Defenders Of The Faith II and Download

Well since i last wrote here there's been quite a bit announced, with 2 of the biggest rock festivals of the summer announcing there first acts.

Firstly the hugely successful Download Festival has announced 2 out of there 3 headliners with Slipknot and Def Leppard headlining. There have also been another announcements such as Motley Crue, Trivium, Prodigy and Korn announced for the festival with more bands expected to be announced so.

Also a completely new festival has been announced, Sonisphere is the official festival for Knebworth and has announced its first batch of bands with its 2 headliners already announced in the form of metal legends Metallica and rock titans Linkin Park. Joining these 2 will be Mastodon and Lamb of God.

Now for Defenders Of The Faith II (2).

Defenders of the Faith has just completed its 5 day trek around the UK with US metallers Lamb of God and Norwegian black metallers Dimmu Borgir co-headlining the tour. And for the Glasgow gig, i have an exclusive review by myself.

Having been at the venue from about 2.30 in the afternoon it was a relief when doors finally opened at around 6.15 with the first support band, Five Finger Death Punch taking the stage not long after.

Five Finger Death Punch
Hampered by a bad sound from the guitars as they were first on stage and as any band will know getting the sound right if your first up is nearly impossible, somehow these guys still managed to work the crowd into a frenzy with there mix of heavy guitars and melodic lyrics. May not have been there best start but these boys will go far.

Unearth
Tonights special guests were slightly better equipped for the night. They tore the o2 Academy apart with there metal stylings. Creating some of the most brutal mosh pits of the night with there 40 minute set. This is another band who could go on to make it big in the UK.

Dimmu Borgir
The odd ones out, the black metallers really are all out on there own in their division tonight. With every other band being thrash Dimmu didn't have much to work against in terms of the supports. But still, tonights performance was out of this world, well until technical faults caused the set to be cut short. But before they left the stage Dimmu played there 3 biggest songs to date, The Serpentine Offering, The Chosen Legacy and Puritania to a largely unsure crowd who just didn't know how to anticipate the band whose most recent album literally translates to: "In Direct Contact With Satan".

Lamb of God
And now to the main headliners of the night. There's no other way to describe it, Lamb of God stole the show from everyone. With the energy they put into the show tonight from heavy opener to Hourglass to the bone breaking wall of death to Black Label Lamb of God held together the most perfect set. And with such a good tour behind them, there's nothing to stop Randy and the boys going on to being the biggest thing of 2009 and beyond in metal with new album Wrath also being a work of art which will be acclaimed for centuries!

Some announcements

Well for this week I actually have some announcements for gigs and festival rumours continue to mount.

American metal legends Lamb of God are about to embark on there Defenders of the Faith II tour, with co-headliners Dimmu Borgir, but they have also announced that the first 100,000 copies having a special promo code which the listener then goes onto a special website to redeem with the website choosing 100 winners for special prizes, which include a yet to be disclosed UK Festival appearance by the legends.



In addition to the announcement i made last week about Deathstars announcing a handfull of shows, they have now announced they will be embarking on a full UK tour, which will include a date at the Glasgow Cathouse.

For more information visit this site.

Onto albums,

Many different bands have announced new albums for the coming year and are announcing details as they get them.

Shock Metal Icon Marilyn Manson has announced he will be releasing a new album before he embarks on the Rockstar Mayhem Energy Tour across America.

Also there's a new album due for release by American Death Metal legends, Cannibal Corpse, set for release just before they go on a mammoth UK tour with Finnish legends Children of Bodom who are back after there pretty bad support slot to Slipknot.

College Progress

Well, this was meant to be done at the start but i'm kinda half way through writing this anyway.

Well, in block 2 now, passed everything in block 1 quite comprehensively and think i'm doing quite well this block.

On course to pass Key Applications, well racing through it anyway.
Should have project for Software Development finished and the program perfected hopefully with the next few weeks.

And really i only need to finish project in Working with Others and continue updating my blog in Weblogs to get this block finished as well.

Well its been quiet

For yet ANOTHER week there's been almost no activity in the form of tours being announced or albums being released.

We are also still waiting on the first bands to be announced for the fast approaching festival season.

However, there may be silence in the UK, but the US has just had a mammoth tour announced for this years Mayhem Festival.

