Another fairly local band that I’ll be checking out later this year is Weedeater. Weedeater is southern, smokey sludge metal. Irresponsibly loud and uncommonly cool. Weedeater will be touring all over the U.S. and Canada as well as touring with NOLA’s Down and Voivod. If you;re not familiar, check out Weedeater’s Myspace. If you like what you hear then you’ll most likely dig Sourvein and Hail!Hornet. Tour dates after the fold. Read more »

Well, maybe not. Sepultura and Soulfly were on the same bill this past weekend on Devil Side Festival 2009 at Landschaftspark in Duisburg-Nord, Germany. I guess there is still tension and the likeliness of a Sepultura Reunion anytime soon is very low. Very low as long as both bands are releasing semi-successful albums, which they are.

What I think would be really cool but would probably never happen, is a Soulfly/Sepultura co-headlining tour and in between they could get together for a few songs. Yeah. Not happening…yet? Cross your testicles (or titties, whatever you’ve got) and hope for the best but…expect nothing.

You can check out some pictures from thre Devil Side festival at Metal-Hammer.de.

Sadistic Deeds...Grotesque Memories

You’ve heard me talk about Bloodsoaked before. Peter Hasselbrack, the “One Man Killing Machine” from NC and the band concept that most people would frown upon or consider rather strange or maybe even stupid. I must admit; when I first heard of Bloodsoaked and a one-man act I thought it was rather crazy. Who get’s up on stage by themselves and plays death metal? That’s usually reserved for acoustic musicians, right?

Peter wanted to make and perform death metal and he wasn’t going to let the usual complications of holding together a band stop him. With his drums programmed and ready to play, he get’s up on stage and bludgeons out a set like it’s nothing. If you really think about it, this makes just about all the difficulties of a band rather non-existent. On tour there isn’t anyone to keep track of, no extra mouths to feed, bed’s to share and pockets to pay. You don’t have to worry about your guitar player getting too shit-faced to play or your drummer missing a beat. The only thing that is rather different during his live show is that you don’t have the typical energy of a normal band on stage. I’m not saying that Peter get’s up there in a lazy and/or lethargic way. He gets up there and plays hard and heavy just like any other band…except that it’s just him. You may also think “How much touring does a one-man-show really do?”. Actually, Bloodsoaked get’s around like a catholic school girl. If you visit Bloodsoaked’s Myspace, you will see that there are quite a few shows lined up. Read more »

Alice In Chains

Presser copy/paste

ALICE IN CHAINS are giving fans a sneak preview of their highly anticipated upcoming album BLACK GIVES WAY TO BLUE (Virgin/EMI) by posting a brand-new song online. The seven-minute-long track, titled “A Looking In View,” is currently available for free download on www.aliceinchains.com or for pure listening enjoyment on www.myspace.com/aliceinchains. A companion video for the song is forthcoming and its trailer is available on the band’s official website. “A Looking In View” will appear on BLACK GIVES WAY TO BLUE, in stores September 29th. Read more »

Well, Hook In Mouth has been going just over a month now and things are doing as well as a new blog could be. I still have some loyal readers and few readers turned contributors, which is really cool and I’m happy with that. Besides that, it’s the same metal world it was 2 months ago. This Thursday I’ll be going to a Monstrosity show. In case you’re not familiar with Monstrosity, they are like the Arsis of death metal. This band has seen quite a few line-up changes in the last 20 years. They’ll be headlining with Thornafire, Torn The Fuck Apart and locals Morose Vitality and Bloodsoaked. I’ll be shooting some video and taking some pictures (Of Bloodsoaked, Morose Vitality and maybe more), so I’ll get those posted over the coming weekend.

Moving on. I would like to think that I’m above this next bit…but I’m not. They said Michael Jackson’s cause of death was actually food poisoning…from eating 8 year old weiners. They also said that they have made a decision on what they will do with his remains and since he was 98% plastic, they will melt him down and make him in to Legos…so little kids can play with him for a change. Now that the tasteless, yet funny jokes are over let’s move on to some metal news… Read more »

Image via stock exchange

So you wanna play metal?

Hello aspiring virtuosos, hopefully I’ll be able to speed up the “beginner phase” in your guitar playing a little bit. I’m a relatively passable guitarist, but being self-taught and a relatively “late bloomer”, I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. Hopefully I can keep you guys from falling into the same traps I did.

Note: I will be assuming absolute beginners will be reading this, and will start at the VERY beginning. A lot of this stuff won’t apply to some of you, but later on and hopefully something will be helpful. I’ll skip ahead in future posts. Read more »

Beginning tomorrow we will try something new. Alex Rochon will give you some tips on playing metal guitar for the beginner. If I had these tips I would probably be a much better guitar player today. If you’re interested in get on the road to shredding with the best of them, this is a great start to learn the basics.

As Alex has time, he will be adding what he can in later posts. Hopefully you can learn a thing or two by his writings. Check back in the morning for “So You Wanna PLay Metal?”

Daath's Emil Werstler

Last night I attended the Conquer And Curse tour as it rolled through Raleigh, NC. Check the tour dates at the bottom and if it comes near you, I would highly suggest you go. The show opened with Success Will Write Apocalypse Across The Sky. I knew nothing about these guys except that they have a ridiculously long name. I never heard anything about them from anyone and I assumed that they were a deathcore or metalcore act with a name that long. They were really good though and sound like a death metal band and their [cute] female guitar player shreds. It started out as a small crowd but it wasn’t too bad or as bad as the last show we attended. Read more »

Back in the days when Lita Ford was a female metal (more of a hard rock) icon and Ozzy was still an iconic figure in metal and not bastardized by a shitty Mtv reality show, they did this duet that is nothing short of classic. This power ballad was recorded in 1988 when Lita was managed by Sharon Osbourne and was recorded on her album “Lita“. At 50 years old, Lita Ford still has a certain sexiness about her and is once again beginning to tour.

Wayyyy back in the mid 90’s was when I first heard the high vocals mixed in with the low vocals in death metal. I’m pretty sure it was on a Cannibal Corpse album and Cris Barnes was doing it every now and then. I also recall hearing it on a Deicide album and again on Six Feet Under’s debut. Back then it wasn’t used that much. Every now and then you would hear it during a song and think to yourself “That’s a bit wierd but kind of cool”. I’m sure there were probably other bands doing it a little bit then as well.

Then something happened in the last few years and every band that has a genre associated with death metal, feels it’s necessary to do this mix of highish growls to low, guttural grunts. Some bands can get away with it because their music helps, but too many other bands are doing this because it seems like the right thing to do. In other words, it’s trendy now. So trendy that it’s become redundant and I’m really tired of it.

When influence becomes more like emulation, that’s when you have to worry and you see a trend starting to form. Will it die off like every other trend? It will faid but there will always be a few bands that somehow stick through it, just like nu-metal.