Some serious posting scheduled for this weekend… great review from Cloudy, and a killer review from PJ….Dillinger Escape Plan fans will want to see this one…and I’ll talk about a stellar summer tour season. Stay tuned, -AS
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Jeff’s cause of death.
Out of respect for his family and friends, we’ll let his bandmates tell the tale. Much love guys…..http://www.slayer.net/us/jeff-hanneman
Album Review-Suicidal Tendencies “13″
Finally! After 13 years of waiting, Mike Muir has assembled yet another lineup for a brand new Suicidal Tendencies album entitled 13. Now if you have followed this band at all through the 80’s and 90’s you would know they have changed their style and sound as intensely as your Aunt Maureen changes outfits on her pet Pekingese appropriately named Snickers. And just like Snickers, when you hear a new Suicidal album, sometimes you smile and say “I like it, very cute”, but you wish they would ditch the outfit and be the unclothed mutts that they are.
I’ve been listening to Suicidal Tendencies since 1990 with their second full thrash album Lights… Camera… Revolution. Once I had heard it I was hooked. I went back and listened to their skater punk/hardcore roots, their transitional ep Feel Like Shit… / Deja Vu and their first full foray into the thrash metal world with How Will I Laugh Tomorrow… (side note: I just realized how many albums of theirs use the “…” in the titles. It’s a weird trend… I wonder if Muir is aware of it.) I found all of the intensity, the emotional output and lyrical maneuvering between youthful angst at society, self aggrandizing and inner most thoughts and fears to be a very intelligent way to keep the albums constantly entertaining as you never knew what was coming at you next. Am I going to feel like an alone outcast or pledge my allegiance to the S.T.?
After Lights… Camera… came Art of Rebellion and eventually, with heavy influence from Robert Trujillo, the Infectious Grooves. A Heavy Funk band with all the lyrical styling of Suicidal but with a bouncy beat and sick bass lines. Yet another change I came to accept as I learned that this was one of those bands that will always be restless and go with whatever mood or feel strikes them and for that I respect all their incarnations including Cyco Mike.
Why all the history? Because you kinda need to be a ST history buff to really like 13. It starts with that ever so classic shameless shout out to themselves with Shake it Out as the song opens to the whole band shouting “Suicidal’s Back! Suicidal’s Back! Suicidal’s Back! Suicidal’s Back!”. I cannot think of another metal band who sing more songs about themselves than ST. But it’s all good people! This is what they’ve always done and it feels good, like an old blanket made out of blue bandanas. Mike Muir even goes as far as to ask for a Diet Pepsi, acknowledging his age and longevity by giving a nod to their breakthrough song Institutionalized back in 1983. The whole album continues that way as the next track, Smash It!, goes into a hardcore punk vibe. Then they bring us to their thrash metal sound by track 4, God Only Knows Who I Am. The whole album continues to go this way and as a fan it is a fun listen, but its nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary. It’s a conglomerate of all the faces of Suicidal Tendencies.
The rest of the band is rounded out by Infectious Grooves alum Dean Pleasants and drummer Eric Moore, newcomer Tim “Rawbiz” Williams on bass and guitarist Nico Santora. I had the pleasure of seeing them live on this albums tour, celebrating 30 years of the bands existence. I strongly recommend going to see ST, it was a great show. As a man in his late 40’s, Mike Muir still has that flair and he is still preaching in-between songs about change within yourself, the power of positive thinking and never giving up. They play all the classics as well as a couple of songs from the new album, but not so many that it takes the crowd out of it. Teaming up with D.R.I., the show was an absolute blast.
So all in all, if you are a long time fan of all things Suicidal, pick up this album. It may still feel like they’re wearing a cute doggy outfit but you don’t mind because that’s just who they are. And if you can, find an empty pool to hang at with a 40 and a skateboard and let the nostalgia take you.
