Iced Earth - New Disc In the Works

Tim Owens reports that Jon Schaffer is currently working on material for a new Iced Earth album. The rumor mill tells us us that this material will be a sequel to their Something Wicked This Way Comes album.

Owens's band, Beyond Fear, has an album slated for release May 9, and is lined up to open for Anthrax's European tour. Listen to a most decidedly Judas Priest influenced sample of Beyond Fear's "Scream Machine" at Tim's home page.

Tool On the Horizon

Word is that Tool has finished mastering their new album in preparation for a Spring release. It's been five years since their last release, Lateralus, so anticipation is at an all-time high. Bob Ludwig was on board, so we know the sound will (thankfully) be top-notch.

Apparently they're also slated to play a smattering of live dates, mostly in Europe.

Album Release Highlights

CDs of note:

• Joe Satriani's new album, Super Colossal, is due March 14.
  
• Former Iron Maiden frontman Paul Di'Anno will release a solo album in Japan (I wonder if it was "Maiden Japan" as well) on March 25.
  
• Dio will release the 2-disc Holy Diver Live on April 18. The first disc will contain his signature album played in its entirety live, and the second will contain a nifty array of live favorites by him, Sabbath, and Rainbow, including "One Night In the City", "Sign of the Southern Cross" and "Tarot Woman".
  
• Mastodon will cover Metallica's "Orion" for a Master of Puppets anniversary CD to be distributed by Kerrang! magazine. Their major label debut for Warner Brothers, Blood Mountain, is due this summer.
  
• Amid the controversy surrounding the leaking of various new Guns N' Roses songs on-line, their former guitarist Slash says Chinese Democracy will be released in March.

Thanks Blabbermouth.net.

Rick Rubin to Produce Metallica's Next Album

Unbelievable, but apparently Rick Rubin is slated to produce Metallica's next album. This comes as something of a shocker, since Lars stated last September that Bob Rock would always be Metallica's producer.

Dare I dream that the guy who produced sonic masterpieces such as The Cult's Electric, Danzig's first album, the Beastie Boys's Licensed to Ill, and let's not forget Slayer, might put Metallica back on the path to greatness?

Probably too much to hope for, but I'll be listening.

In Flames Live - February 18, 2006

It seems that every time I attempt to see In Flames live I get served. Usually it's because I've just missed them ("Let's see when IF is playing. Oh...it was yesterday."), but this time 'round I managed to find out about their current tour a whole month before they showed up at the Worcester Palladium. And a damned entertaining live show it was.

For those not in the know, In Flames burst onto the Swedish heavy metal scene in 1994 with their own style of "melodic death metal" - a flavor of thrash characterized by its grunted vocals and harmony-laden guitars. It's been an uphill battle to take to these guys, but with time their intricate riffage and soaring lead work sold me. Over the last year I've enjoyed listening to their late 90s trifecta: Whoracle, Colony, and Clayman, but generally stayed away from their later efforts due to many fans' complaints of them selling their souls to the demons who rule the satanic planes of nu metal and metalcore (screamed lyrics, less riffs and leads).

Forget all this for a moment: the concert was stylin'. Borrowing a page from Rush's handbook by using "La Villa Strangiato's Gates of Heaven" laser effect during their opener, "Pinball Map", they blasted triumphantly through popular material such as "Moonshield", "Behind Space", and "Episode 666", plus a healthy dose of material from their later works (including their new album, Come Clarity). The sound mix was a bit iffy at first (yee gods it was loud), but the techs redeemed themselves by the mid-point, and the band galloped effortlessly through the hammer-ons and pull-offs that punctuate the main riff of "Colony".

Note to the masses: always expect the unexpected. The show took an unusual turn when lead singer Anders Friden acknowledged that his voice was going, and asked someone from the audience to come up to the microphone to sing "Bullet Ride". Since no one was jumping at the idea, he placed the microphone on the stage, proclaiming that it would be "right there" for someone to use, and walked off the stage.

At this point some kid who couldn't have been older than 20 was pushed up on the stage by his friends, and he proceeded to introduce himself to the band. Then with great audacity, he sauntered to the drum set, took a swig of bottled water, and readied to sing as the band kicked in with the opening riff. By the time the grunting/yelling/screaming started, the surrogate vocalist was in full-on metal god mode as he jumped about the stage, twirled the microphone by its power cable, fraternized with the guitarists, and even sang along with the guitar solo. Remarkable, and if you think it was all an act, check out the guestbook entry by Zach Dionne (2/19/2006 - 20:22) at the In Flames website and rethink your stance.

