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Sound Is Ripping Through Your Ears

Metallica performs “Phantom Lord” with Dave Mustaine on 12/10/2011 at The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA

Metallica recently wrapped up a four-night celebration at San Francisco’s Fillmore commemorating the band’s 30th anniversary. The special fan-club-only series of shows featured a star-studded roster of special guests, including Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler, metal god Rob Halford, Sean Harris and Brian Tatler of Diamond Head (one of the leading NWOBHM bands and an early Metallica influence), Mercyful Fate’s King Diamond, Biff Byford of Saxon, Amored Saint (and former Anthrax) frontman John Bush, and Metallica alumnus Jason Newsted. Members of U2, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and Motörhead checked in by video with congratulatory wishes.

As if the first three shows weren’t enough for any Metallica fanboy, the final night proved to be one for the record books. First there was a three-song set of Black Sabbath covers with none other than Ozzy and Geezer (“Iron Man,” “Paranoid,” and “Sabbra Cadabra,” just in case you’re curious). And the finale saw Metallica reuniting with former guitarist and Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine. Megadave joined his former bandmates for the majority of the band’s debut Kill ‘Em All, including three of the songs he co-wrote—“Phantom Lord,” “Metal Militia,” and “Jump in the Fire”—and Kirk Hammett graciously gave Mustaine the lead guitar spotlight. Mustaine also shared the stage for several tracks from the album with former members Newsted, orginal bassist Ron McGovney, and guitarist Grant Lloyd, who played lead on an early Metallica demo.

The video footage I’ve seen clearly shows the members of Metallica truly and thoroughly enjoying themselves each night of the 30th anniversary event. And it’s great to see Metallica move into a place where, through these shows and the Big 4 reunion tour, they can make amends and put aside differences with former band members.

Enjoy!

My Mind Is Untreatable

Megadeth - “Public Enemy No. 1”

And The Trouble Has Just Begun

Megadeth performs “Public Enemy No. 1” on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Megadeth performs “Symphony of Destruction” on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Megadeth performed “Public Enemy No. 1” from new album TH1RT3EN—released today, by the way—and classic track “Symphony of Destruction” last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live’s Halloween episode. The band was in fine form, decked out in full-on costumes and makeup, and the performances were spot-on just a few short weeks after Dave Mustaine’s neck surgery for stenosis.

Enjoy!

Have You Looked In A Mirror?

Megadeth - “Whose Life (Is It Anyway?)”

Here’s the third (and probably last) sneak peek at Megadeth’s upcoming album TH1RT3EN prior to its release on November 1. As with the previous tracks “Public Enemy No. 1” and “Never Dead”, “Whose Life (Is It Anyway?)” is solid and catchy, and it is making me ready to see this album hit the street.

Enjoy!

The Fire That Burns Inside

Megadeth - “Never Dead”

Megadeth has released the second track from the upcoming album TH1RT3EN, set to hit stores on November 1 via Roadrunner Records. If “Never Dead” or the first single “Public Enemy No. 1” are any indication, this is shaping up to be another megahit for MegaDave and crew. If you missed the “Public Enemy No. 1” release, you can catch up here.

Enjoy!

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Played 20 times

Megadeth - “Public Enemy No. 1”

Happy 50th Birthday, Dave Mustaine! Photo by Ali Karman, July 28, 2010 • ©2010 Megadeth.com Click for high-res photo

Happy 50th Birthday, Dave Mustaine!
Photo by Ali Karman, July 28, 2010 • ©2010 Megadeth.com

The Friday Five: August 12, 2011

It’s Friday, so it’s time once again to hit shuffle in iTunes and play the Friday Five game at IckMusic. Here’s my contribution for this week:

Rough Cutt - “Black Widow” (Rough Cutt, 1985)
Slow-ish, ballad-y, over-reverb-y fare from one of the second-tier revolving-door-roster L.A. metal bands (Ozzy guitarist Jake E. Lee being one of a few notable big-name players). This particular band had the advantage of having Ronnie James Dio’s wife Wendy as a manager, thus garnering quite a bit of attention and direction from the man himself, but even that (and soulful vocalist Paul Shortino) couldn’t save Rough Cutt from a life of relative obscurity outside the Sunset Strip scene. Overall, this eponymous debut album was quite good at the time, but unfortunately it hasn’t aged as well as others from the same era.

The Damnwells - “God Bless America” (Air Stereo, 2006)
My introduction to The Damnwells was “I Am A Leaver,” a much better track from this same album. This track could have been made much better by removing the unnecessary drum noise opening and the incessant sizzling cymbal that plays through to the second verse. Then there’s the whole middle part that makes absolutely no sense in the context of the song and the noisy feedback-laden outro that fades into a completely different musical theme. Probably not the strongest song to have ended the album on. But then again, band leader Alex Dezen has never been one to follow convention.

