Official Metallica.com footage of METALLICA‘s pre-show tuning-room jam and “Ride The Lightning” performance on July 28 at the opening show of the band’s eight-concert run at Palacio de los Deportes (Sports Palace) in Mexico City can be seen below.
According to The Pulse Of Radio, video footage posted online suggests that two members of METALLICA‘s road crew caught fire and suffered burns during the first Mexico concert, as the two stagehands were seen struggling with a malfunctioning pyro launcher during “Enter Sandman” when both were suddenly engulfed in flame. As frontman James Hetfield called for the band to stop playing, other crew members doused the men with fire extinguishers and took them off the stage in stretchers, with the band resuming its show a few minutes later.
But was it real? A spokesperson for the promoter said it was “all part of the show,” and in fact METALLICA has staged this type of “accident” before during its 1997 tour, on which the show ended with the stage seemingly collapsing around the band as one crew member caught fire and another dangled upside down from the fallen lighting rig. The effect was caught on the band’s “Cunning Stunts” DVD.
The show on July 28 marked the debut of a new 140-foot-by-50-foot stage that features “colossal components and striking visual elements spanning METALLICA‘s entire 30-year career,” meaning that the “accident” stunt could be back for an encore.
At a press conference before the show, frontman James Hetfield said that the band was focused on “staying alive” while performing alongside the “dangerous elements” of the new production, with bassist Robert Trujillo adding, “Like James said, it’s very dangerous — we’ve got stuff flying every which way.”
A post in the “Tour Journal” section of METALLICA‘s official web site related that “shit really hit the fan (during ‘Enter Sandman’ with) loud bangs, random fireworks, falling towers, falling spot light guy, falling scaffolding, guy was caught on fire . . . then a complete blackout.”
Following its Mexico City stand, METALLICA next plays the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco and then two shows in late August in Vancouver, which will be filmed for the band’s upcoming 3D movie.
METALLICA‘s setlist for Saturday night’s concert:
01. Creeping Death
02. For Whom The Bell Tolls
03. Fuel
04. Ride The Lightning
05. One
06. Cyanide
07. The Memory Remains
08. Wherever I May Roam
09. Sad But True
10. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
11. …And Justice For All
12. Fade To Black
13. Master Of Puppets
14. Battery
15. Nothing Else Matters
16. Enter Sandman
Encore:
17. Die, Die My Darling
18. Seek & Destroy
Photos of Saturday night’s show can be found at Metallica.com. A few of the pictures are also available below.
RockNLive.org conducted an interview with guitarist Rick Hunolt of San Francisco Bay area thrash metal veterans EXODUS at this year’s edition of the Hellfest festival, which was held June 15-17 in Clisson, France. You can watch the chat below.
With Gary Holt still handling guitar duties for Jeff Hanneman on SLAYER‘s North American and European tours, EXODUS invited none other than former bandmember Rick Hunolt to fill in for the band’s summer 2012 other shows.
Longtime EXODUS fans will recall that Hunolt — the other half of the famed EXODUS “H-Team” who is on every studio recording from 1985 through 2004 and co-wrote some of the band’s best-known songs such as “A Lesson In Violence” and “Deliver Us To Evil” — left EXODUS after the band’s highly-acclaimed 2004 reunion album, “Tempo Of The Damned”. “Murder In The Front Row”, the recent photo book documenting the pinnacle of the Bay Area thrash scene, aptly documents Hunolt‘s tenure in the band.
Following his departure, Hunolt was replaced by HEATHEN guitarist Lee Altus.
Hunolt previously rejoined his former bandmates at a special concert in celebration of Holt and Lisa Perticone‘s wedding on September 24, 2011 at Avalon in Santa Clara, California. He also performed with them at “Bonded By Baloff: A Decade Of Remembrance”, a special concert which marked the 10-year anniversary of former EXODUS singer Paul Baloff‘s passing. The event took place February 4 at the Oakland Metro Operahouse in Oakland, California.
Artist: Second Rate Angels
Album: Second Rate Angels – EP
Label: Self Released
Date of Release: July 14th 2012
Tracklist:
1. Loose Connection
2. One Life
3. Spaced Apart
It is disputed by few that Metallica’s golden age has been gone for about two decades now. Or is it?
