Here is one way to get Dave Mustaine to shut up

Fuglymaniacs

at www.fuglymaniacs.com

has posted a satire piece on the death of Dave Mustaine.

Check it out!

melancholy, heaviness, quality: Eye of Solitude

Eye of Solitude  (U.K.): Sui Caedere (Kaotoxin Records)

The description of the music of Eye of Solitude might not sound that interesting and the label/category of the music might make some people stop reading as soon as they read the label.

                  A swift “No, thanks. I don’t like that genre,” might be the reaction.

It’s too bad, really, because Eye of Solitude, for one thing, pleasantly surprised me with how memorable and likeable their songs are. Secondly, their style makes them stand out in a genre that seems so “specialized.”

Eye of Solitude displays a melodic/melancholic sound that goes at a crawling speed, with a super duper heavy atmosphere. Of course, that means the drumming is definitely slow.

The vocals are a gentle super low growling. In other words, the growling sounds like a benevolent monster, but a monster nonetheless. I think, to most metalheads, the vocals will not be a problem because it is not an annoying style, with weird screams and things like that. Rather, it is another instrument for heaviness.

Eye of Solitudes strikes a balance, on one hand, between melody, melancholy and memorable songs, and, on the other, a heaviness reserved only for the heaviest of the heaviest, in the realm of funeral doom.

If you are very knowledgeable of doom death or funeral doom or gothic metal, you will probably identify the influences much more clearly than I can. The “funeral doom/doom death,” the really, really super heavy/slow stuff is not always the easiest music to get into.

But, the point is that Eye of Solitude is, in my view, different because I think that it certainly is easier to understand, to remember and to like.

I will give two examples. First up, “Performed in Graphic pain,” (6:40) has an instantly likeable melody, thanks to the atmosphere of the keyboards and the very nice melodic work on the guitars. The drumming is slow, with some midtempo moments. If you like slow guitar melodies and keyboards, in the context of a very heavy doom/gothic context, there is a lot to enjoy here. The guitar work in this song gives identity, and it’s all held together with a foundation of melancholic, monster-growl vocals and heavy guitars.

                  In short, an excellent song.

Example number 2: “A Note to Say Farewell” (7:20). This song really works out the slow, melancholic guitar notes, with serene, quiet moments. The guitar sounds like it is working on just a couple of different notes and turning those notes into a melody that will stick to your mind with just one listen. Once you grasp the melodies, you will not care that the song itself is actually quite slow.

                  That’s remarkable: that it does not matter if the song is slow or not. Yes, this is that good.

To sum up: don’t pass up the chance to hear a band play really heavy doom/death/gothic metal and do it very well.

www.reverbnation.com/eyeofsolitude                

www.myspace.com/532286172


www.myspace.com/532286172www.reverbnation.com/eyeofsolitude

a review of GOJIRA

Gojira : L’Enfant Sauvage

[by the “classic and original” line-up of Paula, Simon and Randy; with special guest David]

Paula: I just love your energy…it has a certain je ne sais quois…well done. Simple, not fast music, with groove. Good!

Randy: Hey, dog, I gotta tell ya man, this ain’t very good, man. It’s very repetitive. It sounds like dumbed-down music for fans of Pantera, Damage Plan, or hardcore or anything repetitive, oversimplified.

Simon: Oh, stop, Randy. You are too polite. Gojira, you are not brilliant, nor amazing…It’s just bollocks. You play one single note for 5 minutes and then you add these background/computer “atmospheric” sounds. Why? Because you know your “groove” rock by itself is too boring? Are you covering up the chugga-chugga groove?

Paula: Simon, you are so rude. They are doing the best they can!

David: Gojira, baby, you are semi good looking and you think you’re really cooking, but you ain’t the best that I’ve seen.

Randy: Seriously, dog, Gojira, why you only play the same couple of boring riffs over and over? “Explosia” is big chugga-chugga riff (a play-on riff) repeated a lot and it is the foundation for the song. To these ears, it sounds simple and has been pushed to the forefront of the song. On top of the chugga-chugga repetition there are little sounds (guitar? samples? computer noises?). What you doing, dog? Why the annoying noises? What you hiding, dude?

Paula: This album is a heavy, chugging, downtuned, heavy midpaced rock with screamed vocals. The drumming is totally groove-oriented and the vocals are not growling, not singing, but screamed out, like maybe you associate with Machine Head, Mastodon, and other bands. I’m not sure.

Randy: Exactly! I hate those bands! I hate all that “groove” stuff. Please, no Soulfly, no Machine Head, no Pantera, no Fear Factory, no knucklehead, no redneck riffs. Play the guitar, man! PLAY the guitar, not just chug on it. The song “L’Enfant Sauvage”: one big chugging riff with a groove. There is a little lick that is played over and over to spice up the chugging. But it’s not enough to keep me interested.

