As most metal fans probably know, Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe was arrested for manslaughter involving a fan who climbed onto the stage. Personally I'm not too sure what to think about this... on one hand, the fan should have known better than to climb onto the stage where he wasn't supposed to be, but he did not do so expecting to fall into a coma and die. Either way, Randy obviously did not mean any harm of that sort. The case has since grown out of my following or understanding, so I can only hope that everything works out for the best for Randy and everyone.
It's almost a side note since Randy may be facing years in prison if all this goes as badly as possible, but as a result, Lamb of God's tour with Dethklok and Gojira, planned for August, has been completely cancelled. Of course, this is a huge bummer; I was especially looking forward to seeing Dethklok, and Lamb of God and Gojira would have been cool to see as well, to say the least. Again, at this point, I just hope that everything works out for the best... and I'll hopefully catch these bands another time...
On another note, my digipack and shirt of Testament's new album "Dark Roots of Earth" shipped a few days ago! It left a USPS facility half an hour away this morning... so I guess it should come tomorrow. Based on that, unless I review six Testament albums today, I probably won't get to every Testament album before I get my hands on the new album. I will decide if I should finish the rest of the discography before I review "Dark Roots of Earth" or not. If I review "Dark Roots" after the second listen or so probably tomorrow, then I will later continue the rest of Testament's discography to finish what I started. That said I am eagerly awaiting this album based on what I've heard, and based on the fact that it's fucking Testament! One of the most consistently good thrash bands around, even all this time later. Sure they had a blip of two or three albums but they came back and have been kicking ass since.
Yesterday I got the second album from October Tide, which was Jonas Renkse and Fred Norrman of Katatonia's side project that continued death/doom metal, almost in the vein of "Brave Murder Day", after Katatonia shifted to gothic rock. They released two albums and then disbanded to focus on Katatonia, until Norrman left Katatonia and started the band again without Renkse. Anyway, this album, "Grey Dawn", was good and nice to listen to, but didn't leave much of a lasting impression. I actually really liked the acoustic album-closer, "Dear Sun", though. I can't review it right now since it's not fresh in my head anymore, but it would probably be in the 7.5-7.75 range. I'd probably try it if you're into that death/doom style.
Well, I can't buy tickets to Lamb of God/Dethklok/Gojira anymore, but I will probably still buy tickets for the Katatonia/Devin Townsend/Paradise Lost show, despite that it's on my Dad's birthday. I've heard people say good things about Katatonia live - on a show with Opeth last fall, someone online said "I went for Opeth and left a Katatonia fan" - so I'm looking forward to finally seeing one of my favorite bands, and by far my top band of the past ten months or so. Devin and Paradise Lost are cool too, to say the least! Also, Testament are going on the third leg of their North American tour with Anthrax and Death Angel and are hitting a relatively-nearby town in October. Despite that Testament are pretty much my favorite band overall, I missed this tour when it came to my city last November, so I will definitely try to go to this one. The System of a Down concert is coming up too, that could be good fun.
I've been playing two of my favorite early Testament songs - "Over the Wall" and "Alone in the Dark" - on guitar recently. Very fun to play. I'm actually trying to learn the solos in "Over the Wall", but playing the work of Alex Skolnick will be hard! I have the rhythm parts in "Over the Wall" down pretty well though, although at this point I don't have the down picking stamina of Eric Peterson. Been working on that though. Metallica, of course, also have some great songs to play to work on down picking, especially "Creeping Death" and "Master of Puppets", although it's very hard (and tiring) to master down picking like James Hetfield. The trick is to not tense up, although then it's harder to pick as fast - one has to build up speed gradually. Again, working on it... Aside from these thrash classics I recorded a joke-ish tribute song to a friend last night. Ended up pretty silly, but all in good fun. Two friends have also been talking about recording a song, but the one who was going to sing "isn't feeling it"... We'll see how that goes, especially with the storm supposed to come tonight. That said, I won't be posting those new original songs here... I probably wouldn't post originals here unless I'm really proud of them.
Thanks for reading!
Now listening to: Opeth - The Moor (damn do I love the clean to heavy transitions at 5:57 and 10:04... probably objectively one of Opeth's best songs)
Just listened to: Edge of Sanity - Crimson (album/track review maybe coming eventually, since it's been in regular rotation recently - won't link as you probably didn't come here to listen to a 40 minute song/album)
Recent top songs: October Tide - Dear Sun, Edge of Sanity - Sacrificed, Katatonia - Help Me Disappear
Recent top bands: Edge of Sanity, Katatonia, Death, Testament, October Tide
Recent acquisitions: October Tide - Grey Dawn
Recently been playing on guitar: Testament - Over the Wall rhythm and butchered lead, Testament - Alone in the Dark rhythm, originals
Reviews coming up soonish: Testament - Souls of Black, Testament - The Ritual, Testament - Low, Katatonia - Discouraged Ones
