Finally, some justice in the world! As reported by Reuters, video game publisher Activision announced it was canceling its line of Guitar Hero games. They cited declining profitability as the culprit. This is good news for metal on one hand, because it means that no more metal songs will be reduced to an overworked version of Simon (google it, jerkoff). The bad news is that it also means that legions of kids are discarding a gateway into extreme music. Sure, Slayer was far and away the heaviest band on Guitar Hero, but tons of kids got into scarier stuff by listening to them and the early works of Metallica, who had their own game package in the series.
This was bound to happen, and it’s just as well. Nobody sticks with any one form of entertainment for too long these days, and the art of playing guitar was being terribly trivialized by Guitar Hero and its variants. Rocking out was never about a ranking on a scoreboard, and it certainly took more than hitting colored buttons to achieve anything.
The only lamentable part is that we’ll probably see all those imitation SG and Explorer guitar clones jamming up landfills by the hundreds in short order. I’m no eco-fascist, but it would be nice to see folks who fill their homes with plastic crap to be forced to live with it all forever. In the meantime, all those kids could have owned real guitars and actually learned to how to play, even if it was just as a hobby. I actually really like video games, but no passive activity should supplant a creative outlet. What does it say about our society that I’m not particularly old, yet I usually feel as curmudgeonly and irritated as someone over twice my age?
Well anyway, Guitar Hero is dead and we won’t have to hear about it anymore. Something even stupider will inevitably show up, but hopefully it won’t be in metal’s back yard. As soon as “Metalocalypse” fucks off, we’re in the clear!
Two classic DIO tracks — “Holy Diver” and “Stand Up And Shout” — will be made available on September 14 in the Rock Band Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Wii.
With more than 400 artists, including JIMI HENDRIX, THE WHO, AC/DC and GREEN DAY, who are exclusive to Rock Band, as well as more than 1,100 songs available through the Rock Band platform and 65 million songs sold through its download store alone, Rock Band is the undisputed sales and content leader in the interactive music space, providing the deepest and best selection of artists, songs and albums. Rock Band DLC additions for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system and Wii.
Back On Black — the company which specializes in vinyl reissues of classic metal albums and is dedicated to providing top-quality releases for record collectors and metal fans worldwide — released the classic debut album from DIO, Holy Diver, on 180-gram limited-edition gatefold red vinyl on July 30.
Originally issued on May 25, 1983, Holy Diver has been hailed by critics as DIO’s best work and a classic staple in the heavy metal genre. The LP was certified gold in the U.S. on September 12, 1984 and platinum on March 21, 1989.
Holy Diver re-entered The Billboard 200 chart in late May — shortly after the band’s frontman, Ronnie James Dio, died of stomach cancer — at No. 149 and bowed at No. 11 on Pop Catalog (4,000; up 322%). A best-of from DIO, The Very Beast of Dio, also debuted on Catalog at No. 32 (up 617%).
DIO’s The Very Beast of Dio was officially certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 11, 2009 for shipments in the United States in excess of 500,000 copies.
Issued in October 2000, The Very Beast of Dio is the second greatest-hits collection CD — and the first to be released in the U.S. — from the Ronnie James Dio-fronted band.
DIO’s last release was the Holy Diver Live CD, featuring a performance of the classic Holy Diver album in its entirety, from start to finish, recorded live for the very first time in 2005 in front of a sold-out London crowd. It also includes, among others, “Heaven & Hell”, “Sign of the Southern Cross” and “Mob Rules” from vocalist Ronnie James Dio’s BLACK SABBATH days, “Tarot Woman”, “Man on the Silver Mountain” and “Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll” from the RAINBOW era and “We Rock” from his solo career.
GODSMACK will team up with FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH for a North American tour in the fall
GODSMACK will team up with FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH for a North American tour in the fall. So far the following dates have been announced:
Oct. 03 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavillion
Oct. 05 – New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
Oct. 06 – Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Center
Oct. 08 – Boston, MA @ Tsongas Center
Oct. 09 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
Oct. 10 – Bangor, ME @ Waterfront Park
The Oracle, the fifth album from GODSMACK, sold 117,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart.
GODSMACK’s last album, IV, opened with 211,000 units back in May 2006 to land at No. 1. This figure was a bit less than the 267,000 units registered by GODSMACK’s third CD, Faceless, back in April 2003, and the 256,000 first-week tally achieved by 2000′s Awake.
