Counting down the best Heavy Metal and Movie Soundtrack music of 2009

Now that 2009 is quickly becoming a fleeting memory, all the major media outlets are scrambling to remind the public of what it SHOULD be remembering as the best and worst of the year. Nine times out of ten, these lists are ham-fisted, shameless plugs for that which was the most popular, what is most likely to win awards, with smatterings of unknown indie releases simply to prove that the “experts” aren’t the nose-upturned snobs we know they are.

Whatever happened to culling lists because they were fun? Why not make a list of things that you genuinely like, without any kind of ulterior (or advertising-linked) motive? Ham-fisted concoctions like those you see in mainstream magazines only continue to act as ego-stroking that spoon-feeds us until we become so reliant on those “experts” to tell us what is “good” and what is not. And we ultimately forget that the “experts” are merely people with opinions…just like us.

This is why I agonize over making “best of” lists, because it only serves to express my own personal opinion. If you read any list you find online, you will undoubtedly see a string of comments of both praise and complaint – praising the writer for including some of the reader’s favorites (which was actually a coincidence), or chastising the writer for “forgetting” to include certain things or flat-out telling him/her that he/she is wrong in his/her choices and rankings.

So, with all of that weighty nonsense in mind, I have decided to offer up, to help close out the year properly, a list of 20 heavy metal and movie soundtrack/score albums (respectively) that I felt were great – be they fun, sophisticated, throat-crushing, or just straight-up earworm-y. If you don’t agree with the choices, I applaud you for not being a clone of me.

Read my Examiner feature on the best Movie Soundtracks of 2009 here!

And check out my Examiner feature on the best Heavy Metal releases of 2009 here!


Jolly day!

The new TESTAMENT! My chat with Pomo Indian and heavy metal legend, Chuck Billy!

Testament is a band that truly needs no introduction. Since the mid-1980s, the Bay Area quintet has been the unyielding flag-bearer for highly-skilled, innovative and monstrously heavy thrash metal. With a catalogue featuring ten studio albums (including the 2001 collection of re-recordings, First Strike, Still Deadly), five live albums, a string of DVDs and a host of “best of” collections, it is impossible to deny the legacy of the band.

In early 2010, Testament is hitting the road with metal titans Megadeth and Slayer for what has been dubbed The American Carnage Tour. Before heading out, we managed to score some time with Testament’s imposing front man, the charismatic Chuck Billy. Read on, as we discuss the excitement of the tour, the importance of loyalty, and the value of family. [Feature can be found here!]

Discussing the ongoing relevance of PANTERA with Revolver Magazine's Jon Wiederhorn

It has been five years since the tragic passing of Pantera guitarist and chief songwriter Darrell Abbott AKA Dimebag Darrell. Every year since his death, metal and guitar-centric magazines pay tribute to his life and accomplishments with old interview clips, new interviews with surviving members of Pantera, and even anecdotes from fans.

This year, however, Revolver Magazine has taken things a step further and devoted an entire section of its latest issue to discussing the magical, perfect storm that went into the creation of Pantera’s 1992 breakthrough album, Vulgar Display of Power. Spearheaded by senior writer Jon Wiederhorn (whose additional credits include talent coordinator and panelist for AOL Noisecreep's "Creep Show' Podcast, Noisecreep writer, freelancer for Inked and Guitar World, former editor in chief of MTV's Headbanger's Ball Blog, and ex- associate editor at Rolling Stone), the magazine painstakingly compiled new interviews with everyone imaginable who had anything to do with the inception of the album to paint a living memorial to one of heavy metal’s iconic guitar personalities.

Read on as we sit down with Wiederhorn and discuss what it was that made Dimebag and Pantera such revolutionary entities. [Feature can be found here!]

Getting Filthy: Movie soundtrack reviews with guest commentary by Cradle of Filth’s mischievous singer

As you may or may not know (it really depends if you read my album reviews at Examiner), but I’ve taken on the challenge of writing a horror (or related) feature every day for the month of October to bring a little autumnal cheer to the masses. What I didn’t count on was the overwhelming enthusiasm I received when I inquired if Dani Filth wanted to participate (and get a few nods for his new book, of course). Not only has this been a fun experience, but the man knows his movies and music, adding an extra dose of darkness to my features.

Here is the current rundown of where his assistance appears:

CANDYMAN

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

HORROR OF DRACULA (featuring excerpts from The Gospel of Filth book)

DRAG ME TO HELL


Stay tuned for more wickedness!

No Metal for the Mouse: Disney Bans Heavy Metal Concerts!

