Stardock, GalCiv, and Copy Protection

You may be asking yourself, "Why is the H-Man about to talk about computer gaming?" Good question, and I have a fairly good answer. Because the computer gaming industry, much like the music industry (and the movie industry), has gone stupid regarding piracy. They believe that pirated product = lost sales. This is crap.

Fact is, most people pirating this stuff never planned on buying it, and don't ever plan on playing/listening to/viewing what they pirate. It's just a thing to beef up their collection - another piece of ammo in their bullet belt of w4r3z (wares, i.e. stolen merchandise). Sadly, it seems the software industry has gone the nuttiest on copy protection schemes, which only ends up causing problems for the people who actually buy the product (it is 100% ineffective at stopping the pirates).

Enter Stardock, a gaming developer who refuses to put copy protection on their software because they get it. They hypothesized that if you a) don't treat your customers like criminals right out of the gate, and b) make a good product, the rest will take care of itself. And they were right. Sales of their new game, Galactic Civilizations II, have been incredible. And hell, they're a small, independently owned company, who decided to self-publish a game that targets a very small subset of the gaming community (turn based strategy gamers). But lo, they are coming out of the woodwork, buying in droves, and making Stardock successful.

Let's hope all these companies take note and stop punishing their paying customers.

New Rock Star Band Revealed

This news just has too many interesting components to comprehend in one sitting.

It appears that the new season of Rock Star is coming. The band chosen to be on the show, desperately seeking a lead singer, is a new "supergroup". It features Motley Crue's drummer Tommy Lee, Jason Newsted (former bassist of Metallica), plus some dude who used to play guitar for Guns N' Roses.

If that isn't enough weirdness, it appears that the band's name is to be Supernova, but that name has already been taken by the guys who wrote the supra-l33t "Chewbacca" (from the Clerks soundtrack). This will undoubtedly force them to really emphasize the word "our" when they say (no doubt by contractual obligation, considering how often INXS did it) "Our band, Supernova."

Unfortunately for all concerned, Brooke "What? Me not enthusiastic?" Burke will be back, but maybe we'll get lucky and they'll force her to wear even skimpier clothing.

Tool Announces Track Listing for 10,000 Days

1. Vicarious
   
2. Jambi
   
3. Wings For Marie (Pt 1)
   
4. 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)
   
5. The Pot
   
6. Lipan Conjuring
   
7. Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)
   
8. Rosetta Stoned
   
9. Intension
   
10. Right In Two
    
11. Viginti Tres

Bites O' Metal

Chew on these Metal McNuggets:

• Queensryche releases a video for their new single from Mindcrime II, "I'm American".
  
• Scott Ian continues to remain vague over the details behind Anthrax's reunion.
  
• In Flames expands their USA tour.
  
• Slayer's Tom Arya answers your questions.
  
• More "Best of Rush" on the way (in case you needed any more).
  
• Torben Ulrich speaks about Metallica; gives thoughts on their new record, Bob Rock, and Jason leaving the band.
  
• And finally, where would we be without Metallica engaging in more Dave Mustaine bashing.
  

Thanks Blabbermouth.net.

A Slayer a Day - South of Heaven

"On and on - South of Heaven!"

Slayer continues to pulverize on their next album, South of Heaven, albeit with even more riffage and an overall slower grind. This slowness on the opener may have disappointed the stalwart (it is, after all, a big change from how they they started every other record), but the music was by no means any less heavy. Hell, a patient listener simply had to wait a total of a whopping five minutes (for "Silent Screams") to realize that Slayer wasn't about to slow down just because Reign In Blood opened the popularity doors a little wider. Rick Rubin once again was at the helm producing, and he was able to successfully improve and clean up their sound even further without sacrificing any brutality.

There's no denying, however, that South of Heaven is a more accessible album for the stereotypical heavy metal fan. "Behind the Crooked Cross" has a blistering riff which reminds one of Metallica's "Master of Puppets", yet stays true to Slayer by having a killer "Chemical Warfare" type intro (yet even better executed). "Live Undead" pleases the musical types via its fantastic drum fills (not to mention the coolness of Lombardo speeding the beat up when the guitars are going slow, and slowing it down when the guitars are going fast). "Dissident Aggressor" is a fantastic cover of an old Judas Priest favorite.

Finally, "Spill the Blood" is worthy to note. On this album Slayer honed their songwriting by taking some more risks with song timing, which gives their tunes a little more room to breathe, which we can hear on "Spill the Blood". Specifically, for the first time in Slayer history, we encounter a series of arpeggios (picked rather than strummed chords, with clean tone). The type of arrangement found here would serve as a blueprint for perhaps their finest song to date, "Seasons In the Abyss".

