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The Rock News Blog
July 12, 2008
Yngwie Interview Excerpt
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Yngwie discusses his view on his music.
Topic: Heavy Metal

Kat Dibbits of The Bolton News recently spoke with legendary Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen. A couple of quotes from the interview follow.

Yngwie discussing being the sole composer and the main focal point of his band's live shows:
"It's been the whole situation that I've created for myself. In that I am the songwriter and I produce the records, and once I go on the road I always bring the best guys that I can have. I let them have all the freedom they can have, all the attention they can get. On stage we do a lot of the songs that people know, there's a solo spot and I do some improvisations, it's not like a one-man show. It's just that when it comes to making the records, I basically do all of it."

Yngwie talking about the accusation that he doesn't listen to any contemporary music:
"That's actually true, and that would actually include everything that's contemporary now and the last 25 years as well. Basically what it comes down to is that when you're that involved with creating music it's not something that you do for recreation. I have other hobbies. You only have that many hours in the day and I have a family, I like to do lots of other things. I work on cars and I drive race cars and I play tennis and lots of other things. It's not like I'm saying there's nothing good out there, it's just that if you get so consumed with creating something and you write a song and you write the lyrics and you're producing and arranging and touring, I don't have any interest in it. Plus when I was very very very young, the style that I decided on was formed then and it crystallized then, and I have no intention to go anywhere else with it. I found my way, my vision, and that's where I'm going. I think one of the reasons I'm still doing what I'm doing is because that's what I do. I don't follow trends and I don't mind what other people do. Having said that, I'm not saying it in an arrogant way, I don't mean it that way at all. It's not because I'm on some sort of high horse thinking that everything else is not good. But when I don't work on music then other things take my time."

Revealing details about the new Malmsteen album, which is due out around September:
"[It is] in the same vein I guess, but much more, you know? Much more powerful and much more faster and much more heavier. It's pretty extreme, so I'm excited about it."

source: blabbermouth.net


Written By The Rock News Blog at 1:27 PM EDT
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July 11, 2008
Rock Against Diabetes moves to new venue
Mood:  bright
Topic: Heavy Metal
Due to the overwhelming response and growth of the August 23rd 2008 R.A.D. show, Deep Rock Drive and Rock Against Diabetes have decided that the only solution to handle the demand and offer the best experience for fans, was to move to a larger venue. This will also allow the show to run later, and give the artists longer sets to further entertain fans.

VIP tickets are STILL limited to the initial 100 people, and these ticket holders will retain ALL of the perks they were promised, but will have a much more comfortable setting in which to experience the show. A more intimate area will also be provided for the post performance meet and greets and autograph sessions for the VIP ticket holders.

We are currently in talks with 6 different properties in Vegas, and will have the venue locked down this week. Once the venue is locked in we will announce the new venue and the ticket prices. The show will consist of 8 bands, raffles, auctions, prizes, special guests and of course the host Evel Dick Donato.

At this time, there are 3 different companies interested in streaming and filming the show in HD, so the possibility of fans watching live from home is still very much in the picture.

Deep Rock Drive has been integral in this process by understanding the demand, and helping find a great solution to make the show even more of a success, as well as locating a venue, and offering whatever production Rock Against Diabetes may need for the show.

Overall, bigger venue, more people can come, VIP's are STILL VIP's.

Courtesy of
www.rockagainstdiabetes.org

Written By The Rock News Blog at 8:48 PM EDT
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October 28, 2006
Rob Halforfd Discusses New Priest Album
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: The Judas Priest Frontman contacts Eddie Trunk to chat about their upcoming album.
Topic: Heavy Metal
JUDAS PRIEST frontman Rob Halford was the featured guest on Eddie Trunk's "Friday Night Rocks" radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM last night Friday, October 27. Speaking on the phone from his San Diego, California home, Rob discussed PRIEST's upcoming concept album about the legendary 16th-century French prophet Nostradamus and his forthcoming flurry of HALFORD and FIGHT reissues that will hit Apple's iTunes Music Store at the end of November via Halford's new label, MGE (Metal God Entertainment). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On the upcoming JUDAS PRIEST album:

