Here’s a short video from behind the scene at the No Fear Energy Tour.

Go backstage and into the pit with Lamb of God and No Fear Energy TV at the No Fear Energy Music Tour. Also featuring interviews with and performances by As I Lay Dying, Children of Bodom, God Forbid and Municipal Waste.

Visit Earnsomecred.com to learn how you can win tickets to future No Fear Sponsored events.

So, 2009. I don’t even know where to begin. So far, so good as far as metal year goes. This is in no particular order so bare with me.

We got a new Lamb Of God album that I still think is not as good as everyone else thinks; and a new Mastodon album that is musically amazing but people seem to bitch about because it’s not heavy enough or something.

Cannibal Corpse release an album that is, well, another good Cannibal Corpse album. Nothing extravagant enough to go on a murder spree, but a good album. Cattle Decapitation almost convince me to not eat beef while Sepultura almost gave me hope that I could listen to them again. That didn’t last. Psyopus almost convince me that something is wrong with my ears.

Thrash is still alive and vibrant with new releases from Kreator and neo-thrashers Lazarus A.D. bringing an old school sound with a modern touch. God Dethroned give us a WW1 History lesson.

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There have been some great metal albums released so far this year. I’m going to try to name as many as I can remember off of the top of my head that have already been released, so if I missed your favorite, please add it in there. The Poll is after the fold in case it get’s too long as we move forward in to the year.

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There is still time to enter the No Fear Gear Contest where you can win the No Fear Gear in the picture here, as well a a copy of Lamb Of God’s Wrath from No Fear. The contest for the No Fear gear will end here on Friday.

All you have to do is go here and identify the singer in the picture and send me an email at metalmartyr.com@gmail.com and you’re entered. As of today I have 3 entries. You can also read in that post how you can enter to win a paid trip to see Lamb Of God at any stop of their tour of the United States.. Below are the list of prizes to be given away (as a package) from No Fear and sponsored by your’s truly.

• 2 – No Fear Hoodies
• 2 – No Fear T-shirts (one of each style)
• 1 – No Fear Bloodshot Hat
• 1 –  12-pack of the new No Fear Bloodshot Energy Drink
• 1 – Lamb of God’s latest CD “Wrath” releasing on Feb. 24
• 1 – Sticky Bumps Surf Wax

Click here to go to the contest page and try to identify the singer in the slightly altered photo.

Image courtesy of No Fear.

A week later and as usual we have some chart and sales results for two great albums. We all expected Lamb Of God’s Wrath to sell well and sold well it did. I mean, it didn’t sell Slipknot or Metallica well, but it still did pretty good selling around 68k copies and landing the album in the #2 spot on the Billboard 200 charts, losing that number 1 spot to Taylor Swift. Sadly this is only about 5k more than they sold during the first week of Sacrament’s release. This could be attributed to the economy or the fact that the album leaked a month before it was scheduled to drop

God Forbid’s Earthsblood didn’t do so well, only selling about 5600 copies but still enough to land them on the Billboard 200 at # 110. I think once they get on tour with Lamb Of God and on the Rockstar Mayhem Festival people will hear this album and want it. Either that or people are just downloading the hell out of this album. Unfortunately God Forbid is subject to people hating them in forums and discrediting them, even using racist words against them. But you have to ignore all that and check out this album! Most metal fans that bought a cd last week probably opted for the Lamb Of God, which I can understand, but I will stand by my opinion that THIS album is better than Wrath. Forget all the metalcore labels and everything that surrounds this band and LISTEN-TO-THE-ALBUM! It’s heavy, it’s thrashy and it’s catchy. I don’t know how many times I have to say it, Earthsblood kills!

Images: Amazon.com

This post was published on March 4th, 2009 at 10:01 am

Holt crap! One down, 10 to go already. I have a feeling this year is going to fly by faster than 2008. Today I’m supposed to be in Atlanta Georgia covering Scion Rock Fest. Due to my desire to move back to upstate NY I have decided that I need to save some money for the big move and going to Scion Rock Fest would put a big dent in my savings.