Cloudy
Sifting Through The Rubble: Why Machine Head should stop making music..an article by PJ
You had me – you bastards… You had me when I saw you open for Biohazard and Slayer at the Aragon in ’94 during the Divine Intervention tour. I was only 15 at the time, but I’d been listening long enough to realize that you were the very first of the second generation of nineties metal that was beginning to emerge. I tagged along with my Mom to Best Buy the next day so I could spend my hard earned cash on ‘Burn My Eyes’. It was good enough to look past the ‘Shedding Skin’ riff at the end of ‘Davidian’ and the ‘Raining Blood’ rip-off purge at the beginning of ‘Blood For Blood’ – perhaps just obvious nods to influences and not a just-budded genre already becoming cookie-cutter mediocrity. It was good enough to ignore the haphazard use of vulgarity lyrically injected into the songs as syllabic filler to complete a stanza in rhythm – perhaps another influential nod to the likes of Max Cavalera, maybe this Rob Flynn guy’s second language is English too. It was good enough to dub onto a 90 minute TDK cassette tape opposite Meathook Seed’s debut album so that I could listen to it in my car. It was good enough.
You had me when I heard the fourth track on your second release ‘The More Things Change’, it was almost good enough to make up for a phoned in sophomore slump of an album. It was almost good enough to look past the tough guy posturing on the inside cover of the CD. It was almost good enough to get over the horrible harmonics that plagued over half of the riffs on that record – I hope Dimebag got some phat royalties on that one. It was almost good enough.
You lost me when I saw your video for ‘From This Day’ on the very short-lived hard rock video station MTV X. It completely baffles my mind that people still give you stock as career musicians in heavy metal after that cinematic gem. I know long-haired tough guy heavy metal types with tattoos and bolts through the nose always pretend not to know about the goings on in pop culture, so bare with me and pretend to know about how that hip-hop Chris Brown guy beat the living shit out of that pop princess Rihanna a couple of years back. The media posted pictures of her battered face all over the news, talk shows and magazines – fat lips, black eyes, bite marks and all. He admitted to doing it and he somehow, someway beyond anything I can even fathom, he still has a career…That’s pretty much the equivalent for me of that video/song and you guys still selling records. Dreadlocks and jumpsuits, hand gestures and high knees, whipping your arms around at the camera like the gay love child of Vanilla Ice and Puff Daddy – er, P Diddy, or Puffy Combs…You get it. I hope Jonathan Davis got some phat royalties on that one. That’s not riding a money train, that’s taking one hostage and engineering it. I don’t have anything against ‘Nu-Metal’ either, I do however, have a problem with the fact that you changed your sound and image to ride that wave. That’s what jerk-offs who criticize bands in the form of blogs behind their keyboards call selling out – and that move ranks right up there somewhere between Metallica’s ‘Black’ album and Sepultura’s ‘Roots’ (but at least Roots was an original concept). I stopped paying attention after that.
But believe it or not some years later you had me again, when I somehow, somewhere heard the track ‘Imperium’ off of your album ‘Through The Ashes Of Empires’. Not sure if it was a momentary lapse of reason or just a lack of anything else out there at the time – I know I was drinking A LOT in 2004 – but I remember thinking that song was pretty balls. I ended up buying the album and couldn’t tell you anything else about it except that ‘Seasons Whither’ was a half-way decent track too. Other than that it was the epitome of the blowing-your-wad-on-the-first-song formula. I listened to ‘Imperium’ again for the first time in like 12 years the other day and it doesn’t do anything for me these days, actually it’s more like a ‘what the fuck were you thinking?’ kind of thing – as are the other two albums I own from MH. But then you went ahead and lost me again with your incessant babbling about ‘The Blackening’.
