Needs more Bruce

M: RYAN ADAMS Performs Acoustic Version Of IRON MAIDEN's 'Wasted Years' (Audio)

i like this....although i dunno, i like the guitar part for the riff thingy - but the problem is wasted years has a bit of a cheesy chorus and in acoustic style it just sounds a bit gay.......i like it, but i kinda wish he'd picked a different song :O

J: i always think of 'wasted time' by skid row, i get the names confused.

it's alright, his vocals never seem to change, just kinda doesnt get anywhere :O

 

M: yeah that, seems a bit flat :O

 

J: needs some ooomph :)

 

M: needs to be sung by bruce :D

 

J: nuff said :D

 

Spades of Aces

M: >I have this vinyl

Yeah, great XD

J: i bet they have it reissued XD

M: blatantly at least 3000 times XD

J: i meant the person who posted it :)

M: oh i see :)))) haha, yeah probbaly :) i think mine is an old one, but i don't think the tape works anymore, same with my iron maiden ones i'm pretty sure D:

J: what maiden do you have on tape :?

M: killers and powerslave :)))

J: i didnt know you liked killers :O

M: hehe i don't really, they were from a job lot of cassettes i got on ebay :) i did tell you that once, but a long time ago :O

J: oh, i knew you got a job lot, but never knew you got those with it :O

M: yeah :)))) too old for me to own by myself :3

J: you should have got a retail version of killers on cd, might have saved paul dianno from claiming benefit :)

M: LOL yeah, too many people buying second hand stuff XD

We shall fight on the beaches

I was watching Mock the Week the other night and Russell Howard happened to mention that most people today couldn't quote you anything from Winston Churchill...

He obviously doesn't know Iron Maiden fans! Even casual enjoyers of the band (I'm by no means die-hard) know Churchill's speech and can probably quote a bit of it...

Sir, I give you Aces High.

Throw away your television...

BBC 4 are (for no apparent reason) having a heavy metal themed weekend. Now, heavy metal themed anything makes me cringe at the best of time (in fact, themed things in general discomfort me) but ...well, I really can't be fucked with it all. I don't even like "heavy metal", I like metal, so I suppose from the off that this isn't for me. I'm not some balding 50 year old who wishes they could still get their fat crack around their Harley, I'm not some purple-haired aging hippy who used to smoke pot in school whilst listening to Black Sabbath...

I understand that early heavy metal forms the foundations for the music I listen to today - but it doesn't mean I care. The Romans formed the foundations of civilization as we know it, but does anyone else here study Latin? No.*

The upside of the tv schedule is that Iron Maiden's Flight 666 will go on air on Thursday at 11pm (GMT) on BBC 4, so I can relive last year's super fun cinema trip. Now there's some aging rockers I'll never stop loving.

The rest of the shows probably aren't up to much - Heavy Metal Britannia is on at 9pm on Friday, which I haven't seen, but I imagine it will be full of old men with regional accents. Heavy Metal Britannia at the BBC will probably be somewhat more fun - like a TOTP2 for old men that like rock music. Iron Maiden Live in Concert will obviously be the top show on Friday - songs from sets from all over the world on the Somewhere Back in Time tour.

After that, Rock Family Trees takes a look at the long and already really, really well known history of Black Sabbath. Possibly the most pointless documentary ever. And on Sunday around 11ish they'll show the Deep Purple one. Great.

I probably won't watch any of that, I have better things to do (like a pretty boy with angel hair and a Sepultura tramp stamp) but just thought I'd mentioned it. It's not everyday that metal gets acknowledged on UK television - even if it is just a load of old men harping on about their youth.

Call me irreverant, but I'm fed up of pretending I give a shit about any of that. Life's too short. I'm not saying its not good music - my mum LOVES Led Zeppellin - but that's exactly what I mean. That's my mum's music!! The world will never develop, never change, if all we're concerned about is what came before us. I understand better than most that the past can teach us many valuable lessons - but the future is where we're heading. Do something original, kids.

*If you do then OMG email me right away. Go Romans!!

Lameness

M: http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/news/metal-big-brother-day-1/

1. LOL @ vikernes vikernes. dummies!

2. this is one of the most pointless pieces of tripe MH have come up with so far

J: what the fuck!!!! >_O

M: i know, srsly, is there no end to the crap they come out with?