Here's an oldie but goodie. A few years ago, Disney banned the performing of heavy metal concerts at the House Of Blues concert venues that happened to be on Downtown Disney property. It caused an uproar in the metal commmunity, and I, being a member of said community, decided to do an article about it for the Penn State Berks Collegian student newspaper. So, without further ado, please enjoy this little blast from my past.



If you are planning a trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL for Spring Break and you happen to enjoy rock music of the hard persuasion, don’t book your flight just yet. Word is quickly spreading about a new Disney decree: all heavy metal music acts are banned from performing at the House of Blues nightclubs in Downtown Disney districts.

Disney officials have not openly stated why this new policy has taken immediate effect, but one can assume that it is tied to the recent muggings and vandalism at the Downtown Disney district at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL.

It is a common fact that there has been insufficient security staff during late nights in the area, as pointed out by Jeff Davis, a staffer for the popular Disney podcast, Character Breakfast. He also believes that Disney is making moves to draw in a different kind of crowd to the nightclub and that heavy metal really isn’t popular enough to keep the people coming in.

He may be right, but it is an odd rule for Disney to make after spending decades producing hundreds of films that preach ideals of tolerance and openness.

Concerts at House of Blues are always ticketed events, and most of these are ‘over-21’ shows, so people typically are not going to attend these concerts if they are offended by what they are hearing. Regardless, a press release was circulated citing “violent imagery, undesirable fans and inflammatory lyrics” as the reason behind the ban.

This type of generalization is unfortunately sad and somewhat hypocritical. As one Berks campus senior questioned the policy, “Who else are they banning? Are they allowing hardcore and gangster rap? If they are banning all acts with violent content, ok, it is a fair policy. If they are just banning heavy metal, they need to reexamine their policy because it is not fair.”

So far, no other genres of music have felt the bite of the mouse. Oddly, bands that have played the club multiple times in the pass are just as astonished to have the door now slammed in their faces.

Dani Filth, vocalist of the British shock rock act Cradle of Filth recently stated, “The cancellation of our show on grounds of inappropriate content is a joke. We’ve already played there three times in the past.”

After having two concert dates cancelled at the venue, Robb Flynn, singer of Oakland, Ca. metal band Machine Head interviewed with Worcester Telegram & Gazette and agreed with Filth’s sentiments.

“It's pretty disturbing,” Flynn began. “We are shocked that in this day and age, in 2007 America, that bands can be pressured, (and) that promoters can be pressured by a business and be removed from a venue because somebody doesn't like what your lyrics stand for or think that your fans are crazy. We've played these venues before, and there was no indication that anything was going to be different.”

While Disney remained silent on the issue, Live Nation, the company that owns House of Blues soon issued its own statement of defense.

John Vlautin, the vice president of Communications, offered the following:
“House of Blues offers a range of entertainment to match the audience at our venues. It was determined that the mix of entertainment at our two Disney locations should be different from our other venues.”

While this did not specifically address the issue of singling out heavy metal music, it seemed to appease the people. But the heavy metal music fans were still not satisfied.

A Berks senior vehemently professed, “As an avid fan of both Disney and heavy metal music, I am distraught over this predicament. While I am not going to say that there are no heavy metal bands that do reflect the [press release’s] statement, the genre is so vast that the statement can only hold water with a fraction of bands regarded as heavy metal. From my experience, hip hop, punk, and hardcore bands are more violent and unpredictable than heavy metal, yet there is no mention of cancellations for those genres.”

Another senior offered a different perspective on the situation.
“If the House of Blues is on Disney property, Disney has some input on who should and shouldn't play there.”

Filth retorts, “If Disney didn't want to see hordes of black-clad figures lurking around their jaded kingdom, then they should've thought twice about creating characters like Cruella DeVille and Maleficent in the first place.”

The irony doesn’t stop there, either. The House of Blues night club chain was formed to pay homage and honor The Blues Brothers. They were a raucous blues/rock act that became iconic on Saturday Night Live and later became the primary players in a blockbuster film. The Blues Brothers themselves most likely would not have been permitted to perform on Disney property either, due to their own lewd behavior.

While the music is banned from being performed on property, the Virgin Megastore almost across the street from House of Blues in Downtown Disney is still permitted to sell heavy metal CDs and DVDs.

And at Planet Hollywood in the Disney Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM), one could easily purchase t-shirts promoting horror films like Halloween and Evil Dead. These may not be music items, but they do possess similar “violent imagery and undesirable fans.”

While the Penn State curriculum is chock full of classes that teach and exemplify acceptance and tolerance, it seems that Disney is playing to a different tune. Students who may find themselves down at Walt Disney World this spring take note.

