Heavy Metal Superfan Blog

Every metal fan feels his or her pulse quicken a little at this time of year, because right between Thanksgiving and Christmas is when the most important event in all of music happens - the Grammy award nominations are released. Yes, it's Grammy time, and metalheads across the nation (because like the World Series or the Super Bowl, nobody outside the U.S. gives a crap) gather to watch the televised nomination special, whispering excitedly, "Whaddya think - will this be Arch Goat Of Sodomy's year? Oh, I guarantee you Körgull The Exterminator will be nominated for something!"

Yeah, right. Well, the nominations came out last night, and in between all the trophies they promised to award Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Lady Gaga, they nominated some actual metal bands for the Metal and Hard Rock trophies. Here's the rundown.

Metal:

Judas Priest, "Dissident Aggressor" from A Touch of Evil Live
Lamb of God, "Set To Fail" from Wrath
Megadeth, "Head Crusher" from Endgame
Ministry, "Señor Peligro" from Adios ...
Slayer, "Hate Worldwide" from World Painted Blood


That's not a terrible list, honestly. Granted, "Dissident Aggressor" is a 30-year-old song, and the Ministry nomination is bizarre - I have no idea who on the nominating committee has such a hard-on for Al Jourgensen, but it seems like he's been nominated a bunch of times in recent years. If I had to pick a winner, I'd like to see it go to Lamb Of God, if only because Slayer have already won.

Hard Rock:

AC/DC, "War Machine" from Black Ice
Alice in Chains, "Check My Brain" from Black Gives Way to Blue
Linkin Park, "What I've Done" from Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keyes
Metallica, "The Unforgiven III" from Death Magnetic
Nickelback, "Burn It To The Ground" from Dark Horse


This is a much worse list - as any list with Linkin Park and Nickelback on it would be. I'm also not all that excited about Alice In Chains getting a nomination, but that song bores me comatose. Frankly, my pick to win would be AC/DC - "War Machine" is a great song off a really strong album. But do I care? No, I do not. Wake me up when Brutal Truth gets a Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

Metal musicians are not always brilliant. Not all their ideas are good ones. There are a lot of bad ideas floating around the world of metal right now, and someone needs to say "Stop it!"

1. Playing an entire album in concert. Judas Priest are normally a fantastic live band, but they're letting fans down on this current tour. If I want to listen to British Steel, I can reach for my iPod. The same goes for Mötley Crüe, who are playing all of Dr. Feelgood front to back on their current tour (really? even "Time For Change"?), and Aerosmith, who have been playing Toys In The Attic - at the shows they've managed to play at all, that is. The only thing worse than turning into your own nostalgia act is subjecting audiences to your whole new album front-to-back, like Iron Maiden did in 2005 when they played the 70-plus-minute A Matter Of Life And Death instead of the metal anthems audiences had paid to hear. Arranging a really great set list, one that offers all your best songs in a carefully paced way that'll get the audience up and on their feet, is an art all by itself. Playing a whole album is just masturbatory.
2. Covers albums. A well-chosen cover can liven up an album, adding an element of surprise or nodding to a favorite influence, like when Brutal Truth recorded the Minutemen's "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" on their new disc Evolution Through Revolution. But Hatebreed's recent For The Lions only served to reveal the band's shortcomings as musicians and performers. Similarly, word has just come down that Six Feet Under is working on a third volume of their Graveyard Classics series of covers albums - the second volume of which was a front-to-back reinterpretation of AC/DC's Back In Black, thus combining two bad ideas in one. And the less said about Guns N' Roses' The Spaghetti Incident? and Slayer's Undisputed Attitude, the better.
3. Over-merchandising your band. The Summer Slaughter Tour, which winds down in NYC tonight, was a great package, bringing a dozen terrific metal bands around the country to blast fans into submission with an hours-long overdose of crushing riffs and amazing double bass drum destruction. But a trip to the merch table was like going to the mall. Every band on the bill seemed to have between four and eight different T-shirts on sale, plus hats, hoodies, etc. The worst offenders by far were Darkest Hour and Suffocation, though Decrepit Birth and Ensiferum had nice little flea-market stalls going too. Look - I've been a metalhead for 25 years, maybe longer. Most of my wardrobe is made up of black T-shirts. But bands, please - come up with one awesome design and stick with it. There's no need to have your own clothing line. (Oh, and a side note: Bands should come up with designs adults can wear. My new Atheist T-shirt, purchased last week, has instantly become a favorite, because it's so bare-bones - it's a black T-shirt with a white Atheist logo across the chest, and nothing else. I don't need a shirt with a full-color painting of a demon ripping a priest's guts out on the front, or some F-word-laden slogan on the back. Not all your fans are 16, guys. Cater to the grown-ups once in a while.)

