"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."
- Charlie "YardBird" Parker
by Real Rock News | February 24, 2010 | In Uncategorized | No Comments
The only problem with the upcoming “High Voltage Festival” is that it’s set to take place in London, England. Great for U.K. fans, but not so much for those of us located an ocean away. Unless you are in the habit of dropping hefty sums of money on live shows, the “High Voltage Festival” is [...]
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by JonW | January 24, 2009 | In Uncategorized | No Comments
When Richmond, Virginia quintet Lamb of God began recording their last album Sacrament in 2006, there was friction within the ranks. Some of the members were dealing with personal issues that bled through into their band activity, and tensions were frequently high. “We weren’t really firing on all cylinders,” admits guitarist Mark Morton.
Fortunately, Lamb of God were still able to battle through their demons and frustrations and craft a fierce and surging slab of vindictive groove metal. In retrospect, it seemed like the animosity that was plaguing the band during the Sacrament sessions inspired ferocity and venom and the music offered release for their pain. With that in mind, Lamb of God had some concerns when they got back together in the studio to start writing their new album Wrath (out February 24). Having navigated their issues and obstacles, the members were getting along as well as ever, and while they were excited and generally happy, they were a little worried that their newfound contentment would dampen their fire. They couldn’t have been more wrong. (click more to listen to our podcast interview with guitarist Mark Morton).
Wrath is as brutally heavy, scathing and unrepentant as Sacrament, and the songs explode with a new level of confidence and authority, whether Lamb of God are ranting about politics or the people who’ve betrayed them over the years. The day President Obama took office, we talked to guitarist Mark Morton about the creation of “Wrath,” the politics of metal, the first video from the album, “Set to Fail,” and the changes the band has experienced since their first record came out in 1998 under the name Burn the Priest.
HBBpodcastLOG109.mp3 - Lamb of God
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by JonW | January 23, 2009 | In Uncategorized | No Comments
On December 14, John Ostronomy and Mark Strigl from the podcast Talking Metal posted a show that included an interview with In This Moment guitarist Chris Howarth. It might seem like we’re a little behind the eight ball since they’ve done four more podcasts since then, but we bring up the In This Moment episode because a video has just surfaced of Howarth, vocalist Maria Brink, Ostonomy and Strigl performing a cover of Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills.” Click more to watch.
by JonW | January 22, 2009 | In Uncategorized | No Comments
Say you’ve got dreams of heavy metal stardom but you’re stuck in Singapore, floating in limbo like Scarlett Johansson’s character Charlotte from the Sofia Coppola film “Lost in Translation.” Okay, she was in Japan, but you get the idea. You wanna break through and be heard by millions, but there seems to be no way to burst out of the local, insular scene — or is there?
Michael Kalember, a multi-instrumentalist and metal head with a degree from the Berklee School of Music, moved to Singapore in 1991 with a woman who’s now his ex-wife, and has jammed with numerous musicians, taught music and written jingles for TV and radio commercials. And now, thanks to pop star Rihanna and the power of the Internet, hundreds of thousands of people — if not more — are hearing him play.
Kalember’s heavy metal cover of Rihanna’s insidious “Umbrella,” which he calls “Umbahhrella” to spoof the way Rihanna sings, was recorded with the virtually unknown band Midnyte. The song begins with a torrential thunderstorm and quickly blasts into a chugging metal riff that sounds like a cross between Judas Priest and Dokken. The vocals throughout resonate with the vibrato of Rob Halford and the grunts and growls of Metallica’s James Hetfield and the chorus is appropriately poppy in the vein of, say, In This Moment. Then there’s a blazing guitar solo, which demonstrates that there’s more to Kalember than a sense of humor.
In addition to his work with Midnyte, Kalember recently produced an album by Absence of the Sacred and played bass on all of the tracks. Under the name Mixal (DaMix) he has also written the pop metal parody “Anxiety Sucking Out my Brain,” a song about psychotic road rage that mixes a poppy Priest verse with a chorus that could have come from a Broadway show tune.
Umbrella (metal cover) - Michael Kalember Feat midnyte
Here’s a link to Kalember’s other work.
And if you’ve been living in a cave like Gaahl or just harbor a secret love for poppy, hip-hop check out Rihanna’s “Umbrella.”
by JonW | January 22, 2009 | In Uncategorized | No Comments
photo by Jon Wiederhorn
Testament squeaked by their Bay area neighbors Metallica as well as Opeth and Motorhead to earn an encore airing of their “More Than Meets the Eye” video on ‘Headbangers Ball.’ Tune in Saturday night at 2 a.m. to catch the killer clip, as well as new videos by Satyricon, Machine Head and Warbringer.
And in the week’s ahead stay tuned for video premieres by Kreator, Dir En Grey and much, much more.
Click more to watch this week’s winning clip and footage of Testament from the 2003 Wacken Festival.
