO United States Marquis Theater
• 05/10/09 Lubbock, TX United States Tequila Jungle
• 05/11/09 Tulsa, OK United States The Marquee
• 05/12/09 St. Louis, MO United States Fubar
• 05/13/09 Chicago, IL United States House of Blues
• 05/14/09 Cleveland, OH United States Peabody’s
• 05/15/09  Toronto, ON Canada Opera House
• 05/16/09 Ottawa, ON Canada Babylon 
• 05/17/09 Montreal, QC Canada Les Foufounes Electrique
• 05/18/09 Quebec City, QC Canada L’Imperial

Image: Amazon.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

MetalUnderground

Time Waits For No Slave comes out on February 10th on Century Media. I’ve had a chance to listen to the album and it’s a great, modern Napalm Death album. A quick review and tour dates after the fold.

Time Waits For No Slave is a great example of the Grindcore genre. Right from the beginning with Strongarm, it has that punk element to it that makes grindcore what it is. Fast and relentless, yet structured. On The Brink Of Extinction is a great chugging-riffed, plus triplets that should have the pits ablaze and shows the new crowd that you don’t have to have hammer on taps and pulls off every two seconds to make a modern “extreme metal” song. The title track, Time Waits For No Slave has a really cool lead riff that continues throughout most of the song and is easy to get hooked on with Barney’s mouth full of marbles vocals and semi-clean chorus (NOT like a metalcore clean vocal). With 28 years and 14 albums, these guys can still churn out the metal fury and show the new generation of deah/metalcore that THIS is how you make a metal album that will be remembered next year. I don’t have many Napalm Death albums, but this is surely bringing me back to the ones I have (Diatribes, Inside And Torn Apart and Utopia Banished).

Napalm Death Confirmed Tour Dates

• 4/11 – Blender Theater in New York, NY 
• 4/17 – New England Metalcore Festival in Worcester, MA
• 4/24 -Volume 11 Tavern in Raleigh, NC
• 5/3 -  Key Club in L.A. CA
• 5/6 -  Studio Seven in Seattle, WA

Image: Century Media

Post from: Metal Martyr

Maurizio Iacono

Ex Deo is metal inspired by The Roman Empire and can be described as Kataklysmic Pagan/Viking Metal.  You can check out the demo “Cry Havoc” from Ex Deo at their myspace.

Image Source: Nuclear Blast Media Lounge

Post from: Metal Martyr

I picked up Kataklysm’s 2006 release, In The Arms Of Devastation. I figured I really liked Prevail so I might as well start working on buying older Kataklysm cd’s and see what I like. In The Arms Of Devastation is just as awesome as Prevail. The album features guest appearances by a couple of other people you might know. Morgan Lander of Kittie guest sings on It Turns To Rust. Rob Doherty and Tim Roth (no, not the British actor) of Into Eternity make a guest appearance on The Road To Devastation.

If you’re still just getting in to Kataklysm (yeah, where the hell have I been?) then you should check out this album. I bought a used version of the Special Edition with a live performance in La Laiterie in Strasbourg, France. It’s not a great sounding DVD, but it’s ok. The DVD also has the video for Crippled & Broken and To Reign Again. Crippled & Broken is an anti-war song about the after effects of war on the human mind. I don’t necessarily like the message but it’s a cool song and video.

Image: Amazon.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

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

Image Source: Amazon.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

IGN.Com

• Frank Mullen – Suffocation
• Lars Göran Petrov – Entombed
• Paul Pavlovich – Assük
• David Vincent – Morbid Angel
• Mikael Akerfeldt – Opeth/ Bloodbath
• Antti Boman – Demilich
• John Tardy – Obituary
• Martin Van Duren – Hail Of Bullets
• Chuck Schuldiner – Death
• Thomas Lindburg – At The Gates

