Archive for September, 2006
Robert Downey Jr. To Play Iron Man. Not a bad choice, but I wonder if he’ll sport the Freddie Mercury-like moustache of Tony Stark.
Dio to reunite with Sabbath? Holy fuck! I hope this is true. The Dio era of Black Sabbath is on a par with the original line-up. Dio’s albums with Sabbath, ‘Heaven & Hell’ & ‘Mob Rules’ are easily two of the best slabs of Metal ever (ever!) released!
I think it is safe to say - I have a magazine fixation! When in any given month you are buying close to 10 regular mags, it’s time to see the shrink! Well, that’s what my girlfriend says but when you don’t drink, don’t smoke (never have, never will) you need an outlet to spend some of that extra cash. I like to spend it on magazines. I love ‘em! Nothing better than kicking back, with iPod and magazine in tow and just reading away or be inspired away by some of the visuals that permeate most of the publications I like to read.
So I thought I would break it down and itemize this month’s reads. Check it out.
- 1: Death Before Dishonour: This is an Australian publication which features some of the most gorgeous graphic design throughout. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think I even bother to read this one but I just love the photography throughout. Now in it’s third issue, the cover shot is just soooo nice and is designed exactly how I would have done it. Fab stuff!
- 2: Metal Hammer: Probably the definitive mag. I used to buy it back in the 80’s when it was basically a German poster magazine. These days it is the king of Metal music mags and is crammed full of content on the genre each and every month. The DVD’s it also includes with every other issue are also sensational. The UK’s best Metal mag. (I don’t read Kerrang! anymore these days).
- 3: T-World: A new Aussie publication which focuses entirely on… t-shirts! Now there’s one thing (apart from magazines) that I have tons of - and that’s t-shirts! Although a little pricey for a local rag, it’s nicely designed and finely crafted. Could be a fun mag!
- 4: Desktop: I went off Desktop for a while and skipped about 3-4 months worth of it because I really disliked the new design and layout throughout. But I’m back on board. Probably the best locally produced design culture magazine.
- 5: Terrorizer: First issue of Terrorizer I have bought in several years. Basically focuses on the more extreme Metal bands but I wanted a flick through to see what’s happening in the scene and if I could market my new company to it and/or any of the bands listed.
- 6: Empty: Another locally produced mag and I can’t believe that this is the first issue I have bought of this! I’ve been missing out! Once again, astounding graphic design throughout and a wonderful read as well. This latest issue features two absolute faves of mine… Floria Sigismondi and Chopper Read! How can you go wrong?
- 7: Wired: Have barely missed an issue since I bought my first copy when I first went online in 1994. Wired is constantly evolving and rolling with the times. Love it muchly.
- 8: Hellblazer: About the only comic book I am still reading these days. John Constantine Hellblazer. When I’ve got time to read them that is… I have a pile of about 10 issues I haven’t had a chance to read yet. The perils of this magazine fixation!
- 9: Decibel: US Metal mag I get delivered to me each month ‘cos of the work I did for the mag’s editor! Great read as always and an amazing spread on Slayer in this month’s issue.
- 10: Revolver: Another US mag and one I have been buying religiously for the past 4 years. Very enjoyable tho I do miss the Porn Queens it used to feature as pin-ups each month a few years ago.
UK Metal band Hellfire were recently featured in the premiere Metal magazine - Metal Hammer. A few emails were exchanged. A brief of “make it evil” was obtained and I was pretty much left to my own devices to come up with some concepts to present to the band. Along with a website, the guys are also after a logo and some t-shirt designs.
Pictured above is a rough draft I prepared today. I wanted something with minimal colors so I chose 3 (red, white & black) and went to town. I didn’t have much in the way of source materials but this particular photo of the band struck a chord with me so I decided to use that as the basis for this early mock-up. You can see the original photo below and the extent of the manipulation it went through is evident in the mock-up.
I wanted the site to have that somewhat “evil” look the guys were after but also a more stylish and urban flavour to it which I believe it achieves with the colors and layout.