In every interview you said it was going to be the next Master Of Puppets. Your Master Of Puppets. Master Of Puppets was the inspiration. It’s going to be better than Master Of Puppets – Master Of Puppets, Master Of Puppets, Master Of Puppets. Alright, got it…good luck with that. I think that was right around the time bands like Trivium and all that tripe started making that the thing to do. Even sell-out kings Metallica followed suit and tried to cash in on it – the resurgence of a genre that they were originally one of the trademarks for – by doing Death Magnetic and claiming they were going back to their roots. I gave ‘The Blackening’ a shot, my brother bought it and we sat and listened – your little hype machine worked on my peanut of a brain, and I don’t even like Master Of Puppets (though admit it’s a good album). My dick failed to move. Thanks though, for trying something that’s been tried about a hundred thousand times before and not doing something even a quarter of the way original. Your big masterpiece was an emulation piece – that’s like being the best tribute band in the world, artistically worthless. I think that’s been my problem with Machine Head through the years. They got their start riding on the musical ideas and trends of other people and never got off. I know it’s probably just me, but Machine Head has always flown the flag for those bands that continue to meander in complete heavy metal mediocrity, and yet the genre is so littered with fans of that nonsense that these guys are even starting to fool themselves into thinking they’re a link in the spine of heavy musical evolution. What they are is pop music – safe, easily digestible, candy in a big ugly wrapper to give it that heavy metal appeal casual listeners of this kind of music thrive on to fool themselves into thinking they’re edgy and outside the norm. Everything Machine Head does sounds like something else that was better to me. You’re not heavy enough for me to want to listen to you when I want to get the pulse going, you’re not rock enough for me to want to listen to you when I want to have a good time, and you’re not interesting enough for me to want to listen to you, er – well, ever. It’s generic, like the Arch Enemys, and Godsmacks, and Avenged Sevenfolds, and Sevendusts – I just don’t know where to put you and your heavy / hard rock musical miasma. Machine Head is good at what they do, they are an amazing 90’s thrash cover band – and damn good musicians. Rob Flynn’s vocals are distinguishable and unique in their own right, but doesn’t it seem like he’s just trying too hard to try too hard, and still comes off as not trying hard enough? That goes for his lyrics as well.
There are people that feel something in it that I just don’t, and I’m sure they would have a lot to say about some of the garbage I listen to, I totally understand that. How can I critique anything as subjective as art? Who am I to say that the creativeness that comes out of someone’s head is vapid? For me it depends on the motives of that inspiration. You can use the same kind of paint, brush and canvas as Leonardo Da Vinci and not have to try and paint another Mona Lisa, but people are going to try because they know it’s going to get them on the wall at the big gallery downtown and sell for a ridiculous amount of money. I know I sound like a jaded fanboy who probably got blown off when he was waiting to get his CD signed by the band after the show, but the truth is I’m just sick of bands like this thriving and not being called out for what they are – pop music, and if that’s your thing then be awesome and embrace it, but don’t try and mold it any other way. E-mail me if you want to know what the next Machine Head album is going to sound like, I’ll tell you – cause it’s whatever money train is riding through “heavy metal” that year.
I guess I should just let people like what they want to like – in reality how much does it really effect me? And the band is just making a living doing what they’re cursed to love – making vapid sheep metal for the masses, so kudos to them for working the system the way they did and following their dream, even if it is at their own artistic expense. I guess it’s all just how you approach life. Wow, this is a whole chunk of my life that I’ll never get back. Damn you again Machine Head…
“Always on Tour” The band “with a heartbeat” is bringing Rock back to America. An interview with Mitch Arnold of Wayland
I met these guys by accident really. I work with a video crew that works with Dean Guitars every year at the Winter NAMM. Dean puts on a big show the Friday of NAMM and Wayland was the first act. I honestly hadn’t heard anything about them until that night. The buzz started Friday on the NAMM floor as we promoted the show as we broadcast. As we set up the video at the Grove of Anaheim I was really excited to see Kyng and Shinedown so my focus was on those later acts as I set up the camera. Soundchecks proceeded as they do.
I first saw Tyler setting up his drums, which was appropriate since my sole job that night was the drum cam. He rocked through his soundcheck and I was impressed. I then saw Dean setting up his bass. I knew right away he was a character. Phillip then Mitch gathered and set up their gear for the show. They were all in black. A very cool and understated look. I like it a lot.
The lights went down and what happened next still gives me the chills. The show these guys gave us was absolutely incredible. Words can’t do it justice. It was hard, it was loud, it was professional, it was soulful……we were all floored. If you’ve seen this band you know exactly what I mean. And if you know me, you know I am not easily impressed. I am a self-admitted music snob.
Seeing Wayland in action has rekindled my faith in Rock music. Everything that this music emulates as part of Wayland. Hard workers, they tour incessantly, without complaining and solely for the love of bringing their music to their fans. And boy do they have fans. These people are loyal to the bone and would follow these guys to the gates of hell. But that’s not where they’re going. They are headed for stardom and fame and man do they deserve it.