Produced by frontman Sully Erna and Dave Fortman, who has worked with MUDVAYNE and EVANESCENCE, among others, The Oracle is another lyrical and musical touchstone for the four-member band. The new album revels in GODSMACK’s scorching underpinnings, served up via Erna’s monster vocals on “Cryin’ Like A Bitch” and other songs, including “Saints And Sinners”, “War And Peace” and “Love, Hate, Sex, Pain”.
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH performed the songs “Bad Company” (a cover of the track originally done by the group of the same name) and “Hard To See” on the August 17 episode of ABC-TV’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (which actually aired the morning of Wednesday, August 18).
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH’s version of “Bad Company” appears on their 2009 sophomore album, War Is The Answer.
The Pulse of Radio recently caught up with Moody, who talked about how FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH first started doing the song. “On the first album, we were out playing and they started extending our sets,” he said. “So we were like, ‘You know what? Let’s do a cover.’ But we did want something that we thought we could perfect as well as enhance. So we’re sifting through all these tunes and ‘Bad Company’ is one that came up, and we just started playing it, and it just felt so natural to us, and it gave us a chance to connect with some older music that we have an appreciation for.”
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH’s hit song, “Hard to See”, will be featured in the September release of “Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock”. Also on the game will be songs by BLACK SABBATH, QUEEN, KISS, SLIPKNOT and others.
BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME TALK ABOUT THEIR NEWEST ALBUM.
BareBonesMusic.com talked with Tommy and Paul of BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME at the Columbus, OH stop of the Cool Tour 2010. Agent eX asked the guys about the length of the six tracks on their newest album The Great Misdirect, the making of the music video “Obfuscation”, the skill level of Tommy and Paul at Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and the other songs that could have been included on their cover album The Anatomy Of. Lastly the duo talked about plans to record a new E.P. after their current touring cycle is complete.
METALLICA’s latest album, Death Magnetic, was officially certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on June 28, 2010 for shipments in the United States in excess of two million copies.
METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told The Pulse of Radio in an October 2008 interview that he didn’t understand the controversy that had broken out over the audio quality of Death Magnetic shortly after the LP’s release. Some fans and publications had accused the group and producer Rick Rubin of mixing the album at such a loud volume that the music is distorted and difficult to listen to. But Ulrich said that he’s more than happy with the way it turned out. “I listen to this record, and I listen to it every couple of days,” he said. “And when I hear it, it puts a smile on my face and it blows me away, and I don’t understand what people are talking about. Somebody told me the other day that there were 12,000 people that had signed a petition to remix the record. We’ve sold two and a half million copies [worldwide] of Death Magnetic. You do the math yourself.”
A number of fans said online that they prefer the versions of the CD’s tracks prepared for the Guitar Hero video game, which are mixed differently.
Ted Jensen, the engineer who mastered the album at Sterling Sound in New York, responded to fan complaints that the CD is too loud and the audio is pushed to distortion levels by writing, “I’m certainly sympathetic to your reaction, I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case the mixes were already brick-walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me, I’m not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else.”
Mastering is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device, the “master,” from which all copies will be produced.
Blame for the sound quality has been laid at the feet of the band itself, producer Rick Rubin and his recording engineer, Greg Fidelman.
METALLICA will end the “Death Magnetic” world tour later this fall with shows in Australia and New Zealand before taking a break.
DRAGONFORCE, known for their over-the-top, infinitely fun, wildly entertaining live show, which has slayed the main stages of Ozzfest, Rock Star Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and countless headlining shows the world over, have captured the whole shebang on Twilight Dementia, a double-CD which documents their Ultra Beatdown tour. The tour ran from 2008 through 2009 and includes tracks from all of the band’s albums, including the hit “Through the Fire and the Flames,” which was featured on Guitar Hero. The two-disc affair will be unleashed on September 14.
“For years, fans have been asking us to record a live album, but honestly, we never really had the time due to our worldwide touring commitments and studio album recording,” Li said. “However, due to the overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans on the ‘Ultra Beatdown World Tour,’ we decided to finally put some real thought into it.”
