Eric’s got a cool blog, a good ear, a great site, and a cool name. Why wouldn’t we value his opinions? Read that, then buy the disc. Buy a download & a CD like me. Buy a copy for a friend.
I’ve been listening today & I really dig it. It’s very Sabbath & Sword-like to my ears… it’s got metal, rock, groove, and a great feel. My head couldn’t decide whether to bob or bang.
Also, they’re all just really cool people. Congratulations to them for crafting such a great disc, & to everyone who helped them get it together & push it out there.
This is the kind of band I’m glad to have represent Pittsburgh, unlike some others I won’t mention. They’re getting mad press lately. Are they the saviors of the Pittsburgh Rock scene? Listen to the album & you decide.
This isn’t all an all-out super in-depth review, but I wanted to post that I really enjoyed the show the other night at Stage AE with Ascend the Fallen, The Bloody Seamen, Lady Beast, & Dethlehem. All of the bands put forth a great effort, and the (giant) crowd was pleased. I managed to take a ridiculous amount of photos, and some of them even turned out pretty cool.
Professor Richard Smallchange (Channeling Lord Bonecrush) & Hairy Valentine
If you’re on the Facebook and know the bands (or anyone else) in the photos, please tag ’em!
Ascend the Fallen
Ascend the Fallen was all over the place… literally. They’re quite the active bunch up on stage. They run n’ jump all over the place & had the crowd all riled up. Those cats can shred. They were a perfect opener for this gig, getting everyone ready for the things to come.
The Bloody Seamen
The Bloody Seamen always blow me away. Their showmanship & dedication to character is unmatched. My wife (who’s not a metal fan by any means) saw them for the first time the other night & became an instant fan. Their catchy choruses, funny tales, and ridiculous stage presence will easily shanghai many a fan. Something about everyone yelling during some of the aforementioned catchy choruses & the melodies have a very Dropkick Murphys/Flogging Molly sort of feel. I’m sure the fife, accordions & bagpipes don’t hurt there either. I’m going to have to try to barter with some doubloons to get my hands on some of their bootleg demos or something to hold me off until they have a proper album out for purchase. Also… where else can you see a guitarist snap all of their strings with a machete at the end of their set, a fire-breathing sea-captain, and a bass player with a really creepy dead eye? The highlight the other night was watching “Filthy” Cheswick Springdale decided to throw his guitar on the ground & assault it with his combo amp head while it squealed, only yo expertly cut it off when the song ended by unplugging the feedbacking beast.
Gunny
Lady Beast
Lady Beast rocked hard. One dude on guitar had a Ravelle and made me extremely jealous. Their singer is one hell of a positive role model for women into metal. There were more ladies packed in front of the stage for their set than I have ever seen at a predominantly metal show in all my years of going to & playing shows combined. It doesn’t hurt that she’s got great pipes and the band has a really heavy attack without sacrificing groove or melody. These cats can play hard. I’ll be anxiously awaiting their album, and I plan to check out more of their gigs!
Deb
Overlord Brom
Dethlehem
Of course, I may have biased opinions on Dethlehem. They are absolutely ridiculous, and no one deserved headline an all-local-acts show at Stage AE more than them. These guys put a crazy amount of effort into not only the performance… but the song-writing, the shredding, the drumming, the singing, the over-all story arc, the costumes, and the entire production. Someone needs to interview them & ask about the stuff they do to constantly take their playing & song-writing to the next level. Trust me, it’s intense. Sometimes people might look over that due to the theatrics.
Dethlehem
It was great to be there for the first full show of the new Brutalitus the Bloodbeard, and it was very cool that Professor Dick Smallchange helped narrate and channeled Lord Bonecrush, joining the apparently chronic self-pleasuring barbarian-turned-blacksmith Sean “Hairy” Valentine for an encore. The troll/ogre being made a eunuch, the birthing & bloody decapitation of said newborn, …both fantastic moments of on-stage debauchery. The music itself was spectacular… with fretboard acrobatics by Bovice and Hildor, a helmeted Brom for nearly the entire show, Davidicus is truly a wizard of the low-end and keeping things going between songs with the interludes. Bloodbeard proves himself to be a mighty vocalist, looking forward to his development with the band.
Headbangin' Hairy
I found a bunch of cool videos of that night online, enjoy!
If you have any links to more photos and/or video, please share!
Okay, after spending yesterday talking about shows that I will never get a chance to see, it’s time for some updates for the local (Pittsburgh) area. If you live somewhere else, NOW YOU CAN SEE HOW IT FEELS!!, but also, hopefully you’ll learn about a couple bands that might tickle your fancy.