So far they have one EP “Welcome to My Head” which was their first single. “Nobody’s Perfect” is being played on terrestrial and satellite radio as we speak. “On My Knees” is a soulful number destined to be a hit. And the Bob Seger cover “Fire Down Below” is a nod to their Michigan roots and, I like to believe, a respectful tip of the hat to one of the hardest working guys in Rock.
I got to meet the band while working with Dean Guitars and Ddrum, and I was honored. Not only are these guys talented, they are really great, genuine guys. And Mitch (lead singer) was kind enough to give me (us) this interview. I hope you enjoy it. And if you’re new to the band check out the videos of their fine work, then visit the website to find out where you can see them live. It is an experience you will not forget. I should really rename this interview “Destined for Greatness,” because, that’s what they are.
MAT: First of all who is contributing to this interview? I’m sending this to Mitch but are all the guys replying? Where exactly is Wayland right now? You guys tour relentlessly. One day you’re in Anaheim, and the next you’re in North Carolina. Explain the phrase “Always On Tour.”
MA: I don’t know many lifestyles that are this exciting. The ups and the downs of the road are so vast, it’s really hard to convey how it is living day to day as a rock n’ roll band that is “always on tour.” And let me assure you…Wayland continues to be “always on tour.”
My name is Mitch Arnold and I’m the lead singer of Wayland. At the moment, I’m sitting in a booth in a little bar in Fargo, ND. Our gear has been placed neatly on stage and we’re waiting for the sound man to get here so we can start making noise. Local patrons are scattered through the bar listening to soft rock 80s songs on the juke box and Prospect Hill (a band from Boston) just showed up. As they tote their gear inside, they inform us all they’ve adopted a duck. Out of the van they produce a neat cage with a yellow duckling in it. While they were staying with a mutual friend in Illinois (who happens to run a rescue for all kinds of animals) they became slightly attached to the young duckling who was living there and all parties involved decided it would be a good idea for the duck to come along. We’re all very good friends and not long after they arrived, we all took a shot of whiskey in celebration of a birthday we weren’t all together for. The duck, who has been named Emilio is waddling around the bar chirping with an occasional quack. I am never surprised as to what comes to be out on the road. It’s all a part of a beautiful picture. It’s not always beautiful, but the picture it all makes always is. I am the one responding but as a collective voice. The others have read the questions and they all have agreed to have me respond.
Like I said, we are playing a show tonight 4/3/13 at Nester’s in Fargo, ND with our good friends Prospect Hill…and of course their mascot and new friend, Emilio. We have played shows with hundreds of bands, these guys have become incredibly close friends of ours. The phrase, “Always On Tour,” is pretty self-explanatory. That’s exactly what it means. We’ve toured for years but this phrase came to be when we left home January 5th 2012 and we’ve been touring non-stop ever since. We did take a couple days for Christmas but we ended up playing 332 shows in 2012. Bands would always mention, people would always say, “You guys are always on tour.” We started using it as kind of a slogan. One, because it was true and two, because we are proud to carry the torch of rock n’ roll like we are. We are living the words we write, we are bleeding and sweating on stage and anything that is wrong in the world disappears when we plug in a play our music. It’s magic to us and when things go well in a night, it’s magic to an audience.
MAT: I follow your Facebook page and love your videos featuring Dean. What is one of your favorite Dean Pizazz moments? Favorite moment or moments since the band has formed?
MA: Dean Pizzazz is a huge part of Wayland’s success on and off stage. He’s an incredible musician, an amazing bass player, he sings like a bird and his charm radiates far beyond his arm’s length. No matter what kind of mood we’re all in, he is always willing to put himself on the line for a great joke. Multiple radio stations have used him for stunts, whether it’s him putting on a ketchup mask (he hates ketchup) or having a 600 pound woman squash him on a bed, he’s pretty much willing to do whatever it takes make the party. He never fails at this. Never.
MAT: Touring is no easy task. Can you talk about some of the things you guys deal with that readers might not know about? Yet you continue to do it, an average of 330+ times a year. What do you love about touring?
