I’ve gotta give Mike Portnoy props for doing this even remotely well, and for seeming to know a whole lot of other band’s tunes. Also, I’m totally into forcing bands who want to promote their new albums… into playing on preposterously shitty gear.
Now here’s a labor of love that I can get behind: London-based musician Pete Cottrell has recorded a cover of Meshuggah’s “Straws Pulled At Random,” in which he’s replaced all the percussion with samples of British sweets.
I’m sorry to hear about Chris Squire’s passing. He was quite a bass player and artist. R.I.P. See the rest here
The Toast published a whimsical article about the most metal deaths in Tolkien’s universe. One of my favorite quotes is:
Gandalf died after he, “Threw down my enemy… and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin,” which is the most metal line in the entire trilogy, and possibly all of English literature.
I’m heading out of town tonight, on a red eye for a series of meetings this week. This is my first flight out of San Francisco in a few months. Since I was last here, someone got the bright idea of setting up a mini exhibit that speaks to the region’s important cultural art movements. See the rest here
I just found out that Chris Squire has been diagnosed with leukemia, and will be sitting out a Yes tour for the first time in the band’s history. All necessary asterisks related to the “band”‘s singular history are assumed. More info here. See the rest here
I just learned that the three Decline Of Western Civilization movies are being released on DVD and Blu-ray this summer for the first time! More details here on Rolling Stone.
Here’s an interesting glimpse into Meshuggah’s songwriting process, courtesy of the man himself, Tomas Haake.
Judas Priest
Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
March 11, 2015
Although the show was delayed for half an hour due to an equipment malfunction, the Priest delivered the goods (see what I did there?) as only they can. Rob’s voice sounded strong from the onset and if anything only got better over the course of the two-hour show. See the rest here
At the Gates/Engel
Liquidroom, Ebisu, Japan
February 9, 2015
I caught At the Gates in Ebisu, Tokyo, where I used to live when I had money. I was grading papers all day, so I arrived just before curtain. First up were openers Engel. I immediately noticed Engel were Engelin-less: Niclas Engelin, the band’s founding guitarist and presumably the source of their name, no longer tours with his band, I guess because he joined In Flames. See the rest here
This work by Metalligentsia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.