Here's the latest email update from Chimaira guitarist Matt DeVries. The band is playing the Rockstar Mayhem Festival tour all summer, and their new CD/2DVD set Coming Alive is out now.

Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Fest 2010, Day 12. What a fucking incredible tour this has been! To start off, this has probably been the hottest tour we have ever done. The sun has been brutal to say the least. It was 113 degrees in Phoenix and has not gotten that much cooler since. Needless to say, the fans have still been amazing and full of energy and that has helped fuel all the bands to do the same! Every band has been doing great and tearing shit up on all three stages!

One of the coolest things that happens on this tour is that once a week, Mayhem throws a rager that is hosted by a different band on the tour. Norma Jean had one that involved kegs of beer and a shitload of pizza. It just so happened that it was the same day as [Chimaira keyboardist] Chris Spicuzza’s birthday...let’s just say he was doing a keg stand late into the night. Good times indeed! Then in Camden, NJ, Mayhem alumni God Forbid decided to stop by and host. The theme was BBQ, punch cocktails served in plastic tubs, and 40’s...considering I don’t remember the latter half of the night, I know it was a great rager! Thanks again, guys!

We have been having nothing but fun on this tour. A big thanks to all the fans for coming out! Spread the word, and once again, see you at the Jägermeister tent (5:10 PM) and our merchandise tent (5:45 PM) every day for our signings!
 

The Swedish band Enforcer released their second album Diamonds back in March, and it's awesome. As a guy who should know wrote on All Music Guide, "Fans of old-school metal will find this a pleasing throwback thrill; modern-day metal kids too young to remember the bands and albums Enforcer are paying tribute to will find these songs weirdly catchy and utterly lacking in breakdowns, downtuned riffing, or moaned lyrics about adolescent existential despair. There's no emo or thick-necked hardcore/death metal bro-hood to be heard here; this is pure escapist pleasure."

Now, to celebrate the band's appearance at the legendary Sonisphere festival in England this Saturday, their label, Heavy Artillery, is offering a free download of the entire album for only 24 hours. You've got until 5 PM EST tomorrow to grab it; here's the link:

http://www.heavyarti​llery.us/enforcerpro​mo

Don't miss this opportunity; Enforcer is a really good band, and both Diamonds and its predecessor, Into the Night, are very much worth your time (and money). Enjoy, and hope they mount a US tour soon.
 

Monday night, I heard the new Avenged Sevenfold album Nightmare, and decided to post my thoughts on Twitter. (My Twitter account is MSNMetal; feel free to follow me.) So here you go, a (pretty much; I started with track three) track-by-track review of Nightmare, 140 characters at a time.



Three tracks into the new @theofficiala7x CD. So far, a huge improvement over the s/t atrocity, but "City of Evil" remains their best.

@theofficiala7x "Buried Alive" like a cross between Metallica's "One" & an outtake from GnR's "Use Your Illusion" sessions.

@theofficiala7x "Natural Born Killer": Great '80s thrash riff, but vocals & crooning chorus kills the momentum. Coitus interruptus.

Some really nice guitar solos on this @theofficiala7x album, btw. A lotta Slash, a lotta Kirk Hammett, a little Al DiMeola.

@theofficiala7x "So Far Away": Acoustic ballad w/too much drumming (that's what renting Mike Portnoy gets you) & faux-country vox. Bleah.

Attn. @theofficiala7x - I don't care if it is a subpar Slayer song, you're not allowed to use the phrase "God hates us all" in one of yours.

@theofficiala7x "Victim": GnR power ballad w/bonus fem-vox a la "Dark Side" Pink Floyd. Oh, and it runs 7:30. Restrained, these guys ain't.

@theofficiala7x "Tonight The World Dies": Another ballad, and M. Shadows' Axl-isms are just getting out of hand at this point.

@theofficiala7x "Fiction": Kinda "Layla"-ish piano, offbeat drumming, vox more Reznor than Rose. The parts don't quite fit, in a good way.

@theofficiala7x "Save Me": Aw, crap. 10:56? Overlong, overwritten; Opeth they ain't. Still, their second-best album overall. Fans will shit.
 

(Above: Corrosion of Conformity, not just three random hicks.)

The original three-piece lineup of legendary crossover act Corrosion of Conformity—Woody Weatherman, Mike Dean and Reed Mullin—will embark on their first live shows in over twenty years, in celebration of the anniversary of their Animosity album. The tour kicks off this week in Asheville, NC.

The trio have also recorded a new single, “Your Tomorrow (Parts 1 and 2),” which will be available on overpriced vinyl at all upcoming tour dates and via Southern Lord’s website.

Righteous Fool, featuring Mike Dean and Reed Mullin, will open all dates. Other openers will include Zoroaster, Eagle Twin, Black Breath, Black Tusk, U.S. Christmas, Iron Age and "very special" guests for the October dates. (Dare we hope for a C.O.C./D.R.I. bill?)