Simon: “The Axe” is midtempo chugging song with lots of gang-shouted chorus, and that constant chugga-chugga riff played until it cannot be played anymore. I don’t like this appeal-to-the-lowest-common-denominator chugging business, lads.

Paula: “Liquid Fire” keeps the speed at a midtempo range and the guitar squeezes dry a riff and rides until the wheels come off.

Randy: That’s the problem. That whole “groove” thing, man. Not my cup of tea. That’s four songs, out of nine. This band sticks to that style: A repetitive chugging riff, spiced up with some semi-strange sounds. Screamed out vocals.

Simon: This is not about speed, headbanging, melody or rocking out. It is heavy groovy, downtuned rock. If you like heavy stuff oriented around groove, then check them out.

If you want music that thrashes, rocks, headbangs, that is fast or energetic, then this may not be for you. This is for those that like bands with an “alternative” not-sure-what category it is.

David: Gojia, baby, you are not on fire, so I’m not going to show you love. I’m not going to jump, either, baby. Oh, man, I think your music is slow. I better make a note to myself about you, Gojira. Give me something to write on, man. I brought my pencil!

Randy: Dave, do you always talk in song lyrics?

David: It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll, Randy.

Randy: That’s not even your own song!

David: Randy, why you getting so hot about this. Baby, you need the ice cream man to keep you cool?

Paula: Guys, guys, we are here to judge Gojira!

Simon: Gojira, that’s enough. Four songs is enough. Good luck and good day to you, lads. You’re just not what we are looking for. We wanted headbanging, energetic metal. You are not it. You have dumbed down two-note guitar music to a simpler formula. But you are on Roadrunner Records and that should have told us this is trendy “groove” music.

Paula: Don’t listen to them, Gojira. Keep doing what you do and I’m sure your parents will always be proud of you because they love you. Remember that, your parents love you very much!! Suicide is not the answer!! Love is. Your moms love you for always. But please, leave now, there is another band that we want to hear next.

David:Stay frosty!! Get a tattoo!!

The End.

money, money, money: Fear Factory: The Industrialist

Fear Factory: The Industrialist

The Cockroach Capitalist and You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do to Avoid Working at a Day Job

[An exercise in speculative hypotheticals]

Dino: I’m running out of pizza, and my weight is going down, so that’s not good. I need to make some money, bud.

Burton: OK, I’ll come over and talk to you.

Dino: Yeah, but bring some pizza, please. I’m starving and the toilet is overflowing, so bring a plunger.

Burton: Alright.

(Later, at Dino’s house [of pizza and overflowing toilets]

Burton: I heard that some bands are firing everybody so they don’t have to share any of the money. I think if it’s you and me, we can share the money just between the two of us and maybe you can have more pizza.

Dino: Great idea! More pizza and hamburgers for me! Do you think I’m getting too fat?

Burton: No, people like you because you are fat, Dino. Here, eat some pizza.

Dino: Wait, but what about the drums and bass and stuff?

Burton: Drum machines and studio technology, my pizza-loving friend!! Let’s use a drum machine and have friends help us layer the living daylights out of the next album.

Dino: (stuffing his face) Cool. What do you think I should do with my guitar parts?

Burton: Forget it, play a chugga-chugga riff, like you do when you play with one hand and eat pizza with the other. Then, we will loop that riff and add some machine-robot sounds for “atmosphere”. People will say it’s “genius”!

Dino: Ha ha ha! You’re right! I like looping, drum machines, studio tricks and pizza, especially pizza.

Burton: Well, pizza lover, let’s just say that you are not known for being a gifted guitar player.

Dino: (putting french fries and cookies on his pizza) What about your vocals?

Burton: Ah, whatever. Auto tune everything. Just bark like a dog and then scream and let our friends edit this stuff with their computers and add layers to make it sound robotic and let’s leave it at that.

Dino: (licking some cheese that fell on the floor) Yup, anything that we can use as an excuse to tour! Who should we hire for drums and bass?

Burton: Don’t worry about it. Let’s find a couple of desperate suckers who will be fooled into thinking they will make good money as hired hands. Just don’t tell them anything. We’ll fire them at the end of the tour.

Dino: (putting some pasta and hot sauce on his pizza) OK, I like the plan. Let’s call the album “The Industrialist” and let’s use drum machines and let’s program the hell out it in the studio. I will chugga-chugga with my guitar and you scream and I think that will be enough.

Burton: Yup, yup. Nobody pays attention anyway. It’s all just drunk Pantera and Soulfly fans at the shows. I just need to remember to tell them that they are the best fans in the world, that they rule, tell them to move, to mosh and tell them to keep drinking and eating pizza and we’ll be alright.