The track listing for the collection is as follows:
Disc 1:
“Heroes of Our Time”
“Operation Ground and Pound”
“Reasons to Live”
“Fury of the Storm”
“Fields of Despair”
“Starfire”
“Soldiers of the Wasteland”
Disc 2
“My Spirit Will Go On”
“Where Dragons Rule”
“The Last Journey Home”
“Valley of the Damned”
“Strike of the Ninja”
“Through the Fire and Flames”
Formed in 1999, DragonForce – a multi-national amalgam of players at the very top of their game – have spent the past decade proving that virtuoso musicianship and strong songwriting values can appeal to rock fans right across the board; it’s a journey that has seen the band playing sold-out headline shows around the world, including in markets as far afield as China, Hawaii, New Zealand, Russia & Columbia, forging a telling relationship with the ‘Guitar Hero’ franchise, and tucking four strong studio albums under their collective belt, with sales currently topping the two million mark worldwide.
And now, whilst seeking a replacement for recently departed frontman ZP Theart, the band have delivered a set of recordings that successfully highlight the non-stop energy and entertainment-or-bust ethos of the DragonForce musicians in full live flow.
Activision Unveils ‘Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’
Well… we love rock, and we love video games, so right on!
New Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is going to be out in fall; there are a few new elements such as, Quest Mode! In Quest Mode you get to help the Demi-God of Rock take down “The Beast” and save rock n’ roll. Of course, who better to be the voice of the Demi-God of Rock, than Gene Simmons!
Tracks on Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock will include:
· AFI – “Dancing Through Sunday”
· Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”
· Black Sabbath – “Children Of The Grave”
· Buzzcocks – “What Do I Get?”
· Children Of Bodom – “If You Want Peace… Prepare For War”
· The Cure – “Fascination Street”
· Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me (Live)”
· Dethklok – “Bloodlines”
· DragonForce – “Fury of the Storm”
· Drowning Pool – “Bodies”
· Foo Fighters – “No Way Back”
· Foreigner – “Feels Like The First Time”
· Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”
· KISS – “Love Gun”
· Megadeth – “Sudden Death”
· Metallica & Ozzy Osbourne – “Paranoid (Live)”
· Muse – “Uprising”
· My Chemical Romance – “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”
· Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
· Rammstein – “Waidmanns Heil”
· The Rolling Stones – “Stray Cat Blues”
· Silversun Pickups – “There’s No Secrets This Year”
· Slayer – “Chemical Warfare”
· ZZ Top – “Sharp Dressed Man (Live)”
“It was just a self centered venture to make a band like I would want to be in and to write songs,” says bassist Jon Leon about his forming of WHITE WIZZARD in 2007. That certain kind of band turned out to be one heavily influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, yet the music of WHITE WIZZARD is not some modern twist on the storied NWOBHM style. While the musical blueprint followed is not exactly obscure, WHITE WIZZARD pays tribute to the beloved era with distinction and verve, rather than second rate mimicry. One needs only spin new full-length Over the Top to hear loud and clear a collection of traditional heavy metal songs written for maximum memory retention and delivered with power; in other words, with cheese-free catchiness and balls.
Leon’s vision led to the inclusion of a song on Earache’s Heavy Metal Killers compilation and the release of WHITE WIZZARD’s High Speed G.T.O. EP. “It was meant to be a high-end demo and a starting point,” explains Leon about the EP. “Earache came in after the first lineup dissolved and when I was forming the second lineup. They liked the songs and the vision and they wanted to put a song on Heavy Metal Killers too.”
And therein lay the rub, that is, the “second lineup” rub. Momentum had been gained and the band’s profile rose with the quick ascension from independent act to one with an EP released on heavyweight Earache and a song on a well known trad-metal compilation, yet by that time the original lineup had already imploded. A lesser person would have packed it in and shipped off to the land of 9-to-5 routine. Not Leon. He stuck to his artistic vision, revamped the lineup, and ended up recording an even better album in Over the Top, one that retains the infectiousness of its predecessor, yet showcases a more dynamic, mature, and muscular approach to composition. As Leon readily admits, sticking to your guns has its benefits, even if it requires drastic structural alterations.
“Old members wanted to do different stuff and were not behind my vision, which was pretty headstrong. We also had some personality conflicts. They went another direction and I kept going with a new lineup on the Over the Top record. The lyrics for the song “Over the Top” are actually about climbing the mountain and shooting for the highest goal; stick with it and take it over the top. The meaning is self-inspiring. So I just kept writing and progressing and that is where it is at now.” (more…)