Tour dates are:

July
30 Asheville, NC Stella Blue (w/Zoroaster, U.S. Christmas)
31 Raleigh, NC The Pour House (w/Black Tusk, U.S. Christmas)

August
8 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex: The Power of The Riff Fest (w/Eagle Twin, Black Breath)
10 San Francisco, CA DNA Lounge (w/Eagle Twin, Black Breath)
12 Seattle, WA Neumo’s
13 Austin, TX Emo’s (w/Iron Age)
14 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater

October
7 Sayreville, NJ Starland Ballroom
8 Chicago, IL Double Door: Riot Fest
10 New York, NY Highline Ballroom
 

Very, very hyped Swedish black metal band Watain are possibly the most image-conscious band since the days of glam rock. They cover themselves in blood and dirt onstage, in addition to the now-traditional ploppy paint, and profess in their interviews to be the most evil, death-fixated, humanity-hating, life-devouring band ever ever ever. You know, just like every other black metal band on Earth (or the fictional Dethklok, from Adult Swim's Metalocalypse, whom are indeed the most-metal).

Anyway, Watain hired New York-based design/printing company Metastazis (who've also done work for Nachtmystium, Antaeus and Averse Sefira, among others) to print gig posters for a London show, and the posters were done in human blood. I know, right? None more black, indeed! The blood came from the designer and from an unnamed Watain fan, and 111 copies of the poster were made, to be sold exclusively at the performance. You can read more about the process at Metastazis's blog, here and here.

I've got no problem with this—it's your blood; do what you want with it. I just can't figure out how the supposedly most badass, terrifying black metal band ever ever ever wound up ripping off gimmicks from Kiss circa 1977 (Kiss, as every fan and pop-culture geek knows, dropped samples of their blood into the ink when their comic book was being printed). But when you think about it, Kiss were the first band to sport elaborate, black-and-white face paint onstage, so in a way they're the forefathers of black metal.

Anyway, here's what the poster looked like:



And here's a picture of Watain.



Scary, huh?
 

Shane Blay of the band Oh, Sleeper posted this on his Facebook page. Oh, Sleeper are a Christian metalcore band, but the math is the same, no matter the genre, metal or otherwise. So take a nice long look at this breakdown, and give some serious consideration to buying a T-shirt or a CD the next time you're at a show. (I've done some very slight proofreading on this, but haven't altered it in any fundamental way.)

Hey Everyone,

For the past 5 years my brothers in Oh, Sleeper and myself have sacrificed our lives, our time, relationships, birthdays, holidays, health (ha ha) to travel around and play shows for our fans. Not to say that isn't been a fun ride!

I would just like to bring a few things to our fans' attention:

I would like to show you guys an average day in finances for a "mid-level" band like us. I'm going to break down the average monetary ins and outs of a day on tour.

On tour bands have two ways to make money. Guarantees and merchandise.

On tour, bands have big bills. The biggest are: managers, booking agent, merch rates, merch bills, food, and of course...the gas bill.

Our last headlining tour was an East Coast run with 3 other bands. The average guarantee was $300 per band, and around $300 in merch. This was the average for all 4 bands, for the entire tour.

So we have a $600 gross income per night. Now let's break this down.

Merchandise is bought, printed, and shipped on the band's dollar. We print most of our shirts on American Apparel. They obviously offer the best fitting shirts, and kids are smart about looking good nowadays. They won't sell unless you have slim fitting, soft shirts. The demand for better quality shirts from bands is higher in last few years.

American Apparel shirts are very pricey to print. Usually $7.50 a shirt. More for V-necks, 3/4 sleeve shirts, etc.

We sell our shirts for $15 at our shows, UNLESS we are on tour with a headliner that demands we price match them.

SO $15 - $7.50 = $7.50. So half is profit. So out of the $300 the band made in merch, they owe $150 to the printer.

BUT HOLD ON! Merch rates!

Most nice venues have merch rates, we have seen them be as high as 32% of gross. Usually they are 25%.

-----

So out of the initial $300 in merch the band made, 25% goes to the venue. Thats $75.

$300 (gross) - $150 (merch cost) - $75 (merch venue rate) = $75 (net profit for the band).

BUT the breakdown doesn't stop there. If the band has a manager, he takes 15% of net profit of merch.

SO MERCH TOTAL PER NIGHT:

$75 x .15 = $11.25

$75 - $11.15 = $63.75 (TOTAL net profit in merch for the band.)

--------

Guarantees:

The breakdown in deductions from this money is: 15% to manager, 10% to booking agent.

$300 (gross guarantee) - $45 (manager's 15%) - $30 (booking agent's 10%) = $225

Average gas bill is around $150. Some days way better, some days way worse. We have done 17 hour drives, leaving a show and showing up to the next one right before we play, many times. Those are a bit more expensive. Most West Coast tours we do, the average gas bill is around $200-250...but I'll use $150 for this example.

$225 (guarantee after manager and agent deductions) - $150 (gas bill) = $75

We have 6 people on tour—our 5 guys, and our merch guy "the Maze." We give everyone $10 a day to eat on. (This isn't enough when you're 6'4" and 200 lbs like Micah and me, by the way.)