MA: There is nothing better than watching something you have created grow. To nurture it and nourish your creation with the best of your ability. It’s the same with creating a rock n’ roll band. We love touring because we get to share the music we believe in with anyone who will listen. From the grandest of halls to the dripping underground hallways you sometimes have to play. There is nothing like playing a room one night and bringing 20 people, and then six months later coming back and selling that room out. There is nothing like watching that grow. Each time we meet new people and create new, lifelong friendships. There is no dull moment. I literally cannot remember the last time I was bored. It’s been years I promise you. You don’t always eat but you’ll never starve. You might not find the best place to sleep. Sometimes you’re on a couch, or on the floor. Sometimes one of us makes a pallet in the closet because that’s the only carpet left in the place. Sometimes we each get our own hotel room and you literally don’t know what to do with yourself. This life is not for the faint of heart. Nothing goes the way you plan it and if you’re not able to just ride the wave, you are going to crash in a coral reef.
MAT: Speaking of Dean, guitars that is, talk a bit about your relationship with Dean and Ddrum. How did that come about? And talk a bit about working with Jesse James Dupree (Jackyl, Full Throttle Saloon) and how you guys got together.
MA: Dean Guitars and D Drums have been such an amazing addition to our team. Not only do they supply us with incredibly well made musical instruments, but the support they offer on the road is second to none. Amazing people built that company, amazing people continue to run it and we feel so lucky being a part of the family. Being that Jesse James Dupree heads our up our management, through Jackyl and his son Nigel Dupree, we were put in touch with the Dean Artist Relations department and we got things sorted from there.
Jesse is the model of a blue collar working rock n’ roller. We were making a record with Jude Cole in LA and upon making the leap to the Midwest, he suggested that Jesse and Wayland would make a great team. We’ve always prided ourselves on being blue collar workers. Our parents were blue collar, we all come from blue collar, Midwestern towns and we found a very familiar bond with Jesse because our work ethic matched up. He pushes us to be a better band and to be harder workers. One of our goals was to be a band that belonged to the people. That takes the blue collar band working around the clock and keeps us working really hard. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Because of the way we work together with Jesse, we are seeing huge progress in what we are doing and realizing that the people are reaching out begging for something real. A band with a heartbeat. We’re here on this planet to bring the heartbeat back to rock n’ roll and give something the blue collar worker and raise his fist over!
MAT: If you could tour with any one huge National act, who would you choose?
MA: Personally, and I can’t speak for the other guys but if there was anyone we could tour with it would be The Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl can do no wrong in my book and playing with them every night would be incredible. I think we all would love touring with Shinedown, Halestorm, Muse, Dead Sarah, Foxy Shazzam, Sick Puppies and many more. We’re really lucky to be a part of a time in musical history where there is a lot going on in rock n’ roll. Not everyone knows this. But it’s the truth.
MAT: What do you guys find yourselves doing between gigs?
MA: When we’re not playing, we’re writing. I meditate a lot and like to work out when I have time. One of the things I say to myself when I’m taking a short break is, “I only put down my sword to sharpen the blade.” Even if I’m not working, I’m most likely going to be working on myself to be better. I love to write, I love to play music. I’ll do that whether I’m working or not. We go see movies too. And more times than not, even in our time off, we do all these things together. If we go on vacation, we usually spend some of it all together. We’re a family on and off the road.
MAT: What are you working on right now? LP? EP? Any plans for a West Coast tour?
MA: We are currently in the process of writing and recording a full length LP. I can speak for everyone in saying we are all really excited about the songs we’re laying down. It’s by far our most exciting work. When you tour this much, it comes out in your writing. Our fans are going to hear the road on this album, for sure. And we’ll be headed west after festival season. Late September….October maybe? Hahahahah but who knows what is really going to happen. Things spin on a dime, I never know which side of the coin is going to land.
MAT: Name some of your biggest influences. Any music you love that your fans might find surprising?
MA: All of our influences are very different. I started writing music because of a songwriter named Marc Cohn. Other than that I love and am inspired by Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, Shinedown, Halestorm, Queens of the Stone Age, Rolling Stones, I fucking Love Journey and originally wanted to sing because of Steve Perry. Aerosmith, I fucking love Bon Jovi which you can probably hear when I sing. I think out of all those, people might be most surprised to know I listen to Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars. I’ve always loved pop music and further than that, I just love great song writing. I think they both write incredible songs about real experience. A lot of people hate on Taylor Swift when I tell them. She’s been a professional song writer since she was 14 and continues to stretch herself as a songwriter. Bad mouth it all you want but when you break it down to just an acoustic guitar and a voice, both artists stand up. That’s hard to do and impressive when it’s done.
