Heavy Metal News of the Week 12th Nov 2011

A couple of exciting Download 2012 Annoucements this week...

Metallica will play their Black Album in it’s entireity as the first headliner announced this week, we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that it is not Lulu... speaking of which check out my review link at the end of this post

The second headliner announced yesterday after a flurry of internet speculation is the original line up of Black Sabbath. The world of metal has reacted well to the news lets see if they can live up to the hype

French band Gojira have signed to RoadRunner records this week, having seen these guys live would definitely recommend you check them out if you haven’t already and will release their fifth album through the label

German Power Metallers Blind Guardian are putting together a compilation album “Memories of A Time to Come” representing the first 25 years of their career

And on Heavy Metal Bullet this week if you haven’t already checked it out:

Heavy Metal New Blood Band Profile: Ampora – Find out more about the LA Based Metallers

Another Negative Heavy Metal Study – more psychological analysis from yet another doctor who just doesn’t get it

Heavy Metal Album Review: Metallica and Lou Reed – Lulu – Experimentation in music is always to be encouraged but...

Heavy Metal Album Review : Lulu - Metallica & Lou Reed

Metallica & Lou Reed - Lulu (Warner Bros, Vertigo)

Released 31/10/11
Rating: 1.5/5

Experimentation in music has to be encouraged, in fact despite arguments over who was the first, it is a fact that metal wouldn’t even exist if people hadn’t explored and pushed the boundaries, so despite the proliferation of negativity surrounding this release I was determined to approach this with an open mind. This might explain why it’s taken me a while to get round to reviewing it, to be honest I was scared by what I might hear...

Well I’ve bitten the bullet so to speak and well, erm, hmmmm, track one down and I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to be frowning and grimacing while listening to one of my favourite bands. Still maybe track two, oh that would be “The View” the very track that had fostered my hesitance to listen to the album, still surely onwards and upwards...

...so I’m going to skip the track my track review here because my reaction is pretty much the same for all of them. It’s hard to call this a collaboration as far from complimenting each other the spoken word vocal style of Lou Reed and the, how to put this nicely, “different” musical arrangement seem to jar against each other as if everything was recorded separately and then just shoved into the same track with no real thought behind it. The lyrical content reminds me of sitting in an “old man’s pub” and listening to the local drunk ramble.

I am really struggling to find something good to say about this album, and being perfectly honest the extra 0.5 on the rating is just because it would break my heart to have to give Metallica just a 1 out of 5! Here’s a sentence I never thought I would ever say... This Metallica album makes St Anger seem like a good Metallica album! Alright maybe that is going a tad too far but you get the picture

Still to finish on a positive note at least it’s the Black Album that Metallica have just announced they will play in it's entirety at Download next year and not this... well if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all!

Track Listing:

Disc One:
1. The Brandenburg Gate
2. The View
3. Pumping Blood
4. Mistress Dead
5. Iced Honey
6. Cheat on Me

Disc Two:
7. Frustration
8. Little Dog
9. Dragon
10. Junior Dad

Heavy Metal News From the Week Gone By

Below are a few snippets that caught my attention this week, some light hearted news, some good news and some terrible news...

Starting with the bad GWAR guitarist Cory Smoot aka Flattus Maximus found dead yesterday and will be sadly missed. Read the bands statement here

Lou Reed says Metallica fans have threatened to shoot him and also talks about possible further collaborations?! I shall be finally forcing myself to listen to and review "Lulu" over the weekend and still somewhat optimistically hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Megadeath release the new video for "Public Enemy No 1" check it out on their website here

Black Sabbath have sparked rumours on a reunion all over the net with the appearance of "11.11.11" on their website will have to wait until then to see what it means I guess

Bloodstock Open Air Festival announce Dimmu Borgir, Hatebreed, Corrosion of Conformity and Anaal Nathrakh for the 2012 line-up, full details on the BOA website

And finally you can check out the video for the Korpiklaani song that didn't make it through to the Eurovision contest, it might actually have been worth watching if they had...