6 people x $10 = $60

$75 - $60 = $15

$15 total net profit in guarantees.

-------

$63.75 (net merch) + $15 (net guaranty) = $78.75 for the band for the night. Out of $600 gross.

If you divide that 6 ways, it's $13.12 a day per band member.

-------

This doesn't include hotel costs, which are usually 50-60 bucks. Most bands don't get hotels or shower to save money to pay for phone bills.

This does not include tires/van payment/oil changes/van upkeep/registration/​blah blahtTrailer tires/gear/etc.

This doesn't include taxes. This doesn't include ROAD TOLLS. Which in the northeast can add up to 20-40 bucks a day.

Thanks for reading.

MERCH RATES HAVE TO GO.
STOP STEALING OUR CDs PLEASE.
WE DON'T MAKE MONEY WHEN YOU BUY IT FROM STORES, COME TO SHOWS.
WE DON'T MAKE MONEY FROM LABELS.
BUY MERCH FROM US AT SHOWS IF YOU LIKE WHAT WE'RE DOING.


Thanks for reading.

Shane

 

Let me repeat that: TRIPTYKON IS COMING.

The group, formed by Hellhammer and Celtic Frost founder Tom Gabriel Fischer (aka Tom G. Warrior), has announced U.S. tour dates for October. On at least some of these dates, they will be supported by black metallers 1349 and Chicago-based jazz-prog-metal band Yakuza. As I said when Triptykon's debut album, Eparistera Daimones, was released in March, it's astonishingly heavy, featuring Fischer's uniquely grinding guitar sound and his harsh, guttural vocals over death-march drums. ("A Thousand Lies" breaks with the general crushing-doom pattern; it's maybe the fastest song he's ever recorded.) Female vocals provide an occasional contrast to the barking and growling, but the mood of anguish and rage remains constant throughout. It's a terrific album, and I can't wait to hear the songs live—mixed with a bunch of Celtic Frost classics, of course.

Here are the dates:

10/7 - Middle East - Cambridge, MA (with 1349, Yakuza)
10/8 - Gramercy Theatre - New York, NY
10/15 - Majestic Theatre - Detroit, MI
10/16 - Bottom Lounge - Chicago, IL
10/17 - Station 4 - St. Paul, MN
10/29 - Emos Austin - Austin, TX (with 1349, Yakuza)

There are some sizable gaps in that schedule (between 10/8 and 10/15, between 10/17 and 10/29), so more dates may be announced.

I interviewed Fischer on this blog a couple of months ago; here's a link if you want to check that out.
 

The album that put Pantera on the worldwide musical map, 1990's Cowboys From Hell, is getting the deluxe reissue treatment on September 14 (with an even more elaborate edition coming in November). There will be both a two-disc Expanded Edition and a three-disc Deluxe Edition, with track listings as follows:

Disc One
1. Cowboys From Hell
2. Primal Concrete Sledge
3. Psycho Holiday
4. Heresy
5. Cemetery Gates
6. Domination
7. Shattered
8. Clash With Reality
9. Medicine Man
10. Message In Blood
11. The Sleep
12. The Art Of Shredding

Disc Two
1. Domination (Live)
2. Psycho Holiday (Live)
3. The Art Of Shredding (Live)
4. Cowboys From Hell (Live)
5. Cemetery Gates (Live)
6. Primal Concrete Sledge (Live)
7. Heresy (Live)
8. Domination (Live, from Alive and Hostile EP)
9. Primal Concrete Sledge (Live, from Alive and Hostile EP)
10. Cowboys From Hell (Live, from Alive and Hostile EP)
11. Heresy (Live, from Alive and Hostile EP)
12. Psycho Holiday (Live, from Alive and Hostile EP)

Disc Three – Ultimate and Deluxe Editions Only
1. The Will To Survive (Previously Unreleased Studio Track)
2. Shattered (Demo)
3. Cowboys From Hell (Demo)
4. Heresy (Demo)
5. Cemetery Gates (Demo)
6. Psycho Holiday (Demo)
7. Medicine Man (Demo)
8. Message In Blood (Demo)
9. Domination (Demo)
10. The Sleep (Demo)
11. The Art Of Shredding (Demo)

Tracks 1-7 on Disc Two, and all tracks on Disc Three, are previously unreleased; tracks 8-12 on Disc Two—the Alive and Hostile EP, documenting the band's performance at Monsters of Rock in Moscow in 1991, and previously available only as part of an Australian boxed set—were never released in the U.S. until now, either, so most fans probably haven't heard those, either.

The booklet for this set will contain essays from all three surviving band members as well as other folks connected with the band. The Ultimate Edition, to be released in November, will come in some kind of fancy box, with some crap to be determined later thrown in. When I know more about that, I'll tell you.

Invisible Oranges has an interview with Phil Anselmo about what he's up to in 2010; if you want to read that, here you go.