LIVE METAL TOP TEN OF 2011
OK, so we're already headfirst into 2012, but let's take a look back at the previous year for a moment. Live Metal writers Greg Maki, Jeff Maki and Ryan Mavity each made individual lists of their top 10 albums of 2011. Points then were given to each selection and the results compiled to create the official Live Metal top 10 of 2011
'I REMEMBER HALLOWEEN' - METAL/HARD ROCK MUSICIANS PICK THEIR FAVORITE SONGS FOR THE SEASON Looking for that ultimate Halloween Playlist for whatever hootenanny, creature feature, or zombie walk that you may be throwing? We asked some of our hard rock and heavy metal friends to name their favorite songs for the season. Our list of tricks and treats features members of ANTHRAX, ARCH ENEMY, EVILE, MACHINE HEAD and many more.
TYPE O NEGATIVE'S BLOODY KISSES REVISITED: EVERY DAY IS HALLOWEEN Marking the one year anniversary of his death, inside we pay tribute to vocalist Peter Steele by taking an in-depth look at the TYPE O NEGATIVE's classic album, Bloody Kisses. Live-Metal.net's Jeff Maki revisits the songs, lyrics, background, the era, the videos and everything else about the album that made TYPE O NEGATIVE the most prolific goth metal band of all time. So read on, because your date at midnight with nosferatu awaits you.
MEGADETH'S RUST IN PEACE REVISITED It was 1990. Even after three superb thrash metal
records, vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine and his band, MEGADETH, were overshadowed
by his former band, METALLICA. Not for
long. On Sept. 24, 1990, Rust in Peace was released
and the decades long debate had started: Who is better, METALLICA or MEGADETH?
The thrash metal masterpiece cemented MEGADETH in metal history and has withstood the test of
time nearly 20 years later ... With Mustaine's ongoing
struggles with substance abuse supposedly behind him,
he assembled the now classic lineup (lasting until 1998)
of Mustaine-Ellefson-Friedman-Menza, a lineup that tops
the lists of most-wanted metal reunions today.
MARILYN MANSON'S PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN FAMILY REVISITED Here's another Halloween treat; check out a feature on MARILYN MANSON's debut album, Portrait of an Amercian Family. Live-Metal.net's Greg Maki revisits his introduction to MARILYN MANSON and recounts his first time seeing the band live, opening for NINE INCH NAILS in 1994. The danger had only just begun to grow at that point. MARILYN MANSON's Portrait of an American Family was unleashed on an unsuspecting public July 19, 1994.
SEPULTURA
CHAOS A.D. REVISITED
One can make the argument that any of the Max Cavalera-fronted
Sepultura releases (1984-1996) are now heralded as classics.
One can make the argument that any of the Max
Cavalera-fronted SEPULTURA releases (1984-1996) are now heralded as classics. Beneath
the Remains (1989) was the Brazilian band's first
major breakthrough, a lethal combination of raw and
primitive thrash and death metal. Arise (1991)
was more straightforward death metal—faster, heavier
and even more bleak. But 1993's Chaos A.D. is the band's pinnacle album of their career.
TRAPPED
UNDER ICE: BALTIMORE CITY HARDCORE
Signed to Reaper Records, TRAPPED UNDER ICE's
new album, Secrets of the World drops August
4, 2009. T.U.I.'s music melds old-school
hardcore with modern, colossal breakdowns. They have a
huge local following that gave the band the biggest response
during the 10 for $10 hardcore's stop in Baltimore, Md.
But before T.U.I. took the stage, Live-Metal.net
caught up with the boys. See what we found out about the
band by checking out the feature beyond the break.
MÖTLEY
CRÜE: BACK FROM THE START MÖTLEY CRÜE, 'the fab four'
synonymous with the bad-boy glam rock of the '80s. There's
been Behind the Musics, the best-selling book, The Dirt, thousands of live shows played for
millions of fans, millions of records sold, and possibly
more sex, drugs and rock 'n roll than any band that's
ever graced this planet. But what about the music? Let's
not lose sight of what's important. Live-Metal.net's Greg
Maki looks back over every MÖTLEY CRÜE studio album, reflecting and critiquing some of the most
popular and classic metal albums ever released.
