A lot of fan-made videos on YouTube suck. Cheesy, crudely edited compilations of footage from anime or the Lord of the Rings movies, barely synched to the songs they're soundtracking. But this one's awesome. Not only does the footage work with the theme of the song, it actually includes vintage live performance footage of the band in question.

It's for a relatively little-known, but classic, metal song—"Lethal Tendencies" by Georgia-based (and, in recent years, re-activated) thrashers Hallows Eve. The band made three albums for Metal Blade in the early to mid '80s: 1985's Tales of Terror, 1986's Death and Insanity, and 1988's Monument. They never achieved the commercial success of the Big Four, obviously, and were always a cult band. I heard this song, originally from Death and Insanity, on the soundtrack to the movie River's Edge, and was instantly won over. In 2006, Metal Blade's German arm put out a budget box containing all three of Hallows Eve's albums alongside a ton of demos and live tracks—it's called Tales of Terror, and if you can find one, grab it. They were a good, solid thrash band with a unique sound, and fans of the old school should listen to 'em.

Anyway, here's the video. Happy Friday!


 

I'm pretty excited about the Summer Slaughter Tour, which hits NYC on August 1; ten of the most listener-abusive deathcore and technical death metal bands around, crushing it one after the other. I mean, seriously: Decapitated, The Faceless, All Shall Perish, The Red Chord, Veil of Maya, Cephalic Carnage, Decrepit Birth, Carnifex, Animals as Leaders and Vital Remains all on one bill? Sold!

The one thing that bums me out about the show is that as much as I like the majority of these bands (the only ones I'm not particularly looking forward to seeing are All Shall Perish, The Red Chord and Cephalic Carnage), I know I'm not gonna come home with even one new T-shirt.

Metal shirts, like metal itself, have gotten more and more "extreme" in recent years, with logos getting uglier and spikier, slogans getting more obscene/offensive, and imagery heading into territory that, frankly, I don't want on my chest where strangers can see. There was an awesomeness to metal graphic design in the '80s and even, to a degree, in the '90s that young bands don't care to match. To this day, old-school bands like Judas Priest, Metallica and Slayer offer good-looking shirts that a man in his late 30s can wear with relative dignity.

Iron Maiden used to be the gold standard for this. Their shirts, which almost always depicted mascot Eddie (I have one of the few that doesn't, a shirt from the 2004 Dance of Death Tour with a band photo on the front), were witty and cool-looking; you could wear them on the street and get unexpected nods of appreciation from strangers. I was hoping to buy a new shirt on Monday night. But everything on offer was ugly, and I left the gig empty-handed.

One option a few bands have exercised in recent years, which has pleased me greatly, has been the simple black-and-white logo shirt. I have one from Atheist, one from Entombed, and one that's not quite a straight logo shirt, but features a logo and a simple white graphic, from the L.A.-based Native American crust/grind band Resistant Culture. And, of course, Motörhead has been doing that for decades—the classic "Motörhead/England" shirt, with their pig-demon mascot's head in the center, adorns hundreds of thousands of torsos worldwide, so many that Lemmy once told me, "I wish everyone who's got the T-shirt had the albums."

I feel like a lot of young bands are going out of their way to alienate older fans. There are a lot of metalheads in their late 30s who like new bands, but don't want to be walking around in a T-shirt that's been designed to piss off parents and high school principals. I think shirts designed for grown-ups would be a great marketing tool, and a way to bridge what I see as a growing generation gap in metal.

Of course, I could just be old and out of touch. That's not outside the realm of possibility. All I know for sure is that when I go to Summer Slaughter, I'll be wearing this classy, simple garment:


 

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has announced a book tour to promote his upcoming autobiography, Mustaine (which thankfully no longer bears the awful title Hello Me...Meet The Real Me).

In an interview with AOL's Noisecreep site, he said of the book, "You've got to take into consideration that we live in a very litigious time now and people will try you and they sue because they spill coffee on their crotch, you know? So the publisher took a look at the book and took out everything they thought would be controversial to the point where I'd get sued over it, but it still definitely has teeth. It's a funny book. It's got great moments and there's still a lot of sadness in it, too. It's all factual. It's a story of my life and my life isn't about name-calling and mud-slinging."

[Brief pause while your humble blogger laughs himself unconscious...]

Okay, we're back.

