It's been a while since metal dominated album sales. But Avenged Sevenfold's (A7X) sixth album, Hail to the King, has done just that. The band's latest release has topped the charts in not one, but six countries.
According to the band's official Facebook page, among those countries include the US, UK, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Ireland.
"We are honored that our fans have once again put Heavy Metal at its rightful spot of #1. Celebrate today because this victory belongs to you," the band said on its Facebook page.
Hail to the King marks a departure from the band's earlier metalcore sound and follows the hard rock / metal style of its previous album, Nightmare.
At times, Hail to the King, seems like a tribute to the band's roots - AC/DC, Metallica, Guns N Roses, Megadeth and Iron Maiden are among those that come to mind.
That being said, the band's signature sound - whether its M. Shadows gruff vocals or the twin-guitar assault - is prevalent throughout the album, making this very much an A7X record.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013
Lamb of God Banned In Malaysia
No surprises here, really. The fact that the band was slated to perform in Kuala Lumpur (KL) on Sept 28 was the real surprise.
For the uninitiated, rock and metal bands don't generally perform here due to the fact that there are government agencies and bodies headed by people who generally view free speech, freedom of expression, choice, rationality, creativity and public discourse as threats to society.
Another big taboo is intelligence.
Most times, religion and "values" are used as tools to quell such threats. Remember how the Taliban banned music in Afghanistan? These guys would do it if they could.
Truth be told, it has been somewhat of a surprise that several rock and metal acts have made it into the country over the last five years. Among those who weren't denied entry include Metallica, Linkin Park, Smashing Pumpkins, Avenged Sevenfold, Slash, Deftones, Korn and Incubus.
Someone must have been sleeping on the job. Well, they made up for it by banning Lamb of God.
Here's a statement from Lamb of God's guitarist, Mark Morton via the band's official Facebook page:
As widely reported, Lamb of God’s concert in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia scheduled for September 28th has been cancelled by the government who refused to issue a permit for the show even though the concert had been on sale and had sold over 1500 tickets.
It is very evident (and a bit frustrating) that the groups, parties and powers that have taken the most offense to our music and lyrics, have themselves only made a passing glance at the content and meanings of those songs. We would invite anyone offended by our music to engage in a discussion regarding the true motivations behind our work, especially before publicly slandering us based on assumptions and shallow misinterpretation.
We sincerely apologize to our amazing fans in Malaysia for the cancellation. Many thanks to all who have spoken out in support of us through this.
We will still be playing the shows scheduled in New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand. - Mark
But in all honesty, its not just the government bodies who are guilty of shunning away good music from our shores.
Opposition party, PAS - which is just as conservative as the government - has worked just as hard in achieving this and was among those supporting a ban on Lamb of God's scheduled concert here.
PAS - who are pro-free speech when it suits them - has had a long history of opposing rock music. It most recently threatened to stage protests outside of Metallica's concert in KL last month although I don't recall seeing them there. Then again, with an estimated 35,000 fans in attendance and a sea of black t-shirts as far as the eye could see, it would have been pretty easy to miss a handful of those yahoos.
Nonetheless, PAS' anti-rock music rhetoric seems to have caught someone's attention in the government and to prove its own conservative credentials, it agreed with the former's lame generalisations about Lamb of God's lyrics and implemented the ban.
Goons: 1 Malaysia: 0
One last thing. Did I mention that Lamb of God has previously performed in Dubai?
For the uninitiated, rock and metal bands don't generally perform here due to the fact that there are government agencies and bodies headed by people who generally view free speech, freedom of expression, choice, rationality, creativity and public discourse as threats to society.
Another big taboo is intelligence.
Most times, religion and "values" are used as tools to quell such threats. Remember how the Taliban banned music in Afghanistan? These guys would do it if they could.
Truth be told, it has been somewhat of a surprise that several rock and metal acts have made it into the country over the last five years. Among those who weren't denied entry include Metallica, Linkin Park, Smashing Pumpkins, Avenged Sevenfold, Slash, Deftones, Korn and Incubus.
Someone must have been sleeping on the job. Well, they made up for it by banning Lamb of God.
Here's a statement from Lamb of God's guitarist, Mark Morton via the band's official Facebook page:
As widely reported, Lamb of God’s concert in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia scheduled for September 28th has been cancelled by the government who refused to issue a permit for the show even though the concert had been on sale and had sold over 1500 tickets.
It is very evident (and a bit frustrating) that the groups, parties and powers that have taken the most offense to our music and lyrics, have themselves only made a passing glance at the content and meanings of those songs. We would invite anyone offended by our music to engage in a discussion regarding the true motivations behind our work, especially before publicly slandering us based on assumptions and shallow misinterpretation.
We sincerely apologize to our amazing fans in Malaysia for the cancellation. Many thanks to all who have spoken out in support of us through this.