Conclusion: South of Heaven is a must have for everyone's Slayer collection, and one of the two perfect starting points for those who are looking to experience them for the first time.

Higher Ground

Take a look at the album on the right. That album contains the definitive rock version of "Higher Ground" to listen to. Contrary to popular opinion, it was not sung last night by Chris "I have no idea what sideburns are supposed to look like" Daughtry.

I can't blame Chris. He fancies himself a rocker, so it's no surprise during "sing us a Stevie Wonder song" week that he chose "Higher Ground". I personally knew he was doomed from the start, because there's no way he could match what the Chili Peppers did with it on Mother's Milk. He didn't.

Problem is, the world's gone insane, and people don't agree with me. Simon praised Chris for his originality, claiming it was the only song he'd heard that night which could be played on the radio. EW feels the same way. News flash - Kiedis and the gang has been there, done that. Superbly. Thus, there was absolutely nothing original about Chris's re-rendition, and shame on Simon for undoubtedly convincing millions of people that Chris was some kind of musical genius for making (sorry, stealing) a hard rock version of this song.

Fact is, it was a pathetically weak reinterpretation of the Peppers's cover, and deserved derision rather than praise.

MESHUGGAH!!!!!!

It is amazing what repeated exposure to any one thing can do to the human mind. After seeing endless comments on Blabbermouth.net ridiculously spewing "MESHUGGAH!!!!!!", I finally decided that maybe it was time to buy one of these guys' records. The combination of technical musicanship and heavy metal that they play ("math metal") seems right up my alley. Plus, you simply can't beat an album that has one 20 minute song on it (Rush! Floyd!).

So it's been ordered, and I am anxiously awaiting delivery.

Tool Announces New Album Title; Release Date

Album Title: 10,000 Days
Release Date: May 2
Number of Songs: 11
Album Length: 77 minutes

Di'Anno's Album Art

I give him credit for the l33t album cover. In my opinion, with any hardcore inspired record, you can never have too many references to George A. Romero style zombies. Here's to hoping the music sounds like Iron Maiden.

A Slayer a Day - Reign In Blood

Reign In Blood, Slayer's major label debut, is the album that put Slayer on the map and changed thrash metal forever. What is it about this album that makes it stand out not only from their previous efforts, but from most heavy metal records from other artists?

This time around Slayer enlisted the talents of Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Run DMC) to produce Reign In Blood. What Rubin did to Slayer's sound is award winning. The guitars are clear, sound large and loud, and have a ferociously evil tone. The drums pound with a fervor, and you can feel the double-bass in the pit of your stomach. Finally, Rubin peeled away the thick layer of reverb that had coated every previous Slayer record. With this change, Slayer sounds like they're actually in the room (too bad for you that the room is now most definitely Hell).

Segues between songs are practically non-existent. Since many of the songs have abrupt stops (then starts) within them, it's almost impossible for the first time listener to figure out where one tune ends and the next one begins. Slayer speeds through them at a pace and with intensity that's beyond description, and any pauses or "slowness" are used to great dynamic effect (the Slayer "groove", in my opinion, cemented itself on this album). They're just enough to give the listener a welcome breather before being audibly slammed once again.

Slayer, knowing the importance of leaving the audience wanting more, clocked the entire album in at under 30 minutes, and most songs don't even hit the three minute mark.

The musicianship has also been taken up a notch. There are countless riffs here, even within the same song, but they are expertly put together so the album feels like a cohesive whole. With the reverb gone, the preciseness of each different rhythm part grabs the listener by the neck and doesn't let go.

The guitar solos are, for lack of a better description, flabbergasting. Each lead sounds like a hapless victim being viciously assaulted, as he frantically kicks, screams, and scrambles to rid himself of his tormentor. But just when escape may be within reach, the perpetrator grabs hold again, and continues to pummel its prey into submission.

Lyrics? Well, when your main subject is the infamous Nazi butcher Josef Mengele, you're going to (purposefully) ruffle some feathers. Satan, murder, and brutal violence is the norm here, barked out by Arya at a speed that's almost impossible to contemplate. What did you want them to sing about, puppies?

Reign In Blood should always be listened to in its entirety for full effect, but here are some highlights:

• "Angel of Death" - A blistering intro riff and Arya's blood-curdling scream starts this album off right, but it's the groove in the middle (1:40), then the abrupt stop and start that precludes the solos, all wrapped up with the double-bass drum genius at 4:20, that make this song a winner.
  
  
• "Altar of Sacrifice" - Tom's "Praise Hell, Satan!" is truly a standout (the word "Satan" echos and pans between speakers).
  
