La maquinaria de Black Sabbath sigue generando dólares. Tras el recopilatorio, la gira y el disco de Heaven & Hell ahora, Tony Iommi y Ronnie James Dio desempolvan los archivos de la banda de Birmingham y editan una caja con las versiones remasterizadas de los discos que los Sabbath grabaron con el diminuto cantante.

Así, The Rules Of Hell, que suena eso sí a lanzamiento oportunista, incluye los álbumes "Heaven And Hell", "Mob Rules", "Dehumanizer" y el doble directo "Live Evil". Muchos seguidores de Dio siempre han minusvalorado estos trabajos, colocándolos un listón por debajo de los grabados por Ozzy Osbourne.

Sin embargo, y en mi opinión tanto los discos ochenteros de los Sabbath con Dio como el postrímero "Dehumanizer", el disco menos valorado de todos, son obras maestras del heavy metal. Ahora, nos los encontramos en esta bonita caja, con el sonido restaurado, notas y entrevistas con el grupo, que estará en las tiendas más exclusivas que todos conocéis.

Por tanto, mientras esperamos por el anunciado nuevo trabajo de Dio, Iommi y compañía, que probablemente estará disponible el próximo año pero lo que es seguro que irá firmado como Heaven & Hell, pues el nombre está registrado por Ozzy, aquí tenemos esta caja.

Una caja que no podemos decir que es de lujo como la Black Box: "The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978". Rhino podría haber aprovechado para esta lanzamiento una edición como se merece de los compactos en digipak acompañado de un DVD con material de archivo y un libreto enorme con fotografías inéditas y toda la verdad y nada más que la verdad sobre la alianza de Dio y los Sabbath. Por pedir que no quede, los seguidores de la banda la estábamos esperando.

(Read All Slipknot Articles) - I listened to my first Slipknot song today and could't help but wonder what the content of the words were behind the song.  Then it hit me like a ton of bricks as I figured out why this band is as popular as they are.  I've been promoting and telling the story behind these bands for months now and being that I've always wanted to know the truth about subject matters and get past all of the trash, I can see now why Slipknot is so popular.

Check these words out:

Pseudo-sacred
Pyscho virgin
Go tell your classes
Go dig you grave
Then fill
Your mouth with
All the money
You will save

Oh, there are cracks
In the road we lay
From when the devil fell
The secrets have gone mad
This is nothing new
But would we kill it all
Fate was all we had
Who needs another mess
We could start over
Just look me in the eyes
And say I'm wrong
Now there's only emptiness
But I'm missing something
I think we're done
I'm not the only one

Sid Wilson and Shawn Crahan during a 2005 concert Slipknot is known for often chaotic and energetic live shows.

The band's primary influences include Black Sabbath, Slayer, Judas Priest, Korn, AC/DC, Kiss and Beastie Boys. Death metal, and black metal, have been mentioned as a key influence on the band's musical direction alongside nu metal which the band is generally listed as. They have also stated that they are influenced by industrial bands like Head of David, Godflesh and Skinny Puppy as well as Neurosis and jungle music like Roni Size.

Slipknot has an extreme performance style provided by their large line-up featuring a typical heavily down-tuned guitar set-up (lead, rhythm, and bass guitars), two percussionists in addition to the primary drummer, and electronics (samplers and turntables). Robert Cherry of Rolling Stone compared the band's sound to "a threshing machine devouring a military drum corps."

Their early work hosted a large range of vocal styles, ranging from rapping to occasional singing to growled vocals. In more recent work, this vocal style remains present, but now includes more melodic singing. The lyrics generally follow a very aggressive tone and feature themes such as darkness, nihilism, anger, disaffection, love, misanthropy and psychosis. Rick Anderson of All Music Guide regards the group's lyrics as "not generally quotable on a family website". There has been controversy surrounding Slipknot's lyrics, including a case in which a pair of young killers blamed the lyrics from the song "Disasterpiece" for their vicious crime and a case in 2006 in which lyrics from the song "Surfacing" were found at the site of a grave robbing. However, the band has never faced any serious allegations that their lyrics may incite violent or criminal behavior.

Follow the reaper posted this question on the Slipknot official message board that I thought was interesting:

Which slipknot song can you best relate to? 

Follow the reaper can perfectly relate to "Diluted" while Plague1 can relate to Wait and Bleed

How about you ... Which slipknot song can you best relate to? 

I honestly couldn’t relate to any of their material, because I never took the time to listen to what they had to say.  It does make for some interesting stuff to write about.  At least you won’t find me falling asleep reading about that this band is all about.  But then again, my life is exciting and I don’t understand why some feel they have to go to such an extreme.  That would be one question I’d have for them plus a long list of others - but maybe going to the extreme is the only way most people will listen to a message that needs to be told. 

When you post your comments I'd also like to know why you relate to a certain particular song.

(Read All Slipknot Articles)

==============
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==============

The Beatles

"Revolution"

( 1968 )
.
.

.

Was it this song that made music change heavier? Or was it Helter Skelter? At least we know it was the Beatles and of this particular album that music changed. The Led Zeppelin's, The Black Sabbath's and The Deep Purple's, did they get off on this style? Did it inspire them when they were younger, all spotty and brash? Did the music come out of the speakers and smack them across the face? Who knows, but them i guess. The White Album is the mark by which all other music is judged upon and by God so fucking be it.

