Wanna see something really depressing? And no, I don't just mean the Brooklyn neighborhood where this clip was filmed. Nachtmystium has released an eight-minute video for the final track from this year's Addicts: Black Meddle Part II, and it's a real fuckin' bummer, man. Watch for  Yakuza's Bruce Lamont as one of the junkies; Nachtmystium main man Blake Judd plays the drug dealer. I can't get the embed to work, so click this link to check it out. Say no to drugs, kids.
 

Here are a few things you might care about:

• Marilyn Manson's contract with Interscope has expired, and either he's chosen to go indie or the choice was made for him after executives took a look at the sales of 2009's The High End of Low (an album I didn't like much). In either case, he's formed a company called Hell, Etc.. and has signed a deal with the UK indie label Cooking Vinyl. The new album will be out in 2011, and bassist Twiggy Ramirez (who rejoined the band in 2008) has called it "kind of like a little more of a punk-rock Mechanical Animals."

• New Zealand-based death metal band Ulcerate will also be releasing a new album in 2011; it's called The Destroyers of All, it'll be on Willowtip Records, and they've added a page to their website to document the sessions with blogs, photos, video clips and more. You can also download a new song, "Dead Oceans," at this other link. I liked Ulcerate's last album, 2009's Everything is Fire, quite a bit, so I'm looking forward to this one.

• Hate Eternal, who I don't love so much (though their drummer's amazing), are back in the studio, too. They've got a new bassist named JJ Hrubovcak, who I'm sure will make their brand of ultra-punishing Florida death metal sound totally different from how it's sounded on their previous four albums. Seriously, even though I'm not a fan, these guys are talented as hell—I just wish they could write memorable songs instead of settling for collections of head-spinning guitar riffs and rib-cracking drum fills and blast beats.

• And finally, I was on the radio today debating the merits of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" with one of the editors of Bust magazine. Is the song burned out, or is it every bit as awesome as it was in 1971? (I argued the pro-LZ position.) I thought it went pretty well; you can listen here.
 

So Poison has a new boxed set, Nothin' But a Good Time: The Poison Collection (see above), coming out tomorrow, featuring one disc of studio recordings and one disc of live recordings. Plus a bandanna and a booklet full of photos. Seriously, those are the extras, according to Amazon's product description: "an exclusive, limited edition 'Every Rose Has Its Thorn' bandanna and a full-color booklet with band photos." (Sadly, none of the photos are big enough to fold out into posters and hang on your bedroom wall—sorry to disappoint any hopefuls aiming to appear on Rock of Love: Intensive Carin' or whatever the next season, if there is one, is called).

Anyway, from what I'm reading, even the musical contents of the box aren't that swell. The first disc is just their 2006 compilation, The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock, in a new sleeve. No extra tracks, no nothin'. And the second disc is, if possible, even scammier, as it's a single-disc condensed version of their 1991 double live CD, Swallow This Live. If you're a huge Poison fan, Swallow This Live is actually sort of important, because in addition to being the band's final release before guitarist C.C. Deville left (and he gets an 11-minute solo segment on the original release), it also featured four studio tracks that were never released anywhere else. But when the set was reissued in 2004, it was chopped from two discs to one, losing all the studio tracks, the aforementioned 11-minute guitar solo and an eight-minute drum solo (sorry, Rikki Rockett superfans). You get 17 songs and an intro, where the original double disc offered 23 tracks in all. (If you want the whole thing, you can get it from the Amazon MP3 Store for $9.49, or buy a used copy from an Amazon third-party seller for, like, two bucks. Just don't buy the 2004 remastered version, is my point here.)

So yeah, if you're already a Poison fan (and they've got about a half dozen songs I like), you already have all this stuff. Stay away. If you're a new fan, you can probably get that 20 Years of Rock compilation for half the price. Of course, you won't get the bandanna, but really, dust rags are cheap as hell, so no loss there, either.
 

Napalm Death is one of the most important groups in underground metal. Their 1987 debut CD Scum basically invented grindcore; original drummer Mick Harris might not have been literally the first man to play a blastbeat, but that kind of all-out assault on the kit is definitely associated with him. And he does seem to have come up with the term "grindcore" itself. Read Albert Mudrian's book Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore to get the full story in much more detail than I'd be able to provide here.