"I'm taking kind of a little break away from the ongoing 'Nostradamus' sessions in England. Everybody is in the studio slaving away there. I think Glenn [Tipton] and K.K. [Downing] are probably not hard at work this time of night — they're probably partying somewhere. But, yeah, I'm back in San Diego. I'm here working on all of the monster lyrics for the 'Nostradamus' metal opera, which will be coming out sometime in 2007.

"All the songs are done — I would say 99.9 percent — but we've still got some ideas we're working on. The bulk of the opera is complete as far as the writing goes, and I can't begin to tell you how excited we are about this. It's gonna be an absolutely spectacular moment for PRIEST to follow up the incredible reunion record 'Angel of Retribution'. We're just really, really pumped about this new music that we're making. It's colossal PRIEST — some things that you've never heard before from this band are taking place. We've just got our nose to the grindstone and we're working as fast as we can to get this all completed and wrapped up and released and out in 2007 along with some special-event shows, which we'll talk about as we get closer to that. You know, we're gonna be playing the entire opera from beginning to end. That in itself will be a unique moment for PRIEST to show to our fans around the world, and a stage show that you will not believe. . . I'm gonna kind of take on that role of the character and we're basically gonna be telling the story of his life. He had an incredible life as a man besides making these prophecies that he did. It's a great life story about the things that he went through as an individual on a personal level, so we're obviously discussing that. But we're surrounding his life lyrically with some phenomenal PRIEST music — stuff that we're just so excited about, and as I said, music that will just blow everybody away. I can't begin to discuss it, because my mind is full of the music even as I'm talking about it. So get ready for it. The PRIEST is gonna follow up after 'Angel of Retribution' with something that's gonna be bigger and better and stronger and more metallized than you've ever heard from the band."

On what inspired him to write an entire album about Nostradamus:

"I just think this is a great opportunity for me as a lyricist, because I've talked about these characters — the Painkiller and the Sinner and the Sentinel — and I've been in that world as a lyricist, and now I'm having the opportunity as a lyricist to talk about this man, this real figure from the 16th century and the great things that he did — his prophecies. Some people are very skeptical about them, some people believe them emphatically. There are schools of Nostradamus where you can attend and learn about his teachings and so on and so forth. People say that some of his predictions actually came to be real occurrences from the past and as we look into the future. So I was just fascinated by this man. He went through a lot of grief. Without getting too heavy, he lost his wife and kids during the Black Plague — he was able to save a lot of other people, but he couldn't save his family. So he lost the loves of his life and he was put into… he was banished from the Roman Catholic church. He went through a lot of tough stuff, but he was a very strong, resilient man. Besides being a prophet, he was an advocate of certain kinds of medicine that revolutionized the world of medicine at the time, and many, many, many things. So yeah, it's been fascinating to really try and cover that man's life and put it into lyrics to the music of PRIEST."

On PRIEST's touring plans once the new abum is released:

"We're gonna do two things. We're gonna do specialized event shows in special venues for the 'Nostradamus' production. And then, of course, we'll be doing another set of touring dates throughout the world as covering all the PRIEST classics, so you'll be getting PRIEST in two dimensions next year — you'll be getting PRIEST playing the whole 'Nostradamus' piece, which I'm sure the fans will embrace and love and wanna see, and then of course, we'll come back around and do a PRIEST show with all the great things that you love — 'Painkiller', 'Living After Midnight', 'Breaking the Law', 'The Sentinel', [and] whatever else we decide to play. So you'll be getting PRIEST in every manner that you love to see the band. We made everybody aware when we did the press release sometime ago that that was out intent, so we're not gonna blindside the fans and let them think they're coming to the show to hear all the wonderful PRIEST classics. We're gonna let everybody know well in advance that it'll be a multi-dimensional experience — you'll get the 'Nostradamus' tour, and then you'll get the PRIEST tour — PRIEST classics and everything else."

