Sabaton on Tour - EXCLUSIVE Interview

The crowd at Firestone Live was evenly divided between bright-eyed twenty-somethings and middle-aged, veteran metal heads. This was just what I expected from a show where the headlining band has been around since the '70s, and the biggest opening band could attribute much of its rising fame to YouTube fan videos.

Orlando, Florida was the first stop for the Sabaton/ACCEPT U.S. tour. For the German band ACCEPT, this was just business as usual. But for Sabaton, April 9th, 2011 was a landmark, as it was their first stop in their first-ever U.S. tour.

"Everyone here is so polite," Joakim Brodén, lead vocalist, remarks. "In places we have toured like in Eastern Europe, they're fucking crazy. They will kick down doors to get to you. It's a security issue, you know."

New Album: Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier

With any and all new Iron Maiden albums, I feel you have to listen to them a few times before you can cast any critical judgment of their work. Most of their songs are too complex for just a quick listen, requiring digestion of all the subtle nuances held within, especially from their newer albums. I had a die-hard Maiden fan explain to me the previous theory, and after careful consideration I had to agree. So now, with any 'classic' metal band, who choose to release new music (Ozzy, Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, etc) I give them the courtesy of at least two full run-throughs before I decree anything about them. It goes against my usual mantra; of how an album should be good the first time through, containing easily enjoyable songs as well as the complex ones that you ascertain at a later listen. I feel that the greats have earned that much from me. That being said, this is only the second time I have listened to The Final Frontier in its entirety, but I feel like I have to weigh in on this album finally (while it is at least semi-relevant).

Awesome Artwork: Iron Maiden - Running Free Single

I could go on and on about Iron Maiden and their amazing artwork. Eddie is the real deal, the band logo that is almost as famous as the group he represents. He has been located somewhere on almost every Iron Maiden release; LP, EP, single or otherwise (even a video game!), from the band's formation. His look has changed over the decades, for better or worse its for you to decide, but he has always been Eddie.

I was bouncing across the internet and I came upon a website that hosted (almost) all of the various picture of Eddie. I had seen most of these versions before (mostly album covers), but the artwork for the "Running Free" single caught my eye instantly.

Video: Iron Maiden "The Final Frontier"

Joining the groups of people and pages posting this video. I've only heard it once, but the song itself is pretty decent. I'd like this video more if they would have edited the sound effects once the song actually started, but oh well. I'll deff have to support the greats when this album finally comes out. Actually buying a album (first sense the CD store by me closed) will be highly warranted. Iron Maiden is still a band I want to see before I (or more likely, they) die. I am now accepting tickets from fans!


The Final Frontier - Director's Cut

Iron Maiden | MySpace Music Videos

Current Trend: NWOBHM

So because I am trying to begin again with the Current Trends, I have been attempting to segment my listening styles into one or two set genres, with varying levels of success. And because of my lack of wanting to sit and write, this Trend is not so Current. But oh well, here we go.

This time my focus was on music from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (or NWOBHM), the direct precursor to power metal, and indirect host of hair/glam metal and thereby (as an anti-theses) thrash. These bands were among the first to introduce the dueling guitar style, and often had early operatic-style vocals and fantasy stories with the songs. Many of these bands had large live shows as well, and were claimed to be the silver age of metal (the golden age being the founders of metal, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, etc, from the decades before). The majority of these bands took hold in the late 70's/early 80's and were lead by such greats as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Motorhead. These bands dominated the airways and charts for the better part of a decade, until the likes of glam became popular and more straight-forward rock acts like Guns 'N Roses and Van Halen began to flourish.

Video: Iron Maiden "Run To The Hills"

Been listening to a lot of classic NWOBHM lately - most notably Iron Maiden. This is the music video for their best single (so say the charts), "Run To The Hills," off their best album (in my mind), The Number Of The Beast.

15 Awesome Instrumentals

Sometimes it's more about the music then the lyrics. I love a good instrumental in an album, and while listening to an entire album of nothing but instrumentals bores me after a while, one or two songs thrown in helps mix it up. Also, I'm not talking about the minute long intro or outro songs on most power metal albums (as well as several other genres). I'm talking about the songs that are tracks 4 and 8 in a concept progressive metal album, nothing really to do with the story, but it helps move it along.