The point is, Napalm's evolution didn't stop there. After a couple of albums of straight grind (Scum and the slightly more polished From Enslavement to Obliteration), they started throwing more elements into their core sound. Their third full-length, 1990's Harmony Corruption, was their attempt at a straight Florida-style death metal effort (they even recorded at Morrisound Studios and had members of Obituary and Morbid Angel contribute backing vocals on one track), while 1992's Utopia Banished fused death metal and grindcore a little more organically, tacking on an industrial-derived intro track.

The band's most experimental phase, though, came in the mid '90s. It began with their 1994 release Fear, Emptiness, Despair, which received extra promotion because Earache Records had signed a licensing agreement with Columbia Records—Carcass's Heartwork, Entombed's Wolverine Blues, Godflesh's Selfless and Fudge Tunnel's Creep Diets all received extra attention from the music press, though it didn't really translate to extra sales and the relationship quickly deteriorated. On that album, Napalm brought more groove and just a little bit more melody to their sound, creating a noisy blend of grind, death and alternative/grunge rock that not everybody in the band was 100% happy with (vocalist Barney Greenway claims to hate this album and have terrible memories of the sessions) but at least represented forward movement.

A year later, they were back in the studio, and this was when things really got rolling. The Greed Killing EP, released in November 1995, featured six new songs and a live version of the FED track "Plague Rages." Most of the songs had the fury of classic Napalm, but they also had a postpunk edge, with much heavier bass in some cases and repetitive, almost looping guitar lines as Greenway chanted his vocals like slogans at a protest march. The title track was almost catchy, and they made a video for it:
Less than three months later, in January 1996, the EP was followed by Napalm Death's sixth studio album, Diatribes. Starting with its cover art (which prominently featured a computer keyboard, a hideously burned/rotted hand and some kind of weird crop circle-like graphic, all in the very non-metal colors of purple and neon green), it was obvious something was afoot, and the music bore this out. "Greed Killing," which kicked off the record, didn't even set an accurate tone. Album cuts like "Cursed to Crawl" and "Cold Forgiveness" were more indicative of what the band was attempting to do. The former was a dubby postpunk track with a thick, heavy groove some would later compare to nü-metal, while the latter was a slow-burning industrial-rock track built around a guitar riff (and a guitar tone) that sounded more like Godflesh than anything Napalm had ever done before. Many tracks on the record ("Take the Strain," "Corrosive Elements") were built around ultra-repetitive riffs that almost sounded sampled and looped. Overall, it seemed like Napalm were trying to align themselves with bands like Killing Joke and Swans more than with the extreme metal scene they'd helped create, and not everyone was happy about it, by any means. To this day, Diatribes is one of the most often criticized albums in their discography. But it's one of my favorites.

Diatribes, Greed Killing and Bootlegged in Japan (a live CD recorded in 1996 and featuring no less than eight Diatribes tracks in the set) have recently been compiled into a 3CD box. I highly recommend picking it up, as it shows that even while Napalm Death were constantly evolving in the studio, they remained a crushingly brutal live act.
 

[Thor Harris did not write this especially for Headbäng; it's floating around the Internet and I chose to present it to you. He is presently a member of Swans, who are not metal per se but are one of the heaviest—musically and emotionally—bands you will ever hear in your miserable life. Their new album My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky is out now. Buy it.]

1. Don’t complain. Bitching, moaning, whining is tour cancer. If something is wrong fix it or shut the fuck up you fucking dick. Goddamn.
2. If you fart, claim it.
3. Don’t lose shit. Everybody loses shit. Don’t fucking do it. Asshole.
4. Don’t fuck anyone in the band. There are tons of people to fuck who are not in this band. Dumbass.
5. If you feel like shit all the time, drink less beer at the gig. You will play better & feel better. What are you… a child? Some have the endurance for self abuse. Most don’t.
6. Remember the sound man’s name. He will do a better job.
7. Eat oranges. Cures constipation & prevents colds.
8. Masturbate. Duh… Where & when? Be creative. You’re an artist right?
9. If YOU can’t carry your suitcase 3 blocks, it’s too goddamn big.
10. Respect public space in the van. Don’t clutter, you fuck.
11. If you borrow something, return it. Not fucked up.
12. Do not let the promoter dick you or talk you out of the guarantee. If there were not enuf people there, it’s their fault.
13. Driver picks the music.
14. One navigator only (usually sitting shotgun). Everyone else shut the fuck up.
15. Soundcheck is for checking sounds. Shut the fuck up while everyone else is checking.
16. Don’t wander off. Let someone know where you are.
17. Clean up after yourself. What are you… a goddamn toddler?
18. Touring makes everyone bi-polar. Ride the waves as best you can and remember, moods pass. So don’t make any snap decisions or declarations when you are drunk or insane.
19. Fast food is poison.
20. The guestlist is for friends, family & people you might want to fuck. Everyone else can pay. They have day jobs.
21. Don’t evaluate your whole life while you’re sitting in a janitor closet waiting to go on. You think you’re above having shitty days at work? Shut up & do your goddamn job.