Written By The Rock News Blog at 7:26 PM EDT
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October 22, 2006
New Metallica DVD, Guns N' Roses Collectors Box, KISS Alive
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: New video releases from some of your favorite bands.
Topic: Heavy Metal

Metallica:

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Metallica will on December 5 release a DVD rounding up all its music videos, including the entirety of the 1991 VHS "2 of One."

Alongside classic videos like "Enter Sandman," "One," "Sad But True" and "Nothing Else Matters," "The Videos 1989-2004" includes more recent clips such as "I Disappear," "St. Anger" and "Frantic."

Also featured is the previously unreleased video for "Mama Said," two versions of "One," the studio and theatrical versions of "The Unforgiven" and the trailer for 2004's "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster" documentary.

Metallica is in the studio working on its next album with producer Rick Rubin. In July, the group ended its longtime holdout with the iTunes Music Store and made its music available for download via the service.

Courtesy of
www.billboard.com

 KISS:

SANTA MONICA, CA - KISS's "ALIVE" series represents some of the best live rock recordings ever made. Now all three of those classic albums plus a legendary but previously unreleased performance -- the Millennium Concert from New Year's Eve 1999/2000 -- come together in the ultimate "KISS ALIVE" box set, the four-CD "KISS ALIVE! 1975-2000" (Mercury/UMe), released November 21, 2006.

"KISS ALIVE! 1975-2000" includes newly remastered versions of "Alive!" (1975), "Alive II" (1977) and "Alive III" (1993) -- all of which charted Top 10 -- as well as "KISS ALIVE: The Millennium Concert" (2000), whose tracks have never appeared on CD except for its "Rock And Roll All Nite."

Fans have waited for the Millennium Concert recording for several years. On December 31, 1999 the reunited KISS, with the original lineup, played BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, Canada to ring in the new millennium before a crowd of 45,000. The career-spanning concert was originally intended to be "Alive IV" but the KISS+orchestra "KISS Symphony: Alive IV" appeared in 2003. Meanwhile the Vancouver concert took on mythic status. "KISS ALIVE! 1975-2000" finally fills in that gap in KISStory.

Back to the beginning, just two-and-a-half years after the first concert by bassist Gene Simmons, guitarists Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley, and drummer Peter Criss, KISS issued "Alive!" in 1975. The album won the band its first gold award and first Top 40 hit, the live "Rock And Roll All Nite." The album also included such quintessential KISS as "Deuce," "Strutter," "Hotter Than Hell," "Black Diamond" and "Cold Gin."

In 1977, KISSteria was in full effect for the band's three-night stand in August at the Forum in Los Angeles recorded for "Alive II." The double platinum set contained three live sides in addition to a fourth side of new studio recordings. Among its anthems were "Detroit Rock City," "Love Gun," "Calling Dr. Love," "Christine Sixteen" and "Rockin' In The USA" as well as the ballad "Beth." "Alive III," came in 1993. The gold album boasted "I Was Made For Lovin' You," "Lick It Up" and "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II."

"KISS ALIVE! 1975-2000" also adds a pair of bonuses: the single version of "Rock And Roll All Nite" to the "Alive II" disc and "Take It Off" to "Alive III." Deluxe packaging includes a booklet filled with photos and an informative essay written by noted KISS expert Ken Sharp.

Courtesy of
www.marketwire.com

Guns N' Roses:

This DVD Collectors Box is a 2 disc set which tells the complete and extraordinary story of Guns N Roses using never-before-seen performance and interview footage, interviews with close friends, fellow band mates, family members, music biz colleagues, and close collaborators who know them best. It features numerous location shoots, unpublished photographs and a whole host of other features. Extras include digital interactive discography, interactive quiz and did you know section. Guns N Roses created a unique sound and image that nobody has matched since. This DVD goes behind that legendary story. It's a Guns N Roses collectors item of the highest order.