Some of the biggest names in metal will be taking to the stages with Marilyn Manson, Slayer, Bullet For My Valentine, Trivium and Behemoth attempting to replicate the success of the tour last year which featured Slipknot, Disturbed and Machine Head.



All is not lost for the UK though;

For those south of the border there have been 2 "tours" announced which should leave some metal fans extremely happy, Deathstars have announced some 4 dates in support of there new album, Night Electric Night, with the gap between the shows, we can always hope for more dates to be added.

Also to be added to that within the next few months, Bleeding Through will follow up there support role for Bullet For My Valentine in November with a headline tour of there own.

One thing Scotland can be thankful for, Lemmy and the Crue will be returning for another huge headline tour in November, so at least its something.

But still not enough...

And onto the albums due for release soon:

Well there may not be many but some that are mouth watering are the new Deathstars album, the fact Slayer are re-entering the studio to finish up there latest album for a summer release. Not very much else has been announced lately.

But we can hope for a few new releases or gigs announced within the next week or 2.

Lots of rumours this week...

Well its been a quiet week once again in terms of new concerts or albums being announced but there has been a lot of rumours coming to the forefront about some of rock and metal's biggest bands with one of the world's biggest alternative music festivals this summer.

For Download, the last few years have been somewhat a disappointment to the metalheads who have been there with bands such as My Chemical Romance disgracing the main stage while bands like Korn were dropped to the second stage.

But for the true metal fans, if all the current rumours swirling about come to fruition, Download may well regain its status atop the tower of festival greatness.

However before going properly into these rumours there has been a few announcements on the gig side of things.

French legends Gojira will be returning to the UK for a full headlining tour along with Bleeding Through announcing a "UK" tour (note the "UK" meaning no Scotland...). And also Cancer Bats have announced they will be playing some headline shows after opening for In Flames on a full UK tour.

Now onto these rumours:

Well, there's a LOT of rumours about a possible reunion for one of Rocks gods, Faith No More, for these rock icons to be back gracing our festival stage, they need another festival to make it worthwhile, so we should be hoping for a few other European festivals with this announcement soon.



There's also been a lot of rumours of surrounding some of metals biggest heavyweights playing festivals;

On a follow up to there hugely successful tour of the UK last year, it is heavily rumoured that Slipknot will be returning to play a huge part in the festival season this year at Download and Reading & Leeds.

Then there's bands who have not been over here in a few years being announced with Rammstein rumoured for Download or any other festival followed by a huge tour.



There's even been some bands self confirming themselves as playing at festivals with Lamb of God set to follow up there huge UK tour in February with an appearance at Download and Heaven and Hell fully self confirming themselves even though there has been no official announcement from Download organisers.

The only downside in all these rumours, it sounds as if Metallica will not be appearing at Donnington Park this year, however they may be playing a whole new festival scheduled to be played at Knebworth at some point in the summer.

Now we can hope for a lot of these to come to fruition, if so, we may see people from afar joining the Download experience.

To keep up to date with Download news click the image below.

Another quiet week

Well its been another quiet week within the world of metal with very few releases and very few gigs being announced for the coming months.

The only real announcements this week came from Gallows and Gojira who have both announced full length UK tours.



So in this blog I'm going to look forward to the next season which is fast approaching, festival season, and all the rumours surrounding the big festivals, such as Download.

With only one band currently announced for Download and they are not a headliner there are still rumours circulating the internet about some of Metal's biggest bands with Lamb of God saying they may have a part to play and British Metalcore band Bullet For My Valentine being quoted as saying "we are ready to headline Download". But with these newer bands there is always the rumours circulating about the older, more established bands, with both Metallica and AC/DC both rumoured for headline spots at Download, which giving Metallica's usual route and a new album don't seem too farfetched, for them anyway. AC/DC may be more inclined to take a break after they "tour" the UK and launch a full scale assault on the US.

However other festivals are gathering steam as well with a grammy winning band apparently self confirmed for Reading and Leeds along with another band who actually had to pull out last year, Slipknot and Avenged Sevenfold.



If all these rumours come to fruition then who knows but this festival season may well be the best one for years to come.

Well its been a while...