Each song on the sprawling double album The Beatles is an entity to itself, as the band touches on anything and everything it can. This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view, but what makes the so-called White Album interesting is its mess. Never before had a rock record been so self-reflective, or so ironic; the Beach Boys send-up "Back in the U.S.S.R." and the British blooze parody "Yer Blues" are delivered straight-faced, so it's never clear if these are affectionate tributes or wicked satires. Lennon turns in two of his best ballads with "Dear Prudence" and "Julia"; scours the Abbey Road vaults for the musique concrète collage "Revolution 9"; pours on the schmaltz for Ringo's closing number, "Good Night"; celebrates the Beatles cult with "Glass Onion"; and, with "Cry Baby Cry," rivals Syd Barrett. McCartney doesn't reach quite as far, yet his songs are stunning -- the music hall romp "Honey Pie," the mock country of "Rocky Raccoon," the ska-inflected "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," and the proto-metal roar of "Helter Skelter."
Clearly, the Beatles' two main songwriting forces were no longer on the same page, but neither were George and Ringo. Harrison still had just two songs per LP, but it's clear from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," the canned soul of "Savoy Truffle," the haunting "Long, Long, Long," and even the silly "Piggies" that he had developed into a songwriter who deserved wider exposure. And Ringo turns in a delight with his first original, the lumbering country-carnival stomp "Don't Pass Me By." None of it sounds like it was meant to share album space together, but somehow The Beatles creates its own style and sound through its mess. ~ [Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide]

The first version of "Revolution" to be released (though the last to be recorded) was the B-side of the "Hey Jude" single, released in early September 1968.
A product of the recording sessions for The Beatles (aka The White Album), "Revolution" featured distorted guitars and an electric piano solo by session musician Nicky Hopkins. This track is said to be one of the loudest and most aggressive Beatles songs; it begins abruptly with a loud, overdriven electric guitar played by Lennon, a thundering, compressed drum beat from Ringo Starr and a monstrous scream from Lennon. (The scream was an overdub added when Lennon double tracked his vocal. McCartney performed the scream on the semi-live performance for the promotional film, because Lennon could not deliver the scream and catch his breath again in time to launch into the first verse.)

The musical form is a simple
rock and roll chord progression, but the highly processed elements and hyperbolic approach distinguished the track from nearly anything that had come before; the sound of "Revolution" is often cited as presaging heavy metal. "Revolution" later appeared on the 1970 Hey Jude compilation album created for the U.S. market and other compilations.
The Beatles performed the song semi-live (with live vocals performed over a pre-recorded instrumental track) in a specially produced promotional film shot by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg at the same time as the Hey Jude promotional film. The film received its world premiere in Britain on David Frost's ITV television programme, 4 September 1968. As the Beatles were singing the vocals live on the film, they elected to incorporate part of the vocal arrangement from the slower Revolution 1 version of the track. McCartney and Harrison added the "shoop-doo-wop" backing vocals unique to that version behind Lennon's lead vocal - thus making the vocals on the film performance a hybrid of the two versions of the song. [source:wikipedia]
For Led Zeppelin see Number 957 & Number 577
For Black Sabbath see Number 979 & Number 826
For Deep Purple see Number 686
For The Beach Boys see Number 714 & Number 641
For more Beatles see Number 947 & Number 894
For even MORE Beatles visit Mellow Mix Vol 12 #150

For John Lennon see Number 639
For Ringo Starr see Number 901
For George Harrison see Number 806

For Paul McCartney see Number 583

For Eric Clapton see Number 537
for Syd Barrett visit Mellow Mix Vol 1 Number 138

What does Rolling Stone think about the Beatles

Beyond its stylish minimalism, the essentially blank cover of The Beatles, better known as the White Album, served a symbolic purpose. The band could find no honest way to visually represent itself as a coherent unit. Each of the three main songwriters was pursuing his own vision, with the other members, however reluctantly, serving as backup musicians. Once a whole far greater than the sum of its parts, the Beatles were now a tense alliance of daunting individual talents. The Beatles became a double album in part because John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison all insisted that their favorite songs be included. "I remember having three studios operating at the same time," Harrison said of the sessions. "Paul was doing some overdubs in one, John was in another and I was recording some horns or something in a third." Ringo Starr grew so frustrated that he quit the band for a time. The others festooned his drum set in flowers to celebrate his return. What didn't suffer in this atmosphere was the music. From the plangent yearning of Lennon's "Julia" to the exuberance of McCartney's "Back in the U.S.S.R." and the prayerfulness of Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (featuring a solo by Eric Clapton), the White Album is an exhilarating sprawl -- some of the Beatles' most daring and delicate work. "I think it was a very good album," said McCartney. "It stood up, but it wasn't a pleasant one to make." ~ Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (But there was so many!) and the Album ranked at Number 10

