The Metal Thread

[Moss]

[tinnitus photography]

New, free, Melvins.

 

http://scionav.com/collection/917/The-Melvins---The-Bulls--The-Bees

[tinnitus photography]

holy hell was Roadburn such an awesome festival. great, great time.

[tinnitus photography]

http://www.prefixmag.com/photos/roadburn-sleep-om-voivod-the-obsessed-killing-joke/#photo-1

 

 

awesome festival...had a freaking amazingly good time. definitely want to make it back again. such as well run and thought out event.

 

 

 

 

 

[Calexico]

All the metallers still here. That's good.

 

I really liked that Metal Evolution actually. Was only shown here recently along with Headbanger's Journey.

[tinnitus photography]

I caught the 2nd to last show of the "There Will Be Blood" tour sponsored by Decibel Magazine, and overall it was pretty fun. In Solitude was pretty average metal with an eye towards NWOBHM, i could leave more than i could take. The Devil's Blood has a good sound; think bands like Jex Thoth or Blood Ceremony...slightly doomy but more rock-ish, w/ a female singer. i got blasted by some flecks of 'blood' at one point from the bass player's hair.

 

Watain made the whole stage area stink w/ their collection of animal heads and bones...i didn't see any rotting flesh, but the stench was most noticeable and i gagged a few times...luckily they didn't toss out liters of foul, rancid blood when they took the stage. they are definitely cartoonish (think GWAR with no sense of humor), but play capable black metal. fun to photograph too, even under challenging conditions.

 

Behemoth were super tight and professional. No nonsense, plenty of power. good stage set up too; uncluttered and dramatic lighting. it wouldn't make me an instant fan, but i could see how they got so popular.

 

photos here:

http://www.prefixmag.com/photos/behemoth-watain-the-devils-blood-in-solitude-the-p/#photo-1

 

 

 

 

 

[PopTodd]

Been listening to a bit of Anthrax recently. They do kick my ass.

And brilliant work as usual, Tinnitus.

[Analogman]

Bill says he's out of the reunion.

 

I wonder if Mike Bordin will end up playing with them again.

[tinnitus photography]

bummer

[calvino]

That whole Black Sabbath reunion was/is a f'd up mess, which is a bit of shame. Ozzy has sounded (especially) horrible for the last decade or so, anyway.

Would have been cool to see Ward/Butler/Iommi, play.

[calvino]

http://www.blacksabbath.com/

 

It's like Where's Waldo (Bill Ward).

 

Never understood why bands have to do this. Stones do this with Wyman all the time - eliminate him from pictures.

At least Ward is still mentioned in the History section.

[Analogman]

Yea - Old Wyman was pretty much written out of their last history book. Of course, he has his own books. Van Halen has done this with Michael Anthony.

[calvino]

From Geezer's Facebook page:

 

https://www.facebook.com/gzrmusic

 

I feel sad to see the Sabbath reunion becoming a bit of a soap opera on the internet. It has been a very tough year for us as a band, having announced our reunion plans, only for Tony to be diagnosed with lymphoma, leaving us no choice but to postpone the proposed Sabbath tour, and then for Bill to go public on his site about an un-signable contract.

 

None of us knew how Tony was going to respond to his intensive chemo therapy, and radiotherapy. Ozzy and myself flew to England to be with Tony, and on his “good” days, we’d meet at his home studio and put ideas together for the upcoming album, all sitting down together, no drummer involved, just 3 of us quietly putting together ideas. We thought that when we had enough songs together for a full band rehearsal, we’d move back to L.A and put the whole thing together with Bill.

 

Unfortunately, to our surprise, Bill issued a statement on his site saying he’d been offered an un-signable contract. He hadn’t told any one of us he was having contractual problems, and frankly those things are worked out between our representatives, and never between the four of us let alone in public.

 

We had the idea of keeping just one show in this year, hoping that Tony would be well enough for that show, and that things with Bill would be sorted. As you may expect, a one off show at Donnington Festival (Download) costs an absolute fortune to stage, involving over 50 people, transport, air fares, hotels, meals, agents, promotors, accountants, lawyers etc, so none of us, expected to make much money from it- it was a one off Sabbath show for the fans, before we go into recording the new album.