The book will be released August 3. Here are the dates and locations at which Mustaine will be signing:

August 9
Book Revue
313 New York Ave.
Huntington, NY 11743
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. EDT

August 10
Barnes & Noble
555 Fifth Ave. @ 46th St.
New York, NY 10017
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT

August 10
Bookends
232 E. Ridgewood Ave.
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. EDT

August 12
Borders
Wall Street
100 Broadway
New York, NY 10005
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT

August 14
Barnes & Noble
800 Boylston St.
B&N # 2115
Boston, MA 02119
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT

August 15
Barnes & Noble
Rittenhouse Square
1805 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT

August 16
Borders
1201 Boston Post Rd.
Milford, CT 06460
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT

August 18
Joseph-Beth & Davis-Kidd Booksellers
24519 Cedar Road
Lyndhurst, OH, 44124
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT

August 19
Borders
43075 Crescent Blvd
Novi, MI 48375
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CDT

August 21
Borders
1540 Golf Road
Schaumburg, IL 60173
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CDT

August 23
Rainy Day Books
707 W 47th Street
Unity Temple on The Plaza
Kansas City, Missouri 64112
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. CDT

August 25
Tattered Cover Book Store
9315 Dorchester St.
Highlands Ranch Town Center
Highlands Ranch, CO 80129
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. MDT

August 26
Borders
2240 Q St. NE STE 10-K
Albuquerque, NM 87110
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. MDT

August 27
Changing Hands Bookstore
6428 S McClintock Drive
Tempe, AZ 85283
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. MST

August 29
Barnes & Noble
Mira Mesa
10775 Westview Parkway
San Diego, CA 92126
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. PDT

August 30
Borders
101 S Pine Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90802
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. PDT

September 1
Borders
2339 Fair Oaks Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95825
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. PDT

September 3
University Bookstore
4326 University Way
Seattle, WA 98105
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. PDT

September 4
Powell's Bookstore
2720 NW 29th Ave.
Portland, OR 97210
12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. PDT
 

As regular readers of this blog know, I spotlight a couple of new releases every Tuesday, unless a) I don't think there's anything good/notable coming out, or b) something else takes precedence, like a review of the previous night's Iron Maiden show. But this week, there's so much coming out that I feel obligated to deal with some of it. So here we go.

Hellyeah, Stampede (Epic): We've been streaming this one since Friday. If you liked their first album, you're gonna like this one. It's basically the same combination of Vinnie Paul's thunderous drumming, Mudvayne frontman Chad Gray's fierce howls, and guitars courtesy of Mudvayne's Greg Tribbett (and now Nothingface's Tom Maxwell), with Damageplan bassist Bob "Bobzilla" Kakaha holding down the low end. Eleven songs with titles like "Pole Rider," "Cowboy Way," "Hell of a Time"...you get the idea. This ain't progressive metal, musically or lyrically. It's knuckle-dragging, beer-swilling party metal with some nü-metal downtuning and Pantera/Damageplan-style groove. Many will hate it, but they probably hated the debut, too. (I didn't.) Many more will throw their fists in the air and rock out.

In This Moment, A Star-Crossed Wasteland (Century Media): Another polarizing album from another polarizing band. Lots of dickbags like to shout that this band only made it because people like looking at vocalist Maria Brink's tits and short skirts. Well, in a just universe, they'd open their ears, hear the actual music on this ridiculously powerful album, and shut the hell up. They won't, of course. So it's up to everyone else to listen and realize just how far this group has come in only five years. Their 2007 debut, Beautiful Tragedy, was mostly metalcore, and only intermittently impressive. The next album, 2008's The Dream, was a quantum leap, though, harder at times and much, much poppier other times, recalling New Wave and early '80s metal/hard rock. And this one is the perfect synthesis of both sides of their musical personality—the songs are hooky as hell, but some of them, like first single "Gunshow" and "Just Drive," are the hardest, heaviest stuff they've ever recorded. And Maria Brink just keeps growing as a vocalist; at this point, she can hold her own with anybody in metal. This is a seriously great record.

Korn, III: Remember Who You Are (Roadrunner): Yeah, this exists. If you're gonna buy it, you already know who you are and I'm not gonna be able to convince you otherwise. So go to it.