Guns N Roses

SKU#: DVDIS005
UPC: 823564508092
SRP: $24.95
BOX LOT: 30
RUN TIME: 120mins
LABEL: CHROME DREAMS
STREET DATE: 2007-01-30



Courtesy of
mvdb2b.com


Written By The Rock News Blog at 1:48 PM EDT
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October 13, 2006
Iron Maiden Lacks Energy?
Mood:  d'oh
Now Playing: A concert review from SleazeRoxx.com
Topic: Heavy Metal
IRON MAIDEN - DEAD OR ALIVE?

Show Date: October 6, 2006
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Venue: Agganis Arena
Reviewer: Glenn

This is why I'll probably never get paid to review any concerts or events.

It's been a whole three nights since I went to see the Mighty Iron Maiden live, in Boston, at the Agganis Arena at Boston University, and I'm FINALLY getting down to writing about it. Cool.

Anyway, the show was good. But just... good, not great.
The band sounded great, had lots of energy for their ages -- no offense intended, to anyone, especially since I'M probably not currently capable of the energy good ol' Bruce Dickinson has on stage -- but there was something missing, like... the classics.
Of course the band have been around for almost 30 years, and the classics I speak of are some 20+ themselves, a ripe old age for any song, classic or not. But what the band did was spend the bulk of the evening playing what I believe was the entirety of their latest disc.

Okay, I can respect the desire to get the new stuff out there & heard, the wish to turn more recent compositions into classics themselves, the urge to keep your oeuvre fresh and scintillating. Great. Admirable even.
Unfortunately, most of what I heard bored even me after a while.

Now, I'm usually willing to give something new a shot to win me over, to impress me, to offer a change of pace or additional fodder for my entertainment and edification. I've heard some of the new CD online and liked it, am still intending to buy said disc when I get home from vacation.
What I'm getting at here however, is that for Iron Maiden, I'm beginning to think their comeback might be faltering a little.

People dig retro, and I've seen a handful of older bands start coming into the new age offering great comeback material, classics and new. But what I heard and saw on Friday was sadly just a little disappointing.
Performance-wise they did great, but in my humble personal opinion, I think they should perhaps salt their set with a few more of the oldies because, let's face it, the majority of the audience were essentially middle aged white trash (I know it sounds snobby, sorry), young white trash, and late twenty and thirty-somethings looking to relive a little of their past with some classic old-school Metal. Well, I'm afraid a handful of us walked away, after spending some $50 bucks each for tickets, feeling a little gypped.

What I believe a goodly portion of the audience were there to hear were dyed in the wool CLASSICS, like "the Trooper", "Number of the Beast", "Run to the Hills", "Wrathchild", "Aces High", "Flight of Icarus" and "Can I Play with Madness", to name a few.
If we were lucky, we got maybe one or two of those. They played "Two Minutes to Midnight" and perhaps "Iron Maiden". No real encore to speak of, no massive onslaught of memorable hooks and headbanging, no... no real satisfaction for either the audience or the band.

Oh, there were a few moments of great applause and cheering, Eddie the demon corpse came onstage, huge as ever, and pointed a gigantic tank's cannon at the audience. Some lighters were raised, fists pounded the air a little and some heads were banged, but overall, the whole affair was rather lacking, all except for some retarded drunken meatheads tooting and yelling after the show, in the cavernous and echoey parking garage. Whoop whoop. Excitement.

It was only about 6 years ago I saw the band both at the Orpheum Theater in Boston, and the Tweeter Center (nee Great Woods) in Mansfield, MA and they OWNED the crowd, kicked some ass, and left everyone feeling elated and on an 80's leather studded testosterone high for hours, maybe even days after. Both shows were impressive to say the least, which left yours truly with high hopes for their triumphant return. Not to be had.

