A representative for Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has confirmed that the highly anticipated and much-rumored reunion of Iommi, Ronnie James Dio, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward appears to be shaping up and taking a new form. After various promoters have approached the former Sabbath bandmates’ respective representatives, the guys have started taking all of this very seriously, as they have aparently wanted to reunite for some time now. It looks as if the new shape may be that of ‘Heaven And Hell’ - that is the moniker that the band is likely to use on their new venture as Sharon Osbourne owns the name Black Sabbath. If all goes well, ‘Heaven And Hell’ should be hitting the road in early 2007 and anything that pisses of Mrs. Osbourne - can only be a good thing! Riiight?
The Dio era of Sabbath spawned ‘Heaven & Hell’, ‘Mob Rules’, ‘Live Evil’, ‘Dehumanizer’ which are some of the band’s finest works. Particularly ‘Heaven & Hell’ and ‘Mob Rules’ two absolute Metal masterpieces.
Continue reading ‘Black Sabbath Return As Heaven & Hell’
It’s often amazed me why a promoter wouldn’t bring to Australia a full-blown Metal festival. Sure we get a bloated ‘Big Day Out’ each summer that usually has a smattering of Metal acts here and there - but typically, Australia hardly gets a decent run with a full-scale Heavy Metal extravaganza. I mean, if Ozzfest toured here in the summer, it would blow to hell any ‘Big Day Out’ bill but no promoter has the nouse or the balls to pull it through.
Thankfully, the folk who organize Gigantour - the brainchild of Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine - have seen the light and it now looks highly likely that Gigantour will be an annual event on these shores.
Last night’s gig at Festival Hall which featured the aforementioned Megadeth also had Soulfly, Arch Enemy and Caliban on the bill. It was a great night capped off by an absolutely blistering and faultless set by Mustaine and Megadeth. To say they were mindfuckingly brilliant is a massive understatement. It was a barrage of hits spawning a back catalogue that is over 20 years old. Mustaine proved once and for all he is one of the definitive riffsters in the Metal genre. The band were like a precisionly tight machine delivering an assault of hits and riffs that would blow off any band they would ever share a stage with.
And that’s exactly what they did.
Whilst opening acts Arch Enemy, Soulfly and Caliban were somewhere between good and great… Megadeth were grand!
Megadeth
Soulfly
Arch Enemy
Caliban
Paul Booth’s Tattoo Theatre. When it comes to tattoo artistry, there is none better than Paul Booth. None better!
Let’s face it, Jack Black is a damn funny guy. He has the uncanny ability to make one laugh quite easily whether he be crooning out one of his tirades in the form of a tenacious ‘deedle-diddle-dee deedle-diddle-doo’ rock song - or by simply looking direct into the camera and twitching his eyebrow. He’s a riot! So you’d think that Black’s collaboration with two of the creators of cult classic ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ (Jared & Jaruda Hess) and the writer of ‘School of Rock’ (Mike White) would generate a hit comedy movie in ‘Nacho Libre’. Not so. I was left feeling bitterly disappointed and wondering just where ‘Nacho Libre’ ultimately fails. In places, it tries too hard to be like ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ but unlike ‘Napoleon’s’ morose absurdity and slow pacing which works well in its dry and subtle humor - it all goes horribly wrong in ‘Nacho Libre’. In places, it is embarrassingly stupid and not even a fart joke can save it. I feel ripped off in forking out a fortune for the import copy of this DVD but I had been so eagerly awaiting this movie from the moment the (awesome) trailer was doing the rounds earlier in the year. There are some genuinely funny moments and on a production level, the film looks absolutely stunning in its color and tone but that is just not enough to save it. Bummer!
It’s not everyday you see one of your photos published in the Herald-Sun. During the week I was approached by Ray White Real Estate who were interested in purchasing some of my photos that they saw via my flickr photostream. So in today’s Herald-Sun newspaper (page 13 of the Real Estate section) is my photo of Acland St. St.Kilda I had taken a while ago. This is my second paid photo-gig this year which pleases me to no end as I’m strictly amateur when it comes to photography - even though it is something I do each and every day without fail as I try to learn the ropes and all the intricacies that go with it. Anyway, it was a nice way to kick off a Saturday morning.
