All You Cannot Live Without 01.08.06: Bigger, Scarier, and on the ‘Juice’
Posted by Ben Czajkowski on 01.08.2006
A System of a Down movie?? Godsmack is found, and part of me is scared by it. Plus, double the Chili Peppers fun! Who gets this week’s BCSA? Read to find out!
Prelude to the Media
Another week is gone, and I find myself back at school in Dayton. I hope everyone had a good break. A lot of people start back to school tomorrow. I started this past Wednesday. While it's nice to be back, I miss being able to be lazy and play Mario Kart: Double Dash for hours and hours.
As I write this, it's Wednesday, and I am reading reports about the miners in West Virginia. I am quite pissed off about the media dropping the ball on this one. The headlines for Pittsburgh's newspapers conflict. One reads that they're alive, and the other, that they are dead. I already dislike most news media since it's bias. Things like this should never, ever happen.
Now, it's Saturday night, and as I finish up the column to go live tomorrow, I found this, and I am just astounded. With the best respect for the miners who gave their lives, I bequeath to you this, which was reported by Blabbermouth. Read the first article about the survivor's wife blasting Metallica to bring him out of his coma. As much as I respect the survivor, I don't believe that Lars is going to save him. He's way too much of a self-absorbed, money hungry prick to save anyone but himself. At least Lars is someone's strength. Whatever.
Scott Rutherford has our monthly roundtable. I prefer square ones, but to each his own.
Frank Estrada makes our lives a bit more interactive.
Stephan Mogan takes us back to the days when Zack De La Rocha was still in a band making music with a piece on Rage Against the Machines.
Evocator Manes speaks of the downfall of the media giant, Mediaplay. I say good riddance. Plus, I got a bunch of stuff pretty cheap from their closeouts.
Shane Viars checks in to make sure that punk rock is still on life support and alive somewhere with his look at Social Distortion.
Brian Berry brings you some radio and bands I won't touch with a stick.
Rhett Walker promises to be angier, but there's only room for one angry columnist around here, and I'm out to make my mark! Maybe.
It's All Too Much to Look Up Yourself, So I've Done the Work for You
Korn – See You On The Other Side (out now)
God Forbid – Out Of Misery (out now)
Sevendust – Best Of: Chapter One 1997-2004 (out now)
The Strokes – First Impressions of Earth (out now)
Switched – Ghosts In The Machine (January 10th)
Switched – Subject To Change (January 10th)
Bleeding Through – The Truth (January 10th)
Underworld: Evolution – Soundtrack (January 10th)
P.O.D. – Testify (January 24th)
Yellowcard - Lights and Sounds (January 24th)
Jane's Addiction - The Best of Jane's Addiction (January 24th)
She Wants Revenge – She Wants Revenge (January 31st)
David Lee Roth - The Best (January 31st)
In Flames – Come Clarity (February 3rd for Europe, February 7th for US)
Machine Head – Burn My Eyes Special Edition (February 7th)
Whitesnake – The Definitive Collection (February 7th)
My Chemical Romance - Life on the Murder Scene (February 7th)
Kittie - Never Again EP (February 7th)
Katatonia – The Great Cold Distance (February 13th)
Kid Rock - Live (February 14th)
Metal's Dark Side – Hard and the Furious Volume 1 (DVD) (February 21st)
Mogwai - Mr. Beast (March 6th)
Taylor Hawkins and The Coattail Riders - Taylor Hawkins and The Coattail Riders (March 7th)
Norma Jean – O' God the Aftermath (Re-release) (March 7th)
Faktion – Faktion (March 21st)
Silent Civilian - Rebirth of the Temple (March 21st)
Live - Songs from Black Mountain (March 21st)
Atreyu – A Deathgrip on Yesterday (March 28th)
Lacuna Coil – Karmacode (April 4th)
Soil – True Self (April 4th)
Walls Of Jericho – Yet Untitled (July 25th)
The Low Down on the Underground
For all of you Spineshank fans out there, you'll find this to be pertinent news. The band's former vocalist, Jonny Santos, has gone on to form Silent Civilian. This debt album, due out March 21st, will be the first effort of Santos (vocals), Tim Mankowski (guitar), Henno (bass), and Chris Mora (drums). The disc is entitled Rebirth of the Temple will be released via Mediaskare Records. The tracks that I have heard are simply amazing.