J: someone commented that it was full of win.
it just kinda distances me from people that claim to like metal but think all this stuff is cool. it's not, it's lame. these are the sort of "individuals" that claim to hate Big Brother as a rule, but a metal version? hey, that's okay, we don't mind.
yeah, fuck off!

M: it is full of LAME. people are full of talk, what they mean is that they'd love big brother if it was people they're interested in.

i'm torn between thinking that people who think everything should be in some way metal related are retards or just big metal fans and that's okay?

i.e. at first i was thinking that "ohh people who try and make everything metal or want everything to be metal are lame" YET - thats pretty much me and you. we play metal who is, we went to see razzle's grave, we want to go to festivals and have metal holidays, we dress...not normally, however you want to describe it (i look like a magician today!), we read books about metal, talk about metal, go to metal pubs - its our hobby and we're really into it. people who like golf wear golf clothes, go to golf bars and would like big brother if it was made up of golfers... :???

J: yeah, but we don't think, "oh, it's be cool to have a metal BB" or"Metal sports", or a "Metal Soap Opera" or anything like that.

M: yeah that is true. so is that where the line is drawn?

J: between us and them? we might like metal to a fanatic level, but we keep some order to it. these people take it overboard and do horseshit like a metal bb, guitar hero and take metal into the commercial stakes where it shouldn't be.

M: ahh. so is part of the reason why we like it because we enjoy it's non commercial status. and altho we complain there's no good metal anywhere - is it really just that as soon as something gets big we hate it...catch 22 etc. sunnnnnn being a perfect example.

J: i've always hated metal being in the mainstream. this is the issue i have with classic rock for going away from a specialist magazine to a regular mag to cater for the fact that people are now into rock music.
> it really just that as soon as something gets big we hate it...catch 22 etc. sunnnnnn being a perfect example.
this. i was gonna say what you said last night but forgot when we were talking about Southern Lord. sunn is a great example of a band i liked that i hate because they're got big in such a way. but maiden is big, and we love them, but it's the way it happens. bands now that get big start to sell themselves out.
you think of bands that have never gone mainstream still are cool, like seth and anal cunt.

M: thats a good point - the way they get big. riding on hipster coat tales and becoming people they're not....or building bigger and bigger effigies of eddie.... i like metal because its what i like - and it doesn't bother me that much if a band get really famous or not - but you're right, it would bother me if they changed so they could be famous or if they started to do things differently as a result of the fame. for one thing, they wouldn't be the band i liked anymore and also because it would show up their lack of integrity...

J: > or building bigger and bigger effigies of eddie....
eh :?
the thing with sunn is that they're still doing the same shit, metallica changed, maiden never (well, they got a new singer), motley never changed (see maiden), etc etc. so you kinda see the bands we still like opposed to the next band.

M: sunn getting famous is them doing gay interviews and posing for photoshoots and charging a million pounds to get into the same shows they were doing before they got big.

iron maiden getting famous is them building super awesome giant eddies and putting on a show that's actually worth £50 to get into. they didn't change, they remained the same band, just super rich and they used it to do awesome cool things and it just made their fans love them more.

metallica changed - i still don't believe they changed due to the fame, but without a doubt and whatever caused it they turned sucky.

It descends from there on into us being rude about Metallica: one of our favourite ways to pass the time.

But points well made (esp the ones by me obvz): what do you think divides us awesomely cool people from posers? Is there really anything between us? Metal has traditionally been populated by outcasts and rebels...but by seeking to define what is cool and what isn't, it seems we still yearn for some kind of validation. After rejecting one culture because we didn't fit in, we're creating the same sort of elitism in a place that was originally set away from that social hierarchy.

When I'm in a good mood - nice and peaceful - I like to think that Metal is music that doesn't care who you are or what you look like...but more often than not, that's just not the case and it never has been. From the very beginning "being cool" was a big deal.

mihi non placet.....

Although I don't think I've mentioned it on here before, I make no secret of the fact that I'm a total nerd for the Romans. It's pretty much my favourite subject and I've always wondered why Rome doesn't turn up in metal subject matter more often. Greek mythology is everywhere: Symphony X's The Odyssey, Iron Maiden's Flight of Icarus and Manowar's Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy to name but a few.

Which is why, when I first read about Ex Deo, it was with a certain amount of curiosity and anticipation - here was the possibility that someone might blend my favourite music, metal, with my favourite subject area, Rome.