Second Rate Angels’ self-titled EP gets us all back to true and authentic Melodic-Thrash metal, very similar to the style’s highlights that had been played throughout the 80’-90’. SRA is a new band, formed in 2011. The EP includes three songs: Loose Connection, One Life and Spaced Apart.
Probably the most noticeable thing featured in the release is Dave Gobran’s melodic voice, being not typical for our days’ new wave of Thrash, which is greatly influenced by death screams and growls.
Nonetheless, Dave bombards us with a load of powerful vocals that would make Max Cavalera satisfied, even if it lacks a little bit from his aggression. Anyway, Dave’s voice is very inviting most of the time and serves as a fine welcome to the band and its music.
A thing I don’t quite understand is the band’s self-association to metalcore. Metalcore influences on the band are hardly felt, with the only true influence I strongly felt is occasional harsh screams by Dave.
As for the music, it is good and well written, but with very, very little to renew.
Frankly, there is little to write about it. The band plays nearly identically to early and even late Anthrax or Megadeth, with minor notable metalcore licks and techniques, making it a fully traditional band that probably does not aim to renew anything, but only make more of the good ol’ formula.
But perhaps it is due to the nature of thrash: Little progression with anything concerning musical creativity and innovation, and sticking to the roots as much as possible (only partially true about Metallica, with no further explains needed).
As a result of the new wave of thrash metal that engulfs the world wide scene over the recent years, bands that play traditional thrash and stick to its course are facing difficulties standing out for big crowds; the bands that get bigger attention are those that combine other genres with thrash, mostly death and metalcore, with less melodies and smooth playing. I think that their lack of musical innovation in addition to the fact they are a new band that was formed only last year makes them less “visible” to the big crowds that look for new interesting music. Yet still, the band’s characteristics listed above might come up eventually as a two edged blade – listeners will get attracted over the time to a band that does the same as done over and over throughout the last three decades, looking for new music that only sounds old (A thing that the production can be credited for, although I think that if the band had a larger budget, which I assume to be limited with the band being unsigned, the production would’ve been much more clean and sharp).
The EP is very good for a first release of a band, with the musicians’ passion for music transferred via it, but I don’t think I’ll follow the band as it makes its progress throughout the musical world; for I’m not much of a thrasher and never was, and I dislike listening to music that was done 20 years ago under the cover of a “revival” of a genre.
Chemicals Of Democracy are a five piece metal/hard rock band from Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Their debut album ‘The American Scream‘ was released in April 2012 on Dark Lord Records, produced by the band and British Grammy nominated producer Chris Tsangarides.
The band have just released a new video for the song ‘Paradise‘, shot, edited and directed by Tom Larkin. Check it out below:
Their triple axe onslaught fuses the pommeling riffage of thrash mavericks Metallica and the juicy melodic leads trademarked by Iron Maiden into the modern approach of bands like Bullet For My Valentine. Catchy choruses, mega hooks and vocals you can’t forget make ‘The American Scream‘ an effort bound to turn heads across the metal spectrum.
The band have also announced they will be making a live video at Club Red with Y&T on 17th August. The band would love people to join them there, check out the website or facebook page for details.
Chemicals Of Democracy are:
Darrin Richards – Vocals Greg Paradis – Drums Kevin Baxter – Guitar/Vocals Harrison Walter – Lead Guitar/Vocals J.Q. – Bass
For more information on the band check out this location
Artist: Hotel Diablo
Album: The Return To Psycho, California
Label: Scarlet Records
Release Date: 25 September 2012
1. Taken
2. All These Years
3. What You Do To Me
4. Psycho California
5. Bury You
6. Set It Off
7. Wicked Lines
8. Wonderwall
9. Trigger
10. What You Do To Me (ALTERNATE VERSION)
11. Bury You (ALTERNATE VERSION)
Return To Psycho, California is the debut album of recently formed Hotel Diablo, a band that could be somewhat considered a ‘Super group’, comprising of members and ex-members of W.A.S.P, Quiet Riot and Ladyjack. The album receives a finer touch of stature, finding production in acclaimed Producer and ex-Guns ‘N’ Roses Axeman, Gilby Clarke. So, upon taking note of this union of veteran musicians, a very professional and high quality album might be expected. Taken opens with an exciting, crunching riff before allowing Rick Stitch to begin the showcase of his vocal prowess. The album opener seems impressive, powering through with meaty riffs and the drums to match. The brilliantly executed little solo found towards the end confirms the Hard Rock nature of Hotel Diablo to be found throughout the rest of the album, along with Alex Rossi‘s six-string ability.