Rebirth of the Temple track listing:
01. Intro - A Call to Arms
02. Funeral
03. The Song Remains Un-Named
04. Rebirth of the Temple
05. Divided
06. Bitter Pill
07. Force Fed
08. Lies in the House of Shame
09. Wrath
10. Dead to Me
11. Blood Red Sky
12. Falling Down
13. Live Again
Following that directly with this band, hard rocking Cleveland metal extraordinaire Switched is set to release their final album on Tuesday. Ghosts in the Machine will feature material underproduced from the bands first and last efforts. Switched broke up some time ago to go, and the members went on to join Breaking Benjamin, Rikets, Dark New Day, and Tinjen. Their lead singer, Ben Schiegel, has gone on to produce the bands Chimaira, Breaking Point, Rikets, and Allele. Together, though, they are putting out their last album. You can read Brandon Ratliff's excellent review of the album before it's even in stores.
In related news, which is kind of sad, Switched, on February 28th, will be performing live, for their CD release party, the last show ever at Cleveland's Odeon Concert Club. The bill is set to feature special guests Allele. They will be touring this spring. You can get one of their tracks for free, courtesy of AO(hel)L. Scroll to the bottom.
As I reported last time, Killswitch Engage frontman Howard Jones will be heading a group of talented musicians that will be guesting on 36 Crazyfist's upcoming new album, which will be entitled Rest Inside the Flames. The announcement came on Thursday followed by a message that the finishing touches to the record will be done in Derbyshire, England, by Andy Sneaps (Nevermore, Exodus, Arch Enemy). It's set to hit stores later this spring. 36CF has been confirmed to the Sounds of the Underground tour for 2006, according to MTV.com. Tracks for Rest Inside the Flames are to include "Midnight Swim", "I'll Go Until My Heart Stops", "Between the Anchor and the Air", "Aurora" and the first single, "On Any Given Night".
This Mourning Memory, which features former members of Shenoah and Switched, have posted new tracks. They're entitled "Apology" and "Matinee In Flames," which sounds kind of cruel. They can be heard online that can be found here. The band plans to play their debut show together at the HI Fi Club in Lakewood, OH on February 24th. Yay for Ohio!
Great news for Red Hot Chili Pepper fans. Their next album, Stadium Arcadium, is set to release later this spring. Here's the best part! It's going to be a double album. No news on what's going to be on that second disc, whether it will be all new stuff, live/acoustic, or just general RHCP fun. Here are a key few tracks from the disc, in no particular order: "Dani California", "Hard To Concentrate", "Desecration Smile", "Charlie", "Snow", "Stadium Arcadium." Singer Anthony Keidis described the new album as "heavy, but it's emotionally heavy with lots of beautiful melodies."
Mudvayne's kind-of-a-second-single-and-then-wasn't song "Fall Into Sleep" is, in fact, the band's fourth release from Lost and Found. The track succeeds "Determined," "Happy?," and "Forget to Remember." Recently, the boys of the band finished shooting the video for "Fall Into Sleep" and it's now online to view. The video is, to me, a cross between "The Incredible Mr. Limpet," "Groundhog Day," and "the X-Files", all with the animation style you'd expect from Tim Burton.
As promised, Dead Poetic has kept their word. They're posting demo tracks for their upcoming CD, due out later this year, on their myspace website. Granted, they're only 45 seconds long, the first one that went out when this column debuted last week was awesome. "The Victim" received rave reviews from the fans, or so the band stated recently. They thanked everyone for their love and support. The band is set to head into studio in about a month to follow up New Medicines. Check out "The Victim" and whatever new clip is up on their myspace site.
In a recent interview, Andrea Ferro of Lacuna Coil had a bunch of remarks about the band's forthcoming Karmacode. This is what Ferro said about the album: "Yes, you may think that it's going to be a different album, but I don't think that it's that different from the style of the band. I don't want anybody getting crazy thinking that we are changing completely the music style. It's just that we, as I say, pushed some accent here and there on some part of the sound…For the first time I love all the songs. I see it as a big improvement and as a step forward in our career. I hope that people will enjoy it as much as we do! You never know what to expect when you release something new!" The CD is set for a April release on Century Media.