What are your thoughts, readers? What would you like to see bands stop doing?

Another week, another pile o' metal landing at your local record store. Here's a rundown of some, not all, of the discs out this week.

Judas Priest, A Touch of Evil - Live (Epic): This is the best Judas Priest live album since 1979's Unleashed in the East: Live in Japan. The band have been ferocious since Rob Halford came back in 2005, both onstage and in the studio (yes, I think Nostradamus was one of the best albums of last year), and this 60-minute disc captures them at the peak of their powers. They've chosen to focus on album cuts and fan favorites rather than big hits, so you won't get one more run-through of "Electric Eye" or "Breaking the Law" here - instead, they play tracks like "Between the Hammer and the Anvil," "Riding on the Wind," and "Dissident Aggressor." This is a terrific album made to be cranked up loud.

Suffocation, Blood Oath (Nuclear Blast): The latest effort from New York's premier death metal band. These guys have always mixed hardcore's raw muscle with death metal's technical precision, creating a blend that sends moshpits into a frenzy across the globe. This album doesn't alter their sound in any fundamental way - there are no strings, ballads, or guest rappers. But it's pretty much state-of-the-art head-down death metal, and that's always a good thing.

Devildriver, Pray for Villains (Roadrunner): Dez Fafara's post-Coal Chamber band started out kinda lame, but has gotten substantially better with each successive release, and they really know how to rock a crowd. This latest batch of songs is the band's heaviest yet (the production is by Machine Head guitarist Logan Mader, a guy who knows something about heavy); Pray for Villains demonstrates that Devildriver know their strengths and play to them with skill and passion.

Other stuff out this week:

Anaal Nathrakh, In the Constellation of the Black Widow (Candlelight): Latest album from the UK-based industrial/black/death screamers. This album might get you evicted.

Arsonists Get All The Girls, Portals (Century Media): Somewhat adventurous metalcore. Recommended to fans of the genre, few others.

Gnostic, Engineering the Rule (Season of Mist): Technical/progressive death metal featuring three members of the current lineup of Atheist. If you like Atheist, Cynic and Death, you'll like this.

Yob, The Great Cessation (Profound Lore): New album from reunited Pacific Northwest doom titans. Long, slow and loud/heavy as fuck.

You can't have metal without screaming, overdriven electric guitars. And while some of the best metal bands around have just one guitarist, a lot of the true greats have two axes up front, ripping through the speakers in tandem. So for this weekend's poll, you decide which band has the greatest dual-guitar team in all of metal. Voting closes at 10 AM Monday, so vote early and often!

Judas Priest's new album A Touch Of Evil - Live comes out on Tuesday, and it's terrific. It features songs recorded on their 2005 and 2008 tours following the return of vocalist Rob Halford, and focuses on album cuts long beloved by fans rather than the big hits already featured on their previous live albums Unleashed In The East and Priest...Live! (yeah, yeah, they did two live albums with Ripper Owens, too...spare me, please).

Anyway, you can hear A Touch Of Evil - Live in its entirety by visiting MetalSucks.net, so go do that, because it's a really powerful reminder that Judas Priest haven't lost a step live. They're on tour this summer, playing their 1979 album British Steel in its entirety, so you should maybe think about checking that out, too.

Judas Priest A Touch Of Evil - Live full album stream