I'm not saying it can't happen again. In all honesty, I think it can.
I'm hoping it will.
If the band take some lessons from the lukewarm reception the bulk of their show received this time out, then maybe they'll see fit to revamp their setlist, keep some new, add some more old, and run with it to show the world they're not washed up yet (because they're not).

Truly, when I go to an Iron Maiden concert, I don't want my pinnacle of excitement to be when they play the intro tape of the UFO song "Doctor Doctor".
It's a GREAT f**king song by great f**king band. But they weren't there, they didn't play it live, and I didn't spend my hard earned money to listen to a record of a cool song I have on CD at home... I paid to see one of the pre-eminent classic metal bands do what they do best.
Maybe next time.
* Glenn

Written By The Rock News Blog at 1:21 PM EDT
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October 12, 2006
Vincent Turned Down Again
Mood:  blue
Now Playing: And the Supreme Court Says....
Topic: Heavy Metal
Vinnie Vincent won't be raking it in for Lick It Up.

On the first day of the U.S. Supreme Court's new term, the Big 9 declined to consider a lower court's dismissal of Vincent's lawsuit against KISS, in which he claimed he was owed royalties for his contributions to the 1983 album Lick It Up.

Vincent, whose real name is Vincent Cusano (Gene Simmons named him "Vinnie Vincent"), sued the band in federal court for $6 million in 1997. The court ultimately ruled that the guitarist had been a salaried member of the group at the time and therefore had received all the moola he was entitled to.

The former Happy Days staff songwriter joined KISS in 1982 as a replacement for founding member Ace Frehley and played on the heavily made-up rockers' 14th album, Creatures of the Night. Vincent was reportedly fired at the end of the Creatures tour because of personality clashes with Simmons, but he was back on board in time for Lick It Up, an album especially significant because it marked the end of KISS dressing up in black-and-white face.

Vincent was given the KISS-off yet again in 1984 and went on to form the metal band Vinnie Vincent Invasion. (He maintains he left to do his own thing.) The musician reunited with Simmons & Co. to cowrite three songs for KISS' 1992 album, Revenge. Vincent also released a live disc, Speedball Jamm, in 2002, in which a bunch of songs are mashed into one 71-minute track.

In another hall of justice, the man convicted of killing Vincent's ex-wife, AnnMarie Cusano, lost an appeal in June to have his manslaughter conviction overturned. Gregory McArthur maintains that two drug dealers were most likely responsible for Cusano's death in 1998. She and Vincent were briefly married in the 1980s.

Courtesy of
www.eonline.com

Written By The Rock News Blog at 4:54 PM EDT
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August 26, 2006
Maiden Plans A Brief North American Tour
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Heavy Metal
Since 1999, when longtime singer Bruce Dickinson returned to the fray after an eight-year absence, Iron Maiden have striven to write the ultimate metal album — one that was complex without being overindulgent and memorable without being predictable. Now, following 2000's ambitious but spotty "Brave New World" and 2003's titanic but overblown "Dance of Death," Iron Maiden have achieved their goal with their new album, "A Matter of Life and Death." And, compared to previous efforts, they barely even tried.

"We did the whole thing in just a shade under four months," said Dickinson of the LP, due September 5th. "We don't get together to make records that much anymore, so when we finally did, we were really excited, and that excitement turned into this really productive period."

The band started writing in late 2005, and right away the machine clicked. There was a complete absence of the types of arguments that used to hamstring the bandmembers.

"In the past we may have been a bit more uptight, but we're all just seriously relaxed and chill about things now, so we're able to work well together and not get worked up," Dickinson said. "Ideas were just buzzing through the air, and everybody was listening to each other and feeding off the energy."

Iron Maiden rehearsed the new songs at home in early 2006, then entered Sarm West Studios in London with producer Kevin Shirley, who has worked on their last three records. But while they had booked three months, they were done in two.