I don't think I could complete this post without mentioning In Flames. Their upcoming album, Come Clarity, has been getting rave reviews, not only by peons like me, but by a lot of critics. They've posted the first track "Take This Life" and "Leeches"from the disc to listen to.
The first track ("Fight for Life") from SOiL's upcoming True Self has been posted online. You can check it on their myspace page or on their webpage. I really like it a lot. It sounds almost nothing like what was on Redefine. It's a bit heavier, at least to me. What do I know? I mean, I've just listened to it excessively. SOiL will be touring the lovely UK with one of my favorite bands, American Head Charge, and Panic Cell.
Thrice has had to cancel mainland European tour dates because Claudio, from Coheed and Cambria, broke his hand (probably a freak masturbation accident. Those things happen! Ask my fiend Mike!). How sad. Cough. Those dates will be rescheduled for April. Thrice will, however, still do whatever dates they had set for the UK.
I thought this was slightly amusing, so I thought I'd share it. Peaceville Records have signed Japan chick-metal band Gallhammer to their label. The trio draws from influences like Axegrinder, Amebix, and Celtic Frost. Their first studio effort will feature tracks from their Tokyo underground experiences, as well as a DVD of an apparent must-see-to-believe performance. As stated in a press release: "We apologize in advance for any fright caused when watching this crustcore combo in action. It would be lost in translation to try to explain, but they achieve some kind of trance-like state fed on horrendously loud feedback which Jonas Renkse of Katatonia described as 'scary'." The trio is comprised of Mika Penetrator, Risa Reaper, and Vivian Slaughter. I could swear those were the names of three girls I met in a S&M club once…
Are They Still Out There or Did They Finally Overdose?
Godsmack has finished recording the follow-up to 2003's Faceless and are preparing to begin mixing the effort. It's set for a late April release via Universal. The album, which is tentatively called Four, as been branded "amazing" by frontman Sully Erna. He is set to produce the album on his own. Er, yeah, here's a quote that makes me a bit nervous. Erna saying "It's a killer record, and I'm really curious to see what the public's going to think of it," Erna said, noting that he feels the album is his band's first true attempt at sonic experimentation. "It's still Godsmack — I don't think it's lost the integrity of what Godsmack has built our career off. The toughness of the sound is still there. But we've expanded a little bit more." Do bands not learn that experimenting is generally bad? They're not in college; they don't get that freedom! Erna goes onto compare the new album to that of the epic-ness of Tool, which will be the only time I use this word in this week's column. A final mix of the album will be completed later this month, coinciding with the release of the first single, which will most likely be the track "Speak". Others are entitled, "Livin' in Sin," "Voodoo Too," and "Shine Down," which will feature some harmonica! Mommy, I feel so delightfully white trash! I want a mullet!
So, what's new with Nickelback? I don't care, but you might! The band will be touring Europe in support of Bon Jovi. This, to me, is as odd as when the Chili Peppers toured with Snoop Dogg, but whatever. If you live in Europe, you can win a video iPod and tix to see them. Here's more information.
Kittie's new track "Never Again" can now be sampled online in Windows Media format here. The song is the title track from the bands forthcoming new digital only EP, which will drop on February 7th.
Endo has begun new work on an album for 2006, which should be released some time in the next six to eight weeks. That's not really the news I wanted to report. They're apparently in talks with BSN Nutrition, a nutritional supplement company. Endo will be launching an energy drink called EndoRush. Awesome, just fucking awesome. Someone else for people to waste their money on. GO BUY SURGE!
Sometime in 2006, we'll be hearing Greenday songs on the radio that aren't "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Jesus of Suburbia." That's right. Billie Joe has reported that the band will begin their creative process sometime in January. He says, "We always share everything that we're doing. Right now, it's a lot of writing for ourselves and it's staying right there for right now and then we'll start to put the puzzle together and then try to up the ante a little bit." Stay tuned for more updates as I get them.
For those of you who are like me and have enjoyed Demon Hunter'sThe Triptych, you're probably wondering when the band is going on tour because you really want to scope them out live. Well, there's a complex and a simple answer to that question, both of which I'll leave to the leader singer, Ryan Clark, to answer. In its first monthly installment, their myspace site has posted Q&A with the frontman. The questions come from actual fans. Some range from asking what type of mic Clark uses to the more deep, personal, spiritual questions. Read the 411Mania album review for The Triptych, if you haven't already.