The menu still needs some work and the logo is not finalized as yet as at this early stage I am not sure that will be the logo. On doing a Hellfire search in google, I stumbled upon this totally unrelated site which has the same colors and simillar font to what I used. My jaw dropped to the floor as the similarities are uncanny. “Holy Fuck!” were the words I believe I uttered! The makers of whatever that site is would rightfully have a case against me that I ripped them off but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I’ve been sitting on this review for a while for the sole reason that it takes time to fully digest anything that Mastodon release. A lot of time. ‘Blood Mountain’ marks the band’s first release for major label Warner and features a diverse range of cameos from the likes of Neurosis vocalist Scott Kelly, Queen Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Cedric Bixler-Zavala from the Mars Volta. An eclectic bunch of characters right there but then again, Mastodon are an eclectic mob themselves. Musically, Mastodon is unparalleled - delivering an intricate bludgeoning with each and every track. But it ain’t all a slice of bludgeon-riffola as far as these guys are concerned. The solos are interlaced with melodic undertones and the band have an uncanny knack of injecting unique sounding melodies with vocal and guitar alike layered on top of a complex and perplexing rhythm section. Or in short, the drumming is fucking amazing and lays an immense foundation for the band to work from. This album is so multi-faceted and continually refuses to let up its ferocity despite frequent shifts in style, mood, and attitude. Truly, a classic album.
Holy Mother of God! Celtic Frost’s newly released ‘Monotheist’ has not only exceeded my expectations, it has completely blown me away and refused to leave my iPod and iTunes. On heavy rotation, it permeates the office and home airwaves as I will not play anything else but this fucker! I had thought Celtic Frost all but dead - their glory days buried deep and far away somewhere in the mid to late 80’s. Even though the band’s origins spawned out of the (awful!) Hellhammer back in 1984 (they were so bad back then you just had to take notice!) they reformed as Celtic Frost and released the wonderful ‘Morbid Tales’.
With the rest of the metalsphere trying to mimic the fledgling Metallica and trying to play at ridiculously fast speeds, Celtic Frost took a different approach. Haunting, catchy Sabbath-esque riffs filled their repertoire. Always experimental and even operatic in places, infinitely evil and sinister, the Frost were a unique and cathartic band that were busy creating a sound uniquely their own. No one sounded like them. No one had the balls to pull off such an album as the gloom-ridden opus ‘Into The Pandemonium’. Which other Metal band would even attempt a cover of Wall of Voodoo’s ‘Mexican Radio’ and do it so magnificently? And here we are, years later - Celtic Frost have returned with quite possibly one of the finest releases for 2006. I can’t even begin to put into words just how good this album is. Innovative. Fresh. Atmospheric. Brutal. In this Metalcore (ugh!) world we currently live in where every band tries to out-muscle every other band by screaming and growling like a carbon-copy of eachother, it is refreshing, so refreshing that a band like Celtic Frost are back with an album so sinister, so macabrely evil that they are going to take the Metal world by the scruff of its collective neck and send it to hell!
Channel 4 crucifies human corpse Anatomist Gunther von Hagens will use a real body to show how people died when crucified in the 90-minute film.
One of my absolute fave pastimes is trawling through the back-streets and alleyways of this fine city. Not the safest activity at times, as I have encountered my fair share of miscreants and hoons along the way. But, I love capturing the urban and grunge tonality and atmosphere this city has to offer. I’d love to publish a book of all the street-art that the graffiti capital of the world - Melbourne, has to offer. It truly is never ending and evolving. One week you may shoot a wall and if you return a week later, it will look completely different as new artwork has taken its place.
So today I was meeting with a potential client in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. I had a meeting with this young Melbourne band on Smith St in Fitzroy. The meeting went well and I am hopeful we will be able to successfully negotiate the terms and conditions for yours truly to help them with some branding and a website. But that’s another story.
After the meeting I went for a long walk along Smith St and just marveled at the urban diversity on show in this bohemian street. I haven’t ever really spent much time along Smith St as when I am usually in this neck of the woods, I frequent the trendier Brunswick St. There was a ton of street-art and graffiti on show… some truly gritty works on show.
So, if you want to see the results head on over to my flickr page for all the low-down.