This song has a crowbarred rating of 72.4 out of 108 pts

Lyrics to the song

Previous Song 586 ..... Next Song 588

Tags:The Beatles, 1968, Rock,
Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple,Beach Boys, John Lennon, YouTube, Music
Video, Rolling Stone Magazine, Crowbarred, New Zealand, Crowbarred Unleashed, The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time, Mellow Mix Volume 1

Waiwera

Search Artist here

1-2-3-A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z

CREEDENCE -    JOHN FOGERTY

PINK FLOYD -    ROGER WATERS

BLACK SABBATH -    OZZY OSBOURNE

TAKE THAT -    ROBBIE WILLIAMS

ERASURE -    VINCE CLARKE

VAN HALEN -    DAVID LEE ROTH

EURYTHMICS -    ANNIE LENNOX

AUDIOSLAVE -    CHRIS CORNELL

NO DOUBT -    GWEN STEFANI

THE CRANBERRIES -    DOLORES O'RIORDAN

Hope enjoy it

See ya!!!!

Metal is a musical derivative of the evil and dark orchestrations of the past.  This evil sound is what inspires metalheads to play and artistically express their angst, an effect of relieving their anger, unhappiness, or anxiety.  Knowing what makes metal evil can help explain where the imagery and iconology develops.  The concepts of evil are often associated with power, and this creates the "distinctive and often confrontational style of the genre” (Weinstein, 146).  This concept is what the imagery can be attributed to, and why the culture seems obsessed with the taboo.  Imagery of evil, the dead, and corruption of innocence creates a discomfort among mass culture.  “This kind of discomfort is by no means a universal human trait; indeed that is the dark and fertile subsoil out of which our individual identities spring” (Browne, 72).

This image is the cover to Black Sabbath’s fifth album, Heaven and Hell.  The angels become iconic in this imagery, but it must be understood what they are iconic of.  Through this understanding the reasoning behind condemnation of such images occurs.  The true problem, or rather, the cause of controversy and distaste for such a picture, stems from the mass culture’s view of the icons.  Angels are always portrayed as pure beings, absent of flaws, and inherently good.  This image takes that concept and turns it upside down.  Smoking and gambling are culturally seen as sinful and impure specifically to the religious.  It is the views of the mass culture that make this image dark and controversial in any way.  Metal music creates a culture of individuals that embrace the corrupt and taboo.  The imagery often exemplifies that which the masses choose to ignore or cast aside.  Imagery of smoking angels is a concept that would be ignored, but perhaps not taken offense to.  This is why metal art has evolved to such evil imagery.  The artwork strives to be darker and more evil than its predecessors.
The mass culture has created a monster out of this counter culture, and the metalheads are proud of what they are; hence the darker iconography.  A strong music develops strong characters, as well as evil icons coming from music that thrives on the devil’s note.  Images of early heavy metal, like that of Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell album cover, are often ignored, but the metal culture is not one to be passed over easily.
The metal culture has responded to the mass culture’s reference to metal being a lower form of music, and embraced the controversial.  This spawned artists such as Alice Cooper and Twisted Sister, and has further progressed to bands like Lamb of God and Slayer.  “Music has long been considered an important part of social life.  Its [Metal’s] symbolic and ritual powers are used to explain both social cohesion and cultural resistance” (Bryson, 885).  The concept of pride regardless of the ugliness that the stereotype creates only enhances what metal is not.  Metalheads are proud of what they are regardless of the social standard, and this lets the stereotype run wild.

Imagery such as this was created as a response to criticisms of metal and the evil sounds contemporary metal musicians were writing.  This imagery from Slayer was the beginning of the pentagram iconology, alongside bands such as Venom, in metal music.  This embraced metal’s most controversial subject, religion.  The fact that this music is a derivative of the “devil’s note” begs the need for exploration of religious iconography.  Black Sabbath, years earlier, was infamous for having upside down crosses burning on stage during their performances.  This icon, or rather deconstruction of an icon created a lot of controversy that the metal culture has come to embrace.  Imagery, such as this masochistic bones and swords pentagram, enhances some of the stereotype metal creates.  It presents a contradictory and hard personality, but there is no evidence of a lower form of musicality, or the favoring of a lower class.  In fact imagery far more sadistic and evil than this is present in the worlds famed museums, and viewed as high art.  The question is then why is an image such as this, relating to metal music, considered the lowest standard of controversial art while statues of Christ being tortured in the Vatican is considered high art?  It is this social construction of cultural standards that condemns the satanic imagery and condones the Christian icons.  It is obvious that this image looks evil, but the origin of the idea of evil is the real issue.  Alice Cooper says, “Very rarely do you ever find somebody that is truly scary.  The image is just that, an image.  Everyone needs a gimmick.  Let’s see how far you get without one.  We do it to get a rise out of people and the crowd embraces the power to ruffle some feathers.”  The skulls and pentagram images support a stereotype to the mass culture, while within the counter culture of metal there is no question that it is simply art.  The images are there to make audiences want to look, and act as propaganda and advertising for album purchase.