You guys deal with Michael Jackson, I'll concern myself with Midnight

With so many celebrity deaths bombarding the public conscience over the past couple weeks, one would think that the wave had finally ended. But just this morning, I awoke to find the following blog entry from legendary progressive/power metal band Crimson Glory in my email bin:

"On July 8, 2009, founding member and original frontman Midnight passed away at 3:30am surrounded by his family. The band is deeply saddened by the passing of their friend and brother. An official statement will be forthcoming later today or tomorrow."

Those three little sentences shook me to the core; not only because I am a fan of CG and Midnight’s later work, but because I had also been recently emailing back and forth with the man about conducting an interview to be featured here at Examiner. I’m having a REALLY difficult time writing this, because I now have to discuss one of metal’s unspoken great singers in the past tense.

I've done a rather extensive eulogy/tribute to Midnight, and felt it more appropriate to place it in a public forum, so even people who were not aware of him can now get at least a glimpse of his creativity here.

RIGOR MORTIS Is Setting In! Texas' Beloved Thrash Metal Band Is Back!!!

As excited as I was to do the Iron Maiden interview, I was even more stoked to sit down with three of the four founding members of Texas' Rigor Mortis. As an adolescent, I thought the band was among the better thrash bands of the era, largely because of guitarist Mike Scaccia's unique picking technique. Unfortunately, the masses didn't really pick up on it until he left the band to join Ministry.

But regardless of all that, I had a great time with Casey Orr, Bruce Corbitt, and Harden Harrison.

Here's a taste of all the formaldehyde-y goodness:

Is Scaccia still as fast as he used to be? How did his guitar style develop? Was it originally an accident, a joke, or was it something that he really worked at? I don’t think the term “speed metal” has any relevancy without Scaccia’s work on those Rigor Mortis albums.

CASEY: Mike’s a mother***er, ain’t he? Yeah, I’d say he’s every bit as fast as he ever was. He’s a freak of nature. He doesn’t play the guitar; it just bends to his will! I used to say that trying to keep up with him felt like running down a steep set of stairs too fast, knowing you’re going to trip and end up at the bottom in a broken heap!

BRUCE: I met him when he was 16 and he was already able to do that unique picking style at that time. He told me back then that after he first started playing guitar, that for some reason he was just always able to do that. So it was just something he tried, and it came natural for him. People have said his picking style is sort of like a bumble bee. He is just as fast as he used to be, maybe just a slight adjustment with how he does it as he gets older.

HARDEN: Yeah, he’s fast as ever. It’s an inborn nervous twitch type of thing, but he also worked very hard at mastering the guitar and practiced more than anyone I’ve ever known...or even heard of.

Read the whole massive monstrosity here!

Seeing Red: An interview with Russian folk metal band KALEVALA!

I recently did an interview with the Russian folk metal band KALEVALA for my gig at Examiner.com. I don't normally plug my other stuff here, but I think this band really needs to get noticed. Here is my lead-in to help get you in the mood:

It may seem an obvious notion, but MySpace truly does offer a world of music at one’s fingertips. Anyone can log on and search for new music by style, looking through Top Friends of other bands, or simply wait for those pesky Friend Requests to pile up in one’s in-box. Many bands abuse this capability and use MySpace simply as press release fodder (like having x-amount of MySpace friends means anything to the industry). However, there are those honest bands who use the tools simply to promote their music and put it out there for anyone to enjoy.

It was here that I stumbled upon a genre of music that I previously was unaware of, that of Russian folk metal. About a month ago, I received a Friend Request from the Moscow-based band Kalevala, most likely due my “Friendship” with bands like Korpiklaani and Moonsorrow. But rather than delete this message, I became curious, largely due to the name; why would a Russian band name itself after a collection of Finnish folklore? So I went to the page and checked them out. A week later, I had the CD, courtesy of Napalm Records European mail order (it is not available stateside, unfortunately).

I was enthralled with the music so much, I decided to research music in the area and was surprised to find an entire scene of great folk music in the Russian vicinity; bands like Tenochtitlan, Arkona, Pagan Reign and several others, some of whom have been releasing music for ten years. Until this point, my only exposure to Russian hard rock / metal was limited to Autograph and Gorky Park. Unfortunately, this phenomenon was not covered in Sam Dunn’s documentary Global Metal, and shame on him for overlooking it. Regardless, my eyes have been opened to a new wellspring of fantastic music, and all started because of a band called Kalevala.

You can read the interview here!

Thanks for checking it out!

"Shuffle Up and Deal!" My Continued Adventures with the iPod

Yeah, I had fun doing this last week. It was a nice exercise, so here's another round for the kids.