Out of “Taken” and into “All These Years“, which begins with a warbling riff that progresses into the main section of the song, as Mike Dupke uses the snare to build momentum into a soaring chorus. Another song down, another emotional story! This then moves into “What You Do To Me“; a song introduced slowly and acoustically – the first ballad of the album. Stitch‘s lyrics talk of how he has succumbed to the pain of past relationship through deep and honest imagery, much like the tone of many other of the front man’s songs.
The self-titled track of the album marks a definite peak in the album as its bouncy riffs carry the song through, demonstrating that these veteran musicians do indeed know what they’re doing, and how to write a pretty good song. Following this is “Bury You“, another ballad-like track with a slow and atmospheric opening that sets the tone for an emotion-rammed and meaningful song.
Next in comes “Set It Off“, further giving substance and hope to the record, as the pulsating opening guitars really do set it off. A slow second verse works its way into yet another momentous chorus accompanied by a winding riff. Tearing, impatient vocals then close what is one of the better songs on the album.
“Wicked Lines” begins, as do my feelings of boredom as it comes to my attention that the diversity so far on this album seems to have been few and far between, and it seems as though all the songs could almost merge into one.
Next in comes a heartfelt cover of “Wonderwall“: opening acoustically, as the guitar goes hand-in-hand, complementing Stitch‘s brilliant vocal range. In further complement, the Oasis song possibly even fits his voice more suitably than it does the Gallagher’s. Despite the over-played, boring nature of the song, Hotel Diablo are not far from bringing it back to life.
Finally is “Trigger“, which proves to show a release of some aggression. But yet again, what strikes me in this song is its similarity to the majority of the rest of the album, following very similar structures to the prior songs. Nevertheless, it is not a bad song, but also importantly, not a brilliant song.
Ending on this point; The Return To Psycho, California, despite demonstrating the talent of several veteran musicians, is not a bad album, but definitely at the same time, not a brilliant album. It may catch a few eyes and ears and sure, it is worth a listen – but ultimately, not the best debut album a band could hope for.
7/10
Line up:
Rick Stitch (Vocals) Alex Grossi (Guitar) Mike Duda (Bass) Mike Dupke (Drums)
Last month, MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine once again sat down with noted right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for a face-to-face interview for Infowars.com. The entire 43-minute chat has now been posted online and can be streamed in the YouTube clip below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On the USA becoming a “police state”:
Mustaine: “I’m 50 years old now and I’ve lived a great life and I’ve been around for a long time.
“Most of our fans, or most of the people who are against me, are very young and are very impressionable, which is part of being young.
“That saying that youth is wasted on young people, that’s totally true.
“I remember when I was really young, I was very impressionable and I believed a lot of things before I checked it out. And if I would have been told the things that I do now are gonna affect me later on in life, I would have probably said something like, ‘Well, I don’t know that I’m gonna live that long.’ But now that I’m 50 and I’ve watched so many administrations come and go and I’m watching my children grow up, which is an awesome part of when a man and a woman marry and have children, to watch them grow up, that you have concerns about stuff like that.
“Sometimes our fans that are younger, they look to me as a big brother, or even a father figure, because I really care a lot about them. But I have never been more terrified in my life about what’s happening to our country.
“I believe that if we continue on the same path that we’re on right now that America will never be the same.
“I freaked out the other day because I was looking at some investment stuff, and just reading it, and one of the things that it said was that if you get a second passport and you plan on moving out of the country, if you denounce your citizenship because of the taxes that are going on here or any of the things that are going on in the police state we’ve become, if you wanna get your passport back, you have to know things like, where did you mom live before you were born all the way up to now? Where did she go for prenatal care? Who was in the operating room when you were born? All these ridiculous [things].
“A friend of ours, it’s a wonderful lady that’s friends with my wife, and her husband, who is Canadian, they wanted to go back into Canada and they wouldn’t let them go because there was a tax lien on their house because of a contractor who had done some shady work and they didn’t wanna pay him. So the guy put a lien on their house and they’re in court right now. But they couldn’t even go up to Canada to go visit their relatives.
