“I think Mustaine is one of the worst singers in rock ever, and this is not because I have a personal vendetta with him. Whoever told him that he can sing should be shot on the spot!”
— Slayer’s Kerry King in a recent interview with the Belgian webzine ConcreteWeb.be.
Rolling Stone came out with a pretty interesting book last year. Called “Tattoo Nation: Portraits of Celebrity Body Art,” the book featured various celebrities from the music world and their various (body)works of art. There was a pretty cool photo towards the back of a Slipknot fan’s backpiece: all nine members done in black. Awesome. (Amazon is currently listing the book as unavailable, sadly.)
I bring this up because I, too, celebrate the practice of body art. And, since music is one of the most important things in my life, I have celebrated bands at times on my body. Nothing like a Korn logo on my back … usually it’s a design of some sort so that I know what it means, but it’s not totally screaming “Band A.”
So what tattoos am I talking about, you might ask?
— I have a Soulfly “one tribe” design on my left arm.
— A Slipknot tribal on my right arm
— Some “Disturbed” faces on my right arm
— Amy Lee as a vampire inside my left arm (for no other reason than it was a good “template” for a vampire)
— The Slipknot masks, meshed together, covering my upper left arm
— The Reveille “demon” on my back
— The Biohazard symbol on my throat
— “Sinner” on my leg as a tribute to Dave Williams, former front man of Drowning Pool.
This is just a handful of my many tattoos. Consider this a short Tom’s Totally True Tune Tales (TM Gloomchen who sports a Dream Theater tattoo).
I guess my point is that for some of us, music is a seriously important part of our lives, some more than others — but it’s the music that keeps us going.
But enough of that, on with the news…
I thought it’d be interesting to troll the Web sites of metal-related record labels to bring you all the exciting news from said labels. So what did I turn up?
Century Media: God Forbid have been added to this year’s Stillborn Festival, which also features Agnostic Front, Candiria and Hatebreed, among others. This annual series put together by Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta and Stillborn Records is composed of three shows beginning in Philadelphia on Dec. 26 at The Electric Factory. The next night the tour stops in New York at the Roseland and the trek finishes off at The Palladium in Worcester, Ma., on Dec. 28.
Also, the lead singer of Shadows Fall refuses to cancel any upcoming shows even though he’s been diagnosed with strep throat and laryngitis. Check out tour dates (before they’re cancelled) here.
Ferret Records: Funeral For A Friend kick will off its November trek with Taking Back Sunday and Atreyu on Nov. 3 in Atlanta. The label is reporting that “about every day is selling out ahead of time.” The band’s latest, “Casually Dressed and Deep In Conversation,” has recently seen re-release (grrrrrr!!!) complete with a five video DVD. It includes every video made for this album. Apparently all the videos run together and tell the story of the album. Check out the tour dates here.
Metal Blade Records: Brainstorm and In Battle are headed to the studio (respectively) to record new albums due out in early 2005.
Unearth is currently being pimped on Fuse (not so much so on MTV).
The label also recently signed Goatwhore and Winter Solstice to contract, so expect something new year from each of these bands.
Roadrunner Records: Roadrunner-related bands are feeling the love from the printed media this month. Killswitch Engage is the main feature in this month’s Skinnie Entertainment Magazine (available only in the LA area). For all non-Californians, the magazine has put up a PDF file with the entire issue online at their site. Killswitch Engage are currently on the Jagermiester Tour with Slayer and Mastodon (that’s a killer line-up).
Meanwhile, Cradle of Filth grace the cover of the new metal magazine Decibel. Included in the magazine is a cut-out-and-keep guide for rules to follow should you ever hang out with the band. Rule #4? Dress Appropriately. Front man Dani Filth explains: “Since this is going to be the third issue of the magazine, I’d just like to express my feelings for the record, that I f*cking hate emo with a vengeance, I do, I hate it, I can’t believe how much I hate it. They’ve all got stupid names like Dentists On Friday, Boy Eats Corn, Grant Smells Of Cheese On Tuesday. It’s not even emotional, it’s just crying about your girlfriend and wearing big baggy trousers.” Cradle of Filth are currently headlining the MTV2 Headbangers Ball Tour with special guests Arch Enemy, Bleeding Through and Himsa. I’m sure tour dates are available in here.