This list was written under the influence of lots of esspresso & anti-depressants while on tour w/such greats as Shearwater, Swans, Smog, Lisa Germano, Angels of Light, Bill Callahan & many more. I hope this list will help you get along w/your co-workers whatever your job is. Contributions to the list by Jordan Geiger, Kimberly Burke, Brian Orloff, Brian Phillips Celebrity Gang Bang, Kevin Schneider, Jonathan Meiburg, Michael Gira and some other folks.

Thanks for not being an asshole, Thor Harris

 

Grand Magus are an awesome band from Sweden. They started out as a mediocre stoner boogie act, but by album #3, 2005's Wolf's Return, they'd really shaped up into something much stronger, mixing doom and classic metal into a roaring, pummeling rock machine. Their 2008 release, Iron Will, was even heavier, sounding like a cross between Manowar and High On Fire at times. These days, they sound like a cross between The Gates of Slumber and late '70s Judas Priest: pure crushing metal, three dudes making the sound of four or five. In 2009, they switched labels, moving from Rise Above (a well-regarded stoner-psych indie) to Roadrunner. That should have opened the door for them to break through in the US, but it hasn't happened.

Grand Magus's 2010 album, Hammer of the North, is their best record to date. It opens with “I, the Jury,” a fast, almost Motörhead-like anthem on which guitarist/singer Janne Christoffersson’s voice sounds uncannily like that of Rob Halford (admittedly, Halford operating in the middle of his range). As the disc progresses, heavy rockers like “Bond of Blood,” “Mountains Be My Throne” and “At Midnight They’ll Get Wise” (the video for which can be seen below, along with the video for the title track) alternate with slower, doomier tracks like “Black Sails,” “The Lord of Lies” and the closing “Ravens Guide Our Way.” The label’s money was clearly well spent, as this is the band’s best-sounding album ever; the production makes every chord and drumbeat a testament to epic metal power. The songs, too, are some of the best the band has ever written, with catchy choruses and riffs that make the urge to bang one's head impossible to resist. And yet, Roadrunner has no current plans to release the album in the U.S. Grand Magus isn't even listed on their website's artists page, although they've got room for acts like Kiss and Slash (who aren't even real signings to Roadrunner; they're just licensing distribution for Europe).

Here's the video for "At Midnight They'll Get Wise." Hopefully Roadrunner will get wise soon, and let American fans hear one of the best metal records of 2010.


 

Scottish director Neil Marshall has made four movies, every one a winner—and every one firmly rooted in a metal-friendly aesthetic, even if there's nothing explicitly metal about any of them.

His debut feature was 2002's Dog Soldiers, a horror movie about a group of British soldiers doing battle with werewolves in the woods while on a training exercise. It was like a cross between Wolfen (an underrated '70s movie about mutant wolves hunting in NYC) and Southern Comfort (about National Guardsmen being hunted by pissed-off Cajuns in the swamps of Louisiana). It was fast-paced, tightly scripted, and gory as hell.

He followed that up with The Descent, a very different type of movie following a group of female spelunkers (cave explorers) who go down into a massive, uncharted cave. Not all of them come out, and the journey through is one of the most tense and suspenseful things ever put to film—even before the underground mutants show up. If you're even slightly claustrophobic, don't go near this one.

His third movie, Doomsday, is one of the most polarizing pop culture artifacts of the 2000s. Some people see it for what it is—awesome nonsense—and others scoff, ridicule and consider those of us who love it to be less than fools. It's kinda hard to describe, but I'll try: It starts off with Scotland being under quarantine after some kind of plague, and pretty much instantly sinking into Road Warrior-style barbarism. But there are also knights on horseback, in armor. And a runaway train. And a dance number. You've gotta see it. It might just melt your brain.

Marshall's latest effort is Centurion, and it's his most metal film; it plays out like a 90-minute Primordial video. I've seen two slogans for this movie: "Fight Or Die" and "History Is Written In Blood." Both are equally applicable. As the trailer above indicates, it's about a Roman legion that journeys into the Scottish wilderness to battle the Picts (you know, the people whose country it actually was at the time). Through guerrilla tactics, the Picts massacre most of the Romans, leaving less than ten to try and rescue their general and make it back to Roman territory.