Cannibal Corpse has become infamous for their cover art and the controversy it draws.  It is obvious why these images are considered taboo and are often censored from the public eye, but the idea is that it is art.  An image such as this drives the common citizen to a conclusion about metal and its fans that is unrealistic and stereotypical.  The lower class, masochist becomes a poster child for the metal culture through these images.  This stereotype has been pushed so hard by the music industry and throughout the mass media that during most of the 90’s, bands that were clearly heavy metal refused to refer to themselves as such.  When 2000 hit, a revolution occurred and metal artists, like Cannibal Corpse, used their vivid and masochistic art to shatter the stereotype by embracing it. An image such as this becomes attractive to a metal fan, not because of the disgusting and perverse nature of the image, but rather the reaction the image creates outside of the metal counter culture.  Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse states in Dunn’s documentary, “the first time somebody who knows nothing about the death metal scene sees one of our album covers, or something like that, it is going to shock them.  If it doesn’t then we didn’t make a very good album cover.  It’s art, just look at is as art.  Yeah, it can be disgusting, but there are lots of things… look at church art, that’s something that can happen, that’s real.  Whoa, now that’s perverse.  I don’t think monsters are going to rip out of people’s bodies anytime soon.”  Art like this has caused Cannibal Corpse to be banned from performing or distributing any of their songs off this album, as well as three other albums, anywhere in Germany, Korea, and Italy.  The censors never heard the album; they simply banned the music based on the stereotype and imagery of the album.  There is a desire in metal to explore that which is dangerous; that which is scary.  The mass culture, then, inadvertently causes art from bands like Cannibal Corpse to develop.  It is our cultural censorship of life through death that drives the desire to find this kind of imagery.  “In the past we knew that death was a part of the very essence of life, and as our culture forgets that, we seem to desire more vivid images of death,” says Keith Kahn-Harris, a sociologist from Dunn’s documentary, “this is why we see forms of mortality in all of our art through the ages.”   Metal isn’t the imagery, it is the concept behind the imagery and the iconology which the art creates that Heavy Metal and its culture embraces.

These images are the darkest and perhaps the most frightening of metal’s icons.  The band Slipknot wears masks for every photo shoot, every performance, and any public appearance.  All of these images were taken for promotional posters to spread the word about one of the band’s albums, The Subliminal Verses.  Again, the iconology of these characters creates a rise in the media and mass culture.  The use of masking, both literally and metaphorically creates icons out of these band members.  Masking allows metal fans to relate to these characters, while alienating the mass culture.  Bryson talks about “High-Status Exclusiveness” which is exemplified as, “knowledge of the fine arts, literature, and upper-class etiquette signals wealth and prestige” (885).  Iconology such as this is a response to these stereotypes.  The mentality is that if mass culture is going to call us low class for what we do and enjoy, then we are going to embrace that, and become the lowest form of any class imaginable.  This explains the crude, and ever changing masks of the band.  The group shot even portrays the band standing in a gritty, impoverished area.  The background and coloring cause the dark image to get even darker.

The image of the singer, again, creates a very gritty and disturbing background.  In this image the lack of objects in the backdrop creates a feeling of intimidation.  This feeling is not welcomed by the mass culture and therefore becomes denoted and dark and evil.  This image portraying their minority of evil overpowering the majority of self-proclaimed morality is a triumph that all metal imagery strives for.  The images that enhance the stereotypes are pushing to overcome them through force.

The image of the clown denotes many concepts of evil.  This portrays corruption of innocence with the contorted smile of a childhood entertainer that appears even more disturbing with the lighting.  The pentagram carved into the face creates both a satanic and masochistic image.  The horns and the number 6 complete the satanic image.  The images of evil and darkness are synonymous with power as shown in The Satanic Bible.  The nine satanic statements say, “4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates! / 5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek!” (LaVey, 25).  Embracing these inner evils creates power and allows for cultural resistance.  The mask creates a stylistic pictorial symbol that is relatable, identifiable, and most of all, powerful.  It is this very power that the imagery of metal tries to portray.

Heavy metal has a vast array of imagery and iconography associated with it.  The images created are related to metal’s evil and blues ridden origins, dating as far back as the dark ages and the devil’s note, or the tritone.  This is where the imagery of evil originates and develops into the masochistic and dark images that many people associate with heavy metal music today.  The products, specifically visual art, that develop from a culture dictate the social class that group is associated with.  The dismissal and condemnation of metal art by both mass culture and upper-class scholars leaves only a small counter culture of individuals.  Due to the opposition, this anti-culture becomes stereotyped as lower class and ignorant.  The art and imagery of Heavy Metal is responsible for creating this stereotype, but has also succeeded in tearing it down through over indulgence of the iconography.   Bryson says, “musical taste provides a good test for questions about symbolic boundaries” (885), and Heavy Metal tears down every boundary laid down.  The many misinterpretations of metal art by the mass culture and creations of skewed stereotypes pushes the metal culture to indulge in their evil icons.  Metalheads take on the evil and darkness that surrounds their culture.  Metal icons and images embrace their stereotype and allow the misconceptions to fuel the power of their ever growing and changing counter culture.

"Your trust is is whiskey, and weed, and Slayer, it's goddamn electric!"

-Pantera

Sources:

Bryson, Bethany. “Anything But Heavy Metal”: Symbolic Exclusion and Musical Dislikes. American Sociology Review 61.5 (1996).

LaVey, Anton S. The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon Books, 1969.

Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey.  Dir. Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen. DVD. Banger Productions Inc. 2006

Weinstein, Deena. Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture. Da Capo Press, 2000.

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Dia 18 de julho de 2008 estará todos os álbuns prontos.

Terence "Geezer" Butler, British musician and lyricist (Black Sabbath)

It is becoming more and more frequent for card companies to include pop culture, hollywood, music, history, ect. in sports sets.  Everyone knows the popularity that the Donruss Americana line has had, but that was never a sports set.  The Allen and Ginter non-sport cards have proven to be a great success...but where do sets stop being sports and start being non-sports with a few sports celebrities included?

This one I pulled out of a pack of 2008 NFL UD Heroes that I grabbed on a whim from a Wal-Mart near my house.  While I loved Rage Against the Machine, and tolerated Audioslave, I am honestly not sure how I feel about 12 Guitar Heroes being included in this set (3 each of Tom Morello, Justin Hayward [Moody Blues], Steve Vai, and Tommy Iommi [Black Sabbath]--plus the various parallells of each card).

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it by any means...but I just wonder where it's all heading?  I wonder if people love this or hate this, if they are sick of it or tolerate it?

Curious more than anything--

Oh, I forgot I brought another example, one near and dear to my heart... it's out of a pack of 2008 UD Piece of History Baseball I grabbed at the same time.  (PS- I also got the WORST designed memorabilia card ever out of that pack, that one I will post at a later date).

]]> http://hardrockheavymetal.wordpress.com/?p=2311 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:48:38 +0000 rhodeislandrock http://hardrockheavymetal.wordpress.com/?p=2311 When I started this blog back in January 2006, all I wanted to do was talk about albums in my music collection and pass along some Metal memories. Two and a half years later, close to 460,000 people have stopped by to read my album reviews, get some Metal news, and join me out on the Hunt for more music. I thank everyone for stopping by!

One of the things I get asked often is: "What is your most popular post?".

Today I'm going to list the Top 5 posts and the Top 6 album reviews (with the publish date and stats) at Heavy Metal Addiction from day 1 to right now with a little commentary.

Top 5 Posts at Heavy Metal Addiction

1. Poison members involved in onstage fight - breakup? - (8/27/06 -- 23,732 views)
2. Journey (with Arnel Pineda) - Festival Vina Del Mar 2008 complete set from Chile (video, 2/21/08) - (2/23/08 -- 20,573 views)
3. First official band picture of the new Journey with Arnel Pineda - (1/8/08 -- 19,768 views)
4. Press Release: Arnel Pineda is the new Journey singer! - (12/6/07 -- 12,064 views)
5. Gene Simmons facelift post-op picture - (4/2/07 -- 10,576 views)

The Poison fight post has been the top dog for a long time, the day I posted it I ended up with the best single day ever with close to 17,000 hits! Before that, I think my best day was couple hundred readers. The Poison video is going to get taken out by Journey with their new singer Arnel Pineda. Like them or not, Journey has always been a worldwide band and with Filipino Arnel on the mic, they are now more than ever. If I were to expand this list to the Top 20, there would be four more Journey related posts! A lot of people are getting a chance to see/hear the new Journey from the full video of the Festival Del Mar 2008 in Chile and the two press releases. Personally, I like the fact that Gene Simmons is at #5 not just because my favorite band is KISS but because look at that train wreck! Like I said in the post, too bad they didn't fix his vocal chords while they were at it!

Top 6 Albums Reviews at Heavy Metal Addiction

1. Quiet Riot - Metal Health (1983) - (1/21/07 -- 10,014 views)
2. Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain (2007) - (6/1/07 -- 8904 views)
3. Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death (2006) - (9/13/06 -- 7439 views)
4. Black Sabbath - Forbidden (1995) - (12/19/06 -- 6279 views)
5. Legs Diamond - Town Bad Girl (1990) - (2/22/07 -- 5132 views)
6. Lita Ford - Out For Blood (1983) - (1/12/07 -- 5048 views)

Quiet Riot makes the top spot unfortunately due to the news of Kevin DuBrow's passing. Unfortunately, the hits for this post picked up when Kevin died.....RIP Kevin. No surprise that Ozzy's last record made the list because the guy is just popular with all Metal fans. BLACK RAIN made my 5 Worst of 2007 list at #4 and I have had a ton of email pointing out what an idiot I am for calling it a subpar effort. Another no brainer was Iron Maiden's last album making the list, this album review seems to get a fair amount of hits every week.

The next three surprise me because they are in my Top Posts list everyday. Of all the Tony Martin era posts I did, FORBIDDEN gets a ton of hits everyday. I consider FORBIDDEN the weakest effort of that Sabbath era but people are searching and reading about it. Legs Diamond and Lita Ford are duelling for the #5 spot, that's why I post six on the list. Everyday I see both of these reviews getting a ton of views, both are definitely "cult" albums but I didn't think they would get that much attention, especially the Legs Diamond review.

So there you have it, some of the top posts.....now click the links and check'em out!