"We haven't worked that fast since we did "Number of the Beast" and "Piece of Mind" in the early days, and back then we didn't have a choice," Dickinson said. "We were just having a great time, writing really good music, and then all of a sudden we were like, 'Wow, we're done!' "

Nothing about "A Matter of Life and Death" sounds rushed. Most of the songs are more than seven minutes long, and the album is packed with complex rhythms, sudden tempo shifts and acrobatic musicianship. Vocals soar from a whisper to a wail; keyboards swell through atmospheric interludes before being trampled by clattering drums and rabid bass lines. And buzzing guitars gallop, stop, saunter, then gallop some more.

"We are still getting to grips with the album ourselves, and we made it," Dickinson laughed. "It really is tremendously deep. There's a huge amount of stuff on it because we just didn't see any point in trying to make an album that was just like all the others. There's lots of bands making albums with five-minute pop-metal songs, so we thought, 'Let's do something really extraordinary.' "

Many of the songs address various aspects of war. "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" chronicles life in the shadow of the atomic bomb, "The Longest Day" is about the World War II D-Day invasion, and "These Colours Don't Run" confronts patriotism in times of combat.

"There's a business of soldiering, and it has always run the same way, no matter what war we're talking about," Dickinson said. "It's guys whose fathers and grandfathers were soldiers, and some father is kissing his family goodbye and going off to war, and no one knows if he's going to come back in six months alive or in a body bag."

On the surface, "Life and Death" might seem political, but Dickinson said it's not.

"We make observations because we like to use our brains," he said. "But I think we shy away from political statements because that implies you're picking one side over the other. We try to look at the human side behind what's going on. One of the things that happens during wars is people get dehumanized. Whole nations become dehumanized. If you say, 'Mr. and Mrs. Hussein used to live in this house, but then a bomb landed on them by mistake and killed all their children,' you think, 'Oh, that's tragic.' But when you just reduce them and call them 'Iraqis,' it's easy to forget the human tragedy."

The band, whose last U.S. jaunt was a controversial stint on the 2005 Ozzfest, will launch a comparatively brief North American tour that begins on October 4th in Hartford, Connecticut, and winds down October 21st in Irvine, California. Then the band will launch a lengthy European tour and may not return to North America before its next album.

"We have no interest in hitting dozens of cities in America, because let's be honest — there probably aren't enough Iron Maiden fans to justify an extensive tour on the scale we like to play. Do we think Iron Maiden could sell out a 20,000-seat arena in Iowa? Probably not. So we'll do these big shows on our terms indoors and then see what happens with the record."

Iron Maiden's North American tour dates, according the band's management:

10/4 - Hartford, CT @ New England Dodge Music Center
10/6 - Boston, MA @ Agganis Arena
10/7 - Camden, NJ @ Tweeter Center at the Waterfront
10/9 - Quebec City, QC @ Colisée Pepsi
10/10 - Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
10/12 - Uniondale, NY @ Nassau Coliseum
10/13 - East Rutherford, NJ @ Continental Airlines Arena
10/16 - Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
10/17 - Auburn Hills, MI @ Palace of Auburn Hills
10/18 - Rosemont, IL @ Allstate Arena
10/21 - Irvine, CA @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

Written By The Rock News Blog at 12:40 PM EDT
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August 18, 2006
Rob Zombie To Make Documentary
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Rob Zombie has chosen Phil Parmet to film a documentary based on his current tour.
Topic: Heavy Metal
Rob Zombie has chosen Phil Parmet to film a documentary based on his current tour.

According to Zombie, "The film starts in rehearsals and goes through every day of the next tour. Of course we will be looking to film some of the craziest most interesting fans we can find. . This film wil be released on DVD with a live concert CD in one giant awesome package!"

Parmet previously worked with Zombie on his horror feature "The Devil's Rejects" as the director of photography.