The show inspired me to buy Come Clarity yesterday. The album's a decent effort, even though the DVD included isn't them live in the studio as implied (it's video of them playing in the studio as the album versions of the songs play along). The songs are screamed more than grunted, but the style of older albums resurfaces to attract those who felt In Flames lost their way. Experimentation aside (catchy choruses rather than complex lead guitar tend to be the norm rather than the exception), I give them credit for winners like the groove of "Scream", which is undoubtedly their best (perhaps only) classic thrash riff to date.

(Edit: Here are some photos from the show. Enjoy!)

Dio Is Rising

According to Dio's offical home page, the nation's oldest heavy metal singer has been busy. He'll be working on a new album this year and he has the "esteemed" role of "Dr. X" on Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime II. Best of all, he'll be starring in Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny in March. "Give your cape and scepter to me!"

American Idol - Teh Suck?

Winter of 2006 is here, and that means another season of American Idol. If you scan through my posts, you'll notice I've posted about Idol before - for some weird reason this show appeals to me, even though I love to complain about it.

This year I have some new beefs. First off is that they're really focusing on the people that suck this year. I think for the preliminary auditions they show twenty bad people for every one good person. It's getting old, and the insults that Simon throws out are even more evil than usual. If it's bothering me, then you know it has to be bad.

The worst, however, is that this whole attention to lousy performances seems to very contrived. It's pretty apparent to me that the people that are pegged as bad are asked to sing multiple songs, so they have plenty of fodder to choose from as the show progresses. Yes, I know "reality television" is contrived by nature, but try to keep some shred of the illusion intact, please?

I'm also pretty unimpressed with the final twenty-four that were revealed last night. The only person who currently intrigues me is Taylor Hicks, who's so unique and multi-talented that he will come out of this with some kind of music contract. I already despise Ace, who will be put through countless more rounds due to his looks and name (Hey Ace: Kiss called, and they want their guitarist's name back). And the 16 year old boy Kevin will probably meet the same fate as the Mel Torme crooner from last year who's such old news that I've forgotten his name. In other words, he'll be kept in for eons because people feel sorry for him, regardless of how lame he is.

But I'm a sucker, and I know I'll continue to watch it just to see and hear how badly they do the next couple of weeks.

The Cult Returns

The band voted most likely to never sound remotely the same for two albums in a row, The Cult, has resurfaced. Sporting a new official home page and a sort of new lineup, the boys of goth/alterna/heavy-and-hair metal/back-to-alterna music have reunited and are coming to a town near you (and may even pen a new album by year's end).

The Great Maker knows I love The Cult enormously, even though they change their image and music more than Madonna. Hell, you gotta dig them merely for their "furry hats and bullet belts" visual style during the Electric years. And I've always felt their last album, Beyond Good and Evil, was quite good, thus felt disappointment when it went nowhere on the charts.

Will Ian bring back his long locks? Sing and strut about the stage 80s style? Will Billy play metal-laced licks or chorused/echo-y new wave riffs? Will the other "members of the band" truly be allowed to make a contribution? This fan-boy can't wait to find out.

SURGE is Saved

Some may wonder why in the world I have a link to SaveSURGE.org over there on the right. Well, the site is devoted to a cool as heavy metal pop, SURGE, that was created and distributed by Coke in the late 90s and early 2000. Unfortunately, even though it started strong, sales numbers dwindled, and Coke killed it. Which is too bad, because it had a unique flavor that definitely could've given the juggernaut that is Pepsico's Mountain Dew a run for its money.

We SURGE nuts spent a lot of time campaigning, unsuccessfully, to bring it back. But efforts did not go unrewarded: constant pressure from the community brought national media coverage, which inspired Coke to tweak SURGE's formula and release it in the form of a brand new soda called VAULT. Basically the same flavor with a whole lot of caffeine (SURGE didn't have as much caffeine as people thought, but boy did Coke make up for that with VAULT), it's positioned to take over where SURGE left off and conquer the Dew.

So run and get some in your local grocery store or convenience store, put on some thrash, and wire up. Also be sure to stop by webmeister Eric's sister site to SaveSURGE, VaultKicks.org, for a ton of information on how VAULT came to be.