NAILBOMB'S POINT BLANK REVISITED With
the birth of THE CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, I figured this was
the best time to introduce the new school of metal fans to
a sideproject that came to be in the mid-'90s and has
reached cult status in the metal world. In 1994, SEPULTURA's
Max Cavalera and Alex Newport of the grunge-metal band
FUDGE TUNNEL formed NAILBOMB and released the industrial-punk-metal
juggernaut Point Blank (Roadrunner Records).
The metal world has never recovered.
DREAM
THEATER'S SCENES FROM A MEMORY REVISITED The story of the album begins seven
years before its 1999 release. Images and Words,
the record that put DREAM THEATER on
the map, featured a song with an intriguing title: “Metropolis—Part
1: ‘The Miracle and the Sleeper.’” The
nine-and-a-half-minute opus became a fan favorite and
live staple, and led to a question that plagued the band
for years: Where is part two? The problem was that they
had added the “Part 1” tag as a goof. When
they originally wrote and recorded it, there was no grand
plan for a continuation.
FAITH
NO MORE'S THE REAL THING REVISITED It
was 1989, and for many of us, the music video "Epic" was
our introduction to FAITH NO MORE. These guys were clearly
a bunch of weirdos, but that song and video were infectious
as hell. You have this singer in high-top sneakers and
funky, bright-colored '80s clothes, a strange looking
guitarist with nerdy glasses, and keyboards. And let's
not forget the infamous flopping fish at the end of the
video, an image burned into the minds of millions of people.
What was this band? Rap? Rock? Metal? Elements of each
are in the song. I wasn't sure what to think at first,
but something drove me and many others to purchase the
album.
MACHINE
HEAD'S BURN MY EYES REVISITED It
was 1994, back when there wasn’t any easy access
to new music and no peer-to-peer downloading. We had to
go out and buy our CDs the old-fashioned, every now and
then on nothing more than impulse and a hunch. My friend
and I were doing our thing on the weekend: record shopping,
shootin’ the shit and finding things to do, when
he came across this disc on sale at Tower Records for
about $10. “MACHINE HEAD,
are you sure man?” I asked. “Why the hell
not?” he replied. The album cover looked cool enough
and a sticker proudly proclaimed something like, “The
heaviest debut release ever, from this new Bay area band!”
...
GETTING
REAQUAINTED WITH GORGOROTH Labeled as “true
Norwegian black metal,” GORGOROTH's
popularity and name in recent years is arguably at its
peak. Unfortunately, the music doesn't have as much to
do with it as the band's legal problems, their now infamous
and controversial Satanic show in Kraków, Poland
, the imprisonment of vocalist Gaahl and the ongoing band-split
controversy ...
MARDUK'S 15 YEAR PLAGUE To
celebrate the band's 15-year existence, MARDUK's
four releases have been re-released in 2007 with bonus
material via Regain Records, along with a live album, Warschau, featuring 17 tracks from a show in
Warsaw, Poland in 2005. This burns a brand on their long
and blasphemous musical career, satisfies their cult following
and reintroduces MARDUK to the ever growing
populace of black metal fans.
CARCASS:
KEEP ON ROTTING CARCASS is perhaps one of the most innovative and influential
bands. Lead by the shrieking vocals of Jeff Walker,
shredding guitars courtesy of Bill Steer and Michael Amott, and the blasting rhythm
of drummer Ken Owen, CARCASS invented and defined two genres of metal that
still have relevance today.
DANZIG:
THE KILLER WOLF To
many, DANZIG is best known for the hit
“Mother,” which garnered major mainstream
success in the '90s. You can still hear it on rock
radio today. For any real fan, this is just a needle in
the haystack compared to DANZIG's important
career in both punk rock and heavy metal. The following
tribute "calls on the dark" and pays homage to the "Brand
New God," Glenn Danzig, who will forever
be the "Blackest of the Black."