1. FICTION PLANE - "Running The Country" from Left Side of the Brain
~ Not exactly my favorite song on the album, it does have a great bass line. I'm not sure if I've seen these guys too many times or what, but this song doesn't really have the same effect on me as it used to. That said, it is a great, bouncy track to start one's day.

2. SERGEI RACHMANINOFF - "Symphonic Dances: 2. Adante con moto (Tempo di valse)" from Isle of the Dead / Symphonic Dances
~ I've always had a thing for classical music that sounded like film scores (or I suppose I should give credit where credit is due, since film score music is derived from its classical parentage). Anyway, I would never have heard of this particular track had I not been perusing the classical section when working at Barnes & Noble several years back. I innocently stumbled upon a disc called Isle of the Dead, and blindly purchased it based solely on the disc's title. It is rare that I make such purposes, because buying something before listening is always a crapshoot, but it is that much more enjoyable when it pays off.

3. LEAVES' EYES - "Twilight Sun" from Vinland Saga
~ Liv Kristine's voice is simply angelic. Of the female fronted metal pantheon, I'd put anything she's involved with in another league. The music isn't contrived (too often these kinds of bands base their lackluster music around the novelty of the female vocals), and, well, she's a friggin' Viking! You also can't go wrong when your backing band is Atrocity.

4. OBITUARY - "Slowly We Rot" from Slowly We Rot
~ Ah, the days of juvenile bliss. Not a groundbreaking release by any stretch of the imagination, this track of metallic sludgery was released way back in 1989. The thing I always find funny about this song is that although the music is primal death metal and the vocals are sick, if you listen closely, the lyrics actually discuss the ins and outs of volleyball -- proving once again why death metal lyrics really don't matter. Good times!

5. BOLT THROWER - "War Master" from War Master
~ Wow, what is this, a high school reunion? Two old school death metal tracks back-to-back. This is another one of those albums that helped me through my "I hate school and my parents" phase. The song has one of the sickest groove breaks about midway through it, and it always gets my blood rushing whenever it hits. Regretfully, Bolt Thrower is among those few iconic metal bands I've never been able to see live. However, they are supposed to headline this year's Maryland Death Fest, so maybe I will be able to check them off the list.

6. BRICKLIN - "Walk Away" from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure soundtrack
~ Yes, it really is high school all over again. First we have some death metal, and now we're revisiting Bill & Ted. This is the track that was playing during the duo's oral report at the end of the film. Normally, I don't like compilation soundtracks, but this one was so innocent and chock-full of unknown bands, my heart kinda went out to it. Interestingly, this soundtrack featured a demo track by the band Extreme before they had actually released their first album. Now I want to watch the DVD. Party on, dudes!

7. MICHAEL KAMEN - "Sanchez is in the Bahamas / Shark Fishing" from License To Kill soundtrack
~ Now I know I shouldn't say negative things about the dead, but Michael Kamen was always one of those overblown film composers that had a habit of trying to make movies bigger than they actually were. Also, he was given the unenviable task of following up John Barry's last (and arguably best) James Bond score. Add to that the fact that it was another Timothy Dalton Bond outing and you've got a recipe for disaster. Kamen actually sounded like he phoned this one in, more emulating Barry than doing his own thing. Oh yeah, R.I.P., Michael.

8. THE ELIMINATORS - "Punta Baja" from Cowabunga! The Surf Box
~ Is it summer yet? Big fan of surf rock, this stuff can brighten even the dreariest of days. And I think another charm of this music is that the songs are usually pretty short, so the band's have to get in, make a poignant statement, and get the hell out of Dodge. This track is off of a 4-disc box set commemorating the rich history of surf rock, and it sounds like something that could have very easily been on the From Dusk Til Dawn soundtrack...or any Tarantino flick for that matter.

9. SIR MIX-A-LOT - "Swap Meet Louie" from Mack Daddy
~ Yes, this is a track off the infamous album that gave us "Baby Got Back". Why is it even on my iPod? Because for some reason, I dig Mix's style -- his enunciation, humorous lyrics, and complete irreverence towards trends. "Swap Meet Louie" is one of those deep album tracks that makes me laugh.

10. CANDLEMASS - "Under the Oak" from Live
~ And our lesson for the week draws to a close with one of the most massive tracks from the greatest doom metal band ever. Messiah Marcolin's vocals just give me chills on this. It is one of those rare live albums that is comparable to a studio album, due to its recording quality, tightness of the band, and classic set list. There was a time when I thought this band could do no wrong...then the singer left...and came back...and left again. They're still a decent band, but they are a different beast than the mythic monster they once were.