Zombie's third single, "Let It All Bleed Out," from his "Educated Horses" CD went for radio adds last week. This song comes on the heels of the successful single "American Witch."

"Educated Horses" entered The Billboard 200 at No. 5 and has sold 353,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Zombie recently announced that he will direct a new version of the classic 1978 horror film "Halloween", with an October 2007 release planned.

source: blabbermouth.net

Written By The Rock News Blog at 11:43 AM EDT
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August 16, 2006
Headbangers Unite
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Heavy Metal
The Hessian Studies Society, self-described as a not-for-profit cultural education apparat dedicated to preserving and promoting the culture of "underground metal," or heavy metal music produced outside the handful of companies that control major record labels and news media, has issued the following press release:

Money rules our society, and determines what gets into the news, which is why metalheads across America are objecting to a recent spate of articles attempting to dominate their culture with status quo norms.

"I opened CNN.com and thought, 'Why aren't they letting us speak for ourselves'?" said Houston metalhead Steve Craig of the article "Metal gets a makeover: Bands focus on politics instead of parties." Craig, who plays in Houston metal band BAHIMIRON, said he felt that metal culture existed independently of the mainstream media, and was now being "normed" by the article.

"They're trying to make it like everything else," he said. "Accept the same way of thinking, which is that humanism and materialism are the only way to live. That's not true. If we believed that, we would be in punk or rock bands instead."

The Hessian Studies Society, a not-for-profit cultural education apparat dedicated to preserving and promoting the culture of "underground metal," or heavy metal music produced outside the handful of companies that control major record labels and news media, has intervened and is organizing protests worlwide.

In their article, "Underground Metal Disagrees With Mainstream Political Trend," the Hessian Studies Society points out that metalheads have always had political beliefs, and they have never needed a makeover. Moreover, this "makeover" involves bringing those political beliefs more into line with accepted norms instead of appreciating them for their unique and insightful view of Western culture.

The article, which can be viewed online at Hessian.org, lambasts the media for making news into a product and denying the veracity of the unique and vital subculture of underground heavy metal.

About Hessians: Hessians, or metalheads, headbangers, threshers, heshers, rivetheads, metallians and longhairs, are a cultural resistance movement founded in the industrial West upon the idea that our flight in fear from the coarser aspects of nature leads us to a spiritless existence, and that only heavy metal music can restore our spirit and thus existential enjoyment of life.

About Hessian Studies: The Hessian Studies Society aims to study Hessian culture, promote it and defend it in the battleground of ideas that is modern society.

www.Blabbermouth.net

Written By The Rock News Blog at 9:51 PM EDT
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August 3, 2006
Yngwie Malmsteen's Name Roots
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Heavy Metal
Its origins might have something to do with that. The name is derived from Frey, the Norse mythological god of fertility and weather, who was also known as Yng. "In Viking folklore, Frey is an erotic, virile figure." Malmsteen explained. "I remember seeing an illustration of him in some book, and he was depicted with a big fuckin' cock."

Yngwie Malmsteen and drummer Patrick Johansson are reportedly scheduled to go into Malmsteen's Miami, Florida studio this month to begin recording demos for the next Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force album. Doogie White (ex-Rainbow) will once again sing on the CD, which is expected to surface in early 2007.

Yngwie Malmsteen recently completed a U.S. tour in support of his last two projects, "Unleash the Fury" and "Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra" DVD.

"Unleash the Fury", which hit stores July 26th, 2005 through Spitfire Records, has been receiving rave reviews from critics and fans alike and has even been hailed as one of his best works to date. Also released last year was Yngwie's long-awaited "Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra" DVD, which was filmed in 2001 with the New Japan Philharmonic, conducted by Taizo Takemoto.

Malmsteen has performed his concerto suite live with an orchestra just seven times. An interview with Malmsteen is included as a special bonus feature.

source: blabbermouth.net


Written By The Rock News Blog at 10:23 PM EDT
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