My folks fixed me up with some career counsellor dudette because I'm still having trouble finding that thing at which I'm good. The meeting came of just as I expected.. the same old useless crap of "do what you want and what you are good at." Um, why would I be sitting here if I KNEW those things? And to top it all, she thinks I should try journalism... I happen to have that "air". Maybe she was a psychic and had the ability to look into my brain or something... or probably had a good nose to "smell the air". When have I ever shown anything remotely resembling the highly polished writings in the newspapers? So instead coming off "enlightened", I came out more confused.

A few months ago I was dead set on my way to 3D design land with the goal of becoming a Game developer. However looking at the current game industry, its all just the same generic crap in a different bundle. Ten years ago the scene was different with new and interesting things coming out. These days its the same crap - shoot, collect achievements, post them on the net and make friends? Why the FUCK do I want to make friends by shooting them? It almost reflects my music tastes in which I prefer the older music compared to today as its the same old generic crap.

I could count all the things or professions I'd want to be in - Fighter pilot, 3D design, programming, networks... yadda yadda, the problem is, I do not feel any passion to do any one of them. There has to be that little something to actually BE the best, some sort of challange... passion and that is not what I feel. Maybe us young lads really need to learn these things some years ago rather than the "I want the freedom to do whatever I choose". If I had ever known that I would be in such a fix THEN, I'd never have said that. I could have gone on to become a doctor [as my mother wanted] and earned some money... thats what everything has become.. MONEY!! No passion, no challenge... just the same old generic crap to squeeze some more dollars.

Why was I never taught how to be snake tounged, polished in school? Why was I never taught how to make paans, how to run a grocery shop, how to run a business, how to make money by doing the same thing over and over again? Why the freaking hell do I need to know that Nero was burning CD's while Rome burned? Is Nero going to come and give me some money? Oh sure, they teach you all that but after twelfth... but no wait, all computer guys should just do a B.Tech and then the company will train you? Then why do I spend 15 years in an education system learning how many millimeters of rain fell in 1942? Why am I given tools that are of no use to me unless I break them up and make new ones?

WHY, after having existed for 19 damn years am I still finding it difficult to understand myself? WHY? Maybe its just the teen emo angst pouring out...
I remembered a quote from the King Arthur movie "Pelagius is dead. The Rome you dream of Artorius lives only in your imagination." Maybe the world I dream of just exists in my imagination. Maybe its just my pessimistic view of things finally getting to me.... I need a freaking holiday. :|

No sé qué me pasó esta semana: Jack Johnson lunes y martes, Black Sabbath miércoles y jueves, y The Kinks para inaugurar el fin de semana. ¿Ecléctico? Puede ser... ¿Melómano? Totalmente. Siempre descreo de aquellos que juran y perjuran por un género como estandarte pacato que no les permite ver que la canción es una y única, más allá del paquete que la envuelve...

La música es emoción, impacto, y así como uno puede emocionarse sintiendo el tren mecerse en las vías, mirando la flor metálica al lado de la facultad de Derecho o viendo parejas enamoradas en plaza Francia, las melodías atacan los sentidos de formas inexplicablemente mágicas.

Recomiendo olvidar nombres, etiquetas, rótulos y demás clasificaciones que se ponen en el camino de lo único que importa: mover, conmover y sonreir.

Dejamos algunos sonidos para ustedes...

Upside Down (Jack Johnson)

Paranoid (Black Sabbath)

20 th Century man (The Kinks)
]

Martín Santoro

Esta banda fue formada en el año 1968 en Birmingham, Inglaterra. Su primera formación contó con Tony Iommi en guitarras, Geezer Butler en bajo, Bill Ward detrás de los parches de la batería y, por último, pero no por eso menos importante, con el legendario Ozzy Osbourne en la voz principal.

Muchas bandas declararon ser admiradoras de Black Sabbath y haber tomado en sus composiciones su influencia rockera dura, opresiva y oscura que, a mediados de la década del '70, ya particularizaba a los heavies de Birmingham y los diferenciaba claramente de Led Zeppelin y Deep Purple, dos de los grupos más populares en aquel momento. Judas Priest, Soundgarden, Megadeth y Metallica fueron algunas de las bandas que se vieron influenciadas por la música de Black Sabbath.

Para no seguir alargando el artículo innecesariamente, y además teniendo en cuenta que éste tiene como musa inspiradora a la música, los invito a escuchar un poco a esta genial banda británica, pionera del Heavy Metal mundial:

Black Sabbath - War pigs

War Pigs fue un tema dedicado a la guerra de Vietnam.

Black Sabbath - Iron Man

Mariano Arraña
(en complicidad y con consentimiento de Martín Santoro)

I just found out today that there was a version of the forthcoming "Rules of Hell" box set being sold at Best Buy which is an "exclusive". I was not aware of this happening, so I hit up my contact at Rhino for information. I was told there is indeed going to be a version of "Rules of Hell" specifically available at Best Buy.

The majority of the box will be exactly the same as you can get everywhere else. There will however, be an extra CD packed on the outside that will contain five live tracks from 1981. The live tracks are:

• Neon Knights
• The Mob Rules
• Children of the Grave
• Voodoo
• Country Girl

The source of these live tracks was the "Live at Hammersmith" release from May of 2007. The first four of these tracks already were released on the UK Tour Edition of "The Dio Years" last year. Country Girl was not on the Tour Edition release.