We will still be playing the shows scheduled in New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand. - Mark
But in all honesty, its not just the government bodies who are guilty of shunning away good music from our shores.
Opposition party, PAS - which is just as conservative as the government - has worked just as hard in achieving this and was among those supporting a ban on Lamb of God's scheduled concert here.
PAS - who are pro-free speech when it suits them - has had a long history of opposing rock music. It most recently threatened to stage protests outside of Metallica's concert in KL last month although I don't recall seeing them there. Then again, with an estimated 35,000 fans in attendance and a sea of black t-shirts as far as the eye could see, it would have been pretty easy to miss a handful of those yahoos.
Nonetheless, PAS' anti-rock music rhetoric seems to have caught someone's attention in the government and to prove its own conservative credentials, it agreed with the former's lame generalisations about Lamb of God's lyrics and implemented the ban.
Goons: 1 Malaysia: 0
One last thing. Did I mention that Lamb of God has previously performed in Dubai?
Thursday, September 5, 2013
NIN's Hesitation Marks Is Out!
Nine Inch Nails' (NIN) long awaited comeback album, Hesitation Marks, is out and available on iTunes. I've got a copy and it really is a brilliant album. While there are theories that Hesitation Marks is a companion to NIN's The Downward Spiral, don't expect to hear anything similar on the new record.
Musically, there isn't anything that ties the two albums together, which shouldn't come as a surprise to NIN fans (no two albums sound the same). If there are any similarities, it is perhaps in the lyrics and the narration of the album although Reznor's outlook on Hesitation Marks is a lot less bleak than it was on The Downward Spiral. It is almost as though Hesitation Marks is the story that follows The Downward Spiral.
If you haven't heard it yet, you can still stream the entire album here
Musically, there isn't anything that ties the two albums together, which shouldn't come as a surprise to NIN fans (no two albums sound the same). If there are any similarities, it is perhaps in the lyrics and the narration of the album although Reznor's outlook on Hesitation Marks is a lot less bleak than it was on The Downward Spiral. It is almost as though Hesitation Marks is the story that follows The Downward Spiral.
If you haven't heard it yet, you can still stream the entire album here
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| Photo Credit: NIN Official Facebook Page |
Soundgarden Premier's Video for Halfway There
Soundgarden has released the video for Halfway There, the band's third single from the critically-acclaimed, King Animal.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Green Day's "Dos" Out Next Week
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| Photo Credit: greenday.com |
Featuring 13 tracks that Rolling Stone magazine says rock hard and fast, "Dos" is the follow-up to "Uno" which was released in September. The album can be streamed here for a limited time.
I haven't heard it yet to see if it differs drastically from "Uno" which was reminiscent of band's earlier work unlike the epic sound and political nature of American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown.
Following "Dos," Green Day will release the final album in the trilogy, "Tre" on Dec 11, 2012.
As previously reported, the release date for "Tre" was brought forward from January 2013 previously after the band cancelled their remaining shows for this year and postponed its planned shows for early 2012 as frontman Billie Joe Armstrong continues his rehabilitation for substance abuse.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Listen to Soundgarden's King Animal
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| Photo Credit: Soundgardenworld.com |
King Animal is the Seattle quartet's first studio album in 16 years following the band's breakup a year after the release of 1996' Down On The Upside.
Post-breakup, several band members, most notably frontman, Chris Cornell, and drummer, Matt Cameron, were involved in several projects. Cornell released a solo album and formed the supergroup, Audioslave, with Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine (RAGM).
Cameron, on the hand, joined fellow Seattle grunge rockers, Pearl Jam, on the latter's Yield tour and subsequently became a full-time member of the band (and still is).
Other members, lead guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist, Ben Shepard, were also involved in several projects although none of those projects achieved as much fame as Audioslave or Cameron's work in Pearl Jam.
Nonetheless, after years of dismissing away rumours of a reunion, the band got back together in 2010 and released a new compilation album, Telephantasm: A Retrospective later that year.
Earlier this year, Soundgarden released Live To Rise on the soundtrack for the Avengers. King Animal, which is set to be released on Nov 13 (same day as Koi No Yokan by the Deftones), will be the band's seventh studio album.
I haven't checked the details yet but Soundgarden will soon embark on a tour (they are currently playing a handful of shows in the US) in support of King Animal.
What won't happen, much to my dismay, will be a co-headlining tour with Pearl Jam, where Cameron would handle the drums for both bands.
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| King Animal Album Cover (Photo Credit: Soundgardenworld.com) |
Listen to Deftones' Koi No Yokan Online (Updated)
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| Photo Credit: Reprise Records |
"Diamond Eyes was capturing lightning in a bottle. We had just come together, had a lot of constraints in terms of time, so we're just banging things out. This time, we had a little more chance to experiment and just play," said Moreno.
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