The disappointment is thus crushing. They suck. They really suck, their music SUCKS. It doesn't sound any different to any other generic death metal-lite band that I don't want to hear. The guitars are muddy, the synth only goes further to destroying the guitar sound and the vocals are really, really fucking horrible. The solos are weirdly paced (too slow) and mis-placed (they just don't seem to fit in the right places) and the drums have some very strange tones. It's embarassing.

Not wanting to put a downer on the whole thing: lyrically, I think they're getting there. Apart from over-hyping the Battle of Actium (although I suppose that's what Augustus always wanted), they get some nice lines in. Massive points for fitting "circumvallation" into a song and including lyrics in Latin (now that's what I'm talking about!).

However, why stick to the obvious stuff? I know Julius Caesar is famous, but wouldn't Hannibal and Scipio make for more brutal subject matter? Or the Aeneid for some extreme epic? Or the achievements of Pompey, Vespasian or Trajan? Of Marius or Sulla? There's more to Rome than Antony and Cleopatra, believe it or not.

J will probably say I'm being too high brow about it. But it seems to me that if you're going so far as to make a Rome-themed metal band, you should do it properly and do it justice.

You might notice that the Metal Archives review is a great deal more generous towards this band than I. If you look at the reviewer profile however, he's blatantly a twat. His notion that "In the middle ages and during the reign of the Roman Empire, if you lived in Northern Europe and wore long hair, you were a free man, if you had short hair, you were a slave." isn't really true at all. This was the case for early Greek civilisations, but by the 6th or 5th century BC shorter styles were more common.

Even in Classical Greece, "long" wasn't even that long: just look at all the statues of Apollo, Herakles and Zeus. To be honest, whether you had a beard or not was considered much more important.

In the Roman Empire, short hair was particularly favoured - especially in the style popularised by Augustus. Through the middle ages, it really depended on exactly which part of Northern Europe you lived in and on what religion you adhered to.

So bollocks to him and his shitty review :D

No prayer for the dying

M: http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/news/machine-head-to-remix-rammstein/

J: " Will; 24/09/2009 4am; so sick of MH stop bitching about other bands and touring on a bad
record and remixing Rammstein and break up already"
:D

M: haha, was that secretly you? :)

J: no :P
i was in bed at 4am!

M: i dunno, it's just like you to be up late reading metal hammer ;D

J: I'd rather not, i was on /mu/ insulting people, dissing the new alice in chains, supporting No Prayer for the Dying, and laughing at slayer fans that like anything after HTC :D

M: keep haunting that chapel!
tbh no prayer for the dying did fairly well when it came out, it's no.1 in all the magazines i have at home from 91*

J: and bring your daughter went to no. 1, too, but that's my point about stuff; maiden had released 7th son prior to that, and people love that album, so they all went and bought NPFTD, but no one really likes it, apart from a few :/

M: booooooooooo its a great album! npftd has just as many good songs on it as 7th son, if not more! holy smoke, tailgunner, that nice slow one i like**, public enema no. 1 - that's my 2nd favourite iron maiden song!!

J: the whole album is good, it's possibly the only maiden studio album where i like every song

M: me too! i have no idea why people have issues with it

J: because there is a change in style as such

M: not that much, it still sounds iron maideny

J: they started singing more about social issues than icarus :)

M: yeah but "california dreaming as the world goes screaming"*** or whatever that line is is the best line ever!

J: you're a poser if you like anything after Killers ;)

*On looking it up, it turns out NPFTD was released in 1990, not 91.

**Ironically, the song is actually called "No Prayer for the Dying".

***It's "California dreaming as the Earth dies screaming". I was pretty much there.

Greatest Metal Albums in the World Evaaaaaaa

J: i was thinking earlier about how much i hate bands most popular stuff, like because it's over rated and they have better stuff. But what of them albums are actually good?
You follow?
Like I hate Among the Living, but everyone loves it. I don't like Master of Puppets, but it's considered one of their best. Everyone loves the 2nd Earth album, and so do I. So it's an album that to some is the be all, end all, but it's one that is righfully good.
I can't think of many, but you feel me?

M: you mean "overrated" albums that aren't actually overrated, they're just that good? umm...dunno, thing with me and you is that we like a lot of stuff that isn't very widely liked. all my most favourite stuff is realtively unknown, same with you (or in the gg allin side of things is widely DISliked hahahaha)

umm...

can't think of any? :/

J: i mean like albums people go on about being their best album, but it's actually a decent album.
GNR's Appetite for Destruction is a cool album, and it's like their only album to some folk

M: yeah i know, but i'm trying to think of any that i actually like. i quite like master of puppets i guess. rust in peace?