If you want to check out this release, you can do so via this link over at the Best Buy website.

From my personal experience at Best Buy, given the quantities Best Buy tends to stock of things like this, if you're interested, you may wish to pre-order. Best Buy will have the regular version fine, but this one with the extra disc might be harder to come buy. I mean, this isn't the kind of stuff that fills the "best sellers" section at Best Buy. That section is usually filled with crap, so special editions of Black Sabbath might not be in huge quantities at Best Buy, know what I mean?

------------------------------------

More info on The Rules Of Hell box set can found in previous posts be here......and here.

--- Steve

Ozzy Osbourne and his family, Sharon, Kelly and Jack, are reportedly set to host a new US television show on the Fox network.

The programme will reportedly be a throwback to popular 1970s-era variety shows such as 'The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour' and 'Donny and Marie', which focused on music while featuring various forms of entertainment.

The Osbourne programme will likely be filmed in Los Angeles and combine musical performances by the Osbournes and others with comedy sketches. It will also include game-show elements, audience participation and out-of-studio taped segments.

Some segments will include the former Black Sabbath frontman "skewering pop culture," while others will "tap into the sibling rivalry" between 23-year-old Kelly and 22-year-old Jack, studio executive Eugene Young told Variety.

The Osbourne family originally found television success with the popular reality show 'The Osbournes', which was based on the life of the famous family and ran on MTV from 2002-2005.

NME

1973:

Attention Volume One (LP)

Sleeve Design: Robert Stace Ltd

1977:

Greatest Hits (LP)

Sleeve Painting: The Triumph of Death from Breughel

Tooling around Park Slope yard sale remnants on a Sunday afternoon a month or so ago, I spied an 8-track cassette of Martha and the Vandella's Dance Party. That's the one with "Dancing in the Street" on it. I admired the beauty of the format and the way the faded artwork had been pasted just so. I began to think of the ephemeral nature of audio formats, this particular one being larger in dimension than my 80-gig iPod, though much lighter and made of plastic.

I bought a fifteen dollar 8-track player on ebay and hatched a scheme to see what other 8-tracks I could find-- or, better yet, play. With a view toward the most interesting audio being the most discarded and overlooked, I imagined my pathological music hoarding instinct and the 8-track as perfect bedfellows. While a boon for record companies and manufacturers at the time, the 8-track's success was followed closely by that of the cassette tape, which quickly eclipsed the former as it was jettisoned. And so I sought out the underdog not for a hazy nostalgia, but more to find the silver lining in a cloud.

While I'd heard that posting a plea in one's status update on facebook.com often yielded surprising results (i.e., getting only what you ask for, etc.), this did not do the trick. I felt abused. Why couldn't my collection of high school and college classmates, who were practically my friends before, come through for me with a pile of degraded retro crap? The system had broken down.

Panicked and suddenly encumbered by 15 or so pounds of quality GE parts, I had given up, but Jill prevailed in a day with a quick post to Freecycle Brooklyn. A few more emails, a bike trip to Cobble Hill and an exchange of pleasantries with a friendly stranger-- ending with the delightedly exclamatory remark, "You're taking them all?"-- and we had our haul.

71 8-tracks. Click the picture for greater detail.

Along the way we found a few more. Of note, Cher's eponymous third album, originally released in 1966, a lot of Barbra, a lot of Neil. The Captain and Tennille seem to be the archetypal 8-track act as the lion's share of their career is concurrent with the medium's life and death.

Volume 2 of Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar's famed duets.

Sadly, I can't exactly get the sound quality out of these tapes that an audiophilia nervosa patient might expect, but what I can get-- hissing, whirring pitch shifts, bleeding of songs into one another-- is sheer bliss.

* * *

Check out the music page today for a song written in the language of love, which is all you need.

E, dando a entender que o negócio é bom mesmo, ainda viriam uma bandeira do álbum, pôsteres com fotos dos membros da banda, apetrechos para guitarra (não vá achando que são pedais!) e um cartão USB com o logo do novo trabalho. Segundo o site, a brincadeira deve ficar em US$ 1.500, ou mais ou menos R$ 2.400. Esse preço deveria incluir um show exclusivo somente da fase até o Black Álbum. Não?!

Só pra deixar um gostinho, o Death Magnetic foi produzido pela própria banda e por Rick Rubin (Slayer, Weezer, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc.), marcando a estréia do baixista Robert Trujillo (ex-Suicidal Tendencies e Infectious Grooves) – que entrou no Metallica em 2003, logo depois do condenado St. Anger. Ao todo foram gravadas 11 músicas, mas só dez serão colocadas no disco, por causa do tamanho das faixas. Jornalistas britânicos que ouviram seis delas comentaram que a maioria passa de sete minutos.

Os próximos shows do grupo ocorrem em julho, na temporada de festivais do verão europeu. A volta para casa (diga-se Estados Unidos) está marcada para o dia 9 de agosto, quando tocam no Ozzfest, evento capitaneado pelo próprio ex-vocalista do Black Sabbath, com uma posterior turnê norte-americana marcada para outubro. Quem sabe eles não adiantam algo?