Soilwork, The Panic Broadcast (Nuclear Blast): The ninth album by this long-running Swedish melodic death metal act marks the return of founding guitarist Peter Wichers (he produced the disc, too). It's quite a record, combining the anthemic choruses of their best work with some surprisingly brutal riffage. Vocalist Björn "Speed" Strid handles the clean and guttural vocals with equal facility, and the band augments their core metalcore/melodeath sound with synths and acoustic interludes as necessary. This is a seriously catchy record that will make longtime Soilwork fans very, very happy indeed.

Wolvhammer, Black Marketeers of World War III (Init): These Michigan-based black/death metallers, who I've talked about here before, released a couple of seriously fierce demos in 2009. Their full-length debut, produced by Sanford Parker, has a little more oomph, but some of the songs aren't as good. I wish they'd kept their punk-rock edge intact, instead of trying to evolve (mind you, they haven't turned into Opeth or anything; they're still making stripped-down, guttural metal). Writing dirgey, somewhat psychedelic songs like "Snaketongues" just makes them seem like a Nachtmystium knockoff. I feel kinda crappy saying this, because I'm not usually one of those "the demo was better" douchebags. But in this case, I really feel like it's true. Still, this is a good record worth your attention.

Zoroaster, Matador (E1): These guys are from Georgia, but they're not all that influenced by Mastodon, really (even if Brent Hinds did sing on one song from their 2009 release, Voice of Saturn). They've got more sludge in 'em than that, and a lot of space-rock (think Hawkwind or American acts like Novadriver and Red Giant). This album is a slight step forward from Voice of Saturn; the songs are a little better, it's a little more concise, but they're still basically doing psychedelic sludge metal. If you like that sort of thing more than I do, then Zoroaster are up-and-comers to whom you should be paying attention.
 

One of the amazing things about Iron Maiden is that 30 years after their self-titled debut album, people are still discovering them. Last night at New York's Madison Square Garden, frontman Bruce Dickinson asked the crowd how many of them were at their first Iron Maiden show, and an astonishing number raised their hands—from where I was sitting, way at stage right, it looked like about 1/5 of the sold-out crowd were newcomers. "You've gotta be shitting me!" Dickinson shouted, with a huge grin. "Well, welcome to the Iron Maiden family."

If you're gonna see Iron Maiden for the first time on this tour, you're in for an interesting night. As has been discussed on this blog, the set list is almost entirely drawn from their three most recent albums (Brave New World, Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death), plus "El Dorado" from the forthcoming The Final Frontier (out August 17, and based on what friends who've heard it have said, it's gonna be a winner), and five oldies—"Wrathchild,"​ the traditional set-closer "Iron Maiden," and an encore of "The Number of the Beast," "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and "Running Free." Early in the tour, they were playing "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns," but that was replaced by "Wrathchild" after a few shows, and frankly, I wish they hadn't made the switch—that's my favorite song from A Matter of Life and Death, and I was really looking forward to hearing it live.

Whatever. The show was fantastic. Maiden had bad luck three of the first four times I saw them—in 2004 at Hammerstein Ballroom, the sound board blew up at the end of the main set, preventing them from playing an encore; on Ozzfest, it rained during their set (which didn't bother them, but pissed off those of us with lawn tickets); and in 2008, at MSG, they lost power mid-set. So I was kinda nervous going in, almost wondering whether I was some kind of jinx. But there were no technical difficulties, injuries, bomb threats, or anything—the show went off without a hitch.

In recent years, Maiden's gone in a more progressive direction on record. They don't write 14-minute epics like "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," but their regular songs have gotten longer and more exploratory. When a bunch of these 2000s-era songs are placed together, as they were last night, the transformation really becomes apparent. This was a set dominated by long guitar solos, a lot of them by Dave Murray, whose tone and style are much more akin to Pink Floyd's David Gilmour than your typical '80s metal shredder—his playing has a real emotional content and power that his fellow guitarists, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, can't really match. They're the metal guys; he's clearly coming out of an English folk-blues tradition, just with more amps.

Dickinson's vocals are as powerful as ever, and he still runs all around the stage, though he occasionally disappears during the guitar solos, and sits down for some of the quieter, more theatrical moments in songs like "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg," "Fear of the Dark" or "Dance of the Dead." He's the greatest frontman in metal right now, period.