J: i like rip, but it's a bit of a touch and go album, since alot of fans thought they ended on So Far, So Good, Peace Sells is cool, and most megadeth fans bang on about it

M: yeah, the megadeth records are kinda true to hype, pretty much at least.
umm...i know it annoys you and it does have two of the most overplayed songs EVER on it, but number of the beast is a really really good album. twenty twoooooooo, the avenuuuuuuuuuuuuue!

J: i thought about number of the beast, it's a great album, even if it is over hyped. but peace sells has peace sells on it, and i don't like that song much. but number of the beast is a good album :)

M: ooh i like peace sells :( fun to sing, innit. umm, yeah number of the beast is the only one i can think of that is actually a fucking good album.

J: it's a tough ask that question :)
there's plenty of albums i like that people hate, but not many i can think of that i like and others like :D

M: yeah totally :O i've even tried googling some greatest metal albums lists and can't really find any i agree on :/

J: back in black ;)

M: i knew one of us was gonna have to say that at some point
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

J: :) :) :)
holy diver?

M: *singing the only line of that song that i know in my head*
nooooooooooooooooooooooo
but i think that track has a pretty good video? in a meatloaf video kinda good?

J: i dunno if i've seen it :)

M: heyyy i'm sure you have! he's in a castle or something??



yeah thats the one :D :D

J: yeah, have seen it :D :D

M: i love that video :D i'm pretty sure i watched it with you once :)

J: yEAH, WE DID, WHEN YOU LIVED IN READING

ooops, not shouting :) :)

M: YES, I THOUGHT I REMEMBERED IT :D hahaha :)

J: hey ;O

Some days later...

J: i still can't think of any "over-rated" albums i like :)

M: apart from number of the beast :)

what about any motley crue ones or something?

J: shout at the devil's the only one i can think of anyone likes best. i like it, but then it's a good album :)
pantera is obviously cowboys from hell :)

M: whats on cowboys from hell? (apart from the obvious duh) i don't have it :(

J: primal concrete sledge, cemetery gates :)
i get confused with that and vulgar, which has walk and fucking hostile.

M: oooh yeah, me too. even tho i own vulgar on both cassette and cd :O

J: metal magic :)

M: :D

Scream bloody gore

After some extreme toothache, I made an emergency appointment with the dentist this morning. I ended up having my wisdom tooth whipped out, but now the anasthetic's worn off and there's a good measure of pain yet to come. Plus, I'm now at work.

"What has this got to do with metal?" I hear you ask. Well, between 5am when my sleep was disturbed by the chronic torment (good name for a band) and 8.30am when I could leave for the dentist's, I made myself a playlist of triumph to get me through the trauma.

In no particular order and forgetting several:

Hallowed be thy Name - Iron Maiden
Sign of the Hammer - Manowar
Upon the Grave of Guilt - Falconer
The Centre of the Universe - Kamelot
Beat the Bullet - Danger Danger
The Odyssey - Symphony X*
Doctor Doctor - UFO
The Days of the Phoenix - AFI
Battle Metal - Turisas
Jaktens tid - Finntroll
Crazy Crazy Nights - Kiss
Dragonforce - Field of Despair

J was sad I didn't include any Ensiferum, Korpikilaani or the likes, but it wasn't actually folk or pagan metal I was going for (hence the non-folk/pagan metal songs). It was definitely more a sense of valour, victory and vitality that I needed and which I feel is evoked pretty damn well by these songs.

The moral of this story? There is no story, I just wanted to share my ace playlist with you. That, and my terrible, crushing pain. And to be honest, having a mouthful of gaping wound and blood is fairly fucking hardcore in my book :D



*Obviously not the whole thing. This was this morning's genius idea - I stuck the original into Audacity and just cut it down to the 4 minutes of goodness at the end.

Dr. Rectum Grinder

M: :D some dude just came into work to see neil - his name is adrian smith :D

J: :D was he really after vince neil?

M: haha, not vince neil sadly :) i wish my name was adrian smith :D

J: it's a normal name though? like dave murray :)

i wish my name was Pope Heathen Scum :D

M: LOL :) demonaz doom occulta :D

J: Dr. Rectum Grinder!