It's an awesomely gory movie. People are stabbed, speared, shot with arrows, and decapitated with swords and axes. Wounds spurt; slit throats fountain blood onto the camera lens. And there's none of yer fancy-pants CGI slo-mo action; this is no UK remake of 300. Marshall likes his brutality to happen fast, like fights in real life. The battle scenes are impressively large-scale, and crisply shot and edited. People kick the shit out of each other right before your eyes, at length, with no regard for gender—men and women alike give as good as they get.

Make no mistake, there's real beauty here, too. Marshall's got a terrific eye, and knows how to shoot the forests and snow-covered mountains of Scotland. It's kind of amazing how much pristine wilderness there is in that country, how much of it hasn't changed since Roman times. Some of the helicopter shots are genuinely breathtaking. Ultimately, though, this is a fast-paced, unrelentingly savage movie that will please anyone who's ever headbanged to an Amon Amarth track. And it's out on DVD now. Throw it into your Netflix queue with utter confidence.

 

There's a new book out in Australia called Blood Sweat and Beers—Oz Rock from the Aztecs to Rose Tattoo. Written by Murray Engelheart, who previously published a book on AC/DC, Maximum Rock 'n' Roll, in 2006, the book (which I haven't read) apparently covers the late '60s and early '70s history of the Australian rock scene, and portrays it as a hellscape of spilled beer, overdriven amps and bar brawls masquerading as gigs. The 2009 documentary Not Quite Hollywood is a hilarious history of the cinematic underbelly of 1960s and '70s Australia—it's a morass of gore, sexploitation and multi-car pileups. So really, it's no surprise that back in those days, performers like guitarist Lobby Loyde and his band Coloured Balls, heavy blues-rockers Buffalo and the slide-guitar-wieldin​g, skinhead-fronted Rose Tattoo were all making music that made Bon Scott-era AC/DC sound like the goddamn Osmonds.

Just for laughs, here's the trailer to Not Quite Hollywood:
Now let's talk music. The key to Australian hard rock was its ultra-raw, world-destroyingly awesome guitar sound, and that was pioneered by Lobby Loyde. The guy used to actually blow up standard amps; he had to eventually build his own custom gear. His primary band, the Coloured Balls, started out kind of bluesy/proggy, but cut their hair and became a nasty, heavy outfit playing garage punk in the style of the MC5. The two albums you need are 1973's Ball Power and 1974's Heavy Metal Kid, both of which are floating around on CD. Here's a video of them playing "Devil's Disciple," from Ball Power, on Australian TV:
Buffalo were a more conventional heavy blues-rock band in the Led Zeppelin/early Black Sabbath vein, and their debut album, 1972's Dead Forever... even has some quiet, progressive elements. But by their second album, 1973's Volcanic Rock, they'd become thunderously loud and heavy, close in spirit to Cactus, and that's pretty much how they stayed until breaking up after their fifth release, 1977's Average Rock 'n' Roller. Here's a video they made for the song "Suzie Sunshine," from Dead Forever...:
Rose Tattoo is the nastiest, and my favorite, of all the bands in this post. The four albums they released between 1978 and 1984—Rose Tattoo, Assault & Battery, Scarred for Life and Southern Stars—are like a cross between Bon Scott-era AC/DC and the Lemmy/Fast Eddie Clarke/Philthy Animal Taylor lineup of Motörhead. Their head-down, amped-up, slide-guitar-driven boogie, fronted by screeching skinhead Angry Anderson, was one of the most forceful sounds in hard rock, from any country. Because I love them (seriously, I could listen to their debut album all day), you get two videos.

Here's "Rock'n'Roll Outlaw," from their debut album:
And here's "We Can't Be Beaten," from Scarred for Life:
And finally, here's a bonus clip: Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs playing "Mama" sometime in the early '70s. Thorpe had a long and pretty weird career in Australia; he started out as a child actor before becoming a pop musician in the mid '60s. The Aztecs were a Beatles/Hollies/Easybeats-style pop group in 1964 and 1965, and Thorpe continued in that style as a solo act until 1968. But in 1969-70, he reformed the Aztecs with an all new lineup, including Lobby Loyde on lead guitar, and they released the album The Hoax is Over, which included two twenty-minute psychedelic blues-rock jams out of a total of four songs. In 1972, they released one of the biggest anthems in the history of Australian rock, "Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)."