For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s (Metallica) Pecks of the Week

December 16, 2011

Wow, the end of a year, huh? New beginnings, resolutions and, well, hopefully some good metal releases coming in the next year. The release schedule is drier than Betty White’s cooch right now, so since I don’t have too much to peck about, I’m basically going to trash Metallica in this column. I know it’s…

Remixing metal: What’s the worst that could happen?

December 16, 2011

Maybe it’s the straight-to-video action movie genre or the rising popularity of MMA that’s to blame, seeing that both seem to love setting action to metal guitars and electronic beats, but despite metal remix albums almost always sucking they’re not disappearing any time soon. On February 24th, Morbid Angel will release Illud Divinum Insanus—the Remixes,…

A Two-man Drum and Bass Band that Doesn’t Start with the Letter “L.”

December 15, 2011

Wither Lightning Bolt? The Providence bass and drum duo – not that type of bass and drum! – noted for their infectiously catchy and immensely noisy songs as well as their steadfast refusal to play on stages, employ a guitar player, use more than one cymbal and anything less than 2400 watts of bass amplification…

Saviours & Ramming Speed – 11/30 – Brooklyn

December 15, 2011

This show was at Saint Vitus, a heavy metal bar in Brooklyn. The place has a separate room for the stage, which is nice, or rather, brutal. I’d like to go there when there’s no show, because it was packed. I was there to rock, not to brush my cock against a bunch of bearded…

On Metallica’s 30th Anniversary, a thank you

December 14, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5no7Ym1JSA June 4th, 1996 was the day Metallica officially called it quits. While the short hair, Woodstock appearance and looming mainstream acceptance were warning signs, sitting at home and hearing “Ain’t My Bitch” for the first time solidified it: Metallica was no longer what they once were. As someone born in 1981, Metallica has sucked…

Ken Sorceron (Abigail Williams) interviewed

December 14, 2011

Becoming has a different feel compared to In the Absence of Light. What do you attribute that to?Ken Sorceron: Just looking back our catalog I would say each release has a different feel actually. I think we are proving to be one of those bands that recreates itself whenever and however we feel like it….

1991 Revisited: 20 Years Later and Metal Bands Are Still Bitter

December 13, 2011

The end of the year is always a time for reflection. Decibel‘s infuriating “Best of 2011” issue is out, and between angry emails sent to the magazine’s editors excoriating them for “fucking it up once again,” thoughts inevitably turn toward recollections of the past. We’re now 20 years removed from “the year that punk broke”—that…

Remembering Chuck Schuldiner

December 13, 2011

Ten years ago death metal pioneer Chuck Schuldiner lost his battle with cancer. As the fervor surrounding recent Death and Control Denied reissues clearly demonstrates, the man’s legacy has only continued to grow in the intervening years. There are several great remembrances floating around today — I particularly recommend NPR’s “Death is Never Finished” and…

INTERVIEW: Encoffination’s Ghoat on ritualism, working with death for real and “O’ Hell, Shine in thy Whited Sepulchres”

December 12, 2011

Encoffination do well to sound like they’ve been in the ground long before recording. A two-piece, drummer/duo located on opposite sides of the coast in Atlanta and San Diego respectively, their interpretation of death metal is begrudging of tempo and chokes the throat and nostrils with a real cloying miasmatic aesthetic. Guitarist/vocalist Ghoat insists it’s…

STREAMING: Liberteer “Build No System”

December 12, 2011

Formed by Cretin/Citizen mastermind Matthew Widener, Liberteer is the grindcore equivalent to the folk-Viking metal movement in Europe. Right. He’s taking back what’s his/ours. Amidst uncompromising blasts of anarcho-crust-punk-pissedasfuck whatever (a Napalm Death-Discharge Molotov cocktail birthed in nastiest defiles of Every City, USA), Liberteer throws down like it’s 1776. By using/integrating military march music and…