 

Apparently, this wasn’t acceptable to Bill’s representatives, they wanted an amount that was so unrealistic that it seemed to have been a joke. So we resigned ourselves to doing Download without Bill, hoping he’d change his mind and at least make a guest appearance.

 

We started rehearsals a few weeks ago with Tommy Cluefetos, the drummer who will be on the Ozzy and Friends Tour. Brilliant drummer and good bloke. It was decided we’d better do a warm up show, to break the ice since we haven’t played together live. The O2 Academy was available in Birmingham, where we were rehearsing, so we decided on that, and to make a donation to Help For Heroes Charity, since we’d be ironing out any glitches we may have. Then Bill put out a further statement saying he’d been ready to play the Birmingham show , but he was expected to have to do it “for free”- well, I think that’s basically how you raise money from gigs for charity – you play them “for free”.

 

All I am saying is that there are two sides to everything. I do hope to play with Bill again some day. For whatever reason; it wasn’t meant to be this time. Bill’s made his decision, and I have to respect that. Hopefully this painful year will be worth the wait for the new Sabbath album and end in joy and happiness for all.

 

Stay frosty,

Geezer

[calvino]

Well, I guess it was Ward's doing. The set-list from last night's gig looks great - kinda surprised it's not up on Dime, yet.

 

Black Sabbath/Bill Ward Photo Statement

 

"At the request of Bill Ward, through his attorney, so as to not give the public the wrong impression about his involvement in the current Black Sabbath lineup, we have temporarily removed Bill Ward's images from the main pages of the blacksabbath.com official website. In accordance with Bill Ward's attorney's request, we are doing so for the duration of the forthcoming shows." BLACK SABBATH

 

5-19-12, O2 Arena, Birmingham, England

Into the Void, Under the Sun*, Snowblind, War Pigs, Wheels of Confusion*, Electric Funeral, Black Sabbath, The Wizard, Behind the Wall of Sleep > Bassically > N.I.B., Fairies Wear Boots, Tomorrow's Dream**, Sweet Leaf > Symptom of the Universe (instrumental jam) > Drums > Iron Man, Dirty Women, Children of the Grave

E: Paranoid

[tinnitus photography]

Well, I guess it was Ward's doing.

 

the whole situation is crap...why do they need 'representatives' to hash out stuff like this? it's like Spinal Tap falling apart.

[Analogman]

I also have to wonder how Ozzy manages to sing some of those songs. I've read various reports over the past few years that the vocals are not exactly live.

[Winston Legthigh]

If anyone has an opinion on Sleep's Dopesmoker (re?) release, I'd like to hear it.

[tinnitus photography]

If anyone has an opinion on Sleep's Dopesmoker (re?) release, I'd like to hear it.

 

I had the unique opportunity to listen to a test pressing that Al received when we were at Raodburn. It's a worthwhile upgrade sonically. And the cover art is fantastic.

[Analogman]

 

I can't say I care much for that drummer.

[calvino]

Finally listened to a few songs from the Dime boot, today - they sound pretty good, esp. (surprisingly) Ozzy. I think if the situation is figured out and Ward joins back up, I probably will see them a Lolla in Chicago this summer - I am still kicking myself that I never gotten around to see Heaven and Hell or Sabbath with Dio.

 

Still need to see Maiden one day, too.

[Analogman]

I think they are doing another tour based around one of their old albums again. At least, I seem to recall reading that somewhere.

[calvino]

Electric Funeral is such a great song.

 

I guess they are doing Seventh Son - that was the last tape I bought of there's, Alice Cooper is opening up the Chicago date, but they are playing a venue that I don't care for, so I will probably won't go, plus I am not fond of that album.

 

Did you catch Adrian Smith on the Metal Show - it was ok. Eddie Trunk kinda annoys me, though - I don't watch it very often (i don't have the channel), but he never seems to get any of the questions right during the Stump the Trunk or whatever they call it.

[Analogman]

I use to watch it online, but I have not seen the show in a long time.

 

Somewhere In Time was the last album that I bought/listened to.

[tinnitus photography]

Al and Matt watching Slayer sound check last Friday:

 

[tinnitus photography]