Metallicaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

Three more music pieces, the first here is the VIDEO for The Day That Never Comes which I posted a while back...looking good!!



Next is studio quality My Apocalypse. It's a more thrash metal sound and could argue that it is a return to form for the lads.


Lastly is studio quality Cyanide


NINE DAYS TO GO!!!!

~The Damo

THeY're c0ming, wE toLd yOu aLL alONG.....

Grinds My Gears!! - Issue 9

In all these Grinds My Gears posts, I stick very closely to not mentioning people in particular, notable exceptions include Paris Hilton and the brief reference to the 'RTE Panel' and that darn columnist from the Leinster Express. But up till now, I've never mentioned anyone that I know, but now my friends....that time has come....Behold!

These are various images of the said person I'm about to give a right trashing. As you can see, his physique and looks change drastically.

I'm going to do my best to keep this guy anonymous, but he's up to so much now, that I just can't keep it in anymore. If you see him, give him a good hard potential energy converting to kinetic energy kick in the balls from me.

Where to start? Let's take you back to 6th year Chemistry, the cheek of him to get 108% in an exam. How dare he??? Like if he's going to do the impossible he should at least tell us beforehand. Sure he might own a multi-million euro business empire, but thats no reason to hate him is it? So what if he started a war in Yemen, and wreaked havoc across the French countryside, poisoning the maize and wine crop.

Well I'm going to tell you what pisses me off most!! First of all, that dress sense, shirt and jeans....where the hell did he get that from? Not to mention the fact that black and black doesn't go together, neither does a slightly patterend blue and white shirt go with bluey jeans, nor does khaki trousers go with a beize and white shirt... Never! At least my dress sense is better than his!

Now let's get on to his blog, cause I have a lot to say. First of all, he regularly posts the AVGN videos, which unfortunately I have to admit I'm grateful for, since the Nerd stopped posting on youtube and this guy seems to have the right links to all the videos. Put what DOES piss me off, is that he has the nerve to write up blogs about stuff that pisses him off, I mean who does he think he is? Secondly, most of his blogs are WAY too long, and he usually goes into too much detail. That's another yoke I can't stand about him, he always looks into everything, and works stuff out in his head to the Xtreme, postulating all known probabilites and possibilities. And another thing, why does he always sign off as 'The Damo', who has the right to put the prefix 'THE' before their name, only The Queen, and The President or The Silent Assassin is allowed to have something like that. He also has those stupid little one line pieces before the end, like their lyrics from songs or words from a TV programme or something!

What's more, he always signs off comments in blogs or the final message on the phone with XXX. Who's he trying to fool?? We all know this guy has no sense of affection or anything like that, not to mention he seems to be void of all emotion except for rage...as in his blogs. And what's with all the Red Dwarf stuff anyway? It's not even funny, it only had 8 seasons, 64 episodes, a huge fan base and an International Emmy award for Season 6. All the cast are washed up has-beens, two have their own shows on Discovery Channel, another's in Coronation Street and another is in movies.

And why does he listen to metal music? Metallica and Megadeth, not to mention Iron Maiden and Pantera aren't even that good!! It's just the same crap all over again, them and their anti-religious vibes, satanic worshipping metal heads.

Now let's get on to people!!! Cause this has got to piss me off the most! All he does is chat to them, listen to what's on their mind and help them out if their troubled by something!!! He always bleedin tries to lighten the mood or end awkward silences and he'll always help out someone in need! Who's he trying to fool? Who wants someone to text them wishing them a happy birthday or invite them out for some drinks? Honestly, this guy has to get his act together. Why does he even bother to compliment people? He's too selfless and considerate...you know what, I can't write anymore or my head will explode.

What the hell is THE EDGE that he's talking about over on the right anyway????

~Anonymous

The Renaissance of Heavy Metal

This year sees the release of two albums from the two Gods of heavy metal; Metallica and Megadeth. Now this has happened before, but this year has added significance as both bands head out to redefine heavy metal music.



Let's take you back to when both these bands were at their beginnings (and their best!). The 1980's and (very) early 90's. In this time Metallica released Kill 'em All (1983), Ride the Lightning (1984), Master of Puppets (1986), ...And Justice for All (1988) and Metallica (1991). During this time there was no comparison to their dominance and style. Every song on these albums was a masterpiece, any of them could be played at any live performance today and the fans would go home happy. Last year they played the entire Master of Puppets album at every stop on the tour in recognition of the albums' 20th anniversary.

