Monthly Archive for August, 2007
I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many gigs I have been to in my life. It numbers in the hundreds. Maybe even more. But there are only a handful that I have really, truly anticipated. To finally get the opportunity to see Ronnie James Dio, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Vinny Appice on a stage was something I was not going to miss out on. These guys are the stuff of legend and as each day was creeping closer to the gig’s date, the anticipation was growing. I’ve never had the chance to witness any incarnation of Black Sabbath and the last time this version of the band permeated our our shores was 1980 and I’d only be guessing when the original Ozzy-led line-up where here.
Still, given a choice on seeing the original line-up or the Dio-era one - I’d much prefer the latter! Easy! This is the Black Sabbath I grew up and loved as a kid. I vividly remember clutching a copy of the ‘Heaven & Hell’ album and copying the cover in art class. I still have that drawing somewhere. To this day, nearly 30 years later - this record ranks as one of my fave albums of all time. I still play it constantly to this day without fail.
But I digress, as I am want to do when excitedly talking about this band. The day finally arrived. I was finally going to see Black Sabbath! Sure, the official monicker is Heaven & Hell, but all legalities and Sharon Osbourne bullshit aside… these guys have every right to call themselves Black Sabbath.
As the evil and creepy tones of the opening music ‘E5150? came to a close, and seeing Iommi and Butler storm the stage with the diminutive Ronnie James Dio in tow - I totally lost it! Fists pumping in the air, howling out ‘SABBATH!!!’ in pure abandon - I was finally seeing my heroes! I couldn’t even tell you the last time I had this sort of reaction at a gig. These days I like to just sit it out and enjoy a show, but for Sabbath, it seems everyone was on their feet singing along every single word of every song.
The band were simply astounding. Playing material from the Dio era of the band comprising of the ‘Heaven & Hell’, ‘Mob Rules’, ‘Dehumanizer’ and ‘The Dio Years’ compilation - they sounded superb. Dio in particular was in breathtaking form. His vocals were perfect. Never missing a solitary note and showing all young upstarts just how to do it. The new track ‘Shadow In The Wind’ sounded menacingly surreal live, with Iommi’s riff just tearing Rod Laver Arena to shreds!
Tony Iommi has practically written some of the greatest riffs the Metal genre has ever heard. Coolly he stood on his side of the stage and just oozed magic and charisma from his persona and guitar. Gold cross hanging from his neck - just like it has in nearly every single picture I’ve seen of the man from the beginning. His playing was sublime and all held magically together by Geezer Butler & Vinny Appice.
I had the time of my life. It was truly a fabulous night and one I’m taking to the grave!
With a much-needed day off from work, I decided to go and see the opening of ‘Die Hard 4′. Corrr! It rocked! Sure the plot is totally unbelievable (you know, cyber-criminals who can hack this, that and everything at the speed of light) but who friggn cares when you got cars, choppers, bridges, people, and jet-fighters been blown to itsy, bitsy smithereens in pure, unadulterated violence and mayhem! Could this be the greatest action movie of all time? Could it just! It looks slick! It sounds like you’re in the middle of Baghdad and you’ve got Bruce Willis at his best stony-faced self as a one-man-army against the forces of evil. Magnificently played by Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant and he does the bad-guy/sunnavabitch role with aplomb coolness and malevolent ease! The hacker-wonderboy role is played by Justin Long (who us Mac zealots will know as the “I’m a Mac” guy in the Apple ads). Great cameo by Kevin Smith who has the nerdiest and geekiest room I have ever seen! Go see this one folks. It has to be experienced on a big screen with big sound and an even bigger serving of pop-corn and coke! FUN!
I know it is pretty fashionable to diss them, but I am unashamedly a big fan of Korn. They burst onto the scene as the Grunge move was dying a slow, flannel-wearing death and practically created what became known as Nu-Metal. Tho for the most part, this dire musical mismatch of Metal & Rap inspired some woeful and pretty forgettable acts. (Anyone remember Limp Bizkit?) But to simply label Korn as Nu-Metal is totally unfair. They are far better than that and have spawned some amazing records over the past decade. It is always with great anticipation I await a new Korn release and quickly snapped up their 8th studio album - ‘Untitled’ on its day of release. Produced by Nine Inch Nails stalwart Atticus Ross - this is a damn fine sounding album. You can hear Ross’ influence drip off each and every track. With the band’s ranks weirdly diminishing, (Head found God, Dave is on temporary hiatus) - the band recruited the amazing Terry Bozzio to drum on Untitled. As brilliant as Bozzio is, I found the drumming a little on the annoying side. I missed the ole Korn BOOM-CHUCK as Bozzio is just far too busy on some of these tracks and sonically, the groove is all over the place. Still, there’s plenty of Korn downtuned guitar and bass chunkiness to steady the ship and Davis even injects some grindcore vocals here and there. ‘Bitch We Got A Problem’ features a sickly Trent Reznor-esque keyboard melody intertwining with a malevolent bass riff that sounds positively freaky. Whilst the track ‘Hold On’ could have come off any earlier Korn album as it features all the vintage, trademark Kornisms that make this band so unique and special. The eerie ‘Do What They Say’ is such a bitching, moody fuck as it bumps and grinds from start to finish with rich musical landscapes and really nice guitar undertones. Repeated listens of Untitled continues to reveal fresh, intriguing moments and surprises throughout. Do give this one a go! It is more than worth it.
Sleeker, faster, glossier iMacs launched. Oh gawd! I want one!
Things are definitely heating up on the HIM front. With the new highly anticipated album only weeks away, activity in the HIM camp is running rampant.
You can now buy the ‘Kiss Of Dawn’ single now at all digital stores including iTunes. Click here to get it in the US iTunes store. You can also get it in iTunes in other countries as well.
See the new video for Kiss Of Dawn and more at HIM’s official youtube page.
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