Dino: (putting jalapeños, pickles, refried beans, rice, chicken wings, pineapple, bacon, some dog food and tuna on his pizza) Awesome plan! I like it! I like it more than this pizza!! No wait, that’s not true, man.

Burton: OK, Dino, you look tired. Go to sleep, have some pizza and we’ll go loop some guitar chugga-chugga tomorrow.

Dino: Ah, ok, I think that if we wor…(snoring. fell asleep with a pizza slice on his mouth).

The End.

garbage rock band Slipknot pays tribute

Big news today:

members of alternative junk rock group Slipknot pay tribute to their dead drug-addicted friend Paul: 

by buying some soda at a local corner shop

They are, reportedly, “pretty sure” that at some point during the time he was alive, that is, before he died from drugs, that their friend Paul might have bought some soda at that store. In addition, the store’s parking lot is known to be frequented by drug dealers, so the chances that Paul was there are, again, “pretty good,” they say.

“We came here today and we were thirsty and we thought, when we buy this soda, why don’t we declare that it is a tribute to our fallen drug-addicted friend Paul”.

Slipknot, who play alternative junk rock and wear idiotic masks, have also said:

“Our friend, when he was not shooting up drugs and making life miserable for everybody, was a musical genius of legendary proportions. Think, Mozart or Beethoven, and any other classical music name that people consider good…Hey, can you give me other names of classical musicians? Because I don’t know any other names, besides the ones that people namedrop in order to sound smart, ya know…Anyway, what was I saying?”

The reporter said, “You were saying that your drug-addicted friend Paul was, in addition to a drug addict, an intelligent person.”

“Ah, yeah, man, anyway, so Paul was a pretty smart guy. I mean, he got his G.E.D. and everything, ya know, so, anyway, he was like an artist of classical music…So, everything we do now, is in tribute to him. Kids should take inspiration from him…

The reporter asked, “Kids should use drugs and die?!”

“No, man! You are twisting my words! I’m talking about music, man! Damn. I’m saying everything we do now is in tribute to him. Like, right now, I need to sneeze and when I do it, it is in tribute to Paul, who was a drug addict.”

At any rate, this band Slipknot will consume that soft drink some time later this afternoon. And when they do, you can be damn sure it will be in tribute to their “classical-music-composer-like” friend, Paul, who was a drug addict.

Slipknot, who have made millions of dollars by impressing young kids who fall for cheap tricks like masks and jumpsuits, say that they will have a good dinner tonight. They believe that their drug-addicted friend Paul also liked to have dinner. That is, when he was not busy shooting up drugs, of course.

THE END.

review Testament: Dark Roots of Earth

Fuglymaniacs www.fuglymaniacs.com has reviewed the new album by Testament:

--

Testament - Dark Roots of Earth

 Bay Area titans released their 10th Album. We were glad to see the guys back together again for another full fontal assault on your senses. After "The Formation of Damnation" we couldn't wait. So when we got our hands on this release we were excited. After a few spins, this album didn't blow us away as expected.

"Rise up", "True American Hate"- are vicious facemelting efforts and more in line with what we wanted and expected. But after "A Day in the Death" comes the unexpected: an eight-minute soft-rock ballad. It could be argued that "Cold Embrace"adds balance and variety to this album; But we think in this case variety is overrated. Thrash albums are meant to thrash & maybe even make you jump into the pit. ...MOSH!!

Ultimately, the band has not succeeded in creating an album on par with The Formation of Damnation; but that doesn’t meanDark Roots of Earth is a failure, not by a long shot. All the vital components that make Testament excellent are there: Chuck Billy’s roar, Alex & Eric virtuoso guitar licks, Gene "The Atomic Clock" on drums need i say more (just fillin' in thou). Greg on bass. They deliver some awesome thrash metal motifs. Just not in the same overwhelmingly good quantity as in the past.

Overall more of the same is all we wanted from them. Despite Testament’s commendable attempt to spice their sound with something a little different, We can’t help feeling that Dark Roots of Earth is one or two track short of achieving overall excellence!!8/10

Fuglymaniacs www.fuglymaniacs.com reviews Over Kill "The Electric Age"

This is not a review by Metal Bulletin zine.
Actually, is by Fuglymaniacs at www.fuglymaniacs.com
It's a different type of review!!
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Fuglymaniacs.com felt that Overkill didn't need a review which is why it's late. So, We will dedicate this to the haterz!!

The Electric Age is their 16th album. It is a pleasure to see the New Jersey guys back together for another release. D.D and "Blitz" & crew are at it again.

First let us adress this issue the Overkill haters have with a band Being Consistent!!

con·sist·ent./kən'sistənt/

Adjective (of a person, behavior, or process) Unchanging in achievement or effect over a period of time.

