Metal Reviews

Interesting story. I had no idea about his previous girlfriend's awful brain tumor and suicide, nor about the shitty contract he was under. Liked the mentions of Alex Meilenwald, and Blake Judd being his typically not cool person as well.

Nick Barker has kidney failure and donations were setup here https://www.gofundme.com/f/nicholas-barker
That was an easy decision for me to donate given how much I love early CoF, and he was a strong point of the Dimmu albums he was on, etc.
I also donated to Madi Watkins from Year of the Knife who was/still is? in a coma from a very bad car crash. Don't care much for YoTK but I saw them open for Code Orange and Dying Fetus and hate to see such horrible accidents. Maybe I'm getting sentimental in my old age.

Our heroes are getting older, sadly, it's only going to get worse as time goes by and they begin to follow in the footsteps of Lemmy and Dio to glory. Tom G Warrior turned 60 a few days ago! Maiden are all in their late 60s/early 70s. Halford 71. etc etc

To be honest, it's always a little surprising (pleasant as it is) to see Barker and other bigger, unhealthier-looking lads like him still rocking; Nick is on the new Shining album later this year and will doubtless be a highlight of that. And kidney failure is no joke, will follow in a donation.

As a birthday present to myself brought a couple of the physical editions of Bardo Methodology from WTC. Very finely printed and a nice addition to any collection, only wish is that they did a hardback edition as I can see them getting dog-eared pretty quickly. Considering they're self-printed, probably an impossibility but nice to dream. Postage costs from Germany are insane too, hardly WTC's fault though.

What's in them? I have no clue what you are talking about!

It's an interview/zine, I've posted individual ones before like the Leviathan one the other day.

https://www.bardomethodology.com/

Ah ok, thanks. I read the interview, just a name like that doesn't stick. Hope you are enjoying the physical editions.

Happy John-Zorn-has-allowed-Tzadik-releases-to-appear-on-streaming-services day! Now to try and remember all the albums I was curious enough about to listen to if I could but not order online for like $60 apiece...!

Haha, Portnoy is back in Dream Theater! Thought it was a weird joke at first. Poor Mangini.

Definitely an odd situation for someone to be on hiatus for over a decade and then suddenly return. Word is last few DT tours were struggling and they needed some hype. First two comments I saw on Mike's IG post were from Code Orange band members, would like some of that technicality and progressive songwriting to find its way over to his son's band soon.

Missed that Martin Lacroix died. RIP, would have been nice to hear him on a studio Cryptopsy album.

https://medicotopics.com/martin-lacroix ... ssed-away/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... 234951010/

Interesting interview with Kerry King, whose solo album with Mark Osegueda and Paul Bostaph is finally ready to come out (first single seems very bland...)

Some tidbits include that he fucking hates Dave Lombardo now and Tom Araya never played bass on Slayer studio albums apparently...

https://blabbermouth.net/news/vogg-conf ... er-he-says

Good? I don't remember listening to Machine Head with him in, keep on with Decapitated pls.

New song is just more paint by numbers, modern Slayer. Hard 'meh' for me. Will give the album a listen when it comes out but I expect more of the same. That said, give all the shine to Mark Osegueda. One of the true good dudes in the genre.

That interview wasn't surprising to me and just more indication that Slayer should remain dead.

They're back together already for a tour! Haha

https://metalinjection.net/tour-dates/s ... -fest-2024

So much for bad blood when money is involved.

Mama Holt said it was for festival dates only and not a full blown reunion, so we'll see.

https://metalinjection.net/news/pestile ... r-backlash

Mameli just about getting out of his own way yet again always makes for a frustrating experience as a fan of his band.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6B3v9kJSpK/
MDB announced they are now on indefinite hiatus due to long mounting internal tension within the band. I would assume that Andrew and Aaron are feuding, because otherwise the policy has always been to just replace another member and move on with new albums and shows. Sad to read that, but I've been listening to A Mortal Binding (and their other albums) nonstop since it was released on Friday. It's not a great MDB record imo, but The Apocalyptist is an all-time great MDB track, superseding This Old Earth from the otherwise very bland Ghost of Orion, and thus if this their last album it will have been a better note to end on.

Eddie Sutton of Leeway fame died in his sleep from cancer last Friday. The band released two absolute killers in Born to Expire (1988) and Desperate Measures (1991) but fizzled out in the mid to late 90's due to poor promotion from their label and a style change that produced a couple of less than stellar releases. The old NY hardcore / crossover stuff is my jam, so losing Eddie "Leeway" is a real kick to the balls. R.I.P.