  
• "Jesus Saves" - The ending slow drive of "Altar of Sacrifice" expertly segues into this tune's intro riffs, which build and grow upon each other until the speedy musical explosion at 1:05.
  
  
• "Postmortem" - The best riff Slayer had written to date. It grinds and slithers like nothing they had done previously.
  
  
• "Raining Blood" - The sound of thunder and rain are a fantastic backdrop to haunting guitar wailings, before Slayer assaults with a series of wonderfully executed guitars playing in harmony. Bang head furiously from 2:10 to conclusion. Start album over again.

If you can have only one thrash metal album in your collection, it should be Reign In Blood. Nothing in your house will be more aggressive than this album, which is considered by most to be Slayer's finest accomplishment. Turn it up to eleven and watch the paint peel off your walls.

The Naughty Little Mynx

American Idol, as usual, was weak last night. Thankfully there were a few less ballads, but the performances still seemed forced, and the band was still instructed to play badly (good grief what does the guitarist mangle to get tone that crappy?). Regardless of which contestents go home this week, we all lost (there was one exception - see last paragraph).

Mandisa was the only one who shined at all, and I can't for the life of me fathom why they praised McPhee's performance. It was artificial and simply fell flat.

There was a high point of the show, however, and that's when when Simon called Kellie "I've never been farther than 10 feet away from my trailer home" Pickler a "naughty little mynx". No one there was willing to fully explain on family television what Simon meant (disappointingly, even "shoot-from-the-hip" Simon didn't come 100% clean with his definition), but any red-blooded male TV watcher knows exactly what he was getting at.

A Slayer a Day - Hell Awaits

I found Hell Awaits a tough album to review. There's no denying its importance in the evolution of Slayer. What's here is the closest we've yet seen to what will become their unique sound. In fact, there's probably a little more in common here with South of Heaven and Seasons In the Abyss due to the length of songs (most are over five minutes, three are over six), technical agility, and vast plethora of riffs. And hell, there are only seven songs fighting for our attention.

What dooms this album is the production. Slayer just doesn't come off as powerful as they should on this record since it sounds like they're playing in a hole that's 20 miles deep and 50 miles away. The guitars emit a tone that's more akin to being strangled rather than struck. And poor Dave - we know he's killer on those drums, but they're so tinny that they almost sound like toys. I find myself getting weary about a third of the way into the album due to the limitations of the sound mix.

Fortunately a few songs rise above the clutter, such as "Hell Awaits" (a true Slayer classic [complete with backwards masked Satanic voice intro] I'd love to hear live), "Crypts of Eternity", and "Necrophiliac". The fact that the ending to "Hardening of the Arteries" mimics the into riff to "Hell Awaits" is also a great closer. But for an "early years" Slayer fix, I'd stick to Haunting the Chapel, where the production and songs themselves are of higher quality. There, brutality + brevity = audience left yearning for more, which is a true recipe for success.

Slayer and Mastodon to Tour on 06-06-06

You really can't beat a Slayer and Mastodon double-bill. I give a thumbs-up to the people lucky enough to see it on the first date. Now there's a crazy decision I'll have to make - which band t-shirt to wear to the show (I guess I have lots of time to figure it out)?

It looks like Rick Rubin is executively producing Slayer's new record, but I wish I knew what they meant when they say that Josh Abraham will be "twiddling the knobs". Producing (edit: yes, apparently)? Engineering? Maybe we'll know more tonight, since their MySpace page claims there will be some photos on their home page later tonight.

Anyway, they say it's chock fill o' riffs and "devastatingly grim". Excellent.

Beyond Fear

Considering that album cover on the right over there, I'm being a bit overly-nice reporting on Tim Owens's new project. The only thing I'm left wondering is why Iced Earth's The Glorious Burden's cover art came out so damned good. This Beyond Fear cover, along with the Judas Priest ones that Owens sang on, looks like it was drawn by an 8 year old in worn-down crayon, as he copied artistic concepts by Stormtroopers of Death. Can't they afford someone better than Lil' Jimmy?

And take a look at the song titles - it's a compilation of the ones that were too lame to make the last five Judas Priest albums:

• Scream Machine
  
• And...You Will Die
  
• Save Me
  
• The Human Race
  
• Coming at You
  
• Dreams Come True
  
• Telling Lies
  
• I Don't Need This
  
• Words of Wisdom
  
• My Last Words
  
• Your Time Has Come
  
• The Faith

The only thing that can save this, besides a guest appearance by Ronnie James Dio (which come to think of it, might end up reminding the listener how it's supposed to be done), is the music itself, which fortunately, isn't too bad.