As previously mentioned on this blog, I caught the Killswitch Engage/Lamb of God/Unearth gig last night. Let me state from the outset, I have never seen The Palace so jam-packed with bodies in over 20 years of attending gigs there. It was mayhem! I had a good vibe about the night when I bumped into some of the Lamb of God guys at Nando’s on Acland St, St.Kilda before the start of the show. I didn’t bother the guys who were obviously there to get a meal but it would have been great to take some pics but if I was having dinner and some geek wanted to take photos, I’d politely tell them where to go. Out of respect to their privacy, just a polite nod would suffice.
Opening proceedings were I Killed the Prom Queen. I’m really not a fan of that sort of Metal so I didn’t really pay much attention to them and there was nothing on stage that warranted me ever checking them out again. Sorry guys. Same went for Unearth. Pretty uninspiring and nothing you haven’t heard a million times before.
As the road-crew were setting up the stage for Lamb of God, you could literally feel the buzz in the air as the crowd were vehemently chanting “LAMB OF GOD” 30 minutes before the guys hit the stage. You just know it’s going to be a fuckn wild night when you can hear the electricity humming through the Marshall stacks way before the band have even played their first note.
Bombastically, Lamb of God hit the stage of the Palace with an amazing wall of sound. Crystal clear. Insanely loud. And the finest slab of pure American Metal power you will ever hear. These guys are beyond good. It would be no exaggeration to suggest that as of right now, they are one of the definitive exponents of the Heavy Metal genre. Meticulously precise in the execution of the songs, the drumming of Chris Adler is simply astounding. He completely and utterly drives the entire band providing such a steady and synchronistic back-beat that it would be really hard for a band to sound crap when the foundation is so damn good! With killer riffs and vocal insanity topping it all off, they were one of the tightest and heaviest bands I have seen in a long, long time. Amazing gig. Amazing band.
Headliners Killswitch Engage would have a massive job overcoming the set that Lamb of God put forth. Although they too are one of my faves from the newly spawned American Metal movement, and although they were great tonight - I don’t think they came close to delivering the goods like Lamb of God. The sound wasn’t as clean and I thought the band sounded a little sloppy in places. The one great bonus for Killswitch though, is that their songs are so catchy and have such great vocal hooks that the crowd sang along to the majority of the songs. They have a great repertoire of heavy and vocally catchy songs that they’d be hard-pressed not to be enjoyed but tonight, Lamb of God were monumentally supreme!
A great night out, but I would have preferred just a double-bill instead of four acts. I’m getting too old for this shit! heh!
Work still goes on the forthcoming Justice Howard website. On today’s mock-up I tried the design with an alternate photo from Justice’s same shoot. I always preferred the first photo as the colors were a little duller and that splash of purple in the top-right window is to die for - but for the sake of experimentation, I tried a different shot to see how it would flow throughout the design. I’m preferring this version as it is setting clearer boundaries by seperating imagery and content. Also, Justice requested that the news/blog page of the site be a little less grungy so as to not frighten off some of her more corporate clientele and potential Hollywood headshot aspirants. We have decided to make the news page a blog which will contain elements of the design but more stripped back and cleaner.
Also on Justice’s request, I removed some of the tattoo-brushes I had on the model’s stomach as according to Justice “she has such the most beautiful stomach it should be seen dont you think?” Agreed! Agreed! Actually, I was thinking the very same thing when I was roughing out that first mock-up so in this design, I’ve tried to let the photo do most of the talking.
Version 2: With alternate shot. Sharper, cleaner and more stark. Clear defined lineage and seperation of content and imagery
Version 1: Original shot. Duller color. Messy layout.
More on the development of the Justice Howard website:
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