And Your 2011 Mayhem Lineup......(Drum Roll, Please)

I think it's pretty apparent by now that when Mayhem Festival states on their site that "announcements will be released in January," that means these announcements will arrive on January 31. They even teased us a little bit this year by saying the lineup would be announced last Wednesday.  PSYCH!  But here it is, folks.  At long last, the lineup for the 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival has been officially released.  Below after the break you can find the full lineup, dates, and my first impressions of the lineup (something tells me it won't be as good as 2009 was).

Revocation Join The Party

I've been the equivalent of high on the Massholes of Revocation for awhile now. Their 2009 breakthrough Exisitence is Futile was genuinely one of the more enticing and original albums of that calendar year. The thing that makes theses tech-death-duders so exciting is that they seem to carving their own path through the muddled genre pool, simply churning out catchy thrashterpieces with teaspoons of prog, death and hardcore sprinkled throughout. And let it be known to anyone who hasn't figured it out yet... Dave Davidson (which is such a circa 1986 frontman name) is undoubtedly one of the most talented young guitarist/vocalists out there right now, totally in the mold of early-Megadeth Mustaine.

And now they're joining the fray in 2011 with what will most certainly be a highly anticipated third full length. The sky is the limit for these guys. Relapse picked them up way early in their careers for a reason... prepare to be stunned, kids.

Full press release can be found here.

- Jack

We'll Do It Live Fridays: Animals As Openers?

So it seems like I'm destined to post proggy clips for my WDILF sections for the next few weeks or so.  But looking at what will be coming out this year can you really blame me?!  The band I'll be featuring this week is even more relevant though because I just got the approval to host an in person interview with these guys when they come through Chicago in about a week and a half.  Check to see who it is after the break.

Metal Requests All Weekend... No, Seriously.

So if you're like me and you're a total metalhead troll, you've called into a local radio station and requested Cannibal Corpse before. The prudes probably hung up you, but those days are over... at least for a weekend. Sirius 27/XM 42 Liquid Metal is hosting Social Network Takeover weekend, asking you to send in any and all metal requests you can think of until early Monday morning via their Facebook page. I would highly implore everyone to head over there even if you don't have Sirius/XM, which you should also get on if you don't. It pretty much perfects how music radio should be, with Liquid Metal serving as the perfect example. Metal encyclopedia Ian Christe (who hosts Bloody Roots, a heavy metal history show) essentially served as the original inspiration behind Brutalitopia, so we gotta give props where props are due. 

Now get over there and request something super obscure, like Mayhem's earliest EP or something even more controversial. 

- Jack

Review: Times Of Grace - The Hymn Of A Broken Man

Jesse Leach + Adam D. = vintage Killswitch Engage?  This was the ultimate question I kept asking myself as I counted down the days until I could listen to Time of Grace’s debut, The Hymn Of A Broken Man.  With that kind of expectation engraved in my mind, as I gave the album my first listen through, I ended up being slightly disappointed.  In retrospect, however, this disappointment was ultimately a good thing.  With another few listens through, I realized there’s something much more important about this album than my hopes of it being Alive Or Just Breathing: Part 2.  

Thomas Giles Music Vid For "Sleep Shake"



In case you haven't heard, Between the Buried and Me's frontman, Tommy Rogers, has released his own solo project under the alias of Thomas Giles.  The release, Pulse, has been getting pretty stellar reviews as of late.  I can say honestly that I agree with them as well.  Tommy truly demonstrates his vocal talents on this record.  With that being said, don't expect this one to have the traditional death metal elements you've come to expect from BTBAM.  This is much easier on the ears, but in a good way.  Enjoy.

-Mick    

We'll Do It Live Fridays: High On (The) Pot

 

I've been rambling on quite a lot recently about what is or isn't metal. Not actually determining which bands or albums are or aren't (you should know by now that I find that age-old debate to be pretty fucking pointless), but why it becomes such a big deal with the masses. Whether you poke around the bowels of the internet on metal forums or even just talk to your average Chris Barnes look-a-like, the topic inevitably rears it's rather fruitless head; "Yeah, dude... I totally dug White Pony too... but is it really even metal?" We've all dealt with this before. And it's probably not out of the realm of possibility that the majority of us have dealt with this when listening or discussing Tool. 

Scale The Summit Announces New Album

To further my notion of how 2011 will be the year of prog (see my WDILF post below), Scale the Summit has just officially announced that their new album, entitled The Collective, will be released on March 1st via Prosthetic records.  Get pumped everybody.  Scale the Summit is for real.

-Mick

We'll Do It Live Fridays: Between Epicness and 2011



With 2010 having been the year for black metal, progressive metal is looking to make quite an outing in 2011.  With bands such as Cynic, Opeth, Protest the Hero, the Human Abstract, Mastodon, Scale the Summit, and Dream Theater  either coming out with new material or are at least starting to work on new matrerial, I already foresee making a top 10 list for 2011 to be nearly impossible.  But wait a minute....I left out a pretty key name from that prog all stars list.  Find out who it is after the break.

I'm Calling Shenanigans

Disgruntled geek-elite metalheads can complain all they want, but Decibel Magazine is without a doubt in my mind the most accepted of published metal media currently out there. Unlike the Kerrangs and Revolvers of the world, Decibel seems to have its finger on the pulse of the less publicized and more musically gifted acts out there. While Ozzy, Disturbed and mall-core biz like The Devil Wears Prada frequently adorn the cover of the big wigs, Decibel can be counted on to stay true to it's pure metal roots... most of the time, at least. But after a serious amount of contemplation and listening, I think I can emphatically exclaim like a Swiss alphorner dude that well over 50% of their 2010 Top 40 list was bullshit.