Now after that things went slightly downhill. The next album we had was Load (1996) five years after the Black Album. Fans expected it to be the equivilent of "Black Album 2". Not the case. While the album had its hits such as "Until It Sleeps" and "King Nothing", the general feel from the album was a disappointment. The same can be said for Reload (1997) which contained the remaining songs from the same recording sessions as Load. Though slightly better, including songs like "Fuel", "Memory Remains" and "Unforgiven II", the songs still failed to reach the summit that had been conquered and flagged by the albums from the 80's.

1998 saw the release of Garage Inc. a cover/compilations album. This album was of shear quality. By far the best thing released since The Black Album, but also because it included songs from the semi-unreleased album Garage Days Re-visited which was recorded in 1987. So obviously the calibre of songs from this time was good. In 1999, we were treated to S&M, which was a live performance recorded with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Kamen. The songs played were from a mix of their albums, but the singing and playing was by far at the best it had been for a long time. We also heard for the first time 2 other songs, written especially for the occasion, namely; "No Leaf Clover" and "-Human". Would these two songs appear on the next studio album? Following that Metallica performed the song "I Disappear" for the film MI2. Would this song also appear on the next album?



The answer was no. Instead, in 2003, we were plagued by the god-awful St. Anger. There are too many problems to name here. Some of the issues were: no guitar solos, grunge sound to the music, repetitive lyrics, too many filler tracks. The only tracks worth mentioning are the ones that had a video; "Frantic", "St. Anger" and "The Unnamed Feeling". Strangely enough this album appealed to more non-heavy metal fans than anything else. Something had to be done!



The band toured in 2003, 2004 and 2006. They took a break out in 2005. In 2006 we learned that a new album was in the works, and we were assured by the band themselves that the music would go back to their roots. They fired their producer Bob Rock and instead brought in Rick Rubin, who has worked with the RHCP, System of a Down and Rage Against the Machines. During the 2006 tour, certain stops (not including Dublin unfortunately) were treated to "The New Song" (see above) which will appear on the new album. After hearing it only once, we knew it was an incredible step up from St. Anger. We had the return of Kirk's solos, a return to 8 and a half minute tracks and decent drumming on Lars' part. The Asian leg of the tour were treated to "The Other New Song", a shorter song which was reminiscent of Garage Inc.. Later on, Metallica's guitar interpretation of "The Ecstasy of Gold" (see below) was leaked to youtube, a further indication of good things to come.




It is quite evident that Metallica have managed to bring about a renaissance in their style of playing, a feat which was achieved by Megadeth in 2004.

In the early 80's, Megadeth were formed after Dave Mustaine, the then lead guitarist in Metallica was fired. It is no wonder then that Megadeth are up there with Metallica at the forefront of heavy metal. In 1985, they released their first album Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good!, followed by Peace Sells..But Who's Buying? (1986), So Far, So Good....So What! (1988), Rust in Peace (1990), Countdown to Extinction (1992) and Youthanasia (1994). I'll stop there. Arguably the last three albums mentioned are the best. With Countdown to Extinction being the Megadeth equivilent of Metallica's Master of Puppets and Youthanasia the equivilent of the Black Album.

After than, Megadeth went through a bad phase like Metallica. Their albums really failing to produce anything special, with Risk (1999) and The World Needs a Hero (2001) being the bottom rung of the way things were going. Unfortunately things got worse, when Mustaine was told he could never play guitar again after injuring his arm by sleeping with it over a chair. As a result, Megadeth released Back to the Start, a greatest hits album.

However, shock horror, we learned around 2003 that Megadeth were beginning work on a new album, released as The System Has Failed in 2004, which in my opinion rivals Countdown and Youth for shear masterpieces. Everything is right, sound, voice clarity, everything. Then in late 2006, we learned that Megadeth were once again hitting the studio for the album United Abominations out today. Unfortunately I haven't bought it yet, but Mr Conway tells me that it's absolutely brilliant, better than System. I've only heard one song off it which is a new version of 'A Tout le Monde', which originally appeared on Youthanasia. This one is also better thanks to the wonderful singing of the ever so foxy Cristina Scabbia of Laguna Coil.



Bring on Metallica's 9th studio album this summer!!! Complete the Renaissance!

~The Damo