Cá entre nós, a julgar pela pífia prévia desse vídeo, o negócio parece bom.

]]> http://panterafox.wordpress.com/?p=12 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:23:20 +0000 panterafox http://panterafox.wordpress.com/?p=12 In an attempt to explore what is “wrong” with heavy metal, or to discover why this form of music is consistently undercut as a legitimate form of music we must understand what IS musically legitimate about metal. The best place to start is at the basis of most heavy music. Now, I won’t be cataloging or attempting to make a tree of all the sub-genres of heavy metal (an endless pursuit), but rather justifying everything from the distorted bass lines of early Metallica to the screaming wails of Judas Priest as a legitimate musical form and one to be respected as well.

The orchestrated musings of bands like Opeth and Iced Earth (who became the famed Transiberian Orchestra) bring about the first basis of metal’s musical roots. Drawing, again, on the ideas from Sam Dunn in his documentary, Mozart, Bach, and Vivaldi were known as improvisers much like revolutionaries of metal such as Edward Van Halen and “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. Complex layering and creating a wall of sound was standard for Beethoven and Wagner as well as Megadeth and Metallica. Metal is infamous for creating progressions, chords, and solos based in the Minor Pentatonic, Hungarian Minor, Enigmatic Minor, and Melodic Minor scales. These same scales were created and used in some of the darkest music of the romantic and middle ages. These great composers also had a tendency to push the allowable standard in music. The flat fifth, or the tritone was known, then, as the devil’s note, and was actually banned in several countries. The superstitious believed that this interval was used to summon the devil as it made the hairs on their arms rise. Metal heavily relies upon this interval to create the dark music and arousing sound that hits fans in the chest. In this sense, heavy metal is the next progression in lasting classical music.
To understand the musical basis of heavy metal the earliest stages of this music must be explored, and the roots of the earliest versions revealed. I look to three major contributors as the first: Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin. Many may argue with me as to the very beginning of the “heavy metal sound,” but these three will be MY reference point. Black Sabbath began as a blues band called Earth before they developed something darker and heavier in Sabbath. Early Deep Purple songs are littered with blues licks and common blues guitar sounds of the 60’s. Zeppelin was known for using harmonica, twelve-string guitars, classical guitars, and various percussion that are all related to early blues music. “When the Levee Breaks” is a premier example of the blues sound that Zeppelin became so famous for. The roots of metal clearly lie heavily in the realm of the great American south, and the traditional blues sound.
Not only is the blues “sound” clear in much of heavy metal, but so is the message that the music presents. Hold on tight because this may get complicated and even a bit philosophical. The roots of the blues lie in slave chants from the cotton plantations and ideas of salvation from oppression. The blues developed from the working class, blue-collar workers of the south. Great guitarists like Robert Johnson were said to have sold their soul to the devil at the crossroads, hence the legend surrounding the blues. As most of us know, heavy metal as the demonic and masochistic imagery surrounding it as well. It is the message of nonconformity and resistance to that which we don’t agree with that makes both of these kinds of music so abrasive. The happy coincidence is the similar sound that the blues and metal share. The shout of resistance and the call for freedom comes from the gospel fields as well as the screaming guitar.
The musically elite that disband metal as a mindless form of music disregard all of these roots and influences. They base their judgments on the sound that they dislike, often a distorted string instrument or screaming vocalist. Discrediting heavy metal as a musical force then becomes a simple matter of opinion. I personally hate the screech of a solo violin playing long drawn out notes, and a symphony is amazing, but I don’t discredit the talent or musicality of either. The true irony is when you take the distortion and screams from metal and put it onto a more traditional instrument the music has a very classical sound with a blues twist. Groups like Apocalyptica are breaking down these barriers as they play heavy metal on a quartet of cellos. They have been so successful playing covers that they have now started writing heavy metal pieces only for a cello quartet, seen in the first video. The following video exemplifies what happens when you take away the distortion to a great metal song. I could play this piano video of “Cemetery Gates” for my grandmother (a polka fan that’s 90 years of age) and she would love it, but playing the original Pantera version (below) she would scoff and walk away. I leave you with these three incredible works of music…

Keep it Metal

Chris Fox

*Nerve interviews The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle on his Black Sabbath novella, Black Sabbath's Master of Reality: "I thought about pitching stuff that was lots heavier, but I thought, one, I came late to most of it except for Celtic Frost and Megadeth, and two, you got to get Sabbath out of the way first." [largehearted boy]

*Peruse: A very large list of MP3 blogs, broken out by category. [mediaeater] Also from the indomitable Mediaeater comes TasteKid, a recommendation engine for music, movies and books.

*Inventions: A nanotube radio receiver - created from a single carbon nanotube, these things could swim in the human bloodstream. "We have already used the nanotube radio to receive and play music from FM radio transmissions such as Layla by Eric Clapton (Derek and the Dominos) and the Beach Boy's Good Vibrations." [neatorama]

*The New Yorker's Alex Ross tours the Chinese classical music scene: Classical music draws huge crowds in China, and more young people are training, but Ross says commerce, art, and politics are keeping the scene a messy one.

*Off topic: The 50 Worst Sex Scenes in Cinema. Get the butter. And the popcorn (I guess?). Hello?