Check out my picks after the fold…

• Frank Mullen of Suffocation – Suffocation are one of the earlier pioneers of NYC Death Metal. While I haven’t heard much of the earlier stuff I really dig their last self titled effort on Relapse Records and I think the modern generation would probably dig this one as well. The production is much better and vocals have more clarity to them. This band kills live too!
• Lars Göran Petrov Of Entombed – Another very more clarified death metal voice, I’d have to pick Wolverine Blues as my Favorite, and the Hollowman EP comes in a close second. With all the other “deathcore” and death metal out there these days, this is one of the staple bands out of the overlooked death metal scene.
• David Vincent of Morbid Angel – I was fan as soon as I heard the doom ridden, creepiness of God Of Emptiness. The entire Covenant album is awesome as well as Blessed Are The Sick, Alters Of Madness and Domination. Domination doesn’t get as much credit as it should.
• Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth/Bloodbath – Even though I have only come to really know Opeth and Bloodbath in the past 6 or 8 months, I can’t get past the sound the Mikael’s voice. First you wouldn’t expect such a vicious sound to come from the same pipes that sing the beautiful melodies that you hear in the softer Opeth songs. I only have 2 Opeth CDs, but Blackwater Park is an amazing album and Bloodbath’s Resurrection Through Carnage and the recent Unblessing The Purity EP are about as brutal as they come. I need to get the new Fathomless Mastery CD. Maybe the merch table at tonight’s Opeth show will have it.
• John Tardy of Obituary – John Tardy had a different sound to his voice than most of the death metal vocalists when they came in to the scene. A unique range with clarity and the more they progressed the better he sounded…to me anyway. It wasn’t a low guttural voice that had to be done with mic directly to mouth in an inaudible tone. He has a voice that stands out and makes it look and sound effortless. Ever tried to imitate his voice? The End Complete is my pick as well but World Demise is a great album too.
• Chuck Schuldiner of Death – Chuck was another unique voice like John Tardy. Not only could Chuck sing with a different range of most Death Metal vocalists, he could rip on guitar as well. My album pick would be Symbolic but if you want a good mix check out Fate: The Best Of Death. Death had a melodic yet brutal sound to them with speed and breakdowns that were hard to top.
• Jeff Walker of Carcass – Once more a unique voice…at the time. Now every other deathcore band tried to sound like Jeff, but they have no friggin’ clue who he is or the legacy of Carcass. As you can see, clarity in vocals is a big thing for me. I like to understand what they are saying. It makes it much easier to sing along when you know the words. Carcass’s Heartwork is a great metal album as well as the slightly slower and often under-rated Swansong.
• Chris Barnes Of Six Feet Under/ ex-Cannibal Corspe – Okay, this is the exception to the clarity thing. Some songs you can catch a lot of the words from Chris Barnes and some not so much. Chris just has that deep guttural voice that sounds grim and evil. Six Feet Under’s Debut album, Haunted is a great example of Chris’s voice as it most Cannibal Corpse’s early albums but mostly The Bleeding in my opinion.
• Maurizio Iacono of Kataklysm – Maurizio has a great death metal voice. Deep, clear and powerful. Their latest release, Prevail, is a great example of Maurizio’s voice. If I said that all the others sounded as good I would be lying because I have yet to explore much more of Kataklysm’s work.

Honorable Mentions

• Jörgen Santöm formerly of Grave
• Tim King Formerly Of Oppressor
• Johnny Hedlund of Unleashed

Check out IGN.Com list here.

Image ©MetalMartyr.Com 2008

Post from: Metal Martyr

One of the years most heaviest tours will begin this Friday, September 26 featuring headliners KATAKLYSM, Dying Fetus (from 9/26-10-17), ARSIS (from 10/18 – 10/24), ELUVEITIE, and KEEP OF KALESSIN.
Confirmed dates as well as ticket purchase links for the Death by Decibels tour brought to you by CDV Software Entertainment USA and Sacred 2: Fallen Angel can be seen by visiting KATAKLYSM’s MySpace page. Tour Dates after the fold…

September
26 – The Pearl Room – Mokena, IL
27 – Harpo’s Concert Theatre – Detroit, MI
28 – Peabody’s Concert Club – Cleveland, OH
29 – Blender Theater at Gramercy – New York, NY
30 – Sonar – Baltimore, MD

October
1 – The Palladium – Worcester, MA
2 – Jaxx – W. Springfield, VA
3 – The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
4 – Ground Zero – Spartanburg, SC
5 – Volume 11 – Raleigh, NC
7 – Meridian – Houston, TX
8 – White Rabbit – San Antonio, TX
9 – Ridglea Theater – Dallas, TX
10 – Club 101 – El Paso, TX
11 – Soma – San Diego, CA
12 – The Key Club – Hollywood, CA
14 – The Avalon – Santa Clara (San Francisco), CA
15 – Hawthorne Theater – Portland, OR
16 – Studio Seven – Seattle, WA
24 – Le Medley – Montreal, QC
25 – L’Imperial – Quebec City, QC
26 – The Opera House – Toronto, ON

Image Source: Hyperlink from Kataklysm’s Myspace

Post from: Metal Martyr

I didn’t bother watching the news this morning because everything is about 9/11 again. It was a terrible tragedy for the United States and they say “We Will Never Forget”. Even if we wanted to forget, we couldn’t. It’s embedded in our brains and every year they have to hold a ceremony and repeat the names of the people that died. I’m not trying to be a negative, cynical bastard about this, but is a ceremony necessary every year? Can we not take other measures to remember and perhaps start moving forward? Like I said, I’m not being disrespectful to anyone that participated in the rescue, died or had a loved one that died when this happened. I’m just saying that each year is the same and I think it would benefit the U.S. and the victims more if we found a way to move forward. Not to forget, but to move forward in some way and still be able to honor those that we lost.

With that said, let’s round up some Metal news:

• Despised Icon have announced that they will off tour for the next couple of months and working on new material.
• A deluxe edition of Machine Head’s The Blackening will be released with a bonus cd with rarities and b-sides and a DVD with Live videos from various tours. You can check out more about here.
• Kataklysm will be filming the video for Blood In Heaven from Prevail.
• For everyone that illegally downloaded Metallica’s Death Magnetic and thought it was ok, but some songs were way too long there is hope for you after all. Some audio engineer thought the same thing and did some editing. Check that out at Metallica – Death Magnetic – Better, Shorter, Cutted (2008) Yes, “cutted”. Not my words, but theirs. Update: The link reported that the content is blocked because it’s suspected to contain illegal content. Q-Prime didn’t was a minute taking care of that, did they? Well everyone is saying that it sounds better than the original. Go figure.
• Michale Graves, the former 90’s era Misfits frontman said that there was more to the breakup and reunion issues of the band than the press or Doyle is telling you. Check out more on that here.

Post from: Metal Martyr