Its been a few weeks since this place was last updated, due to the christmas period taking over my life and generally removing me from college.

Lately the metal music scene has actually been quite quiet over this period with not too many concerts and/or albums being released over the past few weeks.

However, of the gigs that have happened there has been some reviews such as this one for Biffy Clyro at the SECC.

BIFFY CLYRO ****

SECC, Glasgow, December 20

Crowds always respond to a passionate, honest performance, so it's no wonder they were so highly charged and energised by this set.

A roar of excitement and anticipation went up as opener Living Is A Problem kicked into gear and not even the venue's customary lousy sound could dampen fans' spirits.

Joy. Discovery. Invention saw the trio at their angsty best, while on the poignant Folding Stars, Simon Neil's impassioned delivery prompted a forest of mobile phone lights to spring up.

Big hit Mountains dealt the knockout blow at the end, its colossal chorus sending the sell-out crowd into a frenzy. Andy Kerr

One of the main albums of the past month or so is the mixed artists album

"We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year" with contributions from well known artists such as the legendary Ronnie James Dio and Alice Cooper along with other artists such as Dave Grohl and Lemmy.

A review of the album by an actual listener is below:

This is great! Another great Christmas CD for heavy metal fans! If you're a fan of heavy metal, let me tell you, your Christmas simply isn't complete until you've heard Ronnie Dio singing 'God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen' with Tony Iommi on guitar - undoubtedly the highlight of this collection.

'Run, Rudolph, Run' is a killer rocker, full of energy and the classic rocking spirit. Alice Cooper's 'Santa Claus is Comin' to Town' is great, although it could never be as good as Dokken's hilariously brilliant version on last year's Monster Ballads Christmas compilation (and Alice, you really don't need to (literally) spell out the 'Santa Claws' pun, we do get it). And Roxx Gang's version, from the same Monster Ballads comp, of 'Santa's Back In Town' beats Ripper Owens' version on here, but only because it's simply fantastic (and Roxx Gang were probably more suited to that sort of tune). These aren't really low points though, and all in all this is a great fun record, which brought a huge smile to my face (a lifelong metal fan) as soon as I heard the falsetto at the beginning of the first track.

Amazingly, there's barely a weak moment on the whole record. Other real highlights include 'Deck the Halls', which is given a killer metal riff (probably better than Twisted Sister's on their excellent Twisted Christmas, but only just); and 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree', another real rock n roller. The only blooper is 'Silent Night', which was a terrible idea, and all those involved should be ashamed of themselves. It's nonsense modern death metal, totally pointless, and just sad rather than funny. It's the only time when modern-day metal intrudes on what is otherwise a great hark back to the glory days. And it was released in 2008! I can't believe it.

Dug Pinnick's 'Little Drummer Boy' is even pretty good, and it's a song that seems incredibly hard to get right, for some bizarre reason (such luminaries as Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra have made complete hashes of it, so you've gotta admire these guys - it sounds rubbish unless it's *up tempo* folks!!!). Pinnick's vocals are a little lacklustre, but at least he gets the tempo right. To be fair it is a song rather heavy on the Christianity, so you can forgive him for not really getting into it all that much, although on the other hand he isn't really a fantastic singer anyway. But it's good fun all the same, especially the ad libbing in the faster section.

And to all of those metal 'fans' who don't have a sense of humour, or who aren't alive enough to enjoy this, get a life! There's a reviewer on Amazon.com, one Rodriguez, who says 'this goes against everything metal stands for' - listen mate, when what you think metal stands for is different to what Tony Iommi, Ronnie Dio, Lemmy, Alice Cooper, and Geoff Tate think it stands for, it ain't you that's in the right! Metal is, always has been and always will be about having a good time, partying hard and rocking out! And if you wanna do that this Christmas, then what better way than getting this CD! You won't regret it!

And onto 2009.

With the number of albums and tours set to be, or rumoured to be, announced within the next few months the next year looks like it could be a very interesting year for music.

With Heaven and Hell already announced for Download, Machine Head headlining Wacken Open Air and Graspop yet to even start announcing bands the festival season should be an exciting one for those who are going.

Now lets just hope 2009 outstrips 2008 for album releases and tours by some of the biggest acts on the planet