Megadeth - “Good Mourning/Black Friday” (Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?, 1986)
This song opens with the sweet arpeggiated “Good Mourning” instrumental before taking a more sinister direction into the sneering and snarling we have come to expect from Mustaine. The song changes tempo several times, gaining speed with each change, before finally heading off the tracks amid the chants of “Black Friday.” Good stuff.

At The Drive-In - “Ursa Minor” (Vaya, 1999)
I have basically given up trying to describe At The Drive-In to other folks. If you haven’t heard them before, you really need to take a listen and make up your own mind about them. This one comes from the 7-track EP released less than a year before the band’s swan song Relationship of Command, which in my opinion should be mandatory listening. Vaya represents a more put-together and polished version of a band that essentially started life alot closer to its hardcore origins than it ended up, and one that will always be an example where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (Jim Ward with Sparta, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López with The Mars Volta).

King’s X - “67” (Ear Candy, 1996)
Low, rumbling, groovy ode to channel surfing. I love guitarist Ty Tabor’s super-saturated distortion on this track, and like everything off Ear Candy, “67” contains lots of instrumental and vocal embellishments that you usually only pick up on when wearing headphones.

Because I Don’t Say It Don’t Mean I Ain’t Thinking It

Megadeth - “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due”

Up on my podium as the know-it-all scholar
Down in my seat of judgement, gavels bang, uphold the law
Up on my soapbox, a leader out to change the world
Down in my pulpit as the holier-than-thou-could-be messenger of God

This still has to be one of my favorite Megadeth songs of all time. Enjoy!

It the beginning when we were doing it … it was kind of in vogue if you were a metal band to not show up at the Grammys.
Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine in a live Grammy red carpet interview on the reason his appearance at the 2011 Grammys was only his second although Megadeth has been nominated nine times for an award

Well, At Least It’s Better Than Risk!

Dave Mustaine in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 2010

Follow the blow-by-blow as Chris Holmes takes you through the second half of Megadeth’s career in The Popdose Guide to Megadeth, Part Two—the stops and starts, ups and downs, wins and misses, and even the lineup changes. In this second installment, Chris covers the albums from 1997’s Cryptic Writings all the way through to the most recent release, the return-to-form Endgame from 2009.

And see how just about any Megadeth album can be made to seem better when compared to Risk, the low point of their career, released in 1999.

All I Remember Is That I Wanted Blood. Theirs.

Thus spake happy-go-lucky Megadeth frontman and axeslinger Dave Mustaine on his infamous firing (Wait, that’s not very PC, is it?! Downsizing? Letting go? Laying off? Reduction in workforce?) from Metallica in their lean-and-mean years.

Head over to Popdose to read part one of their guide to Megadeth to get the blow-by-blow action on the band’s history and album releases over the years.

hi-res
Dave Mustaine, Photo by Nicolás Carrasco

Happy Birthday, Dave Mustaine!

Megadeth - “Symphony of Destruction,” live June 22, 2010 at Sonisphere in Levski Stadium in Sofia Bulgaria

This clip is part of the Big Four footage from the Sonisphere festival that aired via satellite in theaters around the globe on June 22, with an encore showing on June 24.

Looks like it was one heckuva show!

Metallislayanthraxadeth

It’s about [expletive] time this happened. — Slayer guitarist Kerry King

Click for high-res photo

The first photo of the “Big Four” of thrash (minus Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman) has surfaced as the bands prepare for the Sonisphere festival, where they will play together for the first time ever Wednesday, June 16.

For anyone who doesn’t already know—or who gives a care—pictured from left to right are:

Frank Bello (bass, Anthrax), Tom Araya (bass & vocals, Slayer), Rob Trujillo (bass, Metallica), James Hetfield (guitar & vocals, Metallica), Kirk Hammett (guitar, Metallica), Lars Ulrich (drums, Metallica), Kerry King (guitar, Slayer), Dave Ellefson (bass, Megadeth), Charlie Benante (drums, Anthrax), Dave Mustaine (guitar & vocals, Megadeth), Scott Ian (guitar, Anthrax), Joey Belladonna (vocals, Anthrax), Dave Lombardo (drums, Slayer), Rob Caggiano (guitar, Anthrax), Shawn Drover (drums, Megadeth), Chris Broderick (guitar, Megadeth)

Note that three of the four bass players are all on one end of the photo. What gives with that?!