MAT: What advice do you have for that 12 year old kid jamming in his basement right now?
MA: To any young person thinking of getting into music as a profession, I say, do your homework. Finish high school with flying colors. It will teach discipline and focus. You’ll need both for a career in music. Also, getting great grades in school will give you the freedom after it’s done to tell your parents, “I’m a good student and have proven to be responsible. I’m a good kid and this is what I want to do.” Most case scenarios, parents know what is best for their kids, if they turn 18, stay out of trouble and graduate with honors there isn’t a lot a parent can say if the kid wants to go to college and study music or decides college isn’t for them. I will say this, the music business is like becoming a doctor. It’s that hard or harder. It can be humiliating and for the first few years you fall and fail and get shot down. If you haven’t gotten shot down yet, find someone that will. You’re going to need a couple ass kickings to make it through this. If you find success without an ass kicking look out. You’re in for the biggest beating when it all get strips away. Nothing incredibly special comes without a lot of work. What Wayland is doing is incredibly special and we have sacrificed our lives, friends, family, finance, and at sometimes our own well-being to do what we do. I say, do good in school, ground yourself, study all aspects of music including business and stop at nothing to get what you want. I believe this is the only way.
MAT: Say ANYTHING you want to your fans:
MA: To our fans, we are nothing without you. You jumped aboard a train going nowhere and because of your love and support, now that train is always going somewhere. A band is just a basement jam without it’s fans. We have the very best fans who support us around every turn. Thank you. We love you. We promise to keep working our asses off if you promise to do the same in your life and cut loose with us when we come through town. We are only here because of you….and we only continue because you have asked us to.
If you aren’t a fan after reading this, you should read it again. I cannot think of another example of pure American Rock touring today. Check these guys out when you can. They will not disappoint and if you’re still on the fence, the show will put you well over the edge. April 19th they will be at Bada Brew in Crest Hill, IL with Emperors and Elephants (soon to be interviewed I hope), Eye Empire, and A.D.D. They’ll play Bobby McGee’s in Chicago Ridge on April 20th, and Cheers Pub in South Bend the night after that. Like I said, these guys are busy. Check out their site and all the tour dates at waylandtheband.com
Book Review: “Official Truth, 101 Proof: The Inside Story of Pantera” by Rex Brown
Nobody likes it when the band they’ve been enjoying listening to for years packs it up and calls it a day, but you can make a little lemonade out of those lemons by realizing that sometimes this can lead to material that would have normally never seen the light of day being scraped out of a vault, packaged, printed, and presented to you for a purchase price usually a whole lot more than it’s actual musical worth. And the more successful or major label the band, the more that dried up tit is going to be wrought by the legions of leeches pulling the strings. Until you come to your senses some 20 years after the demise of said band and see the racket for what it is when an umpteenth version of their “Greatest Hits” is being repackaged with the same tracks switched around and baited with a never-before-heard live demo version of a song they did before they were who they were. However this isn’t always the case, sometimes band members themselves will release things posthumously that they wouldn’t normally have done while creative juices were still flowing. Or attention is diverted elsewhere and time is precious so it never happens while a group’s blood is still pumping. It leaves the potential for all kinds of things seeing the light of day, live footage, demos, unreleased studio recordings, books etc. Sometimes there just isn’t a market for it until later on down the line, as was the case with Pantera.
When Pantera was in their prime, the internet hadn’t become a household source of information yet – fans were very limited with what they could see or read about regarding the band, actually that pretty much goes for any group affiliated with heavy metal at the time. Except for the occasional interview on Headbangers Ball, or what was coming out of the monthly edition of Metal Maniacs, exposure was nil. Sure Pantera released 3 DVD’s in the tenure of their existence – but those comprised mostly of drinking, vomiting, blowing up fireworks, and squeezing puss-filled boils off the asses of their road crew. All fine and dandy for the 14 year old fucktard whose only source of jerk-off material was the occasional topless groupie chick on the VHS Cowboys From Hell Home Video, but I’ve done a lot of growing up since then. These days I’d much rather see a candid in studio come-up of how an album came to be, how riffs were conceived, lyrics were inspired, instruments were recorded, etc. I don’t give a shit how humorless it is. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and there are a whole bunch of people that never paid attention in 1992, or weren’t around to pay attention in 1992, that are paying attention now, let the wringing of the tit begin, I’m talking to you 20th anniversary special edition of Vulgar Display of Power.