A Slayer a Day - Haunting the Chapel

The year after Show No Mercy stampeded on the scene, Slayer released a tighter offering via their EP Haunting the Chapel. Although the "playing in a deep hole" production style is still here, Slayer somehow manages to do a better job at making this music sound like the sort of thing that's a favorite for Satan to play on his personal stereo. There's evil in their guitar tone, and drummer Dave Lombardo begins to shine as he literally pounds his instrument into submission.

"Chemical Warfare" begins with what would become a classic staple for the band - a muted guitar riff beginning in one speaker, then the other. Next, bass and drums follow, and all instruments build towards a peak. Without warning the song pauses for a second, then crashes back in at breakneck speed.

Some lead guitar similarities with Metallica are still present, most noticibly the beginnings of "Captor of Sin" (which reminds one of "Phantom Lord") and "Aggressive Perfector" ("Hit the Lights"). But the solos themselves tend to be more frenetic than on their last release, with a lot of tremelo yanking added to the mix. And most notable are the dueling solos in "Aggressive Perfector", as King and Hanneman "fight" each other for axe-work superiority. The listener wins!

Haunting the Chapel's significance cannot be understated. It is the true beginning of the dark, thrashy sound that would be at the core of every Slayer record to come.

Monster Magnet's Dave Wyndorf Hospitalized

It appears Monster Magnet's frontman, Dave Wyndorf, has been hospitalized due to a drug overdose. European tour plans have been cancelled, but fortunately it appears that he will survive.

I saw The Magnet when they were opening for The Cult's Beyond Good and Evil tour and they impressed me. Even though Dave was injured, he put on a hell of a stage show, and I'll never forget the cool little pedestals the guitarists hopped upon when their time to solo approached. It was heavy metal personified - something that is hard to find today (hard rock music a la AC/DC type bands is essentially dead).

Since then I've gotten a fair number of their albums. Their latest, Monolithic Baby!, was an underrated gem of 2004. I wish Dave well, and hope he can rise above whatever muck is pushing him towards substance abuse.

A Slayer a Day - Show No Mercy

I bet misguided youth bought Show No Mercy back in 1983 based purely on the album cover alone. If your main goal in life is to piss off your parents, you simply can't beat flaming typefonts, pentagrams, and horned demons with six foot longswords.

Show No Mercy may be plagued by excessive reverb and a band (furiously) attempting to come into their own, but it's one hell of a debut. Tom Arya's legendary scream throws the listener against the wall as "Evil Has No Boundaries" begins, and the aural assault barely lets up throughout this album's 35 minutes.

Although it's pretty obvious that a good deal of what's laid to tape here will eventually morph into the stereotypical Slayer fans now know and love, what's more interesting is the bits and pieces they decided to let fall on the floor, remaining permanently absent from future releases. There are plenty of classic heavy metal influences sprinkled throughout (Iron Maiden comes to mind via the intro riff to "The Final Command"), but most notable is a commonality with their thrash contemporaries - Metallica. The intro riff to "Metal Storm/Face the Slayer" has shades of "Creeping Death" in it, and there's no denying that the guitar solos (check out "The Antichrist") are very similar to Kirk Hammett's. There's in fact very little of the fierce King/Hanneman "dueling solos" that have since become a staple of their lead guitar work.

What started here and didn't go away was their lyrical content. The darkness is here in abundance as Slayer a) details graphic acts of gory violence and murder, and b) pays homage to Satan and his minions. I find it a remarkable achievement that just about every song on this record contains these themes, but hey, they're professionals.

Show No Mercy may not be Slayer's crowning achievement, but it's a tight offering nonetheless. This is essential listening for those devout folowers who are yearning to go the extra mile to learn about the true origins of thrash metal.

A Slayer a Day

The treats never stop coming at Band Chat, and for the next few weeks you're about to imbibe the hard stuff. Welcome to A Slayer a Day, where we will all be indoctrinated in the ways of one of the Lords of Heavy Metal - Slayer.

In honor of Slayer's (hopefully) imminent new release, my aim is to discuss every main (studio recorded) item in their discography:

• Show No Mercy
  
• Haunting the Chapel
  
• Hell Awaits
  
• Reign In Blood
  
• South of Heaven
  
• Seasons In the Abyss
  
• Divine Intervention
  
• Undisputed Attitude
  
• Diabolus In Musica
  
• God Hates Us All

Each album will be listened to in its entirety at least once before my thoughts on it are published. Ideally I'd like to post about an album every day, but let's be realistic here. Suffice it to say I will at least be listening to Slayer every day to prepare for each write-up.

So I call on each of you to raise your Goblet of Rock in toast to the only band insane enough to consider penning a song about 9-11 from the terrorists' point of view (and would we really want it any other way?).