“But again… looking at these financial things. Because I’m filling out my will and everything right now, because I’m nearing the end of my life. Hopefully I’ll live a long, long time, but I have to face reality. I’m getting at that age where a lot of men make that journey either to heaven — which I think I’m going to — or some to hell. And I was looking at this thing that it said that you cannot open a bank account out of the United States Of America anymore. If I move to England and say I live there for the rest of my life, if I open a bank account there, they have to notify the United States, so that the United States can continue to tax me, even if I don’t live in the United States anymore. And I thought, ‘This is crazy.'”
“When we’re travelling through all the different checkpoints over through Europe, before all the globalization was taking place and each country had its own border and they had their own language and stuff like that, you’d come up to the customs, you’d go to the border, you’d have to stop and hand in your passport and stuff like that and now you just kind of roll through there. But when you come to your own country, it’s harder to come home, it’s harder to go through an airport here in the United States Of America than it was for us to even go to Moscow. We just got back from Moscow and we rolled through there so fast, I was laughing about it. Because we got out of the plane, through customs, got our luggage and were in the vans, rolling to the hotel for the show faster than we get through customs when I come home to the U.S.”
“It’s amazing how our liberties are being taken away from us. It’s like the frog in a pot of boiling water. If it was boiling water when he jumped in, he’d jump back out. But if they slowly turned the temperature up, the frog will stay in there until he boils to death. And that’s what’s happening to us right here. We don’t know what’s going on. A lot of the American people are so busy working their asses off to make ends meet right now, they don’t have time to sit in front of the news, and the news is such pablum, it’s opiate for the masses and it’s stuff that you wanna feel good.”
“For me, the way that I get any kind of solace out of what’s going on right now. Because I’ve been playing for a long time and I don’t plan on playing another 30 years. Although I would like to be able to be able to play music for the rest of my life, I don’t know that I’ll be doing it on the road. The pleasure I get out of that is being on stage, looking at people’s faces, smiling and stuff like that. And the screeching reality is when you travel and you go back through the airports. When we left here last time, my 14-year-old [daughter] was groped by the TSA [Transportation Security Administration]. And I was so mad, I was swearing. And the one very large woman said, ‘What’s that?’ And I said, ‘You heard what I said.’ And Pam, my wife, grabbed me and she said, ‘Don’t say anything.’ Because she knows that these guys are power-drunk and that they probably would have arrested me for just saying something about them groping my 14-year-old.
“The thing that really is blowing me away is this molecular scanner, this [Picosecond Programmable Laser], whatever they’re talking about, and it’s not only here, the Russians have one too, so it’s something that’s very real. And I read up on that and it says it’s about gun powder and explosives and that’s what the primary purpose of it is, but it also says that it can read inside your system and say what kind of medication you’re on. So I imagine that what they’re gonna do is they’re gonna have a database to cross-reference whether the person that shows up that’s got narcotics in their system is under doctor’s care or not. For example, for me, when we’re on tour, we’re around people who do pyro, and pyro is gun powder and explosives for the fireworks. So if I shake hands with my pyrotechnician, I’m gonna get arrested for being a terrorist because I’ve got trace elements of gun powder and explosives on me, because there’s fireworks going on. On top of the fact that because of the cocaine use and people using dollar bills rolled up, there’s traces of cocaine on all money, so anybody touching currency is gonna have remnants of cocaine on their hands, that’s gonna show up, and it’s just madness. To think that it’s getting to this point. I mean, I can handle us having security, but not like this.”
On President Obama‘s misinterpreted comment from a campaign speech in Roanoke, Virginia, in which he said, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else did that.”:
Mustaine: “See, the thing that I laugh about when I hear Obama say, ‘Give the folks a chance. Give everybody a chance. Take away from the rich people.’ Well, what happens when the folks that he’s giving a chance gets a chance, becomes successful, is rich. Well, then all of a sudden, you’re Obama‘s enemy now. And the thing for me is that I’m in that 1 percent that he’s talking about. MEGADETH won’t be able to tour anymore once all these things that he’s planning on doing to me happen. And the fact that he would say that I did not build my own business offends me tremendously. I’m disgusted with this guy. He’s my president, I respect the office of the presidency, but I think as a person and the things that he says, I’ve never heard anything this offensive ever come out of the mouth of a president. And I’m 50 — I’ve heard a lot of presidents talk in my life.