…And let forth the credible stuff as well: Pantera bassist Rex Brown’s recently released biography “Official Truth 101 Proof: The Inside Story of Pantera” (co-authored by Mark Eglinton) offers a very inside look at the band that we were never afforded the opportunity to voyeur into back in the day due to the aforementioned lack of technology and popularity. It’s Rex’s side of the story, from all the way back to when he was a kid to his current status with Kill Devil Hill – centralized around his career in Pantera, the bad-ass, bow-to-nobody, game changers that flew the flag for real heavy metal through the 1990’s. Straight up, if you’re a Pantera fan then read the book, you’ll enjoy it – I did. Though not without some criticism. It was cool to get a deeper insight into the individual personalities of the band, and perhaps some of the motives, if you will, as to why they made music the way they did, but I was definitely hoping for a whole lot more information about the actual songs themselves. The making of each album is pretty glossed over in the first few pages of the chronologically appropriate chapters, and then it’s onto the antics and drama of the road for the next few. Yet you still get to hear how the band approached each album and why each one ended up sounding the way they did, like why ‘The Great Southern Trendkill’ is so (awesomely) abrasive and ‘Reinventing The Steel’ sounds a bit more traditional. He even delves into the Down albums he was involved with and talks a bit about the recording dynamics of those sessions. I did still get a new perspective on how the albums were done and learned some things I hadn’t known about before, so I can’t complain about it too much – it’s hard to jam a career like the one Rex had into some 280 pages and not have to gloss over pretty much everything.
I was a bit of a Pantera fanatic back in the day, and followed them pretty closely during their existence and for a bit afterwards. During that time I’d sort of gotten the vibe through interviews and whatforth that Rex often fancied himself quite the bad-ass, and the book only amplifies that theory with his lack of humility. It weighs pretty heavily with Rex’s self-horn tooting, and I can’t help but wonder how much of a motive catharsis was in the writing of this book as he more than occasionally has some harsh words about his band mates. He attempts to balance the jabs with occasional praise but doesn’t seem to even out the ratio in the end. This is all fine, dandy and expected with a book like this. You’re going to sell more tickets to a car crash than a birthing. But take the time to laugh at yourself – and enlighten us dammit. Your vocalist is a disconnected, back-stabbing junkie. Your guitarist is an idiot who can’t hold onto his money, and your drummer is a fat-ass, fame whoring poon-hound, yet there’s no skid marks on you? Even when he talks about his drinking problem he seems to be holding back – this is a guy whose organs began shutting down on him from his addiction, and yet there’s no ugly side to it ever really portrayed in detail. The divorce from his wife comes and goes amicably, and he’s always there for his kids, even though he’s a touring musician/alcoholic. By the end of the book the do-no-wrong thing was really wearing thin to me. His idea of letting his guard down is telling the reader that at one point during a show he was so blown away by his guitarist Dimebag Darrell’s playing that he walked over to him and kissed him. If you’re gonna paint the pictures of everyone else’s desperation and darkness, you gotta paint yours the darkest if it’s there – it’s your fucking book and your fucking story, don’t do it if you’re worried about tarnishing your image – but that’s just my opinion.
In the end however it is a satisfying read. As a fan of Pantera I couldn’t put the flippin’ thing down. Rex was always the out-of-focus guy on the T-shirt so to hear his side of things as more of a spectator to the rest of the band is interesting and believable. It exposed a lot of behind the scenes controversy that I hadn’t realized had gone on and includes interview bits with road crew members, managers, producers, wives, girlfriends, all sorts of people that were intimately involved with Pantera in one way or another, credible sources. He also dishes a bit of inside dirt on some other heavy hitters in the scene appropriately. Rex does a good job of portraying just what a rollercoaster ride the Pantera years were and how appreciative he was of having rode it (ridden it?). While reading it you may be shocked at how much of a ‘brotherhood’ the whole thing actually wasn’t, but in the end realize that all that went on and all they went through only helped to carve what the definition of what brotherhood was to them, and should be to everyone.
