August 14, 2010: The first date of this year’s Ozzfest tour kicked off in San Bernardino, California, on a hot and dusty day in this small town located just outside of Los Angeles. Kicking off the day was Immune, an unsigned pop-punk band local to L.A. who, along with California Wildebeast, were totally out of place with the rest of the lineup. (Luckily for Ozzfest, those two bands aren’t traveling with them.) Immune started on the second stage promptly at 12:15 P.M., which might as well be 6:00 A.M. in heavy metal time. However, by 12:45 the crowd was already starting to get packed, taking in a typically solid show by Midwestern black metal gods Skeletonwitch. Read more…
By Colette Claire Posted in Reviews, Show Reviews Black Label Society, Black Sabbath, BLS, Drowning pool, Exodus, Goatwhore, Gus G, Halford, Judas Priest, Metal, Mike Fleiss, Ozzfest, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Dukes, Rob Halford, Sharon Osbourne, Skeletonwitch, The Saviours, Yuto Miyazawa, Zakk Wylde
Greg Puciato, lead singer of Dillinger Escape Plan, has a lot to talk about. The band has a new album out, Option Paralysis, and it’s the first on the band’s own Party Smasher label. They are offering numerous ways to purchase both digital and physical copies of the album online. They are also embarking on a year-long tour, including a Coachella appearance playing alongside Jay-Z of all people. After an hour’s conversation on an unusually rainy day in Southern California, a couple weeks before the album’s release, I’m still not sure we covered everything. But with topics ranging from the current state of the record industry to the band’s strange influences to whether they will ever work with Mike Patton again we definitely covered a lot. Read more…
By Colette Claire Posted in Features Greg Puciato, Metal, Option Paralysis, The Dillinger Escape Plan
When it comes to seeing a live performance by Dethklok, the cartoon stars of the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, one might wonder how such a band does a live performance. For starters they are not even real, and the musicians actually playing the music look nothing like their cartoon counterparts. Those who are familiar with Gorillaz, currently the only other successful virtual band out there, may have some clue. Big projection screens will be involved that will most likely obscure the real life musicians on stage. Although some people are interested in seeing how the music is actually played and that’s why they attend a concert, so why obscure the musicians? On Dethklok’s first tour a couple years ago, a compromise for this quandary was reached; a projection screen was used but it was above the band so you could also see the musicians playing. Well sort of. They were practically shrouded in darkness. This time around though, at the Hollywood palladium on November 19th and 20th 2009, the compromise was perfected as the band was better lit and actually seemed like a part of the show. Read more…
By Colette Claire Posted in Reviews, Show Reviews adult swim, Brendon Small, Colette Claire, Dethklok, Gene Hoglan, Mastodon, Metal, Metalocalypse, Nathan Explosion