Trustkill Records: Bleeding Through will kick off the latest Headbanger’s Ball Tour tomorrow (Nov. 4) in New Jersey with Cradle Of Filth, Arch Enemy and Himsa in tow. Bleeding Through will also be interviewed on MTV2’s “Headbanger’s Ball” Saturday, Nov. 6.
Also, the label seemed excited for the new Hopesfall album, “A Types,” which hit shelves yesterday. I’m not too big of a fan; I thought the last album got repetitive and boring over time. But hey, check it out anyway.
Victory Records: There really isn’t much going on over at victory right now. A bunch of bands are on tour and there’s no big releases set for the rest of the year. Still, if you can stand to wade through the “false-start” pages before actually getting into Victory’s Web-site, check out www.victoryrecords.com.
..:..You think you have problems?..:.. The band Rage was forced to cancel some European shows earlier this year after guitarist Victor Smolski’s testicle exploded on stage. In a recent interview with Rockdetector.com, Rage front man Peavy Wagner described exactly what happened: “It got infected first, I think. He’d already had a breakdown in the studio and an emergency doctor was called and he didn’t really check what it was you know, he didn’t really get it. The doctor just told him maybe he ate something wrong and he should drink some tea … or something like this [laughs]. For some reason, it got kind of stable you know. It was still infected, but it got kind of stable. It didn’t really start hurting too much so he just carried on with this infected testicle. Then we started playing and we had a show in Italy at the metal festival in Bologna. Right during the show the thing burst and all this … (puss) … floated into his belly you know. And of course, this was a very dangerous situation and they had to bring him to the hospital and have an emergency operation.” Click here to see more of the interview.
..:..Shadows of Toys..:.. Straight from the sweet news department: Shadows Fall have covered Dangerous Toys’ “Teasin’ Pleasin'” for the band’s Japanese release of “The War Within.” In an interview with ElectricBasement, Shadows Fall vocalist Brian Fair talked about the decision: “I’ve been a huge fan of that band since I was young … We were thinking what we wanted to do for the bonus track and decided to do a Toys song and see if (Dangerous Toys vocalist) Jason (McMaster) wants to do some vocals. Originally we just sent him a DAT and told him to record everything and we’ll figure out what we want to use and what we don’t. We got the tape back of him doing the whole song and we said, ‘Fuck that, we’re done.’ We dropped the tuning a little bit, made it heavier, and his voice was just unbelievable.” Check out the whole interview here, it’s a pretty good read.
..:..A Zombie’s Bigfoot..:.. Rob Zombie’s Web site is offering up “an exclusive first look” at “Bigfoot.” Zombie and Steve Niles, in their second collaboration since working on the book “The Nail,” enlisted the help of legendary comic artist Richard Corben. Keep an eye out for this…
..:..And from the funny tour names file..:..Darkest Hour have recently confirmed all the dates for its latest tour. Blabbermouth is reporting the tour will be titled “Fuck Toby Keith, He’s Destroying America Tour!” Check out the dates here.
..:..No salute for you!..:.. The previously announced “We Salute You Tour,” which was set to feature Drowning Pool, Ill Nino, 40 Below Summer and Candiria, seems to have been cancelled. More information can be found at Ill Nino’s Web site.
Here’s some CDs I want, recently picked up or already have that I haven’t listened to nearly enough (you should check them out too):
Deicide: “Serpents of the Light”
Obituary: “Cause of Death”
Cannibal Corpse: “Vile”
Napalm Death: “Diatribes”
Possessed: “Seven Churches”
A bit of a slow one this week. It’s that time of year … everything’s slowing down in anticipation of a new year. I’m sure we have some exciting things planned here at Inside Pulse. On my end of things: keep an eye out for an “Inside Pulse on … Pearl Jam” feature which should be up in a week or two.
And since I never do this … check out:
The all new Inside Pulse Movie Zone! It may not be on the main page’s top bar, but it’s still chock full of information.
Everyone’s talking about getting your voice here by voting. Well, get your voice heard here over at Inside Pulse’s reader/writer forums.
Eric Katz and I don’t see eye-to-eye on the new Straylight Run release, but check out his thoughts anyway. My opinion? I loved everything he hated, and the one song that sounds like a dance track with female vocals kills the whole album for me. Otherwise, great album.
Retro-Gloomchen… I think this was her best column to date and something I totally agree with.
Actually, all the reviews at Inside Pulse are pretty solid, a nice mix of genres.
And that’s that. As always, drop me a line. Until next time, I’ll be here at Inside Pulse making sure no metal news falls through the cracks.
Take it easy…