Because I have such a hard-on for chick rock/metal, here's this for you. A live video for Walls Of Jericho's track "Revival Never Goes Out Of Style" has been posted online. In other news, the band will be entering the studio next week to record a new song with producer Ben Schiegel, while a new album from the group is expected out via Trustkill on July 25th. Is it me, or does that seem far off?
This promises to be mildly entertaining. Disturbed will be featured on MTV's "Cribs." The show airs on January 25, 2006, at 10PM. Yay, I think. I'll probably catch it on a marathon rerun or something.
Chris Cornell of Audioslave said recently that the band will be going back into the studio to record its third album. The Rage Against the Machine/Soundgarden hybrid only released Out of Exile eight months ago, but Cornell says he's happy that they can be entering the studio again so quickly. He also remarked that the band will probably tour before the release of their third disc. I didn't like Out of Exile, if you couldn't tell from my first column, and since my only ‘hatemail' of the week bitched at me for taking a rip at the band, I'll say something nice about Audioslave. They are a good band, I just didn't enjoy their second album. I absolutely loved the self-titled effort. It was fantastic. There. I said something nice.
Interested in casting your vote for next year's "Sounds of the Underground" tour? I was until it kept telling me that my vote was invalid. Fucking democratic system! Or my school's retarded server. Regardless, you can cast your vote in this semi-democratic process. Bands featured range from As I Lay Dying to Trivium.
System of a Down have toyed with taking their albums to a place only a few other bands have done: the silver screen. However, bassist Shavo Odadjian said that neither he nor guitarist Daron Malakian are very keen on the idea. He says, "I think we could put this to film as in, like, we even talked about maybe that happening, but we didn't make it happen," he said. "But I think it's very audio-visual. It paints pictures. So yes, we could do a movie to it, but I hate musicals too, so it's a unanimous vote. We're not doing it." The band plans to resume touring behind both albums early this year. Good. They're some ugly dudes and would need a lot of make up and a hair cut to make them look star-worthy. I can't watch one of their videos without cringing.
To end this section, smnnews.com posted their results for the best metal bands of 2005. While there is a very eclectic mix of choices, I don't wholly agree with one whole person on there. My choices for metal:
10. Still Remains – Of Love and Lunacy
09. Opeth – Ghost Reveries
08. Killswitch Engage – [Set This] World Ablaze DVD
07. Disturbed – 10k Fists
06. Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth
05. Mudvayne – Lost and Found
04. Rammstein – Rosenrot
03. Trivium – Ascendancy
02. Roadrunner United – The All-Star Sessions
01. Demon Hunter – The Triptych
It does seem, however, that many sites and a whole plethora of people are ranking Trivium at number one. It really is a good album. Check it out if you haven't already. My friend Marshall rated his top ten albums of 2005, though he kind of cheats at the end. If you're interested, give them a look. You might agree. He's more of a music-ophile than I am.
This Band Earns the Benjamin Czajkowski Stamp of Approval (BCSA)
Every week, I will feature a band that I heavily endorse, thus giving it the BCSA. This week's band is Flyleaf. As I stated earlier, I have a weakness for chick vocalists, and lead singer Lacey Mosley does not fail to live up to my expectations. She has a beautifully angry voice that drills the haunting lyrics home with powerful drums by James Culpepper, bass lines by Pat Seals, and mesmerizing guitars by Jared Hartmann and Sameer Bhattacharya. Flyleaf is on the Sno-Core tour this winter with Seether and Shinedown. They are definitely an act that you should see. They're marked as one of the bands to look out for in 2006 by Revolver Magazine, and I definitely agreed with that. Check out their self-titled disc or sample them at your leisure.
The Stuff I Can't Put Down (Like Scott Weiland and His Heroin)
5. Metal for the Masses – Volume 1
4. Requiem for a Dream – Kronos Quartet
3. Flyleaf - Flyleaf
2. Faktion - EP
1. She Wants Revenge – She Wants Revenge
It's A Problem to Just Quit, So I'll End With This
Tune in next week for the Grammy-filled edition of AYCLW. I'll list my choices and diss a few people. That's always entertaining. Plus, next time, I'll be ranting about how much I really hate the music industry. Remember, if you haven't seen how angry I look on myspace, you're missing out. Until next time: peace, love, and apathy. –BC