First of all, next Saturday (4 February 2012), “sleazy muppet rock” band Ernie and the Berts will be making their first live appearance of 2012 at Altar Bar in Pittsburgh’s Strip District area, as one of the opening acts for Greek-American Punks Barb Wire Dolls.
Appetite for Destruction generally tops my “all time favorites” album lists. I go back to it time and time again, & get lost in between Slash & Izzy’s guitars spiraling around each other.
Of course, when the autobiographies started coming out, I had to read them. I got Slash‘s book, then Duff’s then Steven’s. Slash was a rock n’ roll hero to me when I was in Jr. High & high school, but out of the three books… I think Duff comes off the best and most entertaining. The writing is very fluid. I found it easy to imagine Duff in the early days. The stories are blunt & sincere, and he ties it all back to where it has led him & where he is now in life. Duff seems like a great guy to hang out with.
It's So Easy: and Other Lies
Slash’s book is an easy read, but it jumps around quite a bit. His recollection of events is really questionable. It doesn’t necessarily feel like Slash is remembering things correctly, or even the one telling the story. I might have to give it a re-read after finishing the other two books.
Steven’s book, like Steven, is a mess. I can’t help but feel pity for the guy, mostly because he professes to not have a “poor me” attitude, but every single action the guy takes screams “oh poor me”. This guy just can’t get it right, but he still seems like a likeable guy.
It comes across in all of them that they had fun times in the early days, with a vibe that can never be repeated. Sadly, all these guys seem to have a habit of burning bridges… yet posses a decent history of patching things up. I mean, Slash & Duff have never really stopped working together. Duff has been on-stage with Axl’s band recently. They both patched it up with Weiland recently. Duff, Slash, & Izzy have jammed with Adler’s Appetite.
My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, and Drugs, and Guns N' Roses
One thing is clear from all of these books… Axl is an absolute wild man, and these guys love & fear him. I really hope Axl & Izzy churn out books someday. Maybe somehow all of the events can get plotted out & reconstructed correctly.
I’d love to check out some of the other GN’R biographies (like Reckless Road), but if the guys in the band can’t even get it right… then what hope does an outsider have?
This is awesome. That’s all. Not sure if this is the original source, seems to be everywhere. You may have seen it already. At any rate, I dig it, and I was compelled to share. You can find some of these at a higher resolution, but I haven’t found all of the close-ups. If you have more, please share!
I’m expecting two killer albums from two incredible bands this year. What do these bands have in common? Well, almost nothing I guess. (It’s 11 whole steps at BandToBand.com!) They’re both punk bands, but they really sound nothing alike. They are, however, in my all-time top favorites.
My wife tells me all the time that every band that I talk about is my favorite. But that’s how I am, I guess. If I like a band, I really like a band. I try to acquire all of their music. I get into side projects & related bands. I sometimes even look for live stuff & bootlegs. Snuff & Ann Beretta are bands that have that hold over me.
I got into both of these bands right around the time I started playing in my first real band, AiXeLsyD. I was really into buying punk compilations some time after 1995… and whenever ’98 or ’99 rolled around and AiXeLsyD was writing and playing shows, I was absorbing everything and these bands just lit me up.
I’m incredibly pumped for this, or anything that Duncan Redmonds puts out.
Ann Beretta
With Ann Beretta, I can pin it all down to one song. I heard “Bottlecaps” on Fueled by Ramen‘s Year of the Rat comp, and that was it. These cats are incredible. Hearing their songs is like being dropped right into the middle of a story, situation, or town that you know every inch of despite having never been there. I’ve seen them more than once in the ‘Burgh, and have even road-tripped to Cleveland to see them. I helped make buttons for them, and they crashed at my buddy (& fellow AiXelsyD bandmate) Andy’s place after a show one time at the Rex. The music is not unlike Rancid… without so much ska & snarl, but with honest Willie Nelson-like storytelling. These guys wear RVA on their sleeve, and certainly make their hometown proud. Their cover of All‘s “Long Distance” is incredible. (The original is of course flawless in its own right.)“Love’s Easy Tears” is one of the catchiest songs ever, and I love the chaotic ending. “Russ’Song” always gets me going, too. Inquisition, Sixer and Foundation are worth checking out too.
The major update on this front comes from the driving force behind Ann Beretta and Foundation, Rob Huddleston…. via Twitter:
Heh. Alex seems like a cool cat. I’ve read countless guitar magazine articles that he’s written, and saw him perform once with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Damn, he’s good.