Lamb Of God

• The new album is out and in case you haven;t picked it up yet, spend the extra dollar and buy the deluxe edition that comes with “The Studio Experience”. The Studio Experience is just like the Sacrament tour edition that comes with the individual tracks to play with on various recording programs. Have fun with it.
• Some of the Escape The Plague codes didn’t make to the CD’s. LOG left this message:
  • If your copy of the album didn’t include a code, please email us at escapetheplague@hotmail.com along with your full name, city, state, the store and which version you purchased and we will supply you with a replacement code.
• The latest edition of Revolver Magazine has a great read on lamb OF God and a lot of other content in it worth spending a few bucks on it.
• Enter my No Fear Contest for a Chance to win some No Fear gear and the new Lamb Of God. Follow the link in that post to find out how you can win trip to see Lamb Of God anywhere they stop on the No Fear Tour.

God Forbid

• I can’t get over how much I love this new Earthsblood album. You can save a few bucks by checking to see if your local Wal Mart is carrying it. I got mine for 9 bucks there. It also comes with a live cd from The Starland Ballroom in NJ. Don’t think I’m kissing these guys asses for whatever reason, this album is just that good in my opinion. I have no affiliation with God Forbid or Century Media.

Mastodon

• I’m kind of upset because I’m going to miss Mastodon at Scion Rock Fest. The new album is an amazing progress and it’s just what they said it is, more of a classic rock feel, but in a great Mastodon way. After hearing it I decided that I haven’t heard nearly enough Mastodon so I downloaded Leviathan, Remission and Call Of The Mastodon on iTunes. I probably could have used that money for Scion, but damn. I have Blood Mountain and just never got around to giving the other album a good listen. I’ve tried before but I have to stop sampling from listening stations in FYE because they really suck and don’t give you a good feel for the music. I’ve been missing out on these great Mastodon albums. I’ll get more in to Crack The Skye closer to the release date.
• Enter the Mastodon contest for a chance to win a Gibson guitar and other cool prizes.

Lastly

• Exodus. If you’re in to old school thrash metal and you’ve never listened to Exodus Bonded By Blood…SHAME ON YOU!

Everyone knows that the Lamb Of God No Fear Tour is coming up. You probably also know that Children Of Bodom, God Forbid, As I Lay Dying and Municipal Waste will be on that tour as well. Want tickets? Me too, but first let me tell you what you can win No Fear Gear and Lamb Of God’s new album Wrath. After that, find out how you can enter to win tickets for the No Fear Tour and rack up “Cred” towards No Fear Gear.

No Fear and Metal Martyr are giving away a prize pack with a $100 value. Here is what you can win.

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Roadrunner Records has uploaded this clip of Lamb Of God front-man Randy Blythe and guitarist Mark Morton, breaking down each track of Wrath. Lamb Of God: Wrath will be released tomorrow, February 24th. As if you didn’t know that already.

Lamb Of God’s Wrath comes out next week and I posted my thoughts on it on Monday. Solid record, but not my favorite of 2009. I eager to see what God Forbid has to offer, but right now my favorite for the year is Cattle Decapitation: The Harvest Floor. Napalm Death: Time Waits For No Slave was great and I even liked Sepultura’s A-Lex. Cannibal Corpse released a solid death metal album in Evisceration Plague and Scale The Summit’s Carving Desert Canyons is the best instrumental, guitar driven album I have heard in a long time.

Now you can stream the entire Wrath album a week before it comes out. Mosey on over to Lamb Of God’s Myspace and give it a good listen at least two or three times before you really make the call. Here is the video once again for Set To Fail.

Lamb Of God’s 6th studio album (to include Burn The Priest) is set to release in a week. It’s got a lot of people excited and actually leaked a couple of weeks ago. Some people have had mixed thoughts on it and I’m one of those people. I’ve only been a Lamb Of God fan for about a year and a half now. It took me some time to get in to them and once I did I was hooked. Now I’m wondering if I’m outgrowing Lamb Of God or if I expected too much. I honestly don’t know what I expected from Wrath besides a good record. We get a good record, but it’s almost passable to me at times.  Maybe it’s because of all the other metal that I’ve gotten in to in the past year or so, I don’t know. Maybe I need to give it more time because I like it, but I can’t say that I absolutely love it.

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