-PJ
Editors note: For more on Rex’s perspective, check out the May 2013 Guitar World.
Link
Small Town Kid Makes Good
OK, I have to be honest here, this kid is related to me. Well sort of. His Dad is my first cousin through marriage. But Jeff (Dustin’s Dad) is the cousin who got me first interested in hard rock and Metal so its a significant relationship. But truth is I would promote this kid even if we weren’t related. He is the epitome of what music is all about. He oozes with talent and is absolutely charmed He has a very close relationship with Rick Springfield and was in his recent documentary. This is the kind of thing that gives me hope for the future. I’ll be following his career. You should too.
Album Review-Vog
Deep in the thick foliage of the Virginia woods, some crazy/genius bastard fertilized an Acid Bath egg with ‘Dopethrone’ – era Electric Wizard. The seed germinated, spawned and only lived for a short time as Vog. These guys truly are a hidden gem, ritualistically dancing within the realms of Stoner/Sludge-Jam-band-satanic-voodoo thrash ( what? is that already a genre? dammit.) I seriously cannot describe their music any better than that first sentence. They wear the Acid Bath influence heavily on their sleeve in both their writing as well as the vocal stylings of crooner Steven Kerchner, who at times sounds almost exactly like a less distorted Dax Riggs.
I stumbled onto these guys a few years ago deep within the trenches of Myspace before it became the Detroit of social networking sites. Even a google search brings up sparse results which in turn need to be even further refined and combed through to weed out the half dozen Japanese Ambient-Electronic acts that share the same name. I was finally able to track down some of their discography on the Shifty Records site. From there I ordered the ‘Colors Of Infinity’ EP which consists of one 23 minute track (which was sent to me in DIY packaging burnt onto a Spykids CD-Rom – fuckin’ awesome.), it’s good but kind of sounds more like a bunch of ideas jammed into one song and isn’t as cohesive as I might have hoped, from what I can gather it was probably a demo the band sent to the label before they were even on it (but then again, what the hell do I know?).
The real bread and butter from Vog comes in their one and only self-titled full length. 7 tracks (and not a one of them under 6 minutes) of dirty-ass, slightly underproduced Stoner/Sludge/Thrash dynamics, high on the treble and heavy on the Sabbath swagger. Seriously, if Dax Riggs and the boys in Acid Bath took some bad shrooms in the NOLA swamps and then decided to record a jam session pre- “When The Kite String Pops” I can’t help but imagine it would sound alot like this. Yeah I’m an Acid Bath fan, but what I am not is one of those people that tries to find another band in the same realm to latch onto when they’re favorite one goes defunct. While Vog does offer a sliver to help fill the void that AB left when they went tits up, they also infuse enough of their other influences into the music to actually make the end result sound original. And honestly, the more you listen to it the more it begins to sound like it’s own thing. So I guess this recommendation goes out to those people who have reverted to settling on exhausting the Buzzoven dicography as an unsuccessful means to get their caustic-stoner thrash fix since AB called it a day some dozen-or-so years ago (you’re doing it wrong – sludge!). Does it offer a certain average-looking-girl-becomes- all the more – hot-because-she’s-a-libarian kind of aesthetic because it’s so off the map? Sure there’s a little bit of charm there, but it’s honestly cool shit, and when you think it’s going to zig where it should zag it does neither, it zogs (clever). In fact, whilst doing a bit of research for this bunch of inane babble I discovered that Vog’s self-titled has been remastered (possibly even re-recorded in spots) and made available on Itunes, I didn’t see that coming. The remaster has an additional track smack dab in the middle called ‘Sad Girl’, which was originally released as a single and was, up till now, the only thing available from them on Itunes. Important note here: If you do decide to buy the album via that route I’d strongly recommend also buying the ‘Sad Girl’ single that’s available also, as they include an acoustic version of the track that’s not available on the remaster and is definitely worth having. Listening to the acoustic ‘Sad Girl’ into the original version can be an awesomely intense experience ala Pantera’s Suicide Note parts 1 & 2.
So come and dance within the remains that once was Vog, and long for what once was and what could have been, for such a small, unlabeled and thankfully mostly untreaded genre. Check out the video here for a not-so brief showcase of Vog’s sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOAe9sBDFW0
by PJ