1. 3 - Bramfatura
2. The Bakerton Group - Old Bait and Switch (this song is from an instrumental band, but I really like this song as a stand alone)
3. Circus Maximus - Biosfear
4. The Corrs - Toss The Feathers (Not metal at all, but nice violin and drum work)
5. Dream Theater - Overture 1928 (They have alot of great instrumentals, but this one is one of my favorites)
6. The Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein
7. Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Fanfare For The Common Man (An electric keyboard and drum heavy re-imagining of the classical piece)
8. Firewind - The Fire And The Fury (Great beginning and middle, but the ending gets kind of boring, but still an amazing song)
9. Iced Earth - 1776
10. Iron Maiden - Transylvania (Iced Earth also does an amazing cover of this song, but I didn't want to put the song on here twice, but Iron Maiden did write it)
    
11. Led Zeppelin - Moby Dick (Couldn't be a serious list without this one)
12. Liquid Tension Experiment - Acid Rain (Another exclusively instrumental band, but almost every song on their two albums is simply amazing)
13. Rush - La Villa Strangiato (An Exercise in Self-Indulgence)
14. Sum 41 - Grab The Devil By The Horns And Fuck Him Up The Ass (An amazing metal song by a punk rock band. I was just as surprised)
15. Van Halen - Eruption (Less of a song, more of an extended guitar lick, Eruption still is some amazing finger-work)

Current Trend: Old Bands With New Music

Moving away slightly from my last trend, I have been listening to alot of folk rock recently, but still mixing in the folk metal, and I have also been listening to new albums by old bands - bands that haven't released much in the past decade (or more), but have a new album out within the past few years.
The folk is just a continuation from last time, except a little softer. Most of them are celtic punk, but I found a couple of new ones that are reminiscent of Simon And Garfunkel, mixed in with indie rock (Sun Kil Moon and Great Lake Swimmers). Kind of nice, nothing I'll listen to much, but a nice sound to listen to if you're winding down for the night.
I have been pretty disappointed with the new music by old bands, most of it has been very ho-hum, nothing is too exciting. I don't know why I was expecting more, most of these bands are over 30 years old at this point, and have lost their edge. It's not bad, but I wouldn't call any of it 'metal' per se. Most of the bands are the grand-daddies of metal sub-genres, but now it falls mostly into hard rock.

Metallica - Death Magnetic

• The long-awaited album by thrash gods Metallica. I like to pretend that St. Anger never happened, and it seems so does the band. Death Magnetic is very different then their previous attempt at the new market, much better - not as good as The Black Album or previous, but way better then Load or Re-Load. I've already said something about this release, but now that I've heard it a few times (and that I don't remember what I put the last time) I'll weigh in again. You can tell that they listened (at least partially) to the numerous complaints from St. Anger, although the production quality is still in the gutter. Death Magnetic tried to mix the thrash days of old, with the hard rock times of now. Almost every song is over five minutes, and has several different segments and breakdowns, a throwback to their older days. Again, not a bad album, by far their best in almost twenty years, but not great. I'd like to see them work on this formula and perfet it for their next release.

Rush - Snakes And Arrows

• Snake And Arrows is one of the only albums this month that is both by an old band and that I haven't listened to before. I can't say anything negative about it, being a Rush fan I hear all the things I love about them, the intricate drum work (Neil Peart is God) and the flowing guitar and bass. But I also haven't really enjoyed a Rush album sense Moving Pictures, released way back in 1981. Every release after '81 has been...well I don't know really, its been kind of boring. My friend Sloth (check out his blog) would disagree, as Rush is his favorite band, he could go on for hours about how "this song means such-and-such" and why Geddy Lee should be the next president (if he weren't Canadian), but not me. Actualy this past statement isn't 100% true, I did like Rush's cover EP, Feedback, that came out in 2004. But as I said, if you are a Rushophile (Rush lover, get it?) then pick it up, but if you feel, as I do, that they haven't released anything amazing in 20+ years (aside from Feedback) then you might want to pass this one over.
  

Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy

• Ah, which brings me to The Axl Rose Project, oh wait no - it's Guns N' Roses (I can't take credit for that name, it was my friend Krotch). So I walked into this album, trying to keep an open mind, but it was difficult. The only song I enjoyed off of the album was their single, "Better," and that's probably only because I've heard it 50 times on the radio at work. The album would be alot better if you don't think of it as a GNR album, if you look at it as The Axl Rose Project, it seems to get better. Unfortunately, I can't get passed what a dick Axl has been. I loved classic GNR, I liked Velvet Revolver (which just shows that the rest of the guys still have it), but this album just falls flat. Rose tries to do too much with too little, the album cris-crosses genres randomly, it has too many "guest performers" to count (If you can even call them guest performers, it's just a list of people that were "members" of GNR over the past 20 years, who then Axl got angry at and fired).
  

Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life And Death

• Another of my favorite bands that's new album really doesn't match their heyday. As the same with Rush, I don't think that Maiden has released anything great sense Fear of The Dark, in 1992, and again I have a friend who would hit me if he heard me besmirching their good name. But oh well, you can't please them all. A Matter of Life And Death is, well a so-so album. I got the promo for "The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg" months before the album came out, and as such it is the only song I enjoyed on my re-listen to the album. It's not a bad disc, it's just kind of boring, nothing really stands out in any way. The songs are all long in length, with only one under five minutes, but most don't need to be. They seem to just go on and on for no reason other then they can. Actually, going back and looking at my Rush paragraph, these albums are surprisingly similar, well in the aspects of my reviews at least. If you're a fan, buy it, it you're a weekend warrior (casual listener) it's easy enough to forget about.

So there you have it, the albums and bands that have been occupying my time of late. Of course there are more, lots more, but I haven't posted in a while and I didn't want to wait for me to finish these other albums to write about them, maybe I'll write a part two eventually.
Other bands and albums on my list:
AC/DC - Black Ice
Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider
Judas Priest - Angel Of Retribution
Mötley Crüe - Saints of Los Angeles
Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain

No Iron Maiden For Me

I was hoping to write this post about how elated I was to be going to see the best god-damned band in the world - Iron Maiden - but alas, it is not to be. It's not because I couldn't get tickets, I was on tickemaster at 11:58pm when they were to go on sale (they didn't actually go on sale till 12:08am, which brought it's own share of heart pounding), and I got some decent seated tickets. So I put in my information and proceeded to check out with my two Iron Maiden tickets, at their ONLY U.S. stop on their tour, very happy with myself. It was then I saw the over all totall - $146!!
Needless to say, this was a shock. Looking back at my purchase the tickets were $54 and change, which I was fine with, then there was the ticketmaster fee, the location fee, tax, and elivery fee, bringing them to over 70 bucks a pop. Well I double checked with the guy I was going with, to make sure that the price was ok. He had a hard time scrounging together the $60 he thought he needed. Now it was closer to $80, and after the cost of gas and food and crap, over $100 a person. He couldn't handle that, and while I could, it would have made my life difficult for some time. So we both agreed to catch them next time, something I've been saying for at least 8 years...
So, while this begins as a rant about failing at seeing Iron Maiden, it now becomes a rant about outrageous ticket prices and the bullshit hidden charges for ticketmaster and the like. I'm not going to invest too much time, because we all know about this crap, but sometimes it needs to be said. I get that ticket prices are expensive, I do, I don't like it, but it's a business. I also see hoe tickemaster has to put charges in their products. But there is no need for these to be hidden. They should be in the price from the get-go. And the venue itself shouldn't have their own charges. We are already paying to go there, and for parking, and for food, and for whatever else. This is just another bit of gouging the consumer that shouldn't be, expecially in today's rocky economic environment.
Alright that is it. That's my rant, I'm satisfied. I'm still not going to see Iron Maiden....unless someone out there likes my rant and wants to invite me along? I'll pay for gas and food, or just your ticket, whichever you'd like.

Please?