“Listeners out there can say what they want about me or be mad at what I’m saying right now. And I’m saying this out of love for you guys. You may not have love in your heart for me, but I have love in my heart for you. And that’s why I’m a public figure and I play music, I try and educate people through lyrics. Some of the songs can be construed as being a little bit unrealistic, some of the songs are a little bit fun — they’re make-believe topics and stuff like that — but songs like ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?!’ are still relevant today, songs like ‘Holy Wars’ are still relevant today. And that wasn’t because I was clever and I came up with the lyrics. I paid attention. I watched what happened through the Carter years, through the Ford years and watched what Jimmy Carter did to our country, taxes at 70 percent when I was growing up and thinking, ‘How on earth did anybody survive back then?’ For me, when you take out 5 percent for the business manager, 15 percent for the personal manager, 10 percent for the agent and 45 percent for taxes, what’s left for Dave? And people think, ‘Oh, Dave is a millionaire.’ No, Dave isn’t. Dave‘s an American that’s getting plowed by the government.”
“The funny thing was many years ago, when Obama first got in office, I said something, I was in Australia, and I was on the radio and a lot of people took exception to what I said. I said that he was the most divisive president that I’ve ever seen. And look what’s happening right now — there’s race wars, there’s class wars, there’s sexual wars now, there’s religious wars. Don’t we remember how smooth this guy was when he was saying that we’re gonna bring together and he was for change and hope?”
“Why hasn’t somebody moved to impeach this man? With all of the proof about his birth certificate being fake. And you see the signs in Kenya that say ‘the birthplace of Barack Obama.’ Hello?! C’mon, guys. How stupid are we right now? I guess the best revenge is when you look back in history at what Michelle [Obama] wore at his inauguration and she had a black dress on with two red triangles, so she looked like a black widow turned upside down. So there’s gotta be some symbology there. You just don’t wear something like that to some event like that without there being some kind of future message being told.”
On who he is and what he stands for:
Mustaine: “I’m a Christian man who loves his family, loves his country and, most importantly, loves God, and I’m willing to fight for those things. And I’m willing to share those things with the people who would like to know about it. I’m not willing to get into it with people who don’t care about it. I’m not gonna defend myself or explain myself; it is what it is.”
On MEGADETH‘s plans for the immediate future:
Mustaine: “Well, we’re really excited about what’s going on. We’re getting ready to do a new record. We’re leaving in a couple of days for Asia, and we’ll be coming back and continuing work on this new record. And we’ll go to South America in September and come back and continue to do work on the new record. We’re looking for a new release the beginning of next spring, hopefully.
“We’re super, super excited about what’s going on for us. We’ve continued to congeal as a band, with [bassist] David Ellefson coming back and he and [drummer] Shawn Drover as our rhythm section. It’s very important that the bass player and the drummer are tight. And David is such an excellent bassist and Shawn is such a great drummer, the two of them just needed to be familiar with one another. They spend time together all day long when we’re on tour, travelling and doing things — mostly seeking out Starbucks around the world. [laughs]
“I’m excited about the music that we’re gonna be writing. We just changed agencies; we’re with the prestigious CAA agency in Beverly Hills. We’re gonna be going to sign a new contract for our recording career. Our contract with Roadrunner‘s up. We haven’t really notified anybody what our decision is; we’re still kind of deciding. But for the most part, we’re getting ready to record this next record and I’m sure it’s gonna be chock-full of all kinds of subject matter that our Class Of 2008 has given us.”
On MEGADETH experiencing a resurgence in popularity:
Mustaine: “Music is cyclical, and heavy metal , in general, is more popular when times are tough, which is a terrible dynamic; it you look at the paradigm. Heavy metal music should not be successful when people are struggling. But they don’t wanna hear a bunch of vapid, anorexic, alternative, androgynous guys that are singing about love and flowers and these kind of ecstacy trips and stuff. They wanna know what’s going on, they wanna know what’s happening in their world and they wanna have people they can look to who are rugged individuals who don’t look like they could very easily be your sister. [laughs] And they want to have somebody that they can believe in, somebody who’s been successful.”
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 