OOOOH! be quiet nobody wants to see you pout or hear your whining about how this band doesn't evolve, show innovation, growth or progress.  Wrecking crew class: 101 is now in session.

No!! it not the same shit, different cd. Its Overkill you turd. First of all, you kow that coffee shop,bar,dive,burger joint you frequent? Do you go there because they have shitty service/food, beer is warm, coffee is lame, and you never know if they're gonna get your burger right?!! No, its because they do things just the way you like it ....

Don't bother coming here is you are looking for an Opus , Keyboards, III part- 38 min song, Jazz or Bluegrass feel. If you want music to take you on a journey, connect at a spritual level or do Yoga classes...FUCK YOU!!

This is angry music you bastard! In true Overkill fashion, early tracks like “Come and Get It,” “Electric Rattlesnake” and “Wish You Were Dead” aim to tear your face off with no trace of subtlety or grace. It’s all thick, thrashy riffing, thunderous bass and drums, and Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth’s one-of-a-kind raspy snarl. Things never really let up from there, as all ten tracks are nasty and furious speed anthems, “Black Daze” has a bit more mid-tempo swagger. “Drop the Hammer Down” is a winning scorcher, exuding a NY/NJ variety of pissed-off attitude that’s as authentic as it’s mean-spirited. The one-two punch of“Old Wounds, New Scars” with lyrics “you got a lotta mouth for a Jersey white boy.” ( whats not to like) and “All Over But the Shouting” will make even the most pacifistic among you feel like breaking a bottle over somebody’s fucking face!. All the songs work and all should pump you up and make you want to run over that fucker infront of you that's jaywalkin'.

This shit is not concern with making you feeling warm inside,intellecting stimulating your senses or puttin' you in path to being a better human being. NO!! Overkill doesn't care about your carbon footprint, if it's ain't organic, cage free, no msg, gluten free bullshit it's Overkill... you fucking idiot!

If you want variety go fuck yourself or better yet go get the new RUSH, Falconer last album was in Swedish (Nice, we couldn't get pass the language barrier but did enjoy the English versions thou...Black Widow rock!!) or our album of last year Powerwolf !!.At any rate you get the point. Class dismissed!! This shit is good 8.5/10

Dew-Scented (Germany): Icarus

Dew-Scented (Germany): Icarus  

In the case of Dew-Scented, there is a songwriting approach concerned with how to make thrash songs imaginative and distinct, while maintaining a high level of energy. In other words, there are lots of galloping riffs that are the bread and butter of thrash metal. These riffs are, of course, indicative of the mosh and headbang features of said genre. Essentially, the thrash fanatic will recognize the guitar sound and feel it as comforting and familiar, immediately.

However, Dew-Scented is not a thrash band like Overkill or Death Angel, in the sense of a 100% traditional thrash band. Actually, the sound of Dew-Scented incorporates two basic components found in death metal, namely, the growl-scream style of vocals; and the use of blasting speed. In particular, they use well-placed bursts of blasting speed in select parts of their songs. Thus, this is not a total blasting speed attack, but a precision method in songs. The vocals, by the way, are not gruff nor guttural nor anything low, but are rather of the “painful scream” style, and are aggressive.

As a result, they manage to bridge the gap between thrash and death in a relatively smooth way. It is fast, headbanging, no-nonsense guitar work, with growled vocals that feature the element of brutality.

Interestingly, thinking about it, Dew-Scented is something of a gem. With this sound, this band can appeal to thrash and death metal fans, in a serious way. In substantial forms, they take out the punk/hardcore/silly elements of thrash, and re-energize thrash by with the brutality of death metal. That means, in turn, that unlike some death metal, one can really hear the guitar work, the riffs are very upfront, and make things intelligible to both genres.

Dew-Scented zealots tend to consider their 2003 album “Impact” as their best. I wish not to argue nor to compare. I will say this, however, this is a very strong album, perfect for those into the harder forms of thrash.

Songs like “Sworn to Obey,” “Thrown to the Lions”                 and “The Fall of Man” have riffs that fly at your face. The energy, the feel of these songs is simply awesome. With the selective blasting in place and the bits of fast melody, and fast solos, it’s a band that is doing it up right.

Lest you think that they only have speed to offer, check out “Reawakening” for some of the heaviest, most brutal vocals and moments on the whole album. Here they explore a midpaced feel, with uptempo moments, giving the vocalist a chance to be more brutal, where things get a bit more death metal, shall we say.

To sum up: don’t dismiss this album as just “another thrash” album. It is not. It is substantially different from pure thrash, with more aggression, more heaviness and brutality. Clearly, the band has the objective of balancing the riff-o-rama and clarity of the thrash sound, but with a higher level of energy and aggression found in death metal. Combined with strong songs, the band has succeeded and created a quality album from start to finish.

www.dew-scented.de

www.reverbnation.com/dewscented