The last week has been kind of crazy being back actually working for a living. I’ve tried to update here when I can, but time has been tight. This will be my last Scrap Metal Report and my last post. However, this isn’t the end of my metal blogging. As I’ve said before, blogging has renewed my faith in metal and I want to keep updated on it and have an outlet for that. For that purpose I started my new, personally owned blog called HookInMouth.net. If you would like to continue to read my metal bloggings, you’re more than welcome to come by, add it to your RSS or whatever and enjoy. I’m not trying to take anything away from Metal Martyr or the next writer, but that’s where I’ll be doing my thing.

With that said, let’s get on to the last little bits of news I’ll ever publish here.

• Roadrunner Records allowed you to download a new Killswitch Engage track called Reckoning. If you missed it, fear not because you really aren’t missing out on a great song. It’s kind of weak in my opinion. Hopefully the rest of the record will be better but I’m just not impressed with it. Search around and you may still be able to find it.
• Suffocation is supposedly filming a new video for the song called Cataclysmic Purification, which has been up on myspace for about a week or two and will be on the new album, Blood Oath.
• I really don’t know if this next bit is Ozzy’s or Sharron’s doing, but the “Prince Of Darkness” has filed a lawsuit against Tony Iommi saying that the Black Sabbath trademark should be owned equally between the for original band members. Regardless whether it’s Sharon pushing Ozzy to do this or not, it doesn’t matter. He claims that Tony secretly filed for patent and trademark of the name and is the sole ownership of the name, but yet Tony is still selling merch and such with original band members faces on them. You can read much, much more on this story at Blabbermouth.

Well that’s it for me, folks. It’s been a fun time here but it’s time to move on.

Post from: Metal Martyr

Heaven And Hell

The first single from the album, entitled Bible Black is available for for download (in “Single Edit” format) or you can stream it from Heaven And Hell’s Myspace. I downloaded it from iTunes and I gotta say that I love it. Dio and the boys still have it in them. They keep it modern enough to still be relevant, yet still hold on to the roots of their sound. Dio and Sabbath fans alike are going to eat this up!

Track listing for the album is below. In case you’ve been under a rock for the last two years, Heaven And Hell is the pretty much the Ronnie James Dio fronted version of Black Sabbath with a different name; Tony Iommi on guitars, Geezer Butler on Bass and Vinny Appice on drums.

1. Atom And Evil
2. Fear
3. Bible Black
4. Double The Pain
5. Rock And Roll Angel
6. The Turn Of The Screw
7. Eating The Cannibals
8. Follow The Tears
9. Neverwhere
10. Breaking Into Heaven

Image: Amazon.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

Heaven And Hell have announced the title of their newly recorded album as “The Devil You Know” and have set a release date for April 28th via Rhino Records. According to Billboard.com, some of the song titles include: “Rock & Roll Angel”, “Bible Black”, “Atom & Evil”, “Eating the Cannibals.” and “Breaking Into Heaven”.

Image: Newscom

Post from: Metal Martyr

Awhile back The Onion published a spoof on the abuse of the metal horns. “The Supreme Metal Council” or the SMC took this matter quite seriously:

The SMC convened for a special session after Nikki Sixx, Overlord Of Glam Metal Affairs, was sent hard photographic evidence of metal-sign abuse across the nation. Sixx’s fellow high priests said they were “shocked,” calling it “one of the most serious affronts to metal’s integrity since the rise of rap-metal in the late 1990s.”

SMC President, Tony Iommi weighed his concerns on the matter even more deeply:

He said he worries that metal standards have been on the decline for so long that few have any clear idea as to what is metal and what is not.

You can read more of this great article at The Onion. But if you really want to make a difference, try telling those “Non-metal” people that use our sacred sign that it’s no longer cool and convince them that the new cool gesture is simply the Vulcan Salute. Don’t tell them it’s the Vulcan salute though, cause then you’ll just look like a nerd.

Read the article, you’ll get a good laugh.

Images via Newscom

Post from: Metal Martyr

Tony Iommi recently issued an update concerning progress on the recording of the new Heaven And Hell Album:

“I have been so busy working on the new (Heaven And Hell) album!!! It’s all going very well I’m pleased to say! We are hoping for the album to be released some time in March/April.”

Ronnie James Dio said that the songs they recently wrote sound like a “Real Cross-section” of The Mob Rules, Dehumanizer and Heaven And Hell. It should be interesting to hear new studio music from Heaven And Hell. More metal to look forward to in 2009.

On a side note, one thing that kills me about Dio is that he makes sure that he puts the horns up multiple times through a performance. I know he claims to have started it in metal…but I don’t feel he has to prove it 40 times in one song.

Source: BW&BK

IMage: Newscom

Post from: Metal Martyr

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

Post from: Metal Martyr

“We’ve got about six or seven new songs,” Iommi reports, “and then we stopped to do this (The Metal Masters) tour. When we finish that, we’ll take a couple of weeks off, then carry on writing.”

The guitarist adds that he’s “really pleased” with what the group has come up with so far, describing the material as “really good, pretty powerful.” Heaven & Hell, which also includes drummer Vinnie Appice, has signed a deal with Rhino and hopes to have the album out “as soon as we can,” according to Iommi, most likely in 2009.

A lot of fans of the band’s live performance and album have been eagerly waiting for this and I can’t blame them. This collaboration with Dio and the former members of Black Sabbath have had a successful run with “Heaven And Hell Live From Radio City Music Hall” on DVD and CD, which left fans of Dio era Black Sabbath hungry for more…and they’ll get it!

Read More at Billboard.com

Post from: Metal Martyr