Of course, the set always ends with the song "Iron Maiden," during which the band's zombie mascot, Eddie, makes his appearance. This time, he's looking like a mutant alien, in keeping with the sci-fi theme of The Final Frontier. Here's some video of that:



Oh, and Dream Theater opened the show, but I showed up late because they suck.
 

Okay, that headline's not totally accurate, though you might think it is if you're a younger person, because Eastern Europe just got through hosting the "Big Four" concerts with Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. (There'll be a DVD release later this year, showcasing the Sofia, Bulgaria show that was broadcast to movie theaters.)

But in fact, in a throwback to 1991, the same lineup of bands that performed on the Clash of the Titans tour way back when—Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer—will be co-headlining the next leg of the American Carnage tour, starting September 24. Megadeth will play Rust in Peace front to back (plus some other songs), Slayer will play Seasons in the Abyss front to back (plus some other songs), and Anthrax will play...well, no formal set list has been announced, but running through Persistence of Time would take an hour all by itself, so they probably won't be doing that.

A special pre-sale will launch this Wednesday, July 14, and fans should log on to Slayer.net, Megadeth.com or Anthrax.com to obtain the special code needed for the pre-sale, and then go to Ticketmaster.com (KnoxvilleTickets.com​ for the Knoxville date) to purchase tickets. The public on-sale will begin July 23 in most markets.

There will be special $10 tickets for some shows, and discounts for pre-sale purchase, as listed below.

Here are the confirmed dates:

Sep. 24 - Verizon Wireless Theatre, Dallas, TX*
Sep. 25 - AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX*
Sep. 26 - Verizon Wireless Theatre, Houston, TX*
Sep. 28 - Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, LA*
Sep. 30 - Civic Coliseum, Knoxville, TN
Oct. 01 - The Arena at Gwinnett Center, Atlanta, GA*
Oct. 02 - Hard Rock Live, Orlando, FL
Oct. 03 - Bayfront Park Amphitheatre, Miami, FL*
Oct. 05 - Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA
Oct. 06 - Eagles Auditorium, Baltimore, MD*
Oct. 08 - Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, Long Island, NY*
Oct. 09 - Toyota Pavilion @ Montage Mountain, Scranton, PA*
Oct. 10 - LC Pavilion, Columbus, OH**
Oct. 12 - Freedom Hall, Louisville, KY
Oct. 14 - War Memorial Coliseum, Ft.Wayne, IN*
Oct. 15 - DeltaPlex, Grand Rapids, MI*
Oct. 16 - Eagles Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI**
Oct. 19 - E Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Oct. 20 - The Pearl, Las Vegas, NV
Oct. 21 - Gibson Amphitheatre, Hollywood, CA*

* $10 discount for tickets purchased during pre-sale (excluding the special $10 tickets)
** $5 discount for tickets purchased during pre-sale
 

Hellyeah, the supergroup featuring vocalist Chad Gray and guitarist Greg Tribbett of Mudvayne, guitarist Tom Maxwell of Nothingface, bassist Bob "Bobzilla" Kakaha of Damageplan, and drummer Vinnie Paul of Pantera and Damageplan, found a fairly shocking amount of success—given the shrunken state of the record business—with their self-titled 2007 debut CD. After a few years of hard touring (with time off for Mudvayne to release an album in between), they'r back with the follow-up, Stampede. And we've got it streaming for you here, exclusively!

Clicking on the album cover image immediately below will allow you to listen to Stampede from beginning to end, well in advance of its release on Tuesday, July 13. It's another balls-out blast of redneck metal, so if you liked the debut, you're sure to enjoy this one. Post your thoughts in comments.




 

So Shadows Fall guitarists Matt Bachand and Jon Donais, Seemless bassist Jeff Fultz and Unearth drummer Derek Kerswill have formed a new, as-yet-unnamed band, recorded a five-song demo, and are now actively seeking a vocalist.

"We are looking for one crazy bastard with the energy, the drive, and the determination to take this thing to the next level," says Bachand. According to Donais, "The vocalist we seek should be influenced by a variety of melodically based bands anywhere from Alice in Chains, Shinedown, and Aerosmith to Skid Row and Pantera."

All applicants must be serious about the position and must be able to tour extensively. Submissions should include a bio and list of past experience, photo, audio and/or video performance, and any other information you would like the band to know. (Nasty floor-length dreads not required.) Demo submissions and contact info should be sent to iamdrunk666@gmail.co​m.